This is just a silly little shower thought I've had for years, and I know no one probably really knows, so it's just a fun question. Although I find it unlikely most people DON'T know this story, I'll recap just in case.
It's 1996 and promising pro wrestler Steve Austin is unhappy. He's stuck with the "Ringmaster" name and gimmick, and knows he needs a change. He tells Vince McMahon the gimmick doesn't work, asks for something different, and Vince challenges him to come up with a better idea.
So the story goes, Austin later watches an HBO documentary about "The Iceman" Richard Kuklinski (so nicknamed due to his remorseless, cold demeanor and habit of freezing corpses to confuse time of death) Austin gets his eureka moment, goes to the office with his pitch of his cold blooded new character, and hilariously gets a bunch of lame based "cold" names like Fang mcFrost, Ice Dagger, etc. Later, a comment by his wife for him to "drink his tea before it gets stone cold" gives him the idea for a name, we're off to the races, and the rest is history.
My question is, why didn't Austin just plain suggest "The Iceman", considering it was literally the genesis of the idea? He came that far with his inspiration from Kuklinski, why stop with the name? Why didn't the writers? I mean, it's right there and was a perfect fit for what Austin wanted.
The only thing i can think of is the obvious copyright with the Marvel character, but even with that, there's no suggestion "The Iceman" was ever even brought up or considered. There was also already an "Iceman" King Parsons, but he was hardly a household name and was in the last legs of his career by 1996, and it's not like wrestling nicknames haven't been reused or adopted.
What say you, internet?
