For some reason I had the idea...

[hb2k]

I don't know why, but it struck me for some reason today how good this idea potentially was for the climax of the "Who ran down Steve Austin" angle that had a ton of momentum and wrestling fans everywhere talking, but had a bit of a strange end with Rikishi inexplicably being exposed as the culprit. So, here it is:

The majority of the built to the story would remain the same - Shane promises to reveal the attacker, swerves Austin, Austin triumphantly returns and beats the crap out of him, then tries to create his own brand of justice by beating the piss out of people until he finds the guy. Now, unlike in real life, he wouldn't stun Foley just yet, and wouldn't be "suspended" until the culprit was found. Have a lot of the same elements of small clues along the way. Instead of Billy Gunn saying the attacker had blond hair, have him say he was wearing a leather jacket. Built and built to the show Foley says he thinks he can reveal who did it. Austin is there, and have Foley come out and so very similar to what they did - have Commissioner Foley show the clip of Austin beating Shawn Michaels in his final match at Mania 14, and also a video showing the feud building up to it, ending on the clip from the episode of Raw back in March 98 when Shawn, wearing a leather jacket, superkicked Steve Austin, and he and Hunter (who was also wearing a leather jacket I believe), standing over him. Introduce Shawn Michaels, and do what ended up happening - Shawn says it wasn't him. Austin remains the thread of the show, getting more and more pissed off, until the last segment, when he gets in the ring and calls out the attacker, and out walks...Mick Foley. Foley steps in the ring and tells Austin not the get the wrong idea - he didn't do it, but instead lambasts Austin for running riot on the show when Foley is helping him out, asking what all the beatdowns and Stunner have gotten him, as he doesn't know who did it. Foley then tells Austin to face the fact that he's powerless to find out who did it, and the only guy that can reveal it is the driver himself. Foley gets a Stunner, as it isn't what he wants to hear, and Foley rolls out the ring, with Austin in the middle putting the mouth to him. Suddenly, from through the crowd, wearing his trademark leather jacket, Raven makes his debut, entering the ring, and standing totally still behind Austin, who has no idea he's there. JR is going crazy, yelling his name, the "what is he doing here?" and the "he doesn't work here" aspect of it. Austin turns around and gets a DDT. Raven stands over him with the crucifix pose, to end the show, JR screaming about "Has the attacker just revealed himself to the world?"

Now the explanation, which, when done by Raven would be his typical good stuff, would be that he took out the top guy in the business because it should have been him. He stood out of the limelight the entire time so his name wouldn't be considered (he left WCW in August 1999, and while he was in ECW, very few people saw it, and in real life debuted at Unforgiven, the same show Austin returned on). He did it because Raven looks at Steve Austin as the guy that bucked the system, didn't do what other people wanted, and became the most popular wrestler of all time, while Raven did the same thing and became an outcast. They were in WCW together, ECW together (and were real life good friends), but while Austin became the antihero and got everything, Raven was the same, but didn't. He didn't get the big comeback campaign, the WrestleMania main events, the t-shirts, the world titles ("What about Raven"), so he villifies Austin and wants to end his career. But he knew running him over wasn't going to keep him down, so he waited months and months for Austin to return to tell him eye to eye that he was going to end his career. And if you think being out for ten months with a broken neck was bad, wait until the next chapter. Quote the Raven, Nevermore...

The end result would be a new opponent for Austin, a new top guy that can cut top level quality promos and a chance for some really intense brawls, which would have been awesome to see.

Thoughts on the idea? And who would have been your choice for the culprit?

[Pepsi Man]

I would've liked it, but I've been a Raven mark since his ECW days.

[St. Jimmy]

I think it would have been brilliant, an Austin/Raven fued - booked correctly, could've been huge.

[FourFifty]

So long as Raven didn't do it for The Rock.

[Volare]

Nope...he did it for the Flock :)

[Innovator]

I just marked out a bit

[Stickman]

Hindsight is awesome

[Jeritron]

I've always said it should have been Tazz. He signed with the WWE right around that time, and it would have been a great fued/push for him.

Theres the choice of Jericho, since he was pickin up such huge steam as a star, but he was simply too popular to turn just yet.

One great option was Kurt Angle. I mean, he debuted at Survivor Series the very night Austin got hit. He had just broke into the main event and was the top heel. They could have put off his title win for a bit to get him over in a storyline with Austin.

Hell, even having it just be The Rock and turning him back into a superheel now that Austin was back would have been more than fine.

Basically, Rikishi was the worst choice ever. He was a rising star in 2000, but people didn't want to see Rikishi be a bad bad man as he claimed to be, they wanted to see the uppermidcard big man who danced and was a lot of fun as an IC champion.

[Stickman]

I've always said it should have been Tazz. He signed with the WWE right around that time, and it would have been a great fued/push for him.

Theres the choice of Jericho, since he was pickin up such huge steam as a star, but he was simply too popular to turn just yet.

One great option was Kurt Angle. I mean, he debuted at Survivor Series the very night Austin got hit. He had just broke into the main event and was the top heel. They could have put off his title win for a bit to get him over in a storyline with Austin.

Hell, even having it just be The Rock and turning him back into a superheel now that Austin was back would have been more than fine.

Basically, Rikishi was the worst choice ever. He was a rising star in 2000, but people didn't want to see Rikishi be a bad bad man as he claimed to be, they wanted to see the uppermidcard big man who danced and was a lot of fun as an IC champion.

The Rikishi thing was just as bad as McMahon being the Higher Power or whatever the fuck that was.

[Jeritron]

The most hilarious part about Rikishi doing it was that he was the culprit because he was positively identifed as the blonde haired. The problem here is that Rikishi did have blonde hair, but not until early 2000. Upon his debut under the name Rikishi, before joining Too Cool in December, he had black hair. I'm not sure of my dates of his joining of Too Cool or dying his hair, but I know for a fact that the lowcard Rikishi had jet black hair at the time of Survivor Series 99.

[Jeritron]

The Rikishi thing was just as bad as McMahon being the Higher Power or whatever the fuck that was.


I liked that. It was obvious but I was still swerved. It was almost too obvious, and it rekindled a fued everyone thought was dead. Not to mention that even if that swerve was dissapointing to some (not me) they made up for it with the fact that in the same segment they pulled the Double Swerve and had Linda and Stephanie come out and announce THE NEW CEO, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Which was awesome.

I can see how people were dissapointed with the higher power, but I loved it. Like I said, right under your nose swerve but still made a boat load of sense and was executed well. Everyone would have marked out if it were Shawn Michaels, or some WCW guy or something, but it would have sucked, because why would Undertaker be answering to them? And how would that progress the current storyline and incorporate Austin and the Corporate Ministry.


Damn I miss being swerved.

[Stickman]

Wasn't all the talk about the Higher Power actually going to be the Million Dollar Man or some shit like that?

[Jeritron]

Would have been garbage. There were all kinds of rumors ranging from Hogan, to Flair, to even the most out there things. Bottom line is Vince was the only potential choice that would make sense. Any of those other out there swerves would have gotten unmasked and everyone would be like "holy shit" and then 5 minutes later after the shock wore off you'd be like "what the fuck? how is he a higher power?"

[hb2k]

I absolutely forgot about Rikishi having black hair. Sparked my memory of seeing him on WWF Metal being some jobber wearing a floral mawashi. Not pretty.

As well as that plothole, I really have no clue how Foley figured it out. Rikishi was in the building that night...hardly the most incriminating of evidence.

[Theo Dious]

If they had only known what was going to happen in the next six months... it would have been AWESOME if they could have held it off long enough to say that someone from WCW had done it.

[Impeccable]

I absolutely forgot about Rikishi having black hair. Sparked my memory of seeing him on WWF Metal being some jobber wearing a floral mawashi. Not pretty.

As well as that plothole, I really have no clue how Foley figured it out. Rikishi was in the building that night...hardly the most incriminating of evidence.

There should be a Columbo style mini series based on Foley.

Foley: And the culprit is...right here in this very room *thumbs up, cheesy grin, cheap pop*

[Theo Dious]

Foley: And the culprit is...right here in this very room... which happens to be in Chicago Illinois! *thumbs up, cheesy grin, cheap pop*

[hb2k]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j258/liamineng/FoleyYeh.gif

[Jeritron]

If they had only known what was going to happen in the next six months... it would have been AWESOME if they could have held it off long enough to say that someone from WCW had done it.

Imagine if they had the Who Hit Austin? storyline and the Taker stalker storyline going on at the same time, and then Booker T and DDP were revealed.

[Avenger]

Raven as the guy who ran over Austin?!

That sucks. It would NEVER have worked.

[hb2k]

Any reason?

[Pepsi Man]

Raven as the guy who ran over Austin?!

That sucks. It would NEVER have worked.
Yes, and by contrast, having Rikishi as the culprit was awesome.

[Avenger]

It would have never gone over with the fans.

And Pepsi Man I don't recall the part of my post where I said that Rikishi was awesome as the culprit you fucking tool.

And hb2k if you are so convinced that it sucked when Vince was revealed as the Higher Power then maybe you should take a look at the segment because it was quite possibly the best 20 minutes of an interview/in-ring segment that wrestling has ever produced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFR4GuUgDKU

Watch it all, no skipping through it tard.

[Pepsi Man]

It would have never gone over with the fans.

And Pepsi Man I don't recall the part of my post where I said that Rikishi was awesome as the culprit you fucking tool.

And hb2k if you are so convinced that it sucked when Vince was revealed as the Higher Power then maybe you should take a look at the segment because it was quite possibly the best 20 minutes of an interview/in-ring segment that wrestling has ever produced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFR4GuUgDKU

Watch it all, no skipping through it tard.
My aren't we defensive?

[Jeritron]

Yea, like I said, it was great. The double swerve makes up for any complaints about the initial swerve.

[Avenger]

My, aren't we defensive?Nope, just an outburst of anger at the stupidity of your statement and the continued stupidity of your posting quality at TPWW.

BTW, you're not Kane Knight :y:

[Jeritron]

They should have had Who Shot J.R.?

[Pepsi Man]

Nope, just an outburst of anger at the stupidity of your statement and the continued stupidity of your posting quality at TPWW.

BTW, you're not Kane Knight :y:
I never claimed to be Kane Knight. You see, I could call you a stupid douchebag and point out that you only shot down hb2k's idea, which very much gave the appearance that you supported what actually did happen, since all you did was criticize his thought without making any further mention it. I could then say, "fucking retard..." or some other juvenile insult, but hey, I'm just not in the mood, son.

[Avenger]

Oh shut up you fucking geek. :roll:

[Pepsi Man]

Oh shut up you fucking geek. :roll:
I can use a "rolleyes" smilie too. See?:roll:

[Avenger]

it's actually "roll"

[Pepsi Man]

it's actually "roll"
Check it out...

http://www.tpww.net/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

I don't really give a fuck, but that was a pretty desperate attempt and STILL doesn't work.:lol:

[NoJabbaNoBogRoll]

Pepsi Man, AssMan stole your sweatpants gimmick. Now you have nothing.

[Pepsi Man]

Pepsi Man, AssMan stole your sweatpants gimmick. Now you have nothing.
The Pep is bigger than the sweatpants.

[NeanderCarl]

And hb2k if you are so convinced that it sucked when Vince was revealed as the Higher Power then maybe you should take a look at the segment because it was quite possibly the best 20 minutes of an interview/in-ring segment that wrestling has ever produced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFR4GuUgDKU


The segment was great, but any company can throw out a great segment but if it doesn't make any storyline sense, or make any storyline advancements in the long term, then it really shouldn't be there.

You have to look at the WWF landscape as a whole at that point in 1999. After over a year of Austin/McMahon feuding, they had burned it out, at least as the top priority feud in the company. They subtley turned Vince face, and the new twist of a Stone Cold/Vince alliance made for some intriguing TV. What's more "Mr. McMahon", as a gutsy face character for the first time, was getting over big time (which is more than could be said for his "Union", but nevermind). It was nice to see WWF avoid the WCW path of clinging onto something that works and running it into the ground.

Then came the "Higher Power" revelation, and months of good work was immediately undone. And for what? To boost the ailing McMahon/Austin feud? To give the Undertaker a rub (like he needs it)? To make Vince an even more evil bastard than before?

Within a couple of weeks, Vince was "gone" altogether from WWE. It didn't make any longterm sense, and killed off all the babyface momentum Vince had gained, with no real payoff.

So, while the segment itself is a great watch years later, it was a big mistake at the time.

[NeanderCarl]

That said, Austin as CEO was priceless.

[hb2k]

And hb2k if you are so convinced that it sucked when Vince was revealed as the Higher Power then maybe you should take a look at the segment because it was quite possibly the best 20 minutes of an interview/in-ring segment that wrestling has ever produced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFR4GuUgDKU

Watch it all, no skipping through it tard.

You know for somebody who calls people a tard, I'd think you'd be able to read - I haven't mentioned the Higher Power angle once in this thread.

[NeanderCarl]

It was Stickman who dissed the Higher Power angle.

[Avenger]

Check it out...

http://www.tpww.net/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

I don't really give a fuck, but that was a pretty desperate attempt and STILL doesn't work.:lol:wow... I don't know what to say but... just repeat my previous statement of "shut the fuck up, geek"

[PepperCarrotMan]

It wouldve been awesome if WWE waited until today and revealed that it was THE BOOGEYMAN who ran Austin down!

And then shown Boogeyman riding around in a car backstage with a mouth full of worms.

[Pepsi Man]

wow... I don't know what to say but... just repeat my previous statement of "shut the fuck up, geek"
Fucktard. You just can't admit to being wrong. It's fine though...idiot.

[The Optimist]

Hindsight is awesomeToo bad WWE's regular sight sucks dick.