Why Did Austin forfeit the IC Title in December 97
 

I can't remember why at all.

I'm pretty sure it was because of problems with his neck and was going to have surgury to sort it out.

oh was it. I can't remember him getting injured again. I know he had to forfeit the first time because of the Owen piledriver

I'm not 100% sure now. Just went over to obsessed with wrestling and it didn't really mention anything about what happened at that time.

Got it from some Austin site. I remember now. The classic "River" segment

On 1997-12-06 Austin defeats Rocky Maivia (The Rock) retaining the IC Title, however the next night on Raw he hands it to Rocky and goes after the WWF Championship. Actually the Rattlesnake took the IC belt and threw it in a river. Stone Cold eliminated Rocky at the 1998 Royal Rumble, earning his title shot at WrestleMania XIV

:cool:

:y:

Yeah. Vince McMahon (who really didn't "make matches" in his on-air role at the time) came out and told Steve off for driving his truck into the arena at In Your House D-Generation X, and then booked Steve Austin vs. Rocky Maivia for the Intercontinental Title, in a re-match.

Austin came out in street clothes. McMahon was all, "You're not dressed to fight. Why is that?"

Austin was like, "I can't fight like this?"

Vince was like, "Sure you can. Ref, ring the bell."

Austin was like, "Ah ah!" and then Austin forfeited the Intercontninental Championship to The Rock claiming he had bigger fish to fry.

Chavo was like, "Pepsi Man is cute"

Outside of TV land, the real reason was because Vince McMahon wanted Rocky to be the IC champ and Austin refused to put him over. He didn't want to lose that close to his WWF title win at WrestleMania 14. I can see his point but he could have easily did the job to Rocky. He could have done the job to Owen Hart who then could have put Rocky over and Owen would then have a win over Austin and could properly continue their feud.

:cool:

they don't do river segments anymore more :(

(164)

They've done 3! How many is enough?

It's easy to say what could've happened years after the fact. Bret Hart could've put Shawn Michaels over in Montreal. Hulk Hogan could've turned down WCW's offer and resigned on a limited basis with the WWF. Glenn Jacobs could've stayed Dr. Isaac Yankem. A Nitro Girl could've joined Hacksaw Jim Duggan during the "Janitor Duggan" days towards the end of WCW, and she could've found the WWF Women's Title belt that Madusa threw in the trash all those years ago.

Ric Flair and Shane Douglas could've been best of friends. Undertaker could've done a lot more jobs, even early on in his WWF career. Mick Foley could've negotiated a bit harder to come into the WWF as Cactus Jack as opposed to Mankind.

Great point made. Also Randy Orton could have beat Triple H at Wrestlemania 21 for the World Heavyweight Title and on the same night he could have beat the Undertaker in a Legend vs Legend Killer match.

But this is just what could have been and never has happened actually nor will it happen in future.:y: :wave:

I still wish I had a tape of when all of that happened. I know it's around in a mountain of tapes somewhere. One of the great classic moments in my eyes. When Austin officially became a main eventer and showed just how far he would go to prove that he was such.

River segment? Is that insider talk? If it is could someone define it for me?

A segment on a show that involves a river, typically done with a wrestler tossing another wrestler's title belt into the river, and once done with Kurt Angle threatening to toss Stone Cold Steve Austin into the water, sending him to his doom. That was hilarious. Anyway, there's nothing too "insider" about it if you've watched wrestling for longer than five minutes.

does anyone have video of this? rep to whoever does

I remember an IC match for the vacated belt between Owen Hart and Farooq with Austin interfering (I think Austin had been forced to vacate it or something). I'm pretty sure that was after Owen had broke his neck, and Austin helped Owen win for some reason. Good times.

Bad Blood 97 :cool:

Oh.

Yeah, he helped Owen win so that Austin could face him for it at SS'97.

Sad Memory :'(

I actually have the entire full raw show in full, of that night. I could up it if you want a full show to go along with that segment.

And yes, BB'97 was a sad ppv for me too LC.:\'(

RIP Brian.......God I miss him

sure thing.... i wanna see it :cool: :y:

Actually austin was to win the world title at mania so inorder to enhance his character they made this storyline ,it made it looK that he has a bigger fish to fry

...but instead its because he didn't want to put the Rock over, like he didn't want to put Lesnar over a few years later.

Wow, he's not that great at judging talent is he?

Wasn't as simple as that though. With Rocky. he would have lost to a mid carder at best when he was being groomed to win the WWF title. Would have hurt him doing the job in both long and short term. When he refused to put Lesnar over, he just said he prefered to do it after a storyline build up and not just out of nowhere. And when he refused to put over Lesnar, he was a physical wreck and ended up practically quitting the business on the back of it (he only had a handful more matches).

why in the hell would you want Orton to beat Taker at Mania and end his Mania streak and beat Hunter on the same night????

everybody knows Batista was the right man for that night against Hunter and there was no way Orton would beat Taker or anybody else beat Taker at Mania

sounds smart on austin's part.

reminds me of John Cena loosing to Orlando Jordon in February yet beating the WWE champ in Early April