Stone Cold Steve Austin On Raw

Austin is part of a elite group of wrestlers who were such big stars in their prime that even now into their retirement years they still have to be treated as a big deal to keep their value high when they make these occasional special appearances.

I'm fine with that, I don't think anybody wants to see Austin come out and get beaten down it would kill the bad ass aura his character has always had, they want to see him come out, drink beer, get the crowd pumped with his promo and then stunner someone. Likewise if The Rock ever appears people want him to electrify with his promo work and then hit a rock bottom and peoples elbow on somebody. Guys like Rock and Austin have earned the right to be booked this way due to how over they were and still are, also its not like they are so old they cant be taken seriously in the ring, I mean nobody expects to see a 75 year old Austin still taking people out with stunners.

Also I saw people online complaining about AJ taking a stunner from a old guy, well nobody was damaged by what happed, Stone Cold hit the stunner on Styles from a sneak attack position its not like he battered AJ in a fair fight. The booking of this angle was spot on, the crowd ate it up.

Stone Cold was great, I have no problem with these one off special appearances from guys like Austin, it's great nostalgia and theres few better at getting the crowd going, perfect opening segment.

I also hoped he might interact with Wyatt but I do think Austin is the one retired legend that they will still protect to a degree, Stone Cold was such a bad ass in his prime that I think even now approaching two decades since his final match WWE still want to portray him as someone who can get it done in the ring even against guys nearly half his age. So therefore feeding him to Wyatt like they did with Angle, Lawler and Foley would damage him.

Smart to bring Stone Cold in for this as it should spike ratings for his segment at least.

I do wonder if Austin will get attacked by The Fiend, thing is Austin is always portrayed as a bad ass even now as a retired wrestler so I'm not sure they would want him fed to Wyatt or if Austin would even be agreeable to a angle like that.

Its true that post Wrestling Austin has kept his name very alive in the mainstream with tv work and doing plenty of B-level action movies. He did appear in supporting roles in a few bigger movies like Grown Ups and The Expendables.

But I would compare Austin to Goldberg in his post wrestling era in that he's got his face out there but hasn't really done much of any real note.

Cena on the other hand seems to be following the same path as The Rock in becoming a big deal in Hollywood. His movie roles have started out much the same as Rock with mostly comedy roles before moving into big budget action stuff.

So right now I would agree that Austin and Cena are about neck and neck but Cena is about to leave Austin far behind in terms of mainstream appeal.

The business was very different when Austin was the top guy, back then WWE were one of three large wrestling promotions in the US, now they are a global juggernaut with corporate sponsorship deals and PR campaigns coming out of their ears.

So its true to say that Cena is definitely more of a household name due to the extra exposure he has received through his PR work and so forth, Austin was just the figurehead of a wrestling promotion. Should also be noted that Cena has been at the summit of WWE for around 15 years while Austin's run at the top was only around 5-6 years.