By the spring of 1997, the Monday Night Wars were already getting extremely one sided. The WWF may have produced their first legitimate star in years with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin winning King of the Ring, but just two weeks later, WCW formed the New World Order, with Hulk Hogan completing a shocking and legendary heel turn. In this case, a brand proved to be a significantly bigger draw than just one man, and very quickly, the 84 week reign of dominance for WCW had begun. It didn't help matters for Vince that Bret Hart had taken about half a year off following his WrestleMania 12 defeat, leaving one of the company's biggest stars on the sideline. Like a shark smelling blood in the water, Eric pounced, offering Bret a lucrative 3 year deal to jump ship and join the likes of Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash as a defector. Vince countered back with an insane offer, a 20 year contract that would keep Bret with the company for the rest of his career, plus the opportunity to claim his fourth WWF title and get his win back over Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 13. Bret accepted, and then all hell broke loose. Shawn was unwilling to drop the belt to Bret, and in the infamous "lost my smile" promo, declared that a knee injury meant he had to vacate instead. A couple quick title switches would follow, with Bret becoming champion for just a day before falling to Sycho Sid. The 'Mania card would have to be slapped together at the last minute, and all this absolute anarchy would somehow end up creating perhaps the greatest match in WrestleMania history.
- WrestleMania 13 was held in the Rosemont Horizon(now the Allstate Arena) in Rosemont, just outside Chicago. This was technically the second WrestleMania hosted in this venue, as it was one of the three hosts for WrestleMania 2. Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler are on the call.
- We open the action with a tag team elimination match, as The Headbangers face The Godwinns, The New Blackjacks and Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon. Furnas and LaFon are a very underrated team, extremely good in the ring and with a solid arsenal of double team moves, so naturally they're quickly eliminated, counted out during a brawl with the Blackjacks. That leaves the Godwinns, two of the worst workers in the company to work with The Headbangers, only mediocre at best. It's some very bad wrestling, but thankfully only lasts about 5 minutes before Thrasher gets the win for the metalheads with a Cannonball Senton.
- One of the best parts of doing pay-per-view reviews is getting to see legends well before their peak in baffling or forgotten roles, and both of those terms best describe Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia, as well as his challenger The Sultan(Rikishi). The challenger is accompanied to the ring by The Iron Sheik and, bizarrely, Bob Backlund for this title match. While Dwayne Johnson is still very green at this point, he does have some of the in-ring mannerisms that would later make him an icon, though nothing is getting him over in front of this smarky Chicago crowd. The "Rocky sucks" chants are reaching their apex here, and the future Great One is not prepared to how to handle such a backlash. Not even a run-in by his father Rocky Johnson after retaining the title is enough to get the crowd to cheer Maivia, though perhaps the constant association with a more famous and more popular guy does more harm than good for Dwayne, in the same way his association with Roman Reigns failed to get the Big Dog over. This is not a great match by any extent, though it does make for a fascinating glimpse into the development of a future legend.
- Bouncing back from being squashed by The Ultimate Warrior one year prior, Hunter Hearst Helmsley gets a win over Goldust here. Goldust isn't exactly well suited to play a face, especially following everything he had done in '96, while Triple H really hasn't developed much of a moveset by this point. The result is a very dull affair, with most of the heat coming at the finish, as Marlena gets involved to assist her husband, only to be caught and absolutely dismantled by Hunter's new manager, the recently debuted Chyna. Chyna is put over super well here, with Marlena selling the hell out of the attack after the match, as the seeds are being planted for the eventual push of one of the Attitude Era's defining stars.
- In our second tag team match of the night, the tag titles are on the line, with champions Owen Hart and The British Bulldog defending against Mankind and Vader. The challengers have Paul Bearer in their corner, as he's helped both get wins over The Undertaker, making this a heel versus heel match. The crowd doesn't really know who to support, eventually getting behind the champions as Owen's outrageous personality and Bulldog's fantastic power make them easier to support. This match really does show how much Vince doesn't care about tag team wrestling, as neither team has a ton of chemistry together and there's really no heat to any of the action. The wrestling is good enough, there's four pretty great workers out there, and it really picks up down the stretch after Bulldog gets the hot tag. Mankind locks Bulldog in the Mandible Claw, and when Owen tries to break it up, Vader sends him flying into the two legal men, causing them to tumble to the floor with the hold still applied. The match then ends in a double countout, because screw tag team wrestling, I guess.
- There's really one one match on this card with legitimate heat behind it, and what do you know, it's the only match from this card that anyone actually remembers, as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin faces Bret "The Hitman" Hart in a Submission match. After Austin called out Bret for months following his King of the Ring win, the two men faced off at the Survivor Series, where Bret was victorious. Austin got revenge at the Royal Rumble, eliminating Bret illegally to win the match, as his elimination had been missed by the officials. Bret's title loss to Sid was caused by Austin, which led to this match. It's a fantastic encounter between two absolute legends, the perfect combination of chaotic brawling and psychologically sound wrestling. Hart is slowly turning heel, and is put over as a sadistic monster, busting Austin open and destroying his body and legs with vicious chair shots. Austin doesn't have to do much here offensively, and instead puts on an absolute stormer with his incredible selling. Guys like Shawn Michaels and Curt Hennig may be more flashy when they sell moves, but no one can sell a brutal war like "Stone Cold". Austin draws so much sympathy, staggering around the ring whilst still coming across as a badass, attempting to choke Bret with a cable and flipping off guest referee Ken Shamrock when asked if he wants to submit. That's really the crux of this story, and leads to one of the greatest finishes in wrestling history. Bret gets the Sharpshooter applied, and Austin, pouring blood down his face, refuses to quite. The camerawork is absolutely perfect, capturing both Austin's pain and his resilience in some of the most iconic images ever capture in a ring. The Chicago crowd goes ballistic when it appears that Austin has broken the hold, but Bret gets in cinched in again and Austin finally passes out. What a way to end such a terrific fight.
- But we're not done yet, as Bret decides that more punishment is in order. He's pulled of the still unconscious Austin by Shamrock, who has actually been a completely impartial official to this point, a rarity for a guest referee. Shamrock tosses Bret to the mat to a massive pop, before Hart elects to exit the ring to a chorus of boos. Another official tries to help Austin and gets a Stunner for his efforts, as "Stone Cold" leaves under his own power, a perfect piece of character building. This really is a masterful half hour of booking, delivering a classic match, a double turn to perfectly fit both men into new roles and more importantly, properly aligning both men to suit the crowd response. That's not to mention putting over Shamrock as well, setting him up as a main event player and giving him the possibility of an intriguing match with Bret. It's hard to imagine this could've gone much better, and after such a dismal show to this point, this match and angle were much appreciated.
- In a Chicago Street Fight, the Nation of Domination(Farooq, Savio Vega and for some reason, Crush) take on Ahmed Johnson and the Legion of Doom. Hawk and Animal are competing in front of their hometown crowd and get at least some part of the fabled Road Warriors pop. This is just a trash brawl, with all six men hitting each other with a wide assortment of weapons, including a garbage can, a couple street signs and a fire extinguisher. It's the perfect break following the intensity of the last match, an opportunity to relax and just revel in the absolute chaos. Animal and Hawk take down Crush to get the win in a pretty fun match that was a harbinger of the kind of weapon based mayhem that was to come in the Attitude Era.
- Main event time, as somehow Sycho Sid is competing in the second 'Mania main event of his career, this time defending the WWF Championship against The Undertaker. Undertaker was the runner-up in the fatal four way title match that Bret won, and this match has had very little build since then. It's obvious that Vince realizes that this is an extremely underwhelming way to end the show, as he brings back Shawn Michaels to join the booth, whilst the now heel Bret intervenes several times throughout the match. Bret takes a powerbomb from Sid early, before costing him the title later on, distracting Sid for long enough to let 'Taker hit the Tombstone Piledriver and win his second world title. That's about the only interesting notes I have for this match, which is easily one of the most underwhelming WrestleMania main events ever. Sid is too slow and his offense is too weak to put on an interesting match, while Undertaker did at least try to put on a show, to little effect. At least the crowd popped big for the Tombstone, but that's about the only positive thing I have to say for this. What a terrible way to end a WrestleMania.
3/10
WrestleMania 13 is the one thing that no WrestleMania should ever be: boring. So much of this show could easily put you to sleep, and the main event needed to be overbooked to all hell just to try and make it interesting. Hart-Austin should've absolutely gone on last, there was no way that Sid and Undertaker were going to be able to follow them up, but even those matches switching places wouldn't have saved this one. I also need to give out about Shawn Michaels here, as he was awful on commentary in the main event, and I really hated that he got a full entrance, complete with effing pyro. That's really the icing atop the sh** cake. I suggest watching the submission match if you haven't before, and the street fight is reasonably fun, but this one is a definite skip otherwise.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: SummerSlam 1997, as The Undertaker defends the WWF Title against Bret Hart in an event often considered to be the beginning of the Attitude Era. Also, in between these two shows was In Your House: Canadian Stampede, which I reviewed a few months ago, you can check that out here. See you soon.
- Henry
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