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WrestleMania XIV was dX-Rated, when the Attitude Era was launched in a Main Event that saw WWE Champion and D-Generation X leader Shawn Michaels face Stone Cold Steve Austin in a match that had the baddest man on the planet, Mike Tyson, serve as Special ring enforcer.
Here is the match listing for this video:
* WWE Championship Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
* Undertaker vs. Kane
* Dumpster Match for the World Tag Team Championship
New Age Outlaws vs. Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie
* Intercontinental Championship Match: The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock
* Marvelous Marc Mero & Sable vs. The Artist Formerly known as Goldust & Luna
* European Championship Match - Triple H vs. Owen Hart
* Light-Heavyweight Championship Match - Taka Michinoku vs. Aguila
* 15-Team Battle Royal
Wrestlemania 14 was a full blown attitude era show, DX was in full force, Mike Tyson was the guest enforcer and Stone Cold Steve Austin won his first world title. The old days of Hulkamania are long gone, now the most popular superstar in professional wrestling takes the WWE into a new stratosphere.
The show kicks off with a tag team battle royal which features a 15 tag team battle royal which seemed like nothing more than a way of getting their rather large roster onto the show and probably more importantly seeing the debut of the new look Road Warriors who come to the ring with Sunny, this reinvention of the LOD wasn't as successful as many had hoped for and this match was merely a way of pushing the Road Warriors.
Things sped up when the Light Heavyweight Championship was on the line as Taka Michinoku took on Aguila (Essa Rios), even back then the WWE didn't take this division too seriously but this is a solid mid-card X division style match that shows they had some impressive talent but sadly never used them properly.
Triple H defended the European championship against the late Owen Hart in another decent singles contest that told a great story and generally showing us why Triple H would go onto the height's that he did. A very enjoyable bout that brings up the whole show to a different level.
Unfortunately things went down hill with the mixed tag team match but even here they pull off a much better match than I had expected, but maybe not something I would want to watch again.
The Great One The Rock defended the Intercontinental championship against Ken Shamrock which only went barely five minutes and featured lots of inference from the Nation of Domination members which reduced the quality dramatically but allowed Shamrock to show his "Snap" mode as he just went nuts as he had won the title but the decision was reversed. A fun 5 minutes but nothing like the previous European title match.
ECW was gaining more and more exposure, resulting in the hardcore style becoming a bigger part of the WWE, which is why we have a dumpster match between the New Age Outlaws and Cactus Jack & Terry Funk that is a full on hardcore brawl that is very different from everything else on the show. Another really enjoyable and good match that shows just how hot the WWE was during this run.
Kane made his first Mania appearance when he and his brother, the Undertaker finally went toe to toe. This is a great little match that really gave the Undertaker a decent feud, I remember when Kane debuted that I thought he might be around 6 months to a year, make Taker look good then disappear, but Kane has worked extremely well and was really put over by Taker here even though he lost, to receive 3 tombstones was something extraordinary.
Finally we get to the main event which features Shawn Michaels vs Stone Cold Steve Austin with Mike Tyson as the guest enforcer. The main storyline was that Tyson had actually aligned with DX which allowed the fans to get behind Austin even more as the underdog. This match also was Shawn Michaels last match for over 4 years as he was in agony due to a back injury which probably brought the whole match down a level or two but in the end its not important as when Austin hit the stunner and picked up the pinfall to become the new world champion, its a historic moment worth watching.
Overall: Wrestlemania 14 is without doubt a classic Wrestlemania since every match delivers with not a single bad match amongst them. Not only have you got some historic moments like Stone Cold winning the title for the first time, but with the first ever Kane vs Undertaker match as well, Mania 14 is maybe not remembered as one of the better modern attitude era Wrestlemania's, but for me this was a groundbreaking event that showed the old days are over, Austin 3:16 ruled.
