WrestleMania XIV
Venue: FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 19,206
Announce Team: Jim Ross/Jerry Lawler
The Legion of Doom win a Tag Team Battle Royal by eliminating the Rock 'n' Roll Express
Teams: The Legion of Doom, Los Boricuas I (Savio Vega/Miguel Perez Jr.), Lost Boricuas II (Jose Estrada Jr./Jesus Castillo), The Truth Commission (Recon/Sniper), The Disciples of Apocalypse I (Crush/Chainz), The Disciples of Apocalypse II (8-Ball/Skull), The Nation of Domination I (Mark Henry/D'Lo Brown), The Nation of Domination II (Ron Simmons/Kama Mustafa), The Quebecers (Jacques Rougeau/Pierre Ouellet), The Rock 'n' Roll Express, The Headbangers, Too Much, The Smoking Gunns, The Godwinns, Bradshaw/Bob Holly.
Yeah, it's the OTL match, but you can see there are a few changes to the teams. Legion of Doom wins a shot at the tag titles. Man, they really liked have #1 contender matches at WrestleMania, don't they?
Taka Michinoku (c) d. Dean Malenko for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship
Ooh, fun! I dunno how likely it is that we can get Mysterio or Guerrero, but we still got Malenko and Taka. That's worthy of a WrestleMania title match.
Chris Jericho (c) d. Owen Hart for the WWF European Championship
You know, it seems like Owen has a real problem with his partners turning on him, huh? Well, now we have European Champion Jericho instead of Triple H. Funny that... wonder what's up?
Dustin Rhodes d. Marc Mero (w/Sable)
Cornette agreed to the Goldust run for a bit, but Russo's TAFKA Goldust pitch was slapped down and it was eventually decided that he should go back to being Dustin Rhodes, running the anti-gimmick gimmick I love so much. He wins with the Final Cut to Mero, a reversal of OTL's match. This was also a mixed tag match, but that involves Sable wrestling. Not happening.
The Rock (c) (w/D'Lo Brown, 2 Cold Scorpio and Mark Henry) d. Ken Shamrock for the WWF Intercontinental Championship by disqualification
Yeah, a bit short, but we can keep this match from OTL.
The Dudley Boyz d. Cactus Jack/Terry Funk (c) in a Tables Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship
We bring in the Dudleyz from ECW to feud with Cactus and Funk. It's good hardcore fun. 3D to Terry gets him through the table as the Dudleyz with the tag titles a few years ahead of OTL.
The Undertaker d. Kane (w/Paul Bearer)
Yep. OTL match again. Kane, after touring through the country and wrecking anyone in his path, getting him over as a monster and hyping up his confrontation with the Deadman so this has a lot of hype behind it.
Steve Austin d. Bret Hart (c) for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (Guest Enforcer: Mike Tyson)
So, as you can see, something's changed. Something big.
At Survivor Series '97, Shawn was being Shawn and throwing a fit about having to lose to Bret, but Bret wasn't leaving. Vince was in a better financial spot and didn't give Bret an unpayable contract and with Bret's loyalty assured, everything was turning against Shawn. However, everyone was certain that Shawn was gonna try and sabotage the match, but then Bret quickly got Shawn in a Sharpshooter.
Then came the bell.
Shawn was furious, attacking Bret, attacking Vince and giving the hand sign of the Kliq before air signing WCW. Shawn would get fired and jump to WCW, joining up with his buddies Hall and Nash and kickstarting the Wolfpac as a full Kliq group. Triple H would join them as well, leaving with Chyna and Syxx not getting fired (Shawn warned Bischoff if any left, they'd all leave.)
Meanwhile, we have this match. Bret's far more happy to drop to Austin after their last match at 'Mania and the match goes without a hitch. Austin's the champion and the WWF is on the rise while the Wolfpac is rolling as tweeners in WCW, tearing down the nWo they created. Wrestling's at its hottest now in 1998 on both sides.