Austin vs Lesnar WrestleMania 32: 10 Most Compelling Factors
8. The Walkout In 2002
As alluded to earlier, Austin walked out of WWE in 2002 before a proposed King Of The Ring qualifying match against Brock Lesnar on Raw. It has to be asked, what was Austin doing in a KOTR match at that point anyway? The match had no build-up, and Austin felt like it didn't make much sense to devalue him in a CLEAN loss when money could be made with a PPV showdown further down the road.
With Austin no-showing, we never got Lesnar vs Stone Cold, and we almost lost Stone Cold for good when WWE suspended him indefinitely. Reportedly, Austin was fined $650,000, but he was able to negotiate the price down to $250,000.
Looking at it from Brock's side, and from some fans' perspective, either Austin bigtimed Lesnar or just flat out ducked him. In a scripted sport, that theory normally would sound ridiculous. However, in Austin's case it's easy to imagine him seeing that clean TV loss to Lesnar as the final nail in his character's coffin. By then his frustrations with the creative team were to the point of him shooting on them during WWE's internet show Byte This.
If Lesnar vs Austin is happening at Wrestlemania 32, expect to hear a lot more about the famous walkout in the pair's promos.