[1998-03-30-WWF-Raw] Steve Austin and Vince McMahon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Tim Cooke]

The “official” kick off of the Vince/Austin feud. Vince brings out a new title belt and Austin takes it. The do a slower than usual Russo build in terms of upping the ante in the promo (and continue doing so as the feud progresses). Most of this feud so far has revolved around different interpretations of the English language. “What is your definition of the easy way or the hard way?” “Why did you say Tyson was the baddest man on the planet?” Austin ends up giving Vince a stunner to a huge pop and is then arrested backstage. It’s no wonder that the next episode of RAW ended Nitro’s winning streak.

[soup23]

The Winged Eagle belt is no more. Vince vs. Austin is now a thing full fledged and we get a lot of focus on what the direction of the company will be going forward in that regard. Austin delivers a great promo with the crowd behind him every step of the way and Vince is truly finding his own at being a prick. The stunner got a great reaction from the crowd and they chant Hell Yeah at Austin doing things the hard way.

[Zenjo]

The feud with Shawn Michaels is immediately consigned to the past as Mr. McMahon turns into the top heel in the company. Stone Cold is corporate enemy #1 and going to damn well do everything "the hard way".

[Loss]

Austin gets an enormous pop coming out and wow does that crowd hate Vince. Vince tries to apologize for previous misunderstandings and the crowd isn't having it. Vince accidentally says he loves Steve Austin because he's so nervous and Austin has some fun with that. I remember thinking Austin was such an asshole at the time. Vince was trying to be reasonable. Still, this was a great segment.

[Childs]

It is funny that Austin became such a huge babyface star, because his character really was the kind of unreasonable prick most of us would hate in actual life. He was so wrapped up with his own narrative that he couldn't recognize any context in which he might tone it down. We usually roll our eyes and mock people like that. I know the going theory held that people loved living vicariously through him as he released his working man's id on the boss. Maybe it was that or maybe he was just a charismatic fucker who popped off the screen. I'm not sure. But it's something to see, even 16 years later.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I have never seen a lot of the Austin vs McMahon stuff from RAW. Lets dig in. This was an entertaining segment, nothing blowaway great. I like how Vince was not a full on, beat you over the head heel. In a lot of ways, Austin forces McMahon's hand to be such a heel because Austin was such a dick. Austin was pretty funny mocking Vince for saying he loved him. Vince was being more of the sterile annoying management type heel. Saying he was incapable of hate and trying to befriend Austin, but you can see through the veneer that he finds Austin repugnant. I think that's Austin's charm just as Vince says he is being genuine and Vince is a phony. I like Austin challenging the threat from McMahon. That's actually pretty reasonable thing from Austin to do. Then he Stunners him. Good stuff.

[PeteF3]

A super-hot segment, hotter than anything on Nitro, natch. This crowd is so loud that Vince can't even hear himself over the mic. He gives Austin a chance to work within the system and adapt, as he must do in business and in life, and Austin doesn't want to hear it. Austin does come off as a bit of a prick with a persecution complex, but McMahon is such a disingenuous jerk here--"I am INCAPABLE of hate"--that it's hard not to see why this would piss him off, too. Vince offers Austin the chance of doing things the easy way or the hard way--a theme that would recur in a couple of weeks in a major way. Austin thinks it over and responds with a Stunner. And once again, nothing will ever be the same.

[TravJ1979]

Austin continues to be the hottest thing in the business even after WrestleMania.