1998 World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view event
WrestleMania XIV (marketed as WrestleMania dX raided) was the 14th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; WWE as of 2002). It took place on March 29, 1998, at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts. A total of eight matches were held at the event.
This pay-per-view event was notable for the involvement of boxer Mike Tyson, who acted as a ring enforcer for the main event. In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Championship for the first time; Michaels performed despite a severe injury sustained during a match at the Royal Rumble and would not compete again until SummerSlam in 2002. This was the first WrestleMania of The Attitude Era and also the first WrestleMania event since 1986 not to feature Bret Hart, who jumped to the rival World Championship Wrestling the previous year after the Montreal Screwjob.
Production.
Background.
WrestleMania is the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of the WWF's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four", and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring. WrestleMania XIV was scheduled to be held on March 29, 1998, at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts. In print advertisements, the event was billed as "WrestleMania: dX raided".
Storylines.
After the Legion of Doom lost their WWF Tag Team Championship to The New Age Outlaws, they were then assaulted by the Outlaws and D-Generation X. At the Royal Rumble, the LOD lost a championship match, thanks in large part to Road Dogg handcuffing Hawk outside of the ring. Following this, they suffered two defeats at the hands of NWA members Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham. Finally, on the February 23 episode of "Raw Is War", the LOD once again lost to The New Age Outlaws when, despite having the match all but won following a "Doomsday Device", the non-legal Hawk did not leave the ring as Animal was making the cover; while the referee was busy removing Hawk, Animal was struck by the title belts, causing them to lose the match. Following the match, the two men brawled all the way to the back and announced their dissolution, not appearing again until WrestleMania.
After the Montreal Screwjob, Owen Hart was left as the only member of the Hart family to remain with the company; and after a temporary absence, Owen returned during the closing moments of to attack Shawn Michaels. Following this, he turned his attention to Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who would later be known simply as Triple H) and the European Championship that Michaels had given to Helmsley as a Christmas present. After weeks of deterring a championship match by way of a fractured kneecap (which was, in fact, legitimate), Triple H finally acquiesced to a match on the January 26 edition of "Raw Is War", only for The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (who was dressing up from week-to-week in a bid for attention) to appear in Helmsley's place. After Hart won the match, WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter declared the disguise to be so convincing that he upheld the decision and awarded the championship to Hart. On the March 2 episode of "Raw Is War", Owen defended the title against Mark Henry. During the match, Chyna came to the ring and pushed Hart off the turnbuckle allowing Henry to lock on a bearhug, but before Owen could submit, Chyna delivered a blatant low blow to Henry, resulting in a disqualification in favor of Hart. The following week in a match against Barry Windham, Hart landed awkwardly on his ankle, suffering a sprained ankle with ligament damage as a result. On a special Tuesday edition of "Raw Is War" on March 17, Hart joined the commentary team with a supportive cast on his leg. This would bring Triple H to ringside, where he goaded Owen into an impromptu title defense despite his cast. During the match, Chyna appeared and struck Owen's ankle with a baseball bat, allowing Helmsley to capitalize and win the title back.
Due to his jealousy over the attention his wife and valet, Sable, was garnering from the crowd, Marc Mero would try to intentionally cover up Sable's provocative clothing and eventually send her to the back during his matches, replacing her with The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust, who at the time was dressing up from week-to-week in his own bid of self-attention. Although the two initially worked well together, Goldust's valet Luna Vachon grew vocally disdainful of Sable, who was also being mocked by Mero and Goldust, causing Sable to eventually grow tired of the disrespect and fight back. As the two women brawled, their partners tried to separate them; but when Goldust grabbed Sable in order to restrain her, Mero's jealousy took over and he attacked him. The two men then had a match on Raw, where both women were handcuffed to the ring posts in an effort to prevent their brawling. But after the referee was knocked down, Goldust stole the key and unchained Luna who attacked Sable with make up, painting her face before also throwing water on her. Goldust then challenged Mero and Sable to a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania XIV.
After successively beating members of the Nation of Domination week after week, Ken Shamrock initially defeated the Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia (later known as The Rock) at the Royal Rumble despite being hit with a foreign object, seemingly winning the title. However, The Rock convinced the referee that it was, in fact, he who suffered an illegal attack and the referee reversed his decision (Maivia had placed the foreign object in Shamrock's trunks after hitting him with it). The following month at , Shamrock capitalized on the in-fighting of the Nation, due to leadership disputes between Faarooq and The Rock, by making the champion tap out in a ten-man tag team match.
At the end of the inaugural Hell in a Cell match at , just as The Undertaker looked to win the match against Shawn Michaels, the lights went out and a huge masked man came to the ring and delivered a tombstone piledriver to the shocked Undertaker. The masked man was revealed to be Kane, Undertaker's (kayfabe) half-brother and, despite the animosity and the presence of Paul Bearer, Undertaker vowed never to fight his little brother. Before Undertaker's casket match with Michaels at the Royal Rumble, D-Generation X claimed Kane had joined them, but in fact, he came to the ring to assist Undertaker. The alliance was short-lived, however, as during the Royal Rumble, Kane came to the ring and turned on his brother, allowing Michaels to win the match before locking Undertaker in the casket and setting it ablaze, presuming his brother dead. On the March 2 episode of "Raw Is War", Kane's scheduled opponent, Stone Cold Steve Austin, was taken out by D-Generation X before the match could begin. With nothing else to do, Bearer ordered the timekeeper to deliver a ten-bell salute for The Undertaker's passing, before then telling Kane to tombstone him. After he did, more bells were heard ringing, this time signaling Undertaker's arrival. The ringing continued much longer than normal, with Bearer vehemently denying the possibility of it being Undertaker. Eventually, a sarcophagus appeared on the top of the ramp. After the sarcophagus was struck by a bolt of lightning, The Undertaker sat up before revealing that he had been to Hell and talked with his parents, telling them that he would have to go back on his vow before finally challenging Kane to a match at WrestleMania. The week before WrestleMania, Kane came to the ring and began to display similar supernatural powers as his brother, striking the TitanTron with lightning, as well as the announce table, before finally striking a crew worker with lightning, setting him on fire; Undertaker was shown on the same episode speaking to his parents' gravestones, revealing it may have to take the damnation of his soul to reunite the troubled family.
In January, Stone Cold Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble match while Shawn Michaels retained his WWF Championship, all while Mike Tyson looked on from the director's box. The following night on "Raw Is War", Vince McMahon was set to reveal that Tyson would be the special guest referee for WrestleMania's main event; however, Austin appeared and gave the finger to Tyson, offering him a fight and proclaiming the wrestling ring to be his, not Tyson's. Austin and Tyson then engaged in a massive brawl that garnered headlines all around the world. At the ensuing press conference, McMahon officially announced that due to the explosive situation, Tyson's role was being changed to that of ring enforcer. On the February 2 episode of "Raw Is War", in a scheduled match against Road Dogg, D-Generation X stormed the match and tied Austin in the ropes, allowing Shawn Michaels to hurl insults at Austin and rub the championship belt in his face, taunting him with it until Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie came to his aid. The following week, Austin stole the championship belt from Michaels in the hope of baiting him into a singles match, but the partnership of D-Generation X and The New Age Outlaws continued, allowing Michaels to retrieve the belt back. This all led to a "non-sanctioned" eight-man tag match at , which Michaels was unable to participate in due to a back injury; Austin won the match for his team by pinning Road Dogg. With WrestleMania drawing closer, on the March 2 episode of "Raw Is War", Mike Tyson appeared once again to be interviewed by Vince McMahon, only for DX to interrupt; Shawn Michaels then challenged Tyson to a fight. After both men's entourages left the ring, the two taunted each other for a bit until Michaels would rip off Tyson's shirt, revealing a DX T-shirt underneath, showing the enforcer's degenerate alliance; Later in the evening, as Austin came out to take place in a match against Kane, Triple H appeared on the ramp and lured Austin to him. Austin fell for the trap, and promptly turned around into a Sweet Chin Music by Michaels which knocked him out, a trap which occurred again the following week. Also that week, during a St. Patrick's Day Tuesday broadcast of "Raw Is War" on March 17, Austin called out Vince McMahon and verbally berated him for describing Mike Tyson as "the baddest man on the planet", but McMahon would not be goaded into a fight, as he instead forced Austin to fight Rocky Maivia the following episode, just before WrestleMania.
Event.
Chris Warren and The DX Band opened the show by performing hard rock versions of "America the Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner". The audience did not react well to the performance, booing the band during and after their songs. This segment was edited off all subsequent home video releases, as well as the WWE Network and Peacock.
Preliminary matches.
The night began with the mystery entrants in the tag team battle royal being revealed as the reunited Legion of Doom, now known as LOD 2000, with Sunny as their new valet. Savio Vega was first eliminated by Chainz meaning his tag team partner, Miguel Perez, had to leave too. Kurrgan illegally entered the ring to enact revenge on Sniper and Recon by eliminating them on behalf of The Jackyl. Barry Windham also illegally entered to eliminate Chainz, and so left his partner Bradshaw. The final four teams lasted a while until Skull would be eliminated by Henry Godwinn, which meant The Disciples of Apocalypse were eliminated. 8-Ball then eliminated Phineas Godwinn, which meant The Godwinns were then eliminated. Afterwards, The Godwinns attacked LOD 2000 with slop buckets before leaving. The Midnight Express tried to keep Animal out of the ring while double-teaming Hawk, but once Animal re-entered the ring, LOD 2000 simultaneously eliminated both Bob and Bart, leaving LOD 2000 the last team standing and the winners of the battle royal.
The second match was a Light Heavyweight Championship match, with Taka Michinoku defending his title against