Hindsight is a wonderful thing. With hindsight you know that the WWF in 1999 was in the middle of its hottest ever period that would last another two years, crushing rivals WCW and ECW in the process. With hindsight you know that The Rock is about to become the biggest mainstream star wrestling has produced since Hulk Hogan. With hindsight you know that giving Triple H a main event push in the second half of the year will be a huge success, and would eventually see him not only become one of the most accomplished wrestlers of all time but also the eventual king of the company. And with hindsight, it's possible to book every WrestleMania as better, more entertaining shows than what we were delivered. Despite having a weak undercard, WrestleMania 15 was a huge success for the WWE when it emanated from the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 28th, 1999. Drawing a final gross of $1.4 million and 800,000 buys, the show was one of the biggest the WWE had ever put on by that point. The extravaganza surprisingly brought in more than WrestleMania 14 a year earlier that was headlined by Mike Tyson's involvement in the Shawn Michaels vs Stone Cold Steve Austin feud and is still today inside the top fifteen shows the WWE ever put on. Of course everyone who bought the show paid to mostly see just one thing; Stone Cold Steve Austin finally getting his hands on the WWF gold from the new Corporate Champion The Rock, and ultimately defeating Vince McMahon in the famous rebel superstar vs owner feud. Although the Austin vs McMahon saga would go on to actually last throughout that summer and a couple of more PPVs, WrestleMania 15 was the peak of the biggest money making feud in the company's history. In the first of a new series, we rebook WrestleMania 15 to think about what would have been had the likes of Butterbean vs Bart Gunn and Mankind vs The Big Show not been included, maximising the talent that the WWE had at that time with the following eight matches...
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
