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The WWF was still riding high after the purchase of WCW a week or so earlier, and the momentum carried them into what may very well have been the greatest wrestling PPV ever put on by any company, Wrestlemania X-7. This show was the culmination of the Attitude Era and featured huge matches, all-time legends, unbelievable wrestling, comedy, hardcore wrestling, an insane spotfest, and everything you could ever possibly want in a wrestling show. It was three and a half hours of pure wrestling heaven, and the fact that it still holds up given how many great shows and matches we've seen since then just proves what a strong show it was.
Enough hype, on to the show...
While I don't want to undersell the quality of the matches because they were all good, there's a lot more important stuff later in the show, so I'm going to just breeze through the undercard. Chris Jericho defeated William Regal in the opening match to retain the Intercontinental Title after weeks of Regal using his power as Commissioner to continually book Jericho into handicap matches and other no-win situations. Jericho escaped the Regal Stretch and hit the Lionsault to pick up the win. The APA & Tazz defeated the Right To Censor in a six man tag after Bradshaw hit Goodfather with a Clothesline From Hell, in what amounted to a token gesture to get all these guys on the show.
Kane defeated Big Show and defending champion Raven for the Hardcore Title in a really entertaining match that saw Raven take mounds of abuse, including being thrown through a window and being run over by a golf cart, and Big Show & Kane's sheer size saw them fighting backstage and literally plowing through a closed door and then crashing through a wall. They wound up at the top of the ramp where Kane knocked Big Show and Raven through the stage and hit a flying elbowdrop to get the win. Eddy Guerrero defeated Test to win the European Title in a really solid match where Eddy bounced around like a pinball for Test, who looked a lot more motivated and worked much harder than he would later in his career.
Next up was the sleeper hit of the evening as Kurt Angle took on Chris Benoit in a match that, unbelievably, was only put together less than a week before the show. They started out wrestling on the mat, and it was funny to watch because while the announcers were trying to get over how Benoit was dominating Angle on the mat, anyone with any knowledge of amateur wrestling saw that Benoit was totally lost while Angle wrestled circles around him. I always said that Benoit was good but really overrated and that there was a reason Angle was winning multiple World Titles and main eventing PPVs while Benoit got his one token title run and then went back to the midcard. Angle got really good very quickly and it didn't take him long at all to outshine Benoit and most of the rest of the WWF roster. All that being said, Benoit was really good in the ring and these guys had some classics over the years with this pretty much being the starting point. They had great chemistry in the ring and had a great way of building a match, starting out with the wrestling and then turning it into a brawl before we started down the home stretch and they exchanged suplex after suplex and finally put on a clinic in the application and reversal of submission holds. Benoit got the Crossface and Angle tapped, but the referee had gotten bumped and couldn't make the call, and Angle was able to recover and hit the Angle Slam for a 2 count. Angle went for a moonsault but Benoit got the knees up and then hit a diving headbutt for 2. Angle suddenly cradled Benoit out of nowhere and got the win with a handful of tights. Excellent match, and the Angle-Benoit matches would just get better and better each time out, culminating in their classic at Royal Rumble 2003.
Kevin Kelly interviewed Kurt Angle in the back afterward and said that he had to respect the fight that Chris Benoit just gave him, and Angle replied that he won and he doesn't have to respect anybody. Benoit ran in and attacked Angle, putting him in the Crossface and forcing Angle to tap out on the interview set. Did I ever mention how much I hate it when people tap out in backstage fights, in the parking lot, or anywhere else that isn't in a wrestling match?
The next match (and I used the word match loosely) saw Chyna challenge Ivory for the WWF Women's Title in a five minute squash. The RTC had given Chyna a spike piledriver months earlier and put her on the shelf, and Chyna came back and challenged Ivory for the title at the Royal Rumble and was destroying her, with Ivory getting no offense in. Chyna hit a handspring elbow in the corner and then suddenly collapsed because the neck hadn't fully healed, and she needed to be carried out after Ivory took the easy win. Chyna took some more time off and they had the rematch here, and this time Ivory did mount some offense when she hit Chyna in the back of the neck with the belt before the bell, but Chyna no-sold everything she did after that and powerbombed Ivory, then pulled her up at 2 and gave her a press slam before covering her and getting the win for real. Total squash match, and that's the way it would have been had Chyna's WWF career continued since there weren't any other girls who were a realistic physical match for her. This was pretty much her last hurrah before she was taken off TV and her contract was allowed to expire shortly afterward, freeing her up to diversify into the worlds of music, porn, and reality TV. Well, at least we didn't have to watch the WWF wrestlers try and keep a straight face while attempting to convince us Chyna was hot anymore.
But with that low point behind us, we now move on to something far more interesting: Vince McMahon against his son Shane McMahon in a streetfight with Mick Foley as the guest referee. The background to this one was that Vince McMahon told Linda that he wanted a divorce, causing Linda to go into shock and she remained in a vegetative state ever since. The joke people made that wasn't really a joke was that because of Linda's total lack of charisma, personality, or delivery, having her sit in a wheelchair and pretend to be comatose was the perfect role for her. In the meantime, Vince was having a little something going on with Trish Stratus on the side (in storylines, before I get any emails) and this led to an angry Shane McMahon returning to TV and confronting his father over Vince's infidelity.
In the meantime, Trish and Vince's daughter Stephanie were jealously bickering over Vince's affections, with Stephanie usually throwing all kinds of snotty abuse at Trish while Trish was powerless to retaliate. At one point even Trish angered Vince (I forget how), and as punishment Vince made her strip down to her underwear in the ring and, in Vince's immortal words, "Get down on your hands and knees and bark like a dog!" Trish was humiliated, and continued to be forced into this subservient role to Vince and Stephanie. Meanwhile, Vince had bought WCW, shocking everyone in the industry and shaking the business to its core, but Shane had ruined Vince's moment by announcing on the final Nitro that while Vince was waiting for Ted Turner to come to the ring at Wrestlemania and sign over WCW live on the WWF's flagship event, he had slipped in under the radar and bought WCW himself thanks to Vince's delay. Mick Foley was added as the special referee just days earlier, and go read Part 3 of this series to get the backstory on that because I've already typed two paragraphs of the build to this match.
Okay, on to the match. Shane came out first and gave a shout out to his WCW wrestlers, who were sitting in the balcony and had zero reaction. Vince was very smart about the matches he would book himself into because he knew he couldn't work, so he always did the one match he knew he could get through without embarrassing himself. In this case, it also opened Shane up to pull some of the insane stuff he was known for doing since he wasn't on the road every night. Vince attacked Shane early, but Shane turned the tide and tossed Vince to the outside where he beat him senseless and hit a flying clothesline off the barricade before working him over with a kendo stick. Shane bashed Vince in the head with a TV monitor and then put Vince on top of the Spanish announce table and went for an elbowdrop off the top rope, but Stephanie pulled Vince out of the way and Shane went through the table instead. With both Vince and Shane down, Trish Stratus emerged from the back, rolling Linda down to ringside and then going to check on Vince. Vince got to his knees and reached out for his loving companion, but was instead met with a slap to the face from Trish, leading to a fight between Stephanie and Trish. Mick Foley pulled them apart for a brief moment until Trish chased Stephanie to the back.
Back to ringside as a seething Vince started to approach Linda before Mick Foley got between them and told Vince to back off, but Vince hit Foley with a couple of chairshots when his back was turned. Vince took a now defenseless Linda and rolled her into the ring and sat her in a chair in the corner so she could watch him beat Shane up. Vince started tossing garbage cans in the ring, then took one and smashed it over Shane's head and yelled at Linda to watch him give some more to her son as he repeatedly smashed the can over Shane's back. Vince turned to give Shane another shot with the can when Linda suddenly stood up and came up behind Vince, who turned around and took a kick to the groin from Linda. Foley got in on the action yet, giving Vince a receipt for the chairshots by beating him down in the corner. Shane grabbed another garbage can and sat it on Vince's lap in the corner and then climbed the ropes across the ring and hit a Van Terminator for the win as a stern faced Linda stood applauding in the corner. Shane gave Linda a big hug, and then the WCW guys finally came to life and clapped for their new boss as I realize I just wrote four paragraphs about a Vince vs Shane match.
The bodily destruction continues in our next match, as the Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz, and Edge & Christian fought it out in TLC2 for the WWF Tag Team Title. I will compensate for the overcoverage of the previous match by saying that there is so much going on in TLC2 that there's no way I could do it justice by attempting to recap it, so I won't bother trying. If you've seen any variations on the TLC concept in the years since this three way feud in 2000-01, then you know what kind of match it was and the important thing to know is that it was these three teams who popularized this style of match. These guys destroyed each other for the better part of 20 minutes, with Spike Dudley, Lita, and Rhyno all running in about midway through the match and turning it into almost an unofficial three way six man tag. Edge & Christian got the win when Edge held onto D-Von while Rhyno gave Christian a piggyback ride to the top of the ladder so he could grab the belts and get their third win in a row against the other teams in this style of match. This was just insane, and yes, it really was that good.
We needed a break to cool off after that one, and we got it in the Gimmick Battle Royal, a tongue in cheek attraction featuring some of the most memorable characters of the prior 15 years or so. Probably the most memorable thing about it was the return of Mean Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan on commentary after several years in WCW. It was great listening to the two of them and how great they were in announcing this match really drove home how much (with all due respect to Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and everyone else at WWE) the announcing sucks in 2011. The list of participants included the Bushwhackers, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, the Iron Sheik, Earthquake, the Goon, Doink the Clown (who got a pretty big pop), Kamala & Kimchee (accompanied by Harvey Whippleman), Repo Man, Jim Cornette (yes, he was wrestling at Wrestlemania), Nikolai Volkoff, Michael "PS" Hayes (to a huge ovation), the One Man Gang, the Gobbledy Gooker, Tugboat (who was supposed to come out as Typhoon but had lost weight and couldn't fit into the Typhoon tights), Hillbilly Jim, Brother Love (yes, he also wrestled at Wrestlemania, and Jerry Lawler hasn't. No justice.), and Sgt Slaughter. This was really all about the pops for the entrances and the match itself lasted about four minutes with everyone getting thrown out one after another until the Iron Sheik was the last man left standing, with the popular theory being that he won because he was too fragile to risk taking a bump over the top rope. Sgt Slaughter came back in and put Sheik out with the Cobra Clutch to get his heat back.
We're heading down the home stretch now as we move on to the semi main event with the Undertaker taking on Triple H. This one came about because Triple H cut a promo on Raw after defeating Steve Austin in a Three Stages Of Hell Match at No Way Out saying that he had faced every tope star in the WWF and had beaten them all, prompting the Undertaker to confront him and remind him that he'd never beaten the Undertaker, and that he would make Triple H famous if he tried. Bam, instant Wrestlemania match, and one with quite a lot of pageantry during the entrances, as Motorhead played Triple H's theme music live as he made his entrance, and Undertaker would come out on his Harley for his standard entrance at the time. This match left the ring pretty early on and Undertaker and HHH brawled through the crowd and up onto a control structure where I guess a lot of the lighting and music was supposed to be controlled from. They continued to climb up the multi-tiered scaffold until getting all the way to the top and HHH somehow got ahold of a chair and repeatedly nailed Undertaker with it. Undertaker recovered and chokeslammed HHH off the scaffold and then followed him off with an elbowdrop before dragging HHH back to the ring. Undertaker grabbed Triple H's sledgehammer but HHH hit a low blow and then went for the Tombstone on the Undertaker, but Undertaker reversed and he gave HHH the Tombstone. He went for the cover, but the ref had been bumped and was unable to make the count so Undertaker went for the Last Ride instead, but by this time HHH had gotten ahold of the sledgehammer and nailed Undertaker with it. The referee revived as HHH made the cover, but Undertaker kicked out at 2 so HHH went up for some corner punches, but Undertaker carried him out to the middle of the ring and hit the Last Ride for the win. Awesome brawl and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do a blowoff match.
All this brings us into the main event, as the Rock defended the WWF Title against Steve Austin for the second time at Wrestlemania, and the match was announced as being a no DQ match, a stipulation that had been added at the last minute for reasons which will become apparent shortly. I always felt like these two had excellent chemistry and terrific matches, and they always seem to be forgotten when people make their lists of the best Wrestlemania matches. Austin was the clear crowd favorite here as they cheered everything he did and booed everything Rock did. They went for their finishers early, but neither could hit it and they went outside and brawled into the crowd instead. Rock got the advantage when they got back in the ring, hitting a flying clothesline and then tossing Austin to the floor, but made the mistake of going after him and Austin cracked him in the head with the ring bell. Rock was busted open, and Austin continued unloading on Rock's face with hard right hands. Rock hit a clothesline out of nowhere and then grabbed the bell and busted Austin open with it. The fight went back to the floor where Austin picked Rock up and dumped him on the barricade and then catapulted him into the ringpost and finally whacked him in the head with a TV monitor. Rock blocked a Stunner and got Austin in the Sharpshooter, and Austin went for the ropes but Rock pulled him back out to the middle of the ring, but Austin crawled back and made it to the ropes and then caught Rock in a Sharpshooter of his own. Rock got out so Austin got the Million Dollar Dream, and Rock tried the Bret Hart reversal but only got 2 so he followed up by hitting Austin with his own Stunner, and that only got a 2 count as well.
Suddenly, Vince McMahon made his way down to ringside as Rock hit a spinebuster and the People's Elbow, but when he went for a cover Vince dragged the referee out of the ring. Rock saw what happened and went after Vince and lost his concentration enough for Austin to catch him with a Rock Bottom for 2. The ref got bumped and Austin hit a low blow, then brought Vince in the ring to hold Rock so he could hit him with a chair. This is around the point where people had a bad feeling about where this was going, and Vince brought the ref back in the ring so Austin could cover after the chairshot, but only got 2. Austin grabbed the chair again and went after the Rock, but Rock hit the Rock Bottom out of nowhere and then went after Vince again. The distraction would prove his undoing, as Austin hit the Stunner and went for the cover, but only got 2. Austin was visibly frustrated by this point, so he grabbed the chair and KILLED Rock with it, but even that only got 2, so Austin finally had enough and repeatedly bashed Rock with chairshot after chairshot, destroying him until he finally delivered one big, final swing and covered Rock to win the WWF Title for the fifth time.
After scoring the win, Austin and Vince stood face to face and shook hands and then celebrated together with a beer bash that went on for several minutes until Rock began to stir. Austin grabbed the WWF Title belt and waited for Rock to get to his feet, and then laid him out yet again with a shot from the belt and then left with his longtime nemesis turned benefactor.
* * *
As I said at the beginning, Wrestlemania X-7 may have been the greatest wrestling show ever. From TLC2, to the Gimmick Battle Royal, to Angle and Benoit, and huge marquee matches in Undertaker-Triple H and Rock-Austin, there was something for everyone, and I feel that there simply has never been another show that combined all the essential elements as well as this one did. In every way, it was the pinnacle of the Attitude Era and emblematic of everything that made that time period special.
Unfortunately, that was all about to change. The WWF trying to turn Steve Austin heel in the main event of Wrestlemania in front of his home state was a move that left a lot of people scratching their heads, and it would turn out to be the first in a long line of "We know you don't like it, but WE do and we know what's good better than you do" situations where they would seemingly intentionally book contrary to what the fans wanted just to thumb their noses at them. This was also the first example of what the lack of competition would mean to the WWF, because turning Austin heel in front of a Texas crowd would have been insane just a year earlier, and there's no way they would have ever played games with their top star like that if they still had competition. In fact, everyone jumped on WCW for doing the same thing with Bill Goldberg about a year earlier because it damaged Goldberg more than it helped the company. Now the WWF was doing the same thing, but they had the luxury of being the only game in town, giving them the freedom to be creative.
That creativity would continue to rear its ugly head many times over the coming years, and indeed in the coming months. With Wrestlemania behind them, Vince McMahon would now have to go about the business of trying to do something with the other company he had just bought. While fans were clamoring for the often dreamed of, but never actually expected WWF vs WCW angle, the plan was to try and get WCW a TV timeslot and spin them off into a separate product from the WWF.
Unfortunately, sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men go awry. Find out how the attempts to salvage the charred remains of WCW would play out in Part 5: WWF Monday Nitro And The Formation Of The Alliance!
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