Scott Hall has/had a Youtube channel where he would watch matches (sometimes with other wrestlers) and give commentary like that. Last Call Scott Hall or something like that.

Wrestlemania X7

I've never seen this before. I've heard that it was the greatest without hearing why or having much spoiled. From this unusual perspective I viewed the show.

Jericho vs Regal

The formula for a good opener isn't complicated, but like Homer Simpson starting a fire when adding milk to dry cereal, so many Wrestlemanias do not have them.
So this match being the opener is more surprising than it should be. Heyman immediately shows off his announcing chops actually discussing match tactics. Ross works with this and brings up a shoulder injury that is part of the story of the match. Another thing that WWE makes appear more difficult than it really is.
The commisoner heel becomes the favorite and the face the underdog because of the story. They follow the injury in the match. The babyface sells the injury. The crowd digs it. That old textbook still has some chapters that are fully valid.
The main issues are that Regal is not in perfect shape, and the match isn't that long. But leaving them wanting more is better than leaving them wanting less.

3*

Gimmick Battle Royal

Battle Royal matches rarely are good so they may as well do something that causes us to not expect much. Jim Ross with the rare botch, semi-spoiling the surprise. Three of the top four color commentators of all time appear in this Mania (although Cornette doesn't get on the mic). This is a alright spectacle and is better than the average Wrestlemania 'break'.

1*

TLC II

I couldn't do justice to how well Heyman and JR set the stage for this match with words. They have that incredible ability to make it seem like you are about to see something amazing. It helps to offset psychology issues that such a match tends to have also.
Undoubtedly though it still turns out to be a spotfest without a great deal story wise. The crowd is in and out of the match rather than consistently interested like a truly elite match. They enjoy the run in mess part more than what comes in before that. Maybe not great but certainly an asset to have on a card.

3*

Shane vs Vince

By this point Shane is a better worker than most of the guys in the locker room, and Vince is surely passable for a non-wrestler. Mick Foley sweatpants are one of the greatest outfits ever. A few Shane moves worthy of "What a manuever!" before this falls into a rich and famous version of the Jerry Springer show. The pop when Linda awakens from her catanoic state is wild. Almost so bad it is good, but I didn't want to see this nearly as much as the crowd did. I love how JR ends this with "Thank God it's over!"

1 1/2*

HHH vs the Undertaker

The live version of The Game pales in comparision to the great studio version, but at least the wrestlers look way, way tougher than these tough acting puny rock stars. I really don't care for bikers or this era Undertaker character, although I suppose the gimmick changes may have helped to keep him fresh (not as much as limiting his appearances, however).
When exactly was HHH annointed the cerebral assasin? It is a great nickname, although here he isn't that far removed from the penis jokes troll gimmick (which followed a few royalty gimmicks). By the way don't answer that question; I'll Google it myself. HHH is in his prime here, and this illustrates the value of reinvention in another way, with a good character becoming a great one.
JR mentions HHH destroying a motorcycle during the build to this. How many of us have wanted to destroy one of those loud fat ****er carrying devices? I think I'm going to buy a motorcycle from the junkyard just to destroy it.
The crowd is intense during this. They do a great job transitioning it from a match to a street fight. Great psychology. They even utilized the sledge hammer sanely and well, which isn't easy to do. It isn't often that I think to myself "I really want to know who wins" but I did here (only to realize a few seconds later that it is obvious because of the streak). Probably better than any Undertaker match from the 90s.

4*

Ivory Vs Chyna

I really didn't need to see Chyna in that outfit. Ivory was a reasonably good wrestler prior to her WWE years and is willing to make herself look like a weak female Steve Urkel with that style and outfit in this squash. Have I mentioned I love the announcing? Just straight up calling Chyna out for pulling Ivory up instead of taking the belt right there.

0*

Test vs Eddie

Kudos to Hulk Hogan for taking on this flamboyant valet role for Eddie. Test is so generic and this is not Eddie's best performance.

2*

Benoit vs Angle

The fans aren't that into this match at first but these two somehow manage to get this Chyna loving, Jerry Springer watching crowd somewhat involved with an excellent display of technical wrestling. The ending is a non-ending to the feud, as both Heyman and JR clearly indicate by saying this war is not over. Extra points for Angle's cowboy hats insult.

4*

Raven vs Big Show vs Kane

What the hell is happening with Raven's music? And what the hell is that thing Raven hits Kane with before Big Show even shows up? A triple threat hardcore match is not a part of this era I miss. Even much of the announcing seems to be mocking the very concept of the match. I have seen even worse, though.

*

Tazz/Acolytes vs Right to Censor

*

The Rock vs. Austin

Austin's commentary helps everyone see how much more there is to being a great worker than being an athlete. You also see how valuable of a skill fixing minor screw ups well is.

4*

Overall: Fast paced matches, slow matches, run ins, technical wrestling, brawling, violence. A little bit of everything exactly like a wrestling PPV should have.

The amount of talent on this card is unbelievable. Never before, and unless something drastic changes, never again, will we see one company have as many great all around performers as WWE had in the early 2000s. It's probably not the best PPV I've ever seen (it has several bad matches), but it is the best Wrestlemania I've ever seen.

Tier 1=Must See=X-7>III>X>XIV
Tier 2=Glad I watched it=VIII>VII
Tier 3=Not completely awful=XIII>VI>V>2000>IX>XI>XII
Tier 4=bottom feeders=IV>I>II>XV

Ranked number 1 with no 5 star matches? Rock/Austin and tlc2 not breaking 4 stars? What is happening with that post?

Sounds like you want to correct it with a review of your own.

Why would a Wrestlemania need a 5 star match to be the best overall PPV? We don't automatically put XIII at the top on the basis of one match, so not having a 5 star match shouldn't eliminate a show from being at the top either.

Hot take incomming but having watched Austin/Rock with his commentary, I don't think a sub 5-star grade is wrong at all. Austin himselflays out a few decent reasons why.

It's been quite a while since I've watched that match, and while it certainly was great I'm not sure that I have it as a 5-star match myself. I'll see how I feel when I get down to re-watching it.

I also dont have it at 5 stars. 4.5 is my rating, a solid 4 seems low to me, but I also need a rewatch.

I think it was heading toward being a 5 star match until Vince got involved (even with the worst sharpshooters ever). The chair beat-down finish was just really anti-climactic.

Don't think I got them all, but the ones I can definitely see are Chavo Guerrero, Stacy Keibler, Shawn Stasiak, Hugh Morrus, Lance Storm, and Mark Jindrak.

WrestleMania X-Seven
April 1, 2001 - Reliant Astrodome, Houston, TX

- FINALLY, WrestleMania has come back to a stadium. Business was good enough and steady enough that they could afford to make the leap back. And given the magnitude of the main event, anything else would just not have done. Fans are completely jacked for this, and will almost certainly go down as the best Mania crowd ever. They open with the Blassie video again -- this is where I remember it from, I knew it seemed out of place at XV.

- Paul Heyman makes his Mania debut, filling in for the King during his little temper tantrum over the Kat, who would end up leaving him shortly thereafter. Paul E is just outstanding, probably the best overall colour man besides Jesse to ever do a Mania. I wish he and JR could have gotten along enough to form a more permanent partnership.

IC title: Chris Jericho [c] vs. William Regal ***
You really can't go wrong with asking these two to kick things off. Regal hurt Jericho with the Regal Stretch the week before this, and Jericho did a great job selling the shoulder all the way through the match. Regal's chest is as crimson as his tights from all the chops by the time this is over. Solid opener, my only real complaint is that I wish they'd gotten more time, finish came out of nowhere.

Right to Censor vs. Tazz & APA *
First half of this match was Tazz stumbling around after getting legit concussed by a big boot from Buchanan. He stayed in way too long afterward, and couldn't even run the ropes properly. Second half was pretty much just a 2-on-3 schmoz. Heyman with a great jab at JR: "How can a man from Oklahoma be so generous toward Texans?" Pretty sloppy, but not terrible.

Hardcore title, triple threat: Raven [c] vs. Kane vs. Big Show **1/2
This didn't really get going until they eventually make it into the back, where we see some pretty impressive spots, such as Raven getting tossed through a plate glass window by Kane, Big Show throwing Kane through a door, and Kane running Raven over in a golf cart (with referee riding on the back). Coming back to the stage, Big Show tries to chokeslam Raven off, but Kane knocks them both off, then comes flying in with a legdrop on Show for the pin and the title. Good story told here for a hardcore match, as Raven basically tried to let the other two kill each other and hopefully take what was left.

European title: Test [c] vs. Eddie Guerrero **
Not much to say about this one. It was a decent big-little match, nothing spectacular. Funny bit in the middle where Test tries to go over the top to the outside and gets his foot tied up in the ropes in what I can only presume is an accident, and the ref can't get him loose, causing Eddie to have to assist. Radicals distract the ref at the end long enough to allow Eddie to CHEAT TO WIN, which pleases me greatly.

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit ****
Angle endears himself to the crowd before the bell by insulting the Texas flag (missing 49 stars, you know) and cowboy hats. They start off with pure wrestling, the kind you just do not see anymore in WWE. Angle can't get the upper hand on Benoit for the first 5 minutes or so, which causes him to snap and start brawling. Beautiful touch. This was nearly 15 minutes of awesomeness followed by a godawful finish to continue the feud. This would cement Angle as a main-eventer and eventually launch Benoit to the top of the card until his neck surgery. They would, of course, have an even better match at the 2003 Royal Rumble.

Women's title: Ivory [c] vs. Chyna DUD
Total squash as Chyna buries Ivory and, by extension, the whole division on her way out.

Street fight: Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon ***
Mick Foley is the special referee, thanks to one of the magic contracts. I hope you weren't really expecting a match, as this could only be called such using the most charitable of definitions. However, it had some of the best storytelling of the entire show, and existed basically to give the crowd pretty much everything they could want -- Shane's holy **** bump through the Spanish table, Trish's face turn, Linda coming to life, everyone beating the holy hell out of Vince, and then Shane delivering the coup de grace with the Van Terminator on Vince. Huge, overbooked mess, but man, was it fun to watch (although it's even better in context if you followed the whole angle).

Tag team titles, TLC II: Dudley Boys [c] vs. Hardy Boys vs. Edge & Christian *****
Oh my God. What the **** can I say about this? Several spots get recycled (thinking mostly of Jeff's swanton of the huge ladder), something you can't really avoid in doing three of these things, but they still manage to find new, interesting wrinkles for them, thanks mostly to each team having a third that could be added to the match. But they also manage to throw in some new, even more amazing spots on top of them. Every time I looked up, there was Christian taking a huge bump -- off the ladder top of all the way to the floor, Dudleydog through a table, hanging off the belts and falling to the mat. The idea of hanging from the belts for spots was really innovative, and Edge's spear on Jeff from fifteen feet up was just ridiculous. And then Rhyno escorting Christian up the ladder to the belts was a really smart spot. This was good a spotfest as you will ever see. Notable also for the seventh and final reign for Edge and Christian.

Gimmick battle royal
Popular wisdom at the time was that the Iron Sheik won this because he was the only one who couldn't take a bump over the top. No rating, but five stars just for letting me listen to Mean Gene and the Brain for ten minutes.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H ****
Watching these two in the ring in a normal match has never been a particularly good viewing experience, and has oftentimes been downright painful (their title match at King of the Ring 2002 is one of the worst I've ever watched). Let them do a wild, unsanctioned brawl all over the place? Now that I can get into. This one started off slow, but picked up in a big way once Mike Chioda got wiped out. You could just feel the hatred from both of these guys, and totally believe they wanted to kick the living **** out of each other. Great storytelling as well, as HHH knew he had to try to outsmart Taker, and he almost did, but not quite.

WWF title, no disqualification: The Rock [c] vs. Steve Austin ****3/4
The "My Way" video package for this match was the pinnacle for the WWF's production crew. Austin's pop for his entrance was ungodly, the Texas crowd was 100 percent behind him. Biggest pop I've ever heard, even bigger than Hogan at WM3. The story leading into this was that Austin NEEDED to be champion, that it was like a drug to him, and he tells a great story to that effect from the get-go, raking Rock's face with his knee brace, exposing a turnbuckle to ram Rock's head into, and then laying out the champ with the ring bell. And the crowd loves every single second -- Rock gets booed on every single comeback. Both men bleed. Bret Hart gets a huge tribute in this match, as Rock pulls out his ****ty sharpshooter to try to evoke WM13, and Austin pulls out the cobra clutch to try to evoke Survivor Series 96 and the reversal spot. Both men his the other's finisher as the crowd is at a fever pitch. Ref bump, and now the storyline kicks in as Austin gives Rock a low blow and holds him for Vince to crack him over the head with a chair. Rock keeps kicking out, and Austin goes absolutely bat**** insane, beating Rock like a redheaded stepchild with the chair. That finally does it, as Austin gets the pin and the title to a huge pop, then shakes Vince's hand. The announcers know the score, but I'm convinced the crowd thought Vince had turned face. Absolutely brilliant storytelling for what they wanted to accomplish, it's just unfortunate that they were in front of a crowd that would've cheered Austin if he'd murdered the Rock in the middle of the ring.

Overall: 10/10
The unquestioned GOAT. They took the "big show" template that they'd created for themselves at WrestleMania III and took it to a whole other level. This show had EVERYTHING you could possibly want in a wrestling show -- great venue/crowd, iconic main event, top-notch technical wrestling, a compelling brawl, the spotfest to end all spotfests, and most importantly, great stories being told. It's too bad that most of what they did here would be completely undone by the time X-8 rolled around, but it doesn't impact how much of an epic this was to watch. The Attitude Era closes with the mother of all bangs.

Ratings so far:
X-7 - 10.0
III - 9.5
X - 8.5
XIV - 8.0
VIII - 7.0
VII - 6.0
VI - 5.25
V - 5.0
2000 - 5.0
XII - 4.75
I - 4.5
13 - 4.5
XI - 4.0
2 - 3.5
IV - 3.0
IX - 2.5
XV - 2.0

The crowd still popping huge for SCSA in the midst of the heel turn really detracts from the match. Still an epic, but I can't give it *****, because the entire idea was flawed and doing the turn in Houston solidified the eventual failure of Austin's heel run. Austin himself said it was the biggest mistake of his career (although he says similar things about walking out in protest of the Lesnar match on RAW). On his podcast where he does the commentary, Austin said, in hindsight, he should have called an audible and stunners Vince after drinking the first beer with him.

For a guy that is one of the all time best ring psychologists, I wonder how Austin anticipated the crowd reacting at WM X-Seven. It seems so predictable that the hometown crowd would support him. It could have worked in neutral or pro-Rocky territory. Hell, IIRC, Steve still got a huge face pop in Fort Worth on the next night's RAW.

Expecting the crowd to boo Austin there is pretty close to expecting the fans to boo the Dallas Cowboys at home in a decisive win because they got away with a few flagrant penalties to win the game. On top of that the Rock was leaving to shoot the movie so they needed Austin to be the top face during this time. And on top of that Austin was an anti-hero, so you can't expect him to get heat for doing 'heel things' because he was already doing something so similar anyway. It really was a huge creative botch.

Yep, the "plot" of that match doesn't make sense with the setting.

The intro promo is great and sets up a match that isn't built around Face/Heel as much as it is around the Belt being the most important thing (Remember those days...). Then you decide to have Austin, who is already an anti-hero, side with the evil boss to win the title. Yeah, that last beating is pretty heelish but Austin isn't a rule follower anyway, and he's loved for it.

It's sort of like trying to pull of the "John Cena gives into the dark side" which would be great if you do it with 100% good guy Cena, but works much worse when you use it with a tweener type. Try that story in the characters home state and you aren't going to get the right reaction.

Austin turned heel by siding with the biggest heel in WWE history, the beat down and "heel actions" are just bonus. Siding with Vince is what made him turn heel, not the beat down.

To whoever asked where the Austin commentary came from, I came across the source by accident a few minutes ago looking for a DVD.

Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time

edit: no other matches have this.

And we're back in Toronto. It's WrestleMania X8 week.

The epic battles of Golddust v. Maven and the battle of the shampoo commercials.

As Austin is the biggest face in WWE history, it is more reasonable to expect that doing this just lessens and mixes reactions to both of them, rather than completely turning around reactions to either one of them.

Alright this is me playing catch-up. I'll try to do WM X8 this weekend as well.

WrestleMania X-7

IC Title: Chris Jericho (c) vs. William Regal: On paper I always want to love this match, but unfortunately the two men just seem to be going through the motions for it, and it strikes me as a fairly significant disappointment. The one unique wrinkle was Regal pulling out a double-underhook superplex, but even that didn't have me jumping out of my chair. End seemed like a random pin off of a transitional move, can't tell if they had to go home early or what, but Jim Ross was obviously caught off-guard by it too. Just not a great match despite it being between two great workers. **

Tazz & APA vs. Right to Censor: This is okay. Keeps up a decent pace, has a couple of good high-impact moves (hat tip to the back superplex by Bradshaw)…I've seen plenty worse. *1/2

Hardcore Title: Raven (c) vs. Kane vs. Big Show: Even as someone who isn't the target market for hardcore matches, this match is just too much fun. Awesome bumping by Raven all around. Easily the best match of the first three. ***

European Title: Test (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero: Say what you will about Test, but he did succeed in having sex with Stacy Keibler. Honestly he wasn't the worst worker either. Some of his power offense was pretty enjoyable here. Would like to have seen Eddie get a bit more of the offense in the match, but this was still very watchable in spite of a lame finish. Better than Jericho-Regal. **1/2

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit: Good match, though I'll say it's pretty overrated. Still, I could watch these two work in their primes anytime. ***1/4

Chyna vs. Ivory: That big bazooka that Chyna would carry to the ramp and fire flares with was always lame to me. And yet that's pretty much the highlight here since this is just a squash. I never cared for Chyna so this isn't for me, but a face getting her revenge on a heel in decisive fashion like this is fine and has its place on the show. N/A

Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon: While Shane wasn't polished on the level of a career wrestler, he had obviously progressed since his first attempts at ring action. And Vince was really a good pro at taking the beating and getting his comeuppance in the big matches. Shane's willingness to take big bumps was great, and added a lot to this match and to some future matches. The angle underlying this one was great as well. If I was just viewing it in a vacuum and experiencing it for the first time I'm not sure that I would like it, but it was a brilliant culmination of the story that had been told on Raw up to that point. All in all, this match was absolutely as good as it possibly could be. Great bumps, great storytelling, a memorable final spot that still stands out in WrestleMania history…again it doesn't compare easily to a standard wrestling match, but whatever they were going for here absolutely worked. ***1/4

TLC II: Gravity of the match gets put over brilliantly during the entrances, by JR and honestly by the facial expressions of the competitors themselves, particularly Edge and Christian…though that's probably just a legitimate reflection of how much they were worrying about what they had to go do. This match is obviously a truly legendary spotfest, possibly the best spotfest in American wrestling history. I do get the gripes about how attempting huge spots is counterproductive to the point of the match (winning the titles), but honestly I can individually justify a number of the big risks. Heyman tipped me off on one talking about Jeff Hardy sacrificing himself to take out Spike Dudley and Rhyno, and thus leaving it up to Matt to go get the belts. I mean it's an absolute joy to watch, so whatever…I'll suspend disbelief however I have to. Great stuff. ****1/2

Gimmick Battle Royal: As far as deliberate garbage matches go, and for that matter as far as nostalgia acts go, this is one of my favorite ever. Hearing one more match called by Gene and Bobby, seeing the collection of characters obviously not taking themselves too seriously…what can I say, I think this is fun. Not conventional enough of a match to warrant any sort of rating though. N/A

The Undertaker vs. HHH: I'm consistently offended that there isn't 100% agreement about Taker's biker gimmick being an absolute abortion. It was clearly the worst part of his WWE career. The super-obvious "we're doing a ref bump in 3, 2, 1…" spot is horrendous. In general there was an undue number of lulls where I got bored, but there was also a lot of great spots, and the match did conclude in a very strong endgame sequence that saved the match to a large extent. ***

WWF Title: The Rock (c) vs. Steve Austin: Such an elite match. Molten hot crowd, great brawling, great storytelling…finisher kickouts hadn't been destroyed by modern WWE yet, so the back-and-forth late was all kinds of awesome. I agree with others that executing this turn in Houston was pretty obviously really ill-advised, and it did kill what they were going for with the ending which to me has to leave the match short of five stars - they didn't accomplish what they meant to in terms of getting the crowd to turn on Austin at all. But it's excellent in every other regard and only falls short for executing an idea that they maybe shouldn't have at all, but certainly shouldn't have in this setting. Still, ****3/4

WrestleMania Rankings
1. WrestleMania X-7
2. WrestleMania III
3. WrestleMania X
4. WrestleMania VIII
5. WrestleMania XIV
6. WrestleMania VII
7. WrestleMania V
8. WrestleMania VI
9. WrestleMania 2000
10. WrestleMania XII
11. WrestleMania XI
12. WrestleMania IV
13. WrestleMania
14. WrestleMania 13
15. WrestleMania IX
16. WrestleMania 2
17. WrestleMania XV

WrestleMania X8
March 17, 2002 - SkyDome, Toronto, Ontario

- This thread seems to be dying. Don't know how long I'll keep cranking these out, but I can't see myself missing the next three, in any event.

- So the landscape was just a wee bit different than last year. Think about everything that happened since April 2001:
-- Steve Austin's heel turn led to several great matches and some hilarious backstage segments, but was a colossal flop with the general fanbase. Austin would never really recover from it. Oh, and he unleashed the most vile catchphrase in the history of everything upon us.
-- Triple H tore his quad. No, not that quad, the other quad. He was out until Royal Rumble, and came back to a hero's welcome despite being one of the most dastardly heels in the business when he left.
-- What could have been the biggest, most anticipated angle in, well, EVER, the WCW Invasion, turned into another giant McMahonfest and fizzled and died by Survivor Series.
-- Ric Flair made his WWF return to the delight of many.
-- The original nWo members made their WWF return to the horror of many.
-- And Chris Jericho finally made The Leap to serious main eventer, beating The Rock and Steve Austin in the same night to become undisputed world champion.

- Whew, that's a lot to process. Busiest year in the WWF probably ever. Fortunately, Saliva is out to waste five minutes so I can catch my breath.

- The opening video package gave me goose bumps when I watched live, and it still does a bit. All of the legends talking about what WrestleMania means to them is fantastic.

IC title: William Regal [c] vs. Rob Van Dam **1/2
RVD was really the only member of the Alliance who came out of the Invasion strong, crowd is hot for him. Regal opens Mania in an IC title match for the second straight year. This is during his Power of the Punch brass knuckles gimmick. Indeed, Regal goes for the knucks early but RVD kicks them out of his hand. Love Regal's offence in this match, including a beautiful double-underhook powerbomb and a supremely vicious half-nelson German suplex. RVD gets things off to a hot start, popping the crowd big with the Five Star and the title win. Too short, though, you can really see how far the secondary titles have fallen.

European title: Diamond Dallas Page [c] vs. Christian **
DDP was decidedly NOT helped by the Invasion, being buried by Taker before it ever really started. He makes his second Mania appearance at the same place he made his first, when he drove Rhythm and Blues to the ring at WrestleMania VI. JR tosses in a "malfunction at the junction," it's like he knew I'd be watching. There was nothing functionally wrong with this match, and both guys (moreso Christian) put in a decent effort, but it could have easily been on Raw and not looked out of place at all.

- Rock does the semi-famous promo with Coach saying his prayers ("What up, G?").

Hardcore title: Maven [c] vs. Goldust DUD
An aimless brawl that led to the night's ongoing storyline, as Spike Dudley came out to pin Maven and win the title thanks to the completely played-out 24/7 rule. The title would change hands backstage many times over the course of the night, going Spike -> Hurricane -> Mighty Molly -> Christian and finally returning to Maven, rendering the whole thing even more useless than it already was. WRESTLEMANIA DOES NOT NEED CUTESY STORYLINES.

- Drowning Pool comes out to waste even more of our time.

Kurt Angle vs. Kane ***
Good match here, nothing especially noteworthy except for the 21,738 mentions of "head trauma" throughout the match. Give Lawler a bone and he will chew it to pieces. Really, around this time Angle was incapable of putting on a bad match, and Kane was up for it. This was the first time I remember seeing Angle's pop-up superplex, which I love, although I'm sure he was using it prior to this.

No disqualification: Undertaker vs. Ric Flair ***1/4
Don't worry, we're just about free of Bikertaker. Vince made this no-DQ to set Flair up for an ass-whipping; in reality, I'm sure they realized these two wouldn't be able to put on a decent match without stips at this point in their careers. This was a pretty sweet brawl, actually. Both men bleed; Flair makes up for his ****ty bladejob at WMVIII with a manly crimson mask. The superplex spot looked amazing, just picture perfect. AA's surprise spinebuster made me mark out huge. Taker messed up the Last Ride pretty huge at the end, switching to a tombstone instead, but that didn;t do anything to diminish my enjoyment of this.

Edge vs. Booker T **
Ah yes, the epic shampoo grudge match. Someone in the front row even brought a "THEY ARE FIGHTING OVER SHAMPOO" sign in case anyone had forgotten. They also decided to add their performance on the Weakest Link to this feud for nuance. I don't know why they bothered, considering they were given basically no time. Still good for what little time they had, though. Spinaroonie got a huge pop, as well as an awesome deadpan from JR to Lawler: "I don't know why you get excited for that."

Steve Austin vs. Scott Hall *1/2
I still wonder sometimes why they didn't go with Austin vs. Hogan. That would've been off the charts. Austin doesn't exactly join the Bundy/Orndorff/Luger Mania freefall club, but this is still way earlier that anyone would expect to see him on the card. This wasn't terrible, the crowd couldn't help but be into it just because it was Austin and the nWo, but it honestly felt like they were just going through the motions, Austin especially. I mean, Hall had pretty much reached the end of his usefulness already, but seeing Austin half-ass it was surprising. Can some one tell me why Tim White made the count on Austin after Nash destroyed him earlier?

Tag team titles, four corners elimination: Billy & Chuck [c] vs. Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys vs. APA *
Oh awesome, here's Saliva again to play the Dudleys down. I still can't believe how high Stacy ended up trading up. This ended up being a boring, confusing mess that the crowd just couldn't get into. Even JR couldn't keep track of who was legal in the ring. After watching the last two Manias, seeing the Dudleys and Hardys in a regular tag match seemed incredibly stale. And, of course, Billy Gunn was prominently involved, let's not forget that.

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan ***
And now, the reason we're all here tonight. The main event, the match that should've by all rights gone last. Hogan comes out to a ridiculous pop that I think even he wasn't expecting. Crowd is solidly and unmistakably behind Hogan from the opening bell, despite the "mixed reaction" line of bull**** JR tries to put over. Hogan gets gigantic cheers on offence to start, while Rock gets gigantic boos (and eventually Rocky Sucks chants). The Hogan half of the WrestleMania VI sign makes an appearance, giving me a warm feeling inside. Once they get going, you can almost ignore how bad the actual work was for as electric as the crowd was. I mean, Hogan's hulk-up nearly takes the roof off the place. I'm almost certainly overrating this -- Rock was as good as he normally was, but Hogan was well on his way to the point where he couldn't take bumps anymore and his offence was as pitiful as ever for late-stage Hogan, although his timing was great as always. People like to compare this to Hogan/Warrior, but this was certainly worse. Still, the atmosphere was undeniably epic, and this was still a terrifically entertaining (if surreal) match. I still won't forgive Toronto for giving us that last Hogan title reign, though.

Women's title, triple threat: Jazz [c] vs. Trish Stratus vs. Lita 1/4*
They tried, but even Trish's shameless pandering to the hometown crowd couldn't get them into this one after Rock/Hogan. Pretty bad to boot, at least until the awesome fisherman buster off the top from Jazz. Certainly wasn't expecting Jazz to retain, which also didn't help matters.

Undisputed WWF title: Chris Jericho [c] vs. Triple H **1/2
Drowning Pool out one more time to play Triple H down with the worst rendition of his music I've ever heard. Absolutely did not need that waste of time given the super long show already. This match makes me mad, one of the biggest foregone conclusions in the history of wrestling. Not only did no one buy Jericho as being able to win, despite the gigantic rub he got at Vengeance, but the spotlight wasn't even on him as champion -- the real issue was between HHH and Stephanie, with Jericho shunted to the background as Stephanie's flunky. JR and King do their best to instill some doubt by continually referencing the quad tear and how fragile HHH's leg is, and Jericho does a good job working the leg, even busting out the ringpost figure four. The crowd, though, is just waiting for the inevitable (and, of course, still burnt out). Could have been so much more, particularly with a different spot on the card, something they would prove at Hell in a Cell in a couple of months.

Overall: 5.5/10
Any Mania would've been a comedown from X-7, of course, but this was pretty mediocre by any standard. Seemed too long, kind of like the ones around 1990ish. I thought this was almost exactly the same quality as Vi (the obvious comp). The title match was obviously more disappointing, and main event not as good, but still slightly better work overall.

Ratings so far:
X-7 - 10.0
III - 9.5
X - 8.5
XIV - 8.0
VIII - 7.0
VII - 6.0
X8 - 5.5
VI - 5.25
V - 5.0
2000 - 5.0
XII - 4.75
I - 4.5
13 - 4.5
XI - 4.0
2 - 3.5
IV - 3.0
IX - 2.5
XV - 2.0

Kind of on the topic of WM X7, I love Austin's Disturbed theme. I'm disappointed in myself that I booed him during his heel run (I still thought wrestling was real).

That really speaks to how great and over Austin was, to still get heel pops like that.

I'm really enjoying reading your reviews, so I hope you can power through a few more.

Jazz vs Lita vs Trish

"This thing just...resembled a car wreck" Jim Ross
"Yeah" Lawler

0*

Rock vs Hogan

Nearly 50, Hogan puts in his first memorable for the right reasons match in a long, long time. Many of his lesser known WCW PPV performances are suprisingly adequate (most of the famous ones being awful), but being back at Wrestlemania seemingly brought the magic back. This is a bit like Hogan vs Andre, where the crowd reaction and historic nature of the whole thing overshadows the actual wrestling, but the wrestling is better here.

I think this is slightly better than Hogan/Warrior, from both a smart and mark perspective. Hogan was better in 1990, sure, but Hogan carried Warrior in that match. The gap between Rock and Warrior's performance is slightly bigger than the gap between 1990 Hogan and 2002 Hogan. The crowd seemed to be more into this match than Warrior/Hogan as well. Hard to rate on the star rating system (because how good would this be to somebody who had never heard of Hogan or the Rock?) but also hard to not consider it the top match on the card.

***1/2

Flair vs Taker

It is just about impossible for me to not enjoy something that involves an Arn Anderson spine buster. The first few seconds of the match are garbage but business picks up shortly afterwards and rarely relents. It would have been very cool to see Flair as an underdog face more in his prime because this clearly illustrates he could have pulled it off amazingly, but he was too busy being the greatest heel ever. It really isn't a classic match by the standard of either of these two, but it is a lot better than most of the card. Good psychology and storytelling, good enough spots.

***1/2

Regal vs Van Dam

Out of all the WCW and ECW guys that came over in the early 2000s, they manage not to ruin RVD? I suppose he is something of a joke anyway, so making his character into a joke wouldn't make much of a difference. Mediocre match not really worth discussing.

**

Austin vs Hall

What a devastating move the stunner is! He really beat up that glorified jobber Scott Hall!! Heck he beat up almost the whole NWO! They weren't created by Vince McMahon, so they must be weak! I can't wait to say "what" for the next decade!
This is a dream match that came too late. I'm left wishing I had seen Diamond Studd vs Stunning Steve on Saturday Night instead.

*

Four Way Tag Match

Stupid and boring, but not exceedingly so.

*

Page vs Christian

Page is a genuinely positive force and a good story and the WWF just treated him as if he was some kind of joke. They must have had a ton of big creative botches during this time because I didn't even watch wrestling then and I know of many. Page was more personality and psychology than worker (like late 80s Jake Roberts) and this match is just mediocre.

**

Maven vs Goldust

0*

Angle vs Kane

How does the Big Red overration spoil this? JR does a great job selling Kane as the underdog and the guy most fans will want to root for because of the head trauma. Lawler does a great job here also; just great announcing at least at the start.
But as usual for a Kane match, the psychology and flow just are not there. On top of that Kane doesn't execute well outside of his core offensive moves. And the announcing seems to have become boring by the end as well. At least the crowd can say they got to see Kurt Angle live during his prime.

**

Edge vs Booker T

Two of the more bland long time main event wrestlers face off, and the result is...bland. One of many matches where the announcing is the best part.

*

Jericho vs HHH

This is a very generic match for these two. Supposedly they begged Vince to have Rock/Hogan on last instead, which would have been the right decision. But anywhere else it still competing for third best match on the card.

2 1/2*

Overview: The talent on the roster again is startling; much better than the group of wrestlers they have today. They even have perhaps the greatest faction of all time as new blood in the organization. But the result is mediocre and bland, like a chef just randomly tossing together a ton of quality ingredients into a big pot.

Tier 1=Must See=X-7>III>X>XIV
Tier 2=Glad I watched it=VIII>VII
Tier 3=Not completely awful=XIII=X8>VI>V>2000>IX>XI>XII
Tier 4=bottom feeders=IV>I>II>XV

I think it's amazing that the two best matches on a wrestling card in 2002 were had by Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.