WWE: Ranking The Rock's 10 WrestleMania Matches - From Worst To Best

5. WrestleMania 15 vs. Steve Austin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqcYRBXO9UY The first of the three Austin/Rock WrestleMania matches was the worst of the three. That doesn't mean it was a bad match at all. It's just that they improved on it the other two times, which is to be expected. The more familiar you are with an opponent, the better it tends to be in the future. Considering it was only The Rock's third WrestleMania, it's very impressive that he went into the match as the WWE Champion. There aren't too many guys that can claim they were main eventing a WrestleMania within a few years of being in WWE. Everybody knew the outcome as soon as the bell rang. Rock was the heel corporate champion that followed the orders of Vince & Shane McMahon while Austin was the babyface hero fighting against the machine to try to get back the WWE Title that he was screwed out of in 1998. Austin won the match after 17 minutes of intense action. It was a typical Austin brawl from that time period. There was a lot of standup fighting without too many rest holds to slow the action down. I loved the pace of the match. If there was a problem it's that they went through four referees and plenty of involvement from the McMahons as well. It played up the idea that Vince was trying to screw Austin out of the win as best he could. I hadn't watched this match in a long time. It was a good showing for Rock in his first WrestleMania main event. It proved that management was right to push him as a top guy so early in his career. The story behind the match was that Austin had to overcome the odds to win. The end result satisfied the fans. Simple, but it worked.