10 Precise Turning Points Where WWE Did The Impossible
5. Vince McMahon "Tries To Reason" With Stone Cold Steve Austin
The September 22nd 1997 edition of Monday Night Raw is often pointed towards as the moment Stone Cold Steve Austin got a rocket strapped to his back for real, if only because Vince McMahon had a brace strapped to his neck in kayfabe.
This is partially true, but misses much of what made the December interactions between the pair all the more important and influential. The first Stunner might have reminded The Chairman that 'The Rattlesnake' wasn't afraid to physically strike if he needed to, but to call the period between September and December 1997 a paradigm shift would be an even bigger understatement than Jon Moxley's appropriation of it in 2019.
Following the events of the Survivor Series, every version of Vince McMahon was the industry's top heel, which was just as important as Austin's own momentum to getting him over the top as the breakout business difference-maker he was set to be. The pieces were finally laid out on the table, but it took McMahon forcing then-Intercontinental Champion Stone Cold to atone for his violent actions and surrender the belt to The Rock to show the fans that he'd clip their new hero's wings just as he'd done to one of the last men they'd truly loved.
McMahon was the clear-and-present danger to Austin's ascension - more so than WWE Champion Shawn Michaels - and as soon as he meddled, the fans were on the hook for all the incredible tension to come.