Jim Ross has called a ton of fantastic matchups, but he holds the WrestleMania 19 showdown between The Rock and Steve Austin in high regard.
The bout was the third Mania meeting between the two icons, with Rocky finally getting the big win over Austin after two previous main event losses. Ross discussed the matchup on the latest edition of his Grillin JR podcast. Check out his thoughts below.
Says Austin wanted to repay The Rock and give him a big win:
There was only one option, Conrad. I guess it is a case where we’re overthinking it. In all due respect, Austin owed Rock a win, and he was hell bent on delivering it. That’s old school way of looking at it. Austin had won two WrestleMania matches with you know, 15 and 17 and he felt like he owed Rock that return. Because number one, Steve’s health was deteriorating, as we all know, it is well documented. And you know, the night before that he had his health calamity.
Says the only thing in question was when the match would go on as Austin had health problems the night before:
So we were, there’s no other match that we thought about doing. What are you going to do with so and so? Well, we know that Rock is gonna wrestle Austin, period. And Rock is going to get put over, was going to be getting his hand raised finally. So no, there was never any debate or discretion on who is who is going to be in that. The only tweak that was made based on Steve’s hospital stay the night before. You know, who’s gonna go on last?
On putting Brock and Angle on last over Rock and Austin:
Yeah, out of safety sake and precautions. We decided to put Kurt and Brock on last, because they seem to be the healthiest guys. And so yeah, it was Austin all the way. That’s what the audience wanted to see. You know, we could do Austin win three, could rock win one, that story.
Says the match really delivered:
Those guys delivered a hell of a match and, and it was hard. It’s probably the hardest match I ever called because of my closeness with Steve and my friendship with him, to know that this was his last match. And he’s not one of those bullsh*t guys that’s gonna say, well, he’s gonna, I want to, I’m gonna unretire. I just I don’t know, just he’s just a different guy. When he said it was his last match and he told me that, then it was troubling because I did want to see the company without him, without Steve, because he was so valuable to what we were doing and what we had done what we had built. There’s no way in the world in my opinion now Conrad, and I might be wrong. There’s no way that I would think that the WWE would have gone public with such fanfare as success if Stone Cold had not been Stone Cold.
(H/T and transcribed by Inside The Ropes)