Austin vs. Angle at WrestleMania 17

[The Brain]

I know most people think the WM17 main event between Steve Austin and The Rock was one of the greatest main events in mania history. WM17 was an awesome event and in retrospect I wouldn’t have made any changes to it. However, in January 2001 I was hoping for a Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle main event.

Angle won the world title in October 2000, one month shy of his one year anniversary in the WWF. He beat the Rock to win the title and over the next couple months successfully defended against The Undertaker, Triple H, and in a star studded six person Hell in a Cell. Each of his title defenses were won controversially with Angle barely escaping with the title. The fans already hated Angle and his goody goody act and his cocky attitude with each cowardly title defense made them hate him even more. In a way Kurt Angle had been the anti attitude superstar since he debuted at Survivor Series 1999.

Speaking of Survivor Series 1999, that event is best known for Stone Cold getting run down in the parking garage. Austin would be out of action for nearly a year and after getting his revenge on Rikishi and Triple H he would pursue the world title again. Of course in Austin’s absence Angle became a star in the WWF and was the champion. After the Royal Rumble the stage was set for Austin to challenge Angle for the title at WM17. Up to that point Angle had found ways to overcome the odds and hold onto his title when no one gave him a chance. How was he going to get by the Rattlesnake? The clean cut, milk drinking amateur wrestling expert against the redneck, beer swilling toughest SOB sounded like a great matchup. Do you think Kurt Angle defending the title against Steve Austin would have been a good main event for WM17?

Please keep in mind given the way things turned out I’m not suggesting this should have happened instead of Austin vs. Rock. Take yourself back to January 2001. WM17 is a few months away. Do you think Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin is a good enough match to main event mania?

 

[pepentorresHHH]

the thing i remember about that time is that by the time Austin won the Royal Rumble, he had faces Kurt Angle for the WWF title like 3 weeks ago? and was about to beat him until HHH made his return.... that to me was the one reason that made me not want to see Austin Angle at Wrestlemania, we had already seen it and knew Austin was going to win anyway....Im not saying that Rock Austin was anything groun breaking but Austin just came back from injury and rock was on top all the time austin was gone so it was the two biggest icons at the time locking horns at the biggest stage of them all, so naturally we all wanted to see it!
as far as the match itself, i suppose it would have been decent, we saw how well this 2 could work in the summer, but the roles were reversed.
but I dont see it as a WM main event....

 

[BooMan]

Terrific match but when Austin turned heel and he and Kurt teamed up backstage doing skits with Vince was where the real gold was. Austin was winging down his wrestling career and we started to see the Stone Cold that we say in WCW and ECW, the comedic side of Austin, which was no surprising to me. The guy is a born entertainer.

 

[Lion Heart]

Austin/Rock was a tremendous match. I think Austin/Angle would have been a great main event as well. A possible triple threat match between Austin, Angle and Rocky would have been a good match too. The build-up Angle and Austin could have created easily could have been as good as the build-up created by Rocky and Austin. I do think Austin/Rock was the right decision though. Angle didn't need the main event of WM that year. The cheap wins shouldn't lead to Angle going to WM and defending the championship. If Austin/Angle happened and Austin won the WWF Championship, the pop would have been unreal, but at the same time Rocky wouldn't have had someone to wrestle. I'm not 100% sure that Austin/Rock was the right move, but if Austin/Rock didn't happen that year, WM 19 wouldn't have had the finale of the WM series between Austin/Rock.

 

[GCB]

I know most people think the WM17 main event between Steve Austin and The Rock was one of the greatest main events in mania history. WM17 was an awesome event and in retrospect I wouldn’t have made any changes to it. However, in January 2001 I was hoping for a Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle main event.

Angle won the world title in October 2000, one month shy of his one year anniversary in the WWF. He beat the Rock to win the title and over the next couple months successfully defended against The Undertaker, Triple H, and in a star studded six person Hell in a Cell. Each of his title defenses were won controversially with Angle barely escaping with the title. The fans already hated Angle and his goody goody act and his cocky attitude with each cowardly title defense made them hate him even more. In a way Kurt Angle had been the anti attitude superstar since he debuted at Survivor Series 1999.

Speaking of Survivor Series 1999, that event is best known for Stone Cold getting run down in the parking garage. Austin would be out of action for nearly a year and after getting his revenge on Rikishi and Triple H he would pursue the world title again. Of course in Austin’s absence Angle became a star in the WWF and was the champion. After the Royal Rumble the stage was set for Austin to challenge Angle for the title at WM17. Up to that point Angle had found ways to overcome the odds and hold onto his title when no one gave him a chance. How was he going to get by the Rattlesnake? The clean cut, milk drinking amateur wrestling expert against the redneck, beer swilling toughest SOB sounded like a great matchup. Do you think Kurt Angle defending the title against Steve Austin would have been a good main event for WM17?

Please keep in mind given the way things turned out I’m not suggesting this should have happened instead of Austin vs. Rock. Take yourself back to January 2001. WM17 is a few months away. Do you think Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin is a good enough match to main event mania?

You touched on Angle debuting the night Austin was run over.

Had it transpired that Angle was involved/behind that on his first night, that would have set up a classic WM17 match. In the end though, WM17 needed to be Austin against another face (I know he was booed out of the Dome but he was a face still) so that the WWF fans would go with Rock after Austin's turn. Had he faced Angle, we'd have not got that and we'd have missed a classic WM moment. Of course, it would have been an amazing match as was proved a few months later at Unforgiven when Angle won the title from Austin weeks after 9/11.