15 Things You Didn't Know About WrestleMania (1995 - 2004)

10. WrestleMania XIV - Austin. Tyson. Hogan?

WrestleMania XIV in Boston was the unofficial kickoff of the Austin era, with The Rattlensake defeating three-time WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in the main event as no less than Mike Tyson counted the pinfall. Just a few months prior, however, Hulk Hogan's contract with WCW had come up and he was in talks with Vince McMahon and the WWF about a potential return which could have meant that things panned out much, much differently. Bruce Prichard, one of the higher ranking company officials in 1998 and an integral part of the creative team, has discussed this in detail in several shoot interviews. Even though Hogan would eventually re-sign with WCW, it didn't stop Prichard and the rest of the team from devising potential WrestleMania plans that included the Hulkster. The most popular idea involved Hogan taking over as the leader of D-Generation X, winning the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble and defending it in the main event of WrestleMania XIV against The Texas Rattlesnake. The plan was always for Austin to capture the title at the biggest show of the year and stand arm-in-arm with Iron Mike to close the show, but had the chips fallen a different way, it could've been Hollywood Hogan passing the torch to Stone Cold instead of The Heartbreak Kid.