WWE Wrestlemania XIX

(Guest written by Matt)

General Comments: This is the third Wrestlemania in a row to be extremely awesome and is definitely setting a trend for the early 2000s. In some ways, the early 2000s have to be considered one of the greatest eras in WWF/WWE history, especially for delivering on the big stage. One of the coolest things about Wrestlemania 19 is Safeco Field in Seattle which is such a weird and awesome looking location for a Wrestlemania. The card once again has an epic “Wrestlemania” feel. The card actually has five main events which is unprecedented (though they don’t all deliver in the ring). There are a couple of bad matches, but that’s easy to forgive given the history of Wrestlemania. The only things I really disliked about this card were the Limp Bizkit performances and the Miller Lite Cat Fight Girls. In other words, stupid celebrity crap again! This card kind of reminds me of Wrestlemania 5 in that there is clearly an effort to “bring back the past” by having matches like Rock-Austin and Hogan-McMahon. This wasn’t really necessary as they already had a great roster of new guys to work with. I guess the ratings were sagging and they were afraid that people wouldn’t buy this PPV to see Brock Lesnar or Eddie Guerrero or whatever, so they were hot-shotting. (Taking nothing away from Rock-Austin though as it is a great match, maybe the best match on this card.) I would also like to mention that this event features some of the greatest commentary in the entire career of Jim Ross. He was clearly mad for real about the direction the company was going and having to work with Lawler still and just bitches and complains through the whole card, putting over serious wrestling and bashing all the silly stunts. Overall, one of the all-time great Wrestlemanias that I didn’t really appreciate much at the time.

Matt Hardy vs. Rey Misterio: This match surprised me in that it really wasn’t very good. These two guys are both great workers, but they didn’t really gel in this match. It was funny to see that Misterio was wearing those silly superhero costumes all the way back at this time. Scott and Justin suggest that this match could have been better if it was given more time, and they might be right on that one.

Undertaker vs. Big Show and A-Train: This match is terrible! Undertaker is slow, fat and boring and that stupid American Badass gimmick is really getting old. Big Show is the same useless piece of shit he is every year at Wrestlemania when he shows up for his pay day. And A-Train is almost as slow and plodding as Show. Its funny to think back that I was such a huge Albert/A-Train fan back in the early 2000s and thought he was such a great worker at the time. But in the two matches I’ve seen him in at Wrestlemania so far, he has sucked. Who the fuck is Nathan Jones? Well, he gets involved too and no one cares.

Trish Stratus vs. Victoria vs. Jazz: The only real negative here is that this is almost the same women’s three way match as last year at Wrestlemania. But this time, its much better and these three ladies actually wrestle a great match. In particular Trish has really stepped up her game by this time and is actually able to execute real wrestling maneuvers. It was awesome to see her win the title this time, which should have happened in Toronto the previous year.

Team Angle vs. Los Guerreros vs. Chris Benoit and Rhyno: First, my complaints. I really hate Team Angle because it was a cheesy gimmick that prevented Haas and Benjamin from developing their own identity as a team. They really seem boring at this time, even though they are great workers. Chris Benoit and Rhyno, well, I don’t remember if they were anything more than a makeshift team. But regardless, you would think Benoit would be in a better match than this after the wrestling clinic he was in the previous year. Los Guerreros were the most awesome team in this match, and actually one of my favorite teams of the 2000s. But even in this case, its weird to think that Eddie and Benoit were in this mediocre 8 minute tag three way at Wrestlemania 19, and then both were in heavyweight title matches at Wrestlemania 20. I guess you have to hand it to the WWE for finally paying these guys back for working their butts off. In general, this match is average and I’m really sick of watching three way matches at this point, since they dominate so many of these 2000s Wrestlemanias. Team Angle winning sucked. They should have given it to Los Guerreros.

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho: Part of the reason why I ranked Michaels in my top 20 favorite wrestlers of all time was because I had just watched this match. This is a fantastic bout, a real workrate clinic if there ever was one. Michaels was actually pretty awesome from 2002 to 2005 and made a lot of rising stars look great in the ring, unlike the way he was in the 90s. Of course he blew it all with DX in 2006. My only real criticism here is that Jericho should have won, but Michaels does make him look like a million bucks throughout.

The Miller Lite Cat Fight Girls vs. Stacy Kiebler and Torrie Wilson: I know this isn’t supposed to be Flair-Steamboat, but this is seriously some of the worst “wrestling” programming I’ve ever seen in my life. If I was going to give this event a 5 star rating, this travesty alone would drop it to 4 1/2.

Triple H vs. Booker T: This isn’t a bad match, but its not very good either. If HHH really wanted to be a modern day Ric Flair, he should have at least stepped up his game and tried harder in the ring with guys like Booker T. It was awesome to see all the clips again building up to this match such as the “people like YOU don’t get to be in the main events” which was so funny at the time, and still is. I think a lot of people, Danny included, thought Booker was going to win this match at the time, based on the way they were booking (no pun intended) it. But I insisted HHH would never lose to Booker and that everything he said was true. Booker actually botches some simple moves in this match too so he really didn’t deserve to win anyway, but it was actually pretty racist to have HHH win after all that. In the end, it was an okay match in the ring but probably could have been better with a little more effort. Ross’ commentary during this match is so funny by the way as he sounds like he’s legit pissed off at Lawler.

Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon: I had remembered this match being much better than it actually is. It is actually quite slow and plodding which makes sense given the age of these guys. The supposed high spots aren’t nearly as impressive as they would have been if performed by a real wrestler. And there quite a few restholds in this supposed streetfight. Once again, JR’s commentary really saves the match and makes it seem a lot more exciting than it actually is. Piper coming down sucked pretty hard because of his poor acting and how obvious it was that he was going to hit Hogan. Besides it didn’t even matter because Hogan just won anyways. Honestly, I was more disappointed with this match than anything else on this card, just because I had remembered it being epic, albeit stupidly so since these guys are both over 50. This may be a rare example of a match that gets worse with age because the match itself is not good, but the feud leading up to it on TV was actually pretty awesome.

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock: Man, is this match ever awesome! This might even be the best of their three Wrestlemania encounters because these guys didn’t just brawl around the arena with weapons and there was no interference. They just straight up wrestled a great in-ring match. I really loved Ross’ commentary during this one as he kept screaming about how Austin is a wrestler, not a movie star, and sounded like he was legitimately mad that WWE was starting to deny that their product was “wrestling”. At any rate, an epic match where you really have no idea who’s going to win and the two guys manage to make each other look like megastars. At the time, I didn’t even realize the WWE was just hot-shotting and these guys would be leaving right after this. Its too bad actually, but there is no question that the WWE had lots of great talent coming up the ranks at this time to fill the void. This is the second of three matches in a row where the winner has to use their finisher three times to get the pin. Here it makes sense, but it was retarded in Hulk-Vince, and it is already getting predictable by the time of Angle-Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle: A great match, but not as good as Rock-Austin, which I guess was impossible to follow. Lesnar actually looks way smaller than he does now, more like a regular wrestler. And he actually works a pretty good match with Angle. I can’t even say Angle was necessarily carrying him either knowing that Angle was legit injured in this match. They do blow a couple of spots like when Lesnar tries to do that moonsault type move off the top rope and crashes down on his neck. In the end, its a good battle, though historically it meant very little as Lesnar would be leaving in a year, and Angle would continue to be plagued by injuries. I’m glad these guys had a chance to main event Wrestlemania though, and that they didn’t put Rock-Austin in the main event again, even though it was a better match.