Wrestlemania 21 is only a few days away. From now until April 3, 2005, I will be posting reviews of every Wrestlemania prior, one through twenty. This review was originally posted at Epinions.com.

When you think of Wrestlemania X-8 in five years, you will remember one match, and only one match. You’ll be surprised to see that Edge had a match with Booker T which started because Edge swiped a commercial deal that Booker T thought he should’ve received. You’ll forget that there was Diamond Dallas Page’s one and only Wrestlemania match. And you’ll probably forget Chris Jericho was the first undisputed champion.

The match you will remember however is the one that pitted Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock. Hogan had just come back to the WWF with his NWO cronies Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. McMahon overpaid them to come shake up the foundation of the WWF. He wanted them to “poison” his own creation as he was afraid that Ric Flair was ruining his promotion. That was the storyline. The real story was that McMahon, as always, wanted to bring in some surprises right before Wrestlemania, to make Mania the most talked about show of the year. However, what he should’ve known is that the NWO was so “five years ago” and that it wouldn’t work today unless it was brought back as a new idea. Hogan was accepted back by the fans, but Nash and Hall weren’t seen as anything more than just big old regular guys. And for what McMahon as paying them, it simply wasn’t working out. However, Hogan is a great manipulator and he positioned himself with a match against The Rock, who already had a great buzz on him as he was finishing up The Scorpion King. The initial build-up was excellent. Rock challenged Hogan and the audience was split on who they were cheering for. It was excellent television. The angle that happened afterward wasn’t as particularly memorable as they did one of those that disbands belief as they tried to sell that Rock was in the ambulance and Hogan, Nash and Hall were ramming the ambulance with a semi. When Rock returned several weeks later without a scratch, it showed the angle wasn’t taken very seriously.

However, the match, while not a great, or even good technical wrestling match, had the crowd mesmerized. It was two great showman in the ring, doing what they do best. That is manipulate the crowd. Hogan, knowing he had at least half of the crowd in his corner, did his best to try and take the rest of them even though he was the heel. Rock played the sympathetic babyface who felt the crowd turning and did a few things that a bad guy would do. Who cares who won the match? It was the ability by each guy to play to the crowd and make them either cheer louder, or boo louder based on their every move that was fantastic. In the end, The Rock won the match, but Hogan gained another year of shelf life. He turned face at the end, and thus Hulkamania was reborn, at least as far as the audience was concerned. Hogan can’t pop a rating or even mean all that much as far as a Pay Per View buy rate is concerned (and that will be tested this weekend), but he can still pop a crowd.

Oh No, Not The Vaunted Comeback!

The best match of the night was Chris Jericho defending his Undisputed Championship vs. HHH. The match wasn’t a 5-star classic by any means, but it was a solid match that had psychology and a meaning. Too bad they wasted two months making it Stephanie McMahon Helmsley vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Chris Jericho as champion should’ve been angled as someone who would stoop to every level to maintain his championship. However, they used him as Stephanie’s second fiddle and ruined what could’ve been a very good Wrestlemania main event. The finish was done well, and HHH took the gold.

The problem was that the match was so anti-climatic because the fans were spent after the Hogan vs. Rock match. The Hogan vs. Rock match should’ve went on last as the fans would’ve been into the more solid Jericho vs. HHH match had it not been right after Rock vs. Hogan.

The second best match of the night was probably Kurt Angle’s match with Kane. The story behind this match was that they held Kurt Angle back in case Scott Hall sabotaged his match against Steve Austin by doing Scott Hall like things, such as getting fired. However, when Scott Hall abided by all the rules and was a decent citizen, they had to go with Angle in a hurried match with Kane. Kane is one of the better big guys in the ring, only because he’s fairly athletic, and Angle, being the best guy going, pulled off a decent match and won. Looking back, I wished that Hall would’ve been fired because Austin vs. Angle at Wrestlemania, would’ve made this show much better.

Speaking of the Stone Cold match with Scott Hall; this was one of those “straws that broke the camel’s back” as originally Hall was supposed to go over in the match, but Austin balked and they changed the finish. Austin wasn’t all that happy anyway as he no showed the next Raw show because of being burnt out. Maybe they should’ve put Hall over, or maybe they shouldn’t have even considered it, probably putting more pressure on Austin, and it could’ve had something to do with him feeling disrespected and quitting. I couldn’t imagine Scott Hall going over Steve Austin unless this was 1985 in the AWA.

Another of the “big” matches was “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair vs. The Undertaker. The entire build up consisted of The Undertaker as the heel, beating up Flair, who was the face part owner of the company. Sort of a reverse of when Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon were having their program in the late nineties. However, The Undertaker simply wouldn’t sell for the greatest champion of our day and it was a mess. The match consisted of The Undertaker beating up Flair, while Flair would once in a while get a nice comeback, and then the Taker would kill him again. In this type of match, Flair needed to win based on the story. You had this ex-champion who is a living legend fighting for his life against this huge heel with a reputation for not losing. And nope, The Undertaker couldn’t do the job for the living legend. The match went way too long and Flair jobbed out.

The opener consisted of Rob Van Dam in a match for the Intercontinental Championship beating William Regal in a mix mash of styles that simply didn’t work at all. RVD hit the 5-star Frog Splash to win the belt, so the fans at least got off to a happy start. However, the rest of the show wasn’t as happy. The tag team Fatal Four Way was disappointing as the WWF was building up Chuck and Billy at the time, only they’re the worst workers of a group including the Hardys, the Dudleys, and APA. When you’re worse than APA, you’re worse than bad. The Woman’s title match was decent, but got really sloppy at times and Jazz pinned Lita to retain her belt in a three-way match that also had the lovely Trish Stratus.

Overall, the PPV was not one of Wrestlemania’s best. But as sometimes happens, even though the show has been called The Granddaddy of Them All, it can be pretty average.

Results
RVD defeated William Regal to win the Intercontinental title
DDP defeated Christian to keep his European title
Spike Dudley defeated Maven to win the Hardcore title, even though Golddust was fighting Maven. The title eventually went back to Maven at the end of the night
Kurt Angle defeated Kane
Undertaker defeated Ric Flair
Edge defeated Booker T
Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Scott Hall
Billy and Chucky defeated The Hardys, The Dudleys, and APA to keep their Tag Team titles
The Rock defeated Hollywood Hulk Hogan
Jazz defeated Lita and Trish Stratus to keep her Women’s title
Triple H defeated Chris Jericho to win the Undisputed Championship

My mother loves holidays. Christmas is huge fun. Thanksgiving is a feast to feed the masses. And Easter is like a Spring festival. Ever since I was small, Easter has been a huge deal. And it was odd to me because we were never a highly religious family, though my father has read the bible five times all the way through. But my mother learned the importance of keeping the family together (all 5,000 of us, or so it seems) and the easiest way to do that is to throw a party. And this Easter was no different. My kids have both learned the true significance of Easter, but they also look forward to it as the day the Easter Bunny comes over to give them goodies.

We were worried about the rain pouring down on Sunday, but mom figured it would start later in the afternoon. Plus, she had a game to be played. Mom likes to make these parties/BBQ’s fun. So we’ll have a family softball game, water balloon toss, or the Amazing Race. Yes, she created the Amazing Race for our Easter Sunday. But if it started raining, all her creative planning would be for naught. And she would probably be sad. So we were praying for sunshine.

It didn’t rain, but damn it sure was windy. After a few hours of eating and hanging out with the family, including my newest baby cousin Miya Santo, the Easter Egg Hunt was to start. The Aunts love hiding the eggs for the little cousins, and then finding them for them. They get caught up in the excitement and usually give all the best hiding spots away. JJ and Brian were smart. They just followed their Aunts because they knew that’s where the eggs would be.

Cousin Yao

My mom was pacing with anticipation. She knew that unless we did it soon, the rains would come and ruin the Amazing Race. The hard part is gathering all the family together to explain the rules. But when my mom said the prize would be $50 bucks, all the cousins listened intently. But even though they listened, they must’ve been thinking about the $50, because some of them still got the rules wrong. Basically, there were 8 events. You had a partner and you would do 4 of the events in tandem with your partner. You had to do 2 events yourself and your partner had to do 2 events. Now if you had a male/female partnership like I did, this was a little tough, because many of these were sports events and if you know my wife, her idea of playing a sport is doing the dishes and being timed. So there was some strategy involved. The 8 events were (and you had to do them in order):

1. 1/4 mile run (in tandem)
   
2. 10 push-ups (solo)
   
3. Shoot a free throw (solo)
   
4. Catch a pop up (solo)
   
5. Hula hoop for 30 seconds (solo)
   
6. Jump rope (in tandem)
   
7. Word scramble (in tandem)
   
8. Hard boiled egg eating (in tandem)

I had to decide what the wife could do better. Catch a pop up, or shoot a free throw. Immediately she said she wanted to shoot a free throw, so I had faith.

The teams were a mix and match of cousins and Aunts and Uncles. The teams were as follows:

• Me and the wife
  
• My sister and cousin Nini
  
• Cousins Matt and Kevin
  
• Brother and sister duo of Dave and Nicky
  
• Aunt Annette and Uncle Kim
  
• Cousins Brit and Tiana
  
• Cousin Mike and his wife Kim

Bruce and Julie, the new proud parents couldn’t do it because it got too cold for the baby and they had to leave. I thought it was a fun idea, but when my mom mentioned the $50, my competitive juices started to flow. I thought there was a really good shot that the wife and I could win it. I was most worried about the Matt and Kevin duo and the Davey and Nicky team. All four are young and athletic, except for maybe Kev, but he’s game. I figured that if we could beat those two teams, we’d be in the running for it.

We decided that the wife would run her 1/4 mile first. She would tag me, and then I would run. Once I was done, we could go onto the next challenge. Matt and Davey were amped and ready to go and out of the blocks they were in full sprint. Tiana was in third and then my wife, Nini, Annette, and Kim were within close distance of each other. The last part of the lap, Davey fell and allowed Matt to close out his run far in the lead. Davey got back up and finished and Tiana was next. I told the wife to pace herself because we weren’t going to win the event based on this event. There were others we were going to clean house on. She tagged me and I made significant progress and though we were still in fourth when I finished my lap, we were in striking distance. I felt good about our chances.

9th Place Out Of 8 Teams

I was spent because I didn’t follow my own advice. But the wife wouldn’t let me walk to the next event and I jogged to the push-up event. I did the 10 greatest push-ups of my life, but the wife was still unsatisfied and was saying I wasn’t moving fast enough. We finished that and jogged to the basketball court. Where we made up a lot of the lead was in the jog to the next event. A lot of the others were spent and walked to the next event. Also, some of them didn’t understand the rule that in a tandem event, both members had to be present. Matt was first to the hoop, but his partner Kev was walking and Matt’s baskets didn’t count until Kev got there. Carol made her second shot and we were immediately in second place. We had to jog back to the pop up catch and I caught it immediately, leaving Carol to do the Hula Hoop. Now in practice, Carol was failing miserably at this. The only way you could go onto the next event was to do it continuously for 30 seconds. In practice, Carol was doing it for about 5 seconds. But she started getting a few pointers from Hula Hoop experts and was getting good. But now this was pressure. I paced alongside the longest 30 seconds of my life while she was hooping. Auntie Margie was watching her clock with great determination and Carol continued to hoop. Finally, Margie gave us the OK to move on and we went to the jumprope event.

The Wife Was Hoopin’

I won’t lie. I’m pretty good with a jumprope. Even the double jump styles. While I can’t double dutch, though Nini and Annette can, I got skills with the jumprope. We only had to jump 10 times together and I immediately jumped in and started. But for some reason, Carol waited. And waited. And measured. And waited, until finally she joined and we did our 10, though I probably did about 15. I could see that Davey and Nicky had already started their word scramble. This was our shot to catch them. I knew if we didn’t catch them here, we would probably lose because Davey could wolf down 4 hard boiled eggs in no time. I hated them and while Carol didn’t think they were half bad, she couldn’t wolf like Davey. We did the word scramble and I thought we were moving quick, but we were stuck on the two longer words. I looked over at Davey and Nicky and they were just about done. We finally got the two words which turned out to be “resurrection” and “Christianity”, but it was too late. However, in a nice twist of events (at least for us anyway), Davey was having problems. He started to feel sick and he couldn’t keep his eggs down. He even puked in his hand only to try to push it back in his mouth to finish it, but he was done. It was me and the wife versus Nicky.

The wife heard Davey puking and she was starting to feel sick herself. So I decided to help her and throw one down. I took one bite and nearly puked myself. I just figured that it wasn’t going to happen for me and I spit out my one bite. I had to root on the wife. Davey must’ve taught Nicky how to wolf because while Carol had one down, Nicky already had 3 down. Carol was able to get another down, but it was too late. Nicky and Davey were the champs. And right as we finished, it was starting to rain. But my mom didn’t care. She got her game in.

The Champs

All the pictures are here below: (and you can click them to make them bigger)

Wrestlemania 21 is less than one week away. From now until April 3, 2005, I will be posting reviews of every Wrestlemania prior, one through twenty. This review was originally posted at Epinions.com.

I can start this off by stating that this is the single greatest WWF card I have ever witnessed. Although there were a few rocky matchups and it took a while for the Houston crowd to get into, from top to bottom, this is the greatest of all the Wrestlemanias.

The thing you’ll notice is that the announcing is top notch. Paul Heyman is in Jerry Lawler’s place as Lawler had quit the company to defend his wife, Stacy Carter who played The Kat and was fired. Carter soon left Lawler. Talk about being ungrateful. Anyway, Heyman is outstanding in building up feuds and making matches seem important, and not yelling “puppies” every 5 minutes. And Jim Ross is at his usual high standard.

The marquee matchup pitted the People’s Champ, The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. It was a babyface vs. babyface match-up, however in his home state, there was no way Stone Cold would be booed. The Rock will always have his detractors, but in my book, he is the most professional superstar in the business. The guy may not have a plethora of moves, and he may not be the best ring technician, but as far as charisma and stick ability, he’s one of the best ever. But because Wrestlemania X-7 was held at the Houston Astrodome, the crowd was soley behind the rattlesnake. I don’t want to get to the main event just yet. There was one match that pretty much turned the crowd around who seemed to be sitting on their hands, and for good reason. The first few matches weren’t all that exciting. Enter Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit.

Always technical masterpieces full of energy, great wrestling, and fast paced movement, the Angle vs. Benoit feud is our modern day Flair vs. Steamboat. Here is no different. While the match didn’t get as much time as the other great matches on this card, for 14 minutes, it might’ve been the best action on the card. At least the best action inside the ring. This was early in the history of their ongoing feud which in 2003 went even further with their classic title match at Royal Rumble. Angle finally got the win even kicking out of the Swan Dive Headbutt off the top rope.

One would think with Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero on the undercard, that it had a chance to be outstanding. Wrong. Chris Jericho jerked the curtain with William Regal and even though Jericho won the match (I’m a Jerichoholic), I didn’t think it was a good match. William Regal has that hard hitting forearm, mat wrestling style that almost meshes with no one today. While Jericho can usually work a good match with anyone, this match just seemed average. Jericho with the Lionsault to keep his Intercontinental belt.

Eddie Guerrero received the unfortunate luck of having to try and carry Test to a decent match. Not too many people have been able to do that. Actually, the only time I’ve ever been intrigued with Test is when Triple H stole his bride and was mocking him while he was doing it. Little did Test know that Triple H would be engaged to Stephanie McMahon in real life today. However, Test is simply a stiff with a great body, awful charisma, and one who can’t work a lick. Eddie is just the opposite. But on this night, he couldn’t do his magic with Mr. Icle. The match wasn’t even as good as the opener. Guerrero wins the European belt with help of his buddies Saturn and Dean Malenko.

A match with Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon didn’t initially seem interesting. It actually looked like the worst match on the card. The match had an odd storyline to it. Vince was having an extramarital affair with Trish Stratus. Who could blame him? His wife became sick and comatose because of the stress he put her through. Steph sided with dad, Shane-O sided with mom, and Mick Foley gets to referee. The match was no disqualification and they didn’t really spend much time in the ring. Vince told Trish to bring his wheel chair bound wife to the ring when it looked like Vince would win so Linda could see her son get beat. Trish brought her to the ring, Linda miraculously stands up and kicks Vince in the jewels and Shane gives Vince a Van Terminator to win the match. And Trish turns face in the end. It was a fun match, with an awful storyline, but at least it was entertaining.

There were two “best” matches on this card. Someone like me will say that the main event was the best. But some will say that TLC 2 (tables, ladders and chairs, oh my part two) was the best on the card and you really couldn’t argue. The match consisted of the Dudleys, the Hardy’s, and Edge and Christian in a match where the goal was to climb a ladder and take the tag belts which were hanging from the ceiling. But instead of being simply a ladder match, like they had at Wrestlemania 2000, this time, tables and chairs were easily accessible and legal. Originally it was thought that Spike Dudley, Rhyno, and Lita would be involved in the match, but simply were used as run ins effectively. The best of the bumps had Jeff Hardy hanging from the belts and Edge running up a ladder and spearing him down to the mat. Just like in Wrestlemania 2000, Edge and Chrstian win the match and the titles.

E&C Win Again

Triple H didn’t have a main event match. Austin and Rock were in the main event. He was overshadowed by his future brother and father in law. But low and behold, he’s thrown into a quick program with the Undertaker and he’s second from the top. I’m not fond of either guy actually. As much as I can’t stand the Undertaker though, Triple H takes the cake as far as the creepiest guy in the game. This is a match where I would usually try to set the record for the longest pee. But actually, it was pretty good. No matter how much I despise both guys for how they rarely put anyone over, I respect the fact that they’re believable in the ring. In this match, you saw a true hatred for each other. Undertaker looked like he hated Triple H, and Triple H the same. When you can create emotion, you’re doing your job. And Triple H did the job and kept Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak alive.

And now, to the main event. Not too many matches have been as exciting, and at the same time left you scratching your head. Austin vs. Rock II (they did part three at Mania XIX) was better than the first in just about every way. Both men were faces, yet at the beginning of the match, Stone Cold was slowly turning. At the beginning of the match, they announced a stipulation that the match would be no disqualification. Stone Cold was using bells, chairs and basically cheating. Anyone could see the heel turn coming. But because this was in Houston, Texas, the fans wouldn’t boo Austin. Rock was playing the total face. Taking all the abuse. Dishing out great comebacks. But the fans would simply boo his moves. To do the heel turn here doesn’t really help either guy. Austin is turning into a heel, but the crowd won’t boo him. Rock is the face, but the crowd won’t cheer him. But, the WWF wanted to turn Austin here, and the match was great. Both guys kept doing each other’s finishers, building toward their own finishers, and Rock had the match won until Vince McMahon interrupted the count. At that time, you knew McMahon was with Austin, but still, the crowd wouldn’t boo him. And when Austin finally had Rock pinned, and it was over, and he shook Vince’s hand and drank beer with him, the crowd was cheering louder than ever.

Results
Chris Jericho beat William Regal to retain his Intercontinental Championship
APA and Tazz beat Right To Censor
Kane beats Raven and The Big Show to win the Hardcore Championship
Eddie Guerrero beat Test to win the European Championship
Kurt Angle beat Chris Benoit
Chyna beat Ivory to win the Women’s Championship
Shane McMahon beat Vince McMahon
Edge and Christian beat the Dudleys and the Hardys to win the Tag Team Championship
The Iron Shiek won the Gimmick Battle Royal
The Undertaker beat Triple H
Stone Cold Steve Austin beat The Rock to win the WWF Championship.

Show 1
Show 2

The Hot List

1. Boseph Bice- The guy is a rock of consistency
   
2. Anwar Robinson- Paula’s favorite
   
3. Nadia Turner – Last week’s Cyndi Lauper debacle hurt her
   
4. Carrie Underwood – Stepping up her game at the right time
   
5. Scott Savol – He needs to stop giving Simon the gas face
   
6. Jessica Sierra – She won’t win it, but she’s trying
   
7. Vonzell Solomon – The most fun person left in the competition
   
8. Nikko Smith – My man needs to step up his game
   
9. Constantine Maroulis – He’s getting better
   
10. Anthony Fedorov – The fact that he’s still left is mind boggling

The Defeated

1. Lindsey Cardinale
   
2. Mikalah Gordon

After last week’s re-vote because of the erroneous displaying of some of the call in numbers, it got me thinking. I wondered if I should have a re-vote for the handsome contest between Blake Highsmith and Scott Savol. I mean, I think Scott is getting short changed here. But I knew that it wouldn’t help. My audience loves them some Blake. My buddy Edson even voted privately for Blake 5 times and asked me not to tell. Whoops. While I’m not so sure that my audience doesn’t all wear glasses, they knew who was more handsome in their eyes. And by looking at the picture below, who can argue?

Cheeeese!

There’s six guys and four girls left, Ryno Seacrest tells us. It’s “Songs From The 90’s” night. Let’s hope there’s no Mariah and Whitney songs tonight. Boseph Bice is first tonight with Remedy. He looks like Panama Jack with that hat he’s wearing. And he’s bringing the entire mic stand with him again, rather than just the mic. He’s now dancing on the table right in front of the judges. Randall didn’t look excited. Like always, Boseph brought his game and his energy was right there. He’s so far above the rest of the folks as a performer, it’s not really fair. Randall says the outfit was nice and that Boseph was hot. Paula says he did awesome. Simon says he didn’t like the song and called him a wedding singer.

Jessica Sierra is doing LeeAnn Rhymes. Carrie Underwood must be jealous. She looks like Jessica Simpson, only chubby. I’m not liking the song at all. It’s pretty cheesy and I’m not sold on her vocals tonight. The wife is wondering where her neck went. And nope, no boobs tonight. Randall says it wasn’t the best choice of song and she sang it well and it was consistent. Paula says this song didn’t showcase the vocals. Simon says she doesn’t have the likeability factor and she needs to try harder than the others. Anwar Robinson is singing I Believe I Can Fly. Not a great time to be doing R. Kelly joints, but hey, he’s a gamer. There’s a whiny part of Anwar’s voice that bothers me but he usually gets rid of it after the first few lines. But the whiny voice never went away with this performance. Randall says his lower register is pitchy and he uses his big notes to make up for it. Paula says it was an incredible and original performance. Simon says Randall was spot on.

Nadia Turner is next with a song that I’m not familiar with, but the wife is singing along. It’s very rock inspired and she’s rocking as hard, if not harder than Boseph. I think it was a good performance, but I wish I knew what the song was. Randall says that Nadia isn’t the greatest singer, but she’s a great performer. Paula says that she’s back and it was miles better from last week. Whatever the heck that means. Simon says the performance was great, but he’d be nervous that the song isn’t what the audience wanted because it wasn’t melodic. Constantine is doing another song I’m not familiar with, but the wife is. Constantine is trying to woo the women with his sensitive look, singing to the camera. I recognize the song now, but I’m still not sure of the title. Fairly boring performance and I wasn’t knocked out by his vocals. Randall says it was his best vocal performance. Paula says it was his best male vocal performance, as opposed to his best female vocal performance. Simon says he was better than Boseph. Boseph just grunted.

The Wizard Of Nikko Smith is next with Tevin Campbell’s Can We Talk. Interesting choice of song because Tevin had the best voice in music before folks found out he was gay and no record company wanted to touch him. Nikko can’t sing like Tevin, but he only has to come close. The song started off slowly, but he picked it up at the end. Randall says that he blew it out tonight and it was incredible. Paula says she’s proud of him and he did another consecutive great week (those were her words). Paula must be drunk tonight. Simon says it was a good copy of the original. Everyone’s favorite masculine guy Anthony Federov is next with Something About The Way You Look Tonight. The wife is taking a nap during this performance. That’s really all I need to say. Randall says it was alright. Paula says he did a great job. Simon says he thinks in parts, it was absolutely excruciating.

Carrie Underwood is surprisingly singing Martina McBride. Who would guess that she’s singing a country song? At least her hair looks good. In the history of American Idol, we had a singer in the mold of Mariah Carey win. A singer in the mold of Luther Vandross win. And a singer in the mold of Aretha Franklin win. We’ve never had singers in the mold of Martina McBride or (insert your favorite leading vocalist for your favorite rock band here) win this competition. It could happen. Randall says it was the best vocal of the night. Paula says she’s a natural singing country. Simon says she has something different and has the IT factor, which is exactly what the wife said as her performance ended. Scott Savol is next with One Last Cry. I know I’m an R&B fan, even an Brian McKnight fan, and heck, I’m a Blake Highsmith fan, so my bias might be coming out here, but he was my favorite vocal performance of the night. Randall says it was alright, though slightly pitchy. Paula says he has her heart. Simon says he wanted to turn his mic off.

Vonzell Solomon is last here with Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing. It’s a sin to sing Whitney in this competition, but Vonzell did it right. Actually that would be my first rule on how to win this competition. Don’t sing Whitney or Mariah. But she did a damn good job. Randall says it was a great performance and she was the bomb. Paula says she outsang the girls tonight. Simon says she pulled it off. The wife, who hated Vonzell is now a fan. That’s the real test. If the wife hates you, then she loves you, that’s golden.

Most of the girls were good tonight except maybe Jessica and other than the very consistent Boseph, I thought maybe Scott and Nikko were decent for the men. The masculine one, Anthony was the worst, but to me, he always is. Seacrest gout!

Wrestlemania 21 is less than one week away. From now until April 3, 2005, I will be posting reviews of every Wrestlemania prior, one through twenty. This review was originally posted at Epinions.com.

This card has some historical significance, other than being the first Wrestlemania of the 21st century. First off, this is the first big card the WWE had to promote without their main star Stone Cold Steve Austin as he was out with a neck injury. And he didn’t really come back until another 6 or 7 months down the line. Without their main star, who was originally supposed to face the Big Show in the main event, the WWF went a little bit of a different way. Early in 2000, Mankind (Mick Foley) and Triple H were tearing up arenas and making for some intriguing TV. The storyline was that Triple H beat the Big Show (Paul Wight) for the championship and then was really without a contender. Enter Mankind. Or perhaps I should say, enter Cactus Jack. In a sense, it was more of a mythical character because anytime Foley would fight as the character, he would become more hardcore, able to take and dish out more punishment than as the maniacal Mankind, or his third character, the swingin’ Dude Love. After Triple H and Mankind battled on, Triple H started making fun of Mankind’s success as an author, and basically saying he was over the hill. So when Mankind transformed into Cactus Jack (basically had a t-shirt on) Triple H sold it as the second coming of the poltergeist. His face went white, and he was suddenly stricken with fear. The gimmick went off well as JR sold his heart out on the fact that Cactus Jack was back. And while two matches with Triple H were awesome, it ended up as a retirement for Mick Foley. He lost a retirement match to Triple H at No Way Out and was done. The Rock and the Big Show were thrust into the main event in a three way against Triple H, but without Austin, the McMahons needed more fire power as they were probably scared that the match wouldn’t really hold water with the fans. Re-enter Mick Foley. Foley was brought back (albeit 20 pounds heavier) for the match and basically said that he came back to one, headline a Wrestlemania, which had been a life long dream, and two, for a huge payoff. So instead of Steve Austin vs. the Big Show, we got probably a better match in Triple H vs. The Big Show vs. The Rock vs. Mick Foley (yes, no Mankind, Cactus Jack, or Dude Love).

One other factor gave it a significance, and it probably wasn’t all that positive. Vince McMahon put a McMahon in every corner. That’s right, not only did he have his four superstars in the main event, but every member of McMahon’s immediate family was in the match as well. Looking back, you could say there were 5 McMahons in the main event that night. One was in each corner of the four guys in the main event. What it did was bring the McMahon’s on equal footing with the wrestlers and in my opinion, it’s not a good thing. Because what it did was simply make Vince believe what he was hoping dearly all along. That people actually wanted to see more of his family on TV and that they would be seen on equal footing as the superstars of the federation. And the aftermath for wrestling fans was basically that we were overloaded with doses of the McMahons. McMahon was wrong. We didn’t want to see his family on television except on special occasions.

You had two show stealing matches in the Triangle Ladder Match between the Dudleys, the Hardys, and Edge and Christian, and the Triple Threat match between Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Kurt Angle.

Here, and next year as well, the three tag teams would steal the show. The match wasn’t as good as their match a year later, but it still did things to make it original in it’s own way. Who can forget Jeff Hardy doing the senton bomb on Bubba from the top of a ladder onto a table? Just like a year later, Edge and Christian won the match, and won the belts. These three teams are some of the most creative and hard working tag teams in the history of the WWF. However it’s matches like these that have led to the current injuries of today. The Triple Threat match between Angle, Benoit, and Jericho had an interesting stipulation. Kurt owned the European and Intercontinental championships. He called himself the Eurocontinental champion. I guess it sounded better than the Interpean champion. However, because of Bob Backlund’s urging (who can even remember Backlund was involved?), Angle had to put up both belts in a double fall Triple Threat match. The IC belt was to be wrestled for during the first fall. And the Euro belt, during the second fall. As it came to be, in a really good match, but a little slow because of the fact there were three guys in the ring at once, Chris Benoit pinned Chris Jericho during the first fall, and Jericho pinned Benoit during the second. Kurt Angle lost both belts and wasn’t pinned once. The match saw Kurt go toe to toe in his rookie year with two of the best ring generals in the WWF at the time. Kurt didn’t miss a step with those two guys. Benoit’s style was a little more aggressive than it is now and Jericho was the big face in the match. The crowd was pretty quiet for the match except when Jericho would put together some moves. Good match, even though they’ve had better since then.

Flying, So High

One of the main problems with the card is that there was only one singles match and that was The Kat vs. Terri Runnels in a Sumo Style match where whoever was thrown out of the ring and on to the floor would lose. How that is similar to sumo wrestling is beyond me. It was awful and the only reason it was on PPV is because The Kat was wearing a thong and had her cheeks hanging out. Out of nine matches, there was one regular singles match. What that showed me is that they threw a bunch of wrestlers together for the sake of storylines and fluency simply to put more wrestlers on the card. And it hurt the card dearly. D-Lo and The Godfather vs. The Bossman and Bull Buchanan. Bad match. Too Cool and Chyna vs. The Radicalz (Eddie, Dean, and Perry). Bad match even with the Dean and Eddie in the ring. Memorable only because Chyna’s pants broke and she had to hold them up the rest of the match while showing peaks of the smallest thong ever known. Kane and Rikishi vs. XPAC and Road Dog. Another bad match that’s only memorable because Pete Rose was Tombstoned again and was given the Stinkface. T&A vs. Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Average match with the only reason to watch is to see Trish Stratus and to remember that Al Snow and Steve Blackman were actually called Head Cheese at one time.

The only other match not yet named was a weird Hardcore Battle Royal where it resembled a battle royal, but there was no elimination factor. Basically the rules were anything goes and whoever held the belt last won. You simply had to pin the champion at the time and then try not to get pinned for 15 minutes. The finish ended with a screw up as it seemed like Crash Holly either forgot to kick out of the last pin attempt or Tim White, the referee forgot the finish. Bob Holly walked out of the match the champ. The belts changed hands 7 times in 15 minutes. And they wondered why people didn’t care about that belt.

I’ve mentioned every match, but the main event. The main event to me was a mixed bag. As I wrote above, the fact that the McMahons were shown on par with the wrestlers really diminished the match to me before it even started. You know that the McMahons were there to simply interfere during the finish to cause some sort of havoc at the end of the match. And low and behold, that’s exactly what happened. But first, The Big Show seconded by Shane McMahon was made to look extremely weak in this match as he was the first guy eliminated. Mick Foley had a nice match as he was seconded by Linda McMahon. But, he will be remembered for coming up short on a leap attempt from the middle ring rope onto the Rock who was laying on the announcers table. It was a painful miss as he looked to have hit his ribs right on the edge of the table. He was then eliminated by Triple H but got to kick out of his finisher once. The rest of the match was Rock vs. HHH and it wasn’t as good as you’d seen from them before. Vince McMahon was in Rock’s corner and Steph was in HHH’s corner. Shane McMahon came back to ringside simply to sucker punch his dad who no sold a shot to the head with the monitor. Vince then gave three of the worst punches I’ve ever seen in my life and Shane sold it like he was hit by George Foreman. Vince came back into the ring to hit HHH with a chair, but instead hit Rock and HHH kept his belt and won the match. What a swerve. How could we ever have guessed that one? Vince and Steph embraced and Shane looked like he was cool with Vince afterwards too. The only thing that was entertaining about the finish was that the Rock got a chance to give Stephanie the Rock Bottom. I think most people popped for that. What’s also odd is that this card was only five years ago and if you compare her to today, Steph looks like an almost different person. Today she has huge implants, about thirty extra pounds, and straight hair. In 2000, she actually looked attractive. For me, the PPV was a let down and the main event was as well.

A small note about the ending. At every Wrestlemania before this one, with the exception being Wrestlemania IX, the good guy won the main event to send the fans home happy. At Wrestlemania IX, Yokozuna, who was the heel, beat Bret Hart to win the belt, but Hulk Hogan came out at the end and won an impromptu match that didn’t count in the end. Wrestlemania 2000 at the time was the only Wrestlemania in which the heels got over at the end. The very next year, it happened again when Steve Austin turned heel on the Rock.

Results
The Big Bossman & Bull Buchannan beat the Godfather & D-LO Brown.
Hardcore Holly earned the final pin in the 13 Man Battle Royal to earn the Hardcore Title.
Test & Albert (w/ Trish Stratus) beat Al Snow & Steve Blackman.
Edge & Christian beat the Dudley Boyz and Hardy Boyz in a Triangle Ladder Match to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
Terri Runnels beat the Kat in a Catfight.
Too Cool & Chyna beat the Radicalz.
Chris Benoit pinned Chris Jericho in a three-way match also involving Kurt Angle, winning the Intercontinental Title. Jericho then pinned Benoit, winning Angle’s European Title.
Kane & Rikishi beat X-Pac & Road Dogg.
Triple H defeated the Rock, Mick Foley and the Big Show in a Fatal Four-way Elimination Match, retaining the WWF Championship.