From: TheRock1525 | #226
Funny, I remember Foley spending the last two months putting over The Rock to build him up for WM, where he lost and lost a rematch at Backlash. But his popularity stuck pretty damn well, if you ask me.
Yeah, because Rock was the heel at the time and Austin was going to carry the company through the summer of '99, so Rock SHOULD have lost at WM to Austin, in the same vein that Triple H SHOULD have lost at WM to The Rock.
Besides, by not taking the glory for himself, it ended up being all about Vince McMahon again. The whole thing left a lot of bad tastes in people's mouths, at it was the beginning of BACKSTAGE POWERZ HHH.
Well, the main thing I'm arguing is that Rock winning is a superior option to EITHER Triple H OR Foley winning that match. Debating Triple H winning vs. Foley winning is a lot closer of a debate, and I can at least understand the idea that Foley winning was the second-best-option there, even if I personally disagree. No way is it better than Rock walking out on top though.
You're assuming that if Foley won, Rock and HHH would have never been as big as they became. Nevermind the fact that Rock was already huge and was going to continue being huge or that HHH wasn't going anywhere no matter what the objections (seriously, you think Mick Foley winning at WM was enough to end HHH's career?).
Choosing to celebrating an aging for one night in his illustrious career by having him win on the biggest stage of them all wasn't going to permanently derail either of these guy's careers. That's completely different from what the WWE does now (routinely put over the same guys and give spots to proven stars all the time).
We could have had another great WM moment and instead no one wants to remember WM2000's ending, or if they do they remember it bitterly.
I'm not saying that it completely submarines Trips and Rock to have Foley win the match, but it does unnecessarily burden them, and it cheapens the title. Absolutely no one deserves to win their final match (which at the time it was presumed to be for Foley, and was for 4 years IIRC). Not Flair, not Hogan, not Austin, not Rock, not Shawn, not Bret, not Cena, not Hunter, not Undertaker, and not Foley. None of them are bigger than the business, and none of them SHOULD be bigger than the Championship (although sadly some of them are).
Rock coming out on top WOULD have been an awesome Wrestlemania moment, and it's one he definitely deserved and never really got. That was the time for it, in hindsight. Instead he has on his resume losing at XV (fair), losing at 2000 (dumb move), losing at X-7 while being booed out of the building (bad move regardless of how much I love heel Austin creatively), booed mercilessly at X8 (total dick move by Toronto), booed at XIX (fair since he was the heel), and stuck in a midcard tag match at XX.
Rock has NEVER gotten the "triumphant at Wrestlemania to the adulation of the millions" moment he deserved, and IF he is going to stick around after XXVIII and do some more matches over the next couple years, this might be the time to do it.
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Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
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