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 wasnt 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 wasnt 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 hed actually end up forfeiting it to Rocky either way its 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.
