by If there was ever a WrestleMania that symbolized the WWF Attitude Era it was easily WrestleMania XV. The WWF was exploding at this point and had pretty much put WCW too bed in the Monday Night wars. They had money to gamble with, and a big enough lead to try new things and edgier angles. It all worked!
Coming into the show, the battle of Good versus Evil was as blurred as ever on multiple levels. The main event matched the two biggest stars in the industry going toe to toe as the WWF World Champion, The Rock, defended his strap against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
I say the line was blurred because even though The Rock was a key member of the heel group, The Corporation, fans were still begging to cheer and him and sing along with his catchphrases. The only reason anyone was booing him at this point, was because Stone Cold Steve Austin was at his all-time high in popularity.
Austin had spent the last year tormenting Vince McMahon. Stone Cold had done everything from attacking the owner at the hospital and ball tapping him, to driving a Zamboni to the ring and also soaking him with a beer truck hose. Each week seemed to involve another chapter in their legendary rivalry. As mentioned, the fans seemed eager and willing to cheer The Rock, but as long as he aligned himself with Mr. McMahon, they would remain in favor of Austin.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock would tear down the house with the best match of the night. They fought all over the arena until finally, Austin got The Rock back in the ring and put him away for good with an epic stunner to being his third reign as World Champion. Austin would finish the night by beating up Mr. McMahon one more time for prosperity’s sake.
Speaking of Mr. McMahon, while he was hated during all of this, there was no denying that some fans still had sympathy for him because of everything The Undertaker was doing to threaten his family. This was during a stage in which The Undertaker was pure evil.
He went from your fan favorite dead man to someone who was looked at as being sent from the Devil himself. He even spoke in tongues during this stretch which included sacrificing and crucifying people. It was next level evil.
This was never more evident then that night at WrestleMania when he literally hung his opponent, The Big Bossman from the top of the Hell In The Cell. The Bossman was McMahons futile choice to try and stop The Undertaker from harassing his family, and the man from Cobb Country failed miserably in that task.
Weeks later, the Ministry of Darkness would combine with The Corporation to form The Corporate Ministry. Making things even more ironic was the fact that Mr. McMahon was kicked out of the group and then welcomed back in June when the whole thing was exposed to being a ruse between Vince, Shane and Taker. In the end, little of it made any sense.
Like WrestleMania 13, this night would feature a major double turn that no one saw coming. For months leading up to the event, HHH was leading DX without the help of his sidekick Chyna who had left him for The Corporation in a shocker. For a brief few minutes, it seemed as though Chyna “returned home” as she turned on Kane earlier in the night to help HHH prevail.
Everyone began to celebrate as it appeared DX was finally back in full force. It proved to be a giant con however as later in the night, it was HHH and Chyna turning on XPAC, costing him to lose his European Title match against upstart champion Shane McMahon. Two big turns in only a matter of minutes was just part of a wild night that brought a lot of twists and turns.
Those weren’t the only turns of the night as earlier on the card saw The Big Show punch Mr. McMahon in the face after the CEO berated Paul Wight for losing his match to Mankind. This would lead to The Big Show getting arrested and escorted from the building in handcuffs. It was the first of about 50 turns for Show during his career in the WWF. Just another one of many shocks at WrestleMania XV.
One of those shocks was the appearance of She-Male Nicole Bass, the giant female body builder and genuine freak from The Howard Stern show. The amazon appeared to help Sable retain her WWF Women’s Championship over newcomer Tori. Bass would only last a few months with the company, but made one Hell of a debut, none the less.
One unique thing about this night was that both the IC Championship match and the Hardcore championship matches featured random and unlikely singles champions defending their belts against multiple challengers. Billy Gunn would drop is hardcore championship to Hardcore Holly in a match that also featured Al Snow. Gunn would turn heel shortly after and win the King of the Ring.
As for the IC Champ, the Road Dogg, he was successful over Val Venis, Ken Shamrock and Goldust in a four way elimination match. Like Gunn, he had no real heat with any of his opponents and had actually spent the majority of his singles run chasing the hardcore title, as Gunn was chasing the IC belt. It all seemed odd and the belt would be off Road Dogg by the following night.
It was a night of strange title pairings and makeshift champions and challengers however. This was right before APA, T&A, The Hardy’s, The Dudleys, Too Cool and Edge & Christian really helped the Tag Team Division explode and they were going through makeshift mode.
To that point the champions were two singles stars, Owen Hart and Double J Jeff Jarrett teaming up to face another makeshift team in test and D’Lo Brown. The match made little to no sense, and as expected, flopped badly as the champions retained.
The shortest match of the night wasn’t even a wrestling match but rather, a boxing match between Butterbean and Bart Gunn. The WWF found out pretty fast that Gunn knocking out professional wrestlers in a partially gimmicked tough man match meant nothing when he got in the ring with an actual pro. Bean put Gunn away in only 35 seconds after knocking him cold and embarrassing the WWF soundly in the process for being dumb enough to stick Gunn in there.
Even with a 35 second knockout in front of millions upon millions of people watching , Bart Gunn didn’t even have the worst night. That dishonor went to Mr. McMahon, who in the course of four hours was knocked out, stunned and saw The Undertaker take out his top goon. Not to mention his bitter rival won back his “Corporate” championship belt. A rough night for Vince, to say the least!
