3. Stone Cold Joins Forces With Mr. McMahon To Defeat The Rock (WrestleMania X-Seven)
Speaking of foreboding announcers, Paul Heyman took a page out of Heenans playbook and FOR SOME REASON was arguably worse with his verbal prognosticating in 2001 during the climax of the WrestleMania 17 main-event between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Rock vs. Austin was as genuinely unpredictable a match as had ever been wrestled in WWE, to that point. Arguments were made for both parties achieving victory for six weeks prior to the event. They were the two biggest stars of the most famed era in sports entertainment lore. Rock was Austins biggest in-ring rival and vice versa. However, Austins biggest rival, period, was Vince McMahon. There would not have been a Stone Cold without the boss against which he rebelled. Ratings as high as the 8s and PPV buys averaged, at one point, above 1.0 were created through the anti-hero everyman vs. the completely relatable/detestable villain. Wrestling became more popular than it ever had been before or ever has been since on the back of that feud. So, there walked Vincent Kennedy McMahon to the ringside area during the latter part of the match. Eventually, there Vincent Kennedy McMahon handed Steve Austin a chair for which to physically annihilate The Rock and win the WWE Championship. In the shocker of the era, there was Vincent Kennedy McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin toasting with a beer to end a WrestleManiaand the era.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
