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Post by Nickybojelais on Jan 9, 2015 23:56:01 GMT -5
He had a match with Undertaker that year that was so boring. Just unmaginably dull. It's pretty amazing how being the only game in town hurt WWE like it did. That match against Taker at Backlash 2002 take the top slot as the worst WWF/E match I've ever seen. It really is the most mind numbingly tedious 30 minutes of in-ring action I can remember. I call it the worst WWF/E match because I can forgive matches for been sloppy, or if the participants are just not good enough, but there is just no excuse for Taker & Austin delivering this abomination.
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Allie Kitsune
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Post by Allie Kitsune on Jan 10, 2015 0:26:47 GMT -5
The supermarket deal was actually in Dec. 2001 I think, so one could argue Austin did nothing of any value in the entire year of 2002. If I recall one of the major reasons guys like Guerrero and Benoit were brought to Raw was for Austin to have some decent guys to feud with. He was in the midst of a storyline with Eddie right when he walked out. Truth be told I don't think Austin could recover from the heel turn. You don't just do that sort of heel turn, which kills the very essence of your character, and then simply turn face again like nothing happened. Beyond that his matches were terrible and his promos with the "What?" crap even worse. The guy lost all of his talent in seemingly 1 month. Of Course, Paranoid Heel Austin was the only time I ever really liked him... "KING OF THE WORLD!!!"
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Post by EoE: Well There's Your Problem on Jan 10, 2015 0:39:20 GMT -5
He had a match with Undertaker that year that was so boring. Just unmaginably dull. It's pretty amazing how being the only game in town hurt WWE like it did. That match against Taker at Backlash 2002 take the top slot as the worst WWF/E match I've ever seen. It really is the most mind numbingly tedious 30 minutes of in-ring action I can remember. I call it the worst WWF/E match because I can forgive matches for been sloppy, or if the participants are just not good enough, but there is just no excuse for Taker & Austin delivering this abomination. At least it gave us that one funny bit where Austin was going for a test of strength and just as Undertaker was about to do it, Austin flipped him off and got Undertaker all pissed.
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Post by Paul E. Funk on Jan 10, 2015 3:41:44 GMT -5
Well, there was that Whataburger promo.
In all seriousness, it was a good example of recovering ones heat after coming up short at the Rumble without anybody jobbing (Just ignore the fact he squashed a returning Mr Perfect later on that night, IIRC).
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fw91
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Post by fw91 on Jan 10, 2015 3:47:25 GMT -5
they really could have done something with him at Mania X8 that hade some substance.
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543Y2J
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Post by 543Y2J on Jan 10, 2015 3:49:46 GMT -5
Yeah 2002 was a rough rough year for him, but on the bright side of things once he returned from"taking his ball and going home" he was back to a career best again capping off his in ring career with the exceptional Rock/Austin III story and match.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Jan 10, 2015 3:59:33 GMT -5
He was booked horribly then. Of course he was boring. Plus, his face turn was pretty rushed, so he didn't get the momentum a face turn usually gives to a guy. Agreed. They just hit the reset button then moved him down the card. To me, It didn't feel like he was moved down the card. If he was, it wasn't as obvious as it tends to be in the current era. He didn't go from being champion to having random squash matches with Chuck Palumbo and Tajiri to try to maintain an inflated sense of importance. He was still main eventing shows and was the main focus of RAW for the first few months of the brand split until he walked out.
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Jan 10, 2015 5:57:51 GMT -5
they really could have done something with him at Mania X8 that hade some substance. That's when his feud with Angle should have been blown off. That entire feud was screaming for a Mania match to end it, but nope, Austin faces Hall and Angle faces Kane.
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Post by Renslayer on Jan 10, 2015 9:25:34 GMT -5
When did Eddie come back in 2002? That should've been Austin's post Mania feud instead of Undertaker for the millionth time
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Post by Instant Classic on Jan 10, 2015 9:30:02 GMT -5
Too bad Austin or Hogan never wanted to lose to one another.
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Post by Ben Wyatt on Jan 10, 2015 9:34:56 GMT -5
When I mean no reason, I really mean they could have turned him better. Perhaps keep him heel up to WM 18 and have face HHH beat him for the title. Then turn Austin face. The way they turned him was nonsencial. Like they just flipped a switch on the back of his head from "bad guy" to "good guy". There were many problems, but I think they realized that they could do it and no one would give a shit, and they were right. The bigger issue to me at least was what they did to Angle. That made no f***ing sense at all. Yeah, he "played both sides" but he did ultimately help WWF win. Why is he a bad guy? Agreed. I will continue to say until my last breath that Kurt Angle was as over as a face could be in the Summer/Fall of 2001 and had they not royally screwed it up, Angle's career could have drastically different
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Ben Wyatt
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Post by Ben Wyatt on Jan 10, 2015 9:37:10 GMT -5
they really could have done something with him at Mania X8 that hade some substance. Hehe.....Scott Hall.....substance.......hehehe. I'll show myself out
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Post by Gummydavidson on Jan 10, 2015 11:46:06 GMT -5
The only good match he had in 2002 was against Flair that had that stip where he couldn't punch him.
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Post by cabbageboy on Jan 10, 2015 11:49:19 GMT -5
Angle was over as a face for a while but oddly I think 9/11 actively hurt his heat rather than helping it. Around that time they had him win the title from Austin and it just fizzled. It almost came off like WWF was cashing in on 9/11 by putting the title on the American hero. It also didn't help Angle's cause that Rob Van Dam was getting seriously over during the Invasion and out-popped Angle.
Getting back to Austin. Once you do the sort of sell out heel turn he did it's tough to just go back to being the Rattlesnake. I recall his feud with Flair being especially hard to stomach since to the viewers Flair had done nothing wrong to Austin. We get that Bischoff was a dick and fired you, Steve. We get that Vince was a prick. But once you get to Flair and Austin having problems, maybe it's a case of Austin just being the dick himself.
Guerrero was not Austin's first feud back in the company. Eddie attacked RVD and they spent most of the spring feuding for the IC title, culminating in a terrific ladder match on Raw. I went to a house show during that era and was far more excited to see Eddie/RVD than whatever dreck Austin was doing, probably a cage match with Big Show or Flair.
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Post by The Enforcer on Jan 10, 2015 13:13:07 GMT -5
I agree that Austin in 2002 was pretty unremarkable, especially compared to the year before where he was going on all cylinders. The heel turn was tremendous and paranoid Austin is one of my favorite characters. He was one of the few things that saved the Invasion storyline from being a complete failure. Hell, I even bought the face turn after the Invasion angle was over. (Plus, the SuperMarket Brawl. All kinds of awesome) 2002? Just meh overall. The What? shtick got old quick. The feuds ranged from average to terrible. And it appeared that the fire/drive was just missing, probably due to the combo of injuries piling up, bad creative area, and whatever personal issues he was going through. I just tend to forget that 2002 happened and just focus on 2001 Austin, because it was awesome. Yeah 2002 was a rough rough year for him, but on the bright side of things once he returned from"taking his ball and going home" he was back to a career best again capping off his in ring career with the exceptional Rock/Austin III story and match. I can't share the same love for Rock/Austin III. The story of the match was great considering it only had a month build time. The match itself? It's decent, but it's far and away the weakest of the Rock/Austin WM trilogy. However, considering that Austin had a health scare the night before (which I never knew until years later), it's amazing that the match even happened. Guerrero was not Austin's first feud back in the company. Eddie attacked RVD and they spent most of the spring feuding for the IC title, culminating in a terrific ladder match on Raw. I went to a house show during that era and was far more excited to see Eddie/RVD than whatever dreck Austin was doing, probably a cage match with Big Show or Flair. That was a great feud. I also remember going to a house show around that time and Guerrero/RVD being the main event in a cage match. Granted the cage wasn't impressive, but it was still awesome. Plus, it had interference from Ric Flair in a Hawaiian shirt for some reason.
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Post by bigjohnsons on Jan 10, 2015 13:17:09 GMT -5
At least we got that HHH/ Sheriff Austin Badge segment
Funniest angle I've seen on TV
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Post by FAR5222 on Jan 10, 2015 15:17:41 GMT -5
A lot of people also cite Summer 2013 as a bad year for Punk. Thoughts? Punk was so boring after the Taker match. I wasn't even into the Lesnar/Punk feud. The match was good though.
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Post by mcstoklasa on Jan 10, 2015 15:55:59 GMT -5
I just tend to forget that 2002 happened and just focus on 2001 Austin, because it was awesome. We're on the same page, man. As a 14 year old mark, the heel turn made me quit watching, just waiting for him to turn face. Didn't really tune in until I saw the crowd cheering him whilst doing a What? promo and I saw that What? was a new thing. Admitedly I still love that What? promo, and its one of Austins best in my opinion. Its the one about Vince and Booker "in their stupid little skybox" and how he's directing a movie "and the name of that movie is; my names Chris Jericho and I'm getting my ass whupped in a steel cage!" Then came Austin and Booker's fight in a supermarket and I was so happy Austin was a good guy again. I couldn't wait for him to be a babyface champion again and wrestle for another 5 years of awesomeness. Obviously that didn't happen. Looking back a few years later, I missed out, heel Austin was astonishing. Also interestingly, the What? promo I mentioned and the supermarket brawl were both 2001, right at the end of 2001. So Austin literally started to suck as soon as 2002 came around. The match with Flair was good though, and Austin & Rock vs NWO was alright.
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Post by Mr. Medium Shot on Jan 11, 2015 1:30:56 GMT -5
Austin's my alltime favorite but I will never forgive him for introducing the What! chants. do they still do that? And I know for a fact the What chants started in 2001 because I vividly recall hearing one at a house show in September 2001. I recently turned on Impact in a rare moment of curiosity and heard a crowd giving a wrestler the "What?" treatment through an entire promo. So yes, the chant is alive and well. And it did indeed start in 2001. I went to a SmackDown taping in December 2001 (the 22nd, to be exact) and the "What?" chants were out in full force by then. As far as Austin in 2002 was concerned, it was a considerable step down from his work in 2001. Now we obviously know many of the reasons why this happened, but even then you could tell he was nearing the end of the line. Austin's pay-per-view matches in 2002 ranged from forgettable to terrible. And most of his work on RAW was not much better or more inspired. As a fan, I didn't miss Austin as much as I thought I would while he was on his extended hiatus. But he became much more entertaining (again) in 2003, even when he was saddled with redneck triathlons and other such crap. That walkout/break from WWE probably extended his career, and even his life.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jan 11, 2015 11:56:40 GMT -5
Austin in 2002 was just out of place. I mean a lot of the other characters had evolved or changed to fit the post-Attitude Era.
Austin just looked weird in that era, though, somehow. He was uninspired and so was the writing.
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