Yeah, Nash has had a lot of dumb takes on his podcast which is why I don’t really watch it, but he didn’t say that rock wasn’t over. He said that the rock wouldn’t have reached the same heights and I don’t actually think he’s wrong.
If you go back and look when rock first won the WWE championship, he still played second fiddle for a great deal of that first run while Austin was still the main focus of the program. The Austin versus McMahon angle was still the primary driving factor that was leading into the royal rumble. He was still on the poster of the royal rumble. The cage match between Austin/McMahon at the same Valentine’s Day massacre was still in the primary driving factor of the pay-per-view. Everything was about Austin beating the right to take his belt back at wrestlemania 15.
Then Rock was saddled with a tag team with Mick Foley for the rest of 1999. Once Austin got hurt two people rose to new heights, Triple H and the rock. Triple H became the new top heel, and he got to win the championship for the first time and the program revolved around him, being an unstoppable force and the rock, then rose to the spot of the Austin top baby face, and he became the guy that the entire company revolves around in his chase of Triple H and once the rock toppled Triple H in early 2000 the entire program revolves around him for the rest of the year.
Even when Austin returns, the rock was still the main guy with programs with even Benoit and Kurt angle even leading into 2001 rock wins his championship back from Kurt angle and was the champion leading into wrestlemania and while Austin got to win the royal rumble that year, he turned, heel immediately upon beating the rock and then the rock got to lead the WWF against the WCW and ECW alliance while Austin was the primary heel. Rock’s return in the summer of 2001 to stop Austin was like a coming of Jesus moment.
