Jas Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 How is The Rock on the same level as Steve Austin? Seriously? Austin was a terrific wrestler for 10 years and a megadraw. Everyone else drew in the WWF off his back. Austin is on another level to The Rock if you are talking about Wrestling and not movies. What about those 10 months Austin got injured and The Rock was the face of the company  If I remember rightly ratings remained the same, maybe even improved a little and so did PPV Buyrates and Attendence That's just 10 months and Rock and Triple H deserve equal credit for that. No-one is suggesting that Triple H is on the same level as Hogan and Austin are they?  Rock & Austin deserve equal credit for most of the boom period then surely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 How is The Rock on the same level as Steve Austin? Seriously? Austin was a terrific wrestler for 10 years and a megadraw. Everyone else drew in the WWF off his back. Austin is on another level to The Rock if you are talking about Wrestling and not movies. What about those 10 months Austin got injured and The Rock was the face of the company  If I remember rightly ratings remained the same, maybe even improved a little and so did PPV Buyrates and Attendence That's just 10 months and Rock and Triple H deserve equal credit for that. No-one is suggesting that Triple H is on the same level as Hogan and Austin are they? Oh I have disagree with that about HHH, I remember a week of RAW where Rock wasnt on and HHH was and the ratings plummeted if it wasnt for The Rock in them 10 months WWF business would have fallen massively, HHH was a great performer at that time no doubt but he wasnt who the fans where tuning in to see  Yes The Rock was only soley on top for 10 months or so but the fact he was a main eventer a good year before he was on top solely when Austin got injured, its a weird turn of events to have two mega draws like Austin and Rock come along at the same time but the proof of how big The Rock was came when he had to fly solo without Austin and he succeded, it would have been interesting at that time to see what would have happened if it was The Rock that got injured and if Austin could have drawn so well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 17, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2011 How is The Rock on the same level as Steve Austin? Seriously? Austin was a terrific wrestler for 10 years and a megadraw. Everyone else drew in the WWF off his back. Austin is on another level to The Rock if you are talking about Wrestling and not movies. What about those 10 months Austin got injured and The Rock was the face of the company  If I remember rightly ratings remained the same, maybe even improved a little and so did PPV Buyrates and Attendence That's just 10 months and Rock and Triple H deserve equal credit for that. No-one is suggesting that Triple H is on the same level as Hogan and Austin are they?  Rock & Austin deserve equal credit for most of the boom period then surely? Ratings where under 3.0 when Austin became the focal point of Raw. They were apporaching 5.0 when The Rock started to get over in Autumn 1998. If WCW and WWF were in a race Austin drove them from being 2 laps down to a lap in front, against a very capable machine. Rock was incredible but he wasn't Austin or Hogan. He doesn't have the same historical significance. Austin's impact on the business should be stuff of legend. it's incomparable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 How is The Rock on the same level as Steve Austin? Seriously? Austin was a terrific wrestler for 10 years and a megadraw. Everyone else drew in the WWF off his back. Austin is on another level to The Rock if you are talking about Wrestling and not movies. What about those 10 months Austin got injured and The Rock was the face of the company  If I remember rightly ratings remained the same, maybe even improved a little and so did PPV Buyrates and Attendence That's just 10 months and Rock and Triple H deserve equal credit for that. No-one is suggesting that Triple H is on the same level as Hogan and Austin are they?  Rock & Austin deserve equal credit for most of the boom period then surely? Ratings where under 3.0 when Austin became the focal point of Raw. They were apporaching 5.0 when The Rock started to get over in Autumn 1998. If WCW and WWF were in a race Austin drove them from being 2 laps down to a lap in front, against a very capable machine. Rock was incredible but he wasn't Austin or Hogan. He doesn't have the same historical significance. Austin's impact on the business should be stuff of legend. it's incomparable. I think he does  No pro wrestler has cracked the mainstream like The Rock has, surely on top of being such a massive draw in 1999-2001 and 10 months of carrying the company on his back whilst delievring monster ratings, attendence and buyrates on top of that puts him up there with Austin and Rock, plus remember Hogan never broke the mainstream outside of wrestling nearly as much as he thinks he did Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawz Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 1st Tier: Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels 2nd Tier: Bret Hart, Macho Man Randy Savage, Triple H, The Undertaker, Ric Flair 3rd Tier: Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero  Theres probably names I'm forgetting but thats off the top of my head for now. The 1st tier is exactly right for me though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Won't bother arguing rick's view on The Rock, it's pure ignorance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 17, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2011 I think he does No pro wrestler has cracked the mainstream like The Rock has, surely on top of being such a massive draw in 1999-2001 and 10 months of carrying the company on his back whilst delievring monster ratings, attendence and buyrates on top of that puts him up there with Austin and Rock, plus remember Hogan never broke the mainstream outside of wrestling nearly as much as he thinks he did But this isn't about the mainstream, it's about wrestling. If there's no Rock, Austin still carries the WWF to unbelievable heights. If there's no Austin, does The Rock ever become anything other than a charismatic wrestler in a company struggling to exist? Perhaps he ends up in WCW's midcard? Who knows? What we do know though is that the landscape of pro-wrestling without Steve Austin would be massively different.  Won't bother arguing rick's view on The Rock, it's pure ignorance. You'll trip over that bottom lip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majik Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Won't bother arguing rick's view on The Rock, it's pure ignorance. You'll trip over that bottom lip. Â I'll be back later with mine. Proper funny that though. Stolen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Seems to be a lack of Andre in this thread.  Top Tier: Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin  Second Tier: Undertaker, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, John Cena  Third Tier: Whoever you feel I missed from tiers 1 and 2 (i.e. Ric Flair, Goldberg, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Bruno Sammartino)  Pre-PPV? Then never had the chance to make it to the first two tiers. First tier - undisputed biggest draws list Second tier - linchpins of the top company Thrid tier - available to those that others wank about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 17, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2011 Awesome argument again. Fucking zing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted February 17, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted February 17, 2011 As shit as Andre had become, you cant deny how much money he drew in the late 80s boom period. Its actually a testiment to the level of drawing power Hogan and The Giant had, that people were still paying their hard earned money to watch business exposing matches, were it looked like it might be the night Andre finally went down with a heart attack. Like drew record breaking business for 18 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 But this isn't about the mainstream, it's about wrestling. If there's no Rock, Austin still carries the WWF to unbelievable heights. If there's no Austin, does The Rock ever become anything other than a charismatic wrestler in a company struggling to exist? Perhaps he ends up in WCW's midcard? Who knows? What we do know though is that the landscape of pro-wrestling without Steve Austin would be massively different.[   You could also argue that the wrestling landscape without Rock would be different  Who else did the WWF have to fall back on whenn Austin got injured, maybe without The Rock on song WCW could have been more competative and the gap wouldnt have grown between the two companys as much  Vince always was going to push The Rock its kinda like how he pushes Randy Orton now just that Orton is not in The Rocks league, I dont know if Rock would have turned the company around like Austin did, however if anyone else in wrestling could I would wager that Rock could over anyone else in wrestling history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old School Square Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I love how nobody (including myself) has mentioned the following: Lou Thesz, Dusty Rhodes, Jack Brisco, The Funks, Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, Atsushi Onita, The Shielk, Verne Gange, Nick Bockwinkel, The Crusher, The Bruiser etc etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE BESTMAN Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 As far as WWE goes then this is the order of the heavy hitters  Initial era: Sammartino, Morales, Backlund and Graham. Many people in the UK don't have enough knowledge of this time period and I made it a pet project to get into the era. Owing to the fact WWWF wasn't on an International scale and was not even fully national people don't realise how massive these four were in the initial days. Sadly many overlook Morales but trust me he was huge and was first man to hold all three major WWE titles. You could debate over Andre too.  Rock N Wrestling/National Expansion: Hogan, Warrior and Savage.  New Generation: Undertaker, Hart and Michaels.  Attitude Era: Austin, Rock, and then you can debate over Foley, Angle and Trips.  Current Period: Lets face it has anyone done anything than Cena. You can debate over Batista, Benoit, Guerrero, Edge and Orton but I am not convinced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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