411’s WWE Rivals Report: Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels

-Back for the second episode of our double feature tonight. Earlier we had Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin and you can find that recap here. Now, it’s Stone Cold again and his rivalry with Shawn Michaels. Not too sure about this one as these two didn’t have much of a rivalry, but let’s see what they have to offer here. Let’s get to it!

-Freddie Prinze Jr is our host and is joined at the roundtable by JBL, Booker T, Devon Dudley, and Natalya.

-Booker calls Shawn the best in the business in 1997 and JBL says that Shawn was better than everyone else. Austin compares Shawn to Michael Jordan in that he could do any style and do any match with anyone. Shawn says he was a very good bad guy and had real life heat. Taker tells us that back then as a human being, he had no use for Shawn. Damn! HHH: “Shawn was a prick, a straight up prick to most people.” Austin calls him an asshole and a cocky guy back then.

-Shawn was hitting his peak as a heel with the rise of DX. Shawn gives us a brief history of DX as it began with him, HHH and Chyna. Gargano loved DX and everything they did. “I did the suck it chop many times in grade school. I don’t know what it meant, but I did it.” Nice!

-Meanwhile, Stone Cold was coming off his run with Bret Hart and was clearly on a rocket ship to being the number one guy in the industry. We see Austin give Vince that first Stunner in MSG and it’s still pretty awesome. Austin is noted as being an anti-hero that everyone loved. JBL says Austin is the hottest guy he has ever seen in the business and if Austin was on the card they would sellout the building.

-Shawn notes he and Steve were two very strong characters. Austin was an ass kicker while Shawn was the guy everyone wanted to see get his ass kicked. That pretty much sums it up. I guess we are skipping the period where they were tag champions and wrestled at King of The Ring 1997.

-Royal Rumble 1998: This was basically a foregone conclusion and that was fine as it needed to be Austin’s night. He wins without really breaking a sweat and is set to head to WrestleMania in The Main Event. Shawn notes that everyone could see that Steve was the guy and next in line.

-Royal Rumble 1998: The PPV closes with Shawn defending his WWF Title against The Undertaker in a casket match. Shawn takes a backdrop over the top and over the casket but he doesn’t clear and ends up destroying his back as it just catches the edge of the casket. Man it didn’t look bad when it happened, but sometimes it’s the little bumps that do you in. Shawn notes it hurt a little bit but everything hurts a little bit. He finishes the match and gets the win thanks to Kane. He went to bed and the next morning he can’t move. An ambulance is called and Shawn burst the disc in his back. He is told he needs surgery immediately and his career is over.

-Commercials!

-Michaels vs. Austin is now set to headline WrestleMania XIV, but Shawn’s back injury is a big question mark now. The roundtable discuss how awful it is to have a back injury. Shawn’s goal was to do therapy so he could get through the match at WrestleMania. He told Vince it would be best to do TV and rehab to get ready for Mania. HHH says that Shawn needed time off to heal, but he also had personal things going on in his head. They talk about how Shawn was bitter about being pushed to the side. Steve notes Shawn wasn’t excited about passing the torch. That’s putting it mildly. Shawn: “Technically that’s the right guy, but when you are being replaced it’s never fun.”

-So now they have to protect Shawn just to get him to Mania so he can do the match. Since Shawn/Steve isn’t all that exciting we talk about the real rivalry between WCW and WWF. That leads to a discussion of the WWF bringing in Mike Tyson. Shawn doesn’t recall them letting him know what they were doing with Mike. Stephen A Smith is a talking head here to discuss Mike Tyson and how everyone remembers the good (destroying fools) and the bad (biting Holyfield’s ear).

-Mike Tyson shows up on RAW and it’s a pretty huge deal. Mike shows up as a talking head and mentions it was a dream to be on RAW. He goes back to being a wrestling fan in the 70s with Bruno and made his own wrestling gear and a belt as a kid. Back to RAW as Steve Austin comes down to confront Mike Tyson and Austin just comes off as the baddest dude walking the planet. Austin tells Tyson he wants a piece of his ass. Devon: “Who the hell says that?” Austin tells Tyson he can beat his ass and then flips him the double bird. Awesome! Tyson shoves Austin and all hell breaks loose!

-Commercials!

-Back to RAW as Tyson and Austin try to fight each other with a bunch of suits and refs and Tyson’s posse trying to separate them. The incident made the news all over the country and Booker notes it wasn’t a great time in WCW when they saw that. Rosenberg calls it the most effective use of an outside celebrity ever and it helped turned the tide in the war with WCW.

-WrestleMania 14 Press Conference: Mike Tyson is named as a special enforcer for Austin/Shawn. It gave the WWF a chance to put Tyson’s face on the posters alongside Shawn and Austin. Mike calls the press conference chaos.

-We stretch things a little more as we get footage of fans waiting outside The Fleet Center to get tickets to WrestleMania and all the fans care about is Austin/Tyson. Man, no wonder Shawn was bitter.

-We jump to RAW where Shawn gets in Tyson’s face and calls him out. They are seemingly going to get it on, but we find out Mike Tyson is part of DX as he is sporting their colors. Mike looked like he was having the time of his life. Shawn calls being out there with Mike an enjoyable time during that period. Shawn talks about how it was good vs evil and another way to stack the deck against Austin.

-They discuss Shawn’s back and how there were times he threatened he wouldn’t make it due to his back. He says day to day was miserable and there were times he couldn’t sleep. HHH says it was a tough place for Shawn between the injury and then the drugs and alcohol.

-Commercials!

-DX Public Workout: They have a public workout outdoors and figured 1500-2000 would show up and it ends up being around 10,000. They don’t think the city was prepared for that many people and it made security an issue. DX is cutting a promo and Shawn gets pelted in the face with a battery and he leaves. Austin notes it would piss anyone off, but Shawn was in a bad place to start. Shawn refused to leave the limo. He notes Shane was in there and tried to convince him to go back out and do what was needed. Prichard tries to get Shawn out of the limo, but no dice. HHH and Tyson cut a promo to stall and as Austin hits the ring, Shawn decides to do what is needed and hits the ring. Shawn: “I was a young and immature drug addict, so I was absolutely freaking livid. The reason it always makes it hard is because you know the truth, and the truth was Steve was the next big thing. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

-HHH notes it wasn’t always easy being Shawn’s friend and it wasn’t easy being around him. He always had his friend’s back and in many ways they were similar. Shawn admits to being moody and difficult to deal with at the time. They discuss Shawn’s substance issues and how he would be passed out in cars and HHH had to carry him to his room. We get footage of Shawn asking HHH where they are going and HHH tells him “to the ring.” Wow! Austin says without HHH he doesn’t know if Shawn makes half the shows in the build to their match. Shawn notes it sucked and he was going to make it rough on everyone.

-WrestleMania XIV: Shawn says nobody wanted to talk to him and Steve stopped in once. He says he put Steve in a tough spot and that he never worked a Mania with that little dialogue before a match. Austin says it was strange because he wasn’t around Shawn. Shawn says he wasn’t angry at Steve, but was angry at the idea that he was being discarded. Gargano says Shawn always hit a home run in a big match situation, but with his injury this was different and it probably frustrated him.

-Commercials!

-Match time as I guess we aren’t covering Taker threatening to beat Shawn if he refused to go out and put Austin over. Shawn and Steve had a really good match and you can see the pain on Shawn’s face. Shawn says his lack of mobility was the biggest thing as his brain wanted him to do something and he just couldn’t. Owens is amazed that Shawn was able to go out there and have the match he did with what was essentially a broken back. The ref gets bumped because I mean, you need to get Tyson involved somehow. Shawn eats a Stunner and Tyson fast counts him and The Austin Era has begun!

-Austin says it felt right to finally be World Champion. This was the start of a new chapter for WWF and the talking heads say it was the passing of the torch to a new era. Shawn eats a right hand from Tyson and notes he went out in a blaze of glory.

-Commercials!

-Back to Tyson punching Michaels and Shawn says it was a lot faster than he anticipated. I bet! Booker puts over Shawn for doing business with Tyson even though this could be the last match of his career. We see footage after the show of HHH and Chyna hugging Shawn.

-Shawn says he was getting his stuff and as he was leaving he heard some people talking and was told they were having a press conference. Shawn, injured and pissed off, cusses out Shane and kicks a door. Austin says it was fucked up and selfish and stupid, but that’s the place Shawn was in at that time.

-The next night Austin is now the face of the company and becomes the biggest star since Hulk Hogan. JBL says that Shawn’s injury cost us a longer Shawn/Steve rivalry and also cost us a Shawn/Rock rivalry. I don’t man as a drugged out Shawn working in The Attitude Era may not have ended well. The back injury and not being able to work for three years may have saved his life.

-Shawn’s back eventually heals and he makes his comeback just as Austin’s ends due to his own health issues. Shawn’s first Mania back is Austin’s last Mania (for nearly 20 years). Shawn notes they became solid friends after they both retired. They bonded over hunting.

-WrestleMania 32: Shawn and Austin (and Foley) get a moment where they help beat up The League of Nations and then New Day.

-Rosenberg says the rivalry made Steve the number 1 guy in the WWE, and sorry, so. It was the Bret feud and as I mentioned in the Bret/Steve Rivals recap, in an alternate universe WrestleMania XIV ends with Austin beating Bret for the WWF Title.

-This was an okay episode and since they only focused on the one match they had to find some filler. Throwing in the war with WCW was kind of weird and for a solid portion of this episode it seemed like Austin/Tyson was the real rivalry. I also found it odd that they spent all the time talking about Shawn being bitter and having personal problems, but never discuss the Taker taping his hands story. Like the entire season this is an easy show to watch, but I found other episodes more enjoyable. Thanks for reading!