Would Austin vs Hogan Have Out-Done Rock vs Hogan?

[SCrooked1]

I hate how everybody is saying Rock was the bigger star in 2002. Austin clearly still was. The "What?" chants made Austin's heel turn fail and turn him into a face again. The Rock was gone for a huge part of 2001. Austin was still the guy.

Sorry, Rock was bigger than Austin was in 2002. Rock had expanded upon wrestling and was starting to become a movie star while Austin was saying "What?" every promo. I'm really tired of everyone saying "Austin was always a bigger draw and always sold more merchandise than The Rock" He actually wasn't in 1999 when Rock was a babyface, don't let the "Rock wasn't quite like Steve Austin" line that Vince McMahon said fool you. He wasn't referring to drawing ability, he was referring to their character and how different they were from each other. Austin drew ratings by being "over the top" while Rock's natural charisma drew ratings, he never really did anything wild, it was like fire meets water. That's why Vince is biased towards Austin like that.

http://web.archive.org/web/19990824211840/wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/19991008151901/www.wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/19991012110756/wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/19991112054906/www.wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp

From the website: http://wfigs.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=prowrestling&action=print&thread=198109

1999 - 1. The Rock (set all-time record for most big gates in one year); 2. Steve Austin; 3. HHH; 4. Big Show; 5. Kane; 6. Undertaker; 7. Keiji Muto; 8. Bill Goldberg; 9. Ric Flair; 10. Kevin Nash

2000 - 1. The Rock (set all-time record for most big gates in one year); 2. HHH; 3. Kurt Angle; 4. Kane and Chris Benoit; 6. X-Pac; 7. Undertaker; 8. Road Dogg; 9. Naoya Ogawa; 10. Kensuke Sasaki and Chris Jericho

2001 - 1. Steve Austin; 2. The Rock; 3. Kurt Angle; 4. HHH; 5. Undertaker; 6. Chris Jericho; 7. Kane; 8. Kensuke Sasaki, Chris Benoit and Keiji Muto (Honestly I think Rock being gone for 4 months and Austin having the title nearly the whole year put him at #1, if it weren't for Invasion and Rock filming a movie I truly believe Rock would've had #1 this year for sure, Rock no doubt sold more merchandise than Austin throughout the year since Austin was a heel, I mean he was able to sell more than Austin in '99 when he was a face, right?)

2002 -1. The Rock; 2. Bob Sapp; 3. HHH; 4. Hulk Hogan; 5. Chris Jericho; 6. Steve Austin; 7. Kazushi Sakuraba; 8. Brock Lesnar; 9. Yuji Nagata and Mirko Cro Cop


Austin/Hogan would've still been big, but bigger than Rock/Hogan in 2002? No. Probably around the same, or a little less since it would've been a huge clash of styles. And Austin would've been booed against Hogan too, the only reason he didn't get booed that night because the fans obviously didn't care about Scott Hall like they did Hogan. Remember, this is the same crowd that walked out on Jericho/HHH when Jericho was one of the Canadian boys, they obviously didn't care for anyone or anything other than Hogan. If anything Austin in 2002 was still thinking it was 1999 with an added "What?" while Rock had moved on to the future and he had changed his character a major way compared to his more "rougher" 1999 days.

 

[Why Always Me]

Not sure if the links are in chronological order, but here is what I counted.......

Link 1 - Rock 9, Austin 4
Link 2 - Rock 13, Austin 4
Link 3 - Rock 12, Austin 5
Link 4 - Rock 8, Austin 7

Total - Rock 42, Austin 20 (with The Rock winning every time)

So to those people who always claim Austin is the bigger draw, give me a break (one peron in particular - who shall remain nameless, he knows who he is though). The proof is in the pudding people.

Therefore, Rock v Hogan = correct choice (no messing with me today, my boy Andy Murray is in a tough match at the Aussie Open).

 

[apokalypse]

remember the match Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Undertaker at Fully Loaded WWF Chairman Vince McMahon would never appear on WWF television again? the whole year 98 till Fully Loaded 99 is the mark end of Austin Show and Austin vs Mcmahon era which have carried WWF became global company and beat WCW. during that year the people pay their ticket to see Austin. Once Austin got Rock elevated and after Fully Loaded Austin began fued with HHH headlining PPV get ready for Rock and HHH to carry the company while Austin was away in Survivor series-November 14, 1999. the rock himself admit that the people pay their money to see Steve Austin and he's the guy who revolutionize Monday Night. back then not only they in competition with WCW but also NFL-NBA for ratings, RAW ratings was compared to other sports and became most watched Monday night because of Austin.

in shoot interview with d'lo brown said the moment Rock stand with Austin is the moment he going to be the star and Jim ross -Jerry Lawler Foley all of the guys in Legends of Wrestling they all said Austin really elevate the rock and once Austin left for surgery which is needed it gave Rock and HHH a chance to be in spotlight to prove. you them self. you also have to know that Vince is the guy who call steve austin to come back after surgery while austin enjoy his life not thinking of coming back early.

Hogan is an ass with big egos, in WCW they have so much stars but he never put them on top or get them on main event like Jericho, Benoit, BRET HART, mr perfect...ect. once WCW got shut down Hogan came back face the top guys. Hogan did decline to work with Austin when he still was Stunning steve austin which got piss him off and he went ecw/wwf to prove himself his a star which he did. from what i hear from Scott steiner and Ric Flair said the reason why Jim Duggan beat Stunning Steve Austin less than 30 second for US title because Austin is not in Hogan group and for that reason Austin also got fired. I understand why Austin hate for Hogan just like Rock hate Shawn for burried him.
please also watch Steve Austin short promo in Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin which Austin lost the title less than 10-30 second, you can see abit of Stone Cold in it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGcO63YzNk

 

[The Saviour]

NO,it would not have out done Rock and Hogan.Austin saved WWE during Monday Night Wars but he was not alone,it could be argued that The Rock was bigger than Austin at that time.The most important thing is however,that Rock was bigger star than Austin worldwide.Hogan made WWE mainstream so did Rock,he had what can be called a catchy persona Austin's.Rock was culture icon at that time.The fact is that both Rock and Hogan had similar personalities,thats why their match was that big.It wasn't only the battle of generations,but also of two most popular culture icons.

 

[TheMainMan32]

I say no, for one big reason: Rocky knew that the crowd would boo him. If you look at the structure of the match, The Rock played the heel role most of the time. He fed into the crowd heat, at times reverting to The Corporate Champ (watch the match and watch his mannerisms towards the crowd. He cursed at them at one point.) Austin, as fantastic as he was, was never as good at playing the heel.

The Rock was also better at playing up an opponent's strengths in his matches. In his match with Hogan, they spotlighted Hogan's superior strength and resilience. I don't think that Austin would have done that.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

the hype for Austin/Hogan would be SO much bigger and the promos probably would be more intense but the match itself would SUCK compared to the match that The Rock put on with Hogan. Rock was a lot better than Austin in the ring at this time, and his athleticism carried Hogan in a way that Austin was not capable of doing in 2002.

Therefore, I'd just leave it as it was and have Austin stun Scott Hall and Nash as the Icon vs. Icon match comes on later

 

[SCrooked1]

I say no, for one big reason: Rocky knew that the crowd would boo him. If you look at the structure of the match, The Rock played the heel role most of the time. He fed into the crowd heat, at times reverting to The Corporate Champ (watch the match and watch his mannerisms towards the crowd. He cursed at them at one point.) Austin, as fantastic as he was, was never as good at playing the heel.

The Rock was also better at playing up an opponent's strengths in his matches. In his match with Hogan, they spotlighted Hogan's superior strength and resilience. I don't think that Austin would have done that.

Actually Austin in 2001 as a heel was a lot more evil than The Rock was as a when he was Hollywood Rock, Rock actually seemed to be semi-nice to Hurricane while Austin probably would've probably would've beaten the **** out of him and then probably would've had an evil smile while doing it. And Hogan was the one acting heelish in the match, he was the one doing all of the illegal stuff, Rock didn't do anything completely heelish throughout the match at all other than his facial expressions, which if you watch a match of him from 1999 he also did those facial expressions as a face. I'm sorry but the huge Austin bias needs to stop.

As a matter of fact, go back to the times when Rock and Austin faced off with each other in late 2000-early 2001. In every one of those confrontations Austin came off being way more heelish than The Rock. He would even attack The Rock first without being provoked and then Rock would get revenge later on down the road.

 

[EStreet]

IMO, Rock vs. Hogan represented the two biggest stars of two distinct time periods of wrestling at a time when both were still able to respectively put on a quality match and go over with the fans.

Austin was a product of the attitude error, not super-stardom the way Hogan and Rock were. I do not think Austin would have become a superstar pre-/post-Attitude. Therefore the match would not have appealed to as many as it did.

With that said, Austin vs. Goldberg at the same time period would have drawn just as well if not more as they were both direct superstars from the Monday Night Wars and is debatable if either one would have amounted to that level if another time period (Goldberg may not have gotten the push w/out the wars)

 

[SCrooked1]

remember the match Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Undertaker at Fully Loaded WWF Chairman Vince McMahon would never appear on WWF television again? the whole year 98 till Fully Loaded 99 is the mark end of Austin Show and Austin vs Mcmahon era which have carried WWF became global company and beat WCW. during that year the people pay their ticket to see Austin. Once Austin got Rock elevated and after Fully Loaded Austin began fued with HHH headlining PPV get ready for Rock and HHH to carry the company while Austin was away in Survivor series-November 14, 1999. the rock himself admit that the people pay their money to see Steve Austin and he's the guy who revolutionize Monday Night. back then not only they in competition with WCW but also NFL-NBA for ratings, RAW ratings was compared to other sports and became most watched Monday night because of Austin.

in shoot interview with d'lo brown said the moment Rock stand with Austin is the moment he going to be the star and Jim ross -Jerry Lawler Foley all of the guys in Legends of Wrestling they all said Austin really elevate the rock and once Austin left for surgery which is needed it gave Rock and HHH a chance to be in spotlight to prove. you them self. you also have to know that Vince is the guy who call steve austin to come back after surgery while austin enjoy his life not thinking of coming back early.

Hogan is an ass with big egos, in WCW they have so much stars but he never put them on top or get them on main event like Jericho, Benoit, BRET HART, mr perfect...ect. once WCW got shut down Hogan came back face the top guys. Hogan did decline to work with Austin when he still was Stunning steve austin which got piss him off and he went ecw/wwf to prove himself his a star which he did. from what i hear from Scott steiner and Ric Flair said the reason why Jim Duggan beat Stunning Steve Austin less than 30 second for US title because Austin is not in Hogan group and for that reason Austin also got fired. I understand why Austin hate for Hogan just like Rock hate Shawn for burried him.
please also watch Steve Austin short promo in Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin which Austin lost the title less than 10-30 second, you can see abit of Stone Cold in it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGcO63YzNk

They weren't just paying their money to see Austin in 1999, almost the entire arena had Rock signs too, sometimes Rock had more fans than Austin did, for the example on the Raw where Jericho debuted, I saw more Rock signs than Austin signs. The only reason Rock didn't have the title and Austin did in the summer was because Rock didn't need it at the time and Rock was more willing to work with mid-carders, Austin refused to work with anyone below main-event at the time, for example while Rock tried his best to make Billy Gunn look like a star, Austin would've just came out, stunned him, and that would've been it. Obviously they weren't gonna have Rock and Austin in the same feud at the time if both were babyfaces.

 

[legendkiller1979]

Absolutely not! Austin would not have given Hogan the effort The Rock did. Austin would have been pissed off at the crowd reaction and tried to do all he could to get the crowd back on his side. For me personally that match was one of the greatest moments in the history of wrestling. The Toronto fans gave Hulk Hogan the ovation he so rightly deserved. Maybe they went a little over the top by booing The Rock but I think that was just their way of cheering for Hogan that much more. The highlight for me was when the match was over and Hogan and The Rock shared the spotlight. If you watch the match you can see that The Rock almost has tears in his eyes because he is standing in the ring with undoubtedly one of his biggest childhood heros. Pricelss Steve Austin would have probably stunned Hogan a couple of times and poored beer on him....then all over himself. Hulk Hogan and The Rock gave us that classic moment that Stonecold simply would not have provided.

 

[SCrooked1]

Not sure if the links are in chronological order, but here is what I counted.......

Link 1 - Rock 9, Austin 4
Link 2 - Rock 13, Austin 4
Link 3 - Rock 12, Austin 5
Link 4 - Rock 8, Austin 7

Total - Rock 42, Austin 20 (with The Rock winning every time)

So to those people who always claim Austin is the bigger draw, give me a break (one peron in particular - who shall remain nameless, he knows who he is though). The proof is in the pudding people.

Therefore, Rock v Hogan = correct choice (no messing with me today, my boy Andy Murray is in a tough match at the Aussie Open).

Yeah, the first link was the couple of days following Summerslam 1999.

The second link and third link were in October 1999.

The fourth was in November 1999. All the talk about Rock's merchandise sales increasing in Austin's absence both in storylines and reality is straight bull, Rock was actually a lot more dominating on shopzone when Austin was being pushed as the merchandise machine than he was when Austin had been back for only 2 weeks.

These couple of links were in late 2000, where Rock no longer was having crazy merchandise sales numbers, at most he would have about 5-6 on there, not even taking up half of the merchandise sales.

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20001009213423/http://www.wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20001014143805/http://wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20001014143805/http://wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp

 

[nwo1234life]

Yes Austin/Hogan would have outdone Rock/Hogan cuz The 2 biggest stars in wrestling history are Austin and Hogan. and i disagree with people saying that Rock was a bigger star than Austin in 2002 Austin was the face of WWE from 1998-2002. the only time that Rock was the face of WWE was in 2000 when Austin was injured and in 2002 after Austin walked out in June.

 

[apokalypse]

wow, kids these day trying to prove Rock is bigger star while Austin carried the company, RAW pretty much Austin show in 98 to 99 Fully loaded where if Austin win Mcmahon will never appeared again. rock just ride along from what Austin have built a massive fan base.

 

[SCrooked1]

wow, kids these day trying to prove Rock is bigger star while Austin carried the company, RAW pretty much Austin show in 98 to 99 Fully loaded where if Austin win Mcmahon will never appeared again. rock just ride along from what Austin have built a massive fan base.

Ok, so how come Rock was beating Austin on shopzone as far back as the summer 1999? Fact is babyface Rock was selling more merchandise than babyface Austin in summer and fall 1999. Where someone is positioned doesn't change who was selling more merchandise, if Austin was selling more merchandise at the time you'd have a point, but he wasn't, so how Rock was considered "under him" is beyond me. More Austin bias I see. If Chris Jericho ever had more merchandise in top 20 than The Rock on shopzone in 2000, that would've meant that fans were more interested in Jericho than The Rock, regardless how low Jericho was positioned in the card. Since no one ever had more merchandise on the top sellers on shopzone than The Rock in 2000, Rock was the undisputed draw all the way through the year.

The "face of the company" is usually the one who is selling the most merchandise at the time. Maybe Austin was supposed to be the face of the company in summer-fall 1999, but for some reason people wanted to buy Rock merchandise rather than Austin's. Austin was the one being positioned as the merchandise monster at the time, yet he was losing to The Rock.

 

[SCrooked1]

Yes Austin/Hogan would have outdone Rock/Hogan cuz The 2 biggest stars in wrestling history are Austin and Hogan. and i disagree with people saying that Rock was a bigger star than Austin in 2002 Austin was the face of WWE from 1998-2002. the only time that Rock was the face of WWE was in 2000 when Austin was injured and in 2002 after Austin walked out in June.

Wrong again.

In 2001 Rock was definitely star of the company. The only time Austin was positioned as the poster boy was for the few weeks during the Invasion before he turned heel again and Rock wasn't there. For the 3 months before the Invasion there was no real poster boy for the company since Undertaker and Jericho weren't drawing as top faces. The reason the WWF Title main evented above the WCW Title was simple, Vince didn't want the WCW Title to main event above the his title, plus Booker T wasn't really that over enough to main event permanentely. The only reason he made the WCW Title go last at Summerslam was because it was The Rock's PPV return and he wanted the fans to go home happy.

The highest ratings record during their years on Spike TV (then TNN) was The Rock's return. Not only was it the highest for Raw on TNN, but it was the highest for the TNN network, and it has yet to be beaten and probably never will.

Wrestling observer newsletter even has Rock #1 and Austin #2 in 1999, so how are we just "kids trying to prove something"? I have yet to see any evidence that Austin was a bigger draw than babyface Rock in 1999, from everything I've looked up, it's more in The Rock's favor. I don't even count late 2000 or late 2001 because looking at the merchandise sales on shopzone from those years, neither of the 2 was dominating it by then. In 1999 probably 80% or more of the merchandise is all from Stone Cold and The Rock.

 

[Chris1-16]

Wow, another "Austin is bigger than The Rock" debate.

WTF man, Rock was actually the merchandise champion throughout the summer and fall of 1999! That year and 2000 were the biggest years for the company, and The Rock was the merchandise king throughout those 2 while a babyface, even when Austin was actually there and had he had a recent title reign.

Just how good would Austin/Hogan have been anyways? Austin would've acted like an unprofessional ass throughout the match and definitely wouldn't have shown Hogan the respect The Rock did. If it were Austin, Hogan would've asked for a handshake, and probably would've gotten a stunner and the crowd would've booed Austin even louder than they did The Rock.

 

[MinistryDeadman95]

I think both opponents would have been great for Hogan to face, but I think The Rock did a better on a job on that feud than Stone Cold would've. Rock and Hogan had great chemistry.

 

[MonkeyRko]

its funny how this became who is a bigger star austin or rock not about hogan anymore lol. btw can we all agree that stonecold and rock are by far better then john cena and randy orton.

 

[apokalypse]

i dont know where you get it from but Vince and JR them self said rock merchandise increase took over when Austin was out and when Austin come back he wasn't anymore. like i said with the hype, attendance, buyrates will out do Rock-Hogan but the match it self will not because those 2 have different styles and they will not have that chemistry. 1 biggest star in 80's vs biggest star in 90's..this is like Legend vs Legend of different era.

it's bloody stupid to say Rock was bigger star than Austin in 2002, Austin was fading away due to his injury that he still suffered (WM17 rock suppose to beat Austin join vince/HHH and on RAW vince suspended Austin so Austin can take a break from nagging injury) and frustration with the writers, hollywood writers writes promos and new direction of WWE is going. please go and find WWE Byte This from 2000 to 2003 which has Steve Austin in it and listen or read trancript that Austin took alot of shot on WWE about their writers and direction which is today WWE is facing with those same problem.

 

[SCrooked1]

i dont know where you get it from but Vince and JR them self said rock merchandise increase took over when Austin was out and when Austin come back he wasn't anymore. like i said with the hype, attendance, buyrates will out do Rock-Hogan but the match it self will not because those 2 have different styles and they will not have that chemistry. 1 biggest star in 80's vs biggest star in 90's..this is like Legend vs Legend of different era.

They must have not had good eyes if they were looking on shopzone to see who was selling the merchandise, Rock was clearly leading it while Austin was in 2nd place by default, since everybody else obviously weren't really in either's league when it came to selling merchandise, Undertaker barley sold any merchandise, HHH wasn't selling any, Mick was well liked but he wasn't really selling much merchandise either. Behind The Rock and then Austin, probably DX was selling a good amount of merchandise on shopzone.

Looking on a shopzone merchandise list from the summer 2000 Rock's merchandise sales were no higher than they were from the previous summer when Austin was around, they were about the same, and he was the champion at that point.

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/19990824211840/http://wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp
Merchandise sales with Austin

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20000815090811/http://www.wwfshopzone.com/hot.asp
Merchandise sales without Austin

So either they never looked on shopzone like they were supposed to see who's selling the merchandise or they have bad memory.

it's bloody stupid to say Rock was bigger star than Austin in 2002, Austin was fading away due to his injury that he still suffered (WM17 rock suppose to beat Austin join vince/HHH and on RAW vince suspended Austin so Austin can take a break from nagging injury) and frustration with the writers, hollywood writers writes promos and new direction of WWE is going. please go and find WWE Byte This from 2000 to 2003 which has Steve Austin in it and listen or read trancript that Austin took alot of shot on WWE about their writers and direction which is today WWE is facing with those same problem.

Austin didn't leave in 2002 because of injuries, he walked out. Austin was supposed to be the star of Raw while Rock was the star of Smackdown, but both were gone by the end of the year so things got screwed up.

Plus where did you hear that Rock was supposed to turn heel, he was planning to leave after WM X7 long before there was even talk about a heel turn.

 

[MonkeyRko]

isn't stonecold still have the number 1 most sold merchandise of everyone coz i heard cena is number 2 coz he surpase hogan like years ago and im not sure where rock is sitting at. anyways rock was always popular and had very great mic skills but he didnt anything close to AUSTIN 3:16

 

[Chris1-16]

isn't stonecold still have the number 1 most sold merchandise of everyone coz i heard cena is number 2 coz he surpase hogan like years ago and im not sure where rock is sitting at. anyways rock was always popular and had very great mic skills but he didnt anything close to AUSTIN 3:16

Only the Austin 3:16 shirt has been mentioned when it comes to Austin's best selling merchandise, and he had 2 different variations of the shirt with the same name, the original one and the 2001 version, so more than likely the sales of both comibined. Austin's best selling T-shirt in 1999 was probably his baseball jersey since it was in the top 10 for months, but that was only T-shirt in the top 10 in the summer and fall of 1999, Rock had at least 3 T-shirts in the top 10 on the shopzone's best selling items list.

So when it comes to adding all the merchandise up and not just T-shirts, there is no clear cut winner on who sold more.

 

[apokalypse]

Austin didn't leave in 2002 because of injuries, he walked out. Austin was supposed to be the star of Raw while Rock was the star of Smackdown, but both were gone by the end of the year so things got screwed up.

Plus where did you hear that Rock was supposed to turn heel, he was planning to leave after WM X7 long before there was even talk about a heel turn.

Austin said it himself and he walkout because of stupid booking having lost to brock lesnar without builtup-storyline-fued on non PPV. did you watch raw and smackdown when under Paul heyman? with heyman he done a great job for smackdown while raw went downhill and it was suck. it was stupid of Austin to leave like that, Austin is well known keep things by himself. IF rock still with after WM17 than rock will turn heel, because rock leave the company for filming so Austin turn heel. this was from JR...damn these kids have to turn everything into Austin vs Rock, from Vince himself said Austin still hold no.1 merchandise sales...nobody going to beat that . if you go and search on merchandise sale around Austin return at 2000-2001, his merchandise sale beat rock on top of the world again.

 

[mrbrownstone]

First of all there is no argument about it, Austin was without a doubt more popular than the Rock, lets not kid ourselves Crock.

Yeah, I think in theory Austin/Hogan would have outdone Rock/Hogan. I mean Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Hulk Hogan is the biggest match that is possible in wrestling history period. These two are the biggest draws and two most popular men in wrestling history and there is no debating that, it is the man who put the WWF on the map vs the man who saved them from dyeing at eh hands of WCW. Theoretically it doesn't get any better than that.

Wether or not it would delivered on the same level as Rock/Hogan is questionable though. In that time period (2002 onwards) Austin seemed pretty disinterested to me, Rocky on the other hand was on top of his game. I also question how the crowd reactions would have gone, as we all know Rock/Hogan's greatness is 95% based off the whit hot crowd, the in ring aspect was pretty average. I am not sure the crowd would have reacted the same way if Austin was in the ring and not the Rock.

Overall, I think in theory Austin/Hogan SHOULD have outdone Rock/Hogan but a lot depends on how the crowd reactions go as either way the in ring aspect would probably be pretty average. It is possible and even probable the crowd could have been even more white hot for Austin/Hogan so I think yes it would have out done Rock/Hogan.

 

[SCrooked1]

Austin didn't leave in 2002 because of injuries, he walked out. Austin was supposed to be the star of Raw while Rock was the star of Smackdown, but both were gone by the end of the year so things got screwed up.

Plus where did you hear that Rock was supposed to turn heel, he was planning to leave after WM X7 long before there was even talk about a heel turn.

Austin said it himself and he walkout because of stupid booking having lost to brock lesnar without builtup-storyline-fued on non PPV. did you watch raw and smackdown when under Paul heyman? with heyman he done a great job for smackdown while raw went downhill and it was suck. it was stupid of Austin to leave like that, Austin is well known keep things by himself. IF rock still with after WM17 than rock will turn heel, because rock leave the company for filming so Austin turn heel. this was from JR...damn these kids have to turn everything into Austin vs Rock, from Vince himself said Austin still hold no.1 merchandise sales...nobody going to beat that . if you go and search on merchandise sale around Austin return at 2000-2001, his merchandise sale beat rock on top of the world again.

Actually, Austin still wasn't beating Rock in merchandise sales in 2000-2001. When he returned in late 2000 he only had 1 item in the Top Ten while Rock still had at least 3. Did you even look at the shopzone lists posted? He had only 1 T-shirt that was #1 for the month he returned, then by the following month Rock's Just Bring It shirt was back in the #1 spot.

Like I said the only "proof" that Austin sold the most merchandise was his Austin 3:16 shirt, which like I said had 2 variations of it with the same name.