SCF Tournament, Sweet Sixteen - Steve Austin vs. Chris Jericho

[Slyfox696]

The following match is scheduled for one fall. The match is held in San Antonio, Texas and is a Sweet 16 matchup. All seeds represent overall tournament seeding.

#1 Steve Austin	vs.	#16 Chris Jericho

The discussion period will last for two days, followed by two days for voting. You may vote for whomever you feel deserves to win this match. Please post your reasons below if you wish.

[Spidercanrana]

Fuck accolades.

This is literally the blue collar hardworking rebel vs. the rockstar prima donna.

Austin wins or we should expect a shitstorm in Texas.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

When you consider al

['Ravishing' Ned Flanders]

The only thing Jericho can do better than Austin is sing.

There's no way this match would take place and Steve Austin would lose. He was a bigger star tham Jericho, he sold more merch than Jericho I'm sure and he helped keep the WWE from going out of buisness.

Jericho is good but Austin is just better.

Vote Austin

[Gazprom]

I'm going to be the contrarian here and say these two wrestled on PPV twice and Jericho won both times, but for me there's a much more important reason to vote Jericho here.

Jericho has wrestled everywhere and anywhere and always been successful. Austin is very much a product of his time. In WCW and his first year in WWF he was an unremarkable mid carder, only going truly supernova in late 97. Austin was a great character and Mr. McMahon a better foil but the only reason Austin became as big as he did was because he didn't actually have to do any wrestling. During Austin's peak, he would show up, stunner and then leave, and almost never have matches, even on PPV. This booking just wouldn't hold water at any other point in wrestling history.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I'm a little on the fence, leaning towards Y2J. Austin was probably the most popular wrestler who ever lived, his peak is much higher than Jericho's in terms of popularity and merch....probably the top merch seller ever as well. But on the flip side, even though Jericho didn't touch those peaks of popularity and merch , his longevity topples Stone Colds by a mile, even if he was mid to Main Event throughout his career and has won a longer string of titles...some of them against Stone Cold as well.

Career: Y2J

Popularity Spike: Stone Cold

Mic skills: Y2J

In Ring: slight edge to Y2J. Variance of styles and execution, both were good in their set style.

I value the full career over short bursts of superstardom.


Vote Y2J baby! Yeah!

[Spidercanrana]

I can agree with just about every opposing argument here except how Jericho was better on the mic and his longevity makes him the better wrestler.

In regards to longevity, how does one define it? Austin is a star whether or not he could wrestle. When Y2J isn't wrestling, he gets lukewarm fanfare on reality TV competitions. Austin as a special guest referee is a fun addition to any Wrestlemania feud. Jericho may get five minutes now and then with his Highlight Reel. If one is talking longevity, Austin has remained a bigger deal while Jericho's biggest, most recent stint was him playing foil for Kevin Owens. I don't think it can be argued that Jericho can still fight, and can still be a cool name for us wrestling nerds, but overall Austin's on-screen longevity as a character has surpassed damn near every other including Hulk Hogan. In regards to being a personality, Jericho rides a wave of mediocre-to-exceptional while Austin is the biggest thing of the night, always. Seriously, Raw 25.

And Chris Jericho, while talking a lot more clearly than Austin due to Austin's accent, isn't on his mic level. Austin made talking in the third person cool. Who the fuck even does that? Jericho fairly recently made fans like that list thing he did. I welcome a debate on this, as I don't see how "You just made the list!" is better than "And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so!"

Fans lose their shit even when Austin can't fight. Probably because he's given them sweeter moments than Y2J has. Vote Austin.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Stone Cold lit the entire professional wrestling world on fire in 1998. Austin may not have had a long tenure "in the business", but his stardom and rise to the top brought in more viewers and merchandise in one year than ever before. Austin has won more Royal Rumbles (3) than anyone in WWE history. That alone carries Austin into the Elite 8.

v- Austin.