40 Years Of Fascinating WWE WrestleMania Facts (Part 2)
6. WrestleMania XV: Vince Russo's Mick Foley Main Event Story
Take all of this with a pinch of Russo, but much of the television output at the time made it clear that Mick Foley wanted desperately to be in the WrestleMania main event, and various bits of his autobiography back it up too. The specifics, per the former WWE and WCW head writer involve a janky game played by Shawn Michaels involving Stone Cold Steve Austin and - perhaps tellingly - not The Rock.
Russo claims he pitched the idea of Mankind being added to the WrestleMania XV main event to Vince McMahon, making it a triple threat with The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, such was the backing for Foley after his late-1998/early-1999 series with 'The Great One'. The pitch got greenlit, and Russo took the good news to Foley.
He then claims he saw Shawn Michaels saying something to Steve Austin in a moment of assumed privacy, and 'The Rattlesnake' not-that-coincidentally dropping into a meeting with Russo, McMahon and others to push for a shift back to a singles bout. Russo was then given the bad news to pass on, forcing both to suffer the damage of McMahon's infamous whims and the moves made by two political heavyweights.
He got a cameo as a guest referee in the end, in something that scanned as much as a compromise then as it does now.