Match #9 – Kane and Rikishi defeated X Pac and Road Dogg @ 4:20 via pin **
Match #10 – HHH defeated The Rock, Mick Foley and The Big Show @ 36:30 via pin ***¼
The Right:
No Count Outs or DQ~! - I have been complaining, and complaining, and complaining repeatedly about the DQ's and Count outs that happen at WrestleMania. I hate them and feel that they have no place at the showcase event. So imagine my surprise that there were none on this show! It made me so happy, and felt that it needed to be rewarded with a right.
And So the Ladder Match Gives Birth to TLC…and A Return to Tag Team Action - It's amazing how you can watch tag team wrestling change on the WWF over the years. You had Tanaka and Fuji battling the Tony Garea and partners. Then it was about Rotundo and Windham battling the Sheik and Volkoff. The Bulldogs and the Harts. Demolition and the Nasty Boys. The Smoking Gunns battling the Bodydonnas and The Godwins. Money Inc. and the Steiner's, the Natural Disasters, Men on a Mission to the Quebecers. The New Age Outlaws were the definition of "Attitude" in the attitude era. But while they were about attitude, you needed another group to take things to another level.
Enter the Hardyz, E&C and those damn Dudleyz. The Hadyz and E&C had already proved themselves in their tag team ladder match and the Dudleyz have been showing why they were who they were in ECW. The feud cultivated into this three-way war that had to be settled and they got the stage at WrestleMania to do so. They took the damn ball and ran with it as they easily had the best match on the card. This was the start of something really special here tonight when they had this match, and alone is worth suffering through this very mediocre card.
Besides this match you had a return to WrestleMania past with lots of tag action. The opener of D Lo and Godfather vs. Bossman and Buchanan; which I had issued with. Then there was T&A vs. Headcheese, which was fun. There was the 6-man that had Too Cool and The Radicalz battling as well as Kane and Rikishi battling X Pac and Road Dogg. That match gave the crowd what the wanted as Kane got his revenge on X Pac as well as Tori when Rikishi gave her Los Stinkface and the crowd dug the after match stuff as well. While not the strongest line up of tag teams, it was definitely a nice change to see them get some time.
Jericho, Benoit and Angle: Three Men, Two Title Matches, One Big Loser…Kinda - I will say that overall this is a bit of a disappointment. They needed more time in my opinion, why the hell did we have to see Terri vs. Kat anyway? First of all I dug the concept because it hadn't been done before. Plus anytime the titles get defended at WrestleMania, with worthy opponents, I dig that. Overall they neither match had a lot of substance, but all three worked really hard to try and make what time they had good. This signified Benoit's first title victory of any kind in WWF, while this was Jericho's second. Sorry for Jericho that he would be the ultimate definition of "transition champion" as he lost the Euro title the next night.
In the end the greatest thing is that Angle lost both titles without getting pinned or submitting. This keeps him strong, and left the booking open ended so that they could co many different ways with not only Angle, but also all three men.
WrestleMania Firsts - This WrestleMania may be remembered for not being very good as an overall show, but it does have some "WrestleMania firsts" that need discussed, as they were very important. First of all this was the first time that three men would have two three-way matches for two titles, that were held by one man! The situation was so unique that it demanded something like this. I also loved the fact that they made sure both of those titles were defended, as they should be.
Another big time first was that this was the first WrestleMania that the heel left the event with the World Heavyweight Title. If one thing can be said about the previous 15-events is that you almost always knew that the "good guy" would leave with the title. It was just "WrestleMania cannon" so to speak, something that always happened. This WrestleMania changed it all as HHH became the first heel to leave WrestleMania with the WWF Title. Just a couple of examples of the old ad, "Anything can happen in the World Wrestling Federation."
The wRong:
A Lacking Main Event - WrestleMania is sold on two things, the name WrestleMania and the Main Event match. In theory the main event was set up well with HHH having to defeat the odds of the Rock, the Big Show and Foley. You had the possibility of the "fairy tale" that could have been if Foley won. You had a lot of good stuff that was possible, but it didn't work out that way.
#1 the Big Show was eliminated in like 5-minutes. The biggest man in the match and he gets basically jobbed really quickly. That took a lot away in my eyes as he should have had a chance to dominate.
#2 was that Foley had retired. It looked bad as he said he wouldn't come back, and like a month later he's back. Even worse is that he was out of shape and almost killed himself with the table spot. Damn he could have really jacked himself there.
#3 was that the focus wasn't even really on the match. No, it was more on the McMahons, which is why I like to refer to the match as the Four Corners of McMahons" match. Add Vince's heel turn and things just make your head hurt.
As I said, this match had a chance to be good, but when you take all of that into account, it really hurt the match as a whole and you get a very lackluster WrestleMania main event.
Oops! - This is regarding the finish of the hardcore battle royal. How bad did that come off? It was obvious that wasn't the finish that they wanted, and there was nothing to do about it. The crowd was counting down, the ref could have done the quick shoulder check thing and then started to count on 2. This was a bad job and took away from what was a really fun match.
The Opener - The opener, in my opinion was a bad choice. While the crowd popped for the entrance of Godfather, D Lo and Ice T, after that they got scary silent for a bit. Thankfully they did stay involved because like it or not, Godfather was over like a motherfucker during this time. The match itself wasn't a bad match per say, more than it was a boring match that didn't feel like it belonged on the show. It felt like a normal match that you could see on WWE TV any week. The opener is so important and this one had me rather bored and not excited. Not the way to start off WrestleMania in my opinion.
The Ridiculous:
Terri vs. The Kat - This was a giant waste of PPV time. The Kat Fight? Mae and Moolah involved? Lame, not cool, totally lame. The only goof thing about this match is that it got Val on WrestleMania as a special ref, complete with stripped towel. This was a low point in the Women's division and a time that I would rather not remember. This could have been times used for the triple threat for the two titles, that you know, were actually important and have 3-great wrestlers battling over them. Ok I actually just watched this again, yes, it was that damn bad.
I have to stay consistent - WrestleMania is supposed to be the showcase event, we've had this talk on many an occasion and I have praised them when they have done it right, WM 14 and 15. So the gripe is that there was no Women's or Lightweight Title defenses. The Women's title was just a prop for Stephanie McMahon and the McMahon-Hemsley Era. Dean Malenko was stuck in a 6-man tag match, which he and Scotty could have easily been taken out from. They had great matches starting after WM, I just wish they could have started them here. Overall it may not be a big deal to many, but it is to me. Showcase damn it!
