15 Awesome WWE Sagas To Binge-Watch On Netflix Over Christmas
3. ’Stone Cold’ Makes McMahon’s Life Hell
Fire up Netflix and watch the opening video package for Over The Edge 1998 as soon as humanly possible. Talk of "defiance" and "conformity" flashed up on screen as Vince McMahon's vile heel boss character warned anti-hero Steve Austin that he "must comply" with authority. In typical fashion, 'Stone Cold' wouldn't, and he proved he had McMahon's number on that same pay-per-view.
Technically, their feud started with a stunner in late-1997, but things really ramped up in 1998 and 1999. Austin vs. McMahon has become one of the finest examples of a wrestling rivalry done right; the biz has been trying to re-bottle it ever since, but nobody has ever quite managed it. WWE themselves have never presented a wrestler vs. authority figure tale as beloved or multi-faceted.
Vince even stepped into the ring for a few scraps with Austin. The most notable of those came at In Your House: St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February '99, but it isn't hard to find anything else even loosely connected to the feud if you look through most PPVs between 1998-1999. There's a reason why the company leaned so hard on Austin vs. McMahon. They knew it was a license to print money.
There are approx 36 episodes of Raw on Netflix that span 1998-1999, so it is possible to see a lot of what the story served up. Marry that with the pay-per-views and it's a treasure trove of peak 'Attitude Era' laughs.
Top Recommendation: Big Show's debut during Austin vs. McMahon at St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the iconic beer bath stunt from the 22 March 1999 Raw.