2016-11-14

Welcome back to part five of our countdown ranking the Wrestlemania Main Events. Today, I’ll be going over numbers 19-21 on my list. As a reminder, the countdown is based on the following three criteria:

Did the buildup deliver?

Did the match deliver?

What was the historical impact?

Before we get started, here’s a quick recap of where we stand so far:

#32: Hulk Hogan v Sid (Wrestlemania 8)

#31: The Miz v John Cena (Wrestlemania 27)

#30: Undertaker v Sid (Wrestlemania 13)

#29: Bret Hart v Yokozuna, Yokozuna v Hulk Hogan (Wrestlemania 9)

#28: HHH v Randy Orton (Wrestlemania 25)

#27: HHH v The Rock v Mick Foley v The Big Show (Wrestlemania 16)

#26: Bret Hart v Yokozuna (Wrestlemania 10)

#25: Lawrence Taylor v Bam Bam Bigelow (Wrestlemania 11)

#24: Triple H v Chris Jericho (Wrestlemania 18)

#23: Roman Reigns v Triple H (Wrestlemania 32)

#22: Hulk Hogan v King Kong Bundy (Wrestlemania 2)

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Can storylines based on controversial current events still work in today's PG atmosphere?

#21: John Cena v Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 23)

Did the buildup deliver? - The storyline was excellent, but was treated as the third feud behind Trump/McMahon and Batista/Undertaker There wasn’t an obvious challenger for Cena after the Undertaker won the Royal Rumble and chose to challenge Batista on Smackdown. HBK got the title shot by winning a triple threat match against Edge and Randy Orton. HBK and Cena were both good guys, became tag champs, and all seemed right in the world. They feuded with Rated RKO. Rated RKO continued to “warn” Cena that HBK couldn’t be trusted, and had turned on every tag team partner he ever had. The WWE did a great job teasing that Shawn Michaels would backstab Cena every week, until he finally dropped him with Sweet Chin Music on the Raw before Wrestlemania 23. I really enjoyed this feud. It was well put together. Nonetheless, it wasn’t treated as if it would be the main event of Wrestlemania. It was a curious decision to put this match on last. My best guess is that the WWE didn’t trust either Lashley/Umaga or Undertaker/Batista to deliver in-ring. Thus, while I thoroughly enjoyed this feud, I can’t say that the buildup delivered in a way that you would expect out of a Wrestlemania main event.

Did the match deliver? - Absolutely! This should come as a surprise to no one. As a diehard Bret Hart fan, it pains me to admit that HBK is the best in-ring wrestler ever By the time Wrestlemania 23 came around, Cena was starting to hit his stride as a performer. Cena and HBK took a match that the fan-base wasn’t anticipating and made them care. Their chemistry was off the charts, and they pulled out all stops. HBK landed a moonsault from the top rope onto a standing Cena that bent him over the announce table. This was an unbelievable spot and any further description doesn’t do it justice. HBK’s piledriver onto the steel steps was something you don’t normally see out of him. The use of blood in this match was excellent. HBK either bladed or got busted open the hard way. While it wasn’t the gusher a la Eddie Guerrero against JBL or The Undertaker against Brock Lesnar in their first Hell in a Cell encounter, there was something about the way he bled that just felt real. On top of the high spots and the blood, the finishing sequence of chain wrestling and counters was unbelievable. By the time the match was reaching its conclusion, they turned the crowd from indifferent to being on the edge of their seats. I will go as far as to say that this is the Wrestlemania Main Event that over-delivered more than any other in history.

What was the historical impact? – None. Both HBK and Cena were already made men at this point. One could argue that by putting this on last instead of Undertaker v Batista, it was the definitive sign that Cena was the WWE’s “man”. I disagree with this assessment. I believe that Cena was established as the top guy the year before when he headlined against Triple H. I look forward to anyone who wants to argue otherwise.

The Last Word – The match between Cena and HBK delivered in spades. Despite not having a main-event type build and not having historical significant, I felt that it deserved a better spot on the countdown than other matches with similar scores.

#20: John cena v The Rock II (Wrestlemania 29)

Did the buildup deliver? – There really wasn’t much to it. The Rock defeated CM Punk to win the WWE Title and Cena won the Royal Rumble. On the next night’s Raw, Cena challenged the WWE champion to a match at Wrestlemania 29. The Rock successfully defended his title against Punk at the Elimination Chamber, and the rematch was on. The remainder of the build was a few back and forth exchanges that focused on Cena blaming the Rock for his downward spiral after Wrestlemania 28. I have two issues with this. First, it didn’t need to be for the WWE Title. Inserting the title belt into the mix made the match more about the title and less about the culmination of a feud that spanned the course of three Wrestlemanias. Second, I felt like the WWE mailed it in when it came to the week by week angles leading up to the rematch. It was as if they knew that the first encounter was so red hot that it didn’t matter what they did this time around. In the end, the build accomplished what it needed to do, as Wrestlemania 29 did big business mainly on the strength of this match. However, it didn’t pack the same punch as their first encounter.

Did the match deliver? – I thought this was a better match than their first encounter. It was as much of a prototypical John Cena match as you are going to get, filled with finishing moves that were kicked out and/or escaped from. I enjoy this style, so others may not view the actual in-ring product as highly as I do. What set this match apart from Wrestlemania 28 were the little things done to build on their previous match. In the first match, the Rock almost lost because he taunted Cena with the “you can’t see me” schtick. Here, he fell into the same mistake again, almost costing him the match. I loved that the announcers alluded to The Rock not learning from his mistakes. On the flip side, Cena faked a People’s Elbow, the same move that cost him the match the first time, only to hit The Rock with another AA as he stood up to attack. These may be little things, but they were the reasons that I felt the match quality was improved. Match quality aside, something was missing. Most likely, it was the predictability of the finish due to the WWE Title being on the line. The Rock wasn’t beating Cena again. It was a foregone conclusion that Cena was going over. The crowd was still invested, but there was a difference in the energy level compared to the off the charts atmosphere that was Wrestlemania 28. Thus, I can’t say that the match delivered to the level that one would have expected out of the rematch.

What was the historical impact? – This match rates very highly in this category. First, it was the last hurrah for The Rock. He’s been around since, but this was his last legitimate wrestling match. He’s one of the greatest of all time, and the historical significance of this cannot be overstated. Second, while it’s not as if John Cena needed to be put over, The Rock put him on a level he wasn’t at before. By being the man to defeat a guy on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling on the biggest stage of them all, John Cena entered rarified air. The WWE made a statement here. John Cena is one of the greatest superstars of all time, a superstar on the same level as the Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan.

The Last Word – Some may be surprised to see this match ranked so low on the countdown. While it still came off as a huge event and did big money, one can’t help but feel that it was a watered down version of the amazing spectacle that was the Wrestlemania 28 Main Event.

#19: Hulk Hogan v Sgt. Slaughter (Wrestlemania 7)

Did the buildup deliver? – The WWE(F) has always done a remarkable job at capitalizing on current events, and never has there been a better example of this than here. For those not old enough to remember, the time period for this feud coincided with increased tensions in the Middle East, ultimately leading to a war between the United States and Iraq. The WWF already had their ready-made American hero in Hogan. They just needed someone on the other end to make this work. Enter Sgt. Slaughter. Slaughter was a big superstar In the 1970s and early 1980s. He played the American hero gimmick to a T. He was Hacksaw Jim Duggan before Duggan was Duggan. Up until the Fall of 1990, Slaughter was irrelevant and non-existent in the storylines. Seemingly out of nowhere, he declared himself to be an Iraqi sympathizer, started carrying around the Iraqi flag, and that was that. He won the World Title from the Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble. I was shocked at the time. I was convinced that Hogan v Warrior would once again be the Main Event of Wrestlemania 7. The same night, Hogan won the Royal Rumble. During his post-match backstage interview, he was told that Slaughter was defacing the American flag. Hogan promised to get revenge and defend the honor of his country, and it was on from there.

For me to explain how excellent the build is to people that didn’t live through it does not do it justice. Slaughter was just fantastic during this run. He cut vicious pro-Iraq/anti-US promos. He burned posters and t-shirts of Hulk Hogan. He drew a tremendous amount of heat. Everyone and their mothers wanted to see him get his. While Slaughter was attacking American heroes such as the aforementioned Duggan, Hogan was wearing an American Flag bandana and visiting the troops. The most notorious part of this storyline came when Slaughter attacked Hogan with the Iraqi Flag and put him in the camel clutch. Hogan passed out and Slaughter immediately draped the Iraqi flag over Hogan’s lifeless body. The fans were horrified. Little kids were crying. This was the prime example of the WWF taking current events and turning it into a fantastic storyline.

Did the match deliver? – It was a Hulk Hogan match. There were punches and kicks, a Hogan leg-drop and a crowd that loved every minute of it. Slaughter was not a great “worker”. His repertoire consisted mostly of brawling, choke holds and cheat tactics. However, he did all of the little things to make his matches work. He was an excellent seller. There was a spot early in the match where Hogan punched him and he doubled over backwards, ending up with his feet rested on the middle ropes and his face planted in the mat. It reminded me of how HBK used to oversell moves to great effect. Additionally, his facial reactions were on point and he was a master at playing to the crowd and antagonizing them into heel heat. While certainly not a classic and definitely not the best rendition of the Hulk Hogan match, it did what it needed to do. You had a nuclear heel and the ultimate baby-face. The crowd was in a frenzy and the pop when Slaughter finally got his and Hogan stood tall was thunderous. Mission accomplished.

What was the historical impact? – Despite the tremendous build and live fan reaction to the match, Wrestlemania 7 didn’t draw well. The event was supposed to take place in a venue that held over 100,000 people. Instead, it was moved to a smaller venue and the attendance was somewhere in the vicinity of 17,000. The WWF tried to explain this away at the time as needing to move venues as a result of security concerns over Slaughter’s safety, but the message was received. This rendition of Hulk Hogan, while still wildly popular with the fans that did come to see the show, was not quite the massively global draw that he was in the past. I believe that as a result of Wrestlemania 7’s poor attendance, the WWF recognized that they needed to create new stars. The end result was that the focus began to shift from solely being about Hulk Hogan to pushing younger wrestlers, such as The Undertaker and Sid. I believe that Hogan saw the direction that this was going, and this ultimately led to him leaving the WWF only a year later after Wrestlemania 8. Thus, I believe that the historical impact was significant.

Part 5 is in the books. Thank you for reading - sound off below!

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