Post by The Sexy Psychotic on Jun 6, 2015 16:15:30 GMT -5
Can we have an appreciation thread for Austin, the man that changed wrestling and saved it from an embarrassing death?!
For the last 10/11 days I have been bed-ridden thanks to chickenpox, yes I am 23 and got the chickenpox, and it SUCKED!!
But with this time I have finally been able to fully show the WWE Network the love and appreciation it deserves, and what I gravitated to was the late 96 through 97 (March so far) and jeez, seriously just how amazing was each and every show?! They had so much going on with everyone, everyone had something to do, everyone seemed to be on the shows, and even though they were an hour (or by February 97 2 hours) they were still able to build up every damn show, not just the next PPV but the next weeks' show, that Saturday's 'Shotgun', just everything flowed and felt right and well timed.
It was easily the tightest, most fun the company has ever really been, sure I LOVE 99, and 2000/01 is simply masterful too but damn, that 6 month period from say October 96 till March 97 is just wild; you had Sid who wasn't a face, but wasn't really a heel either (pretty much the Austin of 98 tbh, just more heel I guess), you had Taker starting to shed what was like 3 years of floundering, Michaels being just himself and being so damn entertaining, Hart who was killing it and no one knew what he was (like Sid, wasn't a heel, but was sliding away from being a face too), Vader was being a damn animal and really being built as a force still/again, Mankind was fresh and just being a mess in general and then there was Austin, still playing the heel role perfectly, but with face tones, pre-neck injury too so his matches were a mixed bag of brawling but also technical as they come, he was still KIND of a midcarder, but honestly he was killing it every second he was on screen.
His feud with Hart built really for 6 months, and in that time they didn't really have all that many matches, atleast one-on-one, apart from Survivor Series I cant think of any until WM13, but the whole Austin character of just wailing on Hart every second he got, interrupting nearly every match he had for this 6 month span, costing him the title, backstage attacks, it is just so much fun to watch!!
His promo's were perfect, I know we've most likely all seen this one, but it perfectly sums him up in a video, atleast this era of the character;
He had the best merch, not to say others were bad - seriously WWE really need to get on this and release as much 96/97 merch as possible, but he did, the whole Austin 3:16 stuff was beyond awesome and iconic, so damn iconic its stupid!
96/97 heel Austin I'd say was the best he ever was, or atleast the most rounded he was, and partnering him with the roster they had and having the faith that the company did in him, he did some amazing things in these two years and really furthered the business from a joke where in mid-96 you'd see a Garbage man wrestling a clown, to 6 months later seeing Austin tell the world he's gonna kick Bret Harts ass cause he's pissed off and having a damn brawl.
It saddens me just how overlooked Austin is these days; people look at Taker and Michaels/DX, people tend to forget that it was Austin that really tested the waters with the whole Attitude thing and if it wasn't for him wrestling could be in a much dire state than it is today
For the last 10/11 days I have been bed-ridden thanks to chickenpox, yes I am 23 and got the chickenpox, and it SUCKED!!
But with this time I have finally been able to fully show the WWE Network the love and appreciation it deserves, and what I gravitated to was the late 96 through 97 (March so far) and jeez, seriously just how amazing was each and every show?! They had so much going on with everyone, everyone had something to do, everyone seemed to be on the shows, and even though they were an hour (or by February 97 2 hours) they were still able to build up every damn show, not just the next PPV but the next weeks' show, that Saturday's 'Shotgun', just everything flowed and felt right and well timed.
It was easily the tightest, most fun the company has ever really been, sure I LOVE 99, and 2000/01 is simply masterful too but damn, that 6 month period from say October 96 till March 97 is just wild; you had Sid who wasn't a face, but wasn't really a heel either (pretty much the Austin of 98 tbh, just more heel I guess), you had Taker starting to shed what was like 3 years of floundering, Michaels being just himself and being so damn entertaining, Hart who was killing it and no one knew what he was (like Sid, wasn't a heel, but was sliding away from being a face too), Vader was being a damn animal and really being built as a force still/again, Mankind was fresh and just being a mess in general and then there was Austin, still playing the heel role perfectly, but with face tones, pre-neck injury too so his matches were a mixed bag of brawling but also technical as they come, he was still KIND of a midcarder, but honestly he was killing it every second he was on screen.
His feud with Hart built really for 6 months, and in that time they didn't really have all that many matches, atleast one-on-one, apart from Survivor Series I cant think of any until WM13, but the whole Austin character of just wailing on Hart every second he got, interrupting nearly every match he had for this 6 month span, costing him the title, backstage attacks, it is just so much fun to watch!!
His promo's were perfect, I know we've most likely all seen this one, but it perfectly sums him up in a video, atleast this era of the character;
He had the best merch, not to say others were bad - seriously WWE really need to get on this and release as much 96/97 merch as possible, but he did, the whole Austin 3:16 stuff was beyond awesome and iconic, so damn iconic its stupid!
96/97 heel Austin I'd say was the best he ever was, or atleast the most rounded he was, and partnering him with the roster they had and having the faith that the company did in him, he did some amazing things in these two years and really furthered the business from a joke where in mid-96 you'd see a Garbage man wrestling a clown, to 6 months later seeing Austin tell the world he's gonna kick Bret Harts ass cause he's pissed off and having a damn brawl.
It saddens me just how overlooked Austin is these days; people look at Taker and Michaels/DX, people tend to forget that it was Austin that really tested the waters with the whole Attitude thing and if it wasn't for him wrestling could be in a much dire state than it is today
