Spotlight On Wrestlemania 17
Oh Wrestlemania 17. Or, X-Seven as it was called at the time. For the record, 18 was X8. And, 16 was "Wrestlemania 2000". You confused yet? Vince had a weird obsession with not calling Wrestlemania's by their real name around a decade ago. But I digress.
17 is considered by many to be not only the unofficial end of the "Attitude Era," but the greatest Wrestlemania of all-time! Everybody except of course for me. I refused to acknowledge this as the "greatest" anything. Why? I feel the Stone Cold vs. The Rock main event is extremely overrated.
Sentimentally I'm attached to WM 15's Austin vs. Rock match. I know everyone says that that is the worst of the three, but that was not only the first WM I ever watched, but the first PPV I ever watched. I thought it was magical at the time, and still do to some extent. ("The Rock, Austin, it just don't get no bigger than that!")
So it has that working against it. Also, something happened to the Rock as the year 2000 wore on. He quit wearing his $800 shirts and slacks, and started wearing a generic black t-shirt with whatever stupid catchphrase he was using at the time in white block lettering. (With the exception of the "Just Bring It" one, it was the first shirt like that, the phrase was cool, and I liked it at the time.) But most importantly, he changed his whole demeanor.
My cousin Eddie would describe the Rock's promos and overall behavior by saying, "It's the Rock on crack." Which is kind of true. He would pace like a mad man, scream everything he said, and basically be the opposite guy of the calm, cool, collected Rock from the previous years. Unfortunately he hasn't strayed from this, and has only gotten worse.
I also had lost a lot of steam for Stone Cold. Ironically, while he was gone with his neck injury, I decided in my teenage brain, that I liked Rock better anyway, and Stone Cold was overrated. And when he came back, he wasn't the same, which was true to a certain degree. So compound that with the fact I was also fading fast on the Rock (by WM 17 in April '01), you can hopefully see I wasn't very high on the main event even before it happened.
Even when I watch it today, I don't feel it has the same intensity and atmosphere as the WM 15 encounter. Maybe it's because it's in a dome, and that doesn't seem the same to me. Granted, most people say this match is their MOST intense, so maybe I'm just blinded with nostalgia for the first one. (But my counter to that is, that I like the WM 19 match better than this one as well.)
So I'll just chalk it up to different strokes for different folks. So for me then, it's hard to make a PPV the best anything if you don't care for the main event. (Another show I feel like this about is Survivor Series '03, awesome undercard shitty HHH vs. Goldberg main event.)
But trying to be fair about it, I decided to look back at the undercard, just to see if I was forgetting something.
I obviously remembered TLC 2 which to this day, is still one of the best multi-man ladder matches ever. So it had that going for it. Jericho vs. Regal was a nice little opener, and the Triple Threat Hardcore match is absolutely hilarious, and I mean that in the best possible way. The gimmick battle royal was won by everyone's favorite ranting lunatic Iron Shiek in a fun match. Then I see that I forgot about Vince vs. Shane. In my opinion both of their best matches against one another or not.
Then I see it, every smart mark's wet dream. Angle vs. Benoit. I don't know why or how I could forget about this match, but it's freaking awesome. You could put this in an old ROH ring from 2005, and they would be screaming "ROH ROH ROH". That match alone ups this PPV at least a whole point in my eyes.
The few downers are the 6 man tag, and Ivory vs. Chyna; both of which are kept short and sweet. HHH vs. Taker was pretty heralded at the time, but compared to the stuff they have done lately, it's really not that good. Oh and Test and Guerrero attempt to have a match, but it's pretty awkward for a lot of reasons. (You'll have to check that out on your own.)
So in summation, there is a lot of really good stuff on here. If I could somehow see, at least partially, what everyone else sees in the main event, I could totally see this being one of, if not the best WM ever. But being the cynical asshole that I am, that's probably not gonna happen. So it remains a second teir PPV for me- just on the verge of victory....but not quite there.
17 is considered by many to be not only the unofficial end of the "Attitude Era," but the greatest Wrestlemania of all-time! Everybody except of course for me. I refused to acknowledge this as the "greatest" anything. Why? I feel the Stone Cold vs. The Rock main event is extremely overrated.
Sentimentally I'm attached to WM 15's Austin vs. Rock match. I know everyone says that that is the worst of the three, but that was not only the first WM I ever watched, but the first PPV I ever watched. I thought it was magical at the time, and still do to some extent. ("The Rock, Austin, it just don't get no bigger than that!")
So it has that working against it. Also, something happened to the Rock as the year 2000 wore on. He quit wearing his $800 shirts and slacks, and started wearing a generic black t-shirt with whatever stupid catchphrase he was using at the time in white block lettering. (With the exception of the "Just Bring It" one, it was the first shirt like that, the phrase was cool, and I liked it at the time.) But most importantly, he changed his whole demeanor.
My cousin Eddie would describe the Rock's promos and overall behavior by saying, "It's the Rock on crack." Which is kind of true. He would pace like a mad man, scream everything he said, and basically be the opposite guy of the calm, cool, collected Rock from the previous years. Unfortunately he hasn't strayed from this, and has only gotten worse.
I also had lost a lot of steam for Stone Cold. Ironically, while he was gone with his neck injury, I decided in my teenage brain, that I liked Rock better anyway, and Stone Cold was overrated. And when he came back, he wasn't the same, which was true to a certain degree. So compound that with the fact I was also fading fast on the Rock (by WM 17 in April '01), you can hopefully see I wasn't very high on the main event even before it happened.
Even when I watch it today, I don't feel it has the same intensity and atmosphere as the WM 15 encounter. Maybe it's because it's in a dome, and that doesn't seem the same to me. Granted, most people say this match is their MOST intense, so maybe I'm just blinded with nostalgia for the first one. (But my counter to that is, that I like the WM 19 match better than this one as well.)
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But trying to be fair about it, I decided to look back at the undercard, just to see if I was forgetting something.
| 1 | Chris Jericho (c) defeated William Regal | ||
| 2 | Tazz and The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) (with Jacqueline) defeated Right to Censor (The Godfather, Val Venis and Bull Buchanan) (with Steven Richards) | ||
| 3 | Kane defeated Raven (c) and The Big Show | ||
| 4 | Eddie Guerrero (with Perry Saturn) defeated Test (c) | ||
| 5 | Kurt Angle defeated Chris Benoit | ||
| 6 | Chyna defeated Ivory (c) | ||
| 7 | Shane McMahon defeated Vince McMahon | ||
| 8 | Edge and Christian defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) (c) and The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) | ||
| 9 | The Iron Sheik won by last eliminating Hillbilly Jim | ||
| 10 | The Undertaker defeated Triple H | ||
| 11 | Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock (c) |
I obviously remembered TLC 2 which to this day, is still one of the best multi-man ladder matches ever. So it had that going for it. Jericho vs. Regal was a nice little opener, and the Triple Threat Hardcore match is absolutely hilarious, and I mean that in the best possible way. The gimmick battle royal was won by everyone's favorite ranting lunatic Iron Shiek in a fun match. Then I see that I forgot about Vince vs. Shane. In my opinion both of their best matches against one another or not.
Then I see it, every smart mark's wet dream. Angle vs. Benoit. I don't know why or how I could forget about this match, but it's freaking awesome. You could put this in an old ROH ring from 2005, and they would be screaming "ROH ROH ROH". That match alone ups this PPV at least a whole point in my eyes.
The few downers are the 6 man tag, and Ivory vs. Chyna; both of which are kept short and sweet. HHH vs. Taker was pretty heralded at the time, but compared to the stuff they have done lately, it's really not that good. Oh and Test and Guerrero attempt to have a match, but it's pretty awkward for a lot of reasons. (You'll have to check that out on your own.)
So in summation, there is a lot of really good stuff on here. If I could somehow see, at least partially, what everyone else sees in the main event, I could totally see this being one of, if not the best WM ever. But being the cynical asshole that I am, that's probably not gonna happen. So it remains a second teir PPV for me- just on the verge of victory....but not quite there.
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