March 29, 1998 - “The Austin Era Has Begun!” WrestleMania XIV had one of the most anticipated main events in a long time. Shawn Michaels defending the WWE Title against Stone Cold Steve Austin with Iron Mike Tyson as the Special Guest Enforcer. The three most combustible sports personalities were set to converge. The rocket had been strapped to Austin’s keister and this was the match that was set to make Steve Austin the face of the company.
There is a lot of rumor and innuendo about what was going to happen and what had to happen at the 14th Showcase Of The Immortals. Here are 10 things you never knew about the event, the most important in WrestleMania history.
10 Michaels Was In Horrendous Pain...
In the ring, the might never be another performer like Shawn Michaels. Do you want good storytelling? Check. Technical prowess? Check. Aerial pageantry? Check, check, and double-check.
But after taking a horrendously bad bump against the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, good ole’ HBK was in horrendous pain ever since and just about every grimace he made during the match with Austin wasn’t just selling, it was real.
9 ...And Not Easy To Deal With
The pain in Michaels’ back was so excruciating that it was incredibly hard for him to do much of anything, let alone work the match. Have you ever even sneezed and thought you tossed your back out?!
This guy’s Main eventing the biggest show of the year and he’s under incredible duress. Always seen as a primadonna by his peers, around this time, it was tenfold and good ole’ HBK was anything but good.
8 Austin Thought The Match Stunk
The match was supposed to be Stone Cold’s crowning moment. Nearly two years after “Austin 3:16,” he was the tippy top guy in the industry. This match was supposed to cement that. But he was still suffering from getting dropped on his neck and HBK was also in all sorts of pain.
Two young lions but beat up young lions were being showcased on the grandest stage of them all. After the match, as every superstar does, Austin headed to the back and saw Vince McMahon in the Gorilla Position. He expressed disdain for the match, but McMahon had assured his new top star, that the match accomplished what it needed to.
7 HBK Threatened To Not Do The Favors
Here’s a scenario - you’ve been doing your best to carry the company on your back in the wake of megastars leaving, friends leaving, and you participate in the Screwjob. You’ve done everything the company has asked if you and then some, you already know that you’re done after this match.
This was HBK prior to WrestleMania XIV. Needless to say, since he was a handful to deal with, every so often The Heartbreak Kid’s temper tantrums involved threats to not do the job for the Rattlesnake.
6 Taker Was Waiting
The careers of the Deadman and the Heartbreak Kid have always been intertwined, especially since their first trip to Hell. Several months later, there might have been some real-life fisticuffs if HBK got out of line at WrestleMania.
Just in case HBK was serious about walking out or not doing the job for Stone Cold, he would have had the Phenom to contend with. The Undertaker was sitting at Gorilla, fists taped up ready to end Michaels if he had gotten out of line.
5 Shawn Was Jealous
Add jealously to the list of emotions running through Shawn Michaels’ mind at this time. How could he not be if you sit down to think about it? In hindsight, HBK never had super-mega mainstream appeal and he was about to cede the top spot over to Stone Cold.
Austin, of course, would break through the pop culture zeitgeist. Mike Tyson was the megastar the world was talking about. The defending champion and face of the company wasn’t exactly the highlighted performer heading into the Grandest Stage Of Them All.
4 The Battery Incident Happened Here
Before WrestleMania Week and the bajillion events surrounding it, the event had some small promotions. As WWE was gearing up for their biggest event, they marched to Boston for “WrestleMania Workout.”
As HBK was jaw-jacking in the ring, a fan thought it would be a good idea to hurl a battery to the ring. HBK got fed up (rightfully so, this was a battery!) and walked off and out of the promotional event. After some cajoling from Triple H, he came back to help deliver the infamous kiss on Austin’s forehead.
3 Triple H Saved The Match
Not only is he currently responsible for scouting, signing, and developing talent; Triple H did all he could to make sure that Shawn Michaels made it to WrestleMania. He and Chyna kept the guy as calm as possible, helped carry his bags, whatever Shawn needed to be comfortable on their road to WrestleMania.
Considering all the stories about what a nightmare HBK was to deal with, it could have been far, far worse had his buddy not been around.
2 Doubts About The Back
To be fair, you can only cry wolf so many times before people just stop believing you. According to Bruce Prichard on the first episode of the WWE Network show, Something Else To Wrestle, there were plenty of people who believed that the back injury was nowhere near as bad as Shawn was making it out to be.
"There were definitely grumblings and I would venture to say that there were far more skeptics than there were sympathetic ears at this point because of the timing and the fact that a year [before], his knee was injured and while talking about dropping the title due to a knee injury, he brings up losing his smile...People didn't know if it was legitimate, which, by the way, was a legitimate injury and it was a very bad injury. The timing of it though didn't help. And it certainly didn't help that, Shawn being Shawn, wasn't talking to a lot of people and I think that he didn't allow anyone to feel sorry for him, really."
1 Michaels Was Fuming After The Match
According to some, the ending of the match was something Michaels refused to do. He agreed to do the job clean and get knocked out by Tyson, but having Austin’s shirt draped over him felt like overkill.
Between that happening anyway and Michaels being left out of the post-match press conference, HBK was livid and tried to storm the conference. Shane McMahon met him at the door and helped get him out of the room.