This is the first of my Countdown To Wrestlemania series where I will try and review all of the Wrestlemania's starting with the latest one, up until the very first. For the wrestling terms that you might not know, I'll include a glossary at the bottom.

When you think of Wrestlemania X-8 in five years, you will remember one match, and only one match. You'll be surprised to see that Edge had a match with Booker T which started because Edge swiped a commercial deal that Booker T thought he should've received. You'll forget that there was Diamond Dallas Page's one and only Wrestlemania match. And you'll probably forget Chris Jericho was the first undisputed(1) champion.

The match you will remember however is the one that pitted Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock. Hogan had just come back to the WWF with his NWO cronies Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. McMahon overpaid them to come shake up the foundation of the WWF. He wanted them to "poison" his own creation as he was afraid that Ric Flair was ruining his promotion. That was the storyline. The real story was that McMahon, as always, wanted to bring in some surprises right before Wrestlemania, to make Mania the most talked about show of the year. However, what he should've known is that the NWO(2) was so "five years ago" and that it wouldn't work today unless it was brought back as a new idea. Hogan was accepted back by the fans, but Nash and Hall weren't seen as anything more than just regular guys. And for what McMahon as paying them, it simply wasn't working out. However, Hogan is a great manipulator and he positioned himself with a match against The Rock, who already had a great buzz on him as he was finishing up The Scorpion King. The initial build-up was excellent. Rock challenged Hogan and the audience was split on who they were cheering for. It was excellent television. The angle(3) that happened afterward wasn't as particularly memorable as they did one of those that disbands belief as they tried to sell that Rock was in the ambulance and Hogan, Nash and Hall were ramming the ambulance with a semi. When Rock returned several weeks later without a scratch, it showed the angle wasn't taken very seriously.

However, the match, while not a great, or even good wrestling match, had the crowd mesmerized. It was two great showman in the ring, doing what they do best. That is manipulate the crowd. Hogan, knowing he had at least half of the crowd in his corner, did his best to try and take the rest of them even though he was the heel(4). Rock played the sympathetic babyface(5) who felt the crowd turning and did a few things that a bad guy would do. Who cares who won the match? It was the ability by each guy to play to the crowd and make them either cheer louder, or boo louder based on their every move that was fantastic. In the end, The Rock won the match, but Hogan gained another year of shelf life. He turned face at the end, and thus Hulkamania(6) was reborn, at least as far as the audience was concerned. Hogan can't pop a rating or even mean anything as far as a Pay Per View buy rate is concerned, but he can still pop a crowd.

The best match of the night was Chris Jericho defending his Undisputed Championship vs. HHH. The match wasn't a 5-star classic(7) by any means, but it was a solid match that had psychology and a meaning. Too bad they wasted two months making it Stephanie McMahon Helmsley vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Chris Jericho as champion should've been angled as someone who would stoop to every level to maintain his championship. However, they used him as Stephanie's second fiddle and ruined what could've been a very good Wrestlemania main event. The finish was done well, and HHH took the gold.

The problem was that the match was so anti-climatic because the fans were spent after the Hogan vs. Rock match. The Hogan vs. Rock match should've went on last as the fans would've been into the more solid Jericho vs. HHH match.

The second best match of the night was probably Kurt Angle's match with Kane. The story behind this match was that they held Kurt Angle back in case Scott Hall sabotaged his match against Steve Austin by doing Scott Hall like things, such as getting fired. However, when Scott Hall abided by all the rules and was a decent citizen, they had to go with Angle in a hurried match with Kane. Kane is one of the better big guys in the ring, only because he's fairly athletic, and Angle, being the best guy going, pulled off a decent match and won.

Speaking of the Stone Cold match with Scott Hall; this was one of those "straws that broke the camel's back" as originally Hall was supposed to go over(8) in the match, but Austin balked and they changed the finish. Austin wasn't all that happy anyway as he no showed(9) the next Raw show because of being burnt out.

Another of the "big" matches was "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair vs. The Undertaker. The entire build up consisted of The Undertaker as the heel, beating up Flair, who was the face(10) part owner of the company. Sort of a reverse of when Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon were having their program in the late nineties. However, The Undertaker simply wouldn't sell for the greatest champion of our day and it was a mess. The match consisted of The Undertaker beating up Flair, while Flair would once in a while get a nice comeback, and then the Taker would kill him again. In this type of match, Flair needed to win based on the story. You had this ex-champion who is a living legend fighting for his life against this huge heel with a reputation for not losing. And nope, The Undertaker couldn't do the job for the living legend. The match went way too long and Flair jobbed out(11).

The opener consisted of Rob Van Dam in a match for the Intercontinental Championship beating William Regal in a mix mash of styles that simply didn't work at all. RVD hit the 5-star Frog Splash to win the belt, so the fans at least got off to a happy start. However, the rest of the show wasn't as happy. The tag team Fatal Four Way was disappointing as the WWF was building up Chuck and Billy at the time, only they're the worst workers of a group including the Hardys, the Dudleys, and APA. When you're worse than APA, you're worse than bad. The Woman's title match was decent, but got really sloppy at times and Jazz pinned Lita to retain her belt in a three-way match that also had the lovely Trish Stratus(12).

Overall, the PPV was not one of Wrestlemania's best. But as you'll see through these reviews, even though the show has been called The Granddaddy of Them All, more often than not, it's usually pretty average.

Results

RVD defeated William Regal to win the Intercontinental title
DDP defeated Christian to keep his European title
Spike Dudley defeated Maven to win the Hardcore title, even though Golddust was fighting Maven. The title eventually went back to Maven at the end of the night
Kurt Angle defeated Kane
Undertaker defeated Ric Flair
Edge defeated Booker T
Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Scott Hall
Billy and Chucky defeated The Hardys, The Dudleys, and APA to keep their Tag Team titles
The Rock defeated Hollywood Hulk Hogan
Jazz defeated Lita and Trish Stratus to keep her Women's title
Triple H defeated Chris Jericho to win the Undisputed Championship

Terminology

(1)undisputed- When Vince McMahon bought WCW, he brought their belt over and thus, there were two world champions. At 2001's Vengeance PPV, there was a four person tournament to determine the Undisputed belt, the WCW and WWF belt morphed into one, and Chris Jericho won.
(2)NWO- In the mid 90's Eric Bischoff turned Hulk Hogan heel for the first time in over 10 years and put him with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to create an anti-WCW (NWO which stands for New World Order) angle that was so successful that they took over the wrestling wars from the WWF.
(3)angle- A program or storyline that in theory makes people want to watch the WWF. Not to be mistaken for Kurt Angle who is the single best guy going in the WWF/WWE.
(4)heel- The bad guy.
(5)babyface- The good guy.
(6)Hulkamania- What Hulk Hogan called his phenomenal popularity in the mid 80's.
(7)5-star classic- The ultimate wrestling match. Think of it in terms of Epinions ratings. The best of the best.
(8)go over- To go over in a match means to win.
(9)no show- To not show up for one reason or another to a wrestling show.
(10)face- See babyface.
(11)job out- Synonomous with "to job" or "jobbing", basically means to lose a worked match. Worked meaning not a real competition.
(12)Trish Stratus- The single most beautiful woman in wrestling history. I love me some Trish Stratus.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older