Alright you sick bastards, if this thread is going to die of disinterest it certainly can't happen of all times during the WrestleMania X section. This is one of the best.

I think it will pick up in a few weeks as we are about to enter a big boom period in wrestling; people are more likely to post if they watched wrestling at the time the Mania occurred. I've read some other reviews of Mania around the net, and this thread seemingly contains the best reviews available.

Yeah hopefully. XI is the first one that I actually got to watch live instead of waiting obsessively for the local video store to get the VHS of it; unfortunately it's an incredibly bland show. Odd how inconsistent the Manias were from year to year whether the product was at a peak or valley in the company's history.

WM X Observations Followed By the Top 10 Performers of the First 10 Wrestlemanias:

Vince is actually somewhat suited for announcing something such as the first ever ladder match. His usual over the top style was matched by many fans who were astounded by seeing something like this the first time. However, Vince really drags down the rest of the matches. Still not as far as Cole drags things down today.

Lawler wasn't too bad then but he was never in the same tier as Ventura or Heenan as an announcer. During the ladder match he is below replacement level at times making several comments that are worthless at best. He also undermines Bret/Owen at times (e.g. saying Bret might be the better wrestler but Owen is the better fighter. Did he just say this because it is standard to say this for heels in his mind? Bret has those great punches and if Owen has a weakness in the ring it is his brawling. Also the fake laugh is so bad)

I love the "throw out the guy who could interfere" move. Makes the marks and the smarks happy as it keeps the match clean and favors the babyface.

Why hasn't this Crush/Savage stipulation been used more? If Savage had a better opponent it would have become a popular stipulation. The biggest tragedy during a time of many writing/booking tragedies was Vince trying to phase out Savage several years too early.

I was really bored during half the matches on this show; more bored than the bad matches on previous Manias because of the announcing, which for perhaps the first time in Mania history is below average. But Yoko/Bret is pretty good and so is Crush/Savage. Say what you will about Bret's first title reign, but they did an amazing job emphasizing his strengths (underdog face, in ring ability) and making the fans love him here. Add that to two all time classic matches and this is a genuinely good show, but not one that I seriously considered putting above III. Second place so far.

MVP ballot for the first 10 Manias, discounting drawing power significantly (but not completely) to focus on actual performances:

10. Gorilla Monsoon
9. Bobby Heenan
8. Ultimate Warrior
7. Roddy Piper
6. Ricky Steamboat
5. Hulk Hogan
4. Shawn Michaels
3. Bret Hart
2. Jesse Ventura
1. Dino Bravo





1. Randy Savage

The boom period may be on the way, but there's really not another good Mania until X-7 imo.

Should have my review of WMX up sometime tomorrow.

IIRC XIV is strong (though X-7 is certainly better).

12 and 14 are probably the only decent ones until X-7.

**** me, computer ate another one. I'll have the full review up sometime later in the week, I'll probably end up writing X and XI back to back.

Cliffs: The show gets 8.5/10, firmly below WM3 and firmly above every other one, on the strength of two ***** matches, including the greatest opener ever, the usual good MSG crowd and Bret's final ascension to the throne at the end.

WrestleMania XI is now open for business until next Monday night. It features John Turturro's less talented brother Nicholas as a celebrity guest, so right away you have to be pretty psyched.

WrestleMania XI

Are we headed for yet another hangover following a great Mania? Yes, yes we are.

Allied Powers vs. Jacob & Eli Blu: Old Zeb looked downright youthful 20 years ago. After being built toward being a believable WWF Champion, Lex Luger found himself at the bottom of the card at what would be his last WrestleMania. Anyway, the Bulldog sunset flip off the ropes is a nice spot to end the match on (even if totally illegal). Everything that preceded it was absolute garbage. 1/4*

IC Title: Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Razor Ramon: As technically sound wrestlers go, Jeff Jarrett has to be in the running for most boring in history. He was the Alberto Del Rio of the 90s. In his defense, his match with Shawn Michaels later this year was an underrated classic. This one? Meh. Wasn't the worst, but I couldn't get into it all that well. I was always annoyed that this was essentially the exact same as their Royal Rumble match three months prior. **

The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy: Hey Bundy, nice clotheslines you old fool. This match is really quite terrible. Somehow it doesn't feel as bad as other 0* matches, though I don't exactly know why, so I guess I'll be generous. 1/4*

Tag Team Titles: The Smoking Gunns (c) vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna: Quite a few fun double-team moves in this one; absolutely loved Owen's drop toehold into Yokozuna's big fat legdrop. Match was pretty fun. **3/4

I Quit: Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund: These two could put on good matches together, but this stipulation was a bad idea. This match was very, very dull despite both men displaying some technical proficiency. *

WWF Title: Diesel (c) vs. Shawn Michaels: The pre-match promo by Kevin Nash is hilariously bad. The eye candy on the arms of both men was nice. This approach they took in marketing the match - calling Shawn Michaels the favorite - was a strange one given the size he was giving up. Very non-standard for them. I'm guessing that the face turn was already in the plans before this match ever happened, even though some have said that the crowd sort of turning Shawn's way during the match helped do it.

There's a fine line between Shawn's early bumps in this match and his bumps against Hogan years later. These managed to look good though, with HBK bumping his ass off to carry his talentless buddy. I hadn't watched this match in a long time, and had long mentally rated it as "decent, but whatever." It's better than that. It's very good, even if it falls a decent way short of their 1996 no DQ match. Quite a performance by Michaels. ***3/4

Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow: Certainly as good as you could hope for out of Lawrence Taylor. He worked a good, believable match, and Bam Bam brought him along nicely throughout. Shoutout to Bigelow for the greatest Boston crab of all time during this match. Surprisingly enjoyable match. ***

Overall: A semi-strong finish keeps this from being the worst Mania ever, but it's still pretty low on the power rankings purely for its lack of impact. If there would be one to skip along the way and never feel like you missed anything important, this would be the one. Whereas WrestleMania IV gets some grace for having the historic impact of Randy Savage's rise to the top, WrestleMania XI is one that you stand back from and shrug, because not one thing that happened really mattered in the long run. Those are the two that I end up struggling over where to rank between them here…my first instinct was to put XI below IV, but I decided to put it just above.

WrestleMania Rankings
1. WrestleMania III
2. WrestleMania X
3. WrestleMania VIII
4. WrestleMania VII
5. WrestleMania V
6. WrestleMania VI
7. WrestleMania XI
8. WrestleMania IV
9. WrestleMania
10. WrestleMania IX
11. WrestleMania 2

Somehow it is hard to believe that Nash was in not one but multiple good matches against both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart during this year+ time period. On top of that, the matches Hart had against Lawler and Backlund around this time period are significantly worse than the ones against the man soon to be known as Big Lazy.

Yeah, his matches with Shawn and Bret during his title reign were decent/good (the second Bret one anyway, the first was overbooked nonsense). It was just his matches with Sid, Davey, and Mabel that made me want to drink cyanide. I suppose in fairness to him that only one of those workers was even passable for anyone to work with, but still.

Diesel's match quality in the mid-90s could always be 100% accurately predicted by the quality of the opponent.

I think I've seen 2-3 good matches between Diesel/Bret despite not watching much WWF during 1995; which one do you consider overbooked nonsense? I'm not opposed to what people call 'overbooking' on principle, although it is so rarely done well that it almost deserves that name.

Royal Rumble '95. It wasn't terrible as far as ringwork goes, but it was the match where Michaels ran in and attacked Diesel in view of the referee, referee calls for the bell and then decides the match must continue, Owen ran in and attacked Bret, same result, then the heel locker room empties out to attack both and the match is a no contest. It was pretty stupid.

I think I gave them a pass for watching the match out of order/context as opposed to watching it live where it might make some sense, and therefore it didn't ruin the match for me.

I'm still shocked about a celebrity match (LT/Bam Bam) actually being good, but I can still watch tape of LT rushing the QB from the 80s and be shocked also, so he is an exceptional athlete.

Good on ya for the main even ranking. That match is almost universally underrated, and got a great performance out of a non - wrestler carried by a guy who should have been higher up the card the majority of his career. I don't know what it is I love about agile big men, but Bam Bam had every right to be Vader levels of over. Stick him in with Umaga as a wasted commodity that should have been used better

What was Bam Bam Bigelow's best match? I can't think of any that would be comparable in quality to Vader vs Sting, Flair, Foley or Inoki. The match vs LT may have very well been his Bigelow's best performance, given the opponent. Vader may not have been able to have such a good match with a non-wrestler; not many could.

Bigelow-Bret at KOTR '93 was very good I thought. Been a long time since I've seen it though.

It was. Also his matches with Tazz in ECW were very good

Bam Bam was criminally misused, but I'll get into that more in my review.

+1. Check out there match at the first ecw ppv. I think that's the one.

Bam Bam vs RVD where RVD won the TV title in ECW. Was just a normal weekly show though.

Bam Bam had a good push in an early Survivor Series match. 88 I think

Required viewing of Bam Bam is when he won the ECW belt from Shane. I've pimped it a few times here already but the whole situation was nuts and nobody bought that he would ever win.