How Reviving An Attitude Era Classic Would Make WWE WrestleMania 35 Unmissable

Triple H Stone Cold Steve Austin
WWE

Stone Cold Steve Austin's quest to find the man that ran him over hit a brick wall in more ways than one when the perpetrator turned out to be Rikishi. 'The Rattlesnake' seemingly had no interest in selling for the Samoan, resulting first in a pathetic pay-per-view non-match in which Austin tried to splat the former face up against a building in pickup truck, and later a Raw reveal that dragged Triple H into the feud.

'The Game' abandoned a quasi-babyface turn to double down as a heel mastermind of the entire attack. Linking arms with Rikishi in November, he'd elbowed him out of the programme entirely by January. Cerebrally assassinating that push, Triple H had enough credit in the bank with Stone Cold to satisfy an increasingly-irritable Austin and take it himself. The pair were all over each other at the 2001 Royal Rumble, but Hunter couldn't hold Austin back from the victory that assured his WrestleMania WWE Title clash.

The sheer fury between them instigated the need not just for a 'Three Stages Of Hell' encounter between the two at February's No Way Out but also a stipulation inserted by Vince McMahon to stop them killing each other before his big box office battle was buggered.

By threat of losing his WrestleMania shot, Austin couldn't strike Triple H. By threat of suspension for six months, Triple H couldn't strike Austin. The effort to keep composure naturally caused chaos.

CONT'D...

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett