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I was just watching a bunch of clips from their fued. It was pretty exciting. I remember when i was a kid and i completly went crazy when Taker/Kane came out to save lita. Just epic.
Exactly. Looking back awesome but honestly this feud I am pretty sure people would have prefer the Tori with Kane or X-pac feud. Just as random.When I look back now, it was a nice feud but at that time everyone completely hated it and business was going down in every aspect, crazy fast, Taker wasn't the strong babyface Austin needed. I also think that Austin was much better with Angle than he was with HHH, with HHH he was more ruthless and all that but it was nothing compared to the amazing chemistry he and Kurt had, in and out of the ring. That was the main reason Austin turned heel, he felt he was stale and wanted something fresh, Stone Cold killing people with chairs is nothing new and was pretty bland, but Austin backstage doing awesome segments with Angle and Vince was comedy gold and their work was tremendous in every aspect.
The April 9-May period was probably the least interesting time of 2001, it was still amazing when you look back now because a terrible show in 2001 is the best show of the year now, but for the standards back then? not as good and it should have been with a huge moment like the Austin heel turn with Vince.
This right here. I remember watching that Raw and they teased it so well throughout the show with HHH being angry as fuck with Vince for not telling him the plan with Austin etc. After all their history together I just knew he was going to do something. Then he came out during the Rock/Austin match and instead of hitting Austin he hit Rock!!! I know why they did it. Austin wanted to freshen himself up but they knew rightly that they were going to have a hard time getting him truly over and booed as a heel so they paired him with the biggest heat magnet they had in HHH. But I think they missed a great opportunity there. Despite his heelness, Trips was starting to get some face pops at certain shows. Turning Austin heel and then turning HHH face or even tweener just might have been enough to make the whole thing work. It also would have played in nicely to the HHH/Stephanie marriage where Steph would obviously be forced to choose between her husband and her father. That would have been another platform to launch babyface HHH too. But hey, it's all for nought lol. He got hurt and that was that. It even seemed as if they were teasing a HHH face turn during the Two Man Power Trip as well with all the miscommunications etc taking place towards the end. Had he not got injured I think a face HHH vs. heel Austin for the title at Summerslam 01 would have been a very probable main event. I guess we'll never know unfortunately.When you realize that the business was hurting and HHH had been in the perfect position to turn face during the Rock/Austin cage match after Wrestlemania, it's just sad. You didn't get him as a fresh face to foil Austin, you didn't get the Hardyz as new top stars, you just got the crappy Two Man Power Trip in the same old heel-heavy booking. Everybody came out of if the same as they went in, and would wrestle each other yet again on a future date.
To be honest, it was a pretty mediocre feud with a lacklustre blow off. By this point we'd seen Austin vs Undertaker so many times, particularly in the late 90's, it was getting stale. While the tag match at Backlash 2001 was a good match, and the Triple H vs Kane chain match was good, Undertaker vs Stone Cold as the focal point of the show was redundant, and their match at Judgement day 2001 was a 30 minute snoozefest which just kept going and going. Pretty overrated in hindsight if you ask me.
I agree, the two just didn't have chemistry. This is why I feel like whenever someone praises their Summerslam 1998 match, I think that someone must have missed the dead crowd, botches, and slow pace in that match.Undertaker vs Austin always have good fued but they never have a good match against each other... let say Taker vs Austin @WM29 and both of them is 100% healthy and no issue with their health also whatever just like in their prime, don't expect their match to be great but if either Taker or Austin against someone else you can expect those 2 to have memorial match.