The History of WrestleManiaBy Dan Smith| April 2, 2014 WWE Blogs Previous Page Wrestlemania 19 will go down as one of the greatest Wrestlemania of all time as some of the company’s biggest stories seemed to culminate in one evening, not just in wrestling’s fictional world but also in reality as well. Take Chris Jericho getting to wrestle his boyhood idol Shawn Micheals in the best match on the card. Probably the best match of Y2J’s career, he rightly puts stealing the show with HBK higher then any of his title reigns. The emotion for Micheals came from this being his first Wrestlemania match in 5 years. Kurt Angle postponed neck surgery so he could defend the WWE title against Brock Lesnar and was crippled with anxiety that one wrong move from the green Brock Lesnar could cripple him (Ironically Lesnar nearly crippled himself with his failed shooting star press). The fact that the two managed to have a five star match was incredible given the circumstances. Another man who had no business being in the ring that night was Stone Cold Steve Austin whose health had deteriorated so much that he spent the night before mania in hospital after suffering a serious panic attack. Always a loner, even at the height of his success, Steve Williams told as few people as possible that his match with the Rock would be his last ever match. Rocks conversation in the middle of the ring after pinning Austin, Angles and Lesnar’s embrace and Jericho’s body language hinted to fans that this was probably more special then they realised. Given their respective health concerns the fact that Angle, Austin and Micheals put on outstanding matches is a testament to just how special the three superstars are and why they will all go down in history as true greats in the industry. Just like Wrestlemania 10 the 20th anniversary was held in Madison square garden. Now a grandfather Vine McMahon’s theme was ‘where it all begins again’. Supported by a very strong midcard (Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg, Kane vs Undertaker, Evolution vs The Rock and Sock Connection) WWE certainly had the choice of superstars for what would prove to be a nostalgic pay per view. Despite the theme the event was actually dedicated to two men who had been in the business for over twenty years. For obvious reasons the image of Chris Benoit and Eddie Guererro both celebrating, both champions with confetti falling from the ceiling is a picture which has not lasted the test of time. The chances are you will never see the image on WWE television again but at the time it was hard to think of a better fairytale ending to WWE’s big event. Wrestlemania always brings out hardcore fans but being in New York City this was intensified. These fans had watched Benoit and Guererro wrestle around the world, mastering their craft, sacrificing their life (some would say literally) to reach the top of the industry. Despite their abilities both had always been viewed as two men who could guarantee a good match but not marketable enough to be the face of the industry. Even when WCW was in decline Benoit and Guererro were not taken seriously as main event players. No one is saying Vince McMahon believed Benoit and Guerrero were going to be as big as HHH or the Undertaker but this was almost his way of saying thank you to two men who had done so much for the business, letting them have their moment was emotional. Plenty of other matches on the card desperately failed to match their anticipation, Undertaker vs Kane couldn’t match their war at Wrestlemania 14 where Kane was allowed to be Taker’s equal while Lesnar and Golberg simply couldn’t be bothered as they were leaving. Their attitudes were astonishing, the worst Wrestlemania match of all time. WWE had lots of fun with their gimmick ‘ Wrestlemania goes Hollywood’, having their superstars recreate famous Hollywood blockbusters in vignettes promoting the show. This would be a significant night in the company’s history as it signalled a new era. From the year previously Lesnar and Goldberg had left, Mick Foley and the Rock could not even be called part timers anymore, while ratings had declined during the JBL/ Chris Benoit championship experiments. So Vince McMahon had decided on two new faces, John Cena would be the face of Raw and Dave Batista the face of Smackdown (the two would swap shows a month after their respective title triumphs). While it would quickly become clear after mania that Cena was to be the man the whole of WWE would be built around it was the HHH/Batista feud which is credited for making this Wrestlemania the fastest of any WWE pay per view to sell out. Thanks to the creative team’s patience (something which was becoming more and more rare) and HHH willingness to create a new star (something he was criticised for not doing in his career) the build up was expertly done. From SummerSlam WWE used Randy Orton as the supposed vocal point all along dropping hints to see how fans would react If Batista ever felt like jumping out of Evolution. By the time Mania came round fans couldn’t wait to see The Animal end HHH’s tiresome domination of Raw While both main events were significant in results neither could touch the Shawn Micheals vs Kurt Angle match, a classic where it didn’t matter who won, both men had reached stages in their careers where all that meant to both was stealing the show. Both did. If we never got to see these two men wrestle each other it would have been the industry’s loss. Can anyone rival these two in terms of being so talented that their win/loss records never seemed to matter, you just remember them always having the best match on the night. Edge also won the first ever Money in the Bank Ladder match to give the main event scene another fresh face. Along with Cena and Batista Wrestlemania 21 was a breakthrough night for fresh talent. Wrestlemania 22 was a surprisingly good Wrestlemania. I say surprising due to the worries over John Cena’s performances coming into the big show, a title reign that was not impressing fans or some of his peers. For someone who always claims to give fans what they want Vince McMahon was choosing not to listen to the boos that were ever increasing for John Cena. In fact it was the opposite, Cena’s success in selling merchandise to kids meant that he was increasingly being shoved down people’s throats, he even had his own movie and rap song coming out. Like it or not Cena was the man, which only made those adult fans despise him even more. Vince’s son in law HHH had vocally blamed Cena’s opponents for not doing more to garner the desired reactions from the audience. He believed the likes of Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle (who out of respect were cheered in their matches against Cena) had gone into business for themselves. The Game arrogantly believed he could get the fans to hate him so much that they would naturally cheer for the babyface. While respect for the Game in the arena meant that Cena got booed as much as before what HHH did do was go out of his way to legitimise Cena as a tough guy. Fans were genuinely shocked when HHH tapped out of the AAA, they really thought this was the night when the undeserving champion would be put in his place. The atmosphere made this match memorable. Unfortunately the same crowd tarnished Rey Mysterio’s first ever World title reign. This was because of a mixture between the fans respect for Kurt Angle but also a belief that many had that WWE were exploiting the death of Eddie Guererro. While Mysterio did indeed make reference to his best friend before, during and after the match it should be noted that the company had hinted a title reign for the mask man long before Guerreo’s death. On the undercard Shawn Michael’s and Edge made full use of the no DQ gimmicks to make up for Vince McMahons and Mick Foleys limitations. Edge allowed his body to be put through thumb tacks and a burning table to prove to those higher up how committed he was to remain in the main event scene. Indeed both Edge and Cena’s reputation’s increased at Wrestlemania 22 to set up a long running autumn/summer series between the two. Although Undertaker’s undefeated record had been mentioned before this was the first year the ‘streak’ had been used as a selling point. It would eventually be marketed to such a degree that it would become just as, if not more important than the World/WWE title. The problem for The Undertaker on this evening was his opponent was Batista who because of injuries and a perceived poor attitude had failed to capsulize on his Wrestlemania 21 win. Without HHH ‘s supports both in and out of the ring Dave Batista was struggling to deal with the pressure of being a main eventer on the blue brand, with few friends in the locker room who felt he was unworthy of his position. Meanwhile Batista’s counterpart, John Cena on Raw, was having the same problems, at least Batista was getting cheered by the fans. It must have been worrying for management that their two respective champions could not guarantee a quality match going into the biggest night of the year. Like Smackdown. Raw’s answer was to book their champion against a veteran, with Shawn Micheals charged with getting the best out of Cena. Thanks to the two legends both Cena and Batista produced at this point their best non gimmick matches of their careers, a confidence enhancer for both men, Batista in particular would not look back after this night. That Undertaker’s World title win was in the middle of the card (something Batista complained about to further alienate himself from his peers) showed you that since the brand split there was more than one main event at Wrestlemania. Despite the quality of the two title matches neither were responsible alone for this event drawing 1,250,000 buys. WWE guaranteed the world that they would see a bald billionaire thanks to Donald Trump’s (represented by Bobby Lashley) challenge to Vince McMahon (who was in the corner of Umaga). Of course it was not Trump who received a haircut. Lashley would later complain about his and his opponents pay off (half of what the four men in the title matches received) but the brutal truth was the ECW and Intercontinental champions were afterthoughts to the billionaires and Special Guest Referee Stone Cold Steve Austin. A very successful show both in and out of the ring. To rival the media frenzy from the year before, WWE acquired the services of Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather. Like boxing legend Mike Tyson 10 years previously, Mayweather didn’t just show up for the cheque he took the privilege of wrestling the Big Show very seriously. With Big Show’s cooperation the two rehearsed a good match for a wrestler vs celebrity contest. While Mayweather was willing to take bumps he was not prepared to jeopardise his unbeaten record, even in the fictional world of wrestling which presented a problem. How could WWE book Mayweather to beat the much larger full time wrestler in a manner fans would find believable? It’s amazing what brass knuckles can do for you. Possibly correcting the year before, Undertaker’s streak v championship match was put on last, in a landmark moment in the career of Edge to solidify Adam Copeland as a permanent fixture as a main eventer. The best compliment I can give to this match is that at one point Edge had you believing that we might see the end of the streak, something at this point fans assumed would never happen. While another Undertaker title triumph satisfied diehard fans and Mayweather looked after the media side of things, the actual Wrestlemania moment came in the middle of the card. Ric Flair (who the night before had been inducted into the Hall of Fame) wrestled his last match for WWE. The truth was his decision to retire was long overdue. Fans still supported his in ring efforts due to nostalgia and respect for what the man has done for the business but the brutal honesty was he no longer had any business in the ring, something only his ego hadn’t realised. Fittingly though this was the Nature Boy’s best match in his second run in the WWE, it is no coincidence that this happened with Shawn Michaels as his opponent. Michaels has a way of adding real life emotion to his matches, in this instance being conflicted, fighting with the responsibility of having to be the man to retire his real life boyhood idol. His words, ‘ I’m sorry, I love you’, before superkicking him, should have been words that lasted the test of time had Flair, not for the first time in his career, reneged on his retirement vow. That Flair would months later wrestle for TNA was a slap in the face to WWE who had dedicated the whole weekend to him (Indeed the Raw 24 hours later would be just as emotional as the Hall of Fame and Wrestlemania when the whole locker room paid tribute to the Nature Boy). In WWE’s mind this was the perfect way to say goodbye and they were right, you couldn’t accuse the WWE of lacking class here. Most of all though, Flair wrestling again was letting himself down, it made him look desperate, none of his matches since can hold a candle to what he did here. While not as powerful looking back, on the night there wasn’t a dry eye in the building.
