Could This Have Worked At Mania - Part 3 - WM18

[The Brain]

Time for part three in my series. WrestleMania 18 seems to be one that people like to fantasy book. There seemed to be a lot of different options that year. For this thread we're going to look at the main event. The proposed match is Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

In early 2002 Triple H returned after missing eight months due to a torn quad. He left as the most hated heel in the company but the fans respected and missed him so much that he came back to a hero's welcome in Madison Square Garden. HHH was the clear favorite to win the Royal Rumble and he did just that earning a title match at Mania against Chris Jericho. Between the Rumble and Mania HHH risked his title shot in a match against Kurt Angle at No Way Out. At that same event Jericho defended the title against Steve Austin. Maybe Austin should have won the title that night and gone on to defend against HHH at Mania. Let's take a look at why it may or may not have worked.

Obviously Austin was a bigger star than Jericho. Given their rivalry and position in the company Stone Cold vs. Triple H seems like a natural WrestleMania main event. Remember Austin and Hunter were partners when HHH got hurt. They just formed The Two Man Power Trip about a month before the injury and it was a tag match where the injury took place. They could have definitely played off that. Remember the staredown they had during the Rumble match? That was a great moment and in my opinion should have foreshadowed what was coming at Mania.

There was one big problem working against this match. At the time both guys were baby face and even though those matches have worked before this one might have been different. HHH was extremely popular upon his return but that momentum could have been quickly derailed if he went against Austin. Despite both being face and HHH getting that unbelievable ovation at MSG I have a feeling the majority of the crowd would have been pulling for Austin. HHH's face run could have been over before its intended climax. He was going to win the title and the planned celebration could have turned sour with Austin's fans booing the new champ. On the other hand, HHH was only face in the first place simply because the fans missed him in his absence. He was always meant to be a heel as is evident by his turn over the summer six months after his return. Hunter was a heel at heart and he was just riding the wave of the new found popularity through mania. Maybe being booed during his title quest wouldn't have been so bad. And all this is just speculation he would even be booed at all. That's just my opinion. It is possible that the crowd would have been split or HHH may have even had more support.

What do you think? Could Triple H vs. Steve Austin have worked at WM18 or would Austin's popularity have killed HHH's momentum? Please keep this discussion on the topic of this match and not the rest of the card. I know a lot of people wanted Austin vs. Hogan but that's not what this thread is for.

 

[AustinHartLesnarHBKTaz80]

No i dont like it. The Stone Cold/Triple H feud effectively ended on a high note in 2001 at the infamous 3 Stages of Hell match at the No Way Out PPV. The buildup to that was tremendous, and i'll never forget that contract signing segment for that match---WOW. Intense.

Jericho deserved his shot to main event Wrestlemania that year as champion. I probably would have thrown Austin in there for a triple threat to add more star power, but the NWO was a new attraction in the WWE and they needed to have a big money match for them. Too bad it was Stone Cold that got shafted here and got slotted with a low card match against Scott Hall. Shoulda been Austin/Hogan....but whatever

 

[relentless1]

It could have worked like a charm, as you said, HHH was a heel a few months later anyways so why not turn him at WM 18? The scenario plays out with Hogan vs Rock and HHH vs Austin; Rock wins and Hogan shows respect causing the nWo to come out and beat him up. Austin vs HHH is a close match until the nWo comes out and costs Austin the belt, thus bringing HHH into the group. This accomplished many things all at once: Austin has a credible feud, HHH is heel again, nWo is much more relevant now that they have HHH and the World title, Hogan still goes on his face run, feuding with nWo and maybe even still winning the belt off of H but that could go either way. With HBK coming to the nWo a couple months later and X pac joining the SmackDown after WM 18, you have a Kliq reunion under the nWo banner with plenty of faces for them to fight, top of the list being Austin, Hogan and Rock.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Knowing what happened after WMX8, I kind of wished Jericho didn't win the title. The his booking as Champion was so poor that it actually killed the momentum he build leading to 2001 (which was great by the way).

While Austin vs. Triple H would have made sense, Jericho vs. Triple H would have been just as compelling seeing the history they have. It should just have been about Jericho and Triple H, and not Stephanie.

I heard Austin was upset at his WM spot, though feuding with nWo isn't a bad thing. However the build up wasn't very good and it should have been made to look like a top billing match and not a mid card match.

Though ultimately the biggest problem with Triple H vs. Jericho is that Triple H just returned from his quad injury. He was slow, sluggish, and had no rhythm in his matches and for the rest of 2002 and most of 2003 his matches were below average. When you have the task to follow Rock/Hogan, you need to be the utmost top of your game. Triple H was not.

 

[OYDK]

Honestly, I don't know if it would have worked. HHH was so damn over when he came back, that the best logical option was to pit him against the top heel, and like it or not, Chris Jericho was a friggen heat magnet in 2001/2002. The match was also pretty good, but of course, it had to follow Hogan/Rock which took a lot of energy out of it right from the start.

I think the only way this works is if HHH returns as a full-blown heel in 2002. Comes back, plays the babyface all night, end of the night, brutally attacks Stone Cold with a sledgehammer. I don't even know if the fans would be willing to boo HHH at this point though... Face vs face may have been a good program, but Austin wasn't what HHH needed at that time... HHH may have been the most over he's ever been in his career upon his return, and I think Austin-HHH may have derailed his momentum (as OP mentioned).

As for Austin, (sorry off topic) anyone else watch Scott Halls shoot interview where he says he was supposed to go over Austin at Mania 18, but Austin bitched until he got his way? Pretty interesting watch if you can find it.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

This is an interesting idea and I think that it could have worked had they stuck with Austin as a heel. I know that his heel turn bombed but I believe that it was working well until you added Invasion in the middle of it. I mean, the Two Man Power Trip was working well, but then the Invasion came around and suddenly you had a face Vince as owner of WWF versus a heel Austin as the main defector. Now, if you've watched any bit of wrestling, you'll know why that won't work.

I'd have had Austin take a break from wrestling till No Way Out. By that time Triple H would have won the Rumble and come in as a mega babyface. Have Austin win the title at No Way Out from, say, Rock or Jericho, and then go on against HHH as a heel. I think Austin as heel could have worked against big stars like Rock and HHH. Hell, maybe you could have Austin even join nWo to make things hotter. Have Austin throw Hogan out, thereby setting up Hogan's face turn, and take charge of nWo.

I think that had all this happened, Austin may have never even left the company. I know fans wanted Austin to stay babyface, but the thing is that there were no fresh feuds for him as a babyface and The Rock had knocked him off the top spot by this point, IMO. Also with a returning Hogan and HHH returning as a face, he became the fourth biggest face and that is just not a spot that suits a superstar of his stature.

So, I'm all for this match happening at Mania. Just not in the manner you've suggested, Brain.

 

[Aquaman6686]

No. Chris Jericho vs. Triple H was the right way to go. Jericho deserved to be the champion heading into WrestleMania and I'm VERY glad he did. Austin still got to be in one of the main event matches, and Triple H and Jericho put on a really great match that doesn't get as much attention as it should because of Rock/Hogan.

 

[Rocky84]

I HATED Jericho being put in the main event at that time. In retrospect though , seeing as how guys his size and on his level started main eventing afterwards i.e. Angle @ 19, Benoit & Eddy @ 20, and Mysterio @ 22; it may have been what was best. Had I been in charge that probably would've never happened...maybe some other variation once the brand split happened, but at that time the Federation was where the big boys main evented.

Stone Cold vs HHH face vs face would've been the best way to go imho. Even though at the time I actually wanted to see Hogan vs Austin. However, I'd rather have seen Red n Yellow Hogan vs Austin instead of Hollywood Hogan since he was a weaker character.

Triple H vs Stone Cold (c)
Hollywood Hogan vs The Rock
The Outsiders vs Brothers of Destruction
Chris Jericho vs Kurt Angle
Ric Flair vs Vince McMahon (since they had that power struggle)

Would've been the better route since Angle was wasted on Kane in a meaningless fued, and Nash would've never got injured if we change those things haha

 

[Wolf Pac]

Absolutely, it could've worked and I've always said this should've been the main event of Wrestlemania X8. Austin blamed Triple H for losing the Tag Team Titles and badmouthed him on the Smackdown after that episode of Raw. They could've played off that. The staredowns between Austin and Triple H on the go-home Raw before Royal Rumble and during the Royal Rumble match were great. You can still include Stephanie in the feud as she sided with Austin in the Invasion, HHH could've been furious with her over that and it could've lead to their break-up. Of course, Austin wouldn't be heel and Stephanie wouldn't be on his side in the feud.

I don't think Austin's popularity would've have killed HHH's momentum. Austin's popularity was kinda winding down by the beginning of 2002 tbh. He wasn't as hot as he was in 1998-1999. It seemed like Rock and Triple H were becoming more popular or were more popular than Austin. I remember seeing some fans on the internet at the time calling Austin "stale". Even though him walking out in June was bad, I think it helped refresh him and made him very popular again when he came back, it made the fans really miss him.

I've heard somewhere that Austin vs. Triple H was one of the original plans for Wrestlemania X8 but Austin had turned it down. It doesn't make any sense to me as Austin had put over Triple H two times before, but some other posters I've talked to about it have said that Austin had refused because he didn't wanna drop the title to Triple H (he would've beaten Jericho for the belt at No Way Out), whereas before he only agreed to lose both times because he didn't have the title to drop to Triple H. I don't believe that for a second and I really don't know if Austin vs. Triple H was one of the original plans for that's year Mania and Austin had turned it down, all I know is that Austin just wasn't in the right place at the time.

 

[Nate DaMac]

It's a decent idea but having Jericho win it and then lose it to Austin at No Way Out only for him to lose it a month later to Triple H seems like overkill. If you're going to do it, why not just have Austin win the title in that tournament at Vengeance?