Wrestlemania: Difference between revisions

[[File:WWE-Wrestlemania_8008.jpg|frame]]

 

 

In 1985, [[Vince McMahon]] had an idea to hold a flagship pay-per-view show for his [[WWE|World Wrestling Federation]] to counter the ''Starrcade'' event held by rival [[WCW|Jim Crockett Promotions]]. This show - the very first ''[[Wrestlemania]]'' - was heavily cross-promoted through MTV and other popular television outlets; the WWF's mainstream success from this point on hinged on the first ''[[Wrestlemania]]'' being a success.

* [[Fan Nickname]]: [[Shawn Michaels]] isn't called "Mr. WrestleMania" for nothing; among notable performances covered elsewhere, there's the Ladder Match against Razor Ramon at ''WrestleMania 10'', his match against [[Chris Jericho]] at ''WrestleMania 19'', and his match against [[Kurt Angle]] at ''WrestleMania 21''.

** Hell, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single ''WrestleMania'' match of his that wasn't good, going all the way back to his debut at ''WrestleMania 5'' as part of The Rockers.

* [[Heroic Resolve]]: The big match at ''WrestleMania 13'' was the Submission Match between [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] and [[Bret Hart]]. Busted open, bleeding like crazy, and locked in Hart's signature Sharpshooter submission hold, Austin [[Crazy Awesome|refused to tap out]]; instead, he passed out from the pain rather than submit to Hart. If ''King of the Ring 1996'' was Austin's breakout moment, this was the moment that catapulted him into superstardom.

* [[Invincible Hero]]: [[The Undertaker]]'s track record at ''WrestleMania'' is likely never to be topped: he has never been defeated in any of the 20 matches he has wrestled at the event. Undertaker and [[Shawn Michaels]] pulled out perhaps 2009's Match of the Year at ''WrestleMania 25'', 'Taker's first one-on-one victory over Michaels, and at ''WrestleMania 26'' they pulled out another instant classic as Undertaker preserved his streak and ended the 25-year career of Michaels in the show's main event. At ''WrestleMania 27'', he survived ''three'' Pedigrees and a Tombstone from [[Triple H]], then Undertaker slipped Hell's Gate on a sledgehammer-wielding [[Triple H]], who tapped, ensuring the 19-0 streak lives on. Then, at 28, against Triple H one last time, Taker kicks out of The Tombstone, and reverses it to achieve the final score of 20-0.

* [[Just One Little Mistake]]: Attempting to give the fans a WrestleMania Moment, [[Brock Lesnar]] attempted a Shooting Star Press (a diving backflip splash off the top rope) at WM 19 against [[Kurt Angle]]. He hadn't performed this dangerous maneuver since his time in WWE's feeder league OVW, did not complete the rotation, and landed squarely on his head, but luckily ended up with only a mild concussion (and later [[Fan Nickname|became known as]] the Shooting Star Neck Breaker, Shooting Star Self-Piledriver, or Shooting Brock Press). Angle quickly led the dazed Lesnar into an improvised finish to the match.

** [[Kurt Angle]]'s well-known neck problems were flaring up going into ''WrestleMania 19'', and it was believed that his insistence on performing at the event anyway could lead to the end of his career. Ironically it was Lesnar who nearly broke his neck at the event. Actually, Brock had placed Angle too far from the corner, and though he did in fact rotate perfectly for the press, Angle's distance resulted in Brock almost breaking his own neck ON ANGLE.

* [[Passing the Torch]]: The [[Ultimate Warrior]] defeating [[Hulk Hogan]] at ''WrestleMania 6'' to win the WWF Championship, seen as a "passing the torch" moment (even if it didn't fully work out).

* [[Genre Blindness|Pay-Per-View Blindness]]: ''Wrestlemania 27'' was extremely lackluster, with many last minute changes, including [[What Were You Thinking?|scrapping]] the [[Daniel Bryan]] vs [[Sheamus]] match so they could give [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] a 20-minute promo (it also reduced the length of the other matches). A large amount of time was spent making skits; people joked that someone accidentally switched Wrestlemania's script for the next ''Raw'' script.

* [[Retired Badass]]: [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]], the guest referee of [[Brock Lesnar]] vs. [[Goldberg]] at ''WrestleMania 20''. What should have been a dream matchup was ruined by Lesnar's surprise decision to quit WWE to try out for the NFL, and [[Goldberg]] seemed to think the whole match was a joke. The only cheering was for Austin, who delivered a Stunner to both Lesnar and [[Goldberg]] after the match.

** Similarly, at WM 27 Austin was guest ref for [[Jerry Lawler]] vs [[Michael Cole]]. Cole spent close to 10 minutes beating on Lawler. To say that the crowd did not enjoy this would be an understatement. The end of the match then had the ''Raw'' general manager retroactively disqualify Lawler because Guest Referee Austin got involved in the match. [[Booker T]] and Josh Mathews also [[What the Hell, Hero?|got Stunners without doing anything]] - likely just an excuse to get [[Jim Ross|J.R.]] and King back together on commentary for the rest of the show.

* [[Worked Shoot|Worked/Unworked Shoot]]: The boxing match (yes, at '''Wrestle'''mania) between Butterbean and Bart Gunn [[wikipedia:WWF Brawl for All|was real]], but easily the least entertaining and the most pointless match of WM 15. There was little build-up and it transformed almost instantly from Unworked Shoot to Very Bad Shoot when Bart Gunn was knocked out two minutes in. [[Roddy Piper]] and [[Mr. T]] worked a better boxing match at Wrestlemania 2, and that's saying something - that one was fake, however ([http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ektc_wrestlemania-2-mr-t-vs-roddy-piper_sport video]).

* [[X Makes Anything Cool]]: The thinking behind naming the 17th and 18th installments ''WrestleMania X-Seven'' and ''WrestleMania X-8''.

** He had been counting the streak like that for a couple of years ('Taker even says "18 men have come...." on the promo the previous year).

*** It was accurate up until the second time he faced Michaels, with his two matches against Kane being balanced by the fact that one of his matches was a two on one handicap.