“I did it for The Rock” is a line that viewers of WWE’s Attitude Era have committed to memory. They were the words uttered by Rikishi after he was revealed to be the mystery driver who ran over Steve Austin at the 1999 Survivor Series. However, the payoff from the injury angle didn’t result in a major feud between Austin and Rikisi, with “Stone Cold” moving onto a rivalry with Triple H, and Rikishi doing the same with his cousin, The Rock.
Reflecting on the storyline, former WWE referee Mike Chioda believes fans never viewed Rikishi as a legitimate threat to Austin’s supremacy in WWE, which is why their feud never caught fire. In hindsight, Chioda feels WWE could have utilized a bigger name such as Vince McMahon to be unveiled as Austin’s mystery attacker, citing the WWE founder’s longstanding rivalry with “The Texas Rattlesnake” that began in early 1998.
“I would have probably liked to have seen Vince [McMahon],” Chioada said on his “Monday Mailbag” podcast. “Those two were great, man. I mean, the way Vince always used his expressions and all his selling … and Stone Cold flipping off the boss right in his face and stunning him. It was great. Stone Cold coming down in beer trucks and hosing everyone down with beer. Who else gets to do that to their boss and get paid for it?”
Chioda also floated Kurt Angle as another candidate who could’ve been unveiled as Austin’s attacker, arguing that the Olympic Gold medalist would have benefitted from the injury angle as he was still early into his WWE career. “Imagine Stone Cold coming out with the beer truck, and here comes Kurt with the milk truck! We could have had a truck battle!”
