10 SICK & TWISTED Wrestling Funerals

7. Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Rock Live Forever

Torrie Wilson
WWE

Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock just had no right.

A grim emerging trend on the often-rotten social media discourse cycle is this bizarre feedback loop that everything that happened in the past would be eaten alive by "wrestling twitter" as if there wasn't critical analysis long before people had a modem in their office let alone the f*cking bird app on their phone.

An example - relevant to this entry, but could easily be real - is some d*ckhead posting eight sideways cry laugh emojis alongside a list of Austin/Rock matches from the 1990s questioning insincerely what today's commentariat might make of all those rematches.

The answer then arrives enthusiastically from those that lived through it that it was f*cking awesome because they were both megastars and the feuds were really heated and creative and stop making redundant comparisons if your single-minded numb skull allows for it.

No, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock had absolutely no right to do a funeral segment in the middle of a stolen belt angle that allowed WWE to run back a WrestleMania rematch from the prior month. But they did, and it ruled, and a car got ruined, and everybody rejoiced.

Look out into the crowds today and find any rejoicing at yet more rematches if you can. And that's the difference.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett