Pro Wrestling Chronicle

In honor of Wrestlemania on Sunday, John Philapavage takes a look at the first of three great Mania matches for Steal This Match. This time around, it’s the two biggest stars, in the climax of the era, in front of 68,000…BROTHER!

Steal This Match: The Mania 3 pack. The next few days will bring two more classics to remind you of what can happen on this biggest show of the year. We’ll have a Steal This Match review of HBK vs Kurt Angle from Mania 21, and also of Austin vs Bret Hart from Mania 13. But right now, we take a look at the biggest of the big matches (unless you count Hogan-Andre, and this is the Internet, so we don’t!). It’s the PENULTIMATE
Austin/Rock match, as well as match of the era and style. enjoy.
4.1.01 Steve Austin vs. The Rock (WWE Championship Match)

Wow, I still have this match on VHS; original broadcast. I haven’t watched this match since a bus trip to Queens, NYC for ROH’s first Anniversary in Feb. of 2003. That was only two years removed and I remember thinking how different wrestling was already, post boom. Here we are, six years later, about to find out if we should still Steal This Match.

Austin and Rock matches, to me, are like bookmarks to the WWE during its second boom period (We’ll say 1997 to 2001). Their first match, at Mania 15 in 1999, was like a proclamation that the boom was on. It completely legitimized it and made official that wrestling was mainstream again (I know Tyson was the year before, these things take time). This event, and match, were like the parade pictures you see after V.E. Day, or when the U.S. troops came home in 1945-46. That match should be sound tracked with “Happy Days are Here Again”.

The second match, this match I’m about to review, was babyface vs. babyface, and defined the era. In many ways this event and in specific, this match, it WAS the climax to the boom. It is still, domestically speaking, the highest buyrate for any WWE PPV (Nearly 1 million bought the show in North America), and was the biggest U.S. supershow since Mania 3 (67,925 resulted in gross receipts of $3.5 million USD).

The third match was, fittingly, the epilogue. They went back to their familiar roles as Austin as babyface and Rock as heel, at least in action, that they are identified with throughout their feud. The match was underwhelming, as I recall, but well received by fans and media. Appropriately, it signaled the end of both men’s careers as regulars in wrestling.

Notes as we begin. A very well done hype package precedes this match which is more steak then sizzle. By that I mean Kevin Dunn and company have since done better video packages in terms of editing/visuals/audio/soundtracking, but the content of this one sold you on the big match. It made wanna call friends, loan them money, and hope they got the PPV signal in time for the match. I’d forgotten how great the build up for this match really was, and how amazing the face-to-face sit down interview between the two was. Austin foreshadows his turn very well without being overbearing, and it’s sad no one is allowed to do heavy non-scripted material anymore.

Heyman and J.R. announce this match. I loved these two ten times more then the J.R.-Lawler pairing, but realize I’m in the minority. The Fink (remember him?) announces a no-DQ stip which J.R. puts over big as an unannounced surprise that puzzles him.

God, this event was epic! There are so many people in the Astrodome and it’s a hot crowd. Austin is out with his Disturbed theme. J.R. is already putting over Austin’s journey back from neck surgery and this event being in his home state. He calls Austin a “folk hero”. Just awesome commentary and camera shots. This is the last of the Austin I fondly remember. He became the “What?” Austin that sadly everyone thinks was THE Austin right after this match. Rock is out next, as the Champion.

Austin jumps Rock at the bell and they go nuts in the first minute. Punch/ kick with intensity, bionic elbows, a Thesz press, multiple finisher teases, and Rock being sent over the top rope. As intense as these two get – in a great way – they are so into the moment that they basically miss moves at points and you don’t even care.

They push that Austin realizes its no-DQ as they brawl into the crowd. This crowd, by the way, is buzzing constantly. Great atmosphere. The brawling is basic - you’ve seen it so many times over the last decade - and yet you can tell watching it that somehow it means more. It holds up today, but to explain to someone whop didn’t go through it the first time, it would either be total buy in because they were taught it’s legendary, or total disconnect, because it doesn’t look nearly as great as the legend it’s become at some points.

Back inside the ring, Austin is just possessed and intense. Two count on Rock 3 minutes in. Austin just picks up Rock and superplexes him from the second rope. Austin takes off the turnbuckle as Heyman hard-sells how bad he wants the title. Flashbulbs everywhere during this match. What an amazing spectacle this was. Hogan vs. Rock the next year is the only other one I can think of from this decade with the same “feel”. I guess the negative version of this atmosphere would be the passionate reaction during Lensar vs. Goldberg from Wrestlemania 20. How’s that for clarity?

Rock comeback. God, Rock never landed anything clean, did he? Where as Austin is lovable for being haphazard and slapdash in his prime (the man was out of control movement much of the time), Rock many times just got by on the charisma of his movments. That is to say, for WWE, which is such patterned and practiced movement and often repetitive, he doesn’t execute the movements smoothly. Hey, it’s workin’ so far.

Austin’s selling is even crazier. Rock clotheslines him over the top and JR/Heyman try hard to make this story feel epic, which they accomplish, because it simply is. Stone Cold uses the ring bell to Rock’s face. Subtle heel, though the fans like him more in Houston. Rock juices and they break the announce table just stumbling around it. Very “WWE big show selling”, with obvious punches, kicks, chokes by Austin and bombastic selling by Rock.

Rock hope spot at 8 minutes in. They boo him and cheer the Austin neckbreaker that ends the sequence. Punch/kick onslaught continues, but they do need to breath at some point. They haven’t stopped moving since the bell. Austin is really trying to open up the cut and his heeling is becoming more evident. The story continues to be Austin’s intense violence and obsession with beating the Rock. “There can only be one” JR adds.

10 minutes in Rock comeback with a desperation clothesline. Rock uses slap punches I’m realizing years later he probably stole from Ali, and Austin even adds his own verbose/bombastic selling: The back bump into the flip backwards to the belly landing. No wonder his neck is so screwed. Rock gets his retribution with a ring bell shot and a strong “Earl Hebner special” (The slow dramatic count) is good for a great near fall. Austin is busted open real good, and Rock’s killing him with punches, but the crowd disagrees with the story. They boo Rock.

We’re 12 minutes in. It’s repetitive and simplistic WWE thinking, or should I say working. Punch/kick leads to outside brawl. Silly big selling. The Commentary has become hyperbole and overstating the obvious. YET, it’s all so good. Essentially, there are two factors that separate this match from so many others. First, Rock and Austin are in another league at pulling this simple stuff off. Second, it has layers and layers of subtext, and it’s booked to have little detail after simple little detail to show that. What this leads to is the realization that the story being told, and in some ways not on purpose, is the culmination of not only their glory period, but the promotion’s glory period, and this style of match. Rewatching it, you feel that, and you feel it, where it would certainly loose that if it were another walk around brawl.

Austin gets control of the brawl and sends Rock to the post for his second round of big selling (third if you count the opening). This might be a perverse comparison, but it reminds me of the WWE large scale version of ROH’s Joe-Kobashi match. If you don’t get the subtle nuances, you’re probably wondering why anyone would care, or how it could possibly hold up.

Monitor shot by Austin to the Rock. Crowd is dead when he’s dragged back into the ring for the pin. Austin goes for a stunner and ends up in a Rocky sharpshooter. Crowd is 75-25 Austin. The Visual is AWESOME! Bloody Rock holding him in the leglock for dear life, pulling back, as a bloody Austin reprises his famous gasps and face of pain from the Bret Hart Submission match at Mania 13. Hart, at this point in time, was thought to never do business with WWE again, and the move made a lot of people stand up and take notice. Thankfully, JR is allowed to draw us the parallel in matches. It was layered symbolism. There’s a lot to this match, in the ring, and for those who followed the business at the time. Austin reaches the ropes, gets pulled away, but reaches them again. Crowd loves it.

Rock smartly goes back to try the move again, but it’s Austin who this time applies the sharpshooter 17 minutes in. Heyman calls JR on his “Austin cheerleading”, furthering the depth of contempt JR will feel as the voice of outrage at the end of this match. Austin’s sharpshooter sucks, but he viciously goes to work on the knees. Again with the Austin Sharpshooter. Great touch. Austin smiles and won’t break the hold as Rock reaches the ropes. Then he pulls out the long forgotten Million Dollar Dream sleeper! More desperation is sold. They try to reprise the Austin-Hart Surv. Series ’96 finish. Sloppy as hell, but an effective nearfall and plot depth device. Great matches are about the intensity and urgency of winning, and that being turned into the journey we all follow them on. I really believe that.

20 minutes in they both sell in classic WWE “who will reach their feet first” style. Austin can’t believe he hasn’t put Rock away. Facial expressions and camera work sell it, and commentary does the rest. The Rock comeback/hopespot is a poorly executed stunner on Austin, slow roll, and dramatic nearfall.

Cue Vince McMahon walking to ring. Asshole chants. They sell to give him the focus and attention. Austin does a great spot where he hits a great spinebuster, then rushes back to make the cover as if he must win that second. Mini-fit as he doesn’t get the pin. Rock spinebuster of his own. He hits the People’s Elbow, but McMahon breaks up the cover at 23 minutes. GREAT MOMENT as the fans wonder why Vince would save his arch-nemesis. Great camera work of the facial expressions of Vince and Rock before Rock gives chance to the outside. So much of the WWE is production. Austin hits a Rock Bottom after catching the Rock running across the ring after McMahon. The nearfall is ELECTRIC!

A fevered pitch is killed by a ref bump and an Austin ballshot to the Rock. Austin motions to Vince. Vince with a chairshot on an Austin-held Rock, but Austin still can’t get the pin and the place pops for the Rock kick out. Austin is screaming, “shit!”

“We are witnessing something that will be talked about for years to come!” Heyman has no idea how right he was, and not in a good way.

Desperation Rock Bottom on Austin. Rock beats him down but walks right into the stunner. TWO!! The place goes crazy for Rock. Austin chairshot on the Rock. Two. This is silly now. Stop it. I remember thinking this went on way to long live too. Austin kills Rock with a chairshot for the pin and a babyface pop at 28 minutes. He shakes McMahon’s hand and hands him a beer.

I don’t know what to say. What could they have done? Honestly, they did every little thing from the build, to the match layout, to the sutble things in the match itself, to overkill of those things once they became obvious. Austin made huge steps to go back to his vicious heel character at the end of this match, but with the added negative (from storyline perspective) of selling out to his arch enemy for the gold. Ross even buried his friend hard on commentary. They did it all.

I’d say perhaps they should have done this in Miami, or anywhere else, but who knows if it would have worked long term? I thought it did work that night in 2001. I thought it worked rewatching it that night, pretending I didn’t know what was about to happen. The idea of Austin going heel for the first time in five years and siding with McMahon should have worked. Rock had already been the heel in this dynamic to many times. This was a great call, and yet… it wasn’t.

I’ll say that perhaps the follow-ups and second/third stories out of this were what killed it, because Austin really was a great crazy heel. I blame HHH for not going babyface, or perhaps it was just never meant to be.

The match is sloppy, but epic. It’s also historic, well told, and the story is legendary and infamous. If only to see the end of an era, I advise you to steal this match. 4 stars.