CM Punk / "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
CM Punk says it’s a simple coincidence that he was wearing a “Stone Cold” crewneck tee when he dropped his massive pipe bomb on the world of sports-entertainment in summer 2011. It was just the shirt he had laying around his locker before he stepped through the curtain, he says. True or not, his clothing choice certainly didn’t go unnoticed.In the midst of a contract dispute, the self-proclaimed “Voice of the Voiceless” set out to revolutionize the same organization that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had taken by storm in the ‘90s. Punk wanted change. He wanted to incite the same groundbreaking rebellion that had catapulted
WWE from the bubble-gum days of Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart to the edgy Attitude Era of The Texas Rattlesnake.When Austin stunned a bible-thumping Jake Roberts and coined “Austin 3:16,” his words were more than a catchphrase. They were a movement, as evidenced by his followers that peppered high school hallways in his T-shirts. Fifteen years later, a Windy City punk with a lauded ring reputation set to do the same when he chewed out company brass and announced himself as the “Best in the World.” He might not have been toasting with a cold Steveweiser, but it was his “Punk 3:16” moment. And with Austin’s black boots sitting on a shelf at the Broken Skull Ranch, who’s to argue with him? – ZACH LINDER
