How WWE Hoped To Replace Steve Austin And The Rock

That’s some high praise. There are some wrestling names who fans are going to remember no matter what. With some names around, you never know what you might find the next big thing in professional wrestling. If you’re lucky, once in a generation you see two mega stars in the same place at the same time. WWE did it in the 1990s and it turns out that they thought they had it again soon thereafter.

A lot of wrestling fans are rather fond for the Attitude Era and given the talent who wrestled at that time, it isn’t hard to see why. There were all kinds of wrestlers back then, but none were bigger than Steve Austin and the Rock. The two of them became the biggest stars in all of wrestling and WWE knew what kind of lucky they had. You can’t blame them for trying to recreate the idea, and that’s just what they did a few years later.

During a recent episode of his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross talked about how WWE’s plan was to make John Cena and Randy Orton into the new Rock and Austin. While the two did not quite live up to those expectations, Ross said he was proud of both wrestlers and neither ever had any serious issues and were both professionals. Both Ross and Bruce Prichard were responsible for their development and pushes.

Both pairings did fairly well. Check out the two of them:

Opinion: Can you blame WWE for trying to recreate that kind of magic? I know that they weren’t nearly as successful as Rock and Austin, but who in the world is supposed to live up to that? Cena and Orton were absolute successes and that isn’t the kind of thing that you get every generation. They are two of the all time greats and it is easy to see why WWE sees so much in them.

Do you prefer Cena or Orton? What about Rock or Austin? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!