Reason why The Rock vs. Steve Austin didn't headline WrestleMania 19 revealed by WWE HOFer
The Rock defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin in one of the marquee matches of WrestleMania 19. Jim Ross, a WWE commentator at the time, recently recalled why the blockbuster bout did not headline the event.
WrestleMania 19 took place on March 30, 2003, in Seattle, Washington. The Rock and Austin were expected to follow up their WrestleMania 15 and WrestleMania 17 one-on-one matches by main-eventing again at WrestleMania 19. However, Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle competed in the show's last match instead.
On his Grilling JR podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross said plans changed after Austin was hospitalized the night before the event due to a heart problem:
"Are you guys crazy? Nope, we're not crazy. We didn't know, quite frankly, if Steve could do it, how he was gonna perform, how he was gonna feel, could he get re-injured over something that happened that seemed to be so mundane, it would hurt anybody, so that's where we were with that." [1:26:52 – 1:27:13]
After losing to The Rock, Austin did not compete in a WWE ring again until he beat Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38 in 2022.
Jim Ross on The Rock and Steve Austin's replacements
Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle to win the WWE Championship. The match is best remembered for The Beast Incarnate suffering a concussion after botching a Shooting Star Press in the closing stages.
Jim Ross was pleased for the main-eventers and did not think putting Steve Austin in the show-closing bout made sense given the circumstances:
"And it gave Lesnar and Angle, two young guys, a chance to close that show, which was also very good, so we got a little win out of it. But Steve, we had to take care of his health. Too many times we were always chasing the dollar and not worried about the health, and I've been a party to so much of that it's almost embarrassing." [1:27:13 – 1:27:38]
Ross also opened up about WWE "mishandling" an AEW star's career from the moment he debuted with the company.
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Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.