WWE: Keep on using Stone Cold Steve Austin in this manner

Although WWE fans have this aversion to part-timers and nostalgia, what WWE has been doing with one of its biggest icons, Stone Cold Steve Austin, is the perfect way to work the past into the present.

Contrary to popular belief, WWE isn’t lacking in star power. Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins, Bayley, Kevin Owens, and even Braun Strowman are either currently stars or have serious star potential with a little nudge here or there.

This notion that a legend from the past holds back younger stars is an oversimplification, because referring to nostalgia only becomes harmful when it’s seen as a replacement for building quality programming around the roster’s current stars.

Clearly, WWE have not fallen into this trap with Stone Cold Steve Austin in his recent appearances on  television. Quite the opposite has happened, in fact, as Stone Cold has supplemented the on-screen and off-screen appearances made by stars like Rollins, Strowman, Owens, and Lynch.

In the same way that a young quarterback working with a veteran backup quarterback can help aid an NFL player’s development, Stone Cold is likely helping the younger wrestlers around him. Without needing to wrestle, Austin is both giving wrestlers like Rollins and Strowman a bigger spotlight by bringing in more eyeballs (the contract signing is near two million views) and also the chance to pick his brain backstage after putting their promo skills to the test in a segment with “The Rattlesnake”.

Referring back to the relationship between a young quarterback and a veteran clipboard-holder, the setup only becomes harmful if the veteran is taking “reps” away from the younger player. Again, that’s pointedly not happening with Stone Cold, who is a part of the segments with stars like Rollins, furthering the storyline along by adding his own lovable twist to the real story. He’s not facing anyone in a match, he’s not stealing the spotlight, and he’s obviously not partaking in every wrestling fan’s favorite word – “burying”.

Stone Cold himself is very much about supporting the current crop of Superstars, seeing as how his own journey to the top was very much organic. He was once spurned by a large company, worked himself up the ladder in WWE, and then left out of frustration with the typical bureaucracy that comes with working at a large corporation.

So Austin has the Superstars’ backs. He told TV Insider’s Scott Fishman that he wants “the current Superstars to have all the television time” but is willing to make appearances whenever he feels like he can give one of those wrestlers a “rub”.

And, of course, the feeling of being in front of an adoring live crowd doesn’t hurt either.

Austin’s recent appearances on WWE television, including the reception at Madison Square Garden, have gone swimmingly well for him, the company, and the wrestlers he’s involved with. WWE should use this as the blueprint for appearances from Superstars from the past, because there’s a way to use nostalgia in a way that benefits the entire product.

You’ll notice that few wrestling fans are complaining about any of Austin’s appearances, because even the most cynical fans – or the most vociferous of WWE critics – can’t pick a fight here. Austin is a welcome site on our screens in this role, and WWE can keep using him as often as they’d like in this capacity. Yes, there’s such thing as overdoing it, but they aren’t close to running that risk with someone as iconic and self-aware as Stone Cold.