WrestleMania XV was a 1999 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the 15th annual WrestleMania and took place on March 28, 1999, at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ten professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card. The ticket sales of 20,276 drew a gross of $1,437,050.
The main event saw the challenger Stone Cold Steve Austin face The Rock in a no disqualification match for the WWF Championship. The penultimate match saw The Undertaker wrestle Big Boss Man in a Hell in a Cell match. Lower on the card, six of the promotion's seven active championships were defended, including the first WrestleMania defense of the Hardcore Championship. Also on the undercard was a Brawl for All match, an unscripted type of shootfight between wrestler Bart Gunn and boxer/mixed martial artist Butterbean. This event also marked the final WWF appearance for Gorilla Monsoon, who died in October that same year.
Production
Background
thumb|The event was held at the [[Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)|First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]]
WrestleMania is the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship professional wrestling 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" pay-per-views, along with King of the Ring. WrestleMania XV was scheduled on March 28, 1999, at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. they tried their hand at singles wrestling for some time. Gunn failed in his attempts to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, but Road Dogg would become Hardcore Champion until an injury prevented him from honoring a championship match with Al Snow. Snow ended up fighting himself and then Bob Holly for the vacant belt at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, with Holly winning the title at the banks of the Mississippi River. When Road Dogg won the Intercontinental Championship on Raw Is War Gunn fought Holly (now dubbed as Hardcore Holly) and won when Holly crashed into an ad-hoc announcers table Jim Ross had constructed for his pirate broadcast of the show.
In the previous year, due to the suddenly enlarged roster, a shootfighting (unscripted) knockout tournament entitled Brawl for All was organized on a voluntary basis, with Bart Gunn winning the tournament on August 24 after defeating every opponent by knockout aside from his opening-round opponent Bob Holly. When Holly rechristened himself Hardcore Holly on February 15, decrying poor gimmicks and tag-team partners he had been given in the past, Gunn made his first appearance since winning the tournament, to remind Holly that not all his partners were of a poor caliber. then Venis at St. Valentine's Day Massacre, with Venis winning the Intercontinental Championship thanks to help from Ryan. and she began a relationship with Goldust (Dustin Rhodes). Venis also unwittingly lost his championship to Road Dogg on Raw Is War Undertaker began delivering ambiguous apocalyptic messages, but after recruiting Mabel, now Viscera (Nelson Frazier, Jr.) and The Brood, he began to be more direct, revealing his plan to attack McMahon and take over the World Wrestling Federation.
The security of Mr. McMahon's Corporation, Big Boss Man, challenged the Ministry to a six-man tag team match, which ended in a no-contest when the Ministry abducted Shane McMahon and took him to Undertaker, who threatened him while choking him then gave him a letter to give to his father. Vince McMahon replied the following week on February 22 by booking The Undertaker in an Inferno match with Kane on Raw Is War, the first network television airing of that type of match. During the match, McMahon provided commentary, nonchalantly revealing he had placed Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match against Big Boss Man for WrestleMania. During the match, Paul Bearer gave an ominous gift to McMahon, a teddy bear. After Undertaker set Kane on fire, he turned to the enraged McMahon, taking the teddy bear (later revealed to belong to Stephanie McMahon) and setting it alight, reducing Vince to his knees as he burst into tears. Trying to defeat either of his problems, McMahon declared he'd never show such weakness again and put Mankind against Undertaker, which ended with Undertaker almost chokeslamming McMahon through the announcers table until Boss Man saved him. After Austin won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV, McMahon set on a six-month-long quest to take the championship from him. With the exception of a one day reign by Kane, who won the championship in a First Blood Match at King of the Ring when his (kayfabe) brother The Undertaker caused Austin to bleed first, Austin thwarted each attempt by McMahon until Breakdown: In Your House in September 1998 when Austin defended the championship against Undertaker and Kane in what was billed as a triple threat match. McMahon added a stipulation, however, that neither brother could pin the other to win the match; this led to both men simultaneously pinning Austin, causing him to lose the match and the championship. This had been part of a deal McMahon had made with the two men to protect him from Austin, with the reward of the championship if they were successful. However, McMahon went back on his word after Austin attacked him on the next night's Raw and announced he was forcing Undertaker and Kane to wrestle for the vacant championship at Judgment Day: In Your House. He also named Austin the special guest referee, hoping to humiliate him by forcing him to declare a new champion. Austin, however, had other ideas and counted both men out, declaring himself the winner of the match and leaving the championship vacant.
A Deadly Games tournament was scheduled for Survivor Series in November, in which it turned out that The Rock, not Mankind, was McMahon's choice for winner and had the tournament manipulated to his advantage, while Austin lost in a match when McMahon's son Shane, acting as referee, refused to count a pinfall to go to the finals. Knowing Rock would be busy feuding with Mankind, McMahon realized Austin was likely to use the 1999 Royal Rumble, rather than a personal attack, to attempt to reclaim the belt and laid down the stipulation that he must win a Buried Alive match against The Undertaker to be in the Rumble. When he did, with some help from Kane, McMahon further tried to prevent Austin winning back the championship by "randomly" drawing him as the first entrant in the Rumble and drawing himself as the 30th. However, WWF commissioner Shawn Michaels declared that due to entering the Rumble match, McMahon was now an active WWF competitor, meaning Michaels had full reign over him. Michaels then declared that McMahon would be not be entering the Rumble match as the 30th participant, but instead would be entered into the Rumble match as the second entrant, meaning McMahon and Austin would start the match against one another. McMahon would later try to incentivize other wrestlers to eliminate Austin by placing a $100,000 bounty on him during the Royal Rumble match.
Despite this, Austin (and, for that matter, McMahon) managed to stay in the match to the very end, although this was mostly due to him and McMahon leaving the ring at various points to brawl around the arena. At one point during the match, McMahon lured Austin backstage into an ambush from The Corporation, leading Austin to be taken away in an ambulance while McMahon returned ringside and provided commentary. Austin eventually returned to the match, however, and began eliminating other competitors before finally getting his hands on McMahon. Late in the match, The Rock, who earlier in the evening had regained the WWF Championship, came to the ring and started arguing with Austin. McMahon took advantage of the distraction and threw Austin over the top rope, thus winning the match. As he was officially now the winner of the Royal Rumble, McMahon was entitled to face whomever the WWF Champion was at WrestleMania. On the following night's episode of Raw, however, he announced that, since he was only a part-timer and the champion was a fellow Corporation member in The Rock, that he had filed paperwork relinquishing his WrestleMania championship opportunity and that he would be naming a replacement later in the evening. To his chagrin, Austin and Michaels informed him shortly thereafter that, according to the rules, his actions resulted in Austin, as the runner-up in the Royal Rumble, taking his place.
With McMahon irate, Austin revealed he was willing to put his title shot on the line and not headline WrestleMania if McMahon would give him the opportunity to fight him one on one with no interference from The Corporation; if McMahon could beat him, Austin would not go to WrestleMania. Their steel cage match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre mostly consisted of McMahon running away, but eventually the two fought with Austin winning the match under unusual circumstances when Big Show made his debut, coming from under the ring and throwing Austin into the cage with the walls of it coming open, meaning Austin had inadvertently won.
During the Sunday Night Heat pre-show, Jacqueline pinned Ivory after a back suplex. After the match, Terri Runnels burned her cigar into Ivory's cheek. The second Heat match saw a 21-man battle royal match with the last two competitors becoming a tag team for the evening to face the Tag Team Championship holders. In the event, D'Lo Brown and Test were the last two, still fighting without realizing the match was over when Droz and The Godfather eliminated each other.
Preliminary matches
The inaugural WrestleMania Hardcore Championship match began with Al Snow striking Billy Gunn as he tried to make a pre-match speech. With Gunn in the corner, Snow fought with Hardcore Holly outside the ring, wrapping his neck in cable but, after some fighting from Gunn, Holly was able to suplex Snow. After Gunn again interjected himself, Snow was able to go underneath the mat to find some weapons including a Philadelphia Flyers hockey stick much to the delight of the crowd. The match ended when Gunn put Snow through a table in the corner, originally intended for Gunn and then used the Fameasser on Snow, driving him into a chair on the mat. As the referee counted, Holly struck Gunn with a weapon, quickly covering Snow to steal his second championship reign.
thumb|left|[[Owen Hart had his third WrestleMania WWF Tag Team Championship match
The Brawl For All match began with the two meetings in the middle, Gunn running into some blows from Butterbean. The two traded punches, neither man managing to contact properly until Butterbean shook Gunn with a left-hand jab followed by a right hook which stunned Gunn allowing Bean to corner him, giving him another right hook which knocked him down. Gunn immediately came back upon his knees but took advantage of the eight seconds before standing up fully. As the fight resumed, Butterbean jabbed Gunn to the body and followed with a clean overhand right which sent Gunn back to the canvas, giving Butterbean a victory via knockout. This was followed with an appearance from the San Diego Chicken, who mocked special referee Vinny Pazienza and was punched to the floor for it. This was in hopes of setting up an angle between Williams and Gunn, and to continue building Williams as a credible midcarder. However, because of Gunn being released, their feud instead carried over to All Japan Pro Wrestling in the early 2000s, where in Japan the Brawl For All was better received.
Next up was the match between Mankind and the Big Show, where the winner would earn the right to officiate the WWF Championship match later in the evening. As Mankind entered the ring he was immediately headbutted out, but as Big Show followed him out, Mankind slammed Show's head into the steel steps. He then tried a double-armed DDT into the steps but was shoved over the steps falling backward. Show dominated Mankind in the ring afterward, using his sheer size to punch and throw Mankind, with Mankind eventually being tied up in the ropes, which allowed him to back body drop Show out of the ring. Mankind then took out Mr. Socko, a smelly gym sock, and stuffed the foul-smelling sock into the Big Show's mouth with the mandible claw three times. The third claw came with a low blow, for which Mankind was not disqualified. When Show stood back up, he had Mankind on his back with the sock in his mouth and jumped backward so that his entire body landed on Mankind, breaking up the hold. As the two recovered, Show kicked his opponent out of the ring, grabbing a steel chair and thrusting it into Mankind's chest then hitting it over his back. Big Show threw that chair and another in the ring, setting them both in seated positions and Show Stopping Mankind through the middle of them. At this point Earl Hebner finally decided to disqualify Big Show, with Show taking out his anger by attacking Mankind more with the chair. Mr. McMahon made his way to the ring afterward, berating Big Show for risking the WWF Championship match at which point Show grabbed him by the throat. He then thought better of it and released him, only to be met with another tirade from McMahon and a slap, causing Show to punch McMahon and knock him out. Triple H also tried to ambush Kane by coming through the crowd while all eyes were on the stage entrance, hitting Kane out of the ring and then throwing him into the ring post and whipping him into the steel steps. Kane then picked Triple H up and straddled him on the crowd barrier, pushing him into the Mean Street Posse who were at ringside, picking him up again to ram his back into the steel post three times. Back inside the ring, Kane dominated Helmsley with his rough fighting style, using his foot to choke Triple H and knocking him down with clotheslines and punches until Triple H gained momentum from a reversal, smashing Kane's face into his knee. Kane was allowed time to recover when Triple H was distracted by Chyna coming to ringside. Triple H tried to Pedigree Kane as he stood up, but failed while Chyna pushed the steel steps into the ring. Kane picked them up and ran into Triple H, who used the turnbuckle to swing his feet up and kicked them back into Kane, causing Kane to stagger backward and drop them before smashing his face into the steps from a drop toe-hold. Triple H then clotheslined Kane out of the ring, following himself and attempting to Pedigree Kane on the steps but was backbody dropped. When they made it back into the ring, Kane chokeslammed Triple H while Chyna entered the ring with a steel chair, telling Kane she wanted to attack Triple H, but as Kane turned, Chyna hit him with the chair, causing him to corner her but again was hit with the chair, this time by Triple H, who followed it up with a Pedigree onto the chair. Chyna and Triple H celebrated the reunion of D-Generation X afterward. Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section gave the entire event five out of 10 stars. The main event between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship was rated eight out of 10 stars; the Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Big Boss Man was rated five out of 10 stars; the match between Shane McMahon and X-Pac for the WWF European Championship was rated seven out of 10 stars; the match between Sable and Tori for the WWF Women's Championship was rated one out of 10 stars; the match between Triple H and Kane was rated four out of 10 stars; the referee match between Mankind and Big Show was rated four out of 10; the four-corners elimination match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between Road Dogg Jesse James, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, and Val Venis was rated five out of 10 stars; the tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship between D'Lo Brown and Test against Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett was rated three out of 10 stars; and the triple threat match for the WWF Hardcore Championship between Hardcore Holly, Billy Gunn, and Al Snow was rated six out of 10 stars.
Writing for 411Mania in 2009, Rob McNew gave the event a rating of 5.5/10, stating, "Like most Attitude Era shows this one doesn't hold up very well ten years later" though he praised the main event bout between Rock and Austin. Similarly, Scott Keith gave the event an overall negative rating, while calling the Rock vs. Austin match "solid by default" and complimenting Shane McMahon's performance given his lack of wrestling experience. In 2012, Bleacher Report ranked the event 25th out of the 27 Wrestlemanias to that point, calling the event "underwhelming" and criticizing the Hell in a Cell match.
Aftermath
Stone Cold Steve Austin's feud with The Corporation continued after WrestleMania with Austin demanding the return of his customized smoking skull belt that was taken from him after losing the WWF Championship at Breakdown: In Your House in 1998. With The Ministry of Darkness continuing to threaten his family, Mr. McMahon was forced to comply with his nemesis' demands and ordered his son Shane to deliver the belt to Austin. Shane, however, refused and took matters with Austin into his own hands by giving the smoking skull belt to The Rock. This culminated in a rematch between Austin and The Rock at Backlash while Shane McMahon served as a special guest referee. Austin defeated The Rock to retain the WWF Championship after Mr. McMahon prevented Shane from screwing him and handed the smoking skull belt back to Austin.
The Ministry of Darkness continued their ongoing war with The Corporation, with The Undertaker going after Mr. McMahon's daughter Stephanie. Along the way, The Undertaker continued to make sacrifices including Ryan Shamrock, leading to a feud between Undertaker and Ken Shamrock who wanted revenge for Undertaker's actions to his family with Undertaker defeating Shamrock at Backlash.
When The Undertaker did successfully find Stephanie, Shamrock, in his quest to get revenge on Undertaker, continued to beat down and interrogate members of The Ministry of Darkness for McMahon's whereabouts. After Christian told Shamrock Stephanie's whereabouts, Undertaker punished Christian by whipping him and have him face crucifixion. Edge and Gangrel, who along with Christian were members of their own stable The Brood and were loyal to Christian, decided to rescue him, betraying The Ministry and turning face in the process. The Ministry got revenge by defeating The Brood in a Six-Man Tag Team Match at Backlash.
Bart Gunn would leave the WWF after his match against Butterbean. On the Dark Side of the Ring episode on the Brawl for All, Gunn said he felt his match against Butterbean was "punishment" for winning the Brawl and knocking out Steve "Dr. Death" Williams during the event (Williams suffered other injuries during the match) which was not what the bookers wanted (they wanted Williams to win to give him a push against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin). Gunn would not return to WWE until 2007.
Nicole Bass continued to accompany Sable to the ring and subsequently destroyed all competition for Sable's WWF Women's Championship. After Triple H washed his hands of D-Generation X and joined Chyna in the Corporation, X-Pac teamed up with Kane to form an unlikely tag team, and the duo captured the WWF Tag Team titles from Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett.
The City of Philadelphia would later host the event again in 2024 with this time being held at the nearby Lincoln Financial Field in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the event held in the city and the 40th anniversary of WrestleMania.