All feuds have to start somewhere, and one of the greatest and most intense in professional wrestling history can be said to have kicked off on this day in wrestling history, September 22, 1997.
Prior to this WWE Raw, Steve Austin defeated Owen Hart to retain the Intercontinental Championship after Owen accidentally piledrove Austin’s head into the mat.
With Austin sidelined with a neck injury, WWE Creative came up with new and inventive ways to get him on TV every week without having him in a match or taking bumps.
The WWE also didn’t pass up the opportunity for some fresh merchandise and Owen soon wore shirts saying he just broke Austin’s neck and so on, and this point Austin had enough and wanted to get his pound of flesh.
Vince McMahon and his security team prevented that, and McMahon tried to talk Austin down in a condescending way.
The set up
For the briefest of moments, Austin looked like he was buying into what Vince was selling and said, “And I also appreciate the fact… that hell… you can kiss my a$$!”
Austin delivered the first of many stunners to McMahon and was subsequently led away in handcuffs.
It was the spark that ignited a feud that lasted for a couple of years and brought out McMahon’s genius as he introduced Mr. McMahon.
We got to see more of the Mr. McMahon character come out in the infamous “Bret screwed Bret” interview and even further leading up to Austin’s match against Shawn Michaels for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 14.
It was one of the best feuds ever and rarely had a boring moment as others like Mick Foley’s Dude Love were added to it and so on down the line.
It also served up one of the biggest heel turns when Austin joined McMahon a few years later.
All of this happened because of one stunner, and that shows that amount of work that used to go into these storylines where they’d be set up months in advance and we’d get to enjoy the story unfold.
What’s fun about this feud was Austin got to live out so many working people’s dream at being able to fight their boss without ramifications.
Unfortunately, the instigation behind this day in wrestling history, Austin’s neck injury, was why he retired in 2003.
It’s a shame it took so much away from him and us for a longer period of time, but this was an amazing feud to watch. We’re glad we got to witness it and that Austin is healthy.
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