Why was Hogan willing to put Rock over, not Austin

[trevortime]

So, I guess I'm wondering -- why didn't Austin and Hogan fight at that Wrestlemania where Rock and Hogan fought? If I understand correctly, neither was willing to job to the other. But I guess I don't understand why Hogan would be willing to job to the Rock, but not to Stone Cold. What's the situation?

Not to offend anyone, but a Hogan/Austin match is obviously a more important match and better feud than Hogan/Rock, so I'm confused as to why it didn't happen.

[The Tank]

It's because Rocky's blBANNED

[thelastcall]

Feb 10, 2009 23:44:29 GMT -5 The Tank said:

It's because Rocky's blBANNED

bland?

[Aceorton]

My impression from various things I've read is that it was largely Austin who didn't want to work with Hogan. This was during the phase where Austin was pitching his fits about the booking that would eventually lead to his walkout. But I could be wrong.

[Crappler El 0 M]

It wasn't Hogan's call. Hogan didn't have his creative trump card for that run like he did in WCW and during his last couple of returns with Michaels and Orton. I think Austin once commented that he chose Scott Hall to wrestle at Mania because he wanted to wrestle the best worker of the nWo. Even if that isn't the case, it was a judgment call and Hogan/Rock was HUGE. Austin/Hogan would have been HUGE too, but still it's hard to complain with how great Hogan/Rock was. Rock's facial expressions and playing off the crowd was amazing. Also, the initial confrontation in the ring on Raw was awesome.

[thesunbeast]

I think it's all the culmination of internet rumors not being consistent. I don't think Hogan minded loosing to anyone, that's all he did in 2002 was loose. According to Hogan, he wanted to loose to HHH, but Vince made the call for him to win the title from him to signify that "he's back". According to Austin, he wanted to have a big match at Wrestlemania but the writing team didn't use him in a main match and he was upset about it.

[corndog]

This was before the WWE knew that the Rock would become a movie star and leave the WWE. So they thought that the Rock was the future of the company and the right guy to put over Hogan. Even at this point it was pretty obvious that Austin didn't have much fuel left in the tank with two bad knees and a bad back. In the end it didn't really matter because neither stuck around much longer, but if they had known the Rock would later take the path he chose than maybe they would have made a different decision.

[The_ripoff_artist]

Why is it that at WM 8 there could've been a big WM bout with Hogan vs Flair, but that never happened, and 10 years later there could've been yet another big match with Hogan/Austin, and it didn't happen. Was the writing team on f***ing crack!!?

[Ben Wyatt]

Feb 11, 2009 0:08:32 GMT -5 The_ripoff_artist said:

Why is it that at WM 8 there could've been a big WM bout with Hogan vs Flair, but that never happened, and 10 years later there could've been yet another big match with Hogan/Austin, and it didn't happen. Was the writing team on snorking crack!!?

Hogan/Rock was a FAR better and smarter choice for a match than Hogan/Austin would have been

You're acting like they had Hogan wrestle the opener against Test or something

[The_ripoff_artist]

Feb 11, 2009 0:13:34 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Feb 11, 2009 0:08:32 GMT -5 The_ripoff_artist said:

Why is it that at WM 8 there could've been a big WM bout with Hogan vs Flair, but that never happened, and 10 years later there could've been yet another big match with Hogan/Austin, and it didn't happen. Was the writing team on snorking crack!!?

Hogan/Rock was a FAR better and smarter choice for a match than Hogan/Austin would have been

You're acting like they had Hogan wrestle the opener against Test or something

It might as well have been to me. I wanted to see my two favorites of all time go against each other.

[Bobby Womack]

yeah the story i heard was that austin wanted to wrestle the "only good worker of the group" that he felt was on par with him, which was hilarious to me because austins ring work was never anything special even before his neck injury and certainly wasnt above hogan levels in 2002

[parder]

I think Hogan-Austin might have drawn some extra buys, since I think Austin was still the bigger draw than Rock. I think in the end it drew 840,000 domestic, but they could have got it up to a million with Austin facing Hogan. The Rock always tended to be the number 2 guy at that stage as I've heard that when Brock Lesnar was getting his first super push the original plan was for Austin to be the one to put him over, but Austin didn't think he should get the rub that early from a star like himself and eventually walked out, so The Rock had to do the job instead.

But at the same time the match at WM18 probably worked out better than facing Austin probably would have done. It does seem like Austin was generally more of a villain in 2002 (due to the problems he was having in his life at the time) than Hogan was for a change. Though after his initial run of putting guys over Hogan did return to his old ways somewhat.

[The_ripoff_artist]

Feb 11, 2009 0:27:48 GMT -5 Bobby Womack said:

yeah the story i heard was that austin wanted to wrestle the "only good worker of the group" that he felt was on par with him, which was hilarious to me because austins ring work was never anything special even before his neck injury and certainly wasnt above hogan levels in 2002

Says a guy who I can tell has never watched Austin at all during his career.

[Bobby Womack]

Feb 11, 2009 0:41:54 GMT -5 The_ripoff_artist said:

Feb 11, 2009 0:27:48 GMT -5 Bobby Womack said:

yeah the story i heard was that austin wanted to wrestle the "only good worker of the group" that he felt was on par with him, which was hilarious to me because austins ring work was never anything special even before his neck injury and certainly wasnt above hogan levels in 2002

Says a guy who I can tell has never watched Austin at all during his career.

funny you say that because im older than you and have been watching since i was a kid, i think its more telling of a new fan whos never seen anything to make such a blanket claim without being able to list off any matches to back it up, if you think im so wrong about austin why dont you name me some amazing matches hes had without mentioning wm13?

[Aceorton]

Feb 11, 2009 0:27:48 GMT -5 Bobby Womack said:

austins ring work was never anything special even before his neck injury

Wow, that's alarming. Maybe you should borrow some tapes.

[parder]

Feb 11, 2009 0:50:12 GMT -5 Bobby Womack said:

Feb 11, 2009 0:41:54 GMT -5 The_ripoff_artist said:

Says a guy who I can tell has never watched Austin at all during his career.

funny you say that because im older than you and have been watching since i was a kid, i think its more telling of a new fan whos never seen anything to make such a blanket claim without being able to list off any matches to back it up, if you think im so wrong about austin why dont you name me some amazing matches hes had without mentioning wm13?

How about the first big Austin-Bret match at Survivor Series 1996 (which was a much more technical affair) or a string of WCW matches as part of the Blonds and the Dangerous Alliance as examples before the neck injury?

In any case 7 out of my 10 favourite Austin matches were after that injury, which is a testament to his abilities to pull out deserving main event performances despite his declining physical shape. Even if they weren't all technical classics they were infinitely more watchable than anything Hogan was producing during the same time period in WCW.

[Fade]

Feb 11, 2009 0:27:48 GMT -5 Bobby Womack said:

austins ring work was never anything special even before his neck injury and certainly wasnt above hogan levels in 2002

I echo the prior statement, that's quite alarming.

As for Austin "wanting to work with the best worker of the group"..I remember reading somewhere, I'm not sure if it was in Austins Bio or somebody else's that when presented with the notion of fighting Hall, Austin kind of gave off this "..If he's still here by then" kind of remark. So I dunno. I guess it's all really hazy as to what happened.

Though the theory one poster mentioned about how maybe WWE just figured it'd be wiser to "pass the torch" to The Rock, who could possibly still work for years (...Sigh..).

Austin/Hogan probably wouldn't have been as good as Rock/Hogan. If for any reason, most likely due to the Ego-Clash between the two. Rock apparently, from what's been said, was pretty chill about jobbing or not. Also: Wonder who the crowd would have cheered for between Hogan and Austin?

[zmd104227]

This is an intriguing question since it brings up why Hogan/Austin never happened and why it's not going to happen at WM 25 despite some rumors from last year. I've always heard and read from the sheets that Austin is proud of the fact that he never was a notch on Hogan's post like so many others during Hogan's reign of terror in WCW (e.g. he was never jobbed out to Hogan like Vader.) The problem lies in the way Hogan tries to steal the show even when he loses and Austin wanting no part of that. That explanation sounds more plausible than Austin being a viable alternative for Hogan at WM 18, and explains why Austin never pressed for that match. From everything I know, Austin/Hogan was never going to happen at that time and probably never will.

Also, consenting to jobbing to Austin (on Austin's terms) would be tantamount on Hogan's part to admitting (truthfully) that Austin drew more money than Hogan and was a bigger worldwide star. I was a teenager/adult through both Hulkamania and the Attitude era and I can say Austin was so crazy over that you really couldn't turn your head in a shopping mall or school campus without seeing a 3:16 t-shirt, it was even a legit mainstream cool shirt for a while. The only thing Hogan had at the time was the NWO but that was a brand built primarily by Bischoff, Hall and Nash: Hogan's connection to it was that he turned heel as the third man and at the time it was because so many people just hated him to begin with and he was a dinosaur as a face. It's also well documented in The Death Of WCW that it was the WCW brand that sold tickets during the hot streak, not a particular main event like Hogan vs. Goldberg. Austin knows how Hogan can often end up getting credit for something he had nothing to do with.

[crnau87]

In the end everyone will go Hogan was huge but Austin was the bigger power. Everyone got sick of watching Hogan and switched off wcw to tune into a beer swilling tweener.

[Shaq-Fu]

Feb 11, 2009 5:38:48 GMT -5 crnau87 said:

In the end everyone will go Hogan was huge but Austin was the bigger power. Everyone got sick of watching Hogan and switched off wcw to tune into a beer swilling tweener.

Wait, this guy?



Nah, not really.