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The world was never more divided than the Attitude Era, when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock used to work against each other. The present day rivalry in football between the fans of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi reminds the wrestling fans of the same. It was a really precious time to be a professional wrestling fan, and such a time period has never arrived in wrestling again.
The rivalry between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin started during the early days of the Attitude Era, and it continued until WrestleMania XIX. This rivalry had been one of the biggest reasons behind the ultimate success of WWE and its triumph over WCW.
Mark Henry explains why he loves Stone Cold Steve Austin more than The Rock
Nothing much bigger than the rivalry of WWE and WCW during the 90s, and the biggest weapon of McMahon to beat WCW was this ultimate rivalry. Both of these two wrestlers had equal fan base, and the rivalry among the fan bases was also equally exciting. WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry recently explained why he preferred Stone Cold Steve Austin Over The Rock. Speaking on the “Busted Open Radio” podcast recently, he explained the following;
Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock were the biggest rivals during the Attitude Era
“I’ll take Stone Cold, because the working man bought into the character too, bought into the gimmick. The guys wanted to go to work and kick their boss’ a*, they really couldn’t." He continued, “So they had to live vicariously through Steve every week, telling his boss, walking up, ‘Hey Vince, how you doing?’ ‘Well how you doing Steve?’ (Middle finger) And everybody would be like, ‘Oh s**.’" he said; “Steve had an influence on people that still lives today.”
This rivalry had been one of the biggest reasons behind the ultimate success of WWE in the 90s
The first major match between Austin and Rock took place at the main event of WrestleMania XV where Austin defeated the Rock to win the WWE World Championship. Their next WrestleMania match took place on the main event of WrestleMania X-Seven where once again Austin picked up the victory. This match also marked the heel turn of Austin.
Their last match was at WrestleMania XIX, where Rock defeated Austin for the first time at WrestleMania, and it also turned out to be the retirement match of Austin since his neck injury killed his wrestling career forever. He returned to action at WrestleMania 38 for one last match, but due to the injury, this iconic rivalry ended in 2003.
