Whatever Happened To Stone Cold Steve Austin?

In 2011, Austin returned to WWE programming, but not as a wrestler. Instead, he was the host and one of the trainers for a revival of Tough Enough, a reality show that was meant to whittle down a crop of aspiring wrestlers into one brand-new superstar made for WWE. Or at least, that's how it was supposed to work.

In practice, it didn't actually work out that way. The show was certainly entertaining, but as a reality competition, it went about as wrong as it could. The winner, Andy Leavine, never actually wrestled a match on WWE television and was released from his contract the following year, presumably because someone realized that "Silent Rage" was actually a pretty terrible nickname. Of the 14 contestants that started on the show, the only one to find fame on WWE's main roster was Ariane Andrew, better known to fans as Cameron, who once tried to pin an opponent while she was face-down on the mat instead of on her back. It's worth noting, however, that Ivelisse Vélez was eliminated from the competition due to injury, but would go on to becoming a two-time Lucha Underground trios champion.

The best part of the show was unquestionably Austin's reactions to the contestants, which he delivered with exactly the kind of deadly seriousness with an undercurrent of comedy that made his wrestling character so fun to watch. There's a lot of gold there, but hit play above to see the best, which involves getting so frustrated with their performances that he tells a story about getting bodyslammed so hard that he crapped his pants. That's good television.