Yes, he had limits after the neck, but his 'WWE superman face' act had legs for quite a while. It is a tough role to carry because of the lack of suspense in the out-of-ring storytelling. The 'deck is stacked' in lame ways that everyone is smart enough to sniff out as 'I get it, but that's not going to work because it is Austin'. We see it with Cena all the time too. And then he lost to the Rock...

Moreso than that stuff...his work from WM 17 and on had a gang of strong matches...especially the paranoid heel stuff...those two matches he had with Benoit on back-to-back Raw and Smackdown were story-telling excellence and straight up physical. On Smackdown, Benoit was selling rib injuries (complete with wrap) and Austin casually tried to kill him via attacking his midsection. Front suplex on announcer table, etc. And Benoit must've German'd him 20 times over those 2 matches. Insane.

Austin was money with a bad neck and knees.

And the finisher festival matches with Rock were nice too. I liked all of their matches in all of their AJPW-light, tables involved in every big match like a video game, 'yeah, I kicked out of that too' glory.

And his WWE stuff before the neck? Hella nice. Him and Bret were on a roll.

Jimaveli

>>he was never the best worker in the company at
>>any given time
>
>This doesn't have anything to do with whether or not his body
>of work measures up. It literally has no bearing whatsoever.
>The work is what matters, not whether or not he's ranked #1.
>
>>especially when Shawn, Angle, Benoit, Rey and
>>Austin were there.
>
>Austin stopped being in that class after he beat Shawn. He was
>increasingly a brawler after that and rarely looked back.
>Based on your standards, he's an average worker since he
>became The Man. And Rey was never in that class in WWE. WCW,
>yes. His WWE iteration is a VERY pale shadow of that. He
>became a caricature of THAT Rey.
>
>>But that wasn't because they were technically sound
>>matches.
>
>The strong implication here is that a great match that's not
>technically sound is somehow less than, and that's about as
>disingenuous as it gets. There are different types of matches;
>A great match is a great match is a great match. End of story.
>
>
>>I think the two Taker matches were well
>>choreographed, but it wasn't as if there were moves put
>>together that were just unbelievable.
>
>The story on that last one was incredible, and a testament to
>all involved. You think a great match is all about
>awe-inspiring moves, but awe-inspiring spots and stories are
>equally valid.
>
>>great everyone says that match was, four matches this year
>was
>>voted better than that one in the Wrestling Observer Awards
>>(Tanahashi/Suzuki, Okada/Naito, Richards/Elgin,
>>Tanahashi/Okada).
>
>Cool story, bro. I'm going out on a limb to say that at least
>three of those were Japanese matches, and honestly DGAF about
>what's going on over there.
>
>>HHH has great matches with guys that are considered great
>>workers (well, minus Batista; that was a great feud). But
>the
>>issue here is, he's the "B" guy in those matches, not the
>"A"
>>that's carrying the load. Hell; Bret Hart was carrying Kevin
>>Nash and Scott Hall into four star matches, and the ones he
>>had with Shawn Michaels were consider d some of the greatest
>>ever.
>
>LOL@4 star matches w/Nash. You're in fantasy land.
>
>