The Rock vs Stone Cold first match

The rivalry between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock made history as a rare attraction worthy of three WrestleManiamatches. Austin and Rock defined the Attitude Era with their runs as the top two faces of the company. Fans loved witnessing their work from the face and heel side each with all their matches feeling like a major attraction.

WWE felt comfortable booking their matches at WrestleMania 15, WrestleMania 17, and WrestleMania 19— all with successful results. There was clearly something special there for them to mix it up on the big stages more than once, let alone three times.

Updated February 14th, 2022 by Danny Djeljosevic: As stated, the Rock vs. Stone Cold rivalry was the iconic feud of the Attitude Era, as the two stars were the company’s top draws at the time and had tremendous chemistry in the ring. Austin and the Rock clashed 10 times in televised singles competition of the course of their careers, with their trilogy of matches at WrestleMania being among the best bouts of their entire careers, much less their specific rivalry. It’s the kind of feud worthy of exploring and contextualizing, including the two stars’ similar and contemporaneous rise to the top of WWE. With Stone Cold being heavily rumored to be the host of WrestleMania 38 in Texas, let's look back at his biggest feud in WWE against The Rock.

13/13 Steve Austin: A Midcarder Turned Superstar

Before debuting in WWE in 1995, “Stunning” Steve Austin was a solid WCW midcarder who was unable to reach the main event scene and proved to be an incredible promo during a brief run in ECW. While his early days in WWE weren’t promising — he was dubbed “The Ringmaster” with Ted DiBiase as his mouthpiece — a landmark win in the 1996 King of the Ring tournament and subsequent feud with Bret “The Hitman” Hart established him as a must-see star. After that, Austin began to feud with his own boss, the evil Vince McMahon and was solidified as a top babyface.

12/13 The Rock: A Blue Chipper Turned Egomaniac Heel

The Rock, too, had less-than-stellar early days in WWE. A third-generation star, vanilla babyface “Rocky Maivia” was pushed as a blue-chipper prospect when he debuted in 1996, but failed to gain traction with the fans, eventually drawing their ire. However, Rocky would turn heel and join the Nation of Domination faction, reinventing himself as The Rock, an overconfident heel who referred to himself in the third person and cut amazing promos littered with catchphrases. In 1998, The Rock proved so popular among fans that it necessitated a face turn.

11/13 WWE Needed A Heel Wrestler To Represent Vince

The first WrestleMania match between The Rock and Steve Austin saw WWE needing to find a way to make the most of the Austin vs Vince McMahon feud. McMahon had wrestlers like The Big Boss Man and Ken Shamrock representing him in The Corporation faction at the time.

There was not a realistic choice for Austin to face at WrestleMania 15 after he got past Mick Foley, The Undertaker, and Kane throughout 1998. Rock was picked due to his momentum at the time along with a heel turn in late 1998 to set it up.

10/13 Rock's Title Reign Set Up Austin's Chase To WrestleMania 15

Vince McMahon took a huge risk when The Rock turned heel to join The Corporation when winning the WWE Championship. WWE ran a major one-night tournament at Survivor Series 1998 with Rock facing Mick Foley in the finals.

Foley was representing Vince heading into the match with Rock gaining huge momentum as a face after leaving The Nation of Domination. WWE turned Rock heel to win the title with the screwjob finish. It was all done to get to WrestleMania 15 with him as Steve Austin’s rival.

9/13 WrestleMania 15 Match Started Austin's New Run As Champ

WWE usually tries to have a few crowning moments for the face of the company. Steve Austin had his first moment at WrestleMania 14 when beating Shawn Michaels to finally become WWE Champion. However, there had to be more moments of Austin regaining the top prize when losing it.

Austin beating The Rock at WrestleMania 15 reestablished him in the role as the top superstar. WWE moved forward with Austin having more matches against Vince and Shane McMahon along with new opponents.

8/13 WrestleMania 15 Match Started End Of Rock's Heel Run

The Rock was the most charismatic performer on WWE television even when playing a heel. Fans started to chant along with his popular catchphrase promos and clearly enjoyed when he would appear on WWE television.

The feud with Steve Austin for the WWE Championship extended a couple of months beyond WrestleMania 15 and ended in the spring of 1999. Rock turned face right after with WWE embracing what everyone wanted once they got the success desired from the WrestleMania match.

7/13 WWE Needed Biggest Attraction For WrestleMania 17

The timing of WrestleMania 17 was when the company wanted to strike on the incredible momentum of the Attitude Era. WWE had improved some of the issues from the Vince Russo era and the star power of their top names grew.

Stars like Triple H, Kurt Angle, and The Undertaker could have easily main-evented WrestleMania, but the biggest attraction was still Steve Austin vs The Rock. WWE had both wrestlers in the face role and wanted to spotlight the biggest draws on the era-defining show.

6/13 Austin & Rock's Prior Angles Had To End Before Match

Many WWE fans didn’t expect The Rock and Steve Austin to face off in the main event of WrestleMania 17. Kurt Angle was the WWE Champion from Survivor Series 2000 to the final PPV before WrestleMania where he dropped the title to The Rock.

Steve Austin was involved in an even deeper feud with Triple H that revealed that Triple H set up the hit-and-run attack that wrote him off television. Their bad blood ran for months and also concluded at No Way Out 2001 to end it right before the match with Rock.

5/13 WWE Had A Peak Moment With WrestleMania 17 Match

The popularity of WWE may have peaked at WrestleMania 17 since the fan base dropped off shortly after. WWE also had an unexpected iconic moment the week of the show when Vince McMahon purchased WCW to end the Monday Night Wars six days before the event.

Steve Austin and The Rock gave us two wrestlers who could be considered the biggest stars of all time in the main event. Even the music hype video to the song “My Way” by Limp Bizkit created something special that showed the magic of wrestling.

4/13 Both Careers Changed After WrestleMania 17

WWE made huge changes after WrestleMania 17 that were polarizing. Steve Austin turning heel with Vince McMahon’s help was a shocking move that completely ended the run of Austin as the fan-favorite icon.

The heel run of Austin produced strong matches and memorable segments, but WWE lost money without the top character. Rock left WWE for a few months afterwards to film The Mummy Returns which started the transition to Hollywood.

3/13 Their WrestleMania 17 Match Ended The Attitude Era

There was about a year and a few months between the final moments of WrestleMania 17 and the official beginning of the Ruthless Aggression Era, but it’s hard not to look at the main event as the end of the Attitude Era. The Rock/Steve Austin rivalry and the feud between Vince McMahon and Austin were both defining conflicts of the period, and so Rock stepping away from the ring and Austin becoming McMahon loyalist meant that both of those storylines were pretty much over. The year that followed, with the Invasion storyline and Austin’s heel run, would basically function as a transition period to usher in a new era.

2/13 Both Needed Something Big For WrestleMania 19

WrestleMania 19 was the final match between The Rock and Steve Austin on the biggest stage. Both wrestlers were in strange positions needing something important. New stars like Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had become top stars while Rock and Austin were the top attractions.

WWE decided to run it back one more time with the storyline of the Hollywood heel version of Rock wanting to finally beat Austin at WrestleMania. Austin was only a month back following his infamous walkout and needed someone not already in an angle.

1/13 End Of An Era

The match of The Rock finally getting his WrestleMania 19 win over Steve Austin didn’t just end their rivalry. Both iconic wrestlers never had the same role in WWE after the final match. Austin’s neck injuries grew worse, and he had to retire knowing it would be his last time competing in the ring.

Rock also was heading into a new chapter of his life with the Hollywood career leading to him having a full-time acting schedule. The aftermath of his win would see him putting over the debuting Goldberg to benefit WWE. Rock then left to act with only one more match in the next seven years.

NEXT: Why Stone Cold's Exit From WWE Hurt Them Worst (& Why The Rock's Did)