WWE WrestleMania XVII

RATING LEVELS:

Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible

Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

WrestleMania XVII – April 2001

Houston, Texas

CHAMPION RUNDOWN: Heading into tonight's main event, the reigning WWE Champion is The Rock, Raven holds the Hardcore Champion, and Chris Jericho is the recognized Intercontinental Champion. Ivory is the WWE Women's Champion while the Tag Team Championships are held by the Dudley Boys. The European Championship, which was not defended at No Way Out, is around the waist of Test going into tonight’s show.

COMMENTATORS: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

 Chris Jericho vs. William Regal for Y2J's Intercontinental Championship is our opening contest. From the very start, the match seems to be running in fast forward, which makes sense for a show with eleven matches. Jericho and Regal fill their time with sharp offense, including a barrage of excellent throws from Regal. While an extra 5 minutes would've made this one arguably the best Mania opener ever, it is hard to complain about the non-stop action this one delivers. (4/5)

Tazz and the APA vs. The Right to Censor's Val Venis, Goodfather, and Bull Buchanan is next. Not much to love about this match, with just a handful of moments I thought were cool (the APA's double spinebuster is a great spot and Bull Buchanan powerbombing JBL is impressive). Tazz looked noticeably out of place here due to his size. It's weird to think of how dominant he was booked in ECW compared to his rather unimpressive WWE run. When Tazz arrived in the WWE, he was already suffering from a fairly demobilizing neck injury, but even at 110% health, his height would've been a tough hurdle to overcome. Unlike Rey Mysterio or Daniel Bryan, Tazz couldn’t, or at least didn’t, work as an underdog either. Not a bad 6-man tag. (3/5)

Backstage, Trish Stratus arrives with a wheelchair-bound Linda McMahon. They run into Stephanie McMahon.

Raven, the WWE Hardcore Champion (he lost the title at No Way Out 2001 but regained it sometime before tonight), defends his championship against Kane and The Big Show in a Triple Threat match next. The fighting doesn't stay contained in the ring very long as all three competitors make their way through the crowd and into a phony backstage area. Raven spends most of the match eating offense, including getting tossed through a window in a nifty spot. At one point, the two monsters end up fighting through a wall ala Godzilla and there's even a golf cart collision. The final spot earns and receives a huge pop. Not a classic, but undeniably engaging and fun. A huge step-up from the comparatively tame and disorganized Hardcore Championship match at No Way Out. (3.5/5)

Eddie Guerrero, with a ridiculous-looking Perry Saturn in tow, challenges Test for his European Championship in the next bout. On paper, this one did not have me salivating as Test was an average-at-best worker. Here, though, he is working with a very driven Guerrero and Test obviously stepped up his game to help deliver a much that exceeded my expectations. Unlike No Way Out, which featured blatant interference in nearly every match, I like how the involvement of Saturn and Malenko is done mostly behind the referee's back. The finish is well-executed and clearly asserts who the heel is and, most importantly, why he is the heel. At No Way Out, interference was treated as so common and normal that it seemed there were no rules against it. The referees were furniture. The story told in this match wisely holds respect for traditional pro-wrestling rules and the audience enjoys it because of that. Obviously this is not Eddie Guerrero’s crowning achievement, but is there a better Test match out there? (3.5/5)

From the first bell, Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit delivers some tremendous mat wrestling that earns huge cheers from the live crowd. In due time, things get a bit more typical of the Attitude Era style, with a nice amount of brawling on the outside. As the match progresses, both men begin taking more and more risks, while continuing to counter each other's more traditional maneuvers in inventive ways. This may not be consistently rated as highly as their Royal Rumble showdown a few years later, but I'm not sure what real criticisms could lobbed against this equally thrilling but less epic contest. (4/5)

Ivory defends her Womens' Championship against Chyna in the next match. Chyna spends the first minute getting beat down, not necessarily selling as much as she just crumbles to the mat and withstands a number of kicks. After a minute of non-action, Chyna stands up and immediately dominates, no selling Ivory's stomps. Chyna proceeds to hit a devastating powerbomb and has a chance for the victory, but instead of taking the easy pinfall, pulls Ivory up for a gorilla press slam just to further assert her dominance. The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer was not very fond of this match - the “story” is lazy and Ivory is effectively buried - but at least some credit should be given for capping off a lengthy storyline (the Right to Censor’s strangehold over the Womens’ Division). Ending that storyline decisively at the biggest show of the year, and crowning a new champion who, at the time, was an immensely popular talent was the right call, even if the execution was needlessly one-sided. (1.5/5)

The battle of the McMahons - Vince vs. Shane - is next, featuring special guest referee Mick Foley and, in a distant part of the Astrodome, several WCW wrestlers watching in attendance. I didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did, partially because the first minutes are just your basic brawl with neither of the McMahons' punches looking too good. Then, the storytelling begins and the match becomes all about revenge, betrayal, and family dysfunction writ large. While I wouldn't consider this either McMahon's best outing, that's no insult when you consider they have both been involved in some unforgettable matches. This match is worked considerably safer than their more storied battles, but the emotional pull is stronger and the build-up, while disgusting and demented, is strangely enthralling. The crowd's huge reactions for nearly every minute, especially once Stephanie, Trish Stratus, and Linda McMahon arrive, only boost up the entertainment value. (4/5)

The TLC match between The Dudleys, Edge and Christian, and The Hardy Boys is next. Since 2001, I’ve probably seen this match a half-dozen times, but almost always as part of a DVD set of ladder matches or Hardys matches or an Edge collection. In those contexts, lumped in with a bunch of other ladder or hardcore matches, the match is anything but unique. When viewed as part of WrestleMania XVII, though, it is far easier to appreciate the innovation and efforts of the combatants. Similarly, in the context of other multi-man ladder-based spotfests, the inclusion of Rhyno, Spike Dudley, and Lita can come off as a desperate attempt to “shoehorn” even more bumps into a match, but enjoyed as part of the full 3-hour broadcast, their involvement keeps things moving as the actual participants sell the damage they've endured. Their involvement also adds to the drama and prestige of the titles; If Rhyno, Spike, and Lita are all willing to risk their own safety to help their friends win the straps, the belts must mean something. While I haven't seen the original TLC match recently enough to compare the two, as its own entity, this match, watched in the context of this show, stand the test of time as a high spot-packed masterpiece. (5/5)

The Gimmick Battle Royal comes next and, unfortunately, we get a very, very, very long set of introductions that ultimately lead to a very, very, very inconsequential time-waster that's only slightly saved by its nostalgia factor. The most notable aspect of this match might be that the majority of old-timer entrants seem to weigh at 300 pounds or more. Say what you will about the workrate of a Nikolai Volkoff, Tugboat, or Kamala, but in a battle royal setting, they pose a much greater challenge than Dolph Ziggler. (1/5)

Up next, the "forgotten" Undertaker/Triple H WrestleMania match. I say "forgotten" because, almost inexplicably, this match wasn't mentioned much in the build-up to their WrestleMania battles a decade or so later. Personally, I find this to be the best one these two had too. Taker was as strong and agile as he had ever been (even if I'm not a huge fan of the "American Bad Ass" gimmick) and Triple H, while a bona fide main eventer by now, was still working with something to prove, taking much bigger bumps and selling a ton more than he would later in his career. What also comes off great in this match is just how genuinely surprising it is when the match goes through "extra innings," not so much through false finishes, but through a clever twist to the usual ref bump ending. Here the referee is out of commission for what feels like more than half the match, something quite different than the norm, where the ref is knocked loopy for maybe a minute or two. When the actual finish does come in, it is well executed and convincing, though, I could've stood for another 3-5 minutes to really build up to it. Easily one of the best of Taker's streak, despite Dave Meltzer's surprisingly harsh rating of only 3-and-a-half stars. (4.5/5)

Our main event is upon is - WWE Champion, The Rock vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Before either man makes their arrival, the Fink announces that tonight's match is now a No Disqualification contest, something that Jim Ross notes is confusing and unexpected. The split second the bell rings, the Rattlesnake and The Great One start trading blows and the crowd goes completely bonkers. After a few moments of the Rock taking a whooping at the hands of the Bionic Redneck, Heyman notes just how vicious Austin has been in this match, which is not only accurate, but a nice nod to what will happen in the closing moments. After a superplex, Austin goes for a cover and we get a near fall that occurs a little too early in the game for me, a bad habit that countless other workers picked up over the years. Around now, the Houston crowd gets even louder and clearly divided. Interestingly, though, the divide is probably not the one the WWE was hoping for as there is an audible 70/30 split in favor of the "home-state" hero Steve Austin. The Rattlesnake is the first to go to weapons to win the match, essentially playing "the heel" a good 15 minutes before he will officially turn on his supporters, but to the live crowd, all of Austin's rule-breaking tendencies come off as signs of passion, not necessarily shortcuts. When The Rock does go on offense, a well-earned momentum shift after the beating he's received, his strikes elicit boos from the crowd. Then, when Rocky resorts to using the same ring bell that Austin did, the crowd jeers him even more.

The next stretch of the match is even more confounding for some critics. It is at this point, with the Rock laying the smack down effectively, that Austin turns back into the underdog, with JR screaming "He just won't quit!" as The Great One becomes the violent aggressor. In a very real sense, after close to 20 minutes of action, the roles inexplicably flip-flop and the crowd is almost rewarded for cheering the Rattlesnake. Again, this is an interesting twist of a typical wrestling story - by this point, both men have been the cheap-shot artist, both men the victim, both men the hunter, both men the hunted.

When The Rock locks in the Sharpshooter, JR is quick to note how the move echoes the WrestleMania XIII classic between Austin and Bret Hart, arguably the wrong comparison to make when you consider the conclusion of this match. The tension grows even more once Vince McMahon arrives.

At this point, we get "The Turn." It begins rather innocently with Vince pulling The Rock off Austin at on a 2-and-a-half count. From there, though, the Austin/McMahon partnership becomes blatant and the two villains proceed to dish out a thorough beat-down on The People's Champ. Symbolically, Vince handing a chair over to Austin, a clear transferring of all his evil power into the hands of his longtime nemesis, should end the match…but it doesn’t. Instead, it takes multiple shots to to put the champ down. Such a prolonged ending only waters down the deception and shock value of Austin's heel turn.

When Austin pins his opponent, the crowd cheers - a clear sign, at ground zero, that something about this angle had gone terribly wrong.

To me, though, as imperfect as the last few minutes of this match are, there is still something undeniably electric and awe-inspiring about it. The audience's reactions couldn't be fully anticipated before the match, but make no mistake about the fact that the crowd response was inspired by the ambiguous storytelling of the match itself. With both guys playing heel and face in a match that might be too back-and-forth, Austin's decision to sink to the deepest low of WWE morality, to shake the hands of Vince McMahon to get the World Championship comes across as opportunistic, untrustworthy, and self-centered…the same three traits that the mega-popular Texas Rattlesnake had embodied for years.

But this "flaw" doesn't sink the match or make it any less essential. In fact, it is such an engaging, remarkable, unique match that it rewards multiple viewings. For 25+ minutes, the action and story telling on display is impossible to turn away from. Like so many of the best stories ever told, this is a match that can't almost never be fully understood, one that frustrates and entertains in the same breath.  Perfection lies in imperfection and this match is imperfect enough to achieve it. (5/5)

With a tremendous average match score of 3.55-out-of-5, WrestleMania XVII has been appropriately called by many fans "The climax of the Attitude Era," the night after which everything changed. I don’t I disagree.

A year later, the WWE landscape looked radically different. The Invasion had happened. Triple H was a babyface and Chris Jericho was the Undisputed World Champion. Austin's 2001 run humanized him to the point that, a year later, he was barely a presence at WrestleMania XVIII. The rivalry of the Hardys, Edge & Christian, and Dudleys would never truly die, but their match on this night will always be regarded as something of a "final chapter," the rest of their battles, even up to today, are all really footnotes to their historic TLC series. Chyna captured the Women's Championship at this show but was essentially out of the company a month or so later, leaving the title effectively vacated until November.

After WrestleMania XVII, there was a strong sense of the thrill being gone and the fun being over, even if the ratings wouldn't reflect that for a little while longer. As will become apparent in my reviews of the pay-per-view events that came after, the WWE had "peaked" and even an influx of new talent via the InVasion storyline could not keep things fresh. Still, as a time capsule show full, this one is hard to beat - a "Greatest Hits" spectacular if there ever was one featuring some of the most storied rivalries in WWE history. 

FINAL RATING – Curt Hennig Level