30 Week Journey: Wrestlemania XIV (1998)

It can be said that not since Hulk Hogan and Mr. T linked up at the first Wrestlemania did the WWF’s grand stage see a more gaming-changing celebrity presence than Mike Tyson, who in the run-up to Wrestlemania 14 set the atmosphere in which Stone Cole Steve Austin could blossom into the biggest money generator the industry had seen.

This week on The Lapsed Fan podcast’s 14th installment of a 30-week Wrestlemania journey, your co-chairmen chart the flash points and culmination of the arrival of Austin as the face of the WWF at Wrestlemania 14 and the lucrative changes it sent in motion. It’s the night the WWF finally got over losing Hulk Hogan.

Join hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro as they go deep on:

- What it was like to take in the seminal event in person as teenagers
- How much Tyson got
- The noticeable push-and-pull between tradition and the WWF’s edgy new direction, as the “New Generation” logo and the scratch “Attitude” logo co-exist for the last time on a Mania broadcast
- Flashes of brilliance as “The Rock” Rocyk Maivia gets comfortable in his own skin and talks dirty to Gennifer Flowers
- The lone Mania appearance of the Rock n’ Roll Express
- Paul Bearer calls Undertaker a “god damned murderer” several times, and the match that resulted
- The night Sable became the most over diva in WWF history
- Why LOD 2000 went nowhere

Plus another sterling contribution from Wrestling Observer guru Dave Meltzer on the negotiations and machinations behind securing Tyson, if HBK balked at doing the job to Stone Cold, and if it was obvious that night that Austin would be the man for a long time to come.

Assess this crucial flash point in WWF history as only the Lapsed Fan can by downloading TLF’s WM14 deep dive, right here.