It’s not necessarily how long you do something, but what you do during that period, and you can’t at all take away what Austin did for the most profitable and mainstream era in wrestling. Give me Austin and Rock over those other 4 any day. As much as a fan I am of Jericho, he’s last on that list you just named.
Austin was lightning in a bottle. 2 years as an in ring top guy
Are you seriously trying to put Jericho & Race over Stone Cold just because they wrestled longer? In that case Cena is better than Rock
. The WWF from 98-01 was competing with the NFL and that's in large part due to Stone Cold.
Dude, it wasn't just Stone Cold.
It was Shawn Michaels & DX, The Undertaker, Kane, Mick Foley, and a hell of a lot of guys. Hell, I'd argue "Mr. McMahon" was the biggest star of that era.
You've forgotten The Rock, who's a top 5 all-time level talent was the guy at the same time.
Austin couldn't even wrestle for most of that time period and was recouperating for months at a time.
It's really more like '96 - '99 as the guy in the ring.
He probably was that guy less than 2 years.
At least The Rock could keep coming back, even after his Hollywood shyt and wrestle here & there.
Austin was severely limited after Owen Hart broke his neck
And WCW had even higher numbers from '96-98 during the NWO's run.
Wrestling was just hot in the late '90s.
It's not just that those guys wrestled longer, they were great longer.
Jericho was great in WCW, WWF/WWE, New Japan, and AEW
He's been all over the world and gotten over.
Harley Race was a fukking 8 time world champion when that meant something.
I just can't make sense of you saying "you can't be GOAT off a few years", then in the very next sentence suggest the Rock, who was around for even less time than Austin. Truth be told, both of their reigns on top were short like leprechauns, but they were so iconic and impactful, that as soon as one turned heel and the other became part time, not even fully gone yet, ratings and mainstream interest dropped and have been in a downward spiral ever since, to the point that whenever WWE gets desperate for ratings, they call up one of them to get a boost for a week. Now if that ain't GOAT shyt, I don't know what is.
WCW had astronomical ratings in the late '90s too.
It wasn't like it was just WWF.
Steve Austin was great from like '96-'98 when Owen Hart broke his neck
The Rock was great from '97-2002 when he left to go acting and then kept coming back over the years to wrestle in huge matches against Hulk Hogan, John Cena, and even helped put Ronda Rousey over a few years ago.
The Rock was a great wrestler longer than Stone Cold Steve Austin & was/is more talented.
