WrestleMania XIV

WrestleMania XIV (marketed as WrestleMania dX raided) was the 14th annual

This pay-per-view event was notable for the involvement of boxer Mike Tyson, who acted as a ring enforcer for the main event. In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Championship for the first time; Michaels performed despite a severe injury sustained during a match at the Royal Rumble and would not compete again until SummerSlam in 2002. This was the first WrestleMania of The Attitude Era and also the first WrestleMania event since 1985 not to feature Bret Hart, who jumped to the rival World Championship Wrestling the previous year.^[2]

Production

Background

Owing to his jealousy over the attention his wife and valet, Sable, was garnering from the crowd, Marc Mero tried to cover up her provocative clothing and eventually sent her to the back, replacing her with The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust, who at the time was dressing up from week-to-week in his own bid of self-attention. Although the two worked well together, Goldust's valet Luna Vachon grew vocally disdainful of Sable, who was also being mocked by Mero and Goldust, causing Sable to eventually fight back. As the two women brawled, their partners tried to separate them but when Goldust grabbed Sable to restrain her, Mero attacked him. The two men had a match on Raw where both women were handcuffed to the ring posts in order to prevent their brawling, but as the referee was knocked down, Goldust stole the key and unchained Vachon who attacked Sable with make up, painting her face. Goldust then challenged Mero and Sable to a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania XIV.

After successively beating members of the Nation of Domination until Mark Henry turned on him, Ken Shamrock beat the Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Rocky Maivia (later known as The Rock) despite being hit with a foreign object.^[7] The Rock convinced the referee that it was, in fact, he who suffered an illegal attack and the referee reversed his decision.^[7][10] The following month at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, Shamrock capitalized on the in-fighting of the Nation, due to leadership disputes between Faarooq and The Rock, by pinning the champion in a ten-man tag team match.^[11]

At the end of the inaugural

Chris Warren and The DX Band opened the show by performing hard rock versions of "America the Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner". The audience did not react well to the performance, booing the band during and after their songs. This segment was edited off all subsequent home video releases as well as the WWE Network.

Preliminary matches

The night began with the secret guests in the tag team battle royal being revealed as the reunited

Triple H made his way to the ring with his theme played by the DX Band. Before Owen Hart came to the ring, Commissioner Slaughter handcuffed himself to Chyna so that she would not interfere, despite her protestations. The match began with Hart pummelling Helmsley with fists before sliding out of the ring, when Triple H tried to jump from the apron he met with the crowd barrier. After an early powerbomb Hart attempted to lock in the sharpshooter, but Helmsley reversed it and started some offensive maneuvers of his own, kicking Hart in the turnbuckle and delivering a suplex. Hart suffered a cut to the bridge of his nose from a boot to the face, after which Triple H began to work on Hart's damaged ankle, dropping his knee onto it and stretching it. After avoiding another kick to the face and pulling Helmsley's crotch onto the ring post, and managed to take advantage, reversing a powerbomb into the sharpshooter, but Chyna, having to pull Slaughter, pulled Triple H to the rope for the break. Chyna then threw white powder in Slaughter's face causing a worried Hart to check on him, as he turned round to face the ring, Chyna low-blowed him from outside allowing Triple H to successfully land the Pedigree on him and take the win. After she was freed from the handcuffs, Chyna shoved Slaughter into the crowd.^[16][6]

Gennifer Flowers, who was accompanied by Jeff Jarrett and Tennessee Lee, had served as the special guest ring announcer for the upcoming Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship match between Ken Shamrock and Rocky Maivia. The fight began along the walkway with a brawl that saw Shamrock whipped into the steel steps before coming inside the ring. Maivia then delivered his People's Elbow, but could not secure a three-count. Shamrock then rolled out of the ring and grabbed a steel chair and when the referee tried to take it off him, he threw the referee into the corner; Maivia quickly grabbed the chair and hit Shamrock with it as the referee recovered. Shamrock pushed out of the pin count and quickly gained the advantage, delivering a belly to belly slam off an Irish whip and then securing his ankle lock in the center of the ring, making Maivia tap. The surrounding members of the Nation jumped into the ring, but Shamrock quickly dispatched them all with suplexes, including the four hundred pound Henry, before reapplying the ankle lock to a bleeding Maivia. Faarooq then ran down from the back and jumped onto the apron, only to look on at Maivia with a smile, before walking away. Eventually, a number of referees (the ones he attacked were actually independent wrestlers or stuntmen put in referee uniforms) and officials appeared, trying to subdue Shamrock. After being surrounded, Shamrock suplexed a referee and then an official before calming down as Maivia was wheeled away on a gurney. Howard Finkel then announced Shamrock had been disqualified for not breaking his ankle hold, causing Shamrock to chase Rocky and fight him on the Chris Warren band stage.^[16][6]

The

The result of the main event heralded a changing of the guard in the World Wrestling Federation. Shawn Michaels, who had been a major superstar in the company for many years, having won his first WWF Championship at WrestleMania two years previously, took a four-year hiatus from wrestling due to a severe back injury sustained during the casket match against Undertaker at the Royal Rumble. He made several ostensible one-off appearances as a guest commentator during episodes of Raw Is War in the summer of 1998, and eventually replacing Sgt. Slaughter as a commissioner at the end of the year, holding onto the position for a year and a half. After what was supposed to be a one-time match four years later at SummerSlam, Michaels and the now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment realized that his injuries had healed, and he made a full-time return to wrestling, retiring in 2010 at WrestleMania XXVI, 12 years after this event.

With Stone Cold Steve Austin winning the main event, the Attitude Era was fully ushered in. The scratch logo had started to replace the New Generation logo and began to appear on ring aprons and promotional work during and after this event. The next night on Raw Is War after WrestleMania, the old WWF "winged eagle" world championship belt was retired, and a new belt design with a larger eagle and blue globe debuted (eventually being retired in 2002). The Attitude Era saw Austin's feud with Vince McMahon escalate and two weeks later, Raw Is War beat

Shawn Michaels' loss was criticized by Triple H the following night on Raw Is War, blaming him for overlooking Tyson's potential double-cross. He delivered a promo saying that he would now helm D-Generation X and turn it into an army and "the first thing you do is look to your blood. You look to your buddies. You look to your friends. You look to the Kliq",^[19] and introduced a returning Sean Waltman, under the X-Pac persona, who had jumped ship from World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Later in the evening, it was revealed that Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were also part of the DX Army.

The ongoing saga between The Undertaker and Kane continued unabated. The following night, Paul Bearer challenged Undertaker to a match at Unforgiven: In Your House where the ring would be surrounded by fire and the first man to be set alight would lose, thus giving birth to the Inferno Match.

By winning the fifteen-team battle royal, LOD 2000 won the right to face the WWF Tag Team Champions at Unforgiven. The champions by rights were Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, but some legal wrangling from The New Age Outlaws saw the match held up on account of the wrong dumpster being used. The vacant titles were disputed in a steel cage match the following night, which the Outlaws won after interference from the newly formed DX Army, concreting their ties, and by handcuffing Charlie to the cage by his neck. Charlie returned to his Terry Funk persona whilst Cactus Jack became Dude Love again while the Outlaws became part of the DX Army achieving further success.

In a tag team match against Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman, Rocky Maivia promised to show Faarooq that the Nation was stronger and more connected than before. The promise was a sour one as, during the match, Rocky left Faarooq to suffer the wrath of Shamrock and Blackman, and afterward Faarooq demanded Rocky come back out so the two could fight. When Rocky returned and squared up to Faarooq, the other members of the Nation turned on him and Maivia proclaimed himself as the new leader.

Before Marc Mero's match with Taka Michinoku the next night, Vachon appeared and challenged Sable to a singles match just between the two of them which Sable promptly accepted. Vachon also announced that it was not to be a traditional wrestling match, because she wanted to humiliate her, and so it would be an evening gown match to be held at Unforgiven.

Results