WWE WAR ZONE - The Tombstone

Wrestlemania XV in 1999 was not one of my favorite Wrestlemanias. At the time I liked the Rock moreso than Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I knew Austin would get the title back, so I was less than pleased with that. Other than that, I felt like despite a decent amount of hype Wrestlemania XV just didn’t deliver like it should have. Let’s review…

First of all, Bart Gunn got knocked out by Butterbean in less than a minute. That was insane. Bart Gunn kicked all of these other guys’ asses in the Brawl For All contest, only to go on to Wrestlemania and be embarrassed by a real fighter. Makes you wonder what would have happened if someone else had won the Brawl For All.

Then we have Kane and Triple H’s match ending in a disqualification victory for Kane. I always get annoyed when a big pay per view match ends in a draw or a DQ or count out. RAW has plenty of that, if I’m paying to see a show I want to see winners and losers. I admit that the whole thing turned out to be necessary as it paved the way for Triple H to turn heel on X-Pac later in the evening and it turned Kane face for the most part, but it still annoyed me.

Then there was the horrible, horrible Hell in a Cell match between the Undertaker and the Big Boss Man. If you haven’t seen that match, consider yourself lucky. That match was hideous. It was a disgrace to the legacy of the Hell in a Cell and to the career of the Undertaker.

As I mentioned, at the time I was a bigger fan of the Rock than of Steve Austin, so the main event being a foregone conclusion didn’t sit real well with me. Rock was a heel at the time and was funny, Austin was riding his stale babyface role at the time. So when Austin won, I was not pleased.

This Wrestlemania kind of felt like a prolonged version of RAW to me. They redeemed themselves the next year though…