The Rock Vs. Steve Austin | Wrestling Timelines
March 23, 1997 - Bizarro World
The chasm between Austin and the Rock widens. Considerably.
At WrestleMania 13, Austin loses a Submission match to Bret Hart. It’s more effective than a million other wins. Hart, in one of the best and most important WWE matches ever, is a nasty piece of work. He draws on the experience of a schoolyard fight he once witnessed when putting the match together. The popular kid won, narrowly, but was so vicious that the other kids resented him for it.
At the finish, blood pours into Austin’s mouth and stains his teeth red as he refuses to submit to the Sharpshooter. He passes out from the pain. What is a pro wrestling staple now was revolutionary then. Austin turns face. His selling is so believable and gutsy that it becomes inevitable. A masterclass of show, don’t tell, this is the full stop needed to allow fans in on the secret: they can cheer for Austin out loud.
In 1997, not a soul alive thinks wrestling is real, past a certain age. Austin’s performance is so awesome that everybody forgets themselves. He’s the heel everybody loves.
The exact opposite phenomenon happens to the Rock: he’s the babyface nobody likes. He’s too dorky and sincere and fake, and he twirls like a hopped-up geek during his embarrassing worked punch spots. In a painfully basic and emotionless match against the Sultan (who’d become Rikishi), Maivia is booed. He is told, loudly, that he sucks.
Before he succumbs to injury in June, fans even wish death upon him.