Kevin Reviews The WrestleMania Openers (6-10)

Part two of my trek through every WrestleMania opening contest continues. You can check out day one here. After some less than thrilling opening contests in the late 80’s, we enter the 1990’s and the first WrestleMania that I was alive for. In this section, we’ll see the end of the “Golden Era” and move into the “New Generation Era”, while also getting our first look at a certain “Mr. WrestleMania.”

WrestleMania VI
Rick Martel def. Koko B. Ware in 5:30
We’ve got a repeat opening contest worker in Rick Martel, who was last seen in the WrestleMania III opener as part of the Can-Am Connection. That happened to be the best opener thus far. Martel was sporting the “model” gimmick that he became mostly famous for. Into the 90’s the crowd was still pretty hot for the opening contest. Koko was a rather popular babyface but worked well in this role to help put over Martel. Outside of a run as a member of High Energy, there wasn’t much left in Koko’s career. Martel would go on to rock the model gimmick for another four or so years, remaining a mainstay in the midcard. His win here was the right move as he bested Koko with a Boston crab. They did well with the time given and accomplished their goal as an opener. **¼

WrestleMania VII
The Rockers def. Barbarian and Haku in 10:32
This was the longest opening contest so far in WrestleMania history. It also marked the first appearance on the list for one Shawn Michaels, who would go on to open three straight WrestleManias. Haku and the Barbarian were with Bobby Heenan, which was a perfect contrast to the super-hot babyfaces that were the Rockers. The crowd was completely into all of their offense. For the era itself, it was pretty innovative. Not many teams were flying around the ring at the fast pace that they did. Marty Jannetty played the face in peril before Michaels got the fun hot tag. I loved that since they had a huge size disadvantage, it took multiple double team moves to give the Rockers a victory. This was easily the best opener that I’ve gotten to see on this trek so far. Perfectly paced with a hot crowd to boot. A very enjoyable match outside of Jim Duggan being a drag on commentary. ***½

WrestleMania VIII
Shawn Michaels def. El Matador in 10:37
Bobby Heenan was on his A game, as El Matador came out after Reba McEntire sang America the Beautiful. He said that they were related because her name was Arriba McEntire. Anyway, I found this to be a pretty interesting matchup. Shawn was still rather fresh off of the infamous Barbershop incident and just starting out as a singles heel. He even still had the Sherri version of “Sexy Boy”. El Matador, who opened the inaugural WrestleMania, was at the tail end of his run as he’d only last about another year. They planted seeds on commentary that Shawn was going to challenge the winner of the Intercontinental Title match later in the show, so the winner here was basically a foregone conclusion. Sometimes, predictability is a good thing. This match was pretty much what it needed to be. A veteran babyface putting over an up and coming heel. Some parts of this were slow but you could see the potential in Shawn come through at times. They did a lame finish where Shawn fell on Tito on a suplex and got a three count. It was decent enough and was, if memory serves me right, the biggest win for Shawn to this point. **¼

WrestleMania IX
WWF Intercontinental Championship: Tatanka def. Shawn Michaels (c) via disqualification in 18:13
I never got the love for this match. I’ve heard people praise it a fair amount but I just don’t see it. Tatanka was, for some reason, in the midst of an undefeated streak that lasted over a year. Shawn Michaels was the Intercontinental Champion and felt like a budding star. Tatanka was accompanied by Sensational Sherri, Shawn’s former valet and Shawn got Luna Vachon in her debut. The pairing of Shawn and Luna was the weirdest. Commentary did a good job in talking about how Tatanka had Shawn’s number in the weeks leading up to this, which they played into. The problems I had with this match started with the fact that it was rather dull at times. The biggest concern was that somebody thought Tatanka was ready to work a near twenty minute match. It dragged on and then had a stupid finish. Shawn tripped the referee from outside, which could have been a DQ. The referee decided to start counting him out but Tatanka brought him in and hit a Samoan Drop. The referee watched the move, got down to count and then tapped Tatanka to call for the bell, somehow resulting in a countout. It was absurdly stupid beyond comprehension. **½

WrestleMania X
Owen Hart def. Bret Hart in 20:20
In my opinion, there has never been a better opening contest. I’m not just talking WrestleMania either. I’m talking in wrestling history period. The story between these two was so well done. Owen Hart was the only Hart family member eliminated at Survivor Series 1993 after Bret accidentally hit him. Owen challenged Bret to a match but instead they teamed up, only for Owen to kick Bret’s leg out from under his leg, leading to this. It was great because you rooted for Bret, but a lot of people still felt some sympathy for Owen. The best bad guys are the ones that feel like their reason for being bad is justified and Owen’s kind of was. One of the reasons I love both guys is because of how crisp their work is. You may not find a better executed match in all of WrestleMania history. This was a wrestling clinic. Great back and forth wrestling and it really showcased how close these two were in terms of skill. That alone was enough to make Owen a viable star but then the finish came. Owen countered Bret and rolled him up to win. Owen Hart beat the almighty Bret Hart clean and in the middle of the ring. Bret got his mojo back by winning the WWF Title later in the show, but this set up a future challenger and set Owen on a course of being a star for the rest of his career including a King of the Ring win, SummerSlam main event and several title wins. They had a phenomenal opener without overdoing the high spots. It’s especially great considering, according to Bret, they reworked the entire match to tone done spots in favor of the ladder match later on. This was about as perfect as you can get in wrestling. *****

After the first five WrestleManias proved to not be the best place to look for openers, things got better in this set. You had the best two Mania openers so far in Bret and Owen having a classic as well as a really fun Rockers tag team match. I wouldn’t consider any of these matches to be bad and the only thing I came away kind of frustrated with was the WrestleMania IX finish. Also unlike the first five WrestleManias, we truly got a look at the future in these openers. Shawn Michaels was involved in three and we all know that he’d go on to not only be the best WrestleMania performer of all time, but one of the best in history, period. We also got to see Bret Hart and probably the biggest and certainly the career defining moment of one Owen Hart.