Previous Page FROM THE ATTITUDE ERA…#10 5 points (for a hot crowd and good solid wrestling) Michaels deserves a lot of props for putting on a match like he did with his back the way it was. This was the best WrestleMania since WMX and it had to be considering it was the coronation of Austin as the new face of the company. Business was bad and like with WrestleMania 1, Vince has said that if the show didn’t do good money, he would’ve had to consider possibly selling the company. The show still doesn’t compare to the events the WWF would be putting on in just a few years, but those shows owe a debt to this one, and the remarkable bald headliner, for giving Vince the money and tools needed to make those shows happen. THE GOOD: JR’s commentary from the start of the main event ’til the sign-off. The great black and white video package featuring Gorilla Monsoon and others reminiscing about their days, and how they are now fans of this generation was well done. THE BAD: Rock vs. Shamrock featured a guy who was a year late in being over, and another guy who was a year away from being over. The mixed-tag match featured Goldust still flailing at the bottom of his WWF career. THE BIZARRE: Goldust and Luna. Just Goldust and Luna. What the heck is a “Chainsaw Charlie” anyway? FROM THE TITAN ERA…#9 5 points (for the spectacle and the storylines) This is Pro Wrestling’s Super Bowl III. It’s not the best ever on a technical level, but what makes it good makes it legendary. From the beginning of the show there was a feel that the show was big. Everything was bigger than the previous two years. Aretha Franklin’s America the Beautiful set the tone as an epic sporting event. THE GOOD: You got your workhorse match for the I-C title, and your giant v near-giant champ, with the crowd orgasm-ing, for the WWF title. That’s how it should be. The Harley Race/JYD feud, Adrian Adonis/Piper feud, Savage/Steamboat and Hogan/Andre all reached their zenith here on the biggest stage wrestling had ever seen. That opening shot, with the house lights on so you can see the crowd in all its glory…It’s amazing to think that pro wrestling could produce THAT. THE BAD: A recurring problem of the early ‘Mania’s: too many filler matches, going three to five minutes. Worse still, this was the era where DQs and countouts were normal, in order to protect guys from taking a fall. THE BIZARRE: Bob Uecker’s quest for the Fabulous Moolah. A half shaved Adrian Adonis certainly qualified too. Also, lol at the idea that Roddy Piper retired at WrestleMania 3. FROM THE RUTHLESS AGGRESSION ERA…#8 6 points (good–novel–outdoor atmosphere, strong card filled with good wrestling) This is a very good WrestleMania and one that has little worth skipping on a rewatch. Most of the matches hold up separated from their historical context, and other than a JBL/Finley brawl, the show had solid wrestling across the board. Ric Flair and HBK didn’t put on a technical masterpiece, but they did deliver an emotional one. Money Mayweather vs Big Show is probably the best celebrity match ever. THE GOOD: All the top matches delivered. The WWE title match wasn’t the weakest of the uppercard bouts, since all three men had feuded so much it was played out. The main event was great with the debut of Undertaker’s Super Shredder suit. Flair’s farewell was especially moving, as was the fireworks display he received during his final walk down the isle. The typically-dilapidated Citrus Bowl never looked better than it did when WrestleMania came to town. THE BAD: Batista vs. Umaga. Apparently Batista was ticked off that “creative had nothing for him.” He sure showed them what they were missing by stinking up the joint with a typically solid Umaga. His services might have been better spent in the title match. Kane vs. Chavo was throwaway but then again, so was the entire ECW brand by this point. THE BIZARRE: The lights went out and nobody cared. FROM THE PG ERA…#7 7 points (for good stories coming to a close, and good wrestling) The crowd was never really into it until the main event, which is sad because a several matches were very good. I always loved the pyramid lighting rig they used, as it gave the best canopy over the ring of all the “outdoor” WrestleMania shows. Also one of the best main events in WrestleMania history. Without it, this event probably is 5 spots lower. THE GOOD: The WWE Title match was very good, and of course the main event is incredible. Punk and Mysterio had a really good midcard match as did Triple H and Sheamus. Other than the Hart vs McMahon match, there were no stinkers on the card. THE BAD: Bret can’t take a bump… I know. But could he at least wet his hair before coming out? The match was 11 minutes long but it felt twice that. After three minutes the whole affiar became awkward, but it just kept going. After 8 minutes it became sad. THE BIZARRE: Swagger as Mr. Money in the Bank. If you’re going to go with someone who is good in the ring but bad on the stick Shelton Benjamin was right there, and the fans were clamoring for him to win it. Also Edge as a babyface (post-Rated-R run) just didn’t work. FROM THE RUTHLESS AGGRESSION ERA…#6 8 points (for the great Chicago crowd, some good storylines paid off, and great wrestling on the matches that needed to deliver) So the original plan was for Batista vs Undertaker for the title, and Eddie vs HBK in a showstealer match. Obviously, Eddie passed away and Batista had the first of many championship-ending injuries. Lots of plans had to be reworked as the event approached. There might have been some questionable booking decisions, but overall the event is solid from top to bottom and was made even better by a great audience. THE GOOD: The matches that had the time to deliver did so. Edge vs Foley, Triple H vs Cena both captivated. HBK gave Vince McMahon his best-worked match. Michaels could wrestle a broomstick and proved it with that match. THE BAD: The casket match. It’s not really offensively bad, ala the HIAC match at WrestleMania XV, but it’s certainly the blackmark on Undertaker’s resume after coming back to the dead at WrestleMania 20. It’s always easy (and fun) to fantasy book in hindsight, but you have to think Kurt Angle could have been a better Undertaker opponent than Mark Henry. They had a great match a month earlier; I would have saved that for here. The actual World Title match was a sub-ten-minute fluke win for Rey. Again, Rey vs. Orton one-on-one makes more sense. THE BIZARRE: Conan the Barbarian vs. Al Capone: Live on PPV. Featuring The Boogeman as special attraction! FROM THE RUTHLESS AGGRESSION ERA…#5 8 points (for the crowd, the storylines, and the matches) The show was too long, the show was too long, the show was too long. The card was better on paper than in execution, but it was still good in execution. This is a show that is better to watch as a replay than to watch live on PPV. Rewatching it lets you cut the fat and get down to the actual wrestling. In that respect the show was a success. THE GOOD: That final shot with confetti falling. Both men–whose lives would end in very different kinds of tragedies–deserved to stand in the middle of Madison Square Garden as world champions. THE BAD: Too long. By the end the crowd was just exhausted, though the brilliant main event brought them back to life. THE BIZARRE: Goldberg vs Lesnar vs The People of New York (though the crowd crapping on it ironically saved it from being a match to skip when re-watching). FROM THE NEW GENERATION ERA…#4 10 points (This felt like a bigger deal than ‘Mania 20, what with this being the crowning of a new era. Also the crowd was jacked throughout, the matches were spectacular at times, great at others, and at least mostly unoffensive the rest of the way. Also, this show had multiple storylines crisscrossing and coming to a head at WrestleMania, to an extent that’s maybe never been repeated.) I love that closing shot of everyone (well, all the babyfaces) coming down to shake Hart’s hand and then hoist him on their shoulders with the belt around his waist. He’s technically a two-time champion here, but this feels like his actual coronation as the face of the company. The Hogan era had been over for a while to this point, but here it was clear that those days were in the past. THE GOOD: A well-put together card, featuring a couple 20-minute classics, some 10-15 minute good ones, and the rest were almost all good filler-matches. THE BAD: Almost all…Adam Bomb vs. Earthquake. Yeesh. As great as Hart winning was, the actual manner in which he won was simply Yoko falling down and then laying there like roadkill while Hart covered him. Macho Man was wasted in a brawl with Crush (at least he was on the card, unlike the previous year). THE BIZARRE: Fink with a piece. FROM THE PG ERA…#3 10 points (incredible crowd and atmosphere, fantastic storyline payoffs, mostly great booking, mostly great wrestling) I guess it’s just an every-decade thing for Vince to give the ball to the smaller technical guy that fans love. Vince kept looking for his next Hogan while Hart had the belt. He kept looking for his next Austin while Benoit had the belt. Daniel Bryan’s win was likewise supposed to be a temporary gesture (with his expected loss to be Lesnar at SummerSlam). Injury cut it even shorter than that, but no matter what the plan was or how injuries intervened, the one thing that can never be taken away is the magical night Bryan had in New Orleans. THE GOOD: The three biggest stars of the past thirty years kicked things off. Triple H did a clean job to Daniel Bryan, putting him over huge. Cesaro had (what should have been) a superstar-making performance. Cena and Wyatt had a great WrestleMania-worthy match that might have had the wrong finish. Undertaker’s early concussion robbed us of what could have been a great match befitting the most shocking moment in Wrestling since Sammartino lost to Kolov. Bryan winning the gold made the night and sealed this WrestleMania as one of the best “big moment” shows in Wrestling history. THE BAD: The Shield squashed their opponents in 3 minutes (which they should have done), but they deserved a better showcase. The Divas match was a throwaway (as usual), Cena should have lost and you’ll never convince me otherwise. THE BIZARRE: Welcome to the Silverdome, brother. Has there ever been a bigger discrepancy between the interest fans paid to a match compared to the interest they paid to the post-match? 21-1 gave us some incredible reaction shots from fans who probably spent most of the actual match talking casually to friends around them. FROM THE RUTHLESS AGGRESSION ERA…#2 10 points (for a crowd almost always engaged, storylines that came to a head, a big stage in Seattle, and a card that’s almost perfectly booked and executed) Give the Undertaker a better opponent, and give Booker T the win, and you just might have as close to perfect as WrestleMania in 2003 could get. Other than those two gripes, this is as good as the Ruthless Aggression era got. THE GOOD: The whole show was star-studded. The early matches were fast-paced and the final matches were epic. No room for filler, almost no wasted matched. Top to bottom a great “wrestling” show. HBK’s WrestleMania return match, Rock vs Austin one last time, the best “wrestled” main event since WMXII but with ten times as much action and energy. Hogan and McMahon brutalized themselves in a fun brawl but the best spot was Roddy Piper coming out to heel on Hogan. What a nostalgia rush. THE BAD: Undertaker’s throwaway match. This was the nadir of the BikerTaker era. THE BIZARRE: Shawn Michaels’ hair made him look like everybody’s mom at the grocery store. FROM THE ATTITUDE ERA…#1 10 points (for the perfect show: Crowd, spectacle/atmosphere, storylines, wrestling — all of it, golden) There’s nothing to be said. This is the Attitude Era’s WrestleMania III, only with a much better card from top to bottom. Honestly, I think you can argue the XIX card is better on paper, but everyone just clicked on this show, and the product was certainly more popular than it would be just two years later. THE GOOD: Everything from start to finish…WWE can run another thirty WrestleManias and this one will probably still be the best. THE BAD: …I mean, Chyna…I guess… but is a bathroom break really a “bad” thing? THE BIZARRE: The gimmick battle royal. It was good dumb fun, sure, but I can’t believe they called the participants “gimmicks.” That’s what they are, of course, but I can’t recall the word ever being uttered on air. Austin and McMahon shaking hands. ____________________ So there you have it. The best of the bunch. You might find something here and there that makes you roll your eyes, but more than likely you can turn on any of these shows, put down the remote and enjoy every second. If you can only watch a few WrestleMania events between now and March 29th…these last few lived up to the title “The Showcase of the Immortals.”
