Mike Reviews WWE WrestleMania XIX

Happy Friday Everyone!

Time to pick up my 2003 WWE reviews again, with a look at WrestleMania XIX. Mania XIX already had a struggle on it’s hands to follow the might and majesty of Mania’s X-SEVEN and X8, especially as WWE was getting pretty cold at the time and they hadn’t done a great job of building up the respective Raw and SmackDown World Title matches.

Instead most of the focus was placed on a match between Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan, which fans didn’t really care that much about, as the 560,000 buy rate for the show eventually showed. Still though; WrestleMania XIX is normally seen as one of the better Mania’s that the company ever held from purely a match quality perspective, so it will hopefully be fun to revisit.

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

WWE WrestleMania XIX Card

Pics come courtesy of IMBD

WrestleMania XIX is emanating from Seattle, Washington on the 30th of March 2003

Sadly the WWE Network version of the WrestleMania XIX intro video omits the awesome “Trailblazing” music by Steve Jablonsky, but I think it survived on the DVD version that got released back in the day. The intro video thus loses some significant lustre as a result.

WWE are however happy to pay Limp Bizkit for the pay per view theme itself. I guess they used up all the music rights budget with that though.

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for Raw, whilst Michael Cole and Tazz handle the commentary for SmackDown

Opening Match
WWE Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Matt Hardy Version 1.0 w/ “The Number One Mattitude Follower” Shannon Moore Vs Rey Mysterio Jr

Matt had jumped over to Smackdown in the summer of 2002 and started doing an arrogant Heel character, complete with obnoxious “Matt Facts” that would play on his entrance video and Mattitude Followers (Or “Mf’ers”) like Moore who would act as his putty patrol. It was a very entertaining gimmick and Matt’s eventual win of the Cruiserweight Title gave the ailing belt a bit of a boost. A feud with the premier Cruiserweight of the Smackdown brand, Mysterio, thus made sense and they would have some good matches over the belt.

Rey is dressed like Daredevil here, which started a trend of him getting into cosplay during Mania season. This match follows the trend of the previous two Mania openers, as they are only given six minutes to have a match, meaning the bout feels rushed even though the action is decent. I remember being bummed out at the time WrestleMania XIX happened as I was really looking forward to this match and felt short changed that they were given so little time.

Rey gets a brief shine on Matt in the early going before Shannon helps Matt cut Rey off, leading to some heat. Rey sells that well and Matt’s offence looks good. The crowd even gets into it a little bit, booing when the Heels cheat and popping for Rey’s flashy moves. Rey eventually makes a comeback and looks good doing so, with Matt having to resort to getting an illegal rope assisted pin in order to see off Rey’s challenge.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV-1AHHHHHHHHHHHH
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I still don’t get why they gave these lads just six minutes when ten minutes was all they would have needed to have a ***+ hot opener. As it was, this was a decent effort from both wrestlers given the limitations. The feud would continue following this and Rey would eventually defeat Matt for the Title in a good match on SmackDown, whilst wrestling with an injured groin no less!

Two snarky lasses called The Miller Lite Cat Fight Girls show up, and an inordinate amount of time to the show is dedicated to them. They would get into arguments over whether the best thing about Miller Lite was it’s great taste or the fact it was less filling, and then brawl all over the place. We didn’t even get the adverts over here in the UK, so I had no idea who they were back in 2003 and I had no YouTube in which to search out what the fuss was all about.

Match Two
Two On One Handicap Bout
Big Train (The A-Train & The Big Show) Vs Biker Taker

Big Show had injured Taker by throwing him off a stage back in the autumn of 2002, with Taker then coming back to get a modicum of revenge at No Way Out 2003. However, A-Train had attacked Taker following that match, so Taker needed to go and find a partner for a match at WrestleMania. Taker ended up recruiting ex-convict and recent WWE signee Nathan Jones as his partner, but Jones wasn’t ready to go on such a big stage yet, so they instead did an injury angle on the pre-show where Nunzio lured Jones into a sneak attack from Train and Big Show, meaning Undertaker has to go it alone here. Taker goes back to using Rollin’ for one night here, as Limp Bizkit are doing the pay per view theme for WrestleMania XIX so they decide to sing Taker down to the ring for old time’s sake. Fred Durst asks the fans if they are ready for WrestleMania, and seeing as the show has fully started and we’ve already had a match, I would certainly hope so!

Big Train actually work pretty well as a team, and Taker was in very good physical shape during this period of his career, so this one is a solidly worked handicap match. Taker gets to shine a bit on the Heels to start, but eventually the numbers game proves too much and that leads to Big Train cutting Taker off and working some heat, with Big Show getting some illegal shots on the outside whilst A-Train distracts the referee. Taker sells reasonably well during the heat, seeing as he’s in there with two very big blokes who should be capable of believably hurting the mighty Biker Taker. It’s not an especially exciting match, with it mostly being punches, kicks and rest holds, but it’s fine for what it is. Taker eventually fights back and does the one man hot tag segment, with things getting a tad bit sloppy. Nathan Jones ends up running down to take out Big Show with a spin kick in the aisle and then flatten Train in the ring with a big boot, which isn’t a DQ for some reason, and that leads to Taker getting a special WrestleMania Tombstone onto A-Train for the three (Taker didn’t use the move a lot around this time).

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: **

Thoughts: Nathan Jones being able to just run down and clock both of the Heels when he wasn’t officially in the match without there being a DQ or something was a bit of a head scratcher, but the crowd did react positively to it at least. Jones’ babyface run would end soon after and he’d be back as a generic Heel later in the year, at which point he flamed out and left WWE entirely for a career in acting, where he managed to snag a role in Mad Max: Fury Road amongst other flicks. The match itself was a bit dull in places, but it was worked well enough for the most part and the crowd enjoyed seeing Undertaker win, so it served it’s purpose as an undercard match

The Miller Lite Girls end up bumping into Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler, leading to all four deciding to be friends and heading off to discuss Keibler’s next marketing campaign. The acting ability of all four was just off the charts in this segment let me tell you.

We get clips from Sunday Night Heat, where Chief Morley and Lance Storm defeated Rob Van Dam and Kane thanks to The Dudley Boyz. This match was originally supposed to be on the WrestleMania event itself, but we needed to get The Miller Lite Girls on the show instead, so it got bumped to the pre-show. Good to see that WWE had its priorities straight at the time.

Match Three
WWE Women’s World Title
Champ: Victoria w/ Steven Richards Vs Jazz Vs Trish Stratus

Victoria had defeated Stratus for the belt back at Survivor Series 2002 and had managed to cling onto her Title thanks to Richards’ help, because if you ever need a good lackey then Stevie is your man (and I mean that as a compliment). Jazz had recently returned to WWE and had nicely fit back into her role of being a scary powerhouse, so we’ve got a fun dynamic here with the psychotic Heel Champ and her one man putty patrol, the dangerous Heel challenger who could probably defeat all three of the other people out there all by herself, and the gutsy babyface challenger looking to win her belt back from the person who originally took it from her. Sadly we don’t get Tatu on the WWE Network/Peacock version, although the version from the SmackDown games that they dub in instead still sounds pretty good.

This is the usual triple threat match, in that two wrestlers will usually go at it in the ring whilst the other sells on the floor. Jazz and Victoria do briefly team up at one stage to put a double beatdown on Stratus, but that alliance lasts about as long as Song 2 does on double speed, as the two Heels are soon going at it with one another. Jazz was probably the best wrestler in the entire women’s division at the time, and might have been better than quite a few wrestlers in the men’s division too, so she looks great whenever she gets to go on offence, whilst Stratus was ever improving and shows some good babyface fire when fighting off both of the Heels. Victoria is mostly doing all character work here, trying to get across her psycho act, but she takes some decent bumps at points. Jazz looks to have it won at one stage with a submission hold on Stratus, but Richards breaks that up. Richards tries taking out Stratus with a chair following that, but Stratus dodges it and ends up putting Victoria away with a Chick Kick quickly afterwards whilst Jazz sells on the floor.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: TRISH STRATUS
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was a bit sloppy in places, which keeps it from hitting the ***+ promised land, but it was still an energetic effort from all three wrestlers, with Richards taking some bumps and pratfalls as well in order to help get it over. The crowd reacted positively to the match overall and Stratus got a big pop for her victory, so it ended up being a fun outing and if they’d just tightened it up a little bit I would have probably gone higher with the rating. Jazz was the star of the match from an in-ring perspective, but Stratus was a great spunky babyface here, showing how good a job she’d done on improving her skills over the past year. Victoria was mostly all character work in this one, although she did head up for a missed Moonsault at one stage, so we didn’t really get much of a chance to see her really wrestle in there, but she fulfilled her role of insane evil Champion well enough

Jonathon Coachman tries to interview The Rock backstage, but Rock isn’t interested in doing that and instead insults The People, because The People hurt him at last years WrestleMania by booing him against Hulk Hogan. Rock then does an excellent promo talking about how important it is for him to finally defeat Stone Cold at a WrestleMania. It’s probably TOO good of a promo though, as fans are chanting for him once it’s over, even though he’s supposed to be a Heel here.

Match Four
Smackdown Tag Team Titles
Champs: Team Angle (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) Vs “Crippler” Chris Benoit and “The Man Beast” Rhyno Vs Los Guerreros (Eddy and Chavo Jr)

They didn’t really have anything else for Benoit and Rhyno to do at WrestleMania this year, so they added them to the Tag Title feud between Team Angle and Los Guerreros. Rather than just letting all six wrestlers go at it, they instead work this with tag rules, which I’ve never personally liked that much in these kinds of matches. If you make all six wrestlers legal then you can have a bit more excitement in the bout as some folks can fight in the ring, others on the floor and you can set up some fun double/triple/quadruple team moves if you want to. They don’t get a lot of time to work with (just under 9 minutes) so they try and keep it as action packed as possible, with all six wrestlers carrying their end of it from an in-ring perspective.

The crowd doesn’t get that into the wrestling going on, but this was kind of an unimportant match in the grand scheme of things, so that’s somewhat understandable. It’s why just letting all six wrestlers going in and making it an action packed cluster-fudge might have worked better. We end up getting the usual WWE Triple Threat finish (which they gratifyingly didn’t do in the Women’s Title match at least) with one wrestler hitting a move but then having their pin stolen by a different wrestler. In this instance it’s Rhyno hitting Chavo with a GORE, leading to Benjamin stealing the pin in order for Team Angle to retain.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: TEAM ANGLE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was totally fine from an in-ring perspective, but the crowd didn’t really care about it and the rules limited how exciting it could be. It got all six wrestlers on the show at least, and what we got was “perfectly cromulent” as Scott Keith would say. If they had done this one on a B Show with a bit more time and a stronger build-up, then it would have likely been a better overall match and the crowd would have possibly been more invested in it

The Miller Lite Girls and Wilson/Keibler are still hanging out backstage, which leads to Wilson and Keibler arguing about Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon. This leads to The Miller Lite Girls also arguing about it, with the blond one saying the “Hulk Hogan” like she’s angling for a guest spot on Ring of the Hawk. Apparently we’re getting a cat fight in bed later on, which of course pleases Jerry Lawler. Jim Ross’ withering “maybe we can get back to some wrestling now” is a sentiment I’m echoing.

Match Five
“The Highlight of the Night” Chris Jericho Vs “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels

This one came about because Jericho called Shawn “The Has-been Kid”, which led to Shawn playing some Chin Music for ol’ Y2J and starting a feud out of it. Jericho threw Shawn out of the Royal Rumble by duplicitous means, but Shawn then ran back out in order to cause Jericho’s elimination, so both of them are equally wound up at the other now and we’ve got a solidly built bout that people want to see. There was additional backstory of Jericho looking up to Shawn Michaels, and now wanting to surpass his former idol, which is got across really well in the pre-match video package. Shawn was essentially becoming a regular in-ring performer again around this time after previously being more of a special guest star prior to this Jericho feud, so this match was set up to be a good barometer from what we could expect from Shawn going forwards, especially as they’re going out there to have a straight wrestling match here at WrestleMania XIX, whereas previously Shawn’s comeback pay per view matches had mostly been weapons filled brawls that allowed him to use some smoke and mirrors in case his in-ring wasn’t quite up to standard yet.

They wrestling is really good in the early going, with there being some good counter grappling that Shawn mostly gets the better off. Being second placed in the technical wrestling battle when matched up against the wily veteran gives Jericho a chance to act all flustered and angry, which are two things he’s very good at doing. Jericho is the first one to give up on wrestling and turn the bout into a slugfest, which is always a good shorthand for showing that the babyface is the better wrestler of the two competitors because it represents the Heel wrestler essentially admitting that they can’t get the better of things in a clean fight. Shawn manages to hold his own in the fight aspect as well, although it does give Jericho his first real sustained period of offence in the contest. Shawn still manages to get the better of things again, leading to the two wrestlers brawling outside of the ring. Jericho is able to catch Shawn in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB outside of the ring though, which gives us the cut off and the start of the heat segment, with Shawn going to his usual MO from the comeback years of selling his back.

Shawn’s selling is really good in the heat, with Jericho looking good on offence and using his cocky Heel persona well in order to wind up the crowd. Shawn eventually manages to fight his way out of a chin lock and that leads into the comeback and closing stretches, which involves a great moment where Jericho nips up and taunts, only for Shawn to then deliver the genuine article. Jericho actually busts out a Northern Lights Suplex at one stage, which isn’t a move I remember him doing that much normally. I wonder if Shawn called that because it was a move he knew how to take and Jericho obliged The Showstopper? We of course get a dramatic submission tease when Jericho gets Shawn in the Crab inside the ring, which Shawn sells really well and the crowd really bites on, with Shawn eventually being able to make it to the ropes. Jericho continues going down the “imitation isn’t actually the greatest form of flattery” route by playing some Chin Music for Shawn, only for Shawn to kick out to a big pop.

Shawn eventually starts playing his own hits, as he comes off the top rope with an Elbow Drop and begins TUNING UP THE BAND. Jericho manages to dodge the Chin Music and locks in the Crab again though, with Shawn stuck in the middle with seemingly nowhere to go, which the crowd totally buys as the finish. Shawn ends up making it to the ropes, but it was a fantastic submission tease that the crowd bit on big time. Jericho’s desperate reaction to Shawn surviving yet AGAIN is tremendous, as he’s practically begging referee Charles Robinson to call the match in Jericho’s favour to no avail. Shawn does manage to play Jericho some Chin Music soon after that, but there’s a delay in the cover which allows Jericho to kick out, thus protecting the move whilst also giving Jericho a big kick out of his own. The finish ends up being really good, as Shawn manages to catch Jericho with a quick roll-up out of nowhere, not unlike some of the other great WrestleMania matches like Savage/Steamboat and Piper/Bret, and that’s enough for three. What’s great about that is that it not only gives us a clean pin, but it doesn’t hurt Jericho in any way because it’s presented as veteran smarts from HBK in a match that Jericho was well within his own capabilities of winning.

WINNER: SHAWN MICHAELS
RATING: ****1/4

Thoughts: They built this one really well, with nicely executed technical wrestling in the early going leading to a well-worked heat segment and a very exciting closing stretch. Jericho showed some excellent Heel charisma throughout the bout, especially when he was stealing Shawn’s moves and mannerisms, and Shawn sold well throughout the bout and timed his comeback attempts and near falls perfectly so as to maximise the reactions they would illicit from the crowd. The crowd were watching intently, but not going crazy in the early going, but by the end they were totally into the action and it made for a really enjoyable atmosphere to go along with the good wrestling. This match showed that Shawn could still go in there and have a straight wrestling contest with someone, and he’d have many more great WrestleMania outings between this event and his eventual full-time retirement in 2010

Shawn tries to bury the hatchet with Jericho following that, but this feud is going to continue, so Jericho kicks Shawn right in the Hickenbottom’s and we’ll do this match again some time.

Evil referee Sylvain Grenier is here at WrestleMania XIX.

The crowd is announced as 54,097. No idea if that was worked or not, but it’s Pro Wrestling, so probably.

Limp Bizkit performs again, because apparently we didn’t have enough filler on this wrestling show we bought to watch wrestling on.

Jonathon Coachman is on the stage, where we have a bed set up so that The Miller Lite Girls can come out and have a fight. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler aren’t happy to stand by and let that happen without them though, so they get involved and we have a fatal four way cat fight in bed. I believe George Hackenschmidt once defended his World Title in a match like that during a tour of Switzerland actually. This all leads to Coach getting beaten up by the women. Truly a classic WrestleMania Moment that was definitely worth dedicating so much time on the show to. Who needed to see another actual wrestling match or more time being given to the opener?

Match Six
Raw World Title
Champ: Triple H (or should that be “Triple K” considering the build?) w/ “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair Vs “The Five Time WCW Champion” Booker T

Buckle up folks, it’s time for one of Tri’s most egregious burials of the “Reign of Terror”, as he’s facing Booker T here at WrestleMania XIX. The backstory to this one is that Booker won a Battle Royal on Raw, last eliminating The Rock, and that set him up as the challenger for WrestleMania. It wasn’t the strongest way to get him into contention, but he was arguably the top babyface singles act on Raw at the time who wasn’t a part timer like Stone Cold or Shawn Michaels, so going with him for Mania made sense. Unfortunately, rather than trying to build Booker up for the shot by giving him some wins over some of the best Raw wrestlers and letting him get the better of Tri a lot in their exchanges, they instead decided to make Triple H a racist who felt that people like Booker T shouldn’t be World Champion. They tried to spin it that HHH was talking about “entertainers” instead of “wrestlers” like he was, but COME ON. That also doesn’t work either, as Booker had multiple well-received runs as the TV Champ in WCW back when it was the “workhorse” belt of the promotion, so it’s not like he didn’t have the in-ring chops to back up his entertaining persona.

Now obviously Vince McMahon was the guy who had the final say on everything back in 2003, so the majority of the blame does go to him, but it’s not like Triple H gets out of this blameless either. He had enough stroke and influence at the time to say “yeah, I don’t want to be racist Vince, let’s do something else” and Vince would have likely listened to him. Ultimately it was just a very unsavoury storyline, especially when the payoff to it all was that Booker was going to lose in the end (sorry if I just spoiled the rest of the recap for you). It’s not like you CAN’T do a storyline in wrestling where one wrestler is a racist going against a wrestler of a minority group, but there are two very important things you need to do if you’re going to try it. Firstly, you have to get the writing absolutely spot on so that it doesn’t become too sleazy or exploitative. Second, and this one is probably the most important thing to remember to any bookers or promoters who might happen to read this, YOU DON’T HAVE THE RACIST WIN IN THE END!!!! I mean, I thought that last one would be self evident, but then matches like this one come along to quickly disabuse me of such a notion.

Jerry Lawler is utterly insufferable on commentary here, making quite a few snide and problematic comments, such as Booker having Johnny Cochrane on speed-dial and how they don’t want an ex convict as the World Champion etc, which all just makes the questionable build-up to the bout all the worse. Lawler wasn’t a full on Heel by the time 2003 came around, and he would often work matches as a babyface now and then on Raw, so having him talk like Triple H’s criticisms of Booker are valid sends out a really bad message to the viewer that maybe the racist is right. At least with someone like Jesse Ventura or Bobby Heenan they were always presented as a Heel, so when Tony Schiavone or Gorilla Monsoon pushed back on them, it was clear to a viewer as to which commentator we should trust and which one we shouldn’t. However, when Jerry Lawler is a babyface roughly 60-80% of the time when he’s on screen, it muddies the waters as to whether a viewer should be agreeing with him or not, which raises the question as to whether we should be listening to the racist.

The match itself isn’t really that good once the bell rings either, as the crowd doesn’t really care about it and the two wrestlers don’t seem to have much in the way of chemistry together. Booker does take more of the match than I remembered at least, as I had it in my memory that Tri not only won but he also took something like 70-80% of the bout. Instead the match is a lot more even than I remembered, with Booker getting to hold his own well enough for the first 10 minutes or so until Ric Flair attacks Booker’s leg when the referee isn’t looking. This leads to Triple H working over the appendage for quite a while, as HHH was trying to get an Indian Deathlock over as a viable secondary finisher at the time, to the point that it was one of his main moves in the SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain video game. Booker sells all of the leg work really well, although this particular hold never really got that over so the crowd reactions are dampened to it. I think Tri working a Figure Four would have made more sense, especially as Ric Flair was his storyline sidekick and all.

The leg work eventually plays into the finish, as Booker makes a one legged comeback and it hampers his ability to profit from any of his big moves, which allows Triple H to survive the resulting pin fall attempts. Booker lamps Flair when Naitch tries to get involved again, and that leads to Booker fighting off a Tri Superplex attempt and then coming off the top with a Houston Hangover (flippy leg drop thing). Booker manages to successfully deliver the move, but Booker’s leg is hurting too much for him to immediately follow up on it, which does at least make sense within the story they’ve been telling here. Booker’s leg goes out again soon after when he tries for a Scissors Kick, and that allows Triple H to deliver a Pedigree and then pin Booker after lying around for roughly 26 seconds (yeah, I’m a pedantic jerk, so I used a stopwatch to time it). So Chris Jericho got to survive the Chin Music after a shorter delay in the pin attempt being made in the previous bout, but the Pedigree is such a DEVASTATING move that Triple H can wait for the Main Event equivalent of a fortnight to make the pin and Booker still stays down for three. Heck, I bet he’s still lying in that ring knocked out 22 years later.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: TRIPLE H
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: That finish was inexcusable after the build to the match, as not only did racism emerge victorious, but Booker also looked like a pathetic chump having to sell the Pedigree for that long. If they just wanted Booker to be the challenger of the month for Triple H until Kevin Nash and Goldberg came in to be the “real” challengers to his H’ness, then there were MUCH better ways of doing it that didn’t involve racism or burying Booker under the Earth’s core like they did here. An easy way to fix this is just remove the racism and then have Triple H win at Mania with a weapon shot after Booker takes the majority of the match. HHH still wins and keeps his Title, Booker still gets a Mania payday, and no one has to get buried. HHH will retain his heat just by winning and Booker gets to look like an actual contender until it’s time to look at the lights. Sometimes stuff like this has to be genuine sabotage from Triple H, Vince or both, because I don’t know how those people with their combined experience within the wrestling business (along with many years of success under their collective belts during that time) could genuinely be so chuffing stupid as to think that ANY of this would be a good idea.

Match Seven
Luchas de Apuestas
Hulk Hogan’s Career On The Line
Street Fight
Vince McMahon Vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan

This one was all about who deserved to take more credit for the Hulkamania boom in the 1980’s, the promoter or the wrestler. It ended up being promoted as the de-facto Main Event, with these two even making the front of the DVD box art. Ultimately the fans didn’t see it as being as big of a deal as those running WWE though, and WrestleMania XIX ended up doing something like 300,000 less buys than Mania X8 and roughly 500,000 less than Mania X-SEVEN. This would have been fine as a sideshow attraction to go alongside the actual Main Event, but it wasn’t going to be something you could stake the success of Mania as a whole on. One of the many wacky things that Vince McMahon is mad over to this day is Hulk Hogan testifying in the steroid trial, even though Hogan’s testimony pretty much caused the case against Vince to crumble. Still, Vince McMahon being an irrational twazzock who gets mad about stupid things is very much on brand for him.

The actual wrestling here is terrible due to Vince McMahon being one of the most awkward in-ring performers from a mechanical perspective that you’ll ever see, and Hogan being roughly 15 years removed from his prime years as a wrestler. They also book it really oddly, in that Vince is actually able to match Hogan in a fair fight and out-brawl/power The Hulkster. I know in Vince McMahon’s head his muscles gave him the right to actually take it to opponents in fair fights, but he was still an old businessman who wasn’t remotely athletic in any meaningful capacity, so him actually being able to take the fight to a multiple World Champion (even an older one like Hogan) stretches the realm of credibility to the point that the whole thing just comes across as silly even for Pro Wrestling.

How hard would it have been for them to have Hogan just dominate Vince during the early exchanges until Vince used the No Holds Barred aspect of the match in order to gain a foothold by having some folks run in to help him? Vince can then work some heat on a downed Hogan now that Hogan has been sufficiently weakened and you can then have them work the match on a more even keel from that point onwards because Hogan is worn out from the gang attack. That way you don’t have to do the dumb stuff of Vince actually holding his own in a fair fight against an actual wrestler. It’s not even presented as Hogan coming into the match with an injury or something due to his match with Rock back at No Way Out or because of the weapon assisted assault Vince laid on Hogan during the build-up. It’s just presented as perfectly normal that Vince McMahon, the roided up businessman with zero wrestling ability, can actually out fight a real wrestler.

The crowd does like Hogan at least, so whenever he’s dishing out some punishment to Vince they get into the contest, and Hogan is a consummate performer who knows what he’s doing in there, so he’s able to carry Vince through this enough in order to make it entertaining, even if the match doesn’t make any real sense when you stop to think about it for more than 5 seconds. Hogan eventually uses the ring post and a chair to bust Vince open, with Hugo the Spanish announcer catching a stray shot and doing a blade job as well. Who would have thought that a Vince McMahon match would have so much blood and guts in it eh? Vince soon chairs Hogan back in order to bust The Hulkster open, which leads us to craziest bit of the match, where Vince puts Hogan on the Spanish table and then “jumps” (more like “strategically falls”) off the ladder with a Leg Drop in order to put Hogan through the table. Vince McMahon is an absolute weapon, but he at least put his money where his mouth was sometimes when it came to taking the same bumps his wrestler’s were asked to take.

Hogan manages to kick out of the pin attempt back inside the ring, which leads to a bloody Vince grabbing a lead pipe and doing an all-time “Evil Vince McMahon” facial expression. It’s just a shame that Jim Ross didn’t get to call that moment as he would have been really in his element. Hogan manages to avoid a piping by clocking Vince right in his juniors, but that leads to Roddy Piper making a surprise appearance and clocking Hogan with the pipe before storming off. Vince manages to get a two count from that, with the crowd popping big for the kick out, as they have been invested in the story being told here. For some reason, referee Brian Hebner tries to stop Vince using the pipe after that, which leads to Vince taking out Hebner and bringing evil referee Sylvain Grenier down to the ring in order to do Vince’s bidding for him. However, neither Vince nor Grenier can do anything about Hogan’s Hulk Up, as The Hulkster makes the big comeback as the crowd loses their minds. Three Leg Drops soon follow for Vince, and that’s enough for a Hogan win after Grenier is dealt with and Hebner returns.

WINNER: HULK HOGAN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The wrestling was pretty awful here, and the way the match was structured made little sense as there is no way that Vince McMahon should have been capable to give an actual wrestler that much trouble in a fair fight, even an older and past his best one like Hogan. However, even though the match itself was pretty dumb, Hogan knew what he was doing and he was able to get Vince through it. Some blood, overbooking and an invested crowd combined to make the match entertaining for what it was, but it wasn’t as good as Hogan’s spectacle with The Rock at the previous year’s WrestleMania, mainly because Vince had no credibility as a wrestler whilst Hogan Vs Rock was a match between two actual wrestlers that you could get your teeth into

Shane McMahon comes down to check on Vince following that, which Hogan allows as his beef is with Vince and not Shane.

Semi-Main
Hollywood Rock Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

The story here was that Rock did Vince McMahon a favour by beating up Hulk Hogan back at No Way Out and, as a reward for that beating, Vince allowed Rock to jump to Raw and challenge Austin for WrestleMania. Rock’s motivation was that he had never been able to defeat Austin at a WrestleMania event, so he wanted another crack at it. This all made sense as a storyline, but then the build was all about Austin ruining Rock’s musical concerts and they just never made the match feel like the big deal it should have been. We did get to see a fun mini-feud between Rock and Hurricane though, so it had that going for it if nothing else. In real-life; Austin was dealing with serious neck issues and ended up stepping away from the ring for nearly 20 years until he came back for a match with Kevin Owens at Mania 38.

This is kind of a “greatest hits” compilation of all of the Rock Vs Austin matches, as they go straight into the Main Event Style brawl both inside and outside of the ring, and it’s entertaining stuff, especially with Rock stooging around and bumping for Austin in the early going. Rock ends up targeting Austin’s left knee for a bit, which gives Austin a chance to sell, which he does a good job of. Austin generally seemed to prefer to be on the front foot in his matches, but he was a good seller and always managed to get the mixture right between acknowledging the pain whilst still showing grit and determination to fight back. The crowd atmosphere is really interesting here, as it feels like there is a constant buzz in the air, so even when the crowd isn’t making a tonne of noise you still fix like they are transfixed by what is going on in the ring.

Rock is happy to play up to the crowd in an effort to wind them up, and you can tell that Rock was just having a blast playing this arrogant movie star character. Rock actually takes the vast majority of the match following the early stages, with Austin mostly fighting from underneath and selling, which makes sense when you consider that Austin probably thought it was his last match going in and thus he wanted to put Rock over as much as possible on his way to defeat. You could maybe criticise the match in the sense that Rock’s antics almost kind of overshadow everything else after a certain point, which takes away from the intensity of the bout at points. I suppose it adds to the “last day of term” feel that this match has, as Rock and Austin know it’s probably the last time they’re ever going to tango, so they have a difficult balancing act of hitting all the notes that the crowd wants to see, giving Austin some proper closure to his in-ring career, and all whilst making sure that Rock can still get his character work in.

Rock is soon getting some cheers from the crowd, despite being booed earlier on, because he’s just being so darn entertaining with his OTT mannerisms that it’s hard not to enjoy it. Rock also steals Austin’s ring jacket at one stage and wears it for a big chunk of the match, which just adds to the surreal feeling this match has. It’s like a normal Rock Vs Austin match is Metal Gear Solid whilst this one here at WrestleMania XIX is Twin Snakes. At heart it’s the same game/match, but everything is just a little bit “extra” in the latter, which makes it feel both similar but also a bit different in a rather unnerving way. The finish ends up giving Austin the “going out on his shield” ending that a match like this would kind of need to have, as Rock gradually wears Austin down with three Rock Bottom’s and ultimately Austin reaches a point where he can’t kick out anymore.

WINNER: THE ROCK
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: I don’t love this one as much as others do possibly because, though the booking made total sense if you were ending Austin’s career, it was just sad to see one of my favourite wrestlers go out before his time like this and it just gives me a mildly negative feeling towards the bout overall. I’ve also felt that Rock’s antics perhaps undercut the more serious story they were going for in the closing stages. That all being said, Rock’s antics and mannerisms were very entertaining, because he was clearly having fun doing this character, and Austin’s selling throughout the bout was top notch. It doesn’t hit the four star pantheon for me, but it was still a great match that gave the crowd a real spectacle that they clearly loved

After Rock leaves, Austin gets to leave to his music so that he can have his moment walking into the sunset.

Main Event
No Interference Allowed
SmackDown World Title
Champ: “The American Hero” Kurt Angle Vs “The Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar

Angle was coming into this one with a seriously buggered neck, and the injury was so bad that at one point there was even talk of taking the belt off of Angle and doing Lesnar Vs Chris Benoit at WrestleMania instead. In the end Angle dragged himself off of his sick bed to defend the Title and pay off a long storyline between the two wrestlers, which saw Paul Heyman drop Lesnar as a client and join up with Angle instead. Brock had taken Heyman out in a cage match during the build-up, so Angle has to face the music all on his lonesome here. Lesnar does have taped ribs to give him a weakness for Angle to exploit, which is what you kind of have to do when you have a monster babyface. Of course they could have just done what they’d eventually have Lesnar do in most of his matches by having him destroy his opponents whilst the crowd cheers along, but this was back where they were still trying to fit Lesnar into the traditional WWF/E babyface mould, which meant selling and making comebacks.

Tazz mentions that Tito Ortiz is in the crowd watching, which makes me think it’s strange that Ortiz never really did something in WWE as a guest celebrity. Even TNA were smart enough to make that one happen. We get some nice mat wrestling to start, with Angle more than holding his own thanks to Lesnar being slowed down a bit by his ribs. I was actually losing my love for both the WWF and wrestling in general in 2002 due to ECW and WCW being dead and the InVasion being such a DUD, but a combination of discovering ROH and Lesnar’s rise to dominance in WWE kept me around. It was just cool to see Lesnar doing things a bit differently on top and not doing arena wide Main Event Style brawls on every pay per view. Eventually we get to some suplexes and slams from both wrestlers, with Lesnaar getting a nice Military Press Slam, whilst Angle gets an insane German Suplex into the top turnbuckle to officially cut Lesnar off for the heat. That looked incredible!

Angle works a sleeper with a body scissors, which hurts Lesnar’s mid-section as well as depriving him oxygen to the brain, which is understandable as Angle was physically thrashed at this stage and needed to do something to slow it down a bit whilst also giving Lesnar a hold to fight out of. The crowd does get behind Lesnar and he eventually manages to power up and piggybacks Angle into the turnbuckle to break the Champion’s grip. Angle fires back with another suplex and then knees Lesnar in the back to send the challenger flying through the ropes to the floor. Angle quickly stuffs Lesnar back inside, only to run right into a spine buster for a double down. Lesnar makes the comeback once both combatants are up, getting his trademark shoulder barges in the corner before flinging Angle over his head with a belly to belly. Wow, it’s amazing watching Angle take these moves when you know how bad his neck was here. Credit to him on one hand but it’s also an utterly stupid thing to be doing with such a serious ailment.

Angle confounds medical science further by fighting back with a trio of rolling German’s before prepping for the Olympic Slam, but Lesnar slips out and goes for the F-5, only for Angle to counter THAT into the ankle lock. That was such a fun little counter sequence that highlighted what these two were capable of in a pure wrestling match that didn’t require the usual WWE Main Event tropes of the time. Lesnar tries to work his way out of the hold, so Angle just transitions into a single leg crab instead, which has the added effect of hurting Lesnar’s mid-section, which is consistent with the story being told within the bout. They’ve done a cracking job putting this match together actually, with everything happening for a reason. Lesnaar eventually gets out of the hold, only to get flung onto his FACE via a release German Suplex from Angle, which gets The Champ two. That was outstanding! Angle gets the Olympic Slam after that, but Lesnar kicks out once again to put a bee in Angle’s bonnet. Angle stalks Lesnaar, but ends up taking an F-5 from the challenger, which gets two. Lesnar didn’t get an immediate cover there though, thus giving an out for why his finish didn’t work. (“Pfft amateur” – Triple H)

Angle isn’t done however and goes to the ankle lock, hooking the legs for good measure, but Lesnar becomes one of the few people to survive that version of the hold by making the ropes. Angle keeps coming with another Olympic Slam attempt, but Lesnar slips out once again and then delivers another F-5 before heading up for the Shooting Star Press that he used to do in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Many folks backstage had apparently been trying to talk Lesnar out of trying the move, but he felt that a WrestleMania Main Event called for something special. To be fair to him, Lesnar wasn’t entirely wrong to think that, but he probably hadn’t taken into account what a big WrestleMania bout would do to his stamina, and it ends up being to his own peril. Lesnar doesn’t make it all the way over on the SSP attempt and ends up landing on his head in a terrifying moment. Thankfully Lesnar is no mere mortal and manages to survive that with his life intact, but man, that was scary. Angle is smart enough to cover Lesnar following that for two and they quickly improvise a new finish where Lesnar gets one more F-5 to pick up the win.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BROCK LESNAR
RATING: ****

Thoughts: Botched Shooting Star Press aside, this was an excellently worked match that made Lesnar look gutsy and also made Angle look like a deserving Champion who pushed the monster babyface as far as he could before finally succumbing. This is very much one of those matches you appreciate more when you know that both men survived it. Watching it live I think it might have been a bit of a harder watch

Angle shakes hands with Lesnar post-match to go babyface and set up further matches between the two for later in the year.

We get a music video to close us out to Limp Bizkit, as they continue to try and catch the lightning in a bottle that was WrestleMania X-SEVEN and don’t quite get there.

In Conclusion

I think I said in my WrestleMania X8 review that I actually prefer X8 to XIX, and I still felt that watching WrestleMania XIX once again this time. That’s not to say that Mania XIX is a bad show, because it absolutely isn’t. In fact, from a purely in-ring perspective you’d have to argue that WrestleMania XIX is one of the best Mania’s ever. However, there’s an optimism about Mania X8 that I think is kind of absent from Mania XIX, possibly because WWE was already on the downturn by the time XIX came along and things were only going to get worse as the year wore on. At Mania X8 you can watch it back and you still have the SmackDown Six Era to look forward to and some exciting turmoil throughout the year with people leaving and joining the promotion that keeps you on your toes, whilst after XIX it was all about Triple H’s reign of terror on Raw whilst SmackDown became all about an interminable feud between Vince and Stephanie McMahon.

That being said, isolated away from from everything surrounding and immediately afterwards, WrestleMania XIX is one of the better Mania’s you can watch if you’re looking at match quality alone. In fact, I’d say that WrestleMania XIX is an absolute slam dunk on that front. Jericho/Michaels, Rock/Austin and Angle/Lesnar are all great matches and well worth a watch if you’ve never seen them. Vince/Hogan didn’t really do it for me, but I can see others really enjoying it just because it was a call-back to the overbooked silliness of the Attitude Era. Honestly, if you can look past Vince McMahon booking himself to be a physical equal to a multiple time World Champion Heavyweight wrestler, then you’ll appreciate the blood and drama on display and have a good time with it, especially when the crowd really gets into it.

That all being said, when you match XIX up against X8, it’s not like X8 gets destroyed when it comes to match quality. I’d say that Undertaker Vs Flair on X8 is better than Vince Vs Hogan on XIX for instance, and I’d put Hogan Vs Rock on X8 ahead of Rock Vs Austin on XIX. Angle Vs Lesnar on XIX is better than Triple H Vs Jericho though, and there isn’t really anything on X8 that is comparable to the awesome Jericho Vs Shawn match at XIX. Undercard wise there’s nothing on WrestleMania XIX that I’d class as bad, whereas X8 has a few more throwaway undercard bouts that weren’t necessarily bad but don’t really add that much to the card either. WrestleMania XIX has a stronger card overall, mainly because WWE had the likes of Rey, Eddy, Benoit, Shawn and Lesnar available to them in 2003 when they didn’t have them in 2002 for a variety of reasons, which means the overall spine of the promotion is stronger when it comes to having good wrestlers available who can go out there and work a solid match.

The only real lowlights for WrestleMania XIX are the stuff surrounding the Triple H/Booker T match and all the filler with The Miller Lite Girls (which is ironic considering that one of the reasons those women were fighting to begin with was that Miller Lite was supposed to be LESS filling than a regular beer). Triple H Vs Booker T is a competent wrestling match, with only really the dumb finish and a certain lack of chemistry between the two opponents dragging it down a bit. There are so many better ways they could have put together a throwaway WrestleMania Title defence for Triple H that wouldn’t have involved burying Booker the way they did, and if they’d utilised one of those better ways I doubt the match would still be talked about to this day. But they did, and it is, so what can you do.

Regardless of that though; WrestleMania XIX is an easy thumbs up and a recommended show!