Shining a Spotlight 3.22.07: Wrestlemania X8

I’ve been having a few connection problems this week so having to write this out fast to get out on a friend’s computer. So if I miss any big news this week (like another death which sadly is so common lately), forgive me. Guess it’s easier that I work on a subject of the past.

For the last of my Wrestlemania retrospectives, going back only five years to Wrestlemania X8. It is interesting how these five-year breaks keep leading to pretty strong and important Manias. And that 2002 show was a huge one as it would turn out to be the last as the WWF. It was an interesting period as WWF was coming off the failure of the Invasion and about to enter one of its worst years creatively and financially. The brand extension would soon hit, the Intercontinental title temporarily done away with, Vince blowing the chance to have Eric Bischoff come in as a heel and HHH beginning his domination of RAW.

That was all in the future. At the time, WWF just wanted to produce a major card. They had a hard act to follow as Wrestlemania X-7 was one of the best ever with several huge matches. This one had a bunch of big time matches set up but the results of them would be far more interesting than even WWF could imagine.

Whatever else, the card was going to be huge as it was at the Toronto Skydome, the site of Wrestlemania VI, before a massive crowd of 62, 000 fans. As I’ve mentioned before, Canada has always been hotter for WWF than most US cities so they knew they had a hot crowd. My one quibble was that they had the whole place hugely lit rather than darken it down like they had with VI. Plus I miss those old motorized ring carts.

The show proper started out with the rock band Saliva playing for the crowd, a waste of five minutes. But the next bit was fun, a video with people, wrestlers and fans, reminicising about what Wrestlemania meant to them. It may have come off a bit over the top but hey, Vince McMahon had crushed all competition at the time so he earned the right to crow.

The opening match was for the Intercontinental title, which back then actually meant a lot more than it does now. William Regal was defending against Rob Van Dam and it’s so interesting to note how so many people back then were utterly convinced that within a year RVD would be WWF champ. Funny how things work out. The match wasn’t too bad with the mix of styles. Regal would try to pull out a pair of brass knuckles to nail RVD but the ref would steal them, allowing Rob to hit him with a kick, a frog splash and pick up the title. It wasn’t bad but rather short, only six minutes and seemed better suited for RAW than the opening of the biggest show of the year.

Interestingly, the next match was also a title bout, this time for the European title. Diamond Dallas Page, still somewhat over, was defending the belt against Christian. Page had been one of the first WCW guys to jump as part of the “Invasion” but it was clear to all that his best days were behind him. Christian actually started by running down Tornto, just to be clear as to who the heel was. The two did their best but DDP was hurting and Christian was still raw as a singles guy so the six minute bout was a snoozer. In the end, DDP hit the Diamond Cutter to retain and would end up taking a few years off only weeks later.

The next bit was absolutely classic. As the Rock got ready for his big showdown with Hulk Hogan, he was being interviewed by the Coach. For the first few months of 2002, whenever the Coach would interview Rock, Rock would get Coach to admit to liking something stupid and asking the fans if they wanted to see it. Ie…
“You don’t make the decisions, Coach.” Turning to the camera. “Would you people like to see Coach dance the Charleston?” As they cheer, Rock turns to the Coach. “See, Coach, they believe in you. The Rock believes in you…and we are live so do it!” The Coach would, with Rock doing something like interrupting to run him down or kicking him in the ass and yelling “Get your monkey ass out of the Rock’s picture!”

In this case, the Rock got Coach to get down on his knees and say his prayers. In an utterly priceless moment, the Coach looked up and said “What up, G? It’s your buddy the Coach here, just saying hi.” With an incredulous look, the Rock asked “What in the BLUE HELL is wrong with you?!”, kicked the Coach off-screen and did one of his standard awesome promos. Just wonderful to watch.

Following that came the Hardcore title match. Now for those who don’t recall, back then, the Hardcore title was defended under a 24/7 rule so basically anyone could challenge the champ at any time for it. This was really brought home by Hardcore Holly with hysterical bits of Holly attacked everywhere he went like when the Headbangers tried to get the title at an indoor amusement park, going up and down slides chasing Holly. And when the Mean Street Posse tried, it was like watching a Road Runner cartoon come to life.

In this case, Maven was up against Goldust. Maven was getting a push due to his being the first Tough Enough winner although that meant jack to the Canadian fans. Like all hardcore matches, this turned into a brawl fast with Goldust actually pulling out a golden shovel from under the ring to attack Maven. They ended up laying each other out, allowing Spike Dudley to run in and pin Maven to win the title. After a brief performance by Drowning Pool, they began what would be a running event during the show, which was the battle for the belt backstage. Crash Holly was attacking Spike when Hurricane Helms swung in on a rope out of nowhere to pin Spike and win the belt. Okay, that was nifty to see, I admit it.

Back to the real show, Kurt Angle was taking on Kane and I honestly can’t remember why these guys were feuding back then. Angle went to work right off using the ring bell to stun Kane who suplexed him down and stomped him. Angle would fight back with a belly-to-belly and other takedown moves to keep Kane grounded. Kane would actually show some good game this night, taking some Rolling Germans and a flying clothesline but catching Angle with the next one to beat him down. They would trade pin attempts with Kane getting a boot and powerslam and Angle an Angle Slam. He went for the Angle Lock but Kane managed to get to the ropes to break it up and they tried a reverse roll-up but Kane couldn’t quite follow it through, allowing Angle to pin him. It wasn’t too bad but both would do better in a great SmackDown match with Angle using psychology to work on Kane’s leg so it was a disappointment.

The next bout more than made up for it as Undertaker faced Ric Flair in what had been set up as a battle for respect. They started with a brawl with Flair put to the post and JR actually tried to sell his old plane crash injury as if it hadn’t healed in 26 years. They did the classic Flair Flop and Taker booting him to the floor. The inevitable occurred as Flair was soon busted open and Undertaker pounded away to turn it into a gusher. Taker would actually do some nice wresting with a superplex on Flair and a legdrop. Taker would go old-school with walking the ropes but Flair would pull him off only to get sideslammed. Flair soon grabbed an object to cut Taker open and soon both men were bleeding buckets. They fought in the aisle as Flair would try the figure four but Taker would actually chokeslam him to get out of it. In the middle of this, there came a great commentary exchange as Jerry Lawler said that he thought Taker and Flair “were bleeding about the same amount” and Jim Ross stated “Are you high?” Eventually, Taker went for a powerbomb but couldn’t quite pull it off so Tombstoned Flair for the win, ending a match a lot better than most thought it’d be.

From the heights to the lows as Edge took on Booker T, the blow-off to the ridiculous “feud” with them fighting for a Japanese shampoo commercial. The match would actually turn out to be not too bad with Booker hotshotting Edge on the ropes for two and nailing him with a missile dropkick, always cool to see from someone his size and I don’t get why he doesn’t use it as much anymore. Edge retaliated with a leg lariat and an Edge-o-matic, another old spot. Booker tried a sunset flip but Edge catapulted him into the roles. He tried a spear but Booker superkicked him and did the Spinarooni. He went for the Bookend but it was blocked and Edge hit the spear. He tried his own spinarooni which sucked and eventually nailed him with an Impaler for the win.

In the backstage drama, the Hurricane tried to hide only to have Molly Holly turn on him. Actually, it was Mighty Molly, a blonde-haired superheroine, who hit him in the head with a frying pan to pin him for the title.

Then we get back to dark stuff with Scott Hall facing Steve Austin. This, as I understand it, was a key reason for Austin’s walk out a few months later and it’s hard not to understand him. The last year, he’d been in the main event, winning the WWF title. Now, he was stuck in the middle of the show taking on a guy who was obviously in no shape for a fight. Austin was really worried about this as, ever since 1997, wrestlers had been made to understand not to injure his neck. But with the infamously unreliable Hall, Austin worried he might do something wrong. Austin did his best to make it exciting, attacking Hall with his Thesz press and punches and brawling in the aisle. Hall attacked with his corner clotheslines and blockbuster slams with the crowd chanting “Razor” at him. Austin would do a spinebuster and the Stunner but Kevin Nash pulled out the ref. The Outsiders double-teamed Austin, who stunned them both. A ref came down to get the pin but was taken out by Nash. More refs came and Nash sent them all packing. Austin went for a Stunner but Hall countered with his own, which got two. Austin then ended the misery with a real Stunner to pin Hall, showing what a mess the latter was. Again, you can understand a bit better Austin’s reasons for jumping ship not long afterward.

The tag titles were on the line in a wild four team elimination match with Billy & Chuck taking on the Dudleyz, the APA and the Hardyz. You’d think with talent like that the match might be good but it was pretty much a mess. The APA were gone first with Bradshaw getting a 3D. We had the typical Dudleyz/Hardyz brawl with Stacy (with the Hardyz at the time) getting a spank on her ass from Dvon. Eventually Matt hit D-Von with the Twist of Fate to eliminate them. After two more minutes, Billy hit Jeff with the belt to win the matches, ending a pretty abysmal affair that would signify how the tag team ranks of WWF/E were about to hit a sharp decline.

Backstage Molly ran into a door (you read that right) allowing Christian to pin her for the title.

But the next match….oh yes, the next match more than made the card worthwhile no matter what had happened.

When Hulk Hogan arrived in WWF in early 2002, it was believed he’d be continuing the “Hollywood Hogan” heel angle. But on his first RAW, the fans gave him a big pop and chanted his name, even when the Rock challenged him to a match. Despite over the top stuff like Hall and Nash hitting an ambulance containing the rock with a truck, the build-up was still good. WWF had latched onto one of the few “dream matches” left in wrestling and promoted the hell out of it. Of course, WWF would actually underestimate how much fans wanted it as if they had, they’d have made it the main event.

Hogan came out to a monster pop as the fans seemed to completely forget the last twelve years had ever happened. The Rock got a heel reaction with JR called mixed. After a big staredown, they locked up, Hogan winning with huge cheers. The reaction was completely unlike anything people were expecting. They assumed Hogan might get cheered but not Austin-level pops just for clotheslines and punches. After a shoving match, Rock went for the Rock Bottom but Hogan elbowed out of it only to get elbowdropped and started to show a visible limp. Hogan actually went old school with an abdominal stretch rollup for two and raking the Rock’s back. After some brawling, Rock threw Hogan back in for a Spinebuster and then a Sharpshooter which actually got boos. Let me repeat that: the Sharpshooter got booed in Canada. Hogan went low for a big pop and then hit his own Rock Bottom for two. He then took off his belt to smack Rock but got DDT’ed. The Rock then took the belt to whip Hogan to massive boos while JR still insisted the reaction was “mixed.” Another Rock Bottom followed and a pin attempt but Hogan kicked out to do his “Hulk Up” routine with the fans going nuts like it was 1985 all over again. The two fists, the big boot and the legdrop followed but the Rock shocked everyone by kicking out. Hogan went for it again but Rock dodged so he missed. Rock hit him with two Rock Bottoms and the People’s Elbow to finally win it.

In retrospect, the wrong guy really went over here. It was clear the crowd wanted Hogan to take it and Rock and Hogan were unprepared for that reaction, throwing the match off a bit. On the other hand, it was still an awesome fight with styles mixing and the crowd popping huge for it. The Rock put over Hogan by shaking his hand and letting him do his pose-down routine for the crowd. Hall and Nash came to attack Hogan, with Rock saving him, officially turning Hogan full face. My only real complaint about this is that it would take a while before they could go back to using “Real American” and Hogan posing down to Jimi Hendrix just isn’t as good. The big change, of course, would be Vince realizing Hogan still had mileage on him and give him one last run as WWF champ a month later.

Well, anything following that was going to be dead in the water and the lunlucky victims were Trish Stratus, Lita and Jazz in a Women’s Title match. Even dressing in a hot Maple Leaf covered outfit couldn’t get Trish much of a pop. The match wasn’t too bad with all three going at it, Jazz showing good power moves like hotshotting Lita on the ropes and Trish hitting her with a DDT. Surprisingly, Trish did not go over as Jazz hit Lita with her finisher to pin her while Trish was outside, further driving crowd apathy down.

The Hardcore zaniness concluded with Christian making it to a cab outside only to have Maven sneak attacking him, pinning him to regain the title and thus render the whole damn thing moot.

We finally got to the real main event as HHH challenged Chris Jericho for the WWF title. A lot has been written at how poorly Jericho was booked to seem weaker which hints at how big HHH was going to dominate as champ for the next few years. Jericho had been allied with Stephanie McMahon who, in storyline, had broken up with HHH and thus it was really HHH vs Steph. The match actually turned out not too bad although having HHH as the face is always a bit weird to see. It’s interesting to see the shifts in style Hunter has made over the years due to his injuries. He and Jericho had a tremendous match with Jericho working the leg the whole time with figure fours, including one around the ringpost and even toeholds. However, the crowd was still in letdown after the Hogan-Rock match so the heat was less than it could have been. Stephanie finally interfered to the crowd’s hatred as Jericho went for a Lionsault and a chairshot but HHH managed to hit the Pedigree to win the title.

So overall, this card was a bit better than expected in some places but rough in others. However, Hogan/Rock would be a true classic matchup that has earned it favorable reviews. It would also have the massive effect of Hogan accepted as a face once more and given another title run. HHH would soon use his domination in the ring for RAW while Austin would grouse about his push down the card that led him to walking out. To many at the time, it seemed hard to believe WWF/E would fall so far in the next year. But then, that’s what Wrestlemania is, a major part of the WWF’s year-long plans, the spot one ends and another begins. It’s why it seem remains so huge for fans and no matter what, it’s the show to look forward to more than anything. So here’s hoping this year continues that fine tradition of shaking things up in ways you don’t expect and entertaining to boot.

Also around 411 this week:

The Shimmy imagines Mania matches that should have been.

JP counts down the 10 Best Mania moments.

Sturat tells what WSX would have been like in future shows.

O’Dog takes the brave stand to speak up for Bobby Lashley, a good article.

Just S’Pose has an interesting take on how a different video market would affect wrestling.

Ripple Effect takes on Rey Mysterio.

The Timewarp does a nice bit on Matt Hardy.

Don’t forget Column of Honor, Triple Threat, Ask 411, Fact or Fiction and the rest.

For now, the spotlight is off.

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