WWE WrestleMania X

WWE WrestleMania X

March 24, 1994

Madison Square Garden

New York City, New York

Yeah I might have seen this show a few times. Ten years in the making, and the WWE returns to Madison Square Garden. The payoff for the double finish between Luger and Hart was that both guys would get a title shot at WrestleMania. President Jack Tunney held a coin toss. The winner of the toss would get the first title match against Yokozuna, while the loser of the toss would go on last. To make things fair, the loser of the toss would have a separate match in the opening match. Had Luger lost, he would’ve faced off against Crush. Since Bret lost, the world was forced to see some lame match between Bret Hart and Owen Hart. This show would pretty much be the final stamp that the Hulk Hogan era was over. That would also be evident because 3 months later, Hogan would be in WCW, and the wrestling world would never be the same. This was a night of celebration though.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler

*Rated #1 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*

“The Rocket” Owen Hart vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

There have been many great matches at WrestleMania, and if anyone disagreed with my selection of this one as #1 I certainly wouldn’t mind at all. This to me is what wrestling is all about. Two brothers going out and putting on a wrestling clinic. Bret talks about how the key in the match was for Owen to be just a slimy filthy heel, and Bret not to go overboard in beating him down because Owen might get sympathy heat. They play this beautiful dance on that fine line throughout the entire match. They pulled out all of the moves, including an awesome tombstone piledriver from Owen. Owen went up for the diving head butt and Bret moved out of the way. At this point you know that the only way Owen is going to be able to beat his older brother was on a surprise move. The action spilled to the outside where Bret injured his knee, and Owen attacks it like a vulture. Just classic heel tactics and the crowd just HATES him for it. This all is illustrated wonderfully by Vince and Lawler with Lawler at his heel commentating best. I miss the old Jerry Lawler. Owen continues the heel tactics with a low blow. He then gets Bret into the sharpshooter but Bret knows how to get out of his own hold. He tries to put it on Owen, but his knee is in too much pain. The end comes when Bret goes for the same victory roll that won him the King of the Ring tournament against Bam Bam Bigelow, but Owen steps into it on the way down and gets Bret into a pinning maneuver of his own and gets the SHOCKING 3 count. Owen’s face is priceless as he looks at the ref in shock himself. Bret’s face is equally shocking in a devastated way. He sells the leg injury and it plays up the fact that he still has a title match later in the show, and what condition will he be in? *****

Mixed Tag Team Match

Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon vs. Doink and Dink

Ok, so it goes without saying that I didn’t think much of the Doink gimmick post-evil clown days. I am not alone in that opinion. With that said, here you have yet another case of a storyline and feud that had actual thought put into it, something rarely seen today. I’m not saying the story itself is great by any stretch, but the WWE had two workers, and they had something to do with them on the midcard. Doink antagonized Bam Bam from the fall of 1993 on through the winter of 1994 until the payoff at WrestleMania X. They inserted Luna and Dink for added effect because Doink made Luna’s life a living hell too. The match isn’t great and Bam Bam gets the win with his diving head butt. The best part of the match is Lawler clamoring for Bam Bam to get his hands on Dink and Vince playing it off with outrage. * ¼         

Falls Count Anywhere

“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Crush w/ Mr. Fuji

This is Savage’s WrestleMania swan song. This is more like a Texas Death match than a falls count anywhere. This is one of my favorite non-high profile feuds of the 90’s. Crush was a baby face and Yokozuna put him out for a few weeks before SummerSlam. Crush blamed Savage for pushing him into a match with Yokozuna knowing that he wasn’t 100 %. When Crush returned they had the “Savage-Crush Summit meeting” where Crush turned heel and attacked Savage. He press slammed him over the steel barricade which Savage sold like death. From then on, Savage and Crush attacked each other and officials would always have to break up the brawl. It was a great feud that pumped a little life into Randy Savage who was basically just a figurehead at this point in WWE. The match is pretty decent, Savage attacks Crush in the aisle, but Crush recovers and drops Savage on the steel barricade again and gets the pin. Nice storytelling there. Savage now has 60 seconds to get back into the ring. He does and makes a comeback. He drops the big elbow on Crush and pins him. This time Crush gets back into the ring and the two brawl to the backstage area where Savage finally pins Crush and ties him up in the back. Simple, but effective brawl and nice way to blow off the big feud. Not only is this Savage’s WrestleMania swan song, but it’s basically his WWE swan song as he would do nothing between now, and his departure in November. He would be in WCW hanging out with Hogan by the end of 1994. ** ¾

WWE Women’s Championship

Alundra Blayze (champion) vs. Leilani Kai

The WWE signed Blayze (better known perhaps as Medusa) to re-ignite the non-existent women’s division, which hadn’t really existed for about 5 years. This match isn’t anything special, but serves its purpose to sell Medusa as the leader of the women’s division. She wins with her German suplex. Nothing special. ¾ *

WWE Tag Team Championship

Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) (champions) w/ Johnny Polo vs. Men on a Mission (Mabel and Mo) w/ Oscar

The tag division in 1994 was all but dead, and it was made even worse by the clique later in the year when Shawn Michaels and Diesel would win the titles and then become just trophies for them to carry around. At this point, the Quebecers were still the champions, and I enjoyed them as heel champions, but they just didn’t have the depth of teams to work with as previous great heel champions did. This match would predictably end in some sort of count out or disqualification. Count out was the prescription here, as MOM wins but Quebecers retain. Match itself was just added filler. * ¼

WWE Championship

Mr. Perfect as Special Referee

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Lex Luger

This is the first of two WWE title matches. Conventional wisdom at the time (and perhaps even now depending on your opinion) says Luger goes over here to give us a Hart-Luger main event. Mr. Perfect is the special referee. I love Lawler’s heel commentary complaining all match that Perfect is biased. That is about the only highlight of this match. This is also known as the match where Yoko puts Luger in a nerve hold which feels like it lasts for 10 minutes. Luger makes the inevitable comeback, but starts tossing managers into the ring, so Perfect doesn’t count 3 after Luger knocks Yokozuna out. Then Luger shoves Perfect and gets disqualified for the screw job finish. Yokozuna retains in a forgettable match. Not even close to their SummerSlam encounter the previous year. Legend has it that Luger was in some Manhattan bar the night before proclaiming he was going to be WWE champion. That story seems like bullshit to me, but many claim it’s true. ¾ * Luger goes to the back to find Perfect. This was supposed to segue into them finishing up their program together that pretty much got cut short in 1993 but it didn’t happen as Perfect wasn’t ready to go yet.

Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Earthquake

For a couple years Wippleman would constantly insult ring announcer Howard Finkel. Tonight he went too far and Howard shoved him. Adam Bomb comes in and threatens Finkel, but Earthquake comes in and makes the save, and squashes Bomb in less than a minute. DUD Earthquake was just returning, he would turn his attention to feud with Yokozuna before heading off to WCW to hang out with Hogan.

*Rated #5 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*

WWE IC Championship

Ladder Match

Razor Ramon (champion) vs. Shawn Michaels w/ Diesel

Yeah this match is rather famous. There were ladder matches before this one, even one involving Shawn. While that is true this is the one that put the Ladder match as we know it today on the map. With the insane spot fests known as TLC matches and Money in the Bank matches, there are those that suggest that this match doesn’t hold up. I cannot disagree more. This match has (overwhelmingly) more psychology and more storytelling than any clusterfuck of a match you can find today. You start with Diesel getting thrown out by the ref early on which is a great moment because the crowd eats it up and it makes the match a straight one on one contest early. Then it becomes Shawn having a match with a ladder as many have pointed out. This is also the point in Shawn’s career where he becomes untouchable as a performer. From this point on through his first retirement, he is absolute gold in the ring. Every spot with the ladder is deliberate and with purpose and very little slow climbing which annoys me. It’s a back and forth affair and you really don’t know who is going to win. Finally Razor throws a shoulder block into the ladder with Shawn on it and Michaels crotches himself on the top rope and gets tied up. Razor climbs the ladder and gets both belts to become the undisputed IC Champion. Just a flawless match that only an idiot would think doesn’t hold up today. This is the ladder match that all other ladder matches after would be compared to. You can pretty much find this match anywhere, so if you haven’t seen it yet… see it. *****

Main Event

WWE Championship

Special Referee Rowdy Roddy Piper

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

Lawler once again with heel commentating brilliance screaming about what an injustice it is to have Piper as the ref. This is one of my favorite matches ever. Certainly not because it dazzles, but because this is Bret’s shining WrestleMania moment. He limps out to the ring still selling the leg injury, not to mention the mental anguish of losing to little brother Owen in the opening match. This is truly David vs. goliath. Kind of a weird finish here as Yokozuna goes for the big banzai drop and falls off the rope essentially slamming himself, and Bret crawls on the big man and gets the win and the title from the guy who beat him the year before. ** ¾ Lex Luger comes out  after the match and shakes the hand of the new champion. Before you know it, everyone is out to celebrate with Bret. Luger and Razor Ramon put Bret on their shoulders in celebration of the mighty heel champion finally vanquished. Owen Hart comes out seemingly to celebrate, but he just gives his big brother the cold stare. Bret gives the I love you’s to the MSG crowd as the show goes off the air.

Final Analysis: Bottom line is there isn’t another show that I know of, that has two ***** matches. Yes the undercard is pretty horrible, but this show isn’t known for anything other than the two great matches, and a wonderful feel-good moment to close out the show. Lex Luger was the big casualty as he would be relegated to midcard hell for the next year and a half. 1994 would be the year that the infamous clique would rise to power and by the end of the year; Bret himself would be pushed to the background. On this night though, Bret was king and set to continue his great feud with his brother Owen. I think that one of the great things about this show is that it really represents the last of an era where long-term storylines were the norm instead of the exception.