10 Forgotten WWE Matches That Came Right Before Iconic Moments
3. The New Age Outlaws Vs The Godwinns - Tyson & Austin! Tyson & Austin! (Raw, January 19 1998)
The shocking picture quality in the match above mirrors the not-that-much better effort between these two heel teams going through the motions bell-to-bell as Raw yet again lay foundations only to shake them up one segment later.
Road Dogg's very good at the start - his microphone exploits were vital in fleshing out the early rabble-rousing by The New Age Outlaws - in bantering off the heel Godwinns to such an extent that they become the defacto babyfaces in the contest, but there's a painful indifference from the crowd towards the moves themselves. The disconnect between what the wrestlers had been trained to do between the ropes and what the growing casual fanbase actually wanted to see was apparent, and set apart the charismatic haves and the have-nots more than ever before.
Luckily Stone Cold Steve Austin had the f*cking lot and he wasn't afraid to use it.
Austin's amazing exchange with Mike Tyson forced the world to pay attention to a company on the rise in line with WCW's financial explosion the prior year. A version of pro wrestling was about to break as big as it had a generation prior, but muddling tag team matches between sh*thouses and pigsh*t attendants weren't ever destined to be part of the zeitgeist.