411Mania’s Countdown to Wrestlemania XXVI 03.21.10: Underrated Mania

Hello everyone. In preparation for my heavy past Mania DVD watching before the big day of Wrestlemania XXVI, I decided to dust off my keyboard after taking a break from my “Against The Grain” column to contribute to 411’s Annual Countdown To Wrestlemania. This year, I wanted to provide a minor recap of sorts from my Mania’ column from last year “Living Through A Decade of Wrestlemania” (and for the record I wanted to thank every reader who commented then on this as those were seriously some of the coolest and nicest comments that I’ve EVER had gotten for any article/column/piece that I’ve written so far…greatly appreciated), by looking back at my discussed main last 10 years (1998 – 2008) of witnessing the event to pick out the matches that I found to be somewhat underrated throughout the years. And by “underrated”, I don’t particularly mean a match that may have had a very low, undeserved star rating from fans/writers…what I really mean are the bouts that may have been pretty good, but sadly aren’t even really mentioned as much as they should be when looking back at past Manias. So I unearth a few here and discuss why exactly I believe that this type of underrating has occurred. Let us begin…

The Rock vs Ken Shamrock
Wrestlemania XIV (1998)

Overshadowed by:
-the official rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin with his World Title win over Shawn Michaels
-the mega-hype with the Undertaker/Kane feud
-the fact that this bout had a “non-finish” with Shamrock’s post-match DQ

I swear…NO ONE ever mentions this interesting bout here with the future multi-time World Champ the Rock and former-UFC megastar Ken Shamrock. Sure it was short…sure it had a quasi-BS finish…BUT that’s made it very good in my eyes. The feud between these two was played up so damn well at the time with the super-cocky pretty boy Rock screwing (with Shamrock winning the belt in their first match at that year’s Royal Rumble only to have it taken away on a reversal when the Rock pretended he was hit with brass knuckles) and sneak-attacking the super tough-guy Shamrock every chance he had with his Nation of Domination crew (especially with another underrated moment when the Rock KILLED Shamrock in the face with one of the most brutal straight-up chairshots I’ve ever seen weeks before on Raw). For the match itself, it was a very short back and forth affair that had some good basic spots (like the Rock laying a perfect timed chair shot, like the other time I just mentioned, when the ref’s back was turned) until the finish where Shamrock actually won the match and the belt…that is when all holy hell broke loose. When the bell rung and they announced him as the winner, mother-f*cking Shamrock kept the freakin’ ankle lock on Rock and wouldn’t let it go. And when 3 Nation members (including the huge-ass Mark Henry) and 3 different referees tried to get him off of the Rock, Shamrock went ape-shit and gave every one of them belly-to-belly suplexes, while still continuing to be a like a rapid dog with applying the lock on the Rock. Despite this craziness, the bout got even crazier with the crowd cheering on Shamrock to continue his rampage when the “World’s Dangerous Man” gave everyone left standing surrounding him his psycho-killer eyes and then suddenly proceeded to beat the living shit out of The Rock AGAIN after the man was stretchered out of the ring. So sure this match wasn’t on an epic level or even had a very significant Wrestlemania moment, but it was one hell of crazy, clusterf*ck of match and a good underrated one at that.

Randy Orton, Batista & Ric Flair vs The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection
Wrestlemania XX (2004)

Overshadowed by:
-arguably the “greatest” Wrestlemania match/overall main event of all time with the Triple Threat World Title match with Chris Benoit, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels
-the “warm embrace” of best friends Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit hugging in ring and sharing World Titles
-the horror that was Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg
-the better and still much talked about Cactus Jack vs Orton match done the month afterwards

With the mostly filler-match card of Mania’ 20 here, it wasn’t too hard to pick out the best bouts here. The Angle/Guerrero World Title match was a good technical match, the Triple Threat was breathtakingly awesome, and then there was this match right here. This match was definitely and easily talked about at the time with the main fact that it was part of one of the hottest feuds at the time with Mick Foley trying to get revenge on Evolution (mostly with Orton’s infamous spitting in Foley’s face), the involvement of the living legend Ric Flair, and of course…the in-ring, one night only return of The Rock. So with all of the facts why do I feel that this bout is underrated? It’s mainly because of it being overshadowed not just because of the entire celebration of Benoit/Guerrero but also because of the highly-rated hardcore crazyfest known as Catcus Jack vs Orton the very next month at Backlash. Everyone remembers this match, but no one really mentions this awesome bout which helped to nicely set it up in the first place. When I was watching this here, I was pretty sure that with the freakin’ reunion of the great Rock N’ Sock Connection that the good guys would take the win here to finally give Foley some closure. So as a result, it was a pretty good match to keep my eyes glued to only to have the rug pulled over with Evolution sneaking in a win here. Overall this was a very good tag match (especially considering the minor ring rust with both Rock and Flair), had some feel-good moments here (like with the Rock/Flair confortation in mid-match), a nice built-up with its feud and nice promos beforehand (including one during Wrestlemania with Evolution narrating their multi-month beatdown of Foley), and the finish with the bad guys winning. Hell…this could’ve easily been a semi-main event if it wasn’t shuffled in the huge Wrestlemania card that year. Just too bad that no one talks about this match in their top Mania’ match lists, only to be remembered when they watch the entire Wrestlemania XX PPV again.

Shawn Michaels vs Mr. McMahon
Wrestlemania 22 (2006)

Overshadowed by:
-John Cena’s shocking victory over Triple H
-the Rey Mysterio World Title Win/Tribute To Eddie Guerrero
-the widely-frown upon “God/Michaels vs McMahons” match the following month after this

This match’s situation was almost exactly like the Evolution/Rock N Sock bout from above. Similarly very good hype (with McMahon harassing HBK at every turn for many, many months before this). Nicely rated match. And had Shawn Michaels doing what he does best at Wrestlemania…trying to steal the show. But I believe that this match is never mentioned on anyone’s Mania list is because of the other two monumental things that happened right after it with Cena pulling one of the biggest upsets ever over Triple H and with Rey Mysterio winning his first World Title as a tribute to his fallen best friend Eddie Guererro AND because of the semi-stupid angle with the McMahon challenging Shawn Michaels…and GOD…yep…the big man himself…to a match the following month. More people talked about these silly shenanigans more than looking back at this very good, kick-ass bout which had some memorable spots that included Michaels pulling out a way-too-big ladder to drop an elbow on a blinded (!!) McMahon who had a can over his head and McMahon at the conclusion being stretched out only to give Michaels a nice one-finger salute on his way out. Not the greatest match in the world, but was a perfect “revenge” bout that perfectly had HBK avenge the multi-month torture that McMahon put him through. Sad that this match would only be brought up in a “Best McMahon Matches” list rather than any “Best of Wrestlemania” one.

JBL vs Finlay
Wrestlemania XXIV (2008)

Overshadowed by:
-SIMPLY PUT…the god-awful storyline behind the match aka the stupid-ass, waste of time angle with Mr. McMahon claiming small man Hornswoggle to be his “son” only to have it revealed that Finlay was actually the real daddy…and somehow JBL became all involved with this for some odd reason

When I rewatched this match the other day, it reminded me of how much wasted potential that this had as a whole. If one were to look at this bout without ever knowing the storyline behind it, then one would see a nice, semi-brutal, short opening match with known tough hardcore bastards JBL and Finlay simply kicking each other’s ass. It had some pretty good spots (like with Finlay doing a very uncharacteristic suicide drive to the outside…only to get smacked in the head with a trash can lid) and it was short and to the point. BUT NOOOOOOOO…this bout just had to have one of the lamest angles ever behind it. Not to repeat myself again, this multi-month “Who’s Vince McMahon’s son” storyline (which at some point was featured in multiple main event segments on Raw?!?) bored most viewers to death with poor Hornswoggle being taunted by McMahon to no real effect. I swear if you took this pathetic excuse for an angle and maybe instead just had JBL straight-up harassing Finlay and “lil Horny” to be the main feud focus instead of having it be part of an epic, long extravaganza with McMahon involved (look up the lame video montage played before this to see the lameness), I think that it would have just been known as a good short brutal opening to Wrestlemania. Instead this match sadly won’t ever get an honorable mention even on a freaking “Top 50” Best Mania’ match list.

Finlay vs JBL – Belfast Brawl WM 24