Wrestlemania 17 was amazing but the build was AWFUL!!!

[rge2010]

Wrestlemania 17 is regarded as one of the best, if not the best Wrestlemania of all time. Personally I love it and it is an event with some amazing matches and a brilliant Main Event which told a great story.

However, the RTWM was rushed if you ask me. The matches were thrown together last minute and there was very little time to make a lot of the feuds mean something - especially in the two Main Events!

WWE Title - Rock vs Austin
Rock was Champion for just 5 weeks! Austin was off the back of a huge loss at No Way Out to Triple H.

Undertaker vs Triple H
Taker was fighting for the Tag Titles at No Way Out and lost. Triple H went from losing to Kurt Angle, to beating Stone Cold, to facing Taker at Mania all in the space of 3 PPV's!

What would I have done?

Armageddon 2000
Rock wins the WWE Title here and looks strong defeating 5 other competitors.

Royal Rumble 2001
Rock defends the WWE Title in a triple threat against Kurt Angle and Triple H. Stone Cold wins Royal Rumble

No Way Out 2001
Rock defends the WWE Title in a triple threat against Triple H and Undertaker with Stone Cold as the guest referee.

The pay off
Rock goes into Wrestlemania 17 looking super strong. His feud with Austin starts four weeks earlier as he is the Champion at the Royal Rumble. Angle and Triple continue their feud with each other at Royal Rumble 2001 (Steph involved) and Triple H's fued with Taker can start the night after Royal Rumble 2001 when Taker inserts himself into No Way Out Main Event.

 

[Planet_Velvet]

This year's WrestleMania is proof positive that you can't put too much value into the build-up of a show. People were looking at what would happen, what they thought should have happened, and everything in between. That's why we as fans are on the outside looking in. This year's WrestleMania was refreshing. The main event had so many possible scenarios, you never knew which would play out. The payoff was pretty good. The entire presentation was great despite everyone who THOUGHT they knew about wrestling saying it was gonna be a disasterous flop (me included).

All the Machine has to do is retain enough of your attention to let you know when the show will be coming on. Everything else is fodder. My trainer always taught me "no one remembers anything but the finish" and this year's Mania proves he was right.

 

[HBKperfect23]

I can't disagree any more. Austin/Rock 2 was possibly the best build to a pay per view that there's ever been. The "my way" videos, the sit down interview with JR, having Austins wife manage the Rock, taking each other's finisher multiple times. I couldn't have been any more pumped for this Match and I couldn't see either guy losing.

Also take in to consideration, they had raw and smackdown each week. All of the builds before the summer of 99 only had one show a week to build the matches. So you could make the argument that Austin/Rock got the same TV time for build (about 10 shows in 5 weeks) as the Austin/Taker build into summerslam 98 had (about 10 shows in 10 weeks).

 

[MWRedskins]

i disagree.....the build was just fine to me. i thought (when i first read it) that it would be about how the whole show was built bad and i could agree somewhat, but Rock vs. Austin wasnt built badly at all. sure Rock just won the title, but all the times they teased Austin vs. Rock (Armageddon, Royal Rumble) helped the the "my way" videos and the fact that they didnt really touch each other often was also great. i enjoyed the build of it....could it been better, sure, but i was just fine with the build. there have been far worse builds, then Austin and Rock at WM17

 

[mlp420]

First thing to keep in mind is that there was no brand split at that time, and Raw and SD were both 'A' shows. So every PPV you had 8-10 shows build up. There were no part timers they could stash away for the big events either. Feuds had to move along.

I also think people have a weird way of defining PPV build up. The Wrestlemania 2000 main event was booked less than 2 weeks before WM, and that was the highest WM buyrate to that point. The idea of build up isn't simply foreshadowing a match months in advance, it's making people want to see the match.

 

[Jeritron5000]

The build to WM17 was fine. Especially in the context of how they build mania now. In its time, Rock/Austin 2 was ridiculously highly anticipated. The "my way" videos were so good that I remember getting chills when the song played in the beginning of the ppv with the "And now...Blah blah blah presents" voiceover.

And it was a different time. The Rock didn't need to be booked to look strong. Austin, Taker, HHH...wins and losses and weren't the issue they've been in other eras. Rock's longest title reign was what? 3 months? WM17 had the most important thing going for it...people were freakin psyched.

 

[Lowdown]

I had no problem with the build up at all. If you think about it, both Rock and Austin were faces going into the event, so it had shades of WM 6. Thing is you kinda knew that it wasn't going to be another passing of the torch moment at the end. Insert McMahon into the mix and most felt that he might side with the Rock considering the history of him and Austin. The result turned out flawlessly with the Austin turn. Plus the Taker/Trip match was sort of hot-shotted but both of them needed to go against each other at that point, with Trips stating that he's defeated everyone on the biggest stages in the company, signaling the arrival of the Deadman. Factor in the destruction of his bike and the restraining order by Stephanie, it was a nice short notice build-up. And you ended up with a classic all out brawl of a match. Where's the bad?

 

[Aquaman6686]

I've never understood the insane love for WrestleMania 17. It was good, but it wasn't even close to the best WrestleMania ever. Almost every match had a screwy finish, interference, or some kind of stipulation. The following three WrestleManias were all better in my book, as well several later ones and a few earlier ones.

As to the topic, I didn't particularly enjoy the build for WM17 either. I just didn't feel as pumped as I did during the build for most of the later ones. On the plus side, WM17 was the first year where they did seem to put more high-profile matches and as little filler as possible. WM17 set the stage for what WrestleMania was always meant to be - the best of the best. Overall I think WM17 had a decent build, and was an above-average event, but not the masterpiece many make it out to be. For me, that honor goes to WrestleMania 19. That was the best WrestleMania of all time in my book.

 

[Just Do It]

I don't think the build was bad at all. I anticipated all of the matches at the time which wouldn't have been the case if it had been any other way. Even the little flashback videos for the gimmick battle royal hit the spot.

 

[Wald]

You're missing the key reason why Austin lost to Triple H at No Way Out though and why the Rock didn't win the belt until five weeks before the show. Austin's heel turn hinged on the basis that he had become obsessed with proving he was still number one in the world, that he was still better than the younger guys like Triple H and, especially, The Rock. Him losing clean to Triple H was needed to push him over the edge to a deal with Vince McMahon. For an added bonus it revitalised Triple H's main event status (which was still in doubt in 2001 believe it or not) and made him a legit threat to the Undertaker for their match.

For the Rock v Angle then it was simply a matter of fans wondering if WWF would actually give us a face v face title match between The Rock and Austin. Audiences were genuinely split at the time as to who was the best, who was the most popular and who would take a loss if they had to face each other. It was as perfect a match to play out as Hogan v Warrior at Wrestlemania and stringing us along was a perfect way to build the hype.

 

[Just Do It]

Worth noting that WWF.com was listing Kurt Angle vs Steve Austin as the main event for Wrestlemania for a couple of months there...