Listing The Best Matches From All 35 WrestleManias

WrestleMania XV: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock (WWE Championship)

The rivalry between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock is second only to the feud between Austin and Vince McMahon as the conflict that defined the Attitude Era. Fittingly, the rivalry was often presented as a proxy battle in the larger war between Austin and McMahon. WrestleMania XV was the first of three times that the two would do battle on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

Before the match began, Vince McMahon appointed himself special referee in an attempt to stack the deck against Austin. Yet, before Austin or WWE Champion The Rock could make their entrances, Commissioner Shawn Michaels made the save, informing Vince that he was the only one who had the authority to appoint an official for a WrestleMania match, barring The Corporation from ringside in the process.

With that, the match proper could begin. Austin and The Rock immediately began brawling, spilling outside of the ring and into the crowd. Back at ringside, Rock began strangling Austin with a cable before the action spilled up the ramp where Austin was back body dropped, his knee smashing into a light fixture.

The animosity was palpable here. After multiple ref bumps, Mankind, who had won the right to officiate the match earlier in the night before being hospitalized by The Big Show, made his way to the ring to officiate. After a stunner, Mankind counted the pinfall and awarded Stone Cold Steve Austin the WWE Championship, sending the crowd home happy and McMahon into despair.

A really fun match that is one of the high points of the Attitude Era, this match is essential viewing. It is not the best of the Austin/Rock clashes, but these two never failed to create magic together