HITMAN383 Rant for WWF WrestleMania X-7

- The HITMAN383 Rant for WWF WrestleMania XVII. Yeah, sure, why not? It was a good one, and I might as well do something on it, right? Seriously, I LOVED this show when I saw it live, but I never can tell how I REALLY like it until I review it, piece by piece. So, here we go… (Very true. I remember absolutely loving WrestleMania XV the night it aired, but once you get some perspective, you realize what a piece of shit show it was – with multiple negative-star matches, and insane booking)

- BTW, I use this system: ***** - Excellent, **** - Great, *** - Good, **- Okay, * - Decent, DUD - Awful.

- Live from Houston, Texas (at the gigantic Astrodome, with 68,000 people).

- Your hosts are Jim Ross and Paul Heyman.

- I gotta say, I TOTALLY dig the big crowd, and the cool set they built. (It was cool in 2001, but I think we’ve all grown thoroughly tired of the overblown entrance sets by now. This was written in Spring 2001, when this was all still fresh)

- Video of Austin/Rock to open, set to “My Way.” Personally, I think it’s a good song, but I know some will disagree with me.

- Big historic video package on WM. It’s this kind of video that makes you proud to watch wrestling. Seriously.

- Opening WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Chris Jericho vs. William Regal: Weird choice for an opener. Big heel heat for Regal. Regal kicks ass to start, but eats clothesline, and gets pounded on the mat. Criss cross leads to a spin kick by the champ to put William out, and he hits an over the top dive to follow. Back in, Chris hits a top rope back elbow for two, and a wrestling sequence leads to Regal tossing Chris into the post injuring the shoulder. He does it again to follow up, and continues to work on the bad shoulder (which he hurt on Smackdown the week before this.) Chris takes him down with an elbow, and tries the Lionsault, but hits the knees. That gets Regal two, and he hits an overhead suplex for two. He rams Jericho’s shoulder into the exposed top turnbuckle, but takes two enzuguri’s in return. Missile dropkick gets two, but a Stinger Splash misses. Regal hits a double underhook suplex off the top for a two count, to impress me. Chris goes for the Walls, but Regal counters into the Regal Stretch! Chris fights, and makes the ropes. He pops up with chops (making Regal’s white chest BRIGHT red), and catches him with a bulldog. Suplex connects, and a Lionsault finishes at 7:07. Pretty good match, but not anything special. ***. (Upgraded this to *** ½ in the BUExperience. Great opener)

- Bradshaw riles up the other A.P.A. members for WrestleMania. Good for him.

- Six Man Tag Team Match: The Goodfather, Bull Buchanan and Val Venis vs. The Acolytes and Tazz: Big brawl to start, as everyone gets their licks in. Bull and Faarooq officially open, and the Faarooq powerslams him for two. Tazz gets in, and suplexes Bull, but takes a boot to the face. Venis gets tagged in, and hits the short knees, and his Russian leg sweep for two. Goodfather with a slam, and a leg drop to make Tazz Ricky Morton. Side suplex for two, and the former Ho Train connects. Vader Bomb misses, and Bradshaw gets the hot tag. He kills Goodfather, and then takes out the rest of the RTC. Fallaway slam on Val connects, and now everyone brawls. Val takes a double chokeslam from the APA, and Bradshaw super-duper side suplexes him off the top! Bull stops the pin attempt, however, and he and Goodfather hit a double powerbomb on him. Goodfather tries another Ho Train, but misses, and takes a clothesline to end it at 4:18. Decent match, as six man tags hide weaknesses very well. *.

- Trish wheels in Linda, and they meet Steph, who starts giving out the orders right away. (Of course, today, she actually IS the boss)

- WWF Hardcore Title Triple Threat Match: Raven vs. Paul Wight vs. Kane: Raven attacks Kane before the Big Show even comes out, because I guess if we waited for the fat ass to get down that long isle, it would take 10 minutes for this to start. Once Paul gets there, he’s met with a flying Raven, who is thrown onto him by Kane. It quickly goes into the crowd, where they brawl for a while. Nothing too inspired. It goes backstage, where Raven is tossed into a wall. Show slams Kane on some wooden palates, then kicks the champs ass in a little cage. Kane gets in there too, and hammers the Show. Raven decides to choke Kane with a hose, but gets thrown right through the caged area they’re in. Kane beats his ass down a hallway, and throws him through a window. Show shows up, and breaks down a door with Kane’s body. They brawl in that room, and go through some dry wall to spill into the room Raven’s in. Raven hits them both with a table, and then tries to drive away in a golf cart, but Wight stops that effort. They brawl down the hall, and Kane chases them in his own golf cart, but accidentally runs over Raven’s leg. Ouch. They keep fighting down that hall, not doing anything too inspired. The cool stuff already happened, and this is just the transition to the ending. They go back to the entrance area, and fight on the ramp. Show tries to press slam Raven, but Kane kicks him, and both he and Raven fall through a piece of the set. Kane follows up by doing a leg drop onto the Show (in a cool spot) to get the pin at 9:16. Raven made this match, make no mistake. * ¾.

- WWF European Title Match: Test vs. Eddie Guerrero: Slugfest to start, which is easily won by Test, and he powerbombs him for two. Eddie bails, and another slugfest goes down on the floor. Test wins THAT one too, but gets decked on his way back in the ring. Eddie pounds on the champ, but gets slammed into the post in retaliation to give Test a two count. Test gets caught on the top, and Eddie tries a rana, but Test won’t go, and Guerrero falls headfirst. Test hits a back elbow from up there, to get two, and then Eddie tosses him out. Test gets caught in the ropes by his ankle, and it takes them FOREVER to unlatch him. After they finally do, Eddie works the knee, and drops him back inside. More knee working. He hooks a sleeper, and the champ fades. Test powers out, hits a tilt-a-whirl slam, and follows with a tornado powerbomb for two. Good for them. Test tries a full nelson slam, but Eddie hits a low blow, distracts the official, and Saturn DDT’s Test. It gets Eddie two, so he hits a brain buster to kill him. He misses a senton, however, and Test hits the pump-handle slam for two. Saturn (who looks more like Hollywood Hogan everyday) runs in, takes a shot, and bails back out. It distracts Test, however, and a shot with the title belt gives Eddie the easy pin at 8:29. Another good one tonight, ***.

- Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit: Kurt on Texas: “I saw your little flag, and it’s missing 49 other stars!” Kurt is hilarious. Good, long mat wrestling sequence to start, which no one wins. They finally break, and the crowd cheers them on. They repeat it, and again get a pop. Kurt overhead suplexes him, but Benoit wrestles his way to a dominant position, and they do another mat sequence. Benoit nearly gets the cross face out of another sequence, but Kurt grabs the bottom rope. He goes for it again, but again Kurt bails out. Another sequence, and this time Benoit DOES hook it, but only for a second, as Kurt makes the ropes. Kurt gets sick of this mat stuff, and decks Benoit, dropping him to the outside. They brawl out there, and Kurt throws the Crippler to the steps. Back in Kurt suplexes him for two, and then hits a side suplex for two. Benoit tries to chop his way into control, but fails, as Angle hits a belly to belly suplex. He hits another, just to rub it in, but takes a clothesline from the Crippler. Chopfest won by Kurt, but Benoit knees him in the gut to teach him a lesson. Clothesline by Benoit for two, and a snap suplex gets two. Notice how it started all slow, and technical, and then turned into a full-fledged match? Great building. Superplex gets another two for Benoit, but the rolling Germans get stopped at two, as Kurt tries for the Ankle Lock. Benoit reverses, however, and hooks his own ankle lock. Kurt fights out, but gets hooked into the cross face! Angle fights out of THAT, too, however, and hooks the cross face on the Crippler! Chris makes the ropes, and hooks the cross face again, but the ref. gets bumped. Angle taps, but there’s no ref! Benoit goes to wake him up, but takes the Olympic Slam for two. Slam, and Kurt tries for a moonsault, but hits the knees. Benoit goes up stairs, and hits the headbutt for two. They do another wrestling sequence, and Kurt hooks the tights to win it all at 14:01. Great match, with awesome in-ring storytelling. **** ¼.

- Regal goes to his office, tired from his difficult match, but finds Kamala there, jumping up and down on his desk. Bummer.

- Angle mocks Chris Benoit backstage, so Benoit locks him in the cross face again, and Angle taps out.

- WWF Women’s Title Match: Ivory vs. Chyna: Chyna gets the RTC barred from ringside, in exchange for Ivory getting documentation that if she breaks Chyna’s neck, Chyna can’t sue. Not that any of this matters, considering what’s about to go down. Chyna IS the Ultimate Warrior tonight. Ivory jumps her with the title belt off the bat, and hammers away on the neck, to some good heel heat. Chyna forgets the neck injury all together, however, and slams the champ around. Hip toss and a clothesline connect. Backdrop kills Ivory, and the powerbomb looks to finish. She covers, but pulls her up at two. Since she’s a face, that’s okay. It only spells doom when a HEEL pulls up the FACE at two. Warrior-like press slam finishes it for real at 2:38. Exactly what it should have been: Quick. To the point. Under three minutes. DUD, but it’s DEFINITELY better than if they gave them 7 or 8 minutes out there.

- Vince readies the women for his match with Shane. Michael Cole interrupts, so Vince overacts a little bit. Damn, Vince loves to overact doesn’t he? You know, the whole divorce angle Linda opened up on Monday is overly stupid, since the pre-match video here shows Vince yell at Linda, “I WANT A DIVORCE!” So? Both of you want out? What the hell is big shock supposed to be? And Vince acted “shocked” on Monday? Why? Like two months before HE said he WANTED a divorce. What a stupid angle. But I dig the Vince/Shane WWF/WCW stuff. (Oh, just you wait…)

- Street Fight, with referee Mick Foley: Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon: Before the match, we get a look at some of the WCW wrestlers up in the skyboxes at Astrodome. Vince kicks ass to start, but Shane comes back with a clothesline and a spear. He drops a Hulk Hogan-like series of elbows, and Steph comes in to stop it. Shane no-sells a slap, however, and baseball slides Vinny-Mac. He uses a metal street sign on Daddy, and then chokes him with a cable. He hits a flying clothesline off the rail, and then tosses Vince headfirst into it. He grabs a kendo stick, and gets in some VERY nice shots with it, just because he can. He goes boxing on his dad to follow, with some nice rights and lefts. He lays Vince out on the Spanish table, and goes to the top like at SummerSlam 1999. He makes the fatal leap, but Steph pulls Daddy away, and Shane crashes. Excellent bump. Foley comes over to yell something at Shane, which is probably along the lines of “Shit man, that was cool!” Now that Shane is dead, Trish wheels Linda out to watch at ringside. Trish then goes over the comfort Mr. McMahon, but turns on him with a big slap! Steph isn’t too happy about that, and slaps Trish, so we have a catfight! Yep, Paul probably booked this one. Mick breaks it up (to HEEL HEAT), and Trish chases Steph up the isle for some more ass kicking. Back to ringside, as Vince heads over to abuse Linda. Foley stops him in his tracks, however, but takes a chair shot (square on the head, too) as a result. Vince pulls Linda out of the wheelchair, and sits her down in the ring so she can watch. He rolls Shane in, and tosses a ton of garbage cans in for some abuse. He cracks one on his head, and verbally abuses Linda, then breaks another on Shane. Number three is about to follow, when Linda pops up from her chair (to the pop of the night, so far) and kicks Vince in the nuts. Foley beats on him a little, too, to earn more mad pops. Shane lays Vince out in the far corner, puts the garbage can on his face, and hits the Van Terminator from the other corner to end this at 14:09. It wasn’t an extraordinary WRESTLING match (like Benoit/Angle), or anything, but the drama was SUPER high, and Shane was like a mini-Foley tonight. Sports Entertainment at it’s best. *** ¼. (I downgraded this one pretty drastically when I did the BUExperience)

- The Hardy Boyz yak at an autograph signing. I really dislike the Hardyz’ characters, but I dig their wrestling, which is what really matters, I guess. (Kinda like CM Punk, whose character I hate (both on and off screen), but there’s no denying his wrestling ability)

- WWF Tag Team Title Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match II: The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz: I dig E&C’s Charlie’s Angels like shirts, BTW. It’s funny as hell, and totally fits their character. New music for the Duds here, which doesn’t work NEAR as well as the old one. (I don’t even remember the different themes today) Big brawl from everyone to start (not really just to start, however, as the whole match is a big brawl), and Christian takes a pancake. E&C take everyone out with a ladder, and work the “tree of woe/stand on crotch” spot on Matt. Jeff gets drop toe held into a chair, and Edge climbs. Matt stops him, and climbs, but Edge clotheslines him off. Edge climbs again, but Jeff hits a springboard dropkick to stop that. They baseball slide a ladder into the Dudley’s, and hit the rolling thunder off a ladder onto Christian. Ouch. The champs re-enter, and hit the Wassup Drop on Edge (with HUGE distance tonight), and Buh-Buh sends D-von to get the tables. They bring two into the ring, as Matt re-enters, but gets dumped back out by D-von. Jeff tries HIS luck, but gets powerbombed onto Edge (who’s on a table) in a nice bump. The Dudley’s stack up tables on the outside (four tables, in two sets), but the Hardyz attack them. Three ladders are inside now, and Matt is setting them up, but Buh-Buh stops that, and finishes the job himself. Three ladders, six men. You do the math! Everyone falls off their respective ladder (with Christian going all the way to the floor) in another great bump moment. Amazingly, Christian recovers quickly, and sets up a table outside. Edge starts to climb, but Spike Dudley runs out to acid drop him off a ladder! He follows up by acid dropping Christian off the apron through a table! E-C-W, E-C-W. Oh. Sorry. Force of habit. Jeff takes advantage of this, and starts to climb, but Rhyno runs out to stop that. He kills the Hardyz and the Dudleyz, then sets the ladder up for Edge. He starts to climb, when Lita makes HER run in to stop him. Rhyno tries to press slam her, but Spike stops it, and Lita rana’s the big guy. Edge ALMOST gets the gold, but Spike knocks the ladder over to kill Edge. The Duds hit the Doomsday Device on Rhyno, and then 3-D Lita! E&C use chairs to take the champs out, but Jeff takes Christian out. Jeff gets the SUPER ladder on the floor, and goes NUTS, doing the Swanton off the top onto Rhyno and Spike. Holy Shit! That was CRAZY! Edge gets the super ladder INSIDE now (that is a GIGANTIC ladder), and Christian and D-von climb. They reach the belts, but Matt takes the ladder away, and they hang there. D-von falls off, and Christian follows. Jeff runs across three ladders (nearly dying in the process), and climbs. HE gets there, but Buh-Buh takes the ladder out, and Edge climbs the super ladder, then spears Jeff from the cable. Holy Shit! Buh-Buh and Matt brawl on the top of the super ladder, but Rhyno pushes it over, and they fly to the floor crashing through the stacked tables from earlier. Oh G-D. Everyone climbs the super ladder now, and with the aid of Rhyno, Christian gets the titles once again at 15:39! Man, that’s 3-0 for them in these matches. *****, but it’s STILL not better than Shawn/Razor. Just know that. They can do all these super bumps, but they can’t top WM X’s ladder match like that. The fact of the matter is, that that one was MUCH more technically sound than this one, with all the psychology. Still, this was one HELL of a spot-fest. (Still one of the very best spotfests you’ll ever see, but I wouldn’t quite go the full monty on it anymore. Entertaining as hell, though)

- The Fink gives us the official number for the night: 67,925. That’s about 300 more than WrestleMania VI … and that’s scary. Still not WrestleMania III’s levels, but whoa. (This was back in 2001, when we hadn’t seen a ‘Dome WrestleMania’ in nine years)

- The Fink introduces Mean Gene and Bobby Heenan to commentate on the Gimmick Battle Royal. I gotta say, it made me feel REALLY good to see these two come back. You could see the pride in their eyes to comeback to the their real home in wrestling. Also, it gives WrestleMania that “special” feel. Bobby is also in pretty rare form tonight, and I want to see him back regularly.

- Gimmick Battle Royal: We’ve got the Bushwhackers, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, The Iron Sheik, Earthquake, The Goon, Doink (with the pop of the match), Kamala, Kimchee, Repo Man, Jim Cornette, Nikolai Volkoff, Michael Hayes, One Man Gang, The Gobbly Gooker (we even get footage of Survivor Series 1990 when the Gooker danced with Gene), Tugboat, Hillbilly Jim (hide the dogs), Brother Love, and finally Sgt. Slaughter: Everyone starts up, just hammering away. People fly at random, with too many too fast to name ‘em all off. Tugboat and Repo Man are done. Earthquake hits the floor. Kimchee’s gone, and Luke follows. Cornette hits the floor, followed by the Garbage Man. Goon and Volkoff are done, and Butch is out. Doink tossed (to BIG heel heat), and Gang flies. Slaughter dismisses Kamala leaving Slaughter, Hillbilly, Sheik and Love. Love goes, followed by the Sarge, and Sheik easily tosses Jim to win at 3:04. Slaughter, the sore loser, runs in to hook the cobra clutch. Whatever. Sheik wins because he can’t take any kind of over the top bump. DUD, but who cares? This was a lot of fun, and made me feel good. (In the days before things like Old School RAW, and Hall of Fame ceremonies, and Legends roundtables, it was still really special and nice to see something like this)

- Triple H vs. The Undertaker: Motorhead sings Triple H out live. Reminds me of Cheetum in that Halloween Havoc 1992 mini-movie: “Play the game! Play the GAME!” Big pop for ‘Taker. They brawl on the floor to start, and Triple H goes through the back up Spanish announce table with ease. Inside, Hunter hits a flying knee, but ‘Taker no-sells and hammers. Backdrop kills Hunter, and the ‘Taker beats the hell out of him. Powerslam connects, but he misses an elbow. He hits a flying clothesline to make up for it, however, and works on the arm. He tries the ropewalk forearm spot, but the Game slams him off. He hits a neckbreaker for two, and a swinging version for a series of twos. He argues with the ref. as a result, which allows UT to recover, and he hammers away. Criss cross leads to a facebuster by HHH, and he gets a sledgehammer from ringside. He goes to nail UT with it, but the ref. takes it from him! UT takes control, and slingshots him, but he collides with the ref. Chokeslam, and the ref. recovers to count two. UT is pissed that it was only two, and beats the ref. up. That makes sense, how? It spills outside, and Hunter takes a backdrop into the crowd. They brawl through the fans, and reach the sound stage area. They fight onto that, where UT kicks ass. Triple H finds a chair, and whacks the ‘Taker with it, because he can. He bashes the leg with it, and goes for a final big hit, but gets caught, and UT chokeslams him off the sound stage! WHOA! WOW! AMAZING BUMP! Of course, it only looks cool until we get an actual camera shot of it (the original missed the impact, we only saw Hunter fall) which shows us that he landed on a big mattress. Well then, forget all my caps of excitement. (Nothing wrong with safety, of course, but did they really need to highlight it with a replay at that angle?)  ‘Taker follows him onto the big pad with an elbow, where the EMT’s are working on him. Sure, I know if I fell 5 feet onto a thick mattress, I’D need medical attention. (Child-HHH must have been a ball at bouncy-castle parties) UT beats him back to the ring, where he finds the sledgehammer. Hunter begs off, but no dice, as ‘Taker comes at him. He’s about to use it, when Hunter nails a low blow, and gets the sledgehammer back. He charges the big man, but gets kicked in the face for his efforts. Slugfest won by Hunter, and he tries a tombstone, but UT reverses and hits it. Well, one for old times sake, I guess. The ref. is still out, however. That was like 10 minutes ago! The dumb ass couldn’t recover from a simple ELBOW DROP for 10 minutes? COME ON! He goes for the Last Ride, gets him up there, and is about to drop, when Hunter hits him with the hammer. He makes the dramatic cover for …. Two. I thought that was it when I watched it live. He goes for the ten punch count, but UT stops the effort, powerbombs him, and makes it 9-0 at 18:53. Triple H took ‘Taker to his best singles match in a long while here. ***. (Interesting that I’m referencing The Streak in 2001, because I didn’t think that became ‘a thing’ until a year or two later. Though, really, they’d been mentioning it offhand since 1995ish, anyway)

- One more to go kids, one more.

- Main Event: WWF Title Match: The Rock vs. Steve Austin: Steve nearly blows the roof off the place. Rock gets a good pop too, but it’s clear Austin is the face for this one. Austin attacks with punches right away, and a criss cross leads to a Thesz press. He drops a few elbows on the champ, but takes a swinging neckbreaker off another criss cross. Both guys try for their finishers, but fail, and Austin tosses Rock to the floor. Great sequence there. He follows out, and they fight into the crowd. I hate when they do that. It’s short, however, as they quickly come back to ringside. Rock’s in control now, and he rams Steve to the announce table, but takes a short clothesline by the Rattlesnake. Back inside, Austin kicks away. He resorts to choking Rock on the ropes to get a two count, and puts the champ up top. He follows, and superplexes the great one off for two. I love these two. It’s just non-stop action! Austin removes the turnbuckle pad, but Rocky hammers away, and a criss cross leads to a flying clothesline by Rock. Powerslam gets two, and he clotheslines Steve to the floor. Rock kicks his ass out there too, bashing him into the timekeeper’s table. Austin bashes Rock over the head with the ring bell, and the Rock drops his blade. Tisk Tisk Tisk. Sloppy. He blades anyway, and Austin keeps the assault going. Austin beats him back in, and kills him with right hands. He tries to ram him into the exposed turnbuckle, but fails, so he hits a neckbreaker instead, getting two. Steve stomps a mud hole in the WWF champion, and shoves the ref. around when he tries to stop it. Rock shoots out of the corner with a lariat (to heel heat), and then rams Steve into the exposed steel! He grabs the bell from ringside, and whacks Steve with it. It gets two, and both men are bleeding now. Rock keeps pounding him, as we see that the Rock’s bladejob has faded out. ASPRIN! Chew some before the match, dumbass. (I don’t think Rock ever did manage to do a good bladejob, did he?) Steve’s is flowing, however. Back outside, Austin drops Rock on the rail. He follows up with a slingshot to the post, where Rock’s head absolutely SMACKS into the post. Great bump from the Rock there. Austin follows up by whacking him with a TV monitor, and rolls him in for a two count. Rock stagers to his feet after all this, and sees the double bird by Steve, so he hooks him in the Sharpshooter! Austin tries to power out, as we see that now BOTH men’s bladejobs are flowing nicely. Steve finally makes the ropes, so Rock tries again! Steve counters, however, and hooks Rocky into his own Sharpshooter. Austin is definitely better at the hold than Rock is, that’s for sure. Rocky powers out, but Steve keeps working the knee, and puts him back in the Sharpshooter. He makes the ropes, but Austin refuses to break. He eventually does, and hooks the champ in the Million Dollar Dream! This is so cool! Rock fades, but powers up, kicks off the ropes for a cover (like Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1996), but Austin has learned, and kicks out! That is some WICKED psychology! They trade right hands, and Rocky busts out a Stunner to put Steve down! The crowd gives it a mixed reaction, and Rock makes the dramatic cover for two! Both guys are dead, and all of a sudden, Vince McMahon struts out to ringside. Watching live, I was going “Oh shit. Not a screwjob.” The participants don’t notice him, however, and Austin hits a spinebuster for two. Rock hits his own spinebuster, and nails the Peoples Elbow for two, as Vince stops the count (to a face pop). Why would Austin need help to kick out of a G-D damned elbow drop?! Live, I was pissed at this point. I mean, I wanted a good, long face/face match. And I was getting that. Until Vinny strolled out. Anyway, Rock chases him, but gets caught by Austin, and Rock Bottomed! That gets another dramatic two. He tries a stunner, but Rock counters, and the ref. gets bumped. Vince comes in with a chair, and they lay out the Rock with it. He covers, but the ref. is dead. Vince revives him, and Earl counts a dramatic two. At this point, I thought that Rock would make the comeback and win. I mean, face/face I picked Austin to win this. But when I saw the heel turn, I was thinking Rock would make the comeback. Steve goes to whack him with a chair, but Rock turns it into the Rock Bottom! Vince distracts the ref. so Rock takes him out, but that distracts him enough for Steve to hit the Stunner! ONE TWO NO! I was in SHOCK that he kicked out, at this point. Steve bashes him with a chair for another two, and the crowd is starting to cheer Rock on too. Austin’s pissed, and kills the Rock with about 50 chair shots (while Vince overacts in the corner), and gets the easy pin at 28:04. HUGE pop for that, as the fans don’t seem to have realized that Steve has just turned heel. He shares a beer with Vince to solidify that, but the fans still seem a little confused. The match was excellent, however, even with the crappy heel turn stuff. That ruined it for me a little bit, but still **** ¾. Super high drama, and great wrestling mix VERY well. (Try *** ¼. It’s a hell of a roller coaster ride, but I just don’t see a near five-star match here anymore)

- Bottom Line: I still love it. It wasn’t just the “live watching” feel that made me love it, it’s just as technically sound and great now. Two REALLY great matches in the Main Event and TLC II. One excellent match in Benoit/Angle, which was great as a pure wrestling match. Shane/Vince was a great thrill ride in sports entertainment, and even the Undertaker walked away with a good showing. And the stuff that wasn’t that good (Chyna/Ivory, APA/RTC, Hardcore Title, Gimmick Battle Royal) were either short, or a lot of fun. Nothing outright sucked, and the whole show had a really EPIC feel. There is NOTHING more anyone could ask for.

- I will always stand by WrestleMania X as the best WrestleMania of all time. But that’s mostly nostalgia, since it was the first show (and first WM) I ever saw. And it really WAS great show, make no mistake. But this is one HELL of a contender for best WrestleMania ever, and even best PPV ever.

- GET IT NOW! HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.