Wrestlemania X7 - Reliant Astrodome, Houston Texas, April 1st, 2001
Welcome, one and all, to the biggest wrestling PPV of all time. Wrestlemania X7!
WWE events since this have drawn larger attendance, and made more money, and even pulled in more PPV buys. This is all true. BUT, this was the largest drawing PPV during the WWE/WWF’s biggest (and arguably last) boom period. The WWF at this point was as white hot as a company or TV show can be. But there’s plenty of time for me to get misty eyed about the meaning of this PPV and its place in the Attitude era later. Make no mistake - this show marks the end of the Attitude era. It went out with a big ol’ bang though!
I’m a little worried about the WWE Network version of this event as it appears to be a straight rip of the home video release and so that means there’s a good chance a bunch of the licensed songs will be dubbed even though they weren’t dubbed on the weekly TV shows leading into the event. Let’s all cross our fingers.
I keep talking about how big this show is, but I do mean in length too - every PPV from this era, including the three previous Wrestlemanias - are less than 3 hours on the WWE Network. This one clocks in at almost four.
Commentary on the show is handled by my all-time favourite duo of Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. This marks the first WWF PPV with no Jerry Lawler on commentary since King of the Ring 1997, and before that it was In Your House: Mind Games in October of 1996. All that really means is that this show will have the best commentary of the Attitude era. The King is not missed.
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho © vs. William Regal
This is the first of six championship matches tonight. The only sanctioned WWF title not on the line at Wrestlemania X7? Crash Holly’s Light Heavyweight Championship. That title and division never got the love it deserved.
The issues between new Commissioner William Regal and Y2J actually started the first night Regal returned to the WWF, but were rekindled when Jericho (accurately) called out Regal for being a corporate stooge who as Commissioner will be in Mr. McMahon’s pocket.
This match starts fast with Jericho getting the upper hand with clotheslines, chops and a running forearm.
The fighting Commissioner rolls out of the ring to get a breather but Jericho won’t give it to him and dives out over the top rope. He actually misses in quite a dangerous spot but Regal sells it anyway and they recover. Jericho rolls him back inside and gets the first near fall with a missile dropkick but a desperate Regal runs Jericho’s shoulder into the ring post to get a break, and then does it again so he can focus his assault on the champion’s left shoulder to soften him up for the Regal stretch submission.
Regal wears it down with a couple of throws and locks in a hammer lock but Y2J quickly fights out of that and recovers with a back elbow. Regal gets his knees up to lock the follow up Lionsault however and goes back to working on the shoulder before dropping Y2J high on his head with a back suplex.
Regal exposes the top turnbuckle and runs Jericho’s sore shoulder into the exposed steel bolt but Jericho retaliates with a spinning heel kick and both men go down.
Jericho gets another near fall with a dropkick off the middle rope but gets stopped when he goes back to the top rope and Regal brings him down with a double underhook suplex for another near fall.
Jericho fights back and tries a Walls of Jericho but his shoulder is too sore to turn the Commissioner over and Regal counters and takes him down into the Regal Stretch!
Y2J crawls and does just barely make it to the ropes without tapping out.
Jericho tries to rally with more chops but once again Regal shuts him down with a kick to the arm.
The exposed buckle comes back to haunt Regal as he's run into it head first. Jericho follows with a running bulldog but Regal is out of position for the Lionsault so Jericho picks him up, flattens him out with a suplex and THEN does the Lionsault to retain the Intercontinental title in a very good match which I could have happily watched for another five minutes. I think another five minutes would have let them get into all time great match territory.
Backstage, Shane McMahon arrives in the parking lot. He’s in a limo with a custom “WCW 1” licence plate. He purchased WCW on Raw this past Monday but being one of the most famous segments in wrestling history, you probably know that.
In the APA office, Bradshaw spouts loads of local Texas sports stuff to rile up Faarooq and Jacqueline. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
The Right to Censor (The Goodfather, Bull Buchanan and Val Venis, w/Steven Richards) vs. The APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw w/Jacqueline) and Tazz
This match, I’m sure, would have been the pay off to the Jerry Lawler and Kat vs. RtC storyline but with them leaving the company a different commentator - Tazz - was slotted into his role. It works because EVERYONE hated the Right to Censor.
Steven Richards' attempted pre match promo is cut off by Tazz’s entrance.
Jackie actually drops Richards with a DDT in the early going but it doesn’t get a reaction from the crowd which surprised me.
Faarooq starts with Bull and plants him with a powerslam, and then tags out to Tazz. He’s shut down with a big boot and then isolated in the RtC corner with Val Venis tagging in. These guys are moving so fast through spots, you can tell they don’t have long for this match.
Val gets a near fall with a Russian leg sweep and tags out to The Goodfather who gets another near fall with a scoop slam and a leg drop, followed by a back elbow and a back suplex.
He misses his attempted Vader-bomb off the middle rope and Tazz tags out to Bradshaw. The big Texan throws around the RtC with big boots and bodyslams and throws Val Venis clear across the ring with a fall away slam. The match breaks down with the APA flattening Val with a double spinebuster, and then Bradshaw brings him off the top rope with a back suplex.
Bull and Goodfather double team Bradshaw and with everyone fighting on the outside, Goodfather tries a corner charge. He misses and Bradshaw hammers him with a Clothesline from Hell to win the match for his team. This only went about five minutes but it popped the crowd and got all these guys on the show.
This PPV was pretty much the end for the Right to Censor. Tthe group disintegrated in the weeks after this show. The Goodfather returned as the fun loving Godfather at the 2002 Royal Rumble and Bull would bounce around in various short lived roles until being released in 2003. Val Venis did the same, reverting back to being a babyface before turning heel and performing under his real name for a while before being released in 2005. Val has subsequently become an extremely right wing conspiracy nut and a laughing stock with no friends or fans in the business.
The gimmick served its purpose and the real life legal battles with the Parents Television Council wrapped up shortly after.
Leading this group was Steven Richards’ career highlight and he’d pop up here and there doing bits and pieces. He still works on the indies scene today.
Backstage, Trish Stratus wheels Linda McMahon round in a wheelchair. Linda is still in a catatonic state. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley stops them and tells her mother that she’s glad she has at least one child to be proud of. She shows off her new “daddy’s girl” jumpsuit to Trish and asks that she get plenty of champagne and ice for after Vince kicks Shane’s ass later.
WWF Hardcore Championship
Raven © vs. The Big Show vs. Kane
Big Show and Kane were the ones feuding and this match was originally announced as a singles match between the two but former Hardcore champion Raven slipped in and used the 24/7 to regain his title from Big Show and so insert himself into an unfavourable position.
Paul Heyman has a classic line here “Kane scares the hell out of me and I am a fearless man”. The history of the Hardcore title at Wrestlemania started with a triple threat at Mania 15, and last year’s Hardcore battle royal saw 11 title changes in 15 minutes.
Raven enters first followed by Kane and Raven jumps Kane with a plastic “wet floor” sign to start the match before his second challenger enters. Big Show is in no hurry and walks to the ring slowly as Kane bounces Raven around the ring and off the turnbuckles but as Show gets to ringside, Kane military presses Raven over his head and throws him out to Big Show!
Show catches him and tries to set Raven up for a Final Cut on the floor, but Kane stops him with a flying clothesline to the outside. Raven gets a near fall on Show but he effortlessly kicks out, and the Hardcore champion runs off into the crowd.
Kane and Big Show follow and the three men walk and brawl through the enormous 65k crowd, throwing punches occasionally as they mostly just try to get to the backstage area which is a long walk for all three men.
When they get to the back, Raven is waiting with a stop sign to Kane’s head which he no-sells. Kane slams Raven against the wall which cracks a big dent in the plaster, but Show bodyslams Kane onto a stack of wooden pallets and chases Raven. He locks himself and Raven - along with the referee - inside a little caged room but Kane easily rips the door open and breaks the lock to keep this a three way.
The two big men throw bunches and Kane breaks a wooden stick over Show’s back.
Kane tries to choke Kane with a hose but is slammed into the chain link fence which breaks it off its frame.
Kane wraps the hose around Raven’s neck and slams him off a few walls before throwing him through a window!
Show slams Kane through a door which breaks it off its hinges, and tries to chokeslam him on the concrete but Kane grabs show by the throat instead. The two hold onto each other and slam through a plaster wall!
Raven reappears and tries to take advantage but when he realises it won’t work, jumps into a golf cart and drives away! Show hops on the back and they don’t make it far before Raven crashes into a wall. I’m sure that spot was supposed to last longer as Kane gives chase in his own golf cart with the referee on the back and actually kind of runs over Raven!
They destroy the backstage beverage table and someone’s salad (it flies up and hits the camera) and brawl back out into the arena reappearing at the top of the Wrestlemania stage. That’s quite cool as it gives us a little look at what the Gorilla position looks like (curtained area for the Superstars immediately behind the entrance - named after Gorilla Monsoon).
Out on the stage, Big Show lifts Raven up in a military press like he’s going to throw Raven off the stage. Kane boots Show and it sends them both falling off the stage through a large plastic and perspex section of the stage!
Kane dives off after them and in the carnage, pins Big Show. The referee counts and Kane wins the Harcore Championship in a really good, fun hardcore rules match.
I liked that at the finish, JR emphasises that Kane pinned Big Show rather than Raven to hammer home the dominance of the new champion.
The Hardcore Championship was a lot of fun while it lasted but within a couple of years the gimmick had worn thin. This period where former WWF Champions Kane and The Big Show fought over it was the title’s peak in relevancy. In 2003, champion Tommy Dreamer fought Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam in a title unification match. RVD won and the title was merged with the IC title belt and more or less forgotten about forever.
For me, the title’s peak was in 1999 when it was regularly defended in fun, creative matches and gave a whole chunk of the roster like Al Snow, Hardcore Holly, Roaddogg, Big Bossman and others something to do.
Its most fondly remembered period? Crash Holly’s 24/7 antics, and Steve Blackman’s reign and feud with Shane McMahon.
Backstage, Kurt Angle continues to watch back Chris Benoit making him tap out on Raw. Angle is obsessed with proving that he never really tapped out - it wasn’t in a sanctioned match, and there was no referee so it doesn’t count! He’s too focused on that to engage with Edge and Christian who want to plan the victory party after they all win their matches tonight.
Elsewhere the WWF Champion The Rock arrives in his locker room. He looks very smart in a suit, and gets a loud boo from the fans. Everyone loves The Rock but in Texas at THIS event, Stone Cold Steve Austin is a God.
WWF European Championship
Test © vs. Eddie Guerrero (w/Perry Saturn)
Perry Saturn is wearing a big fluffy white top hat. I don’t know how to react to that.
The match starts fast with the much bigger, stronger Test boosting Eddie up into the air with a flapjack and a gut wrench powerbomb for a very early near fall. Test is moving at 100mph.
Eddie rolls to the outside and Test follows him around the ring so that Eddie can jump the champion as he re-enters the ring but Test again muscles Eddie up into a military press and drops him across the top turnbuckle for another near fall.
He slams Latino Heat but gets caught going to the middle rope. Eddie’s top rope hurricanrana is blocked and Test hits an impressive diving back elbow off the top rope for another near fall! Eddie ducks Test’s charge and he gets all tangled up in the ropes.
Perry Saturn gets some cheap shots in as Eddie distracts the referee but after a few moments it becomes clear that Test actually can’t untie his leg from the ropes and Eddie and the referee have to help him.
Latino Heat smartly turns it into a plot point and works on Test’s leg on the outside before bringing him back into the ring.
Eddie wears Test down with a long sleeper hold but Test counters a run off the ropes with a messy tilt-a-whirl slam.
He follows with another tilt-a-whirl which this time he turns into a sitdown powerbomb for a near fall. I suspect the first one was a botch that they repeated.
Eddie gets a sneaky low blow and then as he argues with the referee about it, Perry slides into the ring and drops Test with a swinging neckbreaker.
Eddie tries to follow with a Frog Splash but Test moves. Eddie ducks the attempted big boot but Test does catch Eddie with a pumphandle slam. That gets another near fall.
Test sets up another big boot but Perry Saturn gets on the apron and takes the bullet. The champion does hit Eddie with one but the third Radical - Dean Malenko - sneaks to ringside and breaks up the pin!
With Test and the referee distracted by Perry and Dean, Eddie knocks out Test with the European title belt and the referee turns around just in time to count the three.
Eddie Guerrero became a two-time European Champion (with a lot of help) in what was probably Test’s best match to date.
Sadly, the European title isn’t as fondly remembered as the Hardcore title. It’s generally viewed as a lower tier midcard title and to be fair, that’s pretty much what it was. It had the same fate as the Hardcore title being unified in a match between champion Jeff Hardy and Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam in 2003.
The best eras of the title? Owen Hart’s first run, Eddie Guerrero’s first run and William Regal’s reign as he mixed it up with main eventers pretty regularly while holding it.
My personal favourite European title era? Al Snow and his dressing up European stereotypes. They should bring the title back so someone can do that gimmick again.
In all, it only existed for six years but during that time was held by multiple former and future World Champions - Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Mark Henry, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Christian, Jeff Hardy, Bradshaw and Rob Van Dam. I might even be forgetting some. That’s a legacy that, on paper at least, makes it worth remembering.
Michael Cole interviews Mick Foley and asks him if he can be impartial as referee in the McMahon Street Fight later. Mick promises to call it right down the middle (right here, in Houston Texas!)
Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives at his locker room and looks focused but also deep in thought. The Rattlesnake actually looks very angry at nothing in particular considering he’s challenging for the WWF title in his home state in the main event of Wrestlemania!
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit
Before the match, Kurt has some pre-match comments about how ashamed he is to represent the state of Texas as their Olympic Hero before telling Benoit that he has never and will never tap out. He also mocks cowboy hats which allows Heyman to take a couple of swipes at JR for my amusement.
These two were in the same match last year in their Wrestlemania debuts. Benoit left that match as Intercontinental Champion, but Angle to his credit didn’t actually lose.
The story for this match is pretty simple - both technically heels, but Benoit has kind of turned face after ending his association with The Radicals. They are fighting over who is the true best technical wrestler in the WWF.
The match starts with some lightning fast, intense mat wrestling which I’d be doing a disservice to try and describe. They grapple and roll around on the mat and get a round of applause when they separate.
With the purchase of WCW, Paul Heyman is now free to talk about something I mentioned a lot when Benoit debuted - he is an undefeated WCW World Champion having won the title and then left the company 8 days later.
They grapple and pick at each other’s legs, trying desperately to roll each other into submissions as JR discusses whether it's a mistake for them to focus so much on a submission victory and if that will hurt either man in ignoring a pinfall victory as a possibility.
Benoit comes the closest to victory early when he gets Angle into a Crossface but the Olympic hero scrambles to the bottom rope before it’s fully locked in. He tries again with the same outcome, and Angle rolls out of the ring and takes a break to collect his thoughts.
After a third take down by Angle results in him being countered into a Crossface, Angle is the first one to give up on the chain wrestling and submission victory and just blasts Benoit with a right hand, sending him to the outside. He runs him into the security wall and the announce desk, taking this match WWF-style. A big slam into the steel steps and Angle takes it back into the ring to continue the onslaught. It would appear that after coming up short, Angle has given up on the submissions only game plan and just wants to win. He gets a nearfall off a crisp snap suplex and another off a back suplex.
Benoit breaks the attack with a short-arm clothesline taking down both men. It gets Benoit back into the match and they trade blows and chops in the corner. A knee to the abdomen gives Benoit his most sustained advantage since the match began and he gets his first near fall off a clothesline and snap suplex combo.
Benoit brings Angle down with a really good looking superplex and drills Kurt with a pair of German suplexes but he blocks the third and takes Benoit down into an ankle lock. Benoit rolls through and gets Kurt in his own hold but Angle kicks free. He swings with a big punch but Benoit takes him down into a Crossface! Angle counters that with a tight pin and then rolls through that into a Crossface of his own. Benoit gets the ropes.
Benoit kicks Angle off and he knocks down the referee, so there’s no one to end the match when Angle is taken down into a Crossface. Kurt Angle taps out but there’s no referee to see it. Benoit goes to get the referee and it backfires as Kurt drills him with an Olympic Slam! Benoit kicks out.
Kurt slams Benoit and goes for his lovely moonsault but Benoit gets his knees up into the Olympian’s chest.
Benoit tries for his top rope move, the Diving headbutt and it connects right to the back of Angle’s head. Kurt kicks out of that.
Benoit goes for more German suplexes but Angle uses a low blow, and then rolls up Benoit - grabbing the tights for extra leverage - to win the match with a cheap roll up!
This was a really good technical match between two world-class performers and was just the start of their rivalry.
This feud continued through the next two PPVs with gimmick matches at Backlash and Judgment Day 2001 but really what I want to note here was a shift in WWF’s booking style. All throughout the Attitude era, feuds were usually banged out in a single PPV. Stories often lasted longer but with the exception of Triple H and The Rock, it was pretty rare for the same two people to clash on multiple PPVs in a row. Angle and Benoit is the first example of that change in philosophy and Chris Jericho and William Regal would do the same with their feud. I see it as the recognition by the company that they were burning through matches and feuds too quickly and starting to run out of storylines and fresh matches. It was smart, it was maybe just a little too late.
Commissioner William Regal - licking his wounds after his loss to Chris Jericho earlier - finds Kamala dancing on his desk. A little bit of hype for the gimmick battle royal later tonight.
After a long video recapping the WWF’s PR visit to a US military base (I’m not recapping it because you don’t care) Kevin Kelly interviews a sweaty Kurt Angle. He says he still doesn’t respect Chris Benoit and that the better man won tonight. Benoit jumps him from behind and locks Kurt in the Crossface, making him tap out again! Referee’s struggle to make him break the hold.
WWF Women’s Championship
Ivory © vs. Chyna
Not a great video considering how far back this feud goes. In all honesty, Chyna was missing from TV for most of the build of this - we’ve only seen her twice since the Royal Rumble.
Why was Chyna barely on TV, considering she’d just done Playboy and had a book on the New York Times best sellers list? Well it’s because around January 2001 is when her long-term boyfriend Triple H’s affair with Stephanie McMahon came out. Or he left Chyna for Stephanie, depending on how much credit you want to give him.
This broke Chyna’s heart and that, coupled with her being unhappy with her booking (she was mega popular and viewed being put in the women’s division as a demotion, which it was) left her not wanting to be around, and management agreeing to give her plenty of time off under the circumstances.
JR and Heyman give us a couple of last minute plot points while Ivory makes her entrance - Chyna has signed a “hold harmless” agreement, meaning that if she sustains a serious injury in this match then she has no legal recourse. (That’s not a thing in real life, in case you’re wondering) and in return for signing that, Chyna has gotten the rest of the Right to Censor banned from ringside.
I’ve commented on it a lot and I try not to be all “Jerry Lawler” about these things but I think her ring gear etc on this show is the best Chyna ever looked. She looks incredible from head to toe.
There isn’t a lot to say here - this is a one sided squash! Ivory clutches her women’s title belt to her chest and cries for Chyna not to take it. She hits Chyna in the back of the head and drops an elbow. She’s trying to re-break Chyna’s neck. It doesn’t work and Chyna gets back up and she’s mad.
Chyna throws Ivory around and hammers her with forearms and kicks in the corner.
Hip lock take-over, a pair of stiff clotheslines, a backdrop, a powerbomb and finally a delayed military press drop and in about 90 seconds, Chyna becomes the new WWF Women’s Champion.
This was the last time Ivory would hold the WWF Women’s Championship. She was one of the only proper wrestlers of the entire Attitude era and was great in this role.
Chyna sadly didn’t have a lot of appearances left with the WWF after this. She only defended the title a couple of times with her last televised appearance being a victory over Lita at Judgment Day 2001. Her personal issues with the company management and their treatment of her forced her out and the women’s title was vacated and then reactivated at Survivor Series 2001.
I said it multiple times but in my opinion, Chyna was the most popular member of DX during its peak and was undeniably one of the most popular stars of the Attitude era.
Her personal life would spiral after leaving wrestling with substance abuse and performing in multiple adult movies before passing away in 2016 at the age of 46.
She has thankfully been remembered by the WWE since her death, being inducted into the Hall of Fame and included in multiple video games. It’s a shame the breakdown of her relationship with Triple H and the McMahons forced her out of the company but given the huge amount of cosmetic surgery she’d already had by 2001 she clearly had a few issues of her own anyway.
I loved Chyna, and it was a joy getting to watch this three year period of her career.
In the McMahon office, Vince explains to Trish that she is only to bring Linda down to ringside once Shane is totally “immobal”. Michael Cole enters and asks Vince his reaction to Shane purchasing WCW but Vince cuts him off and says “you want shocking?” No, that’s not what Michael asked.
Street Fight
Vince McMahon (w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) vs. Shane McMahon
Special Guest Referee: Mick Foley
The video package for this one fortunately leaves out all of Vince’s disgusting, hard to watch weird sex antics with Trish. Utterly loathed the storyline at those points. The purchase of WCW dramatically shifted the tone of this match in the final week before Wrestlemania
Vince and Shane both enter separately but to the same theme song. Shane didn’t get his awesome “Here Comes the Money” theme song until the following month.
Referee Mick Foley does thankfully enter in the middle to split the song up a little. Shane gives a special shout out to his “Dubya C Dubya” boys who are in one of the sky boxes. The camera man misses his cue and awkwardly when it does cut to the WCW skybox, half of them are missing. Who do we see? A smiling Stacey Kiebler, and an utterly miserable looking Mark Jindrak, Chavo Guerrero, Shawn Staziak, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Bill Demot and John Laurentitis. Not WCW’s A Squad. I’d actually hesitate to call this WCW’s H or G Squad.
Shane also gives a big warm welcome to referee Mick Foley just to cement that he is definitely a babyface now.
This is Shane’s second Wrestlemania match (he beat X-Pac at Wrestlemania 15, remember that?) and Vince’s first.
To start the match, Vince slaps Shane and goes on the assault with punches, hammering his only son back to the corner and choking him.
Shane fights back with body punches and takes down Vine with a clothesline and then a pretty sloppy spear before mounting Vince for punches and then dropping a few elbows on his dad.
Stephanie gets in the ring and begs her brother to stop before slapping Shane across the face. It’s an ineffective distraction as Shane just baseball slides Vince on the outside and keeps the fight going up the ramp.
He grabs a metal sheet “keep out” sign and hits Vince over and over and over across the back before choking him with an electrical cord.
Shane hops up onto the security wall and takes Vince down with a diving clothesline before running him into the announce desk.
Shane grabs a kendo stick from under the ring and batters Vince across the back with it before taking a bit of time to dance and show off and throw jabs. I love Shane but he does have some of the worst looking punches in wrestling.
Shane strips off the Spanish announce desk and lays Vince out on it with a TV monitor shot to the head before taking aim for one of his spectacular looking diving elbows from the top rope. Stephanie pulls daddy dearest out of the way and Shane drives his body through the announce desk with an almighty crunch.
It’s at this point that Trish brings the sedated Linda down in her wheelchair. Vince was very clear that Trish should double Linda’s medication too. The way Vince treated Trish was utterly disgusting and she clearly agrees as she picks this moment to help him to his feet before slapping him across the face for a huge pop!
Stephanie slaps Trish, and she returns the fight!
Trish Stratus has had enough of the McMahons and chases Stephanie away from ringside after a hair pulling at fight in the ring, separated by Mick Foley. That just leaves the three McMahons (and referee Foley) at ringside. A big face turn for Trish Stratus.
Back at ringside, Vince spots Linda and growls “bitch” at her (twice, in case the camera missed it the first time). He looks like he’s about to get physical with Linda so Mick steps in and stops him. Former Commissioner Foley wheels Linda away from the ring so Vince hits him across the back with a chair, followed by one to the head!
Vince lifts Linda out of her chair and puts his catatonic wife in the ring as the fans loudly chant “asshole” at him.
He sits her in the corner of the ring on a steel chair and tells her to watch what he does to their only son!
He stands over Shane with a trash can in hand having already beaten him down with three others, prepared to hit his son in the head until suddenly Linda stands up! The fans absolutely explode - one of the loudest pops I’ve ever heard - and when Vince turns to face her eye to eye, Linda kicks Mr. McMahon straight in the infamous grapefruits!
Vince stumbles into a right hand and Mick Foley gets HIS revenge for those chair shots and the way he was treated in December when he was fired. Mick hammers Vince down in the corner and Shane places a trash can in front of his dad before climbing the opposite corner. In a spot that Shane would become famous for, for the first time in his career, goes coast to coast with a dropkick, driving the trash can into Vince’s face and THAT is enough to give the owner of WCW the victory.
A big happy ending for all as Trish, Linda, Mick and Shane all got their payback on Vince after months of abuse. Vince got what he deserved, but sadly this comeuppance wouldn’t last. This isn’t the end of Mr. McMahon tonight (ominous).
What’s missed a little bit is the implication that Trish has been playing along with Vince and working with both Shane and Linda for a few weeks, basically since the slop bucket incident. She must have stopped drugging her.
With the death of WCW, Vince McMahon was walking on air. His run as the evil boss in 1998 and 1999 helped bring the company to its peak but as his success ran away so did his ego. He was convinced he could do no wrong (he launched a restaurant and a football league, both of which tanked) which sadly gave us a much worse version of the evil boss on television.
He moved away from the two-faced selfish boss and included a healthy dose of sexual manipulation and gross perversion in his character. Somewhich which, as we’ve learned since, was a lot closer to who he was as a real person. The McMahon-a-mania was already getting a little tired by the end of 2000 but they doubled down and focused heavily on Vince and his kids for the rest of 2001. Vince didn’t go anywhere either and remained a mainstay on TV until 2007 with decreasing appearances after that.
We get some footage from WWF Axxess where Kevin Kelly interviewed Matt and Jeff Hardy during their autograph signing. Interestingly as much as I’ve talked about this being the peak and end of the Attitude era, it's almost like the people on the show knew the same thing. Matt and Jeff talk about finality, and how this might be the last time we see these three teams in TLC. It’s not quite but this is pretty much the end of this era of tag team wrestling. It is weird how in hindsight, everyone did seem to view this as a sort of “season finale”. Perhaps all the WCW stuff had everyone thinking that big changes are on the horizon? Kind of spooky really. Like they all knew the future.
Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWF Tag Team Championships
The Dudley Boyz © (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) vs. The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) vs. Edge and Christian
What is the build to this match? Well you could argue that having these three teams wrestle each other on TV almost every week for the better part of a year is plenty of build but in the weeks leading up to this show, all three teams held the titles. In fact, all three teams held the titles during a single episode of Raw! The Hardyz walked into the Match 19th edition of Raw as champions and lost the titles to Edge and Christian thanks to the debut of their new muscle, ECW’s Rhyno. They in turn lost the titles to The Dudley Boyz around an hour later thanks to another ECW alumni’s debut - Spike Dudley.
JR traces the origins of this match and these teams' rivalries all the way back to the first ever tag team ladder match at No Mercy 1999. He is right.
Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley debuted their new theme song last week. I don’t like it as much as their original instrumental only theme.
All six men start the match fighting it out in the ring and just like last year’s Triangle Ladder match and Summerslam’s TLC match, I’ll try to cover the big spots but I think will struggle to cover it all!
Edge and Christian introduce the ladder first, using it to clothesline both Dudleyz and Jeff Hardy before double teaming Matt Hardy in the corner.
The Dudleyz beat up Christian on the outside as Edge and Matt Hardy fight over who gets to climb the ladder first.
The Hardyz set up a pair of ladders in the ring and hit a pair of tandem dives, both landing on Christian.
It’s funny the way you can hear the crowd start to stir whenever a ladder is set up.
The Dudleyz pop the 65k in attendance with a Wazzup headbutt on Edge and get an even bigger pop for “getting the tables”.
In an awesome spot, with Edge laid on one table, Bubba powerbombs Jeff Hardy onto him, driving them both through the table.
At the bottom of the entrance ramp, Bubba and D-Von build a stack of four tables which you just know is a crash pad for someone later in the match.
With three ladders set up in the ring, all six men climb and scramble for the belts. Christian and Matt’s ladder tips over first, falling to the left. D-Von and Jeff’s goes next to the right and Bubba and Edge are last, knocking each other backwards on either side leaving just one ladder standing in the ring.
On the replay, Christian took an especially wild bump going from the ladder all the way to the floor outside the ring.
Edge starts to climb and that brings the third Dudley brother Spike to the ring. He runs up the ladder and gives Edge a running cutter, and then does the same to Christian going up and over the top rope and through a table on the outside!
Edge and Christian get some help next as the last ever ECW Champion Rhyno rushes the ring. He hits D-Von with a ladder, Spears Bubba and then finally Spears Matt Hardy through a table in the corner.
It looks like Rhyno has given Edge and Christian the win but Lita is there to make the save! She and Spike double team Rhyno and she gives the big man a hurricanrana and Spike hits him with a chair, knocking him into the ladder and knocking Edge off.
The Dudleyz take out Rhyno once and for all, and then Lita hits Spike with a stiff chairshot! She pulls off her top in victory but then turns into a 3D and that’s all three outside participants taken down.
Edge and Christian clear the ring with chair shots as on the outside, Jeff Hardy sets up a giant ladder on the outside. He climbs and dives, falling over 20 feet with a Swanton Bomb driving both Rhyno and Spike Dudley through a pair of tables. Poor Spike got the worst of it as Jeff landed with all his weight on the little guy and only just barely clipped Rhyno, not even breaking the table he was laid on.
Christian and D-Von climb for the title belts in the ring but Matt Hardy moves the ladder from under them leaving them both hanging from the belts above the ring! They kick each other free and fall to the mat.
Jeff tries an amazing tightrope walk across the top of three ladders but they lose their balanc and fall, ruining the spot. Apparently they all tried to talk him out of that during the day but he was sure he could pull it off.
Jeff does climb up and grab the belts but Christian pulls the ladder from under him leaving him dangling from the title belts. Edge takes his moment and dives off the giant ladder, spearing Jeff Hardy out of mid-air all the way to the mat.
Edge first did the “spear out of midair” spot to Jeff Hardy at the King of the Ring 1999 and has done it many times since from increasingly big heights. This was the pinnacle. It's a spot that shortened Edge’s career as he said afterwards that his head hit the mat first and he basically gave himself a stiff DDT.
Matt Hardy and D-Von climb the ladder but Rhyno is there to tip it over, sending them both crashing through the scaffolding of four tables at the bottom of the entrance ramp and from there, it's academic. Rhyno puts Chistian on his shoulders and physically helps Edge and Christian up the ladder to get the Tag Team title belts and Edge and Christian win their seventh (and final) WWF Tag Team Championship. They were already the record holders with six!
This is an incredible match, and an amazing spectacle on par with their previous efforts at Wrestlemania and Summerslam 2000. I’ve talked about it before but what these six men did in these matches fundamentally changed wrestling forever. It’s been 25 years and entire companies and thousands of wrestlers owe their style and careers to copying what these guys did in the early 2000s.
The Tag Team titles would decline after this. After a stint of being treated as props in feuds between warring main eventers, they’d be defended in lower and lower profile matches and held by less popular teams. By the mid-2000s, the Tag Team titles would be more or less worthless sadly. We’ll always have the TLC teams.
This year’s WWF Axxess is spotlighted. The high/low light is Stone Cold Steve Austin giving us about 60% of his “and that’s the bottom line” catchphrase.
Gimmick Battle Royal
Sgt. Slaughter, Kim Chee, Jim Cornette, Michael P.S. Hayes, Repo Man, Kamala (w/Harvey Whippleman), One Man Gang, Brother Love, Gobbledy Gooker, The Goon, Earthquake, Tugboat, Doink the Clown, Nikolai Volkoff, Duke Drose, The Iron Sheik, Hillbilly Jim, Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch
Paul Heyman, representing smark and jaded internet fans, has spent the weeks running up to this show bad mouthing the whole idea of gimmicks. Paul and JR are switched out on commentary for the returning Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “Mean” Gene Okerlund. Mean Gene was never a commentator but it’s nice to have this classic 80s duo for this match. It was made possible by the death of WCW releasing both of these men from their contracts.
I was right at the start when I was worried about sounds being dubbed - almost every theme song for this match was.
It’s impossible for me to call this - it's all about the entrances and letting the crowd see everyone.
It’s awkward on commentary as neither Heenan or Gene seem very prepared and are a little off their games but it's just nice to hear them and Heenan has a couple of good laughs.
Gene: “Ya gotta love this guy!”
Bobby: “Why?”
Little bit of trivia - the main inside the Gobbledy Gooker costume is Eddie’s older brother Hector Guerrero. If you include Chavo’s on screen appearance earlier then that means there were three Guerreros at this Wrestlemania!
Once the match begins, it's a lot of just standing and punching. They eliminate each other at a rapid pace. The winner is the only man who can’t bump over the top rope - Iron Sheik.
Sgt. Slaughter gets back in the ring and gives the evil Iranian a Cobra Clutch (another move that doesn’t involve a bump) so the Americans can cheer.
The Undertaker vs. Triple H
Motorhead played Triple H’s theme song live in the stadium. He’s only been using The Game for about four months at this point. Pretty cool. As it happens he’d have a live band performance the following year (Drowning Pool did a version of his theme live at Wrestlemania X8) and Motorhead again at Wrestlemania 21 in 2005.
Undertaker’s theme isn’t performed live this year, but Limp Bizkit did perform it live in 2003 (after he’d stopped using it). Rollin’ is still an awesome song though.
They waste no time and with Taker’s music still playing, he attacks The Game and the match begins on the outside with a brawl. They trade punches back and forth and Undertaker Rocks Triple H sending him onto the replacement Spanish announce desk which collapses.
JR mentions that here, Undertaker was 8 - 0 at Wrestlemania. The streak didn’t really become “a thing” until his feud with Randy Orton in 2005 but it's cool they mentioned it.
In the ring, Undertaker dominates The Game with more blows and a big back body drop. He crushes Triple H from corner to corner with clotheslines and then a running powerslam but misses the follow up elbow drop.
He shrugs that off and wrenches on Triple H’s arm and sets up his big axe handle from the top but Triple H whips him off the ropes with a big slam and peppers the American Badass with punches.
Triple H slows things right down with a swinging neck breaker and tries to grind Taker down but gets into a shoving match with the referee after a near fall. The distraction lets Taker come back with a series of punches to the body and an uppercut to the face.
Triple H shuts him back down with a facebuster off the knee and goes out to get his sledgehammer. The referee obviously stops him - it's not a no disqualification match - and as he’s in the corner getting rid of it Undertaker counters the Pedigree with a slingshot, crushing the referee in the corner.
Undertaker spikes Triple H with a chokeslam but the groggy referee is slow to count and The Game kicks out.
A frustrated Undertaker stomps on the referee’s head and then drops a big elbow across the back of his head. The referee is fully knocked out by that and lays face down in the ring unmoving for the next 12 minutes.
That does allow Triple H and Undertaker to take the brawl out into the crowd and wrestle this match as a street fight which is for the best.
They fight through the crowd and to the production area, fighting up the ladders and into the pit full of monitors and sound mixers. Its pretty cool as you can see the live PPV feed on the TVs around them as they fight and trade punches.
Triple H gets advantage with a steel chair to the head and then across the back. Triple H hammers on Undertaker’s prone body with chair shot after chair shot and stops to pose but waits too long as Taker stops him with a hand around the throat!
In an awesome looking spot, Undertaker chokeslams Triple H up and over the railing sending him disappearing out of shot. A literal chokeslam to hell!
It’s ruined a little when the camera angle changes and we can see the huge crash mat The Game landed on. Safe as houses. Obviously it had to be safe, they just shouldn’t have shown that replay.
Undertaker drops an elbow off the same platform as medical personnel try to tend to Triple H. Taker shoves them away and continues to punch at Triple H’s head, bringing him back through the crowd towards the ring.
Undertaker has confident control of this match and picks up Triple H’s sledgehammer. He’s going to make The Game pay for splitting his head open with it last week.
Triple H begs for mercy but saves himself with a low blow. He gets his hammer but runs into a big boot. They trade punches until Triple H tries a Tombstone of his own. As it does whenever literally anyone tries this, it backfires when Undertaker counters it into one of his own. A Tombstone should end it but there’s still no referee to count.
He sets up The Game up for a Last Ride Powerbomb, but as Triple H goes up he grabs his sledgehammer unknown to Undertaker. Up on his shoulders, he brings it down onto Undertaker’s head, busting him open and stopping the move!
The referee is finally back up and The Game covers but Undertaker kicks out!
Triple H tries to open Undertaker’s wound up more, hammering him with right hands and mounting him in the cover and that's his undoing as Undertaker grabs him and walks out of the corner with Triple H on his shoulders and drills him with a Last Ride to pick up the victory in a great brawl. Undertaker goes 9 - 0, even with blood running down his face.
I cannot emphasise the big fight feel for this one so here’s the most famous video package in wrestling history, complete with the walks to the ring, and the shock revelation that this is now a no disqualification match!
No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship
The Rock © vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
This was the biggest match of all time, with no hyperbole. This was the two biggest stars in wrestling history clashing in the main event of the biggest show in company history. It’s been said before but how insane it is that these two men were in their prime at the same time and in the same company.
Stone Cold gets a hero's welcome from his home state crowd but the usually ultra popular Rock gets some boos. It’s weird not getting a Rock pre-match promo. This is the first PPV in a very, very long time where we didn’t hear from The Rock at all during the show!
Austin throws the first punch, basically jumping The Rock during his entrance and immediately trying to use the WWF title belt as a weapon! The Rock ducks that but is caught with a Thez press and a pair of elbows. Austin is like a man possessed but The Rock rallies with a swinging neck breaker.
He goes for a very early Rock Bottom which is countered into a Stunner attempt but Rock spins out of that and Stone Cold sends him up and over the top rope to the floor.
The fight on the outside would seem to favour the Rattlesnake and they brawl into the crowd but Rocky turns the tables and brings the challenger back to ringside. Stone Cold bounces the champion's head off the announce desk and uses his knee brace as a weapon before taking it back into the ring and choking The Rock on the middle rope. Steve Austin is wrestling with purpose and intensity - he is being more vicious than usual, so desperate to win the WWF Championship.
He puts The Rock on the top rope and brings him down with a big superplex for another near fall before going to remove the turnbuckle cover. Austin exposes the steel bolt to use as a weapon but it costs him as it lets Rock recover a little and fight back with right hands and a big jumping clothesline and a belly to belly suplex off the ropes for his first near fall before clotheslining his challenger up and over the top rope.
They fight at the announce table and Rock gets into an argument with referee Earl Hebner. There’s a pretty funny behind the scenes moment here if you know what you’re looking for as Earl trips over the ringsteps and so Rock has to also pretend to trip so that he can subtly pick up the blade that Hebner dropped. He’ll need that ina minute. It’s fitting, considering how much I’ve complained about him constantly being in the way and stealing the spotlight, that the worst referee in wrestling history messes up a spot.
The Rock flails around on the announce desk which collapses under his weight. You can see Austin try not to laugh when it happens too! I wonder what spot they had planned for the table?
The Rock is bleeding after Stone Cold hit him with the ring bell but you can hardly see that so Austin opens him up a little more with some right hands. He said years later on his podcast that he wanted to make him bleed more for the purposes of this match but was aware that Rock had a movie to shoot and didn’t want to mark up his face too much. What a lovely guy.
Austin is dominating the WWF Champion, stomping him down in the corner and ignoring the referee to take full advantage of the no disqualification stipulation. Earl continually gets in the way anyway and physically tries to restrain Stone Cold. God I hate Earl Hebner. The Rock flies out of the corner with a big clothesline and fights back with more punches before bouncing Austin’s head off the exposed turnbuckle that he himself exposed!
The Rock goes to get the ring bell to use as a weapon and return the shot from earlier. He takes aim and with a big swinging shot Stone Cold is a bloody mess too! Both men soaked in their own blood but Austin kicked out from the bell shot which got a huge pop from the crowd. There was a lot of talk going into the show that one of these men was about to turn heel but amazingly the rumours that The Rock was about to leave to film a movie remained quiet enough that no one knew for sure he’d be dropping the title.
The Rock now dominates the bloody Rattlesnake inside the ring and out but Austin fights back again and slingshots The Rock head first into the ring post. Full credit to The Rock who was probably going to miss but made it look good anyway and like his head clattered off the post.
Austin continues the brutality and uses one of the announce desk monitors as a weapon to the head too.
JR and Heyman spend a lot of the match debating on who made this match no disqualification and why. It is indeed a mystery.
Austin reacts in disbelief after all these shots to the head with weapons don’t put The Rock away and he kicks out.
The Rock blocks a Stunner attempt and locks in the Sharpshooter! It’s one of his better looking versions too and with both men screaming with blood running down their faces, it’s an awesome looking spot. Austin gets to the ropes but in a no disqualification match that doesn’t break the hold so The Rock drags him back and sits down deep on it.! He finally breaks the hold when Austin gets to the ropes a second time.
Austin retaliates by locking in a Sharpshooter of his own and sits down deep on it too but The Rock actually powers out of it, not needing to use the ropes! Stone Cold goes right back to it and the crowd loudly boos when Rock gets to the ropes on the second one.
Austin locks in his original pre-Stone Cold finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream sleeper hold. He hasn’t used that in years! He grinds The Rock down who stops his arm from falling three times and fights out of it, kicking off the ropes and into a roll up but Austin barely kicks out!
I noticed here that both men keep noticeably looking up the entrance ramp. Maybe they’re checking out the match on the big screen or maybe they’re waiting for someone to appear? The Rock hits Stone Cold with his own move, dropping him with a Stunner but Austin kicks out!
With both men down, Mr. McMahon begins his strut to the ring. He’s showered in “asshole” chants as Heyman and JR argue about why he’s out here. Is it just to watch his two biggest stars?
Austin hits a spine buster and The Rock kicks out. Austin reacts in angry disbelief and runs into a spinebuster of his own. An exhausted, bloody Rock follows up with the People’s Elbow! He crawls into a cover and to everyone’s shock, Vince gets in the ring and pulls The Rock off the cover? The Rock chases Vince around the ring, following him into the ring and running right into a Rock Bottom! Austin covers but The Rock kicks out!
Austin goes for a Stunner but Rock shoves him off which knocks the referee out of the ring. Stone Cold gives The Rock a low blow and then in a moment no one can believe, he tells Vince McMahon to get him a steel chair! Vince does it and brings a chair into the ring. Stone Cold is giving Vince orders! He holds The Rock up and Vince cracks him in the head with a steel chair!
Stone Cold covers as Vince gets the referee back into the ring. He counts and The Rock kicks out! Austin can’t believe it and is in a fury! He grabs the steel chair but takes too long to aim it and Rock recovers and gives him a Rock Bottom! The Rock grabs Vince off the apron and drags him into the ring before turning into a Stone Cold Stunner! The Rock kicks out! Now Austin is pissed - his eyes wide in shock, he tells McMahon to hand him the chair and the Rattlesnake cracks The Rock in the face! He crawls into a cover and The Rock kicks out AGAIN! Stone Cold has had enough and he just HAMMERS The Rock with chair shot after chair shot after chair shot. He wears the WWF Champion out with sixteen chair shots to the body and THAT is finally enough to keep The Rock down. Stone Cold wins the WWF Championship and to everyone’s shock, had plenty of help from Mr. McMahon to do it.
The crowd is in a weird hushed silence as JR screams his disbelief - Stone Cold shakes hands with Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman has the call. “Stone Cold Steve Austin has sold his soul to the Devil himself!” Austin opens a beer and leaves it next to The Rock’s head (which I’m sure was a nice little out of character thing between two men who were very close friends in real life by this point) and actually shares a beer with McMahon over his fallen body. Stone Cold Steve Austin said that he needed to win the WWF title. He said he would do anything to once again be the WWF Champion and it would appear that he meant it. The Rock stumbles to his feet and so Stone Cold hits him with the WWF title belt as a parting shot. The biggest PPV of all time - and yes, the Attitude era itself - ends with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the biggest villain in wrestling, shaking hands with the devil himself and selling his soul for the WWF Championship.
It was a hell of a show. An incredible PPV with great matches from start to finish. Here’s the closing PPV recap
This is the end, and I’ll write plenty about WHY it's the end but in a nutshell - Stone Cold is a bad guy, and The Rock is about to disappear to Hollywood for the first time. It's a lot deeper than that but that’s the headline. It’s interesting that even though the company was at its peak financially and creatively and had literally just put all of its competition out of business, this really did feel like an ending. This show has real “end of the season” energy. You can see it on the show too. Everyone seems to know that things are about to dramatically change and this is the end of something just as much as it’s the beginning of something.
But enough big picture talk - this is an amazing PPV. TLC, Undertaker/Triple H, Angle/Benoit, the McMahon Street Fight, some fun undercard matches and yes, that main event. Probably the greatest Wrestlemania main event of all time at that point. It remains an amazing show even watching it now 20+ years later and really, that is the legacy of Wrestlemania X7.
I’ll write in detail about why this is the end of the Attitude era, and more about why this period in wrestling was so important (and so brilliant) but for now at least, goodbye and thanks for reading!
