25 WWE Champions Who Never Got Their Rematch

15. Steve Austin

The Rock Raw WWE Championship
WWE.com

Title Lost: Intercontinental Championship
Lost Title To: The Rock

It’s hard to call this a title loss. In late 1997, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was on a meteoric rise to the top of the WWF roster. Although he held the Intercontinental Championship, Austin had his sights set on the company’s top prize, and feuding with the Rock over the IC title wasn’t in his plans. So Austin decided to forfeit the title to Rocky in pursuit of the WWF Championship.

However, the Rattlesnake wasn’t handing the belt over that easily.

Austin confiscated the title and dragged a cameraman to the General Sullivan Bridge in New Hampshire, where he threw the title into the Piscataqua River. Rock was the IC champion, but Austin had no desire to get his rematch. A month later, Stone Cold won the 1998 Royal Rumble en route to winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV, kicking off the Austin era.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.