Austin101

BStaple, most definately...I'd be glad to talk about it on here when I've watched a bit or all of it in the next while.



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Austin101's "Wrestlemania 10"- "Ten Years in the Making" Review:


Live on PPV, March 20th, 1994 from New York City's Madison Square Garden.

-Little Richard sang a rendition of America the Beautiful before the show.

-Other celebrity guests in attendance included Rhonda Shear, Donnie Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, and Jennie Garth.

-This is the first WrestleMania without Hulk Hogan.

-This was the last WrestleMania to use the "Titan Sports" WWF logo used since the first WrestleMania.

-A 10-man tag team match between I.R.S., Jeff Jarrett, Rick Martel and The Headshrinkers against Tatanka, 1-2-3 Kid, Bob Holly and The Smokin' Gunns was cancelled during the event as a result of an argument between I.R.S.'s team over who should be team captain. The match eventually took place weeks later on RAW. (I would have liked to have seen this match on the show before or after the ladder match, and this marked the third straight year a match on the card wouldn't make it on the PPV)

-This event marked the first pay-per-view ever commentated by Jerry "The King" Lawler.

-Supposedly Lex Luger was booked to win the WWF Championship from Yokozuna. However, the night before WrestleMania, Luger had revealed the outcome to several fans at a bar while intoxicated. This prompted the WWF to quickly change the outcome after the incident was published in a newspaper the morning of the PPV. (I'm not really sure how much I believe that rumor seeing as Bret was way more over at the 94 Rumble, and all of 1993 despite Lex's superman push.)


-The two WWF Championship bouts at this event came about as a result of Lex Luger and Bret Hart being declared co-winners of the 1994 Royal Rumble. The plan was to have one man face off against reigning WWF Champion Yokozuna while the other wrestled “suitable competition” in a separate bout earlier on the card. The person who emerged from the first WWF Championship bout as WWF Champion would then face off against the other wrestler (regardless of whether he won or lost) in the second WWF Championship bout of the evening. Approximately one month prior to the event, a (kayfabe) coin toss was won by Lex Luger, granting him the opportunity of having the first title shot. Had Bret Hart won the coin toss, Lex Luger’s first match would have been against Crush instead.





Onto the matches.....




1) Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs "The Rocket" Owen Hart


Pretty cool pre-match video of a great feud that only got better as the year 1994 rolled along.

The guy introducing the wrestlers for this opening match looks like a goof. Yeah, well that wasn't very nice but it needed to be said.

Funny how MSG pops when he says "From Calgary, Alberta...Canada" then Owen comes out. Hillarious, I love Owen how he wears the shades to the ring and lips to the camera "The Best there is..the best there was and the best there ever will be."

When Bret came out, he came to a loud ovation as expected. When he walks around the ring he heard a small "Lets go OWEN!" chant by a couple guys and he gave them a funny look just before he ties up with his little brother.

Owen's tactics to begin the match are hillarious as is the King's commentary. Owen's comedy as well as Lawler's were unmatched in the mid 90's WWF, no one in that time period was funnier then these two for my money.

As Vince would say, "See-Saw Match, back and forth." And it really was.

The psychology and selling was perfect. The timing was unbelievable. The moves were crisp, the flow and pace was perfect. The crowd was into it, we saw a lot of familar moves as well as some high risk moves and great WRESTLING moves.

Just about everything you could want from a match you could find here.

In the end Owen pinned Bret by sitting down on a Victory Roll attempt from Bret at 20:21 for the upset win.

King yells..."WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT MCMAHON!"

Owen has spit on the side of his mouth and clearly doesen't know...it remains there even during his post match interview where he's rightfully so out of breath.

A lot of people have different opinions of this match. Some think it is a classic and have it rated **** 1/2- **** 3/4, some think it's a very good match and have it rated ****- **** 1/4. Some people think it's just amazing and a five star classic. 5 Stars given by people who both give 5 stars out easily, and people who don't.

Me? I think without question it is five stars because this is not only one of the greatest matches in Mania history that turned Owen into a main-event challenger for the next few months, but this is one of the greatest stories ever told inside the ring..ever. It stands as Owen's greatest match of all time by a long shot and it's one of Bret's as well.

This match will always hold a special place in my heart and words can't even describe how incredibal it truely is. The fact that it opened the show is absolutely remarkable as well. Just another one of those reasons people praise Wrestlemania X quite frequently.

Match of the night, and it's the opener. Not very often that happens....however some would argue that there was another match on this card that was the match of the night, but to each his own. This is what I believe truely was.

Epic.



*****



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(Five Star Note: This marks just the fourth time in 20 Rumble's and 10 Mania's I've given a match 5 stars. Benoit vs Y2J at RR 01, Benoit vs Angle at RR 03, Savage vs Steamboat at WM 3, and now Bret vs Owen at Wrestlemania X.)

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2) Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon vs Doink the Clown (Ray Apollo) and Dink in a "Mixed Tag Team match"


Bam Bam and Lunda vs Doink and a midget clown named Dink.

How did you think the match would come off? It was DECENT and Dink was pretty funny but overall I just sat there pretty bored. This match was better when I was a kid I think. The match ended when Bam Bam Bigelow pinned Doink The Clown after a Diving Headbutt at 6:09.

Some alright stuff here, but kind of showed some of the strange mid carders of this time period.


* 1/2





3) "Macho Man" Randy Savage vs Crush (w/Mr. Fuji) in a Falls Count Anywhere Match


Savage gets a huge ovation as expected and him and Crush had a pretty good feud going.

Whoa, what's this? Savage shakes McMahon's hand before posing in the ring...interesting.

Pretty neat concept here as the loser of the fall had 60 seconds to get back in the ring. Made a pretty good brawl just a little more entertaining.

Savage won the match when he hogtied Crush to a winch backstage in the Garden, preventing him from returning to the ring within 60 seconds, at 9:49 of the bout.


It seriously almost brings a tear to my eye watching Savage celebrate the victory at the Garden to his music playing knowing this is the last Wrestlemania for the Macho Man Randy Savage. Not only was the Macho Man one of the best wrestlers of all time and his legacy is barely ever dicussed, but for me there no better performer in the 23 year history of Wrestlemania then him. (Hogan, Piper, Michaels, Austin, Bret, HHH, Rock) among others competed in some amazing bouts at this event as well but for me it just didn't get better then the resume of the Macho Man.

Thank you Savage.


** 1/2





4) Alundra Blayze vs Leilani Kai for the WWF Women's Championship

Listening to the King rip on Alundra is hillarious.

Leilani worked a match with the top face wrestler for ladies in this very building in the original Wrestlemania.

Cool that they put her up against the CURRENT top ladies champion for nostalgia reasons.

This match was "OK." but nothing really that special at all.

Blayze pinned Kai with a Bridging German Suplex at 3:20 to retain the Women's title.

That belt wouldn't be defended again till Wrestlemania 15 when Sable beat Tori.



*






5) Men on a Mission (Mabel and Mo) (w/Oscar) vs The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) (w/Johnny Polo) for the WWF Tag Team Championship


MOM rap to the ring and MSG sings.

The Quebecers had a fine wrestling match with Bret and Owen a couple months before this but it shows that they were carried as this match was not anywhere near as good.

However both of them are still good workers in there own right so this match wasn't terrible.

Mo actually moves around the ring pretty well for a guy of his size and maybe even an underrated performer if I do say so.

The pace to this event has kind of slowed down by this point of the show though, at least for me.

The Quebecers were counted out after Polo pulled Jacques out of the ring, deliberately causing a countout, to prevent a title change at 7:41.



**





6) Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) vs Lex Luger (w/Mr. Perfect as Special Guest Referee) for the WWF Championship

The first of the two title matches.

Perfect got a very good reaction when he came out as the ref.

Both of these guys styles didn't mesh well to say the very least but I'll give this match a decent rating due to the effort and importance of the match. I heard from one guy that this match is incredible, I argued that point but he was actually serious.

I do see some of the good qualities in the match but overall it was to long and it wasn't anywhere near "great" in my honest opinion.

Mr. Perfect disqualified Luger for shoving him after Perfect refused to count one of Luger's pinfall attempts at 14:40.

Yoko retains the WWF title for what seemed like the billionth time and Luger argued with Perfect backstage after the match.



* 3/4





7) Earthquake vs Adam Bomb


Earthquake pinned Bomb after a Earthquake Splash at 0:32.

Earthquake's opponent was originally supposed to be Ludvig Borga.

This was a basic squash that almost came out of no where...actually it did kind of come out of no where with the lack of entrance music.

The second straight Mania to have a DUD on the 7th match spot.


DUD





8) "The Bad Guy" Razor Ramon vs "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (w/Diesel) in a Ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship


HBK came out with Diesel and this match would really MAKE both men's careers and that is one of the reasons it's talked about as much as it is.

That and the fact it was a ladder match at a Wrestlemania in the garden.

Diesel was thrown out of the match about 5 minutes in.

Michaels pants is pulled down for the billionth time in this match exposing his ass for the playgirl lovers.

Michaels with a great splash from the mid-top of the ladder. Good innovative work with the ladder used as a weapon from both men. Good work not only in the ring but on the outside as well in a back and forth contest that had the viewer entertained all the way throughout.

Ramon climbed the ladder and retrieved both belts after Michaels became entangled in the ring ropes at 18:47 to end the ladder match.

There were two belts because Michaels had been claiming he was still IC Champion despite having been stripped of the title several months earlier.

The Bad Guy celebrated with the gold and walked to the back with his newly won prize.


**** 3/4


(Yeah, I might recieve hell for that rating.)

But you know what? I don't care. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. I think this match being talked about every day like it's the be all end all has really got to me over the years.

However there's no denying it's a tremendous classic that will be remembered forever.





9) Main Event- Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) (w/Roddy Piper as Special Guest Referee) for the WWF Championship

The Hitman and Yokozuna both have already wrestled once before on the night.

This match was much better then the year before in my opinion but what really made it work was Bret's selling and the ending which in my mind was such a great way to end the show.

The fans were SO RELIEVED Yoko had FINALLY lost the title.


Bret Hart pinned Yokozuna after Yokozuna lost balance and fell from the middle rope, stunned after hitting his head on the canvas, for the win at 10:38.

Bret FINALLY becomes the champion again in my favourite title win of his (not match quality wise) but just for the feel.

Seeing him limp after a five star classic and a battle with an unstoppable Sumo holding the gold at the end of WM X in the Garden is a moment I'll remember forever.

It got even better when all the superstars, legends and celebs put him on there shoulders to celebrate his victory.

Owen came out and stared at Bret from the entrance way with a "What about me!?" look that would further add to the historical feud between the two brothers.

What a moment.

What an event.



** 1/2





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Final PPV Rating for Wrestlemania 10 = 8/10


One of the most fondly-remembered Mania's. The first to truly turn its back on the Hogan era for good after four years of trying. Bret would have a fairly successful run as champion before the Kevin Nash era took over and things really went downhill for the WWF. Bret Hart said in his book that he felt Nash was over the hill already during his 95 title reign. This show didn't have classic, after classic, but it had two of the best matches ever, as well as a legendary moment with the Hitman winning the gold after the show and a few other enjoyable matches. That alone doesen't make me want to give it anything less then an 8. I was considering 7.5, but when you look at the big picture it's one of the better Wrestlemania's ever and an 8 seems justified to me.



Feedback appreciated as always if you want to discuss.....





Up Next from Austin101: "WWF Wrestlemania 11!"


(stay tuned.....)



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