WWE In 1997 | Wrestling Timelines

Austin’s neck is still really bothering him. It always will, but in December ‘97, it’s so bad that the WWF must remain creative in its approach to booking the character. At In Your House: D-Generation X, Austin defeats the Rock in a glorified television segment that lasts just five minutes and 37 seconds. Another thrilling workaround is devised. 

Austin drives a pick-up truck to the ring. He can’t do anything intensive, but the WWF does not want to short-change its audience. Vince McMahon and his big, dumb, ambitious brain is Austin’s ideal collaborator. Rock’s Nation of Domination stablemates quickly surround Austin. The flurry of bodies and activity masks the fact that they’re only grazing his back with kicks, and that Austin takes zero bumps. D’Lo Brown takes one, though.

He runs at Austin, who’s stumbling by the ropes, but Austin is wily and gutsy. Austin uses D’Lo’s momentum against him and hits the back body drop. D’Lo takes a jaw-dropping bump onto the hood of the car as the swinging momentum of his legs smashes the windshield. This is amazing. Years from this moment, it’s a routine stunt, the sort of thing most wrestlers pitch at least once because they all harbour dreams of being Steve Austin, but on December 7, 1997, it’s a dangerous and damn near unprecedented visual. You only get to see it because Steve Austin broke his neck; you only roll your eyes at the sight of it years later because Austin becomes such a massive star. This scene drafts the blueprints - literally - for Vince Russo’s “car-crash” formula of episodic television. 

Austin wins the Intercontinental title, which he’s outgrown, and in a very inelegant solution, throws the belt away after it is awarded to the Rock. None of this matters. Not much of the old way does. Protecting the lineage of titles, promoting full matches in front of fans, adhering to stipulations and outcomes: the principles of pro wrestling don’t matter anymore. As long as this sh*t is entertaining, the fans could not care less.