What if Austin turned heel in 2002 instead?

[ChitownKnight]

Imagine a world where he stayed full time till 04 or something. In 2001 he is a face that begrudgingly helps Vince fight WCW. In 2002 though he turns heel. How would you do it? And would it work better?

[The Rick Jericho]

Doing that to a respected veteran and the legendary Arn Anderson. That depending on what town it happened would warrant a heel turn. People definitely would've been sick of Austin by 2002. If he did this to Flair and Arn in Carolina, we got a feud here.

[Johnny B. Decent]

In hindsight, yeah, Austin should have turned heel in '02, then '01. But then again, there was also the health issues, so who knows how long he could have kept up, anyways.

[tirtefaa]

In a perfect world you could do this maybe by SummerSlam 2002, especially if you think about all the prolific matches that Austin would've already had with WCW/nWo guys...given those guys aren't buried and made to look secondary from the get go.

[Renslayer]

If he took an extended break post Mania 18, maybe. He was so burned out in 2002, a good 3 months off and some fresh faces would've did him some good

[4real]

Austin takes over the nWo when Hogan turns face.

I’m sure it would suck but I’d like to have seen it!

[Aceorton]

May 24, 2022 19:31:24 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Doing that to a respected veteran and the legendary Arn Anderson. That depending on what town it happened would warrant a heel turn. People definitely would've been sick of Austin by 2002. If he did this to Flair and Arn in Carolina, we got a feud here.

I don't know. Mustard pee seems like a sign of systemic infection. Could I boo the man knowing he was sick?

[Jindrak Mark]

Heel Austin v a returning face HHH at Wrestlemania X8 would still have been overshadowed by Rock/Hogan but not to the extent Jericho/HHH was. And Austin may not have walked out the next night if he was in a main event world title match instead of in the midcard with Scott Hall.

If it wasn't for the invasion I don't think the 2001 heel turn would have been the worst idea ever. It was a risk for sure but one that I think was worth taking. There's a reason Austin wanted to do it at the time and Vince, who famously hates turning his golden gooses and never did it with Hogan or Cena and took years to do it with Roman, agreed to do it. He was Steve Austin. He was always going to be over but there were definite signs of staleness after his return in 2000 (and in late 1999 before he got injured too). Rock was kinda starting to feel like the bigger star.

In their eyes they probably thought a heel turn and him siding with Vince would have been like Hogan joining the NWO. The problem is there was no Sting to be the big babyface to go against him. Rock was going to Hollywood. Undertaker and Kane were utility main eventers, not top face of the company material. Jericho and Benoit would have taken a while to become credible main eventers. When Hogan became Hollywood and won the world title his next PPV was a massive war games match against Sting/Flair/Luger/Arn then he had Savage and Piper and Giant with Sting always lurking in the background. Austin meanwhile had one of the biggest heel turns of all time then spent months feuding with midcarders like the Hardys/Jericho/Benoit and a kinda stale Kane and Taker. And HHH who probably could and should have been the main guy to go against him was kept heel and sided with Austin despite getting a massive pop even in Texas when he teased going face and confronted Austin the night after Wrestlemania.

The invasion was just a massive problem too. Even if the heel turn was going great the invasion just came at a horrible time. I don't care how much Austin hates Vince he would never side with WCW. It just made no sense. But him siding with the WWF would get him cheered which you obviously don't want if you're trying to create this killer heel who's destroying women with steel chairs and beating up JR in his hometown.

[chronocross]

I think it was for the best that he walked out when he did, he was burned out and another heel turn I don't think would have worked IMO.