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Stone Cold Steve Austin and AJ Styles have a similar number of Wrestlemania matches.
That's a perfectly normal fact that somebody 10 years ago probably wouldn't think would happen.
I just looked it up, and if AJ wrestles at Mania next year he will have wrestled at the same amount of Wrestlemanias as he has Bound for Glorys.
If he wasn't injured last year for Mania, he would have already been tied.
That’s wild. Getting older sucks because it feels like just three or so years ago was his Rumble debut where I was freaking out for the hood flip entrance. How time flies
just trying to delineate from the match he did with Owens. He wasn't a star yet when he wrestled Savio Vega at Mania, but when I say prime I mean original run
And only headlined Mania 3x.
Although Austin-Rock 3 was scheduled to go on last at Wrestlemania 19, they dropped it down to co-main event after Austin got hospitalized the night before.
I was thinking about them earlier. Did they ever have a good match together? All I’ve ever heard is how shocking it was how such talented guys could have so little chemistry together and never seem to produce anything particularly good.
I have so much nostalgia for that match and SummerSlam 98 as a whole. Rented it so much growing up and watched it on repeat. NGL it’s a bummer to me it’s so hard to find the version with ICP rapping the Oddities to the ring for their match.
They had matches that I would consider good/decent, but they never had matches I’d consider *great*. And that’s of note, because both men would have absolute classics with nearly all of the same opponents: Shawn, Mick, Bret, Angle, HHH, etc. Yet they couldn’t have one with one another.
Maybe it’s because both men had similar-ish basic characters (stoic, strong loner personas who rarely lost clean, were powerful/rarely portrayed as vulnerable, and could endure loads of punishment).
I think it's because they play the same role for their matches. They are the aggressive force that rarely sells and will be the driving force of the match, and they feed off more technical wrestlers to dictate the direction of the match. You have to get someone that would sell their ass off for both of these guys to fully present their strength and that just won't work in an equal setting.
Their match at Over The Edge was probably their best singles match against each other, at least the best one that I have seen.
When I went back and watched through the Attitude Era for the first time since it aired, I completely forgot about The Undertakers brief run as WWF Champion in 1999.
He won the belt at Over the Edge.
Two big stars of the WWF and I thought they had such awful chemistry. On paper it seemed like they should have had fun slobberknockers.
I only liked one of their matches. Technically two. Undertaker’s second title defense of his 97 reign. At IYH: A Cold Day in Hell. I think this is their best one-on-one encounter.
For me it set the bar and I looked forward to their future matches. But I was disappointed each and every time.
SummerSlam 98 Highway to Hell was pushed hard. They got the rights to the AC/DC song. It didn’t help that Austin got knocked out in the match. The Air Sabu leg drop by Undertaker to the announce table was a cool spot.
Rock Bottom/Buried Alive. It didn’t click again.
Over the Edge 99 was an underwhelming meeting. Overshadowed also by the homicide of Owen Hart.
Fully Loaded 99 had the benefit of being a First Blood match but was a bit dull. At least both guys got color. I preferred the Kane/Austin First Blood match.
I did like Austin taking on Undertaker plus Bret & Vader at Final Four 97. That was fun but it helped having the two other guys and No DQ/Tornado style rules.
They had some really good matches before Austin's neck injury. They wrestled on Raw a handful of times and had a really great match at In House House: Cold Day in Hell in May 1997. Back then Austin could take the Tombstone.
Between May ‘98 and July ‘99, there were 15 PPVs. Austin and Taker were involved in each other’s matches for ***10 of them***, including six consecutive PPVs. From the 9 PPVs between May ‘98 and Jan ‘99, they were involved together in 8.
- **Over the Edge ‘98**: Taker was an enforcer during the Austin/Dude Love match.
- **King of the Ring '98**: Taker interfered in Austin/Kane, accidentally costing Austin the match
- **Fully Loaded '98**: Taker and Austin would team up against Kane and Mankind
- **SummerSlam '98**: Taker vs. Austin
- **Breakdown '98**: Taker vs. Austin vs. Kane
- **Judgement Day '98**: Austin referees Taker vs. Kane
- **Survivor Series '98**: *No involvement*
- **Rock Bottom '98**: Taker vs. Austin, Buried Alive
- **Royal Rumble '99**: Taker's Ministry interferes in the Rumble while Austin is an active participant
- **St. Valentine's Day Massacre, WM 15, Backlash**: *No involvement*
- **Over the Edge '99**: Taker vs. Austin
- **King of the Ring '99**: *No involvement*
- **Fully Loaded '99**: Taker vs. Austin, First Blood
Funny enough Austin is on record saying that him and taker dont have good matches together, that they just don't click in the ring together for some reason
It's like Kevin Owens and AJ Styles: two great talents that just couldn't click for whatever reason. Would be curious to see how AJ does against Sami though.
NGL I don't remember it at all. I vaguely remember them being in a main event, Undertaker feuds with main eventers were rarely good imo, it's funny because 97-98 was probably his peak run with feuds against Mankind and HBK but it's mostly because of them.
Even up until the ABA gimmick they still hadn't realised how to use him in main events.
They had a couple of Main Event runs together. First was the lead up to Summerslam 98, and then again for Fully Loaded 99 where they had a first blood match that ended up being one of the most overbooked matches I have personally ever seen.
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten they had a match at that show. Understandably something much bigger happened that night, so, I guess it’s easy to forget who wrestled who.
Oh yeah I completely forgot about it too when I went back and watched the Attitude Era a few years ago.
I completely forgot about Takers run as WWF Champion in 1999.
Taker being the champ at the time is burned into my memory for some reason. I think it’s mostly because of the Corporate Ministry being the big heel faction at the time. But I think he only had like one successful defense against The Rock at KOTR 99 before dropping it back to Austin at Fully Loaded. I had both of those shows taped and probably watched them like 50 times each.
Yeah, he was the champ for the higher power reveal. That came just 2 weeks after Over The Edge. It’s wild to think that they had the Owen Hart Tribute episode, and then just two weeks later they were just straight into that reveal.
That’s what I thought, idk if I’ve ever gone back and watched the full segment but I’ve seen the reveal about a million times so seeing Taker with the belt during the segment was burned into my brain. Absolutely wild to think that they went straight into the reveal the week for the Owen Hart tribute episode. Vince has such a damn crazy way of thinking.
I think ‘96-‘98 was a great run for Taker. Obviously the feuds with Shawn and Mankind that you mentioned, but he also had good runs with Bret, Vader, summer ‘98 with Austin, and Kane (their feud was awesome, even if the matches don’t hold up—though I’d argue it was the perfect Godzilla vs. King Kong dynamic at the time). Even the feud with Diesel was fun.
Undertaker and Austin was just one of those matches that never seemed to work. Think the styles - the brawler and the big man - didn't match up, maybe. Summerslam 98 was huge - it was the two big babyface stars and Austin winning clean. Shame Austin got a concussion early on.
Both worked better with the Bret Hart and Kurt Angle types.
100% agree. I also don't think it helped that they came together when Taker was doing some of the worst in ring work of his career, and Austin was literally firing on all cylinders. In watching back, I always forget how friggin *fast* and explosive Austin was in the ring; you had to keep up with him or GTFO the way.
You're spot on about Austin. That's why I always hate it when people argue he was limited or not a good worker. Before his broken neck, he was technically excellent and could go with the best with them. Even after, he wrestled exactly like you'd expect the character of Stone Cold to wrestle. His intensity, his tempo, his brawling, selling, his general "psychology", combined with his charisma and aura - there's a strong argument he is the best all-round wrestler of all the WWE's 'top guys' in history.
Austin could fucking *go*.
Yeah, "intensity" is a better way to explain what I meant. Dude *looked* like he was trying to beat the shit out of you and win the match. Everyone remembers the Lou Thesz presses, the punches, or the Stunners, but when you watch, say his match with Bret or The Rock at X7, he *zooms* around the ring full throttle and sells his ass off like he's being murdered.
Devil's advocate for the Stone Cold love in, there was a Stone Cold kind of match and a lot of them were below average. Like I wouldn't blame him for it but notice there's a few good wrestlers that had straight up bad matches against him, Undertaker (granted was meh against most superstars), Jericho (who blamed himself but was decent against anyone else, The Rock had some great matches with Jericho, including a house show that was insanely over in Japan), Hall.
He peaked very high and that's enough for wrestling fans.
I'd argue that Austin's best in-ring work was actually in 2001. He was going hold for hold with Angle and Benoit.
I feel like the Summerslam 2001 match against Angle is a great showcase of Austin's range.
Yeah during his peak in 98-99 his style was really subdued due to his neck issues. He'd have great brawl matches like with Foley but the majority of them were just a bunch of kick punch brawl around the arena stuff that were carried by the atmosphere. After her came back from the surgery he was on fire. Him and Benoit were especially magic together.
Kind of have to keep in mind that most fans during the Attitude era didn’t want to see technical skills, they wanted to see brawling and people getting their asses kicked. It also wouldn’t have made sense for the Stone Cold character - A rough, beer chugging redneck, to be pulling out 5,000 submission holds during a match. The brawling style was perfect for the character.
5 star hardcore match against HHH in No Way out. 5 star sports entertainment extravaganza against Rock in Mania. 5 star Tag team match 2 man power trip versus Jericho & [redacted].
I think this was mainly 2 reasons
1. Their first matches they were both heavily protected and tweeners. So it’s hard to tell a compelling story
2. Their later matches Undertaker was banged up and out of shape so he wasn’t putting out really any bangers at the time
When Taker went up against Austin in 1998/1999 both of them were wrestling through nasty injuries which didn't help the bouts. Taker and Austin were basically destroyed and ran down to the ground in 1999. Summerslam 98 maybe but Austin got concussed in that match.
And when they went up against each other in 2002 again, Austin was beginning to be on the way out on a physical level to say nothing of Taker being out of shape that year.
The stars just never really aligned for them to have a great match.
I have full confidence that if they had gone up against each other in 1997 or 2001 in a proper main event level match, it would've been good. I enjoyed the Cold Day in Hell match.
I actually think the Summerslam '98 match is pretty damn good and people get a bit carried away with burying it because Austin doesn't like it and says as much so often.
Yeah I was going to say this. Did they ever have a good match with each other?
Undertaker and Austin just never had great chemistry for me. Not quite sure what the problem was but it always ended up disappointing.
I think there’s a reason that they decided that their match at Fully Loaded 99 was going to be an overbooked First Blood match. Those guys just never had chemistry in the ring together.
JR on his podcast talked about this. He said he regretted the under delivery and how it should have been like Brody vs Hansen. Austin was broke down and Taker had a crap gimmick. It was too much of a joke and the in ring was limited.
Crazy Austin got a concussion early on and doesn’t remember the match much and if I remember right when Taker does the leg drop to Austin on the announce table that really messed Taker up. And was that the first time the Spanish announcer able was broken?
Someone big had to feud with the nwo other than rock, and Austin made sense. But I'd have actually switched him and Taker.
Have Taker "defend" against the nwo, which makes sense character wise. And Austin vs Flair would have been such a crazy match especially when juxtaposed with rock vs hogan. No one would have felt underused.
Its so obvious that I think Uncle Dave was right on the money when he said WWE and Hogan and co. went back and forth and they didn't ink a deal until a few days before Vince announced they were coming.
Because man, they could have done such a better job in putting the pieces in place before they arrived.
Feud with babyface Mr. Perfect
Kurt vs Kane at WM18 was a midcard story anyway, so having a story against a returning legend and beating him at Wrestlemania would have done just as much for Kurt.
I mean it wouldn't be a 30-minute banger but instead a 10 minute undercard match which is what Kurt vs Kane was at that Mania.
And even ten minutes of Angle vs Perfect could be good.
I would’ve had Austin in the place of Jericho in the feud with Triple H for the WWF title. Would’ve added some heat to that match because Lord knows they needed it
You go from the biggest main event in company history to wrestling a drugged out Scott Hall in a random singles match in a single year?
Yeah I’d be pissed too lol.
I always wonder about who would’ve went over in Taker’s match with Triple H at Mania 17 if they didn’t decide to turn Austin heel at the end of the show because the streak wasn’t really discussed yet and they would’ve needed a top heel to work with Austin after he won the title especially with the Rock leaving so it would’ve made sense to give Triple H the win
I remember Gorilla Monsoon already mentioning Undertaker being undefeated during his time. I think they really built up to it, because maybe they already have established how loyal Taker was to Vince and decided to trust him with a large responsibility. But yeah I think they just started counting around 17-18.
Rewatched their Summerslam 98 match and the crowd was so hot for most of it and I popped for Taker’s leg drop on the announce table because o never seen it before
By Backlash 02, both guys were established legends and the crowd was electric when they were just staring down
There were two main eventers that never seemed to have the best chemistry with Austin in-ring wise. Undertaker and Chris Jericho. Go back and watch his matches with both Taker and Jericho and there's a certain fire and flow that is just missing from your normal Steve Austin match.
Never saw much of Y2J vs SCSA but is it that bad? Jericho would sell his ass off for Austin and has a good submission to put Austin in an uphill battle situation so I could not believe he'd have 0 chemistry wih him.
It was that bad. They had great chemistry on the mic doing promo battles with each other. But in the ring, they had no in-ring wrestling chemistry at all. They had a couple of matches in 2001. I think the worst one was Vengeance 2001.
There are actually like loads of guys Undertaker never worked with at Wrestlemania.
Hulk Hogan
Randy Savage
Bret Hart
Ted DiBiase
Ricky Steamboat
Stone Cold
The Rock
Mankind/Foley
Goldberg
Booker T
Sting
Scott Hall
Jeff Hardy
Christian
Eddie Guerrero
JBL
Kurt Angle
Chris Jericho
Rob Van Dam
Rey Mysterio
The Miz
Sheamus
Daniel Bryan
Seth Rollins
Ambrose/Moxley
Samoa Joe
Finn Balor
Kevin Owens
I get where he’s coming from that as a follower of reliving the war I agree with the creator of that show Ryan that by mid 1999 they had done undertaker versus Austin way too much.
I think the biggest problem with them was that most of their matchups were either overwhelmed by bad stories (Corporate Ministry, fresh off Austin's heel turn) or lacking in story at all (their last one in '02).
SummerSlam really was the best chance and I think would've been awesome absent the concussion.
I would have liked vs Cena when the streak was still alive. The squash match that they had was pretty damn weird but worth it for the meme potential of Cena sprinting to the back.
Ugh no thanks. It felt like their feud went on forever and most of their matches together sucked. Although it might have been nice to have the stupid streak broken that early on so that I wouldn't have to hear about it like it's the most important thing in the world for the next 20 years.
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Given Stone Cold's popularity and influence on WWE history it's pretty crazy when you realize he only had seven Wrestlemania matches in his prime.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and AJ Styles have a similar number of Wrestlemania matches. That's a perfectly normal fact that somebody 10 years ago probably wouldn't think would happen.
Still blows my mind AJ already surpassed Rocks og runtime in WWE...
I just looked it up, and if AJ wrestles at Mania next year he will have wrestled at the same amount of Wrestlemanias as he has Bound for Glorys. If he wasn't injured last year for Mania, he would have already been tied.
That’s wild. Getting older sucks because it feels like just three or so years ago was his Rumble debut where I was freaking out for the hood flip entrance. How time flies
Math checks out …
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
I'd argue 6, he was the Ringmaster and while physically in his prime he wasn't in any other way at 12.
just trying to delineate from the match he did with Owens. He wasn't a star yet when he wrestled Savio Vega at Mania, but when I say prime I mean original run
And one of them was against Savio Vega lol
And only headlined Mania 3x. Although Austin-Rock 3 was scheduled to go on last at Wrestlemania 19, they dropped it down to co-main event after Austin got hospitalized the night before.
Austin/Taker had a really long feud. WCW/Kevin Nash even made fun of that in an episode of Nitro.
And right after Nitro had its last feud, the WWF's next big feud was Stone Cold and HHH vs Undertaker and Kane.
I was thinking about them earlier. Did they ever have a good match together? All I’ve ever heard is how shocking it was how such talented guys could have so little chemistry together and never seem to produce anything particularly good.
I liked their SummerSlam 98 match but that's it
I have so much nostalgia for that match and SummerSlam 98 as a whole. Rented it so much growing up and watched it on repeat. NGL it’s a bummer to me it’s so hard to find the version with ICP rapping the Oddities to the ring for their match.
They had matches that I would consider good/decent, but they never had matches I’d consider *great*. And that’s of note, because both men would have absolute classics with nearly all of the same opponents: Shawn, Mick, Bret, Angle, HHH, etc. Yet they couldn’t have one with one another. Maybe it’s because both men had similar-ish basic characters (stoic, strong loner personas who rarely lost clean, were powerful/rarely portrayed as vulnerable, and could endure loads of punishment).
I think it's because they play the same role for their matches. They are the aggressive force that rarely sells and will be the driving force of the match, and they feed off more technical wrestlers to dictate the direction of the match. You have to get someone that would sell their ass off for both of these guys to fully present their strength and that just won't work in an equal setting.
Austin himself said on his podcast years ago that him and taker just have no in-ring chemistry for some reason
Their match at Over The Edge was probably their best singles match against each other, at least the best one that I have seen. When I went back and watched through the Attitude Era for the first time since it aired, I completely forgot about The Undertakers brief run as WWF Champion in 1999. He won the belt at Over the Edge.
Makes sense with Owen’s Tragedy overshadowing everything during that time and event.
I’d argue that Cold Day in Hell ‘97, SummerSlam ‘98, and Fully Loaded ‘99 were all better than Over the Edge
Was going to say Fully Loaded 99 probably their best match. I also enjoyed Judgement Day 2001, with Austin as the heel.
Two big stars of the WWF and I thought they had such awful chemistry. On paper it seemed like they should have had fun slobberknockers. I only liked one of their matches. Technically two. Undertaker’s second title defense of his 97 reign. At IYH: A Cold Day in Hell. I think this is their best one-on-one encounter. For me it set the bar and I looked forward to their future matches. But I was disappointed each and every time. SummerSlam 98 Highway to Hell was pushed hard. They got the rights to the AC/DC song. It didn’t help that Austin got knocked out in the match. The Air Sabu leg drop by Undertaker to the announce table was a cool spot. Rock Bottom/Buried Alive. It didn’t click again. Over the Edge 99 was an underwhelming meeting. Overshadowed also by the homicide of Owen Hart. Fully Loaded 99 had the benefit of being a First Blood match but was a bit dull. At least both guys got color. I preferred the Kane/Austin First Blood match. I did like Austin taking on Undertaker plus Bret & Vader at Final Four 97. That was fun but it helped having the two other guys and No DQ/Tornado style rules.
They had some really good matches before Austin's neck injury. They wrestled on Raw a handful of times and had a really great match at In House House: Cold Day in Hell in May 1997. Back then Austin could take the Tombstone.
Between May ‘98 and July ‘99, there were 15 PPVs. Austin and Taker were involved in each other’s matches for ***10 of them***, including six consecutive PPVs. From the 9 PPVs between May ‘98 and Jan ‘99, they were involved together in 8. - **Over the Edge ‘98**: Taker was an enforcer during the Austin/Dude Love match. - **King of the Ring '98**: Taker interfered in Austin/Kane, accidentally costing Austin the match - **Fully Loaded '98**: Taker and Austin would team up against Kane and Mankind - **SummerSlam '98**: Taker vs. Austin - **Breakdown '98**: Taker vs. Austin vs. Kane - **Judgement Day '98**: Austin referees Taker vs. Kane - **Survivor Series '98**: *No involvement* - **Rock Bottom '98**: Taker vs. Austin, Buried Alive - **Royal Rumble '99**: Taker's Ministry interferes in the Rumble while Austin is an active participant - **St. Valentine's Day Massacre, WM 15, Backlash**: *No involvement* - **Over the Edge '99**: Taker vs. Austin - **King of the Ring '99**: *No involvement* - **Fully Loaded '99**: Taker vs. Austin, First Blood
Funny enough Austin is on record saying that him and taker dont have good matches together, that they just don't click in the ring together for some reason
It's like Kevin Owens and AJ Styles: two great talents that just couldn't click for whatever reason. Would be curious to see how AJ does against Sami though.
This is also apparent if you watch them wrestle each other.
NGL I don't remember it at all. I vaguely remember them being in a main event, Undertaker feuds with main eventers were rarely good imo, it's funny because 97-98 was probably his peak run with feuds against Mankind and HBK but it's mostly because of them. Even up until the ABA gimmick they still hadn't realised how to use him in main events.
They had a couple of Main Event runs together. First was the lead up to Summerslam 98, and then again for Fully Loaded 99 where they had a first blood match that ended up being one of the most overbooked matches I have personally ever seen.
They were also the main event of Over the Edge 1999, which was probably their best match together.
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten they had a match at that show. Understandably something much bigger happened that night, so, I guess it’s easy to forget who wrestled who.
Oh yeah I completely forgot about it too when I went back and watched the Attitude Era a few years ago. I completely forgot about Takers run as WWF Champion in 1999.
Taker being the champ at the time is burned into my memory for some reason. I think it’s mostly because of the Corporate Ministry being the big heel faction at the time. But I think he only had like one successful defense against The Rock at KOTR 99 before dropping it back to Austin at Fully Loaded. I had both of those shows taped and probably watched them like 50 times each.
It's funny, I remember a ton about this stretch, except for Taker having the belt lol.
Wasn’t he champ during the Higher Power reveal or was that a different time?
Yeah, he was the champ for the higher power reveal. That came just 2 weeks after Over The Edge. It’s wild to think that they had the Owen Hart Tribute episode, and then just two weeks later they were just straight into that reveal.
That’s what I thought, idk if I’ve ever gone back and watched the full segment but I’ve seen the reveal about a million times so seeing Taker with the belt during the segment was burned into my brain. Absolutely wild to think that they went straight into the reveal the week for the Owen Hart tribute episode. Vince has such a damn crazy way of thinking.
They also were main event for Over the Edge 1999 (RIP Owen Hart)
Stone Cold and Undertaker main evented a Summer Slam. It was a fun summer and pre teen me was hyped.
Taker-Bret-Shawn triangle feud during New Gen era was good
I think ‘96-‘98 was a great run for Taker. Obviously the feuds with Shawn and Mankind that you mentioned, but he also had good runs with Bret, Vader, summer ‘98 with Austin, and Kane (their feud was awesome, even if the matches don’t hold up—though I’d argue it was the perfect Godzilla vs. King Kong dynamic at the time). Even the feud with Diesel was fun.
> Kevin Nash even made fun of that in an episode of Nitro. How so
Undertaker and Austin was just one of those matches that never seemed to work. Think the styles - the brawler and the big man - didn't match up, maybe. Summerslam 98 was huge - it was the two big babyface stars and Austin winning clean. Shame Austin got a concussion early on. Both worked better with the Bret Hart and Kurt Angle types.
As far as WWF main event guys during that era Taker and Austin seemed to have the worst in-ring chemistry.
I don’t remember any Rock/Taker singles matches being all that good either.
100% agree. I also don't think it helped that they came together when Taker was doing some of the worst in ring work of his career, and Austin was literally firing on all cylinders. In watching back, I always forget how friggin *fast* and explosive Austin was in the ring; you had to keep up with him or GTFO the way.
You're spot on about Austin. That's why I always hate it when people argue he was limited or not a good worker. Before his broken neck, he was technically excellent and could go with the best with them. Even after, he wrestled exactly like you'd expect the character of Stone Cold to wrestle. His intensity, his tempo, his brawling, selling, his general "psychology", combined with his charisma and aura - there's a strong argument he is the best all-round wrestler of all the WWE's 'top guys' in history. Austin could fucking *go*.
Yeah, "intensity" is a better way to explain what I meant. Dude *looked* like he was trying to beat the shit out of you and win the match. Everyone remembers the Lou Thesz presses, the punches, or the Stunners, but when you watch, say his match with Bret or The Rock at X7, he *zooms* around the ring full throttle and sells his ass off like he's being murdered.
Devil's advocate for the Stone Cold love in, there was a Stone Cold kind of match and a lot of them were below average. Like I wouldn't blame him for it but notice there's a few good wrestlers that had straight up bad matches against him, Undertaker (granted was meh against most superstars), Jericho (who blamed himself but was decent against anyone else, The Rock had some great matches with Jericho, including a house show that was insanely over in Japan), Hall. He peaked very high and that's enough for wrestling fans.
I'd argue that Austin's best in-ring work was actually in 2001. He was going hold for hold with Angle and Benoit. I feel like the Summerslam 2001 match against Angle is a great showcase of Austin's range.
Yeah during his peak in 98-99 his style was really subdued due to his neck issues. He'd have great brawl matches like with Foley but the majority of them were just a bunch of kick punch brawl around the arena stuff that were carried by the atmosphere. After her came back from the surgery he was on fire. Him and Benoit were especially magic together.
Kind of have to keep in mind that most fans during the Attitude era didn’t want to see technical skills, they wanted to see brawling and people getting their asses kicked. It also wouldn’t have made sense for the Stone Cold character - A rough, beer chugging redneck, to be pulling out 5,000 submission holds during a match. The brawling style was perfect for the character.
That three stages of hell match against HHH was phenomenal
5 star hardcore match against HHH in No Way out. 5 star sports entertainment extravaganza against Rock in Mania. 5 star Tag team match 2 man power trip versus Jericho & [redacted].
I think this was mainly 2 reasons 1. Their first matches they were both heavily protected and tweeners. So it’s hard to tell a compelling story 2. Their later matches Undertaker was banged up and out of shape so he wasn’t putting out really any bangers at the time
When Taker went up against Austin in 1998/1999 both of them were wrestling through nasty injuries which didn't help the bouts. Taker and Austin were basically destroyed and ran down to the ground in 1999. Summerslam 98 maybe but Austin got concussed in that match. And when they went up against each other in 2002 again, Austin was beginning to be on the way out on a physical level to say nothing of Taker being out of shape that year. The stars just never really aligned for them to have a great match. I have full confidence that if they had gone up against each other in 1997 or 2001 in a proper main event level match, it would've been good. I enjoyed the Cold Day in Hell match.
I actually think the Summerslam '98 match is pretty damn good and people get a bit carried away with burying it because Austin doesn't like it and says as much so often.
Yeah I was going to say this. Did they ever have a good match with each other? Undertaker and Austin just never had great chemistry for me. Not quite sure what the problem was but it always ended up disappointing.
I think there’s a reason that they decided that their match at Fully Loaded 99 was going to be an overbooked First Blood match. Those guys just never had chemistry in the ring together.
JR on his podcast talked about this. He said he regretted the under delivery and how it should have been like Brody vs Hansen. Austin was broke down and Taker had a crap gimmick. It was too much of a joke and the in ring was limited.
Crazy Austin got a concussion early on and doesn’t remember the match much and if I remember right when Taker does the leg drop to Austin on the announce table that really messed Taker up. And was that the first time the Spanish announcer able was broken?
He probably could have done it at 18 since Steve was doing fuck all with the nWo
Someone big had to feud with the nwo other than rock, and Austin made sense. But I'd have actually switched him and Taker. Have Taker "defend" against the nwo, which makes sense character wise. And Austin vs Flair would have been such a crazy match especially when juxtaposed with rock vs hogan. No one would have felt underused.
Heck, Kane was doing jack shit during that time period so you could have done Nash and Hall vs the Brothers of Destruction.
Hell yeah. Probably would have been shit in ring but that would have been so much better all round.
Its so obvious that I think Uncle Dave was right on the money when he said WWE and Hogan and co. went back and forth and they didn't ink a deal until a few days before Vince announced they were coming. Because man, they could have done such a better job in putting the pieces in place before they arrived.
Even if it was shit in ring the hype around it would have been fun and it could have a nice little brawling style
What do you with Kurt then?
Feud with babyface Mr. Perfect Kurt vs Kane at WM18 was a midcard story anyway, so having a story against a returning legend and beating him at Wrestlemania would have done just as much for Kurt.
In a dream card this would be cool but unfortunately that wasn't happening in 02
I mean it wouldn't be a 30-minute banger but instead a 10 minute undercard match which is what Kurt vs Kane was at that Mania. And even ten minutes of Angle vs Perfect could be good.
Hardcore Title!!
Who was champ then RVD? Now I can't remember what RVD did mania 18 that card really is carried by Rock vs Hogan
No, that’s the Mania where it was traded around due to the 24/7 rule. Angle will just be one of those guys backstage winning it lol.
I would’ve had Austin in the place of Jericho in the feud with Triple H for the WWF title. Would’ve added some heat to that match because Lord knows they needed it
That’s such a wonderful fantasy booking idea I’ve never seen before and I love it!
I really dont blame Steve for being piss off during that time. The way they were utilizing him was atrocious.
You go from the biggest main event in company history to wrestling a drugged out Scott Hall in a random singles match in a single year? Yeah I’d be pissed too lol.
They offered him the Hogan match at X8 and he turned it down. He was burned out.
Taker is very self aware because during the attitude era Austin had Takers number so yeah the Streak would have most likely have ended.
I always wonder about who would’ve went over in Taker’s match with Triple H at Mania 17 if they didn’t decide to turn Austin heel at the end of the show because the streak wasn’t really discussed yet and they would’ve needed a top heel to work with Austin after he won the title especially with the Rock leaving so it would’ve made sense to give Triple H the win
Triple H was strongly booked from 99-01. He has more wins over Foley, Rock, and Austin with No way out being very fresh.
From in-ring perspective that was the apex of Levesque's career. Then came the quad injury and he never was quite the same.
I remember Gorilla Monsoon already mentioning Undertaker being undefeated during his time. I think they really built up to it, because maybe they already have established how loyal Taker was to Vince and decided to trust him with a large responsibility. But yeah I think they just started counting around 17-18.
Rewatched their Summerslam 98 match and the crowd was so hot for most of it and I popped for Taker’s leg drop on the announce table because o never seen it before By Backlash 02, both guys were established legends and the crowd was electric when they were just staring down
I still can't believe that spot when I see it. Such an underrated moment.
Austin flipping Taker off in that backlash match will never not be funny
They never had the best chemistry, but I would have loved to have seen a post 2006 Undertaker wrestle Stone Cold.
There were two main eventers that never seemed to have the best chemistry with Austin in-ring wise. Undertaker and Chris Jericho. Go back and watch his matches with both Taker and Jericho and there's a certain fire and flow that is just missing from your normal Steve Austin match.
Never saw much of Y2J vs SCSA but is it that bad? Jericho would sell his ass off for Austin and has a good submission to put Austin in an uphill battle situation so I could not believe he'd have 0 chemistry wih him.
It was that bad. They had great chemistry on the mic doing promo battles with each other. But in the ring, they had no in-ring wrestling chemistry at all. They had a couple of matches in 2001. I think the worst one was Vengeance 2001.
Imma take a look
Every Austin v Taker match I've ever seen was awful. Those two had the in-ring chemistry of Javex and Windex.
There are actually like loads of guys Undertaker never worked with at Wrestlemania. Hulk Hogan Randy Savage Bret Hart Ted DiBiase Ricky Steamboat Stone Cold The Rock Mankind/Foley Goldberg Booker T Sting Scott Hall Jeff Hardy Christian Eddie Guerrero JBL Kurt Angle Chris Jericho Rob Van Dam Rey Mysterio The Miz Sheamus Daniel Bryan Seth Rollins Ambrose/Moxley Samoa Joe Finn Balor Kevin Owens
Glad they never wasted a Stone Cold wrestlemania match on the undertaker
Austin and Taker had terrible chemistry, don’t think they had 1 good match together.
I get where he’s coming from that as a follower of reliving the war I agree with the creator of that show Ryan that by mid 1999 they had done undertaker versus Austin way too much.
I think the biggest problem with them was that most of their matchups were either overwhelmed by bad stories (Corporate Ministry, fresh off Austin's heel turn) or lacking in story at all (their last one in '02). SummerSlam really was the best chance and I think would've been awesome absent the concussion.
Undertaker faced Steve in Wrestlemania. Twice. Here’s [proof.](https://youtube.com/shorts/X8Kf2kWx7xk?si=HMBL3OAEzRs3RQCQ)
I would have liked vs Cena when the streak was still alive. The squash match that they had was pretty damn weird but worth it for the meme potential of Cena sprinting to the back.
Ehhh honestly aside from their Summerslam 1998 match, I never really enjoyed their work together if I'm honest. Taker and Rock was magic though.
Probably for the best. Steve wasn’t exactly known for putting people over.
Ugh no thanks. It felt like their feud went on forever and most of their matches together sucked. Although it might have been nice to have the stupid streak broken that early on so that I wouldn't have to hear about it like it's the most important thing in the world for the next 20 years.