411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 25: Living Through a Decade of WrestleMania

Hello ladies and gents. It’s the magical time of the year again for wrestling fans in the form of our own “Super Bowl”…Wrestlemania. Today, I wanted to share with you all my odd, unique, random, and just plain nostalgic memories of my annual viewing of the big event in the last decade. I picked just the last 10 years for a couple of reasons. First of all, while I watched most of the Wrestlemanias growing up (via video tapes), I only started watching the card live on PPV in high school…when I could afford it. Also, I coincidentally started watching it live at the very beginning of the “Attitude Era” and this is the very moment when I and many of my wrestling-watching friends today officially became hooked to viewing the sport on a semi-religious weekly basis to this day (thanks Mike Tyson!!!). So I will go over what wacky situation I was in during each Mania’, while also sharing the other random stuff I was doing on the side personally that same year. Hope you all enjoy.

(For everyone’s title sake, I will list the original WM title along with the actual number…I hate roman numerals!!)

1998
Wrestlemania XIV (aka Wrestlemania 14)

Where the tradition begins.

…making a new friends as a freshman in high school
…worked at McDonald’s as a teenage burger flipper
…listened to classmates horribly recite and butcher 2Pac and Biggie songs

When I was growing up, I watched TONS of wrestling whenever I got a chance. I watched the greats such as Hogan, Piper, and Savage on weekly TV shows and loved every moment. Despite being a fan, I never really advanced past casually watching it on TV or VHS (thank God for Blockbuster!!!) when I had the chance and had never watched or ordered a live PPV before. But after I witnessed the night that Mike Tyson, the world’s most known and infamous boxing legend (next to Muhammed Ali), stepped into a WWF ring and lunged towards the rising bad-ass star in Stone Cold Steve Austin, I instantly became seriously hooked. Not only did I see this, but most of my high school was talking about it the next day. So in this moment, it officially became “cool” to be a wrestling fan.

With this new view on the wrestling world, many people in my school decided to throw “Mania’ parties” at their houses for that year’s Wrestlemania, featuring the hotly anticipated main event of Stone Cold versus Degeneration X’s Shawn Michaels. On top of this, Tyson was going to be there in Michaels’ corner! My small group of new friends that I had made my first year there invited me on over their place to watch it. Days after I was invited, I had found out that I was sadly transferring to a new school and would be leaving all of my newfound peeps. So with the news, this casual get-together was now really a nice go-away party for myself. The night turned out to be one of the most enjoyable in my young teenage years. The matches on the card were crazy (Ken Shamrock killing The Rock…the sexy Sable actually wrestling…an awesome Dumpster Match w/Mick Foley…Pete freakin’ Rose) and the main event of course was off the chain and very memorable with Austin winning the WWF Title, thus officially kicking off the “Attitude Era”. Little did I know that this jumpstarted an annual tradition of watching Wrestlemania with my closest friends and started me on the path of becoming a die-hard wrestling fan.

1999
Wrestlemania XV (aka Wrestlemania 15)

…discovered that “1999”, the popular Prince song is now relevant to sing
…was addicted to playing “007 Goldeneye” video game as it killed a lot of time w/friends

So despite transferring, I still was hanging out on a regular basis with my peeps from my original high school. We had unintentionally managed to keep up watching and ordering every single WWF PPV from Wrestlemania 14 up until 15. So we came together full circle again to watch the big event and because of the finding of even more friends at my new high school I had decided to host the “Wrestlemania party” myself at my crib. Everyone there had been watching obsessively every week witnessing the epic battle of Stone Cold versus Vince McMahon and now was looking forward to the highly hyped bout between rivals The Rock and Stone Cold. Everything seems great and everyone seemed to be initially having a good time…that is until we realized that the PPV really, really SUCKED. None of the lower card matches were really holding our interest (Intercontinental and Hardcore championship bouts) and the hyped ones ended up being really terrible (Big Show/Mankind was way too short, the WORST Hell In A Cell match ever in Taker/Big Boss Man…even though it was funny and messed up that Boss Man was hung from the cage). So to kill the time between the wackness and the Rock/Austin main event, my homies and I all took turns playing mini-rounds of 007 Goldeneye on my Nintendo 64 in my bedroom right next door to the TV in my living room. While the main event was definitely well-worth the wait, I in actuality had more fun playing a video game than watching the “big one”. I still very much dislike that year’s Wrestlemania to this day.

2000
Wrestlemania 2000 (aka Wrestlemania 16)

…survived predicted “Y2K” computer crash (mad it didn’t happen due to wanting to miss school)
…laughed at attempts at putting “2000” in front of things to make it seem cool (i.e. The Blues Brothers…2000!!!)

Not too put off by last year’s “suckfest”, my friends and I decided to continue marching on the tradition and met up once again at my place for our annual Wrestlemania festivities. The big time main event of the “McMahon Family Feud” was very promising with the biggest stars at the time there going at it (The Rock, Triple H, Big Show…and a returning out-of-retirement Mick Foley!) and the rest of the card didn’t look so bad. So even though we had slipped back in our little “Goldeneye-playing” habit again throughout some borderline boring bouts (DX vs Kane and…Rikishi?!?, Terri Runnels vs. The Cat, a midget dressed in a cheese outfit…no kidding…named “Chester McCheeserton” getting kicked in the head by the tag team of Al Snow/Steve Blackman…funny as hell…stupid as shit), we enjoyed the overall PPV ten times better than last year’s mess. There were definitely no video-game playing going on during such classics as the crazy Triple Threat match featuring the Mania’ debuts of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Chris Benoit fighting over BOTH the European and Intercontinental championships and the infamous first ever “unofficial” Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (TLC) Tag Team championship match, which had everyone in the room watching with our jaws dropping down to the floor as the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley Boyz, and Edge & Christian all tore up the house in easily one of the best Mania’ bouts EVER.

Even with enjoying most of the card and digging the main event, every single one of me and my friends got seriously angry that our agreed-upon favorite wrestler Mick Foley wrestled for mere minutes (getting pined and eliminated in the process…double sad retirement moment) and that it came down to The Rock and Triple H, with every one of us heavily predicting that the usually evil Vince McMahon (who magically turned face to team up with Rock) would turn on his newfound ally. So when he did and Triple H, the heel, ended up retaining his title (which NEVER happens at Mania’)….all of previous happy feelings towards this particular PPV were all flushed down the toilet due to the denial of the nice feeling of going home knowing that the “good guy” ended up winning. Being angered by this, we all still kept the deep hope that the next turn would turn out better (i.e. no boring matches, no lackluster main event) and we would end up being the witnesses to one of the best Wrestlemanias ever…this would unknowingly come true the next year.

2001
Wrestlemania X-Seven (aka Wrestlemania 17)

One of the best nights of my life.

…finally graduated the craziness that was known as high school
…officially was hooked on playing “No Mercy” on my Nintendo 64 (…it was like a drug!!!)

2001 was a good year. 2001 was a sad year. I was finally graduating from high school and being liberated from having to wake up every single solitary day at 7 in the morning. But I was also moving away from my barely established neighborhood (only there for 4 years!!) and most of my friends were going away to different colleges knowing that we were probably not going to be talking all that often anymore. So the 3rd entry in my series of Wrestlemania parties at my house was to be officially a “last hurrah” for me and my close wrestling watching peeps from high school. If I was going out, then I thought that I would go out with a huge bang…so I had invited like double the people over my place for this magical event, which included those who kind of liked wrestling and others who had no idea what the sport even was. Right after a number of us fed our daily obsession of playing arguably the best wrestling game EVER in the Nintendo 64’s “No Mercy” (first Goldeneye…then No Mercy…would any other multiplayer game be so addictive…yea…), we got right down to the watching. Initially with the opening contest of Chris Jericho vs. William Regal, the “non-wrestling watchers” were a little bit skeptical of the event. They were asking questions like “How come they’re not using chairs and stuff??” and claiming things like “This is kind of boring…”. But luckily by the end of the match, they were totally getting into it.

The card started off with not having the “greatest” matches in the world (APA/Tazz vs. Right To Censor, Chyna vs. Ivory), but in actuality it provided the perfect slow build-up for what became one of the best PPVs I’ve ever witnessed in my life. The Hardcore bout. Angle/Benoit. Undertaker/HHH. Shane McMahon/Vince McMahon. TLC freaking 2. And arguably one of the best (if not THE best) Wrestlemania main events in history in the form of Austin/Rock part 2. I won’t sound like a broken record with describing it, but to have everyone in my house, fans and non-fans alike, actually stay glued (no video games this time) in awe to the TV screen watching this is a true testament to how huge this match was. So after the festivities ended, we all said our goodbyes well knowing that it was probably one of the last true times that we all be hanging out together as “high schoolers” and easily proved to be one of the best nights I’ve ever had in my life.

2002
Wrestlemania X8 (aka Wrestlemania 18)

…barely made it through my freshman year of college
…discovered the magnificent wonders of the Canadian bar scene at age 19

This is the point where my tales of PPV viewing start to take a couple of odd turns. Wrestlemania came back around again, but a few things were off with me around the same time. First of all, most of wrestling watching friends had gone off to college, so no real need for a “Mania’ party”. Second, after the highs of all highs in 2001 wrestling action (Stone Cold’s heel turn, the rise of Benoit/Jericho, the GOOD parts of the Invasion storyline…RVD…Booker T) came the lowest of lows (mostly and mainly the BAD parts and aftermath of the Invasion storyline). I remember the exact night watching Raw when The Rock faced Chris Jericho for the WCW Title is the night I decided to stop watching the sport for a little while. The storylines and variety of matches were so piss-poor, due to a lack of competition coming from the now closed WCW, that when a beautiful moment like Jericho (one of my favorite wrestlers) standing tall as a WORLD champion didn’t really motivate me to stay tuned I decided to give my regular watching of the show a good break. So when Wrestlemania came back around, I honestly was only halfway into the angles going into in and really only knew of HHH vs. Jericho and the “dream match” of Hogan vs. The Rock. Without any real motivation to watch, I waited on the day of the event to decide on if I wanted to order or not. So when the big day came, I ended up becoming violently sick with a horrible body-paralyzing stomach flu. While I was laid out in bed, I was thinking “Oh well, I’m not really messing anything. I’ll see what happened tomorrow night.”. Even though it was widely said that the PPV was pretty weak this year, I highly regret missing the contest between Hogan/Rock. I seriously thought that it was going to be OK at the very least. But when I rented the video tape a few weeks later, I was so pissed that I missed unarguably one of the greatest moments in wrestling history. After this, I vowed never again to miss a Wrestlemania event…devastating stomach flu or not.

2003
Wrestlemania XIX (aka Wrestlemania 19)

…after being playing it for 2 years straight was still very addicted to playing multiplayer video game Halo
…due to Halo, don’t really remember much else

After my deep regret from last year, I finally hooked back up again with some new wrestling-watching peeps and I was invited to one of their cribs to watch the event. So everything seems right. Good friends. Wrestlemania playing as usual on a TV screen. All of us having a good ass time, The only big thing that was the very odd location I was in. My place of worship for my annual Mania’ ritual wasn’t in a nice warm home nor in a cozy bar…it was in a dark cold ghetto-as-all-holy-hell basement…which was stationed right next to an equally dark cold ghetto-as-all-holy-hell trailer park…in the middle of nowhere. Now where I mean “middle of nowhere”, I am not exaggerating. I thought I knew my parts of my surrounding cities pretty well, but when I went here and saw the reception on my cell phone not existing, I really had the feeling that NO ONE would find me if someone horrible was to happen. Like “Deliverence” scary. Like “Crystal Lake-Friday The 13th” scary. Despite almost pissing my pants due to the scary surroundings around me, I ended up another very good memorable night. The card that night was, like Wrestlemania X-Seven, one of best PPVs I’ve ever seen. The matches were all good to great, my friends made up the best group of people I had EVER watched an event with (due to their sick sense of humor, crazy ranting during the bouts, and all being on the same page when watching), and I witnessed one of my favorite matches of all time in Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels. This paired with my scary house situation, great friends, and the sick fact that we saw Brock Lesnar almost kill himself with a botched Shooting Star Press…LIVE… made this the most memorable and my personal favorite Mania’ ever.

2004
Wrestlemania XX (aka Wrestlemania 20)

…finally don’t have to worry about sneaking booze for parties at age 21
…due to booze at parties, don’t really remember much else

Scarred in a good AND bad way with my experience last year, I decided to pick my tradition back up and had yet another Mania’ party at my crib. This year’s edition, which it stated that this is when it “ALL BEGINS AGAIN”, was special because it was switching its format up to be a whopping FOUR hours instead of the usual three. Now…I love wrestling as much as the next person…but I even thought that this was a bit much to be viewing in one sitting. So with my usual hodgepodge of wrestling buddies all present, the event started…but we unfortunately never really did. As silly and retarded as this sounds, everyone started to become bored as hell watching the event. Since everyone’s expectations were still with the last few Wrestlemanias before this (17 and 19), they were disinteresting in the compared “so-so” action going on. Even though we caught some pretty good moments such as Rock n Sock vs. Evolution, Guerrero/Angle, the sick and historic Triple Threat main event, and…the Ultimo Dragon slipping and falling during his entrance (please YouTube this if you didn’t witness live…cause you won’t find it on the DVD!), we honest to God ended up playing cards and freakin’ board games (like Chess and for shits and giggles…Candyland…wow) instead of giving our full attention to the sacred event. Now looking back at it (especially not really taking in the near flawless main event), I do regret not really experiencing the event as it was live cause it wasn’t really THAT bad, but for what it was at the time, it was a weird moment where the best night of the year sadly became “just another night”.

2005
Wrestlemania 21 (aka…Wrestlemania 21!!)

…just booze, Halo, and wrestling

Due to the above describtion, I was still watching wrestling…but really was more into to the two other extracurrical activites of drinking and relentless Halo video game playing. So to sadly sum up that year’s Mania experience on the big day: I woke up, played video games – mostly Halo all day, asked friends if they wanted to order the event, they said no, asked friends if they wanted to go to a BAR and watch the event, they said YES, 7 o’clock rolled around, still at the apartment playing Halo, 9 o’clock rolls around, we leave place, get to event REAL late, just walked in bar to catch Stone Cold stunning Piper, saw one of the weirdest Mania’s moments with Big Show sumo-wrestling, caught the two main events, honestly didn’t care, left bar, went home, played more Halo. By missing two of the best Mania’ bouts of all time in Money In The Bank – part 1 and Angle vs. Michaels and not really caring about it at the time, I knew at this point that my deep passion and tradition for enjoying Wrestlemania was slowly escaping me. Another sad time like last year.

2006
Wrestlemania 22 (aka…I smell a pattern here…Wrestlemania 22)

…officially kicked my Halo game playing addiction
…due to kicking Halo, finally graduated college

Another lackluster year for watching. Despite kicking my Halo habit, I still wasn’t able to get me and my friends back into our old wrestling watching habits. I went to visit friend out-of-town at college and attempted to come back in time on the big day to watch. Barely made it to a local bar about a hour late after Mania started. Watched and very much enjoyed the crazed bar-hopping, hardcore wrestling fans surrounding me and my friends, but the full-fledged feeling of being into the event still wasn’t there. The card (especially Foley/Edge, Cena/HHH, and the best WWE woman’s match I’ve EVER seen in Mickie James/Trish Stratus) was phenomenal, but I knew that I wanted to make up for my lack of wrestling enthusiasm by achieving a dream that I wanted to do since I was little…actually go to a live Wrestlemania.

2007
Wrestlemania 23 (aka Wrestlemania 23…they must of hated roman numerals for awhile)

The moment where I rediscovered my passion for watching Wrestlemania.

…after skipping wrestling a little bit due to scholarly studies…
…got back into it BIG TIME with watching every past DVD I could get my hands on (hours and hours of fun!)

The moment I heard the announcement that Wrestlemania was finally back again to my hometown of Detroit, I went ape-ballistic and knew that I absolutely had to be there no matter what. I never had enough money nor the opportunity to see a Wrestlemania live in person and always promised that I would go see it at once in my life no matter if I was still into wrestling or not. So on the day the tickets were sold, I woke up at 10 am, went on Ticketmaster.com, and grabbed the first group of tickets that I saw. Good news was that I got the tickets. Bad news was that they were some of the crappiest tickets ever (stupid Ticketmaster). I ended up being in one of the very last rows in the very tippy-top upper deck of the HUMONGOUS Ford Field stadium. Sitting there, the wrestlers down below seemed like little tiny ants in a square box and I was limited to watching the action mainly through the huge Titantron. But regardless of the not-so-great seating arrangements, I had another great memorable Wrestlemania night that only rivaled my “cold basement” experience watching Mania’ 19. The people I was with (my brother-in-law and my handicapped uncle who is the BIGGEST wrestling fan ever), the crazy 70,000+ Detroit crowd in attendance, and the cool moments (McMahon getting his head shaved, Undertaker going 15-0) all made this night awesome and officially restored my passion in wanting to make Wrestlemania a tried and true tradition again.

2008
Wrestlemania XXIV (aka Wrestlemania 24…back to the old school numerals)

…about to get married to long-time girlfriend
…loving wrestling more than ever

After departing from my now non-wrestling watching (but still heavily video game playing) friends and gaining my own joy back in viewing the sport of pro-wrestling, I decided to take it easy this year and really just wanted to watch Wrestlemania at home with the person whom I love: my fiancé (now wife). We’ve been together (on and off) for like 4 years and I finally (she never attended my parties nor bar visits) really wanted to share my one fun special time of the year with her. She wasn’t a fan of wrestling, didn’t know about Ric Flair, didn’t really care for Money In The Bank, nor followed the HHH/Cena/Orton storyline, but she wanted to get into what I was watching for just one night and ended up enjoying it in the process. No bars. No friends. No weird places in the middle of nowhere. In the last 10 years, I enjoyed the best of Wrestlemanias and the worst of Wrestlemanias. But nothing compares to just spending a nice quiet night reflecting on the many years of Mania watching, enjoying every single match on this card (mainly the emotional final Flair match), and sharing my number one childhood hobby in the world with the person I care about the most.