We Needed That Ladder Match - WWF WrestleMania X (1994)

We just got back from WrestleMania in Vegas… and now we’re rewinding to one of the strangest, most uneven WrestleManias of all time.

This week on Grapple City Rewind, we dig into WWF WrestleMania X (1994) — a show that somehow opens with an all-time classic… and then spends the rest of the night trying to live up to it.

Two Bret Hart matches in one night because one beating isn’t enough.
Two Yokozuna matches because gravity demands sacrifice.
Two Intercontinental Champions who both think they’re the real one.
One ladder match that has to carry the entire show.

We break down Bret vs. Owen, the chaos of the double main event, the Lex Luger push quietly dying in real time, and the absolute fever dream energy of fake Bill Clinton wandering around like everything’s normal.

Is this actually a great WrestleMania?
Or just a mess held together by one iconic match?

We’ll decide.

This episode brought to you by Weber4Law - your tag team partner when life body-slams you out of nowhere. Call (818) 502-9200 or visit https://weber4law.com/

(626) 657-SLAM

Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com

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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by  Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Transcript

00:00:00.25
Bradley Palermo
We're like 40, like 43. forty three And I think this is like episode 44.

00:00:04.10
Aaron
Okay, so I'll just say over 40.

00:00:04.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Hey.

00:00:06.30
Aaron
Yeah.

00:00:06.53
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:00:07.30
Aaron
Okay. Hey, everyone. This is Aaron Fink from Grapple City Rewind. you like what you hear on this episode, just wanted to remind you all that we have a back catalog of 40 plus episodes. talk old wrestling pay-per-views so it never goes out of style.

00:00:23.21
Bradley Palermo
hey

00:00:26.09
Bradley Palermo
la la la la la la low and

00:00:30.63
Bradley Palermo
to Grapple City Rewind, taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views that shaped professional wrestling history. Introducing first, at a combined weight of 367 pounds, i gained a you weight a few pounds

00:00:46.35
Aaron
ah ah

00:00:58.16
Bradley Palermo
think.

00:01:00.46
Bradley Palermo
This episode, this episode...

00:01:03.28
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Yeah, there

00:01:12.19
Aaron
yeah there you go.

00:01:12.48
Bradley Palermo
On this episode of Grapple City Rewind, we will be rewinding to WrestleMania 10. It's the WrestleMania come down episode, y'all. We just got back from Vegas seeing WrestleMania 40, what was it, 42? Yeah? Yeah.

00:01:28.72
Aaron
It was.

00:01:30.13
Bradley Palermo
um But we're going to go back today. We're going to talk a little bit about our experiences this past weekend. And we're then we're going to go into the Rewind where we're going to look at WrestleMania 10, which was back in 1994.

00:01:42.08
Bradley Palermo
And just to give you a little preview of what of what we're going to be breaking down, it's going to be nine matches. Two intercontinental champions who both believe they are the real champion.

00:01:53.28
Bradley Palermo
One ladder to prove it. Two Bret Hart matches in one night because one beating isn't enough for Mr.

00:01:55.60
Aaron
Thank you.

00:02:00.05
Bradley Palermo
Hart. Two Yokozuna matches in one night because gravity demands sacrifice. One Hart brother snapping and taking what he's owed, getting out of that shadow.

00:02:12.53
Bradley Palermo
One Lex Luger push quietly dying in real time in front of our eyes. One fake Bill Clinton wandering through the wreckage. A handful of celebrities pretending this entire thing is all normal.

00:02:21.19
Aaron
Oh, God.

00:02:25.66
Bradley Palermo
And a company insisting that it's a new era when it's in fact just the fucking middle of the new generation era. Is it good?

00:02:34.75
Bradley Palermo
Is it really good? Does it suck? We will decide as we sift through and decipher through the old VHS archive of WrestleMania landing on this particular WrestleMania tent.

00:02:53.79
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:02:58.64
Bradley Palermo
But first, we like to talk a little bit of current product. And before we talk about our experience, Aaron, of you and I, we went to different days of WrestleMania, but we'll talk about that.

00:03:10.11
Bradley Palermo
We'll talk about what we thought about that show. But I just wanted to get into the releases. This time of year, WWE does some call-ups from NXT to the main roster. They also do some releases. And it can always be like...

00:03:21.14
Bradley Palermo
always a little sad sometimes.

00:03:22.46
Aaron
A little sad, yeah.

00:03:22.34
Bradley Palermo
Sometimes I'm happy to get rid of a couple people. But like a lot of times it's like... It's a bummer. Some of these people i've been, you know, having a parasocial relationship with for fucking seven years and now they're gone.

00:03:34.13
Aaron
ah

00:03:35.28
Bradley Palermo
Now I got to go find them in a VFW hall.

00:03:35.82
Aaron
Yeah.

00:03:37.37
Bradley Palermo
So, so what do we got for releases?

00:03:40.32
Aaron
A lot. i have I have the full list ah that I guess has been updated semi-recently. So let's see, we've got Alba Fire. ah

00:03:50.82
Bradley Palermo
Hmm.

00:03:51.64
Aaron
a little disappointing just because her thing with Chelsea was working, you know, being Chelsea's secret Herbis. I mean, I get that Alba wasn't really being used for much else, so I understand. But i don't think that's her fault.

00:04:03.04
Aaron
It's not like she's bad, you know. she just They didn't have anything for her.

00:04:05.12
Bradley Palermo
No, she was fine. i remember, I remember her like an NXT and stuff and she came up.

00:04:10.08
Aaron
Yeah, she was good.

00:04:11.29
Bradley Palermo
All right. But, um, I won't,

00:04:12.71
Aaron
um I'll group the next one with his spouse, Aleister Black, Zelina Vega. This was also kind of a weird one because he just came back to WWE wwe a year ago.

00:04:22.90
Aaron
Zelina's been there for a while, I think, or maybe she had gone and then come back or something, but...

00:04:32.03
Aaron
Okay.

00:04:35.08
Aaron
Yeah, okay.

00:04:35.04
Bradley Palermo
Um, she was gone in like 2020 and she came back around 2021. So she should probably be back again.

00:04:39.63
Aaron
Got it.

00:04:41.64
Aaron
So Zelina as a wrestler, personally, not my favorite. I thought that the idea of pairing her with Alistair was a good idea. And seemed like that was it it certainly wasn't failing, but they weren't getting a lot of time to develop it. So like, I thought it was fine. But yeah, this was another surprise for me.

00:05:00.50
Bradley Palermo
I feel like I like c Selena. I like that she's really tiny and does kind of the luchadora thing. I liked her like, I don't know, but it it all just falls flat in that mid card.

00:05:10.54
Bradley Palermo
Like I liked her in like the LWO and kind of with Rey Mysterio and stuff for a minute.

00:05:16.40
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:05:17.34
Bradley Palermo
I feel like her husband, sucks the charisma he's like a black hole of charisma like i feel like he doesn't really shine in personality he looks kind of cool and he does sort of like the karate type stuff like lots of kicks and you know but like i feel like on mike and like on promo and like him trying to be all spooky like him and his wife are an odd couple kind of like they don't really look both kind of spooky she looks

00:05:35.55
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:05:46.33
Bradley Palermo
Kind of like, you know, like, like luchador type shit. He looks like the maddest goth guy, but like so middle-aged that you don't take it seriously. Like, like he's never connected for me.

00:05:57.63
Bradley Palermo
um I'd like to see her back.

00:05:57.86
Aaron
yeah

00:05:59.19
Bradley Palermo
I don't really need him. But um what else do we got?

00:06:01.70
Aaron
I think for me, well, I think for me really quick on Alistair, I like him because of what he was able to do in black and gold NXT.

00:06:11.57
Aaron
And I know that you haven't really watched a lot of that.

00:06:12.29
Bradley Palermo
Ooh.

00:06:13.89
Aaron
So maybe when we do some bonus episodes, I'll pick an Alistair black match because, you know, I get to be fair. NXT crowd was basically like the the AEW crowd before AEW existed.

00:06:25.29
Aaron
So like they were always going to

00:06:25.69
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:06:26.84
Aaron
be loud and cheer and stuff. But I don't know. I thought he had a good run there. So like it worked.

00:06:31.35
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. And I,

00:06:32.92
Aaron
It just didn't work and on the main roster.

00:06:35.35
Bradley Palermo
and everything I do see in NXT black and gold. I mean, I wasn't watching at the time like you were, but I've texted you most the time. Anytime I actually go through takeovers and like, it's fucking banging.

00:06:46.08
Bradley Palermo
Like it's all really, really good. So I, I don't doubt it.

00:06:48.35
Aaron
Yeah.

00:06:50.66
Bradley Palermo
I think, I just think that like, I think in ring, there's no problem. Like, I'd love to see the guy wrestle. I just think, I think he's like really like kind of like a downer on the, when he tries to do like a promo or his, just his faces, his mannerisms and stuff, whatever.

00:07:06.65
Bradley Palermo
I've i've kind of, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but, um,

00:07:07.20
Aaron
Yeah.

00:07:10.03
Aaron
I'll continue going down the list, I guess. ah Andre Chase from NXT, Apollo Crews, Bo Dallas in the entirety of the Wyatt Six.

00:07:18.46
Bradley Palermo
ah I mean, dude, they just had a fucking like haunted, like WWE haunted house in Universal I went to this last fall.

00:07:19.66
Aaron
Ugh.

00:07:25.33
Aaron
Yeah, yeah.

00:07:26.50
Bradley Palermo
Like, like, and it was all Wyatt Six. But like Wyatt Six it does. I mean, i don't know if I blame them, but that shit does suck. Like you don't want to see him. Wyatt Six on the coming to the ring. Like that's not fun.

00:07:38.01
Aaron
Yeah, it's it's um I mean, them coming to the ring is the coolest part, right? I think it's just like there was a disconnect between the videos, the promos, the presentation and then them wrestling like every

00:07:50.92
Bradley Palermo
Right. What actually happens when the bell rings sucks is i should i correct myself, but yeah.

00:07:53.22
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, again, like they were sort of put in an impossible position and I know that they probably, i assume that they wanted to do this to pay homage to Bray and to keep his thing going. And they did. And it was a very cool, i remember when they all,

00:08:13.46
Aaron
were revealed for the first time. Like that was a very cool thing and a very cool moment.

00:08:15.83
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:08:17.78
Aaron
It just didn't really go anywhere. kind of fizzled out. So a bummer for sure.

00:08:21.72
Bradley Palermo
right but nikki i because when i was getting back into it during the pandemic nikki cross uh nikki ash for a minute i know these gimmicks are kind of shitty they don't know what to do with their and stuff i know but like i think she ran with it all like i feel like she made like like

00:08:25.60
Aaron
Nikki Cross.

00:08:35.21
Aaron
But she made it work, right?

00:08:38.76
Aaron
Yeah.

00:08:40.59
Bradley Palermo
what they say, chicken salad out chicken shit? Like, she she always did it. And I... and And she's had some cool matches. It's like three-way matches with with the bigger women stars, Charlotte and whatnot, and Rhea and all that.

00:08:54.59
Bradley Palermo
She was in a tag team with Rhea, right?

00:08:56.66
Aaron
Yeah.

00:08:56.71
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. I have a um place in my heart for Nikki Cross. Like, I'll definitely see her TNA or the Indies or whatever she does next if she decides to keep wrestling.

00:09:11.67
Aaron
yeah

00:09:11.50
Bradley Palermo
she's not She can't be that fucking old. But, like, sometimes people do just move on when they're done. But, like, I'm a Nikki Cross fan. I'm a Zelina Vega fan. um

00:09:19.65
Aaron
Yeah, I guess there's a lot more on the list, but I'll just call out a few more.

00:09:20.38
Bradley Palermo
You know.

00:09:25.04
Aaron
Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley and Chris Saban, terrific tag team. They were always just kind of set up to fail because the tag division in the wwe WWE's main roster has been so lackluster for so many years.

00:09:38.23
Aaron
And I don't really think that that's their fault.

00:09:38.10
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:09:40.67
Aaron
Like, they're an amazing tag team. So if they go to if they go to AEW, it's going to be great.

00:09:43.47
Bradley Palermo
I think...

00:09:46.70
Bradley Palermo
They came from TNA most recently, and they were doing indie shows.

00:09:48.80
Aaron
TNA. Yeah. yeah

00:09:51.89
Bradley Palermo
i I got to see them, I think, as an unannounced surprise match at a prestige match at the Globe Theater in LA before they went to WWE.

00:10:13.03
Bradley Palermo
But, like, I don't not blame them. I don't think, like, when they were WWE, w like... when they got on screen, like I wasn't like, all right, well now they're going to bring it to this. It was kind of like, fuck.

00:10:22.17
Aaron
Sure.

00:10:22.98
Bradley Palermo
It was like, it felt like, like TNA was on my screen on WWE. Like it, I was just kind of like, i like it at the Indies. i don't really like what you're doing right now. It's not exciting to me.

00:10:32.84
Aaron
Yeah, they yeah, they they do. don't necessarily feel as over the top as like a Miz or a Dan Housen or something. You know, WWE is a lot of over the top characters and they're kind of grounded, so I get it.

00:10:44.17
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:10:45.74
Aaron
um The last group of people I want to talk about on the list

00:10:46.02
Bradley Palermo
Right. Whoa.

00:10:49.03
Aaron
the people who are all in developmental or LFG. So I know you didn't watch, but Chris Island, ah Serena Linton, Trill London, and Tyra Mae Steele. I think there could potentially be one more, but they were all people that um that got hired as developmental they were on that show on a and e lfg and tyra may steal even actually won the first season which which got her an nxt contract so so and so she's being let go and then uh three other people are being let go and you know all of them like had something they just like

00:11:14.28
Bradley Palermo
hello

00:11:17.24
Bradley Palermo
but ah

00:11:26.14
Aaron
you know We're learning. They were new. They've been like a year or maybe two. So I was kind of bummed to see them go. I'm hoping that they'll figure something out. um And then Zoe Stark was another one that that hopped out to me because I like Zoe Stark.

00:11:38.76
Bradley Palermo
oh yeah

00:11:41.30
Aaron
She's also ah like had a good run in NXT, not in black and gold, just like in the last few years, and then came up and then just kind of got saddled with mediocre stuff.

00:11:51.63
Aaron
She's got a great look. She's a really good in the ring. I don't know. Her promo maybe isn't the best. They put her in that pure fusion collective with Shayna Baszler and, oh my God, I can't remember her name, Sonya Deville.

00:12:06.50
Aaron
And that was kind of like whatever.

00:12:06.39
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:12:07.98
Aaron
so And then she got super hurt. She like tore her ACL and her MCL and something else, and then they let her go. she fucking sucks.

00:12:15.14
Bradley Palermo
And Kyrie's saying, I'm kind of surprised about that. It seemed like maybe the biggest name on all this.

00:12:18.50
Aaron
Oh, yeah, that one too, for sure, yeah.

00:12:22.65
Bradley Palermo
I don't know, but.

00:12:23.10
Aaron
Yeah, it is. And, you know, i like Kyrie. I think Kyrie always sort of gets underutilized, but she had something going with Asuka and they were clearly building towards her turning on Asuka, which would have been great. And now we don't get to see that. So, yeah, I'm bummed about that one as well.

00:12:38.36
Bradley Palermo
Did you say Santos Escobar and Apollo Crews?

00:12:41.05
Aaron
Oh, no, no, I did say Apollo Crews, but I didn't say Santos Escobar.

00:12:40.96
Bradley Palermo
We can move on.

00:12:44.88
Aaron
though Yeah. And like, the again, like cruiser, good cruiserweights, good midcard guys, but i I almost never saw them on TV.

00:12:51.89
Bradley Palermo
I feel like those are like the guys that come out when it's like main event, like but you're at Raw, like like before like the dark match.

00:12:56.47
Aaron
Main event. Yeah. Uh huh.

00:13:00.08
Bradley Palermo
But like... i couldve so i feel like I could be wrong, but I feel like Apollo Crews is on this list like every fucking year. like I feel like they fire that they fire that guy and then bring him back in like all the time.

00:13:07.98
Aaron
He's on it a lot.

00:13:12.86
Bradley Palermo
But don't know.

00:13:14.10
Aaron
No.

00:13:14.06
Bradley Palermo
You've seen him on it before, right?

00:13:15.70
Aaron
Oh, yeah, for sure. He definitely feels like i feel like he's been let go at least two other times.

00:13:16.63
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:13:21.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. so that's it's The door is always open, right?

00:13:23.48
Aaron
So.

00:13:24.83
Bradley Palermo
like They let you go.

00:13:25.66
Aaron
Yeah.

00:13:25.86
Bradley Palermo
and then they you know It's probably just... I don't know how the business works. I shouldn't speculate, but I imagine like they offer you a contract, your management plays hard ball.

00:13:36.25
Bradley Palermo
They're like, you know what? Let's cool this guy off and just see what happens next year.

00:13:39.55
Aaron
Yeah, maybe.

00:13:39.100
Bradley Palermo
i

00:13:40.23
Aaron
i don't know.

00:13:41.18
Bradley Palermo
um i bet that could happen sometimes. you know I don't really know.

00:13:43.74
Aaron
Sure.

00:13:43.58
Bradley Palermo
i

00:13:44.47
Aaron
well, it's a business.

00:13:44.45
Bradley Palermo
I know it from the music business with friends that sometimes they leave labels and come back. Like sometimes that's what it is. It's like, well, you kind of think you're hot shit.

00:13:50.83
Aaron
Sure, you just got to kind of let cooler heads prevail for a minute.

00:13:52.72
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah, you think you' got you think you've got, oh well, I did this, so I want this much for the next record. And they're like, let's see what he does if we drop him.

00:13:59.39
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

00:14:01.48
Bradley Palermo
And then, you know, a few years later, everyone's like, hey, what can we let's make a record.

00:14:01.97
Aaron
Right, yeah.

00:14:05.24
Bradley Palermo
you know So maybe it's like that.

00:14:05.70
Aaron
right yeah

00:14:07.16
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. But I do see a lot of people returning here and there. Oh, shit, we're already 15 minutes in. We haven't even talked about WrestleMania. right, so you went to WrestleMania night one. I went to WrestleMania night two on a last minute, just sort of on a whim flight thing.

00:14:20.67
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:14:42.72
Bradley Palermo
Brock Lesnar is retiring. I'm throwing up in a cup, trying to fucking not let the guy next to me realize that I'm puking while I'm watching this. And I left before the main event. How was your WrestleMania?

00:14:54.64
Aaron
Oh my God, dude. We have to have a discussion off, off, off podcast about your GLP one. use ah

00:15:03.69
Bradley Palermo
Hey, dude, this is the good shit, man. The rants of the good shit.

00:15:07.30
Aaron
huh well, take it easy. All right. You're not, you're not fat. You just take it easy. All right. So, so my night one, i had fun.

00:15:12.56
Bradley Palermo
Thanks, man.

00:15:15.38
Aaron
Uh, I, so we, so we had really great seats. Um, we were sitting in the risers like a little bit too on the non hard cam side, a little bit left of the ring.

00:15:28.11
Aaron
It was fun. I had never been to a WWE premium live event in a stadium before. So definitely was an experience in that regard.

00:15:35.50
Bradley Palermo
Oh, wow.

00:15:39.50
Aaron
um It just as much fun as I had, um it just kind of reinforced the fact that this is very much a television product because there's just so much that I missed being there live because I can't see everything.

00:15:48.67
Bradley Palermo
Dude.

00:15:54.09
Bradley Palermo
Seriously. Like, I rewatched the one I was at, and I was like, this is... All the shit they say to each other in the ring and like the explanation of the announcers.

00:16:03.73
Bradley Palermo
Like it is cool to have the memory of like I was there, but it's a better product on TV.

00:16:08.27
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:16:10.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:16:10.96
Aaron
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, i guess for me, night one, um my favorite match I guess, you know, honestly, dude, I think I had the most fun during the first match, the six-man tag, the Usos in LA Knight against the Vision and Aisho Speed, just because the crowd was really hyped and everyone was having fun and, you know, Aisho Speed doing his big splash was cool.

00:16:24.48
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:16:34.58
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, the loudest anybody was the entire night was when Paige came out as a surprise to cover for Nikki Bella.

00:16:41.90
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.

00:16:44.28
Aaron
um And when and when they won, that was probably the biggest pop of the night.

00:16:44.31
Bradley Palermo
That was cool.

00:16:48.47
Aaron
um Otherwise, i was honestly a little disappointed. Like Gunther and Seth was good for sure. ah Cody and Randy was OK, but like.

00:16:58.13
Aaron
I didn't like the way that the match ended. It just didn't kind of make a ton of sense to me, especially what happened after the bell. I feel like your night was the better night overall because of and Brock actually really liked the, um, the ladder match.

00:17:08.13
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:17:12.92
Aaron
I thought the ladder match was really good for, for that type of match. And then now go ahead.

00:17:16.66
Bradley Palermo
The ladder match was cool. When I like going house was on the on the airplane on the way back, you know everyone flying back from Vegas to Los Angeles was coming from there. and There was like this mom who like didn't... It wasn't really my thing. you know It's more of the boys thing. That ladder match, was like watching Tom and Jerry. and She's just like...

00:17:35.50
Bradley Palermo
You know, her kids won't shut the fuck up. And she's just carrying on about how much wrestling sucks on a fucking airplane full of people wearing, like, championship belts and, like, coming back from WrestleMania.

00:17:47.47
Bradley Palermo
I was like, bitch, that one was pretty good. what are you talking about? But, yeah, go ahead.

00:17:51.08
Aaron
Yeah, and and if you like it, that really means something because you hate those kinds of matches.

00:17:56.13
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it's not normally my thing, but I had fun. I mean, I don't know. There was, like... Somebody got like fucking DDT off of like in out of like thin air off the top of the goddamn ladder and shit.

00:18:06.81
Bradley Palermo
Like it was cool, but.

00:18:07.65
Aaron
Oh, yeah. No, there was a bunch of great shit. JD McDonough takes loves taking crazy bumps. He took that Mexican Destroyer on the ladder that was you know in between the other ladder and the turnbuckle.

00:18:13.12
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:18:19.58
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:18:39.24
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:18:41.42
Aaron
um And I just felt like they told a really great story with that match. Like it was, you know, it was ah it was very much a wwe WWE main event in that a lot of like it was slow and deliberate with a lot of big stuff happening.

00:18:55.89
Aaron
it also wasn't like they were just trading finishers the whole time. Like a lot of these main events can sometimes be, you know, like there wast there was a flow to this thing.

00:19:02.60
Bradley Palermo
right

00:19:04.90
Aaron
And I didn't know who was going to win. So I was genuinely like, oh, my God, you know, like, oh, I can't believe he kicked out or whatever because I wanted Punk to win.

00:19:13.28
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:19:13.82
Aaron
But I thought it was a great main event. I'm happy that Punk finally got his singles night to main event as a champion. I'm sure he was thrilled.

00:19:23.45
Aaron
I'm pretty sure I saw when they're in the ring, like talking shit to each other, quote unquote, they're really just like complimenting each other. And I'm pretty sure I saw Roman and be like, I've waiting for this my entire life, but he's got a mean mug on his face.

00:19:34.56
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:19:36.40
Aaron
I'm sure Punk was probably like, dude, thank you so much. Like, I'm so fucking happy to be doing this. And you could tell they put their heart and their souls into that match.

00:19:40.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:19:44.15
Aaron
And it was, It was one of the best made events I've seen in a long time at WrestleMania.

00:19:45.23
Bradley Palermo
It was.

00:19:52.00
Bradley Palermo
I got nothing add. It was, it was quite a masterpiece. And even though I only saw the entrances and stuff, uh, and the initial lockup in person, you know, I watched it on ESPN plus and that was probably the way to watch it.

00:20:05.29
Bradley Palermo
Honestly. Anyways. I mean, I got, I got the, ah sick as I was, I got the environment and the feeling of him coming out to AFI and all that shit.

00:20:10.31
Aaron
Yeah.

00:20:13.06
Bradley Palermo
So that was cool.

00:20:26.09
Aaron
WrestleMania 10, March 20th of 1994 in Madison Square Garden. attendance of 18,065 fans, had Jerry the King Lawler and Vince McMahon on commentary.

00:20:40.24
Aaron
And ah throughout the entirety of this event, we got a number of little clips celebrating, you know, the previous WrestleManias. So as the show opened, um we got a package, you know, celebrating WrestleMania 1. We saw little moments...

00:20:56.65
Aaron
from that show which we covered on our last episode so it's all very fresh in our minds but as the show goes on these little moments are peppered throughout the event so you get a clip from wrestlemania 2 3 4 5 etc etc all the way up to nine um vince is in the ring introducing little richard who sings america the beautiful and uh ah First verse was a little little tame, you know, little Richard making some funny noises in between the words.

00:21:18.89
Bradley Palermo
Dude, I was going to say, os it was pretty shitty at the beginning. I was like, whoa, like like Mean Gene, when he did his, this was like way this is way worse than Mean

00:21:27.25
Aaron
Yeah, the

00:21:32.11
Aaron
A little little better. Yeah. ah Mean Gene.

00:21:33.58
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:21:34.63
Aaron
Mean Gene was was doing better than Little Richard at first. But I will say I thought the second verse was really good. Everything kicked in He was actually singing. I'm a sucker for a choir.

00:21:45.47
Aaron
And then there's a choir around the entire ring all singing with him.

00:21:48.46
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, a church choir.

00:21:48.95
Aaron
So it was cool.

00:21:50.09
Bradley Palermo
and it's And it's like, once he hit his actual range, it was cool.

00:21:54.47
Aaron
Mm hmm. Yeah.

00:21:54.91
Bradley Palermo
They had the robes, you know, all that stuff.

00:21:55.54
Aaron
So.

00:21:57.02
Bradley Palermo
Like, it was full on. It was cool. But I was like, holy shit, like, what happened?

00:21:59.20
Aaron
Yeah.

00:22:02.22
Bradley Palermo
Like, I don't i didn't know Little Richard was so bad at singing. I thought that was his job. Yeah.

00:22:08.22
Aaron
ah He just, you know, he you could, you look at him. I mean, it's 1994. I don't, I don't know when he passed away, but like, he's not young, you know, like he's, he's probably in his fifties at this point at a minimum.

00:22:16.19
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:22:19.98
Aaron
um But, but,

00:22:20.42
Bradley Palermo
Jerry Lawler asked, is that his real voice or his is his underwear too tight? So we we get to get into the Jerry Lawler quips pretty quickly.

00:22:28.61
Aaron
Oh boy. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's so many Lawler Lawler isms in this one. I wrote down a few of them. I couldn't, couldn't, couldn't avoid it.

00:22:35.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:22:36.88
Aaron
Um, but after little Richard's performance, um, we get into the first match of the night, which is Brett versus Owen Hart. And so Obviously, Bret and Owen have feuded before this.

00:22:52.15
Aaron
um And the reason why they're facing each other is part of a larger story. and And this is one of the reasons why I actually think this is an interesting WrestleMania as a whole is because there's actually a lot of stories that that feed into this WrestleMania. Some even go almost a year back. So like, it's cool because that doesn't always happen. You know what I mean?

00:23:14.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:15.62
Aaron
So anyway, let's get into Brett and Owen. um Surprise, surprise. It's a terrific match. I don't think we would be shocking anybody by saying this.

00:23:25.10
Aaron
I don't know that Brett has ever really had a bad match. And I think that when I think about Owen, it's pretty much the same.

00:23:29.30
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:23:31.38
Aaron
Like, I don't think I've ever seen a bad Owen match either.

00:23:47.81
Bradley Palermo
We've got black and gold ropes, you know, WrestleMania 10 kind of had a black and gold theme. It's sort of iconic at this point.

00:23:54.61
Aaron
Yeah.

00:23:55.56
Bradley Palermo
um Jerry ripping on Helen Hart, as always. ah

00:23:59.73
Aaron
He does like to do that.

00:23:59.63
Bradley Palermo
Her hearing aids, her eyesight, you know, it's it's pretty brutal on her. But... um Yeah, they they, you know, Owen's in the shadow.

00:24:07.54
Bradley Palermo
That's what I remember when I was a kid. Owen's always like, oh I'm tired of being in the shadow of Brett.

00:24:11.35
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Of my older brother, yeah.

00:24:12.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, of my older brother. And, but he's, i mean, he is really good. I mean, he's in a lot of ways. I guess he's more aerial than Brett, but they they work this they work similar.

00:24:22.18
Aaron
Yeah.

00:24:24.15
Bradley Palermo
um And he's working on Brett's knee. I guess Brett hurt his knee on an over-the-top crossbody to the outside, and then Owen sort of like honed in on that for the match.

00:24:34.44
Aaron
Mm-hmm it, you know, I felt like the vast majority of the match, they've got the crowd right where they want them, like pretty much at all times. Um, that it, I, as I was watching it, I was like, man, this match is so good.

00:24:46.64
Aaron
I feel like this is maybe this is one of the ones that the coaches and the trainers at the performance center, like show the kids to teach them because like, there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with this match at all.

00:24:54.21
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:24:56.96
Bradley Palermo
It felt like they were working a main event to me. I wrote, that's what I, and I have it in my notes.

00:25:00.61
Aaron
Yeah.

00:25:01.88
Bradley Palermo
I was like, where, where is this fucking WrestleMania going? Cause it feels like they're doing main event shit with a back and forth and the, the sharpshooters and figure four variants.

00:25:11.67
Bradley Palermo
And, you know, there's a low blow Owens working heel, you know, it's like, it just feels like, not just come out of the gate and give us lots of running around in action.

00:25:21.76
Bradley Palermo
It felt like a story, you know, happening.

00:25:24.06
Aaron
Yeah, and they're like it felt like a follow this motherfuckers kind of thing.

00:25:24.57
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:25:28.14
Aaron
you know um

00:25:28.47
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. yeah

00:25:39.65
Aaron
And then he went up to the top rope to do a headbutt, and then Brett rolls out of the way. And I was like, There were actually... Some other match had a pile driver, too, where I was like, oh, wow. Because like back then, I always felt like if somebody did a pile driver, like it's over.

00:25:52.73
Aaron
They pin you, and you're not getting up from it.

00:25:52.77
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:25:54.61
Aaron
But I think I think i saw some some other match had one, too. So I was kind of surprised by it. But like I was saying, you know they had Technically this feud between them started in survivor series, 1993 of the previous year, they were on the sign, the same team and Owen was fighting. Brett was like outside on the apron and Owen ran into him by accident while he was trying to bounce off the ropes. And that caused Owen to get eliminated. And then he got pissed at Brett and,

00:26:27.18
Aaron
You know, he was demanding that he had a match with him. Brett was like, no, I'm not going to fight my brother under any circumstances or whatever he says. And then they kind of make up.

00:26:37.88
Aaron
Then they have a match with each other on the same team against the Quebecers at Royal Rumble of 94. And then the same kind of thing happens again. Like Brett kind of hurts himself and, and ah the referee ends the match because of the injury and Owen gets pissed and like attacks him.

00:26:54.37
Aaron
I think it's the knee actually that he, that, that comes into play in the match here at WrestleMania.

00:26:58.45
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:26:59.22
Aaron
Yeah. So there's actually a lot of buildup to this. And I appreciate that we got to see it in a little video package, but also like reading about it before I watched the event was like, oh yeah, this makes it more interesting, you know?

00:27:12.55
Bradley Palermo
yeah so the finish was owen reversing um he reversed the pen wait what did he do he got like a lucky pen it was weird yeah

00:27:18.73
Aaron
brett was on his Brett was on his shoulders. Yeah, he was on his shoulders and it looked like Brett was going to do like a sunset pin kind of thing. where he yeah but But Owen like was able to roll him up and kind of reverse that.

00:27:33.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was like ro Owen sat down in the middle of that move of that roll-up.

00:27:36.95
Aaron
Yeah, yeah.

00:27:37.19
Bradley Palermo
And it's kind of a lucky pin, right?

00:27:39.83
Aaron
Yeah, it was very smooth.

00:27:40.21
Bradley Palermo
I don't know if I...

00:27:41.79
Aaron
It was like it it was a surprising win.

00:27:44.34
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I don't know if i don't know if it gives Brett an out, but like it didn't seem like, oh my God, he beat Brett down and then and then sat down on and got the pin.

00:27:51.55
Aaron
Yeah.

00:27:52.68
Bradley Palermo
It was kind of like, dude, like in the middle of a move, you just scored a lucky three seconds. so um Owen is so rabid with the white shit all over his mouth. and i remember i think he I don't think it was just this match. I think he would froth up at the mouth in other matches because...

00:28:09.54
Bradley Palermo
it's kind of something that's that's stuck in my mind of Owen. And he's and he's backstage after he won. And so I beat my brother, like whatever. And it's just that gunk, that white gunk is still all over his fucking face.

00:28:18.57
Aaron
Got his white little, yeah, I don't know what it is.

00:28:22.85
Bradley Palermo
It's like comes out of the corner of his mouth and just hangs out there.

00:28:23.48
Aaron
ah

00:28:26.48
Bradley Palermo
So, um, no, but it's good.

00:28:27.55
Aaron
I gotta if Dave Meltzer didn't give this at least a three and a half, I'm going to i'm going to campaign that we never listen to Dave Meltzer again.

00:28:27.84
Bradley Palermo
It has been,

00:28:46.85
Bradley Palermo
He gave it a one point. No, i'm just kidding. gave it a four and a quarter stars.

00:28:53.16
Aaron
Thank God, or else I was to have to start calling it the Wrestling Observer Pooh's letter.

00:28:53.07
Bradley Palermo
So um almost... ah

00:28:58.35
Bradley Palermo
Pooh letter. Yeah.

00:28:59.40
Aaron
yeah

00:28:59.76
Bradley Palermo
um no he gave he gave it almost a perfect match.

00:29:03.59
Aaron
Okay, good, because it deserves it.

00:29:03.45
Bradley Palermo
Almost a perfect rating.

00:29:05.90
Aaron
It deserves it.

00:29:07.63
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and then we get, you know, of course, some WrestleMania 2. The

00:29:11.47
Bradley Palermo
the replay clips, whatever. They're going do that. I guess we don't got to announce each one.

00:29:17.24
Aaron
Yeah, you don't i don't think we need to.

00:29:17.23
Bradley Palermo
um But then Howard Finkel comes out with hair. He's doing the hair club for men. I don't think he was. I think that was fake, right?

00:29:25.81
Aaron
No, it was a toupee. Yeah.

00:29:27.12
Bradley Palermo
yeah yeah. That's what I mean. Yeah. But that's ah that's just kind of a sign of the time. The hair club for men guy comes out. He's not just the president.

00:29:35.44
Aaron
Cy Sperling is his name.

00:29:35.26
Bradley Palermo
He's also... He's also a client. Yeah. Sperling. Cool, dude.

00:29:40.65
Aaron
Yeah, it was a toupee.

00:29:41.02
Bradley Palermo
i

00:29:41.73
Aaron
Yeah.

00:29:42.15
Bradley Palermo
Yes. And then the second match was, bam, bam, Bigelow and Luna Vachon versus Doink, the Ray Apollo version of Doink, and Dink, the little person Doink.

00:29:55.94
Aaron
Yes.

00:30:04.47
Bradley Palermo
And the women can fight each other. The men can fight each other. you tag your partner, the other person's partner has to come in.

00:30:08.27
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:30:18.71
Bradley Palermo
Two people, a midget, and a woman. You know, it's like... it's it's the two not The two non-people, they can fight each other.

00:30:23.34
Aaron
Jesus. yeah

00:30:28.31
Bradley Palermo
sp so much i mean, a little satire. This isn't me saying it.

00:30:32.78
Aaron
I know.

00:30:32.68
Bradley Palermo
This is like...

00:30:33.18
Aaron
Yes. i

00:30:33.57
Bradley Palermo
I'm just seeing i'm just saying... I can see this in a smoky old wrestling office. all right.

00:30:38.84
Bradley Palermo
so So, this little person and Luna Vachon can fight each other, which...

00:30:42.88
Aaron
Right. That's acceptable.

00:30:43.61
Bradley Palermo
i't I wouldn't put any grown man against Luna Vachon, honestly. But, um...

00:30:47.42
Aaron
And certainly wouldn't put Bam Bam up against Dink.

00:30:50.50
Bradley Palermo
And I certainly... I wouldn't put Doink against fucking Bam Bam. I don't know. This whole thing is wonky.

00:30:55.57
Aaron
I mean, yeah, so, but this is another one.

00:30:55.70
Bradley Palermo
But, um...

00:30:57.96
Aaron
This is actually another one that had a feud since like fall of 1993. I mean, I guess if you call doink annoying Bam Bam with pranks a feud, then it counts as a feud.

00:31:09.42
Aaron
But like he threw water on him. He threw confetti on him. he tripped him with a broom. look It's just. He's constantly harassing Bam Bam.

00:31:16.56
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:31:18.78
Aaron
And and this is something interesting. There was a match booked for Survivor Series but Doink didn't compete because in real life, Matt Bourne, the person who was playing Doink at the time, got fired from the WWE w for drug problems.

00:31:34.64
Aaron
So that was why we weren't seeing the Matt Bourne version of Doink in this match because Matt Bourne had already gone.

00:31:34.76
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:31:40.88
Aaron
Bye bye.

00:31:41.47
Bradley Palermo
um yeah Dink runs around in circles a lot and slaps Luna on the ass la and ten and la and andnna

00:31:46.71
Aaron
Yeah, it's not, it's not very good. it

00:31:48.73
Bradley Palermo
who

00:31:49.11
Aaron
I guess it's, it's entertaining in its own way, I suppose.

00:31:50.38
Bradley Palermo
forent

00:31:52.64
Aaron
And I like Bam Bam, but this isn't much of a match, you know?

00:31:55.90
Bradley Palermo
there was a lot of like top rope misses like I mean like people get out of the way and Bam Bam lands on the off the top rope onto the ground and so like that was it was dumb but I don't know

00:31:59.80
Aaron
huh.

00:32:07.16
Aaron
But the kids liked it. The crowd liked it. Like, who am I to poo on the party, right? Like, you can hear the kids in the crowd, like, enjoying this match.

00:32:15.25
Bradley Palermo
I feel like if you're ever in a tag team, you should find Dink, because you could be Fink and Dink.

00:32:20.23
Aaron
Yeah, Dink and Fink, dude.

00:32:20.61
Bradley Palermo
like Yeah, that has a good like front like good ring to it.

00:32:22.69
Aaron
Yeah. Oh, yeah.

00:32:24.45
Bradley Palermo
you know I just thought of that.

00:32:25.13
Aaron
Sometimes. But

00:32:30.58
Aaron
it's Dink, yeah. Sometimes.

00:32:46.68
Bradley Palermo
I like that. Yeah.

00:32:48.08
Aaron
ah

00:32:48.92
Bradley Palermo
Um, yeah, I do that all the time. i have rhyming two middle names.

00:32:51.87
Aaron
Yeah.

00:32:54.12
Aaron
Yeah, I think we all do that.

00:32:59.68
Aaron
No, they didn't.

00:32:59.55
Bradley Palermo
And there's post-match fighting.

00:33:00.24
Aaron
The heels won.

00:33:01.16
Bradley Palermo
Okay. Well, who gives a fuck? lu Big bam, big bam, bam. And little Luna Vachon, they win. uh, there's post-match fighting. Um,

00:33:13.08
Bradley Palermo
That is a one from Dave. And then we fake Bill Clinton appears. This guy who plays fake Bill Clinton was pretty good.

00:33:18.46
Aaron
Dude.

00:33:20.57
Aaron
I mean, he looked like him, but dear God, like this is terrible. They pretend that this guy is Bill Clinton and he is a lookalike, but like he's so very clearly not Bill Clinton and they're all trying to pass it off like it is.

00:33:34.33
Aaron
And I'm just like, this is dumb, dude.

00:33:34.15
Bradley Palermo
That's what's weird. Because Because you have like... You're trying to make it feel kind of... Maybe you're not. If you're Vince McMahon in 1994, you're just going straight up like acid trip, I guess.

00:33:46.14
Bradley Palermo
But like, yeah, like no one thinks that's Bill Clinton. So it's really weird that you're interviewing him seriously, like he's the president. it's But it's weird that you have like a wrestler who's also working for the IRS standing behind him.

00:33:57.96
Aaron
There's a lot of weird things about 1994 suppose.

00:34:00.06
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. It's strange. But the third match came shortly after Randy Savage versus Crush. Crush... um was not in demolition at this point. He was the, um, I don't know, just the Hawaiian big guy.

00:34:13.91
Aaron
Yeah, and it was falls count anywhere, but it was a weird falls count anywhere, which I had never seen before.

00:34:14.30
Bradley Palermo
Um,

00:34:19.27
Aaron
So the way this one works is fall can happen anywhere, of course, but once it does, the person who was pinned has 60 seconds to get back into the ring. I'd never seen that before.

00:34:30.16
Bradley Palermo
so I have problems with this because when you have 60 seconds get back in the ring, and you've just been pinned, beat down, the other guy should just hold him there.

00:34:39.92
Bradley Palermo
like Why is the other guy...

00:34:40.24
Aaron
Yeah, continue beating them.

00:34:41.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, continue beating him, but like they don't say like if he touches him, the 60 seconds restarts. And in fact, later in the match, the way it ends is someone...

00:34:52.78
Bradley Palermo
like um eventually ties up the other guy so we can't get back in touching him you know so there was no like like there was there was a logic problem with this match but what would happen is they they they do the fall like crush gets the first fall and then savage runs into the ring and and you know sort of is proud of himself and then

00:34:58.100
Aaron
Yeah.

00:35:11.68
Aaron
With one second left. Yeah, they really milk that first one for sure.

00:35:16.40
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and but I mean, the second one, second Savage gets the second fall. so crut Wait, no, hold on

00:35:23.58
Aaron
Yeah, you had it right.

00:35:24.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, sackage. Savage Savage gets the second fall, right? And um they milked that one to the last second, too.

00:35:32.28
Aaron
hmm. Yeah, Crush is on the outside, like pretty close to the ring, but it takes him a long time to get back.

00:35:33.53
Bradley Palermo
so

00:35:38.68
Bradley Palermo
Right, but eventually Savage ties... He ties Crush's legs in the back to...

00:35:44.51
Aaron
They're outside, way outside the ring. Yeah, they're they're like backstage at this point, right?

00:35:47.55
Bradley Palermo
yeah to some scaffold he's tied him up and sort of you know heist him and and so like there's just no ways his legs are in the sky like and he can't return good strategy just kind of confusing about the rule i this one was a minute match uh three stars from david melzer and it was it was fine i mean it was interesting what would you say

00:36:07.13
Aaron
David Meltzer. The fact that you called Dave Meltzer David makes me laugh.

00:36:12.99
Bradley Palermo
David Meltzer. Yeah. David Flair, David San Martino, David Meltzer.

00:36:15.50
Aaron
well Only his mother calls him David. um Yeah, this match was okay. I mean, crowd loved Macho Man at this point.

00:36:26.00
Aaron
They were happy to see him win, so, you know, huzzah.

00:36:28.53
Bradley Palermo
Did you see the FanFest clips from the 90s?

00:36:29.16
Aaron
Yeah.

00:36:31.85
Bradley Palermo
That was like super nostalgia buzz for me.

00:36:34.80
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, that was what I was just going to talk about. So so after this match, Todd Pettengill interviewed fake President Clinton. Shit is bad. I'm skipping over it. But then we got a cool recap video of FanFest, which seems like it was another early incarnation of what we see today as WWE wwe World.

00:37:00.77
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah.

00:37:01.40
Aaron
It seemed like it would be pretty fun you know to go to, just like it seems like WWE w World would be fun to go to as well. So it's cool that they were doing something like that back then.

00:37:08.06
Bradley Palermo
They were showing all the... Yeah, they had all the action figures. A lot of those I still have. and And that was cool to see just all of them lined up. like It gave me that weird...

00:37:20.55
Bradley Palermo
little dopamine rush of like i gotta go get those and i was like what are you gonna do with them you already have them dude like they're in they're in the closet like what are you gonna do with those but like but it may it reminded me of like being 10 years old you know or however i guess i was 12 here or something but but um but yeah very like very good little dose of probably had probably had more of a nostalgia buzz from fan fest clips than um

00:37:24.40
Aaron
Right. Yeah. right

00:37:33.35
Aaron
in add

00:37:45.47
Bradley Palermo
than some of these matches. But the fourth match is Alundra Blaze versus Liglani Kai. we It's funny. I don't remember these people that much, even though I've seen them live back in the day.

00:37:56.34
Bradley Palermo
were always on the bill.

00:37:57.00
Aaron
Yeah.

00:37:57.13
Bradley Palermo
But like women's matches back then like weren't very good and weren't very much highlighted and didn't really have storylines and feuds. and um you know they just weren't really given this is a three-minute match they weren't given a lot of time the women's title is like tiny and dinky it looks like a toy belt from like the merch stands that you get now and you don't want to buy the full-size one you know um uh lawler is like ripping on a lunge blaze million dollar body 10 cent face says

00:38:18.10
Aaron
Yeah.

00:38:22.09
Aaron
yeah this

00:38:25.04
Aaron
Yep, that was the one I wrote down. i could not believe how offensive that was, but I did laugh at it because of how ah how degrading it was.

00:38:32.96
Bradley Palermo
she Yeah, and she he says he carries on she could star in Westerns if she had two more legs.

00:38:40.40
Aaron
Jesus.

00:38:40.30
Bradley Palermo
You know, cause her a horse.

00:38:41.92
Aaron
Yeah.

00:38:42.38
Bradley Palermo
um Blaze wins easily. the women i guess of women's wrestling just doesn't really exist in WWE at this point. But I don't think...

00:38:49.50
Aaron
But honestly, dude, this was this was leaps and bounds better than the match we just watched from WrestleMania one with Leilani Kai and Wendy Richter. Like.

00:39:00.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:39:01.85
Aaron
I could actually say that even though it was three minutes long, this might have been better than some of the attitude era matches we watched.

00:39:09.87
Bradley Palermo
Did we see Leilani? Well, at least they're not just being completely sexually exploited without any wrestling.

00:39:15.28
Aaron
Yeah.

00:39:15.66
Bradley Palermo
the attitude area The Attitude Era is more like um bra and panty type matches. like Literally, they're called that.

00:39:22.24
Aaron
a

00:39:23.34
Bradley Palermo
Where it's like you know fucking spanking each other's asses and stuff. But Leilani Kai, was she in Collision in Korea?

00:39:30.68
Aaron
um No, that was Bull Nakano and some other people.

00:39:34.84
Bradley Palermo
i Oh, bull is i actually like could go.

00:39:38.78
Aaron
Yeah, Bull Nakano, all the people, all the women in Collision in Korea could all go. That was a good match for sure.

00:39:45.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Okay.

00:39:46.90
Aaron
Honestly, thought this was a short but very solid women's match for the time. It doesn't hold a candle to anything that we've seen from 2002 onward, but when compare Leilani to...

00:39:58.27
Aaron
when i compare it to what we when i compare le lounnie to leilani from wrestlemania one it's like wow this was a much this is an actual match like there was strategy and stuff and even though it was slow like there were some moves you know like it just felt like there was more ah it was more of an athletic competition yeah whatever

00:40:16.07
Bradley Palermo
Well, David disagrees. He gave it a one and a half star.

00:40:21.53
Aaron
Uh, after this match, we saw, uh, television star Rhonda sheer in the back with Todd Pettengill talking for a minute until Shawn Michaels interrupts shoes Todd away.

00:40:45.99
Aaron
And, uh,

00:40:46.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:40:47.25
Aaron
And then Burt Reynolds shows up and shoves the camera guy away and then basically tells Shawn Michaels to go fuck himself so that he can hook up with Ronda instead.

00:40:51.44
Bradley Palermo
Wow.

00:40:55.73
Bradley Palermo
Do you, does Rhonda Shear like mean anything to you in a nostalgia sense?

00:41:00.19
Aaron
No, and I'm too young for that.

00:41:01.00
Bradley Palermo
All right. So Rhonda Shearer was the host of USA's Up All Night. And I don't know who the fuck she was before that. She was old back then to be like, like she looked like an aging like adult actress. You know, she's she's not really, she you know,

00:41:19.27
Bradley Palermo
Her tits are out. i don't how else to say it the whole night. And she's introducing this. She's introducing these shitty B-movies on USA. So I feel like when you're young, if you if you stay up to like midnight or 2 a.m. and you're watching movies, it feels like your own kind of space in the world. like you kind of...

00:41:36.52
Bradley Palermo
I know it's just TV, but you feel like you're kind of hanging out like with the hosts and like you've, you've kind of like stumbled across this your own weird little tribute.

00:41:40.60
Aaron
Hanging out Rhonda and her, and her, and her boobs.

00:41:47.49
Aaron
Yeah.

00:41:48.26
Bradley Palermo
You know MTV 120 minutes and USA is up all night and like you're just watching like you're like you guys know you programming dumb shit. But then you have Rhonda like kind of mocking the dumb shit in between.

00:42:01.76
Bradley Palermo
And um and she's and and she's you know she's dressed like she's in her 20s and she's in her like but she's like 50 fucking years old or whatever. And she does this like little girl voice that she's clearly not a little girl.

00:42:12.39
Bradley Palermo
And it was like fucking weird. And I and i love to see her again. i was like, oh, my God, Ronda. Like, fuck, yeah.

00:42:19.58
Aaron
ah

00:42:19.59
Bradley Palermo
Like, can't believe you're on WrestleMania. I digress. The match was. ah Men on a mission versus the Quebecers for the tag titles.

00:42:27.69
Aaron
Yes.

00:42:28.25
Bradley Palermo
The Quebecers were the tag champions, right? No.

00:42:31.18
Aaron
They were, yeah.

00:42:31.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:42:32.02
Aaron
The Quebecers were the tag champs.

00:42:32.22
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:42:33.82
Aaron
ah Men on a Mission was Mabel and Moe. They had Oscar with them, came out doing a little 90s hip hop thing. And ah the Quebecers had Johnny Polo, who is, ah I'm assuming you noticed that was Raven.

00:42:42.38
Bradley Palermo
adam it is

00:42:47.96
Bradley Palermo
yeah i did notice i was like oh shit i remember raven from my childhood and i didn't even realize it you know like yeah

00:42:52.27
Aaron
Yeah.

00:42:55.09
Aaron
Yeah, it was Johnny Polo, man. So this was, i don't know, this was ah fine. It was a very traditional tag match. The crowd was definitely into it. I felt like anytime Mabel did anything, the crowd was super into it.

00:43:09.60
Aaron
Mabel is who we later see in WWF in the Attitude Era with the horrible name Viscera. Yeah.

00:43:17.26
Bradley Palermo
Ew. Yeah. Disgusting.

00:43:19.77
Aaron
Terrible name. But um yeah, this was, you know, it it was like nothing to write home about, but it also wasn't bad either. I didn't like the way it ended. um But yeah.

00:43:29.34
Bradley Palermo
The ref sucked. The ref didn't see anything. Like it was just, he was like two images, a dopey ref, but, um,

00:43:36.55
Aaron
Yeah, there was a bunch of distraction type stuff at the end. one of And then one of the Quebecers got counted out. So men on a mission win, but they don't get the belts. And I thought it was really weird because they they cut to, you know, a very wide shot of them in the ring and they're celebrating with the crowd because they won.

00:43:54.85
Aaron
And I'm pretty sure they had the belts with them, like in their hands, celebrating as if they won the belts, but they clearly didn't.

00:44:00.42
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, they did. Yeah. They grabbed the belts and they didn't even really explain like they normally do. Like, you can't win the belts on a count out. They're just kind of like, you know what?

00:44:07.65
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:08.43
Bradley Palermo
No one gives a shit. They're just happy that they sung woomp. There it is. I'm watching all those little kids in the ring being like buck, buck tooth, little fucking white kids being like, what that was like so like so fucking embarrassing but like that would have been me if i was there um um the quebecers suplexing mabel he's so fucking big like they really sold it like they weren't going be able to do it and then they did and i thought that was impressive um was donnie walberg the guest's commentary on this thing

00:44:21.70
Aaron
Pretty funny.

00:44:29.77
Aaron
Yeah.

00:44:34.81
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:44:38.88
Aaron
Yeah, so after this match, actually, what did Dave give this one? Okay.

00:44:42.97
Bradley Palermo
um two and a half stars which i think it was surprisingly decent for the amount of gimmicks so i'll i'll go with dave on that david

00:44:52.35
Aaron
Yeah, it... It was fine. there There honestly was nothing wrong but with it. The crowd was invested. Like it was an average match, two and a half. Yeah. um So yes, so something big is about to happen because Rhonda Shear and Donnie Wahlberg come out.

00:45:01.15
Bradley Palermo
yeah

00:45:08.64
Aaron
Rhonda is the guest timekeeper. Donnie is going to be the guest announcer. And Donnie announces that there's a special guest referee for the next match and it's Mr. Perfect.

00:45:18.51
Aaron
So this is,

00:45:19.50
Bradley Palermo
We've seen perfect.

00:45:21.38
Aaron
yeah

00:45:22.22
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, we've seen perfect be a guest ref before.

00:45:22.50
Aaron
What?

00:45:25.41
Aaron
We have, yes. And we've seen him wrestle too, obviously. um So, you know, he's he's dressed in pinstripes from head to toe, the referee pinstripes. And um this is Lex Luger versus Yokozuna for the WWF championship.

00:45:37.04
Bradley Palermo
Dude.

00:45:41.00
Bradley Palermo
And Donnie Wahlberg you know, like you said, he's doing the guest con. He announced them, right?

00:45:47.24
Aaron
Yeah, he's just doing the announcing.

00:45:47.75
Bradley Palermo
yeah yeah but like well he's i just want to say like he's he's so put on like he's from boston you know mark walberg's brother from new kids on the block and his bad boy persona but like

00:45:49.12
Aaron
So, ahead. go ahead

00:45:57.46
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:46:01.16
Aaron
er who

00:46:22.35
Bradley Palermo
And he talks like a normal person now. But like. Whatever he was doing back then was like so...

00:46:28.99
Aaron
In that fictation.

00:46:29.75
Bradley Palermo
was trying hard, man.

00:46:31.85
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:32.19
Bradley Palermo
That's all. Yeah.

00:46:32.88
Aaron
That's funny. So, okay.

00:46:33.74
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:46:35.24
Aaron
Let me get into a little bit of backstory here. Cause now we're finally, we've, we're about to talk about the first WWF championship match. I feel like we should talk about the story of how we got here. so The whole WWF championship storyline really started at the Royal Rumble of this year, of 1994. The final two wrestlers were Lex Luger and Bret Hart, and they simultaneously eliminated each other.

00:46:58.17
Aaron
Not going to be the last time we see something like this happen, whether on purpose or not. Who knows? But so they eliminated each other at the same time. referees couldn't figure out who the winner was. So the president of the WWF at the time, Jack Tunney, declared Luger and Hart both as the winners. And as a part of that, he said that they would both get a WWF championship match at WrestleMania.

00:47:42.13
Aaron
and then he would face whoever wins Luger, Yokozuna. But if Bret Hart wins the coin toss, he gets the first shot and Luger has to wrestle Crush before he wrestles the winner of Bret and Yoko. So they have this coin toss, Luger wins the coin toss, so he gets to face Yokozuna first.

00:47:59.10
Aaron
And Luger and Yoko had a feud that went back almost an entire year um at the you know, it first began at the Yokozuna body slam challenge aboard the USS Intrepid, which I'm sure a lot of people would recognize if they saw it because it's like a very famous thing that they showed over and over and over all the time where where Mr.

00:48:12.67
Bradley Palermo
and

00:48:17.22
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:48:19.59
Aaron
Fuji was like, nobody, no American could ever body slam Yokozuna. And a you know bunch of people try Luger shows up by helicopter onto the fucking aircraft carrier.

00:48:31.99
Aaron
He slams Yoko. And that is what. the

00:48:34.40
Bradley Palermo
doesn't know that we're not in World War II at that point. He's... i mean it's

00:48:40.41
Aaron
I mean.

00:48:40.72
Bradley Palermo
Lex Luger just won the Second World War for America in the

00:48:43.84
Aaron
he he loves, he just loves pitting American heroes against foreigners, you know, evil foreigners.

00:48:52.10
Bradley Palermo
yeah.

00:48:53.01
Aaron
So.

00:48:53.09
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, even though Japan, I think, was our ally still at that point. Anyway, fuck it.

00:48:58.15
Aaron
Yeah, so so this whole thing, the body slamming Yoko thing, begins what was considered a pretty strong push for Lex Luger. um He gets a match with Yoko for the championship at SummerSlam of 93, and he wins, but he wins by countout, so he doesn't win the title.

00:49:16.10
Aaron
And... and a So, you know, after he doesn't win the title, he's like, I want another shot, blah, blah, blah. But then he he decides he's going to enter in the rumble. And so then, you know, we are where we are now with the coin toss and shit. So, uh, Yokozuna is accompanied by Mr. Fuji and our, our pal Jim Cornette.

00:49:35.25
Aaron
Um, Jim Cornette is wearing a black and gold tux. The gold is sequined gold, and it's not just a regular tux. It's like the one with the fucking tails on the jacket, you know?

00:49:46.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, he never looked better. I mean, that was that was quite a look.

00:49:49.29
Aaron
Yeah.

00:49:50.10
Bradley Palermo
for That was probably Jim Cornette's most over-the-top outfit that he's worn on television.

00:49:56.52
Aaron
Yeah, and the tennis racket was also gold, too.

00:49:57.06
Bradley Palermo
mine Yes, it was pretty amazing. I kind of want that outfit. I want to put it on like a little little mannequin.

00:50:05.05
Aaron
A mannequin and just have it in your house.

00:50:06.75
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah.

00:50:17.72
Aaron
The crowd is chanting USA. ah That was my other.

00:50:19.68
Bradley Palermo
Jerry Lawler says, Lex Luger thinks red, white, and blue is the American way. The American way is putting Arabian oil in Japanese cars. And that's the way it is.

00:50:28.24
Aaron
That was my other one that I wrote down, dude.

00:50:28.87
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

00:50:30.40
Aaron
That was so good, too. I was like, man

00:50:31.82
Bradley Palermo
I was like, damn, that's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah.

00:50:33.88
Aaron
I liked it. So as to the actual match, to me, pretty standard match for both of these guys. The crowd is very loud. They're very active. They're very into it. um I personally did not like this match all that much because i felt like Yokozuna has Lex Luger down on the mat with what appears to be a Vulcan death grip, like three times over the course of the match for over five minutes.

00:50:55.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, the whole time.

00:50:59.85
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, this match sucked. This is this is terrible. um Lex kind of slams Yoko, but Lawler calls it a hip toss, and it was. like He didn't get him all the way up.

00:51:09.44
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:51:09.67
Bradley Palermo
um No, Yokozuna just laying there with his fucking hand on Lex's trapezius.

00:51:17.31
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:51:19.75
Aaron
And here's the thing about that.

00:51:20.07
Bradley Palermo
I mean...

00:51:21.47
Aaron
Okay. Like the first time that they do this with the, with the death grip thing on the trapezius, when Luger starts to get out of it, like the crowd reacts and it works, but the second and third time they don't.

00:51:24.60
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:51:30.85
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:51:34.66
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:51:40.48
Aaron
You know what I mean?

00:51:41.63
Aaron
Yeah.

00:52:02.26
Bradley Palermo
I feel like Lex Luger, the problem was i he wasn't getting over as a baby face. He wasn't interacting well with the crowd, um with the fans from what I hear here.

00:52:16.58
Aaron
Yeah.

00:52:16.45
Bradley Palermo
And it was a rib. Vince was seeing if he sort of had the grit to be put on a fucking bus and driven across the country to every single Raw match. that he had to work and Luger is just pissed there's videos of him just pissed off on that bus and there's videos of him supposed to be signing autographs and people are like I loved you in WCW and he's like I don't want to fucking hear about WCW that's the minor leagues like he had a bad attitude and uh yeah he was mad and and Vince didn't feel like he was he wanted him to be the guy and he realized he wasn't the guy and this was kind of sort of

00:52:26.69
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

00:52:40.41
Aaron
Yeah. Well, he was taking roids, dude. He had roid rage.

00:52:51.67
Bradley Palermo
you know, there'd be really not much left of Lex after this. You just kind of quietly go to the mid card.

00:52:55.45
Aaron
No, he shows up. Well, I think he leaves for WCW very soon after this. I don't know exactly when, but yeah.

00:53:01.16
Bradley Palermo
Within the year, yeah. Right. I was looking it up. like There were matches, but there was like random mid-card stuff. And then I think by 1995, he was on Nitro.

00:53:10.66
Bradley Palermo
so

00:53:11.09
Aaron
It

00:53:11.75
Bradley Palermo
um So, yeah, I mean, there wasn't a lot to it. um We get a segment after... Oh, wait, hold on. Dave Meltzer agrees with us on this. He gave it a one and one half star, which is maybe...

00:53:23.24
Bradley Palermo
i mean, yeah, it's fine.

00:53:24.46
Aaron
feels about right. It feels about right.

00:53:25.26
Bradley Palermo
It feels about right. um there's a bonus match. Whippleman comes out. Harvey Whippleman comes out and insulting Howard Finkel, calling him crazy weird shit like monkey face, banana nose, Yankee.

00:53:40.09
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:40.34
Bradley Palermo
And, uh, right from the Fink himself.

00:53:40.88
Aaron
Don't fuck with the fink, bro.

00:53:45.49
Aaron
Yeah.

00:53:46.04
Bradley Palermo
Um, Fink shoves him and, um, stands up for himself. And then fucking atom bomb,

00:53:50.99
Aaron
Gets a pop, too. He gets a pop for that.

00:53:52.98
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, people are proud of him and everyone loves him. And Atom Bomb shows up Earthquake comes out, and and this Earthquake-Atom Bomb match happens out of nowhere.

00:54:03.55
Bradley Palermo
um

00:54:04.08
Aaron
Yeah.

00:54:04.42
Bradley Palermo
But the Fink Pop was probably the best part of it. And this was, I think, who won? Earthquake got the squash win.

00:54:09.44
Aaron
Yeah. 30 seconds squash.

00:54:11.52
Aaron
Yeah.

00:54:12.60
Bradley Palermo
So whatever, that was a dud, according to Dave Meltzer.

00:54:12.94
Aaron
um It was a dud. Yeah. It was fun to see Harvey.

00:54:15.77
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:54:17.60
Aaron
Cause every time I see Harvey, i look him up and I forget that he's downtown Bruno. And that was like downtown Bruno.

00:54:23.22
Bradley Palermo
Oh.

00:54:25.06
Aaron
Harvey Whippleman was one of the guys that helped a young Dwayne Johnson out when he was like a teenager. And his dad was wrestling in Memphis, I think.

00:54:31.30
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:54:33.45
Aaron
So

00:54:33.69
Bradley Palermo
that's cool. Yeah.

00:54:34.72
Aaron
Yeah, but yes, the earthquake match was whatever.

00:54:34.25
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:54:38.48
Aaron
But the next match, this is the one, folks. This is the match that started it all when it comes to ladder matches. Of course, there had been ladder matches before this, but this was the one.

00:54:50.48
Bradley Palermo
Dude, I

00:54:50.74
Aaron
Never this big of a stage and never this good. We've got Shawn Michaels versus Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championships.

00:54:54.60
Bradley Palermo
im

00:54:59.32
Bradley Palermo
I was kind of starting to fade. Like I was like, okay, world heavyweight championship match was like, eh. Like I was getting into the nostalgia and then that match was like, eh.

00:55:08.97
Bradley Palermo
And then you got like Earthquake squashing someone. I was like, uh, I guess I'm waiting for like Bret Hart to do another match later. and then I was like, oh shit, Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels. lot This is the one I was like, I forgot. And all sudden woke up and I was so excited and it did not disappoint.

00:55:44.66
Aaron
The fucking razor blades on his tights, the chains. I love Razor Ramon.

00:55:47.93
Bradley Palermo
under the i fucking love that under the ladder like bad luck like with his arms out like

00:55:51.42
Aaron
Yeah. and sean and And Sean, they actually did a thing where Sean came out and it looked like maybe he was going to go under it, but he goes like, uh-uh, and then walks around it.

00:55:54.55
Bradley Palermo
and through yeah

00:56:03.07
Aaron
And i was like, oh, yeah, that's so good. Just like Razor has no fear.

00:56:05.73
Bradley Palermo
So good.

00:56:06.52
Aaron
So um there is definitely...

00:56:06.83
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:56:10.82
Aaron
oh shit, hold on. There's backstory to this. Where is it?

00:56:16.57
Aaron
I guess I don't know where it is. um Okay, here we So the match begins. ah Diesel interferes pretty early on.

00:56:25.12
Aaron
And

00:56:25.00
Bradley Palermo
Oh, should we explain the Intercontinental, them both being champions?

00:56:27.83
Aaron
oh yeah, yeah. How they both had belts. Yeah, well go ahead.

00:56:31.91
Bradley Palermo
All right, so Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels are both claiming to be the Intercontinental Champion. Shawn Michaels was the Intercontinental Champion, was not beat for the Intercontinental Championship, but from my understanding in real life was having difficulties with his job performance and they stripped him of the title for real for that reason had a tournament oh go ahead

00:56:55.20
Aaron
Yeah. I think it said, yeah. Okay, here we go. Now I found my notes. Yeah. So it had been reported back then that they vacated it.

00:57:06.10
Aaron
They took it off of Sean because he was refusing to drop it. So like, this is one of those instances where real life personality and the, and the drug use that he was doing was affecting his work.

00:57:11.90
Bradley Palermo
right

00:57:18.76
Bradley Palermo
I see. And so there was a tournament and tournament and Razor Ramon.

00:57:25.75
Bradley Palermo
started saying things weird on this show.

00:57:27.77
Aaron
but

00:57:36.31
Aaron
Yeah, he's like, I'm the real intercontinental. Yeah.

00:57:47.22
Aaron
ah

00:58:09.41
Aaron
yeah so the stage is set

00:58:09.54
Bradley Palermo
And Sean? Yes. Sean has the best mullet of the night. He's got the best mullet of his career. <unk> It's not just a mullet.

00:58:19.12
Bradley Palermo
It's very short where it counts and very long where it counts.

00:58:23.27
Aaron
very wavy too he definitely

00:58:24.49
Bradley Palermo
Yes. Pardon. Pardon my phone there. um

00:58:28.16
Aaron
You're good.

00:58:28.82
Bradley Palermo
Yes.

00:58:29.15
Aaron
He definitely definitely put some waves in his hair for this.

00:58:29.18
Bradley Palermo
Very wavy. Yes.

00:58:32.98
Aaron
So So anyway, match begins pretty, pretty normal.

00:58:33.16
Bradley Palermo
Yes.

00:58:36.73
Aaron
um They're hitting each other. Stiff. And, you know, within like a minute or two, Razor's on the outside, Diesel attacks him. And then referee Earl Hebner was like, you know what?

00:58:48.73
Aaron
Diesel, get the fuck out here. you know, i'm making you leave. And actually kind of surprised me because there aren't any rules in a ladder match, or at least I didn't think that there was. But hey.

00:58:57.60
Bradley Palermo
Well, they said the the only rules are there are no rules, but now, yeah, they got rid of diesel.

00:58:58.16
Aaron
Yeah.

00:59:00.57
Aaron
yeah so you know On the one hand, it's like, okay, i don't love that you kind of like went back on yourself, but on the other hand, it makes the match more fair and we get what we get. so you know The match continues and like I was saying, they they hit each other real hard for certain things.

00:59:15.88
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

00:59:16.22
Aaron
like Their clotheslines, clotheslines over the top rope and I would have to imagine that It has something to do with the fact that during this time, and and I assume afterwards, they were really great friends.

00:59:27.41
Aaron
And obviously that isn't a surprise to anybody in 2026. But I feel like when you know that, you can kind of see why their matches were so good because they didn't really care about hitting each other too hard, doing risky things or anything like that because they knew that the other one could take it.

00:59:41.19
Aaron
They they were friends. They knew it would make them both look better and make the match better.

00:59:43.78
Bradley Palermo
Right.

00:59:45.28
Aaron
So they were going at each other real hard.

00:59:48.04
Bradley Palermo
It felt so dangerous, but not in the way that modern ladder matches feel dangerous because modern ladder matches today are are stunt shows.

00:59:56.89
Aaron
Yeah.

00:59:56.89
Bradley Palermo
And we want that. We want to see, like, the craziest stunt. This was this, like, dangerous of just, like, they're going fucking fall off this ladder. They're hitting each other for real. They're, like, hitting each other so hard with the ladder. Like, it felt...

01:00:09.69
Bradley Palermo
It just, I mean, it did feel violent. And I think that's awesome. I mean, no one got hurt for real, I assume. So that's awesome.

01:00:17.22
Aaron
Yeah. And, you know, they only had, yeah, they only had one ladder.

01:00:17.84
Bradley Palermo
Do they only have one ladder? The fucking like, now nowadays you have different size ladders under the ring, more ladders. There was just one red ladder, one iconic red ladder.

01:00:30.52
Aaron
Yeah, and the cool thing ah one of the cool things about this match is how well paced it is because the ladder isn't immediately in use. Once the ladder comes into play several minutes into the match, things really start getting amped up.

01:00:48.24
Aaron
And the important thing to remember when watching this match is that everything you're seeing while familiar to you is the first time that most people are seeing these things.

01:01:00.53
Aaron
So like the ladder being used as a weapon in all of the various ways that they're using it.

01:01:01.00
Bradley Palermo
Right.

01:01:06.43
Aaron
It's literally the first time that it's being shown this way on ah a large stage, something as large as mesh WrestleMania. So like that, if you think about it in that context, this match is fucking insane.

01:01:22.66
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:01:23.82
Bradley Palermo
But this fucking thing is so good that like my, in my notes, I wrote when it, when it finally like ended after like 20 minutes, I was like, and I don't write this on most matches. I was like, I want to watch this for an hour.

01:01:36.05
Aaron
who

01:01:35.88
Bradley Palermo
Like, I don't want this to end. Like that's fucking weird. I mean, that is rare when you watch this much wrestling. Like I, have seen all the rest, all the ladder matches recently.

01:01:46.43
Bradley Palermo
I'd seen one, you know, this week or whatever live, but like, I still fucking wanted it to keep going. So you, yeah so they had the benefit of like, I've never seen anything like this and the quality of this match.

01:01:53.05
Aaron
yeah

01:01:58.56
Bradley Palermo
And I don't know. um There's some, there's some comic relief. Sean's ass is fully out at one point and he just, he lets it hang out there for a while. Like, like, yeah,

01:02:07.17
Aaron
Yeah, and does an elbow with his ass

01:02:09.82
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, because Razor's you know trying to get him off the ladder, and he pulls he pulls the back of his pants out, but Sean doesn't do anything to pull up his pants for a while, and ah that's pretty funny. and um The ladder does get bent eventually, like mid-match, and you're kind of like, how is this going to work?

01:02:21.57
Aaron
He takes...

01:02:25.91
Bradley Palermo
You've only got one ladder. Yeah.

01:02:27.60
Aaron
Yeah, and I mean, it's just full of big moments. The first big moment to me of the match was Sean sets up the ladder in the corner. He climbs the top rope and then climbs on the ladder and does a splash.

01:02:39.95
Aaron
It's not from the top of the ladder, but he is on a rung that is at least a couple feet higher than the top turnbuckle. So it looks just like...

01:02:48.16
Bradley Palermo
Right.

01:02:49.16
Aaron
this huge thing and the way they shoot it low, you know, like it's just looks so big and you know, this match is full of big moments and first times. um Almost everything they do with the ladder gets a reaction like literally just hitting somebody. You hear the car. Oh, like, you know, it's just amazing. it It tells you everything you need to know. Like they could they could do no wrong in this match.

01:03:16.75
Aaron
So, you know, there's, there's tons of back and forth.

01:03:16.78
Bradley Palermo
um Yeah, go ahead.

01:03:20.05
Aaron
The ultimate end of the match is, uh, you know, they're, they're struggling on the ladder together. Sean gets knocked off. Uh, and like lands on his nuts on the top rope and then falls over, gets his foot trapped in between the ropes. Then he gets his arm trapped between the ropes and there's just not enough time him to get back to the ladder. Razor pulls down both the belts and falls off of the ladder to the ground. And that's the end of the match. He's the winner.

01:03:48.50
Bradley Palermo
It's amazing. And Dave Meltzer agrees. He gave it a five-star, which I don't know. Maybe we've seen that on this show before.

01:03:57.93
Aaron
Maybe once.

01:03:59.12
Bradley Palermo
But if it happened, I don't remember exactly when. And it's super rare. five-star match from Dave Meltzer. The best match of the night for sure.

01:04:11.05
Bradley Palermo
um Main event after that... Bret Hart is back time versus champion Yokozuna WWF championship with special ref Roddy Rowdy Roddy Piper.

01:04:25.50
Bradley Palermo
um We have some celebrities. We got Jenny Garth as the timekeeper. We got Burt Reynolds as the ring announcer. And... um Brett's getting destroyed pretty early on.

01:04:37.40
Aaron
Yeah.

01:04:37.46
Bradley Palermo
Yoko's giving him kind of a similar treatment he gave Lex, you know, but he's tossing them around back and forth and, you know, holding on to his trapezius bit. But, um,

01:04:46.93
Aaron
But Brett always mounts a little comeback, always seems to get closer and closer. And again, crowd's super invested. They really want to see Yoko lose. um I thought it was a good match for what it was. You know, it's only about 10 minutes long.

01:05:00.36
Aaron
But like I said... you watch a Bret Hart match and it's pretty hard to say that it's a bad match. And I don't think that this one is, I think this is a good match for, you know, Brett, Brett has ah a not so easy assignment working with someone that big.

01:05:13.58
Aaron
There's only so much you can do. Right. But I think it all worked.

01:05:16.29
Bradley Palermo
Brett knows. Yeah. Brett knows what to do. Um, in this, like Brett, I guess you'd say fighting from underneath, but he's, what he's kind of doing is letting Yoko beat himself.

01:05:25.58
Bradley Palermo
Like Yoko wears himself out.

01:05:26.27
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

01:05:28.32
Bradley Palermo
Brett moves out of the way. Let's Yoko run into something. let's Let's Yoko try bonsai drop. Like Brett moves out of the way. It's like, just let the big man, know, with gravity.

01:05:37.40
Aaron
tire himself out. It's the rope-a-dope.

01:05:39.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Let the gravity fucking beat him up.

01:05:39.90
Aaron
Yeah.

01:05:41.44
Bradley Palermo
And, um,

01:05:42.71
Bradley Palermo
eventually that's what happened. Yoko missed a bonsai drop and Brett pins Yoko. There's no like figure four or there's no sharpshooter rather, which I don't know if you can really do that on the guy's biggest Yoko, but, um, you get a new champion and, and Brett, uh, or Yoko chases Piper.

01:05:53.09
Aaron
Yeah.

01:05:57.61
Bradley Palermo
He's mad, you know, that the ref and Vince declares it a brand new era, you know, he wishes, right. but

01:06:04.90
Aaron
Yeah, and then we get the celebration of all the baby faces coming out, and and you know Owen comes out and scowls, and

01:06:05.41
Bradley Palermo
Um,

01:06:11.51
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, so um that's all she wrote.

01:06:12.72
Aaron
that's all she wrote.

01:06:20.71
Bradley Palermo
Here on Grapple City Rewind, we have a three-tier rating system. We're not doing any of that Dave Meltzer five-star rating system bullshit. We're getting right down to three clear ratings of is it bad, is it all right, or is it good?

01:06:38.46
Bradley Palermo
Fast forward means bad. Play means all right.

01:06:43.10
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:06:43.15
Bradley Palermo
Rewind means it was really good. Real straightforward here, folks, at the Grapple City Rewind. Keeping with tradition, Aaron chose this particular pay-per-view to watch. So he will be the one telling you his rating first, and I will pick a rating different than him just to be contrarian afterwards.

01:07:01.74
Bradley Palermo
What do you say? What say you, Aaron?

01:07:06.84
Aaron
um i think that i'm gonna give this one a rewind um because first of all it has what i would say are two of maybe the for two of the wrestlemania matches that are like in the top 25 of all time wrestlemania matches owen and brett and razor and sean and then

01:07:25.84
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

01:07:29.36
Aaron
Everything else was either pretty good or okay or meh. But as a whole, I liked that there were stories.

01:07:35.56
Bradley Palermo
yeah

01:07:39.50
Aaron
I liked that I felt like there were stakes in this one. i could have done without all the celebrity stuff. that That's never really been my jam, but I understand why it was done. So yeah, I i think this is a good sub three hour Wrestlemania and it's got at least two fantastic matches and maybe like three or four you could say okay match is pretty good so I'm going to give it a rewind what say you sir contrarian

01:08:06.27
Bradley Palermo
Um, I'm sorry. Marissa has a, ah she's stranded on the road. Can you give me one second?

01:08:11.70
Aaron
sure

01:08:12.08
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

01:08:13.98
Bradley Palermo
Hey, I'm sorry.

01:08:14.21
Aaron
Just mute yourself.

01:08:14.54
Bradley Palermo
I didn't realize you were stranded on the road. I was trying to, i thought you were just calling me. Um, where are you?

01:08:20.11
Bradley Palermo
You're at work and you have a flat tire.

01:08:21.70
Bradley Palermo
Well, do you have a, you have roadside, right? They'll put the, they'll put the donut on it.

01:08:26.52
Bradley Palermo
Oh, um

01:08:27.77
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. I mean, I feel like we need, yeah, you need to get a tow then, I guess. I mean, um I'll come get you regardless, but.

01:08:34.71
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. um

01:08:36.66
Bradley Palermo
Are you somewhere safe right now?

01:08:38.23
Bradley Palermo
I mean, we just have a few minutes left, but where are you?

01:08:41.22
Bradley Palermo
You're in Dillon Keith? All right. um Can you just see what the, because I mean, in in Burbank, the the um roadside will show up right away. can you just see like, they can,

01:08:50.78
Bradley Palermo
put air in it or give it or tow it to a tire place.

01:08:53.76
Bradley Palermo
and know

01:08:54.45
Bradley Palermo
Your car needs to get to a place where they can put a tire on it some point, right?

01:08:58.54
Bradley Palermo
You have to get it to a place that has

01:09:00.47
Bradley Palermo
i have I have to be with David Dondero and all that shit at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

01:09:05.38
Bradley Palermo
So, like, can we just put air in it? Can you call someone to put air in it and I can get you? Can you tow it to a place? Like, what, you want to leave it there and not solve the problem at all?

01:09:14.23
Bradley Palermo
No, but we need to get it to a tire place so they can put a tire on it.

01:09:18.07
Bradley Palermo
I know, but when they wake up in the morning, there's your car tire place you call them. Yeah.

01:09:24.77
Bradley Palermo
Waiting there for a tire. Yeah. Like bring it like the tow truck probably has a deal with the tire place. Like we'll set it all up.

01:09:31.23
Bradley Palermo
But I mean, I'll come get you. i just need a minute to finish up. Yeah, I'll call you in a second. Okay. I'm sorry if I'm not more helpful.

01:09:40.38
Bradley Palermo
Hello?

01:09:40.98
Aaron
I'm here.

01:09:49.22
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:09:50.27
Bradley Palermo
um okay my take on it no i actually um i actually totally agree with you on this one um it doesn't really get better than this no wrestling pay-per-view is like you know five-star matches from top to bottom the lows the doink match the luger match but uh i loved all the nostalgia callbacks and i i was really i mean You had some championship matches, and you had but you also had the ladder match to like sweeten the deal.

01:10:13.23
Bradley Palermo
So um that one was a rewind for me also.

01:10:14.04
Aaron
Yeah.

01:10:18.07
Bradley Palermo
um Normally, here at the Grapple City Rewind, we like to hear from the Grapple Gang. We went a little bit late on this one because WrestleMania and because we had so much fun talking about WrestleMania ten So I'm going to skip a little correspondence. But I would like to remind you that we always love to hear from you, the Grapple Gang, out there.

01:10:35.91
Bradley Palermo
You can always call 626-657-SLAM- six five seven slam

01:10:45.33
Bradley Palermo
that'll leave you That'll lead you to our Google voicemail where you can leave a message and let us know what you thought about WrestleMania 10, what you thought the highlights were.

01:10:55.50
Bradley Palermo
And and youre if you were at WrestleMania fucking 42, want to hear your experience with that too. Give us a call. Leave us a message. can also reach out to us across social media. We are at GrappleCityPod. We are also...

01:11:06.96
Bradley Palermo
grapplecitypod at gmail.com if you prefer to email. Now, this last pay-per-view we just watched was Aaron's call. So I guess I'm making this next call. You know, I'm thinking, Aaron, we're going to go to next episode. Let's go to a year ahead of this one to the year 1995.

01:11:25.92
Aaron
OK.

01:11:26.09
Bradley Palermo
We'll be fast forwarding to 1995.

01:11:29.57
Bradley Palermo
For In Your House the very first In Your House pay-per-view, which has Diesel versus Sid.

01:11:33.00
Aaron
Ooh.

01:11:38.58
Aaron
OK.

01:11:39.56
Bradley Palermo
let's

01:11:40.40
Bradley Palermo
let's see Brett Hart versus Hakushi. Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett. J-A-R-R-E-T. double J, Jeff Jarrett.

01:11:49.81
Bradley Palermo
um Mabel and Adam Baum. Owen Hart and Yoko versus the smoking guns, Billy Gunn.

01:11:54.66
Aaron
Hmm. Hmm.

01:11:56.32
Bradley Palermo
Jerry Lawler versus Bret Hart. Whoa, that's fucking awesome. Bret Hart's on this thing twice again. um i would love to see Jerry Lawler versus Bret Hart. That sounds fun. Diesel versus Sid.

01:12:09.87
Bradley Palermo
Like I said, Owen versus the Bulldog. That's like a brother versus brother-in-law. Bam Bam versus Tatanka. Undertaker versus Kama. this is This is more like kind of right in my zone, right in my area.

01:12:22.46
Bradley Palermo
Like a lot of the same guys we just watched.

01:12:23.18
Aaron
Yeah.

01:12:24.80
Bradley Palermo
And I don't think I've ever seen the first In Your House. I remember when In Your House started coming out, I was like, wait, so it's like WrestleMania Royal Rumble Survivor Series, but like not as cool.

01:12:35.01
Bradley Palermo
Like, wow.

01:12:35.72
Aaron
Yeah.

01:12:36.30
Bradley Palermo
like It kind of had like a bummer feel, but like I realize now like In Your House is kind of sick. Some of them were pretty good. So so I have high hopes.

01:12:42.18
Aaron
Yeah, excited to watch it.

01:12:44.55
Bradley Palermo
Hell yeah. Well, good show as always, Aaron. It's always a fun time for me to ah take a break from this crazy world and watch some old wrestling and to fucking talk about it. That's all the time we got for now. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next time we release an episode. Make sure you get that little notification regardless of whatever platform you're on.

01:13:04.90
Aaron
Catch in the cheap seats. Adios.