March 1999 looks as though it could be treacherous month for WCW and WWE. Let’s see if WrestleMania XV steers clears of mediocre waters. This event took place in Philadelphia and drew over 20,000 for a WWE Championship match between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin!
The Best
The main event saw The Rock unsuccessfully defend his WWE Championship against Stone Cold Steve Austin. This was hands down, the best part of WrestleMania XV. This was the RAGIN’ CLIMAX of the event. I don’t know why a sub-mediocre undercard was booked for us to get here but it did not disappoint.
While I will admit, this isn’t at the level of epic of their future showdowns, it holds its own as an awesome match. Part of that awesomeness might be from being the cap on a subpar marquee event. As a fan, it’s a case of being lifted just from the anticipation of an incredible clash. You’re far from burned out as none of the matches have been that exciting, you might even be bored.
Then the main event gets you percolating. Stone Cold vs. The Rock was that match, folks. It was a wild No Disqualification—different from a No Holds Barred match—that had a lot of interference and referees just on standby.
This was definitely the match of the show.
The Rest
The opening match of the show was Triple Threat Hardcore match for Billy Gunn’s Hardcore title. Hardcore Holly and Al Snow are here of course and it was an OK hardcore match. It would’ve been perfect on HeAT or even early on RAW. On WrestleMania? Eh, I don’t know. I’d say that the previous Holly-Snow match screamed “Welcome to WrestleMania!” that this one.
I forget what was going on in the Tag Team title match between Owen & Jarrett and D’Lo & Test. It seemed like it was goin fine then it was just…wrapped up and it felt as if a match hadn’t even occurred. This was kind of a HeAT match, really.
Also, as a side note. We recently did a “Wrestling Salvage Yard” on Test and also reviewed St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. In that review, we said that D’Lo needed a partner that could do more and in the “WSL” we said Test should’ve been more of a tag competitor.
I felt D’Lo and Test could’ve worked as a team! Test could do a lot for big man and had a lot of agility. A near-perfect elbow, a perfect big boot. Late 90s-early 00s D’Lo was an athletic all-rounder who had some charisma to him. This could’ve worked as a team. As for the match itself: skip.
I would say skip the Brawl for All match between Butterbean and Bart Gunn but you could sneeze or just blink and it would be over. Butterbean spanked Gunn and that was it.
Foley’s bumps made the match against Big Show…tolerable, I guess. I mean he was fighting a giant.
The four corners elimination match for the IC title was interesting. We had solid opponents as champion Road Dogg defended against Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and Val Venis. This could’ve been better than decent. I love the elimination approach to these kinds of matches more than the mad scramble for one pin. However, something just didn’t click here.
It wasn’t a bad match at all but it seemed like the crowd was just over this show for the most part at this point. It’s been hovering between bad and mid for a while and there’s little exciting them. This wasn’t one of the matches to do that.
Triple H is still brawling it out in the undercard. This time, he’s in a feud with Kane. This match wasn’t…bad. It was a stock HeAT or RAW is WAR block of Monday Night RAW. Remember the show used to have a RAW is WAR block and a Warzone block with different openings? Yeah.
Anyway, this match would’ve been fine on those shows but at WM you expect something with a little more…zip. I don’t know Triple H just couldn’t get Kane’s motor going like his could or if Kane hadn’t gotten to that point where he was more flexible in the character.
Remember Kane was a pretty rigid horror monster at first—like Undertaker—and he gradually showed more agility and selling more. Then he was speaking more on the mic. However, that would be a bit later. As for this match—it’s skippable. You won’t be missing anything.
The Women’s title match…oof. This was not good at all. We had Sable defending against Tori and I felt that it had the right length, they just didn’t fill in the time properly for it being WrestleMania. That made for a horrible match following a snoozer.
I actually enjoyed Shane McMahon defending his European title against X-Pac. It had some backstory to it, some interference, lots of action between X-Pac and Shane. It wasn’t a great match but with its place on WrestleMania XV—a show that hasn’t been enjoyable throughout—this was elevated a bit.
So, the Hell in a Cell match between Taker and Big Boss Man: boring. It’s a pretty damn boring match that just seemed longer than it actually was. Looking at the card, this had to be the spectacle match for WrestleMania XV. At WM you usually get a spectacle—close to an epic but it’s more about those moments in the match that the story that led up to this event.
Once you get to a Hell in a Cell, Punjabi Prison, Elimination Chamber, Inferno match—honestly, anything outside of a standard rules match—you’re in spectacle territory. This match is technically a spectacle match. I say “technically” because spectacles are usually good or at least enjoyable. The fans were crapping all over this match while it was ongoing.
They wanted these two to move this thing along. Also, for what we got the Hell in a Cell wasn’t even necessary. We did get a memorable moment with Boss Man being hung from the Cell but a bit of that sweet, sweet Attitude cheap shock.
WWE WrestleMania XV Verdict: Bronze Medal (4.75/10)
Oof. I don’t know what was going on with WWE on this show. The TV build-up was pretty good and then the most important show of the year ends up being mid. What happened?! Our runner-up for Match of the Show is Shane McMahon vs. X-Pac while Match of the Show goes The Rock vs. Stone Cold.
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