• Welcome to "The New" Wrestling Smarks Forum!

    I see that you are not currently registered on our forum. It only takes a second, and you can even login with your Facebook! If you would like to register now, pease click here: Register

    Once registered please introduce yourself in our introduction thread which can be found here: Introduction Board


Nash with a moronic take

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
I dunno, people loved the Rock N Sock Connection, and it didn't last that long in 1999 anyway, I wanna say it only lasted like 3 months before Rock was thrown back into the title picture, and Austin only played 2nd fiddle to Rock in 2000 is because they had to get the whole "who hit Austin, who set it up" thing out of the way. Austin's 2nd PPV match he's in the main event against HHH.
Oh, I love the rock and sock too, but being in a tag team isn’t the same thing as being the top babyface the entire company revolves around.

I don’t believe rock challenges for the title again while Austin is champion. He feuds with the undertaker for most of the spring or early summer. Then they do the McMahon end of an era match. Then there’s the undertaker Mick Foley triple threat. Rock isn’t brought in to the main event until Survivor Series when they know he’s going to get the surgery and even then they put the belt on big show for some reason.

We could speculate about the Austin and rock spots in late 2000, as I’m a bigger Austin guy, but the way it turned out irl is Austin turned heel the moment he got back into the title picture and rock was the top babyface tasked with taking him and WCW down in 2001. Rock was just looked at by that point as the bigger star.

Even in 2002 Rock gets that big match with Hogan and Austin walks out after being asked to put Lesnar over. Which is a real shame.

(If only he knew Rock would put him over too on his way back to Hollywood :hayden3)

Which I don’t think happens without the injury.
 

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
What’s funny is I actually liked most of his shoots when he’s just being silly and half of them is drunk but I can’t put my finger on it in this podcast but he seems really withdrawn like he doesn’t wanna be there. That sucks the energy out of it as well.
 

Deadd2009

Horror Movie Guru
Oh, I love the rock and sock too, but being in a tag team isn’t the same thing as being the top babyface the entire company revolves around.

I don’t believe rock challenges for the title again while Austin is champion. He feuds with the undertaker for most of the spring or early summer. Then they do the McMahon end of an era match. Then there’s the undertaker Mick Foley triple threat. Rock isn’t brought in to the main event until Survivor Series when they know he’s going to get the surgery and even then they put the belt on big show for some reason.

We could speculate about the Austin and rock spots in late 2000, as I’m a bigger Austin guy, but the way it turned out irl is Austin turned heel the moment he got back into the title picture and rock was the top babyface tasked with taking him and WCW down in 2001. Rock was just looked at by that point as the bigger star.

Even in 2002 Rock gets that big match with Hogan and Austin walks out after being asked to put Lesnar over. Which is a real shame.

(If only he knew Rock would put him over too on his way back to Hollywood :hayden3)

Which I don’t think happens without the injury.

First point: He challenged Austin for the belt at Backlash that year and lost, it was the match where Austin got the Smoking Skull belt back

Second point: I was referring to when Austin came back at the tail end of 2000 lol, when he was feuding with Rikishi and HHH. They put a lot of focus back on him when he did come back (The Rumble win, the 3 Stages of Hell match etc)

Last point: By Austin's own words he claimed he only walked out because they wanted him to put Lesnar over on television and not PPV. Apparently Lesnar was supposed to beat him in the KOTR tournament. He was supposed to wrestle Guerrero at that PPV too but it went to Flair.

From a devil advocate point of view you could say Rock was only in that spot because there wasn't anyone else TO carry that torch. Austin was gone, Foley was retired, HBK wasn't back yet, Taker was on the way back from injury and Jericho wasn't ready yet.

Not saying Rock wasn't over because he was.
 

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
First point: He challenged Austin for the belt at Backlash that year and lost, it was the match where Austin got the Smoking Skull belt back

Second point: I was referring to when Austin came back at the tail end of 2000 lol, when he was feuding with Rikishi and HHH. They put a lot of focus back on him when he did come back (The Rumble win, the 3 Stages of Hell match etc)
I’m aware there was a rematch, but that was also before the tag team.

I know what you were referring to, but my point still stands. Austin didn’t come back in and take his spot back. Rock was still the top guy even if Austin was also getting good stuff to do. Once he gets back into the title picture though he turns heel and the rock is the number one babyface against him for the rest of 2001. Not saying Austin wasn’t also a really big deal but the rock shot past him, and that wouldn’t have happened without the injury.
 

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
From a devil advocate point of view you could say Rock was only in that spot because there wasn't anyone else TO carry that torch. Austin was gone, Foley was retired, HBK wasn't back yet, Taker was on the way back from injury and Jericho wasn't ready yet.

Not saying Rock wasn't over because he was.
This is literally the point that I’m making. Not the rock wasn’t over before or after Austin but that he was literally only given the torch because of those circumstances. If Austin never gets hurt, Austin never steps down from being the top guy.
 

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
Last point: By Austin's own words he claimed he only walked out because they wanted him to put Lesnar over on television and not PPV. Apparently Lesnar was supposed to beat him in the KOTR tournament. He was supposed to wrestle Guerrero at that PPV too but it went to Flair.
As this, we’re just getting into semantics at this point, but Austin in general, was not happy with his creative by 2002. He saw having to lose to Lesnar on television as indicative of where the company saw where he was at that point. Not getting the marquee Mania match anymore. Having to wrestle Eddie Guerrero at a pay-per-view. Like you just said. Not even getting squashed by Lesnar on the pay-per-view, but on television. Etc. While the rock still got to do the main event at Summerslam that year.
 

Cwalker

Well-Known Member
Eh…I think even without the injury Rock would’ve surpassed him.

The SNL gig is really what was the beginning of his rise to super stardom and I think he gets that job whether Austin is hurt or not
 

Kross Rhodes

Israel Has the Right to Exist
Eh…I think even without the injury Rock would’ve surpassed him.

The SNL gig is really what was the beginning of his rise to super stardom and I think he gets that job whether Austin is hurt or not
I just don’t see it. There was no point when Austin was still active that the rock surpassed him.
 
Top