Royal Rumble 1997 question

[celtics543]

I remember watching the Rumble and Austin won after being eliminated because no one realized he was out and then he went in and elminated Bret to get the "win".

Well that brings me to my question of Why wasn't Stone Cold in the main event of Wrestlemania 13? It ended up being Sid vs Taker for the title, but with Austin having won the Rumble, should'nt he have been in the title match. It probably worked out better for Austin that he wasn't because he had that awesome match with Bret.

What it a reaction from Shawn "losing his smile" or was it some other reason?

[Nice Guy Cody]

There was a "Fatal Fourway" rematch between Bret, Austin, Vader and Taker to determine who the real winner was.


I always hated that Rumble ending. I seriously don't get why in this era we were supposed to hate on Bret for supposedly being a whiney heel when all Austin was doing at the time was throwing temper tantrum after temper tantrum whenever he didn't get his way.

[cactussam]

Well I remember that the WWF had the Final Four PPV where there was Four Way elimination match for the title, which HBK had just given away due to losing his smile, between Hart, Undertaker, Vader, and Austin. Then the next night on RAW Sid beat Bret for the title.

[seanwalsh]

I believe it was due to Shawn "losing his smile."

Man, how pathetic that still sounds 10 years later.

Anyway, I believe Austin was punished by "management" (on TV, not for real) for cheating like that and had the title shot taken away from him.

Shawn's title was vacated and put on the line before WM13 and Sid won it back. He was feuding with Taker after that and, thusly, Taker got the title shot at WM, while Austin - still feuding with Bret - got that match with him instead.

[Johnny Danger (Godz)]

cactussam said:

Well I remember that the WWF had the Final Four PPV where there was Four Way elimination match for the title, which HBK had just given away due to losing his smile, between Hart, Undertaker, Vader, and Austin. Then the next night on RAW Sid beat Bret for the title.

And this was the night of Bret's crybaby "bull****"/"god damn" promo, I believe.

[mboma10]

It happened far too often, just before, and during the Attitude era.

The 97 Rumble winner didn't compete for the title at WrestleMania, the 99 Rumble winner also didn't, and for the 2000 Rumble, The Rock ended up being involved in a Fatal Four Way in the main event, after it was discovered that Rock was already out.

[WHATAMANOOOVER]

godz said:

cactussam said:

Well I remember that the WWF had the Final Four PPV where there was Four Way elimination match for the title, which HBK had just given away due to losing his smile, between Hart, Undertaker, Vader, and Austin. Then the next night on RAW Sid beat Bret for the title.

And this was the night of Bret's crybaby "bull****"/"god damn" promo, I believe.

No. That promo happened on the last RAW before WM 13. During a cage match with Sid for the title (Sid defense), Taker and Austin came down to help their respective WM opponent to win....Sid won. Afterwards, Bret cut the infamous promo and all four guys brawled. Shawn came out and walked around ringside for no apparent reason.

[Stu]

The story goes that Austin was originally scheduled to win the title at Final Four, but he was injured during the match and Bret had to win instead. Had Austin won, he would have wrestled Hart in the Wrestlemania 13 main event. If things went that way, the entire show would probably have a better reputation than it does.

[WHATAMANOOOVER]

jguy4life said:

The story goes that Austin was originally scheduled to win the title at Final Four, but he was injured during the match and Bret had to win instead. Had Austin won, he would have wrestled Hart in the Wrestlemania 13 main event. If things went that way, the entire show would probably have a better reputation than it does.

Heard that before, don't know if it's true.

But this is the match where Austin injures one of his knees. After this is when all the problems began with them to the point where later in his career, he needed two kneebraces.

[Mr Captain Falcon]

jguy4life said:

The story goes that Austin was originally scheduled to win the title at Final Four, but he was injured during the match and Bret had to win instead. Had Austin won, he would have wrestled Hart in the Wrestlemania 13 main event. If things went that way, the entire show would probably have a better reputation than it does.

I can honestly say I've never heard that story before. Not saying its not true, but it just sounds unlikely, especially for a match of such caliber to be decided by Austin in a match because he got hurt. He still ended up fighting at WM13 anyway in a long brutal match. I doubt Austin had the authority or the knowledge to change a ppv main event WORLD TITLE change, and if he would have, it would mess up weeks of tv, maybe even months. It had to have been planned out with Hart winning.

[T.J. "the Crippler" Stevens]

The night after the Royal Rumble, Bret came out and said he quit because of the bull**** at the Royal Rumble. Gorilla Monsoon came out later while Austin was in the ring and denied him his World Title shot at Wrestlemania. But he did say there would be a "Final Four" match at the next PPV with the last four Rumble competitors, The Undertaker, Vader, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and "if he accepts," Bret "the Hitman" Hart. The winner of the Final Four match would the get the Wrestlemania Title shot. Bret cam back out and said, "I Accept!"

Then Shawn had a tough time with his menstral cycle, "Lost His Smile," and gave up the title so he wouldn't have to lose it at Wrestlemania. Gorilla changed the stipulation of the Final Four to be that the winner is awarded the vacant title. Bret won the title, lost it to Sid the next night because of Austin, then went on the Mania to have an awesome match with Austin, while Sid took the title into his match with Taker.

[T.J. "the Crippler" Stevens]

That Austin story is bull. Bret was scheduled to win the Final Four from the begining, because he was supposed to go up against Shawn at Mania. Even after Shawn decided he was a vagina, the plan didn't deviate all that much. Austin was not hurt during the Final Four match. He was eliminated first, but kept coming back to interfere. He was in enough shpae to do that with no problem. Then the next night on Raw he and Bret had several backstage brawls that made the Edge/HBK showdown this week look like elementary school recess. Then he interfered in Bret's match with Sid quite extensively. The guy was not hurt.

[WHATAMANOOOVER]

crippler228 said:

That Austin story is bull. Bret was scheduled to win the Final Four from the begining, because he was supposed to go up against Shawn at Mania. Even after Shawn decided he was a vagina, the plan didn't deviate all that much. Austin was not hurt during the Final Four match. He was eliminated first, but kept coming back to interfere. He was in enough shpae to do that with no problem. Then the next night on Raw he and Bret had several backstage brawls that made the Edge/HBK showdown this week look like elementary school recess. Then he interfered in Bret's match with Sid quite extensively. The guy was not hurt.

I'm not saying the story is true but Austin DID injure his knee(s) during the match. I haven't seen the show in a while but from what I remember, at one point Austin fell hard on the apron and busted a knee.

[Slim Loves Lily]

You know why they call you Stone Cold? Cuz your stones are so cold...you won't even come out here.

What a lame insult.

[The Peoples Elbow]

jguy4life said:

The story goes that Austin was originally scheduled to win the title at Final Four, but he was injured during the match and Bret had to win instead. Had Austin won, he would have wrestled Hart in the Wrestlemania 13 main event. If things went that way, the entire show would probably have a better reputation than it does.

That, and the Undertaker wouldn't have had to smell Sid's crappity trunks. ;D

[Agent P]

The storyline coming out of Final Four was that Undertaker was the #1 Contender because he was the last one eliminated. So he would have faced the winner of Bret/Sid

[Lino]

...And the Bret Hart/Steve Austin match was 100000000 times better than Undertaker/Sid