WrestleMania XV

Despite being held in the midst of a very successful WWE streak, WrestleMania 15 is (rather strangely) mostly a dud. Only an Austin/Rock finale saves it from being an extremely poor show.

When one match on the card features boxer Butterbean duking it out with Bart Gunn, you know something isn't quite right. This event features perhaps more individual matches than any other in WM history (certainly until that point), but most are rather short (perhaps that is a mercy in this case).

I can't quite put my finger on why this event just falls flat, as the card contains a number of talented performers. X-Pac, Undertaker, Triple H, Mankind, Big Show, & Road Dogg are all here, but they just aren't put in positions to succeed.

To be honest, even the Rock/Austin finale isn't all that great of an overall match. The "pop" is incredible, yes, but the match itself is just "okay". A bit too frantic for my taste with very little pacing.

Overall, WrestleMania 15 continues the tradition of the past 10 or so years of this event of the odd-numbered ones being mediocre (oddly, the even-numbered ones are pretty good). Watch for Rock/Austin, but almost the entire rest of the event can be skipped and nothing really major will be missed.

How was this a "Ragin' Climax" between Austin/Rock when the two had a rematch a month later? Or was it a climax between Big Show and Mankind, who also had a rematch one month later? Wrestlemania is usually the turning point for WWF/E storylines, though with XV the event a month after, Backlash, was. Classic moments include: Undertaker's entrance, Mankind pulling a trick out of the Cactus Jack playbook and allowing Show to CRUSH him, Tori walking to the ring looking like her mother had just died because she had just found out she was losing, the Jarrett/Owen tag team and a sub par main event between Rock and Austin topped off with Rock's first overselling of the Stone Cold Stunner.

**1/2

This is a very good PPV special that keeps me entertained even today. Especially with one of the best matches I've ever seen- The Rock Vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. This plus much, much more (including the chokeslam of baseball man Pete Rose in a chicken suit) make this a highly watchable tape. Mick Foley is always pretty damn good as Mankind. A+

Another disappointing event which somehow drew a then wrestling record of 800,000 buys and it also grossed a truck load of money.

This Wrestlemania was OK in certain parts but there was some totally baffling decisions on the show like pushing 'Road Dogg' Jesse James to Intercontinental Championship level and having Owen Hart participate in a lousy tag match which also featured Jeff Jarrett, the underused D'Lo Brown and the boring and depressing Andrew 'Test' Martin. Owen was not treated fairly in my opinion and deserved to be in a much better match. More upsetting though was this was Owen's last Wrestlemania before he tragically died.

The Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Big Bossman was a colossal bore and is the worst Hell in a Cell ever. Worse even when The Undertaker won this dreadful match he tied a rope around Bossman's neck and Gangrel, Edge and Christian helped Taker to lift Bossman off the ground in other words Bossman was hanging. Oh dear deeply unpleasant in a wrestling setting.

However the card does have some good points especially the exciting Boiler Room Brawl between The Big Show and Mankind. And even though The Rock and 'Stone Cold' had a satisfactory main event Rock seemed a little nervous out there and this also featured the funny sight of Kane tombstoning Pete Rose and Butterbean knocking out Bart Gunn in a boxing match.

Results from the show which was held in Philadelphia: Hardcore Holly defeated Billy Gunn and Al Snow in a passable Hardcore match to win the Hardcore title (Gunn was super over although I couldn't understand why).... Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett downed D'Lo Brown and Test to retain the WWF Tag Team titles in a passable match.... Butterbean beat Bart Gunn in the Brawl 4 All finals.... 'Road Dogg' Jesse James defeated Val Venis, Ken Shamrock and Goldust to retain the Intercontinental Championship (Shamrock was wasted in this match).... Kane downed Triple H via DQ in a short match.... Women's Champion, Sable downed Tori to retain the title in a lame Women's match ( The abysmal Nicole Bass came out and destroyed Tori, which enabled Sable to get the win, which left fans confused).... Mankind defeated Big Show via DQ in a good match.... Shane McMahon downed X-Pac to retain the European Championship.... 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin defeated The Rock to become the Heavyweight Champion in a satisfactory main event.

Grade - B/C

The best thing you can say about most of the matches of "Wrestlemania XV" is that they are relatively short (in the case of a boxing match, 30 seconds short - at least that's unusual) and they don't overstay their welcome. But too many unclean finishes, too much (bad) soap opera and too little actual wrestling make this a middling Wrestlemania. Obviously the main event, Rock vs. Austin for the WWF title, is the big draw, and after a draggy all-over-the-arena slugfest it does gain some electricity when it moves back inside the ring.