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Wrestlemania 9 Review

posted 18 years ago by scifi1980
4 replies | jump to latest

I have developed a scoring card to give the most accurate star rating possible for my reviews. For the most part I think they are pretty accurate:

5 Star Match= A 3.0 star IMDB rating
4 1/2 Stars Match= A 2.5 star IMDB rating
4 stars Match= A 2.0 star IMDB rating
3 1/2 stars Match= A 1.5 star IMDB rating
3 stars Match= A 1.0 star IMDB rating
2 1/2 stars Match= A .7 star IMDB rating
2 star match= A .5 star IMDB rating
1 1/2 star match= A .3 star IMDB rating
1 star match = A .2 star IMDB rating
1/2 star match = A .1 star IMDB rating
Dud= A O IMDB rating

Oops. Somebody beat me to it. Oh well I will throw my review in anyway. Today we go to Ceasars palace in Las Vegas Nevada for the "worlds largest toga party". I liked the roman gladiator gimmick for the event but damn this looks like the smallest crowd yet for a Wrestlemania. Jim Ross makes his PPV debut.

Match 1: Intercontinental Championship Match: Shawn Michaels Vs Tatanka. Michaels comes to ringside with Luna Vachon who makes her WWF debut and Tatanka comes out with Sensational Sherri who makes her last WWF ppv appearance and second to last overall appearance. Tatanka beat Michaels in a non title match, then pinned him in a six man tag, so Tatanka has mega momentum. Great match. Michaels jumps off the top rope but Tatanka catches him with an armdrag. Michaels goes outside the ring and tries to regroup but Sherri wont let Luna get closed to him, catfight??
Michaels uses some weardowns to slow Tatanka down. Michaels rolls Tatanka over with a sorta messy looking victory roll, but Tatanka kicks out. Michaels comes off the second rope with a double axe handle, but Tatanka starts doing his warrior dance. Tatanka starts chopping Michaels. Tatanka goes up top and comes off with a flying cross body, but Michaels kicks out. Tatanka catapults Michaels into the turnbuckle. Tatanka tries a powerslam but Shawn still kicks out. Michaels gets desperate and pulls the ref out of the ring for a dq at 17:50. Shawn pulls a *beep* Tonk move to retain the IC title. Luna attacks sherri and puts the boots to her. Sherri is hurt. A good match but a stupid WCW style ending. 2 1/2 stars.

Match 2: Steiner Brothers Vs Headshrinkers: Jim Ross coins the phrase slobber knocker for the first time at this match. Scott takes a horrendous fall over the top rope. Then Afa gives him a shot with a kendo stick that echoes through the arena and gets ooohhss from the crowd. Scott gets sent to the ringpost, he's taking a beating in this match. Scott Steiner tries slamming Samu's head into the mat but Samu pops up and super kicks Scott right in the head. Rick Steiner gets the hot tag and starts steinerlining Fatu and Samu. Headshrinkers turn the tables though. Steiners turn the tables too when Scott gets the frankensteiner on Samu for the pin in 13:28. I liked it 2 1/2 stars.

Luna Vachon attacks Sherri in the infirmery and bitch slaps the doc while she's at it......ouch.

Doink does a funny interview with Gene Okerlund.

Match 3: Crush Vs Doink: Crush wants payback for Doink hitting him with a fake arm cast the previous week. At one time Doink was a good heel with potential. But WWF changed that soon enough. Crush chases down Doink and starts kicking the s*** out of him. The Ref goes down mid match. Doink tries escaping under the ring but Crush pulls him out and puts on the head vice when another Doink comes in and helps Doink 1 beat up Crush. Doink 2 breaks a fake arm cast over Crush's head. Ref wakes up to count the 3 at 8:32. Doink wins. Meh 1 1/2 stars.

Match 4: Bob Backlund Vs Razor Ramone. Nothing great here. Boring. Razor wins it with a small package in 3:51. 1 star

Match 5: Tag Team Championship Match. Money Inc Vs Megamaniacs. Hogan makes his WWF return here and is sporting an eye injury from earlier in the week. They worked it into the story as foul play by Money Inc. Actually it was from a boating accident. Jimmy Hart was dumped by Money Inc and is now with Hogan and Beefcake. Megamaniacs take control early and Money Inc tries to do their Mania 8 walkout but the ref says he will give the titles. Dibiasie gets the million dollar dream on Hogan and Hogan is going down. Beefcake comes in when the ref is distracted and puts the sleeper on Ted and both men are down. Beefcake gets a hot tag and starts dealing on Money Inc. Dibiasie hits Beefcake with a briefcase to change the pace. Dibiasie takes off Beefcakes protective mask and starts laying punches into his rebuilt face. Heenan starts making some great jokes about it. Beefcake slaps the sleeper on IRS and the ref gets caught up somewhere and all three guys are down. Hogan comes in and he and Beefcake try to pin both Dibiasie and IRS. But the ref is down. Jimmy Hart comes in and makes the three count. Nope. Ref DQ's Megamaniacs and Money Inc is still the champs. Money Inc take off with the belts. Jimmy Hart tosses Danny Davis the ref out of the ring. Hogan and Beefcake open up the briefcase and there is a brick in it. Plus a wad of money which they give to the crowd. Stupid ending. 2 stars.

Match 6: Mr Perfect Vs Lex Luger. Perfect uses weardowns on Lugers legs. Lex was a pretty good worker in this one. Luger pins Perfect with a backslide at 10:56. Perfects legs are in the ropes but the ref doesn't see it. Cheap finish. Perfect finds Lex backstage and attacks Luger then gets jumped by Shawn Michaels. This would start their mini feud that went to Summerslam. 2 stars.

Match 7: Undertaker Vs Giant Gonzalez. Lousy wrestling from Gonzalez, very wooden. Best part is when Undertaker comes out on a carriage with a condor that
looked like what Sting would carry around in WCW a few years later. Undertaker eventually wins it by DQ at 7:00 when he smothers the Undertaker with a chloriform rag. Gonzalez beats up the refs, Heenan says the fans are chanting for Hogan but it sure sounds like bulls*** to me. The bell tolls and the Undertaker makes his way back to ringside from the emt's in the back and Gonzalez takes off. Bleh 1/2 star.

Match 8: World Title Match Bret Hart Vs Yokozuna. Yokozuna won the 1993 Royal Rumble to earn the title shot. Bret uses speed and wrestling to try and take the big guy down. Yoko hits Bret with a crescent kick that almost knocks Bret out. Yoko goes to the nerve hold. Crowd starts a USA chant, and Heenan is quick to point out one guy is from Canada and the other is from Japan:) Heenan is awesome. Bret catches Yoko with a bulldog from the second rope. Bret gets the sharpshooter on Yoko as best he can but Fuji throws salt in Bret's eyes. Yoko gets the pin at 8:49. We have a new champ. I gave it 2 1/2 stars. Not Bret's best but not horrible.

Hogan comes to ringside to help Bret. Then Fuji gets on the mike and dares Hogan into the ring by saying they will put the title up right now. Hogan runs into the ring and we go to the match that pisses off 95% of wrestling fans.

Match 9: Yoko gets in two chops, he grabs Hogan for Fuji to throw salt at. Hogan ducks Yoko gets the salt, Hogan clotheslines Yoko drops the big leg and get the pin in 22 seconds. Crowd erupts. I can't say the same for the Bret lovers and Hogan haters. Hogan has always been my favorite wrestler and at the time I marked out thinking it was a great finish but as time progressed I started to realize it was a bad move. Hogan did nothing with the title for 3 months. He would not wrestle again until King Of The Ring 93 when Mcmahon made him get in there and drop the belt for double crossing him and refusing to job to Bret. If your a Hogan mark I would give it 1/2 star. But if your not this has to be considered the dud of Mania 9.

Overall I give this event 3.8 out of 10 stars. It just didn't feel like Mania. This was a year after alot of the big names had left the company and most matches were not very well done. The card looked small also. After the Shawn Tatanka match things started going down hill. So this one is currently the worst Mania ever. 1993-1995 was not a very good time for wrestling. Even with the new scoring system this ppv still falls into dead last as the worst Wrestlemania as of this date.

Best Match: IC title Match
Worst Match: Tie Yokozuna Vs Hogan/Undertaker Vs Giant Gonzalez

Current Mania standings

Mania 3: 7.1
Mania 6: 7.0
Mania 5: 7.0
Mania 7: 6.9
Mania 4: 6.8
Mania 8: 5.9
Mania 2: 4.8
Mania 1: 4.1
Mania 3: 3.8

Tomorrow we go to Madison Square Garden for the Wrestlemania 10th year anniversary. It will be better than this year.

[–] andycool24 16 years ago

I actually think Michaels vs. Tatanka could be the best match. It did go downhill from there until the title match, which I didn't think was all that great. I wonder what in the (beep) they were thinking on this show!!!!

Probably one of the worst Wrestlemanias ever, except for #1.

[–] scifi1980 16 years ago

I read alot of crap about Tatanka/Michaels but when I watched this on CV back in the day I thought it was a pretty hot match. Until the ending. But we were marks back then and we were all pissed that Tonto didn't get the belt LOL.

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin5 14 years ago

I agree, in the storyline for someone not very informed on Wrestling history it was a great ending, for a moment it seemed like we where going to have a real tragedy, the first Wrestlemania to end in a Heel victory, but then here come Hulkamania to save the day.

But looking back now, it was rather silly, this should have been Bret's moment, his first Wrestlemania after becoming a Main eventer, but Hogan's ego comes along and ruins it.

And Yokozuna was the worst Champion ins history, he's a Sumo Wrestler and should never have been taken seriously, only his Rumble 94 match was entertaining, and that's not for the match it'self.

"It's not about money.... It's about sending a Message..... Everything Burns!!!"

[–] shadyvsesham 10 years ago

Scifi,idk if you ever noticed, butfor WM9, which should be last, you put WM3 twice. I know the higher WM3 is the actual WM3, but some people might not see that and think WM3 was your worse Mania..when that 3 should = 9.

Still, great review.