Was Austin vs Rikishi the most weird and forced feud?

[Playaz Eyez]

How so? They were building toward wrestlemania X7 and to a lesser extent that Austin heel turn you all seem to love so much

The actual Austin character during that time was great, it just never should have happened. It damaged both Austin and the company itself, and they still haven't recovered

 

[Mason quartermaine]

The actual Austin character during that time was great, it just never should have happened. It damaged both Austin and the company itself, and they still haven't recovered

what damaged austin was the 2 man power trip. He finds out HHH is behind it, feuds with him into the ppv and loses then the teams up with him to take out the roster. And his first promo he says something to the effect of "if someone ran you over with a car, broke your damn neck and tried to kill you, wouldn't you join them", mr DTA? nah it was the end of an era. Kept thinking there was some long con but he never turned on him which made it all totally out of character with no payoff

 

[Playaz Eyez]

what damaged austin was the 2 man power trip. He finds out HHH is behind it, feuds with him into the ppv and loses then the teams up with him to take out the roster. And his first promo he says something to the effect of "if someone ran you over with a car, broke your damn neck and tried to kill you, wouldn't you join them", mr DTA? nah it was the end of an era. Kept thinking there was some long con but he never turned on him which made it all totally out of character with no payoff

Oh yea that's included in his heel run. I thought that run brought a lot of viciousness to his character that he hadn't had since 1996, and was putting on a lot of good matches, but that turn still should have never happened.

 

[TinFoilSnapBack]

This subject I land on both sides of the coin:

Pros:
*It was an opportunity to make a brand new main eventer out of Rikishi
*It definitely was a swerve with the reveal that no one saw coming
*Storyline wise him doing it for The Rock and his Samoan Family made sense
*It was a chance to have a new guy to mix it up with the main eventers they had making new match-ups
*Badass new theme music

Cons:
*Nobody wanted to see a heel Rikishi
*Pretty much killed his awesome babyface run and he could never go back to that like he had it before
*The storyline was ruined when they had HHH take overall credit for Rikishi running over Austin demoting Rikishi from loner threat to pawn
*No memorable matches or moments other than Austin being the piss out of him with his truck and Taker throwing his big ass off the top of the Hell In a Cell

Overall I felt they should have choose somebody else, Rikishi was the wrong choice for this storyline.

The storyline was fine, and Rikishi did well in it. There are 2 fatal flaws though:

1) He was already introduced as a funny half-comedic guy in Too Cool, so it made this seem so out of place. It wasn't a "never would have expected" swerve, it was a "wait the same guy who was dancing giving stinkfaces? gtfo" swerve.

2) They kept him in his same ringgear, showing his ass. No one is gonna take you serious like that, they even covered up Yokozuna...

If they would have kept him away from Too Cool before this, or simply used the Austin storyline as his initial re-debut, it would have worked much better. And have him put on some kind of shorts or tights with his current gear, or just rock his PhatWear pants during matches Test style.

I liked the fued but i liked rikishi tho. I just wish they stopped having him come out in that thong

These pretty much some up how I felt about it. It was a great initial shock from Rikishi being the driver. Then, the anticipation of the match was great. Everyone knew the outcome of the match, but everyone still wanted to see that ass whooping. However, why the fukk would you keep him in the same ring gear, with his ass out? Furthermore, the storyline turned to dog shyt after No Mercy.

This is when everything started to go downhill

I agree. Although the buildup to X-Seven was great, and the actual Mania was great, this was when shyt started to come unglued.

I don't think they knew how to have two faces of the company who were that huge.

Austin was face of the company, and then when he went out, Rock completely took shyt over. Austin was never the same after his return. I thought heel Austin was wack juice, too. He was also being such a hoe about not wanting to do jobs.

 

[NYChase718]

The 2nd match you posted with austin with the two belts vs rikishi in the thumbnail was after his heel turn

I remember how lame and stupid this match was

It was i think may or april of 2001

So austtin is the heel runnin around with vinnce and hhh and stephanie

Mick foley is still commish i think and doesnt like whats going on

So all of a sudden after everything that happened months prior
We were supposed to forget what rikishi did and foley suddenly is his buddy and gives him.a shot against austin
Yeah the guy who ran over austin and tried to kill him..we were suppose to cheer him now because austin took vinces side in wwe

This was the beginning of their god awful booking and shortly carried into invasion
After invasion it just got worse...as far as raw goes

 

[OmegaK2099]

i was Watching a raw after no mercy, mick actually steps down and gives up being commissioner to Debra. Then next week nothing happens with mick still the commissioner.

 

[Milk N Cookies]

Cons:
*Nobody wanted to see a heel Rikishi

When the reveal happened I remember being like umm okay I guess but I’ll roll with it.

 

[DaHNIC82]

Oh yea that's included in his heel run. I thought that run brought a lot of viciousness to his character that he hadn't had since 1996, and was putting on a lot of good matches, but that turn still should have never happened.

Nah they should have kept him face after he returned as the "Old Stone Cold" and started kicking the alliance ass. Him turning back heel was what killed him even though him punking ECW/WCW was hilarious

 

[Milk N Cookies]

Nah they should have kept him face after he returned as the "Old Stone Cold" and started kicking the alliance ass. Him turning back heel was what killed him even though him punking ECW/WCW was hilarious

Leading to his ‘What?’ catchphrase...



High quality wrestling trolling

 

[InstantKlassik]

Good thread. Next week we should do a watch party of a couple Raw episodes from this era.

 

[JuvenileHell]

Even if it turned out to be way more entertaining that it would seem on paper, hurricane vs The Rock was weird

 

[Nintendough]

Rikishi was over like Rover he deserved a main event run. He should've been a face though. The bad bad man gimmick wasn't working.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Rikishi should have never turned heel in the first place, but if they had to do it, they should have gone all the way and changed everything about him. Going back to his USWA character could have helped a lot


Instead, they just changed his theme but kept him in the same gear. No one was gonna take him serious vs Austin while still wearing a thong