WrestleMania XIV

WrestleMania XIV
WrestleMania XIV
Tagline(s)	dX raided
Information
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	March 29, 1998
Attendance	19,028
Venue	Fleet Center
City	Boston, Massachusetts
Pay-per-view chronology
WrestleMania chronology

WrestleMania XIV was the fourteenth WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event made by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which took place on March 29, 1998 at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Preliminary Matches

The night began with the secret guests in the tag team battle royal being revealed as the united Legion of Doom, with Sunny. Savio Vega was first eliminated, meaning his tag team partner, Miguel Perez, had to leave too. Kurrgan illegally entered the ring to get revenge on Sniper and Recon for The Jackyl, Barry Windham also illegally entered to eliminate Bradshaw, and so his partner, Chainz, had to leave too. The final four teams stayed in the match for a while until Skull was eliminated by Phineas. When The Godwinns (Phineas & Henry) were thrown out, they returned and attacked the Legion Of Doom with buckets before leaving. New Midnight Express tried to keep Animal out of the ring while double teaming Hawk but once he re-entered the Legion eliminated Bob and Bart at the same time, leaving them the last team standing.^[1]^[2]

The second bout was a Light Heavyweight Championship match, with Taka Michinoku defending his title against Águila; this would be the first and only time the championship was defended at WrestleMania, though the title that came after it, the WWE Cruiserweight Championship would be. After throwing Taka out the ring and baseball sliding into him, Águila hit an moonsault outside the ring, but was soon hit by a springboard crossbody after Taka reversed a suplex from the end of the ring. Águila almost won the match with a moonsault crossbody into a pin but stayed on the offensive with a frankensteiner. Taka tried to land the Michinoku Driver but as Aguila flipped out and attempted a hurricarana, Taka reversed it into a powerbomb. Taka would soon stop Águila from hitting him with a high flying dive with a dropkick before before being able to do a Michinoku Driver and get the win. After the match, they shook hands and celebrated together.^[1]

Triple H made his way to the ring with his theme song played by the DX Band. Before Owen Hart came to the ring, Commissioner Slaughter handcuffed himself to Chyna so that she would not get involved in the match, despite her saying that she didn't want to. The match began with Hart attacking Helmsley with his fists before sliding out of the ring, when Triple H tried to jump from the end of the ring he landed on the crowd barrier. After an powerbomb Hart tried to lock in the sharpshooter but Helmsley broke out of it and started some offensive attacks of his own, kicking Hart in the turnbuckle and delivering a suplex. Hart suffered a cut to the bridge of his nose from a boot to the face, after which Triple H began to only attack Hart's damaged ankle, dropping his knee onto it and stretching it. After not getting hit with another kick to the face and pulling Helmsley's crotch onto the ring post, and managed to take advantage, changing a powerbomb into the sharpshooter but Chyna, having to pull Sgt. Slaughter, pulled Triple H to the rope for the break. Chyna then threw white powder in Slaughter's face causing a worried Hart to check on him, as he turned round to face the ring, Chyna low-blowed him from outside allowing Triple H to win the match with the Pedigree. After she was freed from the handcuffs, Chyna shoved Slaughter into the crowd.^[1]^[2]

Marc Mero and Goldust began the match but Goldust soon tagged in Luna Vachon, requiring Sable to be tagged in too. However, Vachon simple ran around the outside of the ring with Sable chasing her and tagged her partner back in. Wanting to get her hands on Vachon, Sable double teamed Goldust with a boot to the face after an Irish whip from Mero but could not get Vachon to enter the ring. An near pinfall came from a running crossbody from Mero and following this the two ran into each other, causing both men to crawl and tag in the women. Sable straddled Vachon and punched her round the face before kicking her in the midsection and face in the turnbuckle and attacking Goldust, then running back to clothesline Vachon over the ropes. Vachon tagged Goldust in but before Sable would do the same, she struck him in the face, then letting Mero take over who had his TKO reversed into a DDT. Mero too would reverse the Curtain Call allowing him the chance to try a moonsault pin to a standing Goldust. After Vachon struck a running Mero with his knee, Mero went to punch her but ducked out of the way as Goldust ran to her rescue, causing him to inadvertently knock her off the apron. Mero then executed the TKO but Luna interrupted the pin count, jumping on Mero's back resulting in Sable tagging in as Mero wandered around the ring with Vachon on his back. Sable tried pinning Goldust but the referee was distracted and as he finally began to count, Sable leapt off Goldust so the interfering Vachon would inadvertently bodysplash Goldust. Sable then performed a powerbomb and Mero's TKO to win the bout.^[1]^[2]

The Intercontinental title fight began along the walkway with a brawl that saw Ken Shamrock whipped into the steel steps before coming inside the ring. Rocky Maivia then delivered his People's Elbow but could not secure a three-count. Shamrock then rolled out of the ring and grabbed steel steps and when the referee tried to take it off him, he threw the referee into the corner; The Rock quickly grabbed the steps and hit Shamrock with it as the referee recovered. Shamrock pushed out of the pin count and quickly gained the advantage, delivering a belly to belly slam off an Irish whip and then securing his ankle lock in the centre of the ring, making The Rock tap. The surrounding members of the Nation jumped into the ring but Shamrock quickly dispatched them all with suplexes, including the four hundred pound Henry, before reapplying the ankle lock to a bleeding Maivia. Faarooq then ran down from the back and jumped onto the apron, only to look on at The Rock with a smile, before walking away. Eventually a number of referees and officials appeared trying to subdue Shamrock, after being surrounded he suplexed a referee and then an official before calming down as The Rock was wheeled away on a gurney. Howard Finkel then announced Shamrock had been disqualified for not breaking his ankle hold causing Shamrock to chase Rock and fight him on the Chris Warren band stage.^[1]^[2]

The Tag Team Championship match began with Billy Gunn facing Chainsaw Charlie and Road Dogg exchanging blows with Cactus Jack. Trying a Cactus Elbow on Road Dogg, Cactus missed and slammed himself into the dumpster. The Outlaws then focused on Charlie, using a back toss to drop him into the dumpster and as he attempted to climb out they simultaneously slammed the lid shut on the hardcore legends' heads. With Cactus and Charlie both in the dumpster, the Outlaws shut the lid down on them but Cactus managed to get back up while the Outlaws were celebrating and pushed Road Dogg down to the ground with a mandible claw, pulling him into the dumpster. Both teams took time to recover and began to brawl with weapons in the ring, Cactus Jack pulling out a ladder and climbing it opposite Billy Gunn, only to be pushed off straight into the dumpster outside the ring by a falling Chainsaw Charlie. Road Dogg pulled his partner out and the two focused their efforts on Charlie, powerbombing him into the dumpster, however Cactus had managed to escape in the meantime. The fight found its way to the backstage area, with both Outlaws throwing Cactus into boxes and promotional toys but Jack replied with a chair shot to both of them and pulled Billy Gunn onto a wooden crate with a double-arm DDT. Charlie reappeared on a forklift and elevated the wooden crate as Jack dragged Road Dogg onto it too. Charlie then drove the forklift above a backstage dumpster and dropped both opponents inside as Cactus Jack closed the lid to win the World Tag Team Championship.^[1]^[2]

Main event matches

Before The Undertaker's match with Kane, baseball record-holder Pete Rose came to the ring as the special ring announcer. However, after insulting the home-town team and introducing Kane, the wrestler gave him a tombstone piledriver starting a tri-year tradition.^[3] The Undertaker was preceded by a league of torch-bearing druids to the tune of O Fortuna. The Undertaker cornered Kane and threw a fury of punches into him, ducking and reversing Kane's attempts until Kane hit him with a clothesline that he instantly sat up from. Kane then set Undertaker up in a tree of woe to begin his assault of punches and Irish whips and then suplexing Undertaker onto the ropes and delivering a flying club to the neck from the turnbuckle. As Undertaker began to fight back, Kane threw him into the ropes but his brother retaliated by jumping onto his back, which was met a face-first electric chair. Paul Bearer kept the referee distracted while Kane landed the steel steps onto Undertaker, and repeated the effort a second time while his opponent was lying onto the steps, crushing him between. As the referee tried to keep Kane in check, Bearer slapped Undertaker while walking past him. Kane caught his brother running and delivered a chokeslam but lifted his shoulders off the mat before the three count could be made, putting him into a sleeper hold that Undertaker eventually fought out of with a flurry of punches. Undertaker then dropped Kane on top of the ropes and punched him off the apron; he followed this with a over the top rope suicide dive that Kane managed to side-step, guiding him through the Spanish announce table. As Undertaker made it back into the ring, Kane hit him with a flying lariat. Undertaker was caught unawares by Kane, who lifted him into a tombstone piledriver position, but Kane managed to weigh himself backwards onto his own feet and deliver the tombstone himself. Undertaker kicked out and after landing his opponent with a clothesline, he chokeslammed Kane and then delivered a tombstone piledriver of his own; it would eventually take three tombstones with a guillotine leg drop and flying clothesline in between to stop Kane kicking out and sitting up but as soon as the match was over Bearer attacked Undertaker and ordered Kane attack him, which he did with a chair shot to the head and then a tombstone piledriver onto the chair. After Kane and Bearer left, Undertaker sat up and left the ring.^[1]^[2]

With Mike Tyson enforcing from ring side, the WWF Championship fight began with both superstars dancing around each other, engaging in a few light punches before Shawn Michaels escaped the ring and ran back in to take advantage of Steve Austin, but was met with a standing clothesline. Austin followed up by pulling down Michaels' trunks revealing his rear. Michaels tried to run at Austin but was flipped over the top rope into Triple H and Chyna. As Triple H threw Austin through the crowd barrier, the referee ordered him and Chyna to leave ringside but Austin followed and fought with them up to the entrance way. Michaels caught up with him and hit Austin with a cymbal from the bandstage, before Irish whipping him into the dumpster. As the match resumed in the ring, Austin met Michaels high-risk manoeuvre with a clothesline and then ran him into the turnbuckle and picking him up for an inverted atomic drop. Michaels attempt to pick up some momentum saw him picked up and dropped onto the ropes but Michaels managed to push Stone Cold away as he attempted a stunner. When he tried to escape the ring though, Austin shoved him forcing the champion to fall upon the announce table. After Stone Cold slowed the match down with a sleeper, Michaels tried to pull his knee into the ring post but was instead pulled into it himself. Austin then tried to rush at Michaels but was back tossed into the crowd and struck with the ring bell. Michaels used the momentum to take advantage inside the ring, delivering a snapmare and then a low kick to the grounded Austin but as he took time to offend the audience Stone Cold briefly picked up some speed throwing Michaels out of the ring but just as quickly lost ground as his opponent repeatedly worked on Austin's left knee, throwing it into the ring post and then kicking and dropping onto it back inside the ring. When Austin tried to recover outside of the ring, he was met with a baseball slide launching him over the announce table and was instantly thrown back into the ring by Tyson where he soon suffered a figure four leg lock that Michaels illegally elevated using the second and third ring rope. Austin's eventual counter was stopped by a rope break. Austin then tried to reverse a standing sleeper hold by throwing Michaels back into the turnbuckle but unwittingly trapped referee Mike Chioda who fell unconscious. With both men on the floor, HBK recovered with a kip-up and landed a high-flying elbow drop, getting in position to taunt for his finisher. As Austin eventually stood up, he ducked the super kick, attempting a stunner on Michaels as he turned round only to be thrown into the ropes and met again with a Sweet Chin Music which he grabbed, spinning Michaels round and finishing with a Stone Cold stunner. Tyson jumped into the ring to make a quick three count and the new champion celebrated by tossing the enforcer an Austin 3:16 T-shirt. When Shawn Michaels stood up, he confronted Tyson about his turn but was met with a punch that instantly floored him, and draped with Austin T-shirt.^[1]^[2]

Results

#	Results	Stipulations	Times
1	L.O.D. 2000 (Hawk and Animal) (with Sunny) won by last eliminating The New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob and Bodacious Bart with Jim Cornette).^{[Note 1]}	15 – team battle royal	08:19
2	Taka Michinoku (c) defeated Aguila.	Singles match for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship	05:57
3	Triple H (c) (with Chyna) defeated Owen Hart.	Singles match for the WWF European Championship	11:29
4	Marc Mero and Sable defeated The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust and Luna.	Tag team match	09:11
5	The Rock (c) (with Kama Mustafa, Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown) defeated Ken Shamrock by disqualification.	Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship	04:49
6	Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie defeated the New Age Outlaws (c) (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg).	Dumpster match for the WWF Tag Team Championship	10:01
7	The Undertaker defeated Kane (with Paul Bearer).	Singles match	16:58
8	Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels (c) (with Triple H and Chyna).	Singles match for the WWF Championship with Mike Tyson as special outside enforcer	20:02