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DaveyDog30 Reviews Wrestlemania XIV

We start off with the recap of the Michaels-Austin fued which lead up to the Wrestlemania Main Event. This is just fantastic. One of the WWF's best hype videos ever. Just ranking behind Foley-Funk and the Mind Games promo. They start the video that reenforces that Wrestlemania IS wrestling's biggest event. Where stars are made, hearts are broken, and dreams come true. Just great. They recap HBK's WWF career which is full of the greatness he represents (in the ring that is). Then they recap Austin's career (which highlights the excellent beginning to the Austin-McMahon fued) and throw some involvement with Tyson and let's start this baby off. Something that Wrestlemania 15 was missing is the reminder that this is the big show. I didn't get that feeling when I watched Wrestlemania 15 due to the weak card and lack of build up.

Hype of Kane-Undertaker. Not nearly as good as the previous one. But it has Bearer saying "Welcome to your worst nightmare." which is SOOO cool.

They tell us that it is prohibited to reproduce or rebroadcast this event. HA!!

One more small hype video about Wrestlemania's past. They talk about tradition of Wrestlemania and how Michaels and Austin represent tradition even among criticism. Folks, you just can't get better then this and after seeing this I am honestly really happy to be a wrestling fan. Here is the transcript:

"The first temptation is to say the tradition has abandoned Wrestlemania. That this spectacle of a passion blend of celebrity and athleticism has been held hostage by a new band of rogues, the baddest man on the planet, the toughest SOB, the reigning champ and number 1 degenerate. These are men determined to write there own destiny. To hell with the storians and there tales. But tradition is alive and well. Because after all it's the despite brash bravado it is World Wrestling Federation Gold that brought these men here. The very belt that immortalized Andre, Hulk, and Sammartino. The symbol of excellence that insipired Gorilla Monsoon, The Big Cat Ernie Ladd, and Classy Freddy Blassie. A lineage created by Vincent J. McMahon some 50 years ago. So tonight, through sacrifice and pain, through acts of athleticism that defy mortal boundaries. These men who have "shunned" tradition are destined to become part of it. It's Wrestlemania, the grand spectacle, the showcase of the immortal, a time to revel of the occasion. Somewhere beyond the spotlights, the father of the World Wrestling Federation will revel in it too."

Chris Warren and the DX Garage Band sing America The Beautiful. Uncle Primo would call them fruits. They get rightfully booed.

20 Man Over The Top Battle Royal
We join as NOD are being introed. Oh my god it's LOD 2000, boy I didn't see this one coming <rolls eyes>. Sunny looks SO hot and she is putting strains on my forthcoming marriage with that outfit. LOD looks like Boba Fett and a bunch of lights go off. The teams are impossible to list since it's unclear who is with who and what not. I believe this is the debut of the non gay TOO MUCH~!!! GODWINNS AND BOB HOLLY ARE IN THE SAME RING!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! Ahhh the Quebecers, I miss you so Jacques. There is a bunch of punching and Savio is first to go and Miguel has to go too. OH NO IT'S KURRGAN!! Fun Fact: Barry Windham appears to toss out Chainz (who was Bradshaw's partner) and he appeared at the FIRST Wrestlemania.
The eliminations are going super fast to keep up. GODWINNS AND HOLLY ARE STILL IN THOUGH!!! Brian gets pressed slam out of his boots by Mark Henry. Headbangers go. Godwinns and Holly are still in. Too Much gets eliminated. The final four: GODWINNS~!!, HOLLY~!! And Gunn, DOA, and LOD 2000. Jim Ross: "I can't get over LOD's new look, Animal in short tights."
OOOOOK Jimbo. HENRY ELIMINATES DOA!! But DOA enters ILLEGALLY and tosses out Phineas. Well, that is cheating my friends. Godwinns take the Slop Buckets and bash the shit out of LOD before hitting the showers (HA). Bob Holly poses for us all forcing me to get a boner. LOD wins it after tossing the New Midnight Express. Match gets *3/4 (all thanks to Godwinns and Holly). Markout value for Holly and The Godwinns being in the same ring AND helping each other: ****************************

TAKA Michinoku vs. Aguila for the Light Heavweight title.

Why the fuck they didn't let Brian Christopher face TAKA I will never know. TAKA gets a suprisingly ok pop considering the state of the Lightweight title. Aguila gets no entrance. LLLLLETTTS GET READY FOR SPOOOOOOOTFEEEEST!!! TAKA's music is pretty hip. Some ok mat work to start before the crowd gets impatient. Aguila does a baseball slide and follows it up with a moonsault press from the top to the floor which is unbelievable. The height is amazing. TAKA gets Aguila out of the ring and then does his No Hands Springboard Tope and he flies about ten feet to get to Aguila. TAKA with his sitdown dropkicks. TAKA gets backdropped to the floor. Super Armdrag by Aguila. Springboard Armdrag. Twisting Springboard Armdrag. All by Aguila. TAKA to the outside and baby it's CORKSCREW PLANCHA TIME!!! WHOOOO!! It goes all downhill from here. TAKA went for a unbelievable twisting bodyblock which I have NEVER seen him do prior to this but Aguila ducks out of the way and hits a moonsault press for a 2 3/4 count. Total blown spot as TAKA gets up top and has to wait about 6 seconds for Aguila to walk over and do something. A great second rope to top Frankensteiner by Aguila. Aguila goes for a hurracanrana but is countered into a TAKA BOMB!! TAKA misses the moonsault. La Magistra for a 2 by Aguila. TAKA dropkicks Aguila in mid air and boy that must have sucked. TAKA hits the Michinoku Driver 2 and let's call it a day. Aguila raises the hand of TAKA as a show of sportsmanship which is as rare as a 60 minute draw in the WWF. In between the spots was not very good but the spots were A+ and top notch. Match gets ***1/2

Gennifer Flowers interviews The Rock. Rock is at his best here and this interview is one of his best. ***** interview.

HHH vs. Owen for the Euro Title.
Chyna's tits are about a foot away from each other. Very odd. HHH still had his Hunter Hearst Helmsley robe still. Owen comes out to little fanfare. Slaughter is bit too happy to be handcuffed to Chyna. She is still a "amazon" too. Owen is selling the ankle pre match. Owen is so good and I can't believe that they haven't revisited the Owen-Austin fued yet. Owen teases a sharpshooter but gets raked in the eyes. Triple H is really overrated and totally drags the match down when he is in control. Triple H can sell good at least. About 5 minutes in HHH focuses on the ankle. Owen is busted open hardway on the nose. Owen crotches HHH along the ringpost and a few seconds later does the spinning heel kick. HHH does the HBK turnbuckle flip and Owen follows it up with the enziguiri. But Owen hurts his ankle during it. PSYCHOLIGY IN A WWF MATCH!!! Owen gets a rana countered into a powerbomb. Helmsley teases a Pedigree but it's reversed into a Sharpshooter yet HHH kicks Owen to the turnbuckle. They do a really cool roll up sequence ending into a sharpshooter. Chyna assists HHH to the ropes and the crowd in none to pleased. Hey it's POWDER in Slaughter's eyes.!! I love a nasty heel using powder. Chyna with a low blow, Helmsley pedigrees and fans we got ourselves a finish. Great match. Lots of moves and Owen carries HHH big time throughout the whole thing. Owen is so great. ****

Mero and Sable vs. Goldust and Luna in a mixed tag match.
JR: "Only the third mixed tag match in Wrestlemania history". Whatever Jim, that's like saying "The main event is only the third that has a man getting surgery immediately afterwards."
Remember how much we thought this was going to suck? Remember how shocked we were that Sable could actually do moves? Anyway the match itself is pretty neat with Mero doing all bunch of his old highspots that we saw as The Wildman. Sable gets a big ass pop. I think this was on her fourth boob job. Say, is that Renegade's music? They do the female tease at first as Goldust tags to Luna and Luna runs around with Sable chasing her till she tags back out to Goldust. Mero rocks the house in this match. Dustin sells like a mofo too so you can't go wrong. Sable gets tagged in and OH MY GOD A DOUBLE LEG TAKEDOWN OF DOOM!! JR marks out like he just saw a Skytwister Moonsault. Sable is cleaning house and the crowd is nutso. Mero back in. Mero low blows Goldust and goes for the TKO that is countered into a great DDT. Mero escapes a Curtain Call and hits a fake looking kneelift. Mero executes a great double jump moonsault but he lands on his head which was pretty nasty. Mero gets in a Top Rope Rana as well for a 2 6/7 count. Goldust accidentaly nails Luna. Mero with a TKO but Luna breaks it up. Sable gets tagged in and Luna misses a top rope splash nailing the downed Goldust. She follows that up with the debut of the Sable Bomb but only a two count. Luna takes back control but Sable counters a irish whip into a arm ringer into a TKO for the win. The crowd is psychotically nutso. Suprising work from Sable and her best work she has ever done. Mero really stepped up as well and the Goldust and Luna teamed work well too. ***1/2

Rock vs. Shamrock for the Intercontinental Title.
Rocky Miavia was at his best in the mic department before he took the inevitable road to catchphrases. Gennifer Flowers comes out with Double J and Yentafer Flowers voice shows us why Clinton left her out on the curb. Gennifer Flowers serves as Tennesee Lee's massa as he holds the mic for her as she intros the participants. At least she didn't ask one of the Nation members to hold it. Rock comes out to a negative reaction. They show the SICKENING chairshot that Rock gave Shammy at the RAW two weeks before Wrestlemania. Probably the most painful looking chairshot ever. This is when the Ankle Lock was considered a deadly finisher which has basically been forgotten by now.

Match starts with a lot of Punch, Kick, Punch, Kick, Scream but a lot better then it sounds. 4 minutes in Rock PLASTERS Shammy in the face with another SICK chairshot. Shammy recovers and hits the Ankle Lock for the win. NEW IC CHAMP!! But Shamrock snaps as Faarooq opts not to help Rocky as Shammy won't relinquish the Ankle Lock. Shamrock screams and the ref has had enough, screaming is just going WAY too far and he reverses the decision giving Rock the win by DQ. A bunch of refs that I have never seen come to ringside and get suplexed. Hey it's Brico and Patterson when they were just lowly suits stopping fights. Fink announces that the ref reverses the decision and the crowd is LIVID!!
WAY too short as this only lasted about 5 minutes. Post match was a whole lot of fun though. Match gets **3/4. These two would have a **** match at King Of the Ring a few months later.

Dumpster Match: Foley and Funk vs. Billy Gunn and Roadogg
Ahhhhh back when the New Age Outlaws were funny and innovative. Roadogg introduces the "Ladies and Gentleman boys and girls..." schtick and I remember marking for that when I first heard it. Cactus is about 40 pounds lighter then he is now. Funk is well....a really crappy wrestler. I heard Vince originally wanted a Barbed Wire Match for this but the PPV providers were against it. Roadog and Cactus trade off light Dumpster spots as Billy Gunn chokes out Cactus. Billy Gunn was just about at his peak here and everyone thought he was a future superstar. Talk about a decline, Billy has been terrible after this match and Roadogg is the one who deserves a solo career. The first big Dumpster spot comes as Cactus misses his running somersault off the apron into the Dumpster which is pretty sick. Funk gets backdropped into the Dumpster. Cactus gets Russian Leg Sweeped into the Dumpster. A few cookie sheet shots later we are back in the ring. I don't care how shitty Funk is, I will always love him yelling "YOU SONUVA BEEEEEEEEETCH!!" to his opponents. Cactus brings a ladder into the ring and JR proudly exclaims "Business is about to pick up". Cactus and Billy ascend the ladder for no reason and Funk gets a cookie sheet shot from Jesse James sending him into the Ladder and BOTH CACTUS AND BILLY GO INTO THE DUMPSTER FROM THE RING!!! Fucking amazing and totally dangerous. Terry Funk gets powerbombed into the dumpster which looked painful. They go brawling to the back and Cactus gives two nasty chairshots to NAO. Now the stupid finish. The tag champs get put on a forklift and have to physically roll from the forklift into the Dumpster that just happened to be backstage. Stupid. Funk goes nutso and screams Son of a bitch followed by maniacal laughs. There were some great spots but the finish was real bad and there were some dull moments. ***1/4

Undertaker vs. Kane
Pete Rose does a classic Wrestlemania moment by running down the Boston crowd which is hilarious. The Bill Buckner line is NUMBER ONE AND BEST!! Kane comes out and tombstones him. Pete Rose's face is classic before he gets tombstoned and this is one of those things that represents Wrestlemania. Undertaker's entrance is fantastic and he uses "Carmina Burana" as his entrance music. You can't get much better then that. The match itself had a lot of stalling and a lot of the match didn't make sense. The running no hands pescado over the top by Undertaker through the table was really great. But the rest was pretty slow. It was a hell of a lot better then I expected though. Kane dominates the match, Undertaker kicks out of a bunch of tombstones, Kane kicks out of a bunch, Undertaker wins with a third one. Yippee. Match gets **1/4.

HBK vs. Austin
HBK's final performance and this is the start of a new era for the WWF. Michaels guts out a great performance and Austin was just entering the 100% area after his Neck Injury. A lot of people complained of the lack of Tyson involvement but having him make the final three count was the best you could do. It would have stained the match if Tyson beat up Austin or Michaels or anything more then the small role he played. It focused on the wrestlers 99% of the match and put the WWF in the spotlight, not Mike Tyson. Anyway, Austin gets a ungodly crowd reaction and the crowd is nutso throughout the entire match. The match is basically every Austin match we have seen after this with the usual Austin intensity and such. Michaels isn't doing his crazy shit obviously due to the back injury but wrestle's a smart match giving his back injury. He only goes up top once, takes a only one crazy over the top rope on to HHH bump. And of course he attempted the turnbuckle flip which must have hurt so incredible bad when he fucked it up. The ending is great as they attempt there finishers with Austin coming out on top after the ref bump. Tyson comes in 1..2..3 and fans we got ourselves a new champion. After this match the new attitude really took off to which some say for the better and some say for the worst.

Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall this was a amazing card and arguably Pay Per View of the year. Some say Summerslam 98 which I may agree with but Summerslam was not as complete as Wrestlemania. Fueds were ended (Rocky/Shamrock, Hardcore Legends/NAO, Austin/HBK), Some carried on to the next Pay Per View (HHH/Owen, Kane/Undertaker, and Sable/Luna) but Kane/Undertaker needed to continue and the other two were lowly mid card fueds. What seperated this from Wrestlemania XV is that it stayed with the path that most or all Wrestlemanias put forth. That THIS was the show and there was nothing else going on. There was no confusion as to who would referee, there was no Paul Wight gettng arrested. You weren't thinking about any stupid referee situations while you were watching the Intercontinental Title match. Paul Wight vs. Mankind should have ended the referee situation right there. But they had to Sports Entertain us to the point of madness and the situation FINALLY is cleared up the second before the main event? That shit belongs on RAW NOT on the biggest PPV in wrestling, the one everyone will watch. WWF should have watched this Pay Per View before putting on the crap they did at Wrestlemania XV. Wrestlemania XV didn't resolve the big fued (Rock and Austin at Backlash WHOOP DEE DOO) and it didn't seem "special" like all the others before had.

After Wrestlemania 14 the WWF enjoyed five months of the best wrestling you could find but after Summerslam they began a sharp decline into stupidity. Breakdown was great, but Judgment Day, Survivor Series, Rock Bottom, and the Royal Rumble all sucked. As a wrestling fan, I see wrestling at it's lowest point even though it's at it's most popular. WWF sucks now, WCW sucks now, ECW is horrific, and many companies in Japan are troubled financially. But I will admit, I have never been a bigger fan. Funny how it works.