SlyGuy21
1st Match: Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, and Jake Roberts. A good match to get the crowd excited. A typical face vs heel match, but more unpredictable than what WCW was doing at the time. Even though the heels win, the match still does a good job of getting the crowd into the show. Rating: 3.5/52nd Match: Roddy Piper vs Goldust, Hollywood Backlot Brawl. The fight starts in the parking lot, and continues until just before the main event. I'm gonna go ahead and just review the whole match here though. A good comedy match, that's also pretty hard hitting. They even throw in some of the OJ car chase footage and it ends with Piper ripping the clothes off Goldust to reveal him wearing women's lingerie. Pretty funny stuff. Is it the best match, no, but it's pretty damn entertaining. Rating: 4/53rd Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Savio Vega. An alright match, but probably the weakest match of the night. It's still watchable, but Austin doesn't have his character quite down yet. It's an easy enough watch, but ultimately pretty forgettable. Rating: 3/54th Match: HHH vs The Ultimate Warrior. The match is just a squash, with Warrior no-selling a pedigree, and then beating Hunter in less than 2 minutes. It's a funny match, but not worth a rating. I won't count it against the show's final rating however, unlike some terrible WCW matches the week before this aired. Rating: None5th Match: Diesel vs The Undertaker. I don't think "The Streak" was a thing yet, but Taker sure comes close to losing this. Both guys get some good offense, and Taker almost loses on several occasions, but at the end of the day, Nash isn't Brock Lesnar, so Taker wins. The match also does a good job of finalizing Nash's heel character, which he would take to WCW in a couple of months. Rating: 3.5/56th Match: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart, Iron Man match for the WWF Championship. This match is fantastic, the best Mania match I've seen since I started reviewing these for the site. There are better Mania matches, but this is easily in my Top 10 Favorite Matches of All Time list, if I were to make it. These guys go a full hour, and they're so evenly matched, that there's not a single decision throughout the whole thing. That's ballsy, to have a main event over an hour long, and not have a single fall. The first half is mostly Michaels showing off some impressive counter wrestling, and the second half is more acrobatic. There are a lot of rest holds, but there's still a constant pace to the match, so it doesn't feel like an hour. It legit feels a 30 minute match, but it's twice as long, you know how the best one-on-one ladder matches have a constant pace to them so they don't feel slow, this is equivalent to that. Fantastic stuff. The match ends in a draw of 0-0, but continues under Sudden Death rules because there must be a winner. Michaels then kicks Bret's head off and wins his first WWF Championship in one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time. I understand that the match isn't for everyone, but I love it, I can easily see this winning "Match of the Year" when I do my list. Rating: 5/5Final Rating: 8 out of 10. The best Mania I've seen since starting these reviews. The small card helps keep the show from being overcrowded, and the main event somehow defies time in it's length. Quality over quantity, that's what WWF did with this event.
JosephBrenner
First off yes, going 60 minutes running and jumping around must have been tough and very tiring for Bret and Shawn and I commend them for that, but that alone does not make an incredible match. I saw the Iron Match between the Rock and HHH before seeing WM XII and so I was worried about this Iron match before it started. The Rock, HHH match started very slowly with punches and holds due to obvious reasons they didn't wanna get tired out, I understand that. They can't go at it guns blazing for 60 minutes, they'd die. But punches and holds, especially holds are the worst and most boring thing about wrestling. If you total up the decent moves and quality action in the Shawn vs. Bret match you might get, if you're lucky, 20 solid minutes. That leaves the other 40 though, right? And they certainly should have made it more interesting with a few pins or submissions rather than leaving it 0 - 0 right until the end. Good match, but not the best ever.
Dimer117
This Wrestlemania was amazing. The Iron Man match was great, without question the best match ever. The Diesel vs. Taker match was an awesome clash between two 7 ft. giants. The Backlot Brawl was interesting (for the most part) with a very enjoyable ending. The six man tag match was a great opening match. The return of Ultimate Warrior was amazing, it was the best 30-second long match I have seen (and probably the only 30-second match I will see). The match between Savio Vega and Steve Austin was entertaining and it was good to see Steve Austin win his very first 'mania match. All in all, it was the best Wrestlemania ever and the only one that comes close is Wrestlemania XIV.
curositykiller
HBK vs. Bret Hart in the 60 minute Iron Man match in my opinion was the best match ever put together. Vince McMahon is a genius, thinking of this is what makes McMahon the man he is today. I just wish he didn't become such an a-hole in the show.
