Remembering The Night After WrestleMania XIV

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For many years the Night after WrestleMania has been highly regarded as the best Monday Night Raw of the year.  Let’s take a look back at the 1998 edition following WrestleMania 14 in what was easily one of the best editions of all time.  Not to mention, the start of many tremendous episodes for the remainder of 1998 that took the WWF to the stratosphere.

X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws join DX

The episode was bookended by additions to DX as HHH revamped the faction on his first night as leader.  With Shawn Michaels no longer around, HHH wasted no time bringing in former Clique member X-Pac who had recently been let go from WCW as Syxx.

Sean “XPAC” Waltman wasted little time running down Eric Bischoff and pointing out the dinosaur brand that WCW had become.  It fired up the crowd and the first major shots of the actual war were fired as it wasn’t much longer after that, DX would start showing up at WCW events and headquarters.

The show would finish with the long-rumored joining of DX with the New Age Outlaws.  It was a perfect match and the Outlaws fit like fingers into a glove. All of this pretty much took the group from Heel to Face in one night.

Val Venis debuts

While it was just a promo, the debut video of Val Venis got fans talking.  The “porn star” would go on to be a giant letdown in the WWF, but he was very popular at the start of his run.

Kai En Tai debuts

Speaking of Val Venis, the group that would eventually choppy choppy his PP, would debut that night as well by attacking Take Michinoku.

The Rock takes over The Nation and begins his road to Main Event Stardom

It wasn’t much longer after The Rock kicked Nation of Domination founder Faarooq out of the faction he created that he rose to Super Stardom.  This was just the beginning for “The Rock” as the next months would help create him as one of the Greatest of All Time. In the next year he would go from heel, to face, to corporate heel on his way to 3 WWF World Championship runs. He was just getting started!

Stone Cold Steve Austin goes to jail

Perhaps the only thing better than The Rock in the Attitude Era, was the Austin vs McMahon rivalry.  It got going in a big way this night as Austin would stun McMahon on his first full night as champ. The evil Mr. McMahon character finally came out and he had Austin arrested. The beginning of perhaps the most important storyline of the 1990’s was born!