Wrestling Nostalgia: Stone Cold vs The Rock Part (WrestleMania 17)

It's time for your weekly facts of Wrestling Nostalgia. When we look at wrestlings
past eras from the attitude era is the reality era. I'd like to think
that maybe this company will be better after Vince McMahon's dead, but the fact
is it's it's gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and his dufest son
in law and the rest of his stupid family. Dad here on the WWE
podcast. Welcome to the WWE Podcast. It is January twenty ninth, twenty
twenty. It's Wrestling Nostalgia Night and Tonight. It's part two of a three
part series looking back at one of the biggest and best rivalries in the history
of professional wrestling, that being Stone Cold Steve Austin versus The Rock. And
Tonight, as we land in part two of the three part series, we
are going back to WrestleMania seventeen. We are looking at the main event of
WrestleMania seventeen and dissecting it and giving you audio and my real time thoughts and
memories from that fateful night many years ago in April of two thousand and one.
Yeah, we're almost coming up on twenty years since this main event it's
crazy. It's almost it's mind block boggling that we've almost gone twenty years since
this main event happened, even saying it is crazy, but it happened,
and it was extremely well received by the most of fans. Back then,
social media wasn't the thing, so I can't say social media received it well,
but the fan react from around the globe was that this main event blew
everything out of the water, and really the WrestleMania itself was viewed as one
of the best WrestleManias of all time in Houston, Texas. So this was
a significant time in the history of wrestling, and we're going to get into
not just the bill to the pay per view and what led to this Part
two and the amazing sit down interview with Jim Ross in the Rock backstage in
the locker room, when Stonecold said famously, I have to beat you,
Rock, I have to beat you. I need it more than anything you
can imagine, and really just kind of foreshadowing his really largely unsuccessful heel turn
that also took place during this match or after the match, i should say,
in which Stone Cold has mentioned many times if he had one thing he
could change that would be the moment, that would be the night he would
take back that moment, and we'll get into that as well. So guys,
welcome, thank you again for joining me. As we get back on
track. The Royal Rumble is in our rear view mirror and we are full
steam ahead into the next pay per view, which is Super Showdown Live from
Saudi Arabia, which is going to take place on February twenty seventh, a
Thursday. Yeah, these weird pay per view days continue with the Saudi Arabia
schedule, and I don't know if it's something that is religiously based of why
it's a Thursday and not a weekend or I don't know, but they continue
to fall on strange days, and so many of us will watch this pay
per view and delay or not watch it at all out of protest. So
that'll be the next landing spot as we creep closer to WrestleMania, and then
we'll have one more stop at Elimination Chamber and then we're off to the races.
We got ten weeks until WrestleMania and it's going to fly by, I
mean the six week from the Rumble to or from TLC to the Rumbles certainly
went a lot faster than I expected to. So ten weeks it's nothing right,
It's gonna fly by. So guys, if you haven't already checked out
my full Royal Rumble review and raw review with my three co hosts of Zach
Perez, Mary Grater, and Anthony DeMarco. We went over two and a
half hours of the pay per view and raw and gave our thoughts and it
was an awesome conversation. I would really highly recommend you check it out.
With a bit of a disclaimer. And this came when I uploaded my audio
into my program and did some you know, just reviewing and ad placement and
all that kind of thing. And I reviewed it and I put the file
into my audio program and it just looked like the audio was maxed out for
that my upload. I'm like, what the hell is this right? Because
I had my audio string and I had all of my co host audio string
right underneath it, and their audio string looked normal with the you know when
I say audio string, like the visual of the audio. You know,
it looks up and down depending on how loud you talk. You know,
it kind of looks like a heart monitor of sorts right, but mine was
just maxed out almost the entire time every time I talked, and I'm looking
at it and I play it, I go, son of a oh,
I was, and there's not really much you can do for that, and
it sounded like I was blowing out the mic every time I talked. So
I got the volume down, but it was still distorted because I accidentally on
Skype upped the mic volume to the max. Instead of doing auto adjust the
mic, I just put the maximum gain for the microphone on Skype, and
that's what caused the whole damn thing, which is how I record my calls.
So that really messed me up. And I apologize, guys. I
know it's super distracting and a bit annoying, so that's totally my bad.
I should have just left the damn setting alone. I changed it like two
days ago, and I don't know why I did so. But again,
if you would like to listen, it's it is listenable, but I will
be honest, it's a bit distracting with with my my audio of every time
I talk, so anything outside of me talking during the conversation is quite interesting
and quite entertaining, and definitely was a blast, and I'd like to continue
the tradition of a post pay per view discussion, right or a meeting or
i'd say roundtable, But that is a phrase that is used by another popular
wrestling podcast, so I'm not going to hijack that. So I'll come up
with another another phrase or terminology for the post pay per view discussions with co
hosts, So that would be coming. I'm going to try to make that
a thing moving forward for every pay per view, especially the big pay per
views. WrestleMania is just going to be an absolute crazy town here with audio,
and it's going to be a show every day. I mean, there's
already a show every day now, but I'm going to up the shows that
I do. I'm sure as we get closer to WrestleMania, which again I'm
telling you, it's gonna fly by. So guys, thank you for being
a loyal listener to the show through all the technical difficulties that I have at
times, and just some things that you may am at, like or hey,
look I hear you with the ads. I get it, but I
don't know anybody that would not want to monetize their show. I mean,
it's just it just makes sense. It just makes sense. So all right,
well, guys, with all that out of the way, please give
me a follow on Twitter at the WWE Podcast. You can also head on
over to the website at WWE podcast dot com and you can get all the
latest shows there and blogs and anything else that you'd like to check out.
It's a completely overhauled site that I had redone a number of months ago and
gave it a complete facelift, So check it out. It's definitely something that
I spent a good amount of time and money on. Just leave it at
that, and lots more, a lot more planned for the site. I'm
not exactly a web developer, so when you don't know what to do well,
it gets expensive because you got to find someone that does so. But
anyway, guys, let's get to the main event here. Let's get to
the reason we're here. And it's time to travel back in time, and
it's time to take us back. Where are we going, Well, I
kind of alluded to it before. We are going back to April two thousand
and one. We're going back to the WrestleMania that took place in Houston,
Texas. And this is a time in which wrestling was still we were still
in the Attitude era and we were not yet quite into the Ruthless aggression,
although that was right around the corner. It's a time that was wrestling was
absolutely thriving. It was at its peak. The following year we would have
the nWo come in and The Rock would face Hulk Cogan at WrestleMania, and
Stone Cold would be in a throwaway match with Scott Hall, which still to
this day befuddles my mind. And you know, that's not what we're here
to talk about. We're hearing to talk about the year before at seventeen.
So again, this was April first, two thousand and one, sixty seven
nine and twenty five people in the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. At
the time, they were still known as the World Wrestling Federation. I still
do like saying WWF. Anybody else, I know, it's been like,
I don't know, seventeen years, whatever it's been, I still like WWF.
It just it just rolls off the tongue much better. WWF just sounds
cooler, doesn't it instead of WWEH. I don't know. I guess old
habits die hard and that's it's been way too long for me to didn't care
about that. But okay, so this this is a match again. And
before I get to the rock, Austin, I do want to uh just
kind of give you quick what the match card looked like. Here we had,
first, we had X Factor, which is just incredible, an XPOC
with Albert defeating Grandmaster Sexe and Steve Blackman, Chris Jericho defeating William Regal from
the Intercontinental Championship, Tazz in the APA, which considered a consisted of Bradshaw
and for Rouke with Jacqueline defeating Right to Censor God. That was an that
was a really under utilized or underappreciated group which consisted of Bowl Buchanan, the
Godfather, and Valvenus with Stevie Richards God. It's just such a heat seeking
group it. Kane defeated Raven and Big Show in a triple threat hardcore match
for the WWF Hardcore Championship. Eddie Guerrero with Perry Saturn defeated Test for the
European Championship. Current Angle defeated Chris Benwah, China defeated Ivory. Shane McMahon
defeated Mister McMahon with Stephanie and Trish in a street fight with McK foley as
a special referee. Edge and Christian Timely there defeated the Dudley Boys and the
Hardy Boys in the in what was then and is still now viewed as one
of the best tables, ladders and chairs matches of all time. And this
was for the WWF Tag Team Championship. This was the moment that we see
replayed over and over and over on highlight reels of Edge spearing Jeff Hardy off
of the the wrong that was holding the championship belts. It's an amazing spot.
It's I mean, that'll stand the test of time for sure, the
Iron Chic one by lasting or eliminating Hillbilly Jim in a gimmick battle Royal.
Yeah, that lasted three minutes. Why, I don't know, So there's
a bit of a blemish for the show. The Undertaker defeated Triple h in
almost nineteen well, no, eighteen minutes and nineteen seconds. And then of
course you had Stone Cold Steve Austin defeating The Rock in a notice qualification match
for the WWF Championship. So certainly a stacked card, A lot of matches.
I'll be honest, I didn't remember. I mean that, just how
can you? Right? Like, for example, I would have bet my
bank account that if if you could name just three matches beyond Stone Cold in
the Rock, you wouldn't have been able to Outside of Undertaker Triple H and
outside of Shane and mister McMahon, I don't think anybody would have gotten anything
else, right. So, but when you look at it, you look
at the stars on this card. You have Kane, you have Eddie Garrell,
you have Kurt Angle, Chris Benwa China, right, you have Taz,
you have Chris Jericho. This is a stacked card. Edge and Christian
w Boys Hardy Boys, three of the best tag teams in WWE history.
So this card certainly had star power, and it had a lot of huge
moments. As w W WWE loves to say, they're all about moments.
Makes me with my stomach churn. But I mean I get what they're saying,
right, I know that WWE is all about moments because moments are all
you remember in life. So what else are you about? I mean,
really, like, when you think about your life, right, look back
at your life, your entire life. What do your remember? Well,
you remember moments in your life. You remember that maybe the day you got
married, maybe your first kiss, maybe your first job. Right, you
remember moments in time. So when WWE says they're all about moments, well,
you kind of have to be because that's how the human psyche works.
So you don't have much of a choice but to just be moments. So,
I mean, I understand what the language and the meaning behind it,
but when you break it down just even a little bit, that that phrase
just disintegrates into stupidity because again, as human beings, we only remember moments.
Seriously, that's it. Okay, Anyway, I'm getting way off the
rails as my brain does. But what I'd like to do now, and
this is this is something that I uh will never forget, and this is
this is not the match itself yet. And what I'm doing is pulling up
as I'm stalling a little bit, I'm pulling up the interview with Jim Ross.
So this happened a couple of weeks before the pay per view, if
I recall correctly, And these two before you know, before I even play
this, they after WrestleMania fifteen, which I had previously done Part one last
week. Were on parallel careers, but separate careers. They cross paths only
at the Royal Rumble and well, of course at Armageddon in the Hell in
a Cell match, they had a moment in there too, but they're one
on one. Wouldn't happen really for two years after WrestleMania fifteen, you had
Backlash, and you know, you had a couple of follow ups, but
their next WrestleMania encounter took two years in the making, which when you think
about where they were. Both perform grew from WrestleMania fifteen, particularly The Rock
coming into his own becoming a massive, massive babyface, and Austin, who
continued on his track, was derailed for eight months with a neck injury and
surgery, comes back, goes on a hunt, hunts down Triple H,
hunts down Rakishi, beats the holy hell out of them. He comes back
eventually getting into a program with The Rock, and he's right back where he
wanted to be. And you have these two mega mega babyfaces, biggest in
the history of the industry. I don't care what promotion, what time,
what year, what era, Bigger than I would argue bigger than Andre bigger
than Hogan. And some of you may say, are you kidding me,
Hulk, Yeah, Hulk. Hogan put them on the map. But the
Rock and Austin in their own right, in their own careers, I believe
saved WWE from going under at a time when the Monday Night Wars were real,
at a time when the WWF was sinking, sinking quickly, eighty three
weeks, WCWBT, WWE. If it wasn't for Austin, it wasn't for
the Rock and really the Undertaker. Those were the three key guys. So
I mean again, when you look at money drawn two, these are the
top two. These are the top two guys, hands down. So let's
take a listen to this interview. As Jim Ross had done a sit down
interview in a locker room with Austin In the Rock and it was just brilliant.
And this was not something done ever with these two, and it was
different. It was real. Sit down interviews can be extremely effective and this
was one of the most iconic sit down interviews of all time. So let's
take a listen. Full speed ahead. It's full speed ahead, because while
I get in there with the Rock and the Astrodome, sixty five thousand screaming
fans watching every single move that happens in that ring. Yeah, I gotta
beat that man. I've never wrestled an hour in my life, but if
that's what it takes to get the job done, that's exactly what I'll do.
My strategy is to go in there, do whatever it takes to beat
the Rock one two, three, to become the World Wrestling Federation Champion,
Rock without revealing your hand and your strategy, your mindset, as far as
your approach to this as competitor to competitor, revealing my hand at my strategy.
The fact of the matter is this is you brought up a very good
point, Jim Ross. Is that is that the Rock doesn't have to beat
stone Cold, but Stone Cold has to beat the Rock. But as far
as I'm concerned, the belt is dangling and we're both going for it.
So I got one reason and one reason only to go inside that ring,
and that is to beat Stone Cold. Steve Austin. It's just that simple.
I'm just going to go in there and back off just because I'm the
champion. I'm glad you said that, because I don't want you to be
on defense the whole match. Yeah, I appreciate the fact that you want
to beat Stone Cold as much as I need to beat you. And it's
gonna pause it there again alluding to need I need to beat you. This
is something I need to do, foreshadowing the what's to come with the heel
turn. And of course we'll get there, but let's let's continue to skip
ahead a little bit. And uh, because I don't want it to be
too long of a recording here, but okay, let let's continue and then
we'll get to the match. There's a reason why they call me the most
electrifying man the world has ever seen and all that, and there's a reason
why they call me the best. From April one, two unstoppable forces will
meet and all questions will be answered. Steve, your final thoughts about this
match, Yeah, without getting overly senttlemental, I'll go on the record is
saying every single time that I've been in the ring with the Rock, he
has brought out the absolute best in Stone Coach Steve Austin. So when I
roll in to the ask in WrestleMania on April first, do I want to
beat you on a personal level? Oh? Hell yeah, I do,
but on a professional level which bleeds over in my personal existence. I need
to beat you Rock. I needed more than anything that you can ever imagine.
So that's the mentality. I rolled into the Ashdom with the fact the
Stone Coast Steve Auston is back and that I must beat the Rock to be
the World Resting Federation Champion once again. And there is no other way.
There can be only one. There could be only one World Wrestling Federation Champion,
and that will be Rock when it's all said and done, Stone Coasteve
Austin with all ruders specs. Again, just the intensity in this room,
in this in this this interview was sit down, which again was unheard of
at the time it was. It was outherworldly. I remember it very vividly.
I'll never forget that sit down and interview, and I'm sure many of
you probably feel the same way of how effective it was. When you get
away from the same old, tired format of doing interviews and wrestling promos,
it doesn't always have to take place in the same fashion. It can be
executed in many different ways, and this is a prime example. I don't
need every interview to suddenly go to a sit down interview. Of course,
not just because this was extremely effective doesn't mean that everyone that does to sit
down interview is extremely effective. But you saw it even with Roman Reigns on
the snowed In Raw after he won the Rumble in fifteen, got boot out
of the building and then had to sit down an interview with Paul Hammond and
brock lesneran in Roman and I forget who the interview the reviewer was. It
might have been Michael Cole, but Roman was at his best there too.
So it works in certain formats. It works when it's not done a lot,
and this this really really stood out to me. So all right,
well one other thing before we get to the match, and just because I
really just I'll never ever listen to this song in a different tone anymore.
Let me let me just give you guys a little bit of a preview or
a bit of a throwback to what the wrestling the promo was for this match.
Just just take a listen and time to time to ring some memories here.
So here we go. Yeah, thank you special you can see and
you're I can see him and you laugh it me look down on me and
walk around on me. So anybody else remember that? Oh yeah, I
do. Well, he didn't get to the good part. So let's uh,
let's just fast forward a little bit his story. Yes, I will
straight up believe your shit. And you, being the one who's loved missing
me makes my way, Yes, my way, my way to always help
myself. No one makes my way. That's my way, my way way.
Oh yeah, there it is right. I mean, that is just
classic stuff. I know you guys can't see the visual of that, but
I mean, you know what's going through your head? Is that music video
both Austin Stunning rock and rock Stunning Austin and rock, bottoms and beer and
just middle fingers. And I don't need to tell you you've seen it.
I've seen it. But it's a song that it just fit perfectly for the
time. Limp Biscuit was actually a thing back then, and the song certainly
fit. The editing was genius, and it just added to the whole ambiance
of this match because these two, it felt more important than fifteen, and
honestly, it even felt more important than nineteen because nineteen was kind of a
shell of seventeen. It was like Sean Michael's an undertaker following up WrestleMania twenty
five with twenty six. He just can't ever really recapture that magic that you
had. I mean, seventeen was just from a storyline perspective, the two
at the top of their careers, paralleling each other. Mega Babyfaces nineteen.
Again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself for the next week, Part
three, but I think nineteen was certainly exciting, and it was Rock Austin.
It doesn't get better than that, but it felt like Rock was really
one toe in, one toe out of the business at that point. We
knew Austin was at the end of his career, but we didn't all know
it was his final match, and we'll talk more about that next week.
But again, this I think by the majority of fans' perspectives. I believe
that I speak from most of fans when I say that this was their best
of the three. And of course we'll cover next week Part three and the
WrestleMania nineteen in Seattle, Washington. But what do you guys who cyber you
on when you when you were watching this in real time, and maybe you
didn't, maybe you were too young, or you weren't into wrestling at the
time. Were you on stone Cold side? Were you a Rock on the
Rock side? I was very torn personally. I was a huge Rock fan.
But if you're gonna put the Rock against Stone Cold, Steve Austin,
I'm gonna I'm gonna cheer for stone Cold every time. That's not an easy
decision. But this love, the love for Stone Cold, and the excitement
stone Cold brings, I think rivals and outdoes the Rock. And I don't
think the Rock ever truly reached the Stone Cold level. I just don't.
I think Stone Cold was in a category of his own, despite how insanely
successful the Rock is. That's how that's how much of an impact Stone Cold
had in the business, how much money he brought in for the business,
ratings, you name it. He just blew the roof off of the in
terms of numbers and buy rates and everything else, ticket sales. He certainly
blew everything out of the water. And that's why I don't think, even
reaction wise, never quite got to the Rock, never quite got to Stone
Coold's level. But all right, well it's time for the match. Let's
get let's get to the match. And this is where boy, we're going
back in time. Here right, this is where things get real. And
I remember watching this in real time. I was in my parents' basement.
I didn't live there, but that's where I had to watch it because the
TV in our living room was being taken up for something else. And I
remember having to shell out like sixty bucks for this, and I had to
give it to my parents, or maybe they bought it for me, I
can't remember, or maybe I'd tried to convince them. I can't remember,
but I remember looking at the price going holy crap. Right, So we
all complained about the nine to ninety nine a month, but at the same
time, you know, I don't. I didn't order every pay per view.
I don't think most people did. But WrestleMania certainly got you a big
time and it was like anywhere from fifty to seventy bucks, depending on where
you were. So all right, well, as we get into the match.
Here it starts, and I'll just give you the beginning of the match.
Let's see as I scroll through my my video here, let's uh,
let's get to it and uh, let's go third. Jes let's sense right,
most things come I'm going the of that sister. Let's come cold that's
a lot of talent, man, Can they got that story? What must
be going? Yes? Mine and this daring moments, anoying and turning that
he has been on, Li says, but my honey, more are you
suing consuming me my role? I said, sure, what's like? What
was it to me? All this is that promise of the Texas crowd.
The moston is reveared. He is a folk hero, mounton his explansionary status
in his home state, like text, no doubt in the sort of reason
because go cloned Steve Austin. He's a man on the tunny stop called Steve
Austin. I packed up how they thing Jim how don say in his career
but techning, turning stone cold, Steve Austin must take the championship from the
So I mean again, but you forget too that Paul Hayman was on commentary
there, and you forget that he was with Jim Ross, And honestly,
you forget how good that he was with Jim Ross. And I know that
we love Jerry the King Waller and we love Jim Ross's a combination and they're
the best pairing in the history of wrestling. At the same time, you
know, Paul Hayman brings something to the table that the King didn't, and
that's just a different perspective, a different voice, and he didn't act,
you know, like a kind of a sophomore man at the time, who
was you know, all about puppies and that kind of stuff, which is
still where he was at this time. I just loved Paul Hayman and Jim
Ross. That's a just it's just a classic duo. And I think they
added a lot, a lot, a lot to this match. So let's
let's continue on as the match progresses, and of course we will get to
the all important finish, so just take a listen and uh, we'll continue
on and give you my thoughts the people, and this will be so uh.
This is where we had Austin and rocking back and forth, beating the
hell out of each other. Uh. And at this point the rocks busted
open, Austin's busted open, and Vince McMahon makes his way down to the
ring mysteriously, and you think that he's there to screw Austin, and instead
he starts trying to help Austin, and you're thinking, what the hell is
going on here? Right? You're you know you're you're kind of wondering,
how is this going to play out? What is what is Vince McMahon's motive
here, It's gotta be evil. Austin's definitely going to drop him with a
stunner. Something's going on here, So let's let's continue and well, let's
see what happens. O turps someone from the man man back to the ring
a shot say he's so at this time we have Austin In Rock using their
own finishing maneuvers against them, and Vince McMahon still continuing to just pester the
Rock, and well, let's see what happens the los Hi hip up the
price him. Look to the poor referee out to the floor. A referee
has been knocked to the floor and when it's a medical hill a low club
host. No, there's qut of locations and there you see another hint at
what's happening here he low blows the rock and then here we go bos of
the tone here the term Then what the hell is sip los In the tone
R teaming epic can't be I don't know what the hell that say? After
this? Can oh? No terrorst I thought the rock? Du what do
you cut that. Steve Austin just out on the drest demanded, let me
man brand the Terian the neck bread And after this gone right, what did
I can tell Martian Roos? And there's live So at this point, Austin
or the Rocks getting super frustrated or Austin's getting frustrated that Austin the Rock's not
going down. Vince is still continuing to help Austin, and here we go,
what not that they're locks doors and then the lost time. Now mix,
man, they tell you the rebery. I'm not trying to tell himself,
love, what the hell is going on here? Right there? They
smack to this what got us too? I take the light. I'm not
tack down this dinner. Oh my god. And at this point Austin's in
shock. Uh And I remember thinking to my like, oh my god,
because don't forget this is still a time in which finish are protected. Because
finishers at this time in wrestling, for the most part, especially compared to
today, we're just that they were finishers. They finished the match. They
didn't educate the audience to think, oh well, we're getting closer to the
end of the match. So here's a finisher. So that's just a clue
to the gonna it's gonna end soon because we're trying to hit our finishers and
then it'll take a few more and then it'll probably end. Right. That's
how we are conditioned in twenty twenty to think like that, and I hate
that. I look at a finisher now as kind of, eh, well
it'll you know, for any finisher, and it's sad that well, they're
probably gonna kick out right, or they'll get out of that submission. And
it's just I don't like that feeling. I want to be re educated that
finishers mean something. It's like somebody needs to go into the settings menu of
this video game and up the damage a finisher does because it has been lowered
down all the way to the lowest setting that you can have. Right as
a video game fanatic with wrestling video games, that is what it feels like,
and they need to go into the settings and change that. So again,
that's why it was so impactful now at this time because after all the
damage the Rock took the chair shots the grueling match and he hits, he
got a chair shot to the head, which boy I missed those, and
then he got a stunner. He still kicked out, and then this is
where Austin and Vince McMahon start to really lay it in as the match comes
to a close. That's not the Saints. M Man's handed off to the
tear and all of a sudden off he hit the run, then said I'm
stay down a rock hard dating. Then he loves done and at this point,
oh boy, yeah, the Austin had hit him flush with another chair
shot. He kicks out again and then well here we go with the well
the finish and then of course the heel turn cold. Steve Austin wrote to
anything and damn it, I need anything to me. Turned it to champion
left man, the turn, the rein and then off the road until there's
not the taser battle. I'm like that it does, stay in tail,
come down, stay done. Why there you have? Is this? Why
why you have? That's best breddy Donald? He world's little time? So
what time he was taking? What's coming fast? Us may have my tasks
and I'm bringing you know the next dosing dog that's taking a dance and let's
say that's talent. What God, someone tell me that that's not happening.
Man's story, says storming, I love when Jim Ross starts cussing. This
just makes me laugh so much. I love when he just, oh god,
when he starts swearing. There's just something hilarious about Jim Ross cussing.
I don't know what it is. I love it. It's just I don't
know why. I can't explain it. It's just the way that he cusses
is funny. And I'm not talking about his facial paralysis having anything to do
with it. I'm just talking about his voice and the way he cusses is
I find it entertaining. But here we go with the stone cold He'll turn.
And I alluded to this earlier with Austin wishing that he had just said
to Vince and called an audible in the ring after he beat the rock and
having him said to Vince watched the stunner and he would have dropped him right
there and again. But Austin said he wished he had done that, only
knowing what would what would lie ahead with his heel turn that was largely viewed
as unsuccessful, and the next night on RAW, I also remember very vividly
he came out to a very positive reaction and even here an extremely positive reaction,
even after he aligned himself with Vince. Uh, he's still got an
extremely positive reaction. You hear it, I don't. You don't hear any
booze. He He came out the next night on Raw and to a very
positive reaction still, and then had said that if you know, after Vince
was in the ring, because Vince had come out at the beginning of Raw,
Austin followed and said that now that I've got Vince McMahon in this ring,
if you want me to beat the hell out of Vince McMahon, give
me a hell yeah. And the crowd says hell yeah, and then Austin
says what hell yeah? And then they say hell yeah. And then after
that he says, well, it ain't gonna happen and explains that it's not
gonna happen tonight, and the Rock comes out and it leads to a steel
cage match at the end of Raw where Austin or Rock gets his hands on
Austin, he gets his hands on Vince, and then ultimately Triple H comes
down as the White Night and then turns on the Rock. So you have
a three on one situation. That's when the two man power trip happened the
next night on Raw, where Austin really just went all in the best he
could to have a successful heel turn. But the problem is, and I
remember even thinking it at the time, and this isn't being a Monday morning
quarterback. Nobody wants to hate Stone Cold. You just don't. He's He's
the ultimate babyface, and when he turns heel, it's like it's just uncomfortable
because you you know, you may have babyfaces on the roster, but you
know how good that he can as a babyface, and he just feels miscast.
It's just a mismatch. It doesn't work. Austin as a heel never
worked. There were times where, you know, maybe when he was feuding
with the Brothers of Destruction, Undertaker and Kane, that you know, I
was kind of on the side of Undertaker and Kane because of what Triple H
and Austin were doing. And I hated Triple H or I hated Triple Ah
so much that having Austin be associated with him did certainly help at least cool
my liking for Austin just a bit. But I remember when they beat the
hell out Alita, and that was supposed to get heat, but I kind
of found it entertaining and hilarious. I just I never felt as if Austin
ever got off the ground truly with his heel turn that he envisioned because his
thought process was, and this is well documented, that when you're hot as
he was as a babyface, that when you flip, you'll be just as
hot as a heel. Well, that doesn't work in the instance of Stone
Cold Steve Austin, who is the ultimate babyface, and the crowd just had
no interest in doing him. There wasn't that that resentment building up for anything.
He felt authentic. There was nothing that the audience was was kind of
burying in their souls of well, kind of getting tired of him. And
I don't like the way he's being booked. He doesn't feel authentic. You
know, Scripted promos weren't really as prevalent as they are today. There was
it wasn't really any of that. So when they turned, they're like,
well, we don't have anything to give back to your Stone Cold to align
with with this role you're in because we don't have any underlying negative feelings for
you. We just effing love you. And I think a lot of that
had to do with it too. There was there was just nothing, no
harbor, no bad feelings being harbored. So it just didn't work. And
you know, I give him credit. And the one good thing that did
come out of it was the fact that the What Thing was born, which
clearly made him a lot of money with his what shirts. And that's really
a shirt that I should probably get. I don't know why I don't have
it. It was I loved it. I mean, the whole what Thing
still lives to today. I mean, you think about the effects of WrestleMania
seventeen, the main event, that WrestleMania seventeen main event affects today's promos.
Why I just said it, you have those what chance. If Austin ever
turned heel, he wouldn't have done the what Thing. If he didn't do
the what Thing, it wouldn't have lived as long as it did. And
it's still here nineteen years later. We still have the what Chance to every
single wrestler performer. They're all of their dismay because it is something that it
does get annoying at times, even as a fan sitting at home. But
I understand the itch to participate when you're in an arena. I get it.
It's all about participation, and it's easy to do because there are natural
pauses in people's speech, and it's particularly wrestling prom there's just natural pauses in
them. So I get it. But it does become a bit distracting,
and unbelievably, almost two decades later, it's still alive. It's still life.
It's great. So when you think about what would affect this had it's
still here. But in general, guys, I loved this main event.
I love the pay per view as a whole. I'm it was just straight
out badass. It was something that still lives up today's standards. And you
know, to this day, a lot of people still use WrestleMania seventeen as
the measuring stick against which all WrestleManias should be measured. Now, is that
fair? I guess that's subjective. I mean, to really to hold that
to a standard of today is a little bit. It's difficult because WrestleMania back
then was only a few hours long. Now it's like seven hours long.
Back then it was three hours, maybe three and a half tops for WrestleMania,
double that today. Plus you also had a different environment. Number One,
it was TV fourteen back then. You have TVPG now. It was
a whole different cast to characters, the wrestling environment is different. It's much
more micromanaged. You have programs and promos and everything. It's much more controlled
than it was back then. So is it fair to compare it to seventeen,
Well, that's up for you to decide. But as we creep closer
to WrestleMania thirty six, isn't that crazy I'm just talking about seventeen Now it's
WrestleMania thirty six. We certainly have a lot to discuss. We have a
lot to break down as the weeks and months start to creep by us,
and we will be into February before you know it, and then into March
and bye by winter, and we will be into the springtime and April fifth
will be here before we all know it. That's just how WrestleMania happens before.
I mean, honestly, by the time you're in like week six of
ten, we're gonna be like, okay, let's just get to it right.
It's just the way it is. And luckily we do have two stops
in between of the Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia and obviously Elimination Chamber, So
there are things to look forward toeen the introm obviously WrestleMania being the ultimate destination
and those just being a couple of pit stops, but we at least they
are rest ups, pit stops for us to take a breather, recalibrate,
see where they're going, see the tweaks they're making, and then focus on
the ultimate goal of WrestleMania, and see what WWE has in store. So
well, guys, this is always a blast. Now I'm getting the itch
to go back to watch the whole program. It's and if you haven't,
my god, what are you doing? You need to see this. Do
yourself a favor. Watch the promo videos. They'll catch you up real quick,
and then go into the match. It reminds you why you are a
wrestling fan. It reminds you what drew you to the product. It's matches
like these, moments like these, all about the moments, and just like
this past Sunday with the Royal rumble Edges return, I haven't watched a wrestling
clip over and over that many times since Sampunk had dropped his pipe bomb in
Vegas eight years ago. It's been that long. It was that impactful for
me. It was like a piece of my past came back and better than
ever. It felt like that. And it's kind of a selfish thing to
say that's not about you. It's a bad Edge. Yeah, But again,
if you've been watching wrestling as long as I have, maybe a lot
longer, maybe not even more than a year, when something comes back that
you loved and you miss that piece of what your past was and it comes
back, it hits you personally in a good way. And that's the way
it felt. Plus I felt just I felt for the man Edge, Adam
Copeland. I felt for him. You could see the emotion in his eyes
of being able to come back, do things on his urn and end the
way and his career the way he wants to end it, and not have
any what ifs. I mean, who the hell wouldn't want that? There
are a lot of things in life that I and yourself I'm sure would love
a second chance at, or you'd redo something or change something all the time,
right, all the time. And it's a feel good story. And
Edge looks like he hasn't missed a step. He's in amazing shape, kudos
to him, and I'm really looking forward to what he's going to bring to
the table. I'm sure at some point he'll have a run with the championship,
and I'm sure at some point he'll turn heel. I'm interested in the
heel edge. Once the nest nostalgia and the welcome back and feel good stuff
wears off, I could see him having a good heel run. He was
a hell of a heel back in the day, so don't count that out,
you know again. Rumors are flying that he signed a three year deal
for a couple of matches each year. Totally fine. I don't need to
see him at house shows. I don't need him on every Monday Night Raw,
assuming he's on Monday Night Raw, although that was never announced that he
was drafted. He's just kind of floating out there, so I'm fine with
a few matches a year. It extends his career. It doesn't feel like
he's oversteing his welcome. He gets the brock Lesner treatment of getting paid a
lot of money to have limited amount of time in the ring, but it's
a win win. I have no resentment for his schedule. I don't even
have resentment for brock schedule. I really don't. People are just jealous of
Brock Lesner, that's a bottom line. But Edge is in a place where
he can do this. He's in a place that he can still perform at
the level he believes that he should perform at. And I'm looking forward to
the program especially. I can't wait till he gets to seth Rollins. I
really can't wait till he gets to seth Rollins. I hope that comes sooner
than later. Obviously, his first program is going to be with Orton.
We'll see how long that lasts. If it's into obviously Super Showdown, probably
in the chamber and then maybe dying out before it gets to WrestleMania. I
don't need this going three pay per views long. There's a lot of history
they can pull from. I'm excited for that, but I'm ready for to
be involved in some of the new stuff. We haven't seen the new guys.
We haven't seen Rollins Rollins. Please, I would love it so alrighty,
guys, Well, thank you for joining me again. Follow me on
Twitter at the WWE Podcast and hit me up there. If you have questions
or concerns or whatever, email me to at Real WWE Podcast at gmail dot
com. I still have email. I still answer email. So thank you
for those of you who have reached out and provided feedback on the show and
how I can improve. We're just saying you like the show. It's I
do pay attention, I do listen, and I do thank you for helping
the show improve. So guys, thank you again, and don't forget tomorrow,
AEW n XT and Friday, and then you'll get a review show for
the week coming up. On Saturday and Sunday you'll get a Saturday or Sunday
and sometimes flip flops depending on my schedule. Weekends are tough, right because
everyone's got stuff they need to do, especially at night. It's a super
Bowl, so maybe I'll have us Saturday show instead of a Sunday, but
that remains to be seen. So everybody enjoy the end of the week here
for those that work Monday through Friday, we're almost there. We're getting there,
and then in the big super Bowl weekends, So guys, enjoy your
evening night, morning, and as always, I will talk to you next
time. Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on
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