by Bob Morris

So much I could talk about right now with regards to what went wrong with WCW, but that’s too depressing to talk about anymore. I’m sure a few years from now everyone will be busting out the columns with historical perspective about why the promotion went into the crap and will cease to exist as we know it, even if Vinnie Mac comes through with a purchase. But for now, there’s really no point in talking about that because I’m sure just about everyone knows what led to WCW’s demise. 

Anyway, expect to see another “Stars That Might Have Been” column out from me in the next week or so, and the subject will be Terry Taylor, probably the best guy to ever fit the description that my column title is. For those who know the story, you know what I’m talking about, and for those that don’t…you’ll learn, and wonder WHY not one, but TWO, promotions would do everything to screw up a guy’s career. God bless Taylor, though, for sticking it out with the business as long as he has despite that treatment he received. 

But that’s to be discussed in that column…this column tackles another topic that I wanted to get out of the way prior to Wrestlemania X-Seven or whatever they are calling it to distinguish itself from perivous Wrestlemanias, and that is to take a look back at the past 16 Wrestlemanias and rank them, from best to worst. I’m sure this list is going to cause a lot of debate, and that’s cool, because by no means is my list the “written rule” for how good or bad certain WMs were. Feel free to disagree, it’s just one man’s opinion, and all that junk. 

And in covering each WM, I’ll also give you a little sense of historical perspective wherever possible, as even the bad WM shows had an important moment in WWF history tied to them. So, on we go… 

1. Wrestlemania X: What, you thought I was going to pick another show for this slot? You must be joking…simply put, this was the best Wrestlemania of all time. Start off with a wrestling clinic put on Bret and Owen Hart in the opener, throw in the ladder match that set the standard which all ladder matches are judged by (and they have yet to top the match done by Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels, regardless of how many high spots they try to pull off), and a great moment to end the show, as Bret Hart walks out with the World title and is finally allowed to truly lead the WWF for the rest of the year. Well, that is, until the Clique rose to power, but good intentions and all that. Regardless of how the rest of the year turned out, this was simply the best WM the WWF ever put on. 

2. Wrestlemania III: I’m sure a lot of heads are going to be turned, given that some people find this show to be overrated, but I attribute that to the fact that the bar has been raised and so many people expect a ***** match to be high spot after high spot or lots of bumps or whatever they prefer. However, I still mark out for everything that Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage pulled off in that I-C title match, and while Roddy Piper may have come out of retirement numerous times, his match with Adrian Adonis is still loads of fun to watch and was some great booking. And of course, there’s Hulk Hogan bodyslamming Andre the Giant, being a memorable moment in an otherwise bad match. Now for a little history: The Hogan/Andre match is one of the rare moments where somebody actually PASSED THE TORCH to somebody else. Now ask yourself why Hogan didn’t learn that lesson himself. Anyway, WMIII is still a show I enjoy today. 

3. Wrestlemania 2000: This is probably a show that more people would like to put at the top of the list, just because it’s more recent. On the other hand, some people would want this show moved further down because they broke the sacred tradition of putting the face over at this show. That part doesn’t bother me so much, but there are two things about the main event: (a) because they stuck Mick Foley in there for no reason other than to get Linda McMahon involved and (b) because the match ending led to a McMahon family reunion, which in retrospect, wasn’t such a good idea. The McMahons feuding among themselves is a more interesting concept, but this was the second time they put an end to it before they could see how well it would work (the first time was the Greater Power deal). I sure hope WWF has the sense to not do another McMahon family reunion again this year. Anyway, while several of the matches on the show were topped with better performances later in the year (Benoit and Jericho, Rock and HHH, and the TLC tag team match come to mind), there’s still plenty of great matches that keep this one near the top. The heel winning the main event isn’t what keeps it from going higher though…it was some of the other booking that happened in the main event that does. 

4. Wrestlemania XIV: This was THE show that officially put the WWF back on the map after two years of being dormant and having their butts handed to them by WCW, and sent the message to WCW that the WWF is BACK, but of course WCW was too stupid to take the hint. That aside, there isn’t a single match on this card that sucks. Every one of them was enjoyable, and while a couple of the angles from the show didn’t lead anywhere, there was plenty of booking on the show that worked out well, and what’s most amazing is the fact that Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels, both at less than 100 percent and both better off taking a night off instead of working, worked their asses off anyway and put on the best match of the night. Not to mention WWF showed the PROPER way to use a celebrity for publicity. A really great effort on the WWF’s part. 

5. Wrestlemania VIII: This show was significant in that it was the beginning of an era that proved the WWF didn’t need Hogan to survive. Randy Savage and Ric Flair were in the midst of a cool feud and put on a terrific match to boot, one which saw Savage win a World title without having to share the spotlight with Hogan. Bret Hart established himself as a force in the singles ranks, and he and Piper had a great match here as well. The Ultimate Warrior’s return was a surprise at the time, but of course, that led to some bad booking decisions involving Papa Shango, but we won’t talk about that. The rest of the show isn’t particularly strong, but two really enjoyable matches make the rest of that forgiven, IMO. 

6. Wrestlemania VII: A better show than most people would give credit for, and a big reason for it was some epic booking involved in the match between Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage. Anybody who has seen the show knows what I’m talking about here, but for those who don’t, head over to read Scott Keith’s rant about the show to see what I mean. To top it off, the match between the two kicked major ass. The story behind the Hogan/Sgt. Slaughter feud was pretty bad, true enough, but they brought proper closure to it at the show, and there’s some other decent matches as well. 

7. Wrestlemania XII: I know some people will probably want to rank this one higher than a couple others I have here, and I won’t argue that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels put on a great match. What keeps it from going higher, however, is the fact that neither guy was willing to take the first pinfall, so the 60-minute draw rendered the Ironman match stipulation pointless. The only other memorable moment on the show was WWF using the footage of O.J. Simpson being chased down by police as a gag for the match between Roddy Piper and Goldust, but otherwise, there’s not much happening here. The Hart/Michaels match is essentially the sole reason this show gets ranked this high, and it would have been higher had the Ironman match stipulation served its purpose. 

8. Wrestlemania VI: This is where it gets a little tougher to sort things out. At this point, we are getting into a number of WMs that have one particularly strong moment, but not much else behind them. In this case, it’s the Hogan/Warrior match that resulted in crowds being so divided between the two that the WWF wasn’t going to come out a winner either way. I know I made the reference earlier about Hogan not passing the torch, and here it supposedly was going to happen, but the way it all got built up, the purpose of actually passing the torch didn’t work and too many fans cried for Hogan to come back. But the match itself is solid enough, even if it was carefully laid out, and it sort of wins out here just because there isn’t much else to put this high. 

9. Wrestlemania V: This show falls into the same category as WM VI does…a very memorable main event, but not much else happening. Actually, Rick Martel’s heel turn was quite the shocker, but unfortunately, it didn’t lead to much for Martel afterwards. But the Hogan/Savage match is definitely a keeper, and the Piper’s Pit segment is pretty entertaining stuff. The real downside for this show: The fact that it soon led to the arrival of Zeus in the WWF, and I think we’d all like to forget that. 

10. Wrestlemania XIII: I know some people will want to rank this down at the bottom of the list, but I just can’t do it. Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart is THAT awesome of a match, and the significane is HUGE. Anybody who calls this the worst or even second-worst WM isn’t really putting it up against the other WMs. True, the show is dragged down by a push for Rocky Maivia at the wrong time and HHH not being truly over as a heel yet, but the Austin/Hart match is pretty powerful stuff to watch and was the match that led to the phenomenon that is Stone Cold Steve Austin being launched by the WWF, although it may not have kicked into full gear until 10 months later. Since you can find the Hart/Austin stuff on some of those Stone Cold tapes, that’s the better route to go, but if you can’t find those Austin tapes, then the WM tape here will do. 

11. Wrestlemania XI: This is another one that some people would probably want to rank a little higher, but its low ranking comes because some of the wrong decisions were made here. This was the time when the WWF should have first put the heel over in the World title match given that Shawn Michaels, and not Diesel, was the man the fans paid to see. True, the match itself is good, but the wrong guy went over, and I think we all know that can’t be argued. And Lawrence Taylor’s match wasn’t bad, but it put the final nail in the coffin in Bam Bam Bigelow’s WWF career, and only a brief stint in ECW allowed him to get another chance of being a player…but of course, that was fucked up when WCW snatched him up. Anyway, the show overall isn’t bad, but some of the wrong decisions being made result in its low ranking. 

12. Wrestlemania: What really is significant about the first one ever? Well, what do you think? The matches themselves are pretty much standard fare, and only the main event is particularly compelling, although I don’t remember much of it myself. Still, even though I ranked this fairly low because of the mediocrity of most of the matches, it’s still worth a look for fans who have never seen it before (if they can find it anywhere) just to get a little sense of perspective as to how far the wrestling business has come. And that’s about all I can say there. 

13. Wrestlemania IV: It’s a significant show in the fact that the WWF was going to try to put somebody other than Hogan into the driver’s seat, but a concept that looked good on paper turned out to be horrible on tape. The four-hour show was just too long for most fans to sit through, most of the tournament matches were lackluster, and about the only other notable things happening were Demolition getting the tag team titles and the Bret Hart babyface turn. Savage’s title win might have been a little more memorable if Hogan didn’t have to join him in the spotlight, but at least Savage got his opportunity to have the spotlight on himself four years later. But those moments aside, the show isn’t something I’d run out of my way to watch. 

14. Wrestlemania XV: To think a lot of people who watched this show came back the next day with glowing reviews. Now, a couple years later, we realized just how much Vince Russo played us for fools. Two things worth noting: The HHH heel push kicked off here, but that didn’t actually work out until near the end of the year, and Austin went over Rock to send the fans home happy. However, there was also the abortion of a match pitting Big Bossman against Undertaker in the Hell in the Cell, a match that truly is hell to watch. The second-best match behind the main event is Shane McMahon vs. X-Pac, and if you really want to see Shane McMahon wrestle, you’re better off picking up SummerSlam 1999, where not only is Shane’s match with Test better, but the rest of the card overall is better too. 

15. Wrestlemania 2: Yes, it’s the only WM without a Roman numeral, and it’s another one of those “good idea on paper, but bad on tape” ideas…holding shows from three different venues across the country. The end result is a lot of short matches, many of them pointless to begin with, and a pretty lackluster show overall. Exception: Watching the British Bulldogs work their magic. But that alone doesn’t really make this one a keeper, and I can’t recommend anybody watch it in clear conscience. 

16. Wrestlemania IX: The only good thing you can say about this show was how apparent it was that Hulk Hogan was not the man to lead the WWF anymore. Yeah, that’s about it. There isn’t one really particularly good match, there’s plenty of awful booking all over the place, and we can’t forget about how Hogan and his ego just had to be on top with that World title, can we? Thank God that ego was officially turfed from the WWF a few months later, and if you want to know just why bringing Hogan back to the WWF is a bad idea, regardless of what money matches you can get out of him, then this is the show that proves why. Only reason I recommend this is if you want to get a historical perspective on just how much damage Hogan can cause when his ego runs out of control, but otherwise, don’t even bother. 

Who knows where WM X-Seven will fit onto the list…I won’t be ordering the show (and that’s only because I don’t order PPVs, and in order to get them, I have to waste money on digital cable, and there’s no way I’ll spend an extra $15 on channels I’ll never watch just to get to order PPVs…but that’s another topic). But I’m sure, regardless of how good or bad the card is, there will be some significant moment in wrestling history taking place. And isn’t that what Wrestlemania is supposed to be about?