Wrestlemania 18

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

This is my favorite Wrestlemania ever, only because I was there in attendence. I was 14 at the time, but I was still pretty smarkish back then.

 

Words can not describe the atmosphere for Rock/Hogan, it was surreal. I was one of the very few cheering for The Rock. But as a person who was in attendence though, I can say that the reason why HHH/Jericho didn't get much heat, was because we were all so burnt out from Rock/Hogan. Had the WWE put Rock/Hogan as the main event, and HHH/Jericho before it, I doubt the match would be as dead. My voice was pretty much done after The Rock/Hogan, but I still tried my darnest to cheer for Jericho.

 

Undertaker recieved the 2nd biggest pop of the night from the crowd. He was over huge with the Canadian crowd, I was quite suprised to. I figured Flair would get a lot more cheers then Taker. But then again it was Wrestlemania, which is Takers PPV. When Arn Anderson busted the Spinebuster, I went apeshit though.

[Promoter 0]

-Rock/Hogan is clearly the highlight match of the show. That and Arn Anderson's spinebuster though are clearly the only memorable moments of the night.

 

I've got to agree with this. I was never a fan of the Flair/Taker match and I actually thought Flair couldn't keep up with Taker in this one. Arn's run-in was great though and that was probably the most perfect spinebuster ever.

 

Also, the reasoning behind the WWE Executive Committe stripping Flair of power in the weeks leading up to this was stupid. They did it when he agreed to get into the ring, ignoring the fact that Vince was constantly getting into the ring. Not to mention the fact that Vince had just told everyone that he was going to "kill" his own company weeks earlier with the NWO. Anyone else remember this stupid storyline?

 

I thought that HHH/Jericho should have ended the show leading up to this, since it was the world title bout. After watching it though, I have to say that Rock/Hulk should have ended it. It was a special match that the fans were totally into. Like Warrior/Hogan. That's what should have ended Wrestlemania. No one gave a shit about the title match.

 

 

This was the wwf in its retarded hollywood phase that even Pat Patterson called them out on. Not to mention their attitude of we're better than wcw even if we own the company now mode. Hogan/Rock's challenge should have just ended with Rock rock bottoming Hogan. An audible should have been called with Hogan winning, but that would mean the nwo/wcw was better than the Attitude era Rock. To book Hogan's other Mania loss in TORONTO of all places was idiotic and showed the lack of historical perspective the creative team had. Hogan/Orndorff at the EX was the blueprint for Mania 3 with the large crowd. Hogan/Warrior was suppose to a passing of the torch and we know how that ended up. Hogan use to make front page news and tv news with his title defenses in Toronto. Then they went and book completely backwards in Hogan's RETURN wwf match.

 

The NWO storyline was stupid and Austin was to blame for that. Rumour had it that Austin/Hall was suppose to be the match that created the two brands, but Austin vetoed the idea because was suppose to job. I understood for various reasons besides the storyline why he did this, but it messed up the angle. Flair was going to save the wwf from the nwo takeover led by Vince. Tradition against revolution or something so from what I remember. Instead we got raw and smackdown brands. As for Flair/Taker the year before with HHH losing and the streak marketing took place you could tell Flair wasn't gonna win. Again, the wcw/wwf thing again. It was built as HHH against Steph which was a big reason for the lack of heat in that match imo. Completely ignoring Jericho as the one who injured HHH in the first place for those hollywood stunts(the marriage angle) was dumb. Toronto is a smark city.