Stuart Monroe
The Attitude Era. The mere mention of it sends an entire generation of wrestling fans into a frenzy. It
was, undoubtedly, the peak of professional wrestling’s popularity. The ratings were borderline ludicrous (especially by today’s standards), the pop culture influence was off the charts, and the product was edgier than at any other time in the history of the business.
We’re talking April of 2001 here, folks—September 11th hadn’t even happened yet! To say it was “a
different time” doesn’t even begin to do justice to the reality of the situation, but as we sit here twenty-three (!) years later, it’s a perfect time to go back and revisit what critically is widely considered to be the greatest WrestleMania of all time…and for good reason!
While some of the storylines and moments have certainly not aged all that well (we’re looking at you, Vince McMahon), it’s still some of the best action and storytelling combinations ever performed inside of the squared circle. And through many, many shows over the years, I’ve never experienced a more consistently hot and jacked-up crowd than the 67,925 in attendance that night.
I have a deeply personal perspective on WrestleMania X7 as my wife and I (along with a couple of dear friends and criminal amounts of party favors) were in attendance for our first time at the “Showcase of the Immortals”. When I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, but my Mom always made sure that we could order WrestleMania. It was the show you simply couldn’t miss, no matter what. Needless to say, finally attending THE show in person was a nearly transcendent experience. I can say with zero shame that I wept joyous tears upon entering the legendary old venue that was the Astrodome and seeing that stage setup. It was one of the coolest moments of my life, and the emotional resonance of it stays with me to this day.
I haven’t watched WrestleMania X7 back in its entirety since 2001. With WrestleMania XL right around the corner, it seemed the perfect time to make the greatest ‘Mania of all time. Let’s dive
into one of pro wrestling/sports entertainment’s all-time great shows.
[Side note: I refer to all titles with the nomenclature of the day, i.e. WWF and not WWE]
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: William Regal (Challenger) vs. Chris Jericho (Champion)
In the coveted opening match, you have an unmatched ring tactician against one of the
hottest young stars in WWF at the time. The “Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah” aka “Y2J” was still a relatively new face in the company at the time, and William Regal was playing the role of on-screen Commissioner.
The video package made me guffaw with the infamous “pissing in Regal’s tea” moment as well as many other comedic gems. As the match gets underway (with WWF legend Tim White as the referee), Jericho is hyper-aggressive early, but Regal slows him down and counters with some of that brilliant chain wrestling that made “his Lordship” so much fun to watch; he’s still in his prime here and in excellent physical condition. He focuses on Jericho’s previously injured left shoulder to soften him up for the Regal Stretch (still one of my favorite submissions), tossing him through the turnbuckles and into the ring post numerous times before taking him up top for a very uncharacteristic top-rope double underhook suplex for a very near fall!
Jericho fights his way back into it with chops, making Regal’s chest look a bit like raw
hamburger in the process. Regal survives the Walls of Jericho and counters into a Regal Stretch that Jericho barely survives by reaching the ropes. Jericho does regain the advantage before hitting a Lionsault for the 1,2,3. A surprisingly quick but hotly-contested opener.
Winner: Chris Jericho (7:40)
Backstage, we see a limo pull up with “WCW1” on the front license plate. It’s new WCW owner Shane McMahon, looking focused and ready for his Street Fight with his father later in the night.
Then we go to the A.P.A poker room (with the camera first looking in through that famous free-standing door) to find Bradshaw pacing anxiously around and wondering where their tag team partner, Tazz, is. He gives an impassioned speech about the history of the building they’re in and the importance of WrestleMania. It fires up Farooq and Jacqueline, and off they go!
Six-Man Tag Match: Right to Censor (Val Venis, Bull Buchanan, & the Goodfather) vs. Tazz & The A.P.A. (with Jacqueline)
Do you remember the nuclear heat garnered by the Right to Censor? Moreover, do you remember that uber-annoying entrance “music” they used? I’d kind of hoped never to hear it again, but it did put a smile on my face—their heel value was criminally underrated.
The match opens with RTC making frequent quick tags and bullying Tazz around. He escapes after The Goodfather (drawing raucous boos) misses a Hoe Train Splash and tags in Bradshaw, who opens up a Texas-sized can of whoop-ass on all three members. The action devolves into a series of back and forth double-team moves from both teams before another missed Goodfather splash leads to perhaps the greatest finisherin the history of finishers—the Clothesline From Hell! There’s no coming back from that one, and The Goodfather takes the pin.
This match was even quicker than the previous, though still entertaining.
Winners: Tazz & The A.P.A. (3:56)
We go backstage again to see Trish Stratus pushing a catatonic Linda McMahon down a hallway before Stephanie McMahon (clad in a “Daddy’s Girl” jumpsuit that she was very proud of) stops Trish to taunt her mother (“At least you had one child that made you proud!”). She then belittles her father’s mistress a bit and demands champagne and strawberries on hand for the victory celebration, complete with hand-crushed ice. God, she was so comically despicable in the role of Daddy’s little princess!
WWF Hardcore Championship Match: Kane (Challenger) vs. Big Show (Challenger) vs. Raven
(Champion)
I don’t know about you, but I really miss the Hardcore Championship. It was a title that opened opportunities for mid-carders to be seen and top-tier guys to get down and dirty. It also had one
of the best title designs ever; your argument is invalid.
Raven enters first (with his super dope theme music) pushing a shopping cart full of toys. Kane enters next looking possibly the most swole he ever was at 326 pounds, and the two are going at it before Big Show’s music even hits! By the time Show makes it to the ringside area, Kane is up on the top turnbuckle and nailing a big clothesline on the pair outside on the floor. The fight quickly makes its way through the crowd and to the backstage area. Kane tosses Raven halfway through a wall before wrapping a hose around his neck and tossing him violently through a glass window, making it seem like Marty Jannetty got off light.
The fight then turns to Big Show, and the two take turns throwing each other all the way through walls and doors. Raven is back surprisingly quickly (but bleeding from the shoulder). As the fight makes its way down the hallway, golf carts are secured and Raven is nearly run over in what could have been a very bad scene. Next up is Gorilla position, and then the three men are back out on the main entrance stage. Big Show takes out Kane momentarily and is preparing to press slam Raven all the way to the floor, before a recovered Kane takes both men out and they go crashing through some plastic and plywood staging just off camera. Kane then follows it up with a huge leg drop onto both men for the win amidst the rubble.
Winner (and new WWF Hardcore Champion) : Kane (9:28)
Back in the dressing room, an obsessed and laser-focused looking Kurt Angle (still with a head full of hair!) is watching a video on repeat of himself tapping out to Chris Benoit’s Cripple Crossface. Edge and Christian walk up and try to talk to him, but he simply mutters that if there was no ref and it wasn’t an official match, then there was no official tap out. E&C back away slowly, leaving Kurt to his obsession and saying they’ll hook up later.
This is followed by a quick check-in at WWF New York, the company’s short-lived Times Square restaurant and entertainment venue. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka is standing atop some tables and playing to the fans.
WWF European Championship Match: Eddie Guerrero (w/Perry Saturn) (Challenger) vs.
Test (Champion)
Man, just hearing that cry of “Latino Heat” in the entrance music brings a tear to your eye. Was there ever anyone as beloved as Eddie Guerrero? He’s firmly a heel at this point in time, but you can still see how the fans gravitate toward him. And Test had so much scary potential; it’s such a
shame that both men are gone now.
Test opens the match dominant and super-physical, tossing Eddie around and generally looking like a million bucks (like most wrestlers did with Eddie). The tide turns when Test’s foot gets caught in the ropes after Eddie low bridges him. It actually takes both the ref and Eddie to get him free, but not before Perry Saturn gets in some cheap shots. Guerrero works a long sleeper, wearing Test down, before the big man comes roaring back with a hellacious Tilt-A-Whirl Slam followed by a brutal Tilt-A-Whirl Powerbomb.
Dean Malenko then makes his way to ringside (this was only a little over a year after the three men entered WWF along with Chris Benoit as The Radicalz). Test is soon fighting a battle on three fronts, and it’s not long at all before the ref (distracted by Malenko) doesn’t see Saturn toss the European title to Guerrero, who uses it to clean Test’s clock. That’s all she wrote on the heel victory.
Winner (and new WWF European Champion): Eddie Guerrero (8:32)
In the backstage area, a young, skinny, frosted-tipped Michael Cole interviews former Commissioner
Mick Foley. He asks Foley if, given his history with Mr. McMahon, he can be an impartial referee in the Street Fight. Foley says that despite all that, he will call it right down the middle and he’ll do it right here…in Houston, Texas! (Cheap pop)
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit
This was one of the matches I was most looking forward to heading in, and it did not disappoint. Then again, these two never disappointed when they wrestled, and Kurt Angle still proclaims Benoit the toughest opponent he’s ever faced to this day.
Angle cuts a classic heel promo on the way to the ring, imploring Texans to lose the stupid cowboy hats because they’re “not seven years old anymore, for Christ’s sake!” The first ten minutes of the match are pure shoot wrestling without a hint of a pro wrestling move in sight, and it is a thing of beauty that the crowd deeply appreciated, punctuating each break with respectfully riotous applause. You can see how much the two men are loving this.
By the time it gets into the brawling, we are already settled in. Outside the ring, Angle tosses Benoit into the stairs with such force that the top section flies halfway down the ring. The two men trade extremely snug right hands before getting back in the ring. A series of nasty, welt-producing chops from Benoit leads to a counter belly-to-belly suplex from Angle, then another. Angle and Benoit then exchange a stealing of the other’s finishing moves to no avail.
Once Benoit gets the Crippler Crossface in, Angle taps…but the ref has been knocked down and didn’t see it! They exchange pin counters, but it’s a handful of tights that gives Angle the win!
Winner: Kurt Angle (14:10)
Backstage, William Regal is asked if he’s alright after his match with Chris Jericho and some time in the trainer’s room. He’s indignant at the question. He’s even more indignant upon returning to his office to find The Ugandan Giant, Kamala, atop his desk and furiously rubbing a portrait of The Queen of England on his painted belly! He then runs off with the picture.
This is followed by a lengthy video of the WrestleMania pep rally from Fort Hood. That in turn is followed an interview with Kurt Angle that’s cut short as Chris Benoit attacks from off-screen, putting Angle in the Crippler Crossface and making him tap. It seems nothing was resolved with that match.
WWF Women’s Championship Match: Chyna (Challenger) vs. Ivory (Champion) (with Right to Censor Barred From Ringside)
This is a total squash match despite Ivory’s opening assault on Chyna’s recently injured neck. This was an accolade that Chyna wholeheartedly deserved, despite the fact that it was almost comical to put virtually any of the other women against Chyna. It was just such a total mismatch as Chyna was a physical freak and a force of nature. For her part, Ivory (the consummate professional) makes Chyna look incredible here, crying off and running away before being caught by The
Ninth Wonder of the World.
Winner (and new WWF Women’s Champion): Chyna (2:38)
Back in the Chairman’s dressing room, Vince is ensuring that Trish doubled Linda’s dosage as he wants her nice and sedated for the upcoming fight with his son. Michael Cole barges in and asks Vince for his thoughts on Shane’s shocking purchase of WCW on the previous Monday Night Raw. Vince says if you want shocking, he’s going to give you shocking.
Street Fight (with Special Guest Referee Mick Foley): Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon
If there’s one takeaway from the opening video package for this match, it’s that much of the Attitude Era stuff hasn’t aged very well. Story-wise, Linda is catatonic after suffering a nervous breakdown from witnessing Vince’s very public affair with Trish Stratus (whom he also degraded and stripped down while making her bark like a dog at one point, but I digress). It’s cringey stuff, folks, and in light of the recent news about Vince seems almost prophetic in the worst way possible.
In any case, this match was one of the night’s highlights. Vince opens up with a cheap shot that almost immediately swells up Shane’s eye and follows it up with a series of wild rabbit punches and body blows. Shane turns the tables with a spear and takes it to the outside of the ring. He hits Vince with a flying clothesline off the barricade and chases it with some well-placed kendo stick shots. Now it’s time for Shane’s patented flying elbow from the top rope to the announce table outside, but Stephanie pulls Vince out of the way and Shane is down and out.
The crowd rumbles as Trish brings a still zonked-out Linda down to ringside. She wheels Linda
next to Shane’s prone body, but the swerve comes when Trish slaps Vince with a hell of a shot!
Stephanie attacks Trish, and they brawl their way back up the ramp and away from the ring. With Shane still down, Vince looks to berate his wife and do something far worse, but Mick Foley steps in and stops him from whatever it was he was going to do.
Once Foley’s back is turned, Vince takes him out with a steel chair and places Linda in the corner of the ring before rolling Shane’s half-dead self back in. He proceeds to beat his own son with a series of garbage cans while Linda watches…that is until she stands up, quite alert and super pissed. She kicks Vince squarely in the balls. Foley follows this up with a severe beatdown and a running knee in the corner. A trash can is then placed in Vince’s lap, and Shane ascends to the top and delivers the Coast-to-Coast that everyone has now seen a million times. 1,2,3.
Winner: Shane McMahon (14:11)
A video package is shown for WWE Axxess Fan Festival. We attended both days of this show, securing many autographs and buying far too much memorabilia and J.R.’s BBQ Sauce. Axxess is one of the cooler shows that you can go to as a fan, for the record.
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs II for the WWF Tag Team Championships: Edge & Christian (Challengers) vs. The Hardy Boyz (Challengers) vs. The Dudley Boyz (Champions)
What can you say about this match that hasn’t already been said, honestly? How do you even play by play this match? I won’t even try. It’s easily and inarguably one of the ten greatest matches in the history of the sport. It also runs at such a breakneck and inventive pace that you don’t really get a chance to breathe. These three teams had a chemistry unmatched through the history of tag team wrestling, and this is the best match in a series of unbelievable matches.
Five minutes into this one, the crowd is at a fever pitch, yet it somehow manages to get more and more amped. Sure, it’s the spear on a dangling Jeff Hardy by Edge from the top of a twenty-foot ladder that still graces the opening video package on literally every WWE show to this day, but there are a metric f**kton of impressive/dangerous/outright psychotic spots throughout this match. Add in meaningful run-in work from Spike Dudley, Rhyno, and Lita, and the result is pure wrestling magic.
It’s the kind of match that comes along once in a generation, and I WAS THERE FOR IT! I can close my eyes and still see the images that are burned onto my brain forever. Be jealous. It’s okay.
Winners (and new WWF World Tag Team Champions): EDGE & CHRISTIAN (15:50)
Another video package is shown for WWF Axxess, this time focusing on wrestler interviews. It’s very
trippy how young everyone was! Good stuff.
The Gimmick Battle Royal
While this isn’t a match in the sport and competition sense of the word, what it is is nostalgia on steroids. It’s a boatload of fun and made for a nice chance to catch your breath after the spectacle of TLC II. “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan are out for commentary on this one. One of the best parts of the match is the entrances; the love shown to these legends was some pretty heartwarming stuff. And that Badstreet USA energy still hits like crack! The match itself is a sloppy mess, even by battle royal standards, but that’s okay. They definitely picked the right winner for it.
Winner: The Iron Sheik (3:50)
Triple H vs. The Undertaker
I like to call this one the “forgotten match” in the series of matches between The Game and the Dead Man. This rivalry ran through multiple ‘Manias, but for some reason people don’t seem to talk much about this one. That’s a shame, too.
Triple H starts off by being played to the ring by God and his Band (aka Lemmy and Motörhead) in one of the greatest entrances in WrestleMania history. Undertaker (firmly in his American Badass persona) barely has time to get in the ring and pose a bit before Triple H is on him, fists flying. Taker slows it down to a more methodical pace, including an attempted Old School that allows Triple H to turn the tables on him. Once in control, Triple H just cannot help but get into it with the ref because, well, that’s a Triple H trademark at that time.
Soon the ref is down, of course, and the match effectively becomes a No-DQ, spilling into the crowd.
They make their way to the TV control tower where all the hard cameras are, and there are some iconic shots of the two men fighting high above the sea of people. Taker gets the match’s big high spot,chokeslamming Triple H off the tower to the floor below and following it up with a big elbow drop. “Holy Shit! Holy Shit!”
The physicality eventually makes it back into the ring, and we’re back to an exchange of
big, meaty right hands. Triple H attempts a Tombstone of his own on the Death Valley Demon, but it’s countered smoothly. The ref is still down, however, after abuse from both men. A Last Ride Powerbomb (Taker’s finisher for that persona) is stopped by a sneaky sledgehammer shot, and Taker is bleeding. Still, it’s not long before Undertaker catches Triple H in another Last Ride, this time with the ref up and conscious again.
Winner: The Undertaker (18:27)
No Disqualification Match for the WWF Championship: Stone Cold Steve Austin (Challenger) vs. The Rock (Champion)
This is the second (and best, in my humble opinion) meeting in what was undoubtedly THE in-ring rivalry of the Attitude Era. Rock and Austin had an almost eerie chemistry with each other, and their rare one-on-one matchup always made for a rabid crowd.
This one opens as a total brawl with Austin as the initial aggressor, spilling out into the very pro-Austin crowd almost immediately. Back in the ring, Austin hits a big superplex before taking it back outside again. He then uses the ring bell to great effect, busting open The Great One. He’s in control for the majority at this point, but Rock gets his chance to use the ring bell himself and busts Austin open. Both men are rapidly becoming a bloody mess.
Rock ragdolls Austin around the ring for a minute or so with those killer right hands he’s so famous for. Once it gets back outside the ring, Austin regains control. He monkey tosses Rock into the ring post and follows that up with a vicious monitor shot. They finally get back in the ring and both men exchange bloody Sharpshooters, echoing Austin’s famous bloodfest moment with Bret Hart from WrestleMania 13. Austin even busts out the Million Dollar Dream sleeper hold! Rock counters
an Irish Whip into a Stunner of his own. Near fall after near fall ensues.
Suddenly, the crowd ripples with nervous energy as Vince McMahon makes his way down to the ring. The Rock hits the People’s Elbow, but Vince pulls him off of the 3-count! Referee Earl Hebner is down, and now it’s Austin holding Rock for a Vince McMahon chair shot?! What are we seeing? Rock kicks out of that, however, and also kicks out of a Stone Cold Stunner! Austin finally snaps and waylays The Rock with an obscene twelve…count ‘em, twelve…chair shots before securing the pin with a ton of help from Vince McMahon.
Stone Cold Steve Austin needed that title so badly that he sold his soul to the Devil to get it! The two former bitter enemies shake hands, and the crowd is in an uproar.
Winner (And new WWF World Heavyweight Champion): Stone Cold Steve Austin (28:08)
Final Thoughts
WrestleMania X7 is widely acclaimed as the greatest ‘Mania of all time, and for good reason. It was the culmination of the Attitude Era and signalled a change in the product, a change that ushered in the Invasion angle and the ensuing “Ruthless Aggression” era as new stars like John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, and Batista emerged in the following year or two.
The praise is well-deserved—every match completed a story, the action was everyone’s best, and the card flowed beautifully. There are no duds here, even in the short matches. The crowd stayed pumped and manic throughout. It’s a show that produced true classics like TLC II, Rock-Austin II, the criminally underrated first ever meeting between Triple H and The Undertaker, and even a hellishly-amusing Gimmick Battle Royal.
Then there’s that swerve. If you weren’t there that day in “by-God” Texas, you wouldn’t understand the tidal crowd shift. It was, well, epic.
