Few superstars have made as much of a mark on the landscape of professional wrestling as the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin. He was the hottest star of the 1990s and the driving force of the Attitude Era.
As with any top WWE star, Austin faced off with and defeated the industry's biggest stars during his run at the top before he retired in 2003. But despite a long and successful run, there are a few big names who escaped Austin's wrath. Here are 10 stars who Stone Cold has never beaten.
10 Hulk Hogan
Hogan and Austin are the two biggest stars WWE has ever produced. When Hogan jumped ship to WCW in 1994 and WWE shifted into the Attitude Era, Austin took over the reins as the company's headliner.
The two crossed paths when Hogan and the NWO made their return to WWE in 2002. Hogan and Austin came face-to-face in the ring, but fans were never given the dream match they expected.
9 Bret Hart
Between the Hogan and Austin eras, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels carried the WWE between them. Austin faced off against both men during his ascension to the top of the card, but while Austin and Michaels squared off at Wrestlemania 14 and the Texas Rattlesnake walked away with the WWE Title, he never had the same success against the Hitman.
Ironically, Hart and Austin had one of the most iconic Wrestlemania matches of all time at Wrestlemania 13, which finished when Austin passed out in the sharpshooter. He never got his revenge.
8 Brock Lesnar
Austin walked out on WWE in 2002 due to creative differences. One of those differences was how a potential feud with the upcoming beast, Brock Lesnar, would unfold.
While Vince McMahon wanted Stone Cold to lose to the youngster in the King of the Ring tournament, Austin believed such a win for a newcomer should have a bigger stage, and he thus refused.
7 Eddie Guerrero
Another feud that was supposed to take place in 2002, Guerrero and Austin faced off a number of times in backstage and in-ring segments. Guerrero brutalized the Rattlesnake's knee in an attack, and the two were at each other's throats for a while.
But Guerrero holds the rare distinction of being one of the few wrestlers to cross Austin and not have an official mudhole stomped in him as a result.
6 Randy Orton
The Legend Killer debuted as Austin was making his way out of the company, and the Rattlesnake returned as Sheriff of Raw as Orton was beginning to rise as a member of Evolution.
But Austin never got his hands on the young upstart in an official match. He was also never added to Orton's list of legendary victims.
5 John Cena
After Austin and Hogan, Cena took over the mantle of WWE's top guy. The Cenation leader started out as the Doctor of Thuganomics and won the WWE fans over to his side. This led to a monumental push that culminated in his winning the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 21 in 2005. That was the year after Austin refereed a match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar.
Cena's anti-authority approach over the next few years recalled Austin's own, and many fans thought he was mimicking the Texas Rattlesnake. But the two never came to blows over it.
4 Goldberg
As Austin was leading WWE, Goldberg was the biggest star in WCW. Comparisons between the two were easy to draw: they had similar looks, similar no-nonsense attitudes, and were headlining the world's two biggest wrestling companies at the time. When WWE bought WCW, the promised dream match seemed inevitable.
But Goldberg sat out his contract and never appeared during the Invasion angle. By the time he made his way to WWE, Austin was on the way out—Goldberg's first debut promo aired during Wrestlemania 19, the night of Austin's last match.
3 Jeff Jarrett
When Jeff Jarrett returned to WWE from WCW, he was set to face off with Austin, who was at the top of the then-WWF at the time. During a promo aimed at Austin, Jarrett called Stone Cold's infamous 3:16 catchphrase blasphemous and accused him of trying to make money off a Bible reference.
Austin was so angry that he refused to ever work with Jarrett. He had a history with the family going back to his days wrestling in Memphis, and when Russo booked the two against each other six months later, Austin flat-out refused to wrestle Jarrett.
2 Cactus Jack
Has Stone Cold Steve Austin beaten Mick Foley? Of course he has. Austin has gone toe-to-toe with both Foley's Mankind and Dude Love personas, but the hardcore cowboy Cactus Jack has never felt the wrath of the Texas Rattlesnake.
The duo both appeared in ECW but never competed, and while both Foley's other characters fell victim to Austin in WWE, Cactus survived to tell the tale.
1 Sgt. Slaughter
Stone Cold Steve Austin's history with authority figures is well-documented. He battled Vince McMahon and his stooges on a number of occasions, handing out "a**-whoopings" a-plenty. In 1997, Sergeant Slaughter was in his role as the Commissioner of WWE when he felt the wrath of the Texas Rattlesnake.
On an episode of Raw, Austin took to the ring and delivered a Stunner to Slaughter. Luckily for the legendary competitor and former WWE Champion, he escaped without ever being forced to face off with Austin in the ring properly.