The Rock Credits Steve Austin For Reaching WrestleMania XV Main Event
By Craig Ballantyne on 1 October 2025
The Rock has revealed that Steve Austin asked Vince McMahon to face him at WrestleMania XV.
The Rock and Steve Austin had a legendary series of matches at WrestleMania, starting at the 15th edition of the Showcase of the Immortals in 1999. There, Austin emerged the winner after overcoming interference from Vince McMahon to land a Stunner on The Rock to recapture the WWE Championship.
In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, The Rock praised Austin for helping him in his career, and revealed that it was the Bionic Redneck who pitched the WrestleMania match to McMahon that January.
“Speaking of good guys, this guy helped me so much, Mark. He was on top of the world. He saw just a little bit of potential in me, but also smart enough to know, he’s like, man, we got some chemistry, man. Me and you. And I was not in a position to say, hey, let’s me and you work together. Let’s go headline WrestleMania. He had to say it.
“And he went on, he went to Vince McMahon in 1999, in January of ’99, I think. He said, ‘I wanna main event WrestleMania with The Rock.’ The rest is history. We went on and I went on to have just the greatest rivalry with him.”
The Rock & Steve Austin Had Heartfelt Moment At WrestleMania XIX
The pair had a rematch in Houston, Texas in the main event of WrestleMania XVII. The match saw Vince McMahon once again make his presence felt, this time coming to the aid of Austin, helping him to defeat The Great One with a steel chair and kicking off an ill-fated heel turn for the Texas Rattlesnake.
The final match in their trilogy happened two years later at WrestleMania XIX, with Rock finally getting a win over Stone Cold on the Grandest Stage of them All. As it turned out, the bout also marked Austin’s retirement from the ring.
In the SI interview, Rock gave Austin credit for putting him over in the match despite being the biggest star in wrestling.
“That, what you just saw, that picture, that was his very last wrestling match. I had the honor of wrestling him his final match. As you leave the business, it’s the right thing to do and the respectable thing to do is to lose as you leave and put this guy over. Let this guy who’s going to go on. Let him win, and he didn’t have to because he was the biggest star in wrestling.
“But he did, he put me over. And as I was pinning him, I rock bottomed him three fucking times, by the way. You know, he, like Kurt Angle, he had a broken neck. He was wrestling with a broken neck. After the one, two, three, I leaned down in his ear, I said, I love you, man. He was like, I love you too. We had that moment.”
What was the best match between The Rock and Steve Austin? Would you have liked to see them wrestle one more time? Let us know your thoughts below!
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.