Steve Austin vs. The Rock

[5.0] "A humble start to one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling history. Very fun match for Austin's character. It is kept short as he is still probably going light due to his neck injury, but it is packed with Austin-style frenzy. D'Lo's bump on the truck is amazing, and Austin is very crafty in how he takes out the Nation one by one. The bell to bell action is pretty standard, so this isn't anything special. A fun little start to an amazing rivalry, but ultimately nothing remarkable."

[7.0] "I'm not sure why this one has a mid rating. I found it to be an extremely entertaining chaotic brawl that was a sign of things to come between the two. The spots with the truck were fantastic. The crowd was going absolutely crazy. My only complaint would be that it was too short, although I'm guessing Austin was still recovering from his neck injury since most of his matches during this period are kept short."

[7.0] "I remember this for the Stunner on the truck to D'Lo Brown. This was Austin and Rock's first one on one match and you could tell they had instant chemistry in the small amount of time this match took place. The Nation kept jumping in, but the crowd was crazy for Austin here."

[6.0] "Interesting one, the first match ever between Steve Austin and The Rock! This was very short and simple, but at the same time extremely effective, the match was super heated, with both Austin and Rock being already established guys and the obvious future of WWF for the next years, but this was very in the beginning of their stardom, and the charisma was already there. It all started pretty chaotic, with Austin taking down every member of the Nation of Domination before the match even started, and brawling out with Rock. After giving the stunner on the ref, which showed how alert and crazy he was, Rock tried to hit him with the brass knuckles, but he dodged, countered, and won the match with another referee coming in. This is one of those matches where everything is super simple, but the message is perfectly delivered, that's why I remember this with such affection, despite obviously not being a super incredible bout - {**3/4}"

[6.0] "The first Stone Cold vs. The Rock match in history is a fun brawl, featuring a good performance by Stone Cold, who single-handedly takes out the entire Nation of Domination. Although both wrestlers have not yet reached their full potential in terms of character development and drawing power (with Stone Cold almost there and The Rock just beginning to gain momentum), the match lacks the intensity, power, and gravity of their later bouts. Nonetheless, it's still an enjoyable brawl-style match. Unfortunately, the continuous interferences by the Nation of Domination detract from the overall experience."

[5.0] "This was an all out brawl. The Nation jumped Austin from the beginning, andgot involved in this match a bit too much, but Austin took all of them out. Austin and Rock brawled back and fourth and Austin won without having to take off his vest."

[2.0] "A pretty short brawl, pretty much Austin vs The Nation for the most part. Austin hadn't recovered from his neck being paralyzed at this point so its understandable why as to why he didn't take any bumps. The thing that irks me about this match is the finish, its pretty weird and I'm pretty sure it was botched."

[8.0] "Very entertaining match. While this obviously wasn't Austin at his best because of his neck injury and he was still adjusting to his change of style here, but it's a fun match because the character work was great and it was a satisfying win for Austin because he takes out all of the Nation of Domination too. The spot where Austin drops D-Lo on the hood of the truck and then stuns him on the roof was great. It's a fun chaotic car crash match where the crowd was just into everything!"

[6.0] "Peak attitude era stuff, not a second wasted, 100mph from the start and a fun, yet un-groundbreaking match"

[4.0] "Very Lackluster but it was 5 minutes so not a great sample size. Really weird seeing the Peoples Elbow not over lol, there was 0 pop for it."

[6.0] "I really miss Austin's style of wrestling from before the neck injury, but he does a good job of making his brawls interesting anyway. The fight against the whole Nation of Domination before the match was great and the bout itself delivered too with the crowd losing their minds for Stone Cold and booing the hell out of The Rock. Not the technical masterpiece that Steve would have back in the day, but still the hottest thing on the show."

[7.0] "This one was surprising to me. The 5 minute contest might as well have been the best match of the night. How? Well for as short as it was, they wasted no second. It was frantic, chaotic. An absolutely wild brawl with all of the members of the Nation involved. Was it the best match these two had together? No. But it was still a recommendable watch no doubt."

[6.0] "They pad this out to hide the fact that Austin still hasn't recovered from his neck injury. Austin makes his way to the ring on the truck to a monster pop. The Nation constantly try to get involved, and they attack Austin before the match officially begins. D'lo takes a nasty bump from the ring onto Austin's truck, shattering the windshield in the process. Kama then accidentally wipes out Faarooq with a steel chair after Austin moves out of the way. Despite Austin not being able to bump because of his injury, Rock and Austin keep the match basic. This was a whole lot of basic brawling, but the fans are invested in the two characters, so they don't mind at all. The finish was a bit of an over-convoluted mess, with Austin hitting the stunner on the referee by accident. Rock tries to use brass knuckles on Austin, but Austin is able to score another stunner and another ref comes in to count the pinfall. These two would obviously go on to have better matches, but you can tell that they have chemistry together just by watching this brief match here."

[5.0] "The two guys that would take over from where Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels left and carried the Attitude Era. Rock stole the IC title and has been parading around with it for the past few weeks. Austin drives his pickup to the ring and the crowd finally wakes up. The Nation jump him and he does a famous spot by back dropping D-Lo over the top rope onto the truck hood breaking the windshield. A stunner on the roof ends D-Lo's night. Crowd is HOT! . Rock and Austin go through reversals that ends with Rocky tossing Austin outside. Rock slams Austin then does the not so electrifying elbow but he misses and Austin slugs away. Austin stuns the ref accidentally and another ref runs in just as Austin kills Rocky with the second stunner and gets the pin surprisingly quick at just over 5 minutes. Austin still wasn't nearly recovered enough from the neck injury to be doing this stuff but he was a gamer and put on the best thing on this terrible so so far!"

[6.0] "Austin beating up the nation in a brawl was very fun, even though Austin still clearly suffering from the injury he got at SummerSlam. The crowd was very much into it this fast-paced brawl and Austin ? getting back the IC title? was cool.***"

[6.0] "Fun short match that was high paced from the beginning. Absolute brawl from start to finish. Can tell the chemistry between them"

[5.0] "WWF were in the middle of renaming a few people at this point, with Road Dogg, Triple H and The Rock all starting to use those names around this point. If you like the Attitude era short brawls this is one of the first of those, but frankly Austin was nowhere near recovered and could barely bump by this point, and The Rock had done little that was impressive. It made for a decent spectacle, but as an actual match it was mediocre. The crowd was into it though, and it was the best thing on the card since the opener, not that that's saying much."

[4.0] "A very cool carnage within a small time limit, where Austin was just on fire and The Nation could do absolutely nothing. The crowd got involved in the process and this gave even more energy to the match."

[7.0] "This was short but good, very chaotic and exciting with Austin tackling the whole Nation in a giant brawl that included some nutty spots on his truck. Crowd was crazy into this, awesome stuff, maximized the time, and props to D'Lo bumping on the windshield like that."