History of WrestleMania with KB

[The Brain]

WrestleMania VI

It had been a long time since I watched this one. I always remembered it for Hogan vs. Warrior and Andre’s last match, but not too much more. There has been some discussion about this mania in some old school threads recently and a lot of people seem to think this was one of the better manias. Fearing that I was underrating this one I watched it last night before posting this. I’m glad I did. I enjoyed it a lot and it’s much better than I remember.

Koko B. Ware vs. Rick Martel: This match was ok, but I never cared much for Koko. He was a glorified jobber and I thought Martel deserved a better opponent for mania.

Demolition vs. Colossal Connection: This was a decent match, but is far more remembered for its significance. This was Andre’s last match. It was sad to see him go, but even at ten years old I was happy for him. It was so obvious he was struggling to get around and he needed to get away from wrestling. I love how he beat up Heenan and Haku and went out as a face. Andre riding away in the ring cart to a standing ovation is one of my favorite mania moments.

Hercules vs. Earthquake: Quake was still relatively new and this was his first singles match on the big stage. He was being built up strong and you could sense he was going to be pushed into a top feud.

Brutus Beefcake vs. Mr. Perfect: I’m always happy with a fresh feud between a face and heel that are on about equal spots on the roster. That’s exactly what we got here. I would have preferred if Perfect won. That would have fit his character better and Beefcake still would have gotten the last laugh by giving the Genius a haircut.

Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown: This was nothing more than a fight, but that’s ok because that’s what it was supposed to be. I don’t understand Piper being painted half black. It was pretty distracting.

The Hart Foundation vs. The Bolsheviks: The Harts had already challenged the winners of the tag title match so it was obvious they were getting the win. Also obvious because they were against the Bolsheviks. Quick 30 seconds to set the Harts up for the title shot.

Tito Santana vs. The Barbarian: The Powers of Pain were just split up and this was done to get Barbarian his first big singles match. Awesome clothesline for the finish.

Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire vs. Randy Savage & Sherri: The mixed tag match doesn’t mean much today, but this was the first and it got a lot of hype. This was more about the story and gimmick than the match. Since Savage was there the match was passable too. The surprise appearance by Elizabeth was a nice touch and it was interesting to see her get physically involved for the first time.

The Rockers vs. The Orient Express: Orient Express was a new team and a match with the Rockers was a good introduction for them. The match was decent, but not quite as good as what the Rockers normally deliver.

Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo: Pretty much filler here. Duggan showed his intelligence by trying to get his USA chant started in Canada. Earthquake continued his path of destruction by crushing Duggan after the match.

Jake Roberts vs. Ted Dibiase: The culmination of a year long feud between two of the most talented stars at the time. This was a good match although a little slow at times. The wrestlers seemed a little distracted by the wave going around the Skydome during the match. Good match anyway.

Big Bossman vs. Akeem: The Bossman had just turned face about two months earlier when he refused to take a payout from Dibiase. This did not sit well with his manager and tag team partner. Bossman beat Akeem in a not so competitive match, but this was more about furthering the story between Bossman and Dibiase.

I know Rhythm & Blues are heels and supposed to draw heat. This segment was fine with me, but the performance was pretty bad. I wonder if it was supposed to be bad since they were heel or if they just sucked. Either way this came off fine. Rhythm & Blues attacked the Bushwhackers with their guitars on Superstars a few weeks prior to this so that explains their involvement.

Jimmy Snuka vs. Rick Rude: This match has always bugged me a little. Rude had been a main player for the past two years and now he was in a filler. I thought Rude deserved better. I guess the heels outnumbered the faces in terms of talent and Snuka was the best they could come up with. Maybe I’m not giving Snuka enough credit, but I didn’t see him on Rude’s level. Since the Harts were doing singles in 1989 I thought Bret vs. Rude would have been good. The Harts were getting back in the tag title hunt so that couldn’t happen.

Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior: What can I say? The hype was off the charts. The atmosphere was electric. This is what WrestleMania is all about. These two, who are considered horrible workers, put on a great match. This was a very basic formula and was very effective. They did a great job of displaying their strengths and hiding their weaknesses. The fans ate up every second of it. It’s funny how Hebner almost blew the postmatch. If you watch you see him try to give both belts to the Warrior and Warrior only takes the IC pushing the world title away. That’s just a funny observation. Hogan presenting the belt to the Warrior and the two embracing was a great ending. Hogan riding off in the shadows watching the Warrior celebrate was a powerful image.

Overall this was a very good show. I don’t know why I underrated it before. The Skydome was the perfect setting for this event. This was a great way to bring the WWF into the 90’s.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania VII

I love this event. I know it’s not the most popular of manias, but I’ve always felt WM7 is very underrated. In my opinion this is full a great moments.

Rockers vs. Haku & Barbarian: This was a good opener. No real story here, but a good match. This got the crowd going right away and they didn’t slow down all night.

Texas Tornado vs. Dino Bravo: Not much to talk about here. Sadly when I think of this match I can’t help but think both men would be dead in less than two years.

British Bulldog vs. Warlord: I like this match. This was a pretty basic feud about who was the stronger man. There was a story about whether or not Davey Boy could break the Warlord’s full nelson. I’ve always liked the look of the Warlord but he didn’t have much to offer in the ring. This was an exception as this match was surprisingly good.

Hart Foundation vs. Nasty Boys: I think this was a good match. Not so much in the classical sense, but good nonetheless. I remember the crowd really being into this which always helps a lot. This is significant because it was the last time the Harts teamed together and Bret was about to start his singles run.

Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel: I can see why some people would hate this. Surprisingly I wasn’t that bothered by it. The blindfold match is a ridiculous concept but somehow this was passable. I give credit to the crowd. They were way into this and if the weren’t this probably would have come off as a major miss.

Jimmy Snuka vs. Undertaker: Undertaker seems a little out of place in this era. It was pure filler at the time, but now 19 years later this match is very significant. The streak had begun.

Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage: KB, I was thrilled to see you gave this an A+ and you had great things to say about this. You’re 100% right. This is one of my all time favorite mania matches. Everyone played their role so perfectly including Monsoon and Heenan on commentary. I’m not crazy about Warrior kicking out of five elbows, but I’ll look past that considering how perfect everything else was. I actually like how Savage was pinned. It showed how exhausted and beaten down he was. The Savage and Liz reunion was magic. When I hear the phrase WrestleMania moment this is what I think of.

Tenryu & Katio vs. Demolition: Demolition should have been finished when Ax left. Smash & Crush were nothing compared to Ax & Smash. I don’t know what the point of this was. This match shouldn’t have been on the card.

Greg Valentine vs. Earthquake: It’s a shame this was such a squash. After years of being a heel Valentine dumped Jimmy Hart and became a face. He had to go against someone Hart managed, but he was overmatched against Earthquake. Bravo probably would have been a better choice since they were former partners. Too bad Honky left a couple months before this. He would have been a better opponent too.

Big Bossman vs. Mr. Perfect: After months of feuding with the Heenan family Bossman was going after the crown jewel. This match is special to me because of the surprise appearance from Andre the Giant. We hadn’t seen Andre in a year and he was unannounced for this event. This would be Andre’s last WrestleMania appearance. I’ve always found it interesting that Andre would make his last appearance at the same mania Undertaker made his first. They’re not connected at all, but I’ve always kind of looked at Taker as Andre’s replacement.

Legion of Doom vs. Power & Glory: Months before mania I thought Power & Glory would get the title shot against the Harts. Instead they got squashed by LOD in less than a minute. I would have liked to see more of this, but it was cool to see LOD at mania.

Virgil vs. Ted Dibiase: Virgil wasn’t much of a wrestler, but this was a great angle. Virgil had been pushed around by Dibiase for over three years and it was only a matter of time before he stood up for himself. That time had finally come and the fans ate it up.

Tito Santana vs. The Mountie: Pure filler. Nothing more to say.

Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter: This was the most predicable main event in mania history, but that’s ok. The war was already over, but that’s ok too. It’s not like we were suddenly best buddies with Iraq. It’s ok because I think in 1991 Sgt. Slaughter was more hated than anyone in wrestling ever had been before or since. When someone with heat like that is going up against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania it’s all ok with me. Besides, without this controversial storyline what would the mania main event have been?

So to recap we have the beloved American hero beating the hated turncoat for the title. One of the greatest stars ever lost a career match, but walked out a winner by reuniting with his woman. An unlikely underdog finally stood up to his million dollar bully. A great tag team wrestled their last match as partners which would mark the beginning of an outstanding singles career. A new star would bury his first victim on way to building the most legendary streak in wrestling history. A giant legend would make his last appearance at an event he helped to establish. All this and more made up WrestleMania VII. The crowd was way into this from beginning to end. If this event took place in the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of 100,000 people like originally planned I guarantee this would be remembered as one of the greatest manias ever.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania VIII

As noted by KB there are a lot of changes with this show. Going down to nine matches was a little disappointing to a kid, but the show didn’t suffer at all. In fact it was helped because the more important matches got more time. This show bridged the gap between the Hulkamania era and the new generation.

Tito Santana vs. Shawn Michaels: This was a good match to open the show. It wasn’t great, but very solid. Shawn was just starting as a singles wrestler and Tito was the perfect opponent to help him get his feet wet. I love Heenan’s line when he says Shawn Michaels is the wrestler of the 90’s. He had no idea how right he was.

Undertaker vs. Jake Roberts: This was a good feud as these two matched up well from a gimmick standpoint. Too bad this was Jake’s last match. He had only been heel for about eight months and I thought he still had a lot to offer. The newly turned face Taker got over really well by getting up from two DDTs and tombstoning Jake out of the WWF.

Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart: I love this match. This is one of the best matches from a psychology standpoint that I’ve ever seen. Both were friends and faces but there was clear tension between them over the IC title. Bret was the wrestler and Piper the fighter. Since they were friends Piper wanted to wrestle instead of fight. He wanted to prove he could match Bret hold for hold. Given Piper’s past fans weren’t sure if they could trust him. The match started out with wrestling, but Piper lost his cool after Bret played possum on him. At times you could see Piper losing his cool but then regaining his composure. We were just waiting to see him snap and go back to his streetfighting ways. Piper eventually busted Hart open with a cheap shot when Hart bent over to tie his boot. Later, with the ref down, Piper had the opportunity to hit Hart with the bell. He held the bell high but looked to the crowd before deciding not to use it. A minute later he was pinned after Bret countered the sleeper. Fans wondered how Piper would react and if he regretted his decision not to use the bell. Piper helped Bret up, put the belt around the new champ’s waist and they left together as friends. Great storytelling. A+ all the way.

Eight man tag: With an hour taken off the show we had three filler matches condensed into one. No one cared as there was no story at all.

Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair: Great feud. Great build. Great match. This was nonstop action from start to finish. You could just feel the urgency both men were wrestling with. The title became secondary to Savage as he was out for revenge. He almost wanted the title more to take it away from Flair than to get it for himself. Everyone wanted Hogan vs. Flair at mania, but this match made us forget about our disappointment in not receiving that.

Tatanka vs. Rick Martel: This was done to introduce Tatanka to us as a new top midcard face. The match was too short and anticlimactic, but it did kick off a feud between Martel and Tatanka that would last until Survivor Series.

Natural Disasters vs. Money Inc.: This was an interesting angle. A couple months earlier The Disasters were managed by Jimmy Hart and had a title match lined up against LOD. Dibiase had just started teaming up with IRS and paid off Hart to pull the Disasters from the title match leaving it open for Money Inc. Money Inc. won the titles in that match and this pissed off the Disasters. As a result the Disasters dumped Hart and turned face and Money Inc. took on Hart as their manager. That led us to this match. This was as good a match as could be expected from these contrasting styles. The match wasn’t bad and the angle helped to make it better.

Owen Hart vs. Skinner: Two low card guys with no story in a one minute match. Time that could have been better used elsewhere.

For the first in three years in a row a scheduled match was eliminated due to time constraints. The British Bulldog vs. The Berzerker was advertised but never took place. Not a major loss, but it would have been nice to have the Bulldog on the show.

Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice: The feud was there. The build was there. The match didn’t deliver. This should have been better. It’s like the first ten minutes were missing. Hogan was selling like he’d been through a war after only a few minutes. This is something I’m noticing a lot in today’s matches too. There was never a good flow here. The finish was horrible too. This was the weakest DQ ever. I realize it wasn’t the planned finish, but the original plan was bad too. Why a run in DQ to end mania? Sid should have been pinned by the leg drop like so many before him. Thank goodness for the surprise return by the Ultimate Warrior. That was a great end to the show and was a pretty cool moment.

This was a very good show and if the main event was better it could have been excellent. The world and IC title matches were great and were enough to overcome the underwhelming main event. A new style of matches was taking over.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania IX

I agree that WrestleMania IX is one of the worst manias of all, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s sometimes made out to be. It was a decent event. It just didn’t have much of a WrestleMania feel. There are several reasons for this. First, even though Hulk Hogan was on the card it was more of a special appearance instead of as a regular member of the roster. There wasn’t a big time main event match. Second, the WWF lost a lot of top stars between SummerSlam 92 and WM9. Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, and Davey Boy Smith were all in main event angles at SummerSlam and were all gone by mania (except Savage who went from champion to commentator in six months). LOD, Natural Disasters, and Big Bossman were all gone too. That’s a lot of guys to loose in a short amount of time. There were a lot of new guys to come in during that time, but the fans hadn’t really gotten to know them yet. Half the guys on mania weren’t in the WWF as recently as SummerSlam. Third was the commentary. It may seem minor, but it was weird not having Gorilla calling the action. He was the voice of WrestleMania for the first eight years. JR did a fine job, but many WWF fans didn’t know who he was. With all the new wrestlers and even a new announcer it was an adjustment period for the fans. Fourth I think was the venue. Cesar’s Palace was an ok idea, but I don’t think it was a great place for mania. Maybe it wasn’t the venue so much as the toga party and all the Roman themes. That seemed to distract from the show. I think most matches had a decent build. There was just too much to overcome for this to be a great mania.

Tatanka vs. Shawn Michaels: This was a good IC title match. Because of Shawn’s impressive mania resume this is overlooked. It’s not nearly as good as many of his other matches, but it is very solid. This had a simple build that was very effective. Tatanka beat Michaels in a non title match to earn this shot. Being undefeated and already having a win over the champ, many thought he was favored to take the title. Good way to start the show.

Steiner Brothers vs. Headshrinkers: There was no real story here, but this was a good match. This overdelivered in my opinion and was fun to watch. Mania was off to a good start.

Crush vs. Doink: This wasn’t much of a match, but it was an interesting angle. As a heel Doink was an intriguing character. I wish he would have stayed heel longer than he did. The double Doink was different if nothing else.

Bob Backlund vs. Razor Ramon: Backlund didn’t really do much until almost two years after his comeback. He wasn’t very relevant here and Razor had no problem with him. I would have liked to see Razor get a better opponent, but the choices were limited.

Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake vs. Money Inc.: Hogan was back for mania, but I just wasn’t feeling it. It was weird seeing him in the middle of the card. I didn’t see Hogan as a tag champion, and Beefcake did nothing after this. I’ll have to watch the match again. I don’t remember it being as good as you describe KB, but I don’t doubt that it was.

Mr. Perfect vs. Lex Luger: This seemed like a perfect matchup for mania (no pun intended). They just seemed like natural opponents. Despite Mr. Perfect being involved I don’t remember this match being anything special. At least the Perfect/HBK feud started here.

Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez: I know Gonzalez sucked. I know this match sucked because of Gonzalez’s limitations. I know the finish sucked too. With all that said this was the match to go with at mania. This was all about hype, story, and imagination. This match had me very curious as a 13 year old. I knew they weren’t going to be able to do much, but just the sight of Undertaker looking up to Gonzalez made this interesting. We can all agree it didn’t turn out well, but a lot of people wanted to see this at the time.

Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna: Six months before this Bret Hart was an IC contender and no one knew who Yokozuna was. That’s the problem here. This did not feel like a mania main event. I love Bret Hart, but I was still getting used to him being the top guy. Bret in the main event would be fine if his opponent was better known. This should have been Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage. Those two could have had a great match and Savage could have put Hart over on the big stage giving him more credibility as a main eventer. Savage’s talents were being wasted behind a microphone. As far as what did happen, I came to accept the storyline, but the match could have been better. It was the main event at mania so it should have had more time. I agree it was too short and had a bad finish.

Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna: Hate it, hate it, hate it! It has always bugged me that Hogan came in after being gone for a year and took the title in one minute after the real main event. I don’t care if he is Hulk Hogan, this was terrible. This is the reason WM9 is remembered as one of the worst.

Overall I would rank this in the bottom three of four of all manias. This could have been a lot better if they went with Hart vs. Savage in the main event. As I said the main event didn’t generate enough excitement and the show just didn’t have that WrestleMania feel. It’s a bad mania, but I think a decent undercard is forgotten because of a horrible finish.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania X

Many people claim the mid 90’s were a horrible time for the WWF, but I enjoyed that period. I admit mania was missing the blockbuster main event in that era, but I thought it was a fun time nonetheless. By WM10 I was used to Hogan being gone and the new generation was in full swing. I thought this event was built up very well despite not having that blockbuster main event.

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart: If there was something higher than A+ this match would get it. Everything about this was perfect. Owen getting the win here was a shock, but looking back it should have been obvious. I think most people felt Bret was walking out of mania with the title and Owen getting the win made him an instant number one contender and main eventer. This is easily in my top five favorite matches of all time.

Doink & Dink vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon: I don’t know how much it would have helped, but this probably should have been a singles match. The feud had been built up for a few months so we knew it was going to mania. It probably wouldn’t have been too good either way, but throwing Dink and Luna in there was just weird. This was advertised as a mixed tag, but only one woman was involved. So apparently women’s wrestling is equal to midget wrestling. I don’t want to really get into it, but something seems wrong there.

Randy Savage vs. Crush: This was a big disappointment to me. This had a great story and a long build. The falls count anywhere stipulation was new at the time and it seemed like this could be something special. In my opinion it was a bust. Having sixty seconds to get back in the ring kind of killed the flow to the match. This should have been a one fall match. Falls count anywhere is fine, but forget the sixty seconds to get back in. This just never seemed to get going and did not come off well. It’s too bad because this was one of the bigger matches on the card. Savage always delivered at mania so it was a shame to see him in a bust at his last mania.

Alundra Blayze vs. Lalani Kai: I understand Vince wanted to get Alundra on the card to represent the new women’s division. There was just one problem. There was no women’s division. It was just Alundra and whatever random women’s wrestler they would bring in to feud with her. During the two year period where the women’s title was back there was never more than three women in the company at a time. I would have preferred if the women’s title didn’t come back at all during this time, but since it was back wouldn’t Luna Vachon have been a better opponent here?

Men on a Mission vs. The Quebecers: Say what you will about Men on a Mission, but for a short time they were over. This was definitely the match to go with for the tag titles. The match wasn’t great, but I think it came off better than expected.

Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna: Going back to Survivor Series you would think the mania main event would be Luger vs. Yoko with Luger taking the title. No co winners in the rumble, no two championship matches, no Bret. Just a normal main event between the top face and top heel. Somewhere along the way Luger lost his momentum. The WWF didn’t want to just scrap the whole Luger/Yoko angle, but they obviously didn’t want the belt on Luger either. I never bought into the whole rumor where Luger was in a bar telling people he was going to get the title so Vince put it on Bret instead. If that rumor is true Lex would have had to blabbed before the rumble. Otherwise there is absolutely no reason for co winners. Lex would have won the rumble and been scheduled to fight Yoko and Bret would have gone against Owen and that’s it. Anyway as far as this match goes I found it to be pretty boring. As I was watching this I figured Bret was taking the title since he was the “loser” of the coin toss. Funny how the “loser” was rewarded with the main event, but whatever. Since Bret was most likely taking the title I didn’t think Luger was going to get a one hour title reign. Why have the popular Luger take the title only to loose it to the more popular Hart an hour later? That would have buried him worse than he ended up being buried anyway. Lex didn’t stand a chance. Since Luger did absolutely nothing after mania anyway Yoko may as well have just beat him clean and make Bret’s win later even more impressive.

Earthquake vs. Adam Bomb: I actually liked Adam Bomb so I was disappointed this was a thirty second squash. I wonder if squash matches like this are planned that way or if they realize they’re running out of time so it’s a last minuet decision.

Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels: Well Bret vs. Owen had about two hours of glory as an excellent match before this one came along and made it an afterthought. Personally I like Bret vs. Owen better, but I see why this is better remembered. Ever since Survivor Series we knew it was going to be Razor vs. Shawn for the IC title at mania. I remember being disappointed when it was announced as a ladder match. I was looking forward to a match between these two and was worried this gimmick was going to ruin it. I’ve never been happier to be wrong. I don’t need to get into specifics as I’m sure everyone knows the significance and impact of this match.

Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna: I agree with KB that this match was a lot better than the match at WM9. Both were much more credible main eventers. This was also a lot better than Lex vs. Yoko from earlier. Since it’s natural to compare this to those two matches, this came off great. I absolutely love how the show went off the air. Everyone was in the ring celebrating with Bret. Owen comes down the aisle in disbelief. He finally jumped out of the shadow of Bret by beating him in the opening match. His glory wouldn’t even last the night as Bret was back in the spotlight with the title win and Owen was back in the shadow. That’s just beautiful storytelling.

This was a really good mania. In my opinion two of the top ten (maybe top five) mania matches are on this card. I can’t think of many shows that have two five star matches, but this is one of them. If Savage vs. Crush would have delivered this would be one of the top manias of all time.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XI

This is often called the worst WrestleMania, and while I don’t think it’s the worst I would say it’s in the bottom three or four. The problem everyone seems to have with this event is Lawrence Taylor beating Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event. I didn’t particularly care for it either, but I don’t think it’s as horrible as people make it out to be. Celebrities are no strangers to wrestling, and when one comes in they usually go over the wrestler. This is nothing new. I think the real problem is that it went on last. WM11 was bad either way, but I think a lot of people wouldn’t be so hard on it if the title match closed the show. I can’t say I blame Vince for having LT on last. It was easily the most talked about match of mania. It’s what drove the ppv buys. Imagine the buy rate without LT. Diesel vs. Shawn was a good match, but that is a pretty weak mania main event. HBK was not a main event guy yet. This match would make him a main event guy, but going in he was not. Diesel came out of nowhere to become champion. He had zero mainstream appeal. This would be like Sheamus vs. John Morrison in the WM26 main event without nearly as strong of supporting cast. I know us wrestling fans didn’t like LT in the main event, but let’s not be too hard on the bookers. It was necessary.

Lex Luger & British Bulldog vs. Jacob & Eli Blu: This kind of match may have seemed ok during the first few years of mania, but not so much by WM11. This had no build, no story, and nothing came of it. I would have preferred to see Luger vs. Bulldog. I think Bulldog could have eliminated Luger from the rumble causing animosity between the two. There would be no heel turn, but they begin a friendly rivalry and settle it at mania. After a babyface match they would find mutual respect, shake hands, and begin their tag team together. To me this sounds infinitely better than what actually happened.

Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett: This was definitely the match to go with for the IC title. The problem was it wasn’t one of their better matches. The rumble match was better than this.

Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy: Much like WM9 this was the match to go with for Taker. Bundy had recently come back and this was his first (and only) feud. He was a monster in the 80’s and a logical opponent for Taker at mania. The problem was Bundy was pretty much worthless in the ring now. It’s a simple matter of the right match being booked but the action not delivering.

The Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna: The Gunns were the champs, but they were just role players here. This was about Yoko coming back and Owen getting his first title. It’s nothing great, but I don’t have a problem with it.

Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund: A rare Bret Hart miss. This just wasn’t very good. Backlund had a brief main event run at the end of 1994, but after dropping the title to Diesel in eight seconds he was no longer a credible opponent. We were definitely feeling the effects of a depleted roster. I would have put Bret against Hakushi. I know Hakushi never did anything and wasn’t very memorable. He may not seem like a mania opponent for Bret Hart, but he would have been better than Backlund. Hakushi was new and already started a feud with Bret before mania. If he had been given that match at mania maybe the fans would have bought into him. It also would have been a much better match. WM11 attracted a lot of first time viewers and displaying Hakushi’s style instead of Backlund’s probably would have behooved the WWF.

Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels: Keep in mind HBK wasn’t the main event yet. He wasn’t the showstopper. He was a great IC champ and had an amazing match at WM10, but he was not world title material yet. That’s why this was not the main event. With that said, HBK took advantage of this opportunity and became the main event. This was a turning point in Shawn’s career as he proved he could be counted on in the big match. This was a great match and saved WM11 from being a complete disaster.

Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow: I’ve already defended the bookers for making this the main event so let’s look at the angle and the match. I have to admit I loved the set up for this. Specifically the beginning at the rumble. Even though I knew better, when Bigelow shoved LT at the rumble for a split second I had to wonder if it was real. That’s not an easy thing to do to a long time viewer. I thought that was very well done. Obviously this is all hype. Bigelow did a good job carrying LT to a respectable match. I don’t think this ruined Bigelow’s career. It’s true he didn’t do much in the WWF after this, but it’s not like he was on the path to superstardom. Remember at WM10 he fought Doink and Dink. I’d say this was a huge step forward. He was in the main event in WrestleMania. He got to work with an NFL hall of famer and got more media attention than he ever could have otherwise. I’m sure he got his biggest pay day ever too.

WM11 is not the worst mania, but its pretty close. Again, I think a lot of people would like this better if the title match went on last, but it wouldn’t really matter. I think the two changes I suggested were realistic for the timeframe and would have made a big difference in the show. The card was weak as it was and for Bret Hart of all people to turn in a bad match didn’t help matters.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XII

I’ve always liked this mania. I admit I may overrate it. There is one reason for that; anticipation. I’ve said it in many threads before that I have never looked forward to an event more than this one. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels are my two all time favorites to watch. Having them wrestle for the title for sixty minutes in the main event at WrestleMania while both in their primes was the most I could ask for. I couldn’t wait for that match. I’ve also stated many times what a Vader mark I was. He was making his mania debut. I really enjoyed the build for Taker vs. Diesel too. The worst part about this mania was it only had six matches.

Yokozuna & Ahmed Johnson & Jake Roberts vs. Vader & Owen Hart & British Bulldog: Originally this was Yokozuna vs. Vader in a singles match. I’m not sure if it was switched to a six man because they weren’t confident in that match or if they just didn’t have a way to get the others on the card. I was kind of disappointed it wasn’t a singles, but wrestling wise it was probably the right decision. The match was ok, but the six man took the spotlight off Vader a little. I think he should have been the main feature.

Roddy Piper vs. Goldust: This was fine for what it was. I’m not crazy about matches that don’t take place in the ring. The back lot brawl was pretty brutal for its time. It was weird how this was broken into two parts. I would have rather seen a normal match in the ring, maybe no disqualification if they wanted a stipulation, but like I said this was good for what it was.

Savio Vega vs. Steve Austin: This was a decent midcard feud and I was happy to see Austin in the WWF. I always liked him and thought he could do well in the WWF. I’m not going to say I thought he would achieve anywhere near the success he did. I thought he would be a great mid card heel like Perfect, Dibiase or Rude. This match was a good one to get Austin started. A common misconception is Austin was still the Ringmaster here. That’s not true. The attitude wasn’t there yet, but he was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Ultimate Warrior vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley: This was disappointing. It was cool to see the Warrior back, but I liked Helmsley and didn’t like seeing him beat in forty seconds. I felt about Helmsley the same way I felt about Austin. No way I predicted him to become what he did, but I thought he would be a good IC heel. Losing a hog pen match to Henry Godwinn and then getting crushed like this at mania had me concerned about Helmsley’s future. I guess there was nothing to worry about.

Undertaker vs. Diesel: This was a great match for mania. These two were about the same size and at the same level on the roster. Also they had never met before. I loved the build for this as we started to see Taker bring his mind games to a new level. Taker went to 5-0 in what was easily his best mania match at that point.

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels: 14 years later and this still goes down as my most anticipated match of all time. I know some felt this was too slow and had too many rest holds. It was fine with me. I loved every minute of it. KB stated that an iron man match is better when it has a score like 5-4. I completely disagree. I think the brilliance of this match was that it was 0-0 after sixty minutes. Not just a tie, but 0-0. I don’t like it when an iron man match goes 5-4 or 6-5. I don’t think 9-11 falls in sixty minutes is very good. Bret and Shawn didn’t have the star appeal of a Hogan, Savage, or Andre, but they were the absolute best in the ring and they put on a clinic. I know some will agree and a lot will disagree, but this is an A+ as far as I’m concerned.

Truthfully my anticipation of this does factor in to how I feel about it. Based on only the event itself it’s not that great overall. The lack of matches really hurts it, especially with one being less than a minute and another not really being a match. Regardless, I’ll always love this for the iron man match and for the excitement I felt going in.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 13

I’ve always looked at WM13 as a very weak mania. The main event was a mess and a lot of this show just seemed randomly thrown together. My real problem with this show is that is could have easily been a lot better. I’m not even talking about fixing the main event or getting HBK on the card. There was one change that was well within control that could have made a big difference. I’ll get to that later.

Godwinns vs. Furnas & Lafon vs. Headbangers vs. Blackjacks: I guess this was an ok opener, but this didn’t really do anything for me. This could have just as easily taken place at In Your House instead of mania.

Rocky Maivia vs. The Sultan: This is one of my main problems with the card. The Sultan was a terrible opponent for an IC title match at mania. I know this was supposed to be Marc Mero. It’s a shame he got hurt because he would have been a MUCH better opponent. It would have been a good match with an actual storyline. Injuries can’t be controlled, but it shows how weak the roster was at the time if the Sultan was the best they could do for a replacement. KB mentioned that Tony Atlas saved Rocky at the end. I’m pretty sure it was Rocky Johnson. I don’t guarantee that, but I’m pretty confident.

Goldust vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley: With Bret and Austin stealing the show and the rest of the card being a disappointment I usually overlook this. It was pretty good. This was a good feud and a good match. Even though these two wrestled at the rumble this was still good for mania now that Chyna was involved. The feud was taken up a notch.

Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Vader & Mankind: I have no idea why this match took place other than to get these four on the card. This is what I was talking about when I said the show could have been a lot better. This should have been split into two singles matches with the partners as opponents. Owen and Davey just wrestled a couple weeks before this in the European title tournament final. It was a great match. Considering it was the final to determine a new champion, and how great a match it was, this should have taken place on WrestleMania instad of raw. I think Vader vs. Mankind would have been perfect for mania. There was a rugged style going on in the WWF at the time. The streetfight and I quit match would demonstrate that later in the night. I think I wild brawl between Vader and Mankind would have fit right in. Vader had just taken on Paul Bearer as his manager and it would be natural for Mankind to feel insecure and jealous. There may be some wondering if two heel vs. heel matches would work. The tag title match was heel vs. heel anyway so I don’t see it as a big deal. Also during this time more than ever the lines between heel and face were blurred. I think both these matches would have completely turned this show around.

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin: This match has had plenty of its own threads about how great and how significant it was. Anything I can say has already been said before. An obvious A+.

Ahmed Johnson & Legion of Doom vs. Faarooq & Crush & Savio Vega: This came off exactly how it should have. It was a nonstop fight. There wasn’t any wrestling. It was just an uncontrolled brawl with a bunch of weapons and that’s what it should have been. Ahmed had been violently feud with NOD for months and a wrestling match wouldn’t have made sense.

Undertaker vs. Sid: I really didn’t like this. This was thrown together because there wasn’t a better option. Sometimes that happens, but when it does it’s important to put extra effort into the match to make it seem like a worthy main event. I don’t think enough effort was put into the build of this match. It came off as a very weak main event. The match was pretty bad too from what I remember. If I’m not mistaken Sid was using rest holds within the first couple minutes. That’s the same thing I criticized him about in WM8. Sid was in two manias. Both were main events against true legends. They were possibly the two worst main events in mania history. What does that say about Sid?

Overall this is a one match show. The steetfight and HHH vs. Goldust were good, but not standout great. Bret and Austin saved this from being a total bust.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XIV

This event was all hype. After WM13 where a lot was just thrown together it was good to see a long build for most of the matches. This is a great example of how hype can carry the show. Most matches were good but not great. As long as the matches weren’t bad the hype was going to make this show great.

Tag Team Battle Royal: I don’t usually care for matches like this, but this didn’t really bother me. It was cool to see LOD make a surprise return after their fallout from a few weeks before. The outcome was obvious, but that’s ok. I think this would have been better with ten teams instead of fifteen. There was no need for some of the guys to be in there. When were Flash Funk and Steve Blackman ever a team? I don’t like it when guys are just randomly put into something they have no business in just so they can be on mania. That’s like the green participation ribbon kids would get when they didn’t win a real prize.

Light Heavyweight Championship-Take Michinoku vs. Aguila

This is the epitome of filler. No one ever knew what to do with these guys so it would be Taka vs. random opponent of the month. This whole title was just a waste and I don’t think anyone missed it when it was exiled to Metal. It was clearly a response to the Crusierweights, but the problem was simple: most of the good cruiserweights were taken already. Aside from Taka, the WWF guys had no personality, no substance to them at all, and were just dull. There was absolutely no structure to the division whatsoever. See what I’m doing here? I’m typing this out so I don’t have to be bored to death by this match. The problem is, it’s not even a bad match. I just don’t want to watch it because I know it means nothing and is just a random title defense for Taka. A flip catches my eye but I don’t care. The crowd is barely responding at all and if it wasn’t a white hot crowd, they likely wouldn’t have been at all. The ending is even odd. Taka just casually picks Aguila up and lands his piledriver thing for the pin.

Rating: F. It’s a shame too because the wrestling is fine I suppose. The problem is just that absolutely no one could have cared less.

My thougts exactly.

Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley: I really like this match. This was a good feud and these two matched up perfectly for mania. It was nice to see Owen get a singles match at mania again. Very solid match.

Marc Mero & Sable vs. Goldust & Luna Vachon: This was a unique match as Sable was the only face here. I thought this match came off well and took Sable’s popularity to another level. I admit at the time I was very impressed with Sable in the ring. Looking back I realize I should have been more impressed with Luna.

Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock: This should have been The Rock vs. Faarooq. I thought that at the time and I still think so today. For weeks we were teased with a split between Rock and Faarooq. It seemed so obvious they were headed to mania. I can’t understand why they continued the Shamrock feud instead. This came off fine for what it was, but I really think Faarooq was the better choice. Shamrock needed to be on mania. I think he could have gotten involved in an angle with Jarrett.

Cactus Jack & Terry Funk vs. New Age Outlaws: This match worked for me. The Outlaws played the cocky cowardly heel role well. For weeks they would mock Cactus and Funk, but run away whenever confronted. Now they had nowhere to run and to make matters worse were playing by Cactus and Terry’s rules. I thought the match was good for what it was, but the ending is a little tainted with the decision being overturned the next night.

Undertaker vs. Kane: This was all hype. Nine months of hype. Nine months of non stop hype. Nine months of distinctively different stages of hype. Stage 1, Paul Bearer blackmails Taker threatening to reveal a dark secret. Stage 2, we learn what the secret is and that Kane is still alive. We still don’t see him for months. Stage 3, Kane arrives and terrorizes the WWF challenging Taker. Taker refuses to fight his brother. Stage 4, Kane pretends to side with Taker then promptly turns on him causing him to loose the casket match at the rumble. He sets the casket on fire and Taker disappears for a few weeks. Stage 5, Taker returns and accepts Kane’s challenging. The promos and mind games are on and the match is made for mania. All this before a single match between the two. The anticipation was off the charts and Undertaker’s entrance was nothing short of awesome. After all that it’s strange to say I don’t remember much of the actual match. It didn’t really stand out to me. Kane was still a little green at the time and often came off sloppy back then. That’s ok because it actually made sense with his character. Regardless of the match this is good on hype alone.

Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels: This felt like a big time main event. Mike Tyson brought some mainstream attention back to WrestleMania that was needed at the time. I’ve always thought this match was good, but I’ve often wondered how great it could have been had both men been healthy. If not for the injuries this could have been an all time classic.

Overall I’d say this event came off great at a time when it was needed most. The WWF was starting to make a comeback in the battle with WCW. This event put them back on equal level and it wouldn’t be long before they took the lead again. I’d say this is in the top five or six manias all time.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XV

This is probably the worst WrestleMania of all time. I have said many times that 1999 was the worst year during my time watching wrestling. There was so much wrong with 1999 and a lot of it was on display at WM15.

Billy Gunn vs. Al Snow vs. Hardcore Holly: I just can’t understand why Road Dogg was pulled out and Billy Gunn was put in. This is why I hate Russo. He thinks any kind of swerve is clever. I think Russo tells his kids he’s taking them to the zoo and then takes them to the circus instead just for the hell of it. Road Dogg probably wouldn’t have made this a great match, but the match itself is overshadowed by the pointless swerve. I spoke briefly with Billy Gunn at WM17 axess and asked him why the switch was made. He said he had no idea. So it’s not only us that can’t figure it out, the champion himself had no clue either.

D Lo Brown & Test vs. Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett: This shows a major lack of creativity. I’m sure this was supposed to be Mark Henry instead of Test; possibly a six person match involving the Ivory and Debra. Mark Henry got hurt and this was the best they could come up with. Just terrible. The battle royal should have been won by the Hardy Boys. I know hindsight is 20/20, but I honestly thought this at the time. The Hardys could have been unlikely winners of the battle royal and had a huge underdog story in the title match. The Hardy Boys vs. Owen & Jarrett would have stolen the show. I see the Hardys putting up a good fight and the fans believing there would be an upset. Then one of them gets caught in the sharpshooter and taps out. They get the loss, but finally get their big break with a match at mania and are put on the map. That would have been a mania moment that held up over time. Instead the brilliant minds of 1999 throw two random people in there that had nothing to do with each other before or since.

Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn: I’ll join the conspiracy theorists and say this was done to humiliate Bart Gunn after he ruined the push of Steve Williams. Sadly this is probably the most remembered part of this show.

Mankind vs. Big Show: This match didn’t work for me. I found it to be boring without having a good flow. The face turn at the end didn’t mean much. Show had only been around a month so we didn’t even get a real chance to hate him which took the drama away from him turning face.

Road Dogg vs. Val Venis vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Goldust: This is like the Sesame Street game where one of these things doesn’t belong here. Unfortunately the one that didn’t belong was the champion. As mentioned before Billy Gunn was supposed to be in this match instead of Road Dogg. Billy actually had a storyline with the others whereas Road Dogg didn’t fit in at all. I don’t care how the match went. The pointless switch makes this an F.

Triple H vs. Kane: More pointless swerves. I swear you needed a scorecard to try to keep track of what was going on in 1999. This was nothing special.

Tori vs. Sable: I don’t even want to bother. Just terrible.

X Pac vs. Shane McMahon: I wasn’t happy about this match going in, but this was probably the best match on the show. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Keep in mind my expectations were low and everything sucked up to this point. It’s not a good sign when a non wrestler puts on the best match of the night. This is the match where Triple H turned heel. He would quickly become the top heel and stay that way for seven years (except a brief face stint after the quad injury). This was actually significant, but guess what. No one really remembers this being the event where Triple H turned. Why? Because it blended in with all the other swerves in 1999. Because of all the pointless swerves from that time the one significant one gets lost in the shuffle.

Undertaker vs. Big Bossman: Ugh. There clearly wasn’t a decent opponent for Taker this year. The only reason this was hell in a cell is because the bookers realized Bossman was a terrible opponent for Taker. They figured with all the attention the previous cell matches got they could get a buzz going for this. It didn’t work. Boring.

Steve Austin vs. The Rock: I know a lot of people like this match, but I don’t see it. I did not care for this match at all. It was so 1999. There was all kinds of brawling outside the ring and in the aisle. I hate that. This was pretty much how every main event went in 1999. I expect more from mania.

Well it looks like I didn’t have a single good thing to say about this event. I’m the same guy who tried to defend WM9 and WM11 a little so what does that tell you? This has to be the worst mania of all. In my first post I said every true fan should see every mania at least once. In this case only once. Just remember you’ve been warned.

 

[ted sheckler]

I agree 100% Brain with you one WM XV... Unfortunately my one time watching this WM was my first live Wrestlemania (others were 21 and 26).. For the most part the card was garbage but at the time HHH turning on DX was a big deal... And the Rock vs Austin also had a big match feel. Its always hard to look back at one show and judge though because from rewatching that one match you don't get the months and months of build up that went into some of them.

The only thing that really saves this one for me is the great Philly crowd.... I still remember the surprise of the night when HBK's music hit to kick Vince out of being the ref for the main event the crowd popped HUGE!!

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 16 (I refuse to call it WrestleMania 2000)

I love the year 2000 in the WWF. It may be my favorite out of the 24 years I’ve been watching. That’s pretty impressive considering 1999 was my least favorite. I don’t care what the ratings and attendance figures say. 1999 was a crap year and 2000 was a fantastic turnaround. The only problem is that turnaround started right after WrestleMania so we had back to back bad manias. With all the new arrivals things were definitely looking up in 2000, but the WWF had to put 1999 to bed with mania being the unofficial end of the year.

Godfather & D Lo Brown vs. Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan: Pointless filler actually had its place during the early years of mania, but not anymore. This had no story and no one really cared about these guys. Godfather had become stale to me and Bossman seemed out of place in 2000. Not a great way to start the show; especially with that horribly annoying rap song.

Hardcore Battle Royal: I hated this. This is another example of a bogus match simply to get everyone on the show. I’d say only the Hollys, APA, and Tazz had any business being on mania. This match was a mess to begin with and was not fun to watch at all. To make a horrible match even worse the wrong guy won. That’s not my opinion. Literally the wrong guy won. Crash was obviously supposed to win and thanks to a botched finish Bob walked out with the title. Awful. F-

Al Snow & Steve Blackman vs. Test & Albert: Poor Test. Five months before he was getting ready to marry Stephanie until Triple H stole her away. You would think that would lead to a huge main event angle with Test. As crazy as it sounds now it wasn’t too unreasonable to think Test vs. Triple H was a possibility for mania. Instead they did absolutely nothing with Test. It’s like he didn’t mind that Stephanie used him and Triple H humiliated him. It’s like he thought oh well, shit happens. This was decent at best, but how did Test fall so far so fast? And what the hell was up with the midget in the cheese costume? Beyond lame.

Edge & Christian vs. Hardy Boys vs. Dudley Boys: With mania off to a terrible start this match couldn’t get here soon enough. While I don’t think it’s as great as it’s sometimes made out to be it is very good and definitely the highlight of the night. This was a fun match to watch and was the real arrival of Edge and Christian.

The Kat vs. Terri: Do I have to comment? This was beyond terrible. F- is too high a grade for this.

Too Cool & Chyna vs. The Radicalz: Compared to everything else so far (aside from the tag titles) this actually seemed very good. In reality it was just ok. I think this would have made more sense as an eight person tag involving Benoit and Rikishi. The Radicalz were still very new so why was Benoit already breaking away? Rikishi was always with Too Cool so why not at mania? Either way it was cool just seeing the Radicalz at mania.

Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle: This is obviously why the previous match wasn’t an eight person tag. I think Angle vs. Jericho in a singles would have been fine; especially since there weren’t any singles matches on the whole damn card. I’m going to have to go back and watch this one again. A lot of people on the forum rave about this match. I remember it being good but not great. Either way it was a breath of fresh air to see these three at mania. There are two things I really remember about this match. One the crowd was dead which leads me to believe these were attitude fans who didn’t appreciate wrestling. The other thing was a comment by JR that has confused me for ten years. Lawler asked how mad would you be if you lost both titles and weren’t even involved in the pin. JR replied I’d be mad enough to eat fried chicken. I don’t have many rep points, but green rep to anyone who can explain to me what the hell that means.

Kane & Rikishi vs. X Pac & Road Dogg: I don’t understand this match. I guess they didn’t have anything else to do. The Kane vs. X Pac feud had run its course. I guess since there was nothing else to do they would just extend it a bit to fill out mania, but how the hell did Rikishi fit into this? This was very random and I didn’t care for it.

Triple H. vs. The Rock vs. Big Show vs. Mick Foley: Looking back this should have been Triple H vs. The Rock in a singles. That seems obvious now, but I actually didn’t think so at the time. Since he debuted at Survivor Series 96 The Rock had feuded with and wrestled Triple H a lot. I thought the match was a little stale to be the main event at mania. That may be true, but it was better than the alternative. Big Show looked bad being eliminated so quickly. It was a nice feel good moment for Foley to be in the main event, but he really had no business there. Triple H was by far the biggest heel and Rock by far the biggest face in the company. The fact that they had so much history together could have played into the storyline as their careers ran parallel. This would have been a much better main event.

This is easily better than WM15, but that’s not saying much. This ranks pretty low on my mania list. I’ll always remember this for all the mania debuts. Jericho, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Edge, Christian, The Hardys, The Dudleys, and others all made their mania debuts here. This show signifies the beginning of a new era. Everything after WM16 was fresh and exciting and good thing were on the way.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania X7

There are many on the forum who say this is the greatest WrestleMania of all. I can’t say I blame them. This was a fantastic event. This is even more special to me because after watching wrestling my whole life I finally made it to a WrestleMania. This was the first of four manias I attended. Did I pick a great one to go to or what? Being in the Astrodome that night, even at the very top in the nosebleed section, was awesome. It was a great experience and well worth the 17 hour drive.

Chris Jericho vs. William Regal: I thought this was a solid match and was a good way to start the show. The crowd was already way into this even before the first match and Jericho was the perfect guy to make sure they stayed that way. This could have used a few more minutes, but was good nonetheless.

APA & Tazz vs. Right To Censor: I like this match. The match itself was nothing special, but I’m glad Right to Censor got on the show. They were going pretty strong a deserved a spot on mania. APA and Tazz were the perfect opponents to shut them up. Nice matchup.

Kane vs. Big Show vs. Raven: This was ok for what it was. I was never a big fan of the hardcore matches. I would have preferred if this stayed in the ring. The hardcore matches in the back were always repetitive and after a while became boring. There were a couple original things in this and like I said it was ok for what it was. It’s just not my style.

Test vs. Eddie Guerrero: I thought this was a decent match. It wasn’t anything great and went pretty quickly, but that’s ok as it wasn’t one of the featured matches. It was pretty good for its place on the card.

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle: I would have liked more of a storyline for these two, but they are such natural rivals they didn’t really need one. This was a great match. Honestly at the time I was a bit disappointed. That’s only because my expectations were really high. Looking back this was great and the only thing wrong was the finish. I don’t mind the rollup and use of the tights too much, but it was a little sloppy. Great match anyway.

Chyna vs. Ivory: For the past year Chyna was competing with Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho, Val Venis, and Eddie Guerrero. She held her own in those matches and won some of them. Now she was wrestling Ivory. I didn’t like Ivory’s chances here. I was pretty tired of Chyna by this time and would have preferred if she wasn’t on mania. I wasn’t sorry to see her go a couple months later.

Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon: I didn’t think I would, but I loved this match. There were six people who had a role in this and they all played that role well. This had quite a build and I admit I got caught up in the drama. I’ll never forget when Linda stood from that chair. TV doesn’t do the pop justice. When she stood up the Astrodome absolutely erupted. Great job by everyone involved.

Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys vs. Edge & Christian: Amazing match. There’s only one problem I have with it. I wish it wasn’t done at SummerSlam 2000. I think it would have been better if this was a rematch from WM16 without another in between. Considering this was the third in one year it felt like maybe it was overdone. For it to be as good as it was anyway is a credit to the men involved. They all put on an amazing performance.

Battle Royal: Obviously this was just for fun and it was a lot of fun. This was a much better calm down match than a lame pillow fight or something like that.

Undertaker vs. Triple H: I love the build for this. When Triple H was bragging about how he had beaten everyone and Taker came out and said “you never beat me” I knew we were going to get something special at mania. Such a simple way to start a feud yet very effective. This was a great match and because the streak wasn’t a big deal yet there was a legit chance Triple H could win. Seeing the tombstone for the first time in a long time was awesome. The crowd went nuts for that. This was so good for mania as it was two huge veteran stars in a fresh feud and a fresh match. Very well done.

Steve Austin vs. The Rock: I know there are a lot of people on this forum who love this match. Sorry to say so, but I think it’s overrated. These were the two biggest stars in the company so I don’t have a problem with this being the main event. I really liked the build to this match. The match itself was good, but I don’t think it’s as great as people make it out to be. I know this was the epic rivalry of the attitude era, but I didn’t really like the style of matches they had. It was mostly brawling, kicking out of each others finish, and stealing each others finish. That just doesn’t work for me. Again, I thought the match was good and certainly a passable main event, I just think it’s overrated. It is however miles ahead of the match they had at WM15. It would have been nice if the heel turn worked better. The crowd just wasn’t buying it. It seemed like Austin was just going to keep hitting Rock with that chair until the fans started to boo him. Finally they did boo a little so he went for the pin. When he pinned the Rock they erupted in cheers again. Even shaking hands with Vince didn’t turn the Texas crowd against Austin. I would have liked to see the crowd really turn on Austin and maybe fill the ring with garbage like when Hogan turned heel. That would have been a cool way to go off the air.

Overall this was just an outstanding event. It really had something for everyone. There was great wrestling, wild brawls, crazy highspots, dramatic storylines, and shocking twists. This event really was the total package and it replaced WM3 as the greatest.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania X8

I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. This felt like a big time mania and had a great atmosphere. The overall card was a little lackluster. I think with a little shuffling this could have been a lot better. I’m going to comment on the actual card and then list a few matches that I think should have taken place instead.

Rob Van Dam vs. William Regal: I think these two had some kind of story going into this, but I honestly can’t remember what it was. This was a decent opener. RVD getting the IC title seemed appropriate although his popularity would suggest he deserved better.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Christian: I didn’t really care for this feud. It was funny at times, but DDP was better than this. Christian was too. The match was fine, but the whole motivational speaker and temper tantrum thing didn’t work for me.

Maven vs. Goldust: I hated the hardcore title. It was about two years past its usefulness here. Thank goodness it would be retired in about four months. This was garbage and a complete waste of time. I can understand if this was done to get some guys on the show, but neither Maven nor Goldust really needed to be on mania anyway.

Kane vs. Kurt Angle: This was an ok match, but this feud seems more like No Mercy than WrestleMania. I vaguely remember a storyline for this, but it wasn’t anything special. Not bad, but not great for mania.

Ric Flair vs. Undertaker: I was disappointed when Taker challenged Flair for mania. I didn’t really want to see it. As the weeks went by and the story built I was drawn into it. I came to accept it as a good match for mania, but how would the actual match be? Turns out the match was very good. I was pleasantly surprised by this and enjoyed it very much. Arn Anderson coming in and hitting the spinebuster was pretty sweet too.

Edge vs. Booker T: This was a petty good match. These two matched up well for mania. Despite that whenever I think of this match I can’t help but think of the lame shampoo storyline. Other than Hogan vs. Rock and Taker vs. Flair there was very little effort put into the storylines for this show.

Steve Austin vs. Scott Hall: This is where a lot of people have a problem with the show. Austin in the middle didn’t seem right and Hall didn’t seem like a worthy mania opponent. I’ll play devil’s advocate. Brining back the nwo was supposed to be a big deal. During the Monday night war it was Austin and the WWF vs. the nwo and WCW. Hall was the original member of the nwo and was a huge deal at the time. I can see why the match was made. The problem was WCW had been dead for a year and Hall hadn’t been relevant for at least three. At the time I too thought Austin should have wrestled Hogan. I’ve changed my mind since then, but he still could have had better than Hall.

Tag Title Fatal Four: These type of matches were getting old, but somehow this one worked for me. It certainly wasn’t anything special, but it seemed to fit in well. The feud at the time was Billy & Chuck vs. APA. This leaves the Hardys and Dudleys without a match at mania. The fourway was not a very creative solution, in fact it was a little lazy, but it came off ok.

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan: This is an example of where a match doesn’t need to be good to be great. That probably doesn’t make any sense. If you take the hype and crowd out and just look at the match this is nothing special at all. Fortunately this is the WWF and sports entertainment so there are other factors to consider. This was awesome. I know Hogan was past his prime. He looked old. It didn’t matter. The crowd absolutely made this match. If they simply booed the heel Hogan and cheered the Rock this wouldn’t be too special. I’m sure people expected Hogan to get some cheers, but nothing like what he got. It was mania magic. As soon as Hogan shoved Rock down and gave him the pose you knew we were seeing something special. Hogan kicking out of the rock bottom and hulking up is one of my favorite mania moments. The action and match deserve a C. The overall performance with everything factored in gets this to an A for me.

Trish Stratus vs. Lita vs. Jazz: These poor ladies had the unfortunate task of following the match with the loudest crowd participation ever. The crowd was worn out. I remember this match being ok, but it didn’t matter. I agree that Trish should have won.

Triple H vs. Chris Jericho: At the time this was the main event I wanted. This could have been a lot better. The first problem is this feud was between Triple H and Stephanie. Jericho seemed to be a role player and that’s not good considering he was champion. The second problem was the crowd. They were absolutely dead. I feel bad for them because their match was good but they had an impossible act to follow. This was similar to what would happen to Triple H seven years later with Orton. It was cool to see Jericho to walk into the main event at mania and hold both the WWF and WCW over his head in front of 68,000 people. That must have been a very satisfying moment for him.

I’ve always looked at WM18 as a good show. The hype, the atmosphere, and the crowd for Hogan vs. Rock made the show. Other than that it was decent, but showed a lack of effort. Some of the matches seemed better fit for a lesser show than mania. As I said before a little shuffling of the roster could have made this better. Here’s what should have happened.

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan: I would leave this alone. I know it’s a popular opinion that Austin should have gotten Hogan instead. At the time I thought so too. Seeing the way this turned out I wouldn’t have changed it. The crowd reaction was so special and unique. I don’t think it would have been the same with Austin. He obviously always gets a reaction, but I think a lot of fans, maybe most, would have been behind Austin and we wouldn’t have gotten as good of a moment.

Steve Austin vs. Triple H: So Austin deserved better than Hall but shouldn’t have got Hogan. I think he should have walked into mania as champ and wrestled Triple H in the main event. The showdown they had when Triple H returned at the rumble was awesome. Also these two were a team with the two man power trip when HHH got hurt. Some think they should have main evented WM17. I think a year later with a little more history between them would have been a good time. Also since Austin would have been involved the crowd wouldn’t have been dead for the main event.

Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho: This just seems like a good mania match. Jericho is a better opponent for RVD than Regal.

Edge vs. Kurt Angle: This is a much better match than what both guys actually got. I especially like the American Olympic gold medalist going against the hometown boy in Canada. They would start a feud and have some great matches immediately after mania so why not start it a little earlier?

Booker T & DDP vs. Hall & Nash: With the nwo invading the WWF who better than two top WCW stars to try to stop them? They knew first hand what kind of damage the nwo could cause and would want to stop them before they got started. Booker was going face soon anyway and this would have been a good way to turn him. It also would give DDP more credibility. Maybe they could include Big Show and X Pac and make it a six man.

These are some changes that I think would have made a better show. I don’t know what I would have done with Kane, Christian, or Regal, but the main part of the card is more important.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XIX

This is one where I strongly disagree with you KB. This event was awesome. I would rank it up there with WM17 and maybe even put it ahead making this the greatest mania of all. I see only one or two small problems with the card and a lot of great things. Safeco Field was a unique venue for mania and I thought it added to the overall atmosphere in a big way. This just felt like a huge event and this event more than any other made WWE seem larger than life. One thing I like about this is the video recaps. Each of the last five matches had a fantastic video package that made an already big event feel even bigger. I know these happen at every event, but I think they were at their best here.

Rey Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy: This was an obvious choice to open the show. It was a good face paced match. This would have been a lot better with a few extra minutes, but it was good anyway. I don’t have a problem with the finish. Mysterio was using his usual high risk offense and the heel caught him in one of his moves and cheated to win. Nothing wrong with that.

Undertaker vs. Big Show & A Train: This is the only thing I have a real problem with. This just wasn’t a very good match for Taker at mania. I would have preferred if this was a singles match with Big Show and A Train being left out. It wouldn’t have made much difference, but I think a singles match would have been a better fit. I’m glad Nathan Jones was pulled out of this. Considering how important the streak has become a tag team victory would be out of place when looking back at it.

Trish Status vs. Jazz vs. Victoria: This was fine even though it was too similar to last year’s women’s match. Decent match with the right outcome this time.

Chris Benoit & Rhyno vs. Los Guerreros vs. Team Angle: I wonder what would have happened had Edge not gotten hurt. Most likely he would have been in this match instead of Rhyno. I thought and Edge vs. Benoit match was a possibility before the injury which would have made this a regular tag. That’s nice to think about, but the injury did happen and this is what we got. It was a pretty good match but Edge would have made it better regardless if he was in this or a singles.

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho: Now we reach the greatness of this show. For the first time in five years HBK was back at the show that made him famous. This match had a great build and these two matched up perfectly together. This match was spectacular. I would rank this slightly behind Bret vs. Owen from WM10. The pace and psychology was perfect. I thought Jericho was going to win and even bet that he would win. I got so caught up in this match I found myself cheering for HBK and actually popped from home when he got the pin. I did not care about my bet. The moment was well worth losing a small bet. I’d say this was the best match in WWE since 1997. I was hoping for HBK vs. Rock here, but I’m glad things went the way they did. This was match of the decade for me.

Booker T vs. Triple H: This is an underrated match. I was surprised that Booker was getting the title shot at mania against Triple H, but this feud was built up really well. I thought the match was very good. The only problem was a strange finish where Triple H took so long to cover Booker after the pedigree. That was a little off but it doesn’t ruin a good match for me. I don’t understand those who are so upset that Booker didn’t get the title here. These are the same people that think RVD and Kane should have gotten the title the previous fall. Someone explain to me what is so wrong about a champion having successful title defenses. The belt shouldn’t be put on the flavor of the month just because he happens to be getting some good pops. The opponent was good, the story was good, the match was good, and the result was good.

Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon: This was very well done. The crowd was into this the whole way and there were some nice spots. Vince doing the Hulk hand to ear thing from the ladder before coming down with a legdrop was awesome. Also him coming from under the ring with that sadistic grin covered in blood was an amazing visual. For me the highlight of the match was the surprise appearance by Roddy Piper. This whole match was about who created WrestleMania. For years Piper commented on how he wasn’t given credit for his role in making the first WrestleMania a success. It was a nice touch to have him interfere in this. I would have liked to seen him hit both Hogan and McMahon and just walk off and be done. That would have been fitting.

Steve Austin vs. The Rock: I think I enjoyed this the most of their mania matches. The reason is because this was Austin’s last match. Not like most wrestler’s “last match.” This actually was his last match as he hasn’t wrestled at all since. What’s even more special is he knew it would be his last match, but no one else did. It was not advertised that way and he didn’t draw any more attention to himself. Instead he quietly rode off into the sunset. Knowing this makes this match very special when I on look back on it.

Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle: I hadn’t looked forward to a match like this since the iron man match at WM12. I thought these two could give us something really special. Angle’s injury took something away from this, but it was a great match anyway. It’s ironic that everyone was so worried about Kurt’s neck going into this and it was Brock who suffered a neck injury during the match. I’m glad this was the main event. Despite having huge matches like Hogan vs. Vince and Austin vs. Rock, they went with the championship match with two great wrestlers. Both were regular members of the roster and one was supposed to be the future. Anyone who wanted HBK vs. Diesel to close WM11 should be happy this closed WM19.

This really was a fantastic show and I think it is the best mania. I don’t think there was anything wrong with how the show was booked. The undercard was just that; an undercard. The five big matches all delivered. I don’t see the need to separate them with any filler. I don’t understand why fans need a calm down filler match. We are all wrestling fans which should me we should be able to sit through three hours of wrestling; especially really good wrestling. People need breaks from work not their chosen form of entertainment. We can’t hold our bladders or go without a snack for three hours? I understand the point of the calm down filler matches, but I don’t think they are necessary. The last five matches were so good not only did I not need a break, but I didn’t want one. I could go back and forth between this and WM17 as the best mania. For now I’ll give a slight edge to WM19 as the best.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XX

This would be a top five mania if it wasn’t so damn long. In my WM19 post I said that as wrestling fans we should be able to sit though a few hours of wrestling. The key though was really good wrestling. This had too much useless filler. This show is nearly five hours long. It would have been much better with an hour cut out.

John Cena vs. Big Show: I didn’t really care for this matchup at the time. Cena was obviously on his way to big things, but since he was still a midcarder I didn’t like the matchup with Big Show. The problem is despite being over seven feet tall and 500 pounds the Big Show was a midcarder himself. A win against Show at mania for his first title looks pretty good on Cena’s resume now considering what he’s become.

Raw tag title match: Here’s part of that useless filler I was talking about. I’m all for the titles being defended at mania, but show some effort. It is so common to do this kind of thing with tag teams, divas, and cruiserweights. There is no effort put into a real storyline so everyone just gets thrown into a match together. That’s so lazy. I would have combined both title matches into one fourway match. RVD & Booker vs. Dudleys vs. APA vs. Haas & Benjamin. Both titles would be on the line in this match (with the belts on Haas & Benjamin since Rikishi & Scotty shouldn’t have even been on the roster much less champions). If either of the challengers pinned a champion they would win that teams title. If the challengers pinned the other challenger the winning team would win his brand’s title. For example Bubba pins Faarooq means the Dudleys get RVD and Booker’s title. If a champion pins a champion the titles are unified and if a champion pins a challenger both champions retain. I know it’s still a fourway, but at least it’s different. There are all kinds of different scenarios and it would be interesting to see who goes for what. Would Benjamin want to pin Booker to get both titles or would he be content pinning Faarooq and just retaining his own? Interesting possibilities.

Chris Jericho vs. Christian: This was a good feud that had been built up nicely since November. These two always worked well together as both partners and opponents. This was a very good match and I’m glad it was given the proper amount of time. It was nice to see Christian get a big singles victory at mania. The Trish heel turn wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it was a nice touch.

Rock n Sock vs. Evolution: I really liked this match. This had a long and excellent build. Foley absolutely made Orton and this was a great showing for Evolution. At the time I thought it would be interesting to add Austin to this making it a six man instead of a handicapped match. It would have been the three biggest stars of the attitude era together in the Garden at WM20. That just seems cool. I’m glad it didn’t happen as Austin is pretty much the only big star to have his last match actually be his last match.

Stacy Keibler & Jackie Gayda vs. Torrie Wilson & Sable: This was a complete waste of time. The show would have been better without this.

Cruiserweight open: Here’s another example of a bunch of guys just thrown together simply to get them on mania. I don’t understand why WWE chooses to ignore a lot of guys throughout the year but goes out of the way to get these minor league players on their best show. This should have been Rey vs. Chavo as they’re the only ones who deserved to be on mania.

Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar: I could go on and on about how I hate both these guys for this match. It’s been done. The crowd amuses me and that’s all I can really say. Since Austin was the ref I wish he would have just stunned them both during the match, flipped them both off and declared it a no contest.

Smackdown tag title match: See above for my comments about the raw tag title match.

Victoria vs. Molly Holly: It was unique to have the hair stipulation in a diva match. I honestly don’t remember the match very well but it was cool to see Molly get her head shaved.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle: This was a great feud. I loved how Angle turned heel for this. It was pretty similar to CM Punk turning heel against Jeff Hardy. I also loved how Angle, while technically still a face, talked Eddie into fighting Chavo at the rumble just to keep him out of the rumble match. What makes a great feud even better? A great match. This was a great match with a clever finish. Definite A.

Undertaker vs. Kane: This was all about the hype. Obviously Taker was going to win and the match wasn’t very good. That doesn’t matter though because this was all about the hype. The dead man character had been gone for a while and people were anxious for him to come back. Taker’s entrance, complete with Paul Bearer, was enough to make up for the match (which wasn’t bad, just not very good).

Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H: I too thought this should have been Benoit vs. Triple H in a singles. I didn’t think HBK had any business in there and came off as kind of a heel the way he forced himself into Benoit’s match. At the time I thought HBK should have wrestled RVD in a ladder match to mark the ten year anniversary of the WM10 ladder match in MSG. That probably would have been better, but I’m not upset about the way things went down. The reason it doesn’t bother me anymore is because the triple threat match really delivered. It was a great match. Right up until the bell rand I did not like the triple threat idea. By the end of the match they changed my mind. That shows what a great job they did. The finish was awesome. The crowd was going crazy when Triple H was locked in the crossface and the eruption when he finally tapped was insane. Benoit and Guerrero embracing at the end was a special moment. Both started their careers around the same time. They went from Mexico to Japan to ECW to WCW to WWE together. They were told they were too small and plain to be a success in America. Here they were together both as champions for the biggest wrestling company in the world at the most famous arena in the world at the 20th anniversary of the most important event in wrestling. Priceless.

This really is a great event. The only thing hurting it is the length. Five hours is just too long considering what the filler was. I like to watch an old mania once in a while and I always avoid this because I don’t want to take five hours out of my day. I could fast forward, but that kind of kills the mood. The good is very good to great so it’s enough to overcome the filler and be one of the better manias.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 21

This is a really good show that could have been great but came up a little short. This was interesting as the two main event matches featured two new headliners that would each get their first titles which set up their own mania match five years later. I like this show but not as much as I want to if that makes sense.

Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero: This was a good match, but I agree with KB’s review. These two had done better before so even though this was good it was a bit of a letdown. Rey’s mask really was distracting.

Money in the Bank: I have been a money in the bank critic over the years. Creative may as well just come out and say we haven’t come up with anything better for these guys so we’re just going to throw them all together. My problem with money in the bank is most of the participants either deserve something better for mania or don’t deserve to be on mania at all. I will give credit where credit is due. The creative team has done a good job of making the match important over the years, but I think it ran its course after the first three as it seems to get worse every year. Despite my complaints about the concept this one in particular, being the first, was pretty entertaining. There were some unique spots in this match and it really did elevate Edge to the next level. While this match is fine the problem comes after about three years when all the spots have been done. There is only so much you can do in these matches and what was clever one year is repetitive the next. The first always has the advantage of being original so this one worked for me.

The Hulk Hogan segment was awesome. Do I really need to explain why?

Undertaker vs. Randy Orton: I liked this match. Ending Taker’s streak was a good goal for the legend killer. Wanting to end the streak was ok for Orton because it was original. This was the first time anyone made mention of wanting to beat Taker at mania specifically to end the streak. Just like mitb the first has the advantage over those that follow. Now every year Taker’s opponent claims he is going to end the streak and it becomes same old same old. Orton being the first makes this storyline better and in my opinion Orton had the most realistic chance of actually ending the streak. By the way, I love the run in by Bob Orton, complete with cast. That was sweet.

Christy Hemme vs. Trish Stratus: This was just a bad match that shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t really Hemme’s fault. She won the diva search over the summer and WWE put her in a match at WrestleMania about eight months later. That’s ridiculous. There’s no way she was ready and shouldn’t have been put in that spot.

Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle: This is the one match I really wanted for mania this year. It seemed natural to have these two great wrestlers who had never wrestled each other before hook up at mania. The question was would it happen. Once HBK eliminated Angle at the rumble we all knew the match was on. I couldn’t wait for this one. This was a great match and another one on the list of HBK classics. Now after you read my next statement remember I just said this was a great match and I enjoyed it a lot. I think this match is slightly overrated. Just slightly. I’ve read comments that say this is the greatest match in mania history. I’ve read comments that say this is HBK’s best match ever. I’ve read comments that say this is the greatest match ever. I don’t agree with any of those. In my opinion the HBK vs. Jericho match from WM19 was better than this. I’m not trying to take away from this match. As I said it was great. I just don’t think it was as amazing as a lot of people think it is.

Piper’s pit was a decent segment. It was nothing extraordinary, but it was ok. We hadn’t seen Piper’s pit in a while so it was appropriate since Piper just went into the hall of fame the night before. Also it’s cool anytime Austin is used. I liked how Carlito interrupted them. Even though he received a beating I thought it was a nice shot in the arm for the rookie to share the ring with two all time greats at mania.

Big Show vs. Akebono: Why did this happen? This was a horrible waste of time. There was absolutely nothing about this that was entertaining. At least Mayweather is a celebrity. Who was Akebono?

John Cena vs. JBL: I agree with everything KB said in his post, but I’ll expand a little. JBL was a hated heel and a cowardly champion for nine months. That’s a long title reign nowadays. He put the cabinet together to help him keep the title. During the title reign JBL escaped with the title against Guerrero, Taker, Booker, Angle, and Show. Every time you counted him out he somehow pulled off a win, often with help from the cabinet. The fans hated him for it. Why would JBL VOLUNTARILY send his cabinet back before the title match at mania? This made no sense. I like a good one on one match without interference, but the story didn’t call for that here. This match was way too short and the ending came out of nowhere. We waited for nine months for someone to finally get the title off JBL. Then it just happened with no climax. Cena’s first WWE championship should have been a big time moment, but it was ruined by poor booking. This match would have benefited greatly from the time that crappy sumo match took up.

Batista vs. Triple H: Where did Batista come from? I remember back around November 2004 thinking how mania would turn out. Batista did not factor into my plans. I figured he would play a role similar to Diesel at WM10 and get kicked out during the main event so he wouldn’t interfere during HHH vs. Orton. Next thing I knew Batista was the most popular guy on the roster. It was cool to see Batista become so popular so quickly and the build to this match was very good. Still something didn’t seem quite right about this main event. As I was watching him walk to the ring I thought Batista isn’t ready for this spot yet. I wasn’t quite buying into him. However, he beat HHH for the title and went on to have a good reign and become a star. Even though he may have looked slightly out of place at the time the fact that he became such a big star helps this event when looking back. Unfortunately the match itself was a little underwhelming. It wasn’t anything bad, but it wasn’t anything special either. It may seem very minor, but I think it would have been better for Batista if he had his current music here. He would get it immediately after this and I think it would have been better if he already had it. His other music was a little generic and may be what took away from his main event presence.

This show starts off strong but doesn’t end that well. The first two matches are good. Taker vs. Orton and HBK vs. Angle are great. The women’s match and sumo match are garbage. The title matches were good because they created two huge new stars for the future. The matches were both built up nicely. The problem was neither match really stood out. It’s great to look back on and say this is where Cena and Batista both won their first titles, but it would be a lot better if they won them in great matches.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 22

I thought this was a really good show, but admit I may overrate it a bit. One reason is I had low expectations going in. I was underwhelmed with the hype and build for this event. The show was much better than I expected, but does that mean it was good since I wasn’t expecting much? Also this was the second mania I attended live. Unlike my first mania (X7) where I drove 17 hours, this was in my home town and I had a nice 15 minute drive to get to mania. This was a fun show to be at live and it’s always cool to be part of the Allstate Arena crowd. I recently did a thread about how this could have been possibly the greatest mania. You can check it out in the wwe ppv section if you want. That’s what could have been; let’s check out what was.

Kane & Big Show vs. Carlito & Chris Masters: This was a decent match to open the show. It was nice to see the tag titles defended in a standard tag match. That hadn’t happened in seven years. This was nothing special, but not bad.

Money in the Bank: This was a fun match to be in attendance for. There were some cool spots and some surprising bumps. Shelton’s springboard jump from the ropes to the ladder was awesome. To say RVD was over with the crowd would be an understatement. The pop when he grabbed the briefcase was amazing.

Chris Benoit vs. JBL: I thought this was an appropriate match for mania. We don’t see the mid card titles defended enough at mania these days and I always like when they are. This wasn’t one of Benoit’s better matches, but it was passable despite a weak finish.

Mick Foley vs. Edge: This was a great match. This was much better than most hardcore matches. That’s usually the problem with hardcore. The participants usually think they can just use random weapons to make a good match. This was how to use hardcore and apply it to an actual match. The finish was amazing had it was cool to see it live.

The Boogeyman vs. Booker T & Sharmell: Well this was pretty much crap. The Boogeyman character was interesting at first but got old after about a month. I was already tired of him. I wanted Booker on the card but would have liked to see him in something better.

Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James: This is probably the best women’s feud and match I’ve ever seen. This had been built up since October. That’s pretty rare these days. I was surprised the crowd turned against Trish. The match was good. Not just good for a divas match, but actually good. Too bad the finish was messed up.

Undertaker vs. Mark Henry: Taker just came off match of the year with Kurt Angle at No Way Out and now he gets Mark Henry at WrestleMania? I thought Taker was done with these kinds of opponents at mania. This reminds me of WM15. Bossman was a terrible opponent for Taker so they made it hell in a cell to try to save the match. They knew Mark Henry was a terrible opponent for Taker so they made it a casket match to try to save it. It was a lot better than WM15, but Taker should have had better.

Shawn Michaels vs. Vince McMahon: I don’t like it when Vince gets into feuds with members of his current roster. HBK was obviously one of the best wrestlers in WWE so why should we believe Vince would give him any trouble? I should have known that Vince knew better. This was obviously more about a story than a match. Vince got the shit kicked out of him as he should have. It wasn’t much of a match, but what were you expecting? This was good for what it was and was fun to watch. By the way I loved the McMahon family prayer. That booming Vince voice saying “God, you don’t like me and I don’t like you.” Classic.

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton: I just couldn’t be sold on this match. Angle was here because Batista got hurt. Rey was here because Eddie died. Orton was here to at least attempt to give this a story, but it didn’t work for me. Orton beat Rey for the title shot at No Way Out but Rey gets in the match anyway just because Teddy Long likes him. Lame. I at least had the hope that this could be a good match. It started out that way, but came to a sudden end after only nine minutes. Not good for a world title match.

Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle: Another terrible waste of time from the divas. They were so well represented earlier in the title match and now we had to sit through this crap. Wouldn’t you think that late in the show someone would have realized that the title match that just took place needed more time and they should have scrapped this?

John Cena vs. Triple H: This was a great main event match for mania. I wish there would have been more of a feud between the two. Triple H won a tournament to become number one contender. They could have done better than that. It was interesting to be in the crowd for this one. This one could have gone either way and there were some pissed off fans when Triple H tapped. This was a good match and could be remembered as an all time great with a better build.

Overall this was a fun show. I don’t know if being a fun show makes it a great mania. Maybe I would look at it differently if I wasn’t there. Being a part of the crowd for some of the mitb spots, the Edge/Foley finish, the crowd siding with Mickie, HBK jumping off the huge ladder, and the whole atmosphere for Cena vs. HHH were all cool moments. Wrestling is supposed to be fun and this was fun. I guess that makes it a success.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 23

This was a good show, but it felt like it was missing something. I know a lot of people didn’t care much for the battle of the billionaires, but it certainly created a lot of buzz. The hype and buzz going into mania is a big part of the overall mania experience. By the way, I was in attendance for my third mania.

Money in the Bank: This was pretty good, but some of the guys seemed a little out of place. Edge, Orton, and Booker all should have been involved in something else. With the talent in there it was kind of nice to see Kennedy come out the winner. This was a nice moment of glory for a potential new star. Too bad he didn’t capitalize on it and his WWE run was a failure.

Kane vs. The Great Khali: As expected this was an ugly match. MITB got the crowd going and this match brought them down. At least it’s hard to disappoint when expectations are low. I actually thought Hulk Hogan vs. Khali would have been ok. It would have been a bad match but could have had some nice hype. Hogan just started hosting American Gladiators on NBC. I could just picture Khali storming the set and attacking Hogan. An attack on prime time NBC television would be a great way to start a feud.

Chris Benoit vs. MVP: This was a pleasant surprise. MVP really proved himself in this match as this was a great performance. The problem was the finish. I was really getting into this and before I knew it, it was over. The finish came out of nowhere. There was no real climax. An extra four or five minutes would have made all the difference. Great match anyway.

Undertaker vs. Batista: Going into this I thought this should have been the main event. I assumed it would be. The hype was very good as title vs. streak seemed cool. This was a fresh match between two big stars that looked great together on paper. I didn’t expect too much from the actual match. I didn’t think it would be bad by any means, but it came off much better than I thought it would. This was a great match and the crowd was into it the whole way. Everyone was standing for at least half the match and the place erupted when Taker kicked out of the Batista bomb. I think this was Taker’s best mania match to that point and it should have been the main event.

ECW Originals vs. New Breed: I was not into this match at all. ECW was just bad. Seeing the originals at mania did nothing for me. ECW was lightning in a bottle and was hot for about a five year period from 1994-1999. The Sandman, Sabu, and Tommy Dreamer didn’t mean anything in 2007 and RVD had spent more time in WWE than ECW by that time. Besides these “hardcore legends” made their name by rebelling against the ways of WWE. I wouldn’t think they would need a warm and fuzzy feel good moment at mania. Also not one member of the New Breed ever did anything.

Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga: This was all hype. There’s nothing wrong with that as hype is what makes mania mania. Of course Vince, Trump, and even Austin overshadowed the competitors, but that’s ok. Sometimes it’s more about the moment than the match. I just wish Lashley had stuck around to become a star.

Ashley vs. Melina: No more Trish + no more Lita = no more interest in the women’s division. There were some ok divas but Ashley was not one of them. I never cared for her and didn’t care for this match.

John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels: I couldn’t really get into this as the main event. The reason is because HBK wasn’t the original plan. That shouldn’t matter, but I can’t help but think WWE didn’t even want HBK in this spot. That made it hard to buy into the main event. What’s strange is I like it better than the alternative. I didn’t really want to see WM22 rematch between Cena and HHH. I like fresh mania matches. I would have liked this better if it wasn’t the main event. I have no problem with the match. It’s wasn’t an HBK classic, but it was very good. It just didn’t feel like the main event.

This was a good and entertaining show. It was just lacking something. I think this suffered from HHH and Kurt Angle’s absence. This could have used one more big match.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania 24

The atmosphere for this mania was awesome. The set was absolutely gorgeous. The outdoor stadium was unique. It’s just too bad it wasn’t a very sunny day. That’s ok because by nightfall it looked beautiful. The atmosphere is always important for mania, but let’s take a look at the action.

Finlay vs. JBL: I already have a problem with this show. I don’t think this should have been the opener. This match was poorly booked in my opinion. First of all Hornswoggle shouldn’t have come out with Finlay. JBL put him in the hospital and it looked like he wouldn’t be able to make mania. He should have appeared from under the ring as a surprise toward the end of the match. Also this whole thing was built around Hornswoggle and Vince. It had gone on for months. Now all of a sudden at the climax of the angle there is no Vince. Hornswoggle never got revenge on Vince after getting kicked around by him for months. This wasn’t much of a payoff for a story that had been built up for so long. I know the entire angle was pretty crappy to begin with, but after investing so much time into it there should have been a proper ending.

Money in the Bank: This is where I really start to tire of money in the bank. This wasn’t a bad performance from these guys, but enough is enough already. To be fair it is a good way to get some guys on mania who otherwise wouldn’t be. That’s been the purpose of this match from the beginning. It just lost some of its luster by year four. I would have liked to see Jericho involved in something better. He looked out of place, but I suppose he did add some credibility to the match. I really would have liked to see MVP vs. Matt Hardy in a singles match. Hardy was just back from injury and the geniuses at creative thought there wasn’t enough time to build the match. Those two had been feuding for about nine months. They were interacting with each other literally every week on Smackdown for months. MVP was the one who put Hardy on the shelf in the first place. I’d say the match was already built up. This show would have greatly benefited from a solid mid card title match.

Batista vs. Umaga: The storyline for brand supremacy was a little weak. I don’t understand all the brand supremacy and bragging rights storylines when guys bounce back and forth between the shows so frequently. The match was pretty ugly and Batista would have probably been better matched up with Orton.

Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero: Just another example of how the ECW title was meaningless. Really what was the point?

Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair: Mania magic. This was a great match. I wish people would realize that a match doesn’t need to be flawless from bell to bell to be great. If the hype is good and the moment is there a good match becomes great. For those who haven’t accepted it yet we all watch for the story as much, if not more than the match. The story was here and the atmosphere was off the charts. Flair’s entrance with the fireworks outdoors was spectacular. This whole match was a great WrestleMania moment. Weird side note, I’m glad Flair wore the blue. I don’t know why, but that seemed appropriate.

Maria & Ashley vs. Beth Phoenix & Melina: This wasn’t as bad as some of the other diva crap that’s gone on the past several years, but it still wasn’t good. I don’t really have anything else to say.

John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Randy Orton: This was pretty lackluster. These were three big names, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The whole triple threat thing doesn’t work for me. The match was ok, but it wasn’t a good mania title match. One good thing about this was any of the three had a chance to win.

Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather: Well this was….interesting. I think this came off as good as it could have for what it was. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not. Floyd looked good dodging Show and landing some shots. He also looked a little cowardly by trying to run from Show. That’s good considering he was out of his element and against someone so much larger. It was nice to see him whine like a little bitch when Show finally caught him. Of course the celebrity had to win, but at least he needed a lot of help and brass knuckles to take Show down.

Undertaker vs. Edge: This is the match I wanted for mania. I was glad when it was announced. It was a pretty good match. Despite all that it didn’t really seem like a mania main event. This is more like a Judgment Day main event. I’m not criticizing because like I said this is what I wanted. It’s just when it finally came time for the match it was a little underwhelming as a main event.

This show just screams average to me. Other than HBK vs. Flair nothing really stands out. This is one of the less memorable manias.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XXV

I’ve been to four WrestleManias. I sometimes wonder if I overrate the ones I was at simply because I was there. Then I think of this one. I was at this one, but I like most think this was a pretty bad mania. Things just didn’t seem to come together for this one. It definitely could have been a lot better, but it was poorly booked.

Money in the Bank: At WM24 I began to get tired of mitb. By WM25 I wished it would just go away. It was still serving a nice purpose by getting some guys on the card, but it had gotten to the point where there were more guys who didn’t belong on mania than guys who did. Plus I think the match itself was really losing its luster. It’s not easy to keep coming up with new moves and this match looked painfully choreographed even for wrestling. I was unimpressed.

Diva Battle Royal: This is probably the single biggest waste of time in WrestleMania history, and that’s saying something. This whole segment was terrible. Kid Rock went on for way too long. We were only one match into the show and didn’t need a concert intermission. The match was a joke. Its sole purpose was to give Santino a pointless comedy moment. I still don’t even know who was in this match. This show was off to a terrible start and I’m still disappointed that the tag title match was regulated to a dark match in favor of this crap.

Roddy Piper & Jimmy Snuka & Ricky Steamboat vs. Chris Jericho: This entire angle came off weak. I know Jericho was originally going to wrestle Mickey Rourke in the celebrity mania moment, but those plans fell through. The build up for this looked tailor made for Austin vs. Jericho. It was in Texas and Austin was going into the hall. Who better to stick up for the hall of famers Jericho was harassing than the newest member and toughest SOB? I have no idea how Austin would have been able to perform, but that would have been an awesome moment. In a way I’m glad it didn’t happen because like I’ve said about other moments it makes Austin’s last match at WM19 all the more special. As for what did happen, it came off as a desperation angle and the only thing that saved it from being a complete disaster was a surprisingly good performance from Steamboat.

Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy: This had a nice build, but to no surprise was ruined by the extreme rules stipulation. What’s wrong with a regular match? This came off rather weak to me and looked more like a match from 1999 than 2009. The finish was nice, but other than that this doesn’t do it for me.

Rey Mysterio vs. JBL: Yet another disappointment. I was pleased that the IC title was being defended at mania for the first time in seven years. I couldn’t believe this was a 20 second squash. The IC title and tag titles used to be a major part of mania. It’s sad to see what they’ve been reduced to. The show was abysmal up to this point.

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: This was the match everyone was waiting for. This had a chance to save the show. It was going to be a difficult task because this match really needed to deliver to save the show. I don’t mean it needed to be a great match; it needed to be an instant all time classic. Fortunately that’s exactly what it was. This match has been talked about enough that I don’t really need to add much. One thing I will say is it was incredible to be in the middle of the crowd when HBK kicked out of the tombstone. That was an amazing moment. This match saved the show from possibly being the worst mania of all.

John Cena vs. Big Show vs. Edge: For the fourth time in six years one of the world titles was being defended in a triple threat match. That really annoys me. This did not have a mania build to me. This seemed like a main event for a lesser show. The match was ok, but that’s not good enough for mania. Cena winning the title didn’t mean much since he wins and looses it on a regular basis.

Triple H vs. Randy Orton: This match has a couple problems. First of all this was an old feud. These two had already feuded with each other in 2007 and 2008 including a steel cage match, two last man standing matches, and as part of a triple threat at the previous mania. It was hardly fresh and I think mania greatly benefits from a fresh main event. Secondly I don’ like how these guys hit their finishers so early in the match. It takes something away from the rest in my opinion. Finally, where the hell was everybody else? Why would Orton not want Rhodes and Dibiase at ringside for this? They should have been there to give Triple H more odds to overcome. This should have played out more like Savage vs. Flair from WM8. Stephanie should have come down during this match. Maybe even Vince and Shane, although they were not as necessary. It’s nice that Triple H got his revenge on Orton on behalf of his wife, but Steph should have been there to slap Orton herself. The crowd was just not into this and it really could have used the extra drama.

This was just a bad mania. It’s popular opinion that the only thing that saved this was Taker vs. HBK and I share in that opinion. Steve Austin’s sendoff was easily the second best highlight of the night. Very disappointing.

 

[The Brain]

WrestleMania XXVI

This was the best hyped mania in the last several years. The show was built up really well and I was really looking forward to it. This was such a strong card that I thought it might be able to crack the top three on the mania list.

John Morrison & R Truth vs. The Miz & The Big Show: It’s nice when the tag titles get on mania these days. This match wasn’t anything special, but I’m glad Miz and Morrison got something besides being thrown in mitb. Too short to really comment on, but a decent opener.

Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted Dibiase: This match seemed strange to me. For months people were assuming Dibiase was going to break out and turn face against Orton. He never really established that momentum. It seemed like WWE didn’t really know what they wanted to do with these guys. Then Orton started getting cheered which may have changed things. With the way it was set up Orton was the right guy to get the win. I was expecting something more from this match. I don’t even know what, but it seemed like something should have happened here aside from just the match.

Money in the Bank: If you’ve read my comments about mitb for WM24 and WM25 you probably know I’m not too crazy about this. This year was even worse. Ten guys is just too many. Out of the ten I’d say only McIntyre and Kofi really deserved to be on mania. The rest weren’t really relevant and wouldn’t have been missed too much at mania. I admit it’s hard to argue against the match too much because it does elevate guys.

Triple H vs. Sheamus: I was having a hard time accepting this as a mania feud at first but came to like it. It was kind of refreshing to see Triple H in the middle of the card. I thought this was a very good match. I like the finish with Triple H playing possum and getting a surprise pedigree. Triple H definitely should have won the match. The iwc fans who insist HHH should have lost to Sheamus need to open their eyes. Sheamus is a new guy who hasn’t even been around a year. Isn’t it enough that he had a good competitive match at WrestleMania with Triple H? That is a good push regardless of the outcome. Bret Hart did pretty well after losing to the British Bulldog. Shawn Michaels did pretty well after losing to Razor Ramon. Steve Austin did pretty well after losing to Bret Hart. The result doesn’t matter as long as you perform well in the big match.

Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk: I really like this match for mania. These are two solid mid card guys wrestling in a singles match at mania without any titles or gimmicks. I miss these kind of matches at mania. This was a great feud and I thought the match was really good. The only problem was this was too short. If this match was twice as long it would have been great. They did really good with the time they had.

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon: I have read the arguments about why this was great and why this was awful. I understand both points of view. I hate to say it but I have to lean more toward the awful side. I expected more from this match. I am well aware of Bret Hart’s condition so I had relatively low expectations and this match didn’t meet my already low expectations. I wasn’t expecting a wrestling match or a fast paced hard hitting brawl. Despite his age, time away from wrestling, and medical history I thought Bret might be able to pull off some of his old signatures. I thought he’d be able to pull off a side russian leg sweep and the second rope elbow. I now realize how limited he was, but the fact is I underestimated how limited he would be which left me disappointed. That’s my fault more than Bret’s. The Hart family being there really didn’t do anything for me. I’m sorry to say, but the only people I would have cared about seeing are dead except for Anvil. Where was he? This is too fresh in my mind. Over time I may be able to come to accept this more for what it was and have better appreciation for it. If this match did put an end to the Mr. McMahon character on tv like speculated (but I doubt it) then this match will be even more significant.

Edge vs. Chris Jericho: I’m glad Edge made it back in time because we all figured this match would be going to mania since July. This was a simple story and these two matched up really well for mania. This was a good match, but I think it needed more of a climax. This would have been great with another three minutes. After all that talk about the spear for weeks Edge didn’t even hit it during the match. I don’t get that. I think Edge should have hit the spear and the ref should have counted to three before realizing Jericho got his foot on the rope at the last second. It would have been a great false finish and gotten the crowd going. See it doesn’t take much to take a match up a little. This was a little slow paced for these two and an extra three minutes at the end for a better climax would have helped a lot. Good match anyway, just could have been better so easily.

Ten Diva Tag: As usual the divas are here to waste time at mania. I’m not a diva hater. When used right the divas can do well at mania. Trish vs. Mickie for example. Unfortunately more times than not we get crap like this. Wouldn’t this time have been better spent on Rey vs. Punk?

John Cena vs. Batista: I absolutely loved the build for this match. I know a lot of people in the iwc think it’s so cool to hate both Cena and Batista. I disagree. There is nothing wrong with either of these guys and this was the match to go with at mania. The build was perfect and it made sense on every point. I love how the two guys who both won their first titles at WM21 were now against each other at mania five years later. I thought the match was very good. I hate to sound too critical, but I think this could have used more time too. I realize there is only so much time to give, but I think WWE could have prioritized better with their time.

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: First things first. I thought this was a great match. With that said I don’t like it nearly as much as a lot of others on the forum. I thought the match at WM25 was much better. I don’t want to take away too much from this match, but it’s impossible not to compare the two. This match was not different enough from the year before to make it as special. I know the retirement stipulation added some drama, but from bell to bell it was like watching a rerun. This is what I was afraid of from the start. WM25 was too tough of an act to follow. Again the match was great, but seeing a better match from the same two guys one year earlier takes away from it a bit.

I know it seems like I made a lot of complaints about the show, but I thought it was very good and enjoyed it a lot. It was just a little disappointing because there were some things that could have been easily done to make it better. For some reason it’s my nature to be hard on events at first. A lot of people see something and right away call it great and change their mind when looking back. I’m the opposite. I usually like things more with time. I thought this mania was very good but not great. There’s a definite possibility that two years from now I will appreciate it more.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'm redoing the Mania reviews and the new 2000 one was too long so I had to repost it.

Wrestlemania 2000
Date: April 2, 2000
Location: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California
Attendance: 19,776
Star Spangled Banner: Lillian Garcia
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This whole show is an interesting one, and this is primarily for two reasons. Number one: there is not a standard one on one match on the whole card. That’s just odd for any show. The other thing: Steve Austin and Undertaker were out with injuries here. This show is also important though because it’s the first show where all your big names are just that: big names.

HHH is the reigning WWF Champion, Rock is the #1 face in the company, Big Show is there for some reason, and Foley is “retired”, but getting one more shot as he finally gets to main event a Wrestlemania, which is a nice thing to let him do, despite the fact that he really had no business there at all. He was added less than two weeks before the show after the original main event, a three way match with HHH, Rock and Big Show happened on Raw for no apparent reasons at the time.

Also at this show, we have the WM debuts of Benoit, Angle, the Hardyz and the Dudleyz, as well as Edge and Christian being actual wrestlers here for the first time. This is the first show with the new generation being around, and it showed really well. It’s also the first show where the company more or less knew that WCW and any real threat to WWF’s survival was dead, so they didn’t have to nail it to ensure where their next paycheck was coming from. However, the important question is obvious: is the show with all these new stars better than last year’s? Let’s get to it.

Sweet damn Lillian looks different here. She aged very well and actually looks better older than she does here. She can still sing though.

After a video highlighting the previous Manias either narrated by James Earl Jones (Darth Vader in an explanation I can’t believe I had to make) or the greatest imitation of his voice ever recorded, for the first time in Mania history, we get the MASSIVE pyro display that has become a standard in WWF. So with all this new talent, what’s our first great match?

Godfather/D’Lo Brown vs. Big Bossman/Bull Buchanan

Eh? We’re opening the show that’s supposed to lead the WWF and therefore the wrestling business into the new millennium and this is what you give us? And people wonder why wrestling went downhill in a hurry once WCW died. Godfather and Brown are rapped to the ring by Ice T, who I try to block out as most of the time these live intros are awful. Brown is a co-pimp here.

Remember the catchy Godfather entrance? This isn’t close to it. Ice T does some song that includes the lyric Pimp Or Die. Something sound bad about that? This intro goes on WAY too long and sums up what I hate about rap: this whole thing is just loud and stupid sounding. It was built to market a CD called Aggression which was a rap album of WWF entrance themes. In case you can’t guess, it bombed.

After that completely pointless intro, Godfather decides he has to do his awful intro, saying for everyone to smoke a blunt and say it ain’t easy. FINALLY Bossman’s terribly bland theme music plays and the pain in my head goes away a little bit. Godfather has really stupid looking dreadlocks here and is somehow dumber looking than usual.

There’s really no reason as to why these two are feuding in case you thought there was. Is it possible that D’Lo Brown is the most successful of these four men? I do believe he is and that’s a scary thought. Anyway let’s get to this. Brown vs. Buchanan to start us off with Brown controlling so far. Godfather takes Boss Man’s interfering head off while Brown is on offense.

Off to the pimp now as the fans want puppies. Big elbow misses as we talk about JR wearing some of Godfather’s clothes for some reason. Basically Boss Man dominates when he’s in and Buchanan can do one move, that running up the corner into a spinning clothesline. Blind tag brings in the Boss Man who gets two on Brown as Godfather saves.

Axe kick by Buchanan gets two. Brown and Boss Man on the floor now and Godfather accidently clotheslines the referee. I say accidently as the referee doesn’t even go down so it wasn’t the point obviously. Boss Man gets two on Brown who is the face in peril here. Buchanan with a bearhug now as the fans chant for D’lo.

Naturally that doesn’t do it but an elbow takes down Brown. Double teaming by the guys in black as Godfather just looks damn stupid. Boss Man sucks chant starts up. The beating goes on for awhile with Buchanan hitting a double axe off the top. We talk about Pete Rose for a bit and apparently he’s got a ball bat with him just in case.

Godfather shakes the ropes to crotch Godfather and Brown busts out a rana to break the momentum. Here’s Godfather who cleans some house. Ho Train hits Boss Man in the corner sets up the Lo Down from Brown. Bull pushes him off the top though but Brown lands on his feet. Boss Man Slam kills D’lo though and a guillotine leg drop from Buchanan ends this.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t terrible but at the same time it’s Godfather/Brown vs. Boss Man/Buchanan. It’s not a terrible match but is this really what you want to open Mania? Also, a heel team winning the opener? Just not a great idea especially after the crowd got fired up for the rapping. Not bad but just odd.

Steph and HHH are in their office talking about how great their lives are.

The referees explain the rules of the Hardcore Battle Royal tonight. It’s a 15 minute time limit. There’s no limit to the amount of title changes in that period. Apparently the 24/7 rule is waved after tonight. I think Crash has to be pinned to get the title off of him.

Hardcore Title: Battle Royal

Hardcore Holly, Crash Holly, Tazz, Viscera, Joey Abs, Rodney, Pete Gas, Taka Michinoku, Funaki, Thrasher, Mosh, Farrooq, Bradshaw

The idea here was that the Hardcore Title was defended 24/7, as long as the challenger had a referee with him. This led to some interesting situations such as pin falls as amusement parks, hotels, etc. You have 13 guys here and whoever gets the last pinfall leaves with the belt, which would be kind of pointless as the 24/7 rule would be in effect so he could get attacked seconds after it ended right? It’s not really a battle royal but rather a 13 man match.

There are weapons at ringside and thankfully a lot of the guys come out in groups or teams to save some time. The Posse gets a small pop. The APA gets the biggest pop by far. Here we go. Remember there are 15 minutes to this period. Everyone but Crash and Taz go to the floor almost immediately and Tazz gets a suplex on Crash to win the title in maybe a minute. Now they have to pin him to get the title, which Viscera does with a splash. We’re not even at 13 minutes left yet.

Everyone is on the floor now and someone has a box fan. There’s a flag in there. The Posse of all people jump Viscera and they actually work for a bit. Lots of weapon shots to Viscera, mainly from the APA. Crash is busted open. They’ve taken the clock off the screen now because they want us to have to think I guess. Crash, ever the lunkhead, tries to jump the future Big Daddy V.

The crowd is kind of dead as they’re just hitting each other with weapons here. Bradshaw is like fuck it and starts beating the hell out of people. Hardcore gets two on Viscera after a shot with a trashcan lid. Ten minutes left as JR says these guys won’t forget their first Wrestlemania. I’m not sure how many this is their first for. Taz is I think and that might be it. Funaki maybe?

We haven’t had a fall in like four minutes. 2/3 of the Posse and Viscera are in the ring now with Thrasher. Viscera beats everyone up with a cookie sheet. Farrooq comes in as Viscera climbs the ropes for no apparent reason. The APA get a double slam which doesn’t really keep him down. They throw Kai En Tai on top of Viscera and Funaki is called the new champion.

Taka immediately smacks him upside his head and the chase is on! Funaki proves to be the most intelligent guy here as he’s trying to run. With a little under seven minutes left some of the Posse catches him in the back and Rodney steals the title. Abs gets a damn suplex and gets the title. That was a 24 second title reign for those keeping count. Thrasher rams Joey into a wall and gets the title.

Thrasher then runs through a line of people who all hit him with weapons and we’re back in the arena now. Pete Gas finds a fire extinguisher and the third member of the Posse has the title now. Then Tazz grabs him and I think Pete is busted. Oh yeah he’s busted good. A T-Bone Suplex gives Taz his second reign of the night with a little over 4 minutes left.

Hardcore gets two after ramming him into the steps. Crash is busted BAD. Taz tries to pin Mosh as I guess instincts took over or something. Taz keeps kicking out. Both Hollies fight Taz in the ring with Crash not being able to do much at all. ECW chant starts up and we’re under three minutes. Taz stands alone and covers Crash with two and a half minutes to go. Eh it’s not a big deal. As a wrestler I guess you’re trained to go for covers.

The Hollies beat Crash down and both guys try for the pin. Naturally they end up fighting which is what they do in that family I guess. With two minutes left Taz suplexes Crash and Hardcore gets a powerslam on Taz for two. I love how no one else has seemed to care about trying to win the title and is just fighting. Taz suplexes Hardcore and he hits the floor, stealing JR’s candy jar.

Now we get to the weird part of this. Crash gets a weapon shot in on Taz and wins the title with about 20 seconds to go. Taz grabs the Tazmission but Hardcore comes in with the candy jar and busts it over Taz’s head (legitimately injuring Taz’s eye and costing him the push that would ultimately go to Chris Benoit). He covers Crash and the referee just doesn’t slap the mat for three.

What was supposed to happen was the clock was supposed to go out with Hardcore having a 2.99999 count. They messed up the timing though and the referee had to stop. They further messed things up by having Fink say Hardcore won the title while JR screams that there was a shoulder up. Totally not the planned ending but you have to do what you have to do.

Rating: C+. What were you expecting here? The idea makes sense and given what’s going on, the mistake at the end is very excusable in my mind, and since this is my review of the show, it’s excusable. It was wild and stupid, and that’s just fine. The match was fun and that’s all that really matters.

Video on Axxess. That still looks awesome. They have a small arena with matches going on, a commentary booth where you can sit down with Michael Cole and call a match, race cars, autograph booths, a Hall of Fame exhibit. Austin and HBK, two guys that weren’t active at this time, are there too. I’d love to go to something like that.

Al Snow is in the bathroom talking to someone in a stall but Steve Blackman is worried about what he’s planning.

We go from that to an extreme closeup of Trish’s ample chest as she says WM is going to see some T & A.

Test/Albert vs. Al Snow/Steve Blackman

This was a really weird angle in the tag division as Snow and Blackman were doing the odd pairing that won almost every match they had, but Snow insisted that they needed a name which didn’t go that well. Test and Albert were guys that Trish had handpicked to be her team. What you have to remember here about Trish is at the time, she wasn’t a wrestler and was nothing more than the hot manager. It wasn’t for about two more years before she and Lita took the division to new heights.

As for the match, before it we get Al Snow talking. One of the names he was pitching was Head Cheese, going along with his Head gimmick. Out comes Chester McCheesyton, a walking piece of cheese. Sadly enough, I’m not making that up. Trish leads their opponents down, but is WAY more muscular than when she started wrestling. If this is believable, she let herself go physically before she started wrestling.

Lawler messes up the headsets and JR is gone for a bit. Blackman and Test start but it’s off to Snow soon thereafter. Blackman tries to keep the Head Cheese chants down as this filler match goes on. This is a good show later on but these opening matches are pretty freaking bad all things considered. I’m watching Al Snow and Steve Blackman at Wrestlemania. Let that sink in for a bit.

Oh and JR is back now. It breaks down quickly as you can tell JR has nothing to work with here at all. There’s no point in talking about the match as it’s just about getting us to the end and that’s all there is to it. The cheese hits on Trish and is named Chester the Molester. Albert gets beaten down for awhile as this is one of the least interesting matches I’ve ever seen. This is what Raw and Smackdown are for.

Did I mention that this match is terribly boring? It’s one of those matches where stuff is happening in the ring but nothing matters at all. Crowd is DEAD here. It doesn’t help that the wrestling is boring. Double powerbomb to Snow gets two. There’s the boring chant. Bowling shoe tendency line by Ross. Head Cheese’s finishing move, the move that the Smoking Guns called the Sidewinder, gets two. FINALLY Albert gets a press slam on Blackman and the elbow from Test ends it.

Rating: F. Thank goodness it’s over. This was one of the least interesting matches I’ve ever seen and somehow it’s nearly an hour into the show. Just a terrible match all around and everyone knew it. Get on to whatever is next please.

The “good guys” beat up the cheese dude post match.

We get a horrible segment of Kat and Mae Young where Kat is sitting in a chair naked and Mae keeps handing her things that cover up certain parts. Austin Powers was very big at this time and it’s supposed to be like that I think.

The Dudleys, still in their original AWESOME mode, say they’ll win and even though the odds are against them they’ll take things to a new level. These two more or less saved the division.

Tag Titles: Edge/Christian vs. Hardy Boys vs. Dudley Boys

This was before the name TLC was coined, but it’s the same thing with a bigger emphasis on the ladders. Edge and Christian were still chasing the belts at this point and the Dudleyz are the defending champions. At this time, the Dudleyz were so over it’s mind blowing and they were easily the biggest tag team in the world. There’s no backstory here other than they’ve been feuding over the belts and E/C and the Hardys have had ladder matches before. These matches never have much backstory but they don’t need to.

The Dudleys climb a ladder and pose during their entrance so the other two teams start fighting without them. All six guys brawl in the aisle until Matt and Christian hit the ring. Matt and Jeff look A LOT alike here so I’ll likely get them mixed up at least once or twice. These matches are very hard to call so it’s likely that I’ll miss something.

Bubba beats on Jeff in the ring until Jeff gets what would become known as Whisper in the Wind to reverse. Bubba Bomb and Bubba rules the ring. That may never be said again forever. The fans want tables as Christian goes up the ladder early. Matt saves as the ladders are brought in quickly. Crowd is surprisingly quiet here but after the first three matches they had to sit through I can understand that.

We start the violence though and the fans wake up a good bit. Ladders are rammed into people and pain is caused. Matt gets the screaming…elbow onto D-Von onto the ladder. Jeff tries a 450 onto Bubba onto the ladder but the fat country boy moves and Jeff nearly kills himself again. In other news, the sun came up today. Bubba actually hits the backsplash off the middle rope but hits his head on the ladder. FREAKING OW MAN!

Matt’s entire body is crushed by a ladder and then the same thing happens to Edge. They’re doing a lot more with the ladders here. Bubba does the Terry Funk spot as he spins around with the ladder around his neck. Edge/Christian beat on D-Von for awhile and then sit up a ladder in front of the ropes. Christian dives off and takes out Matt and Bubba. Nice dive indeed.

Jeff goes up but Edge dives off the top rope to spear him down. Oh man would that be topped by about a thousand next year. Edge takes a Crucifix Bomb from Matt off the ladder. Christian throws a ladder at D-Von. Why do stuff that is too complicated I guess? Three ladders set up now but Bubba takes Christian down with the Cutter off the ladder. SWEET spot.

The Hardys kill Bubba with the legdrop/splash combo off ladders. D-Von and Christian in the ring now but here’s Edge. The Canadians get a double suplex off the ladder in a great spot. Everyone but the Dudleys go up and everyone but the Dudleys crash down. And here comes Bubba! Here they go again, this time with all six of them.

Christian and Jeff go flying over the top rope to the floor as do Matt and Edge. Those Damn Dudleys wind up in the ring somehow but they’re a bit dead at the moment. Christian staggers to his feet and is sandwiched between two ladders. The look on his face in short says “That hurt a LOT!” Old school 3D to Edge, which is where Bubba runs parallel to him and then crosses over to catch Edge in the cutter in stride. It’s an awesome move when done right.

The Dudleys don’t have their catchphrase yet so they just get the tables. With two ladders already in the ring the ring, the Dudleys set up a table on top of them like a bridge/platform between them. The Hardys are back now to surprising booing. To the floor we go and Matt is slammed into the steps and HARD. This has been an incredibly physical match to say the least.

There’s a table in the ring in front of a ladder with D-Von on said ladder and a table in front of the announce table. Matt goes on the one in the ring and Jeff is in a powerbomb position in Bubba’s hands on the announce table. In stereo, D-Von dives onto Matt and Bubba powerbombs Jeff in a cool sequence. Jeff somehow gets up soon thereafter and tries his barrier run but Bubba PELTS the ladder at him to stop Jeff in midair which looked sweet again. Jeff has taken a man’s beating in this.

And now it’s time to set up the big spot in this match as Bubba debuts the super ladder in the aisle. There’s a table set up in front of it and Jeff gets laid out on it. Christian comes up with the bell to clock Bubba. Jeff gets off the table as Bubba is laid on it. And he begins to climb. In the HOLY SHIT spot of the match, Jeff jumps off the ladder and half kills himself with a Swanton Bomb through Bubba through the table. That was the top of Jeff’s highlight reel for a long time.

Back in the ring with D-Von kind of alive. Matt and Christian are in there too and are trying to stand. Twist of Fate takes D-Von down and Matt and Christian both start climbing. They get up on the platform but Edge is climbing up behind Matt. Edge throws him off and through a table which explodes on impact. The Canadians grab the belts and win their first tag titles to finally end this.

Rating: B+. This was a great match but there are a lot of dead spots in there. Jeff is easily the star of this match as he took one of the best beatings you’ll ever see with huge bump after huge bump. Somehow this would be topped the next year and this match would be blown out of the water. Great match and definitely picked up a bad show so far. I liked it quite a bit but somehow next year’s was that much better.

In the back we have Linda McMahon with Mick Foley. I forgot to mention, the idea behind the main event is that there’s a McMahon in every corner. Stephanie and HHH, Vince is backing Rock, Linda brought Mick back in, and Shane was Big Show’s manager for lack of a better term. Foley, with washed hair, says his fairy tale will come true, not his opponents.

JR and King talk about how great the ladder match was and they’re right. Considering that almost nothing like this had ever been done with so many people, this was beyond great.

Terri vs. The Kat

Val Venis is the guest referee here. To cover up the fact that neither can wrestle, the only thing you have to do here is throw the other girl out of the ring. Val’s pre match promos are always great. Apparently he and WM have things in common: they’re large extravaganzas, they get blood pumping, but unlike Val, Mania only comes once a year. And people have the nerve to wonder why the Attitude Era scared away parents.

Terri has Moolah with her and Kat has Mae Young. This is one of the major problems with great matches: after them, you get stuff like this. Terri truly was ugly to me. Val makes out with both in the middle of the match as this continues to cry out for someone to save the division. Terri gets thrown out but Mae is kissing Val. She comes back in and Terri wins. Afterwards, Kat strips Terri of her pants.

Rating: F. Didn’t care at all and it was terrible. A complete waste of time and an insult to my intelligence. It was like two minutes long and awful to say the least.

In the back we see Eddie, Saturn and Malenko getting ready to face Too Cool and Chyna. Eddie has a crush on Chyna but can’t get her attention.

Chyna/Too Cool vs. The Radicalz

This feud went on forever and no one cared. Let’s get this over with. All I have to remember is that the triple threat is next. That should get me through this. Oh well at least Chyna looks pretty good here. I’ll give Too Cool this: their music is downright catchy. Scotty vs. Eddie starts us off here. Eddie gets beaten down a bit and we get some dancing.

Chyna is tagged in and Eddie literally runs away on his knees. Dean, the Light Heavyweight Champion is here now. JR thinks Chyna looks hot. That’s just wrong on so many levels. Grandmaster and Chyna hit a double suplex on Malenko. Hey look: more dancing. Is that all Too Cool could do? Back to Eddie who avoids the top rope legdrop. Ok so it was more like Saturn shoved Grandmaster off but work for me here.

Grandmaster vs. Saturn at the moment. Saturn steals Grandmaster’s head gear complete with dreadlocks or whatever that is. Back to Eddie who takes over for a bit and it’s cold tag to Scotty. Eddie keeps trying to get Chyna’s attention which fails completely. Since she isn’t paying enough attention she gets her head rammed into the post. Good. Bitch deserved it.

Saturn and Malenko get beaten up by Scotty and it’s time for the Worm. Oh but since it’s Mania it’s a double Worm to both Radicalz not named Eddie. Everything breaks down a bit as we’re still waiting on Eddie vs. Chyna. Nice superkick by Saturn to Scotty as we’re in a bit more of a standard match now. Elbow hits Scotty from the top for no cover.

Off to Eddie but he can’t get the Frog Splash off. Scotty drills him and it’s a superplex to put both guys down. There’s the hot tag to Chyna and Eddie can’t run away fast enough. Handspring elbow to Saturn as Chyna is cleaning house. Double low blow and Eddie drills Chyna. Chyna counters a powerbomb and gets a bad one of her own. She grabs Eddie’s balls and then gets a sleeper drop for the pin. They would be together the following night.

Rating: D. Well Chyna looked good and she got to beat on Eddie. That’s the extent of the good stuff about this match. It’s nothing special to say the slightest and is yet again another pointless match on this show in a long streak of them. Again though, the triple threat is next. Keep repeating that.

That day there was a thing called All Day Long which was an 8 hour countdown of WM history that cost an extra 50 dollars. Our cable company screwed up and we got It for free. Anyway the point of this is there was a contest with the winner getting front row seats and the winner is shown. She and her husband are the definition of white trash but it’s kind of a cool idea. They’re from Allentown, Pennsylvania, hometoiwn of the Nasty Boys as I show my nerdiness.

Shane tells us how awesome Big Show is. Show says he’s awesome and will take apart the other three.

Bob Backlund who is kind of Angle’s mentor made the match with both titles being defended in the same match/back to back. Kurt kind of goes insane and puts Backlund in the crossface chickenwing even though you can tell there’s no pressure on the arm. One of the medals breaks during this scuffle.

Angle talks to a security guard to try to get some extra security, offering autographs as payment. Much funnier than it sounds.

Intercontinental Title/European Title: Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

This is the match that everyone remembers from this show as well as being a very cool concept. Angle has both the European and Intercontinental titles and is defending both in back to back triple threat matches. The first fall is for the IC title and immediately thereafter the European Title match starts. With these three, are you expecting less than greatness?

The brilliance behind this is that even if one has a bad night, the other two are there to cover for them. Jericho is clearly having a blast on the mic here and says he’ll win something and be the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah no matter what. Angle is still the goofball heel which is some of the best stuff I can ever remember. Him being less than a year into his pro career is insane.

Speaking of insane, Benoit jumps him on the floor and the fight is on. They seem to be attacking Angle together for the most part but he fights them off somewhat. Benoit vs. Jericho now as this is rather fast paced. With Benoit and Angle on the apron, Jericho hits his springboard dropkick to take them both out to the floor. There’s a really annoying kid in the audience that is shouting about everything that’s said. Granted that’s not a terrible thing as that’s what fans are supposed to do.

Ross says Angle is great but talks about himself too much. Lawler: “So does Jericho.” Ross: “That’s a good point King. Maybe later you’ll make another.” No one ever accused JR of being the nicest guy in the world. Jericho is knocked off the top out to the floor where he slams into the table in a painful looking bump. Angle gets a snap suplex on Benoit for two.

Jericho knocks Angle to the floor and locks in a camel clutch to Benoit. This is too fast paced to call everything and they keep going back and forth. Jericho suplexes Angle and Benoit almost steals a pin. Then he does something stupid and tries to suplex Kurt. I think you get what winds up happening to Jericho. Benoit is sent to the floor and in some slick counters Angle gets a crossface chicken wing on Jericho.

Benoit manages to get a dropkick to Angle to break it up at the last second. He throws Angle into the crowd and hits the swan dive to Jericho for the pin and the Intercontinental Title. In a smart move Benoit tries to immediately cover Jericho but Angle breaks it up. All three are back in there now and Angle’s moonsault is crotched.

Angle is up top and Jericho tries a belly to back suplex. Benoit drills Jericho and suplexes him instead. Angle tries the moonsault to Benoit but crashes and everyone is down for a count. After some covers Jericho grabs the Walls on Angle but Benoit breaks it up. Angle wakes up and hammers away but Jericho takes him and Benoit down with relative ease. Double powerbomb to Angle but Benoit saves again. Rolling Germans by Benoit to Jericho get two as well.

Benoit goes old school with a Dragon Suplex to Kurt. Angle’s shoulder might have been up on the bridge so Jerry screams conspiracy. Jericho misses the forearm and drills the referee with it. Crossface goes on and Jericho taps but there’s no referee. Walls of Jericho to Benoit but still no ref. Angle drills Jericho with a belt to break it up which only gets two. Benoit misses the Swan Dive to Angle so Jericho hits his fellow Canadian with the Lionsalt for the European Title to end this.

Rating: A. This was great stuff indeed with all three guys working incredibly hard the entire time. It’s also a good way to get the titles off of Kurt without hurting his reputation. He would be world champion in the fall so he doesn’t have much to complain about. Excellent match and probably their best matches up to this point.

Vince is in the back with Cole as apparently the four way can only have eliminations via pinfall and it’s No DQ. For a multi-man match, that’s the best way to go. Vince says the McMahons won’t be a factor. That’s why they were the focal point of the match right? Vince says he’ll “make it right.”

HHH says he will not lose.

Kane/Rikishi vs. X-Pac/Road Dogg

This is pure filler before the title match, but there’s a story to it at least. DX is accompanied by Tori who is Kane’s ex. She was his first relationship and left X-Pac, allegedly because Kane wasn’t big enough for her. She’s pure sexuality and while she’s not the most famous or attractive diva, she’s one of the sexiest. The name Pete Rose is thrown around here as he might want a piece of Kane after two years of getting beaten up. Kane has been chasing X-Pac for months and this is about the best shot he ever got at him.

Well if nothing else we get the awesome Kings of Rock theme for DX. The more I see of Jesse James, the more I’m impressed. We now get Rikishi. Oh yay, it’s Rikishi. GOOD GRIEF I HATED THIS GUY. People, you want to complain about JBL being useless? This is the epitome of useless. If you remember earlier on I said there was no Austin. He was out getting neck surgery so the reason given was that he was run over by a car at the Survivor Series. No one knew who was driving it or who was behind it.

Austin comes back in the fall from being out nearly a year and the man hunt begins. Who was it? HHH, Rock, Vince, maybe even one of the new guys like Jericho or Benoit, looking to make a name for themselves? Nope. It’s Rikishi, the 400lb, thong wearing, dancing sumo wrestler. He debuted about a week after Austin was run over and while Austin was out, Rikishi rose to the IC title in a decent run and hit amazing popularity.

Then in the worst move I can ever remember, he’s revealed as the mastermind of the plot to attack Austin. They have a match and finally everyone realizes the massive problem: Austin can’t beat Rikishi up the way he usually does others because he’s too damn fat.

No one buys into Rikishi as the big bad he was supposed to be, so WWF pulled the blug at the last minute and said Rikishi was working for HHH, making him the true evil one. Rikishi was gone soon thereafter, thank goodness. Anyway, Kane comes out to end my hate filled rant. Paul Bearer in the red suit is just sweet looking for some reason.

Bearer and Tori get into an argument so DX double teams Rikishi. Kane has the inverted colors tonight which is awesome. Stinkface to Road Dogg as I think we have a comedy match on our hands. Stinkface to Tori is avoided to big booing. DX tries to run which doesn’t work at all. Kane finally gets his hands on X-Pac.

We finally get back in the ring and Pac kicks Rikishi’s head off. Pac vs. Rikishi is how we finally start it up. Bronco Buster by Pac and it’s off to Roadie. Pac in again and he can’t do a damn thing. Rikishi hits a one man 3D and it’s off to Kane. Road Dogg gets his head kicked off and Tori is thrown in. Stinkface for her and a Tombstone for X-Pac ends it quickly.

Rating: D+. Well for what it was supposed to be this was fine. Keeping it short was a great thing as this barely broke four minutes. Kane gets his revenge, we get the comedy stuff, Tori looked good, and then we get what the whole point of this is about: the post match stuff.

Too Cool comes out to dance but the San Diego Chicken comes out like last year. Rikishi comes in to kill the chicken but is intercepted by some yellow sunglasses. Somehow the dancing gets the best pop of the night. The chicken can move and it’s pretty clear that’s not Rose. Kane goes after the chicken but Pete Rose comes in.

Chokeslam to Rose and Paul Bearer does the crotch chop to him. Rose gets a Stinkface to FINALLY end this. I know it’s stupid, I know it’s childish, I know it’s idiotic, but I absolutely love these Pete Rose segments. The guy is having fun and gets beaten up three straight years and it’s still awesome. I loved these things and they still make me smile. Kane’s pyro is louder than usual and it made me jump a bit.

Rock says his time is now and he’s taking the title back. This is serious Rock and it works very well.

Some celebrities are here.

Quick recap of the title match. HHH was WWF Champion so he’s explained. He was feuding with Cactus Jake and retired him at No Way Out. As a favor to him in real life, WWF brought him back in for one final match so he could live out his dream of main eventing a Wrestlemania. Since he was officially retired, if he wins here he vacates the title and a tournament starts that ends at next month’s Backlash.

Rock was the last man out of the Rumble, eliminating Big Show. However, Big Show produces a video showing that Rock’s feet hit the ground before Show’s, so Show officially won. Rock had signed the contracts though, so he couldn’t be taken out but Show could be added, leading to all four being in here. Also remember the McMahon in every corner aspect (Linda – Mick, Stephanie – HHH, Vince – Rock, Shane – Big Show).

 

[klunderbunker]

WWF World Title: Rock vs. HHH vs. Mick Foley vs. Big Show

Foley comes out first and you can tell he’s choked up. This was classy of WWF to let him have one last time and to let him accomplish his dream like this. It’s clear that the McMahons are the focal point here and is anyone really surprised by that? Big ovation for Rock here as this totally should have been Rock vs. HHH. I get the Foley addition, but did anyone want to see Big Show in there? I miss HHH’s My Time music. That was awesome.

HHH was at the absolute peak of evil here and he looks like a total badass. If Stephanie’s hair didn’t look absurd, that bareback pink top and leather pants would work a lot better. HHH doesn’t quite have the water spit down yet. Here we go. Foley vs. HHH and Rock vs. Big Show to start. No tagging here of course. They say fatal fourway but it’s elimination. Foley is out of shape here as he more or less stopped training after No Way Out but to be fair he thought he was done.

Show beats down Rock and takes down the other guys with a double clothesline. Press slam to Rock which is incredibly impressive. Same to HHH. Foley jumps on his back so Show just drops backwards with him. Well why do something other than what works? Rock gets up and hammers away but a side slam takes care of that.

Show tries a chokeslam on HHH but Foley kicks him low. Foley and HHH hammer away on the Giant as does Rock. A trio of clotheslines put him down and they do a Horsemen stomp. Foley drills HHH out of instinct and they hit the floor via a Cactus Clothesline. Chair to the ribs of HHH as Shane trips Rock. Foley blasts Show in the back with a chair and a Rock Bottom puts Show out less than five minutes in. Was there ANY point to him being there? He would be a face in like a week which was good for him and us as we got THE SHOWSTER.

HHH tries to ally himself with Foley to get rid of Rock. That fails so HHH tries to ally himself with Rock to get rid of Foley. Take a guess as to what happens next. The double teaming of HHH goes on for awhile and we go out to the floor. Foley hands Rock the bell but HHH ducks and the bell hits Foley in the head instead. Out of nowhere Mick finds the 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire, drawing a big pop from the crowd.

HHH gets a low blow to save himself and gets the 2x4 for a shot to Foley’s ribs. Rock back in now and the 2x4 is dropped to the floor. Rock is sent to the floor and Foley gets a double arm DDT on HHH. It’s Mr. Socko time and the Claw goes on. Rock grabs the belt and blasts HHH so he can set for the People’s Elbow. Surprisingly though Foley grabs the Claw on Rock, only for the Rock N Sock Connection to take a double low blow to put all three down.

Rock vs. Foley for a bit now as Foley gets some near falls with the double arm DDT getting the closest one. Vince slid a chair in earlier but Foley gets it. Rock kicks it into his face though and then hammers away. He gets a DDT on Foley but HHH breaks it up, causing confusion from the announcers. Foley makes a deal with HHH to get rid of the Rock and the double team is on to huge booing.

Out to the floor where the double teaming continues. Mick gets reversed and his knees crash into the stairs. Those same stairs are rammed into the head of the Rock by Foley to keep Rock down. Rock is put on the Spanish Announce Table so Foley can go to the middle rope for the elbow. The problem is that he couldn’t jump that well and slams chest first into the side of the table, legitimately injuring his sternum.

HHH gets all mad and drops two jumping elbows onto Rock to break him through the table. Back in the ring Foley takes the Pedigree for a long two and a big pop. HHH shoves the referee down and then kills Foley with a chair to the head. Pedigree on the chair and Foley didn’t wrestle again for four years. Rock vs. HHH now for the title, but do you really think Foley is leaving that easily? He comes back and blasts HHH in the head with the barbed wire so that Rock can get two.

Rock clotheslines HHH to the floor and remember it has to end by pinfall. Out to the floor now and we go up the aisle. Rock gets a suplex up by the entrance in a cool looking crash landing. All Rock here. Into the crowd they go and then it’s back to ringside. Rock grabs the steps but HHH pops him with a chair so that the steps hit Rock in the head and fall on his chest. HHH hammers the steps with the chair. A Piledriver on the steps kills Rock but only gets two back in the ring. Big pop for that kickout.

Both finishers are countered with the Pedigree being backdropped to the floor. We go into the crowd again as it’s pretty clear they’re killing time before the finish. Back to the ring area and HHH smacks the hat off the head of an annoying fan. Spinebuster (called a takedown by Ross) on the floor by Rock puts both guys down.

We head to the announce table with Rock suplexing HHH onto the English announce table. You can tell it’s a big match when the American table is busted too. HHH gets a drop toehold to the steps to put Rock down. For some reason he gets in HHH’s face and Vince kicks some Game ass. Shane is back now and beats down Vince a bit.

Shane hits Vince in the head with a monitor and the look on Stephanie’s face that we cut to is perhaps the most unintentionally funny things you will ever see on WWE television. Stephanie is a lot of things. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s gorgeous, she’s sexy, she’s a great TV character, but she cannot act to save her life and this is one of those instances. She looks like the guy from Troll 2 if that gives you any indication of how stupid she looks here.

Anyway, Vince somehow pops up from a monitor shot to the head within 20 seconds and goes after Shane. Keep in mind that this sequence, which has gone on for like two minutes now, is happening during THE MAIN EVENT OF WRESTLEMANIA. Yes, The Rock vs. HHH, perhaps the greatest feud of the Attitude Era other than Vince vs. Austin and the feud that would carry the comfpany to unthought of levels in 2000 isn’t enough as we need to focus on the McMahons and their drama. This is why this match and show are considered weak: it was about the McMahons and that’s it.

Shane manages to crack Vince’s head with the chair to put him down. They’ve literally not had the camera on HHH or Rock or the ring for three minutes now. They’re in the ring salsa dancing for all I know. Vince is busted open and taken to the back. There’s a trickle of blood which JR is saying is flowing by the quart.

HOLY SHIT IT’S WRESTLING TIME! Rock hammers on HHH and gets a DDT for two. Rock gets a slam for two as Shane has a chair on the floor. HHH gets a facebuster and drills Rock in the head with the 2x4. Shane in now but the reversed Pedigree sends HHH flying into Shane. Rock Bottom but Rock is spent. Shane is up with the chair now but here’s Vince as AGAIN it’s all about the McMahons. Shane goes down, Vince gets the chair, turns on Rock (SHOCKING!), chair to Rock, kick out, HHH gets the chair and drills Rock with it for the pin.

Rating: D+. Well let’s see. First of all, WAY too much focus on the McMahons. Second, this should have been Rock vs. HHH. That’s all there is to it. Also, a fatal fourway elimination match in the main event of Wrestlemania? That sounds like something from a video game. Also, when does a heel win in the main event of Wrestlemania? It’s supposed to be a feel good moment and that simply didn’t happen here. No clue what they were thinking here but it didn’t work like at all.

Vince and Stephanie reunite post match. Rock gets up and all three McMahons take Rock Bottoms. Stephanie gets a People’s Elbow after hers and it looked like Rock grabbed some pre-implant boob when he was getting up for it.

Overall Rating: D. This was….bad. The show itself is mostly watch, but THIS IS WRESTLEMANIA. This isn’t Judgment Day….scratch that as Judgment Day in 2000 was great. This isn’t some WCW show where watchable is a good night. WWF was incredible in 2000 and this is probably the weakest show of the year by far.

I have no idea what the thought process was here but it certainly didn’t work at all. There are two good matches here and more importantly, not one singles match. What the fuck were they thinking here? That’s a very good question that I don’t think has ever gotten an answer. Terrible show overall and it just didn’t work, especially for Mania.

 

[klunderbunker]

Redoing Mania 17 and it got too long.

WWF World Heavyweight Title: Steve Austin vs. The Rock

This is made No DQ just before the match starts which is a surprise to everyone and it comes back to play a factor later. JR’s saying WHAT as soon as that’s announced made me laugh quite loudly. The glass shatters and the ovation is deafening. Austin is so over it’s amazing. He hits the first corner and the pop grows somehow. He turns around to cross the ring and it’s as if everything goes into slow motion. Austin climbs to the middle rope, throws two fingers into the air, and the flashbulbs go insane. It’s that moment that defines this whole show I think.

All of the other great matches all night long, from the wrestling classic to the ladders to the war we just saw, none of that means a damn thing anymore and every single eye in the building is on this man right here. It’s the peak of Steve Austin’s popularity and it’s amazing to say the very least. JR’s commentary is absolutely perfect here. It’s that perfect voice that we all know, but the words simply couldn’t be better. He builds this match up to be as epic as it should be. The music ends, and we hear the sound of his opponent.

Rock comes out to an INCREDIBLY mixed reaction. He’s either being cheered all the way to heaven or being booed out of the building. Not sure which. He hits the corner, throws the belt over his shoulder with his arm raised in the air, and we get the staredown from one side of the ring to the other. The feeling is all there too. You can tell what you’re watching is absolutely epic and it feel just right.

The fight starts almost immediately with Austin jumping Rock as he gets off the ropes. Thesz Press takes down Rock seconds into it but Rock fights back with a swinging neckbreaker. Rock Bottom and Stunner both don’t connect and we hit the floor. Out into the crowd they go with neither guy keeping an advantage at all. Back to the ring now with Austin having a brief advantage.

Superplex gets two and Austin takes the turnbuckle pad off. Rock fights back to massive booing and a clothesline for two. Back out to the floor again and Austin gets a shot with the bell to take Rock down. Rock is sent onto the table which breaks on a delay so the camera misses it. This is so epic. These two are the biggest stars in the world and this is the biggest match of the year. What more can you ask for?

Austin hits a neckbreaker for two. Mudhole stomping commences but Rock comes flying out with a clothesline to huge boos. More slugging it out with Rock in control now. Rock grabs the bell and gets a shot to the head with it for two. Austin is busted open and Rock hammers away. Oh man he’s bleeding BAD. Back to the floor again and they fight it out even more.

Another important thing to note is Ross. Ross has been mostly reserved all night but now he’s pouring it on. This makes this look FAR more interesting and intense while at the same time not diminishing the other stuff. Austin gets a slingshot to send Rock into the post. Monitor to the head and Rock is down on the floor. THAT gets two.

Austin flips Rock off and gets caught in the Sharpshooter for his efforts. Rock is busted now too. Great throwback here to Mania 13 as Austin screams in the hold. Rock pulls him back to the middle and Austin is in big trouble. Finally there’s the rope. Now Austin throws it on Rock and the people are loving it. After it gets broken it goes on again and this time it’s a rope used to escape. HUGE booing when he gets there too.

The Million Freaking Dollar Dream goes on and the bloody Rock is in trouble. Rock pushes off the corner ala Bret vs. Austin at Survivor Series 96 but this time Austin kicks out. Little things like those make matches AWESOME. Rock gets a Stunner out of nowhere for two.

And now we set up the ending as Vince McMahon is here. Both guys get spinebusters but Rock’s sets up the People’s Elbow. Vince slides in and breaks that up though, shocking everyone. Rock chases Vince but runs into a Rock Bottom from Austin for two. Crowd is losing it on these kickouts. Stunner is blocked and there goes the referee again.

A low blow puts Rock down and Austin asks Vince for a chair. Vince cracks Rock with it as the crowd isn’t sure what to do. Vince puts the referee back in but THAT gets two. A Rock Bottom out of nowhere but Vince has the referee. Rock pulls Vince in but walks into another Stunner for ANOTHER two. Austin is all pissed off now and Vince hands him a chair, drilling Rock with it for two. Austin absolutely explodes, drilling Rock with the chair an insane 19 times and getting the academic pin for the title. Rock is DEAD.

Rating: A+. The repeated finishers and chair shots hurt this quite a bit, but the crowd, the commentary and the overall feeling push this to the sky easily. Epic feeling the whole match and the crowd was in the palm of their hands. Not great wrestling, but the crowd carries this to greatness.

Austin and Vince shake hands, ending the Attitude Era and also ending the superpower that WWE was and marking the beginning of the decline of the company. They share a beer and another Stunner to Rock ends this very long but incredible show.

Overall Rating: A+. This is the greatest PPV of all time, bar none. The worst match is passable at worst. The crowd never once dies, even popping a bit in the European Title match. Looking back, you have the following matches that would either steal the show or main event any other show: Angle/Benoit, TLC 2, Street Fight, HHH/Taker.

Those are all top shelf matches anywhere you look at them, and then with the crowd as hot as they were for the main event and how it’s solid in its own right, this show is amazing all around. All night long the stuff was fast paced, everyone was having fun, and the matches are all intriguing. Can’t recommend this one enough.