WWE WrestleMania: The Steve Austin vs. Rock Trilogy (Part 1)

I have secured my spot for WrestleMania 28. Being a broke, soon-to-be graduate student I offered to grill chickens if my brother would order the PPV. WrestleMania is an event you want to watch with someone, if there is someone you can convince to watch wrestling with you.

Why WrestleMania?

Because WrestleMania is the giver of moments you will never forget. You will remember where you were sitting, what you were doing and how you felt. You will revisit those memories again and again. This—WrestleMania—is wrestling at its very best. If you are not hyped now, I hope you will be soon, as we will now revisit the trilogy that makes Lord of the Rings hide away in shame: Stone Cold Steve Austin versus the Rock!

Do you remember Steve Austin’s WWF? (Yes, that’s whose WWF it was.) Steve Austin was first, Vince McMahon second and a cast of the Rock, Mankind, the Undertaker and Kane made up the front line.

This was a WWF that understood what it was like to be beaten in the ratings, often badly. This was a WWF that did not have the star power to come back, so it created that star power—or, with guys like Austin, allowed it.

Steve Austin could have and should have been a world champion in WCW, but Eric Bischoff only had eyes for 80’s WWF stars.

What if you didn’t know the story of the Monday Night Wars? What if I told you WCW had Ted Turner’s money? What if I told you they had every consistent main eventer WWF had produced not named Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels? What if I told you WCW had the momentum? What if I told you WCW had the lead?

What if I then told you WCW purchased Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels retired?

You would ask me, "How long after did WWF become extinct?"

I would answer, "almost immediately." WWF, as we had known it, became extinct.

On the back of two men—Vince McMahon and Steve Austin—WWF was born again.

To revisit Austin versus Rock, we must first revisit Austin versus McMahon, which begins with what Vince McMahon did to Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1997. He screwed him. On the night of Survivor Series and thereafter, he screwed him. It is arguable he screwed him so badly he sent him to the WCW as damaged goods.

This is a Vince McMahon unlike any we saw before or after, in a WWF unlike any other. He was doing what he had to do to survive. For once, not only was he not the aggressor, but he damn near had been laid out for the 10-count. Hell, after Survivor Series ‘97, he had the black eye to prove it.

Vince came off the mat with three words: Bret screwed Bret.

And Mr. McMahon was born.

It was in this context of surviving that Steve Austin was permitted to be the star that neither WCW nor the WWF had previously permitted. Had it not been desperate times, I doubt Vince would have ever permitted these desperate measures.

After all, Vince first presented Austin as the Ringmaster.

If that isn’t bad enough, they gave him a manager to do his talking. When Austin broke out, along with Brian Pillman, he began cutting promos that had fans laughing and cheering. The WWF and Vince McMahon, in a stroke of genius, cut the parts where the fans had honest reactions.

That is the WWF/E before and after this pivotal point in history. It is a controlled one. The better man doesn’t always win because he doesn’t have to. When there is no competition, you do what you are told whether it’s for the best or not.

But, in 1998, Vince was desperate and Austin was hot and nobody else was there.

Steve Austin instantly redefined wrestling.

Almost overnight watching anybody else seemed boring, stale or passé. You couldn’t not watch WWF, because to miss a moment might mean missing history.

Austin and Vince worked for two reasons: Austin really wasn't what Vince looked for in a champion and there was enough memory of what Vince did to Bret to elevate Mr. McMahon to top heel.

In that light, along that edge of reality, we watched Vince screw Austin again and again.

Steve Austin was not the kind who needed to win. It was nothing to watch him lose. It would happen against Kane and the Undertaker and it would happen in the Survivor Series tournament.

You know, Survivor Series 1998, one year after Vince screwed Bret, when it seemed Vince McMahon was raising a corporate champion in Mankind.

This is the only time, in my memory, where Montreal was played out again and it wasn’t an embarrassment for the company using that angle. Vince still had the heat of the story he created and he cashed in. Vince and his son Shane screwed Mankind, creating a corporate champion in the Rock.

This, like a lot in that time, was a gamble. Fans could have rejected the idea and cheered the Rock. It could have served as a reminder of what Vince had done to Bret Hart. But, instead, it went down as one of the greatest Pay-Per-View moments in WWF history.

I can still remember watching that event live with my brother. It was a play, a performance, a masterpiece in storytelling. Despite having no money for purchases, we watched WWF merchandise being sold on the shopping network after Survivor Series, only because we were not ready for that night of wrestling to end.

Though it was just November, that moment launched the Rock headfirst towards the event WWF already had in mind: WrestleMania XV.

Whereas Steve Austin had main-evented WrestleMania XIV, this would be the Rock’s first time. Austin had gone toe-to-toe with Bret Hart and main-evented against Shawn Michaels. He had blazed the trail the Rock now walked.

Though Steve Austin would lose the Royal Rumble to Vince McMahon and suffer the wrath of new giant Paul White, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind the destiny of WrestleMania XV.

The biggest star in the WWF would face the man who would continually challenge him, not only for that title, but later for leader of that era.

It can be somewhat lackluster when you start to watch the WrestleMania XV match. If you’re used to those WrestleMania entrances with thrones and fast cars, you won’t see that. This was Austin’s era, and he was the anti-hero. He didn’t need to pose. He didn’t need fireworks. He didn’t need the praise.

In the first sequence you can see what made both men great: Rock was popping off at the mouth and Austin went to brawling. In this no disqualification match, Rock and Austin would spill out of the ring and into the crowd and down the ramp. It is fair to say that many of the Attitude Era matches lose value in retrospect, but nothing compares to watching them live. The reason things seemed to spill out often is because, with everything on the line, emotions in that WWF were always brimming over.

Austin won that night.

He won with a stunner. He won with the help of Foley and despite Vince McMahon. Yes, all the major players from Survivor Series 1998 had returned for the grand finale of this masterful performance.

Austin and Rock had made WrestleMania XV, but WrestleMania XV had also made them. It bound them together like very few in wrestling history. Though they’d go their separate ways, they’d reunite again and again.

And though the look of misery on Vince McMahon’s face told the story of WrestleMania XV, it would be an entirely different matter the next time these two men stood underneath the WrestleMania banner.

Steve Austin and the Rock were working together to create an era—yes. They were working together to make history—indeed. But, too, they were working individually to best each other, to be known as the best.

From their matches, only one would eventually get the nod to face Hulk Hogan and only one would return to face John Cena.

But that is future talk for future columns.

For now, Steve Austin is the heavyweight champion, and the Rock has main-evented his first WrestleMania.

And history is beginning to be made.