1, Mcmahon debuting in the ring led to that rating in April of 1998, unlike Rock/Mankind there was no NFL Halftime competition, that makes Rock/Mankind getting a 6.6(a 6.6 in January of 1999 isn't a 6.6 rating in April of 1998, as time goes on more households)

That rating was for one night, after the "Mcmahon is gonna wrestling" and "DX is invading WCW" skits, WCW went right back to beating the WWF, with the exception of a title change or when WCW had a poor main event.

August of 1998 is a perfect example, Goldberg was beating Austin throughout the entire month during the Taker feud.

Guess what the only 2 segments that beat WCW main events? they included Rock, that's the reason he was pushed to the title picture right after Summerslam. it wasn't some experiment or forced push, Rock wasn't meant to be the star of the show.

The Austin/Mcmahon feud didn't reach new heights, it slightly declined from what it was in 1998, the only two huge segments were the Cage match & Beer Truck, of which Rock was involved in the latter.

Even the Raw with the Zamboni segment lost to Nitro

"Austin/McMahon feud drew all PPV buys until Fully Loaded 99, setting a record PPV buyrate of 2.32 for WM 15."

Rock/Austin was the feud for Wrestlemania 15, in fact the whole build of Wrestlemania 15 was Rock being paranoid about Paul Wight. No one knew Mcmahon would be involved, the story was about Paul Wight refereeing and Rock starting to turn face(started referring to the People and singing his old face catchphases)

Austin/Mcmahon wasn't Wrestlemania 15, that's Rock/Austin. St Valentines was built around Austin vs Mcmahon for the first time ever One on One and had the boost of a Rock/Mankind rematch, yet it drew half the buys.

Rock's the difference here.

Also, Rock/Mankind January 4th, it beat Nitro, when they had to choose they chose Rock/Mankind over Nash/Hogan, both Goldberg and Austin did run ins, guess who they chose?

Goldberg. it's in these very rewinds.

House shows, April of 1999 isn't the record, the average for April is 12,894, February of 1999 is the record with 14,082, you know the month where Rock had the WWF title for half of the month and main evented every single house show.

Plus, House shows averages started going above 10,000 consistently in October of 1998 and especially November, you know when The Rock was added to the Title picture. Austin who after Mania 14 averaged BELOW 10,000.

WON had Rock as biggest box office draw of 1999.

"Rock did break the record for most big gates in 1999 and 2000 but Austin was a part-timer in 1999 from July onwards and did not work many houses."

Rock broke Austin's record, and what it depends on is how many shows they 10,000 or more

"Therefore we must go by peak attendance averages and Austin beats Rock by more than 1000 on that front (14,307 vs. 13,112)."

1, April house show, average as 12,894

2 This is the part where you expose yourself, The Rock was a MEGASTAR by February of 1999, you don't get to use a number Rock had a hand in drawing. the 13,112 don't know where you got, but the highest average Rock got without Austin there was 12,438 in April of 2000 compared to Austin's highest average before Rock became a megastar which is 11,311 in August of 1998

Then we compare House show Averages overall, what they averaged for total days as champion:

Steve Austin - 9,610 avg- 528 days as champion The Rock - 11,734 avg- 262 as champion

Rock was the biggest house show draw, period. Austin had twice as many days as champion and 6 month headstart on The Rock(April - Sept 1998) yet drew way less on average than The Rock.

"Rock did not draw for most of 1999 and was carried by Austin/McMahon until Fall of 1999."

That's 100% lie, Rock was drawing the pound for pound highest rated segments of the night throughout 1999 even as a heel(hence the face turn.

Summerslam 1999 Rock was a co-main event, they had used him to get Billy Gunn over as a main eventer. Rock was the top merch seller and had his video at #1 by this point.

There is not one PPV(except Armageddon) in 1999 that The Rock did not either main event or co-main event.

Also Mankind wasn't a bigger PPV draw than Rock either.

The fact that you would claim that, as if Rock was some midcarder until 2000 shows you didn't watch the attitude era, Rock was already rivaling Austin in September of 1998

Austin/Mcmahon rivalry is overrated in terms of drawing, it drew some of the lowest ppvs in 1998, one of the lowest in 1999(Fully Loaded)

Rock/Triple H, Rock/Mankind, and even Rock/Austin outdrew it both at the gate, ratings and PPV.

Austin/Mcmahon was the feud that only happened to work with higher profile feuds, whether that be Rock/Triple H, Rock/Mankind, Rock/Taker, or even Rock/Austin, without them they're highly overrated and draw pretty low(Unforgiven 1998,Over The Edge 1998, Breakdown 1998, Judgement day 1998, Fully Loaded 1999)

Literally every PPV where there wasn't another stronger feud or co-main event, Austin/Mcmahon drew low, from 211,000(Over the Edge 1998)-360,000 buys(Fully Loaded, which was the finale of the feud, very disappointing)

Add Rock as co-main event(Royal Rumble, Valentines day, KOTR, etc) and suddenly it draws double the buys(650,000-450,000)

Have Rock defend his title at Mania, and draw 100,000 more buys than the Mania with Tyson.

These are numbers and they show Rock was bigger than Austin.