WrestleMania XIV: dX шабуылы

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 1985 not to feature Bret Hart, who jumped to the rival World Championship Wrestling the previous year.

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". Following this, they suffered two defeats by the NWA members Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham and finally on the February 23 episode of Raw Is War, they lost again to The New Age Outlaws when, despite having the match all but won, the non legal Hawk did not leave the ring and while the referee was busy removing him, Animal was struck by the title belts and lost the match. Following the bout, 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 the only member of the Hart family to remain with the company, and after a temporary absence, returned during D Generation X: In Your House 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, 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 so convincing that he upheld the decision and awarded the championship belt to Hart. At the end of the inaugural Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood: In Your House, just as The Undertaker looked to have won the match against Shawn Michaels, the lights went out and a 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, 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 event, Kane came to the ring and locked Undertaker in his casket before setting it ablaze, presuming his brother dead. In January, Stone Cold Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble match while Shawn Michaels retained his WWF Championship, both under the auspices of Mike Tyson from the director's box. The following week on Raw Is War, Vince McMahon revealed that Tyson would be the special guest referee for WrestleMania's main event until Austin appeared and gave the finger to Tyson, offering him a fight and proclaiming the wrestling ring to be his, not Tyson's. At the ensuing press conference, McMahon 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, shouting abuse in his face and rubbing 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 in a singles match, but the partnership of D Generation X and The New Age Outlaws continued. This led to a "non sanctioned" eight man tag match at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, which Michaels declined to participate in and that Austin won by pinning Road Dogg. The second match 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 its successor the Cruiserweight Championship would be. After throwing Taka out the ring and baseball sliding into him, Águila hit an asai moonsault outside the ring, but was soon the victim of a springboard crossbody after Taka reversed a suplex from the apron. Águila almost won the match with a moonsault crossbody into a pin, but remained on the offensive with a frankensteiner. Taka tried to land the Michinoku Driver, but as Aguila flipped out and attempted a hurricarana, Taka managed a powerbomb reversal. He soon stopped a high flying dive with a dropkick before successfully executing a Michinoku Driver and picking up the win. After the match, both contestants shook each other's hand and celebrated together. The Undertaker was preceded by a league of torch bearing druids to the tune of "O Fortuna". The Undertaker cornered Kane and threw a flurry 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 The Undertaker began to fight back, Kane threw him into the ropes, but Undertaker 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 an over the top rope suicide dive that Kane managed to sidestep, sending Undertaker crashing through the Spanish announce table. As Undertaker made it back into the ring, Kane hit him with a flying lariat. Undertaker tried to give Kane the Tombstone Piledriver, but Kane managed to weigh himself backward 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; but Kane kicked out. 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 to 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. Shawn Michaels' loss was criticized by Triple H the following night on Raw Is War, blaming him for overlooking Tyson's potential double cross. He delivered a promo saying that he would now helm D Generation X and turn it into an army and "the first thing you do is look to your blood. You look to your buddies. You look to your friends. You look to the Kliq", and introduced a returning Sean Waltman, under the X Pac persona, who had jumped ship from World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Later in the evening, it was revealed that Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were also part of the DX Army. The ongoing saga between The Undertaker and Kane continued unabated. The following night, Paul Bearer challenged Undertaker to a match at Unforgiven: In Your House where the ring would be surrounded by fire and the first man to be set alight would lose, thus giving birth to the Inferno Match. By winning the fifteen team battle royal, LOD 2000 won the right to face the WWF Tag Team Champions at Unforgiven. The champions by rights were Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, but some legal wrangling from The New Age Outlaws saw the match held up on account of the wrong dumpster being used. The vacant titles were disputed in a steel cage match the following night, which the Outlaws won after interference from the newly formed DX Army, concreting their ties, and by handcuffing Charlie to the cage by his neck. Charlie returned to his Terry Funk persona whilst Cactus Jack became Dude Love again while the Outlaws became part of the DX Army achieving further success. In a tag team match against Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman, Rocky Maivia promised to show Faarooq that the Nation was stronger and more connected than before. The promise was a sour one as, during the match, Rocky left Faarooq to suffer the wrath of Shamrock and Blackman, and afterward Faarooq demanded Rocky come back out so the two could fight. When Rocky returned and squared up to Faarooq, the other members of the Nation turned on him and Maivia proclaimed himself as the new leader. Before Marc Mero's match with Taka Michinoku the next night, Vachon appeared and challenged Sable to a singles match just between the two of them which Sable promptly accepted. Vachon also announced that it was not to be a traditional wrestling match, because she wanted to humiliate her, and so it would be an evening gown match to be held at Unforgiven.