While the road to WrestleMania usually kicks off when WWE presents the annual Royal Rumble event in January, it's when Elimination Chamber is in the books where fans really start to get excited as WWE's biggest show of the year is firmly within reach. WWE will be hoping that WrestleMania 42 exceeds expectations, but if we're being honest with ourselves, it will take a lot to exceed what the company produced a quarter of a century earlier.On April 1, 2026, WWE WrestleMania X-Seven (or X7 or just 17 depending on who you ask) will celebrate its 25th anniversary. It is widely regarded to be not just the greatest WrestleMania of all time, but perhaps the greatest WWE event that has ever taken place. The "AttitudeEra" saw a new boom period for the then World Wrestling Federation which escalated to the point where the company were able to once again host WrestleMania in stadiums, something that hadn't happened since WrestleMania 8 in 1992. WrestleMania X-Seven is historic not just because it was so good, but for the time it represented.WWE had grown and grown to the point where the company was as hot, if not hotter, than when Hulkamania was running wild in the mid-1980s, and by the start of 2001 it seemed as if WWE could do no wrong. The company had officially won the "Monday Night Wars" as Vince McMahon bought WCW less than a week earlier, making WrestleMania X-Seven a victory lap on that front, but with the demise of WCW, as well as ECW, this event was the culmination and finale of the biggest era in wrestling. With that said, it at least went out in style.The main event of WrestleMania X-Seven saw Stone Cold Steve Austin, the winner of the 2001 Royal Rumble match, challenging The Rock for the WWE Championship, a title he won from Kurt Angle at No Way Out a few weeks earlier, in a rematch from their showdown at WrestleMania 15 two years earlier. Despite trying to create a sense of drama by getting Austin's wife Debra to be The Rock's manager, the feud really kicked into high gear when Austin became obsessed with being the WWE Champion again, and openly admitted many times that he would do anything in his power to get the title back.Over the next few weeks, we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time, so what better way to get things going than look back one of the best main events in the show's history? With all of that out of the way, let's roll back the clock by 25 years and shine a spotlight on Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven!
This really is the type of match that makes you want to rip your shirt off and scream at the top of your lungs, it's that good.The story leading up to match is threaded all the way through, how far will Steve Austin go to become the WWE Champion? It leads to a fairly basic structure that works so well as time goes by, aided by the mysterious No Disqualification stipulation that was added at the last minute. There isn't a moment to breathe in the early going as both Austin and The Rock are just throwing everything at each other. There's punching, kicking, throws, brawling in the crowd, the makeshift Spanish announce table is fearing for whatever life it had left, the main announce table crumbles under the weight of the situation, there isn't any room for rest.With Austin working as the heel, regardless of what the crowd thought of him, it really aided the match as he is just going for it. Flipping off poor Earl Hebner, ripping the turnbuckle pad off which would only come back to haunt him, using the ring bell as a weapon, the crowd really want to see him beat The Rock to a bloody pulp and they get what they paid for. The bladejobs from both men are excellent, and they both get to show off how much the WWE Championship means to them when they trade Sharpshooters and the blood is gushing from their heads. The call-back to WrestleMania 13 is obvious on Austin's side, but The Rock really sells it for all its worth, especially when Austin refuses to break the hold, and again, another example of Austin doing whatever it takes to get the win.Austin even digs so far into his bag of tricks that he locks in the Million Dollar Dream from his Ringmaster days which gets a muffled reaction as fans are just beside themselves with excitement, but for the long-time fans it was a great little easter egg. Both men trade finishers, the monitors from the announce tables get used and before you know it, here comes Vince McMahon. By now we all know why he was there, but there was a genuine sense of confusion when he strutted to the ring.McMahon drags The Rock off of Austin showing that he is on Austin's side, and then the steel chair gets introduced and the closing stretch is just electric. Every kickout gets a monstrous reaction, even for The Rock as fans gradually side with him, but once The Rock kicks out of the Stunner, he's met with 16 chair shots and that's it, Austin has done it, he's the WWE Champion, but he's sold his soul to the devil in order for it to happen. Austin and McMahon shake hands, drink beer, hit The Rock with the title belt for the road, and while the Texas faithful got to see their hometown boy win the big one again, WWE fans around the world had to sit and watch as they lost "The Texas Rattlesnake" to the dark side.
The aftermath of this match and event has been well documented. Wrestling itself was never the same after WrestleMania X-Seven ended and it truly felt like we had all just witnessed the end of one of the most entertaining eras in the history of the business. Stone Cold Steve Austin's heel turn was as shocking as it was controversial, but the idea was much better on paper than it was in practice as WWE had taken its biggest star of the era and turned him bad. Yes, the Texas crowd were never going to boo Austin, but this is as close to what John Cena did at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 as it gets.But just because the heel turn didn't exactly turn WWE on its head like Vince McMahon probably wanted it to, there's one thing that no one can deny, 2001 was an all-time great year for Austin inside the ring. Austin has gone on the record in saying that he was tempted to give McMahon the Stunner at WrestleMania X-Seven as he felt like he got his mojo back, but that mojo came back from him working a style that was much better suited to his character. Part of the reason why Austin got so popular in WWE in the first place was when he was a no-nonsense, trash talking, ass-kicking heel. Obviously his neck injury halted his momentum, but his in-ring style changed when there was no choice but to turn him face.Austin going back to his heel roots and working a much more aggressive style in this match made the match feel more real and more unpredictable. "The Texas Rattlesnake"looked deranged at times when wrestling The Rock he was that in the zone, and he would stay in that zone for the remainder of 2001. He already put on a great performance in the Royal Rumble match and the Three Stages of Hell match with Triple H at No Way Out, but once he turned heel there was no stopping Austin. The Two Men Power Trip, the matches with Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, briefly turning face only to side with The Alliance during the Invasion, his feud with Kurt Angle is the true highlight of the Invasion itself, and getting to mix it up with the likes of Rob Van Dam and Booker T while having an encore with The Rock towards the end of the year. Genuinely, throughout all of the heel shenanigans and whether it was the right booking decision or not, Steve Austin might have been the best wrestler in the world in 2001.Obviously The Rock deserves his flowers as well, and it's a shame from a wrestling standpoint that Hollywood discovered him when it did because he was really coming into his own by the start of 2001. However, Austin would have a banner year that wouldn't be topped as he retired two years later against none other than The Rock. One of the best matches in WWE history, and deserving of its legendary status.
