PWP’s complete coverage of WrestleMania continues as Tim Bell covers “the one and only” WrestleMania 18.
The highlight of WrestleMania 18, which took place at the Toronto Skydome, was clearly the clash of icons pitting The Rock against The Immortal, Hollywood Hulk Hogan. However, what is often lost in the greatness of that match was how solid of an event WM18 was as a whole. An event which certainly didn’t lack star power, saw marquee matches involving the likes of Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, and Edge, among others, in addition to the classic between Hogan and Rock.
Kicking things off for the second year in a row was William Regal, this time defending his Intercontinental Championship against Rob Van Dam. Although he entered this event with more accolades to his credit, the result for Regal would be the same as the previous year, unfortunately for him, as he fell to Van Dam in a competitive match. Van Dam would thwart multiple attempts by Regal to use brass knuckles, and would go on to capture his first Intercontinental Championship.
Next, European Champion Diamond Dallas Page took on his former protegé, Christian, and while it wasn’t an overly memorable encounter, Page would be victorious in his first WrestleMania appearance. These two only went about 6 minutes, and effectively continued the storyline of Christian acting as the sore loser, as he was left pouting in the ring.
After that, we get the Hardcore muck, er…I mean match, between Hardcore Champion Maven and Goldust. This match was everything most people remember about the Hardcore division, unfortunately, with many participants getting involved under the 24/7 rule effective at the time. Eventually, Maven left with the Hardcore Championship later in the night, but i wouldn’t blame you if you skipped past all of this nonsense during your rewatch. That said, for those who enjoyed this era in hardcore wrestling, it was as enjoyable as it was chaotic.
Next, Kurt Angle squared off against Kane in a massive conflict in styles. This was one of the first matches where Kane truly showed his versatility inside the squared circle, as he stuck with Angle all the way through, including a rare Enzuiguri by Kane and had a very entertaining match. This one seems to be often forgotten when talking about Kane’s career, but especially for newer fans who are mostly familiar with his corporate persona, this is one to go back and watch.
Next comes, for my money, the best match of the entire event in terms of actual quality and action, when The Undertaker stepped into the ring with “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. At this stage of Flair’s career, WWE fans had only seen him square off against the likes of Mr. McMahon, and many believed Flair’s in-ring skills had eroded to some degree, making him more of an attraction than an everyday in-ring competitor. On this night, Flair proved all the doubters wrong one more time, as he had a hell of a match with The Undertaker.
Admittedly, the crowd was never louder than they were during Rock/Hogan, but as far as pops go, it doesn’t get much better than an Arn Anderson spinebuster out of nowhere. Much of this match was classic Flair, bleeding profusely and coming back against the odds, but more importantly, it showed he could still hang with the best performers in the business. This match gets glossed over often times when talking about Taker’s greatest Mania matches, but it’s one of my favorites.
Edge and Booker T were next, and could have truly torn the house down if they were granted more time to work, however, the match was still very solid. Unfortunately, sometimes on WrestleMania, there’s so much to get to that not everything gets the time they truly deserve, as was the case with this match.
In one of the stranger main events of the night, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin took on Scott Hall, which was really more like Austin vs. The Outsiders for the majority of the match. Again, this one was solid, however, certainly felt like a bit of a step down for Austin at WrestleMania. Ultimately, Austin would agree with that perception, as it would add to his frustration, and inevitably contribute to the reasons Austin walked away from the WWE shortly after.
In a four corners Tag Team Championship match, Champions Billy & Chuck defended their titles against The APA, The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, in a match which certainly everyone expecting a title change. Surprisingly, the champs were able to retain after using the Championship belt to knock out Jeff Hardy, but the action was, once again, solid throughout this contest.
The real treat of the night was when The Rock and Hulk Hogan finally made their way to center stage at WrestleMania 18. Just about everybody watching expected this to be the match of the night, simply due to the magnitude and presence of the two men involved, however, it seemed nobody was ready for the live crowd’s amazing response to the match. The Toronto crowd, at least the more vocal ones, and certainly those who were visible to viewers at home, were solidly and vehemently in the corner of The Hulkster, and their rabid reaction took an already epic match, and took it to a legendary level.
The seventeen minutes these two were in the ring together wasn’t simply a match to those who watched it live, it was an experience. Hogan’s even said in interviews since that night that he and The Rock changed the pace and feel of the match on the fly inside the ring due to the crowd’s reaction.
The fact is that even though this wasn’t an all-time technical masterpiece, Rock/Hogan was a spectacle that most never believed they would see, and managed to accomplish 3 very important things. It proved that Hulk Hogan was still an incredibly popular talent who could draw and deliver in a main event situation, a fact that WWE would then run with in the months following, going so far as to make Hogan the World Champion. It also proved that The Rock was an all-time great and had the star power to stand aside one of the greatest stars in WWE history and not seem out-of-place.
Most importantly, it reintroduced the big fight/spectacle feel to WrestleMania, an accomplishment that WWE has tried multiple times in years since to duplicate at Mania, leading to some amazing matches. However, nothing feels quite as special as Rock/Hogan did.
Oh, and there was an Undisputed Championship match after all that! If you forgot, don’t feel too badly, even the participants in that match are on record as saying they couldn’t have never followed Rock/Hogan.
However, at the time, the Championship was seen as bigger than anything else, and therefore Triple H challenged Chris Jericho for the Championship to close out WrestleMania. The storyline for this match was actually extremely well done, with the returning Triple H looking to vanquish the man who originally put him on the shelf, only to have Triple H’s ex-wife align herself with Jericho in an effort to ruin Triple H once and for all.
The fact is, simply, the audience was burnt out, both inside the building and at home, by the time this one got going. That being said, going back and watching in a vacuum, there’s not a ton to complain about in HHH/Jericho, except for the fact that they didn’t steal an un-stealable show. The match wouldn’t make a top 10 list for either Wrestler, but it also was in no way a bad match.
Ultimately, WrestleMania will always be remembered for Rock/Hogan, and that’s not a negative thing. I’d just like to remind everyone from time to time that there were other high quality matches on this card, and at the very least, you have a very solid Mania with one exceptional match. It wasn’t the greatest WrestleMania of all time, but it may have had one of the greatest happenings of all time.