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I said he didn't evolve
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The Rock was more over and a bigger star then Stone Cold in the attitude era
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I said he didn't evolve
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I wanted to disagree but really looked into this and you're correct. IMO Rock is the first among equals to Austin. Both can get nearly equivocal pops from the crowd unless the event is in Texas. There's a reason why Rock was introduced last during the Hogan/Austin/Rock moment in one of the WM a few years back.
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At their peaks, they were about equal. The Rock had more staying power though. Austin had a lot of personal baggage, and character tweaks near the tail end of his career that kind of hurt his overall status. The Rock was steady all they way through.
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They both had insane, off the hook peaks that lasted a few years.
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Austin himself says it in his dvd, Scott hall also confirmed it
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I've Just been watching all RAW/Smackdown and PPV's off the attirude era, what a great time to be a wrestling fan that was.
Also Rock in 2000 was crazy over, by far the most over superstar in all of the attitude era, and yes i'm including Austin in that.
In terms of star power and 'overness' between the two I'd have it as ;
1998 - Stone Cold by far
1999 - Austin had the first half, Rock the second, this is the most interesting year for me, though i'd have Austin ahead marginally
2000 - Rock wins hands down, even after Austin returned at Unforgiven, Rock was on a different wavelength in terms of star power in 2000.
2001 - Closer, but The Rock wins again, The E and Austin knew this which is why they turned him heel even though Rock was leaving.
2002 - Not even close, Rock was by far the bigger star.
2003 - Even as a heel Rock was the bigger star/deal.
Rock in late 1999 overtook Austin and was the biggest superstar in the company bar none. He continued to make the company grow bigger and bigger in 00/01 and took it to new heights.
Austin on the other hand wasn't the same from when he returned in late 00, mainly because he wasn't the man anymore and Rock (his arch rival) was the one everyone loved. He got stale and then turned heel. refused to job on many occasions and then pretty much retired.
Austin was very insecure, he always wanted to come out on top and always booked strong even in defeat, thats why he dominated 90% of every match and feud he was in, thats why he buried Kane a day after he lost the title by winning it back, and thats mainly why he left the company by walking out in 02. He didn't like the booking and didn't want to job to Hall at Mania, Lesnar on RAW or HHH at Mania.
He wasn't the main man anymore which is ironic as he became exactly what his heel character in 01 was, insecure. by 2002 he was below Rock, HHH and even Hogan.
In regards to Rock now, i still love him but he's not the same, i hate the fact the he is all smiles now where as The Rock in 99 would NEVER smile, also he doesn't always refer to himself as a 3rd person anymore. He's not The Rock anymore, he's Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
What?
Austin had a far more profound effect on the business than The Rock did. If you were watching back in 1996 and 1997 when Austin was becoming a huge star, WCW was dominating the TV ratings while The WWF was literally on the verge of bankruptcy. WCW had far greater resources behind them, they had the much fuller and overall more talented roster, and were well on their way to putting The WWF out of business when one man kept WCW from achieving that - Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Having The Undertaker, HHH and Shawn Michaels as their big stars was not enough to keep WCW from dominating them in the ratings every week for roughly a two year period. Austin's performance in late 1996 and 1997 was the game changer. His sheer intensity was second to none - it was unrivaled and is still unrivaled to this day. He was an intimidating man - not a comedy act. Austin almost single handedly hoisted the promotion on his back and turned business around to where they not only caught up to WCW but surpassed them! What as The Rock doing in those years? He was doing very little. He was Rocky Maivia then, despised by the audience, and not in a good way. Did Austin help elevate The Rock to becoming one of he two biggest stars in the promotion? Hell yeah! Did Stone Cold need The Rock to help elevate him to star status? Hell no! If there had never been a Stone Cold Steve Austin, Vince McMahon's promotion would have gone out of business, leaving Dwayne Johnson to have to go to WCW if he wanted to continue wrestling. WCW wouldn't have had a clue as to how to utilize Johnson and we most likely wouldn't even be talking about him today.
Having The Undertaker, HHH and Shawn Michaels as their big stars was not enough to keep WCW from dominating them in the ratings every week for roughly a two year period. Austin's performance in late 1996 and 1997 was the game changer. His sheer intensity was second to none - it was unrivaled and is still unrivaled to this day. He was an intimidating man - not a comedy act. Austin almost single handedly hoisted the promotion on his back and turned business around to where they not only caught up to WCW but surpassed them! What as The Rock doing in those years? He was doing very little. He was Rocky Maivia then, despised by the audience, and not in a good way. Did Austin help elevate The Rock to becoming one of he two biggest stars in the promotion? Hell yeah! Did Stone Cold need The Rock to help elevate him to star status? Hell no! If there had never been a Stone Cold Steve Austin, Vince McMahon's promotion would have gone out of business, leaving Dwayne Johnson to have to go to WCW if he wanted to continue wrestling. WCW wouldn't have had a clue as to how to utilize Johnson and we most likely wouldn't even be talking about him today.
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That was a pretty good name. They even made a commercial for Chef Boyardee starring Mankind. Who would have ever predicted that would happen?!?! Anyway, I called him Cactus jack since that was the name he used when I first saw him and for many years afterwards. In Beyond The Mat the maker of the movie said (or maybe this is in the commentary track in the special features section) that he told Foley that he couldn't call a grown man "Cactus." I thought to myself: Then why not just call him Jack?
Austin still holds the record for best selling T-shirt - The Austin 3:16 shirt. The revenues from that were around ^million dollars. Steve Austin truly is the "6 Million Dollar Man." The Rock became a star when Austin made him look good and elevated his status. Don;t get it mixed up - it was Austin helping The Rock to get where he got and not the other way around. Without Steve Austin, WCW would have run The WWF out of business and The Rock would have had to go to work for Turner. WCW would have had no idea hw to utilize The Rock. Look at how badly they utilized Bret Hart.
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I agree WWF was about to be done Steve Austin along with DX started the wwf attitude era. This doesn’t take anything from rock but Austin has to be at the top ..
Yes, DX played a big part in starting the Atitude Era but then HBK injured his back. It was all he could do to wrestle Austin at WM (13 or 14 - I forgot which) and drop the strap to Austin. That was the last time we saw HBK wrestle for a long time, wasn't it? So then without HBK the pressure really was on Austin to carry the company since Rocky was still green and it hadn't even been too long since he was Rocky Maivia. But then Owen Hard almost paralyzed Austin with a piledriver! That was a scary thing. Thank God Austin wasn't paralyzed and was able to wrestle again. When Rocky, with Austn's help, made it to main event level it took some of the pressure off of Austin since he no longer had to carry The WWF on his own two shoulders. It also gave The WWF more diversity. For intensity and intimidation you had Austin (who was great in his segments with Mike Tyson)! For a more laid back and comedy oriented personality, they had The Rock. It was nice to have the contrast and diversity the two of them as main eventers provided. Then of course of you wanted to see crazy risk taking and tremendous bumps along with a truly unique and brilliant mind, you had Mankind. That trio was just incredible!
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At the absolute hottest time (97-98) Austin was unequivocally more over, and the reason Austin retired was due to the neck injury suffered by Owen years prior. This is a very biased perspective, as Austin was never afraid to do business (He let Vince beat him at the Rumble ffs). The only example was not wanting to lose to Lesnar on Raw, but has came out later and said he would rather do the job on PPV...which makes business sense.
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I've Just been watching all RAW/Smackdown and PPV's off the attirude era, what a great time to be a wrestling fan that was.
Also Rock in 2000 was crazy over, by far the most over superstar in all of the attitude era, and yes i'm including Austin in that.
In terms of star power and 'overness' between the two I'd have it as ;
1998 - Stone Cold by far
1999 - Austin had the first half, Rock the second, this is the most interesting year for me, though i'd have Austin ahead marginally
2000 - Rock wins hands down, even after Austin returned at Unforgiven, Rock was on a different wavelength in terms of star power in 2000.
2001 - Closer, but The Rock wins again, The E and Austin knew this which is why they turned him heel even though Rock was leaving.
2002 - Not even close, Rock was by far the bigger star.
2003 - Even as a heel Rock was the bigger star/deal.
Rock in late 1999 overtook Austin and was the biggest superstar in the company bar none. He continued to make the company grow bigger and bigger in 00/01 and took it to new heights.
Austin on the other hand wasn't the same from when he returned in late 00, mainly because he wasn't the man anymore and Rock (his arch rival) was the one everyone loved. He got stale and then turned heel. refused to job on many occasions and then pretty much retired.
Austin was very insecure, he always wanted to come out on top and always booked strong even in defeat, thats why he dominated 90% of every match and feud he was in, thats why he buried Kane a day after he lost the title by winning it back, and thats mainly why he left the company by walking out in 02. He didn't like the booking and didn't want to job to Hall at Mania, Lesnar on RAW or HHH at Mania.
He wasn't the main man anymore which is ironic as he became exactly what his heel character in 01 was, insecure. by 2002 he was below Rock, HHH and even Hogan.
In regards to Rock now, i still love him but he's not the same, i hate the fact the he is all smiles now where as The Rock in 99 would NEVER smile, also he doesn't always refer to himself as a 3rd person anymore. He's not The Rock anymore, he's Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
The Time away from the Ring Hurt Stone Cold for me . At the time I was younger and didn't have all the extra access you have now so I had no Idea how much of a toll the Neck Injury affected him . The Rock just took the ball from Stone Cold and eventually became more famous than the place he was in.
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Yeah think about how Stupid WCW was in hindsight when the let Goldberg beat Hogan for the title on a Nitro rather than at a Starcade or a Great Amercian Bash. They lost potential PPV money in favour of winning one battle in the Monday Night Wars which they ultimately Lost.
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Champ...its crazy. Absolutely crazy some of the money they could have made that they gave away on free TV.
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Check out these two books
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07FJWS2XF/ref=oh_aui_i_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They explain the idiot metrics about hot-shotting PPV matches on tv.
WWE does it even worse nowadays because they don’t give a shit about selling a PPV thanks to the Network.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07FJWS2XF/ref=oh_aui_i_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They explain the idiot metrics about hot-shotting PPV matches on tv.
WWE does it even worse nowadays because they don’t give a shit about selling a PPV thanks to the Network.
