To be fair, Hogan's primary contribution to that 2002 match was being awesome in the 80s.

On a card that has a ton of younger future and current HOFers, no less.

Biker Taker is a big part of what caused me to stop watching wrestling. Dead undertaker is my favourite wrestling character of all time, the music and entrance and all that, and i hate it when a character changes to something so inconsistent with his prior history.

The flip flopping of his story with kane and bearer over time also became utterly nonsensical and even insulting in its stupidity.

Im really enjoying this thread as a summary of WWE history and a guide to what matches i should look for when i get a chance to see wrestling again.

I'm nearly certain Hogan hand-picked Rock. I don't believe Hogan likes Austin much (might stem from Austin's ECW promos).

I thought on one of the podcasts it was mentioned by Austin that they considered it but that they couldn't agree on a finish (which in a sense is Hogan picking Rock if he will let Rock go over but not SCSA)

Exactly, clearly Hogan did not want to do the honors.

WrestleMania XIX is open for business until at least tomorrow.

Haha I'm sorry. I realized yesterday that I had neglected my duty. This **** is hard to try to keep up on when there's football on almost every day.

WrestleMania XIX
March 30, 2003 - Safeco Field, Seattle, WA

- This, of course, is the first Mania since the brand extension. As a result, we have Michael Cole and Tazz splitting announcing duties with JR and King. Cole and Tazz were not nearly as good as I remember them, they just tried way too hard to be funny and hip and failed more often than not. Cole was already deep into his tendency to overuse certain words or phrases to the point where it became cliché (I think he used "the numbers game" nearly a half-dozen times in the first two matches).

- They redo the opening video from last year with a few small modifications. Still impressive. Also impressive is the stadium, the way they set it up was really cool. Would've been even better with the roof open, although they obviously couldn't risk it in Seattle (it was, in fact, cool and rainy that day). Not so impressive was the celebrity quotient, which consisted of Limp Bizkit and the Miller Lite catfight girls, who proved, like the "Where's the beef?" lady before them, that booking people for a celebrity appearance based solely on a commercial is always a dumb idea. I mean, I have ZERO recollection of that commercial today.

Cruiserweight title: Matt Hardy [c] vs. Rey Mysterio **1/2
I have to admit, I was pretty into the whole Version One gimmick back then. The Matt Facts graphic looks laughably dated at this point. Shockingly short, I would've expected them to get 10 minutes anyway. They told a pretty good story for the time they did have, with Matt and Shannon Moore doing everything possible to hang onto the title against the more talented Rey, and busted out some nice moves to keep the crowd into it.

Handicap match: Undertaker vs. Big Show & A-Train *3/4
Nathan Jones was supposed to be Taker's partner, but they rightly realized that Jones was just too terrible in the ring to make his debut at a Mania, and did a prematch mugging to take him out of the picture. This match went nearly 20 minutes total, including Limp Bizkit playing Taker down to the ring. I would've rather seen half of it go the previous match. Not terrible but not great either, pretty standard big man wrestling with some occasional decent moves from A-Train. Crowd stayed alive for this by the sheer force of Taker's personality.

Women's title, triple threat: Victoria [c] vs. Trish Stratus vs. Jazz **1/2
Victoria was another one I was really into, great worker who did a terrific job with the deranged gimmick. All three were good workers, really, and busted their asses here to put on a very good women's match. Fans were big behind Trish, and the pop for her winning the title was really nice to see. It's too bad that Jazz couldn't get more over, she had a realistic moveset with some painful-looking submissions. Only complaint I'd have would be that JR and King just didn't seem to be into this at all.

WWE tag team titles, triple threat: Team Angle [c] vs. Los Guerreros vs. Chris Benoit & Rhyno ***
This is the Smackdown tag title, seemingly created just so the Smackdown Six (Benoit, Angle, Edge, Rey, and the Guerreros) could steal the show each and every night. The introduction of Benjamin and Haas to the tag team scene certainly didn't diminish it any. This was short but awesome, just a frenetic pace that all six guys were able to keep up with. Nine minutes of high-impact action that seemed to never slow down.

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho ****1/2
Welcome back, Shawn, we missed you. About the only thing wrong with this match was the malfunctioning confetti blasters Shawn was trying to fire off as he made his way to the ring. Shawn wrestled a much less high-risk style, but was still able to bust out a select few highspots (plancha, moonsault, top rope elbow). Jericho did a great job working the back, and an even better job heeling it up (ASK HIM!, the arrogant cover, the mocking of Shawn's signature spots). Great storytelling, psychology, suspense, this match had it all. We even got the cherry on top at the end when Jericho teased a respect face turn similar to Rock/Hogan last year, only to kick Shawn right in the nuts instead. JR's total disgust at it made it that much more awesome. If not for the insanely good Angle/Benoit match at Royal Rumble, this would have been the 2003 match of the year, easy.

- They tease the arrival of Goldberg at Backlash. Yet another part of WCW that WWE managed to **** up. I then save fifteen minutes of my life fast forwarding through the Limp Bizkit performance and the catfight, I suggest you do the same.

World heavyweight title: Triple H [c] vs. Booker T **3/4
You probably know the story behind this one -- HHH went full racist in the build, to the point where it was obvious to anyone that Booker simply HAD to go over. Well, obvious to anyone not familiar with HHH, anyway. Taken in a vacuum, this match was pretty decent, with good psychology on HHH's part, working Booker's leg to the point where it actually ended up costing Booker the title when he couldn't capitalize after hitting the Harlem Hangover. But the crowd just couldn't get behind it, it was pretty dead in the middle while HHH worked the Indian deathlock, and Booker got buried by the finish, having to sell the Pedigree for nearly a minute before HHH crawled over for the pin. I still can't get the bad taste out of my mouth from the first time I watched it.

Street fight: Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon **1/2
This match was dead before it even started, as they still hadn't gotten Real American for Hogan's entrance. This seemed like a weird hybrid between Vince/Shane and Rock/Hogan. They were obviously relying on their charisma to carry the day here, as this was a wild, bloody mess of a match otherwise, relying on mostly the familiar spots for easy heat. One nice highspot in Vince's legdrop off a ladder through the Spanish announce table, and a surprise appearance by Roddy Piper also got the fans going. For two senior citizens, one who could barely move, this wasn't terrible, and of course the crowd ate it up.

Steve Austin vs. The Rock ***3/4
Austin's final match, although we didn't know it at the time. Let me just say that the Hollywood mix is the best by far of Rock's theme music. Rock had just turned heel and was as hot as he'd ever been (he did the original Rock Concert during this period), while Austin had just returned after a long hiatus the month before and still wasn't quite in ring shape. And it showed, he seemed a step slow throughout the match and there was a fair bit of resting normally not seen in an Austin-Rock match, particularly at the end when it was just finishers punctuated by resting and stalling. Rock's psychology and heel mannerisms carried this match. Certainly not their best, but still really good, and a fitting end to the rivalry.

WWE title: Kurt Angle [c] vs. Brock Lesnar ****1/4
It was a minor miracle that Angle even made it to this match, as it was pretty common knowledge that he needed neck surgery (that he never actually got, to his continued detriment). Last-minute stips were added eliminating the championship advantage due to continued assaults on Lesnar by Team Angle. This was a dream match for many people, including myself. It totally lived up to the advance billing, with Angle and Lesnar beating the hell out of each other with some quality mat wrestling and a ****load of stiff-looking suplexes. Everyone remembers this, though, for Lesnar's botched shooting star press at the end. I had been waiting to see it since he debuted, having heard all the rumours about how impressive looking it was, but watching this live I could see Angle was way too far away, and legitimately thought he was paralyzed. Angle done some quick thinking to play for time until Lesnar is with it enough to F5 and pin him. Crowd doesn't pop as much as they would have if it had gone to plan. Lesnar wins the title and everyone is thinking this is the start of the next big era in wrestling, with no one imagining that Lesnar would be gone within a year and not seen in WWE again for nearly a decade.

Overall: 8.75/10
This is a forgotten classic, just a superb show with no real weaknesses. While it doesn't have the all-time classic on the card like a show such as WrestleMania X did, it had a couple that come close, but where the real strength of the show lies is in the undercard, where the WORST match was near the ** level. That's the mark of a blowaway show.

Ratings so far:
X-7 - 10.0
III - 9.5
XIX - 8.75
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

Are you aware that he had to be taken to the ER the night before from the WWE hotel because he collapsed or something like that and hospital staff wanted to keep him in the hospital on WM day because of what he went in there with? I don't quite remember what it was but in his documentary on the network you can hear all about this. Surely googling will have some youtube hits to that part of the vid as well.

Wow, no, never heard about that. Pretty incredible.

I think I'm burned out on writing these and watching the out of context shows for now. I'll keep reading and might pick it back up later.

Dead thread is dead. I'm still working on these, but I'm probably not going to be keeping to any kind of schedule.

I'm a little surprised we kept it going as long as we did with only three of us still posting reviews by about WM III. Like True North I might get to more on my own time and post recaps ITT, but that would just happen whenever.

Ive enjoyed this thread. Hope you get to the rest and thanks for the summaries.

Haven't completed WM X8 because I fell asleep in the middle of it (I was tired though; not really a knock on the show), but I did see Flair-Taker. Regardless of Flair's age, this seems like a spot where he should have always gone over given the story leading up to the match and the story of the match itself. The streak hadn't gotten so out of control yet that they couldn't have just had Taker go ahead and lose.

Certainly a good match; I just don't like the booking of putting Taker over after all of that, particularly at WrestleMania.

Not that anyone should care what I do, but if I decide to do this should I start at WM X8 or should I just start at 1? I mean it's sort of died (OK the thread is way dead) so I guess anything I do is cool.

Definitely interested to read your writeups on whatever you feel like watching.

Thanks. Sort of nervous on how I'll do writing up and ranking matches - and also my ability to stick with such a big project - but I'm going to give it a go.

A lot of people are interested in reading the reviews, so thumbs up to anyone creating content.

So I've read through the first ten Wrestlemania reviews on here and I can't exactly say I'm looking forward to the task at hand, but there are certainly moments I can't wait to see. My grandma got me a WM 1-14 box set when I was about 17 years old and I wore those tapes out, so a lot of these early ones I remember quite a bit about.

Things that I don't remember is Hercules and Dino Bravo being on every damn Wrestlemania. That I certainly forgot.

I recently saw a list of top 30 matches of all time and saw that Piper and Hart wasn't on it and this surprised me a bit, but seeing how LKJ had it at 7 after 10 wrestlemanias, I can see where it may have narrowly missed.

My wrestling history, in terms of when I was in tune with it and during what wrestlemania is close to as follows -

The 1 - 14 boxset really caught me up with a lot, but when I was around 8-10 I was hooked on Hulk Hogan, and I feel like I saw 5-11 live. Or at least really soon after it happened.

After WM 19 I didn't see another wrestlemania all the way through until 28, so I am looking forward to those. I've caught what I assume are the best matches from that missed time period, but I'm sure I've missed a lot I'll enjoy. I've had the thought of doing this backwards, but in the early days especially feuds would sometimes go a year so it will be fun to see where things went.

Going to try my best to get through WM 1 over the next couple of days. I've seen it semi-recently as I wanted to watch them all when the Network first came out, but dwindled around 5 or 6, and that was skipping through large parts.

Anywho, wish me luck.

You still have my blessing to skip through Brother Love/Roddy Piper/Morton Downey Jr. at WrestleMania V, because holy **** that was the worst thing ever.

The Piper/Downey thing was incredibly painful to watch. After I saw it I had to look up who Downey was. Figures he died of lung cancer after that segment. I mean Piper really looked pissed in that segment and I remember Downey being on the ground, but I can't remember what caused him to be laid out, though I think I remember wondering if Piper really hit him.

Oh, one other thing, I remember liking the blindfold match. Not that I think it's some amazing work of wrestling, but of why it was happening. However, it's been a long time since I've seen it. I imagine I'll have a hard time grading it, but I'll see what I'm feeling at the time of the viewing.

I'm thinking of not rating any gimmick matches, though I don't know where to set that line, as some TLC matches are obviously amazing later on down the road. I'll probably just decide on the fly if it's worth the brain cells.

I think my hardest task will be grating matches between 2-4 stars. Like I said before not sure I trust my ability at grading "decent" matches, though hopefully I'll get decent at it after 100-110 hours of WM reviews.

No need to overthink ratings; it's just however much you like it.

Preface – This wrap-up is way tl;dr and I won’t make them nearly as long in the future. At least I don’t think I will. Much appreciation to those that get through this.

Mene Gene reading the words to The National Anthem is actually not a bad idea considering how many people botch it. Decent job. Not sure how he got the job of singing the Anthem, but hey.

Tito Santana vs. The Executioner (Buddy Rose)

I know there have been many Executioner’s in wrestling, but according to Wiki, Buddy Rose was the first. However as I say that Gorilla says “This is the first of this Executioner I have seen.” Santana on the other hand comes from a long line of wrestlers who were apparently told by Vince that they would hold the top title in the WWF/E if they signed with them.

Buddycutioner got more offense in this match than I remembered. The action was pretty disjointed. A number of times Tito acted as if Rose was supposed to do something, which caused for a lot of awkward moments.

Always crazy to me how close the crowd was to the ring in these days, as you can see when Rose flies over the top rope and lands perfectly in a chair.

Fine for what it was. 1.75 stars.

King Kong vs. S.D. Jones

Jones was actually quite popular regionally, as I learned from one of The Vault Roundtable discussions as seen on The Network. First time I ever saw King Kong was as a relative of the Bundy’s on Married With Children.

It took me longer to write the above than the match went…certainly longer than 9 seconds though, as they repeated throughout the broadcast

Squash = no rating

Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Borne

Finally, passable promos by both guys. First time I saw “Maniac” Matt Borne was watching WCCW on ESPN when I was maybe like 8. It came on before Dennis The Menace and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

By the way, if you aren’t for my nostalgia kicks these reviews may not be for you, lol.

Good action here to start, both guys certainly knew what they were doing. Steamboat seems to say a legit “oh ****” after receiving an atomic drop, and he did land awkwardly, but more losing his balance than taking a shot to the little Steamboats. Beautiful crossbody off the top give the win to The Dragon over the future Doink…and Big Josh…who came to the ring WITH A BEAR!

Rating – 2.25 stars. They were both confident in their wrestling abilities, and that was appreciated.

Brutus Beefcake w/ Johnny Valiant Luscious vs. David Sammartino w/ Papa Sammartino

Bruno gets a huge pop in The Garden, obviously. Assuming he was healthy enough, they should have made this some kind of tag-match, but I can see why they were trying to make David somewhat of a standalone. FWIW, my dad saw Bruno walking his dog once in Pennsylvania, he apparently lived close to one of my dad’s old lady friends. He knew who he was, but didn’t want to bother him. Fair play, pops.

Seems like the wrestlers had to delay while they waited for a ref to make his way into the ring. Traditional wrestling leads things off with David getting the better of it. Lots of stalling by Beefcake, which may be for the better as I’m not sure either of these guys could ever wrestle very well. Slow slow pace here, considering fast-forwarding for the first time, but from what I understand from other reviews here this isn’t nearly as bad as it will get.

Action does pick up when Brutus takes over. Luscious Johnny slams David. Here come Dadmartino, moving well enough to answer my question if this could have been a tag match.

Crowd was into it and gave them a chance to look at their idol for a little bit. 1.5 stars, which is higher than I thought I would give based on the first 80 percent of this match.

Just a note, terms you don’t here anymore – “He just got Pearl Harbored,” meaning sneak attack.

(IC Champ) Greg Valentine w/Jimmy Hart vs. Junk Yard Dog

Valentine was better on the mic than I thought, and was getting a good heel reaction from the crowd, even if he did get “already in the ring” treatment. JYD apparently sold out arenas all over the south in his regional days, and the crowd here loved him. I haven’t seen much of his work, but what I have seen I haven’t loved.

I am reminded fairly early in that JYD was known for his ground headbutts, which the crowd ate up. JYD goes to babyface in peril pretty quick, as Greg prepares him for the figure-four. Gorilla has said “This is a happening” about 30 times so far this show, with 22 of them being in this match, because of his boredom, I think.

JYD casually steps to the side as Valentine hits Hart with a shot that came from left field. The Hartaference doesn’t really matter as Valentine uses the ropes to get the win. Tito, the former champ comes in and tells the ref he missed Valentine's feet on the ropes. Ref counts out Hammer, crowd loves it. Winner but not champion, JYD.

Growing up, Valentine was most known in my house for being the wrestling figure I used as Owen Hart because I didn't have an Owen Hart figure.

Dumb ending, but better than I thought it would be. 2. Stars

Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (With Fred Blassie) vs. Tag Champs U.S. Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo) w/ Cap’n Lou

Two of the wrestlers I would put way near the top of my most underrated list are Windham and Rotundo. Watching early Rotundo in here and in NWA, I thought he was probably close to being a bigger star than he ended up being, not that he had a bad career as I.R.S. Windham is on every internet list of most underrated, so nothing really to add here.

Love Sheik calling Mean Gene, “Gene Mean” here. It could be a joke, but you’re just not sure with the Ol’ Sheik, are ya? Glad to see WWF/E fans have been disrespecting the anthem of other countries for as many years as it has. I mean dudes in the crowd are visibly pissed, as Volkoff is pelted with trash as he sings his homelands anthem.

Did any heel team tag-team move ever work during this era of wrestling? This includes heel managers as well.

That’s a negative thing to start with on a match that was actually very good. The crowd is really into it, being that the team with “U.S.” in their team name was beating the foreigners early on (who to be fair were pretty anti-american) I’m not going to do the research, but I have to imagine this was one of the better matches Volkoff was ever in.

Volkoff and Sheik move around quicker than I ever could have imagined in this match, keeping up with the younger, spryer guys. I honestly forgot the heels won the titles here. How come nobody came out in this match – like Tito – to tell the ref that that Blassie hit Windham with a cane here? Lol wrestling.

Fun match. 3 stars.

Bodyslam Challenge – Big John Studd w/Heenan vs. Andre the Giant

Weird to see Andre as a face here for me as in my childhood wrestling heyday he was almost always a heel. Andre moved fairly decent here, at least a lot better than he would in the upcoming years. Andre chokes Studd for about 30 seconds and the ref sort of just watches, it’s cool though because he’s a good guy. As I finish the last sentence Andre puts Studd in a bearhug for about forever. Odd that Studd is playing the role of heel in distress trying to get out of the bear hug.

No rhythm to the match and thankfully it was short. Crowd seemed a bit into it. I’m going to stay away from a dud and give this .25 of a star.

Women’s Champ Leilani Kai w/Fabulous Moolah vs. Wendi Richter w/Cyndi Lauper

Kai got the usually dooming “already in the ring treatment while Richter and Lauper get one of the biggest pops of the night so far. I don’t remember who wins this match but I’d put money on the result is decided by Lauper getting the better of Moolah and Richter taking the title.

I was almost right, but no not really. Kai loses after a Steamboat-esque flying crossbody is reversed (after about 30 seconds of them trying to reverse it) for Richter to become your new champ.

1.25 stars. This loses a quarter star for Moolah “tripping” over the rope on her way into the ring and then flopping another time while getting up.

Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff w/Bob Orton vs. Hulk Hogan and Mr T. w/Jimmy Snuka

Just got to this point of writing the review on the two plus two forum but lost it when I tried to submit the post. Fun times.

The Fink helps Billy Martin introduce Liberace and special guest enforcer Muhammad Ali to the ring. Ali still looks good here. Being my all-time favorite athlete it’s good to see him here still moving around and jawing to the crowd.

The match was a lot better than I remembered. Mr. T was at least passable as a celebrity turned wrestler, kicking the match off with Mr. T. Mr. T got his big break in Rocky 3 after Ernie Shavers (one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight boxing history) accidently hit Sly a little too hard. At least that’s how the story goes.

I can see why being a heel in this time frame was a tough job and you legit probably had to be a bit of a bad ass and be able to hold your own. While Orton and Piper are double teaming T and Hogan outside of the ring you can see them being pelted by trash and bottles and police officers are seemingly holding back a few of the fans trying to get to the heels.

Snuka gets his big Wrestlemania moment by first teasing a splash early in the match when all the extras including Ali get involved for a minute and later when he headbutts Orton. Right after the headbutt Orton climbs the top rope with the intent to hit Hogan with his armcast while Ordorff was holding him. Orton smashes Mr. Wonderful and Hogan gets the win.

Better than I remembered. I think the crowd helps my rating of 2.75 stars.

Final Thoughts – To me it seems the NWA had a better roster, better talent, and better matches in this time period. I now know that WrestleMania was a financial success, which it had to be, as WWF put a lot of eggs this one basket. I have a hard time figuring out why or how this show blossomed into WWF leading the world in pro wrestling, and I think it has to do more with Vince’s desire to take over the territories over time than in one show. But again, if this show bombed, who knows where WWF would be today, if anywhere.

I just learned on the Stone Cold/Vince podcast that when Vince offered to buy out the territories it was with balloon payments. Basically, a dollar down with a promise to pay more later. It’s no wonder everyone, except one (if I recall) said no to Vince. The story before that – at least to me – always read Vince offered each a pile of money and they all said no because Vince was brash or they were just being jerks or something. It really does change history around a little knowing that Vince was offering virtually nothing, or to them, an empty promise. This isn’t a knock on Vince, as it makes his takeover that much more impressive to me. Apparently his pockets weren’t as deep as I thought, and he needed the success of things like WrestleMania to happen, or the WWF would have (could have?) folded.

The show was better than I remembered. Being I had only one match at 3 stars, I can guess it won’t hold up that well in my final rankings – if I ever make it that far – but historical significance alone may see it stay out of the bottom 4th.

Again, shorter reports to follow.