Billy Gunn

Billy Gunn had it all.

The 6-foot-3, 260-pound phenomenon from Austin, Texas, was a natural athlete who could bust out a dropkick with textbook precision and hoist an opponent over his head with animal-like strength. He was charismatic, too. A cocky, in-your-face outlaw, Billy rocked with The Honky Tonk Man, threw a lasso as a Smoking Gunn and broke it down with D-Generation X en route to a whopping 10 World Tag Team Title reigns and the 1999 King of the Ring crown.

Starting off in 1993, he was a tag team specialist alongside his brother, Bart Gunn. As mustachioed cowpokes, the aptly named Smoking Gunns won the tag titles three times against duos like The Godwinns and Owen Hart & Yokozuna. Billy was the pair’s clear breakout star, but he stumbled when he changed his name to Rockabilly and linked up with the aging Honky Tonk Man.

Gunn’s career reached its peak when he returned to the tag division alongside Road Dogg. A fellow frustrated Superstar, the one-time Roadie convinced Rockabilly to abandon his outdated persona and embrace his inner outlaw. By themselves, the competitors were relative losers in WWE. Together, they became brash members of DX, five-time World Tag Team Champions and the most popular duo of WWE’s Attitude Era.

Dubbing themselves The New Age Outlaws, the team had a natural chemistry with Road Dogg’s swaggering jocularity perfectly complementing Gunn’s born-this-way athleticism. The unstoppable combination captivated the WWE Universe while toppling legendary duos like Legion of Doom and The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection.

Looking primed to bust out as a main event singles star, Gunn bested X-Pac to win the 1999 King of the Ring tournament and even faced off with The Rock at SummerSlam that same year. But instead of stepping up to WWE Title contention, Gunn returned to the comfort of The New Age Outlaws. The team experienced success, but the preternaturally talented Superstar never seemed to live up to his expectations after that.

The remainder of Gunn’s WWE tenure was a revolving door of unexpected personas. He captured the Intercontinental Title as “The One,” formed "The Show Gunns" with Big Show and won two tag titles with his good buddy, Chuck Palumbo. Before long, though, the gifted Texan was gone from WWE. Nearly a decade later, Gunn returned to the ring with Road Dogg, inspring well-deserved chants of, "You still got it!" from the WWE Universe.