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#8 Austin makes a deal with the devil (WrestleMania 17)
Stone Cold has called this moment one of the worst mistakes of his career. When looking at the failures of the subsequent Power Trip and Invasion angles, it isn't hard to see why. In the moment, though, this was shocking. Everyone was talking about it.
It was the culmination of over a year's worth of storytelling. Since he was forced out to deal with an injury in late 1999, Austin was watching from the sidelines as The Rock was eclipsing his star. Austin needed to prove that he was still the biggest star in the industry by taking the championship from The Rock, and as he himself said in the promo package, he needed it "more than anything you can imagine."
His desperation was so overwhelming that he was even willing to "shake hands with Satan himself," as JR's brilliant commentary told it. In a different context, this could have led to something far better than it ultimately did, but if there were ever a moment in time that defined the "end of an era," this one was it.
