Austin vs Lesnar WrestleMania 32: 10 Most Compelling Factors
Thirteen years in the making.
It's been 13 years since Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Brock Lesnar was first presented to WWE fans. In June 2002, a match between the air was announced on a random Monday Night Raw as a King of the Ring qualifying match without any build-up whatsoever, with Lesnar only a few weeks into his time on the WWE roster.
However, that match never occurred due to Austin's objection to losing clean to a rookie without any build-up, and his growing frustration with WWE creative that stretched back to Wrestlemania 18. The legend of the match has grown considerably in recent times, partly because of how large Lesnar became as a main evener that transcended the sport, and it being the tipping point of Austin leaving the company.
Shortly after that, Austin and Lesnar's careers would go in different directions, but the question always remained...What If?
Stone Cold's neck issues have been well documented, going as far back as the botched piledriver from Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997. Not only would Austin have to pass perhaps the most thorough physical in WWE history, he'd have to make the internal decision of living with any unforeseen consequences.
With Austin and Paul Heyman's podcast confrontation fresh in our minds, let's take a look at how this saga got so compelling.
10. Austin Is The Last Guy Left For Lesnar To Conquer
When Brock Lesnar debuted the night after Wrestlemania 18, the main roster should have just gone into hiding. An entire locker room of champions, legends, and guys on the rise would bow down to Brock almost immediately upon his debut. It's not like they had a choice.
Lesnar opened up pure destruction on The Undertaker (who's never defeated him) Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Kurt Angle, The Hardy Boyz, Big Show, Rob Van Dam, Ric Flair, John Cena, Edge and more in his first run.
Missing from that list is a pretty big star from that time period...Stone Cold Steve Austin.
When Lesnar returned in 2012, he went on a similar warpath extinguishing John Cena in the biggest WWE Championship Squash Match since Diesel vs Backlund, CM Punk, The Big Show, HHH, and he beat some undefeated dead guy at WrestleMania XXX.
As you can see, not much is left for Brock as far as guys from the previous era. One has to imagine Brock would love the idea of being branded "The Attitude Era Killer" (similar to Orton's legend killer persona) by defeating each major star to come from it who crossed his path.