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Post by polarbearpete on Jan 22, 2022 9:20:36 GMT -5
The Attitude Era Podcast are going through the timeframe of the Tyson/Austin/Michaels thing now, and they brought up a good point about the build in how they were stringing things along with Tyson for so long about what his actual role at WM14 was going to be, that it may have been possible that, when the role was finally revealed, fans felt they were getting a raw deal that he was just going to be a ringside enforcer and not actually have a match with Austin. Anyone here that was watching at the time get that same impression and possible letdown? I was young but I do remember thinking that Tyson might fight at some point. But I was pretty sure it would just be Austin vs. HBK at Mania given Austin won the Rumble and all.
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Post by cornettesracket on Jan 22, 2022 10:50:19 GMT -5
Okay further to what I said in my last post about why I was of the opinion that there wouldn’t be a match between between the two due to comments made in a wrestle mania book from 21 years ago. I eventually found the book and here are some quotes from the section of mania 14.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Jan 22, 2022 21:29:54 GMT -5
Pre 1997 neck break Austin might have been willing to take a bunch of worked punches from a very dangerous boxer trying to pull them. But once his neck was bad? I doubt he would take one. No way does Austin take a punch from Tyson once he turned babyface. If something goes wrong and Tyson accidentally legit KTFO’s Austin and it could’ve seriously damaged his credibility back then. Austin was way too protective of his character to risk that happening
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Post by Aceorton on Jan 23, 2022 19:25:29 GMT -5
I was deeply into everything at the time and never saw Tyson as more than very expensive celebrity window dressing. I definitely never thought he'd actually wrestle. The shoving/brawl incident was cool and without question a major moment for the WWF, but it seemed to me to be very obviously designed to give McMahon a reason to want to punish Austin later for blowing his big score of getting Tyson for WrestleMania. McMahon's reactions are what make that segment so great. You can tell that pleasant Vince is starting to slip away, replaced by a crazier version of Vince, and that he's not going to forget this.
Even when Tyson became a "member of DX" (which strained credibility for me), he never seemed like he'd be an actual physical threat to Austin. I'll admit, though, they did surprise me by having his enforcer role be outside the ring at WM14. I thought they'd have him in a more traditional special referee role, with everyone worried about him screwing Austin by ignoring interference, not counting his pins, etc. But apparently even that kind of role was beyond Tyson's abilities.
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