Blog Question?

Rock was more a series of moments through 98: Getting carried out on the stretcher at Wrestlemania while holding the belt high, then getting the crowd on his side during the ladder match against HHH, and then finally the three-way against Shamrock/Mankind at Breakdown where he was the total babyface and treated like a World champion by the crowd. If I had to distill it down to one, it's the Summerslam ladder match, though. I was Team Rock from then on.

Austin I knew would be a megastar from the moment I saw him debut in USWA. As far as the WWE goes, stunning Vince McMahon showed that they were pulling the trigger on him once and for all.

Foley is easy, the Cell match.

Undertaker broke through the moment he debuted.

HHH's might seem to be beating Foley at Rumble, but I think the actual moment was beating Big Show a couple of weeks earlier. Because he was suddenly white-hot as a heel and it was a case of getting the World title on him at EXACTLY the right time to cash in. As fans, we could organically tell that he NEEDED to be champion right after that Vince match where Steph turned, and damned if they didn't pull the trigger as soon as humanly possible on RAW.

John Cena's was giving Rikishi the FU and beating him clean on Smackdown in 2003. Instantly turned him from a goofy rapper character into a serious threat. People forget that for much of that early run he was in serious danger of getting overshadowed by Bull Buchanan because he was booked as a typical "little guy" heel ala Shawn & Diesel. Who could think of Cena as small is beyond me. After that switch in tone and dumping Bull, it was nothing but uphill for him.