Stuart Wilson Twenty years after the original WrestleMania extravaganza the WWE returned to its birthplace of Madison Square Garden, New York City for the anniversary event. A staggering seven championship matches, the reuniting of The Rock and Sock Connection, Lesner facing Goldberg, two former best friends going at it and the return of The Undertaker. This could be the ultimate wrestling event. What could possible go wrong? Let's get started.The battle of the monsters between Lesner and Goldberg was the biggest disappointment in WrestleMania history. With almost five months of solid build up this clash was pathetic. The MSG fans knew that this was going to be Goldberg's last match but what we had also found out was that Lesner also now planned to leave the WWE after the event. The crowd were after Lesner's blood and responded by being as vocal as any ECW crowd of the past. Not even special referee Stone Cold Steve Austin could make this a match worthy in any way shape or form of the hype. Goldberg won but nobody cared.Another fault on the five-hour show was simply there were too many matches than no one cared about crammed into the stacked card. Unfortunately both tag team championship matches would not have been missed on this night. The same could be said about the Cruiserweight Invitational. Why couldn't it just have been a normal one on one match with a good build up instead of cramming so many men into one match. Pointless. Incidentally all the champions retained their gold in those matches. Also the tag team inter promotional bra and panties match was the usual poor excuse for entertainment. I won't even give it any more of my time by writing about it.The Undertaker was last seen at Novembers Survivor Series. At that event he had the privilege of being buried alive by his brother Kane. This set up perfectly the return of Mark Calloways dead man gimmick. Undertaker returned with Paul Bearer to a thunderous ovation. Unfortunately that is where the excitement ended. The two storyline brother plodded through their match with the outcome never in any doubt. Undertaker won, keeping his undefeated streak at the big one alive.Mick Foley and The Rock were teaming up again for the first time in four years against Evolution members Randy Orton, Ric Flair and Batista. This was a very entertaining match. Seeing Ric Flair and The Rock go at it was great and at some times very funny. Trouble was, after all the months Mick Foley, Randy Orton and the WWE put into making their feud a must see it was then turned into a comedy match by The Rock and Flair. This was still one of the matches of the night and as big a fan of Foley as I am the right decision was right to elevate Evolution with the win.Chris Jericho lost to Christian in a good match when interference from Trish Stratus backfires. However fans were in for a shock and as was Jericho at the end of the match when Trish turned heel on Jericho, slapping him repeatedly. Christian and Trish then sealed the deal in front of the worldwide audience by kissing at the top of the ramp.Speaking of women the WWE Woman's Champion was on the line as Victoria defended against Molly Holly. The stipulation for this one was simple. If Molly did not win the gold she would have her head shaved bald. Unluckily for Molly she was not successful and even after she tried to escape she lost her brunette barnett to the barber. Unlike past Hair vs. Hair matches, Molly was shaved down to the wood.The main event from the blue brand was Eddie Guerrero defending the WWE Championship against Kurt Angle. This was a technically sound match and very, very good but the way they had been booking the run up to this I was expecting these two men to tear each other apart in a bloody brawl. It was Guerrero who came out successful at the end of the match by slipping out the ankle lock and his boot to pin the stunned challenger.The Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship was the last match of the show and it was, by a mile, the match of the night. This was thee, if not one of the greatest Triple Threat matches of all time. Chris Benoit, Mr WrestleMania Shawn Michaels and defending champion, Triple H stepped up a level as only they knew how to do. Back and forth action all the way, top skill, blood galore, this match had it all and will take some beating to lose out on Best Wrestling Match of 2004. It was The Crippler, Chris Benoit who the fans were behind from the start. A man who has worked his way thought the ranks of wrestling for many many years with being able to capture the big one. Well tonight was his lucky night. After suplexing HBK to the outside of the ring he took down The Game with the crossface. The Game tried to fight it off but it was not to be. Triple H had no choice but to tape out and Chris Benoit was crowned new World Heavyweight Champion. In a rare moment and one that was truly emotional, Eddie Guerrero hit the ring to embrace his best friend as the fireworks went off and Benoit cried with joy.WrestleMania XX. Where it all begins again. Such a mixture of excellence and rubbish all in the one show it is difficult to decide how to rate it. This should have been a lot better by a mile but the few matches that were good plus the cracking main event made this event worth watching.

LG2004 I got WrestleMania XX as a Christmas gift, and it was pretty good. It's not the best WM, but it's up there (WrestleManias 17 and 19 were better). Here are my thoughts on the matches:Contains Spoilers:WWE United States Championship: Big Show Vs. John CenaBig Show gave the doctor of thugonomics a couple of good shots, but Cena managed to beat him after 2 FUs. The first one Show kicked out of, but John hit the 2nd one after striking Show w/ one of his Word Life brass knuckles. 4/5World Tag Team Championship: Fatal Four Way Match: Rob Van Dam/Booker T Vs. Dudley Boyz Vs. Garrison Cade/Mark Jindrak Vs. La ResistanceDecent match, with Booker and RVD retaining the gold. 3/5Chris Jericho Vs. ChristianGreat match between the former friends. The CLB wins after Trish interferes and accidentally hits Jericho, allowing Christian to roll up Y2J for the 3 count. This would be the start of Trish's heel run. 4/52-3 Handicap Tag Team Match: The Rock and Mick Foley Vs. Evolution (Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista)The Rock returns to the ring to team up with Rock and Sock tag team partner Mick Foley. While the Rock electrified the crowd w/ the People's Elbow (and adding in his version of Flair's strut for good measure), he and Foley lose after Randy hits the RKO on Foley (who tried to use Socko). 5/5Playboy Evening Gown Match: Sable and Torrie Wilson Vs. Stacy Keibler and Miss Jackie The Raw and SmackDown! divas never cease to amaze me. Even though the 4 of them don't really wrestle, I loved the match. Instead of having to defeat each other by tearing off their gowns, Sable suggests that they all take their gowns off and wrestle without them (in lingerie). All of the divas are all for it, except Miss Jackie, who had to have hers torn off by Torrie and Sable. After a few near falls (some very nice roll ups), Torrie pins Miss Jackie, giving her and Sable the win. 5/5WWE Cruiserweight Championship Open: Chavo Guerrero Vs. Jamie Noble Vs. Funaki Vs. Ultimo Dragon Vs. Rey Mysterio Vs. Nunzio Vs. Tajiri Vs. Shannon Moore Vs. Billy Kidman A pretty fast-paced match, but I think it was over too quick. Chavo ends up retaining the title after his dad helps him pin Rey Mysterio. 3/5Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar: Special Guest Referee: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin It's not as bad as some people have said. Sure they didn't do much for a moment, but they started to battle later. Goldberg wins after a Spear and Jackhammer. Austin then stuns Lesnar and Goldberg. 4/5WWE Tag Team Championship: Fatal Four Way Match: Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi Vs. APA Vs. Basham Brothers Vs. Benjamin/Haas Same comments as Raw match, the champions retain their titles. 3/5WWE Women's Championship: Victoria Vs. Molly Holly If Molly loses this, she gets her head shaved. Molly tries to use Victoria's Widow's Peak, but Victoria counters w/ a backslide pin, thus winning the match. Molly tries to escape from Victoria, but it's to no avail. Molly got what she deserved. A very close shave, you could say. lol 4/5WWE Championship Match: Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle A great match. Eddie and Kurt pulled out all of their best moves in this one. I thought the match was over when Eddie hit the frog splash. Unfortunately, Kurt kicked out. Eddie would retain his title after cheating (unlacing his boot) and rolling up Kurt. 5/5Undertaker Vs. Kane Not their best match, but close. It was also a little rushed. Taker's new look is okay, but I prefer his 1999 Deadman look. Kane would fall to the Taker after getting the Tombstone. 3/5World Heavyweight Championship: Triple Threat Match: Triple H Vs. Chris Benoit Vs. Shawn Michaels These 3 are some of the best superstars in the WWE today, although I'm not a fan of H-Boy. There were times when 2 of the men would briefly team up (HHH and HBK suplex Benoit through an announce table), but still it was every man for himself. The 3 men gave all they had in this match, and eventually Benoit would win after putting the Crossface on H-Boy, making him tap out. After the match, Eddie would come out and embrace his friend for his victory. 5/5

thehardyboyz2043 Wrestlemania XX probably had the most hype of any WWF/E event since the first Wrestlemania and possibly XIV as well, and for the most part it delivered. At least some of the matches delivered, I'll run them one by one:1. United States Championship: Big Show (Champion) vs. John Cena: Good opening rap by Cena, as for the match it was basic, might have helped if Show wasn't battling knee problems and if it wasn't so obvious Cena was going to win. Nice finish with Cena using the knucks and hitting the F-U. 5/10.2. Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Championship Match: Rod Van Dam & Booker T (Champions) vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak vs. La Resistance: This one wasn't needed, I like that WWE got as many guys on the card as they could, but this was a pretty boring match. RVD and Booker T retain the Tag Titles, thankfully. 3/10.3. Chris Jericho vs Christian: A good match actually, went on longer than I thought it would, but that wasn't a bad thing. Plenty of back and forth exchanges, and the finish held a surprise, with Trish turning heel and joining Christian. 7/10.4. 2-on-3 Handicap Match: Rock 'n' Sock Connection vs. Evolution: A pretty good match, Randy Orton and Batista were just finding their niche at this point, but they both did a good job. It was nice to see Rock and Mick Foley back and I liked seeing Flair wrestle (the fact he could at his age is amazing to me). Finish saw Orton hit the RKO out of nowhere on Foley for the pin. 8/10.5. Playboy Evening Gown Match: Sable & Torrie Wilson vs. Miss Jackie and Stacy Keibler: Not evening worth talking about. 0/10.6. WWE Cruiserweight Title Open: Chavo Guerrero (Champion) vs. Jamie Noble vs. Funaki vs. Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Nunzio vs. Tajiri vs. Shannon Moore vs. Billy Kidman: A good idea, though the match wasn't all that good. Nice spot by Kidman performing the Shooting Star Press to the outside and almost snapping his neck. The finish was typical, Rey lost when Chavo got help from his dad. 5/10.7. Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar w/Stone Cold as Special Guest Referee: This match sucked and the fans watching agreed, it took almost three minutes for the two to lock up and even longer for the match to end. It was great to hear Austin chants while both Goldberg and Brock got booed, though there were more for Brock. Finish saw Goldberg spear and Jackhammer Brock for the win. Nice post-match stunners from Austin to both guys. 0/10. 8. Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Title Match: Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi vs. APA vs. Basham Brothers vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team: Not as good as the Raw Four-Way, thankfully it ended quickly. Rikishi and Scotty retained. 3/10.9. Women's Championship: Victoria (Champion) vs. Molly Holly: If Molly loses she gets her head shaved, well five minutes later she loses. It was a basic match, finish was a backslide pin. The post match stuff was nice, seeing Molly lose her hair gradually. 10. WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero (Champion) vs Kurt Angle: Good match, though it should've been better. Finish saw Eddie cheat by rolling up Angle and using the ropes. 7/10.11. Undertaker vs. Kane: Great entrance by Undertaker, until you see him that is. The biker/dead man mix didn't work so well, and it was an okay match. Finish saw Taker hit the Tombstone for the win. 5/10.12. Triple-Threat World Title Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H (Champion) vs. Chris Benoit: Best match of the night, one of the best Wrestlemania main events ever. It was great to see Benoit make Triple H tap, so that slug finally dropped the title to someone who deserved it. 10/10. This was a good event, though a few of the matches were lackluster. namely Goldberg/Lesnar & The Evening Gown match. 7/10 overall.

Gary Ballance *Spoilers ahead*Hyped for a year in advance, WrestleMania XX would've had to have been pretty damn good to live up to its enormous hype. Held in New York's Madison Square Garden, with the questionable tagline of "Where it all begins again", WMXX wasn't that memorable save for the excellent main event between reigning World Champion Triple H, Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels. While the main event was given plenty of time, the card was way overbooked and many matches were far too short- in particular, the Cruiserweight Open. Thus, the midcard was a mixture of good and bad matches. Onto the matches..Match 1- John Cena vs Big Show [US Title]. A strange choice for an opener as the point of the opening match is to warm up the crowd. Big Show killed the crowd with some dreadful, slow, plodding offence. Cena only had a little offence at the end and, unsurprisingly picked up the win w/ an FU to begin his long overdue US Title reign. The match was a little boring during the middle with Big Show on the offensive. He was a terrible US Champion, so it was good to give the Title to someone who'd defend it. Average match.Match 2- La Resistance vs Dudleyz vs Cade/Jindrak vs Booker T/RVD [Raw Tag Titles.] Thrown-together Fatal 4 Way match. Not great to be honest. RVD and Booker T were a thrown-together team which devalues the Tag Team division- same w/ Edge and Benoit. Raw needs some more ACTUAL tag teams as opposed to just throwing 2 popular midcarders together as they so often do. Booker T and RVD retain via 5 Star Frog Splash. (What happened in 2003? 2002 produced Randy Orton, John Cena and Brock Lesnar. 2003 produced hosses like Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones and bland wrestlers like Cade, Jindrak, La Resistance, Rodney Mack and Orlando Jordan. Hopefully some promising new talent will emerge this year.)Match 3- Christian vs Chris Jericho. Jericho is my favourite wrestler and while I was extremely annoyed that his WrestleMania losing streak was further extended, a loss to Christian was the right result to continue the feud properly going into Backlash. Jericho won the feud anyway, so it's not the end of the world! The match itself was really enjoyable and was, in my opinion, the best match of the night after the main event. Disappointing ending, but some terrific action. How has Jericho not been World Champ on Raw yet? (Oh yeah, Triple H.)Match 4- Evolution (Orton, Batista, Flair) vs The Rock & Mick Foley. I was annoyed at the time this match was signed as I thought the Orton- Foley feud was going well, and a singles match between the two was in order. This handicap tag match was fine though. Interesting to see Foley and Flair in the ring together as they supposedly despise each other outside the ring. Good action here, and a brilliant (but unpopular) finish as Orton nails Foley out of nowhere with the RKO for the pin. Hopefully if The Rock does return later this year he and Orton will feud, as that would be extremely interesting to see.Match 5- Torrie Wilson & Sable vs Stacy Keibler & Jackie Gayda. The T&A portion of the evening. Dreadful wrestling and mercifully short.Match 6- Cruiserweight Open, featuring Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Funaki, Nunzio, Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Akio, Tajiri & Chavo Guerrero. Considering the appalling amount of time they were given, this was quite enjoyable. I thought it was absolutely shameful, however, that they didn't include the excellent Paul London in this match. A great talent. The eliminations were far too quick and the overall finish was pathetic. (Billy Kidman followed in Brock Lesnar's footsteps showing you should never attempt a Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania! He nearly killed himself trying to hit one to the outside!) The amount of time given to this match shows the contempt WWE treats its Cruiserweight Division with; ironic, as the Division could be the one thing that could save Smackdown from the crap it has become. Match 7- Brock Lesnar vs Bill Goldberg. For the build-up this feud had, this match was absolutely atrocious. Both men were leaving after this match and should be ashamed of themselves for ending their WWE careers with it. The only good aspect of this match was the animated MSG crowd who chanted "This match sucks", "Boring", "We want Bret" and "You sold out"(at Lesnar). WWE dubbed over these chants on the DVD thus making the match utterly unwatchable now! Goldberg won this dismal display with a Jackhammer. (I won't presume to know what life on the road is like for a WWE wrestler, but Brock Lesnar was given a huge push immediately by WWE and was "put over" by many big names like The Undertaker, The Rock, Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan. I can see why many are annoyed by his departure. Goldberg's year in WWE was dreadful and it's better for all concerned that he's gone.)Match 8- Scotty/Rikishi vs Bashams vs APA vs The World's Greatest Tag Team. I mentioned already that 2003 was a disappointing year for new wrestlers- the only exception (besides Brian "Spanky" Kendrick, who has since left) has been The World's Greatest Tag Team- Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. Hopefully, they will go on to greater things in the coming months. This match was, like the Raw 4 Way, thrown together. It wasn't great, and once again the champions (Scotty & Rikishi, still living off their gimmick from 2000) retained. Pointless.Match 9- Victoria vs Molly [Women's Title.] Raw has a fine Womens division (despite what the critics say) and Molly & Victoria are excellent additions to that division, but this match was far too short and was disappointing. The end was typical for a Womens match: a roll-up. Whoever's booking the finishes to these matches should be shot! Let them use their finishers for Christ's sake! Victoria's 'Widow's Peak' is a brilliant finisher!Match 10- Eddy Guerrero vs Kurt Angle [WWE Title]. Angle hasn't been his old self this year and his role as Smackdown's General Manager has, to use an Americanism, sucked. This match was pretty good but was a little lacking considering how good it could've been. The finish (another roll-up) was a little better than the Women's match as it was quite clever. Some good action, but could've been better.Match 11- The Undertaker vs Kane. The Undertaker's appearance disappointed everyone, I think, as he looked exactly like the old "Biker Undertaker" only with a different entrance and Paul Bearer. The match was a fairly typical "hoss" match which Taker won w/ a Tombstone. Great entrance, but that was about it.Match 12- Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit [World Heavyweight Title]. One of the best main events of recent years, and certainly the best match Triple H has had in quite some time. Brilliant back-and-forth action. A triple threat match usually always delivers as there's no need for 'restholds' (sleeper holds, chinlocks, etc.) as one wrestler is usually knocked outside while the other two go at it. A great match and the right result. Benoit finally gets his chance to shine and begins his World title reign, making Triple H tap out to the Crippler Crossface.Nothing too memorable on the whole. The only disappointments were the Cruiserweight Open (time-wise, not action-wise) and the abysmal showdown between Lesnar and Goldberg. Otherwise, a fine event.