The Rock and Stone Chilly Steve Austin are ceaselessly linked – however their WWE story began lengthy earlier than it hit TV.
On March 11, 1996, Austin stepped onto Uncooked with a brand new title, having carried out solidly however unspectacularly as The Ringmaster for the primary few months of his WWE profession.
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Readying to battle Savio Vega in a bout that helped form a rivalry that led to Austin’s WrestleMania debut, The Ringmaster was gone and in his place was ‘Stone Chilly’ Steve Austin.
It was the debut of the character that may rip by means of the Perspective Period and switch him into one of many business’s greatest stars.
That very same evening in San Antonio, one other future icon was within the ring. However whereas Austin’s tussle stays firmly in tv archives, his match by no means made it to air.
In a darkish match – a wrestling time period for an untelevised conflict – earlier than the published, Skip of the Bodydonnas beat a 23-year-old rookie known as Dwayne Johnson.
Johnson was just one match deep into his WWE profession on the evening in query. Simply 24 hours earlier he had given the Brooklyn Brawler a scare when revealing his in-ring inexperience, admitting it was the primary match of his total life in entrance of an viewers. San Antonio was solely his second.
The Freeman Coliseum crowd of 9,364 noticed lots extra that night. Shawn Michaels beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley in one other darkish match, fascinating given the 2 have been cemented forevermore by the tail finish of 1997 as D-Technology X, and in 2025 successfully run WWE’s on-screen product.
Such non-televised affairs have been commonplace for a time when WWE’s weekly Uncooked present lasted simply an hour on tv.
Bret Hart defended the WWF Championship in opposition to The Undertaker after this episode went off the air, however for these watching on TV the reminiscence was Austin, reborn as Stone Chilly.
That’s the distinction that makes the evening so putting. Austin’s new persona was examined on nationwide tv, his profession already properly established earlier than he joined WWE.
A fresh-faced Johnson’s loss stayed hidden, one other step in his improvement that almost all followers by no means knew existed.
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Wanting again, the symmetry is exceptional. Inside 15 months Austin would lower the Austin 3:16 promo that outlined a era.
Inside the similar timeframe Johnson would arrive at Survivor Sequence in Madison Sq. Backyard, launched because the smiling, tasselled Rocky Maivia. He would survive to the top of the elimination match, a push that confirmed how shortly WWE noticed his potential.
Momentum carried them each ahead. By 1997 Austin was Intercontinental Champion, breaking by means of because the anti-hero followers have been ready for. By 1998 Johnson had turned heel, joined the Nation of Domination and was beginning to present the charisma that may make him The Rock.
By 1999 they have been colliding in WrestleMania essential occasions. WrestleMania 15 in Philadelphia, WrestleMania 17 in Houston, WrestleMania 19 in Seattle. Three stadium showdowns that turned the defining rivalry of the Perspective Period.
Wanting again on that trilogy, Johnson known as it the best field workplace feud of all time.
Writing on Instagram in 2020, he mentioned: “There was no feud that has been a larger field workplace draw and that, for my part – so completely bias – that truly had extra x-factor warmth and electrical energy and typically you’ll be able to’t write it or put your finger on it, however it occurs and it explodes and it’s an emotionality that you could’t deny.
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“Fortunate sufficient for myself, Steve, Vince McMahon, WWE; we noticed this, embraced it, and we have been off to the races.”
None of that was apparent in March 1996. Austin was a confirmed veteran ready for the fitting character. Johnson was an untested newcomer making an attempt to not slip below the radar.
The Uncooked itself delivered a 2.9 score for USA Community – one million miles away from the record-setting scores of the Perspective Period they’d each go on to set.
Wrestling is filled with sliding-door moments. For Austin, Uncooked’s one hundred and fiftieth episode was the first step on the trail to superstardom. For Johnson, it was a second rehearsal match most followers by no means even knew occurred.
5 years later they have been headlining WrestleMania collectively as arguably two of an period’s fiercest rivals.