As it was good # 3: the Main Event of WrestleMania X-Seven

The goal of this series is to return to my first year of pro-wrestling fandom. I'm celebrating my twentieth anniversary of being a wrestling fan in October. The series will end in October of this year.

The preparation of this year's main Wrestlemania event has been a hot mess. To be honest, WWE rarely organizes a main event built for Wrestlemania. In fact, most of them go from very good to absolutely dreadful.

I hate to be a few days late for this, but April 1, 2001 remains the biggest day in the history of WWE. Wrestlemania X-Seven, held here in Houston, remains the most beautiful event ever produced by WWE. With what is happening, it will be the best thing that society can do.

This article does not deal with the event itself, which was as a whole, spectacular. A very hot first part between Chris Jericho and William Regal for the Intercontinental Title. A technical showcase between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. An entertaining slugfest / spotfest between the McMahons (with the loudest pop Linda McMahon will ever get). A crazy game of table, ladders and chairs that made the career of each of the participants.

This article discusses the main event of Steve Austin against The Rock.

The two biggest stars in the history of the fight clashed. in what remains the biggest major event in the history of the company. This unique match, probably more than anything before, has had an immeasurable effect on the sector – for better and for worse.

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The wonderful story told in this match reflected the actual positions. both men were at the time. Austin was looking to re-establish himself as the society's foremost performer after nearly a year of career due to a neck surgery. Austin was the winner of the Royal Rumble in 2001, had just reversed a feud with Triple H. He was ready to take his place on the throne of the WWE.

This incarnation of Austin was very different from the one he had had between 1996 and 1999. Stay a stubborn and sturdy but vulnerable son of a bitch. For me, it was Austin at his most brilliant: a desperate babyface that was not overtly desperate. Always successful, but hurt. The championship was not just a desire, it was a necessity. He needed to prove himself, more than the world, that he was back.

However, Rock exuded confidence. After being eliminated from the title at No Mercy, he has definitely won after the return of Rock Bottoms on Kurt Angle at No Mercy. During this quarrel, The Rock put the comedy on foot – he was more contrite, he was more serious. He silenced the decibel difference between The Rock and Dwayne Johnson.

Most importantly, The Rock was clearly established as "the man" of the WWE, from both a fictitious and non-fictional point of view. The Rock was the biggest cross star of the company at the time. It was then that The Rock was slowly becoming, but surely becoming bigger than the society that had propelled it to the status of celebrity icon and pop culture. For him, it was only another challenge to his supremacy.

Typically, face-to-face quarrels are built on mutual respect, but individual personalities eventually take over. In this respect, this quarrel was not very different from the previous one. However, what drew attention to The Rock and Steve Austin, is their natural rivalry with their screenplay, with scripted performances that only real friends can play, and the depth where they were allowed to portray their characters. This is arguably the best-written face-to-face quarrel of the company's history.

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Storyline interviews are usually lame, but the interview that Jim Ross had had between The Rock and Steve Austin was quite legendary. . It was not about being hokey. They were three performers, all of them trained as A-grade actresses, defending personal and profound enmity.

He captured two men at two different moments in their career: The Rock, the current best, and Steve Austin, the man in search of professional legitimacy.

The segment lasted only 10 minutes and the lines were almost completely improvised. They had specific ball points to hit (which was the norm at the time), but there was not a lot of line-by-line scripting. Improvisation is at the heart of all things professional wrestling, from promos to interviews to performances in the ring. The goal was to sell the match – and they nailed it.

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The third wheel of The Rock and Austin Feud was Vince McMahon. McMahon had problems with both men and had made a point of honor to face them before the match.

A subplot of this enmity was McMahon, naming Debra as the manager of The Rock. It was not as far as it could have been, but it's probably a good thing that it was not. After Kurt Angle attacked Debra after a game against her ankle, she was essentially out of the fight.

Debra's goal was to reinforce hostility between the characters of The Rock and Austin. It was not the ideal way to do it, but it did not kill the heat of the quarrel. At the same time, it was when WWE could afford to take creative risks, make a mistake, admit such a mistake, correct it, and move on without programming.

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Legendary, and a fine example of storytellers from another world that Austin and The Rock were. It was literally 30 minutes of nonstop action. Austin was the hyper-aggressor, struggling with much more urgency. The rock had its moments, but he was in defense for a slight majority of the fight. The chemistry between the two men was out of the rankings.

However, it's the little things in this game that mattered. First, when Howard Finkel announced it was a non-disqualification, Jim Ross wondered when it was added. It was subtle enough not to let go of the shenanigans that would end the game. Another good idea was that Austin was overflowing with gestures that he had not used for years, such as the Million Dollar Dream submission of his time as Ringmaster. Counters galore. Athletics and fight. Slugfest and hoss fight. Submissions Elbows. Punches.

What also made this show spectacular is the commentary provided by Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. (Heyman replaced Jerry Lawler on the color comment after Lawler left the WWE to protest his wife's dismissal.) Ross and Heyman did it when commentators are supposed to do it – summarize the story that talent tells in the ring. Contemporary WWE commentators do a good job in this area, however, none can be compared to the work that Ross and Heyman did during this period of 2001. The two men sold Austin's desperation and resilience from The Rock.

We mostly remember this game for its final. 5 to 7 minutes. It was actually a wonderful story. Austin was so desperate to regain his belt that he secretly turned to Vince McMahon. McMahon, beaten and slightly disheveled after losing to Shane McMahon earlier in the night, should not be seen again, which accentuates the effect of surprise. After an exchange of knockouts and interference from McMahon, Austin finished The Rock with nearly a dozen chair strokes to win his fifth WWE title.

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Austin was officially going to turn the heel for the first time since 1997. night. At the end of Raw, The Rock was dropped from television after being defeated by Austin and Triple H, who would form the Two Man Power Trip tag team.

The main event of Wrestlemania X-Seven took place in the context of WWE's WWE takeover, which was both the culmination of the 1990s professional struggles boom and the Era Attitude. While the WWE retained the marketing "Attitude" until 2002, the greater number of years between the end of this match and the beginning of the initial split of the mark was generally an epilogue for the period the more acclaimed by the company.

the same. Some people would attribute this to the WWE's acquisition of WCW's badets; this particular evaluation is not inaccurate

In my opinion, the correspondence was much more decisive than the monopoly established by the WWE. WWE's monopoly was as much about the superiority of society as the realities of the market. There was not enough capital or market demand for two national tour promotions. Professional wrestling television rankings had already begun to decline slightly (mainly due to the US gross switching networks at TNN). Many wrestling fans have left the market after the collapse of the WCW and the ECW and the rise of the UFC.

However, the game itself represented the creative summit of the WWE. Since then, WWE has not presented the same level of storytelling depth at the level of the main event. Do not misunderstand: the years that followed were still marked by excellent matches, promising promotions and great scenarios. But the most magical and mythical aspects of professional wrestling have almost entirely disappeared from the WWE.

The current performers of Roman Reigns, Charlotte, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins are all popular folk artists in their own right. However, The Rock and Austin were already real icons of pop culture when Wrestlemania X-Seven came along. The only one that approaches today is Rousey, and even then, she is still a few cashes below the origin of The Rock and Austin in pop culture in 2001.

The Rocks and Austin were megastars capable of shooting 5 to 10% of a total audience for a given night. They have been able to cause a widespread change in consumer habits. In any case, they were bigger than the WWE mark and not the opposite. No one will ever be built to be so big again – that's just not acceptable in the current market of content-driven professional wrestling.

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If you ever wonder why those of us who were watching during the attitude The constant complains of WWE today? , it's because we know how good WWE programming can be. We saw it. It was not quite great, but we remember having spent several years excited about the upcoming Raw or Smackdown. We have seen the creative summit and we can only wish to see it again.

And nothing will be better than the main Wrestlemania event of April 1, 2001.

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How Good It Was # 2: The WWE Title in 2000
How Good It Was Good # 1: HHH vs. Taka From April 2000