WrestleMania X

Legacy Review

WrestleMania X

March 20, 1994 from Madison Square Garden in New York City

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler (making his surprise return after a legal issues hiatus)

After the '94 Rumble ended in a tie President Jack Tunney ruled that there would be two WWF title matches at the big 10th anniversary Wrestlemania, with the order determined by a coin flip. Lex Luger won the chance to face Yokozuna first, with Bret Hart facing the winner in the main event. Both title matches would also have a special guest referee. To make things fair Bret would also have a second match against "suitable competition", which just so happened to turn out to be his estranged brother Owen.

Nice opening with highlights from WM 1 before transitioning into the setup for tonight. There's a definite big show atmosphere. Between matches they show highlights from all the previous WMs (some poorly chosen, like the blindfold match from 7). Vince does the intro himself in-ring WM 3 style before bringing in Johnny B Badd Little Richard for America the Beautiful. A recap of the Hart brothers feud follows, and after that some very weak pyro. Early days for that. The black and gold ropes from WM 9 are back, and this show is also the debut of the cool hexagonal entrance tunnel with the back lighting. Sadly Howard Finkel is nowhere to be seen at the start.

"The Rocket" Owen Hart def Bret "Hitman" Hart in 20:21- Owen's wearing Bret sunglasses on his entrance and tears them up in the ring. After a lockup standoff Owen celebrates like a true heel. Owen fireman carry to Bret headscissors counter sequence. Owen slips out and celebrates again. Bret gets a go behind takedown. Owen goes for the ropes and screams for Bret to get off. Owen grabs a waistlock. Bret momentums him down to the floor. Now Owen's pissed. He slaps Bret and immediately runs to hide in the ropes. Hammerlock/headlock counters. Owen escalates things a notch by pulling hair. Bret hits the brakes on a corner whip, leaps over and gets a rollup for 2. Owen back elbows out of a hammerlock, another escalation. Speed sequence. Bret monkey flips Owen, then clotheslines him 360 and out. Owen starts wandering up the aisle. Bret grabs him by the tights, throws him back in, and asks "Hey, didn't you want to fight?". Shoving. Bret slaps! And uses the distraction to get a flash roll up for 2. Arm work by Bret with a crucifix for 2 in between. During another speed run Owen hits a spinning heel kick and stomps Bret down to the floor. He posts Bret's back and goes to work on it. Camel clutch. Bret breaks out of it. Owen hits a snap belly to belly suplex for 2, then goes back to the back. He tries to slam Bret, but Bret shifts leverage and falls on top of him for 2. Owen tries a suplex from the apron. Bret slips out, tries to grab a rollup, but Owen switches the switch and hits a bridged German suplex for 2! Bret blocks another suplex and wraps up a small package for 2. After multiple tiltawhirl reverses Owen hits a tombstone! He goes up top and does a Dynamite Kid shoutout by going for a diving headbutt, but Bret dodges. Five Moves of Doom. Owen hits an enzuguri and goes for the Sharpshooter. Bret fights out and tries to hook on his own. Owen eye rakes out and gets a leg rollup for 2. Owen goes outside again. Bret plancha! But he hit his previously hurt knee on the way down! As they get back in the ring Owen sees him limping and immediately goes to work on it. He kicks Bret's leg out of his leg again and posts the knee. Dragon screw leg whip! Owen locks on an Indian Death Lock. He follows the ZSJ rule of never staying in a hold too long, lets go, and hits another dragon screw. Figure four! Bret reverses it and both guys get in the ropes. Bret with an enzuguri! Owen does a Bret bump! Bret hits a legdrop and covers for 2. Bulldog for 2. Bret piledriver! Slow cover for 2. Superplex! Another slow cover and Owen just kicks out. European uppercuts from Bret. He ducks an Owen punch and locks in a sleeper. Owen immediately gets to the ropes and hits a Flair-style low blow behind the ref's back. Owen Sharpshooter. Bret powers out and reverses into his own Sharpshooter. Owen gets to the ropes. Bret climbs up on Owen and tries a victory roll, but Owen drops right down on top of him....and gets a 3 count! The crowd is flummoxed, bamboozled and just plain stunned. So is Bret. Commentary speculates on what kind of condition he'll be in for the title match later tonight. That was as magnificent a technical professional wrestling match as you will ever see. ****3/4

Owen brags to Todd Pettingill backstage, but shows some respect for Bret and doesn't fully cross the line. The Hair Club for Men guy comes out and introduces the Fink with a rug on his head.

 

Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon def Doink and Dink the Clowns in 6:09- As usual Bigelow jumps before the bell. Shoulderblocks and a dropkick. Doink dodges a senton. After some back and forth Doink tags out. Dink begs to die. Bigelow spares him. Dink runs around Luna until he gets taken out by a kick. Midget murder follows. Dink dodges a dive and hits a little elbow drop for 2. More runaround and another kick. Dink goes up top and Luna dodges. She slams Dink and goes up top herself but Dink dodges and tags. Bigelow clotheslines Doink 360 and out. Doink is out recovering a long time, possibly a legit bell ring, so Dink runs in and kills time annoying the heels and dodging dives. Back in Doink gets a sunset flip. Bigelow sits on him. Doink gets a boot up in the corner and hits a DDT. Now he goes up top. Bigelow dodges the whoopie cushion. Dink gets knocked off the apron and Bigelow reverses a Saito suplex for 2. The headbutt off the top rope finishes it. After the match Dink screws up a double splash dodge and Luna lands right on top of him. They fumble around some more to complete crowd confusion before the heels leave. The match wasn't as completely horrible as it could have been. *

 

Falls Count Anywhere Match: "Macho Man" Randy Savage def Crush (w/Mr. Fuji) in 9:49- The rules of this match are falls count anywhere, but after a fall the wrestler that was pinned has 60 seconds to get back into the ring to prevent the match from being over. Savage jumps Crush as soon as he steps foot out of the entrance tunnel. After some back and forth Crush presses Savage, drops him on the guardrail, and gets a pin. Savage crawls toward the ring, and just as he's about to make it Fuji whacks him in the back with his flagpole. Savage still just gets back in. Crush puts Savage in the tree of woe and beats him down. Fuji gives Crush salt, but Savage pushes it into Crush's face and comes back. Double ax handle off the top rope. Savage elbow! He rolls Crush out and pins him on the floor. Fuji dumps a pitcher of water on Crush's face and he gets back in. Savage charges and Crush backdrops him over the top and out. They tumble over the guardrail and start fighting into the backstage area. Crush tries a piledriver. Savage backdrops out. He throws Crush through a set of doors and pins him. After that he ties Crush up in a conveniently placed pulley on a scaffold and tries to raise him up. He doesn't get the ropes tied right and Crush falls back down, but still can't get out and Savage gets the win. Not bad. It had good action and was innovative for the time with a cool finish, but the "get back to the ring after a fall" rule was a bit too overconvoluted. This was Savage's last major match for WWF. He would continue to do commentary and hosting until the fall before jumping over to WCW because they'd let him wrestle full time again (and, you know, Ted Turner's money and Eric Bischoff's guaranteed contracts). **3/4

Video package recapping Wrestlemania FanFest, the precursor to Axxess.

 

WWF Women's Championship: Alundra Blayze (c) def Leilani Kai in 3:20- After working primarily as a valet in WCW for a couple of years, Blayze (Medusa) was signed by WWF in late '93 to be the face of the newly revived women's division. Blayze teases a test of strength but does a sweep kick instead. That was always my go to move on Mortal Kombat. I....sucked. There's lots of games I'm good at. Fighting games, not so much. Ugly midring collision. Blayze gets a couple of rollups for near falls. Kai chokes and tosses Blayze across the ring. Lawler, being Lawler, is spending the whole match obsessing over how the women look. Blayze hits a hurricanrana with a cover for 2. Kai does the '80s female heel hair pull throws. Blayze with a spinning heel kick and suplex for 2. She hits a German suplex with a bridge and gets the 3. The good thing is, Medusa was awesome. The bad news is, there wasn't a single other woman on the WWF roster that was anywhere near her level. It would take bringing in a ringer later in the year from Japan, Bull Nakano, to start to get any kind of lift in the division. 1/2*

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: Men on a Mission (w/Oscar) def The Quebecers (c) (w/Johnny Polo) by countout in 7:41- Suzuki-Gun ambush by the heels. They isolate Mabel but the big guy takes them out. Quick reset with Mo and Pierre. Mo crossbody for 2. A Mabel legdrop during a double team gets a huge gasp from the crowd. After another double team the ref is getting Mabel out and Jacques hits Mo from behind to put him rapper in peril. Tag rope choke. Jacques backdrops Pierre onto Mo. Nice. Jacques backdrops Pierre OVER THE TOP ROPE ONTO MO ON THE FLOOR! Very nice. Mo's rolled back for a 2 count. Double hot shot for 2. A Mo cannonball takes out Pierre but the tag is cut off. Mo dodges a Pierre splash off the top and gets the tag. Mabel Big Boi Offense. Pierre dodges an avalanche. The heels try to double suplex Mabel, fail, reset, and pull it off! And they got a pop for it. Quebecer finisher. Mabel kicks out. Pierre/Mabel slugfest. Mabel hits a spinning heel kick! As he tags out he looks blown up all to hell, but he did it out there. MOM hit their finisher but the ref is distracted by the managers. MOM hit their finisher again on Pierre on the floor and just stand around and let him get counted out. Then MOM take the belts like they actually won the championship. Fortunately by this era, the crowd knew better. Dumb finish. Borderline serviceable match. **

We get the first of the two celebrity run ins for the first of the two WWF title matches. Mr. Perfect is announced as the guest ref, making his first appearance since last fall.

 

WWF Championship: Yokozuna (c) (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) def "Made in the USA" Lex Luger by DQ in 14:40- Luger's finally got his own music instead of Stars and Stripes Forever. Very slow start. Midring jawing and slugfest. Clothesline exchange. Yokozuna does his usual tumble to the floor after a punch. Stair shots. Back in Luger gets a crossbody off the top for 2. He goes for a slam and fails. Yokozuna gives Luger some buckle shots, then takes the top turnbuckle pad off. After some more beatdown Yokozuna locks in the Double Oriental Nerve Pinch of Time Killing +4. And it's on forever. Lawler accidentally calls Perfect "Curt". Luger comeback. Collision. Luger goes down. Yokozuna doesn't. Some more beatdown and back to the nerve pinch. Forever and a day. At the first hint of a Luger comeback Yokozuna throws him out, and for some reason Luger slides across the mat and bumps off the guardrail. Back in, chop, and back to the damn nerve hold. Sure, why not? Luger punches out. Yokozuna takes him down with one punch and it's BACK TO THE NERVE HOLD. This match is officially moving in either geologic time or Rotunda time. I can never tell which moves slower. After the arm drops Yokozuna ducks clotheslines and hits a belly to belly suplex. He goes for the exposed buckle, but Luger blocks it and Yokozuna takes the shot. Which barely fazes him. What was the point of the whole thing then? A series of clotheslines knock Yokozuna down and Luger gets the big bodyslam, which third time around was losing its impact. Loaded forearm! Cornette and Fuji both run in and get taken out. Luger covers but Perfect decides to check on the managers instead. Luger pushes Perfect and covers again. Perfect stares him down, calls for the bell, and leaves. Yokozuna wins by DQ. Huge "bullshit" chant from the crowd. Remember kids, Lex Luger screwed Lex Luger. This was Luger's last gasp at the main event level during his WWF run, after this it was all midcard and tag teams. The match was 5 minutes of action and 10 minutes of rest holds, which I guess is what you have to do when Yokozuna has two matches in one night. 3/4*

After the match Luger confronts Perfect backstage with officials separating them. This was supposed to lead to a Perfect/Luger feud but Perfect's back refused to heal up enough for him to wrestle and it all had to be scrapped.

Now, there's an urban legend out there that Luger was supposed to win the title here and drop it to Bret later in the night, but he got drunk and spilled all the booking plans to a reporter the night before the show and it all had to be redone. After years of hearsay and speculation, I think enough has come out to say this one is more legend than actual fact.

 

Earthquake def Adam Bomb (w/Harvey Wippleman) in :35- Before the match Wippleman runs down Fink and the NYC roadkill on his head, continuing their little mini-feud. He tears off a sleeve of Fink's suit. Fink lays him out. Bomb runs out and confronts Fink. Quake runs out and hits Bomb from behind. Belly to belly suplex, powerslam, Earthquake splash, squash done. So much for any modicum of push momentum Bomb might have ever had. NR

To quickly recap the build for the next match: Shawn got suspended while IC champ (kayfabe for not defending the title, really for failing a steroid test) and was stripped of the title. Ramon won the vacant title. Shawn returned toting the backup (house show) belt saying he was still the real champ because no one ever beat him for it. Natural collision course. And to get this out of the way, yes, Shawn and Bret had a "proof of concept" ladder match as a dark match during a TV taping to prove to Vince it could work. It was never shown on TV but was released to the world on the ladder match DVD set in 2012. Word is Bret was upset Ramon took his spot in this match, despite the fact this WM was essentially booked around him.

 

Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon (official c) def Shawn Michaels (claimed c) (w/Diesel) in 18:47- Both belts are above the ring and you have to get both to win. Cautious start with some good counter wrestling. Ramon hits a choke slam. Shawn gets a swinging neckbreaker. Off a Ramon run Shawn uses momentum to send him to the floor (with some fairly obvious spot calling right before). Diesel lurks and hits a clothesline. Hebner's having none of it and tosses him out. Back in Shawn corner flips and Ramon clotheslines him 360 and out. To the shock of no one, Shawn is in full super selling mode. Ramon lifts up the floor pad. Back in the ring, Ramon goes for the Razor's Edge. Shawn backdrops him over the top rope and Ramon splats hard on the concrete floor! I'll give that a .8 Foley. Shawn goes for the ladder (the one and only ladder, weird to see when today there's an entire chain of hardware stores around the ring). Ramon hits him from behind and picks the ladder up. As he's getting into the ring Shawn baseball slides the ladder right into Ramon's gut! Back in, Shawn runs the ladder into Ramon's gut again. Then he drops the ladder onto the prone Ramon. He drops it again, and I mean drops, like a Minoru Suzuki chairshot, on Ramon's back! Shawn gets a rope run and THROWS THE LADDER ONTO RAMON'S BACK. That shit hurts, there's no way to avoid it. Shawn sets the ladder up and starts to climb. Ramon stops him and we have the mandatory mid-'90s PPV Shawn's tights come down and his ass is exposed spot. He pushes Ramon down and hits an elbow drop off the ladder while his ass is still hanging out. Setup slam. Shawn big splash off the ladder! That's one of the true iconic shots from this match. He climbs again. Ramon pushes the ladder down and Shawn bounces off the ropes. They crank it up again and have a big midring collision with a nice smack sound. Shawn's up first and he sets the ladder up in the corner. Ramon reverses the whip and Shawn flies into the ladder, over the top and out to the floor. Ramon squashes Shawn between the ladder and the ring post. Slingshot into the ladder! Vince's "UNBELIEVABLE" count is up to about 20. Ramon hits Shawn with the ladder and he 360s out to the floor again. Ramon climbs. Shawn crawls up to the top rope and hits Ramon in the back with a double ax handle. Everything comes tumbling down. The ladder falls on top of Shawn. Reset and double climb. Slugfest at the top of the ladder! Ramon gives Shawn a suplex-like flip slam! But the whole ladder collapses. Ramon resets and climbs again. Shawn dropkicks the ladder! Ramon's down again. Shawn casually drops the ladder on top of him. Superkick! Shawn teases doing his own Razor's Edge but hits a piledriver instead. He climbs up in the corner with the closed ladder, and drops it on top of Ramon! Vince has run out of unbelievables. Shawn sets the ladder up over Ramon. Climb. Ramon pushes the ladder, then shoulderblocks it, and Shawn falls down and gets tied up in the ropes! Ramon gets the ladder in position to climb, but has a bit of trouble and Shawn has to retie himself up after he got out too early. Ramon climbs and gets the belts to win! Absolutely fantastic. There's been over a quarter of a century of big time ladder matches since, and quite a few have equaled or surpassed this original one, but you can't lose sight of the fact that this match literally invented an entire new genre of wrestling for mainstream fans, and did it in considerable style. *****

There was a 10 man tag match scheduled for this show, but it had to be cut because of time constraints. There's a quick backstage bit of the heel team arguing over who gets to be the captain to explain it away. The match would take place the next night on Raw. After that is a setup video package for the main event. It's a bit overlong and sloppy, but this was a new idea back then.

Round two of guest celebrities. Burt Reynolds reads off his ring announcer cue cards like a 10th grader reading a report on a book he barely read. The guest ref for the main event is Roddy Piper, his first WWF appearance in nearly two years.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Yokozuna (c) (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) in 10:38- If you take out the impromptu Hogan title win disaster from WM 9 this is the first time the same matchup has main evented multiple Wrestlemanias, and on back to back shows too. Bret limps out to the ring, continuing to sell the bum knee. Yokozuna jumps him as he gets in the ring. Bret fights back with about the only thing he can do with Yokozuna: punches. Big Yoko chop. More Bret punches and a dropkick. Yokozuna dodges a second. He bites Bret and Piper gets in his face admonishing him. Cornette gets on the apron and Piper takes a swing at him. Bret dodges a big splash and wobblelegs himself giving a headbutt, but Yokozuna slowly goes down too. After some more pound down punches Bret covers. Cornette pulls Piper out. Piper puts his lights out. Yokozuna chokes and Piper gives more warnings. Legdrop. Bret dodges an avalanche. Bulldog off the second rope for 2. Elbow off the second for 2. Diving Hart Attack clothesline for 2. Those were quality near falls. He goes off the second again, but Yokozuna catches him and turns it into a belly to belly suplex. He drags Bret over to the corner to finish it with the Banzai Drop. Yokozuna gets up on the ropes, but slips and falls off! Bret covers.....and gets the 3! Massive pop as the long Yokozuna title run nightmare ends. Silly finish, but the result was right and the match was as good as could be expected. *3/4

After the match Bret gets a massive celebration. The face locker room empties and fills the ring. Gorilla Monsoon and even Vince join in. I've said for years that this is the closest to a direct, on air apology we've ever gotten from Vince McMahon. The whole thing screams "Sorry about WM 9, I know we screwed up". Bret Hart is officially and rightly anointed as the new Man in the WWF, at least for a while. But as the celebration goes on, Owen Hart shows up on the entrance aisle, looking more jealous than ever....

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: On each end of the show you've got a classic match, and a great ending with Bret's big win. Take out the weak middle part and you're looking at an all time top tier WM. But, the middle part still counts and the show must be knocked down a notch for it. Vince and Lawler in Awful One Liner mode are also a really bad combo on commentary and hurt the show.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-