The Rock held onto the WWF title until No Mercy in October, when he was beaten by Kurt Angle (with help from Rikishi, who was fresh off his heel turn, having admitted to knocking down Steve Austin). The Rock beat Rikishi in a drab match at Survivor Series, and at Armageddon he was pinned by Kurt Angle in the six-way Hell In A Cell Match (after taking a Stone Cold Stunner of course).

Thanks to a returning (but still overweight) Big Show, The Rock was eliminated from the 2001 Royal Rumble, but at No Way Out in February he defeated Kurt Angle to raise his 6th WWE World Title. Then the hype began for the much-awaited re-match between Steve Austin and The Rock, which would take place at Wrestlemania from the Astrodome in Housten Texas. Unfortunately, the WWE dropped the ball in regards to hyping the match up correctly. Forgetting all about the heat they had between each other in 99' (remember when The Rock threw Austin and his belt off a bridge?), the WWE based the feud around the fact that Debra was The Rock's manager and Austin disputed this because Debra was his wife. The build-up could have (and should have) been so much better.