Grilling JR - WrestleMania 2000 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

WrestleMania 2000 (16)

WrestleMania 2000 (16) took place on April 2nd at the Pond, in Anaheim, California, which was the same building that held WrestleMania 12, in 1996. It drew 18,034 (announced on TV as 19,776), which was 16,716 paid with a live gate of $1,347,800. It had a 2.08 buy rate.

The merchandise figure of $277,125 set what is believed to be an all-time U.S. record of $19.98 per head, breaking the $17.41 per head (based on paid attendance) record set at the Fleet Center in Boston for WrestleMania XIV. The live gate was the fourth highest in the history of American wrestling, trailing only WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome ($1,599,000), WrestleMania V at Trump Plaza ($1,628,000) and WrestleMania 15 ($1,438,050) at the First Union Center in Philadelphia.

We're coming off of the No Way Out pay per view, where Triple H defeated Mick Foley in a Hell in a Cell match and because of the stipulations of the match, Foley had to retire. That retirement wouldn't last long, which we'll get to later.

This wasn't the most memorable or talked about WrestleMania in history. 2000 was a great year in the company, a lot of memorable things happened, but WrestleMania wasn't really among them. Why do you think that is?

It's been rumored that WWF tried to get the rights to the song California Love, which was sung by the late Tupac Shakur, but his estate wouldn't give the WWF the rights to the song, so WWF song producer, Jim Johnston created a song that was very similar sounding to California Love.  Is that true?

The big news heading into the event was the absents of the Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Both of whom were out with injuries. However, WrestleMania 2000 was the WrestleMania debuts of Edge, Christian, Eddie Guerrero, Jeff Hardy, 

Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit.

Let's get to some company news heading into WrestleMania 16.

February 1999 vs February 2000

Estimated average attendance 2/99 14,082

Estimated average attendance 2/00 11,842 (-15.9%)

January 2000 11,801

Estimated average gate 2/99 $302,862

Estimated average gate 2/00 $321,816 (+6.3%)

January 2000 $316,259

Percentage of house shows sold out 2/99 68.8

Percentage of house shows sold out 2/00 68.4

January 2000 60.0

Average Monday night rating 2/99 5.72

Average Monday night rating 2/00 5.80* (+1.4%)

January 2000 6.46*

March 1999 vs March 2000

Estimated average attendance 3/99 13,404

Estimated average attendance 3/00 11,894 (-11.3%)

February 2000 11,842

Estimated average gate 3/99 $297,030

Estimated average gate 3/00 $316,296 (+6.5%)

February 2000 $321,816

Percentage of house shows sold out 3/99 85.7

Percentage of house shows sold out 3/00 43.8

February 2000 68.4

Average Monday night rating 3/99 6.31

Average Monday night rating 3/00 6.39* (+1.3%)

February 2000 5.80*

Around this time the movie Beyond the Mat was released. Even though Vince granted them access and even was interviewed for it, it's been said he wasn't the biggest fan of it, and even tried to basically bury the movie.

The movie, in its limited release of 298 theaters drew approximately $950,000 for a $3,188 per screen average which was considered a respectable first weekend. It ranked No. 19 in the first weekend which is solid considering it debuted in such a limited number of theaters.

What's your memories of the movie, and why did Vince initially participate in it, but then turned against it so fast?

Meltzer wrote of that - 

McMahon was mad that they were advertising it as "The Movie Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see," claiming he didn't care if people saw it or not. However, by refusing to sell ads for the movie, and by having Byrne call it "boring" and a "snoozefest," the combination of the two would make that statement fair advertising.

McMahon complained that Blaustein changed the nature of the documentary several times, which is true, as anyone who followed the making of the movie from the start here in this newsletter would know. Ideas were batted around to simply explain to the public what pro wrestling really was and why he liked it, but that was nixed because there was so much media pub where every inside secret came out over the next few years which rendered that idea useless. There were ideas to follow a young wrestler, among the possible names were Matt Hyson (Spike Dudley) and Tony Jones, in their attempt to make it with a big organization, but those didn't pan out either.

McMahon complained that Foley wasn't going to make any money on the movie and he resented them using his intellectual property in a money making venture, but in reality all of this was the deal agreed upon from the start. At the time, it wasn't as if people were beating down the WWF's doors looking to make documentaries with their characters, and the deal was no different than the deal WWF made and later regretted with High Road Productions with "Wrestling with Shadows" (which Bret Hart and the WWF didn't make any money from as per the agreed upon deal because if they had, as if they had in this film, the credibility of the film would have been destroyed).

The 3/20 New York Times ran a story on Lions Gate's claim that they had a signed contract with the WWF for advertising within the body of their programs for the movie. Jim Byrne of the WWF countered saying that it is common practice in television to reject ads even if contracts had just been signed, mentioning the WWF's Super Bowl ad that was rejected (although that's misleading because the WWF wasn't banned from advertising on the Super Bowl, a specific ad was nixed due to a content issue, other WWF ads ran on the show, and they could have put a new ad in its place had they chosen to).

Byrne said because something like that is common, nobody would publicize it unless they were doing so to promote the movie (and of course creating a controversy about the ad was done in some part to promote the movie), apparently forgetting that the WWF itself heavily publicized the fact its commercial was nixed.

The story quotes said that Ron Howard, whose Imagine Entertainment funded the movie, said he believes McMahon had two motives. After his attempt to invest into the movie was rejected, he wanted to make sure nobody had success with a pro wrestling project that wasn't backed by the WWF and "he is just trying to prove his point to shut down the film." But Howard also said he believes McMahon objects to the way the wrestlers are presented as real people as opposed to cartoon characters.

While McMahon, who claimed on WWF.com that he didn't want to talk publicly on this subject except to WWF.com, had already done an interview with the Los Angeles Times, saying the company felt cheated they have no equity in the movie. Byrne, however, stated the WWF didn't have an interest in the movie after it was finished and that once McMahon saw it, he would have backed out of the project anyway. This makes no sense, if that's the case, to be complaining so much about not being able to buy in, as well as it makes no sense with the time line of what happened.

CNN's Larry King Live on 3/17 ran a full hour on the movie with Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Blaustein and Foley (who just two days before the taping was given the okay to do it by McMahon, thereby causing the King folks to eliminate both Ric Flair and Terry Funk from the show).

Foley was the perfect representative for the WWF. While many question his decisions and his future, he unabashedly feels he went in knowing the consequences of all his actions in the ring, most of what he did that was dangerous he came up with on his own, and he got to live out his childhood dream and got to perform before a larger audience and become a bigger star than even he ever imagined he could. Not to mention all the people in power along the way he pegged him as being doomed to be a mid-carder who would never make serious money and wind up in a wheelchair by his 30th birthday.

On the most telling scene in the movie, Foley explained it by saying his kids were actually fine a few minutes later, but he recognized it was a mistake to have them at ringside for that particular match and Blaustein pointed out Foley is a great father.

In early March, the New York Daily News ran a 3 part story on professional wrestling.  The first part talked about the popularity of wrestling and the 2nd part talked about the drugs in wrestling.

Meltzer wrote - It started with a story about the late Brian Pillman, with quotes from his wife, Melanie King, talking about his use of steroids, HGH and pain killers as a wrestler before his death (cocaine was not mentioned in the article as a contributory cause of his heart attack).

This led to an article on Indianapolis physician Dr. Joel Hackett, a friend of Pillman's, calling him one of the most dangerous threats to the wrestling industry, whose prescribed drugs were found next to the bodies of both Pillman and Lou Mucciolo (Louie Spicolli) at the time of their deaths.

Vince McMahon was quoted in the article claiming that Pillman was tested for drugs before his death and he came up negative. Pillman told me shortly after taking the test that what would come up were dosages, and not extreme levels, of numerous pain killers he was taking. Later it came out he did not have extreme levels of any pain killers in the test although he did have levels of many, but that he also tested positive for nandralone (anabolic steroid decadurabolin). 

Pillman was unhappy, to the point of nearly quitting the company, over being singled out for a test at the time claiming he had never gone on camera too loaded to perform, unlike one of the WWF's biggest stars at the time who had a reputation for doing so frequently but was never tested, and that another major star passed out on an airplane to where the situation was very scary and also was never tested. 

He was never punished or suspended for the positive test result, perhaps because he claimed that the steroid was something he'd taken months in the past (and on occasion, nandralone can show up in a test months after use). He died about a month later. 

By this point, WWF had given up drug testing as a regular thing for 11 months, but because there were so many people in the organization questioning Pillman's behavior, which by this point had gone off the deep end, Jim Ross ordered Pillman to be tested.

The story listed Tony Norris (Ahmed Johnson, Big T) as having flown to Indianapolis for pain killers and steroids prescribed illegally by Hackett. Norris acknowledged once having a drug problem, but claimed in the article that finding religion made him conquer the problem. It also listed Del Wilkes (The Patriot) as someone Hackett repeatedly prescribed large doses for with Hackett's knowledge Wilkes was distributing them illegally. 

Wilkes, whose pro wrestling career ended in 1997 after continual tricep tears, one while working in Japan and a second, that ended his career, while in the WWF. He was later arrested in both 1998 and 1999 for forging prescriptions for hydrocodone, a codeine like drug. Wilkes of late has been shopping around the idea of a book that would reveal from an insider perspective the real drug situation within pro wrestling.

Hackett refused to talk to the paper because he has an impending hearing regarding having his medical license pulled, but his attorney, David Hamilton, claimed a series of letters put the onus of blame on the WWF. Hackett complained to the WWF that he saw one wrestler buy 10 somas from another for $100 and charged another with selling painkillers in the dressing room. Hackett claimed the WWF barred him from contact with its performers and notified authorities about him in response. 

The actual banning of Hackett, along with other known drug doctors, from the dressing rooms, came almost immediately after the death of Pillman. While Hackett was considered the most dangerous within the WWF, which should have already learned its lessons about doctors dispensing drugs in dressing rooms from all the problems stemming from the Dr. George Zahorian trial in 1991, he was not singled out, so his story as to why he was banned from the dressing rooms, including claims not made in this story but made elsewhere that he was being singled out because he was black, holds no credence.

WWF performers, against the company's directive, continued to provide Hackett with comp tickets to matches and remained in contact with him long after the letter to performers telling them to avoid contact. Even as late at SuperBrawl 1998, just one week after the death of Spicolli, when Hackett's name within wrestling was "hot" because it was known he had prescribed the large amount of drugs found near Spicolli at the time of his death, Hackett was flown into San Francisco by a major WCW name.

Spicolli often carried and as reported by his sister last year on the ESPN "Outside the Lines" special, went to Tijuana as well to purchase drugs for bigger stars, which, scarily, may have been, and probably was, more direct a reason that he was getting a push at the time of his death than his in-ring ability. The story also noted the deaths of Bobby Duncum Jr. and Rick Rood, along with at least hinting at the problems of Chris Candito and Tammy Sytch.

McMahon in the article claimed the WWF is cleaner than "anything else in the entertainment industry," which is clearly a joke. With the possible exception of rock stars, who also have a high preponderance of drug deaths, and race car drivers, (and not mentioning pro bodybuilders whose death rate may very well be as high or higher) whose deaths are rarely drug related, I've never seen a study of them indicating the death rates in those professions is at the same level as with pro wrestlers. 

McMahon in the article claimed "We've got zero to hide here," but his company and WCW's avoidance of the state of Oregon, the only statement that requires an annual drug screening, is a contradiction of that statement. Oregon doesn't require steroids to be screened for, so realistically the steroid issue in any argument for staying out of Oregon (which neither company can publicly say either since use, not truly discouraged, is illegal) is a false argument to begin with. 

Around this time, the WWF released their quarterly report: 

At the end of the quarter (1/28), the WWF had $243 million in cash assets, made up of $172 million coming from the IPO and the other $71 million in accrued profits over the 18 years the company has been in operation. 

The biggest reason why the gross revenue was up from $65.2 million to $98.4 million in comparing the third quarters was a $12.1 million increase in television advertising revenue, almost all due to the implementation of Smackdown. They also increased $5.8 million in live event grosses by increasing ticket prices 20% across the board to a $28 average. Attendance was steady, but because ticket prices were jacked up as compared with one year ago, there was an increase. There was a slight increase in PPV revenue. 

There was a huge increase in licensed merchandise revenue from $18.9 million last year at this time to $32.5 million. They tripled online revenue both based on more advertising money coming in, and more e-commerce, and with the implementation of now 12 internet sites, they doubled total hits and more than tripled page views. The company's overall pre-tax profit for the quarter was $25,857,000 and net profit after estimated taxes was $15,721,000, basically meaning it earned 23 cents per share profit, well above estimates of 18 cents 

Meltzer reported - Davey Boy Smith is back in rehab for excessive use of pain killers, sleeping pills, morphine and muscle relaxers. He'll be using the same clinic Steve Regal used in Atlanta and be at the clinic for at least three to four months. He was promised to have a job waiting for him when he returns, but if he doesn't complete the treatment, he'll be fired. While the WWF tries to keep things like this somewhat confidential, this was trumpeted in the Calgary Sun and later in the other Sun chain papers complete with the news that McMahon is paying $75,000 for the rehab.  

Bret over the years has questioned Vince's motives for this at the time. In fact, he wrote in the Calgary Sun saying he hopes Smith's attempt at rehab is successful. He said McMahon's actions appear to be commendable on the surface and said in his opinion, "that in itself is the sole motivation behind McMahon's apparent sudden bout of charitable conscience

He finished by writing "McMahon is free to prove me wrong by instituting a new WWF policy to rehab any wrestler with a drug problem, even when it doesn't serve his political agenda anymore. I'd be the first one to applaud it."

This is less than a year after Owen Hart's tragic death. He brought Bulldog back a few months later & also rehired Jim Neidhart not long after

Do you think Vince did that to get them on his side or do you think he really trying to help them out?

Meltzer reported - Steve Austin is wearing a soft neck collar most of the time. His movement is limited to doing a lot of walking and he's as of yet not allowed to lift weights. The plan is for him to debut at Wrestlemania, but in a very limited role. Vince McMahon is supposed to start on television a few weeks before Mania which may be part of an angle to reintroduce Austin. Mick Foley will be at Mania of course. A lot of ideas have been thrown out, including one where he doesn't appear on television at all, but it will be hyped that he'll return to give a farewell address at the show 

Talk about how Steve was doing at this time, was there serious consideration that he'd be at WrestleMania? Was he considering retiring?

Meltzer reported - Vince McMahon has been away from work for much of the past week due to being in Phoenix for the jury trial in Jim Hellwig's lawsuit against him and the company. I believe the case was settled out of court on 3/3 before both sides risked the jury decision and if that's the case involving WWF, there may have been a secrecy agreement since there has been no publicity out on it 

He reported the next week - The Jim Hellwig lawsuit against WWF claiming breach of service marks, unauthorized use of servicemarks and trademarks (in particular using the phrase "Always believe" in merchandise which Hellwig had come up with) as well as defamation of character (for going on television and saying Hellwig was suspended for no-showing dates) as well as WWF's lawsuit against Hellwig (to keep Hellwig from using the names Warrior or Ultimate Warrior in any business endeavors in the future) were both settled out of court on 3/3 in the middle of the Arizona lawsuit with Hellwig as the plaintiff. Terms of the settlement were kept confidential 

Some huge company news happened at the beginning of March, the WWF decided to leave the USA network after around 15 years of being on that station.

Meltzer reported - WWF officially gave notice to the USA Network on 3/1 that it is cancelling its contract with them effective in September when the new TV season starts. This isn't necessarily as big as it sounds, but most feel it is bigger. The WWF's deal for Raw, Livewire and Superstars expired in September 2001, but WWF has the right to get out of the deal in September 2000 by giving the network six months notice and USA Network has the right to match any offer. The Heat contract expires in September 2000 so they don't have to give notice on the show.

This enables them to officially begin shopping the cable package around to other buyers, but doesn't necessarily mean they'll be leaving the USA network.

Based on posturing and media reports, it appears CBS/Viacom is willing to make a huge move, backed up by buying a $100 million equity interest in the company. This also should result in propping up the disappointing stock performance with the added money put in and added exposure being part of the huge Viacom family will bring when it comes to cross-promotional opportunities. At this point, a potential merger of CBS and UPN is on the drawing board but has yet to be approved by the FCC and there is a monkey wrench in the works as it regards Chris-Craft Industries.

If CBS and UPN become under the same umbrella owned by Viacom, the rumored deal goes through, it would give CBS total rights to WWF programming in the United States as well as the XFL, which it is believed would air on Sunday afternoons on UPN. If not, it's doubtful CBS on its own would be willing to pay that kind of money simply for a cable package, when it wouldn't even have exclusivity of the product. The money CBS would pay WWFE for the equity stock interest would cover the estimated league start-up costs. 

Raw would eventually go to TNN in 2000. Paul Heyman in a memorable promo on ECW TV said that TNN gave Vince 100 million dollars for it. What's your memories of all of that?

The Village Voice for 3/14 had a brief item about Bob Backlund and his run for the U.S. House of Representatives. According to his January filing with the Federal Election Commission, Backlund had only raised $38,874 for his campaign, more than 90 percent of the income coming from unitemized donations (t-shirts and photos). Backlund since September had spent $10,000 just to make the t-shirts. The paper noted a campaign violation, Backlund making mostly cash transactions, never handing out receipts and only asking for names when it means personalizing photos. According to law, anonymous contributions are limited to $50 and the Voice stated, "Jockbeat recommends he take a look at `Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees' available from the FEC's web site before the feds smack him down."

They also noted Backlund's business cards state, "I will increase my ability to READ. 

Meltzer reported- The WWF Times Square Restaurant is expected to turn into a late-night early-morning night club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It was pretty obvious to anyone who has been at the club of late that it was designed for this, but the night club format is expected to debut within the month. To appeal to non-wrestling fans, the night club part of the Restaurant is expected to tone down its WWF tie-in. Aside from a WWF logo on the carpets, there will be no WWF memorabilia. 

The Restaurant is usually packed on Mondays and Thursdays with people watching the TV shows so the feeling is there is a built-in audience already there. According to a New York Post story, the restaurant has been successful during special events and for lunch and dinner during periods when school is out, it has not done well during late night hours even though as many as 10,000 people an hour walk by the place due to its Time Square location. The adjacent retail store for WWF merchandise is apparently doing tremendous business, with them predicting $10 million in sales at the location during the year. 

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has publicly come out against the new club because the WWF was going to open it up to 18-year-olds. New York Magazine claimed Giuliani's people have warned the WWF that at the first sign of bad behavior, "we're going to bust you from A to Z and back again. 

Did you keep tabs on WCW during this time? In April, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo were basically put in charge. What was your thoughts on that, and did you think it had any chance of working?

Meltzer reported - Vince McMahon came out publicly in favor of regulation of so-called "extreme wrestling" in New Jersey. Assembly Minority Leader Joseph Doria, who is also the mayor of Bayonne, was originally going to introduce a bill 

on 3/27 that would ban anyone under the age of 19 from attending the shows and would allow local communities to ban the shows completely if they so desired, but wording as to what exactly constitutes extreme wrestling and first amendment concerns as well as the legislature shutting down will keep the bill from being finalized and introduced until May. Governor Christine Whitman indicated support of the bill.

Even though the bill is to regulate what is called "extreme wrestling," the bill is trying to be worded where it would not affect WWF or WCW, and ECW is of course attempting at getting itself in that category even though its name seemingly implies semantically to being what the bill is all about.

"We want nothing to do with them (promotions such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling, whose shows in Bayonne that Doria was unable to shut down prompted this issue, and ironically, which, in a few weeks is featuring many WWF stars as part of an autograph show in conjunction with its next major show)," said Steve Karel of ECW to Strictly ECW.com. "We're a fully accredited wrestling company like WWF and WCW, and don't want to be associated with those groups."

Extreme wrestling, in the AP article attempting to differentiate it from pro wrestling, stated that extreme wrestling attempts to draw blood and cause bodily injury resulting in maiming one's opponent, whatever that is meant to mean.

McMahon stated, "Extreme wrestling is a profoundly disturbing trend which has no other objective but to cause serious injury to an opponent in an effort to annihilate them. We share the Governor's concern that young people could be exposed to such a horrible spectacle as extreme wrestling. Extreme wrestling has no relation whatsoever to World Wrestling Federation's entertainment programming and the bill differentiates it as such. At the WWF, every effort is made by the athletes--who are trained professionals, unlike the local amateurs of extreme wrestling--not to cause harm to themselves or their opponent in our ongoing weekly action adventure series."

"I support regulation as long as it's fair," said ECW owner Paul Heyman, whose company is expected to be bypassed by the bill as well even with the name being a bullseye. "It's a necessary evil as without it you have people who are unqualified participating and someone may drop dead in the ring. It's too dangerous in today's environment (not to have regulation). A fair commission is to the benefit of the promoter, wrestler and consumer."

It appears at this point that the children 18-and-under provision for attendance may be modified to only ban children 18-and-under without a parent from attending and extreme wrestling would be put under the athletic commission jurisdiction but pro wrestling would not. The NBC affiliate in New York when reporting on this actually ran a clip of a Royce Gracie vs. Gerard Gordeau match from the first UFC in Denver in 1993 and billed it as a clip of an extreme wrestling show that took place in 1999 in New Jersey. 

That takes us to WrestleMania 16 – Lilian Garcia sung the Star Spangled Banner

Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan beat Godfather & D-Lo Brown in 9:05. Ice T came out and delivered the new rap into for Godfather, which seemed like it was longer than the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels WrestleMania match. Anyway, never have I been so impressed with the rap talent of Konnan than after that performance. Crowd was dead. Buchanan looked really good, but few probably noticed. At one point he jumped all the way to the top rope to come off with an elbow drive, which is impressive for a guy who is probably a legit 6-6. At one point a mistimed clothesline hit the ref, who made it worse by not selling it, since it wasn't supposed to happen. Brown did deliver a Frankensteiner off the top on Buchanan. Lots of mistimed spots as the match worse on. Finally Bossman delivered the Bossman slam on Brown, and Buchanan followed with a legdrop off the top rope. The fans did ooh for the finish because the agility of Buchanan on the move was impressive. 1/4* 

Bob Holly wound up as holding the prestigious Hardcore title, that changed hands ten times in the 15:00 long 13-man free for all over Crash Holly, Tazz, Viscera, Rodney, Pete Gas, Joey Abs, Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Head Bangers and Acolytes. The match had little heat and you can only watch so much of broiler pan, road sign and garbage can lid shots, some of which were really stiff and resulted in some legitimate lumps on people's noggins later that day, and some of which looked like backyard play wrestling, without it being redundant, even with Crash and Gas doing major league blade jobs and the frequent falls. Tazz got the title first pinning Crash after a suplex in :26. 

Viscera then got the title pinning Tazz with a powerslam after smashing his back on the post in 1:00. Posse was delivering weak object spots on Viscera. O'Grady bladed big time. It was funny because the cameras for several minutes shied away from airing his face, when the whole idea is that this is a TV production. Gas bladed as well. The Acolytes slammed Viscera off the top and Faarooq hit him with some 2x4 shots, followed by Bradshaw doing a shoulderblock off the rope before both Taka & Funaki jumped on him at 7:51 for the pin. 

I figured they were watching WCW and thus both men would be hardcore champion for the next minute, but instead it was just Funaki, who ran backstage, I guess figuring, like Darva, he didn't really want to win. 

Rodney pinned him backstage in 8:11. Abs pinned Rodney after a side salto in 8:24. Mosh pinned Abs in 8:46. Gas got his second championship reign, and people say titles aren't important anymore, pinning Mosh after a fire extinguisher shot in 9:29. Tazz suplexed Gars on the floor and Bob Holly broke up the pin. I guess Bob wasn't supposed to because Tazz didn't sell the break up and the ref kept counting, so Tazz got the title in 10:17. 

Crash Holly got it back pinning Tazz in 14:20 after two broiler pan shots. Taz immediately got the choke on Crash and it looked as if they were going to do a finish where Crash would go out but keep the title on the time limit expiring. Just before that, Bob came in and hit Crash with a glass cookie jar and covered him. Ref Tim White counted to two, Crash may have rolled his shoulder but definitely didn't kick out, and the bell rang. 

The announcers acted as if Crash won because that would be the logical conclusion. It was then announced that somehow Bob actually pinned him. 

We don't have complete details as to what happened, other than Bob was supposed to win based on what we'd been told the day before, and that the finish didn't go down exactly as planned. On the finish, some of the glass got in Tazz's eye, although he sold it at the finish more than it really was. Most of the glass came out, and fortunately for him, none cut the eyeball. One small piece of the glass had to be taken out of his eye. 1/2* 

According to Holly, White was being counted down in his earpiece by somebody backstage, so that he would know how to time the count, ensuring he wouldn't slap the mat for three before the bell sounded. If you saw the match, you knew something went awry, because White holds back on counting with a full second left. Hastily improvising, a confused Howard Finkel announced that Hardcore won the match and the belt.

Hardcore later revealed that White was yelled at by several agents, and Vince McMahon himself, for the snafu. Holly said White was at the mercy of the person counting him down, and had done exactly what he was supposed to do.

Test & Albert beat Al Snow & Steve Blackman in 7:05. No heat. This was so bad that even Jim Ross, about four minutes in, started with his code words about how the teams were having a style clash and even did the dreaded bowling shoe reference, which means he knows it's in the toilet. Snow & Blackman came out with a little guy in a cheese costume. At one point he chased after Trish Stratus. It's really clear Stratus needed to be sent to Memphis or Ohio Valley for a few months as she's not ready for Broadway. Test pinned Blackman with an elbow off the top rope. 

After the match, they brought the cheese guy in and Snow & Blackman beat him up, I guess to get their heat back, but in this case, there was no heat to get back. Actually this was an excuse to tell cutting cheese jokes, which got old, maybe on the first one, but certainly on the second. 

They took the cheese guy out on a stretcher, and Jerry Lawler made a reference that maybe he should be taken out as part of a cracker. -*1/4 

Edge & Christian won the WWF tag titles in a three-way ladder match over Matt & Jeff Hardy and the Dudleys in 22:29. Although this featured every bit of the effort of the previous C&E vs. Hardys ladder match, the spots seemed too set up and it came across as a tremendous stunt show and never had the intensity of a match. The crowd didn't want to see a match once they see the ladders and tables to begin with. Fans were chanting for the tables from the start, which were kept out of the match early since they were going so long. Jeff missed a firebird splash and crashed onto the ladder. Buh Buh came off the top rope with a senton onto the ladder which was on Jeff. 

Edge jumped off the top holding the ladder onto Matt. D-Von did a legdrop on the ladder onto Edge. Buh Buh put the ladder around his neck and twirled around knocking everyone down in the process. Christian did a plancha to the floor off the ladder. Edge speared Jeff coming off the top rope while Jeff was climbing the ladder in a spectacular spot. Matt used a B.T. bomb on Edge taking Edge off the ladder. Three ladders were set up. Buh Buh gave Christian a diamond cutter off nearly the top of a ladder. Hardys both did simultaneous leaps off the ladder onto Buh Buh. Edge & Christian did a double superplex on D-Von off nearly the top of the ladder. They did a big spot where everyone was on the ladder and they tipped the ladders. Jeff and Christian both went from mid-ring all the way to the floor on their bump while Edge and Matt both crotched themselves when their ladder tipped to the other side of the ring. 

The Dudleys gave Christian a sandwich lariat with ladders and gave Edge a 3-D. They brought out tables, putting one on the top of the ladder and one under the ladder basically setting up the final fireworks explosion of the match. When the Hardys made the comeback, and didn't take a bump into the ladder, the fans booed. For better or for worse, it showed the fans didn't care a lick about who won this match, even nearly 20:00 in, but were just into seeing explosions. D-Von splashed through a table when Jeff moved. Buh Buh bombed Matt through a table. Jeff ran across the barricade into a ladder shot by Christian.

Buh Buh brought out a 13-foot ladder (the others looked to be around 8-feet) and put it in the entrance way area. It wound up with the spot of the show, where Jeff came from the top of the ladder with a swanton onto Buh Buh through a table. Christian and Matt climbed the ladder and brawled on the table. 

It wasn't sturdy and they were afraid to stand up, so the brawling with scared guys on their knees kind of took the edge of the finish. Edge climbed up and Matt took a bump through the last standing table and Edge & Christian grabbed the belts. You can't fault the effort which was tremendous from all six. At times, particularly toward the finish, the match dragged because of long set-up times for spots. 

It is what wrestling is becoming so by that standard it was an excellent match, even if it didn't get excellent heat or build much, but in a business that probably needs to tone down before things get worse, this being the example of an excellent match is only going to make things escalate. **** 

Terri beat Kat in 2:25 in a match where the object was to throw the opponent out of the ring. It was a T&A spectacle that delivered Terri in a flesh colored g-string after the match. Moolah and Mae Young were at ringside and Val Venis was ref. Ross said ahead of time the match shouldn't be rated on the star system. It's one of those deals that if it worked, fine. But it didn't, as the crowd was quiet and actually booed the ending. Basically Terri was thrown out of the ring twice but Venis missed it. On the second time, Moolah threw Terri back in, as Mae was trying to sexually molest Venis, and Moolah threw Kat out and Venis signalled for the bell. Kat pants'd Terri after. -* 

This match was the only one on one singles match on the card

Too Cool & Chyna beat Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Eddy Guerrero in 9:38. It was a better than average match. The focus was put on Chyna and Guerrero. All the Radicals had to sell for some lame looking offense by Chyna. Chyna did an impressive handspring elbow into the corner on Malenko and another on Saturn, and a double low blow spot. While doing this, she ripped her pants on the side and they started falling. The poor woman was having to reverse a power bomb into a power bomb of her own while trying to keep her pants from falling down, so it wasn't a very smooth power bomb. 

They want right to the finish where Chyna went for a press-slam, although Guerrero didn't get himself high enough to make the move work, and a reverse DDT like move for the pin. **1/2 

Chris Benoit ended up as IC champ and Chris Jericho as European champ in two three-way matches where double champ Kurt Angle lost both belts without getting pinned in 13:35. This was technically the best wrestling on the show, and didn't have much heat, but the wrestling from all three was well below the standard you'd expect from them. I don't know if it was nerves, or a reaction to the dead crowd and it was good, but you'd expect great in this setting. First fall saw Benoit pin Jericho after a diving head-butt in 7:54 to win the IC belt (the IC belt should have been the second fall, because the European title is traditionally considered a joke so the emotional climax had already taken place and they still had to go out there). 

Because the European belt doesn't mean much, when the match picked up, it just didn't seem important. They did some big moves, including Angle missing a Kenta Kobashi style moonsault and Jericho putting him in the walls but Benoit saved. Jericho did a double bomb on Angle, and Benoit followed with a rolling german suplex on Jericho and a dragon suplex. Tim White got bumped. Benoit used the crossface on Jericho, who was tapping like crazy, thereby signalling that he was going over. Jericho put the Walls on Benoit but Angle hit him with the belt but Benoit saved Jericho. Benoit then missed the diving head-butt on Jericho and Jericho hit the quebrada for the pin in 5:41. **3/4 

With this win, Benoit was the first man to win the IC in 8 years at a WrestleMania. The previous was when Bret Hart beat Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 8 for the title

Kane & Rikishi Phatu beat Road Dogg & X-Pac in 4:16. This match was basically rushed, I guess so they could hurry up and do their Pete Rose joke. Pretty much before it built to anything, Rikishi rubbed his butt in Tori's face and Kane pinned X-Pac after a tombstone. After the match, a Chicken, the same gimmick Rose used last year (they spent the entire show building up the idea that Rose was 

returning for revenge on Kane) got in the ring and danced with Too Cool and Rikishi while Kane watched. Kane then went after the chicken, making sure he didn't interrupt the dance number, and was about to choke slam him when Rose showed up with a baseball bat. Rikishi stopped him and grabbed the bat while Kane choke slammed him. Rikishi then rubbed his butt nowhere near the approximate vicinity of Rose's face. * 

During an interview with you, X-Pac said that he turned down a match at this show with Chris Jericho for the IC title because he wanted to finish his feud with Kane. Do you recall that?

The next match was the 4 way match for the World Title 

At the Royal Rumble, The Rock won the Royal Rumble match to become the number one contender to the WWF Championship at WrestleMania by last eliminating The Big Show, and Triple H defeated Cactus Jack in a Street Fight to retain the WWF Championship.

At No Way Out, The Big Show defeated The Rock to get the title shot at WrestleMania. Also at the event, Triple H defeated Foley in a Hell in a Cell match to retain the WWF Championship, and Mick had to retire. On the March 13th Raw, The Rock won back his title shot by defeating The Big Show with help from a returning Vince McMahon, thus making the WWF Championship match a Triple Threat match. The following week, after Triple H retained his title against both The Rock and The Big Show, Linda McMahon added Mick Foley to the match, which made it a Four-Way match 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley retained the WWF title in the four-way over Mick Foley, Rock and Big Show in 36:28 of the match with a McMahon family member in every corner. Show dominated everyone early, a clear sign he was going out first. He was out by 4:41, when Foley hit Show with a chair and Rock pinned him after a rock bottom. Foley may have injured his shoulder as Show fell backwards on him with a splash. The match actually stopped for nearly 2:30 as they did histrionics based on Show being eliminated. 

Rock & Foley doubled on HHH until Rock accidentally hit Foley with the bell when HHH moved. HHH was beating on both until Foley came back with a 2x4 in barbed wire and then used a double arm DDT and Socko claw on HHH. 

Rock laid out HHH with the belt, but Foley set up the claw and put it on Rock. It was amazing to see how quickly the fans turned on Foley, which made it clear Rock had to be the face there at the end, which is clearly what the spot was designed to do. HHH used a double low blow. Fans did believe when Foley used a double arm DDT on Rock that Rock actually might lose. HHH put Rock on the spanish announcers table. Foley went for a plancha off the middle ropes onto the table on Rock, but landed short, and may have broken his ribs. 

The table was supposed to break, and HHH went into panic mode and kept trying to break the table, which finally collapsed but didn't break. HHH delivered a pedigree to Foley, who kicked out. HHH knocked down ref Earl Hebner and did a pedigree on a chair for the pin in 19:41. The fans gave Foley a half-hearted standing ovation as he left. It was an attempt to replay the same scene from last month it looked like a pale imitation. As the match continued, Rock hit HHH with barbed wire but he kicked out. They brawled to the back. Rock suplexed HHH on the floor by the entry way. 

Rock picked up the steps and HHH hit the steps with a chair, knocking Rock down and hitting the steps with more chairs. He piledrove Rock on the steps. Ross was overreacting with a "stop the match" scream after the move that the crowd didn't even pop for. Rock came back, flipping HHH over the top rope and put him through the English language table. Vince threw the killer punch on HHH. Shane jumped Vince and hit him with a TV monitor. Vince bladed. The crowd wasn't popping for any of this and the match was dragging. He came back with some really atrocious looking punches but Shane stopped him with a low blow and a chair shot. Vince bladed a second time because he didn't get much blood the first time. Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco carried Vince out. 

Ross was exclaiming how Vince was losing blood by the quart, which made him look bad since Gas and Crash in the hardcore match bled five times as much, as Gas ended up needing 10 stitches. HHH hit Rock with a barbed wire board and set up the pedigree, but Rock catapulted him into Shane and hit the rock bottom. Vince came back and hit Shane with a low blow and a terrible punch that Shane sold like he was Derrick Dukes taking a dive for Mark Gastineau. Vince entered the ring with a chair, and turned on Rock. 

Rock kicked out of the first pin, but after a second chair shot, HHH got the pin. After the match, Vince (who guaranteed earlier in the show to "make things right" which is where a lot of people figured out the turn) hugged Stephanie. Rock made his comeback to end the show doing a rock bottom on Shane, Vince (who mistimed his jump and tried to overcompensate and may have hurt himself) and Stephanie (who in her first major pro bump, showed she was a better worker than Rikishi and both Harris twins) before laying out Stephanie with the people's elbow. *** 

Too much McMahon in this match? All 4 of them were involved

Jericho has said that he was originally planned to be in this match, citing the presence of his face in the promo materials. He does add that because he wasn't exactly electrifying Vince at the time, he was replaced with Foley.

Mick has said that he told his wife Collette, "Don't be surprised if the match sucks, and I don't sell a lot",   and he has also said that during this time, he and The Rock weren't exactly the best of friends and getting along very well. Is that true?

Do you think Mick regretted coming out of retirement for this match, or did he really want to do it?

The next night on Raw, Rock pinned Triple H in a non-title match

Where do you rank this Mania out of all of the ones you were involved with?