wrestling / Columns

411 Ranks The WrestleManias: #26 – WrestleMania 15

March 2, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

When WrestleMania XIV was over two Eras began, The Attitude Era and the Stone Cold Era. Stone Cold dominated the year, lost his title, gained it back but would lose it again. He battled in the Rumble, but of all men, Vince McMahon would win the match. Vince was content not to take the title shot, but keep it from Austin. But too bad for Vince as Shawn Michaels, then WWF authority figure. would make Vince defend that title shot at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre PPV. They would battle in a steel cage, and even with Paul Wight debuting, Austin would win the match and title shot against The Rock at WrestleMania…

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* WWF Hardcore Title: Bob Holly defeated Al Snow and Billy Gunn © @ 9:21 via pin to become the New Hardcore Champion
* WWF Tag Team Titles: Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart © defeated D Lo Brown and Test @ 5:55 via pin
* Brawl for it All: Butter Bean destroyed Bart Gunn
* Winner Referees the Main Event: Mankind defeated The Big Show @ 6:50 via DQ
* WWF IC Title Match: The Road Dogg © defeated Goldust, Ken Shamrock and Val Venis @ 9:50 via pin
* Kane defeated HHH @ 11:33 via DQ
* WWF Women’s Title: Sable defeated Tori @ 5:06 via pin
* WWF European Title: Shane McMahon © defeated X Pac @ 8:43 via pin
* Hell in a Cell: The Undertaker defeated The Big Bossman @ 9:50 via pin
* WWF World Title: Steve Austin defeated the Rock © @ 16:53 via pin to become the NEW WWF WORLD CHAMPION

Sean Garmer
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin [ *** 1/2] This match basically summed up the attitude era for me, a lot of overbooking surrounding some great performers that rose above all of the crazy, to still deliver entertaining stuff. It also had one of the great attitude era staples, this wasn’t a hardcore match but they let it become one anyway with no consequence. If it wasn’t because this was The Rock vs. Stone Cold this would probably have gotten panned by almost everyone. Shawn Michaels is the commissioner but he lets all this wacky stuff happen in the main event of the biggest show of the year. We had like fifty ref bumps, a bunch of missed finishers, and regular old McMahon run-ins. This match was just wonderfully built up and I felt that Rock and Austin still gave us what we wanted, and the against all odds story was told to the hilt. I don’t think the match had to include so much of it though. The kicking out of the finishers were glorious and Austin getting to win against all odds worked because the whole build-up was about putting Stone Cold in this position. This match also summed up WrestleMania XV, a clustered, overbooked mess, but the main event was still good. This match was the best thing on a rather terrible WrestleMania.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Undertaker vs. Big Bossman- Hell in a Cell Match [*] It is really sad I could put like five matches in this category, but I’m going to choose the Hell in A Cell match because it was atrocious. The Undertaker is one of the best ever and the Bossman is decent, but good lord I’m not sure what you could call this? A glorified squash match to be very nice. Why even have this match if the only way Bossman is going to get in any decent offense is by handcuffing Taker to the cell and crotching Taker when he does “Old School.” Then the finish was just bogus, we get a bunch of punching until Taker just gets tired of it and does the Tombstone. This was just wasted space on a PPV and the worst HIAC I’ve ever seen. Thank God, they are letting HHH & Undertaker redo it at this WrestleMania, because the HIAC stipulation deserves much better than this crap. The best part of the match was the aftermath when “The Brood” hung Bossman from the cage.

Show MVP And Why: The Fans (No?) Austin and The Rock. Why not the Fans? They had to sit through a bunch of crap to get to the one match everybody cared about seeing. WWE was very lucky to have fans that loved Austin to death that they didn’t start shitting on the rest of the show before the main event. Austin and Rock gave us a better match at WM 17, but they are the MVP’s because the whole show was riding on this match. Just like it really doesn’t matter if HHH vs. Taker or Jericho vs. Punk steals the show, if Cena vs. The Rock sucks that is how WM 28 will be remembered. A lot of people don’t remember the other crap that happened at this show but they remember Austin vs. The Rock 1. I think that is a testament to the greatness of both men involved.

Your Thoughts on The Show: Austin vs. Rock saved this show from being worse than WM IX. The HIAC was awful, one of the big undercard deals was Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn that just went totally wrong, and why did we even have Tori vs. Sable on this show. Almost every damn match (except for maybe the Hardcore match at the beginning) had either a random ending, a swerve, or a bunch of interference. Good lord, really? Did WWE not have enough faith in their performers during this show that they had to do this. It’s like everybody went into shock after Bart Gunn was knocked out into next month by Butterbean. Did anyone expect anything less? It’s not like Butterbean knew anything else. This show was bad and as I’ve said many times, Stone Cold vs. Rock is really the only thing I would say is worth even watching.

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Chad Nevett
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: No Disqualification Match for the WWF Championship: The Rock (C) vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin: [****1/4] This is what WrestleMania is about: two giants of this business colliding in the culmination of a great story with something big at stake. This was more a brawl than anything and few can brawl with the intensity and energy of these two. They just click. I could watch them throw punches at one another for hours. I loved the bit near the ramp where they’d been brawling nonstop and just sort of ran into one another awkwardly and fell down. It looked like shit, but sold just how much they were giving out there. Even the stuff that usually kills matches like endless ref bumps, interference, and inexplicable kick-outs worked here. It was over-the-top and excessive beyond almost everything we’d seen to that point… and this match deserved it! It earned that excess and anything less would have been an insult. In the end, good triumphed over evil, Austin won, the sell-out Rock lost, and McMahon ate a Stunner.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: I have a rule about this: no including celebrity or Divas matches. Those shows up on a lot of ‘Manias, tend to suck, and that’s just something we have to live with. Obviously, yes, the Brawl for All match was god-awful and a waste of everyone’s time, while Sable and Torrie turned botching from something amusing into another tedious exercise. But, beyond that, there’s this Hell in a Cell match… which, honestly, wasn’t awful at first. The two men brawled and tried to go ‘extreme’ outside the ring. But, it never really clicked and just sort of kept going and going and going until the Undertaker won, the vampires flew in, and the Big Boss Man was hanged live on pay per view. I’m pretty sure if someone decided, then, to simply shut the WWF down, no one would have argued…

Show MVP And Why: Vince McMahon: He helped the Big Show turn face and, as the head of the Corporation, was basically the heel of the entire show. With almost every match involving his group in some way, his presence loomed over the event. His involvement with the main event, like Ross’s commentary, helped make it bigger. Austin vs. the Rock is plenty big on its own, but we all know that Austin’s biggest feud was with McMahon and the Rock was his proxy here to a degree. Austin didn’t just beat the Rock, he beat McMahon and McMahon’s face after the match was priceless. Basically, without McMahon, there wouldn’t have been anything to this ‘Mania.

Your Thoughts on The Show: This was an event of angles that showed how much the WWE depended on serialized storytelling at the time rather than strong in-ring product. While every match had a story, rarely was that story told effectively or ended in the match. It was a series of ‘To be continued…’ moments from the weird double turn of Chyna to the Undertaker and the Brood hanging the Big Boss Man… even the main event fell into that category, but managed to provide some sense of closure. The story would continue, obviously, yet there was a sense that Austin had won some big victory. It was the only thing that felt substantive and like it ended the ‘season’ of the WWE. You can see why the WWE so hot at the time, it’s just not a style that lends itself well to a big one-night event where there are demands of closure and self-contained storytelling to a degree. Too much of this felt like another edition of Raw… but with less promos.

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Scott Rutherford
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Shane McMahon vs. X-Pac [***1/2] At this point we had no idea that Shane would be such a good in-ring performer so imagine everyone’s surprise when he really could go in a match. Now this whole card sucked to be sure and sucked bad it did but this match would have been a surprise standout on any card. I really hate the ending and certainly believe they could have done the HHH/Chyna turn AFTER given X-Pac the title. You known, have Waltman beat Shane and have all of DX celebrating in ring having taken it to The Corporation after so many months of being behind the 8-ball only to have HHH and Chyna completely spoil the party. This way the match would have had a better ending and achieved the same result.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: The Undertaker vs. The Big Bossman [-****] Remember kids, just because it’s Hell in a Cell does not make it good. This is atrociously bad which is weird since you would think a couple of brawlers like Bossman and UT could actually really smack each other around and create quite the intense and bloody brawl….FAIL. Don’t even get me started on the hanging at the end of the match. Only redeeming feature…it was the onscreen WM debut for Edge and Christian whom with Gangrel managed to repel from the ceiling and not kill themselves.

Show MVP And Why: I’m actually going to do something I have never done with this show…say something positive. I couldn’t really pick any one person that stood head and shoulders above the rest and then it twigged as to why…even with the stupid, nonsensical booking of Vince Russo he did manage to make almost every wrestler on the card seem important. Most matches has some sort of build too them and a story behind it that at least had the fans interested. If you don’t believe me the only match that seems completely out of step was the tag-team title match as that was booked on the pre-show and was a heatless heel vs. heel match. Almost everything else had some color to it and thus the entire rooster looked important on the big stage.

Your Thoughts on The Show: An ass-backward card to be sure…I mean, why was did Billy Gunn switch to the Hardcore Title mach and Road Dogg to the Intercontinental Title match when they were actually in feuds over the other respective titles? Even so, there is a perverse entertainment in the PPV and there is an undeniable energy about everything even if it’s mired in crap.

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What will #25 be? Come on back tomorrow to find out…