In the annals of Wrestlemania history, Wrestlemania 18 in particular holds a very dear place in my heart. The reason is simple: I WAS THERE. Among the 68,237 people that packed the Skydome I experienced Rock vs Hogan first hand, helpless against a wave of mass nostalgia. But I’ll get to that match later. We had floor seats, just left of the main hard camera view toward the back. Good seats but maybe not great seats. But that didn’t matter; I was in attendance at the Showcase of the Immortals, the Granddaddy of them all, Wrestlemania!

I’ll keep the match recaps brief, more to give you a feel for my experience rather than a blow by blow. Show opens with the Wrestlemania theme song played live by Saliva which goes on for way too long. Then that is followed by a pretty decent Wrestlemania video package. I remember just wanting the show to start already.

1) Intercontinental Championship – William Regal (Champion) vs Rob Van Dam

A pretty good opener, both tried to do what they could in the time they had. Regal looks in great shape here. I think this was the peak of his “Power of the Punch” shtick with the brass knucks. There’s a bit of going through the motions though, in particular for Van Dam getting in all his signature moves. Again, might have been a time constraint thing. Regal mixed it up a bit with a BRUTAL looking suplex but the knucks don’t come into play as RVD got the 5-star frogsplash for the win and the strap. Quick, snappy match.

2) European Championship – Diamond Dallas Page (Champion) vs Christian

Christian’s doing his temper tantrum bit at this time and “motivational speaker” DDP was his mentor toward controlling his anger. Christian had turned on him on RAW, much to my approval. I hated that slant on the DDP character. I much preferred him in WCW as the determined Jersey toughguy. Another decent enough match though they don’t show a whole lot of chemistry. DDP is known for keeping strictly to the script, and this match suffers a bit from that, he’s calling moves rather blatantly here. DDP retains with an eventual Diamond Cutter. Remember when he could hit that so quickly out of nowhere at any time?

Anyway the big story is that you can see me in the audience as DDP leaves through the crowd. My friends and I wanted the gang back home to see us, possibly from a distance. We all liked to poke fun of our friend’s mother, so we made a huge “SUB’S MOM” sign. I’m the bearded fellow holding the “ M” portion, jumping up and down after seeing ourselves on the jumbotron. Forever immortalized on a Wrestlemania DVD!

3) Hardcore Championship – Maven (Champion) vs Goldust

I never really got into Maven, though it seems some people did judging by his pop. He was just too green and awkward for me. Though he bumps like bastard for the few minutes he has with Goldust before a double KO blow with trashcan lids results in Spike Dudley getting a pinfall with his own referee. Ah yes, the 24/7 rule. Crash Holly w/referee makes chase through the crowd. After Drowning Pool play their (also too long) song over the HHH/Jericho video package, the fighting over the Hardcore title continued, this time culminating in The Hurricane getting the strap. Whatever.

4) Kurt Angle vs Kane

I remember being annoyed that Angle got “stuck” with Kane, I wanted to see Angle put on another wrestling clinic like he did with Chris Benoit the previous year. Having watched the match again, this was actually a really good encounter. Angle had his working boots on, he was suplexing big Kane around and taking bumps. It’s amazing how good Angle would become but it’s also quite something how good he already was here after less than two years. The finish was a bit sloppy/cheap with Angle rolling Kane up and using the ropes. Still, good effort from both guys throughout.

More backstage Hardcore title shenanigans – a few of Godfather’s Hos compare boob sizes just as Hurricane was hiding behind a screen with a broom handle. Hilarity ensues I guess.

5) Undertaker vs Ric Flair

Here’s the other though less remembered Legend vs Legend match from this Wrestlemania. This one was a brawl through and through, very little wrestling at all unfortunately. My memory recalled the match as a completely one-sided affair, though upon rewatch Flair did have a few good comebacks and that Arn Anderson run in popped me even now. AWESOME top rope superplex by Taker, not hard to tell this was 2002 when these guys were much younger. Taker gets the win with a Tombstone piledriver after foiling Flair’s last ditch chairshot attempt, making his record 10-0 at Wrestlemania. Good match, even if it wasn’t what I was looking for. Streak aside, I also remember being pissed that Taker won here – he beat up Arn twice, beat up Flair’s son David, got Flair arrested, forced Flair to step away from his 50% ownership of the company and THEN beat him in the payoff match. There’s the one-sidedness. Taker did play the heel well though.

6) Booker T vs Edge

A sign in the audience tells the story: “They are fighting over shampoo”. Just didn’t care much about this one. Another by the numbers match, though decent enough. When I first watched the DVD, seemed like Edge and Booker were moving in slow motion but perhaps it was just more predictable than anything. The reason I watched this match on DVD, at the live show I was intent on getting on camera again so you can get a glimpse of me walking through the crowd  on the far side of the ring holding a “Miss you Wanda” sign just as Booker goes to the top rope the second time. My wife missed it during the live show. Oh well. Edge gets the win here in his hometown with an Edgecution/Impaler DDT. Good pop for Edge as you might expect.

Mighty Molly pops Hurricane with a frying pan during an interview and pins him for the Hardcore title. Sigh.

7) Steve Austin vs Scott Hall w/ Kevin Nash

Strange to see Austin so far down the card here, but I guess maybe they wanted a buffer match between this and Rock/Hogan later on. Yet another decent enough match but this time doesn’t feel like it really gets going for me. Too many ref bumps and interruptions from Nash kept it from really firing on all cylinders. Awfully short to boot. Austin gets two Stunners on Hall after Nash gets ejected for killing two referees. Meh. I’ve always thought that this match was just tossing Austin a bone. Even though he won the match, I’d bet it was one of the last straws leading to Austin’s walk out later that year.

8 ) Tag Team Titles  Four Way Elimination – Billy & Chuck (Champions) vs APA vs The Dudleys vs The Hardys

Here’s your obligatory “everyone gets a Wrestlemania payday” match of the card. Though I’m not sure what tag title match would rather have seen as this era of the tag division was on the down slide. After absolutely clobbering B&C for a few minutes the APA are eliminated all too early for me by The Dudleys, and the match shifts to a Dudleys vs Hardys match for a long spell while B&C take a snooze in the corner. Though they interject in the right moment to get the Dudleys eliminated and then they beat the Hardys with a cheapshot with a tag belt. Boo. The smaller segments between APA/B&C and then Hardys/Dudleys were fine but that this was a throwaway 4-way just blew it for me. By the way, I hate thrown together 4-way tag title Mania payday matches, seems like the champs always retain as there’s no real feud involved.

Molly is on the run but Christian clocks her with a door and gets the pin and the Hardcore title. Still going…

9) Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs The Rock

Well, where do I begin? As I mentioned before I’d never been overcome in a wave of nostalgia like that before; we actually went to Wrestlemania with full intentions of booing the hell out of Hogan and cheering Rock. Whatever it was; that intangible thing that I guess is Hulkamania was running wild. When Hogan stepped out onto the stage, I’d never heard anything that loud before and the DVD does not do it justice. And that volume level maintained for every one of Hogan’s moves no matter how dirty they were. Don’t believe JR or Lawler’s comments about mixed reactions – 99.9% of that crowd was screaming for Hogan. Now as a match, the wrestling was nothing special. Even watching it now, trying to be objective, the match is at a snails pace after the initial staredowns and strength contests. But again, you just can’t help but get caught up with that crowd, completely caught up in the story being told. At all the right moments EVERYONE was on their feet and I found myself counting the near falls right along with them almost ten years later. The Rock wins after kicking out of the big legdrop and following up with two Rock Bottoms and the People’s Elbow. Despite the earlier reaction, the crowd cheers for Rock’s win, almost relieved it was over. It’s a classic match in every sense of the word, even if the wrestling itself was slow and plodding. Then again, with the crowd buzz that big, maybe it had to be.

10) Women’s Championship: Jazz (Champion) vs Lita vs Trish Stratus

Tough spot to be in, having to follow that last match. I’ll give them credit though – they all worked hard here but the crowd is just exhausted at this point. Even hometown girl Trish in a Canadian flag outfit only gets a moderate pop. Trish and Lita are not the workers they would later become but they do what they can against Jazz is a monster here, roughing up them up almost at will. Trish takes a nasty bump outside before Jazz gets the pin on Lita after a top rope Fisherman’s suplex! The crowd goes indifferent. Good effort,but can’t say I blame the crowd, I was tired too.

Outside the arena, Christian escapes to a taxi but gets rolled up by Maven at the last second and regains the Hardcore title rendering the whole affair pointless. Argh.

11) Undisputed WWF Championship – Chris Jericho (Champion) w/ Stephanie McMahon vs Triple H

Triple H is JACKED here, holy crap. He looks like the version of himself in the WWE All Stars videogame. He’s also sucking wind 5 mins in. This main event was also in the unenviable position of having to follow Rock/Hogan. The match itself was really quite decent, playing off HHH’s injured leg well. I seemed to recall Jericho coming off weak but he did fine here. Under any other circumstances it probably would have gotten some great fan reaction. However the crowd is still exhausted and so the biggest pop of the match was Stephanie getting pedigreed toward the end. I think they learned their lesson here to put the BIG match at the end of the show, titles or no. HHH overcomes the odds with a pedigree for the win and the Undisputed Championship.

Attending a Wrestlemania was one of the key items on my personal Bucket List and the experience I had that day didn’t disappoint. Looking at the card more objectively, most of these matches were either too short or just decent enough. The storylines building towards the matches were what I would call “instafeuds” that just gave the bare motivation for a match at the biggest show of the year. It was as if they were trying to recapture the magic of Wrestlemania 17 where there were also many instafeuds but with the difference that it was one of the best Mania cards ever. However Wrestlemania 18 will always have Rock vs Hogan as its all time classic moment, more than saving it from being a forgettable Wrestlemania. Watch it!