Just one week after WrestleMania XIV -- and Jim Rosss proclamation that the Austin Era begun -- the WWF ventured to the United Kingdom for an exclusive pay-per-view event. On April 4, 1998 in Manchester, 19,600 fans packed the NYNEX Arena to witness the dawning of this new era. In an interesting aside, this UK-exclusive PPV was the last Federation event to feature the classic blue ring apron with red, white, and blue ropes. It was also the last event to use the so-called New Generation WWF logo before switching to the Attitude Era scratch logo. In regard to in-ring action, the card featured a mix of new feuds coming out of WrestleMania, and the continuation of already existing ones. Headlining the card was not the WWF Championship match but was instead a WrestleMania rematch between the Undertaker and his evil brother Kane, with Taker once again leaving the victor. New champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin successfully defended his title against DXs new leader, Triple H -- as Shawn Michaels had retired immediately following the Showcase of the Immortals in Boston due to a back injury. The New Age Outlaws began their new feud with the returning Road Warriors -- repackaged as LOD 2000 and accompanied by Sunny. Hawk and Animal would end up victorious, but the Outlaws would keep their tag team gold as the win came as a result of a disqualification. The Legion of Doom would continue their rivalry with the Road Dogg & Billy Gunn into the next months PPV -- Unforgiven: In Your House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBWfvZpSNgs Other matches on the card saw the Godwinns defeat the Disciples of Apocalypse in a tag team strap match, while Goldust would get the upset over Cactus Jack. Bradshaw, who was still a bit aimless at this time, would beat Marc Mero, and the makeshift team of Ken Shamrock & Owen Hart would pull out the surprising win over the Nation of Domination -- consisting of DLo Brown and the Rock. Also, Jeff Jarrett defeated Brakkus -- who had debuted only a few weeks earlier and would be gone in a few months. Mayhem in Manchester was an interesting show with an intriguing card. Although the Federation had already begun the transition into the immensely popular Attitude Era, the official changing of the guard took place at Mania XIV. Therefore, the Manchester PPV represented the first major event since the dawning of that new era. Because of this -- as well as the inclusion of other UK-exclusive PPVs -- its quite puzzling as to why Mayhem in Manchester is not available on the Network.
Douglas Scarpa is a freelance writer, independent filmmaker, art school graduate, and pro wrestling aficionado -- all of which mean he is in financial ruin. He has no backup plan to speak of, yet maintains his abnormally high spirits. If he had only listened to the scorn of his childhood teachers, he wouldn't be in this situation.
