Wrestlemania hits Ten Years

Wrestlemania reaches a major anniversary.

Wrestlemania X comes to us from Madison Square Garden in New York City, the site of the original Wrestlemania.  The tag line for this event is “Ten Years in the Making”, and the show begins with short clips of the first Wrestlemania.  Between matches, they show highlights of the previous nine 'manias in sequential order up to WM IX. 

The celebrity guest hosts are Rhonda Shear, Mark Whalberg, Jennie Garth, Burt Reynolds, a Bill Clinton impersonator, and Sy Sperling of Hair Club for Men fame.

Your hosts are Jerry “The King” Lawler and Vince McMahon. 

Little Richard gets the festivities started with singing “America the Beautiful”.  On to the show!

We get a recap of the events that led to the first match of the night between Bret “Hitman” Hart and his brother Owen.

Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Owen Hart

There's a nice tease in the introductions.  The announcer for this match, Bill Dunn, says, ”from Calgary, Alberta Canada”.  A pause follows, the crowd cheers, and Owen comes out!  Owen plays the anti-Bret by coming out with a pair of Hitman shades and tears them apart.

This is a fantastic match, and Owen displayed his wide repertoire of moves.  Being both a technical wrestler with aerial ability, he was fun to watch in the ring.  Bret did a good job with ring psychology as usual. Both men looked really good here, and the finish was excellent, as Owen took a page out of Brett's counter/reversal book.  Bret attempts a victory roll, but Owen counters by stepping into it.  Owen wins in a classic. 

This is a must-see match.  Not only is this the greatest opening match to date, it's also a top-ten all-time WM match.  *****

Mixed Tag Team Match: Bam Bam Bigelow w/Luna Vachon vs. Doink and Dink

Don't know if boring is a good description of this match, but the mixed tag concept didn't really work with these four.  There is a sloppy post-match spot that's obviously botched.  Bigelow and Luna attempt to double splash Dink.  *

Falls Count Anywhere Match: “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Crush w/ Mr. Fuji

This is a double-stipulation match, as it was in effect also a best two-out-of-three falls. Crush wins first by dropping Savage with an overhead press onto a security railing.

Macho wins the second fall with his flying elbow.  After the third pin by Savage, he ties up Crush in the back.  If any competitor couldn't get back to the ring in sixty seconds, they lost.  Crush, being tied up, was unable to. 

Watchable, but it would have been better if it ran a little longer.  **1/4

WWF Women's Championship Match: Leilani Kai vs. Alundra Blayze (champion)

Kai performed at the original Wrestlemania.  A quick, good match that's much better than most of the divas junk matches you see today.  Blayze wins with a nice german suplex, retaining the title. **

WWF Tag Team Championship Match: Men on A Mission (Mable and Mo) vs. The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre – champions) w/Johnny Polo

Decent tag match here, as the Quebecers were decent wrestlers.  As for M.O.M., that is open to debate. However, Mabel whips out a spinning heel kick.  At 500 pounds, that’s an impressive move to pull off.

Johnny Polo, who most fans would recognize now as Raven, pulls Jacques out of the ring, causing M.O.M to win via count-out.  **3/4

WWF Championship Match: Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette

Mr. Perfect is the guest referee for this match.  Lawler had some great one-liners during this match.  The match itself was VERY slow paced.  Yokozuna used a nerve hold on Lex for what seemed like half the match.  The reason will be revealed shortly...

Fuji and Cornette interfere in the match in Lex disposes of them.  However, he shoves Perfect out of the way.  As a result Luger gets disqualified, and Yokozuna will go on to face Bret Hart at the final match.

Luger goes to the back to start arguing with Perfect, setting up a feud that never took off.  Boring match, but makes sense considering Yoko, and all 550 pounds of him, would be performing again about forty-five minutes later. No rating.

Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Whippleman vs. Earthquake

Whippleman bullies announcer Howard Finkel.  Finkel fights back, then Adam Bomb runs down to the ring.  Just when it looks like Fink is cornered, out comes Earthquake for the save.  Earthquake wins in a squash.  No rating, though it was nice to see 'Quake again.

Intercontinental Title Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (champion) in a ladder match

This match was very innovative for the time and a first for the WWF if I recall.  Basically, the story leading up to this match is that Michaels was the IC champ, but he was stripped of it.  Razor was the actual champion, but Michaels went around claiming he was the real champ with an IC belt of his own.

Both belts were suspended over the ring for this match, and the winner would be the one who'd climb a ladder to grab both belts to become the undisputed IC champion.

A lot of back and forth between both competitors, and they were creative in how they used the ladder!  About half-way through the match, Razor suplexes Michaels off the ladder and it warps!  Razor wins when Michaels gets pushed off the ladder and gets tangled up in the ropes.  Razor is able to take advantage to climb the ladder and grab the belts.

This match was fantastic.  While subsequent ladder matches may have had more crazy spots, etc., this one is the best.  Not only did it usher in the ladder in the WWF, but it was also a very fitting match considering Razor and Michaels had the best feud going in the WWF at the time along with Bret and Owen.

Must see match for the how well executed it was, and the historic significance.  A top ten WM match.  *****

WWF Championship Match: Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette.

This match had yet ANOTHER guest referee.  This time, it was Roddy Piper.  This match was better than the Yoko/Luger match…it didn’t nearly put me to sleep like that one did. Bret comes down to the ring selling an injured leg from his earlier match with Owen. Good match here, with both sides effectively playing their roles as injured underdog and monster heel.

Bret wins the match when Yoko climbs to the second rope to give his Banzai Drop.  Yoko slips off the rope, and Bret gets out of the way.  He pins Yokozuna for the pin.  Piper does a really good job in his role of guest referee during the course of this match. 

Much better ending than what happened at Wrestlemania IX.  **3/4.

In conclusion, this Wrestlemania got back on the rails so to speak after the cluster that was Wrestlemania XI.  WM X is very similar to VIII in the fact that it has two very strong matches, while the rest were for the most part, watchable, but nothing really above average. 

There are two all-time classic Wrestlemania matches on this card (Bret vs. Owen and the ladder match).  The only other WM card to that point that could claim that is WM III.  Both matches really are must watch for wrestling fans.

This was an interesting Wrestlemania, as the WWF really was going through a changing of the guard, and was in a down period in terms of fan interest.  All the performers who put WM, and the WWF on the map, were mostly gone by this point. It was sort of surreal at the time that Hulk Hogan wasn't performing at a Wrestlemania. 

We also get a new announcing team (Lawler and McMahon).  While I can't stand Lawler now, he was actually a rather good heel commentator back then, and had a bunch of funny one-liners through the night.  While he’s no Bobby Heenan, he worked well with Vince and this duo made a decent commentary team.

It is safe for me to state that this Wrestlemania is recommended.  Even if you just watch the Bret vs. Owen and the ladder matches, it would be worth it. Taking the card as a whole, the overall rating I'd give this WM is ***3/4