WRESTLEMANIA X-7 vs. WRESTLEMANIA X-8?

[Guest Austin3164life]

Well, I'd have to agree with mostly everyone and say the Wrestlemania 17 was a much better show than 18. I was there in the SkyDome, and the only thing that made me feel like it was a Wrestlemania was the Rock vs. Hogan match and maybe Flair vs. Taker. Rock/Hogan sucked the crowd's energy dry, and Triple H/Jericho did nothing to quench the thirst. Lackluster show that is overwhelmingly overrated by one match that had a lot of crowd heat.

 

Wrestlemania 17, I, and about 20 other guys, was at my uncle's huge house and he has a big big screen so it seemed like Closed Circuit from the old days. Mania 17 was the pinnacle of the WWF throughout their entire history. The second Austin pinned The Rock's shoulders to the mat and the crowd exploded, the WWF was truly the Global Wrestling empire it claims that it is. The buildup for the match was excellent (despite the Debra thing), and you had two of the most important wrestlers in the WWF going at it. One thing I believe that made this match better than Rock/Hogan was obviously the quality of the workrate. Rock/Hogan was a pleasure trip and basically nostalgia grabbed the fans balls. Rock/Austin was a heated feud on its way to the climax, and the fans were just completely steaming at the Astrodome. Basically, the Austin/Rock match was the story of the Attitude era, and the story of Attitude's poster boy, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin had returned from 10 months of rehab to try and reclaim his #1 man status in the federation. The only thing left was for him to beat the resident top man for the World Title, The Rock. Rocky had grown to become an icon as well, and was a major, major obstacle for Austin to overcome. When they had first locked horns at 15, Rocky was the immature and arrogant heel who let his guard down to Austin. At 17, The Rock was a much more matured and more skilled wrestler, not to mention younger and more athletic than Austin, whereas Austin has the experience factor and he's a very crafty wrestler. In the beginning of the match, each men hit their signature moves and neither gains a true advantage. However, Austin began to realize that he cannot defeat the Rock with his usual arsenal, so he became nasty, cagey, crafty, and used every heel trick to win. The Rock, who has matured and become a lot better during Austin's absence, took everything Austin gave him and kicked out. So Austin goes for his ace in the hole, a Stunner. Nope. Rocky kicks out of that cleanly. Austin, clearly frustrated and showing shades of his psychotic tendancies, resorts to striking a deal with his most hated rival to win the WWF Title. Vince McMahon hands Austin the chair in which Austin basically kills the Rock to become the Champion. His heel tendencies are off the charts with his 20 chairshots of doom. Austin becomes so psychotically focused, he forsakes his hatred for the #1 heel of the 1998 Attitude era to beat The Rock. The crowd for this match was unbelievable, and as soon as Austin won, you could tell that the WWF had reached its ultimate climax.

 

Wrestlemania 17 is just lightyears ahead of 18. 18 was a one match show, whereas 17 had the legendary ME, the excellent technical mastery (Angle/Benoit), and the unbelievable TLC 2 spot fest.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

But Jericho had that....well, the friends he had probably weren't as smart as Nash and Michaels were....

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

No...

 

but his friends are ROCKSTARS!!!!!!

[Guest alfdogg]

Lackluster show that is overwhelmingly overrated by one match that had a lot of crowd heat.

I haven't read through this whole thread, but I don't think there's a line that can describe X-8 better than this one.

 

I also thought X-7 was better, but I'll have to get back to you on the match ratings part.

 

I never gave X-8 much of a chance anyway, for reasons that shouldn't be hard to figure out if you know me well.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I don't think it deserves a chance...

 

they set up every match with an a just plain old impossiblility of reaching ****

 

Great worker like Angle? Stick him with Kane

 

Jericho? Stick him with a stumbling slow and bad HHH.

 

Austin? Hall.

 

Rock? Hogan.

 

Edge and Booker? Fight over shampoo for 7 minutes on a 4 hour show.

 

Just pathetic booking.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

When I saw the topic, I instantly said out loud:

 

"This is a question?"

 

Skydome was dreary, and really didn't seem like it had as many people as they had. The dreariness was heightened by putting up the massive black curtain on both sides of the stage. I know they're probably comprable in size, but the Astrodome seems so much bigger on tape. The set for XVII was awesome, making the wrestlers look puny and having that awesome three-screen thing going on. Also, the name down the sides of the stage were great. The one at XVIII was following their trend of trying to change around and modify the screens, with that messed-up looking five rectangle screen thing going on. They also didn't bother using the full Skydome screen, since their aspect ratio can't be changed or something I guess. The XVII stage looked like a stage for a wrestling program, the XVIII stage was made for a concert, which brings me to my next point, extraneous goings-on.

 

XVII disappointed me by laying off the celebrities, but it ended up being special still. One actual musical performance, which was pretty good and made Trips look like a real superstar. Not to mention the band was on a seperate platform from the stage. XVIII had celebrities I guess, in the form of the damn bands they had there. It was bad enough they prefaced unrelated songs with "and now to tell the story of our Undisputed title match...". If they had kept the performing to a minimum, I wouldn't have minded, but it felt like(as I was watching it, not now) as if they were having the live band perform half of the themes. They weren't even really promoted to be there, besides each band having one of their songs be the "Wrestlemania theme song," another annoying trend that has been going on since last year's Summerslam I believe(They make pretty good songs as the themes, but I miss just generic music, and "Tear Away rules). But promotion always has a lot to do with Wrestlemanias, so onto promotion, in this case, the main events of each.

 

Rock/Austin: Screw any interpromotional plans they may have had back then, I would have taken Rock/Austin over any WCW/WWF match they could have come up with. It was promoted brilliantly, with "My Way" still bringing up images of the all-too-brief Rock/Austin feud coming up in mind. This was the first time they used a theme song for a show I think, and it was a good way to start the custom, because "My Way" rocks. They packed so much intensity into a six-week feud that it actually gives me a lump in my throat with how well it was built. Every stare-down, trading finishers on shows, Rock using his own stunner, Debra managing Rock, and finally a pull-apart brawl on the last Smackdown before the show. The two were just so huge at that time, that it was great seeing them go at it. And it was face/face to boot, thus making the crowd hot already for any kind of animosity between them. The sit-down interview between them was actually one of the sit-downs I enjoyed. To see them both act as if they really hate each other with every word was gold.

 

Now, the other main event... um, which one was the main event? We're led to believe the title match is supposed to be the main event, but damned if a first-time casual fan would've been able to tell that. Rock/Hogan was promoted out the yin-yang, and with good reason. It really was everything they said it was, Icon v. Icon. The shirts had their match on them, posters sold on the match, and so on. This would have made the promotion almost as good as Rock/Austin, BUT- it doesn't help when the actual buildup is awful. Rock annoys Hogan, Hogan kills Rock. You expect this on the second encounter maybe, but for two men who for storyline purposes have known each other only since the previous evening, it's doing way too much way too soon. An ambulance accident puts people out so they can go re-shoot movies, so Rock was gone for three quarters of the buildup, leaving Hogan to do nothing but cut promos and talk to cardboard figures. Still, despite all of this, it was the most anticipated match on the card, and even called the main event by the participants involved. The title match might have not happened that night and few would notice, since it was promoted so horrendously wrong(big challenger, little champion? Isn't it supposed to look the other way around?). The promotion of the XVIII main event(s) made them look like foregone conclusions on both sides. The XVII main event was made to look like either man could win.

 

Keep in mind this is all in the mind of the average fan, not our types. We all knew Rock was leaving, so Austin would win, and turn heel in the process.

 

The undercard on XVIII was just there. The matches were predictable as to who would win, and there weren't the requisite six weeks to build everything, so the undercard suffered. Some of the matches were put together a week away from the show if I'm not mistaken.

 

Time had everything to do with the XVII undercard. Time to make logical feuds and make them seem worthwhile. I can't think of any match on the card, besides the obvious gimmick battle royal, that didn't have some kind of story behind it, a REAL story. Shampoo feuds need not apply. Even Test/Guererro had a story behind it. The hardcore match had something going on! Benoit/Angle had a week to make something happen, but it didn't need longer to be good.

 

The actual quality of the undercard matches shows through when you think about all of that. XVIII's undercard was mediocre, XVII's would have been good on a normal show as the card itself, minus the Chyna and APA/RTC matches, which were still good because they had that payoff feeling about them...

 

That XVIII lacked. XVII had a "it's all coming together now" feeling about it, as things actually culminated at the show, instead of XVIII and it being simply the prelude to Hulkamania returning. See the Shane-O/Vinnie Mac match for a great example of this. So much came to a head in that match, and the faces triumphed over the evil Mr. McMahon, in spectacular fashion. Of course, a fancier name for this is "booking."

 

The booking for XVII was perfect on all fronts. The RTC was destroyed, Ivory got dragged by Chyna, The Radicalz conspired to beat Test, a guy much bigger than all of them, and those are just the lower card matches. The only real messed-up part of the evening was the ending of the main event, which is really the worst place it can be. That match had ***** written all over it until the ending, which knocked it down to only ****9/10 in my book. XVIII only had good booking in one match, that being Rock/Hogan. I know that all the right people went over in each show, but how they went over is a different story. XVII had the right people and right reasons/endings. XVIII just had the right people, with the possible exception of the Undertaker and definitely the right exception of Trips.

 

Wow effect: I came away from XVII feeling as if I'd just SEEN something. All I could do to describe it to people was say "It.. it... was... just great." Adjectives can't really express XVII in my mind. I kept telling people I wanted it to be Sunday night again all week. XVII was simply a slice of heaven for the wrestling fan. XVIII on the other hand, had me leaving with a rather disheartened feeling, as I was having a hard time paying attention to the title match. I just went to bed saying to myself "That was okay, I guess." Since then I admit it was a good show, but compared to the year before, well, you can't compare them. Rock/Hogan and Flair/UT were the only matches I could really be bothered to remember any details of the day after. I wonder if the crowd was the same.

 

The crowd... oh, the crowd. Houston gets props as one of the most jacked-up crowds ever. I'd probably still have ringing ears had I been in attendance. Toronto's crowd was a product of the promotion: hot for Rock/Hogan, only fairly interested in everything else.

 

Fun stuff: XVII broke THREE ringside tables, which must still be a record. Spanish table, replacement Spanish table, American table. Heyman doing commentary. THE BRAIN~! doing commentary. A crowd that seemed to be more smarks than Toronto. A camera on top of the Astrodome. A referee riding a golf cart driven by Kane. XVIII had Arn's AWESOME spinebuster that came out of absolutely nowhere and was maybe the coolest half-second in history. Shots from the CN Tower. More marks than Houston. Less big-name hometowners. XVII had Undertaker(from Houston itself) and Austin(from fifty-seventy miles away) as the hometown boys.

 

XVII is my favorite show ever and the best I've ever seen. I really don't care to see any of the older stuff(like the '89 Bash) because I really don't know what a good match is still. I just know what entertains me the most. Royal Rumble 2000 is my other favorite show ever, I just felt like throwing that in.

 

That was way too long, and I wonder if anyone will actually read it.

 

Bottom Line: XVII ruled, XVIII was still good, but not even close.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

 

(can we pretend this was my 1,500th post?)

[Guest Dames Edna]

In no way, shape, or formshould WM 18 be put above WM 17 as far as workrate. BUT, there was a vibe about WM 18, the whole show was electric, except for the anti-climatic Main Event. WM 17 was hot, but it didn't have the same feel. The obvious exception was the Rock/Austin match which was off the page. The crowd made the match 100% more exciting. I'd have to call it down the middle, because heck, its wrestlemania anyway you slice it.

[Guest candie45]

It really didn't feel like Wrestlemania at all. The matches kind of went on and I was just hoping that the event would turn out great. But, it didn't. I've heard repetitvely how it sounded like the crowd didn't react at all except Rock/Hogan. I agree with that somewhat because I really felt like we could be louder, but with the crap we were being fed why should it have been loud? I'm not a huge fan of gimmick matches, but I really felt like there should have been one on the card. Something... anything... even a spot fest. It was just a lackluster event... whereas I can watch X7 over and over and still get goosebumps when I watch the Austin/Rock match just from the tension in the arena and the My Way video package.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Do we have time for a MegaReply? I think we do! Because this is a real HOSS~! of a post, I can't be bothered to name who said what. Hopefully you'll remember if you posted one of these quotes:

 

I think the point was to make Rock look like Superman so when he came back he was more over then ever.

 

Yeah, except he was pinned by Rhyno and shortly afterwards by Stephanie McMahon only months later. The weird-ness of taking four chair shots and still kicking out was defying even wrestling physics and it wasn't consistant.

 

If they didn't do the chairshot shit at the end, I would have called it one of the best matches of the decade. I consider it an Honorable Mention instead.

 

the parodox of Austin using every heel trick he could while still getting ridiculous babyface heat from the crowd was what trully made the match interesting

 

No it didn't. It made it stupid. The crowd thought Vince had turned face. He was drinking beer with Austin even and the crowd didn't have JR's screaming and raving to get the point. If Vince had come down as suit-and-tie Mr McMahon, slid a chair or the belt into the ring, shoved the ref into the ring, and shook hands afterwards, the point would have been made. Instead, to the crowd it appeared that Vince had turned into an Austin mark.

 

18 was a ripoff

 

It wouldn't have been bad after a show like 15 but 17 brought back things that had been missing since X.

 

18's biggest problem was that many of the undercard matches felt like an overglorified Raw. Many feuds weren't really bound together that tight, and the matches were all Raw-quality.

 

I rate Rock/Hogan higher than Rock/Austin because of it's historical impact, stupid torch metaphors aside. It was the unimaginable come real.

 

I guess if all you care about is holds and workrate, and that's all you can ever see, then yeah Rock/Austin is the better match by far.

 

Both matches accurate represent the absolute peak of that year's angles. Rock/Austin was at good as the winding down Austin Kills Everyone could get, and Rock/Hogan is the epitome of the "let's acknowledge WCW and use their characters and icons" era before it.

 

And the Debra thing is a minus, because they went in booking it and then realized the fucked up. That's like saying Lucy The Dog was exuseable because she never appeared during the match.

 

Sure he should get that singles win over Austin...BUT he left for a few months right after...so it would have done no one any good

 

Yeah, and Austin is still around, so.. Oh. Wait.

 

And even if it doesn't do any of the talent any good, it sends the fans home happy and does business plenty good.

 

Taker punks out all new people...making it impossible for them to get to the point where they can carry the ball...

 

Funny. I remember Taker tag-teaming with John Cena and working an angle with him, as well as giving Randy Orton his only good match, as well as selling offense for the Hardys on multiple occasions. About three out of every five people here acknowledged at least one good thing Undertaker did during his title run.

 

When they had first locked horns at 15, Rocky was the immature and arrogant heel who let his guard down to Austin.

 

Sigh. I guess I liked the old cocky Rock better. I actually think the old Rock bumped around and sold a lot better than the current Showboat he's been replaced with.

 

I also fail to understand how the set or the size of the TV you were watching on effects the quality of the show. Please focus on the card, or else I'll be able to get away with saying that I'd rather listen to Saliva than Limp Bizkit. =b

 

See the Shane-O/Vinnie Mac match for a great example of this.

 

That match was Very Very Good for a McMahon match, and above average on a typical wrestler's scale, but isn't an overindulgence of McMahons one of the main gripes on this board? How does Vince drugging his wife and making Trish strip on live TV supposed to be a better buildup than Chris Jericho stepping in dogshit?

 

I'll agree with the "Feeling" thing, probably because I watched 17 with more people. However, the thing is we were incredibly cynical during 18. HHHate was at it's highest level, people felt Stephanie was booking herself into the main event, and were expecting her to win the title any day (and sure enough, a match was booked with Steph as a contender.)

 

The X8 thread, if you go look, barely has any posts compared to the average PPV or even SmackDown. Morale here was at an all-time low and it seemed like HHH was lording over everyone and everything at the time.

 

A crowd that seemed to be more smarks than Toronto

 

Buh?

 

More marks than Houston.

 

Buh again? People chanting "Rocky Sucks" are marks?

 

Aaaaaaaaanyway, sorry if this post sounds particularly bitchy or nit-picky. I haven't slept or eaten since 7AM yesterday, and if you pardon me, I think that I shall now COLLAPSE.

[Guest Vitamin X]

X-7 ABSOLUTELY. I was one of the original supporters of it when this argument originated in the Jay Bower full of shit post over yonder somewhere else in this folder, and stick to it even after reading through this entire thread.

 

One HUGE difference between X-7 and X-8? The buildup. X-8 was thrown together at the last minute, whereas X-7 only had one match that was thrown in at the last minute (Angle/Benoit, and really, WHO DIDN'T MIND THAT ONE? And the way it happened was wonderful..Angle comes out and whines "I'm a former WWF Champion and I don't even have an opponent at Wrestlemania!" Benoit's music hits and wham there's your match.)It's interesting to see the exact same wrestlers, and their improvements or deteoriation since the last year though. Look at Jericho and HHH... HHH was in full heel badass mode in x-7 and in x-8 he was carried to a good match by y2j, and for jericho that regal match was just...bleh. But all of the feuds and all of the matches had BUILDUP, everything at X-8 was jsut thrown together, much like this Summerslam is (where the hell did Edge/Guerrero come from?!)

[Guest converge241]

X7, pretty handily defeats X8

 

X7 had its down moments but they were kept in the middle. X8 kind of fell apart after hogan-Rock.. Jericho-HHH was good, but just anti-climatic.

[Guest Anglesault]

I use my Angle system.

 

WM X7

 

Vs Benoit, somewhat even match, with Benoit probably being a little better, great match, stupid, but well done ending.

 

WM X8

Vs. Kane. Angle had to carry his useless ass AGAIN. Good match, Kane fucked up the ending.

 

Mania X Seven.

[Guest TestKick]

X-7 easily, reasons stated in this post tenfold.

 

Angle-Kane was a pretty damn good match from BOTH competitors. I had it at **3/4, and would have been at least *** without the bullshit ending.

[Guest NazMistry]

Might as well add my opinion.

I can sit through the whole of X-7 without feeling the need to fast forward it.

With X-8 I fast forward all the way to Hogan-Rock and stop the tape after it finishes.

But Hogan-Rock is in my humble opinion the best thing from either shows. The crowd and the drama blows away anything I've ever seen.

[Guest BionicRedneck]

X-7 is easily better.

 

Benoit is the man in his match with Angle, The McMahons were...erm...interesting, the gimmick battle royal was funny, the Taker/HHH match was good (by their standards) the crowd was hot, Motorhead were there, and the Main Event was very good.

[Guest kingkamala]

I think that X8 could have been considerably better if they had:

 

a ) Put Rock and Hogan on last, because that match just drained us.

 

b ) Cut the live band performances and given more time to the matches.

 

c ) Had a better tag team match. Maybe TLC?

A and B I 100% agree with, but C I don't think a TLC match featuring the APA and Billy and Chuck wouldn't have been that good at all. Bradshaw and Farooq would be lumbering around the ring, Billy would get winded a minute into the match and Chuck doesn't seem to be the guy that would want to take sick bumps.

[Guest ManKinnd]

This question is ridiculous.

x7

Jericho/Regal - **1/2

RTC/Tazz+APA - 1/4*

Raven/Show/Kane - **1/2

Test/Eddy - ***

Angle/Benoit - ****1/2

Vince/Shane - ***1/2

TLC2 - *****

Taker/HHH - ***

Rock/Austin - ****3/4

 

x8

Regal/RVD - **3/4

DDP/Christian - **

Maven/Goldust - 1/4*

Angle/Kane - ***1/2

Taker/Flair - ***1/4

Booker/Edge - **

Hall/Austin - 1/2*

4-way Tag - 1/4*

Rock/Hogan - ****

Jazz/Lita/Trish - *

Jericho/HHH - *3/4

 

And for those who say WMX is better or even close, please consider that that show was 2 ***** matches surrounded by neverending SHIT. It was ***** DUD DUD DUD DUD DUD ***** DUD DUD DUD.

[Guest Bricks]

Another vote for X7. The big matches seemed like big matches and they all delivered which gives it the nod.

 

Austin vs Rock. The two biggest stars ever fighting for the Championship of the World.

 

Angle vs Benoit - Fighting over technical wrestling supremacy

 

Vince vs Shane - Asshole Father vs Son defending his Mother's honor.

 

'Taker vs HHH - HHH said he's beaten everyone at the top. The Deadman says otherwise (forgetting about that episode of SD when Angle hit him with the sledgehammer accidently)

 

TLC II - The match that was going to settle who was the best tag team of the past year. (of course they fought more afterwards, but at the time it felt like this was it)

[Guest TestKick]

This question is ridiculous.

x7

Jericho/Regal - **1/2

RTC/Tazz+APA - 1/4*

Raven/Show/Kane - **1/2

Test/Eddy - ***

Angle/Benoit - ****1/2

Vince/Shane - ***1/2

TLC2 - *****

Taker/HHH - ***

Rock/Austin - ****3/4

 

x8

Regal/RVD - **3/4

DDP/Christian - **

Maven/Goldust - 1/4*

Angle/Kane - ***1/2

Taker/Flair - ***1/4

Booker/Edge - **

Hall/Austin - 1/2*

4-way Tag - 1/4*

Rock/Hogan - ****

Jazz/Lita/Trish - *

Jericho/HHH - *3/4

 

And for those who say WMX is better or even close, please consider that that show was 2 ***** matches surrounded by neverending SHIT. It was ***** DUD DUD DUD DUD DUD ***** DUD DUD DUD.

Even I'll admit that Test/Eddy was nowhere near ***.

 

Vince/Shane ***1/2??

 

Rock/Hogan got the Canadian crowd involved, but the match was dogshit.

[Guest kingkamala]

And for those who say WMX is better or even close, please consider that that show was 2 ***** matches surrounded by neverending SHIT. It was ***** DUD DUD DUD DUD DUD ***** DUD DUD DUD.

(Using Vince McMahon announcing voice) HOLLLD UPP WAIT A MINUTE! First off yes there was some crap on WMX I'll admit that but nowhere near the amount your saying, M.O.M Vs The Quebecers was a pretty good tag match considering the participants(**-***) and Randy Savage Vs Crush was slightly ahead of its time I'd put it at **3/4. Even the mixed tag match was OK, In fact the only crap was Luger-Yoko, Adam Bomb-Earthquake and the Women's match and two out of three of those were quick. So I'll say Wrestlemania X is every bit as good as Wrestlemania 17 if not a wee bit better, cause WWF maintained it's excellence in PPV's afterwards cause King of the Ring and Summerslam 94 were both good PPVs. I'd say after 2000, 1994 was WWF's best year for PPV's but that's just my opinion

[Guest pochorenella]

I was there with my nephew for WM X-7 (they were limited sighting seats, but that doesn't matter) and it was the best damn show I've been to in my whole life. I marked out for EVERYTHING, and the pop for Austin was something unreal, it gave me goosebumps. Truly an unforgettable experience for an unforgettable show.

 

As for WM X-8 I was highly dissapointed with the card, and when I watched the show it was beyond my expectations, I'll give you that, but in no way, shape, or form it was even close to what X-7 was.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I said more marks than Houston because a true mark cheers the people they're most familiar with, and Hogan is recognizable to more people than The Rock probably. Ehh, whatever. It just seemed that way.

 

As for the McMahon match being a great example of buildup, it was kinda dull until Shane made it a WCW v. WWF pride-type match. It was also just great to see the heel womanizing bastard get his ass kicked by everyone, including the ref. Plus, it let us see the MAC-INATOR!!

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest goodhelmet]

Well...I too thought that the Backlash match was better (at least when I saw it...3 years ago)

 

But it too was no where near the Mania 17 match.

 

That match (not Rock/Hogan) had the feel of being the "biggest match ever"

 

Mania 18 from top to bottom...was a joke.

 

MAnia 17...had a great main event, a great Angle/Benoit match and everyone's favorite spotfest in the TLC match.

 

Throw in the soap operaness of the McMahon vs. McMahon match...

 

and that ppv had everything that embodies the WWF and it had it in spades.

 

Meanwhile...18 was a ripoff.

True that!!!! X-8 had one electric moment in Rock vs. Hogan. That's it! Even then, the actual match wasn't very good. The rest was filler and it was a show I had reservations and hopes for going in. If they would have given Edge vs. Booker and Regal vs. RVD time, MAYBE it would have been an ok event. As it stands, the PPV was all flash and no substance.

 

WM X-7 had three great matches and a bunch of filler. But those three matches were really good!!! Rock vs. Austin was superb. Benoit vs. Angle ruled the school. TLC was entertaining. PLus, it was the first time I didn't mind seeing Vince and Shane in the ring in what should have been the final blowoff to their feud.

 

I don't know if I would call either event the greatest of all time. I'm still searching for which PPV I think is the greatest. I know one thing for certain. It sure in the hell ain't WM X8. Hey maybe the greatest WWE DVD but that's being generous.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

My vote also goes to WM 17. The only match on WM 18 that holds my interest to this day is Flair/Taker (which IMO, kicked ass). Jericho/HHH was nothing special. They could've torn the house the down but it's Hunter so you know. Hogan/Rock was just bleh. I'm no Hogan mark so that aspect loses points with me.

 

WM 18 was pretty much trying to be the WM 3 of its time...it just didn't have a Savage/Steamboat to save its ass.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Im partial to X-7 because I got to see it with about 100 other people on a 61 inch big screen tv, so there was almost an atmosphere similar to at the dome where I was watching. I watched X-8 by myself, and except for the Hogan Rock match, I wasn't into it as much.

 

Anyway, both shows had problems, X-8 just had more. X-7's problems were mainly the 6 man, which wasn't a bad match, but compared to everything else, it felt like a RAW match. Of course the Women's match also sucked, but if you're gonna have a squash match at WM, I guess if its a women's match its not that bad. I actually liked the gimmick battle royal, but we all really know it was a bathroom break match.

The Hardcore match was funny enough to be entertaining.

 

X-8 on the other hand, ugh. Maven and Golddust was similar to the 6 man at X-7, except it felt more like a HEAT match and not even a RAW match. The Tag Match drug on too long, but it wasn't that bad of a match. Drowning Pool should have sung the song telling the story about the Main Event right before the match instead of singing the song so early into the show. (Move the women's title match to the song's slot and the song to the women's title match) The Women's title match was the worst booking position of a match I remember for a PPV, even though the WWE probably had no way of knowing how much crowd reaction the Hogan Rock match would get. The Women's match just took the crowd out the same as the Hogan Rock match got the crowd in it, and the Main Event suffered a lot crowd reaction wise because of it.

 

Overall, X-7 is definitely the best PPV the WWE has put on in a long time , and X-8 was pretty much average, although its probably the best PPV the WWE has put on this year.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

In regards to Wrestlemania X:

 

Despite all of it's flaws (and there were lots) it had the Best WWF match of all time and the match that would eventually develope an entire sub-genre of matches that had a profound influence on wrestling. On top of that, the booking with Bret Hart was tremendous, as he was finally given the WWF Title after over a year of screwiness, and was given an instantly-hot feud with Owen as his challenger after lossing to him. Just great booking there, as Bret went into the title match looking like the underdog but overcame adversity and won, but still had to worry about Owen chasing him. I don't know if that makes this Wrestlemania the best, but it's definitely one of the most important.

[Guest Kingpk]

Looks like you're not finding much company here Jay.

 

You can see my thoughts on X-7 on SmarkTalk (link in sig), but X-8 was full of matches that didn't really mean anything and were pretty dull. Taker-Flair was too long, the women's match (which was decent) got buried after Rock-Hogan (which SUCKED).

 

I really can't see how anyone can call X-8 the better show.

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

I love the politeness of this thread. If it had been started by anyone else, they'd have been flamed.

 

I mean, seriously, X8 better than X7??

 

X8 isn't even in the top 10 PPV's let alone the top two. The good reaction to Rock-Hogan and a passable Flair-Taker match does not make a great PPV.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

I love the politeness of this thread. If it had been started by anyone else, they'd have been flamed.

More so because Jay didn't start the thread saying "WMX8 was better than X-7 you fucking losers! I'm right and you're wrong!". He gave his (very very very very detailed) points and let us have our way.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

This thread has been suspiciously civil. Especially considering a fair amount of internet fans agree that X-7 is the best show ever.

 

I think X-8 has a lot of trouble stacking up against MOST PPV's from 2001 and heck even Wrestlemania 2000. When Angle vs. Kane was one of your top matches in terms of workrate then you're PPV is in trouble.