He was right about Austin. Austin only became a star because of a past prime HBK with a bust back. If it were'nt for the McMahon/Austin fued after that. He'd of never been put over as a star. If the same star line up was in the Federation. Hulk, Macho, Goldberg, Bret, Flair, and all the NWO guys. Austin wouldn't have amounted to jack shit. Undertaker could still headline and also The Heartbreak Kid. But not Austin, the Rock, or HHH.
Those guys would have been heftier competition for sure, but Austin was a mid-carder in WCW
before all those names arrived.
That’s the flaw in Bischoff’s argument.
Steve maintains that WCW didn’t know how to use him.
Bischoff insists that if Austin was still with WCW, he’d be a mid-card guy due to the presence of Hogan, Savage, etc.
But that doesn’t explain why Austin was merely a mid-carder
before WCW’s acquisition of all that talent.
As for Austin’s WWF success… yes, there
were some good workers at the time, but nobody that was at, say, the “Hogan” level.
Taker and Shawn were headliners, but they didn’t have the notoriety of Hulkamania. They weren’t mainstream the way Hogan was, and the way Austin would become.
Shawn was popular within the confines of WWF, but most people who didn’t follow wrestling
(and specifically the Fed) had
no idea who he was.
But just about everybody on the planet knew Hulk Hogan, and that’s the position Austin stepped into.
Would Austin have been given the chance to do what he did with all those other guys around?
Probably not.
There would have been no need for it, and he would have gone undiscovered.
But once Austin 3:16 was fully established, I don’t care if Bischoff’s entire roster had (re)joined WWF. Austin was bigger than all of them.
Vince listened to the fans on this one.
The people wanted to see Austin go over HBK.
The fans wanted Austin on top.
That’s why he got the pops he did…
That's why WWF's numbers went up with him at the helm...
It’s why he got the cross industry fame he did…
And it’s why his merchandise outsold every other superstar’s in history.