The Rock Vs. Steve Austin | Wrestling Timelines
An all-time great WWE feud gets a long-form look in unparalleled detail...
Steve Austin Vs. The Rock is one of the most enduring, entertaining, and financially successful rivalries in WWE history.
Here, the story is laid out, beat for chronological beat.
It’s set in a heightened world. Much of it unfolds when Vince Russo is in charge of the pencil. It is heavy on action set-pieces, comedy, stunts, turns, and swerves. It’s not a carefully curated programme. It has little in common with something like the Bloodline Saga. It is a feud very much of its time, and during that time, WWE was very high on false advertising. You can scarcely believe some of these encounters took place - and that is because they often didn’t. The WWF pretended that a match was set to happen in order to steer you away from WCW Nitro.
And yet, you didn’t care. If you lived through it, you’ll remember that the incandescent star power that the wrestlers shared - and resented - transcended every gap in logic. To a point.
You might not remember, however, that underneath the layers of spectacle and ratings and silliness, Austin Vs. Rock is a rivalry that was as fascinating offscreen as it was in the War Zone.
Austin did the impossible. He outdrew Hulk Hogan. His spot could not have been more safe.
“If you smell…”
WWE is outwardly about storytelling - a movie about a sport, to use current booker Paul Levesque’s terminology - but at its core, one of the greatest stories the company ever told is premised on pure athletic competition.