WrestleMania X8

This is a very difficult WM to write about, partly because it's in the between an excellent PPV and a crap PPV category. Some matches were ace, some weren't.

Results from Wrestlemania X-8 are as follows: - Rob Van Dam defeated William Regal to win the Intercontinental Championship in a solid opener.

• Diamond Dallas Page defeated Christian in a useless match.

• Spike Dudley defeated Goldust to win the Hardcore title (this match was Maven and Goldust, but Dudley ran down and pinned Goldust) - Edge pinned Booker T in a worthless match.

• 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin pinned Scott hall in a rotten match (this showed when Austin walked out of the Federation for real shortly afterwards)

• Kurt Angle defeated Kane in a good match.

• The Hurricane defeated Spike Dudley to win the Hardcore title (backstage)

• The Undertaker pinned Ric Flair in a fair match.

• Mighty Molly pinned The Hurricane to win the Hardcore title (backstage) - The Rock defeated Hollywood Hogan in a very good match. The fans in this match were simply mad! They cheered Hogan instead of The Rock.

• Christian pinned Mighty Molly to win the Hardcore title (backstage when Christian slammed a door in Molly's face)

• Billy and Chuck defeated The APA, The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz in a four corners match to retain the WWE tag team belts.

• Maven pinned Christian to win back the Hardcore title (in the car parking lot when Christian was day dreaming, Maven snuck up behind him and pinned him)

• Jazz defeated Lita and Trish Stratus to retain the WWE Women's Championship.

• The Rock pinned Hulk Hogan. The fans were really into this match. However fans booed Rock and cheered Hogan.

• Triple H defeated Chris Jericho to win the Undisputed Championship. However fans were not that interested in this match and when Tripper won no one cared.

Overall Grade - B

Wrestlemania 18 is one of the most overrated Wrestlemania's ever! It was a good show! But not a great show! Hogan vs The Rock truly outshined the whole match card of the night! As it should've been the main event of Wrestlemania 18! Steve Austin was even screwed with a match against Scott Hall. The match card for this event was far from stellar. Instead it was just above average. Chris Jericho vs HHH was one of the worst main events ever in Wrestlemania history! HHH is far too overrated and is not a great Wrestlemania main eventer! He is just an overhyped Test! Ric Flar vs Undertaker was a good match. As for the rest of the card, who even remembers the card? It's forgettable! When looking back at this event. The only thing that is remembered is how Hogan vs The Rock had one of the most thunderous ovations of a crowd ever for a match! Which really helped build this match in being one of the biggest matches ever!

The first half of the Wrestlemania 18 card is pretty average (at best). There was William Regal in a championship match (yikes), guys like DDP & Goldust trying to recapture old glories, and a few confrontations--Angle/Kane, American BA Undertaker/Flair, Edge/Booker T--that are fine (though little more).

But then, the good stuff kicks into high gear...

-Stone Cold vs. Scott Hall (w/Kevin Nash) is actually a great match, albeit a rather short one due to Austin's physical limitations at that time. But for what is there, it is extremely entertaining and Mania-worthy.

-NWO Hollywood Hogan vs. The Rock is one of the top matches in WWE history. Again, a bit on the short side due to Hogan's age, assuredly, but the energy is almost unmatched even by Mania standards. Only Hulk/Andre & Hulk/Warrior eclipse it. This should have been the finale of the PPV, even without a strap on the line. It alone raises this card a full star (if not two).

-Despite a bit of a come-down from Rock/Hogan, the HHH/Jericho finale is pretty good. I've never been a huge Triple-H guy and I can't quite understand Y2J's appeal, but for those who enjoy both those guys it is a solid match.

From stem to stern, I'll give this uneven card a 7/10 ranking. But in reality, that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. All anyone will remember WM18 for is the Rock/Hogan match for the ages.

There was nothing special about this WrestleMania apart from The Rock vs Hulk Hogan. That match was exciting to watch because of atmosphere and crowd reaction. However other than that this event was mostly crap. People acting like as if this was some kind of goat tier event like previous year's all timer WrestleMania X-Seven. This event should not have 7.8 ratings at all tbh. Crowd was dead for main event. Make no sense why Rock vs Hogan wasn't main event. Undertaker vs Ric Flair was also a decent match too. Overall I don't think this WrestleMania event was as great as some people claim it to be.

Those of you that stated the event was average, yes in context, for the companies showcase event, it was. The LAW(Toronto wrestling radio show, EXCELLENT!) slagged it off too, but to actually be there was awesome!

I defy anyone watching on TV to get into context the message JR and The King Jerry Lawler were trying to convey. The crowd hated The Rock that night, because the HULKSTER was back!

His first PPV match in 9odd years (forget the previous months cameo appearance), and the noise was deafening. Jr tried to cover the Rocky booes saying it was a bypartisan crowd, but JR had to tell him to realise that this was history right there. And it was. On a usual day I'm a Rock fan, but EVERYONE hated him night, and he won in spirit if not in actuality.

Those of you who didn't attend or watch live will never hear those boo's again as the WWF(now E) doctored the footage on the released video and DVD releases of WMX8 to tone down the boos and 'Rocky sucks' chants.

The rest of the PPV was average, but an average Wrestlemania still blows any other federations product right out of the water.

And now, in August 2002, theres been a heluva lot more crap fly out of the WWE creative machine since WMX8 so lets not slag this off too much, hey.