8 Wrestlers Steve Austin Refused To Lose Against

3. The Rock

Obviously The Rock is one of the very biggest names the professional wrestling industry has ever seen €“ in fact, some would argue he is the very biggest due to his crossover appeal €“ but in 1997 he wasn€™t quite as great as The Great One would go on to become. When a white-hot Steve Austin was asked to drop the Intercontinental Title to The Rock in late €™97, the Rattlesnake declined as he felt that Rocky wasn€™t as his level just yet. In fairness, The Rock and The Nation of Domination were certainly making their mark on the WWF by this point, but this was a Steve Austin who was on the cusp of butting heads with Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, and even Mike Tyson. Whether he was right to veto dropping the belt to The Rock €“ he€™d actually end up forfeiting it to Rocky either way €“ it€™s fair to say that Austin was on a totally different level to The Brahma Bull at that point in time, and it was only a matter of months later that Stone Cold would become the WWF Champion at WrestleMania XIV.
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.