Original subtitles

It's Stone Cold Steve Austin versus The Rock for the world title.

There can be only one.

His popularity was so strong. And honestly, it was so

infectious because it motivated me and drove me.

It's what I wanted.

Rock came up so fast and it's just the complete opposite of Steve.

There was competition.

There's only one number one spot.

I'm going to take it.

We were rivals because he was trying to get the top. I was the top.

I was determined to stay on top.

This rivalry has just escalated into a war.

When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the greatest

of all time.

I'm Freddie Prinze Jr.

And this is WWE Rivals.

The greatest book ever written is the one titled The Rock vs.

Stone Cold.

And Stone Cold Steve Austin, two of the most popular WWE superstars in sports

entertainment history.

In my mind, the two biggest draws of all time. All due respect to Bruno, to

Hulk, and Flair, and all the guys that came along that drew a lot of money.

These two guys were the hottest two guys. We did more ratings.

And it was the first time that wrestlers became megastars in all of society.

The Rock laid the smackdown on all their candy asses.

They were able to transcend into pop culture. You literally were making fun

wrestling yesterday, but then you come into school with a 316 shirt.

With my cousin Dwayne The Rock.

He's so casual. My cousin Dwayne The Rock. I guess.

He speaks about Stone Cold, and he speaks about...

the way that they performed in front of the audience. I mean, he has this bond

and this connection with him that it does, it chokes him up every single time

starts to talk about it.

This Austin Rock confrontation will be great rivalries of all time. It's Ali

Frazier. It's the Lakers and the Celtics.

It had so much longevity.

There was so much electricity.

It's amazing to me because on TV, I never saw two people hate each other

It took me a while to find out who I was in the business.

It turns out that who I was in the business was me at a highly competitive

level. All I did was up the intensity.

From a Stone Cold character standpoint, nothing was handed to him. He had to

work his ass off for every single thing.

Give me a hell yeah!

because Stone Cold, we're going to crash the party anytime I want to.

The Stone Cold character defined the era, defined the times of a more

rebellious attitude all over the world.

You can kiss my ass.

You got a guy like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

On the ascension, on the rise, here I was over here.

My first couple of years in the business, I didn't know if I was going

it. No one knows.

I don't remember the first time I met Dwayne like where it was.

I remember seeing him though.

Now there's going to be the man right there. That blue chipper right there.

6 '5", 6 '4", whatever he is. Probably already 275 back in.

But you could see the gimmick was wrong.

I know I've got a lot to learn here in the World Wrestling Federation, but with

your support and the great people of the World Wrestling Federation behind me, I

believe Rocky Maivia can accomplish anything.

He was so stereotypical in his delivery of his promos, the content of his

promos.

I'm going to do the best that I can do.

Thank you.

And I'll make you and all my fans proud.

Steve was kind of already breaking the mold of what you'd expect to see on WWE

television as far as language and mannerisms.

Austin 316 says I just whipped your ass.

People were clamoring for Austin.

So Rocky almost became like the, well, no, this is the guy we don't want.

You've kind of gone through a little change here in our sport of professional

wrestling, you know, with the fans and how they perceive certain guys.

And whether or not they smile or whether they use the word ass like it's going

out of style.

It ain't nothing on my mind, but whipping anybody's ass, it gets in my

Steve Austin does what he wants, what he wants.

Steve's impact and the reason why he was so successful is because he was

authentic.

You can rest assured and bet your bottom dollar that Rocky Maivia will always

give 110%. That's why I am the Intercontinental Champion.

Here I was, this guy who was happy and happy to be there even when I lost.

Fans can see through that. If you're not authentic, then you're done.

That's when they became visceral, and basically you're fully... Rocky sucks!

Rocky sucks!

Rocky sucks!

Rocky sucks!

The crowd started yelling to him, die, Rocky, die.

When you try to be a baby -facing good guy, someone's telling you, hey, you.

Not good, right?

Rock had injured his knee and had been out for a little while, and the question

came up, God, you bring him back.

What do you do with him?

We had a faction at the time, the Nation of Domination.

Hmm.

There's The Rock. Great to see The Rock back.

What's he doing in the ring?

Checking on the referee to make sure he's okay.

Look at that!

What? Wait a minute.

I remember getting a phone call from Jim Ross, and he said, how do you feel

about joining the Nation of Domination? And we're going to turn you into a bad

guy. You're going to become a heel. How do you feel about that? I said, I love

it.

What?

Whoa!

The Nation of Domination was a group that was really anti -establishment at

time as well, but more anti -the audience.

In many ways.

Audiences crapping on Rocky Maivia.

Well, Rocky came back and crapped on the audience.

In return.

I got three words.

Die, Rocky, die.

That's the gratitude I get from you pieces of crap.

I believed in the guy.

Looks, size, rap, charisma, ability.

I knew he had all those things.

I was just able to be authentic.

You're not a character. It's exactly who you are, just with the volume turned

way up.

Rocky took it and ran with it.

And people viewed him as this cocky, arrogant person.

As a human being, he wasn't. But he would walk into a room and own it.

It's interesting when you look at the two characters, because they were both

rebellious, they were both anti.

And when the two come together, it's like, all right, this is beautiful

In the fourth quarter of 1997.

That was really, really an exciting time.

Ladies and gentlemen, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And we're looking for bad guys who Stone Cold can work with.

The nation comes out.

And all of us are standing at the top of the stage. And Steve basically says,

All you got to do is bring your ass to the ring or any one of them people up

there. I'll stomp a mud hole in you and walk you dry.

Everyone's arguing who's going to go. And then finally it's decided.

The Rock is going to run down there.

Steve and I had never had a wrestling match before.

So all this was.

To just see, is there anything?

And when you watch the audience reaction.

Stone Cold, Stone Rocky, my idea, out of his boot.

There's something there.

Stone Cold through the crowd.

It was a palpable buzz in that arena.

A moment like that between Rock and Austin is really confirming who you need

put your time and effort into, and it tells you what's working and what's not.

Seeing Rock and Austin collide for the first time, this is going to be special.

If anybody wants to see Rocky Maivia get his ass whipped, give me a hell yeah!

That's about what I thought.

The last thing The Rock needs is some jabroni asking him questions when he's

all the answers.

You have to appreciate the growth, right? The story. Who Rock was before.

He didn't quite know as a fan that he had the level of talent that he

later in his career.

Come on in here, Hulk Hogan.

Dwayne with...

Doing promo from, I mean, when he was young. I'm sitting there with Anteata,

mom, and we're cracking up at these videos of him.

He's cutting promos in the kitchen.

He was practicing from when he was

young. Before he even knew. Before he even knew that he was going to become

Rock.

Steve Austin, your bottom line will read.

has been compliments of the Rock.

With Rocky Maivia, we were working in the ring with him. We knew how talented

was. And now all of a sudden you have this competitor come along to Steve.

We see the snowball rolling at that point going, oh, my God, this is

unbelievable.

Rocky, I'm calling all the shots, and I'm going to tell you something right

When you're walking through the airport and your beeper goes off, you look down

and it says 3 -1 -6. You know your ass belongs to Stone Cold.

In the beginning stages of Rock -Austin, I remember them going after the

Intercontinental Championship, and you're going, something's going to

here.

Like, this is going to be a huge, huge rivalry.

My God, the rattlesnake right behind the rock. Rock!

Rock! Rocky's beeper just went off.

And if that's it, 3 -16.

Scott Paul is up with a 10 -0 advance on Rocky Maravilla.

Pretty much immediately.

You know, we had chemistry, we clicked.

Stone

Cold

Steve Austin was an incontinental champion. It was just one of those

where creatively he was getting ready to go on his run for the WWE world title.

So what am I going to do, Rock?

is I'm going to forfeit the damn title to you tonight because I got bigger fish

to fry.

So go ahead and take the damn thing because I don't want it no more.

He just gave me the Intercontinental Championship.

And then he wound up stunning me.

Even in that, I just remember that night. We all just remember that night

there was something special.

Stone Cold Steve Austin with the Intercontinental Championship belt.

Rock, when I gave this belt to you, I did just that. You didn't have to earn a

damn thing. So I'll see you a little bit later.

When I see a title get thrown off a bridge, that's a big deal. I had never

anything like that. And I heard that title was never found.

That's what I heard, too.

I think the Urban Legend, the title was never found.

We did the intercontinental title stuff, and it's only inevitable that as he

continues down the road he's going down, I continue what I'm doing. It's going

to come back around. It's going to come at a bigger, higher level.

You got a guy as tough as Stone Cold.

My hunger, my thirst to be the best, to get to the top.

The company finally picked me. I'm going to do something with this.

Nobody, especially Vince McMahon, tells Stone Cold Steve Austin what to do, and

that's the bottom line.

Vince Walton, the rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

He's getting pulled in a thousand different directions.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is the man.

So I stood with Vince, saw his ass, and that's the bottom line.

Stone Cold's popularity got to a point where you had to experience it. And

we were chatty, but at the same time, there was still

never animosity, but there was competition.

And at that time, he had a stack of 8x10s. You're welcome.

He's signing away.

So I remember he had jokingly signed a picture to me.

Hey, Rock.

You might make it one day, kid. Keep working hard.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, number one.

And I thought, oh, he's around with me. But then I look and I realize that

that's how he signed his autograph.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, number one. Thanks, Steve. You're welcome.

I was number one. I believed I was number one. And I signed that number one

that picture so that the person receiving that autograph knew I was

as well.

I said, one day I got to write number one.

He said, you got to earn that one.

I said, I'm going to earn it.

He said, well, you're not going to take it from me.

He can say a lot of things about rock, but he was a study, and he was always

trying new and different things.

Why are you looking at the rock like that? You're drooling.

I appreciate it. I've never seen anybody grow so much week to week.

Know your role before the Rock lays a smackdown on your candy ass, Jabroni.

Then he becomes so good at being a bad guy that he's a good guy.

Whatever happened to Rocky Suck?

You know, I think the evolution and the development of this young athlete

certainly has impressed a lot of fans.

There ain't nothing that could ever compare to being the people's champ.

The business is very competitive.

As hot as I was getting and he was kind of coming up right behind me, I was very

keenly aware of where he was and what he was doing.

He was trying to get the top, I was the top.

And I was determined to stay on top.

I'll tell you this, you will always be in my eyes some punk kid spitting out

nursery rhymes.

In the business, whenever a top guy is watching someone who's on the rise and

Steve looking at the rock and just kind of, hey, you know, he comes out and

raises an eyebrow, has a couple of cute phrases, that don't mean he's over.

That comment right then said to me, rock's catching on, rock's over.

Because the top guy now is noticing it.

You know, you see somebody nipping at his heels.

It has been 10 years since the WWF has had to crown a WWF champion via a

tournament. The winner of this match is the new man, either mankind or the

people's champion, The Rock.

And The Rock's rise to superstardom here in the WWF is nothing short of

extraordinary.

In the world of the WWE, life moves at light speed.

Shark shooter!

That's a shark shooter!

You work your ass off, you have the opportunity to become the guy.

I'm going to quote the great Jim Brown. That was sweet.

Not only do you become world champion, but now you align yourself with the

company's top heel, Vince McMahon.

And take the moniker of the people's champion, you turn it corporate.

I'm going to share with you guys my crazy grandmother from Puerto Rico,

Ramirez. She introduced me to professional wrestling. And when The

corporate,

My grandmother hated the man to the point where when my wife made a movie

him, she stopped speaking to my wife.

And when I asked her why, she said because he had a choice and he chose

corporate.

That's the effect that this man was able to have on people. That was the energy

that came into this rivalry.

That's just a match made in heaven because if The Rock is going to side

Vince, Vince is a corporation and I'm anti -corporation, well then that's must

see.

You now have solidified Rock as someone you want to hate because

he has aligned himself with The Man.

The World Wrestling Federation Champion.

The Corporate Champion.

The Rock.

Unintelligent pieces of trailer park trash.

You're all no different from the biggest piece of trailer park trash in Stone

Cold, Steve Austin.

It's the old saying of opposites attract.

They're about as far apart as I think as anyone could possibly be.

Steve's drinking beer.

Rock is eating fat -free.

Blueberry muffins.

These guys are so different, but yet they are exactly one in the same.

Just in terms of, I want to be the best, and nothing's going to stop me.

Well, that doesn't surprise The Rock that you're watching back there, Stone

Cold, because there's something about The Rock that draws you to The Rock.

the smell of what The Rock is cooking.

You better get your ass serious because Stone Cold Steve Austin is going to

check right in to this Smackdown hotel, roll right in to Route 316, and burn

that son of a bitch.

Austin pulling into an arena in a giant beer truck, it was just mind -blowing.

It

was

just another groundbreaking piece to an

already groundbreaking story at that time, that rivalry.

Rock was popular. Steve was popular.

The matchup is epic.

You wanted it to be on the grandest stage.

The only place to do it was WrestleMania.

You know, the very first WrestleMania that we headlined was in Philadelphia.

was my very first WrestleMania, headlining WrestleMania.

I was 26 years old and just wanted to do a great job.

I'll never forget that match.

From a performance standpoint, he was a motivating factor.

He's very competitive.

When you know you've performed to the highest level and you deliver, it's just

great feeling.

It was just amazing to watch.

And while most rivalries will culminate at WrestleMania, it really was just

getting started.

Hey, redneck, piece of trash.

Exactly. It's the great one. Does this look familiar to you, Austin? Does it?

It's your piece of trash title. It's the bridge.

There's the water, and it's a long way down.

You want the piece of trash? You come get the piece of trash.

They were raising the bar every single week. You never knew what was going to

happen next.

The

water

cooler talk every week was, oh, my God, did you see what happened on Monday

night? The two people driving that discussion.

were rocking Oscar.

That competitiveness drives greatness, and they were trying

as hard as possible to outdo the other.

Watching

those two perform,

you feel it, and you feel that energy, and you feel that passion.

That's what they did. They made that magic every freaking night. You know

I'm saying? It's like they were breaking their own record every single week.

That rivalry spawned energy to the rest of us.

That's what made the product so great.

They pushed each other.

Man,

there was a period there where everything we did was a home run and a

slam.

This is the best job in the world.

Every now and then you're just ready to go home and just kind of kick back a

little bit. But, you know, with the schedule we got, you know, whether World

Wrestling Federation works, as soon as you say, hey, Vincent, it's time off,

what you're doing is creating a window of opportunity for someone else to step

into. I'm right in the middle of a hell of a run, so I'm going to finish this

out of the ditch.

Going into back end of 99, you know, I started to have some...

Side effects from getting dropped on my head in 97 by Owen at SummerSlam.

Everybody thought I broke my neck. I didn't break my neck. I bruised my

cord.

A couple years later, I went and got another MRI,

and that's when we discovered I had a bone spur growing into my spinal cord.

Steve having surgery in 99 was...

Scary time.

Is Steve going to come back? And if Steve does come back, at what level is

Cold going to come back?

Stone Cold was gone for a year.

Where's my hero?

And there's The Rock saying he's right here.

Okay, you're losing one of your biggest attractions of all time in Stone Cold

Steve Austin.

However, you had another attraction in The Rock. Okay, now it's time to put on

the big boy shoes and you're going to be the man.

Since you've been on the shelf, The Rock's popularity has really risen.

I'd like to get in a damn ring with him and just knock the hell out of him

because that's the kind of relationship man and The Rock have.

Stone Cold was gone.

Dwayne Johnson is now the top star.

He

competed

against every other performer and said, you can't do this better than I can.

They are chanting The Rock's name.

The Rock called himself the people's champion, right? Because everybody

wanted to be The Rock. But I feel like...

Austin was also the people's champion.

Have Stone Cold

back was a relief.

The audience was just so happy, but the audience had also grown to fall in love

with The Rock.

The Rock came around, Triple H came around, Undertaker was always there. So,

mean, when a guy goes down, it's like, you know, chum in the water because

that's just the way it is.

And I respect it, but I wasn't keen to watch who was going to try to fill my

spot. I won the Royal Rumble, which gave me the shot at the champ at

WrestleMania. It turns out that the champ is The Rock.

What a WrestleMania man of Memphis is going to be.

And it was the two biggest and best colliding again.

Without a doubt, this is the most eagerly anticipated main event in

history. The backstage interview that myself and The Rock did with Jim Ross as

mediator. Do I want to beat you on a personal level? Oh, hell yeah, I do.

But on a professional level, which bleeds over in my personal existence, I

to beat you, Rock.

I need it more than anything that you can ever imagine.

I needed that championship.

I thought The Rock was coming up there. I needed to stay here.

So that was a shoot line for me, and he never knew that.

I got one reason, and one reason only to go inside that ring, and that is to

beat Stone Cold Steve Austin.

It's just that simple.

There was tension, but it was great tension.

It was important to me that I was the one leading the pack.

And here's to you, Rock.

I didn't want to be second when I knew first was available.

And Steve Austin sure as hell didn't want to be second.

And here's to your ass getting whooped at WrestleMania.

Talking WrestleMania.

And it's time for them to go.

Steve was such a megastar, and Rock was such a megastar.

And then you put those two guys together, and that's insane.

You knew when those two touched, it was just a perfect matchup.

We're three days away from Austin versus The Rock!

It was a match that was, on so many levels, a work, but super personal for

super personal for me.

The atmosphere in the arena at WrestleMania 17 was through the roof.

Everything was built to the highest peak that it could be because I was super

hot as a baby face.

Rock was super hot as a baby face.

It was just insanity.

I blow the roof off the place.

It's a very partisan Texas crowd.

And he was white hot, don't get me wrong, but I thought I got a little bit

of a flashbulb.

He blows the roof off the place to just a little bit lesser degree.

Here we go! It's on!

They didn't waste any time, and nor did we think they would.

The second WrestleMania is very special because we broke pay -per -view records.

You can tell just how badly he won the title.

We were fighting.

We were animals, we were pit bulls, we were lions, we were all those things,

those aggressive animals.

The people hanging on every single move,

waiting to see who was going to win this match because it was damn near 50 -50

throughout the whole thing.

Vince McMahon!

What the hell is he doing out here? He's coming out to ringside.

Austin now the clear -cut advantage.

Reversed. Stunner! I don't believe it!

But why is Vince McMahon out here? He's coming out to ringside.

And now detaining the referee.

McMahon has no love lost for either The Rock or Austin.

At that time, from a character standpoint, I'd actually felt like I was

starting to flatline just a little bit because I'd been running so hot.

What's a big man going to do with a chair?

I wanted to turn heel.

What the hell is this?

Stone Cold Steve Austin has sold his soul for the WWF!

surreal for a lot of people it was a difficult image for people to absorb the

turn only made the audience desire having their hero back

yes I wanted his spot but if I ever got that top spot it was because

I earned it it was also because he helped me get there

One of the things that I can appreciate about Steve and about our relationship

is just that it's like with any relationship, trust happened over time.

He started Trust Me More, which then made our matches that much better.

There's the perfect synergy and the clash of styles and the same type of

respect.

Whether it was a house show, a pay -per -view, or Raw, whatever, we were out

there to, you know, bring the house down.

We got The Rock against Stone Cold Steve Austin.

and we're going to go out there and do our thing. It's going to be a great

match. Rock and Stone Cold were able to go out, feed off the audience, and feed

off one another.

The match would end.

We would stay in the ring easily every night for an additional 30 to 45

We would have these performances and these

monologues, and that's when the fun would begin.

We became really good friends.

We're just firing on all cylinders.

You can be great friends with somebody in this business, but you can be really

great friends with somebody in this business when you draw money together.

That bond gets real tight.

Rarely do you have two stars that are mega stars at the same time.

Every building we put Steve's name on, he sold out against another guy who's

exactly the same.

There was a tie for a while as to who number one was, Stone Cold and The Rock.

You can argue that they were interchangeable in that number one spot.

In the world of wrestling where there is no off -season.

And guys tape up their injuries. They play through pain every single night.

All the Monday night Raws, all the Smackdowns.

Steve played through a multitude of physical issues.

I had a surgery to correct a few things. There are still some things that are

going on.

I could pass tests that I needed to pass, but I could see what my body was

turning into by the stress and the beatings that I was placing on it. And

finally, I decided, man,

When is your body going to give you enough signals that you need to get your

out of here?

It's a real heavy gamble that I don't really want to take anymore.

The one thing that The Rock has not done, one thing, is whoop that bald

candy ass at WrestleMania.

WrestleMania happened to be around the corner, and it was me and The Rock.

I'm like, hey man, it's time.

Everybody knows we got to... Big match, the biggest match of my career, because

what I'm finally looking to do is to beat Stone Cold Steve -O. Now, I know

right over here signing autographs, but I'm not going to pay attention to Stone

Cold right now. He's not paying attention to me.

I remember finding out that it was his last match, and I was honored and

privileged.

It's almost a shame I got to whip your ass on Sunday. How many days?

No, but I mean, that's what we're there for. I mean, by the same token, you

could whip my ass. Or as you would say, whip my candy ass.

Program! Get your program!

It was very emotional.

In this final match of this extraordinary journey.

Between...

Myself and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Welcome to WrestleMania 19!

We had a few conversations prior to that match at WrestleMania 19.

I wanted to give him the greatest performance I possibly could.

first, from Miami, Florida, The Rock!

And do right by the company.

And do right by Steve.

Glass breaks and I walk down there. It's a pretty long walk.

It's like, okay, man, I'm just going to turn it on, rip it up.

Who is the greatest of all time? One of these two men, only time will tell.

54 ,097 here in over 150 countries around our world. You're seeing one hell

match at WrestleMania.

Stone Cold Steve Austin went out there with a bad neck in his last match.

And the Steve that was on top at that point had to work with tons and tons of

injuries. That's remarkable.

Anytime you step in a ring with The Rock, he's going to give you everything

got.

Russ Mania 19, I guess one of the greatest of all time.

It was very special.

Hell, I'd beaten Rock on how many times in the two previous Russ Manias.

It was everything that you would want to be the guy that you would pass the

torch to.

You know, I want to be the best at what I do, and it's because of guys like

Austin, specifically Steve Austin doing what he does for me, that I'm able to

accomplish that.

After the 1 -2 -3, I pushed the referee away. You can't hear this.

And I said, I admire him.

I respect him.

I'm proud to call him my friend.

business while I've ever offered you.

Amen.

I love The Rock, and The Rock loves me.

It was a really, really cool moment. Two big -ass, tough -ass guys telling each

other that they loved the other one in front of millions of people.

When you see those two gentlemen in the ring, one of the best rivalries in the

history of this business, I mean, they did three WrestleManias?

You know the old saying that lightning never strikes down twice.

One of the moments when I was a kid that I'll never forget is when the Beatles

ran out on Shea Stadium.

Brock and Stone Cold did it three times.

That smile on your face that just snuck up, that little smile is like the way

you're looking back at it. I think people kind of knew at the time, you

what, this is something special.

To be able to see, like, my two people champions go head -to -head, it's like

that fantasy booking scenario that we always dream about. The two guys who

at the top of the industry, and the fact that we got it for such a long time is

awesome.

It's really wonderful to come back and see so many smiling faces tonight.

For example, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

We'll definitely think about that. One more match.

There will always be a bit of a rivalry between Rock and Austin.

I also think that there's a great deal of love and respect for one another, for

what each did for the other's career.

I mean, I was in a different zone back here, man.

No, it actually worked out better. You were like, listen, you're going to be a

hell of a talent. You take it. Yeah. Take this with you.

All right. I'm going to go do your thing. All right, brother. They had

special, and they knew it.

Your antagonist is only as good as your protagonist.

They pushed each other to the limit.

I learned two top guys could go out there and have as much fun as we did and

hate each other as much as we appeared to hate each other.

What competition!

What a rivalry!

He brought out something in me and I brought out something in him that made

as good as we could be.

And that's the bottom line because the great one said so.

We were fighting for the exact same thing.

And that was the number one top spot in the company at a time when the company

was changing the way the game was played.

And we take a lot of pride in it being the greatest rivalry the

sports entertainment world has ever seen.