The John Report Wrestling Blog

It’s Friday, so that means retro PPV time. Last week I posted WrestleMania X-7 and now it’s time to move on to the next one I have in my archive, WrestleMania 19. What I’ve done to add some new flavor to it is after every match or key segment I’ve put some thoughts in blue font to let you know what I think of it now, 7 years later. In some cases I’ll add some insight (like how brutal Nathan Jones was) while in others I’ll simply talk about what a particular match means to me today. For this one, I wrote the recap live on the internet, so there is play by play here. It was only my second live PPV recap with play by play style, so my style wasn’t refined yet. I love this PPV. Hope you enjoy the look back at WrestleMania 19.

WrestleMania XIX
Seattle, Washington
March 30, 2003

The arena looks amazing because the glass windows illuminate the entire building. The building is totally full, looking absolutely awesome, the way WrestleMania is supposed to be. Too bad this Limp Bizkit song is very annoying. I’m so sick of that song.

No pyro to start. They start out with Ashanti singing “God Bless America.” She did damn good. During the song they showed pictures of some soldiers in Iraq, which drew some good pops. Good idea on WWE’s part.

They air a video with several superstars talking about what WrestleMania means to them. Among them are Triple H, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Booker T., Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, and Chris Jericho. Really good video, as expected. They should have played this before the PPV.

Pyro starts, crowd goes nuts. Awesome visual. Just saw a “Hogan Sucks” sign on screen. That person rules.

Matt Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio – Cruiserweight Title
Matt Facts: This is his fourth WrestleMania and “Matt often wonders how they did WrestleMania without him.”

Rey hits a corkscrew plancha on Matt & Shannon on the outside. Leg scissors by Rey, spinning heel kick. Moore interferes on Matt’s behalf to give Matt advantage. Drops his head on the barrier outside the ring for two. Matt gets two with a side slam, then gets two. Shannon chokes Rey. Matt misses a spot, Rey counters. Twist of Fate reversed into a rollup for Rey. Rey in the air, Matt catches him for the side effect that gets two. Matt holds Rey’s arms back in a rest spot. It should be worth nothing Rey is wearing a purple body suit to go along with a mask that has horns on it. Chops by Hardy, he eats boot. Charge into the corner, shoulder hits post. Cross body for Rey gets two. Tornado DDT for two. Rey sets up Hardy for the 619, but Shannon trips him up. Twist of Fate, hits it, for two. It’s not gonna be finished after four minutes. Matt sets up Rey on the top rope for the splash mountain, but Rey reverses with a hurricanrana. Shannon gets Matt’s foot on the ropes at two. Matt knocks down Shannon, then eats a 619. West Coast pop is ducked, springboard roll through. Matt sits on top of Rey and puts his hand on the second rope to retain the title. Match went about 6 minutes. Call it **1/2. I would have liked to see it given more time.

I don’t think I re-watched this match after the original viewing. I remember Matt’s cruiser gimmick being hilarious as he tried to shed weight. I thought Rey would get the belt here in his first WM, but didn’t happen. He got it soon after, of course.

The Miller Lite catfight girls are here. They do a bit where they argue. They are very hot. I like them.

Time for a Limp Bizkit song. They are introduced as “The WWE’s favorite band in the world.” More people boo than cheer. They are playing Taker’s old theme song: “Rollin’” I think Taker’s match is up next.

Undertaker & Nathan Jones vs. Big Show & A-Train
Undertaker came out during the Limp Bizkit performance. WWE showed their confidence in Jones by shooting an injury angle on Heat. Show & A-Train come out together. It is now a handicap match. Yeah, sure it is.

Taker gets a fast chokeslam on A-Train. Show saves at two. Taker with punches on Show. More double teaming, more punching from Taker. Old school clothesline from Taker. Show distracts Taker, A-Train gets the Derailer. Throws him outside, Show throws him into the post. Ref sees nothing. I wish I were seeing nothing. Show drops him face first onto the ring barrier. Decapitator by A-Train for two. Decapitator is a slingshot into the bottom rope neck first. In comes Show. Taker fights him off. Show goes for a chokeslam, but that young buck Taker turns it into a Fujiwara Armbar. A-Train comes in, Taker turns that into a cross armbreaker. Show drops a leg on his head. Show just stands there sucking wind, then hits a headbutt. Abdominal stretch. I should take a bathroom break, but I’m here for you people. It lasts about 30 seconds. A-Train in with an abdominal stretch of his own. Tazz says “great psychology” by Show & Train. I call it nauseating. Taker reverses it into a stretch of his own. Back suplex by Taker. Like an idiot, Taker runs into the ropes where Big Show sticks his knee into him. Clothesline by Train for two. Punching, punching, punching, more punching, here comes Taker. Awesome leaping DDT by Taker gets two as Show breaks it up. Taker clotheslines both of them three times each. Choke on Show, bicycle kick by Train. Chokeslam by Big Show. Crowd gets up, here comes Nathan Jones. Kick to the head of the Big Show in the aisle. Taker throws Train into Jones, Jones kicks him down. Taker hits a Tombstone to remain undefeated at WrestleMania. Match went 10 minutes. It was basically a handicap match. *1/4

The story here was all four guys were training for the match at Undertaker’s ranch (apparently he has a ring there) and even after 2 or 3 days of doing the match repeatedly Jones still couldn’t figure out. Nathan Jones was as bad a worker as I’ve ever seen live. I remember being at a Smackdown taping a month before this. They had to re-tape his spot, a simple kick to A-Train’s head, three times because he screwed it up badly each time.

Miller Light Catfight girls run into Torrie and Stacy. Torrie is reading her own Playboy. Stacy tells the girls she has a marketing campaign that will blow them away.

Even though this was a time killer, I loved the Miller Lite girls. Especially the brunette.

They show highlights from Heat where the Dudleys hit a 3D on Lance Storm. RVD covers Storm, Bubba hits him with an elbow drop and Storm gets the win to retain.

Victoria vs. Jazz vs. Trish Stratus – Women’s Title
Trish comes out first, then Jazz, then Victoria, with Steven Richards and his pink tights. I love Trish’s cleavage showing outfit. Looks awesome.

Jazz with a bridging camel clutch on Trish. Trish gets a Thesz press. Jazz whips her in, eats boot. Victoria pulls Trish out and then throws Jazz out. Brawling on the outside leads to Vic getting a somersault legdrop over the top on Trish. Jazz with a legdrop on Trish for two, pulled out by Victoria. Two heels pick Trish up and do a double shoulderbreaker. Cool spot. Victoria hits a spinning powerslam on Jazz. Shoulders in the corner. Trish up, rollup into a bridge for two. Victoria picks Trish up, yells “I hate you” and knocks her down. Trish gets a clothesline, but Jazz hits her in the back. Jazz hits a gorgeous powerslam on Trish. Trish butts the heels heads together. Victoria holds Trish for Jazz, Trish ducks and Jazz gets a spinkick on Victoria. Victory roll by Trish on Jazz, chick kick gets two as Victoria gets control. Headscissors takedown by Trish on Victoria followed by chops. Victoria on the outside, Jazz puts her in a single leg Boston crab and then into an STF. Richards into the ring, throws Jazz out behind the ref’s back. Victoria in, Trish rolls her up with tights for two, Victoria reverses that for two. Chickenwing by Jazz on Trish, but when she turns around she takes a superkick from Victoria. Moonsault by Victoria misses. Great height and technique. Richards in, tries to chair Trish but it bounces back into his own face after hitting the ropes. Victoria for the Widow’s Peak, Trish hits the Chick Kick and gets the 1, 2, 3 to become the new Women’s champion. Did I mention how much I love that outfit? Yummy. They got 11 minutes. It had a really good flow to it, and a strong finish. **1/4

To be fair, I loved every Trish outfit. I’m not picky when it comes to Trish. The match was a good triple threat. They all hit their spots and the action never really slowed down. How many divas matches ever get more than ten minutes anymore? These ladies did a really good job.

Backstage, The Rock is interviewed by The Coach. Rock doesn’t care how many people there are because they boo him. The Rock could care less about the people. The Rock is there for one reason, and that’s to beat Steve Austin at WrestleMania. He says that in Hollywood he learned that Act 1 and 2 don’t matter as much as Act 3. That’s why this is the most important. He guarantees a win. He says then he’ll have done it all. Finally. Awesome promo. Really good, serious tone for once. Why can’t they do this on TV?

Rock was a heel at this point although he wasn’t getting booed that much really. The promos going in were too much comedy with not enough of a serious tone, but they were still great because we’re talking about The Rock here. He can do no wrong to me.

Team Angle vs. Los Guerreros vs. Chris Benoit & Rhyno – WWE (Smackdown) Tag Team Titles
Challengers came first, then the champs. Guerreros have green tights that match. I missed the first two minutes due to a phone call. When I come back, Benoit & Eddy are chopping the shit out of eachother. Benoit tags in Rhyno. Powerslam by Rhyno for two. Eddy tags in Shelton, he gets an elbow that puts Rhyno down for two. Shelton brings in Charlie. Double dropkick by Team Angle, Chavo breaks up the pinfall. Rhyno brings in Benoit. Chops followed by a snap suplex for two. High angle back suplex for two, tag in Rhyno. Haas works over Rhyno a bit, brings in Shelton. Rhyno gets a shoulderblock on him in the corner for two. Eddy tags Shelton in the back, then fakes Rhyno with a test of strength, but changes his mind to hit a dropkick. That was sweet. Benoit in, chop on Eddy, but Eddy hits a back suplex on Benoit. Eddy goes up top, Benoit catches him and hits a beautiful superplex for two. He throws Eddy into the ropes, throws him up high like a flapjack and gets a crossface, but Haas breaks it up. Eddy reverses, hits a brainbuster and tags in Chavo. Chavo takes out everybody with awesome moves. Benoit catches him, though, German suplexes. Crowd chants for all four of them. Chavo tagged in Shelton, Benoit doesn’t see it, and Shelton gets a superkick. Eddy comes in to break it up. Double knockdown, Shelton works on Benoit with a legdrop for one, two…frogsplash out of nowhere! Chavo tags Benoit to bring himself in. Haas throws Chavo, Rhyno gores Haas. Rhyno gores Chavo, crowd loves it. The legal man, Shelton Benjamin, rolls in and makes the cover on Chavo for the victory after 9 minutes. *** It was too short for my liking. I hate triple threat matches because they are far too predictable. Good finish made up for some weak spots.

I’ve always been frustrated with triple threats in WWE because they do them too often. I remember this time period where they did them on TV seemingly every week, even in tags. Even though I loved Smackdown in late 2002 and into early 2003, it was a bit much. Plus, these guys deserved a match that was longer than nine minutes.

Backstage, Torrie & Stacy argue over who created WrestleMania. Then the Catfight girls argue. The blonde one wants to settle it in a bed, while the brunette wants to settle it in the ring.

Classy huh?

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho
I love this match. My favorite wrestler ever, Shawn Michaels, against one of my current favorites in Chris Jericho. They air a long video package detailing the feud. Jericho’s wearing baby blue tights with black tracing. King & JR just mentioned something called “WrestleMania: The Movie” being filmed tonight. I guess they’re trying their hands at a documentary or something. On the way to the ring Shawn tries to shoot these hand held pyrotechnics, but most of them didn’t work. That was pretty funny. Shawn is wearing the red Heartbreak Kid tights of old and a very big cross around his neck.

“WrestleMania: The Movie” was phenomenal. Absolutely loved it. Find it if you haven’t seen it.

Takedown into a headscissors, both guys up. Armdrag by Jericho, Shawn gets out. Shawn taunts him by posing on the top ropes. Jericho with a wrist lock, HBK gets a hip toss, takedown by Jericho, HBK pushes him off. Side headlock by HBK, Y2J rolls it into two. Jericho breaks out with elbows, criss cross, Jericho slaps him and Shawn punches him in the face then tosses him out. HBK goes for a plancha, Jericho ducks so Shawn goes back in the ring and nails him with a baseball slide on the floor. Cross body by HBK, Jericho rolls through for two. Into the ropes, Jericho gets a spinning heel kick followed by some punching. Chop, chop, hard whip into the turnbuckle. Jericho goes for a running bulldog, but Shawn reverses it so that Jericho goes groin first into the middle turnbuckle. HBK gets a figure four leglock, Jericho reverses it. Crowd isn’t into it as much as you’d think. Kneebreaker, figure four again, but Chris sends him shoulder first into the ring post. Jericho tries to throw him out, but HBK skins the cat and takes Jericho out with a headscissors. HBK nails a plancha onto Jericho on the outside. Outside the ring, HBK goes for a dropkick that Jericho reverses into the Walls. He sits in it until the eight count, then breaks up the count. HBK goes back first into the ring post. Big heat for Jericho. I like it a lot. Jericho’s working on the back to set up for the Walls of Jericho. Jericho hits the springboard dropkick from inside the ring onto Shawn on the apron and throws him back in the ring. Back suplex for Y2J. Standing vertical suplex for two. More people are chanting “TWO” now. Good job. Hard backbreaker by Jericho. Cocky heel flex pose pin for two. Jericho sits him in with the knee to the back while having him in a headlock. Shawn fights out, eye rake stops back. Jericho goes for a back body drop, which is reversed into a DDT as both guys are out on the mat for an eight count. Jericho gets a flying forearm and the nip up followed by an HBK flex pose. Then HBK nips up! Sweet! What an awesome moment. HBK forearm, nip up, atomic drop, clothesline, back body drop. Into the buckle, Jericho eats boot and then the standing moonsault for the long two. Good nearfall. Rollup by HBK for two, Jericho for 2, HBK for 2, Jericho for 2, Walls are reversed by HBK. Northern Lights suplex by Jericho for two! Back slide, HBK bridges up, and clothesline. HBK chant starts up. Facecrusher by Jericho. Lionsault. One, two, no. Again for two. Into the ropes, HBK goes for a hurricanrana. Walls of Jericho in the center in the ring! Crowd is going ballistic with HBK chants as Shawn gets the ropes. Jericho goes for the Walls again, HBK reverses into an inside cradle for two! Double underhook into a backbreaker by Jericho. Off the top, Jericho hits a reverse elbow and starts warming up the band! He hits the superkick! 1…2…no! Wow, that was awesome. HBK fights him off to nail a crossbody, they trade punches. HBK going for the Walls, but changes his mind into a slingshot on the turnbuckle for two. Punch by HBK misses, Jericho goes to the back. Jericho sets him up on the top rope, back suplex coming up but HBK counters it into a crossbody! I love this match! One, two, no. Shawn goes up top, Jericho kicks the ref into the ropes as Shawn gets crotched. Superplex reversed, Jericho lands face first. Top rope elbow! Crowd is going apeshit now and so am I. Warming up the band for the superkick. The kick misses, Jericho ducks and puts him in the Walls of Jericho! He’s in the move for thirty seconds or so, but he gets to the bottom rope. We’re twenty minutes into it now. Jericho yells at the ref, then runs back into HBK and eats a superkick. Shawn crawls over. One, two, NO! This match rules! Rules, I say! In the corner, Jericho whips HBK into the corner where he does an insane back bump. He bounces back, Jericho grabs him and HBK rolls him up in an awesome cradle for the one, two, three! What a match! ****1/2 It went 24 minutes. Shawn sticks out his hand for Jericho to shake it. Jericho hugs him to a huge pop. Then he then kicks him in the balls! Then he shoves him down. Huge heel heat!

This match was outstanding. I can’t say enough good things about it. They did an amazing job of making believable nearfalls, timing everything perfectly well. Wow, talk about living up to the hype. Awesome!

This was Shawn’s first WrestleMania since 1998, so it was amazing to see him perform so well after five years. To this point he still hadn’t worked that much since coming back at Summerslam 2002. You can see from my commentary how excited I was about it. What a HBK mark, huh? This is straight from my top 50 matches from 2000-04 column:

The reasons why I liked this match so much back then and now was because they really did a great job in making believable nearfalls, timing everything perfectly well and playing up the idea that Michaels was the idol of Jericho during Chris’ early days as a wrestler. The coolest spot was when Jericho hit the forearm, did the kip up and the HBK pose, then Michaels did the same kip up and Jericho was shocked by it. I also liked how Jericho focused on the back not just because Michaels had a hurt back, but also because his finisher centers in on the back. Every time he went for the Walls the fans were gasping because they know of Michaels’ injury. It was the right kind of psychology. I had no idea who was going to win, I thought it would be Jericho. The finish was creative because it didn’t end after a Michaels superkick. When Jericho kicked out of that, it was shocking to say the least. The final finish with Michaels grabbing a cradle was a good one topped off by Jericho hitting the low blow post match. Not a perfect match, but still damn great.

Sylvain Grenier, the ref from No Way Out goes into Vince McMahon’s dressing room.

Goldberg video promo. It says he’s coming to Backlash. Crowd starts chanting “Goldberg.”

A huge deal at the time, obviously.

Attendance: 54,097. Here’s Limp Bizkit singing “Crack Addict.”

They show the video of Torrie Wilson’s news conference that we saw on Smackdown. Look how much better looking she is compared to Steph. It’s not even close.

Torrie got a lot of air time on this show, didn’t she?

Coach is out near the entrance to announce a “WrestleMania Catfight” between Tonya Ballinger (blond) and Kitana Baker (brunette). They are fighting on a bed located near the big screen. They crawl on the bed, but here comes Stacy Keibler to say that three girls in bed are better than two. Triple Threat Catfight. Here comes Torrie Wilson. What a shock. Fatal Four Way Catfight. Torrie spanks Stacy a bit. Everybody is in their bras and panties rolling around on the floor over Coach. Miller Lite girls pants Coach and all four of them beat him up. The four girls pose together for a nice visual.

And this is why people hated Coach.

Triple H vs. Booker T. – (Raw) World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H, wearing purple trunks, comes out first being accompanied by Ric Flair. I thought the champion was supposed to be introduced last? Booker comes out next in white trunks.

Tight headlock starts it out for about thirty seconds. Booker takes control with chops, HHH gets some of his own. Into the turnbuckle, back bodydrop by Booker. He runs into an elbow. Triple H to the top (why?), Booker gets an armdrag off the top. Into the ropes, shoulderblock by HHH, leapfrog by Booker, hiptoss reversed into a hard clothesline. Sidekick misses, back bodydrop by HHH leaves Booker hanging onto the top, but then he gets whipped into the ringpost and collapses on the floor. Outside the ring, Booker eats steps, HHH gets a hard elbow and some kicks. Neckbreaker for two. After some brawling, HHH gets the spinebuster for two again. Very slow pace thus far, crowd isn’t into it. Whip in to the corner, and then a hard clothesline gets two for HHH. Choking, punching, chops are exchange, suplex reversed into a DDT by Booker. Slugfest won by Booker, jumping sidekick and a sidewalk slam. Flying forearm gets two. Crowd seems too quiet to me. Sleeper by HHH is reversed by Booker. Off the ropes, high knee by Hunter. Face to the knee by HHH, Booker gets control again with a hard spinebuster for two. Into the ropes, HHH goes off the second turnbuckle where he eats a sidekick for two. Axe kick misses, jumping sidekick misses and sends Booker over the top rope where he ends up out on the floor. Flair drops Booker’s knee onto the top of the ring steps. In the ring, HHH gets a version of the Indian Deathlock to put strain on the knee. I can’t remember seeing this move in the WWE before. After about two minutes Booker makes the ropes. HHH drapes Booker’s leg on the second rope and drops his own knee on the back of it. HHH throws him in the ropes, but Booker collapses. Kneebreaker reversed by Booker into two. There’s the crowd getting excited. Booker goes for a slingshot, but HHH pushes him back into the ref. Booker gets a back elbow. Scissors kick, but he’s selling the knee so he crawls over with one arm for two. These pinfalls are not as dramatic after following that awesome HBK/Jericho match. Booker climbs up, Flair gets hit in the face, HHH loses a fight on the top. Booker nails Flair down again. Harlem Hangover by Booker! Man, that drilled HHH hard in the head. It did not land very well because he hit him with his upper leg instead of the lower part of his leg. Flair puts HHH’s leg on the bottom rope at two. Booker into the ropes, but he collapses. Pedigree by HHH. Crawls over to Booker, drapes his hand across his chest and gets the win after 20 minutes. ***1/2

A very good match that JR & Lawler are calling a “classic, epic battle” even though it wasn’t. It was still a top-notch match, but the crowd wasn’t into it as much as you’d think until the finishing sequence. It was the best Triple H match since Armageddon against HBK. Booker did an awesome job selling the knee injury the whole match, leaving it all in the ring and coming off looking like a tough bastard.

I remember thinking at the time that Booker might win the World Title here. Didn’t happen. I also thought that this feud would continue past WrestleMania. Didn’t really happen. The match was pretty solid and I remember both guys working their asses off, but it didn’t resonate with the crowd very much. That’s what probably killed the face push for Booker T. when I think about it now. He had success later as a heel.

They show a video saying that WrestleMania XX will take place in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. No surprise there.

Even though it’s four years away, I think we can pencil in WrestleMania XXX for New York City too.

Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon
Hogan comes out first to a huge pop. I think he’s getting tired just walking to the ring. It would have been nice to see him come out to Real American, but it’s still Voodoo Child. Here comes Vince in his usual black muscle shirt.

Slap by Vince. Hogan takes him down. Clothesline by Hulk followed by some punches. Note that the ref is regular Smackdown ref is Brian Hebner. More punching and kicks by Hogan. Vince gets an elbow and a hard clothesline. Kick to the ribs, charge in the corner. More elbows, punching and choking from Vince. Weak armbar by Vince, knee to the elbow. Vince wraps the left arm around the ring post twice. Test of strength starts with Hogan on his knees, but the power of Hulkamania brings him up until Vince kicks him back down. We are six minutes in, yet it’s felt like twenty to me. Still in the test of strength. After about three minutes in that hold, Vince tosses him to the outside. Face first into the barricade. Hammerlock sees Hogan go left arm first into the ringpost as Vince grabs a chair. Swing and a miss into the ringpost. Vince eats post, Hogan has the chair. Hogan gets a chairshot to the head that was very weak. Of course, Vince is bleeding from the forehead now. Back in the ring, Hogan punches him three times and Vince rolls out again. Chair to the back by Hogan twice followed by an attempted shot to the head that hits the Spanish announcer, Hugo Savinovich, who is bleeding too. Everybody is busted open. Hey look, Vince just chaired Hogan in the head with a good shot. Now Hogan is busted open. Vince pulls out a ladder for some reason. After stomping on Hogan, he places the ladder in between the two announce tables. Vince with another chair shot. Hogan’s upper body is draped on top of the Spanish announce table. Vince climbs the ladder, does the Hogan ear pose and hits a legdrop on Hogan through the table. Damn, man, I wasn’t expecting that. I expected Vince to take a bump, but not Hogan. In the ring, Vince gets a long two count. Another try gets two. Vince’s blade job is awesome because his face is full of blood. Vince grabs a steel pipe from under the ring as the camera closes in on his psychotic face. Low blow from Hogan. Out of nowhere a guy in a black outfit comes out, and it’s Roddy Piper sporting a very big gut. I guess his book didn’t sell enough for him to get a diet. After teasing to hit Vince he drills Hogan in the head with the steel pipe. Vince crawls over to Hogan all the way across the ring, drapes the arm across for two. Vince goes for the pipe, Hebner steps on it so Vince throws him out. But wait, Hebner didn’t go through the ropes, he got stuck! Haha! That was great. Then he throws him out again to make sure. Vince gets him with a pipe shot. Sylvain Grenier, the ref from No Way Out, comes out. Smackdown ref Mike Sparks argues with him. Vince hits a legdrop for two. Hogan hulks up. Crowd is eating it up. You’d think Vince, of all people, would know not to punch when he’s hulking up. I thought he was a genius? Get the pipe, genius! Hogan pounds on Grenier and tosses him out over the top. Back to Vince, he gets the punches, the big boot and calls for the legdrop. He hits three legdrops. Brian Hebner slides back in to count the pinfall after 23 minutes. **

The match was better than it had any right to be. There weren’t many good bumps, but as you might expect it was well booked. The lack of transition moves between them is really obvious. The spot on the announce table was definitely the highlight. Tazz & Cole are selling it like it was the best streetfight ever, but I would not go that far.

The two things I’ll always remember from this match are the facial expression of Vince when he peers over the ring apron from the floor and also that spot through the table that completely surprised the hell out of me. Looking back, I’m stunned that they both lasted for a 23 minute match. Hogan would go on to do that ridiculous Mr. America angle following this, so you can definitely say this was the peak of Hogan vs. Vince.

Post match, Hogan is posing to the fans. Shane McMahon walks out wearing a suit and tie. Yes, Shane O-Mac is back. It’s about time. Hogan invites him into the ring. Shane tends to his father as Hogan smiles at ringside.

The Rock vs. Steve Austin
Rock is out first. Austin comes out next. They both got really big pops that you’d expect. It’s starting at 10:57pm so the next two matches should get 20-25 minutes, which is great.

Long staredown to start. Austin opens up with punches, goes for a Stunner. Rock gets out of the ring to the floor, but Austin runs him down with a stiff clothesline. Rock face first into the steps, then clotheslined onto the Smackdown announce table. More brawling on the floor with Rock taking a pounding. Austin rolls him back in where he kicks him, chokes him and hits a back suplex for two. Whip into the corner, Rock reverses it once and Austin bounces back out with a clothesline. Earl Hebner admonishes Austin for choking Rock over the middle rope, so Rock clips his left knee out from behind. Outside the ring, Rock does it again. Rock slams the front of the left knee on the Smackdown announce table. Back in the ring, Rock stomps on the left knee. He drags him around the post where he wraps it around. In the middle of the ring, Austin comes back with a flurry of punches, but Rock gets control again thanks to a hard kick to the left knee again. Sharpshooter by The Rock near the ropes. JR mentions the greatest match ever at WrestleMania 13. Nice job JR. Austin gets to the ropes after about a minute. Rock wraps Austin’s leg around the ring post again. He puts on Austin’s vest, grabs a bottle of water and takes a sip. When he comes back in the ring Austin meets him with punches, they criss cross and do a great double clothesline. Austin gets the Lou Thesz Press and a big FU elbow for two. Stomping a mudhole in the corner leads to plenty of WHAT chants. Rock ducks a clothesline, and hits a beautiful leaping clothesline of his own. Rock taunts the crowd, turns around and walks into a Rock Bottom from Austin for two. Rock still has the vest on. Austin goes for a Stunner, Rock blocks the kick and hits his own Stunner in an arrogant cover for two. They are busting out the spots from the X7 match all over again. Rock gets some punches, goes for the spit punch, Austin moves out and hits a Stunner that Rock sells beautifully! One, two, no. Crowd is not into it as much as I thought they would be. Austin shoves the ref away, Rock low blows him and claps for himself! Sweet! People’s Elbow in Austin’s vest misses. Stunner reversed into a spinebuster. Jacket gone, People’s Elbow hits for one, two, no. Now the crowd is going nuts. Austin up, Rock Bottom. One two, no. I thought that was it. Rock Bottom blocked, Austin spins out. Another Rock Bottom for Rocky. One, two, no again! Holy shit! Austin’s up again. Third Rock Bottom. One, two, three! Rock finally goes over Austin at WrestleMania after 19 minutes. ***3/4

It was a clean finish capping off a tremendous match. I liked their WMX7 match more, but this was still awesome. A lot of people questioned whether Austin was in good physical shape, but I think he proved tonight that he was fine. They almost went twenty minutes, back and forth the whole way without resorting to a lot of brawling. Most of it was done in the ring. I think they proved once again why they can always have good matches together. I will never get tired of Austin/Rock for as long as I live. They always have good matches. Always. Post match, they show Austin selling the leg as the crowd gives him a good ovation.

See how great Austin was? I had no idea that this would be the last match he would ever have. We saw in “WrestleMania: The Movie” that he was physically a mess coming in, spending the night before in a hospital and not being sure that he could even perform. If I had known it was his last match I would have been very emotional in my write up because Austin’s my second favorite wrestler ever after Shawn Michaels. If Austin let us know that this was his last match the ovation would have been that much greater too. Of course, he came back multiple times a co-GM and as the “sherriff” on Raw, but in hindsight I wish the fans could have said goodbye to him as an in-ring performer in a more proper way. I remember initially I rated the match at something like ****1/2, but it was not that good. Just under four stars is fair, I think. See how I was in my early days of PBP? Too emotional. Can’t help it sometimes.

Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar – (Smackdown) WWE Title
Long video recap to start. Awesome of course. Angle is coming out as I chant “Thank You” at home. You da man Angle. I really hope everybody watching at home realizes how awesome this guy is for even competing in this match. Now all we can hope for is that he comes away from it healthy. Here comes Lesnar. Are those boos I hear? It’s 11:26pm, so they have about twenty minutes to go.

At the time of the match, we had no idea how it would go. Angle needed neck surgery. We figured it was the major one that Austin had that would put him on the shelf for a year or so. After that, would he be able to wrestle again? We had no idea. Going into it, I was very emotional because Kurt’s a favorite of mine and I was worried for his health. A lot of people knew of the situation because the news spread on the internet weeks before this match. As a result, this was a very emotional match. On top of that, due to their amateur wrestling background, Angle vs. Lesnar was a dream match for a lot of people. I was a combination of excitement plus nerves for this one.

Face to face stare. Very stiff front facelock to start. It will be interesting to see how they work around Angle’s neck injury. Angle gets a headlock, Brock fireman carry gets boos. Angle fireman carry. Mat wrestling is what this is about. Arm wringer into a headscissor followed by an armbar. They step back, crowd claps. Lots of mat based moves that I can’t even keep track, but Angle gets advantage with a side headlock. Into the ropes, Lesnar shoulderblocks him down. Lesnar has taped ribs based on what happened on Smackdown the last couple of weeks. Waist lock takedown by Brock, Kurt up, armdrag by Brock. Kurt puts Brock in the corner, knee to the ribs. Into the ropes, Brock gets an elbow to the head followed by shoulderblocks. Lesnar runs into an elbow, Angle charges into a powerslam. Very big German suplex by Angle, but not as he usually does it. There was separation between his head an the mat. It was a safer version. Angle bails, then rolls in and works on the ribs some more. Overhead press slam by Lesnar puts Kurt on his back. In the corner, Lesnar eats boot. Kurt just suplexed Lesnar German style back first into the top turnbuckle. What an awesome spot. Lesnar sold it by going over the top to the floor. That was beautiful. On the floor, Kurt works over the ribs some more. Very careful back suplex on Lesnar for two. Once again, the crowd is not overly crazy about this. Vertical suplex gets two. Angle gets a bow & arrow submission move where he is putting pressure on Brock’s ribs. Angle applies the move he did on Smackdown a few weeks back with his knee planted in Brock’s ribs and his hands locked around the throat. Brock gets up, Kurt is on his back in a piggy back. Brock runs him to the turnbuckle and puts him back first into the turnbuckle twice. Angle fights back, overhead belly to belly again very carefully. Two running knees to the back send Lesnar on the outside. Back in the ring, Kurt charges at him and Brock hits him with a hard spinebuster as they take a long eight count. They trade blows, Brock gets control with a forearm, clothesline and shoulder thrusts in the corner. Back elbow by Angle. Brock hits Angle with two overhead belly-to-belly suplexes. Kurt is fucking nuts for taking those. Angle with four rolling German suplexes. What a freak. Angle goes for Angle Slam, reversed to F5, reversed to takedown into an ankle lock! Sweet! Angle switches over after about thirty seconds in to single leg Boston Crab. Brock makes the ropes. Knee to the back. Charges again, Brock gives him a backdrop over the top to the floor, where Angle lands feet first. Angle charges in, shoulder blocks to the back of Angle by Brock. Angle with a release German suplex that sends Brock onto his stomach! Holy Shit. These guys really are the best athletes. Angle Slam gets two only. Angle goes for another Angle Slam, Brock reverses it into a cradle for two. F5 by Lesnar, delayed cover, 1…2…NO! Nobody has kicked out of the F5 before. What a match. Brock crowds over Angle, Kurt grabs his leg into an Ankle Lock. He wraps the leg around Brock’s legs the way he did to Benoit at Royal Rumble. Lesnar drags him over to the ropes, as some in the crowd boo again. Kurt gets a rollup for two. Angle Slam reversed into another F5 for Lesnar. He doesn’t cover right away. Oh man, I sense a top rope move coming. Shooting Star Press halfway across the ring, but Brock comes up short! He landed right on his head. My God! That had to hurt like a bitch. I think that was the finish. Angle covers for two. Brock fights back into an F5 for the third time. One, two, three, Lesnar wins it after 24 minutes. ****1/2 Post match, they shake hands and hug. What an awesome moment.

This was an outstanding match that managed to be on par with the two other great ones we saw. The crowd wasn’t into it at the very beginning, but the last ten minutes were fantastic. Not many guys can do the moves these two did. If Lesnar hit that SSP perfectly for the finish then I’d give it five stars. If you didn’t see it, the best way I can explain it is to say that he landed right on his head in a scary way. Angle was too far away for him to try the move. He was able to finish, but I could tell he was in pain.

This was such an emotional match. On top of the Angle situation, you had Lesnar nearly crippling himself by doing that Shooting Star Press. I remember watching the replays of the move dozens of times later in the night and marveling how the guy could get up from that. More thoughts on this match from my top 50 matches from 2000 to 2004 article:

The anticipation I had for this match going on was huge. Not just because of Angle and his neck situation, but because of both guys. If you followed wrestling closely the past five or six years then you knew about both of these guys being touted as the future of the company. Obviously Angle was established by this point while Lesnar was still pretty raw, not having worked a WM before. In the exchanges they had before, they showed incredible chemistry. Due to their awesome pedigrees in the amateur wrestling world, they had a bond there that nobody else on the roster really had. Lesnar-Angle was one of the most anticipated matches for me as a fan ever. Not just at this WrestleMania or that year, but for any year at any show. I was very excited for it. Two years later and I don’t think they disappointed at all. I’m still amazed that Angle was able to put in the performance he did especially after seeing on the documentary of this show that he had to be hospitalized after the match due to all of the injuries he had at the time. It’s scary to think about. Then there was Lesnar landing square on his head after that SSP. It was a moment worth cringing where the crowd didn’t know how to react. They just had dead silence and I don’t blame them one bit for that. The main reason this match ruled so much? Simply because when you watched it you knew these two were doing moves that only a few wrestlers could do. The holds, the counters and the crispness with which they did the moves made it special. Great match that would have been even greater if it ended on that SSP by Lesnar as it was supposed to. Oh well, they can be forgiven. For what it’s worth, I like the Ironman match from Smackdown in September 2003 better than this one, but this is their best PPV match against eachother.

Final Thoughts
I’d have to say this show was outstanding. There were three matches that I’d say were legitimate match of the year candidates. Everything before Jericho/Michaels was pretty average. Everything from Jericho/Michaels and after was either an amazing match or something better than any of us expected. Steve Austin proved that he can still have big matches while Brock Lesnar showed the world that he deserved the push that he’s received.

I’d say it’s one of the top five WWE shows ever. Definitely my second favorite WrestleMania ever behind X7. They needed to have a good show, and that’s exactly what they did. If you did not see this show then I urge you to check it out on video or DVD because it lived up to the hype.

Lastly, props go to Kurt Angle for being the man once again. He worked his ass off tonight, put on an amazing show and once again proved why he is the best wrestler alive. Thanks Kurt, thanks for everything.

On the ten point scale I’d give WrestleMania XIX a 9 out of 10.

I stand by that 9. I loved this show. It’s very good and it holds up seven years later. In a 2007 column looking back at WrestleMania I rated this as the 4th best WM ever after 17, 20 and 21. Now that I think about it more, this might be the second best one. I think it’s right there with 20 and 21 in terms of having the special moments, but there were less bad spots on this show. No matter how you rate them, WrestleMania 19 was a fantastic show. It was fun to re-live it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I’ll be adding in the extra thoughts for the other WMs I’ve written about too. I’ll post them all before WM26 this year.