1. WRESTLEMANIA X-SEVEN
Remember when putting X’s in titles and spelling “Boyz” incorrectly was cool?
Come on, you all saw this one coming. WrestleMania X-Seven is at the top of virtually every WrestleMania list there has ever been, and while I’m all for shaking things up and bucking tradition, you just can’t make a solid case against this show.
TLC II is an all-time classic. It took both the WrestleMania 2000 ladder match and the very first TLC match and expanded on the concept, creating a gimmick WWE has since built an entire pay-per-view around. It’s almost insane to think that three of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history ended up in one match together, but then you remember it’s matches like this one that made them into legends.
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit is a great match. If you had to pick the two best technical ring workers of the last 20 years, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone better than Angle and Benoit. Add another five minutes to their 14-minute clinic, and perhaps a heavier story with more on the line and this would have stolen the show.
Even one of the low points of the show, a three-way match for the Hardcore Championship, was just ridiculous enough to have some fun with. Running each other over with golf karts and bodies crashing through dummy walls is the kind of thing you either love or hate.
The first of three WrestleMania matches for Undertaker and Triple H – comparable to the rest of the card it wasn’t iconic, but there are very few negative things to be said about it. The intensity of their feud sold what was in all honestly a very solid brawl.
And then there’s Shane vs. Vince… What you try and remember about this one was the insane and bloody rivalry of father and son that sparked the entire WCW Invasion. With the news of the McMahons buying out WCW this was probably the hottest and most talked-about match on the entire card. Nobody really knew what to expect. What you try to forget is that the vehicle for the match was an affair angle between Vince and Trish Stratus, that had Evil Stephanie in the support role and a practically comatose Linda watching them make-out on television week after week. It’s the kind of thing that could have very well killed a company in any other era. It’s the kind of thing you look back on and think, maybe the Attitude Era went too far…
If WrestleMania X-Seven ended there, it would still have been in the upper echelon of shows on our list. 68,000 people reported (so probably about 58,000 in actuality), a Houston crowd on fire during the height of wrestling’s greatest television era. It was so unique to its time too; you couldn’t book a show like this ever before, or ever again.
The first three hours of WrestleMania are what puts the show in the Top 5. What cements its place as the greatest in history is the main event. Arguably, The Rock vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin wasn’t the best wrestling match on the card. ARGUABLY. It was still damn good, one of the best matches of the entire period, and an all-time classic you can watch over and over again.
But you don’t remember Rock-Austin for the match. You remember it for the unthinkable moment – when the Texas Rattlesnake shook hands with the Devil himself to win the WWF Championship. That’s it. There’s your undisputed winner. If anyone made a list of the biggest moments in WrestleMania history – or even WWF history, I’ll go that far – and Steve Austin aligning himself with Vince McMahon isn’t at the peak, you’re just wrong.
X-Seven is a masterpiece of pro wrestling, sports entertainment and story-telling.
