Why is stone cold steve austin above rock?

[Wacky D]

Yeah, i hear you. It was a lot of politics and crap.

In Jericho's book he talks about a meeting he had with Hogan, Goldberg, & Bischoff about a match with Goldberg. Everybody was on board til Goldberg killed it saying it was his PPV off.

they say that wcw was talking about doing a brand split.

thats the only way they couldve got a steady flow of new main eventers going, cuz that roster was way too crowded. thats why i dont criticize wcw about the new stars thing.

but the wwf was fresher, even tho they didnt neccessarily have the better product. austin & rock were basically hogan & warrior. between the rock getting the belt and wcw having a string of dissappointing ppvs at the same dam time, it was easy to chose the wwf.

 

[714562]

Think of Austin as magic Johnson/Larry bird where the company would have folded without him.

And the Rock is the Michael Jordan where he took a fairly great product to even bigger heights

Except that's a terrible analogy because Magic Johnson was objectively more successful than Larry Bird.

 

[showtime]

Austin/Rock is the highest drawing main event feud ever.

No it's not. It's third behind Hogan/Andre and Hogan/Savage

Austin Rock I drew 800,000
Austin Rock II drew 1,040,000
Austin Rock III drew 560,000

 

[R=G]

No it's not. It's third behind Hogan/Andre and Hogan/Savage

Austin Rock I drew 800,000
Austin Rock II drew 1,040,000
Austin Rock III drew 560,000

Austin/Rock III was dealing with the digital conversation...some kind of gimmick to that. Because it was right back on track next year for a lesser card after everything got squared away. And Rock and Austin have a long PPV record...Backlash 99, Backlash 2000 was sold on them. Hogan/Andre was a closed circuit TV situation..PPV wise? Nothing has ever outdrew the Austin/Rock matches in pro wrestling. This is no debate or anything. It's been documented for years. Acting brand new on it in January 2016 is just for those that never paid attention to the numbers for the last 17 years.

 

[R=G]

They tried to turn Austin heel against the Rock at WM17 and he was still cheered, even against the Rock, really all you need to know

At WM 17. Next night they were throwing trash as him and he was getting more heat than anyone in the industry. Rock wasn't there for 4 months and Jericho/Benoit/Taker/Kane weren't getting cheered hard enough. Rock came back to insane ratings and an absurd reaction in Philly.....there was no situation during Austin's heel run where he was cheered over the Rock. or even RVD. He got WHAT chants toward the end of it and that was that. They had a straight up face off before Survivor Series 01 and they chanted Rocky over all of it. But then again..they were both treated like faces for that segment...kind of a one of a kind type situation since they broke kayfabe and was going outside of the Austin/Rock character realms.

 

[R=G]

Was never a fan of Austin as a kid. At least not a huge fan. I already had "my guys" and Rock was my guy as a heel as was Shawn. Shawn left and then it became all about Rock so the Austin thing never hit me in the same vein that it hit everyone else I knew. To have so many young black kids imitating a texas redneck is astonishing to me, even to this day. But anyway, the older I've gotten and learned more about this shyt, Austin was huge. Like we're not talking a little bit big, I mean huge. Like many have said, without him, Rock wouldnt have been able to find his character because they would've went out of business. Obviously he wasn't the only one doing great work at the time but he was definitely the driving force and the one selling the most merchandise ever and the one shattering records left and right. He might be a piece of crap for beating on his wife but his contributions to the business are unfukkwitdable. It's like 1a and 1b to me but I've got no problem with anyone making the case that Austin is 1a

It's not all Austin though...it was the Mike Tyson thing that put Austin in that spot to be the lead dog anyway. So if Austin is being revised now to have "made" the Rock from the Youtube 2016 wrestling generation who don't remember shyt off hand, then those who can will just say, Tyson saved WM 14 and fans stayed with the Austin character afterwards. Everything Tyson touched on PPV was making money..before prison, he was bigger than Jordan and not too far behind Michael Jackson on the worldwide level.

How can anyone say Austin made the Rock when the Rock and Austin character had a mini feud in 97 for the IC title and the Rock got hotter than any heel in the industry by post WM 14. What did Austin have to do with that? Company was turning around after the success of WM 14 but WCW kept that ratings lead for like 3 more weeks before Austin hit the stunner on Vince in NY for the turnaround. Then Goldberg got the title and won some weeks...when Rock got hot in 99, he was the NAIL in the coffin of WCW and ECW. They didn't stand a chance. They were chanting ROCKY during Booker T main event matches in 99 and 2000. Get fukking real.

 

[R=G]

Where do people come up with the formula for drawing like when people go to a wrestling show it's not just one wrestler they go for


On the subject rock didn't go over Austin cleanly at mania until Austin's last match...

It's 1a and 1b but Austin gets edge cuz he's the one who tipped the scales and Rock sustained it while Austin was hurt but after Austin and Vince got the viewers back

They come up with it by bigger gates, merchandise, and PPV numbers. Like they ALWAYS have...lol. What's wrong with you?

 

[R=G]

If Steve Austin is bigger than the Rock, why didn't Vince force the Austin/Hogan match then? Something no one has been able to answer for damn 14 years now.

 

[R=G]

Ok then post the proof

1998 - 1. Steve Austin (set all-time record for most big gates in one year); 2. Undertaker; 3. Kane; 4. Mick Foley; 5. The Rock; 6. Bill Goldberg; 7. Hulk Hogan; 8. HHH; 9. Sting; 10. Randy Savage

1999 - 1. The Rock (set all-time record for most big gates in one year); 2. Steve Austin; 3. HHH; 4. Big Show; 5. Kane; 6. Undertaker; 7. Keiji Muto; 8. Bill Goldberg; 9. Ric Flair; 10. Kevin Nash

2000 - 1. The Rock (set all-time record for most big gates in one year); 2. HHH; 3. Kurt Angle; 4. Kane and Chris Benoit; 6. X-Pac; 7. Undertaker; 8. Road Dogg; 9. Naoya Ogawa; 10. Kensuke Sasaki and Chris Jericho

2001 - 1. Steve Austin; 2. The Rock; 3. Kurt Angle; 4. HHH; 5. Undertaker; 6. Chris Jericho; 7. Kane; 8. Kensuke Sasaki, Chris Benoit and Keiji Muto

2002 -1. The Rock; 2. Bob Sapp; 3. HHH; 4. Hulk Hogan; 5. Chris Jericho; 6. Steve Austin; 7. Kazushi Sakuraba; 8. Brock Lesnar; 9. Yuji Nagata and Mirko Cro Cop

Any other year you need, smart guy? They created Smackdown after the Rock, you actually thought there was a bigger star in 1999 than him? LOL. And he was heel at the time

 

[Slystallion]

If Steve Austin is bigger than the Rock, why didn't Vince force the Austin/Hogan match then? Something no one has been able to answer for damn 14 years now.

according to Hall Austin was sour over not getting that match...but didn't Austin himself say he turned it down and passed it to the Rock?

 

[R=G]

according to Hall Austin was sour over not getting that match...but didn't Austin himself say he turned it down and passed it to the Rock?

There's no way he would have walked over something that he supposedly wanted to do and keep him in the main event. We've heard this a million times..it was always gonna be Rock/Hogan. I figured it would be because Rock was owed a huge win at WM for doing favors for Austin the year before.

 

[Silkk]

If Steve Austin is bigger than the Rock, why didn't Vince force the Austin/Hogan match then? Something no one has been able to answer for damn 14 years now.

Cause Austin said no

 

[Silkk]

Any other year you need, smart guy? They created Smackdown after the Rock, you actually thought there was a bigger star in 1999 than him? LOL. And he was heel at the time

There was. His name was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

That shyt doesn't even make sense considering Austin was closing while your dad was curtain jerking with Billy Gunn & Triple H.

 

[R=G]

There was. His name was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

That shyt doesn't even make sense considering Austin was closing while your dad was curtain jerking with Billy Gunn & Triple H.

It makes perfect sense when people pay to see you

 

[R=G]

Cause Austin said no

Then magically leaves 3 months later because he was in the third top match? Lol. Yeah right...