Promoter

The DX angle's potential. I'm serious here. The wwe can really pull a massive angle with the breakdown of the Mcmahon empire or structure. They are already teasing it. The problem I see is Vince not taking himself out of the equation for any long time. If they pull of a great storyline tonight with Steph's baby being HHH's it can lead to an awesome storyline leading into SummerSlam and beyond. HHH/HBK against Shane/Vince will have a whole new meaning. Some here might not like it, but since HHH and Vince are going to put all their damn time into it, there shouldn't be too much crap.

Yeah, now the wwe can push the next generation of wrestling tonight. Triple H's baby!! Hulk Hogan's daughter which can lead to his son being brought in. Randy Orton being a third generation star trying to take out Hogan. Davey Boy Smith's son can be put on tonight. It's "New Generation" all over again

Man, this kid is being born a live RAW is the icing on the cake. God must be working with Vince I can't believe this. Vince can't push the "reality tv" aspect anymore than this. They could still write the damn show around this since HHH is feuding with Vince right now and Shane/HBK can be in the live arena. Poor kid will be traumatized in the future though to know how far his family will go for a rating:)

This is what Jericho basically said on LAW this past week. People shouldn't bother with thinking ecw is going to be the real ecw of the 90's.

)--> QUOTE( @ Jul 19 2006, 05:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I disagree. Look at Big Show going from jobber to beating Lesnar for the title in a couple of months. Someone like Doane can easily be transitioned. Blame the others for the fact they didn't win, then give him a US/IC push. Even with the rest, it'd only take a few wins for them to be ressurected. SS are jokes, but the individual wrestlers aren't. As has been said, they're interchangeable enough to get away with it. Big Show is 7 foot tall and a monster. Hardy's win came off like a fluke just as it did when he beat the other monster HHH for the IC title. It's not the same thing. You are right they are interchangeable enough to get away with pushing one of the guys by blaming the others for the failure of the group.

We all bitched and moaned about how he squashed people when he was a heel. We forget that this is NOTHING compared to how he squashes people as a face. Funny, but true SS is dead anyways. I mean this squashing by DX makes them look horrible. They can't beat two guys. In real life I would fire these guys not getting the "job" done What is also funny is that fans are buying DX destroying these guys. I mean you could actually buy DX beating these rookie lemmings.

It's quite simple. Vince got rid of Velocity and Heat and is using ecw's brand name power to replace it. There were rumours that ECW would be treated as AA, while Smackdown as AAA, and RAW as the majors. With that said, they did not have to make ecw the way it is now. RVD sure as hell didn't help the cause either. It's still early though, but my hopes aren't that high on this thing being any threat to raw or smackdown simply because it's Vince doing this.

If this were SummerSlam 2004 in Toronto how would you guys respond to the feud? I think the match is 2 years too late. Orton is a midcarder no matter how much they will try imo from now on. Well, if he faces Hogan he will job and rightfully so imo, but he'll get a nice pay day since Hogan will take the main event spot unless Vince has his way with Cena. Cena vs. Hogan in Boston in terms of crowd response would be the craziest thing yet. Cena should have the angle with Brooke and Hogan turns heel. They both are subpar artists, but damn if they couldn't work an angle out of it.

Hmm...I think Cena's position is better than it was around Mania though. The fans were REALLY wanting to see the man go down to HHH. Hell, he is partly responsible for HHH's face return. I think the wwe is booking him right at the moment as I said before. He didn't win the title last night to the delight of some fans, but he also did not go down in a fashion that dissapoints his fanbase. I also think it's helping Edge in many ways in becoming a real main event heel that was a threat to HHH heel. RVD actually got some scattering boos last night for being champion and also the night after he won the belt on RAW. Compare that to around Mania and it seems like Cena is slowly winning over some fans that detested him. Maybe that win over HHH has helped and perhaps HHH toning down his dominance in the last year is integral to the change of heart of some fans. Everyone's comments here are still valid though. His ringwork and size do not seem to fit him being super champion Hulk Hogan in the 80's. However, the wwe is booking him that way and I think if this were Hogan today the responses and feedback would be the same. I talked about the REAL old school heads and their disdain for Hogan. Everything being said here was said about Hogan and tenfold. However, I disagree that Hogan wasn't a good worker. The man has timing and can work the crowd. Look what he did to friggin Rock at WM 18. Ric Flair even comments that Hogan is under-rated for a big man wrestler by people. In his prime years his matches had that Mike Tyson 1980's type(or Muhammad Ali 1970's) of big time feel to it. I can't say anyone else has reached that level. The Rock and Austin only did a few times imo(against each other and Austin against Foley at OTE come to mind). Bruno attacked Hogan's WM 4 promo as an embarassment in 1988. He was blamed for having muscle men like Luger getting pushes over pure wrestlers like Backlund or Flair. However, Hogan did his job that was acquired of him. I'm not saying Cena is Hogan, Rock, or Austin, but who is? The wwe is building Cena in the blueprint of a traditional wwe babyface champion and I think that is what's getting some of the backlash. Anyone getting this push today might be getting the same problem. Austin was not this dominant as champion in 1988 as Vince was on his ass and he lost the title unlike the previous babyface world champs that reigned for months without any big losses. People were getting sick of Austin by 2000 though which even Austin admitted he wanted a change with the WM 17 turn. We know how that tanked at the box offfice although it was good creatively(for the most part anyways). I think for the most part Cena is too at the moment(a few months ago no way in hell). People were wanting a heel turn on the net and maybe so, but Vince might win this one out eventually in time for the movie release. Cena is also getting a real rivalry that is needed with Edge and ecw. The Rock had it originally with HHH and so on. That is perhaps why he is getting better reactions now.

I think Foley and Carlito was the jump the shark moment although Foley is nowhere close to Flair in terms of being a complete shell of himself. The idea for the ecw turn was a good one, but executed all wrong. The teaming with Edge is stupid too. Personally, take his former tag champion partners Rock or Austin in the role against ecw and now something would be cooking. Then again, maybe Austin would have to borrow Funk his kneebraces during the match.

Yeah, it was not ALL of Warrior's fault for the failed reign. I mean it is hard to top beating Hulk Hogan back then. Other problems were.... Warrior crushed Andre the Giant the year prior. Andre the friggin Giant even though he wasn't anything compared to even 1986 or 1987 at the time. He defeated Rude handedly and going back to the feud exactly a year later out of nowhere didn't help. The wwe also watered down Warrior by taking the full face paint off because they felt it scared off some of the kids. They brought in The Road Warriors with their face paint(some might say this is silly, but it took away some of Warrior's uniqueness as the orginals came aboard). Texas Tornado came in and he resembled Warrior too with the boots and add Warrior doing the poor man Hulk Hogan routine. I actually think around Royal Rumble they started to book the guy properly and he was getting over as champion, but they pulled the plug. He had a fresh fued with Sgt. Slaughter and there was a reason for fans to get behind him like they use to with the Iraq storyline. Warrior vs. Savage at WM 7 should have been the title match and even on the history of Mania DVD Vince tries to do revisionist history by saying it was a title match. What I think the wwe should have done with Warrior as champion is this. Mind you some of this were actual rumours at the time as well, but it never went this way. It's said Vince was talking to Ric Flair around WM 6 and he was going to be brought in along with a main event boxer. I can't remember his name right now exactly. Vince could have slowly built up a NWA invasion angle(in the fall of '90) where SID, Flair, Road Warriors, and Kerry Von Erich all came in to try to take over with Warrior not having Hulk Hogan on the roster due to being out of action. The fans would have got behind Warrior a lot more with this angle. They could have done the Warrior/Rude feud they way it went down, but blew it off on SNME and gone with Piper turning heel to face Warrior at SummerSlam. Piper turning heel was the rumour and possibly facing Warrior at WM 7. Anyways, if Piper turned heel and won the strap they were also thinking about Hogan/Piper at LA Colisuem in a battle of hollywood stars for the world title. If Warrior retained he should have then started a feud with Dibiase for the fall. Warrior vanquishes Dibiase and then battles Sgt. Slaughter on SNME and goes over him. All the time building Warrior up as the champion of the 90's going over guys like Piper and Slaughter who were big stars of the 80's and then run the Savage feud for Rumble or Mania. Now, this is hindisght, but I think Hulkamania was losing steam big time in 1991 anyways. If Vince really wanted to fill that arena with how things were going down then Russo style should have taken over and have HULK HOGAN turn on America and face Warrior in a rematch. Add in the 80's star being upset that he is no longer the man for the 90's and I'm sure they could have packed the LA Coliseum with heel Hulk Hogan against Ultimate Warrior or vice versa.

Rudo is completely right imo. You have to take things in context of the time of the event. Warrior was on Hogan's heels as a super champion in popularity, yet people are forgetting this. Magazines and people were saying Warrior was the wrestler of the 90's. Hogan was the "All-American" who could do no wrong and he bowed out gracefully by jobbing and handing the belt over. Warrior just bombed. Vince wanted Warrior as the new Hulk Hogan and that was the big problem. Warrior was doing a poor man Hulk Hogan routine with the shaking of the leg which was a copycat of Hogan's superman shake to end matches. The angle at the end of the match was Pat Patterson booked along with the camera shots. This is kayfabe heavy wwe we are talking about in the early 90's. Hogan and Warrior were booked as equals and that ending was suppose to set up Hogan/Warrior 2 at LA Coliseum where Hogan would return and win the title to retire. This was in our meda for crying out loud when Tunney use to leak storylines such as Hogan dropping the belt to Andre on NBC and Dibiase winning the title at Mania 4. Of course, they did them as rumours back in the day, but for the most part they leaked this stuff to Toronto sports departments. Warrior WAS BOMBING that is why they did the Hogan comeback angle. Vince was afraid that SummerSlam would not sell out and it would have made Warrior's reign look like a failure. This was covered even in TV Guide a bit that audiences were dropping and Warrior was getting booed in some arenas for beating Hogan. Hogan's interview could very well be Hogan trying to make himself look smart by knowing Warrior would bomb which he clearly didn't. It would make his comments about choosing the right man to carry the business look wrong with Warrior's failure on his resume. If you want a case about someone saboting someone's title reign after putting them over it's Bret Hart after WM 12. I quote "I feel betrayed everytime I lose that belt". He also kept bringing up the fact that he lost in overtime when it was clearly stated by Piper that there MUST BE A WINNER. The wwe did revisionist history on the HBK DVD by eliminating that statement by Piper during the promo. I have the original tape where Piper made the statement. Bret then went into a tirade about the company having the wrong representative for kids and whatnot and he was a friggin babyface champion even going so far as saying Vince made him wore out by wrestling all over the world, while HBK rested at home during the "collapse" angle. THAT IS SABOTAGING someone's reign after putting them over and he RETURNED and still ran down HBK by saying Austin was the #1 guy in the world.

Reading all these posts really does illustrate how great we had it in terms of seeing the evolution of the business and some of the greatest stars of all-time. No wonder the newer stars and storylines have it so hard to capture our imagination as before(some things just flat out suck though). I also do wonder if I just started watching as a kid now if I would have held interest all these years. I mean seeing stuff like Steamboat holding his throat after Savage crushing it will definitely leave a mark as a kid.

Agree!!! However, that interview sure as hell won't ease up Steve Austin's hesitation to face Hulk Hogan in a "battle of the biggest superstars ever" match at Mania at Ford Field imo. Hogan is basically saying he will do SOMETHING to save face even if he loses to make himself still look like the greatest and I think that is the big reservation Austin might have about doing the match. We saw what he did to The Rock although I saw the fans in my town turning on Rock for that match a mile away.

Well, I think ecw swallowing up smackdown and turning this into ecw vs. wwe might be the most profitable. At least more than this raw/smackdown deal because it would feel more like a brand war. However, Dangerous A is right about the networks and their wants. What I see happening or a possibility is this. Doesn't smackdown's contract end next year? Vince might have a plan b in case smackdown doesn't get picked up next year and have ecw as the back-up brand. Split smackdown's talent into raw and ecw and have Sci-Fi run ecw and the wwe won't lose anything because they already conditioned fans to Tuesday night with smackdown tapings and live on Sci-Fi(if that is the current plan). Just have ecw take over the touring that smackdown does now. Have Vince and Paul war over the ecw name and eliminate this brand split we have now. From a business perspective the brand split is not really making anymore money than before there was a split or even the same amount of viewers. The slow build of ecw returning and the wwe re-uniting can be the storyline that they are looking for to hook the masses. Of course, from a business perspective Stephanie Mcmahon would have been fired long time ago as head of creative and we know she still runs it. They need to get a fresh perspective at head and shake things up like this, but the chances are slim.

Agree completely. I just hope this time they can actually capitalize. There is some good going on. For how long and when will Vince stop hogging spotlight time from his stars is the real question.

Vince does this during Holy Week? Hawk 34 I wouldn't be surprised if the time is near especially with all those roids.

Love the Voltron avatar!

Okay, I see exactly what you are saying. However, Austin/Hart's situation was unique at the time. All I'm saying is that the wwe has a nuique situation here that has not really been explored before. If they go right into traditional booking it will take away the dynamic they have right now. If they do it exactly the same the sting would be gone. People expected and it's even rumoured that some staff wanted the double turn at Mania. The problem is that fans would probably start backing Cena after a month and start booing HHH again. It would also have been expected because that was the exact same booking of Austin/Bret. Now, they have people wondering if Cena is going to continue to be superman or turn heel and suspecting if Edge or HHH will take the title and defend against RVD at the ecw ppv. If HHH had just won the title and then be put into an RVD feud it would all feel like deja vu. If rumours are to be believed then I kind of understand where Vince is coming from by booking things like they are now. People always complain the wwe does the same old thing and even in this thread I think I remember someone saying the wwe always falls into the good guy/bad guy stigma which is boring or stale. Vince supposedly is taking a different route with Cena because this situation is different. Cena had people chanting "Let's go Shelton" a few weeks back for crying out loud. Shelton for all the gimmicks they are putting on the guy hasn't got that kind of response since. I just think they have to think outside the box with Cena in this instance. Of course, you are 100% right about this company not doing things with subtletly, but they did play it safe at Mania because they booked Cena to win like a babyface, yet also had them playing the crowd in HHH's favour in case the inevitable heel heat Cena got came into play. If the crowd was a pro-Cena it would have worked. Reports say the street fight rematch at a house show had Cena getting babyface pops. This is just flat out strange and I don't think they should do the normal booking because it may just kill the heat they are getting with Cena at the moment. There has to be a climax sometime soon, but I don't think having him job out to HHH and depsuhed will help anybody in the big picture. The fan reaction is a battle in the arena and they could build off that like the monday night war of wcw fans against wwe fans. I really think doing the predictable thing will just kill the title heat right now. The hardcore fans aren't going to go anywhere because they will want to see Cena get his comeuppance. Cena is still selling the most merchandise despite all of this. When Hogan was getting booed in wcw in 1995 this did not happen. The same with HBK in 1996. If the rumour is true with Vince for the first time in a long time he is trying to do something that has not been done. Will it work? Who knows? but it's better than giving the fans HHH winning the title at Mania with the happy ending and going back 2 years to the same old thing. Cena/Vince actually got over a million people to tune in after HHH lost a whole bunch of viewers with his promo/video package. Cena has tremondous heat and Vince knows it.

Very true about pissing off the ecw fans and even wwe fans. That is something they got to be careful about. However, consider this as well............ --We don't know for sure future ecw ppv shows wouldn't draw a dime. This is like saying after WM 16, WM wouldn't draw a dime because the heel won. Obviously, that was not the case as they drew an even bigger buy-rate the following year. They don't have to put RVD/Cena in the last spot. They could put a more traditional ecw main event such as Cactus Jack against Terry Funk. Cena against an ecw alumni isn't really ecw and niether is RVD winning a WWE Title. The point of having the WWE Title at the show is to get wwe fans to purchase the event just like they did incorporating the wwe stars in last year's event. The RVD/Cena feud doesn't have to end at the ecw ppv as they will try to draw traditional ecw fans into the wwe feud of RVD/Cena. --I don't think they have to worry about future ECW dvd products selling because they are actual real ecw events instead of the wwe endorsed events. That is the main selling point about those kind of DVDs. --Vince really has the last say about ECW because he OWNS it and he would just sue the workers for not doing the show. Heyman also knows doing these ecw events are a way to preserve his baby that he created. --RVD's career being killed is a potential hazard I completely agree. This would be the best time to have RVD win the belt. However, who does the wwe have more money and time invested in? You brought up HBK and Bulldog's match which is a good comparison. I don't really like the idea of RVD getting screwed up or over even more, but in the long term the wwe had time and money invested in HBK. It led to that nasty fall out in Montreal a couple of months later. I see Vince looking at Cena in the same fashion. --RIOT Yes, they better get security for Cena! --It will alienate fans even more and that is exactly what Cena is doing right now. A major reason why he's getting booed because his gimmick is a "thug" and "gangster", he talks tough, but yet he acts like a choir boy...the majority of his remaining fanbase is little kids who buy all his stuff and females who idolize him because they want to f*** him. most grown men (the most populous, vocal portion of fans usually) are sick of this goody two shoes sissy. he needs to get vicious, get on the mic and FIGHT BACK. ATTACK THE FANS. Do it, John. "Y'all turned on me...so the Chain Gang can kiss my ass!!!!" thats all you have to say, and instantly, the character is interesting again. Right now, when people are booing him, its like theyre daring him to break character and tell them off and act badass again, and he just wont do it, and that in turn makes people more angry. I think that is where Vince is going with Cena. HHH was bad enough for wwe wrestling fans at friggin WRESTLEMANIA. He is still booked as a face and now they want him to go into ecw turf and defend against RVD who has been held down for YEARS? That is a boiling powder keg ready to explode. --I agree about having a hard time believing HHH will sit idly by and watch Cena take over the top heel spot, but if he is smart he would let it happen. HHH can already get out of the other job by having Edge get pinned at Backlash. I would actually send HHH to smackdown, but I know that aint happening. I also know they are spinnning the boos with the "traditional fans" angle. It's the same type of thing they did with Austin and Bret in 1997 when they couldn't grasp why fans were cheering Austin instead of Bret when they were booking Hart as a babyface. It eventually led to Hart being a unique heel in America and a face everywhere else. The spinning tells me they have something planned for the character to change.

So why is Vince using this "traditionalist fan" angle? Hogan had the same detractors in 1984 and 1985 where it led to the AWA and NWA holding supershows to stop the circus of the wwf and have "traditional wrestling". Why are there now rumours of John Cena defending the WWE title against Rob Van Damn at an ECW show of all places instead of Triple H? If Cena goes over RVD at an ECW show he would have gone over RVD and HHH this year and both guys are a great representative of the attitude and ecw era. We may not like it, but I can see Vince thinking along these lines by keeping the kids and girls screaming for Cena and then turn the guy officially heel at ECW's show or the RAW after. He'll be more hated then HHH has been legitimately by the casuals since 2002-2003.

Great thread and it has a lot of valid points. I'll jump in with another version of what is happening here. This John Cena stuff may actually be deliberate now imo, but then again it is wwe creative we are talking about here. I think after Cena won the strap again at The Royal Rumble the wwe changed gears in how they are presenting him. It is now in synergy with the crowd. His promo last night and the night after the Royal Rumble proves this. He has acknowledged the "haters", yet he is "riding" for his chain gang. As been said, Vince is having his cake and eating it too and I remember someone in the forums admitting that Cena should continue doing exactly what he is doing a few weeks back because the man has the most heat in all of the wwe. At WrestleMania, JR started calling Cena an unorthodox champion and not a traditional wrestling champion. Cena is not doing all the wigger stuff as before and the wwe is now admitting he is not a great wrestler holding the strap like past champions. The wwe has re-molded Cena's character somewhat and it is working exactly how they are expecting it at the moment with the traditional fans booing the hell out of the guy and younger kids and females squealing for him. This is just a very odd situation. I'm also wondering why they didn't turn him heel or even do the Austin/Bret scenario from WM 13. Then I thought about Austin's heel turn tanking with turning Austin fans away and maybe the wwe is thinking that will happen with the newer fans and female fans. I'm just thinking about WM XX and the promo about "Where it all begins...again". At 21 the wwe had Cena and Batista win the titles to start off the 3rd generation of the event. If we look at the big picutre and history I think this might be happening here. In 1984, Hulk Hogan was massively popular and Vince jumped right on it by having him win the title quickly upon his return to the fed. It worked in a tremondous angle, but it may have truly worked because of kayfabe and fans not being that "smart" as today. Hogan was not a "traditional" champion compared to someone like Ric Flair in the NWA or even Bob Backlund, but he was loved by the younger generation and females for his morality. Then in 1990, a year after breaking kayfabe the wwe wanted to start another big boom era with Ultimate Warrior dethroning Hulk Hogan. Ulitmate Warrior did actually rival Hogan in terms of popularity in 1989 and 1990. However, Warrior won the strap and got boos in some arenas across the country. Instead of sticking with Ultimate Warrior and allowing him to prove he should be champion he lost the title to an older Sgt. Slaughter and Hogan regained the belt. Warrior's chances of being the heir apparent were over before it really began. It's a little more complex, but that's the bottom line with that one. Suppose the wwe had stuck with Warrior and got the same kind of vibe today with Cena? Warrior would probably not be seen as a flash in the pan wwe champion. Who knows? The thing some forget is that Hogan was given time to grow into the top babyface champion. He did not come out gangbusters at the gate in 1984 as revisionist history prcolaims, but it did usher in a new era. The wwe just hit rock bottom after giving up on Warrior and brought in Sid. We know what happened there. The wwf tried the "new generation" campaign with Diesel, but had him copy Hogan in terms of the babyface character and even "dieseled" up from time to time and he got boos as well. However, eventually Diesel did get over and by the time he went to wcw with his character down pat the guy was a huge draw and mainstay in the nWo. By the time Diesel left the company the wwe had created Diesel to a level where the fans would have respected and accepted him as WWE Champion. The wwf jumped to HBK with the strap as the leader of the new generation and he also got mixed reactions, but look at how he is viewed now. It took HBK two years to really find his character as WWE Champion when he passed the torch to Austin the rightful owner of the crown at WM 14. The problem was the wwe gave up on HBK in 1996 when it was kind of obvious he was the "showstopper" for that generation. It was Bret Hart fans and fans of that nature that didn't like his style that booed him as champion. He didn't fit the traditional champion with the more flashy Mexican style, but he did get to the main event by his popularity before the fans had turned on him. The wwf found naturals sort of like Hogan in Rock and Austin, so we'll skip that timeframe. The next guy who got the heat from fans was....HHH. Rick Scaia has archives ripping on the guy about being premature as champion in 1999. However, the wwf knew from the popularity he got in DX that he was a future main eventer and worker. However, the heat grew on HHH going over Austin at No Mercy I believe. The wwe hotshotted and hurt HHH's reigns early in his career. It's when HHH got balanced with the title and feuded with Foley did he start to find his groove as champion and we know how things went after that. I just think the wwe MIGHT be learning from the past and that is why they are not turning Cena heel just YET or even taking the title REALLY off him(not that 3 week thing with Edge). Cena did prove himself to get over as US Champion. The wwe even built up a good angle for Cena to topple JBL as champion last year. Similar to the wwe creating a great angle for Diesel to "usher" in the new generation in 1995(although it started with Bret's run). I just think the wwe knows sometimes the fans are fickle and eventually will settle on having Cena as a heel or face. Another thing is this. Hulk Hogan was getting boos in wcw in 1994, but it took wcw until 1996 to turn him heel and eventually that created a situation where fans BOUGHT the heel turn so much that it ushered in a new era. I think the wwe is using this with Cena at the moment. They don't got to offically turn him heel yet, because he is already the top heel to wrestling fans wearing the strap. It's when his merchandise stops selling and movie bombs the trigger might be pulled and if he STILL wears the belt at that time the wwe will have a gold mine imo with all fans wanting the strap off Cena. Then in kayfabe terms Cena will have solidifed his championship status and also in the eyes of the younger generation and females have turned his back on them. This is Hulk Hogan 1996 formula at work here. I could be wrong, but I think the wwe is onto something here with Cena. Cena vs. RVD at an ECW event would really be off the radar. Cena also having faces and heels all going for him would be something completely new in wrestling and IT WOULD WORK because of the dynamics expressed already with him pleasing his fans and outraging real wrestling fans. I mean in another thread it says Vince is determined to stick it to the defiant fans with Cena's reign by keeping him face for now and then really turning it up a notch by turning him heel in the summer. The wwe might have the powder keg to get the casuals back with this one just as I said a couple of months ago.

I know. I remember the guys at LAW radio saying Rock got bamboozled by Hogan with his antics and was the younger and more naive legend compared to Austin. They believed Austin would have countered Hogan's babyface antics in the match. I swear Rock/Cena and Hogan/Austin can sell the stadium. If Cena continues to have this nuclear heat and The Rock returns the fans are going to go apeshit to see him dethrone Cena. I also got the impression that Hogan kind of no-sold the Austin/Hogan chants at the HOF, but it could be to not upstage Bret as well. Who knows? A year from now things could be very different for real. Look at WM 13 compared to the heat and anticpation of WM 14 or WM 2 compared to WM 3.

At the time believe it or not I thought she was in there to turn Austin heel. I really did believe Austin was going to turn heel at the event. I thought Debra would have got involved and Austin would even stun her on his way to the title. The reason I believed Austin was going to turn heel was the HHH match and the constant going over the edge and JR saying Austin was changing. I think the crowd MIGHT have turned on Austin in that scenario. Austin is Hogan-like where you can really tell the reaction because they are so markish for him myself included at the time. I loved that beating he put on The Rock and I liked both guys.