411’s Countdown To WrestleMania 24: My WrestleMania Favorites, Bests, and Worsts

After two great columns by Slimmer and Meehan, 411wrestling.com’s Countdown to WrestleMania series rolls on today with my contribution of my WrestleMania Favorites, Bests, and Worsts. Just who am I, you ask. I’m Randy Harrison, long-time contributor to the MMA zone and Friday news columnist over there in the land of fists and chokes. My beginnings in the world of combat sports though started with my first love, professional wrestling. I’ve been a fan of wrestling for as long as I can remember, and despite being only five, I vividly remember renting WrestleMania on VHS about three or four months after the event and sitting cross-legged, five feet away from my television, watching Muhammad Ali, Liberace, Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, and getting hooked in. I was already an AWA fan, but there was something about the spectacle and how larger than life the event seemed to my little kindergarten eyes.

From there I was all about WrestleMania and I rented them as soon as my video store would carry them, and I remember how awesome it was to see the huge crowd of WrestleMania III, how cool the packaging for WrestleMania 4 was (the double VHS tape that was connected by a huge fold-out of Hulk Hogan that jumped out like a picture in a pop-up book), and how psyched that I was that I was able to dub WrestleMania VI to have my own copy of it at home (which I watched until the tape wore itself blank). This is the first WrestleMania that I have been a part of the 411 universe, and as soon as I saw that there was still a space available in the rotation for this huge undertaking, put together by resident madman Larry Csonka , I jumped at the chance to put my two cents in and be at least some small part of the spectacle that I have enjoyed for nearly my entire lifespan. Without further adieu, I give you my small contribution to this great series, my little list of WrestleMania Favorites, Bests, and Worsts.

Best WrestleMania Venue: Madison Square Garden (WM I, WM X, WM XX)

The only venue to hold WrestleMania on three different occasions, Madison Square Garden is the birthplace of WrestleMania, and is the first arena I think of whenever I think of WrestleMania. New York City is often thought of as the center of the world, and if you’re looking to make an event seem just a little more special, there’s no place to hold it quite like New York. The arena was the home base for the promotion, as far back as the old WWWF days, and when the idea for WrestleMania came about, I’m sure there were no second thoughts about holding it at MSG, in their home arena. There’s just something about seeing a match come from MSG that makes it feel more special and it’s no coincidence that most of the biggest moments in WrestleMania history (Hogan and Mr. T, The Ladder Match, Bret/Owen, Guerrero and Benoit) took place in this arena.

Worst WrestleMania Venue: Nassau County Coliseum (WM 2)

The idea for WrestleMania 2 was a grand one. One event, held in three different locations around the United States, covering the three biggest cities in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The problem with this idea seemed to be that instead of getting the “A” venues in every city, they had to settle for the B or even C venues. The Coliseum, on Long Island in New York state, is definitely a C venue when it comes to professional wrestling. The arena looked cavernous on TV, and was really poorly lit, and it felt more like you were watching a house show than a WrestleMania. Thankfully, the WWF never returned for another big event to the Coliseum, as it’s honestly the worst looking portion of any of the WrestleMania events.

My Favorite WrestleMania Performer: The Rock

Born into wrestling royalty, Dwayne Johnson seemingly had a fast track to the top of the wrestling world. It didn’t begin that way on The Grandest Stage of Them All for The Rock though. At WrestleMania 13 he faced off against The Sultan in a highly forgettable bout, and The Rock has always been one of my favorites, and it seemed like every year come WrestleMania-time, he’d kick it into overdrive and become far and away the most entertaining part of the Road To WrestleMania. His matches were usually good to great, but the builds to them were mind-blowing. When I first started to realize that Rock was doing something special and was going to be remembered as one of WrestleMania’s greats was in the build-up to WrestleMania X-Seven, where he and Austin played it face vs. face, but with a small twist. He always seemed to end up doing that little bit extra to make his matches all the more entertaining, but even that would be taken to a new level every time that WrestleMania rolled around.

The best run I think the Rock had in terms of entertainment value, leading up to WrestleMania and including the match was the run-up to WrestleMania XIX where he and Stone Cold Steve Austin rekindled their rivalry to finally decide who was the better man. After “Rock” concerts, a return to his roots as a heel, and a twist on that persona with Rock beginning to play the chickenshit heel to perfection, there was still the matter of the match. Austin was in bad shape and this would in fact be the last match he ever wrestled, but The Rock made sure that it was a classic. He and Austin served up an epic that served as the perfect book-end to their rivalry and to me, will always be considered the REAL main event of WrestleMania XIX

My Favorite WrestleMania Match: Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, Wrestlemania III

This is always my favorite match to watch whenever it gets close to Wrestlemania time, or just when I feel like checking out a great match with a simple storyline that didn’t need any gimmicking or fancying up. Savage injured Steamboat and put him on the shelf for a long period of time, to the point that some (my eight-year-old self included) thought that Steamboat might have had to retire. He came back though, and he swore revenge on Savage, vowing to take the thing that meant the most to Savage, his Intercontinental Title. It’s said that Hogan and Andre sold the tickets but Savage and Steamboat carried the show, and I’d agree with that statement completely.

Through almost twenty minutes, and more two-counts than I could keep up with, Savage and Steamboat went inside and outside of the ring, move for move, counter for counter. Alternating between high-flying moves and slugging it out, technical prowess and blind hatred, they fought for the Intercontinental Title, but almost as importantly they fought to prove who was the better man. I remember being on the edge of my seat for this entire match, worrying about Steamboat’s injury, loving as he took over on Savage and lost his cool for seemingly the first time ever, and wondering if George “The Animal” Steele would end up playing a part in the match. He did, helping save Steamboat from another injury and eventually “The Dragon” reversed a simple body slam into an even simpler roll-up for the pin and the title in one of the greatest matches I have ever seen. If WrestleMania was where they had hooked me in on the WWF two years before, then WrestleMania III, and more specifically this match, was where they sealed it and made me a true fan of the WWF for life, which is why it will always be my favorite Wrestlemania match.

My Favorite WrestleMania: Wrestlemania XX

I was too young to see Wrestlemania live the first time around at Madison Square Garden, and I missed the tenth installment of the show when it returned to MSG because the area I lived in didn’t have a cable service that provided pay-per-view access. When Wrestlemania decided to return to the Worlds Most Famous Arena, for the show’s Twentieth Anniversary, I knew that I had to make it a must-see. The WWE took advantage of their return to their home arena for this show, using it as a springboard to “Where It All Begins…Again”. I loved the opening of the show and the ending moment featuring Vince, Shane, and little Declan McMahon was one of those pictures that you know will play a huge part in wrestling history decades from now when Shane and Stephanie are ready to hand off the business to their children, Declan included.

From the Angle/Guerrero bout for the WWE Championship, to the triple-threat main event, to the iconic, if not somewhat tainted, image that closed the show, this is the Wrestlemania that I watch when I want to watch four hours of action without fast-forwarding through a moment of the event. John Cena F-U’d the 500 lb. Big Show, The Cruiserweight Open provided high-flying excitement, The Undertaker eschewed his motorcycle to return to the Dark Side and Goldberg and Lesnar stunk up the house in one of the absolute EPIC bad matches of all time. That one almost made my favorite Wrestlemania match just because of how much I love how the crowd reaction played such a part in it and how memorable it is for that reason alone. Back to the subject at hand though, Wrestlemania XX was a great night for the WWE, a great source of excitement for me, and despite it not standing up to the test of time even five years later, and a really great show.

My Favorite WrestleMania Moment: The Austin/Bret double turn at Wrestlemania XIII

This is the moment that forever changed professional wrestling. From this one moment, came the rise of the WWF from the brink of extinction and the explosion of the “Attitude Era. The seeds were planted for the run that would lead to Bret Hart’s departure from the WWF, and the popularity that Austin would go on to achieve would lead to the WWF winning the Monday Night Wars and buying out their rival WCW. You might think that I’m reaching, but all of these moments and a lot more that I didn’t mention came out of this one event. In the months leading up to the show, Austin and Hart had been locked in a feud, with a great Survivor Series match between the two thought of as the centerpiece of the feud. The match was considered to be one of the best of 1996, and it was thought that there would be no way that they could top that bout, or add something new to one of the longer running feuds that had been going in the WWF for a long time.

Where could these two go from there? To a moment that lives in immortality, that’s where. The submission match was meant to prove who the better man was, and in a way it ultimately did. Bret Hart won the bout when Steve Austin passed out from blood loss and the pain from the Sharpshooter that Hart had applied. The result wasn’t what mattered, but what happened before the closing bell of the match certainly was. Austin, who had already been hearing larger and larger cheers from the crowd, fought valiantly through the Sharpshooter with blood streaming down his face. It’s a moment that has been seen countless times in WrestleMania previews and highlight specials, in pictures of magazines, on T-shirts and everywhere else. Austin gained the respect of the crowd that night in Chicago, the cheers grew louder and louder, and he took that momentum to become the greatest star in the history of professional wrestling.

Worst WrestleMania Match: Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzales, Wrestlemania IX

The Undertaker is the holder of the longest WrestleMania winning streak in history, and has fought in main event matches, casket matches, and huge showdowns that have been the stuff of legend. This match is certainly not one of them. Giant Gonzales was part of Dr. Harvey Whippleman’s stable and came out in a full bodysuit with muscles that had been airbrushed on and patches of hair that had been glued all over. I assume that he was meant to be thought of as a and had been tabbed as the man who would take down The Undertaker.

The match was an epically bad big-man match, as Gonzales was hardly a worker, and The Undertaker was not at the point yet to where he could carry a match all on his own. He was definitely the better worker out of the two, but could only do so much with the 7-foot, 400-pound anchor tied around his ankle. The match didn’t even end up having a finish, as Gonzales ended up relying on the Southern standby of ether to put The Undertaker down. As far as I remember, Gonzales ended up disqualified for that action, or there may have been a double-DQ. That’s how bad this match is, folks. I have expunged it from my memory and haven’t thought of it in maybe ten years. Many have tried to beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, many have failed, and Gonzales was no different in this absolute stinker of a WrestleMania bout.

Best WrestleMania Match: Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, Wrestlemania X

After a tie in the Royal Rumble left Lex Luger and Bret Hart both with title shots for the WrestleMania X card, a coin-toss determined who would fight the champion first, while the loser of the toss fought in a warm-up match, to ensure that both competitors in the main event Championship match had already wrestled once before. Luger fought Yokozuna first and came up short later on in the card, but the show opened with Bret Hart’s warm-up match, against his own brother Owen. What followed was the greatest opening match ever on a wrestling show, and the greatest match in WrestleMania history.

Owen and Bret finally went about settling who was the superior Hart brother, and spent the better part of half an hour telling a story with their bodies in the squared circle. The only added story was the fact that they were brothers. Other than that, they let their work in the ring do all of the talking and it spoke volumes. Every instance of chain wrestling, every near-fall, every submission attempt, had the crowd on the edge of their seats, and when the end finally came, with Owen pinning Bret off of a reversal of a victory roll, the crowd came to their feet to applaud both men. The people in the audience did so because they knew they had seen something special, and I really agree with that statement. As an in-ring battle, it’s one of the best WWF matches ever, and is an easy pick as the best match in WrestleMania history.

Most Underrated WrestleMania Performer Of All Time: Chris Jericho

Jericho will always be thought of as an underrated performer on every level, and on the WrestleMania stage, it’s no different. Starting with WrestleMania 2000, and the triple-threat match between Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit, Jericho would go on to have entertaining matches at every WrestleMania he appeared on, whether they were opening matches or main event showdowns. Jericho brought it from bell to bell, and always had the crowd firmly behind him, whether heel or face. Jericho’s title wins at WrestleMania 2000 and at WrestleMania X-Seven, were merely the appetizers for his appearance at WrestleMania X-8 as the Undisputed Champion. Granted, the match is seen as a bit of a letdown after the legendary Rock/Hogan showdown on the same card, I think that it suffered more from the poor angle that led to the match, rather than the match being bad itself. Jericho has also brought his talent and flair for the dramatic to the Money In The Bank ladder match, as well as being the man who came up with the idea to begin with, in the world of kayfabe.

After all of this, one would think that his WrestleMania resume seems a little under whelming, but the biggest moment of his career and his best match just happened to take place under the bright lights of WrestleMania XIX. The match between Jericho and Shawn Michaels was nearly twenty minutes of action that rekindled memories of Steamboat and Savage’s epic from years past, while allowing us to see what it could have been like to see the Shawn Michaels of 2002 face off against the Shawn Michaels from the early 90’s. Jericho said repeatedly that Michaels was his inspiration in this business and it showed as these two fought as almost mirror images, bringing the crowd along with them for the ride. Sadly, this match is sometimes forgotten due to it’s spot on the card and that is a shame because it’s one of the better matches in WrestleMania history, and a match that highlights just how underrated Jericho was when it comes to his legacy at the biggest show of the year.

Most Overrated WrestleMania Performer Of All Time: The Ultimate Warrior

If there’s anyone who was part of more WrestleMania moments, while having no real addition to make to them, it would be The Ultimate Warrior. From WrestleMania V, where Rick Rude carried him to a decent Intercontinental Title bout, to WrestleMania XII, where he buried Hunter Hearst Helmsley in Warrior’s big return bout to the WWF, the Warrior has been nothing but under whelming in his appearances on The Grandest Stage Of Them All. The two biggest examples of Warrior’s overrated status are back-to-back with his bouts at WrestleMania XI and WrestleMania VII.

At WrestleMania VI, the event sold partially on the popularity of the Warrior, but there was more coming into play. The fact that it was the first WrestleMania to take place outside of the United States, that it was Warrior facing off against Hulk Hogan, and that it was title vs. title all played more of a part in selling that show than Warrior’s inclusion in the main event. Granted, he was the second-most popular star in the WWF at the time, but I think the show would have sold just as well if he hadn’t been involved. The next instance at WrestleMania VII is thought to be Warrior’s greatest match as he faced off in a career vs. career bout against Randy Savage. Savage is long known as a detail freak, and meticulously plans every aspect of his bouts. It’s no coincidence that Warrior’s greatest match was the one where every detail was laid out for him. This all makes him more of a placeholder instead of a contributor to the events and memories I outlined, and ensures that he is the most overrated WrestleMania performer.

Most Underrated WrestleMania Match Of All Time: Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage, WWF Championship Match, Wrestlemania VIII

This one is a match that a lot of people forget about because it was one of only two times that the WWF/E or World Heavyweight Championship was contested for before the main event. It wasn’t even second from the top. It was smack-dab in the middle of the card, and seemed almost buried. I don’t know if that was a “Hogan not wanting them to steal his thunder” deal or a “Warrior wanted his big return to go on last” thing, but it’s a real shame. Flair and Savage had a great match to blow-off one of the more entertaining WWF Title match feuds that had been seen in quite some time. Almost all of the previous WrestleMania main events were “Hogan defends against the big, bad heel”, or “Hogan tries to regain the belt”, so the storyline of the main event was almost always the same thing.

This WWF Title match finally brought some intrigue as Flair pulled out the “She was mine before she was yours, Savage” and Randy felt the need to defend his wife’s honor. As for the match itself, they tore the house down in my opinion and delivered a match for the WWF Title that had actual…WRESTLING. Back and forth action prevailed until Savage scored the big pin and avenged the besmirching of his lady’s integrity by Flair and Mr. Perfect. The action didn’t even end with the pinfall, as Flair would take the opportunity to plant a big liplock on Elizabeth after the loss, and Savage would take the opportunity to hand out a little bit more punishment. This match REALLY suffered from its poor placement on the card and that’s a shame as it’s an underrated and sometimes forgotten gem that a lot of current wrestling fans need to check out.

Most Overrated WrestleMania Match Of All Time: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart, Iron Man Match, WrestleMania XII

I get that the point of this match was for it to go the entire sixty minutes and that it was meant to be one of those epic struggles that had no winner during the time limit. I get that it was a battle between two hated enemies and that it was a great moment in the career of Shawn Michaels. I just don’t get what it is about this match that never seems to click with me. It’s serviceable enough as a match, and there aren’t any problems in terms of the work rate or the story heading in to the bout. The problems for me seem to be the pacing more than anything else. There have been Iron man matches since this one that have been able to keep the pace and action going, while not sacrificing the integrity of the match.

Much like matches in the old NWA where you could tell five minutes in if they were going to end up being time limit draws, this match was the same way. I could see from a mile away that they were going to end up tied at the end of the hour, and about 40 minutes in, I could see that they were going to get there with neither man scoring a pinfall. What was supposed to be a match that showcased how even the two combatants were and how technically equal they were, instead felt like one big stall session to make it to the climax, which technically happened after the match. For me, being able to see what’s going to happen in a WrestleMania main event and how it’s going to happen before the bell has even rung, made me less interested in this match and kept it from striking the cord with me that it has with some fans.

Best WrestleMania Performer Of All Time: Shawn Michaels

What more can be said about HBK that hasn’t already been said. He’s undoubtedly a future WWE Hall-of-Famer and he seems to always save his biggest performances for the Grandest Stage Of Them All. All the way back to his Wrestlemania debut at Wrestlemania V with fellow Rocker Marty Jannetty vs. The Twin Towers, to last year’s main event vs. John Cena, no one has fought in as many huge matches and put on as many classics as Michaels. From his gutsy performance at Wrestlemania XIV, where he suffered through a back injury that would partially end his career to put over Steve Austin, to Wrestlemania XIX, where he and Chris Jericho stole the show with an epic the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Savage/Steamboat nearly 15 years previous.

That’s not to mention the match with Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 21 or the street fight with Vince at Wrestlemania 22 where he essentially wrestled the match against himself and yet still managed to entertain everyone and nearly steal the show again. Year after year, match after match, no one has managed to outperform Shawn Michaels when it comes to that end of March, beginning of April time of year. From fulfilling his boyhood dream to stepping back into the Wrestlemania limelight and seeming like he had never left, Michaels has been Mr. Wrestlemania and is the one man more than any other who deserves to be associated hand-in-hand with the event for all time.

Worst WrestleMania Ever: WrestleMania IX

Where do I begin with this train wreck? First, the idea of a toga party was lame beyond belief. Second, the card was full of stinkers like Crush vs. Doink and Razor Ramon vs. Bob Backlund. The wrestling was passable, at best, and none of the blow-offs felt like blow-offs. I mean The Steiners vs. The Headshrinkers was alright, but was it really a hot feud that needed the payoff at the biggest show of the year? When the best match on the card features Tatanka, you know that it’s not a stellar WrestleMania by any means. This show was a poor idea, poorly executed, and with no real star power to speak of. Can you remember any of the celebrities that were involved with WrestleMania IX? Yeah, neither can I.

I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet folks. The main event of Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna was a bit of a downer as it was the first time that a heel had gone over in the main event to win the WWF Championship. The match itself was alright, but it didn’t seem like it was treated as a main event. We found out why directly after the match when Hulk Hogan came out to check on his “friend” Bret. This led to the impromptu challenge, the thirty-second match, and another Hulk Hogan reign at the top of the WWF. Thankfully this would be the last time that Vince would look to Hogan as the cure-all to whatever ailed the WWF and the focus would start to shift more towards the newer generation of stars like Hart, his brother Owen, Shawn Michaels, Diesel and others in the coming WrestleManias. An overall lackluster show, a terrible main event, and an egomaniac riding off into the sunset with a belt he didn’t deserve. Sounds like a winner for Worst WrestleMania Ever to me.

Best WrestleMania Ever: WrestleMania X-Seven

The pinnacle of the 80’s boom of professional wrestling was Wrestlemania III, but outside of Savage/Steamboat and the main event, there was a lot of sweet fuck all that meant anything or was memorable. The pinnacle of the late-90’s boom of professional wrestling wasn’t in the 90’s at all but in 2001, with the face of the wrestling landscape set to change forever and their most lucrative period, known as “The Attitude Era”, coming to an end. WWE had just purchased WCW, ECW had folded and this was the first large-scale stadium Wrestlemania show to be held since Wrestlemania VIII.

The atmosphere in the Reliant Astrodome was electric from start to finish, and the matches delivered. The proverbial snowflakes were flying around like a blizzard, with Angle/Benoit, TLC, Taker/HHH and the main event of Rock vs. Austin II all topping four stars in my book. This was the first Wrestlemania in a few years that felt like a huge deal to me, instead of the “just another show” mentality I had going into the previous editions after Wrestlemania X. I’ve always loved stadium WrestleManias more than regular arena shows, and this one was no different. The big thing about this show was that virtually every match delivered what it was supposed to and there were a ton of memorable moments. Plus it’s not every day you get to see a Gimmick Battle Royal right?