8 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE WrestleMania XIV

1. "The Austin Era Has Begun"

Though the match hadn't delivered on even measured expectations after their superlative scuffles in 1996 (and superb pay-per-view outing in 1997), Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin's main event was exactly that - a headliner for the ages that established its winner as the standout star to make good on the company's scintillating promise shared over the prior year.

It was over a year before Vince McMahon left WCW in his rear view mirror, but just weeks before he overturned Monday Nitro's stranglehold on the television ratings. Eric Bischoff himself later noted how envious he was of Mike Tyson's red-hot involvement, with obvious this contemporary spin on WWE's 1980s obsession with celebrity again reaping rewards for McMahon as he finally reframed his organisation after years of commercial malaise.

Like Austin's own hardened "eight-year journey" to the top of the industry, this was no quick fix turnaround for The Chairman. He'd had his fair share of luck, but an awful lot of hard work and self-belief had gone in to the as-yet unfinished product. As with Hogan in the past, and John Cena in the years that followed. the gaffer was again styling his newest hero in the vision of how he saw himself.