WWE: 18 Most Important Decisions In History Of WrestleMania
9. WrestleMania 2000
Vince's decision to re-cast the WWF with 'Attitude' at Mania 14 was followed the next night on Raw with Triple H forming a new version of D Generation X. You also had The Rock emerging as the most distinctive character in Federation history. McMahon himself was a successful character as the heel boss and all of a sudden it became the coolest thing in the world to like pro wrestling. A lot of this had again stemmed from a WrestleMania with a major celebrity and a massively over wrestler in Austin. The decision making at Mania 14 well and truly helped make a new wave of successes. The 1999 WrestleMania built on this, pitting the two biggest names in the business against each other, The Rock vs Steve Austin (with Mr McMahon involved for The Rock). It was the perfect Mania main event and business kept on booming. By the year 2000, Vince's decisions were made trickier. Steve Austin was out of action with a broken neck and a whole host of talent had a claim to be in the Mania main event. In this respect, the WWF was to a degree a victim of its own success, McMahon suddenly had a whole host of stars he wanted to accommodate. His decision ended up being a Fatal 4 way, Triple H defending against The Rock, Big Show and Mick Foley. It was the first sign of McMahon's decision making being on the wane, particularly in the case of over-booking it further with a McMahon family member in every corner. The key decision was having Triple H win in the main event. It seemed a given that the scenario should be The Rock beating Hunter in a one on one for the title. Vince decided differently. Critically it was a poor choice, commercially it led to a mammoth buy rate for the next month's Rock vs Hunter contest at Backlash. The other big decision was the obvious re-branding of WrestleMania from a numbered event into a year event. In some ways it fitted in with the feeling of the time, WrestleMania 2000 helped mark the millenium buzz. The decision was a one off, a year later we were back to numbers.
