The main event saw the challenger Stone Cold Steve Austin face The Rock in a no disqualification match for the WWF Championship.

[6] When Road Dogg Jesse James and "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to The Corporation,[7] they tried their hand at singles wrestling for some time.

The week after on Raw Is War, Williams' manager Jim Ross announced to Gunn he would be facing noted mixed martial artist and boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch, who held a 43–1–1 record at the time, who challenged him to a Brawl for All fight.

However, as Mr. McMahon's conspiracy of appointing Big Show as special guest referee to secure The Rock as champion began to fall apart, Mankind constantly offered his services as a second official.

When Ryan Shamrock (Alicia Webb) appeared front row on Raw Is War on January 11, she gained attention not only from her brother but also Val Venis, who performed a flirtatious dance for her, and "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn, who lived up to his moniker by mooning her.

As soon as the match was over, Chyna low blowed Triple H and revealed her alliances with The Corporation, promising a Valentine's Day present at the subsequent pay-per-view.

[9] Triple H took revenge on the February 22 Raw Is War by interfering in X-Pac's (Sean Waltman) match with Chyna, causing her to lose.

Despite not receiving any damage, Triple H maintained that the fireball was meant for him, an insult he took personally and an intended injury he wanted to return at WrestleMania.

[11] Tori was sitting front row as a plant as early as September 14's Raw Is War, but it was not until late December that she began to act with stalker tendencies, sending flowers and notes to Sable, the Women's Champion and even helping her to defend her title against Luna Vachon at the Royal Rumble.

[15] On Raw Is War the night after the previous pay-per-view, Tori invaded the ring again and was publicly shouted at and humiliated by Sable.

[11] Having been buried alive in a Royal Rumble qualification match at Rock Bottom: In Your House,[16] The Undertaker disappeared from television while The Acolytes, Faarooq (Ron Simmons) and Bradshaw (John Layfield), began to act strangely, eventually abducting Dennis Knight and leaving him tied up in a darkened room.

On January 11, The Undertaker returned in slightly new attire, taking a seat in a ceremonial throne on the Raw Is War stage while Paul Bearer stood beside him and The Acolytes brought Knight out and tied him to a table.

However, McMahon went back on his word after Austin attacked him on the next night’s Raw and announced he was forcing Undertaker and Kane to wrestle for the vacant championship at Judgment Day: In Your House.

On the following night's episode of Raw, however, he announced that, since he was only a part-timer and the champion was a fellow Corporation member in The Rock, that he had filed paperwork relinquishing his WrestleMania championship opportunity and that he would be naming a replacement later in the evening.

In the event, D'Lo Brown and Test (Andrew Martin) were the last two, still fighting without realizing the match was over when Droz (Darren Drozdov) and The Godfather (Charles Wright) eliminated each other.

The inaugural WrestleMania Hardcore Championship match began with Al Snow striking Billy Gunn as he tried to make a pre-match speech.

After Gunn again interjected himself, Snow was able to go underneath the mat to find some weapons including a Philadelphia Flyers hockey stick much to the delight of the crowd.

As the referee counted, Holly struck Gunn with a weapon, quickly covering Snow to steal his second championship reign.

[28] On the WWF WrestleMania special on HSN later during the pay per view, after the Shane McMahon match "Dr. Death" Steve Williams cut a promo on Bart Gunn in a backstage interview with Jim Ross by his side, saying the Butterbean's punch "wasn't lucky" and that "Bart deserved what he got", telling the viewer to keep watching WWF because "the Doctor hasn't finished his job yet".

As the two recovered, Show kicked his opponent out of the ring, grabbing a steel chair and thrusting it into Mankind's chest then hitting it over his back.

Shamrock took a blind tag from Road Dogg, after he replaced Goldust, immediately putting an ankle lock until Venis grabbed the bottom rope.

Kane fought back and unmasked the chicken, revealing it to be Pete Rose, trying to gain revenge for the previous year's incident but receiving a Tombstone piledriver.

[26][28] The Women's Championship match began with Tori taking her time to enter the ring, Sable grabbing her hair when she finally did and tossing her back out.

As she tried to perform her own powerbomb, a muscled woman, later identified as Nicole Bass, came into the ring to gorilla press slam Tori.

When he returned to the ring Shane scoop slammed him and attempted a Corporate Elbow, with X-Pac sitting up just before the end but he was brought back down with a low blow as referee Mike Chioda was distracted by Test.

Shane continued to push the disqualification boundaries by whipping X-Pac with his belt several times before being back body dropped out of the ring, recovering only to be met with a flying crossbody.

The two began a fistfight in the middle of the ring with Undertaker failing a tombstone piledriver attempt, but successfully performing it seconds later and pinned him afterwards.

After another pin attempt, with Tim White now officiating, Austin still kicked out and Rock used a sitting chin hold to subdue him.

[34] Similarly, Scott Keith gave the event an overall negative rating, while calling the Rock vs. Austin match "solid by default" and complimenting Shane McMahon's performance given his lack of wrestling experience.

With The Ministry of Darkness continuing to threaten his family, Mr. McMahon was forced to comply with his nemesis' demands and requested his son Shane to deliver the belt to Austin.