The WWE did their best ratings with The Rock at the top. When both Austin and The Undertaker were off TV for early 2000 The Rock was carrying the WWE to record business. When Austin went out in late 99 the WWE was doing mid 5 ratings. In 2000 without Austin, without Taker, without the McMahons, The Rock was carrying the WWE to mid 6 and even 7 ratings.
Wrestlemania 15 with Austin and The Rock as Main Event drew 800K buys. Wrestlemania 16 that had no Austin or Taker but had The Rock in the main event drew 824K buys.
The Rock is completely underrated when it comes to impact made on the business. People just think that business spiked due to Austin and McMahon, but that is false, business certainly improved with them but business didn't completely spike until The Rock became a main eventer. Him being the focal point of the 1999 Rumble is what drew it to make 300K more buys than the one with Austin being the front, him being the headline at KOTR 99 did 120K more buys than the previous year with Austin on top.
The bottom line is The Rock routinely outdrew Austin, and he did it without the help of Mike Tyson or feuding with Vince McMahon. He did all the drawing on his own.
Are you anti-Austin fans ever going to stop saying stupid stuff like this and stop discrediting Austin to make Rock look superior than him and maybe consider there were other factors at play here other than The Rock was just there?
The Rock did it without feuding with Vince McMahon? Uh, yes he did feud with Vince McMahon actually. In fact, he was feuding with two great heels in Triple H and Vince McMahon. I suppose you think The Rock could've feuded with Funaki and still drew those numbers. The Rock had a great supporting cast in 2000, one that was much better and more loaded than the previous years. Every title division was stacked with great talent with everyone doing their bit to produce great TV, you had guys like Chris Jericho and The Hardy Boyz who were also popular, do you ever think that maybe The Rock wasn't everybody's favourite back then and some people may have tuned into see Jericho or The Hardy Boyz? I know guys who weren't fans of The Rock back then and were Austin fans awaiting his return or they were fans of somebody else. There was something for everybody back in 2000. The WWF was white hot and riding the wave of 1998 and 1999. And the WWF was riding the wave of the NWO in 1996 who made wrestling cool as hell. In 98 and 99, the WWF were gaining momentum, beating WCW in the ratings again, getting better & better and the peak of that momentum was 2000, so whether The Rock was there or not just like Austin wasn't there, the WWF would've done it's biggest numbers in 2000 regardless. WCW was also a non-factor that year and drove fans away from their product over to the WWF. I'm not taking anything away from The Rock, he was indeed a big draw and the leading guy in 2000, he just wasn't the only factor in the WWF's most successful year like some of his idiot fans love to pretend he was.
Of course Wrestlemania 16 was gonna do better buys than Wrestlemania 15, the product was super hot and WCW sucked. Of course Royal Rumble 1999 was gonna do better buys than Royal Rumble 1998. The WWF were still getting their asses kicked in the ratings by WCW at the time, the Attitude Era wasn't in full mode yet and Austin wasn't a main eventer just yet despite his hot rise and being the hottest guy in the company. Shawn Michaels was still carrying the company on his back. And yeah, let's ignore the fact that The Rock's opponent at Royal Rumble was a super loveable babyface in Mankind, the guy who got fans to change the channel from Nitro to Raw and tune in to watch him win the WWF Title and never go back to WCW again, making WCW history before it's actual demise, it was because The Rock was competing in that match that people changed the channel to see that match, Foley winning the title and Tony Schiavone stupidly giving away the result on Nitro wasn't even a factor. Let's ignore the Austin/McMahon drama, the Royal Rumble match and that it was a major & exciting PPV. None of that mattered, it was just The Rock all by himself that got those buys for Royal Rumble 1999. Let's ignore the Austin/McMahon drama, that The Rock's opponent was The Undertaker, that WCW was done by that point, the King Of The Ring tournament and that it was also a major & exciting PPV, that WCW were still competition for the WWF the previous year's KOTR especially with Goldberg's hot rise, that the Attitude Era in 1998 wasn't as established and bringing in more money as it did in 1999, you know, despite the popular opinion that 1999 was the worst year, and the Attitude Era had just only really kicked into full gear 3 months earlier after Austin won the title and became the new top star at Wrestlemania 14. It was all The Rock for KOTR 99's numbers and it doing better than KOTR 98, nothing else was a factor. Like I said above, the WWF was picking up more momentum every year, getting better and better. Mega-success doesn't happen overnight, it takes time.
So next time you open your mouth, consider that there were other factors involved, you know, like how you anti-Austin guys like to bring Mike Tyson and Vince McMahon up for Austin's success, acting like Austin wasn't mega-hot on his own. When Austin made his entrances and got huge pops, was Mike Tyson and Vince McMahon there with him? No. When Austin cut promos in the ring and got huge pops, was Mike Tyson and Vince McMahon there with him? No. You act like you could've put anyone else in Austin's spot and played Austin's character during the Tyson/Michaels/McMahon programme and it still would've been as successful. Yeah, no, it wouldn't have. Only Austin could've made that spot, his character work. No one else at the time had his genius, brilliance, creativity and charisma to pull off the Stone Cold character. The Rock didn't do it on his own and had help just like Austin did. The Rock had great opponents to work with in Mick Foley, Triple H, Stone Cold, Vince McMahon etc. just like had Austin had Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels etc. It was a team effort.
