Let's settle this shit right now, funsters.

[Libby Son Of Loin]

Such a fascinating industry.

From what I gathered, and the tapes I saw in the early days, Steve Austin was a great technical wrestler, with a look, but rarely able to show his promo abilities. That's the man Bischoff fired, which I don't fault him for - I do fault him for firing him via answering machine while he was injured, though.

The fact is that firing lit Austin up. When he went to ECW, Heyman was at his creative peak, and luckily had a history with Steve. So they let him go wild and do his own thing, allowing Austin to be creative by tapping into his anger. Those were great promos and I recommend anyone interested in that kind of history to track them down.

Austin hit a wall when he was saddled with The Ringmaster gimmick, which stifled him until he was finally allowed to be himself again. As was mentioned here, Bret saw real talent and wanted to push him, and that's probably the best handled program of the modern age in that it both took it's time and didn't overstay its welcome. The story was always there in the background, and the blowoff worked: Austin transcended to the Main Event, and the former biggest Babyface in the company became a massive heel to America, and a God every where else in the world.

If a sincere documentary is ever done about Steve Austin, warts and all, I'd absolutely watch it.

The fuck you know about kayfabe and playing a character, nigga?

 

[Phish]

stone cold was my idol growing up. I remember i was pissed at my dad because he wouldnt buy me two Budweisers to smash together and “chug” like Steve did. I even got the BMF Belt for xmas and was so psyched about it. After I turned about 11 or 12 i think, i dropped wwf overnight. I realized it was completely gay ina matter of days.

 

[HH Brother]

stone cold was my idol growing up. I remember i was pissed at my dad because he wouldnt buy me two Budweisers to smash together and “chug” like Steve did. I even got the BMF Belt for xmas and was so psyched about it. After I turned about 11 or 12 i think, i dropped wwf overnight. I realized it was completely gay ina matter of days.

I had the Austin 3:16 shirt and all the people that would see me out and about called me Stone Cold Dan Mullen. True story, Phishster.

Flavia still calls me the Somerville Rattlesnake.

 

[satanssockpuppet]

Austin needed to do his time in ECW so he could rip off Sandman’s style before reaching his true potential. The guy Bischoff fired isn’t the same guy WWE received.

The beer thing was pure Sandman. That guy was something else. He'd drink five or six beers on the way to the ring, and often he'd be bleeding before his match even began.

 

[Lamont & Tonelli]

He had the best out of ring segments where he would attack people, colotomyster.

Bookster and Coldster made a hell of a comedy duo. Booker's "BLAUUGHHGH"s beat my ribs with choice cuts of beef. "Y'ont sum baynz? Here's summor baynz fer ya!"

 

[DMAN]

Patrice explained the rationale on why The Rock shouldn't be in the top 5 let alone 10.

The Rock suffered from Vince McMahon-induced faggot cancer.
Which all the WWF stars did... Hogan: pukey white knight faggot, to the extent rubes were booing him and cheering for heel Sid...
John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, insufferable good Goy faggots nobody likes who are uninteresting and say corny GAY shit, as a routine.

My point is Rock became rehearsed unfunny faggot for a good while, but his character was hilarious at his peak and then when he turned heel in 2003. At his worst, you could skip easily many minutes of blather which was all the same shit.

Stone Cold to my knowledge never hit that point. He was always good for a laugh and a decent match, even with his little braced legs.

Unpopular fake-fighting opinion: I enjoyed Stone Cold heel turn at WM-X7 when he joined Vince. It was powerful, pissed off all the dopes in the record-setting crowd. It made sense in terms of the story. Did they expect old ass Stone Cold to buck the system for life? He was not an under dog anymore and his body was breaking down. It was a unique endeavor that I appreciated. It was probably the only reason he was able to keep going for the remainder of that year or 2. He didn't have to do as much physically, and got heat not doing things.

Now if you put Stone Cold VS. Booker T.... Then we would have a real debate. Imo Booker was the most underrated should have been main event champion since Raven... or Taz but that I can forgive since he's literal midget.

 

[DMAN]

But The Rock's original character was brilliant. The fans wanted STONE COLD but instead they got the manufactured corporate approved product THE ROCK. And then Russo just pumped it up with the douchey behavior and way of dress. ELVIS Rock was always his best era, with the jogging suit covering up his zipper-tits. The Corporate Champ The Rock storyline is probably the greatest work of art done in modern wrestling. It was the one true 'blending of real life and fiction' without hyperbole. And it explained an alternative solution to HOW wrestling was fake, but WHY the wrestlers aren't faking it... the "writers" control the show and their destiny by pulling the strings. They of course have made this storyline worthless by doing it to death, but at the time? Wondaful. VURRY Good.





If you can't beat Mark Henry... You're not going to The Survivor Series...

 

[DMAN]

Bischoff fired Austin not realizing it was the biggest mistake of his career.

Meh... Bischoff allowed the rise of Goldberg which was almost as profitable and unique as Austin was.

Goldberg's Streak was a great story that everyone including top rasslers were captivated by, but the problem is it also had a great ending... Which is just that, the ending. You can't have Goldberg as champion after the ending of the story (where he wins the title) But unfortunately in wrestling there is always a tomorrow or next week. Now what? You've put yourself in a corner. Your champion can only last 30 seconds and he sucks. He looked cool but beyond that he becomes exposed when he actually "tries." To coronate him is the kiss of death that ensures his demise.

 

[ThePepsiColaRapist]

Been listening to a lot of wrestling podcasts lately and it made me think back to the two top era stars of the Attitude Era, funsters.

Gotta go with Austin. Better on the mic and would completely dress down who he's talking about, promos, intensity, best entrance theme, led all merch sales by a mile at his peak, and had a timeless personality that you could watch now and still buy into it, funsters.

Always saw the Rock as a closet case johnnynoname, with his corny creative team written catchphrases that only marks still enjoy. His billion dollar movie career doesn't impress me and I don't know why that's even factored in when I couldn't name one movie he's been in beyond the shitty Mummy films.

I wish the Hulkster coulda got that match with him, but I wasn't going to job for him and neither him for me.

Austin clobbering McMahon in the head with a metal bedpan was one of the funniest moments in wrestling history

 

[UnPRePared]

The fuck you know about kayfabe and playing a character, nigga?

Fact that you think I am means I can stay on here.

When the time comes that all of you are certain it's me, then I have a problem.

 

[BillyCorgan'sFallenTree]

Pilled out 1997 heel HBK was better on the mic than the Rock. That being said one of the greatest things ever posted on the forums was when Rick was explaining to a random why someone was texting him as the Rock he accidently wrote The Rick. A brotherman wrote an entire promo hitting all of The Rock's catchphrases and fitting them for Fatrick. I believe it ended with Niki is going to take her strapon and shove it straight up The Rick's candy ass.

Hulkster vs Austin would have been incredible but people have speculated that the Wrestlemania match wouldn't have been as good because of the heel babyface dynamic. Hulkster was the heel going in but the crowd wanted to cheer him so they turned on the Rock and the two of them switched roles. I don't think the crowd would have turned on Stone Cold and you just get a match with two babyfaces.

 

[BillyCorgan'sFallenTree]

I never really saw Austin as that great of a worker compared to some of the other guys around that timeline - Benoit, Eddie, Angle. Lot of punches and stomps. Not that Rock was a particularly great worker either.

He was a far more nimble and technical worker pre broken neck (obviously) but also before the Stone Cold gimmick. He changed his style to suit the gimmick. That's partly how he got the ringmaster gimmick because whoever sold Vince on him told him "he was great in the ring he could do anything" and stupid Vince took that to mean the fucking ringmaster rather than what the person was trying to say which was "he's the complete package and a future star."

 

[HH Brother]

Pilled out 1997 heel HBK was better on the mic than the Rock. That being said one of the greatest things ever posted on the forums was when Rick was explaining to a random why someone was texting him as the Rock he accidently wrote The Rick. A brotherman wrote an entire promo hitting all of The Rock's catchphrases and fitting them for Fatrick. I believe it ended with Niki is going to take her strapon and shove it straight up The Rick's candy ass.

Hulkster vs Austin would have been incredible but people have speculated that the Wrestlemania match wouldn't have been as good because of the heel babyface dynamic. Hulkster was the heel going in but the crowd wanted to cheer him so they turned on the Rock and the two of them switched roles. I don't think the crowd would have turned on Stone Cold and you just get a match with two babyfaces.

They got away with Rock vs Hulkster because the Rock agreed to lay down and the Rock was like a anti-babyface during his run. With Austin it wouldn't of worked, funster.

As for HBK. He was really good on the mic during that era, especially going after Bret. The Rock you see the scripts he's reading from.

 

[Imager]

I pick Stone Cold over The Rock but there was a point where the "What?" thing that Stone Cold did was so overplayed.

The Rock was also 'smarter' in that he never did things to get himself injured. Just punches, kicks, elbows. He didn't do much in the way of stunts.

I like how WWF pushed Rocky Mavia and the fans didn't take the bait. Must've really frustrated Vince, especially with WCW chipping at his heels.

While WWF was usually the more interesting television, the backstage of WCW was more fascinating. They had so much money and had no management over it whatsoever. There was a policy that every single wrestler had to fly to/be at every single Nitro, even if there was no plans to use them. Just a colossal waste of money.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

I pick Stone Cold over The Rock but there was a point where the "What?" thing that Stone Cold did was so overplayed.

The Rock was also 'smarter' in that he never did things to get himself injured. Just punches, kicks, elbows. He didn't do much in the way of stunts.

I like how WWF pushed Rocky Mavia and the fans didn't take the bait. Must've really frustrated Vince, especially with WCW chipping at his heels.

While WWF was usually the more interesting television, the backstage of WCW was more fascinating. They had so much money and had no management over it whatsoever. There was a policy that every single wrestler had to fly to/be at every single Nitro, even if there was no plans to use them. Just a colossal waste of money.

Even some they just paid to sit home like macho man’s brother. It was called “favored nations” where if they brought someone in for an amount that was more than the other big contracts they had to raise their salaries to match the current top contracts. Kevin Nash proudly brags about getting others to come over only because it meant he would get more money. You also had guys like Brutus beefcake who since he was Hogans buddy he always had a job, same with Nasty Boys.

I read WCW’s last big Hail Mary in the final years was to try and get the Undertaker to come over as a defector and wrestle under his real name Mark Calloway (like they did with Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) and his character would be based on Mark’s personality of being a biker, riding a bike to the ring, leather outfits, etc. which ended up what he did in WWE when he came back as the “American badass” character who even got Vince to allow him to use Limp Bizkit’s Rollin as a theme which shows how much pull he had because Vince obviously wants all ring music produced in house.

 

[Dog Eater]

I don’t watch wrestling so I voted based on how they look + how funny I found it that the rock was the only competent actor in fast and furious 7.

 

[HH Brother]

Even some they just paid to sit home like macho man’s brother. It was called “favored nations” where if they brought someone in for an amount that was more than the other big contracts they had to raise their salaries to match the current top contracts. Kevin Nash proudly brags about getting others to come over only because it meant he would get more money. You also had guys like Brutus beefcake who since he was Hogans buddy he always had a job, same with Nasty Boys.

I read WCW’s last big Hail Mary in the final years was to try and get the Undertaker to come over as a defector and wrestle under his real name Mark Calloway (like they did with Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) and his character would be based on Mark’s personality of being a biker, riding a bike to the ring, leather outfits, etc. which ended up what he did in WWE when he came back as the “American badass” character who even got Vince to allow him to use Limp Bizkit’s Rollin as a theme which shows how much pull he had because Vince obviously wants all ring music produced in house.

He started doing the biker thing in WWF because he felt the audience was going get bored with the Deadman thing but then brought it back in Wrestlemania XX. It's probably his best entrance, funster.



He wasn't going to continue the gimmick if the crowd didn't react well enough.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

He started doing the biker thing in WWF because he felt the audience was going get bored with the Deadman thing but then brought it back in Wrestlemania XX. It's probably his best entrance, funster.



He wasn't going to continue the gimmick if the crowd didn't react well enough.

I know he did it in WWF but it was after he had been in talks with WCW who were ready to give him a very large amount of money to jump ship (this was their last hope) and have him wrestle as Mark and base his character on himself because he was in contract talks with WWF. He felt the way the attitude era was going a “deadman” would be out of place since they were doing more reality based gimmicks so WCW wanted to build it on him being himself.

This story comes from multiple writers at WCW near the end 99/2000 and they saw this as a way to get attention since they had been losing the Monday night wars and if they had Undertaker come in similar to Nash / Hall and be detractor and how he was there to be mark and not some guy with super dead man powers. They said they pretty much were gonna give him as much as they could to jump and since he stayed with Vince they knew it was over. Explains how he got to use Limp Bizkit then Kid Rock for his entrance music since Vince is very against anyone using music that’s not in house. Undertaker was hinting at jumping unless he could change his character up to how he really is (biker character)

 

[HH Brother]

I know he did it in WWF but it was after he had been in talks with WCW who were ready to give him a very large amount of money to jump ship (this was their last hope) and have him wrestle as Mark and base his character on himself because he was in contract talks with WWF. He felt the way the attitude era was going a “deadman” would be out of place since they were doing more reality based gimmicks so WCW wanted to build it on him being himself.

This story comes from multiple writers at WCW near the end 99/2000 and they saw this as a way to get attention since they had been losing the Monday night wars and if they had Undertaker come in similar to Nash / Hall and be detractor and how he was there to be mark and not some guy with super dead man powers. They said they pretty much were gonna give him as much as they could to jump and since he stayed with Vince they knew it was over. Explains how he got to use Limp Bizkit then Kid Rock for his entrance music since Vince is very against anyone using music that’s not in house. Undertaker was hinting at jumping unless he could change his character up to how he really is (biker character)

I don't see him ever leaving Vince, treester. No matter how much money he had offered, he had a relationship with Vince no one else had.

Although if he did jump ship, WCW could've made a measurable comeback since Undertaker was consistently in the top 5 draws through most of the 90s. And it would've gotten so much press.

There was a episode of 83 weeks recently of them asking Bischoff what he thinks about Undertaker being the third man to form the NWO. It wouldn't of been as big as the Hulkster, but it still would of started the Monday Night War.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

I don't see him ever leaving Vince, treester. No matter how much money he had offered, he had a relationship with Vince no one else had.

Although if he did jump ship, WCW could've made a measurable comeback since Undertaker was consistently in the top 5 draws through most of the 90s. And it would've gotten so much press.

There was an episode of 83 weeks recently of them asking Bischoff what he thinks about Undertaker being the third man to form the NWO. It wouldn't have been as big as the Hulkster, but it still would have started the Monday Night War.

Neither did I since he had been so loyal to Vince but it was contract time and WCW was desperate to get someone after losing so many people to WWF so they saw it as the Hail Mary to save the company. Having Undertaker / Mark Calloway show up on WCW riding a motorcycle would have been huge and got them major press and ratings. They were gonna let him do whatever he wanted and would have lead to obviously a storyline with Sting which everyone had wanted to see. That alone would have been a huge shot in the arm for the company.