June 10th, 2002 was a date the wrestling world will never forget. It's the night Stone Cold Steve Austin walked out on WWE. It's a time that will live in infamy for years to come in professional wrestling. There are many misconceptions about this incident and I want people to understand a few things. I wasn't there and I may not know the whole story but I feel people believe what they want to believe and make snap judgments before they understand something. It's something Austin regrets to this day, at least the way he went about things. From what we know, the plan was for Stone Cold Steve Austin to lose a match to new comer Brock Lesnar on Monday Night Raw.
The Misconception
The rumor back then, something people to this day still believe, is that Austin simply did not want to lose to Brock Lesnar. Austin was reportedly unhappy with story direction at the time and had a well known problem with Triple H's role within the company. Unfortunately, this was not long after Austin's problems with his wife at the time, Debra, concerning domestic abuse. People just assume that Austin straight up refused to lose to Lesnar. Lesnar was brand new at the time and while he was getting hot shotted to the top, he had no say about his storylines. He wasn't even aware of the plans involving Austin at the time. Again, this is what people assume happened and flat out believed before getting all the facts.
What Really Happened
Austin never refused to lose a match to Lesnar. He simply felt that a story of that calibre between himself and Lesnar should have been built up to a Pay-Per-View event and not given away on free television. I'm sure Austin had no problem putting Lesnar over. Before we get to his walking out, I want to say that I agree with Austin. Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with him walking out or the way he did it. However, he did have a point! Didn't they learn anything from WCW when Hulk Hogan dropped the WCW Title to Goldberg on Nitro with zero build whatsoever? Austin believed a program between the two would have been huge and wouldn't make sense without at least some build? I'm not saying at should have been a SummerSlam or WrestleMania! Even if they wanted it to be on free TV and not a PPV, I would have been okay with it if it was at least built up. That was Austin's reasoning for his disagreement.
The Walk Out
Despite my agreement with Austin on proper build up of a storyline, especially involving a huge match for Lesnar's career at the time, I disagree with him walking out for it. Walking out was the wrong move and that's not how you solve a problem. Austin totally went the wrong way about it. Due to the nature of the incident, even long time supporters like Jim Ross said Austin took his ball and went home. On Raw a few weeks later, The Rock made an appearance stating the same and spoke about his disdain for what Austin did. It took the better part of a year before Austin and WWE came to any agreements. The boys in the back and fans alike, were angry with Austin for walking out and rightfully so. It's something Austin regrets to this day!
How would the match have gone down?
It's all speculation as to how things would have went if Austin didn't walk out. Let's say Austin and WWE came to an understanding and he stayed. This is how I would have booked him losing to Lesnar if that was the plan. What I would have done is start qualifying matches for the 2002 King of the Ring tournament and PPV, which incidentally, Brock Lesnar won. On that particular Raw, I'd have Austin win a qualifying match. I'd continue these matches on Raw and Smackdown with Lesnar also winning a qualifying match as well. On Raw the next week, show Austin and Lesnar run into each other backstage with a stare down and nothing more. Meanwhile, they are on opposite brackets of the tournament.
I would go back to the old school 8-man tournament at the PPV. Just like on Raw weeks earlier, I'd tease a confrontation and match between Austin and Lesnar without anyone saying a word. Austin would win his first round and semi-final matches, as would Lesnar. The main event of the PPV would be Austin vs. Lesnar to decide the 2002 King of the Ring. Here, Lesnar would defeat Austin to become the King of the Ring. With them already having had a match and somewhat of a build up, I would then have the rematch happen at Vengeance the following month, now with a full month to build towards the match. A full-on feud could develop from their match at King of the Ring and Paul Heyman would have added so much to this, considering his history with Austin. Lesnar would win the rematch decisively and then defeat The Rock to become the WWE Champion, as he did. Beyond that, should Austin stay with the company, I would have booked a match at SummerSlam between himself and Hulk Hogan. Then continue to put him in other storylines until his final match in the company against The Rock at WrestleMania.
It's not that Austin refused to put Brock over! It's that he didn't want to do it on free TV with no build up! Could this have been avoided if Austin went about his disagreement in a different way? I'm quite sure! Austin was clearly in the wrong for walking away and if you've seen any interviews with him about this topic, he has publicly addressed his regret and remorse for the way he handled things. I wanted to just point out people's misconceptions on the situation and give my opinion on how I would have wanted the booking to go concerning Austin and Lesnar. To those who choose to be ignorant about the facts, I'll leave you with this...
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
https://tagmeadate.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment