Why the Rock is BETTER than "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

[LBGetBack]

Cool story on the spousal abuse comment... How about that time The Rock attacked a female fan at a high school football game? Stop acting like the guy is a saint - he's not. He's had his problems, too. And while his problems don't make Austin look better, you can't just point to one guy's issues and ignore the other guy for having similar events in his own life.


1. As most people have mentioned, The Rock likely did play politics. They all do. But I'm going to add to this one... The Rock never faced adversity from outside forces. So why would he ever really have to play politics?

Meanwhile, Austin was never given a chance to break through the glass ceiling in WCW DESPITE being one of their most 'over' performers. And after a short-stint in ECW, he was signed by the WWE as an afterthought. His skills were so underrated by VKM that he was given a mouthpiece to cut promos for him upon his arrival... With Austin, you're talking about a guy who fought and clawed his way to the top. If he didn't want to give up his spot easily, then so be it - he earned every bit of the success he had.

With The Rock, he was handed a spot at the top immediately. He was the golden child billed as the next great WWF hero upon his arrival. And when that didn't work, the WWF booked him into an already-established stable, and wrote it so that he'd take over as their leader. Remember how hard the WWF wanted to get Alberto Del Rio over a few years ago? Remember how the crowd wasn't having it? Now imagine if, mid-way through The Shield's run, the WWE booked it so that ADR joined the group, got into a power struggle with Dean Ambrose, won the power struggle, kicked Ambrose out of the group and then claimed leadership of the group. That's what happened with the NOD. The WWF tried desperately to make The Rock a star, and give The Rock credit for rewarding them, but a big reason most wrestlers play politics is because they refuse to give up the spot they earned - and The Rock, well, he never truly earned his role. He was born into the business, used it as a last resort when his football career failed, and was lucky enough to have the WWF look.

2. He left for seven years because he wanted to separate himself from the business. John Cena makes movies - granted, they aren't nearly as big as The Rock's movies, but they take just as much time to make - and he shows up to Raw every Monday. Hulk Hogan made movies while still wrestling. But The Rock left the business completely - because in his mind, making movies was more important than wrestling. I don't hate the guy for it. I'd have made the same decision - more money, less toll on the body - but to credit the guy like some saint for 'giving back' because he made a handful of appearances over the past decade is insane.

And to ignore Austin's contributions is unfair. I won't sit back and say that Austin gave back in a great way either, but doing multiple podcasts on the Network IS a means of giving back. The Network relies on generating original content. Austin is one of the biggest names in history. Attaching his name to original Network content is a huge selling point for the WWEs most important property.

3. The 'right thing by WWE' would've been for The Rock to stick it out and stay in the business throughout the 2000s. Again, I wouldn't have done that, myself, and I'm not criticizing The Rock for leaving - but stop saying The Rock has always had the WWE's best interest at heart. He hasn't!

As for Austin - there's a reason the WWE wanted it to be Austin vs Hogan... there's a reason The Rock was a backup plan... and it's because Austin was bigger than The Rock.


4. Fans will NEVER boo a guy for walking out on his job over disputes with management because it's relatable. Most of us are working class shlubs who have had issues with our own bosses in the past, and so we're preconditioned to agree with the employee over the employer in a dispute. (Same thing can be said of Punk.) Austin didn't walk out on the fans, he walked out on Vince. Our thoughts are that all Austin wanted to do was wrestle, but Vince made his life miserable. Fuck Vince for doing that!

With The Rock, he just didn't want to wrestle anymore. It's similar to Lesnar - he was handed everything and then just decided to walk away for greener pastures. The Rock came off like a guy who was leaving because he didn't love what he was doing, and it pisses a lot of people off when they watch a guy get handed the world, look at that world, and then say "The world's not going enough for me. I need more."

Gotta strongly disagree with point #2. The Rock did what he had to do to become a major, LEGIT movie star. He's the first one ever from WWE. He's not doing those little bullshit movies that Cena and others do.

Given that.....he has absolutely zero reason to come back to WWE at all, let alone wrestle. He's bigger than the WWE. I'm sure they pay him well when he comes back, but that money is nothing compared to what he gets for his movies. He's clearly doing it for the fans/love. He doesn't need to wrestle matches to promote his movies. LOL. Ridiculous line of thinking that too many wrestling fans buy into.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I liked both wrestlers equally, they were two of the most entertaining wrestlers the company has ever seen. If you want to compare the fan reaction to both wrestlers, Austin got the bigger pops from the crowd. In fact, the time Stone Cold came back to RAW during the invasion angle and stunned about 25 people while JR lost his mind on commentary rivals only Goldberg's first WCW Heavyweight Title win for the most insane crowd reaction on television outside a PPV.

The crowd even cheered Austin when he screwed Rock at Wrestlemania by joining forces with Vince. One of my favorite moments between Rock and Austin was during a match ( WM ? ). where The Rock knocked down Austin outside of the ring. The Rock grabbed a WWE Video camera off one of the camera men and scanned the crowd while smack talking about the millions and millions of The Rocks fans, when he turned the camera back to Austin he saw two middle fingers and then the fans got a first person perspective of a Stone Cold Stunner through the camera lens.

I'll give it to Austin a little over The Rock , just as a career as a wrestler and nothing else.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

The Austin phenomenon is what saved the WWF when they were getting destroyed by WCW. The Rock was getting started right at that same time. He was Rocky Maivia, the generic hyped up babyface, and he gets injured. He comes back,and he's The Rock. The Austin bus got rolling while he was out and the landscape was already changing.

The Rock is great. But to me this isn't about behind the curtains or outside of their time as active wrestlers.

Nobody was ever more over than Austin. At his peak, he was more over than Hogan in the 80's as far as the level of enthusiasm. It was everyone, and it was feverent. The Rock was close, but again, Austin helped create the platform.

Storytime.

In 1997 there was a wrestling radio show called "Get in the Ring". It was terrestrial AM radio out of Long Island. The hosts regularly got great guests though.

Rocky Maivia was a guest one week. This is while he was recovering from his first injury. I called in and without using the term "heel turn", I asked him if he thought that he should get a tougher attitude when he returns due to the negative reaction he was receiving while trying to be a "good guy".

He said it was a good question, but then went on this thing about how he just accepts the fact that he won't appeal to a certain segment of the audience, and that he won't be somebody that he isn't just to cater to those people.

The Rock told me "I'm not going to go out and use the word 'Ass' like its going out of style just to get people to like me". (An obvious reference to Austin saying "Can of Whoop Ass" and "Jack Ass" all the time)

Anyway, fast forward one year after that interview and call-in, and The Rock is in the ring calling people "Rooty poo candy asses" and talking about shining things up real nice, turning them sideways and shoving them up candy-asses.

Austin was the catalyst of the WWE boom after they were close to going under. The Rock kept it going, and they didn't miss a beat when he was the top dog. But without Austin, I can't tell you what the WWE or "The Rock" would have ended up like.

 

[AdamJumba]

1. Austin refused jobs because he had a great mind for the company and he new whether or not it was his time to lose a match. He sure did lose his share of matches. The Rock never played politics because he was an ass-kisser. Every backstage guy admitted this.

2. Since retiring, SCSA has been involved in 5/11 Wrestlemania's. Which isn't bad. Plus SCSA has a TV show, he's a movie star, plus he does the Stone Cold Podcast on the network. He couldn't go to the 1000th Raw because there was a family issue (I think it was a death), but he said he'd have been there otherwise.

3. The Rock is like Triple H. His style of wrestling is delivering the most damage at the slowest pace. A slow, steady pace with a lot of heavy hitting spots was a perfect fit for the old and slow Hulk Hogan. Austin, whose style is more all-out-brawling and fast paced, would have been a terrible mix with Hogan. Austin realized that while the match would be high profile, it would be one of the most dissapointing main events in WM history.

4. The Rock could have kept wrestling and he didn't. Austin injured his neck and the WWE literally would not allow for him to wreslte. How can you be mad at a guy who wrestled through so many injury's that eventually caught up to him? Are you going to be mad at Daniel Bryan in a decade for missing 2014-2015?

 

[d_henderson1810]

Another reason that the Rock is better than SCSA as a human being.

Recent reports say that "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, one of the biggest stars of the Rock N' Wrestling Era, has been released from his WWE Legends Contract. Reports are that SCSA pushed for Piper to get sacked, because Piper had some comedian on his podcast show who imitated Austin, and "Humorless" Austin didn't like being presented in a bad light. But to go and get a Legend sacked, who helped pave the way for people like Austin to even get into wrestling and be famous, is a disgrace. Piper, Hogan and others in the 80's are the reason WWE became big to begin with, and without people like Piper, there would be no WWE for Austin to compete in.

Austin also blackballed Jeff Jarrett from ever returning to WWE as well. Whereas, I have never heard of the Rock getting someone fired for impersonating him. HHH impersonated the Rock one night on "Raw", and even if Triple H wasn't tight with the McMahons, Triple H wouldn't have been fired for it, because the Rock would take it in the humor it was meant, instead of being so insecure that a comedian on someone's podcast get the Legend who hosts the podcast fired.

 

[Navi]

You're really clutching at straws here aren't you. First of all no one knows why Piper was released from his contract, if in fact he was. And no one knows for sure if Austin was in any shape, or form, involved.

Listen it's obvious you don't like Austin, and that's okay, you're entitled to your opinion. But to use rumour and innuendo to insinuate that that someone is better than someone else, with nothing to back it up, is just preposterous.

Besides who gives a rats ass. Austin fans will stay with him, and the Rocks fans will stay with the Rock. And some of us are fans of both, and hate all this mudslinging.

 

[d_henderson1810]

You're really clutching at straws here aren't you. First of all no one knows why Piper was released from his contract, if in fact he was. And no one knows for sure if Austin was in any shape, or form, involved.

Listen it's obvious you don't like Austin, and that's okay, you're entitled to your opinion. But to use rumour and innuendo to insinuate that that someone is better than someone else, with nothing to back it up, is just preposterous.

Besides who gives a rats ass. Austin fans will stay with him, and the Rocks fans will stay with the Rock. And some of us are fans of both, and hate all this mudslinging.

wrestlezone.com themselves say that Piper got fired because Austin got angry about something that occurred on Piper's podcast. Now Piper no longer has a "Legends Contract". I can put two and two together.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I'm a Rock guy personally, for a lot of different reasons. Dwayne Johnson is currently the bigger star, but during the Attitude Era, Austin was the bigger draw

Austin drew much more money than Rocky and there's no doubt about it. That ability to draw diminished though, while Dwayne's continued to rise. Austin couldn't adapt into the noughties. He beat his wife and he took his ball and went home. Rock left too, but he turned face and gave (what we didn't realize at the time) was a good bye promo of sorts who he turned on Christian in 2003.

Rock and Austin went to Hollywood and one of them became a blockbuster A-lister while the other became the star of the $4.99 bin at your local Blockbuster (that's a pre-Netflix video rental store for you youngsters).

Austin had the bigger money matches, a few of those were against The Rock. I believe Austin would have appeared more, possibly even wrestled longer, had his body not given out. I think a lot of it could be psychosomatic, stemming from his neck injury.

I only base that on what I've read him say in interviews. I think there's a chance he's afraid (rightfully so) that he might suffer another neck injury, that one leaving him unable to do the things he loves. It's similar as to why Edge rarely shows up. Why would you dangle what you can't have right in front of your face? Those are the questions you have to ask yourself, those aren't questions Dwyane Johnson asks himself. He can work a match if he should so choose.

Austin is a douchebag and I'm glad he never comes out. He smacks his wife and does the same stupid beer drinking crap. It's just not interesting or shocking anymore. He went from kick ass anti-hero to weird pussy kiss ass to finally dumb unreasonable beer swilling bore who doesn't wrestle. No thanks.

Austin's contributions to professional wrestling are essential and absolutely undeniable. So are The Rock's. Each person you meet on these forums and others will always bring all their preferences and all their biases to discussions. It's my opinion that top tier careers like yours Rocks, Austins, Hogans, Savages, Flairs, and others can't really be compared to a decisive decision. People will always have their favourites and their subjective opinions.

Wrestling history will remember Austin as being more essential, The Rock as the bigger crossover star.

 

[Navi]

wrestlezone.com themselves say that Piper got fired because Austin got angry about something that occurred on Piper's podcast. Now Piper no longer has a "Legends Contract". I can put two and two together.

What Wrestlezone is doing is just copying a report from other dirt sheets, unless they have first hand information themselves. Anyway, this all apparently from what I've read comes from Ric Flair, so take that for what it's worth.

When Kevin Nash had that fight with his son around Christmas last year, the WWE put out a report saying they had cancelled his contract. Can't remember if they said why, or it was just pretty obvious at the time. In this case I haven't seen anything from the WWE yet as to why Piper might not have his contract, if in fact they did take it away.

Does Steve Austin still have that much pull anyhow? He's been hovering around the perimeter of the company, but I'm not sure that anything he says about Piper would be taken seriously enough to lose a guy his contract. Although you never know with Vince.

 

[rge2010]

What Wrestlezone is doing is just copying a report from other dirt sheets, unless they have first hand information themselves. Anyway, this all apparently from what I've read comes from Ric Flair, so take that for what it's worth.

When Kevin Nash had that fight with his son around Christmas last year, the WWE put out a report saying they had cancelled his contract. Can't remember if they said why, or it was just pretty obvious at the time. In this case I haven't seen anything from the WWE yet as to why Piper might not have his contract, if in fact they did take it away.

Does Steve Austin still have that much pull anyhow? He's been hovering around the perimeter of the company, but I'm not sure that anything he says about Piper would be taken seriously enough to lose a guy his contract. Although you never know with Vince.

I think WWE would much rather keep Austin on side than Roddy Piper. I don't know what was said on that Podcast but it has obviously upset Austin and maybe WWE took exception to trying to make him look bad given that Austin is on the cover of WWE 2K16 and set to do loads of promotional work for the game?

We don't know what has happened behind closed doors but maybe the WWE office tried to speak to Piper to tone it down a little and he told them to fuck off? There will be more to this...

 

[RIPbossman]

Austin's character lost steam sometime in 1999, the same time Rock's popularity surged. Rock surpassed him that year, and has been better ever since.