10 Times WrestleMania Genuinely Surprised Us
3. Stone Cold Turns Heel
Wrestling fans can and will debate this one until the cows come home: should Stone Cold have turned heel at WrestleMania X-Seven? The numbers point to no, the sheer joy of paranoid bad guy Austin and his fading babyface charms point to yes; it’s a debate for the ages any which way, especially given its position as the climax to the de facto greatest ever WrestleMania.
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, though, it’s fair to say that Austin siding with Vince McMahon to defeat The Rock is one of the most stunning swerves in company history. The genius lies in the thread of genuine logic and character building. In the magnificent build to the match, we’ve seen Austin come unglued; he feels his star is waning, and he needs that WWE Championship more than he’s ever needed anything in his life. He’d do whatever it takes to reclaim it - even make a deal with the devil himself.
To turn Austin heel is one thing - to try and do so in Texas is another thing altogether. The audacity of having Austin sell out in his home state, where they wouldn’t dream of booing him. And that, in itself, is an argument for each side: it was ill thought out; it was genuinely interesting. It’s about as emotionally rich as a man hitting another man in the head with a chair can get.