Review by J.J. Botter

OPENING NOTES

This is one of the most requested shows from my readers, so I thought I’d bite the bullet and get it out of the way before I get 50 more emails asking me to do it.

As a general rule, I plan on doing one of these a week for however long it takes me to go through my tape collection. The next two pieces will probably be the WCW Japan Supershow featuring Flair vs. Fujinami and then Great American Bash 1992, both of which are on a tape one of the readers is sending me for review.

THE GOOD 

• Bret vs. Owen:  This is one of the best pure technical wrestling matches I’ve ever seen, and it’s a breakthrough match for a variety of reasons. For starters, it was the opening match of the show and really set the tone for the rest of the evening.  It was also Owen’s big breakthrough match because he was able to earn a victory over his big brother when nobody considered him a threat.  It’s also notable because Bret Hart continued to sell his leg injury from this match throughout the entire show and into the main event where he would win the World Title.
   
• The Ladder Match:  Why does everyone call this “The Ladder Match?”  Why not “Shawn vs. Razor” or “Michaels vs. Ramon?”  Because it’s the best ladder match of all time.  Today’s fans wouldn’t find it exciting because they’ve been trained to endure Jeff Hardy’s spot-fests, but this single match would set the tone for all ladder matches that took place in the future.  None of the matches since this one have featured the same psychology or drama, and that’s why none of them have been able to match up to the sheer excellence of this match.
   
• Wrestling makes a comeback: With this single show, Vince McMahon was able to prove to the world that he could put on a wrestling show featuring WRESTLING as the main attraction.  Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels,  Scott Hall – every single one of these names received a huge career boost as a result of their part in this show, and deservedly so.  It’s been called the “best WWF show of all time” by many people, and they might be right.

THE BAD

·         The undercard: While the Ladder match and Bret/Owen rocked my world, the rest of the undercard was incredibly underwhelming.  Every single match, from Doink and Dink taking on Luna and Bigelow to the “co-main event” of Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna delivered big zeroes.  It’s almost like this show is a cross-section of two different WWF eras:  the retarded gimmicks and dumb booking of the mid-nineties and a flashback to classic wrestling in the opener and Ladder match.  To be honest, the undercard was the only problem with this show – if it weren’t for everything else on the card sucking it up, we’d be talking about Wrestlemania X being the greatest single North American wrestling show of all time.

THE TOP PERFORMERS 

·         Bret Hart: He worked together with his little brother Owen to put out not only a match that would be remembered for the ages, but a match that would put Owen’s career on the map.  He succeeded admirably in both ventures, and then went out and did his best to make Yokozuna look good before winning the World title in the main event.  He might’ve lost to Owen in the opener, but this was definitely one of Bret’s finest moments in the WWF.

·         Shawn Michaels: Shawn had a partner in the ladder match, without Michaels involved it wouldn’t have been the same.  This isn’t a new revelation, of course.  His complete understanding of the ring and how to use it as part of the intra-match storyline was never more apparent than in this match, and that’s one of the reasons it will forever be known as one of the greatest matches of all time.

·         Owen Hart: Before Wrestlemania X, nobody took Owen seriously.  He was known as just a guy who wore goofy outfits that had the privilege of being Bret Hart’s younger brother.  After this match, Owen became the “King Of Harts,” a character every bit as vibrant and skilled as his Hitman brother.  In my mind, Wrestlemania X will be forever etched in my mind as Owen’s crowning moment.

THE RATINGS

I assign star ratings a bit differently than others.  For me, the more entertaining a match was, the higher the star rating it’ll get.  I enjoy workrate and psychology just as much as the next guy, but if it’s not entertaining I won’t rate it as high.  Keep in mind that star ratings are OPINIONS.

• Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart - *****
• Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon - *****
• Randy Savage vs. Crush - **1/2
• The Quebecers vs. M.O.M - **
• Doink/Dink vs. Bam Bam Bigelow/Luna Vachon - *
• Alundra Blayze vs. Leilani Kai - *
• Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna - *
• Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna – ½*
• Earthquake vs. Adam Bomb – DUD

THE BOTTOM LINE 

A lot of my cohorts consider this the best WWF show of all time.  It’s a great show and you’re insane if you haven’t seen it, but do I think it’s the best WWF show of all time? No way.  The undercard of the show totally kills it for me.  I can stand having 2-3 bad matches, but having 6 or 7 with two great matches on top still takes away from the overall quality of the show.  That’s what I’m judging here – the overall quality of a certain show, and as a whole Wrestlemania X doesn’t quite measure up to my highest-rated WWF PPV, Judgment Day 2000.  I still have a lot of shows to go in my collection, but as it stands right now, Wrestlemania X isn't even the 4th best WWF show ever.  If it hadn’t been for the Ladder match and Bret/Owen, we might be talking about this show in terms of it being one of the worst of all time.

OVERALL SHOW RATING (OSR): ***3/4