Mike Reviews WWF WrestleMania X8

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Seeing as we are moving into WrestleMania Season, I thought I’d review a Mania event that I quite enjoy but which I think sometimes gets passed over, in the form of WrestleMania X8.

It’s not really as a result of nostalgia either, as I was without satellite television when WrestleMania X8 took place and I couldn’t find someone willing to lend me a tape of it, so I didn’t sit down to properly watch the show until long after the fact (although I did manage to see the bout that WrestleMania X8 is mostly known for).

The big match of WrestleMania X8 is of course The Rock taking on Hollywood Hulk Hogan, but we’ve also got Undertaker wrestling Ric Flair and Chris Jericho defending the WWF Title against Triple H, so there should hopefully be some enjoyable bouts to look forward to!

You can view the full card for WrestleMania X8 by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/en/?id=1&nr=2279&page=3

And of course you can read Scott Keith’s review of WrestleMania 18 by clicking HERE

WrestleMania X8 is emanating from Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the 17th of March 2002

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Saliva sing “Superstar” which I believe ended up becoming MNM’s theme in OVW for a bit, as well as the opening song for Legends of Wrestling II on the Sixth Gen consoles. I don’t hate the song, but it the live version tells me that I probably would prefer to listen to Saliva on my stereo rather than in person.

We then get one of the better WrestleMania intros ever, where we get the wrestlers talking about how important the event is whilst Trailblazing plays in the background. Sadly I think it gets edited out on the Network/Peacock version. I can’t listen to that music without hearing Undertaker saying “it’s FEVER man!”. That’s how you know you’ve got a good video package with the right music choice.

Opening Match
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: William Bloody Regal Vs The Whole Dam Show Rob Van Dam

There wasn’t much of a built in issue to this one. RVD was on his rise up the roster and putting him in the IC Title division was a way to elevate him, whilst Regal had been a fixture in the mid-card who was coming off a feud with Edge over the belt. They interacted in the build-up, but this one never really felt like it had much heat going in to the show. RVD was just an over guy in the mid-card who happened to be Regal’s challenger and the fans were hoping he’d be able to make the step up.

Regal’s gimmick at the time was that he would hit people with Brass Knux, but RVD kicks them out of his hands early on, meaning that Regal won’t be able to rely on them tonight. RVD misses a Frog Splash though, and that allows Regal to cut him off. Poor Regal gets shafted for time at Mania here just like he did the previous year against Chris Jericho, getting just over six minutes to work with. As a result of that, the match never really feels like anything more than two guys just exchanging moves with one another.

The action is decent though, as both men are giving their all in the small window of time they’ve been given, with both of them delivering snug kicks and strikes. Regal is soon bleeding from the mouth, but he gets his revenge by folding RVD up a few times with big throws. It’s a fun match; it’s just a bit on the short side. Regal tries to use the Knux again, but that ends up being his undoing as RVD knocks him down and then heads up with the Frog Splash for three.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: ROB VAN DAM
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This had good snug action, some nice suplexes and a crowd pleasing finish to jazz up the amassed audience for the rest of the evening. If they’d been given an extra 3-5 minutes then this could have been even better. RVD would feud with Eddy Guerrero in the post-Mania season but would get buried in a feud with Triple H later in the year and remain firmly in the mid-card until the ECW revival in 2006. Regal would form a team with Lance Storm later in 2002 but then had to spend most of 2003 on the side lines due to some serious health issues.

Lilian Garcia is in the interview area with Christian. We get footage of Christian beating up DDP on Raw in order to set up the match between them tonight. Christian says that he used DDP and threw up away, just like he did with Toronto, which is why he now lives in Florida. This was a pretty generic Heel promo in order to try and make Christian get booed in his match later, but Christian’s delivery was solid.

Match Two
WWF European Title
Champ: Diamond Dallas Page Vs Christian

Christian had been struggling with a losing streak, which had led to him going to motivational babyface DDP for help. DDP had done his best to get Christian back to winning ways and even helped him win a match on TV. However, Christian couldn’t help but give in to his inherent entrenched villainy, and he eventually turned on DDP in order to set this match up. DDP was actually at the previous WrestleMania to be held in Toronto, as he had driven Rhythm and Blues down to the ring in a Cadillac at WrestleMania VI. Surely Canada is overdue for another Mania by the way? Christian was demanding to be introduced as being from Florida because I guess it was imperative for him to be booed in his hometown in Vince McMahon’s warped head canon. It doesn’t work though as Christian still gets a bit of a pop for his entrance.

Christian jumps DDP as he gets back in the ring, but DDP fights back and gets a babyface shine with some punches and a Cactus Clothesline. The crowd isn’t massively into this one, even though the storyline between the two had been built reasonably well, but the wrestling is mostly solid, with Christian knocking DDP off the apron into the ringside barricades for the cut off. Christian is pretty fun in the heat, goofing around and mocking DDP’s taunts whenever he gets the chance, and it’s a decent heat segment overall. DDP eventually manages to slam Christian off the top and makes the comeback, including getting his discus clothesline and a Spiral Bomb for two. Christian gets a near fall of his own and teases having a tantrum (which had been a big part of his losing street) but he ends up managing to calm himself down, only to then walk into a Diamond Cutter for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: DDP
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: This was solid under card action, with both wrestlers entering decent performances for the time they were given. The live crowd wasn’t that into it, but the bout was well wrestled for the most part

Post-match; DDP commends Christian for not throwing a tantrum during the match, which of course leads to Christian throwing a tantrum! I believe you could make Christian do that on Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth for the PS2 actually. That was a cute gag to pay things off at least.

Meanwhile, The Rock humiliates Jonathon Coachman in an interview segment by making him say his prayers, which leads to Coach referring to God as “G” in a funny gag. Coach had no issue making himself look like a goof in situations like this, although they did highlight that Rock’s character was kind of a lousy babyface sometimes due to being such a jerk to people. Rock then of course goes on to nail the hype job for his match later, because, in case you weren’t aware, he’s very good at this Pro Wrestling thing.

Match Three
WWF Hardcore Title
Champ: Maven Huffman Vs Goldust

Maven was still fresh from winning Tough Enough and was getting good reactions, so they decided to have him fluke a win over Undertaker for the Hardcore belt thanks to The Rock interfering. Maven is perhaps best known today for having a good YouTube channel where he discusses his time in the wrestling industry. Goldust was kind of aimless during this period after returning at Royal Rumble 2002 and having a brief feud with Rob Van Dam, but eventually they’d tag him with Booker T and magic would result. Goldust of course has some golden metal bins for this one.

Goldust batters Maven to start, with Maven taking some nice bumps around ringside for his veteran opponent. Maven doesn’t really get much offence in, which was kind of the theme with his matches at the time as his whole gimmick was supposed to be that he was a rookie that won Tough Enough to get his WWF gig, so he was way out of his league in most matches but was trying to make up for it with guts and determination. The golden weapon theme continues, with Goldust finding a golden shovel under the ring. Sadly they don’t give Christopher Lee a cameo and have him wander out with a Golden Gun. As the Hardcore Title had 24/7 rules at the time, Spike Dudley eventually runs in with his own referee and pins Maven to win the belt.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SPIKE DUDLEY
RATING: *

Thoughts: I would have personally piled everyone not booked into this and made it a wild scramble until someone won, rather than dragging out the 24/7 stuff all night. The match itself was mostly just Goldust clobbering Maven. It wasn’t actively bad or anything, but it wasn’t really WrestleMania calibre.

Spike flees with his new belt whilst everyone else gives chase.

Drowning Pool sing Kevin Steen’s music whilst a video package plays recapping the issues between Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Oh yeah, I think some other dude was involved in that storyline as well but I think he was just the dog walker and wasn’t that important. This is another case where I actually quite like the song (and it really worked for Steen when he was a Heel character) but it’s not as good when played live in my opinion.

Spike Dudley fends off challenges to his hardcore Title, including Al Snow in a golf cart, with Snow knocking down some boxes in the process. Spike seems to survive that, but Hurricane swings in (literally) and wins the belt.

Don’t try this at home video, another video that’s been ingrained in my consciousness for many years.

Match Four
American Hero Kurt Angle Vs The Big Red Machine Kane

Angle was without an opponent for Mania Season, so they kind of just threw this together in order to give him something to do. These two had competed in a very good TV match during the InVasion storyline, so the hope was that they could do it again here. Angle draws cheap heat to start by making fun of the Canadian figure skaters, who had won a medal at the Olympics via the two sweetest words in the English language, default! Angle clobbers Kane with the ring bell to start, but this is before the match has officially started so it doesn’t lead to a DQ. That’s basically like being slapped with a kipper for Kane though, and he shrugs it off before battering Angle and going for the Choke Slam.

Angle grabs the ropes to block that, but Kane just keeps battering his Gold medal winning foe, so Angle fires off an overhead Belly to Belly Suplex to finally but Kane on the back foot for a while. Angle was arguably the best wrestler in the world at the time of this show, and he gives an example of that here by giving Kane a beating and it actually looking believable due to Angle’s impressive aggression and legitimacy. Kane actually sells quite well whilst Angle works him over, with the masked man fighting from underneath out of a front face lock at one stage. The action here has been very good, although it has suffered like some of the other thrown together matches on this show when it comes to some of the crowd reactions.

I don’t really blame the fans for not being that excited for this one as even at the time it felt like a random match that was happening just to give these guys an excuse to be on the show, but once they’ve gotten into the ring it’s been good fun for the most part. Angle heads up with a flying clothesline at one stage, which is of course one of Kane’s big moves, and his cocky taunting succeeds in getting the crowd to boo for him. Angle meets only Kane clothesline when he tries it a second time though and that gives us a double down into the Kane comeback, with Angle taking some nice snappy bumps for his opponent and Kane looking decent on offence as he runs through his usual array of strikes and slams.

Kane manages to catch Angle with the Choke Slam, but Angle is too near to the ropes and manages to grab them on two, which not only makes Angle look resourceful but it also protects Kane’s finisher, as it’s suggested that Kane might have won if they’d been further from the ropes as Angle didn’t have the energy to kick out. Angle fires back with the Olympic Slam soon after and that leads to us getting some ankle aocking, which is how Angle won their famous Smackdown match during the InVasion. Kane manages to hold on this time and fires off an enziguri in a nice counter. It’s interesting that the commentary team didn’t make more of Kane losing to the ankle lock previously, as it would have made it seem like he was in more jeopardy there.

The big moves keep coming, with Angle running up the ropes to suplex Kane down from the top rope, as both wrestlers are going all out to have a good match here. Kane tries for another Choke Slam following that, but Angle rolls through into a pin and puts his foot on the ropes to win illegally. Sadly they didn’t quite get the finish to work and it looked a little sloppy, but the match itself leading up to that was a lot of fun.

WINNER: KURT ANGLE
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a good match, and if they’d executed the finish better then I might have rated it more highly

There hasn’t been much in the way of great wrestling on this show thus far, but it’s motored along at a reasonable speed at least due to the short matches. I could have done without the Drowning Pool performance though.

Hurricane is trying to hide backstage and accidentally finds himself in a voyeur situation with The Godfather’s ladies. This of course leads to Godather chasing Hurricane away.

We get a video package for the next match. La Resistance’s music makes an appearance actually.

Match Five
No Disqualification
The Undertaker Vs The Nature Boy Ric Flair

Flair was the babyface 50% owner of the WWF at the time and had refused to cow tail to Taker’s demands, leading to Taker harassing Flair for weeks in an attempt to goad him into a match. After attacks from Taker to Arn Anderson and David Flair, The Nature Boy finally agreed to do battle with Taker here at WrestleMania X8. However, in a subsequent brawl between the two, Flair accidentally clocked a fan (Paul London in his first onscreen WWF/E appearance I believe) and that led to Flair getting removed from power until this match was over, with the board of directors then enacting the inaugural brand split in order to separate the feuding authority figures of Flair and Vince once WrestleMania X8 was concluded.

Flair comes ready to fight here, as they immediately brawl to the floor by the announce tables, with Flair showing some great fire as he unloads with punches to Undertaker in his quest for revenge. It’s nice to see Undertaker actually show some butt for Flair here when you consider that he usually spent the majority of his matches battering people during this phase of his career. In this situation though, Flair needs to get a chance to try and score some revenge, so Taker needs to let Flair get his licks in. Undertaker eventually manages to cut Flair off by booting him to the floor from the apron when Flair gets the Flair Flip on his second attempt.

Flair of course takes a beating better than few others, so he does an excellent job selling for Taker whilst he pummels away on him. Now I don’t mean to shock you with the upcoming information, but that may happen due to just how unlikely an occurrence it is, but Flair ends up bleeding as the match wears on as a result of some Undertaker punches. No, I don’t know how we’ll be able to handle the unforeseen outcome of Ric Flair bleeding in a wrestling match, but if we all band together then we can get through this surprising and unexpected situation. Flair is wearing the crimson mask following that, but he fires back with a few trademark chops until Taker is able to cut him off again.

Undertaker delivers a big Superplex, sold expertly from Flair, and then pulls Flair up at two in order to inflict more punishment, which I’m not thrilled about in all honesty unless it leads to the babyface winning. Taker keeps pulling Flair up on pin attempts and throwing punches at Flair’s bloody face, as Flair continues to sell all of this fantastically. Flair gets the occasional hope spot here and there in order to show that he’s still in the contest, but Taker almost always regains control. Eventually Taker tries a big boot and Flair dodges it, leading to Flair making a bit of a comeback as the fight spills to the floor. Flair finds a metal pipe attached to Taker’s bike and works Taker over with it briefly, leading to Taker coming up bleeding from his head.

Taker keeps coming though and tries a Choke Slam in the ring, but Flair kicks him right in the casket before going to the Figure Four, which Taker sells big. Taker eventually chokes his way out of the hold and gets the Choke Slam this time for two, which gets a good pop from the crowd. Taker tries to kill Flair with the pipe following that, but Arn Anderson runs down with a Spine Buster, which gets Flair a two count in a good near fall. Taker attacks Anderson following that, with even Arn doing a blade job too, as there’s plenty of plasma on display in this one. This gives Flair a chance to wear out Taker with a chair for a bit though, but Taker soon recovers and kicks Flair down. Last Ride is supposed to follow, but they can’t quite get it so Taker decides to finish with the Tombstone instead for three.

WINNER: UNDERTAKER
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was kind of a weird feud, as Undertaker got the better of Flair for most of it and destroyed his friends and family to goad him into a match, only for Flair to then lose at the big show. Had the streak not been a thing, Flair might have been able to win here, but it was and having Flair end it here at WrestleMania X8 would have been a mistake I think. Flair got a good flurry to start, but the rest of the match was Taker killing him for the most part. Taker winning is fine, but I think they should have done two things.

1. Let Flair have more offence than he did with Taker’s win being a bit more last gasp than it was
2. Have Vince McMahon involved in the finish somehow so that the WWF board of directors has a reason to split up the rosters because Vince got involved here

Aside from that, this was a really good match, as Flair was an excellent gutsy babyface who wouldn’t give up and the crowd was into the match the most of anything else on the show thus far

Michael Cole is interviewing Booker T, who pretends to be smart but fails at it. Oh the hilarity! Booker’s delivery here was fine, but they didn’t give him much to work with.

Match Six
Booker T Vs Edge

This was another thrown together match, with them setting it up by having Edge nab a shampoo commercial that Booker T was going for. No, I’m not making that up. Edge gets kind of an anaemic pop seeing as this is his hometown, although he was soon to be my personal favourite wrestler for most of 2002 until a neck injury put him out in 2003. This is like one of those matches you’d seen on a WrestleMania from the 80’s or early 90’s, as it’s just two fellers having a match with very little in the way of stakes almost for the sake of it.

Honestly, they could have done Edge Vs Christian here. I know they’d done that match to death by the time March 2002 rolled around, but they are both from Toronto and the match would have probably had some decent heat at least and you’ve got the ready made story of the two long time friends doing battle at the biggest show ever to be held in their City. Instead we’ve got both of them in lower card feuds and matches that don’t really matter all that much. Probably one of the most memorable moments of this match is Edge going for a rana off the top and Booker somehow landing on him on the way down. I’m not even sure how they botched that, it seemed to defy physics.

Edge makes a comeback following that, with some tight near falls for both wrestlers, including a nice spinning kick from the top rope from Edge, as they’re busting out big moves here but the crowd isn’t really getting that into it. I feel a bit sorry for them actually as they were given a dumb storyline and they’re wrestling in front of a mostly uninterested crowd, but they are still out there working super hard. Booker busts out the Spinaroonie at one stage, which finally wakes the crowd up, but the follow up Scissors Kick only nets the Five Time WCW Champ a two count. Edge manages to fight out of the Book End and gets a Spear for a two of his own, as they’ve managed to drag the crowd kicking and screaming into caring about this one due to the quality of the work. Edge delivers his own Spinaroonie (an Edgearoonie?) and follows up with the Implant DDT for three.

WINNER: EDGE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: They toiled out there for the most part in front of a crowd that didn’t really care, but they kept working and working until the crowd woke up and the resulting match ended up being decent. Had they given this a better storyline reason to take place and a bit more time on the night then this had potential to be a really good match though, as they worked pretty well together

Hurricane is trying to escape Toronto with his newly won Hardcore belt, but his sidekick, Molly Holly, turns on him and wins the belt herself! What an ingrate, I hope Hurricane removed her Hurri-Cycle privileges!

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Seven
nWo Vs WWF
Scott Hall (w/Kevin Nash) Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

The WWF version of the nWo was never as effective as the WCW one, mainly because Austin really chump-a-fied Hall in this feud. Obviously in WCW they put too much heat on the nWo until no one could take the babyfaces seriously anymore, but here they went in the other direction, with Austin laying out Hall multiple times before we got to WrestleMania X8 and basically hindering the groups ability to get over as Main Event level bad guys. Granted; I’m not sure there was a massive queue of people who wanted to wrestle Hall at this time, but that doesn’t excuse Austin’s behaviour. There was money to be made from making the nWo look like a strong Heel threat, and once this feud was over the possibility of that was pretty much extinguished, with Hall wrestling Bradshaw in the post-Mania season for want of anything better to do with himself.

The idea behind this version of the nWo was that Vince McMahon brought them in to kill the WWF because it was going to die anyway in his mind with Ric Flair at the helm, so he decided to kill it off himself whilst he still could. As far as reasons for bringing in new Heels, that’s certainly one of them. Austin pin balls Hall around to start, and he even clobbers Nash at one stage for good measure. Contrast this with how WCW booked Hall and Nash against Sting, Savage and Luger, and it’s night and day. They controlled that match for the most part and got across as strong Heels from the off, whilst here Hall can’t even lay a glove on Austin until he finally manages to send Austin into a corner buckle that Nash had exposed earlier. Nash adds some shots outside the ring whilst Hall takes the ref, and the combined efforts of two men is finally enough for the Heels to cut Austin off and work some heat.

Austin eventually manages to catch Hall with a Stunner, but the ref gets bumped and that leads to The Outsiders doubling up on Austin for a bit whilst the ref is out. Austin of course takes out both of them on his own, but Nash takes out the replacement ref before Austin is able to pin Hall. The crowd is at least getting into this since the silliness with the referees started, so that’s a bonus I suppose. Finally a gaggle of four referees come down to eject Nash from ringside, and the crowd actually BOO’s this because they were enjoying the chaos of all three guys being involved and now the match is going to go back to Hall and Austin having a mostly boring battle with one another. Hall catches Austin with a Stunner after sending him into the buckle from earlier, but Austin manages to kick out at two. The crowd seemed to be buying that as a viable finish at least. Austin delivers two more Stunners following that, with Hall taking a fantastic bump from the second one, and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: STONE COLD
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: Apparently the original plan here was for Hall to win thanks to outside interference, but Austin nixed that and got to go over instead.The majority of the match was pretty dull, with Austin clobbering Hall and just generally making him look ineffective, but the crowd got into it once Nash started getting involved and that helped things out a bit. In the end the match had a strong finish and the crowd enjoyed it, so it wasn’t a total disaster from that perspective, but it was very hard to take Hall as a serious threat once this was all over with, so it totally failed in that regard

We get clips from WWF Axxess, which had amongst other things a bust of Stacy Keibler’s bum. You just know that if they auctioned that today it would go for unreal money.

Match Eight
Fatal Four Way Elimination Bout for the WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: Billy and Chuck Vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) w/ Stacy Keibler Vs The APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw) Vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff)

The Dudleyz and Hardyz were getting pretty stale at the time, and they’d both eventually split up as the year wore on. Billy and Chuck was one of the multiple attempts at making a star out of Billy Gunn post The New Age Outlaws, which AEW finally managed to do by making him Daddy Ass. This is possibly peak Stacy here, as she looks utterly sensational (not that she doesn’t look great still to this day of course, but young Mike had some strong feelings about WrestleMania X8 Stacy back in the day). This would be the other match I got to see from this Mania at the actual time the show took place, as I happened to be over at a friends house when they had both this and next match playing, although they wouldn’t let me borrow the tape of it, much to my annoyance at the time.

The Dudley Boyz are being played down to the ring by Saliva here, and it’s the best musical performance of the night thus far. The lead singer gets to dance with Keibler at one stage, no doubt earning the ire of jealous sexually frustrated teenagers the world over. The general staleness of The Hardyz around this time is kind of demonstrated by them still having the same entrance video they had way back on Smackdown 2 for the PlayStation. Splitting them up later in the year really was the best idea, as it gave us a fun character for Matt and it led to Jeff going away for a bit. Billy and Chuck are wearing their alternate yellow gear at the time, with this being before they added Rico Costatino to their act.

Bradshaw flings around both of the Champions to start, hitting Chuck with some of the loudest chops and forearms I’ve heard. I guess he wanted the people in the cheap seats to HEAR him destroying his poor younger opponent. Billy and Chuck manage to isolate Faarooq for a bit and work him over, as the crowd isn’t really that into this one, even though the action has been fine for the most part. They’re letting The APA be in there for quite a bit here, which makes me think that they’ll be out first so they want to give them a chance to get their stuff in first before taking an early shower. And indeed, whilst Faarooq fights with Chuck on the floor, The Dudley Boyz catch Bradshaw with a 3-D and The APA is eliminated.

The APA are eliminated by The Dudley Boyz (3-D to Bradshaw)

We get The Dudleyz Vs The Hardyz for roughly the 1000th time, and as usual it’s good. They could have probably had a watchable match in their sleep at this stage considering how often they’d wrestled one another. The Dudleyz of course get a table out at one stage, whilst Keibler gets on the apron and invites Jeff to the buns show to stop him from attacking Bubba. Jeff is understandably distracted by that, but then succumbs to Tommy Dreamer disease by getting too distracted taking out the valet and spanking Keibler, which leads to him getting cut off by both The Dudleyz and The Champs. Jeff of course sells well whilst getting worked over, as the two Heel teams appear to be working together here to try and take The Hardyz out of the running.

The wrestling here continues to be decent, but the match still has a flat feeling to it, with an uninterested crowd. I get it too, as the previous Tag Title matches at Mania had been some of the most hyped bouts on the show with special stipulations going on and a big backstory, whilst this year they’ve just stuck four teams in a mostly regular match. I’m sure the wrestlers were happy not to be doing ladder based antics for another year and shortening their bump cards further, but if you’re not doing the big stipulation then you should at least have an interesting storyline reason for the match so that the fans care about it other than just “here’s four teams wrestling for the Titles. Be excited! Please…”

Matt eventually gets the tepid tag and runs wild on The Dudleyz, as the past 5 minutes or so has just been The Dudleyz and Hardyz wrestling one another whilst Billy and Chuck stood around on the apron. Matt’s comeback is well worked and The Dudleyz are where they need to be for it, and eventually the crowd get a bit more invested in the match. D-Von tries heading up top, but Billy shoves him off to the floor through Chekhov’s Table, and that leads to The Hardyz taking out Bubba in the ring.

The Dudley Boyz are eliminated by The Hardy Boyz (Twist of Fate into the Swanton Bomb)

So now we’re down to Billy and Chuck taking on The Hardyz, and it’s fine. Jeff heads up with the Swanton onto Chuck, but Billy immediately catches him with the Rocker Dropper. Chuck drapes an arm onto Jeff following that, which gets two in a good near fall that the crowd pops for. However, rather than make use of the crowd now actually being somewhat invested in the match again and doing some more near falls to tease that The Hardyz might actually win, they just immediately have Billy clock Jeff with the tag belt for the three count in a really flat finish.

The Hardy Boyz are eliminated by Billy and Chuck (belt shot)

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: BILLY & CHUCK
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: Decent wrestling in front of the a crowd that didn’t care, and it wasn’t the crowd’s fault either as they made almost zero effort to give the crowd a storyline reason to care about this bout and just sent the four teams out there to have a match for a bit until it was time to go home

Hollywood Hogan asks Hall and Nash to let him defeat Rock on his own tonight. They agree, but don’t seem happy about it.

Molly Holly is trying to flee the building, but she runs into a door and gets pinned by Christian.

We get the video package for the next match.

The Real Main Event
nWo Vs WWF
Hollywood Hogan Vs The Rock

Rock had challenged Hogan to the big dream match and Hogan had accepted and then put a brutal beat down on The Rock with a hammer. It was a very effective way to hype things up, but then they took it too far by having Hogan destroy Rock’s ambulance with a truck and it just became another silly wrestling angle. Rock was taken to a local hospital following that attack and was declared dead, but then he was taken to a better hospital and his status was upgraded to “alive”. Toronto was always a big market for Hogan, so he’s essentially the babyface tonight despite the fact he’s supposed to be the Heel and, you know, tried to murder his opponent during the build-up.

Hogan shoves Rock down and at that point Rock has lost the crowd for the rest of the match. The crowd are super into this one, after many matches of them sitting on their hands, because regardless of the issues with the build, this is Hulk Hogan wrestling The Rock in a massive stadium, and if you can’t get hyped for that then I’m not sure this whole Pro Wrestling thing is for you. The opening exchanges follow a pretty simple structure, in which Hogan does something to Rock but then Rock fires back with something of his own. Logically that makes sense if Hogan is playing Heel, with the idea being that Hogan does something to get booed and then Rock redresses the balance and gets cheered, leading to a kind of tug of war between the two.

However, the crowd is firmly on Team Hogan tonight, so they actively cheer whatever he does, including when he outright cheats, and then boo when Rock fights back, even though all of Rock’s stuff is either him fighting fair or giving Hogan a dose of his own medicine, which in both cases should logically lead to Rock getting cheered, but not tonight. It’s a fascinating match to watch in that respect, and to be honest the quality of the actual wrestling isn’t that great. However, this is about more than just the in-ring wrestling here, with the crowd being without question the best part of the entire match due to how much they love whatever Hogan is doing. It’s just a blast to watch, even when Hogan’s age shines through when it comes to some of his work.

I get kind of a similar feeling watching this as I do for whenever I watch Roddy Piper matches from late 90’s WCW. Those matches were usually not that good due to Piper wrestling on a surgically replaced fake hip, meaning he could basically do little other than punch, sell and do a Sleeper. However, before the bloom went off the rose on his WCW stint, Piper could still get some great crowd reactions, so even if the wrestling was outright bad at points, the crowd reactions carried it and I tended to have fun watching those matches as a result. Junkyard Dog in 80’s WWF and Giant Baba during the 80’s and 90’s All Japan fall into that category for me as well. Guys who couldn’t really have a good wrestling match anymore, but they were super over and had genuine star power, so their matches were still exciting spectacles, and I can’t think of a better description for this match than a spectacle.

After some back and forth action, the ref takes a bump and Rock goes to The Sharpshooter, with Hogan tapping out (although he did make it to the ropes first before tapping). The ref missed that though, and when Rock tries to wake the ref up in an aggressive manner he turns around into a low blow and a Rock Bottom for two in a fantastic near fall. The crowd are ANGRY that Rock kicked out there, and it’s brilliant. Hogan does some whipping with his weight lifting belt following that, which again is blatant cheating and a total Heel move, but the crowd loves it. Rock then gets the belt and gives Hogan some payback with the belt, which again is standard storytelling in a match like this, but the crowd boos Rock out of the building for it. This is just wild to witness.

We then get the moment the match is probably best remembered for, as Rock gets the Rock Bottom and Hogan starts Hulking Up, with the crowd having absolute kittens for it all. Hogan delivers the big boot and Leg Drop of DOOM, but Rock manages to kick out at two in another tremendous near fall. Hogan tries another Leg Drop, but Rock manages to dodge it this time and we get a duo of Rock Bottom’s followed by the People’s Elbow for three, with the crowd somewhat forgiving Rock at the finish due to the match being so good and Rock not being a jerk about winning.

WINNER: THE ROCK (although really Hogan was the biggest winner here)
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This is considered a WrestleMania classic for good reason. Yeah, the wrestling itself isn’t great at points, but the crowd reactions and the drama of the big near falls make up for it. This is one of those matches that everyone should watch at least once, if only to marvel at the crowd losing their wits over the incredible Hulk Up spot

Hogan shows respect to Rock following that, essentially turning babyface in the process. Hall and Nash aren’t happy about that and attack Hogan, leading to Rock making the save. Hogan poses following that, although they neglect to play Real American, which is really what the spot needed in my opinion. Mark that two times that Hogan lost a big WrestleMania match in Toronto but left the show more over than the guy that defeated him. That’s why he’s the master folks.

Big Show is at WWF New York, as they had no Mania plans for him. I don’t know if that’s because they just couldn’t think of something to do with him or if he was in the doghouse for something so they decided to punish him by keeping him off of WrestleMania X8. It’s the WWF, so both options are on the table.

Cool Down Match
WWF World Women’s Title
Champ: Jazz Vs Lita Vs Trish Stratus

Pour one out for these poor lasses. Jazz was the resident tank of the division at the time, with Stratus gradually improving as a worker thanks to working with folk like Jazz and also Molly Holly. Stratus of course makes sure to wrap herself in a maple leaf here, less the Canadian crowd not twig on that she’s supposed to be the babyface. This is another match that would have benefited from going on earlier, as you’ve got home nation star Stratus in there, so if you’d stuck it on second or third when the crowd was still fresh then they might have got into it. There’s no chance of them caring this late into the show though.

This one is a bit sloppy in all honesty, mainly because they have to rush it, and the crowd being so dead for it is almost eerie. All three are working hard though and it’s not a terrible match. These days of course the women would get a better showcase than this, but 2002 was a different time. The big spot is Lita heading up with a Moonsault onto both opponents, but Stratus gets her knees up and follows up with a roll-up for two. Lita and Stratus bang their heads following that, whilst the crowd chants for puppies. Stratus ends up getting knocked off the apron by Jazz and The Champ then follows up with a Fisherperson’s Buster onto Lita for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: JAZZ
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was a dead match, and Stratus in particular was taking some super sloppy bumps at points, but there was good energy to it from the competitors at least. Put it on earlier when the crowd was less burnt out and let them have a bit more time so it wasn’t so rushed and this could have been okay. Jazz, Stratus and Victoria ended up having a pretty good match together at the next year’s Mania due to them going on sooner when the crowd still had more energy

Christian tries to flee the venue as Champion, but Maven rolls him up to win the belt and then leaves the building in Christian’s cab to end the night as Hardcore Champ. Christian then has another tantrum. Okay, that was a fun payoff to the running gag, I’ll give them that.

The Designated Main Event
WWF Undisputed Title
Champ: Chris Jericho w/ Stephanie McMahon Vs Triple H

Triple H tore his quad in May 2001 and the video packages that played for his return in January 2002 made him come across in a sympathetic light due to how hard he was working to return to the ring, so he came back as a babyface to win the Royal Rumble and get the Title shot in the Mania Main Event. Meanwhile, Chris Jericho became the first ever “Undisputed” Champion in December 2001 by defeating both the Rock and Steve Austin in the same night at Vengeance to win the WWF and WCW belts. Sadly Jericho had been booked as a supremely weak Champion in the build-up, needing help from the nWo to defeat Austin at No Way Out and eventually getting reduced to being Stephanie McMahon’s dog walker during the Mania build. Triple H had ditched Stephanie during a renewal of their wedding vows due to her lying about being pregnant, so in typical McMahon soap opera she decided to try and help Jericho win here in order to spoil Triple H’s return.

They finally gave Jericho something a week out from the show, by having him batter Triple H and seemingly re-injure the challenger’s quad, thus meaning that it’s all taped up here so as to give Triple H another obstacle to overcome. Indeed, Jim Ross on commentary states that Triple H’s quad is “hanging on by a thread”, which makes me think Triple H wouldn’t have even been allowed to wrestle here if that were the case. Still, it’s wrestling 101 to give the babyface a weakness for the dastardly Heels to exploit, so I’m not going to complain too much about it. I just wish that they’d focused on that being the build with Jericho maybe bringing people in to soften Triple H up, rather than making Stephanie the mastermind, which served only to minimise Jericho further.

Triple H sells the quad in the early going, twinging it when getting a knee strike, but he still manages to shine on Jericho and even flings him from the second rope into the front row at one point before suplexing Jericho back into the ringside area. Triple H readies the Spanish announce table, but Jericho fights back by kicking him in the leg whilst Stephanie screeches at ringside like a banshee. They go so over the top here making Stephanie to be as cartoonishly vile as possible that it verges on making the whole thing feel silly. It’s a shame as the work going on in the ring is really good, with Triple H selling his quad well and Jericho making a good fist of being a devious Heel.

Jericho and Stephanie collide at one point, which leads to Triple H going for a Pedigree on her, but that allows Jericho to catch him with a dropkick and go back to working the leg. Stephanie even gets some cheap shots in as well whilst Triple H sells on the floor, as the story of this match is on point. Jericho even busts out the Bret Hart ring post Figure Four, which is always a great Heel spot to do when you’re trying to work over someone’s leg. Triple H starts fighting back and gets a spine buster on the second attempt after the first one went a bit skewwhiff. Jericho responds by sending Triple H outside however and it’s over to the American announce table, where Jericho preps things for the Walls of Jericho, which is what he did to Triple H back in May 2001 when he injured his quad in the first place.

Triple H fights back and tries for a Pedigree, but Jericho counters with a back body drop through the Spanish table to seemingly end things. That spot looked great. Jericho bundles the remains of Triple H back into the ring and delivers the Lion Sault, but Triple H manages to kick out at two. Sadly that doesn’t get the big pop from the crowd as they are burnt to a crisp due to the big Rock Vs Hollywood Hogan match that happened earlier in the night. It’s a shame, as this match has been really well constructed and I think they would have been getting some big pops if they’d decided to go on before Rock/Hogan. Jericho tries to finish things with the Walls of Jericho, but Triple H refuses to tap out and eventually makes the ropes following a brave struggle.

A frustrated Jericho heads outside for a chair whilst Stephanie distracts the ref, but Triple H kicks the chair back in Jericho’s face and then DDT’s him on it for a great near fall. Again, with a better crowd that spot would have gotten a big pop because it was executed perfectly. Stephanie tries to use the chair, but Earl Hebner stops her. This allows Triple H to finally get some payback with a Pedigree, only to turn around into a Jericho chair shot for another fantastically timed near fall. That was incredible, this match really deserves more credit. Jericho tries his own Pedigree next, but Triple H catapults him into the corner and gets the genuine article for the three count and finally a pop from the crowd.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: TRIPLE H
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This a slept on great Mania match, as Jericho and Triple H worked super hard and told a really engrossing story with some truly top notch near falls. Sadly the crowd heat just wasn’t there. I maintain that if this had gone on before Rock/Hogan then people would think upon this match way more fondly than they do, as the work is really good but the crowd heat just isn’t there for it. I’m not going to blame the crowd themselves as they showed during the Rock/Hogan match that they could be great, but more the match placing on the card, which I think Triple H had a hand in so he kind of made his own bed. Plus, the storyline coming in was an absolute dog (quite literally at one stage) and it was widely reviled at the time so you can’t really blame the crowd for sitting on their hands. I think the match was good enough that if they’d gone on earlier then the fans would have eventually gotten into it due to the quality of the wrestling, but they had zero chance after Hogan Vs Rock

Triple H celebrates with his belts and we get the closing video package.

I watched this on the Silver Vision Tagged Classic DVD, which means it comes with some extras. They are mostly interviews and fluff pieces, but you do get Hogan Vs Warrior from Mania VI at least. Back in the day, getting a whole extra match on the DVD was considered a big deal. None of the music was dubbed out on this version either, which was pleasing because usually they dub a few tracks out on the Network/Peacock.

In Conclusion

WrestleMania X8 is one of those big events where they had 2-4 major matches that they spent the majority of the build hyping up, with the rest of the card mostly being thrown together in the final days and weeks. Thankfully the WWF had a stacked roster at the time, so that meant that even if the lower card matches didn’t have a lot of heat due to a lack of storyline reasons for the crowd to care about them, the actual wrestling was almost always solid, so there are no Stinkers here and the good matches have remained good. Even Hall Vs Austin isn’t an absolute disaster, and the Maven Vs Goldust match is short enough that it doesn’t drag the show down. Angle Vs Kane was better than I remembered and Taker Vs Flair is flawed but still a good match overall. The crowd might not care that much about the Main Event, but it’s a very well wrestled match, whilst Hogan Vs Rock is iconic and still a blast to watch to this day.

Add all of that together and you get a solid show overall. WrestleMania X8 isn’t a patch on WrestleMania X-Seven, but it’s by no means a bad one and I probably enjoy watching it more than WrestleMania XIX, even though XIX is generally more beloved and has better matches overall. X8 is a show I just find easy to watch and I like going back to it once in a while.

Recommend show overall!