Austin is GONE for good

[Guest]

Well after Confidential I think its pretty clear that Austin will not be on WWE television. Yeah I am going to miss him for he did a lot for the business and had soo many awesome matches but face it Austin is a A--HOLE! I felt kinda sorry for JR for having to confront the issue as austin's friend and as head of talent department. Face it though, business is business, Austin doesn't deserve another shot to walk out when things get tough. I admit things arent the best now, in fact some stuff just plain SUCKS but walking out isnt the way to solve it. I agree the booking has sucked the past few months, austin is right about that. But to walk out on all his fans, basically spitting on all of us who paid money to see him in action, to make him rich, disgusts me. I hope this means a good push for RVD, Eddie G, Edge, and Lesner, the young stars who deserve it. Austin is a baby and thats all there is too it. When WCW was on its final days, you didnt see everyone walk out on a show, at least even if the show was going suck they went out and tried. Now that things suck, austin can't stand it so he runs away. What a low life looser. I was once a great austin fan too, this truly is just sad. The saddest part being that its not fake either, this isnt some story or at least its doesnt seem like it at all. Austin can go to hell.

[Guest bob_barron]

As someone who paid $57 to see Austin headline a house show and he walks out-

 

I agree. Fuck Austin.

[Guest]

This is totally off topic, but the picture of Hogan in your signatures looks like he's carrying the mangled, bloodied corpse of Sesame Street's Big Bird around his shoulders.

 

Anyway: Austin.

 

It's funny looking at these posts on this board.  Some have topics to the effect of "Yep, Austin's really gone" and others are saying "It's an elaborate work."  The really funny part is everyone is reaching these different conclusions by looking at the same material--Confidential.

 

Ah well.  I'm really in between on the whole Austin thing.  He's not one of my favorites, even though I enjoy watching him (uh, when he shows up).  Like a lot of people I'd like to see some new people pushed to the top, and if Austin's departures makes that happen, so be it.

 

jester

[Guest]

What mostly pisses me off about all of this is that people are trying to justify Austin's actions with lame excuses like 'the booking sucks' or 'its the Kliq's fault'. Wake up. Austin is just a selfish ass. HE is just being a baby because he is not getting his way. IF Austin was mature, he would talk all of this over with VInce and not just walk out of his job. At any other job, he would be fired, and hopefully Vince will do just that.

[Guest art_vandelay]

Nobody in wrestling is ever gone for good.  He'll be back in some form, but after watching Confidential, I do believe that he will not be back for some time.

 

Say what you will about his decision, but the guy entertained me for years and for that, I can't help but feel saddened and disappointed.

[Guest]

I'll disagree.  The piss poor writing from the creative team drove Austin to QUIT.  It had to be pretty damn bad, considering the crap he went through in WCW, and the more recent crap he's been through w/WWE.  He was demoted to midcard hell feuding with Xpac, all the while HHH and Undertaker are headlining PPV's.  Sorry.  Doesn't work that way.  You're most over guy gets pushed at the top.  Xpac got his way, Austin doesn't?  BFD anyways.  

Bottom line is, the shitty booking ran off Steve Austin, ran off Mick Foley, and Rock will probably never be back because of smart ass Shawn Michaels--which was again a creative team problem for letting him say his garbage.  Austin, Foley, Rock.  All gone.  All for the same reason.  The creative team.  When will they accept even the SLIGHTEST bit of blame?  They are yet to.  Jericho has taken the blame.  So has Angle.  HHH hasn't.  Taker hasn't.  In Vince's useless eyes, his Creative Team can do no wrong, because its his daughter.  And Gerwitz is surgically attached to his ass because VINCE finds his brand of "ha ha" to be bustnut hilarious, although the fans don't.  Vince is the one with the problem.  He's like an alocholic.  You can't FIX your problem until you admit to yourself that you HAVE a problem.  

Its funny it takes something this drastic for them to push a new star.  This is probably the best thing that could've happened.  This FORCES Vince to elevate new people.  God knows he wouldn't have done it otherwise.  Only problem is, he won't push who the FANS want, he pushes who HE wants.  SO, he's going to push a grass green Goldberg ripoff, who gets no crowd response whatsoever, and is literally lost in a match longer than 3 minutes.  Vince is also a racist, which is why Booker T will not be pushed seriously.  Vince also hates legitimate sports, because they shun him, which is why ANGLE will never be seriously pushed.  Nor D-Lo, because of an accident, nor Eddy(racist), RVD(not home grown talent), nor Benoit(not 6' 9", still hates Hart).  So, Vince now will elevate his boring Muscleheads.  Where's my Kleenexes!??!?  I'm creamin' my pants in anticipation for HHH vs. Lesnar.  Bob Holly vs. Lesnar.  Test vs. HHH part 90.  Xpac vs. Test.  Kevin Nash vs. Undertaker.  Nash vs. Holly.  Nash vs. Test.  Oh joy.  Vince is an ass, and HE is the one that needs to retire and walk out.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

Damnit, HHH's 'Roid Needle. You said exactly what I wanted to. Needless to say, I agree.

[Guest]

I see your point, but why couldn't Austin be a little more mature about it and talk it over with Vince before taking off? ALso, I can see your point in the stupidity of Austin being in the midcard more than the main event, but, lets face it, Austin is nearly done. HE is a accident ready to happen. Don't you think that Austin should put over newer people on his way out? DOn't you think that that would benifit the company?

I know that the booking is real bad, and that is because Vince is convinced that Steph can do no wrong. But does that really give Austin an excuse to walk out on his job?

[Guest]

CanadianChick, you're partially right.  Problem is, Austin HAS spoken with Vince about this, and nothing was done to correct the problem.  You're right, Austin IS in the last 2 years of his career, so his job SHOULD be to start putting over new talent(unlike Taker, Nash), BUT, it should be a HUGE, MAJOR, GIGANTIC EVENT!!  Austin vs. Lesnar should headline WRESLTEMANIA!  It shouldn't be just a throwaway match on Raw, used as a crutch, simply because Stephanie and Co cannot create a compelling storyline.  Austin's biggest complaint, apparently, was that the match should not just be hotshotted to put a band-aid on the bleeding, gaping asshole that is the WWE Creative Team.

[Guest]

I agree with Austins sentiment about the Lesner issue IF it the match was going to have a clean finish. But if it was going to be a screw job finish, which it probably would be, I don't think that any harm would be done. But if WWE wanted this to be a huge match, I agree, the proper buildup would be nessesary. BUt i just think that this match was just to further a couple story lines (Austin vs. Flair maybe), not to be a huge history changing match/

[Guest godthedog]

i think the saddest part about this is that now austin doesn't do the big job & pass the torch.  i'm willing to bet that he really wanted to do that too, cause the man loves the business enough to come back from career-ending injuries & no ligaments in his knees.

 

confidential pissed me off because all the wwF did was bury the fuck out of austin.  i started watching it on vince's side and ended up hating vince more than i did before.  in particular, the part about austin being 'an investment', talking about him as if he was a young prospect that hadn't made good on the investment yet.  how can he talk about austin being an investment and losing money on his investment when the man made him richer than he's ever been?  and since when has austin been the most demanding man vince has ever worked with?  this from the man who dealt with hogan, bret and michaels?  bullshit.

 

vince wanted to use his tv time to get cheap shots in on steve austin, just like he did with bret.  this is worse than the one-liner that shawn threw out against the rock on raw.  it was premeditated, intentional, & it went on for almost 45 minutes.  vince has some much bigger issues to deal with than steve williams, in my opinion.

[Guest]

and since when has austin been the most demanding man vince has ever worked with?  this from the man who dealt with hogan, bret and michaels?  bullshit.

YEah, I thought it was kind of weird that Vince would say that. To me, until recently, I never heard of anything regarding Austin being hard to deal with. Really, we hear practically daily reports on the egos of a lot of stars (HHH, Micheals, ...) but never really on Austin. BUt I don't think we can pass judgement becasue we don't really know exactly what goes on beackstage. We can speculate, but never know for sure/

[Guest El Satanico]

It had to be pretty damn bad, considering the crap he went through in WCW, and the more recent crap he's been through w/WWE.  

Well i think Austin's age and stage of his career played into him drawing the line here.

 

When he was dealing with the WCW stuff he was still in his prime and had many years left so of course he would battle through anything.

 

But now Austin is in the twilight of his career only has a hand full of actual good years left. He now has a comfortable life, plenty of money, good health and teen daughters. He has nothing to gain now that would make him fight through shit now. He doesn't have to deal with shit now so why should he.

 

 

As far as the "but you bitched about Hogan doing this" argument. Well the main difference is that Hogan had no reason at all to pull shit in WCW. As long as Bischoff or his people were around Hogan was always in high level stories. Also Hogan made something like 5 mill a year and had total control of what he did and when he worked. Hogan had no room to bitch about anything.

 

I'm not saying Austin was right for doing it but he had more room to bitch then Hogan ever had in wcw.

[Guest chirs3]

ran off Mick Foley

 

Bad booking ran off Mick Foley? Or did you just mean from WCW?

 

Anyway...

 

There is no way to blame Austin's actions on the writing team. JR said it best tonight, on Confidential:

 

I've had pig shit poured on me... I've kissed Vince McMahon's ass... I've been beaten up by a woman... but I put up with it, and we all did our part, because we wanted to entertain the fans.

 

There's no one to blame but Austin.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

Austin sure picks his spots when it comes to complaining about the booking/writing doesn't he? He complains about how they want to give away Austin vs. Lesnar, but did he have anything to say about Rock/Austin vs. nWo? (a match that could have headlined a PPV). Of course not, because Rock was doing the clean job to Hogan there. Same with all his TV matches with Angle that could be PPV mains. As for his character and the storylines, Austin sure didn't mind The Ministry, The Greater Power, and other such Russo crap, why, because he was the center of attention and winning all the big matches.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

It's pretty lame to take sides with one side just because you only heard one side of the story. Of course Vince McMahon wants people on his side, he even had the sad music in the background while he was talking. You have to listen to everyone's side before you judge someone.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

SO, he's going to push a grass green Goldberg ripoff, who gets no crowd response whatsoever, and is literally lost in a match longer than 3 minutes.

Austin vs. Lesnar should headline WRESLTEMANIA!

 

But wait a second, first you slam Lesnar, and then say he ought to be Steve Austin's WrestleMania opponent. What the hell? Make up your mind!

 

Also, I like the line about Vince being a racist. That perfectly explains why he pays a huge black man we call Mark Henry being paid much more money than he'll ever be worth and getting a push he doesn't have the skills to deliver on.

 

Sorry, I don't think skin color is reason alone to doubt they'll push Booker. Perhaps he'll become a victim of The Blame Game like Angle and Jericho, but if he does then they have NOBODY to make a star out of who doesn't need either a gimmick change (Guererro) or some serious mic work training (RVD).

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

Heh, we should all call up Byte This this week and tell them how much Austin sucks and that we never wanna see him again. It'd be fun!

 

But seriously, I don't care. The WWE is history.

[Guest Raven_Effect01]

It's pretty lame to take sides with one side just because you only heard one side of the story. Of course Vince McMahon wants people on his side, he even had the sad music in the background while he was talking. You have to listen to everyone's side before you judge someone.

Then I guess we'll have to try to hear Austin's side of the situation later on in some internet interview to judge who's right and wrong about the incident.

[Guest WWF4Life]

But seriously, I don't care. The WWE is history.

Yeah, of course it is, because last time they lost Austin for 10 months, they went bankrupt.

 

Oh wait, it was one of the most successful periods in history for the company. Moron.

[Guest Black Tiger]

When he was in ECW he had no problem bashing WCW for not pushing the younger guys and how it was time for the older guys to move on.

 

Seven years later its time for Austin to move on and he won't let younger guys go over him clean. Angle beat him with the rope bullshit, Jericho beat him thanks to Angle, Jericho beat him again thanks to the nWo.

 

I can respect what he did for WWE and the business in general, but at the same time, there is a reason its called PROFESSIONAL wrestling.

 

Austin put up with the ministry, higher power, DX, and all that Russo shit for one reason, he was the company's top draw, never lost a clean match and was the #1 guy at that point.

 

When Austin came back in 2000 you could tell it wasn't the same guy we all loved. WWE knew that and after giving him one last run at the top, they decided it was time for him to pass the torch. Its time for the Eddys, RVDs, Edges, and Angles to have the spotlight.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

But seriously, I don't care. The WWE is history.

Yeah, of course it is, because last time they lost Austin for 10 months, they went bankrupt.

 

Oh wait, it was one of the most successful periods in history for the company. Moron.

Ineed, but I wasn't talking about just Austin. I don't give two flying fucks about him.

 

But I mean in general, the supression of talent by HHH and the loss of The Rock which draws a lot of the non-IWC, equaling money) has hurt the WWE severely. Unless they learn from their mistakes, they're in for some trouble.

 

In other words: Fuck Austin, but at least the WWE should push someone *coughcough*RVD*coughcough* who is as over as Austin once was.

[Guest WWF4Life]

Hey, I agree that WWE needs to elevate more people, and this is a good opportunity to do just that. I'm not going to get into a debate regarding the whole 'Triple H is suppressing talent' theory, because I'm bored with that. However, the drawing power of The Rock is questionable, so I don't think he's had that much of an effect. The question of who they elevate is important, but Van Dam isn't the right guy for the job.

[Guest bcu1979]

The creative team.  When will they accept even the SLIGHTEST bit of blame?  They are yet to.  Jericho has taken the blame.  So has Angle.  HHH hasn't.  Taker hasn't.  In Vince's useless eyes, his Creative Team can do no wrong, because its his daughter.  And Gerwitz is surgically attached to his ass because VINCE finds his brand of "ha ha" to be bustnut hilarious, although the fans don't.  Vince is the one with the problem.  He's like an alocholic.  You can't FIX your problem until you admit to yourself that you HAVE a problem.  

I agree with your entire post, but that last comment hit the bullseye. We all can complain as much as we want about how bad the current product is. Ratings, buyrates, attendance and merchandise sales can all plummet. But until Vince wakes up and sees what the real problem is, there are not going to be any changes.

 

And judging by his comments on Byte This last week and the "new" storylines created this past week on tv, Vince still doesn't have a clue what the WWE's problem is.

[Guest Austin3164life]

I agree totally with Triple H's needle, and yes I am a diehard Austin mark from nice times to tough times.  People on this board keep saying "Why couldn't he talk to the creative team?".  Don't you remember after Wrestlemania where he walked out because he was booked in an idiotic feud with Scott Hall and the nWo, which I'm sure Vince knows Austin hates.  So, Austin had his match at WM.  When he came back, he obviously talked to the Creative Team, and they promised him a valuable storyline.  What do we get?  Austin teaming with Bradshaw the Hoss against the nWold (WHO SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN BROUGHT IN).  Is that a program in which the fans, and Austin himself would want to be in.  OH HELL NO!  Now, we have the reunification of the Clique (almost), and we have a broken HBK coming back and talking A LOT of shit about Steve Austin's legacy, and also taking a shot at The Rock.  How would that NOT make a man quit his own company?

 

One thing that sickens me about the whole story is that all the "smart" marks now complain because Austin wouldn't comply with his job requirements.  He already did when he was pissed off the first time.  He came back, worked the GOD-AWFUL program (which was obviously a punishment), and in the end, was booked in another STUPID Employee/Owner feud.  I'm sorry, but if THIS is what it takes for Vince to get his fat head out of his ass, so be it.  This is the same shit that forced Bret Hart to hate the company, and thus lead to Vince screwing him out.  Same thing that forced Foley to PUBLICLY denounce the product (almost), and leave.  The Rock is on a movie set probably thinking "who the fuck is Shawn Michaels to take shots at me?".  

 

Austin is justifiably right in his quitting the WWE, because it's turning into a hell hole, when it used to be an organization that demanded a legacy.  All I have to say is, a huge thanks to Steve Austin, who (I feel ) is the greatest Champion this sport has ever known.......

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

Hey, I agree that WWE needs to elevate more people, and this is a good opportunity to do just that. I'm not going to get into a debate regarding the whole 'Triple H is suppressing talent' theory, because I'm bored with that. However, the drawing power of The Rock is questionable, so I don't think he's had that much of an effect. The question of who they elevate is important, but Van Dam isn't the right guy for the job.

Bumping RVD for me was a personal opinion, which might be affected due to me being an RVD mark.

 

But if one person should fill Austin's role, then it needs to be Booker T. Book's gotta face turn coming up, there's a whole there, and slowly, we should maybe move him up there.

 

But for now, Flair will suffice. And I'm amazed that even at his age, he's pulling out great matches from all kinds of people.

 

Flair, to me, is a keeper. He can still be used pretty damn well, and if Bischoff appears, I wouldn't be surprised to see him join with Eric and Heyman join Vince.

[Guest]

ran off Mick Foley

 

Bad booking ran off Mick Foley? Or did you just mean from WCW?

Isn't bad booking the reason Foley left the WWF again? He asked for his release so he didn't have to be tied to the WWF, because they had nothing good for him to do anyway.

 

And they sure gave him a crappy send off, too.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

I don't remember, but I do not recall that as the reason why.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

", the drawing power of The Rock is questionable, so I don't think he's had that much of an effect."

 

You must be joking.

 

1. Many of the WWE's highest profit PPVs involve the Rock in a major role (WMX8,X7,2000,15,etc.).

 

2. Most of the highest rated RAWs ever involve the Rock, as well as the highest rated segment ever (Rock-Foley).

 

3. Rock sells enormous amounts of merchandise.

 

4. He's made more money for WWE than anyone but possibly Hogan and Austin (they are 1-2-3 in some undetermined order).

 

I can probably come up with several more.

[Guest bob_barron]

Great champions don't quit when the going starts to get tough and they suddenly dont get what they want.