WWE: Ranking The Rock's 10 WrestleMania Matches - From Worst To Best

2. WM19 2003 vs. Steve Austin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RNLwLi9PcE The last two matches on this list feature Steve Austin. Why? Because he was The Rock's best opponent, especially at events like WrestleMania. You may be wondering why they needed to do this third WrestleMania match. It was actually a good story going into it. After a dispute with Vince McMahon in 2002, Austin left the company and then he came back. Rock turned into an egomaniacal heel by this point in his career. He said he had done it all in the business and was even a leading man in Hollywood, but he had never beat Austin at WrestleMania before. Makes sense, right? They went back and forth the whole way without resorting to a lot of brawling. Most of it was done in the ring. The way they set up the big spots in this match was tremendous. When people think of this match they might remember all the finishers as well as the counters, but they made sense too. It was just doing finishers for the sake of doing them. They set them up perfectly in terms of positioning, timing and selling. Two masters doing the best they could. The Rock finally got his win over Austin at WrestleMania with a Rock Bottom after nearly 20 minutes of action. It was actually his third Rock Bottom that finally put Austin away. What's also amazing about this match is we had no idea that it was going to be the last match of Austin's career. He kept it quiet from everybody. I'll never forget seeing The Rock talk in his ear after the match. They had so much respect for each other. I will never get tired of Austin/Rock for as long as I live. You could argue that they had the best rivalry in the history of wrestling. I'd put it at the very top. The matches they had backed it up too. How has WWE not made a DVD to chronicle this entire feud? They need to get on that! I enjoyed the heel Rock persona so much. I'm glad he was able to deliver a WrestleMania classic with his biggest rival.