A Black Tiger Bomb Down Memory Lane: The Best WrestleMania Matches
Steve Shives
March 31, 2007
My name is Steve and I’m a pro wrestling fan.
(Hi, Steve.)
With WrestleMania 23—the twentieth anniversary of WrestleMania III, the first one to be any good at all—coming up this weekend, it’s as good a time as any to drone on and on about my favorite matches to an indifferent, largely nonexistent audience. In chronological order:
Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, WrestleMania III (1987)
The Citizen Kane of pro wrestling matches, the widely acknowledged Greatest Match Ever[tm] between ultimate babyface Steamboat and master Memphis heel Savage, for Savage’s Intercontinental Title. The build-up was nearly as good as the match itself: Savage brutally attacked Steamboat, dropping him neck-first across a security barricade and “crushing his larynx”; Steamboat returned months later, more than a little miffed and thirsty for revenge, and so we have this match. It’s about fifteen minutes of the most perfect professional wrestling you’ll ever see, from two guys who at the top of their game could go as good as anyone, ever. The finish, in which Steamboat turns an attempted bodyslam into a small package for the pin and the title, has been copied a hundred times since, including in Steamboat’s NWA World Heavyweight Title defense against Ric Flair at WrestleWar ’89 (an even better match than this one), when Flair, in a cool bit of continuity, used the same move to win the title from Steamboat. WrestleMania III was a huge success for the WWF and as a result has been counted among the best shows in the series despite the fact that everything leading up to and following Steamboat vs. Savage is terrible. There’s only one match on WrestleMania III worth seeing, and it sure ain’t Andre vs. Hogan.
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage – Retirement Match, WrestleMania VII (1991)
Want more proof that Randy Savage was the man back in the day? The guy got a classic pay-per-view match out of the Ultimate Warrior, a feat so daunting Ric Flair never even attempted it. Savage, nearing the end of his “Macho King” phase, had interfered in Warrior’s match with Sgt. Slaughter at the Royal Rumble earlier this year, costing Warrior the WWF Title. To settle the feud, which thanks to Warrior totally overreacting to Savage’s routine heel antics became intensely personal, the two of them agreed to this match at WrestleMania—loser retires. Savage carries Warrior on his back for over twenty minutes, and then gives the most emphatic demonstration of how to put someone over that I’ve ever seen: Savage successfully executes his finishing move, the flying elbowdrop, five consecutive times, only for Warrior to kick out of the pin, nail Savage with a series of diving shoulder tackles, and win the match by pinning Savage with one foot. Warrior, who was still a huge star at this point even though the guy couldn’t wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag, came out looking like a million bucks, and Savage went down like a man. Post-match Savage turned babyface, dumping his evil manager Sherri to reunite with his former valet/main squeeze (and real-life wife) Miss Elizabeth, who just so happened to be in the crowd. Savage’s retirement lasted about six months, by the way.
Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper, WrestleMania VIII (1992)
To my mind this is the first truly great match of Bret Hart’s WWF singles career. Everyone talks about the match from SummerSlam ’91 where he wins his first Intercontinental Title from Mr. Perfect as Bret’s breakthrough as a solo star, but for my money this is his first real, honest-to-God classic. It’s also the best match I’ve ever seen from Piper, so I now cordially invite you to beat that. A few months prior to this match, then-Intercontinental champ Bret got sidelined with a bad case of the flu and dropped the title to The Mountie in order to take some time off and recuperate. The Mountie then lost the belt to Piper at the Royal Rumble, in what was itself a fun match, mostly because it ended with Piper winning his one and only WWF singles title. Bret came back, asked his old pal Hot Rod for a title shot at WrestleMania, and we get this friendly bout which rapidly descends into a bloodbath. There’s some decent mat wrestling, some intense brawling in and out of the ring, a great character moment from Piper near the end when a pang of conscience keeps him from smashing Bret’s skull in with the ring bell, and another classic finish when Bret walks up the turnbuckles while Piper has him in a sleeperhold and flips over, pinning Piper and regaining the title. Bret liked that spot so much he dusted it off and used it to pin Steve Austin at Survivor Series ‘96. After losing the title, Piper hands the belt to Bret, raises his arm, and they share a manly hetero hug. Poetry, I says.
Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair, WrestleMania VIII (1992)
Ah yes, the match that answers the question, “What if the guys who wrestled Ricky Steamboat in the two best matches ever wrestled each other?” Just a year after retiring forever, Savage is back in the main event challenging the greatest wrestler in history for the WWF Title. Flair jumped over from WCW in July ’91 (just in time to avoid wrestling at The Great American Bash that year, an event that gets people to tossing around phrases like “worst show ever”) and won the belt at the ’92 Royal Rumble. Hogan was originally announced as the challenger, but it was just a pretense to move him into a feud with Sid Justice that culminated in his “farewell match” at this same show. If that were only true. Anyway, when Hogan passed up his title match to face Sid, the newly un-retired Savage, fresh off a hot feud with Jake Roberts, got the shot instead. There was a funny build in the months leading up to the match, with Flair claiming to have hit the sheets with Elizabeth before she was with Savage. Ric even produced photographs of he and Liz in happier times, which Liz and Savage both insisted had been doctored. The whole thing was pretty silly, even for pro wresting, but the upside was that Savage takes after Flair like a rabid dog as soon as the bell rings. The match is really a masterpiece, with near-falls aplenty, including a few that had me convinced the match was over the first time I saw it. Flair winds up bleeding all over the mat (which was already blood-stained from Piper’s match with Bret earlier in the show), and gets pinned with Savage rolls him up and unabashedly grabs a handful of tights to keep him down for the three. Post-match, Flair flips out and kisses Elizabeth, causing Savage to go nuts all over again. Later, new WWF Champ Savage gives this psychotic, incoherent backstage interview that ends with him walking off-camera shouting “Mr. Perfect! You’re not perfect! I’m not perfect! Nobody’s perfect!” Okay, agreed, Randy. Chill out and take your pills now, okay?
Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, WrestleMania X (1994)
Ask me on the right day and I might tell you this is my favorite wrestling match ever. There’s a purity and a simplicity to it that I love and wish I encountered more often. The setup for this one is so simple: younger brother Owen gets jealous of older brother Bret and turns on him after a tag team match, challenges him to a match to settle who the better man is, Bret reluctantly accepts and voila!—instant classic. Both guys end up going a little dirty here and there, but for the most part this one is a mat wrestling clinic the likes of which you’d never see in the WWE today, unfortunately. If you think watching guys trade headlocks and armbars for twenty minutes is all this style of pure wrestling can offer, you don’t know much about truly good pro wrestling or the Harts. The psychology on display here is awesome, as Owen spends most of his time on offense working over Bret’s leg to set him up for the Sharpshooter, and Bret busts out a couple moves we don’t get to see from him too often—including a Pescado—to keep up with his little brother. The finish is brilliant and comes totally out of nowhere: Bret attempts a victory roll on Owen out of the corner, but Owen blocks the roll halfway through and sits down, pinning Bret instead. No need to feel too bad for Bret, though—he wins the WWF Title from Yokozuna later in this show, and has a classic rematch with Owen for the title in a steel cage at SummerSlam ’94. Owen went on to have entertaining feuds with Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin, but unfortunately never held the WWF Title before he was killed in an accident before a pay-per-view match in May 1999.
Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon – Ladder Match, WrestleMania X (1994)
This is the first high profile ladder match, and so far the only one to really justify the gimmick. Going into this match both Shawn and Razor were claiming to be the Intercontinental Champion, and both were carrying championship belts around. To settle the feud and end the dispute over the title, both belts are hung from a hook above the ring and the first guy to climb the ladder and grab both belts is the champion. Pretty much every ladder match since this one has been booked because it’s a popular gimmick and lends itself to the styles of certain wrestlers, without the storyline justification this first one had. They used a ladder match a few years ago on Raw between Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy to unify the Intercontinental and Hardcore Titles, but that’s the only one since WrestleMania X that I’ve seen that even tried to come up with a specific reason for the ladder stipulation, and that wasn’t exactly a high profile event. Anyway, this match is another one a lot of fans and wrestling know-it-alls nominate as the best ever. I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly the best match of its kind I’ve ever seen—every ladder match since, even really good ones like those between the Hardy Boyz/Edge & Christian in 1999, have essentially been variations on this one, with a few spots added here and there to keep things fresh. The basic ladder match formula is all here: fighting to be the first to get the ladder in the ring, increasingly brutal maneuvers to yank each other off and keep the other guy from getting to the top, using the ladder as an offensive weapon in various ingenious and sadistic ways. Shawn climbs to the top of the ladder to splash Razor, and later sets the ladder up in a corner and tips it over, riding the top of it down across Razor as he lies stunned on the canvas. Razor, having the size and strength advantage, just picks the whole thing up and smashes Shawn in various parts of his anatomy with it. Shawn ends up tangled in the ropes after taking a fall from the ladder, allowing Razor to take his time climbing up, grab the belts and win the match. I generally prefer standard matches to ones booked around gimmicks, but there’s not a bad thing I can say about this one. And I can’t hold the endless parade of increasingly boring, repetitive ladder matches that followed against it, either; that’d be like blaming Raiders of the Lost Ark for National Treasure.
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart – Iron Man Match, WrestleMania XII (1996)
Another gimmick match, but of a very different sort. No ladders or folding chairs or steel cages, just two guys in the ring going for 60 straight minutes, and whoever has the most falls when the time expires wins. The Iron Man/Marathon match is one of my favorite gimmicks because it is so simple, and because when it’s used with the right wrestlers it brings out the best aspects of pro wrestling—the athleticism, the creativity, the psychology. All those are on full display here, as Shawn and Bret wrestle for a full hour without a single fall taking place. It’s the equivalent of a 60 minute draw, the kind of thing you would’ve seen between Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne back in the 50s and 60s, and unheard of in North American pro wrestling today. The pace is slow and deliberate, with both guys saving their best stuff for the later stages of the match. There’s a lot of mat wrestling to start, headlocks, hammerlocks, reversals out the wazoo. Things build nicely as the hour goes on, both Shawn and Bret getting more aggressive as more time passes without a fall. The 60 minutes elapses just as Shawn is caught in Bret’s Sharpshooter and about to submit. The match is declared a draw and WWF Champion Bret grabs his belt and heads up the aisle. “President” Gorilla Monsoon talks to the ref and the timekeeper and orders that the match be restarted in sudden death overtime—there must be a winner. Bret is less than thrilled, runs back to the ring and starts pounding on Shawn. Bret charges and Shawn drops him with a superkick. While Bret recovers, Shawn crawls to the corner and pulls himself up, nails Bret with a second superkick just as Bret gets to his feet from the first one, pin, three count. This was the final step in elevating Shawn Michaels, who started with the company as one half of the Rockers and then became a multi-time Intercontinental Champion as a mid-card heel, into a main event babyface. This was his first WWF Title, and though he switched back and forth from face to heel several times, and sat out a few years with back problems, he hasn’t left the main event yet. Younger fans will prefer more recent multi-fall Iron Man bouts like Triple H vs. Rock from Judgment Day 2000 or Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar from SmackDown in 2005 to this one, but not me. I’ll take 60+ minutes of Shawn vs. Bret any old day of the week.
Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin – I Quit Match, WrestleMania XIII (1997)
This, like the ladder match at WrestleMania X, is a watershed. Except for the submission stipulation, every WWF main event for the next five or six years was to some degree an imitation of this match. Part of the reason was that Steve Austin, the company’s top guy during most of that time, had a bad neck (and eventually two bad knees) and couldn’t do much else. The rest of the reason is that this is the match that made Austin a titanic super babyface, and is pretty much the best match he ever had, so why mess with what works? Besides being a long, brutal brawl with a great finish, this match is known for being the only successful performance of the double-turn: going into the match, Bret Hart was the babyface and Austin was the heel; by the time it was over, the crowd was booing Bret and chanting Austin’s name, which was exactly the plan. Bret had been transitioning into a heel role for months leading up to this, whining about missing a title shot, acting like a jerk more often than not on Monday Night Raw, and about half the fans had been cheering for Austin already, so the double-turn wasn’t such a challenge. Still, it’s a rare case of a well-booked, well-performed program that turned out just the way it was supposed to. And no one’s been able to pull off the double-turn since. WCW tried it in 1999 with Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan and it failed completely because no one wanted to cheer for Hogan or boo Flair, but that didn’t seem to matter (or occur) to anyone in charge. Ken Shamrock is the special referee, and the “I Quit” stipulation means that pinfalls don’t count and there are no disqualifications or countouts. We’re treated to such rare sights as Bret Hart choking out Austin with an extension cord and Austin attempting the Sharpshooter on the way to a classic finish, where Bret locks a bloodied Austin into the Sharpshooter and holds him there until he passes out from the pain. Austin never submits, but Shamrock calls for the bell and awards the match to Bret. Austin takes his time getting up, refuses help and staggers back up the aisle on his own as the crowd gives him a standing ovation. The grit he showed here, and the iconic image of his bloodied, determined face, refusing to give up, helped make Austin the biggest box office draw in the history of the business.
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, WrestleMania X-Seven (2001)
Just to switch things up a bit, here’s one with no title on the line, no gimmick, no special stipulations, no historical significance except for its historic level of awesomeness. Kurt Angle had been on TV for about two years at this point, had won the Intercontinental and European titles, and had just seen his first reign as WWF Champion ended by The Rock at the previous month’s pay-per-view. Benoit had been with the company just over a year, after jumping ship from WCW along with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in the wake of his real-life archenemy Kevin Sullivan being made head booker over there. Benoit was still three years away from winning the World Title, but he’d be in the thick of the main event in a few months, thanks to an awesome performance here with Angle, and a few months later alongside Chris Jericho in an outstanding Raw tag match with Austin and Triple H. His match with Angle is one of the best displays of pure mat wrestling ever seen at WrestleMania (or anywhere else on WWF/E television). The storyline was simple and straightforward—no personal animosity, just a rivalry over who was the better man, who could get the other to tap out to his favorite submission hold. Angle, an Olympic Gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, puts on a clinic, and Benoit hangs with him all the way. Chain wrestling, escapes, reversals you say? Look no further—this is about fifteen minutes of nothing but. The finish is a disappointment—it comes out of nowhere, and far too soon in a match that I wanted to last all week, and is anything but definitive, with Angle rolling Benoit up from behind and pinning him while holding the ropes. But on a card that from top to bottom might just be the best WrestleMania ever (there was also a great three-way tag team ladder match with Edge & Christian, the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz; and the best of the three times Steve Austin vs. The Rock met at WrestleMania), Angle vs. Benoit is the real highlight of the show. Angle had two particularly memorable WrestleMania appearances after this one (vs. Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania XIX, and vs. Eddie Guerrero at WrestleMania XX), but never quite reached the level he’s at here. As for Benoit, I can think of one WrestleMania match that tops this one . . .
Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, WrestleMania XX (2004)
WrestleMania X-Seven might be the best all around show in the series, but it’s WrestleMania XX that has the best ending. In January 2004 Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble and jumped ship from the SmackDown! roster to Raw to challenge Triple H for the WWE World Title at WrestleMania. The problem, so the storyline went, was that Triple H had a pre-existing feud with Shawn Michaels, and Shawn had sort of had his heart set on taking the main event title shot himself. So instead of the one on one match Benoit’s Rumble victory promised, we get the dreaded triple threat match, the rules of which allow a champion to lose the match and the title without actually losing the fall. I’ve never liked this gimmick, mostly because it seems lazy to end a match with three guys after one guy gets pinned. Why not have an elimination match, like WCW used to do with its triangle matches? Because if you end it after one fall, the prima donna star who moans and groans about not going over can lose the match without actually taking the fall. I, in an uncharacteristic moment of cynicism, assumed this was why Michaels was inserted into the match, so Benoit could go over him and win the title and Triple H, having never lost a fall to Benoit, could come back in a few weeks (or months, if he was feeling generous), face Benoit in a singles match, no-sell the Crippler Crossface and win “his” belt back. Turns out I was hilariously wrong about all of this. Triple H not only does the job for Benoit at WrestleMania XX, he goes out like a man, tapping out to the Crossface—the first time a WrestleMania main event ever ends in a submission. Triple H faced Benoit twice more for the title in the following months—in a rematch of the triple threat, and then one on one, with Benoit retaining the belt both times. The match itself is a masterpiece, the best three-way match I’ve ever seen, with Michaels nearly killing himself and bleeding like a pig in the process. The finish comes when Michaels is tossed from the ring and Benoit clamps Triple H into the Crossface. Hunter almost makes the ropes, but Benoit rolls them back to the middle of the ring and cranks it for all he’s got. Triple H taps out and Benoit wins his first (and so far only) World Title. Chris Benoit, the greatest wrestler of his generation, is finally a World Champion, standing in the ring holding the belt, confetti flying everywhere. But if that’s not good enough, Benoit turns around and sees Eddie Guerrero in the ring all of a sudden. Eddie, also a World Champion as the holder of the WWE Title on SmackDown!, embraces Benoit in the ring and they celebrate together. As a wrestling fan, and as a fan of Eddie and Benoit for years and years, it was a definite pinch-me moment. Seeing those two guys, who had been buried in WCW for years and who I never in my wildest dreams thought would be allowed to hang in the WWE main event, each holding World Title belts at the end of WrestleMania was as good as it’s gotten for me as a wrestling fan. With Eddie gone and Benoit back on the mid-card wrestling for the U.S. Title on SmackDown!, it looks like WrestleMania XX’s as good as it’s ever gonna get.
(Hi, Steve.)
With WrestleMania 23—the twentieth anniversary of WrestleMania III, the first one to be any good at all—coming up this weekend, it’s as good a time as any to drone on and on about my favorite matches to an indifferent, largely nonexistent audience. In chronological order:
Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, WrestleMania III (1987)
The Citizen Kane of pro wrestling matches, the widely acknowledged Greatest Match Ever[tm] between ultimate babyface Steamboat and master Memphis heel Savage, for Savage’s Intercontinental Title. The build-up was nearly as good as the match itself: Savage brutally attacked Steamboat, dropping him neck-first across a security barricade and “crushing his larynx”; Steamboat returned months later, more than a little miffed and thirsty for revenge, and so we have this match. It’s about fifteen minutes of the most perfect professional wrestling you’ll ever see, from two guys who at the top of their game could go as good as anyone, ever. The finish, in which Steamboat turns an attempted bodyslam into a small package for the pin and the title, has been copied a hundred times since, including in Steamboat’s NWA World Heavyweight Title defense against Ric Flair at WrestleWar ’89 (an even better match than this one), when Flair, in a cool bit of continuity, used the same move to win the title from Steamboat. WrestleMania III was a huge success for the WWF and as a result has been counted among the best shows in the series despite the fact that everything leading up to and following Steamboat vs. Savage is terrible. There’s only one match on WrestleMania III worth seeing, and it sure ain’t Andre vs. Hogan.
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage – Retirement Match, WrestleMania VII (1991)
Want more proof that Randy Savage was the man back in the day? The guy got a classic pay-per-view match out of the Ultimate Warrior, a feat so daunting Ric Flair never even attempted it. Savage, nearing the end of his “Macho King” phase, had interfered in Warrior’s match with Sgt. Slaughter at the Royal Rumble earlier this year, costing Warrior the WWF Title. To settle the feud, which thanks to Warrior totally overreacting to Savage’s routine heel antics became intensely personal, the two of them agreed to this match at WrestleMania—loser retires. Savage carries Warrior on his back for over twenty minutes, and then gives the most emphatic demonstration of how to put someone over that I’ve ever seen: Savage successfully executes his finishing move, the flying elbowdrop, five consecutive times, only for Warrior to kick out of the pin, nail Savage with a series of diving shoulder tackles, and win the match by pinning Savage with one foot. Warrior, who was still a huge star at this point even though the guy couldn’t wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag, came out looking like a million bucks, and Savage went down like a man. Post-match Savage turned babyface, dumping his evil manager Sherri to reunite with his former valet/main squeeze (and real-life wife) Miss Elizabeth, who just so happened to be in the crowd. Savage’s retirement lasted about six months, by the way.
Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper, WrestleMania VIII (1992)
To my mind this is the first truly great match of Bret Hart’s WWF singles career. Everyone talks about the match from SummerSlam ’91 where he wins his first Intercontinental Title from Mr. Perfect as Bret’s breakthrough as a solo star, but for my money this is his first real, honest-to-God classic. It’s also the best match I’ve ever seen from Piper, so I now cordially invite you to beat that. A few months prior to this match, then-Intercontinental champ Bret got sidelined with a bad case of the flu and dropped the title to The Mountie in order to take some time off and recuperate. The Mountie then lost the belt to Piper at the Royal Rumble, in what was itself a fun match, mostly because it ended with Piper winning his one and only WWF singles title. Bret came back, asked his old pal Hot Rod for a title shot at WrestleMania, and we get this friendly bout which rapidly descends into a bloodbath. There’s some decent mat wrestling, some intense brawling in and out of the ring, a great character moment from Piper near the end when a pang of conscience keeps him from smashing Bret’s skull in with the ring bell, and another classic finish when Bret walks up the turnbuckles while Piper has him in a sleeperhold and flips over, pinning Piper and regaining the title. Bret liked that spot so much he dusted it off and used it to pin Steve Austin at Survivor Series ‘96. After losing the title, Piper hands the belt to Bret, raises his arm, and they share a manly hetero hug. Poetry, I says.
Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair, WrestleMania VIII (1992)
Ah yes, the match that answers the question, “What if the guys who wrestled Ricky Steamboat in the two best matches ever wrestled each other?” Just a year after retiring forever, Savage is back in the main event challenging the greatest wrestler in history for the WWF Title. Flair jumped over from WCW in July ’91 (just in time to avoid wrestling at The Great American Bash that year, an event that gets people to tossing around phrases like “worst show ever”) and won the belt at the ’92 Royal Rumble. Hogan was originally announced as the challenger, but it was just a pretense to move him into a feud with Sid Justice that culminated in his “farewell match” at this same show. If that were only true. Anyway, when Hogan passed up his title match to face Sid, the newly un-retired Savage, fresh off a hot feud with Jake Roberts, got the shot instead. There was a funny build in the months leading up to the match, with Flair claiming to have hit the sheets with Elizabeth before she was with Savage. Ric even produced photographs of he and Liz in happier times, which Liz and Savage both insisted had been doctored. The whole thing was pretty silly, even for pro wresting, but the upside was that Savage takes after Flair like a rabid dog as soon as the bell rings. The match is really a masterpiece, with near-falls aplenty, including a few that had me convinced the match was over the first time I saw it. Flair winds up bleeding all over the mat (which was already blood-stained from Piper’s match with Bret earlier in the show), and gets pinned with Savage rolls him up and unabashedly grabs a handful of tights to keep him down for the three. Post-match, Flair flips out and kisses Elizabeth, causing Savage to go nuts all over again. Later, new WWF Champ Savage gives this psychotic, incoherent backstage interview that ends with him walking off-camera shouting “Mr. Perfect! You’re not perfect! I’m not perfect! Nobody’s perfect!” Okay, agreed, Randy. Chill out and take your pills now, okay?
Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, WrestleMania X (1994)
Ask me on the right day and I might tell you this is my favorite wrestling match ever. There’s a purity and a simplicity to it that I love and wish I encountered more often. The setup for this one is so simple: younger brother Owen gets jealous of older brother Bret and turns on him after a tag team match, challenges him to a match to settle who the better man is, Bret reluctantly accepts and voila!—instant classic. Both guys end up going a little dirty here and there, but for the most part this one is a mat wrestling clinic the likes of which you’d never see in the WWE today, unfortunately. If you think watching guys trade headlocks and armbars for twenty minutes is all this style of pure wrestling can offer, you don’t know much about truly good pro wrestling or the Harts. The psychology on display here is awesome, as Owen spends most of his time on offense working over Bret’s leg to set him up for the Sharpshooter, and Bret busts out a couple moves we don’t get to see from him too often—including a Pescado—to keep up with his little brother. The finish is brilliant and comes totally out of nowhere: Bret attempts a victory roll on Owen out of the corner, but Owen blocks the roll halfway through and sits down, pinning Bret instead. No need to feel too bad for Bret, though—he wins the WWF Title from Yokozuna later in this show, and has a classic rematch with Owen for the title in a steel cage at SummerSlam ’94. Owen went on to have entertaining feuds with Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin, but unfortunately never held the WWF Title before he was killed in an accident before a pay-per-view match in May 1999.
Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon – Ladder Match, WrestleMania X (1994)
This is the first high profile ladder match, and so far the only one to really justify the gimmick. Going into this match both Shawn and Razor were claiming to be the Intercontinental Champion, and both were carrying championship belts around. To settle the feud and end the dispute over the title, both belts are hung from a hook above the ring and the first guy to climb the ladder and grab both belts is the champion. Pretty much every ladder match since this one has been booked because it’s a popular gimmick and lends itself to the styles of certain wrestlers, without the storyline justification this first one had. They used a ladder match a few years ago on Raw between Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy to unify the Intercontinental and Hardcore Titles, but that’s the only one since WrestleMania X that I’ve seen that even tried to come up with a specific reason for the ladder stipulation, and that wasn’t exactly a high profile event. Anyway, this match is another one a lot of fans and wrestling know-it-alls nominate as the best ever. I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly the best match of its kind I’ve ever seen—every ladder match since, even really good ones like those between the Hardy Boyz/Edge & Christian in 1999, have essentially been variations on this one, with a few spots added here and there to keep things fresh. The basic ladder match formula is all here: fighting to be the first to get the ladder in the ring, increasingly brutal maneuvers to yank each other off and keep the other guy from getting to the top, using the ladder as an offensive weapon in various ingenious and sadistic ways. Shawn climbs to the top of the ladder to splash Razor, and later sets the ladder up in a corner and tips it over, riding the top of it down across Razor as he lies stunned on the canvas. Razor, having the size and strength advantage, just picks the whole thing up and smashes Shawn in various parts of his anatomy with it. Shawn ends up tangled in the ropes after taking a fall from the ladder, allowing Razor to take his time climbing up, grab the belts and win the match. I generally prefer standard matches to ones booked around gimmicks, but there’s not a bad thing I can say about this one. And I can’t hold the endless parade of increasingly boring, repetitive ladder matches that followed against it, either; that’d be like blaming Raiders of the Lost Ark for National Treasure.
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart – Iron Man Match, WrestleMania XII (1996)
Another gimmick match, but of a very different sort. No ladders or folding chairs or steel cages, just two guys in the ring going for 60 straight minutes, and whoever has the most falls when the time expires wins. The Iron Man/Marathon match is one of my favorite gimmicks because it is so simple, and because when it’s used with the right wrestlers it brings out the best aspects of pro wrestling—the athleticism, the creativity, the psychology. All those are on full display here, as Shawn and Bret wrestle for a full hour without a single fall taking place. It’s the equivalent of a 60 minute draw, the kind of thing you would’ve seen between Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne back in the 50s and 60s, and unheard of in North American pro wrestling today. The pace is slow and deliberate, with both guys saving their best stuff for the later stages of the match. There’s a lot of mat wrestling to start, headlocks, hammerlocks, reversals out the wazoo. Things build nicely as the hour goes on, both Shawn and Bret getting more aggressive as more time passes without a fall. The 60 minutes elapses just as Shawn is caught in Bret’s Sharpshooter and about to submit. The match is declared a draw and WWF Champion Bret grabs his belt and heads up the aisle. “President” Gorilla Monsoon talks to the ref and the timekeeper and orders that the match be restarted in sudden death overtime—there must be a winner. Bret is less than thrilled, runs back to the ring and starts pounding on Shawn. Bret charges and Shawn drops him with a superkick. While Bret recovers, Shawn crawls to the corner and pulls himself up, nails Bret with a second superkick just as Bret gets to his feet from the first one, pin, three count. This was the final step in elevating Shawn Michaels, who started with the company as one half of the Rockers and then became a multi-time Intercontinental Champion as a mid-card heel, into a main event babyface. This was his first WWF Title, and though he switched back and forth from face to heel several times, and sat out a few years with back problems, he hasn’t left the main event yet. Younger fans will prefer more recent multi-fall Iron Man bouts like Triple H vs. Rock from Judgment Day 2000 or Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar from SmackDown in 2005 to this one, but not me. I’ll take 60+ minutes of Shawn vs. Bret any old day of the week.
Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin – I Quit Match, WrestleMania XIII (1997)
This, like the ladder match at WrestleMania X, is a watershed. Except for the submission stipulation, every WWF main event for the next five or six years was to some degree an imitation of this match. Part of the reason was that Steve Austin, the company’s top guy during most of that time, had a bad neck (and eventually two bad knees) and couldn’t do much else. The rest of the reason is that this is the match that made Austin a titanic super babyface, and is pretty much the best match he ever had, so why mess with what works? Besides being a long, brutal brawl with a great finish, this match is known for being the only successful performance of the double-turn: going into the match, Bret Hart was the babyface and Austin was the heel; by the time it was over, the crowd was booing Bret and chanting Austin’s name, which was exactly the plan. Bret had been transitioning into a heel role for months leading up to this, whining about missing a title shot, acting like a jerk more often than not on Monday Night Raw, and about half the fans had been cheering for Austin already, so the double-turn wasn’t such a challenge. Still, it’s a rare case of a well-booked, well-performed program that turned out just the way it was supposed to. And no one’s been able to pull off the double-turn since. WCW tried it in 1999 with Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan and it failed completely because no one wanted to cheer for Hogan or boo Flair, but that didn’t seem to matter (or occur) to anyone in charge. Ken Shamrock is the special referee, and the “I Quit” stipulation means that pinfalls don’t count and there are no disqualifications or countouts. We’re treated to such rare sights as Bret Hart choking out Austin with an extension cord and Austin attempting the Sharpshooter on the way to a classic finish, where Bret locks a bloodied Austin into the Sharpshooter and holds him there until he passes out from the pain. Austin never submits, but Shamrock calls for the bell and awards the match to Bret. Austin takes his time getting up, refuses help and staggers back up the aisle on his own as the crowd gives him a standing ovation. The grit he showed here, and the iconic image of his bloodied, determined face, refusing to give up, helped make Austin the biggest box office draw in the history of the business.
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, WrestleMania X-Seven (2001)
Just to switch things up a bit, here’s one with no title on the line, no gimmick, no special stipulations, no historical significance except for its historic level of awesomeness. Kurt Angle had been on TV for about two years at this point, had won the Intercontinental and European titles, and had just seen his first reign as WWF Champion ended by The Rock at the previous month’s pay-per-view. Benoit had been with the company just over a year, after jumping ship from WCW along with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in the wake of his real-life archenemy Kevin Sullivan being made head booker over there. Benoit was still three years away from winning the World Title, but he’d be in the thick of the main event in a few months, thanks to an awesome performance here with Angle, and a few months later alongside Chris Jericho in an outstanding Raw tag match with Austin and Triple H. His match with Angle is one of the best displays of pure mat wrestling ever seen at WrestleMania (or anywhere else on WWF/E television). The storyline was simple and straightforward—no personal animosity, just a rivalry over who was the better man, who could get the other to tap out to his favorite submission hold. Angle, an Olympic Gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, puts on a clinic, and Benoit hangs with him all the way. Chain wrestling, escapes, reversals you say? Look no further—this is about fifteen minutes of nothing but. The finish is a disappointment—it comes out of nowhere, and far too soon in a match that I wanted to last all week, and is anything but definitive, with Angle rolling Benoit up from behind and pinning him while holding the ropes. But on a card that from top to bottom might just be the best WrestleMania ever (there was also a great three-way tag team ladder match with Edge & Christian, the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz; and the best of the three times Steve Austin vs. The Rock met at WrestleMania), Angle vs. Benoit is the real highlight of the show. Angle had two particularly memorable WrestleMania appearances after this one (vs. Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania XIX, and vs. Eddie Guerrero at WrestleMania XX), but never quite reached the level he’s at here. As for Benoit, I can think of one WrestleMania match that tops this one . . .
Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, WrestleMania XX (2004)
WrestleMania X-Seven might be the best all around show in the series, but it’s WrestleMania XX that has the best ending. In January 2004 Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble and jumped ship from the SmackDown! roster to Raw to challenge Triple H for the WWE World Title at WrestleMania. The problem, so the storyline went, was that Triple H had a pre-existing feud with Shawn Michaels, and Shawn had sort of had his heart set on taking the main event title shot himself. So instead of the one on one match Benoit’s Rumble victory promised, we get the dreaded triple threat match, the rules of which allow a champion to lose the match and the title without actually losing the fall. I’ve never liked this gimmick, mostly because it seems lazy to end a match with three guys after one guy gets pinned. Why not have an elimination match, like WCW used to do with its triangle matches? Because if you end it after one fall, the prima donna star who moans and groans about not going over can lose the match without actually taking the fall. I, in an uncharacteristic moment of cynicism, assumed this was why Michaels was inserted into the match, so Benoit could go over him and win the title and Triple H, having never lost a fall to Benoit, could come back in a few weeks (or months, if he was feeling generous), face Benoit in a singles match, no-sell the Crippler Crossface and win “his” belt back. Turns out I was hilariously wrong about all of this. Triple H not only does the job for Benoit at WrestleMania XX, he goes out like a man, tapping out to the Crossface—the first time a WrestleMania main event ever ends in a submission. Triple H faced Benoit twice more for the title in the following months—in a rematch of the triple threat, and then one on one, with Benoit retaining the belt both times. The match itself is a masterpiece, the best three-way match I’ve ever seen, with Michaels nearly killing himself and bleeding like a pig in the process. The finish comes when Michaels is tossed from the ring and Benoit clamps Triple H into the Crossface. Hunter almost makes the ropes, but Benoit rolls them back to the middle of the ring and cranks it for all he’s got. Triple H taps out and Benoit wins his first (and so far only) World Title. Chris Benoit, the greatest wrestler of his generation, is finally a World Champion, standing in the ring holding the belt, confetti flying everywhere. But if that’s not good enough, Benoit turns around and sees Eddie Guerrero in the ring all of a sudden. Eddie, also a World Champion as the holder of the WWE Title on SmackDown!, embraces Benoit in the ring and they celebrate together. As a wrestling fan, and as a fan of Eddie and Benoit for years and years, it was a definite pinch-me moment. Seeing those two guys, who had been buried in WCW for years and who I never in my wildest dreams thought would be allowed to hang in the WWE main event, each holding World Title belts at the end of WrestleMania was as good as it’s gotten for me as a wrestling fan. With Eddie gone and Benoit back on the mid-card wrestling for the U.S. Title on SmackDown!, it looks like WrestleMania XX’s as good as it’s ever gonna get.
Print
Email
