Re-Writing History: Steve Austin Doesn’t Turn At Wrestlemania 17

In a recent episode of Steve Austin Unleashed, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin provided alternate commentary to his Wrestlemania 17 match against The Rock. It was a very enjoyable listen with Austin taking us through the match and his thought process as it was going on.

One thing he mentioned during the podcast was that he wished he had called an audible after the match. Instead of shaking Mr. McMahon’s hand, he wished that he had pulled him in and given him a stunner.

That made me think; what if Austin had given McMahon the stunner instead of celebrating with his biggest rival?

Before we get into that though, let’s quickly revisit Wrestlemania 17.

The build-up to Austin vs. Rock was pretty simple. Austin had missed nearly a year due to neck surgery. During his time away, The Rock had become the biggest star in the company while Triple H and Kurt Angle also had rose to prominence. When Austin returned, he wanted his spot back. He won the Royal Rumble, but then lost to Triple H at No Way Out before challenging The Rock at Wrestlemania. The two biggest stars in the company at the peak of their powers squaring off on the biggest stage. Austin had the famous line, “I need to beat you Rock. I need it more than anything you could ever imagine.” Austin was hungry to reclaim his top spot and he would do anything to beat Rock.

So he did the unthinkable. After one of the greatest matches in WWE history, Austin aligned himself with Vince McMahon in order to secure his spot and the WWF World Title.

That led to the Two Man Power Trip with him and Triple H before Triple H tore his quad and then the whole WCW/ECW Invasion nonsense that even Austin admits he doesn’t remember much about because it sucked.

Now, let’s re-write history.

Steve Austin still wins the WWF World Title from The Rock at Wrestlemania 17 in the exact same fashion. McMahon interferes, Austin beats the hell out of Rock with the chair, Austin wins. Austin and McMahon drink some beers together before shaking hands. But Austin holds on to the handshake a bit too long, pulls McMahon in, and gives him the stunner.

The next night on Raw, Austin’s promo explaining his actions are pretty simple. He needed to beat The Rock, so he enlisted the help of Vince to do so. But once Vince helped him accomplish his goal, he had no more use for him. So, like the rattlesnake that he is, he gave Vince the ol “screw you” and laid him out.

Out comes The Rock. He talks about how he knew Austin would do anything and everything to win the belt, but he underestimated him, because he didn’t think he would do that. Rock wants his rematch, goading Austin by saying he didn’t beat him like a man. Before Austin can answer, out comes Vince. He’s obviously not pleased about being used by Austin and grants Rock his rematch, but says that he’ll be the special guest referee.

The match takes place. Vince is trying to screw over Austin, who shows fire and won’t let it happen, but Rock doesn’t want to win that way. The Rock eventually hits McMahon because he’s sick of him trying to help him. Enter Triple H. He comes down and lays out Rock and Austin, aligning himself with Vince.

Remember that The Rock is leaving for a bit to film The Mummy Returns, so the Rock/Austin feud can’t continue at this point. In real life, Vince suspended Rock to explain why he would be off TV. The same thing can happen here. Rock is suspended for hitting McMahon during an official match.

Triple H enters the fold and becomes the number one challenger for the belt. He’s the top true heel in the company, he’s part of the McMahon family, and he was the last guy to beat Austin, something HHH can constantly bring up. That alone is enough to motivate Austin to want to beat Triple H.

Now, we’re going to assume that Triple H doesn’t tear his quad in this scenario. That was a freak accident that happened in a tag team match against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. That match doesn’t take place if Austin remains face.

At Backlash, Vince and Triple H to take on Austin in a 2-on-1 handicap match, but Shane McMahon comes out to make it a tag match. Austin/Shane win when Shane pins Vince. Austin, being who he is, gives Shane a stunner after the match. He knows not to trust a McMahon.

Insurrextion is kind of a throw away PPV, so we’ll say that Austin defends the title against Triple H and The Undertaker in a triple threat match. Why is Undertaker inserted? Again, this is a throw away PPV that isn’t built too well. Taker is inserted because he beat Triple H at Wrestlemania and he’s The Undertaker, he does what he wants. In this case, he does the job for Austin.

Triple H continues to get under Austin’s skin by saying that he still hasn’t beaten him. The two have a match at Judgment Day, which ends in a double disqualification as the two beat the hell out of each other. Vince McMahon comes down and orders the match to be restarted under No DQ rules, but before he finishes giving the orders and the bell rings, Austin attacks him. Triple H gets the last laugh though, attacking Austin, laying him out to close the show and holding the belt high.

The next night, Triple H comes out with the belt. He continues to say that Austin has yet to defeat him and that if he wasn’t such a coward, attacking Vince before the match was re-started, he would’ve won. So until Austin can beat him, he’s declaring himself the champion.

This sets up the big blow off match at King Of The Ring. The build-up here writes itself. Not only do you have the history between Austin/Triple H dating back to Triple H being the reason Austin was out of action for almost a year, but you have the fact that both guys really started to take off thanks to their King Of The Ring victories in 1996 and 1997.

The blow off match takes place in Hell in a Cell. The logic here is that the last time Triple H had a one-on-one Hell in a Cell match, he ended Cactus Jack’s career (for a month) and at the Armageddon Hell in a Cell, Austin had the match won until Triple H cut him off and allowed Angle to get the victory.

Austin wins Hell in a Cell and finally gets his redemption on Triple H. After the match, things go back to where they were in real life. Booker T, leading the WCW Invasion attacks Austin. Remember when Austin gave Shane the stunner? This is Shane’s revenge.

I’m not going to bother to re-write the entire Invasion angle because that’s a whole separate article, but here are the Austin cliff notes. Keep in mind that I’m not re-booking the entire Invasion, just the Austin portion and I’m sticking close to what happened in real life:

*In this scenario, Austin is a loner. He doesn’t want to be part of Team WWF because they’re being led by Vince McMahon and he doesn’t want to be part of Team WCW because they’re being led by Shane McMahon. So Austin just goes about his business, beating up whoever gets in his way.

*When Team ECW enters the picture, Paul Heyman tries to convince Austin to join them. Austin strongly considers this, feeling that he owes Heyman something for picking him up when he was down after being fired by WCW. However, once Heyman aligns himself with Shane and Team WCW, Austin wants no part of Team ECW or Heyman.

*Instead of begging for “the old Stone Cold” Vince begs for Austin to join Team WWF, who are getting their asses handed to them in a numbers game.

*Austin eventually joins Team WWF, much in the same way he returned to “The Old Stone Cold” on Raw.

*The Invasion match consists of Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, and Kane against Booker T, Rhyno, The Dudley Boyz, and Diamond Dallas Page. The Alliance wins when Kurt Angle turns on Team WWF, setting up a feud with Austin.

Eventually, I think Austin would’ve ended up working as a heel before his career was up because he’s mentioned numerous times how much he enjoyed working as a heel. But Wrestlemania 17 wasn’t the time for the turn. Who knows how things would’ve turned out had Triple H not torn his quad and had the Invasion angle actually been booked properly, but those things did happen and we saw the end results.

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