This was obviously going to happen, the rock was clearly more popular at this point in time and deserved his true FOTC moment (which he never got at any WM btw) at WM16, it would have been HUGE, and would have worked much better than the eventual Austin heel turn because no one wanted to see Austin turn heel after coming back from surgery.

 

Heel turn at SS would have been HUGE prob more people would be talking about THAT than WM 17 ! I kind of feel Rock did get his moment tho at Backlash 2000.
Bit I agree with you Rock was WAYYYY more popular then Austin from May 1999- onward, he was getting bigger chants and longer chants.

 

Sounds more like a consolation for Triple H to get punished because the "Curtain Fall" incident, for reminder,Austin spot in KoTR 96 was supposed for Triple H but he got suspended for his action on breaking kayfabe.

 

Nah throws a wrench in the plans to push HHH as the Top Heel and how long before fans tire of Heel Austin throughout 2000?

Nothing changes the fact no one wants to boo SCSA even opposite of The Rock.

 

This video beg to differ also if he turned heel and aligned himself with HHH it could’ve worked better than with him and Vince

 

Don't see any Austin heel turn here, it was gonna be HHH retaining the title as far as I know. The proposed plan was to have Austin beat HHH for the title at the Royal Rumble in 2000, then turn heel and drop the belt to Rock at WM 2000 before shifting to a part-time schedule or into a non-wrestling role on TV.

 

Don't see any Austin heel turn here, it was gonna be HHH retaining the title as far as I know. The proposed plan was to have Austin beat HHH for the title at the Royal Rumble in 2000, then turn heel and drop the belt to Rock at WM 2000 before shifting to a part-time schedule or into a non-wrestling role on TV.

That part is true, but the RR part was an alternative plan had the Survior Series one not work out. It was always the plan to have the turn at SS, even Russo said it when he was going over the story lines he left WWF when he went to WCW. An Austin heel turn would be stupid if it was him vs HHH alone, there would be no Rock to screw over.

 

Austin was best staying a face. His heel turn was what started the downfall for the WWE,

 

no it wasn't lol it was Raw going to TNN, Stephanie going to creative. Then add in WWF buying WCW
and The Rock leaving. <<<<<<< that is what started the downfall

 

I have never heard anything about Austin turning heel here. All I have ever heard was that Vince wanted Austin to face Big Show in the main event of WM 2000 (16). Whether Austin would have gotten the belt here or whether Austin or Show would have gotten the belt off HHH at some point soon after this show is still unknown and Bruce Prichard did not shed any light on what the original plans were in his recent podcast about this show.

 

Russo explained how everything was mapped out before he left

 

Here is a video promo of Rock dissing both Austin and HHH before SVS 99.You can see how the crowd enjoyed Rock dissing both of them and how over he really was:

 

Rock was and is super over, but Austin always beat the Rock in the crowd reactions department.

 

The answer is yes.

When Austin turned heel, there were a lot of things that were happening at the time. Vince buying WCW, Rock leaving to do a movie, and HHH getting injured 2 months into his heel run. All those things kinda took away from his heel turn.

The invasion angle was a HUGE distraction at the beginning. People thought that it was gonna be guys like Sting, Hogan, Goldberg, Nash,...invading the WWE.

Rock/Austin in 2000 would've been bigger than their WM 17 program, imagine that, considering where both those guys were in their careers. When 2001 came around, both Austin and Rock were kinda losing momentum.

 

The points about the events that transpired during Austin's 2001 Heel run are true. Rock not being there and HHH getting hurt were huge. Also, it was tough seeing Stone Cold turn into a punk against Undertaker (even with coming out with the belt) and mixing it up with the Jerichos, Benoits and Angles were just not going to do enormous business!

IMO, Rock vs. Austin in 2001 worked better than it would have in 2000 because Rock had almost a full calendar year with Austin out of the picture and that is what elevated him to equal footing with him. Yes, Rock had become very popular in 1999, but his elevation to mega stardom would have been slowed down and it is unlikely he would have reached the heights he did if Austin was around. I havr said many times before ghat it is amazing how over Rock was able to get in 2000 with the crappy booking he had in 2000 (especially as champion...i.e.: doing a million jobs for HHH as well as losing matches another top star would not have).

 

Austin fans say that his heel turn collapsed the business post WM 17. In return I always ask them that if his almost an year hiatus gave WWF its peak ratings, PPV and overall business then how his heel turn could kill it?
How could those die hard Austin fans could stay even when he was absent, but leave when he was still there but was playing a bad guy? Makes absolutely no sense.

Fact is business increased after Austin left in late 1999 because of the presence of The most popular and charismatic star of all time in The Rock. And business collapsed when he left to shoot a movie.

 

this, The Rock leaving in mid 2001 along with Raw moving to TNN and Stephanie's mind boggling storylines made people tune out. The biggest is The Rock the main person of Raw & Smackdown suddenly gone from television until July 2001, when ratings go back to normal levels when he returns hmmmmmm I wonder why ratings went back lol Then you had HHH gone almost all of the year and no WCW to flip to it didn't help matters.

 

Agreed. Once they’d done the Fully Loaded 1999 match with Vince/Austin, it was pretty clear Rock was the direction they needed to go.

 

I agree

 

Although there seems to be conflicting truths about this, this does line up with the FACT that there were rumors about Austin turning heel around this time. I've shared the link many times ya'll can look it up in the search bar. (Chicago Sun Times Austin Heel Turn). Not to start the 10000000000th Rock/Austin debate but Rock audience wise, merchandise wise, and ratings-wise had showed strong signs of supplanting Austin by the time Survivor Series was looming. If nothing else the Rock was at the very least fresher than Austin around this time. I maintain that Austin leaving benefitted him more than ever as he was going to be straight up lept over had he stayed leaving no room for debates at all. Rock was that* over.

 

This was rumored. I remember some discussions back then. The Rock had surpassed Austin during that time in popularity and was pulling big numbers. So the timing would have been perfect.

Having said that, I am happy it didn't turn out. Because the Rock achieved superstardom during Austin's absence in 2000 and wrestling was soaring it its highest peak back then. Also then the Rock - Austin WrestleMania 17 wouldn't have happened. That was a special megastar vs megastar match that I wouldn't trade for.

 

I think Austin turning heel would have gotten a better reaction if it happened in any other state besides Texas. I understand they wanted to do it on a big stage like WrestleMania, but Texas was literally the worst place to try to get fans to boo Austin. He only got a mixed reaction once everyone realized the heel turn.

 

 

That would have been 10x better than what we actually got with Triple H pretty much killing the attitude era.

 

I think this heel turn would have been much better than wm 17 one.The Rock was clearly more over with the crowd at that time and much popular anyway.It would have been easier for him to be heel because of this fact.

 

I think this heel turn would have been much better than wm 17 one.The Rock was clearly more over with the crowd at that time and much popular anyway.It would have been easier for him to be heel because of this fact.

Bullshit!

The Rock never sold as much merchandise as Austin. Austin never got booed out of an arena the way Rock did against Austin, Hogan and Lesnar. Austin couldn't even get booed as a heel. In fact, the 2001 heel turn was all Austin's idea. The heel turn was not something Vince or creative had in store out of "fear" he was losing popularity.

I'm so sick of these retarded Rock marks (often who just came out of the womb or didn't even exist back then) trying to pass their revisionist history as "fact". Zack Ryder once got cheered over the Rock. So I guess Ryder should've been the face of WWE.

Even if Austin turned heel in 1999, it would've flopped. Because of the fact that Austin doesn't make a good heel (always looks like a cool tweener) and can't get booed. They needed a real heel like HHH.

 

I have one question...was Austin winning at wm 17 the original plan or it has to do something with Rock leaving for hollywood?

 

I think Austin would've won at WM 17 regardless. The entire build up was set up for him to win. If wrestling was real, the character "Stone Cold" would've killed himself had he lost that match, he was so obsessed with winning the title to the point where he was willing to sell his soul the guy that he hated the most.

 

Austin was not turning heel at Survivor Series, he was going to feud with HHH until Feb and beat him, then he would turn heel after no way out and beofre WM 2000 with the rock,lose to him and then get surgery, his neck gave out the Friday after the Smack down survivor series match.