by 1998 post WrestleMania XIV show ushers in the true Attitude Era
The night started with the biggest question being answered right away. That question was, “what kind of champion would Stone Cold Steve Austin be?”. A renegade, or a corporate stooge? Well, fans wouldn’t have to wait long as the show opened with Mr. McMahon trying to place a brand-new World Wrestling Federation Championship Belt on Stone Cold, and telling him to be a corporate champion. To the surprise of no one, Austin rejected the idea by stunning the owner, and the feud was fully lit.
McMahon who had been a doormat to Austin until this point, finally started fighting back and fully embraced the “Mr. McMahon” character, by ordering Stone Cold Steve Austin to be arrested and getting in his face the entire time it was happening. Again, to say the fuse was lit between the two, would be an understatement. This became one of the greatest feuds in Pro Wrestling history.
The newly minted, “LOD 2000” took the stage next against two random members of Los Bouricas. It was a glorified squash match to further establish their new look and attitude. The entire match was 37 seconds long, and it was clear the WWF creative team was doing everything they could to push them to the moon. The push wouldn’t go far however, as they simply couldn’t get past the New Age Outlaws.
The second hour of the show began with The Rock pledging allegiance to The Nation of Domination and firmly announcing Faroog as the sole leader of the faction. This was done tongue in cheek as fans knew better and could sense that The Rock was clearly up to something. Their suspicions were accurate as it was only minutes later that The Rock led a group beatdown of Faroog, firmly kicking him out of the group he created.
The three things the RAW after WrestleMania is known for is turns, debuts and returns, and this was the first big turn of the night. Faroog was now a babyface for the first time since his later WCW days when he was world champion. As for The Rock, his role was just hitting its stride.
“What would become of DX without Shawn Michaels was perhaps the most burning question of the night, and the WWF brass knew to wait until hour two until they addressed that exact issue. The night after Mania is known for big returns and this one was no different with the return of the 123 Kid, now known as XPAC which was a play on his WCW name of Syxx, in which Scott Hall and Kevin Nash slanged into Syxx Pac.
HHH made it clear that Shawn Michaels dropped the ball the night before, and that it was up to him to reform the DX Army with himself as leader. His first big move was to bring back XPAC ( The 123 Kid), and it was far from his last move of the night as the new DX was taking shape.
Sean Waltman, now known as XPAC, would cut a scathing promo on Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. He was bent from being fired and let the world know about it. He made reference to Eric being so far up Hulks ass he would know what he had for breakfast if the Hulkster stopped short. XPAC would go on to explain that he received a call from HHH asking for his help and jumped on the next plane.
The CM Punk Pipe Bomb wouldn’t occur for 13 more years, but XPAC had his own brewing throughout this entire promo and then decided to let it all hang out there with his next line. He told the world that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would be right there with him in the ring if they weren’t being held hostage by Eric Bischoff and the WCW. He then politely informed everyone that DX would rip ass on the entire WWF starting later that night.
90 minutes into the show, Stone Cold Steve Austin was sent to jail. XPAC arrived to help create a new DX and The Rock led a turn of the nation of Domination against Faroog. This episode was creating the template of what the RAW after Mania would be compared to moving forward.
The show had it’s return in XPAC, it’s face turn with Faroog and now it would get it’s first debut of the night. The first preview package for Val Venis was shown. The adult film star was shown getting a blow job while watching porn. If that doesn’t scream attitude era, I’m not real sure what does. Venis would go on to become a giant bust in the WWF, but he sure did have an intriguing start.
The next match was Marc Mero versus Take Michinoku which made little sense and appeared to take place for the sole reason to feature Sable. They needed to find a way to get her on television on this was the way to do it. Mero was in full heel mode at this point as he attempted to take out the WWF Cruiserweight Champion.
Mero won the bout by low blow which made Taka look like a total idiot. Having a champion lose to a guy twice his size did nothing. What did however, was the post-match attack from “Kaienti” on Taka. So atleast the match wasn’t a total loss.
Kaienti was the second debut of the night but wouldn’t the last. As they came back from commercial break, Jim Cornette announced his signing of UFC Legend Dan Severn. The “Beast” Dan Severn was just the latest addition to Cornettes ill-fated NWA faction along with Bart Gunn and Bob Holly as the New Midnight Express.
Meanwhile as the debuts were happening at record speed, Jim Ross and Jerry The King Lawler took a phone call from a locked up Stone Cold Steve Austin. That’s right, the new champion used his one phone call from jai to let everyone know he would be there next week to kick Mr. McMahons ass. How could you not love that man?
The night concluded with a match that set off numerous storylines. Despite winning the dumpster match the night before, the WWF Tag Team Titles were stripped from Terry Funk and Cactus Jack for using the wrong dumpster. This created a rematch in a cage between them and the New Age Outlaws.
The Outlaws went on to win with the help of XPAC and HHH. This placed them as the newest members of DX. It had been getting teased for awhile, going all the way back to when The Outlaws launched Jack and Funk from the stage in a dumpster a few years prior and DX was the only people supporting them. They went on to tag with them at WWF In Your House in February and now this made everything official. DX had five members and would carry on that way for the next year.
As for Cactus Jack, he didn’t handle the loss very well, and reverted back to Dude Love a few weeks later, and then eventually a corporate version of Mankind. All of this would improbably lead to him wining the World Championship much later in the year as a babyface, but not before a strong wrong as a heel with the Corporations backing behind him.
