cactus

This might just be my favourite match of Hogan in WWE. This was padded out with big weapon spots to hide the limitations or a banged-up Hogan and a 57 year old non-wrestler. Vince might not be a good worker per se, but he's an excellent entertainer who knows how to control the crowd. You got Vince's demonic facials, Roddy Piper and Shane McMahon's surprise returns and you've even got a poor Spanish announcer doing a bladejob after getting struck by a wayward chair shot. It's mental, it's wrestling, I love it! ★★★★½

18 years later and I'm still annoyed by this! Booker shows fire as a babyface, but Triple H is trying his best to emulate Harley Race and failing. His NWA champion cosplay majorly misses the mark and he just wasn't that interesting during this period. J.R is the only person marking out in the stadium when Trips busts out a rare Indian Deathlock. Booker's Houston Hangover felt like nice callback to his WCW days. Triple H pinning Booker T after nearly a full minute of downtime still leads a sour taste in my mouth. Racist angle aside, this felt like it should of been on a house show. ★¾

Michaels wants to make his Wrestlemania comeback feel special and Jericho wants us to forget how lackluster his last Wrestlemania was. After Michaels gets some spots to show off and to illustrate to the crowd that he's still got it, a Walls Of Jericho on the entrance ramp is enough to aggravate old injuries and Jericho works over HBK's back. Jericho wasn't that interesting working on top, but the finishing stretch felt like a callback to Savage/Steamboat with all it's nearfalls through small packages and counters. After an intense 22 minutes, HBK wins after a roll-up. Jericho nails him in the balls after teasing a face turn during a post-match hug, Great stuff! ★★★★¼

Although this was quite similar to the tag title clusterfuck from last year, this was much more physical and had a much faster pace. Rhyno wrecking shop and Benoit and Guerrero going at it were two particular high points. This was six decent-excellent workers making something out of a nothing match and it worked. Rhyno takes out both Haas and Chavo with Gores, but Shelton is able to sneak a pin fall and retain the tag titles. It's crazy to think that two competitors in this throwaway bout would go on to be in separate world title matches at the next year's 'Mania. ★★★

Trish has grown tons in the last year and she's placed in there with two great workers in the form of Jazz and Victoria. Jazz impresses me every time I see her, even in the dire women's division of early 2000's WWE. Stevie Richards tries to get involved, but he ends up nailing himself with a chair after missing Trish and hitting the ropes in the good comedy spot. Trish pins Victoria and we get a good feel-good pop. This was one of the few bright spots for the women during the 2000's. ★★★

This was much better than how it looks on paper as Undertaker has got his working boots on. He's in his faux-MMA phase where he ends up pulling off Fujiwara armbars and cross armbreakers. It's jarring, but at least he's mixing things up. Nathan Jones was meant to be Undertaker's partner, but he's so rotten that his involvement is limited to a run-in and he even looks bad doing that! He shows a lot of hesitation just before he spin kicks Big Show and you could tell right there that wrestling wasn't for him. ★★½

Rey is healthy enough that his high flying stuff looks fresh and exciting. He still feels like WCW Rey and not the WWE version who would play it safe and stick to what he knows. The harder working Hardy working with cruiserweights allows him to be more believable at controlling the pace of the match as he dwarfs most of the wrestlers. Hardy retaining after interference from Shannon Moore was certainly a questionable move seeing how over Rey was at the time, but aside from that this was a good way to open the show with everyone playing their part well. ★★★

There was no way this could come close to Rock vs Hogan. Jericho had no chance of retaining and Triple H isn't believable working as a sympathetic babyface in peril. Jericho going after Triple H's knee made sense, but Triple H isn't a decent enough seller to suck you in and have you rooting for him. Jericho felt like an afterthought as Stephanie gets more of a reaction once Triple H finally gets his hands on his backstabbing wife. It's not a terrible match, just too underwhelming to be the main event on the biggest show of the year. ★★½

Jazz looks like Misawa when compared to her two opponents. Lita is very sloppy here and Trish is still learning the ropes. Trish gets a big hometown pop as she enters the SkyDome draped in Canada's colours. The crowd soon begin to entertain themselves by chanting for puppies, which Trish promptly shuts up by violently launching herself into the turnbuckle. Trish shows promise, but she needs more seasoning. While it's good to see the women get treated more like wrestlers and less like T&A, this wasn't a good match and being in the death spot between the two biggest matches on the card sure didn't help. ★½

What more needs to be said about this legendary match? It might not have the best work-rate, but the crowd are absolutely electric and Rock and Hogan have them eating out of their hands and I have to give them massive props for changing the structure of the match on the fly and have Rock work as the heel after seeing the crowd reaction. The post-match angle sees Hall and Nash confront Hogan after shaking Rock's hand and eventually they turn on him. Rock saves the day and Hogan celebrates with him. No matter what you think of him as a person, seeing Hogan here is a good reminder of why he was so beloved in the first place. ★★★★

Like most four corner matches, this was a mess until they eliminate two teams. Bradshaw is fired up, but the APA aren't long for this world as they eliminated quickly by a 3D. D'von pulling out a table and Jeff taking of his shirt wakes up the comatose crowd. We see the classic wrestling trope of a babyface sexually assaulting a heel valet when Stacy Keibler tries to interfere. D'von ends up taking a horrifying table bump as he's thrown face first from the top rope to the outside. Everything becomes more cohernet when it's down to the Hardys and Billy & Chuck, but this was still nothing to write home about. ★★

It's sad to think that this could of easily main evented any PPV two years ago and now it's just filler before the Rock vs Hogan dream match. Despite both men's physical limitations, they still know how to throw a good punch and they keep the action simple. Nash keeps getting involved and nearly costs Austin the win. Austin is able to fight them both off and deliver a Stunner to Scott Hall that was so over-the-top that it's now become a meme. A perfectly fine match, even though it's depressing to think that two of the biggest players of the 90's are starting to show the wear and tear from their long careers. ★★½

As the bell rings, we can see a sign on the hard cam side reading 'They Are Fighting Over Shampoo' and that sums up this dud rivalry perfectly. It might of been nerves about wrestling in front of his hometown, but Edge looked sloppier than usual. He botches a top rope frankensteiner that could of ended up nasty. This was had a fast pace, but nothing of substance outside of a few high spots such as Booker T avoiding a spear by leap frogging six feet in the air. Seeing as they obviously had big plans for Edge in 2002, it baffles me why they didn't use him better here. ★½

Undertaker might not be the most explosive brawler, but he's brilliant here at being a slow and methodical sadist who wants to take his time dishing out punishment. Flair bleeds buckets and Arn Anderson makes a surprise appearance to land a Spinebuster on 'Taker. Flair had only had one match since WCW's closure over a year ago, so he wrestles this like a non-wrestler looking for revenge, and not as the workhorse Nature Boy of old. This was more of a slow burner, than the exciting Mid-South brawls from decades earlier, but this was still a lot of fun and the Anderson cameo makes this worth watching. ★★★

Angle gets a better match than you'd usually expect from Kane. Kane's able to throw decent strikes and has some impressive athleticism for a man his size, but he mostly leaves me cold. This feud was built up around head trauma and the commentary team won't stop going on about head trauma and brains getting scrabbled, which is something that would never happen in a post-Benoit world. After a exciting finishing stretch that sees Kane attempt a rare Tombstone and escape an ankle lock by using an enziguri, Angle steals the win after using the ropes for leverage. Angle looked like a super worker throwing Kane around with suplexes, but I wish he was able to secure a clean win. ★★★

The Goldust vs Maven portion of this 'match' is short and rather forgettable with the exception of Goldust pulling out some golden trashcans. Because of the 24/7 rule, Spike Dudley runs down to ring and gets a pin to become the new Hardcore champion. Crash Holly chases him to the back and we are treated to a number of humorous skits throughout the evening. We get Al Snow trying to take out guys with a golf cart, Mighty Molly turning on Hurricane to win the title, Christian taking out Molly before Maven rolling up Christian as he is trying to leave the stadium. Many people at the time complained that the 24/7 rule had ran it's course, but the backstage segments were entertaining enough in a vacuum for me not to hate this. ★½

Christian is the middle of a storyline where he throws a tantrum whenever things don't go his way. He goes on a losing streak until DDP helps him overcome his issues. Christian turns on him and that's how we got here. It's entertaining mid-card fodder and that's exactly what this match was. Christian is able to keep himself from freaking out, but DDP is able to score a Diamond Cutter and retain his belt. DDP cuts an amusing promo where he says he's proud of Christian as he kept his cool even if lost in front 60,000+ of his hometown fans, which causes Christian to freak out and throw a tantrum. ★★½

We are in prime brass knuckles Regal era and he's brilliant at delivering the theatrics that come with the gimmick. He makes sure that everyone in attendance knows that he's going for a cheap shot without it ever looking hammy or pantomime. Van Dam's high-flying aerobics lends itself well to his shine segments, before Regal inevitably cuts him off. Regal folds up RVD like an accordion after delivering a half nelson suplex. RVD kicks the knucks out of Regal's hand and lands a Five Star Frog Splash to the crowd roaring approval. Like last year, Regal delivers yet another physical opener. ★★★½

Easily the best Streak match by this point, as all the other ones have been god-awful at worse and average at best. The referee gets knocked out for ten minutes, so that they can brawl through the crowd and do the big scaffold bump. It's illogical and questionable, but it's the bullshit you need to pad up Bikertaker's matches. Triple H whacking Undertaker on the skull as he attempted a Last Ride was a cool spot that made for a convincing nearfall. This held up much better than I thought it would. ★★★¼

After an exciting match like TLC II, it made sense for them to throw something to let the fans cool off, and this might be the most entertaining let-me-down matches ever. We have Bobby Heenan and Mean Gene on commentary. With participants ranging from all-time greats to comedy jobbers from a decade prior, the entrances alone are a trip down memory lane and you never know who is going to come out next. The action in-ring is bad, even by battle royal standards, but who cares about that? Jim Cornette eliminates Bushwacker Luke, and Iron Sheik wins because his body is too battered to take a bump to the outside. Three stars for this, not for the wrestling, because I wasn't able to wipe the grin off my face when watching this. ★★★

Soap opera pro-wrestling at it's absolutely best. Vince is brilliant at being a batshit crazy sadist. We only get a few minutes of Vince and Shane brawling before Trish brings out a sedated Linda and the crazy overbooking begins. Vince calls Linda a bitch, and takes out the guest referee Mick Foley. Vince decides he wants to beat Shane in front of Linda. The monster pop Linda gets when she rises up from her chair is incredible. Who knew a street fight between two non-wrestlers could be so enthralling? ★★★★½

The opening features some intense amateur style technical exchanges. Angle is distraught about Benoit tapping him a few weeks previously, so this match is built about Angle freaking out when ever Benoit goes for the crossface. I wish Angle got more chances to show of his personality. Just as these two start bringing out the big spots, Angle rolls up Benoit to steal the victory. Maybe having an intense technical battle wasn't going to pop the majority of the 60,000+ Attitude Era fans in the stadium, but Angle and Benoit went out there and wrestled the way they wanted to. Your typical WWF fan would eventually start appreciating technical wrestling like this as the 2000's rolled on. ★★★¼

This was a competent squash for Chyna to get her revenge on Ivory and the RTC. Ivory did a good job of looking scared of Chyna, but she never managed to get any offense in. Chyna would have one PPV title defence before leaving the company and never returning. I can't say that I'm a fan of Chyna's work, but it's good to see that she gets one big shining moment before her WWF run wraps up. ★½

Much like the Diesel vs HBK match from Wrestlemania XI, this was a much more talented shorter heel carrying a lesser talented big babyface to good match. Guerrero was brilliant as ever. Test brought some nice power spots to the table, but he could of easily been replaced with any other bigger guy and you wouldn't of noticed. Test looked lost and wasn't able to connect with the crowd. Dean Malenko runs out to the ring dressed like a zany 1950's dad and ends up costing Test his title. Guerrero has had many better matches under his belt, but I can't think of a better Test match than this. ★★★

You're not going to find a single wrestling hold in this, but I loved this and it's a great example of the WWF Hardcore division done right. They brawl all over the Astrodome, going through walls, doors and even windows. Raven infamously nearly cuts the power to the entire PPV feed during the golf cart chase. They finally end up on the stage, which sees Raven and Show get kicked off the stage in a big spot to wrap this up. Wrestling purists might hate this, but this was a hell of ride. ★★★¼