WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been

WrestleMania XV

Actual main event: The Rock vs. Steve Austin

What the main event should have been: The Rock vs. Steve Austin

I could have done without some of the ridiculous build to the main event at WrestleMania XV, including Vince McMahon winning the 1999 Royal Rumble and The Big Show debuting from under the ring at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (or that entire match for that matter), but Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock was definitely the right call to headline the biggest show of the year.

In the year leading to this match, The Rock really came into his own as a legitimate main event player, and he has obviously gone on to find some other success. The exact opposite of Austin, The Rock became WWE Champion in the perfect way at Survivor Series, and he and Mick Foley engaged in some epic battles in the months following, including Austin costing Rock the title on that now-famous episode of RAW to kick off 1999 and The Great One winning it back at the Royal Rumble after blasting Mick Foley with a chair way too many times in the head. While some think Foley may have deserved a spot in the main event that didn’t include a referee’s shirt, Austin was the biggest thing in wrestling, and there was no way he wasn’t going to win his title back at WrestleMania XV.

As for the match itself, it wasn’t the greatest of their three encounters on the biggest stage, but it was still a very entertaining bout, even with the “No Disqualification” stipulation attached to it, which naturally brought on some outside interference. But that was the era and it worked nicely with Austin overcoming the odds to once again become WWE Champion.