Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WWF WrestleMania XV

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

As we’re in WrestleMania Season I decided to review what I will charitably refer to as one of the…lesser WrestleMania events in the form of WrestleMania XV. Suffering from a chaotic build focused more on swerves and hotshot booking rather than solid build for the event itself, WrestleMania XV ended up being a real miss on the night itself as well. It’s interesting to think that, despite it being one of the most successful periods in WWE’s history from a purely business perspective, the Attitude Era was kind of a mixed bag when it came down to WrestleMania events. 1998 is decent, 1999 and 2000 are both pretty cack, and 2001 is one of the best ever.

The Main Event of WrestleMania XV sees Stone Cold Steve Austin challenge The Rock for the WWF Title. Elsewhere we’ve got Undertaker and Big Boss Man going at it in Heck in a Cell, whilst Triple H takes on Kane and Shane McMahon battles X-Pac. Let’s see if time has been kind to WrestleMania XV or if it’s as sucky today as it was all the way back in 1999. I’m watching the Netflix version of the show as opposed to the Silver Vision Home Video version I have because my VHS player isn’t playing ball at the moment.

You can view the full card for the event by clicking below;
WWF WrestleMania XV Card

WrestleMania XV is emanating from the First Union Center in Philly, PA on the 28th March 1999

Calling the action are Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler, with Jim Ross getting to do the Main Event

The vocal group Boyz 2 Men sing America The Beautiful, and do a much better job than the DX band did the year before. That being said, you could have hit a paraquet with a mallet for 3 minutes and that would have sounded better than the DX Band’s effort

Freddy Blassie does an excellent voiceover for the dramatic opening video package

I really do hate the set for Mania XV actually, as it’s just a metal sign dangling. It just looks a bit dull, although it is made use of at one point later on in the show. Michael says that it doesn’t get any bigger or exciting than this. I dunno, Sienna Miller showing up on your front door with your favourite pizza and movie would probably be more exciting than watching WrestleMania XV to be honest…

Opening Match
Triple Threat Match for the WWF Hardcore Title
Champion: “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn Vs Hardcore Holly Vs Al Snow w/ Head

This match, and another one later on in the night, was a glaring example of Vince Russo enjoying SWERVES far too much for his own good. Road Dogg, Hardcore Holly and Al Snow had an interesting three way rivalry going on over the Hardcore Title, whilst Gunn was embroiled in a four way issue for the IC Title with Goldust, Val Venis and Ken Shamrock. It was all building to Road Dogg Vs Holly Vs Snow at WrestleMania XV, which would have been a logical pay off to the whole thing and could have been a big singles win for Road Dogg to get him cooking on that front whilst Gunn won the IC Title in the four way later on.

However, Russo being Russo, he decided to have Gunn win the Hardcore Title and Road Dogg win the IC Title just days out from Mania, thus destroying two well-built stories and leaving us with two, now, flat matches at Mania, just so the fans could be swerved with something they weren’t expecting. Of course, the reason they wouldn’t expect it was because it made absolutely zero sense to do those Title switches, as they ruined storylines that fans had been invested in for the past 3-4 months, but trivial stuff like that tended not to bother Russo or his acolytes.

This one is all-action, with all three guys going at it from the opening bell. Gunn doesn’t even get to do his catchphrase, and that was 85% of his act at the time! The expected weaponry gets introduced, which leads to Snow hitting both guys with a hockey stick so that the fans start chanting for the local NHL team. Aside from that, the crowd isn’t really into the match that much. As far as Hardcore Title matches from this Era go, it’s decent, with Snow being the star of the match when it comes to big bumps.

Holly probably does the least, as he spends most of the match either getting beaten up or lying around selling whilst Snow and Gunn do the more interesting stuff together. I don’t know if he was injured or if the match result meant that they felt he didn’t need to do as much in the match itself because he was eventually going to win. We get the traditional WWF/E spot of someone stealing the pin in a 3 way match, this time with Holly pinning Snow after Gunn has already taken Snow out with a Fame-Asser onto a chair just after the 7 Minute mark.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: HARDCORE HOLLY
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was inoffensive WWF Hardcore wrestling. Gunn inexplicably getting added to it meant that the match didn’t really have much heat because it went from being a match with an actual story to just being a throwaway opener with an even more throwaway result. Holly and Snow would face one another at Backlash in April whilst Gunn would eventually win the King of the Ring in June

We get clips from the Battle Royal on Sunday Night HeAT

Match Two
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champions: Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart w/ Debra Vs D-Lo Brown and Test w/ Ivory

Brown and Test were the last two remaining in he HeAT Battle Royal, so they now get a Tag Title shot. Why they couldn’t just stick a regular team in there is beyond me. Edge and Christian aren’t booked on WrestleMania, why not give them a quick run out here on the big event? Heck, if you just want a team to go out there and do a quick job for the Champs then let a team like Kai-En-Tai or Stevie & Meanie get a pay per view appearance rather than just throwing out two random dudes like this. Test and Brown argue during the entrances, which essentially telegraphs the finish immediately. Ivory has a plaster on her face due to Terri Runnels supposedly stubbing out a cigar on her face (we call that doing a Joey Barton in the UK).

Debra is probably the most popular person in the match, owing to her having a revealing outfit that does a good job of showcasing her flowery baps. The actual action here is fine, but it’s wrestled at 100mph because they’ve been given barely any time to work with. It’s essentially a Raw match that they decided to stick on WrestleMania. Test and Brown don’t get along and the crowd doesn’t really care about them because they’re a random thrown together team, so the match doesn’t have much heat. The biggest reaction comes when Debra, Ivory, Terri Runnels and Jacqueline get into an argument at ringside, leading to Owen giving Brown a missile dropkick so that Jarrett can pin Brown after 4 Minutes.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: JARRETT & HART
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Barely any point adding this one to the show really outside of giving these four a payday

We meet the judges in the Brawl 4 All match, with them being Kevin Rooney, Chuck Wepner and Gorilla Monsoon. I believe this was Gorilla’s last on screen appearance, and he gets a fantastic reception from the crowd in a nice moment

Match Three
Brawl 4 All
Guest Referee: Vinny Pazienza
Butterbean w/ Art Gore, Donny Dold & Manny Sutherland Vs Bart Gunn w/ John Lotharo & Ray Rinaldi

This is a boxing match but you’re allowed to do takedowns as well. The story here is that Bart Gunn won the Brawl 4 All tournament in 1998, a genuine shoot competition that was supposedly arranged for Dr. Death Steve Williams to win. However, Bart was a ringer and he took out Dr. Death on route to winning the whole thing. Thus they booked this follow up, with the backstage whispers being that it was done to punish Bart for winning the original tournament. Let’s be honest; even if Williams had somehow contrived a way to win the tournament, the eventual feud with Steve Austin would have been rubbish because there’s no way that Austin was going to take any of Williams’ trademark head drop based offence due to his injured neck.

Bart had done some tough man contests and could handle himself in a real fight, so he had enough about him to defeat other wrestlers, with him cleaning Bradshaw’s clock in the Brawl 4 All Final. Butterbean though was an actual boxer, even though he was essentially a freakshow attraction due to his size, so he was always going to have the advantage in a real boxing match. Bart might have had a chance if he’d tried to take it to the mat, but he decided that he wanted to actually box Butterbean, which means that the resulting fight is a one sided skelping. Butterbean eventually knocks Bart out after 35 seconds and that’s all she wrote.

WINNER: BUTTERBEAN
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Bart would end up going to All Japan Pro Wrestling and doing quite well there, whilst his younger brother, Bort, would chase Butterbean down in a quest for revenge. I may have made one of those things up. This was a curious waste of WrestleMania time, but it supposedly allowed certain people to teach Bart Gunn a lesson for having the temerity to win a tournament he wasn’t supposed to win I guess, so…yay?

The San Diego Chicken heads out to annoy Vinny Pazienza following the match and gets clocked with a punch as a result.

In a funny HeAT segment; Paul Wight gets into a brawl with Mankind backstage whilst waiting for Stone Cold to arrive, meaning that Stone Cold is able to saunter in and right by the two whilst they brawl

Kevin Kelly interviews Mankind in the locker room, with Mankind saying that they just keep throwing hurdles in his way as he tries to referee the Main Event and he’s going to stop being so nice about it now. This was only a quick promo but it was a solid one, as you’d expect from Mick Foley

Match Four
Winner Gets To Referee The Main Event
Paul Wight Vs Mankind

Wight cost Mankind the WWF Title against The Rock, thus denying Mankind the chance to Main Event WrestleMania. Mankind instead petitioned to be the referee for the Main Event so that he could still be involved, leading to this match being booked. Wight had already lost to Stone Cold on an episode of Raw during the Mania build (yes, they actually booked that) so he was “just a guy” in record time who was fighting over who got to be a referee when he could have been a top level special attraction if promoted like an unstoppable monster from the off. Interestingly Wight enters to “No Chance” here and it sounds like they’re dubbing in crowd noise and Howard Finkel’s introduction, so I’m guessing that Wight was using a different theme at the time that needed to be dubbed out?

Wight dominates most of the match here, with Mankind only really being able to get anything done when throwing punches or by periodically locking in the Mandible Claw. It’s not the most thrilling contest of all-time, but it’s watchable and the live crowd gets into it for the most part, so it’s fine as a mid-card contest to set something up for later. Wight actually does an excellent job selling the Claw with his facial expressions, and he eventually powers Mankind up into a piggy back and then just falls backwards, squishing Mankind underneath him. However, Wight has been annoyed by Mankind’s stubborn resistance, so he ends up destroying Mankind with a chair, leading to the referee eventually disqualifying Wight, giving Wight yet another high profile loss so early into his run after 7 Minutes. At least he didn’t get pinned this time.

WINNER BY DQ: MANKIND
RATING: **

Thoughts: Totally fine as an undercard match in isolation, but it mystifies me that they had Wight losing matches so soon into his WWF run. They could have kept him undefeated for months until building up to his first defeat on a big pay per view card. Instead, he’d already lost to Austin and now he’s already lost his first WrestleMania match. Mankind worked hard to make Wight look like a monster here, and that aspect of the match was effective at least, but Wight was already just another wrestler on the show when he could have been a big deal right out of the gate

Vince McMahon Jr. heads down to the ring and chews Wight out for losing, and eventually slaps the giant. This leads to Wight cleaning Vince’s clock with a punch and doing his first of many Face/Heel turns in his WWF/E career. Aw, it’s like seeing a baby take their first steps. Vince is helped to the back by the stooges, who inform him that Mankind is going to the hospital. Vince doesn’t know what he’s going to do about that, but he does want Paul Wight to be arrested

Match Five
Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the WWF Intercontinental Title
Champion: The Road Dogg Vs Goldust w/ Ryan Shamrock and The Blue Meanie Vs Val Venis Vs Ken Shamrock

The story here is that Venis started an affair with Ryan Shamrock, Ken’s storyline sister, as a way to mess with Ken and win the IC Title from him back at the February pay per view. Billy Gunn was the referee in that match and attacked both Ken and Venis during the course of the bout, giving them both a reason to dislike him. Venis soon dumped Ryan, who promptly shacked up with Goldust. At this point you had four wrestlers who all had a sound storyline reason to dislike one another, with the IC Title being the big prize to fight over at WrestleMania. Then Road Dogg randomly won the IC Title, because SWERVE bro, and the entire build went up in smoke and the match now largely meant nothing. Ah, the Attitude Era. Even as a young mark at the time I thought it was weird that they made the bloody Road Dogg the IC Champion seemingly out of nowhere like that. That’s not to say that you couldn’t have given Road Dogg a serious singles push around this time, but you’d need to actually build up to it somehow. He went from being in the Hardcore division and doing tag matches to just randomly being the secondary champion in the whole promotion.

Michael Cole literally says at the start of the match that “Road Dogg is the only person in this match with no history with Ryan Shamrock”. Yes Michael, that’s why it makes no sense that he’s in the chuffing match to begin with! Anyway, once the match starts the actual wrestling is fine for the most part, with Road Dogg even busting out a nice dropkick onto Shamrock in the early stages. Goldust in particular looks really good in there, although he’d be in WCW later in the year when he asked for breast implants and the WWF decided to fire him. 1999 folks!! The crowd doesn’t really care about any of the wrestling going on, leaving the match feeling flat and heatless, but everyone involved is putting in a shift at least. There isn’t a lot of breaking up pins or submissions at least, which makes sense because it’s elimination rules so why would you bother breaking up a pin? Road Dogg manages to generate some interest when he does his trademark jabs and shaky knee drop, but the crowd dies again once he’s back on the defensive. In a small bonus, Meanie and Ryan are funny at ringside as sniping rivals for Goldust’s affection.

Eventually Ken and Venis brawl to the back, leading to both of them being eliminated. This means we have Goldust and Road Dogg as the final two, after Ken snaps and lays them both out. The crowd doesn’t really care that much about Ken snapping, and Ken himself would be gone from the WWF by the autumn. It did kind of feel like Ken was going through the motions here really, whereas the other three wrestlers in the match seem to be putting in WrestleMania effort at least. Ryan tries to help Goldust win by tripping Road Dogg, but she accidentally trips up Goldust instead. This leads to Road Dogg pinning Goldust and picking up the three count after 10 Minutes. Goldust seemingly dumps Ryan after the match, leading to her eventually joining up with Jacqueline and Terri Runnels as part of the Pretty Mean Sister’s faction.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: ROAD DOGG
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: The actual wrestling wasn’t bad here, but the crowd didn’t care about it and, as my ranting above no doubt highlights, the way they butchered this whole storyline just so they could have an unexpected title change on Raw still leaves a very sour taste in my mouth and I’ve always kind of held it against the match itself, with that probably being reflected in the rating. Goldust did look very good in the match at least, although his career was set for a pretty serious nosedive in the coming years

Paul Wight is arrested and taken away from the building, looking miserable in the back of the car due to him barely being able to fit in there

Match Six
Kane Vs Triple H

Chyna betrayed DX and joined The Corporation, taking on Kane as some kind of pet project in the process. Kane and Chyna tried to blind Tri with a fireball, but Kane ended up accidentally catching Chyna with it instead, leading to Kane being all sad and showing human emotions, which was still new for him at the time. These days he also lacks human emotions and basic empathy, but that’s because of the batpoop political beliefs he has. Anyway, Triple H blasted Kane with a flamethrower in order to heat things up, pun only marginally intended, and now we have a match to hopefully settle things so that everyone can move on with their lives. The San Diego Chicken returns during Kane’s entrance and attacks him, with Kane removing the chicken’s mask to reveal Pete Rose, who was looking for revenge after Kane gave him a Tombstone at WrestleMania XIV. Kane lays out Rose for the second year in a row, and they’d do it once more at WrestleMania 2000 before deciding the gag had run it’s course. They don’t bother doing the full DX intro for Triple H here, just heading straight to “Break it down” so that Tri can run down and attack Kane from behind to start the match on the front foot.

Kane takes some big bumps for Triple H early on, including diving into the ring steps on an Irish Whip and taking a couple of tumbles into the ringside barricades. Kane replies by flinging Triple H into the front row and then taking over inside the ring, with Tri selling well for the big man. The crowd seems to care about this one, and it does at least feel like a big pay per view match and not just something you’d see on Raw, which is what basically every other match on WrestleMania XV has felt like thus far. Kane actually busts out a TOPE CON HILO at one stage, as he’s clearly putting in WrestleMania effort for this one. Triple H is able to give Kane the Flair treatment when Kane tries his signature top rope clothesline though, and that leads to Tri making the comeback. Kane’s selling is very good for that, as he registers all of the offence but still acts like he’s a big scary monster who is capable of possibly shrugging it off and coming back to kill the babyface, which is a difficult balance to get right. Chyna joins us at that point, seemingly to help out Kane, and she puts the steps into the ring.

Triple H ends up giving Kane a drop toe hold onto the ring steps, which isn’t a DQ. That does make sense as it was Kane that brought the steps into the ring and Triple H had plausible deniability that he didn’t know they were there when he went for the move, but the commentary team really needed to get that across to explain why it wasn’t the end of the match. Kane shrugs that off and gives Triple H a Choke Slam, which brings Chyna into the ring with a chair to seemingly clobber Triple H. However, Chyna attacks Kane instead so that Tri can give Kane a Pedigree onto the chair. That’s the DQ after 12 Minutes, with Triple H and Chyna hugging after the match to cheers from the crowd, suggesting that Chyna was a DX loyalist under cover in the Corporation, but that’s not the explanation they ended up going with.

WINNER BY DQ: KANE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: That would arguably be Triple H’s last match as a babyface until 2002 (I don’t think he ever officially turned babyface during the summer/autumn of 2000, they just teased it and had him wrestle Heels for a couple of months. He was still ostensibly a Heel I think, but I’m open to being persuaded otherwise). This was an okay match, although it got a bit silly once Chyna headed out. They worked it like a believable grudge match for the most part and the bout actually felt like it belonged on a major pay per view, which is a step up on pretty much everything else we’ve had on this show thus far

Vince McMahon, in traditional evil style, tells Kevin Kelly that he will be the referee in the Main Event now that Mankind has gone to the hospital and Wight has gone to prison

Match Seven
WWF Women’s Title
Champion: Sable Vs Tori

The story here is that Tori was a fan of Sable, but Sable has gone all cocky since she did Playboy and she rejected her super fan, leading to a match being booked. I’m frankly amazed we didn’t get the Trish Stratus/Mickie James lesbian pollen style storyline here, seeing as “psycho obsessed fan turned crazed saucy lesbian” seems like something right up Vince Russo’s problematic street. Sable’s terribly wooden promo and awful dancing detract from her star power and sex appeal somewhat, although she has an excellent resting bitch face going on. Tori used to wrestle in Japan, where I’m guessing she had to be decent in order to survive out there, but we never really saw that during her WWF run. Tori has a bizarre Giant Gonzalez styled ring attire going on here, which I don’t think she used many more times after this.

The story here seems to be that Sable is the superior wrestler of the two, because I think we’re supposed to believe that Tori is just a fan that has never wrestled before, whilst Sable has been wrestling for a year and is more ring ready. However, Sable is very cocky and takes Tori lightly, which leads to Tori eventually managing to get some near falls and put Sable on the backfoot. The wrestling isn’t especially good, as they seemingly have no chemistry together as opponents. Eventually the referee gets bumped and that leads to Nicole Bass jumping to the WWF from ECW and helping Sable pick up the win after 5 Minutes. This would lead to Bass being Sable’s bodyguard for a bit until Sable left the WWF a couple of months after this show.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SABLE
RATING: *

Thoughts: 5 Minutes was actually more time than I thought they would give them to be honest. Sable has had good matches in her career, but that was when she was a babyface, the match was heavily choreographed and she was actually motivated. None of those things were the case in this one, and the match kind of stunk as a result. It’s amazing watching Sable’s match at WrestleMania XIV and then seeing the HUGE drop-off just a year later. She got actively worse somehow

Interestingly they have cut the video package for the upcoming match from the Netflix version of WrestleMania XV. I’m not sure why they would have done that. Did it use music that they didn’t have the rights to or something?

Match Eight
WWF European Title
Champion: Shane McMahon w/ Test Vs X-Pac

Shane stole the belt from X-Pac in a tag match, with this match here at WrestleMania XV being the logical place for X-Pac to get revenge and for the villain to get his just desserts. Let’s see how that one works out shall we. They structure the match itself in a clever way, with it being clear that Shane is not remotely a physical match for X-Pac, with Shane’s only offence coming when people like Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Test and The Mean Street Posse get involved. This is much better than latter Shane matches, where we were supposed to believe that he could actually hang in there with real wrestlers.

Shane looks decent when he’s on offence here considering his experience level, and he takes some nice bumps when it’s time for him to be on the defensive as well, so the match works well as a cocky overmatched non-wrestler against a fired up real wrestler looking to get revenge. Eventually Triple H and Chyna head down in order to finally give X-Pac some backup against the ridiculous odds he’s dealing with. However, Chyna hasn’t turned babyface earlier in the night, rather Triple H has actually turned Heel. It’s a SWERVE BRO! Triple H lays out X-Pac with a Pedigree whilst Chyna distracts the referee and Shane gets the pin after 9 Minutes.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SHANE MCMAHON
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: They worked this well and it was a decent match, and if the follow-up had been X-Pac and the rest of DX rallying and finally defeating Shane for the belt then this could have been a good twist in the story. However, Shane would “retire” the belt following this show and would never lose it in the ring, meaning that he never got his comeuppance, so that hurts the match a bit overall. It was frustrating to see how good a job they did presenting Shane here too, as they got is basically perfect the first time out, but a few years later they were booking him as bad ass who could beat up guys like Kane and Test without needing any help

Kane saves DX from a post-match Corporation attack, sowing the seeds for the very popular and effective X-Pac and Kane tag team

Match Nine
Hell In A Cell
The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer Vs The Big Boss Man

This was some classic “Shades of Grey, bro” booking, as Undertaker was the leader of the Heel Ministry of Darkness stable, but he was feuding with Vince McMahon and his Heel Corporation faction, leading to fans mostly sitting on their hands whilst the two Heel groups had dull rubbish matches with one another. Stephanie McMahon hadn’t debuted on screen yet, but they were already teasing her eventual appearance by having Undertaker allude to her in his promos, with that being the catalyst to a brief Vince babyface turn.

They make a mistake of talking about Undertaker’s previous Cell matches with Shawn Michaels and Mankind at the start here, which are both exciting and memorable matches, which this one certainly won’t be. The fans don’t really know who to cheer for in this one, as one wrestler is a demonic Satan worshipper who wants to take over the WWF and the other is a hired thug who beats people up for the current evil boss. Michael Cole gets one of his all-time terrible commentary calls in by talking about how dangerous it would be to catch a finger in the Cell, which leads to Lawler razzing him for it. After a bleh slugfest, Boss Man handcuffs Undertaker to the Cell and attacks him with a nightstick, leading to Undertaker bleeding.

However, Undertaker falls over whilst handcuffed to the cage and the cuffs just break, leaving Undertaker free to move around again. I’m guessing that Undertaker was originally supposed to break the cuffs himself in an impressive display of power, but the cuffs went into business for themselves? Undertaker throws Boss Man into the Cell a few times, with Boss Man then coming up bleeding, as this continues to be totally heatless slow motion brawl that the crowd seems to be actively turning against. They trade shots in the ring, with the crowd just booing everything, and eventually Undertaker puts everyone out of their collective miseries by getting a Tombstone for the win after 10 Minutes.

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
LOSERS: THE REST OF HUMANITY
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: Boss Man just getting thrown into this match was such a dumb move for numerous reasons. He wasn’t over enough to justify being this high up the card at a WrestleMania and he wasn’t a good enough wrestler to excel in this sort of gimmick match either. It would be like booking Bull Buchanan’s kid in the semi-main of WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar with basically no build in a Heel Vs Heel match in 2026. I think what this match highlighted was the lack of genuine star power in the Corporation and Ministry ranks outside of the big hitters. Undertaker Vs Paul Wight or Rock in HIAC feels like a WrestleMania match. Undertaker Vs anyone else in the Corporation just feels like Undertaker wrestling a mid-carder, and no one is going to care about that. It didn’t help that the bout itself was dull as dishwater and did nothing to match the previous pay per view HIAC matches

Following the match; The Brood lands on the roof of the Cell and passes Undertaker a noose so that he can hang the Boss Man, at which point we cut away to a video recap of the WrestleMania Rage Party and never mention it again. Yes, they HUNG SOMEONE on the biggest show of the year and treated it as a total afterthought. What a waste of what could have been the heaviest of heavy heat angles it was possible for them to do. They quite literally had someone commit attempted murder in front of millions of witnesses and it was just yet another dumb angle in a series of them. You can argue that they shouldn’t be doing an angle like that in the first place, and I wouldn’t disagree with that thought process. However, if you are going to do it then you should at least commit to it and give it the gravitas it deserves, rather than treating it as a throwaway moment that didn’t even matter

Main Event
WWF Title
Champion: “The Corporate Champion” The Rock Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

After winning the WWF Title at the previous WrestleMania, Austin was forced to climb back up to the mountain after losing the belt in September of 1998. Along the way he was screwed out of winning the Deadly Game (Cos it’s a Deadly Game) tournament at Survivor Series 1998 by the McMahon Family. Rock would eventually win the tournament but then side with the McMahon’s to deny the fans his much anticipated babyface run. Rock traded the belt with Mankind in early 1999 whilst Austin dealt with Undertaker, Vince McMahon and Big Show. Finally though the long build was over and the two top stars in the company would finally meet in the WrestleMania Main Event.

As promised earlier; Vince McMahon tries to install himself as the referee, but commissioner Shawn Michaels isn’t having that and assigns a regular referee instead. Shawn also notes that The Corporation is barred from ringside, but adds that he might let Vince himself come down at some point. Rock interrupts Austin’s entrance and the fight is on. LET THE PUNCHING COMMENCE! Vince made this a No DQ match on Heat, so all the brawling is not only allowed but actively encouraged. We get some crowd brawling, because it’s a WWF Main Event from 1999, and that leads to both men brawling down the aisle, where Austin flings Rock into the Mania sign to leave it swinging. You could actually do that on the Legends of WrestleMania game they brought out a while back.

Eventually Rock is able to give Austin a suplex out on the concrete, with both men landing with an almighty thud, and it’s over to the commentary table for some water spitting. Austin replies by putting The Rock through the Spanish table (Although it takes two attempts). After all of that we finally get the novelty of them actually doing some wrestling in the ring itself. Fancy that!. Rock gets the Rock Bottom inside the ring, but it only gets a two count, as the Austin/Rock festival of kickouts formula was starting to really take shape. Rock brings a chair into the ring after that, leading to replacement referee Mike Chioda getting clobbered.

Rock works over a downed Austin with the chair and then adds a shot to the head with it, for a near fall from new referee Tim White, before settling into a chin lock. Austin fights out of that but then runs into a Samoan Drop for two, which causes Rock to lay poor White out as well. Austin quickly catches Rock with a Stunner, but new ref Earl Hebner only gets to two before the kick out. This brings down Vince McMahon for a distraction, which allows Rock to go low on Austin. Vince comes into the ring and clocks Hebner before helping Rock put the boots to Austin.

This is Mankind’s cue to make his return from the hospital to clock Vince and take over as the referee. So Mick Foley ultimately does get to be part of the Main Event after all, which is only fair as he did a great job in late 1998 and early 1999 of being a very popular figure with the fans and this was a nice way to reward him for that. He also pretty much destroyed his body in 1998 and 1999 with the Hell in a Cell and I Quit matches, so he’d given plenty back and had earned a place in the biggest match of the year. Rock gets the Rock Bottom again and then preps for The People’s Elbow, but Austin moves out of the way and manages to get another Stunner to finally regain the WWF Title after 17 Minutes.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: Rock actually took the majority of the match here, probably because he was losing. They would have much better matches in the future, with this one feeling kind of rushed and more centred around brawling shortcuts, but it was still a fun match and definitely the high point of a generally miserable show

Is It Really A Stinker?

I would absolutely call WrestleMania XV a Stinker

WrestleMania XIV doesn’t have a tonne of excellent wrestling on it, but it was the zenith of numerous well-built storylines and it delivered a satisfying conclusion/continuation for most of them, making it a fun show overall in my opinion. WrestleMania XV by comparison had a really sloppy build based more around swerving people and, outside of the Main Event, the payoffs for the build at the show itself were either disappointing or outright bad. So few matches on XV felt like they were worthy of being on pay per view, let alone the biggest show of the year.

Let’s recap;

The Hardcore and IC Title storylines were destroyed in order to give fans two meaningless shock title changes on TV.

The Tag Title match featured a thrown together set of challengers and the match itself didn’t even reach the five minute mark.

Shane Vs X-Pac not only didn’t give the fans the satisfaction of the Heel getting his comeuppance, but it wasn’t even a storyline stop on the way to eventually finally delivering it either.

The Hell in a Cell match had a build based around Undertaker feuding with Vince McMahon, leading to Undertaker then having a miserable match with a mid-carder in the semi-main slot.

Paul Wight loses yet again in a match that didn’t even really need to exist in the first place, as they could have found another way to make Mankind the referee if they wanted him in that role.

Essentially, whereas WrestleMania XIV was arguably an example of the Attitude Era at it’s best, WrestleMania XV was the Attitude Era at it’s absolute worst. WrestleMania XV feels like a thrown together monthly pay per view event, with little in the way of good wrestling on it and the Main Event being the only redeemable feature, and that’s because they mostly let two of the best performers of the Era go out there and have a serious Main Event that the fans could actually get their teeth into. I’d still rank XV pretty high on the all-time worst WrestleMania list, and 2000 isn’t particularly good either. Thankfully X-SEVEN is a great show, as otherwise the Attitude Era would have a below 0.5 batting average.

Final Score – Stinker
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)