Vince McMahon may have won the 1999 Royal Rumble match, but nobody really expected him to compete for the title at WrestleMania. Sure enough, the next night on Raw, McMahon forfeited his position, not knowing that it would default to runner-up Steve Austin. Things were more interesting on the WWE Championship side of the equation. The Rock beat Mankind in a brutal "I Quit" Match at the Rumble, ending the beloved superstar's first title reign. Two days later, though, Mankind won the belt back in an empty arena match taped for the first-ever "Halftime Heat" Super Bowl special. Mankind and The Rock met again in a last man standing match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre. That bout ended in a draw when both men were knocked out simultaneously, and it looked like Mankind was set to head into WrestleMania as WWE Champion. The following night, though, Vince McMahon declared that he'd face The Rock one more time - in a ladder match. In what was the first ladder match for the WWE Championship and the first ladder match on Raw, Mankind did his best to grab a WrestleMania spot, but it wasn't to be - The Big Show, who had debuted just 24 hours earlier, chokeslammed Mankind off of the ladder, setting The Rock up for an easy win and a place in WrestleMania XV's main event.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
