Stone Cold Steve Austin would not have attained the level of success that he did if he had gone by a few other names that WWE suggested he use. Austin revealed a list of names that WWE's creative team gave to him, which Hall of Famer Mick Foley called "terrible".
In his A&E biography, Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as a few guests, revealed some of the ring names that WWE's creative team had given him. The ideas followed the end of his Ringmaster gimmick.
Fang McFrost, Snowman, Otto von Ruthless, Mr. Freeze, Ice Dagger, Cruel Luke, Cool Cat, and Chilly McFreeze were a few of the names that Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Bruce Prichard and The Undertaker listed.
Mick Foley stated that the names given to Steve Austin were terrible, worse than the ones he was given by WWE's creative team:
"That's a tricky situation, when you're fairly new in the company, Mr. McMahon has agreed to give you a character change and you're given a list from creative. The fact that I can rattle off more of Stone Cold's names than the terrible names that I was given, speaks to just how bad they were," said Mick Foley.
Austin eventually came up with the Stone Cold moniker after his then-wife told him to drink his tea before it went "stone cold". The Hall of Famer revealed that he got inspiration for his character after watching a documentary about serial killer Richard Kuklinski.
Stone Cold Steve Austin got his big break in pro wrestling when he signed with WCW in 1991. During his four-year stint with WCW, Austin won the World Television Championship and United States Heavyweight Championship, as well as the World Tag Team Championship.
He was then fired by WCW in 1995, following which he had a brief stint with ECW. Austin joined WWE a few months after his WCW run.