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411’s Top 30 WrestleMania Matches of All Time: #11 – Edge & Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz (WM 17)

March 26, 2014 | Posted by Larry Csonka

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INTRODUCTION
Welcome back to 411Mania, and welcome to 411’s official countdown to WrestleMania 30! Every year, the 411 staff comes together in some way to bring you, the fine readers of our site, a special countdown to WrestleMania. In past years we have done special countdown columns, ranking the shows, rating them overall, discussing special aspects of the big event, and even columns that have served as odes to the matches and moments that are etched into our minds.

To some fans, WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year, and the way that WWE has transformed the event into a near weeklong party, it may as well be a holiday to the fans that love our special brand of entertainment. Call it sport or call it a specially designed male soap opera, we love it and we love to talk about what makes things special. WrestleMania is an institution, and this year, as the WWE gets prepared to put on their 30th WrestleMania event, we decided to go big. Starting on March 7th, and running all the way to April 5th, 411 will present the top 30 matches in WrestleMania history.

Each writer on the 411 staff was given the opportunity to nominate 30 matches of their choosing. #1 on their list received 30 points, #2 received 29 points, and so on and so forth. Writers were asked to base their lists on both match quality and historical significance to create their nominations. The final list was created, and there was a ton of competition for the top spot. In fact, the voting was so tight that the top FOUR matches were separated by a mere 16-points.

Each day we will present a match from the list, which will include a full recap of the match from the 411 archives (from Scott Slimmer, JD Dunn, and Robert Leighty Jr.) as well as thoughts from the writers. Thank you for reading, and we hope that you enjoy our presentation…

#11. From WrestleMania 17 – TLC II: WWF Tag Titles: The Dudley Boyz © vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian

JR and Heyman sound legitimately concerned about what will happen to these 6 men in this match. I don’t blame them for being concerned either. I’ll do my best to keep track off all the mayhem this match is sure to bring. Big ass brawl to start as Edge and Christian take the worst of the beating. Once they get disposed off the other two teams do battle. Both Dudleys get dropped with Poetry in Motion. E&C bring in some chairs to clean house, and then in a painful spot Matt gets hung in the tree of woe so that E&C can stand on his balls. Ouch! Edge starts to climb for the gold, but Matt recovers to stop him. Now he tries for the belts, but Edge stops him with a clothesline. Edge goes right back up, but Jeff comes out of nowhere to dropkick him off the ladder. Christian gets slammed, and the Hardys come off ladders with the legdrop/splash combo. The Dudleys return and Edge’s groin gets abused with “What’s Up.” Bubba tells D-Von to get the tables, and the crowd seems happy with that. Jeff gets caught by Bubba and the poor bastard gets powerbombed onto Edge through a table. The Dudleys set up a stack of tables on the floor instead of going for the titles. Idiots. Matt and Christian know what to do as they set up ladders in the ring. Three ladders get set up in the ring and the race is on as all six men climb. Everyone gets dropped off the ladders with Christian clearing the rope to the floor being the scariest off all the bumps. It still amazes me he is able to take that crazy ass bump without killing himself. Edge starts to climb, but Spike Dudley drops him with the Acid Drop. Christian takes one as well, but he gets put through a table on the floor. Rhyno now makes his appearance and he breaks Matt in half with a gore through a table set up in the corner. Lita makes her way down and in JR’s words, “jerks Edge off……the ladder.” The pause on that is awesome considering what we would know just a few years later. Rhyno eats a Doomsday Device, and Lita kills Spike with a chair. She rips off her shirt, but her tits have no effect on Bubba as she gets dropped with 3D. On the floor Jeff pulls out the big ass ladder of death, and he comes off with the Swanton to put Rhyno and Spike through two tables. That boy’s just not right. Christian and D-Vo head up top and they dangle from the hook that holds the title, and both men crash to the mat. Jeff tries to walk across the tops off 4 ladders to get to the belts, but he falls short. He finally gets there, but Bubba pulls the ladder out from under him leaving his hanging. Then we get the craziest fucking spot ever in one of these matches as Edge spears Jeff from a ladder 20 feet above the ring. That is absolutely insane no matter how many times you see it. Bubba and Matt start to climb, so Rhyno tips the ladder sending both men out of the ring and through the stack of tables on the floor. This shit is just insane. Rhino puts Christian on his shoulders and gives him a boost up the ladder to grab the titles at 15:41

– By Robert Leighty Jr.

Michael Weyer: In 2000, the tag division of WWF was a sight to see even as it mostly revolved around three teams: Edge & Christian, the Hardyz and the Dudleyz. They had traded the belts between them numerous times while upping themselves in the ladder bouts at the previous Mania and the TLC battle at SummerSlam. For their next showdown, the expectations were high and yet few could have anticipated the war that would follow. Much was familiar: The double-teams, the Hardyz leaping to splash guys against ladders, some nasty bumps and chair shots and the Dudleyz doing their “Wasssaup!” flying-head-butt-to the crotch followed by “D-VON! GET THE TABLES!” But then we got even wilder as Rhyno, Spike Dudley and Lita all ran in to start interfering: Spike doing an Acid Drop on Christian out of the ring and through a table; Rhyno goring Matt Hardy through a table; Lita smashing Spike through a chair only to get a 3-D. From there, we embarked upon a series of moments that made you truly and honestly fear for the safety of everyone involved: Jeff Hardy did a swanton bomb on Rhyno and Spike through two tables and then Jeff walking across four ladders to grab the belts, hanging from the cable as Edge speared him off the hook above the ring. Bubba and Matt were sent flying through a stack of tables as Rhyno then helped Christian grab the belts to win. A true spotfest for the ages and an incredible war that had the monster crowd on the edge of their seats wondering what the hell these guys were going to do next. It’s still something to watch and be amazed none of these guys got serious hurt. It also showcases the true star power of all those involved and how tag teams helped WWF rise even further amid these terrific battles.

Daniel Wilcox: At No Mercy 1999, the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian revolutionized tag team wrestling by putting on a ladder match the likes of which the industry had never seen. Months later at WrestleMania 16, the Dudleyz were added to the mix and they did it again. At Summerslam that year, the first Tables, Ladders and Chairs match stole the show and continued to raise the bar to a standard that, surely, could not be match. WrestleMania X-Seven took that standard and blew it out the water. Yes, these matches are for fans of matches that live and die on their high risk spots and lack the psychology of a Bret Hart match, but they’re awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping and breath-taking, and this is the best of the lot. As well as the three tag teams, this rematch saw Spike Dudley, Rhyno and Lita all get involved, and each interference not only added to the match, but also played into recent angles, which was a lovely touch. But this match raised the bar purely because the risks that were taken were bigger, the tables broke into thousands of piece and the chair shots echoed throughout the 70,000-odd in attendance that night. And if I live to be 100, I will never forget the mage of Jeff Hardy dangling precariously from the tag team title belts, with Edge perched on a ladder in the corner, ready to break the younger Hardy in half with a spear. It’s one of the most iconic spots in WrestleMania history. You could argue that in the late 1980s, there were more teams of the highest quality, tag team wrestling has never been more exciting or as popular as it was at the turn of the century, and this match was the pinnacle of that era. The idea of a tag team becoming as popular as any of these teams were is a bizarre concept, but during this era these guys were as popular as most of the main eventers, and whether it’s this match or the various other wars they went through, I’ll always be grateful for the risks they were forever taking for our entertainment.