411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 23: The WrestleMania XIX Roundtable Review
Posted by Larry Csonka on 03.29.2007
Two World Titles on the line, Ego vs. Ego, The Heartbreak Kid Returns, a WrestleMania Trilogy ends and more!
Introduction~!
WrestleMania XIX is a fascinating one for many reasons. For the first time ever we would see the company's "two" world titles being defended as HHH battled Booker T and Kurt Angle battled Brock Lesnar. If that wasn't enough, Vince McMahon would step back onto the WrestleMania stage and battle his won creation, Hulkamania! Shawn Michaels would also return to the WrestleMania ring, and would do battle in what some thought of as a match we would never see, facing off with Chris Jericho. Finally, we would have the final part of the WrestleMania Trilogy, as Steve Austin did battle with the Rock! There was a ton to look forward to on this show, but how does it stand up to our panel of reviewers? Let's meet them and break down the card!
Our analysts today are…
Homicide's favorite "hoodlum," Stuart Carapola!
Stuart Carapola: In this match, Matt Hardy pinned a guy who would go on to become World Champion. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, it happened. Matt Hardy was getting his last real push, breaking away from Jeff and doing his "Matt Hardy: Version 1" gimmick where I guess he was supposed to go on the internet a lot. Interesting how art imitates life like that. Mysterio, in the meantime, had only been in WWE for about six months, and had been having good to great matches with Kurt Angle and as a part of the fabled "Smackdown Six" of late 2002. Unfortunately for Rey, he would not win this night as Hardy got a win with the help of the ropes, but this all led up to Mysterio getting his big title win, in the main event of Smackdown no less, when they got to his hometown in California some weeks later. It was all downhill from there for Hardy.
Mike Bauer:So here we have Matt Hardy, Version 1, as the biggest Cruiserweight Champion of all time (not counting Disco Inferno), taking on Rey Mysterio, who had just come over from the defunct WCW and had a great start to his WWE career. Matt Hardy used the ropes to win here, but it was all for the best as Mysterio's would go on to beat Hardy in his hometown 6-1-9. And yes, it is hard to believe that Matt Hardy did beat a future WWE champion, no matter the size.
Julian Williams: This was back when Matt Hardy V1 was a super hot heel, complete with awesome entrance. I too wonder sometimes how they ever did WrestleMania without Matt. Anywho, this was a pretty good match with both men bringing their A game and busting out some nice moves. The match ended when Matt was able to counter a roll up by Rey Rey by hooking the legs and grabbing onto the ropes. Decent WrestleMania debut for Rey.
Match Rating: C+
Zac Calhoun: Much like some other things on this show, this was a big missed opportunity. Matt was pretty much had the most heat he ever had at this point, and Rey was making his WrestleMania debut and getting his first big shot at the CW title. Clearly, this match should've gone on for at least ten minutes, right? Well, almost half of that isn't bad I guess. Both guys did what they could do in the short amount of time they had to do it in. They worked their spots, had a good match, and got the crowd pulling for Mysterio all the way. It would've been anticlimactic for Rey to win the title in such a throwaway match, so Hardy kept it in a smart move. Their match on SmackDown a few weeks later was what this match should've been.
The Undertaker defeated The Big Show and A Train @ 9:46 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Undertaker was originally supposed to team with Nathan Jones here, and there was really no doubt that Undertaker's streak was going to continue. I guess taking Jones out via an injury angle was their way of making it a little interesting. Undertaker fought both of them off and then Jones made his return, spin kicking Big Show in the jaw and allowing Undertaker to Tombstone A-Train for the win.
Mike Bauer: This had train wreck, no pun intended, written all over it after Undertaker's partner, Nathan Jones, decided the WWE was just not worth the travel. They used an injury angle here to get Jones out of the match, but still had him show up and help the Taker win the match and continue the streak. The finish came with a Tombstone on A Train, but for all my money, I would have loved to see the Dead Man do it to The Big Show. That right there would have been worth the full one star rating.
Julian Williams: So this match was originally suppose to be ‘Taker and Nathan Jones against Big Show & A-Train until they realize just how badly Nathan Jones sucked and decided to make it look like he got jumped before the match thus making it a handicap match. This match wasn't too horrible with ‘Taker taking a good beating to make it seem like his streak was in jeopardy even though we all knew it wasn't. The match ended when Nathan Jones came out to give a JUMPING SPIN KICK OF DOOM AND DESPAIR to A-Train which allowed ‘Taker to dump him on his head for the victory. Nothing too offensive.
Match Rating: C
Zac Calhoun: Ah, the A-Train has his WM moment. Unfortunately that moment consisted of becoming the eleventh guy to job to Taker at WM, despite having a guy who outweighs Taker by 150 pounds helping you and you yourself outweighing him by a little bit. Taker's partner was of course booked to be Nathan Jones, but when the bookers realized that Nathan Jones sucked ass they improvised their way into a handicap match. It was a step back for Taker, who had brought the crowd to their feet the year before with Flair. It was a step back for A-Train, who had been on a pretty big role leading up to that. It was a big step back for Show, who proved to the world he couldn't beat Taker with another guy on his side. A pretty unproductive and unspectacular match to say the least.
Stuart Carapola: For the second year in a row, the Women's Title was on the line in a three way match. As puzzling as I thought it was that Trish didn't walk out with the title in her hometown at WrestleMania 18, she redeemed herself by winning here to cap off the storyline where Victoria was a psycho stalking Trish, an angle that would be repeated a couple of years later with Mickie James.
Mike Bauer: So last year it was Trish, Jazz, and Lita for the Women's Championship in Toronto, and Jazz came out the winner. This year, we had Trish winning the title against a psycho-stalker in Victoria and Jazz, who never really played into the angle, but was the Women's Champion and needed to be there. It's amazing how many times they have used the psycho angle and it is even more amazing that it got better every single time they did it. This one was definitely better than Tori and Sable, but Mickie and Trish was much better than this one.
Julian Williams: Ohh man how I miss Victoria's kick ass entrance music. They need to just pay TaTu so they can get that music back for her NOW. This was a damn good match, but once you look at the participants, it isn't hard to see why. That's what happens when you have women that can actually WRESTLE competing for the title rather than women who pose naked. Even though I wouldn't mind seeing any of these ladies naked. Well maybe except Jazz. Depends on how drunk I am. Anyways, this match ended after the Widow's Peak was blocked and turned into a Chick Kick by Trish for the 3 count. Really fun women's match.
Match Rating: C+
Zac Calhoun: In many ways, this is a three-girl representation of woman wrestlers everywhere. We have Jazz, who is very athletic but looks more like an ape than a woman. We have Trish, who's a fucking babe but hasn't quite proven herself as a legit competitor yet. And we have Victoria, who's got both of those departments in spades. Put them all together and you get a really good women's match. It didn't set the world ablaze, but it earned its spot on the biggest card of the year for sure. The only problem I had is that Trish had to go over; she wasn't as good then as she is now, and you could just tell Victoria and Jazz were better wrestlers. But there are bigger problems in the world.
Stuart Carapola: While this was an underrated match, I was a bit let down that this was all they were doing with Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit that year. Don't get me wrong, it amounted to a great match that seems to have been forgotten in the wake of the marquee matches, but I can't help feeling like two of their best were wasted in what was basically a throwaway match, especially after the Angle-Benoit match at the Royal Rumble. I didn't think there was a chance in hell of Rhyno and Benoit walking out with the straps, so for me it came down to the Guerreros and Team Angle (Haas & Benjamin, aka The World's Greatest Tag Team), and Team Angle walked out with the win. Step one to Team Angle walking out with all the gold was completed.
Mike Bauer: Team Angle was a Kurt Angle coached team of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, who were brought in by Paul Heyman to help Angle take down Brock Lesnar. The goal for the night was to win this match and also have Kurt Angle win the main event. Well, I guess 50% isn't horrible. But just to think that another year from now, it would be WrestleMania XX and you would be seeing two men in this match as WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion respectfully. What's even worse, is that I can rattle off WrestleMania storylines and matches like a book, but not even I could tell you what Eddie and Benoit were doing the year before they won the big ones.
Julian Williams: This match was actually a lot more fun than I remember it being as everyone was on their game and it was very fast paced and entertaining. My only complaint about it was that it was too short because if given another 5 minutes or so, this match would have been remembered as a WrestleMania classic. The match ended when everybody started hitting their finishers, including a SWANK frog splash by Eddie onto Benjamin (while he covering Benoit), and then Rhyno GORED the hell out of Chavo, which allowed Benjamin to sneak in for the pin and the victory. Very fun match, pity it was so short.
Match Rating: B
Zac Calhoun: I heard an interesting statistic on the WM 22 DVD: until Big Show/Kane vs. Carlito/Masters there hadn't been a traditional two-on-two tag team championship match at WM since 1999 with D-Lo/Test vs. Owen/Jarrett. I think its sums up quite nicely how creative they got in 2000-2001 and how uncreative they've been ever since. This match, while pretty good, is another in the long line of ultimately meaningless tag title matches. It does have some bright spots though; it's the only WM appearance of Los Guerreros and an early entry in the legend of the World's Greatest Tag Team. It can best be described as "nice."
HBK defeated Chris Jericho via pin @ 22:30 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This was Shawn's return to WrestleMania after a five year absence. Shawn had just returned about six months before this and had wrestled VERY sporadically, so his health was still a bit of a question mark, as was his long-term prospects, but four years later and he is not only still going, but will actually be challenging for the title. I didn't know this at the time, and thought that this was part of an unofficial farewell tour for Michaels. Jericho, in the meantime, had been running a treadmill since losing the Unified WWF Title the year before, and this was his highest profile match since that time. The lack of crowd heat for this match (and the whole show, for that matter) hurt it a bit for me, but they put on a great match that was won by Michaels with a surprise rollup.
Mike Bauer: Five years ago, Shawn Michaels was to be in the last WrestleMania as a busted back meant he would never wrestle again. Five years ago, if you were to tell anyone that I would have been sitting in the crowd at Summerslam 2002, watching HBK vs. HHH is a brutal match, I would have said you a freaking crazy. But here we were, with Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels at the biggest show of the year. I know what the ratings say, but I still think this watch the match of the night as Shawn Michaels proved that he still had it in him. Jericho lost the Undisputed title the year before and pretty much stayed the course of a push here and a push there, including a great feud with Christian, but never regained that spotlight he had when he beat The Rock and Austin the same night.
Julian Williams: Ohh hell yes. These are two of my favorite wrestlers EVER so once it was announced that they were going to be facing each other at WrestleMania, I nearly shit my pants. And by nearly, I mean that I did. This match lived up to all my expectations and remains one of my favorite matches ever PERIOD. Jericho mimicking HBK and hitting him with the superkick after a little shuffle was one of the biggest mark out moments of my life. I was disappointed that HBK won the match as I felt that Jericho needed the win more, but Jericho was able to gain his heat back after the match by kicking Michaels square in the nads. That'll learn him.
Match Rating: A+
Zac Calhoun: A lot of people claim this as the match of the card. I don't, but there's good reason to. Both guys bring the drama, as HBK tries to prove he can still compete on a WM-type stage and Y2J tries to prove to himself and the world that he can beat Shawn. Both guys give great in-ring performances as usual, using the heel persona of Jericho to further fuel the baby face comebacks of Michaels. When Shawn was stuck in the Walls, you could see the look of pure joy and anticipation in his face, like his greatest childhood dream was to come true if Shawn were to tap out. I kind of wish Jericho would've gotten the win (better for business), and even if he didn't I would've like the finish to have been more decisive, but it's worth watching as many times as you can if you want to learn about psychology.
Stuart Carapola: Speaking of DX members, Triple H was in the midst of his famous 2002-2004 stranglehold on the World Title at this point. He had beaten Rob Van Dam, Kane, Shawn Michaels, and Scott Steiner leading up to this, which drew very sharp criticism from the online community at the time. Looking back on it now, the idea of any of those guys save Michaels (and even he was a stretch because of his health concerns) holding that title, at least then, was a joke. So was his opponent on this night, Booker T. Booker T got this shot mostly because there was nobody else with any credibility to feed to Hunter. They did this storyline to set it up where Hunter said something like "People like you don't deserve to be World Champion" with the unspoken implication that he said this because Booker T was black. He still is, in fact. The match felt like it was just there to give Hunter something to do, and though Booker got in some offense, the match came off like a formality, especially when Hunter hit the Pedigree and waited like ten seconds before covering him and won anyway. Looking back, it just wasn't Booker's time and putting the title on him then would have seemed forced.
Mike Bauer: For the match, it was good, as HHH once again made himself the great man by beating another contender at WrestleMania. Well, not only did he do that, but also he made it look too easy. And it should be noted that this is the last WrestleMania that HHH has won, as he jobbed to Benoit, Batista, and Cena the last three years. Of course, by this point, HHH had a huge grasp on the title after coming back from his torn quad and winning the Undisputed title last year (even after having that belt switch hands 4 times before they made it two different titles again) and then being awarded Raw's World Heavyweight Title in September. He beat a lot of top guys, but none who really could have carried the title. The feud concept with Booker T was lacking to me, as they played the race card with Booker T being black and not being title worthy. In the end, good match, not my choice of angle, but played well.
Julian Williams: A lot of people have crapped on this match and I can never understand why because this match was damn good. Of course the ending was horrible with HHH hitting the Pedigree, going home to bone Stephanie, stopping at Stop N Shop, and jamming with Motorhead before covering Booker for the victory but the match itself was highly entertaining. HHH focused on Booker's leg the majority of the match and Booker sold it beautifully. The highlights of this match for me was Booker hitting the Houston Hangover right on HHH's head and JR & The King giving one of the funniest calls I've ever heard when Flair tried to knock Booker off the top tope when Book hit him:
The King: Look at ‘Naitch!
JR: Ohh look at Flair! Get the hell down! Flair had no business on the apron.
The King: He attacked The Nature Boy for no reason! Call the police! That's assault!
JR: Assault? That's ridiculous!
The King: That was very disrespectful on the part of Booker T!
JR: FLAIR HAS NO BUSINESS UP THERE DAMMIT!!! NO BUSINESS!!!
Awesome.
Match Rating: B
Zac Calhoun: As awesome as SmackDown got in late 2002-early 2003, Raw was every bit as much shitty. The main event of the Royal Rumble and No Way Out saw HHH going up against the Big Bad Booty Daddy, who was quite the opposite of ready to compete. But then Raw rewarded us by giving our beloved Booker the big title shot. Logic suggested a face win over the overly powerful heel champion at the big supercard. But we all know how much logic affects WWE's thought process, especially in regards to the Tripster. Not only did they pull a racism angle out of the feud, but also they had the racist guy WIN THE MATCH at the big supercard! And in the time it took for Tripster to make the pin fall after the Pedigree, I was able to shellac my shed. Wrestling fans weren't happy after this one.
Hulk Hogan defeated Vince McMahon @ 20:37 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Pretty much every conversation I had about WrestleMania 19 leading up to the show went something along the lines of "Well, you know what the REAL main event is going to be." This was, of course, in reference to this match. There were people who expected this match to close the show, in fact. Thankfully it didn't, although it made the perfect segue to close Disc 1 on the DVD set. This was a street fight, which nearly every Vince McMahon match is to cover for the fact that he can't wrestle. Nothing wrong with that, nor should he be expected to be pulling out **** chain wrestling clinics, but I also think that this was every bit as much to cover for the fact that Hogan had deteriorated as well by this point. The surprise appearance of Roddy Piper popped me and my friend James (who I was watching the show with), but in the end meant nothing except for a half-hearted Hogan vs. Piper "feud" in the spring of 2003 which was over before it started. Hogan won, but the real highlight for me was a bloodied and beaten Vince giving Hogan the finger as Hogan made his exit.
Mike Bauer: To me, I think of this match as Frankenstein vs. The Creation. McMahon made Hogan the star he was, there is no question. This match was a street fight, which with the age of both people in the ring, almost had to happen, because neither man could compete like the real main events. In the end, it was Hogan winning and a bloody McMahon flipping off Hogan as he left. This feud would continue for months as Piper would get involved, Hogan would get sent home but come back as Mr. America with his friend, the one legged Zach Gowen. This dragged on for more than half of 2003, with it ending with the dreadful Vince vs. Stephanie Match.
Julian Williams: This match is memorable to me for three reasons. The first is that it had perhaps the greatest video package that I've ever seen for any feud. These two didn't have a couple months of beef, but they had YEARS of hatred towards each other and I felt that it was conveyed perfectly in the video package. The second thing was the return of Roddy Piper which was a total shock. I thought that some crazy fan had entered the ring and once I realized it was Piper, I screamed like a 5 year old seeing Spongebob On Ice. The third thing was perhaps the greatest visual of all time when Vince, covered in blood, rose up from under the ring with a pipe in his hand and had the most devilish grin I've ever seen. Even to this day, whenever I watch this match and see that visual, I laugh my ass off. Hey, the match wasn't half bad either. It was better than any match between two 50 year olds had any right to be so for that alone, you have to give it a positive review but the other things mentioned above made it that much more enjoyable.
Match Rating: B
Zac Calhoun: I remember the buildup for this match well…I was just becoming a little smarky, and I was all uppity about Vince hogging all the WM spotlight with Hogan, the king of hogging the WM spotlight. Fortunately for all of us, it produced quite the entertaining match. Despite being well past his prime, Hogan can still effectively tell a story in the ring, and Vince is unto a god in that respect. The funny thing is Vince actually did most of the work in this match, as he did slightly less steroids in the ‘80s and ‘90s and could still move a little. But both guys made up for their shortcomings physically with plenty of plunder and lots of blood. And it of course had that sense of drama only Vince can bring to a match. So basically, this was just about as good as it was going to be, so yay!
The Rock defeated Steve Austin @ 17:53 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Here we go for Round Three! Though this was their third WrestleMania meeting, Rock and Austin had many matches against one another over the years and, aside from Rock pinning Austin to win the match for his team at Survivor Series 2001, Austin won every single time out. Even though Austin was more popular than Rock, it still amazes me that the win-loss record between the two biggest icons of the Attitude Era was so drastically one-sided. However, it was the WrestleMania record that was the focus here, as Rock specifically noticed his losses to Austin at WrestleMania 15 and 17 and said that he wanted his win over Austin at WrestleMania. After another grueling match and three Rock Bottoms, Rock had finally scored his big singles win (and a clean one at that) over Austin. I was disappointed because I was a much bigger Austin fan than I was of Rock, but what we didn't know at the time (and wouldn't for some months) was that this was to be Austin's last match, as his physical condition, especially his neck, had gotten so bad that it was a danger for him to keep wrestling, hence the extremely limited comeback tour of early 2003 where he squashed Eric Bischoff, had this match, and that was it. Rock was more or less done as well, sticking around long enough to job to Goldberg at Backlash and making his WrestleMania 20 appearance before calling it quits himself.
Mike Bauer: It was round three of Rock vs. Austin at WrestleMania, with Stone Cold winning each of the first two falls. The difference between this match and the other two? The WWF/WWE title was not on the line. The Rock had come back two months prior to defeat Hogan at No Way Out and then asked for this match as it was one thing he had never done. Austin had come back, much to Bischoff's anger, squashed him, and then had this match, which would be his last match ever due to his neck problems. I think for The Rock's overall stature and wrestling career, he needed this win, as it was the one true time that he won at WrestleMania, something that never really happened for Dwayne Johnson, outside of the torch passing match a year prior. The Rock would wrestle for one more month, jobbing to Goldberg, and compete at WrestleMania XX. We haven't seen him since.
Julian Williams: This was the final encounter between The Rock and Austin after years of being bitter rivals and this match was a fitting end to their saga. I heard a lot of people at the time give this match guff because they said it was essentially them just hitting each other with finishing moves and to that I say, "So F'N What?!?" It was still entertaining as hell and anytime I see The Rock hit the Stunner or Austin hit The Rock Bottom, I'm a happy boy. I loved the way the match ended with The Rock having to give Austin THREE Rock Bottoms to finally put him away as it finally gave Rocky the victory that always eluded him while still making Austin seem tough as hell. I still love this match to this day.
Match Rating: B+
Zac Calhoun: Isn't in ironic that although Austin walked out on the company in mid-2002, the fans still insisted on booing the Rock for simply wanting to make a movie and cheering Austin because it was comfortable? Any goodness that came from this encounter or the promo work leading up to it can be attributed almost solely to Rocky. He really put over the importance of the match, referring to beating Austin as his "destiny" while Austin drank beer and gave people Stunners. Even the work rate was more Rock than Austin; it even seemed like Austin was struggling to take the Rock Bottom. The right guy went over here, and Austin's WM career went out with a definite whimper.
Stuart Carapola: Angle vs. Lesnar was one of the most widely anticipated matches of the year or so leading up to WrestleMania 19. Though they had had brief interactions over the months, they never had any serious contact until the lead up to this match. A lot of this stemmed from the fact that Lesnar, like Angle, had a strong amateur wrestling background, winning the NCAA Division I Title in college. The truth is that Angle, as a world-level wrestler who actually won a World Championship AND the Olympics, would totally destroy Lesnar in a shoot because they're at two different levels, but this was total work. This was also the famous match where Brock Lesnar nearly broke his neck trying a shooting star press. Apparently he had done it successfully several times in developmental, but it didn't quite work out as well here. To his credit, Lesnar toughed it out and finished the match, beating Angle as planned, but it was a really scary moment.
Mike Bauer: And speaking of neck problems… Houston, we almost had a major one here. Brock was screwed out of the WWE Title at the Survivor Series, when Paul Heyman turned on Brock to help The Big Show win the title. But Paul Heyman was also behind Kurt Angel and he won the title shortly there after. Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar won the Royal Rumble and got his chance to reclaim the title against Kurt Angle. Lesnar got the win and these two would go on to have some other amazing matches, switching the heel and face heat more than once. But the story was how Brock Lesnar ended the match. Now remember, Brock Lesnar was a big man, probably six and half feet tall and near 290 pounds. The guy actually went up to the top rope and attempted a shooting star press half way across the ring! The problem, he didn't time it perfectly and the big crashed on his face in such a way where he almost broke his neck! To his day, I still see that and wonder two things. One, how didn't he break his neck? And two, I know it's WrestleMania at all, but how the hell did he get the guts to attempt that? I give him a ton of credit just for that.
Julian Williams: This was the match that was the wet dream of every fan that loved mat based wrestling. You had two of the most accomplished amateur athletes facing off in the main event of the biggest wrestling show of the year. This match delivered on what it promised which was great technical wrestling. It was a back and forth contest that built intrigue throughout it. I remember watching this match and fearing for the life of Kurt Angle since it was reported that his neck was basically hanging on a thread and one false move could permanently paralyze him. It turned out that the life I should have been fearing for was Brock Lesnar as he damn near killed himself when attempting a Shooting Star Press from halfway across the ring. If Lesnar had hit that move, this match would have gone down in the annals of time. But when I think about, I think the fact that he damn near killed himself will make this match instantly memorable for a long time to many fans. Despite the scary ending, this was still a fantastic match that was a fitting way to cap off a great WrestleMania.
Match Rating: A
Zac Calhoun: This match is a testament to two things: 1) the awesomeness of the SmackDown brand during this time (they actually got to have the WM main event), and 2) the influence this awesomeness had on WWE style. Not only did we have two amateur wrestlers in the biggest match of the year, but they actually let them do some honest to goodness wrestling too. It was a very nice break from the norm, especially on this big a stage. I'm a little sad that Kurt hasn't main evented WM more than he has, but he and Brock have us a great one. One can point to the blown SSP as a reason to hate on the match, but to be honest I'm surprised more spots like that haven't been fucked up over the years. And of course, the true "Brock Era" was started in grand fashion, so we've got to respect the match for that. ‘Tis my match of the night. It was a very satisfying ending to, despite some pretty big problems, a very satisfying PPV.
The Conclusion:
Stuart Carapola: I was more satisfied after watching this than I was after WrestleMania 18, but there were some knocks against it. I was personally let down by the Rock-Austin match, but personal rooting aside, it was another good, dramatic match between them. Hogan-Vince was as good as could be expected, and both Michaels-Jericho and Angle-Lesnar delivered. There's also some good stuff on the under card, but none of it is anything that meant anything in the long run. The lack of crowd heat the entire night kind of killed it, though.
Mike Bauer: This was a really, really good WrestleMania. The triple main event delivered probably a lot better than most people's expectations and for the most part, every match was solid. HBK vs. Jericho I think was pure gold, but I wish it would have given Jericho a push back up. I think the fact that WrestleMania XX is rightly held in such high regard, as is WrestleMania 17, kinda makes this one gets lost in the fray a little bit, but it really shouldn't. The proof? I was shopping and I could choose one DVD to help me get free shipping from WWE.com. My choice came down to WrestleMania 19 and WrestleMania XX. What happened the next year made my choice way too easy.
Julian Williams: This is definitely one of the most underrated WrestleMania's of all time. There was not a single bad match as everything ranged from passable to great. Jericho/HBK, Rock/Austin, and Lesnar/Angle make this show a definite must see and the other matches are enjoyable as well. I think this show was greatly unappreciated at the time, but as time goes by, people realize how good of a show it really was.
Show Rating: B+
Zac Calhoun: The best way to describe WM XIX is that it was a good show that could've been much better. It certainly wasn't lacking in good matches and strong talent, but for some reason it just didn't come together as well as it could've. Fortunately, they would fix that problem the next year.
