Why was a monumental match like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin put on before Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 19 in 2003?
Why was the retirement bout of "The Texas Rattlesnake" not put on last in the main event spot, and moreover, why was the decision made for the "BMF" to look at the lights for the three-count in what was believed at the time to be his last-ever squared circle appearance?
Jim Ross is one of a handful of people who has the answers to all of these questions.
'Good Ole' J.R.' spoke about these topics and more during the latest installment of his official podcast, "Grilling J.R." Featured below are some of the highlights.
On Steve Austin wanting to repay The Rock and give him a big win in his final in-ring appearance at WrestleMania 19: "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."
On how 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 Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle on last instead of The Rock vs. Steve 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."
On how 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 un-retire. 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."
Check out the complete episode of "Grilling J.R." featuring Jim Ross by visiting CumulusPodcastNetwork.com. H/T to ITRWrestling.com for transcribing the above quotes.
