Greatest World Title Reign - Stone Cold Steve Austin

[A.J.]

(This is an idea I came up with to discuss no longer active wrestlers and what we all would consider to be their greatest title reign.)

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
6- Time WWF Champion​

#1 March 29, 1998 - June 28, 1998
SCSA main-evented WM 14 against the HBK Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as Special enforcer for the match. SCSA defeated HBK and eventually lost to Kane in a first blood match at KOTR 1998

#2 June 29, 1998 - September 28, 1998
SCSA defeated Kane the very next night after the losing the first blood match to Kane. The titled was vacated on RAW is War after Kane and The Undertaker simultaneously pinned Austin in a triple threat match the previous night at Breakdown in Hamilton, ON

#3 March 28, 1999 - May 23, 1999
SCSA over came the odds from the cooperation to win the WWF Championship from The Rock at WM 15. SCSA would eventually lose the gold to The Undertaker at Over the Edge 1999 with Shane McMahon as the special guest ref.

#4 June 28, 1999 - August 22, 1999
SCSA won the WWF championship on RAW is War from The Undertaker and eventually lost the gold at Summerslam 1999 in a Triple Threat match to Mankind.

#5 April 1, 2001 - September 23, 2001
SCSA won the WWF championship for a 5th time at WM 17 in Houston, Texas with the help of his arch-nemesis Vince McMahon. He would on to the title till he submitted to Kurt Angle at Unforgiven 2001

#6 October 8, 2001 - December 9, 2001
SCSA won the WWF championship from Kurt Angle on a edition of RAW as then WWF commisoner William Regal joined the alliance and cost Kurt the championship. SCSA would go on to the lose the gold to Y2J at Vengeance 2001 in the 1st ever Undisputed Championship match thanks to Vince and Booker T.

SCSA was a 6 time WWF champion, and looking back at his career I never really cared for Austin as champion. His character was more built to be chasing the gold, and it was not until he turned heel in 2001 during his 5th reign that I found him to be an interesting Wold Champion. His 5th reign had so much going on it. You had the 2-man power trip with Triple H then he joins the Alliance after turning his back on Vince and the WWF.

His reign begin with a victory over his long time nemesis The Rock with the help of Vince McMahon, and lets face no one really saw that coming. Then he joins up with triple H, and gets in a feud with Taker and Kane renewing an old feud with the Deadman. His match with taker at Judgemnt Day i though was one of the better Austin vs Taker matches. Then at KOTR 2001 he faces Benoit and Jericho in a sub par Triple Treat match I felt, but it sets up the begiining of Austin joining the alliance.

Once in the alliance after turning his back on the WWF, Austin gets in a feud with Kurt Angle, and I feel the Austin/Angle feud was done well and had so much emotion behind it from Angle trying to get the gold back for the WWF and Austin needing the championship to live. Austin finally loses the gold at Unforgiven 2001 in tapping out to Angle.

SCSA 5th reign, to me was his best reign as it brought a new side to Austin and the entire reign to was interesting, and I could not say that about his other reigns. I'm sure some people will say Austin as face champion was better, but I just feel heel Austin as champion was so much more interesting, intriguing and more exciting.

So which reign of SCSA's do you feel was his greatest?

 

[image1986]

You are right his fifth title reign was interesting but not his best. Yes as a heel it was more about keeping the title but as a charecter wwe made him more goofy with the "what" and him playing the guitar and singing. Plus in addition he wasn't going over too much as a heel anyway during that reign. I think his first reign was the best because it started the whole mr mcmahon rivalry in the first place. The title made him a rebel and a target so it propelled him to stardom. Based on the reigns the majority of them involved the undertaker. And I think austin is a 7 time champion cuz he is in the guiness book of records I may be wrong look it up and find out

 

[Mantard]

I think I'm gunna go with the fifth reign as well. Now I wasn't watching wrestling until that point (Wrestlemania X7 was the first WM I saw), but upon reviewing the earlier material, my decision hasn't wavered. Being new to the WWF, I thought that the build up was very well done, as was the turn of events that transpired after Austin won the WWF title at X7, specifically his turn. While I wasn't watching the WWF for his earlier reigns, I was familiar with them through the grapevine and I was extremely unexpected on my part.

His first is a close second, imho.

 

[Apocalypse0530]

I like Austin's 1st title reign the best. I was going to go with the fifth one, but I didn't like how becoming a heel all of a sudden made Austin a bitch. Instead of opening cans of whoop ass he was running away from Undertaker and Kane. But the first reign was great for the win at WrestleMania XIV and the aftermath of Vince trying to get the title off Austin and trying to make him the Corporate Rattlesnake, which led to two excellent matches with Dude Love and hilarious shenanigans with the stooges and McMahon.

 

[Kyphael]

I prefer the second, when he got the title back from Kane. That's when he faced and retained against the likes of Undertaker, Dude Love and the McMahon/Austin rivalry was at its all time high. Then again, he should have never lost to Kane, his title reign that started at Wrestlemania 15 should have lasted until he dropped it in September. Same goes for his fifth reign, he shouldn't have dropped it to Kurt Angle for like two weeks, that was stupid, it should have lasted until Vengeance when he dropped it to Jericho.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

AJ, awesome thread idea. I cannot wait to see some of the future polls.

I, too, will go with Austin's 5th reign. Austin's face reigns (1-4) were fantastic because of the feeling of accomplishment it gave the fans. The chases were wonderful, but WWF timed the victory for Austin well, allowing him to reach that mountain and satisfy the fans.

But the 5th reign incensed the fans. One may assume that, after the Hogan turn of '96, turning Austin heel would be viewed as copycatting WCW's idea to turn the top face into the top heel. But this title change and reign was SO well done. And the fans still boo'ed Austin.

The feud with Kurt Angle was also important in America. Times were so sensative then - Austin was a strong heel, but Kurt Angle was a symbol of Americanism that fans needed in the immediate post-9/11 times. WWF could not risk exploiting the terrorist attacks while they were so fresh, a la Sgt. Slaughter or Nikoli Volkoff, so Austin was perfect. The match he had with Angle was fantastic and Austin's reign got people feverishly behind a face Angle. It was very cathartic to fans across the US.

 

[Slim Pickns]

I'm torn between the first and the third reign. The first reign was started by one of the biggest wins in Wrestlemania history. Not since Hogan vs Slaughter had fans wanted to see someone win more than they did for Austin vs HBK. That along with the pops he got on a weekly basis made it a great reign. The third reign, where he beat the Rock at Mania, got him an even bigger pop. Throw in the fact that Rocky was getting some big pops of his own as a heel and Undertaker was playing a deadly heel and you have an interesting title picture. It wasn't Austin's longest reign, but it called for some intense times.

I enjoyed the fifth reign quite a bit, but I recall a lot of rematches and a lack of variety. Maybe I just haven't watched some of those in a while but throwing out the Angle win, I wasn't into this one as much as the first three, which blend together as one big run.