I actually think this is one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time. This is back when the WWE could still create new stars, plus this show has kept the WWE in business for 9 years. Its sad how much Cena and Orton and Batista have gone stale, but when you look at what made 3 and 14 so great is the impact they had on the business. This show had that kind of an impact, for better or worse, and it had matches like HBK Angle and Rey vs Eddie that put it over the top.
This is an underrated WM when I think about it because i thought MITB was awesome. Taker vs Orton was star making and I thought the streak was over after RKO out of chokeslam. Also HBK vs Angle tore down the house.
Wrestlemania 21: the wrestlemania that spawned the beginning of the breakfast club and put the fortunate four (edge, orton, Batista and cena) on the map. It established these four men as legitimate prime time main event stars that could carry to company forward for the next 5 years.
One of my favorite Wrestlemania of all time. Angle vs Shawn Michaels is COMPLETELY underrated, the opening match was really solid, the first ever Money in the Bank was great, Orton vs Taker was pretty good, the build up to the matches were amazing in my opinion. What killed the show were the world title matches. They weren't bad but they weren't as well performed as they could've been to me. All and all, still one of my favorite Wrestlemania of all time.
I was a Raw viewer from 2002 to 2005 and to finally see Batista take that World Heavyweight Championship away from Triple H FOR GOOD man that moment was great.
Definitely one of, if not, the best Wrestlemania's imo. I love the whole concept of the "Wrestlemania goes to Hollywood" theme and the whole feel of it was just right, from the matches to the commentators to the theme song felt just right. Kudos to the WWE
I agree with you, WrestleMania 21 was actually was the first show I watched after a 3 year hiatus from watching wwe and i remember that show so clearly, this WrestleMania will always remain in my mind
I am loving these WM reviews, thank you for doing them. I agree as it pertains to Orton's best WM match, i was watching 21 WM on the network a few days ago and i really enjoyed it as well as the entire show, in my opinion it was the last great WM.
Batista and HHH had a solid match I thought and cena and jbl could've done much better, if there wasn't the sumo match to give them that little extra time it would've helped, especially seeing what they did at judgment day
The Money in the Bank Ladder Match, Orton-Taker, Angle-HBK and Batista ending Triple H's reign of terror made this one of the greatest Wrestlemania's ever.
the ultimate bad guy razzzzzzor ramooooon is the hall of fame watching him coming back from all the problems mannnn what a story so happy for scott .he deserves it more than when can know
The title matches weren’t good because of how they were booked. John Cena should’ve overcome the odds against JBL and his Cabinet, and Batista Vs. Triple H should’ve been booked like Goldberg Vs. Hollywood Hogan. Scrap the sumo match, replace Christy Hemme with Lita & you have an all-time great WrestleMania.
to me, this was the last great WrestleMania, it had just about everything, the only low point of it was the Big Show "match" that quite frankly, I think WWE was planning a somewhat different scenario, I always tought that if Yokozuna was still alive, he was the one supposed to go against Show, which of course would have never be compared to HBK vs Angle, but it would have had a very significant meaning, a monsters match involving the most dominant WWF World Champion of the 90s vs the most dominant WCW World Champion of the 90s
+Maldini88 well, Vader could certainly get that spot, but Big Show completely owned every single challanger during his reign, from legends like Sting, Lugar, Savage and Flair to fellow big men like Scott Norton, Roadblock, Earthquake and the night Train
That was a small period of the 90s. He had two reigns, one lasted 8 days and the bigger one was 110 days, which is good but Vader had 3 reigns with the biggest lasting 285 days. But I would give the title of most dominant to Hulk Hogan. I think WCW used Big Show better than WWE did in the shorter period of time but Hogan is always dominant.
reigns hater agreed , love that match. Hopefully if ANGLE comes back they don't stick him with fucking Rusev at mania. If he comes back for a mania match it should be against aj styles or Seth Rollins
The thing I hate about the Fortunate 4 is they're the last 4 guys that have been made into main event superstars and we're damn near 10 years later. Edge is gone, Batista is back now but temporarily, and Cena & Orton are stale. But I have to give it to these guys (minus Cena pretty much) they did a good job on the night of WM21.
I enjoy this show apart from the two world title matches. Rey vs Eddie had great story telling and wrestling. MITB was awesome best MITB in my opinion. Orton vs Undertaker was good as well good hinting Orton could end the streak. Finally Angle vs Michaels so awesome to be honest what hasn't been said about this match.
I'd say this Wrestlemania is in the Top 10 all time.... Eddie vs. Rey, first ever Money in the Bank match, 'Taker vs. Orton, HBK vs. Angle (Hell yeah!), and Cena/Batista. What a card! The rest is ok, 'cept the DREADFUL Akebono/Big Show Sumo Match..... Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
I liked WM 21, Eddie and Rey great, it was like an old WCW Cruiserweight Match, The first Money in the Bank Match was very good, as seeing the Hulkster. Taker & Orton was Awesome after Randy nearly was buried by GOD. Shawn & Kurt was Phenomenal. Piper's Pit was very funny. JBL & Cena was Terrible a sign of things to come.. The Greatest Hall of Fame Class ever? Triple H and Batista was solid. Yes Mania 21 was good to watch then.
Well....In terms of importance for the future this Mania "created" the next 9 Wrestlemania World title and mainevent matches: 21 Batista Cena 22 Cena Orton 23 Batista Cena 24 Edge Cena Orton 25 Cena Edge Orton 26 Batista Edge Cena 27 Cena Edge 28 Cena (Mainevent) 29 Cena 30 Orton Batista
IMO Orton made that match not the other way around and his Legend killer gimmick Is part of the reason takers wrestlemania streak started to seem so important
Yep, 100% agree with that. The assertion that match was one way is a bit disingenuous. Orton's performance in the match, the booking of it & the effectiveness of the legend killer gimmick really got "the streak" over as a marketable concept for future WrestleMania's. Was a rare instance of a match being proactively win-win-win.
original plan was orton to go over taker here. woulda been interesting because the next top 3 faces in cena batista orton woulda gotta signature victories with cena and batista winning world titles and orton defeating taker of course that didnt happen because taker won but i heard reason orton rejected beating taker was out of respect its crazy cuz maybe we wouldnt have gotten those epic streak matches then
This marked the beginning of the final year i watched WWE, i went to TNA for a year and a half then stopped completely until WM 25, even then just the UA-cam videos of Taker segments, and listen to raw and ppv reviews by OTRS and Bruce Blitz in hopes that I here of some positive change in the show; so far nothing. I'm actually hoping in WM 30 Taker, Wyatt, and Bryan all get squashed and HHH wins the belts to just drop them to Cena on Raw. Maybe then all these fans who keep giving money to a company who hasn't been remotely entertaining for 8+ years will finally move on and use their money to promote some up and coming brands.
I have similar taste to him when it comes to wrestling and it is entertaining to watch how upset he gets week after week when he know nothing is going to change. plus i get multiple points of view that way. Oh and who are you to judge me on what I watch rather than what I say?
This show was a great show no doubt but I find it hypocritical that you hate 17 this show it did build future stars Cena Orton & Batista which was great for wwe at the time but really this was the end what guys have been really built since. The buy rate was the same as 17 pretty much but since 21 ratings have plummeted buy rates in the toilet live attendance and merchandise sales down. To me this show is more damaging long term but I take the show as show not as the downfall off wwe and wrestling like you did with 17. 3 was a big wrestlemania probably the biggest 14 wasn't that good of a show but the birth of Austin. It just baffles me how you don't think 17 is one of the top 3'shows.
The ending of 17 still ruins it... It made no sense except for setting up the Two Man Power trip, but that went nowhere, and probably wouldn't have been much anyway if HHH hadn't torn his quad
MrLucidLJ what are you talking about? 1. WrestleMania 21 buyrates - 1,085,000, WrestleMania 17 - 1,040,000 buyrates. 2. 2005/6 had high ratings as 1998 had. The Raw ratings were from 4.0 - 4.6 at the time. This was Ruthless Aggression era at it's finest. The actual death of wrestling was in 2008.
Tom Bekhor So your point of saying that this show had 35k more what has that got to do with anything? Well I would like to compare the gates of both show and the fact that there is a 4 year difference so the inflation would make 17 slightly more there is not much of a difference. Like 17 was the start of going back to the stadium shows and pretty much every show bar 20 has been one. In 1998 Average ratings for raw were a 4.43, 1999 was 5.9. If you want to compare 2005 which did 3.81 and 2006 3.9 so some difference like a 500k- well over a million in viewers. Plus back in 1998 when Nitro was hot people were still watching that. I was saying that it hasn't created more stars bar like 4 guys Edge. Batista, Cena Orton and some degree Brock before he left.
Tom Bekhor I don't doubt some weeks in this period like 3 hour raws and raws near mania got these ratings but thats not what I said if you read. Average ratings for raw were a 4.43, 1999 was 5.9. If you want to compare 2005 which did 3.81 and 2006 3.9 so some difference like a 500k- well over a million in viewers. Plus back in 1998 when Nitro was hot people were still watching that. From www.gerweck.net
I actually think this is one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time. This is back when the WWE could still create new stars, plus this show has kept the WWE in business for 9 years. Its sad how much Cena and Orton and Batista have gone stale, but when you look at what made 3 and 14 so great is the impact they had on the business. This show had that kind of an impact, for better or worse, and it had matches like HBK Angle and Rey vs Eddie that put it over the top.
Same here, I also think that was one of the best WM of all time
Kurt vs shawn stole the show but the cena jbl match was a huge disappointment took a dip in quality.
Batista vs triple h was okay not great though
@Doom Guy yeah most definitely and don't change
It upsets me that this was Eddie's last Mania.
kurt angle has himself said in a lot of his interviews that his best match ever was with shawn michaels at wm 21
This is an underrated WM when I think about it because i thought MITB was awesome. Taker vs Orton was star making and I thought the streak was over after RKO out of chokeslam. Also HBK vs Angle tore down the house.
Angle vs hbk was epic!!!!!
Wrestlemania 21: the wrestlemania that spawned the beginning of the breakfast club and put the fortunate four (edge, orton, Batista and cena) on the map. It established these four men as legitimate prime time main event stars that could carry to company forward for the next 5 years.
One of my favorite Wrestlemania of all time. Angle vs Shawn Michaels is COMPLETELY underrated, the opening match was really solid, the first ever Money in the Bank was great, Orton vs Taker was pretty good, the build up to the matches were amazing in my opinion. What killed the show were the world title matches. They weren't bad but they weren't as well performed as they could've been to me. All and all, still one of my favorite Wrestlemania of all time.
Angle vs HBK was a dream come true. If only Bret vs Angle had happened too... Sigh...
I was a Raw viewer from 2002 to 2005 and to finally see Batista take that World Heavyweight Championship away from Triple H FOR GOOD man that moment was great.
Definitely one of, if not, the best Wrestlemania's imo. I love the whole concept of the "Wrestlemania goes to Hollywood" theme and the whole feel of it was just right, from the matches to the commentators to the theme song felt just right. Kudos to the WWE
100% agreed, best WM of all time in my opinion
I agree with you, WrestleMania 21 was actually was the first show I watched after a 3 year hiatus from watching wwe and i remember that show so clearly,
this WrestleMania will always remain in my mind
Great WM, no doubt about it.
I am loving these WM reviews, thank you for doing them. I agree as it pertains to Orton's best WM match, i was watching 21 WM on the network a few days ago and i really enjoyed it as well as the entire show, in my opinion it was the last great WM.
Batista and HHH had a solid match I thought and cena and jbl could've done much better, if there wasn't the sumo match to give them that little extra time it would've helped, especially seeing what they did at judgment day
U don't think Christy hemme is sexy dude? Let's just agree to disagree
I remember watching the Cena vs JBL title match feeling that something was off. Couldn't put my finger on it
I the most memorable moments for me in the WM where the Movie Parody's I loved them Austin as Gladiator enough said
Last WM that in tough the steak was done with the Chokeslam into an RKO counter, after that I figure Taker can kick out of anything.
The Money in the Bank Ladder Match, Orton-Taker, Angle-HBK and Batista ending Triple H's reign of terror made this one of the greatest Wrestlemania's ever.
the ultimate bad guy razzzzzzor ramooooon is the hall of fame watching him coming back from all the problems mannnn what a story so happy for scott .he deserves it more than when can know
The title matches weren’t good because of how they were booked. John Cena should’ve overcome the odds against JBL and his Cabinet, and Batista Vs. Triple H should’ve been booked like Goldberg Vs. Hollywood Hogan. Scrap the sumo match, replace Christy Hemme with Lita & you have an all-time great WrestleMania.
to me, this was the last great WrestleMania, it had just about everything, the only low point of it was the Big Show "match" that quite frankly, I think WWE was planning a somewhat different scenario, I always tought that if Yokozuna was still alive, he was the one supposed to go against Show, which of course would have never be compared to HBK vs Angle, but it would have had a very significant meaning, a monsters match involving the most dominant WWF World Champion of the 90s vs the most dominant WCW World Champion of the 90s
+Darnell Major same. 23 was the last great one for me while 24 was decent before it became totally crap.
+Regina Reece Big Show wasn't the most dominant wcw champ of the 90s and it could be argued yokozuna wasn't in the wwf either. Diesel maybe?
+Maldini88 well, Vader could certainly get that spot, but Big Show completely owned every single challanger during his reign, from legends like Sting, Lugar, Savage and Flair to fellow big men like Scott Norton, Roadblock, Earthquake and the night Train
That was a small period of the 90s. He had two reigns, one lasted 8 days and the bigger one was 110 days, which is good but Vader had 3 reigns with the biggest lasting 285 days. But I would give the title of most dominant to Hulk Hogan. I think WCW used Big Show better than WWE did in the shorter period of time but Hogan is always dominant.
What about 23, 30 and 31 those were good.
honestly, shawn michaels vs kurt angle is my favorite wrestlemania match of all time
reigns hater agreed , love that match. Hopefully if ANGLE comes back they don't stick him with fucking Rusev at mania. If he comes back for a mania match it should be against aj styles or Seth Rollins
The thing I hate about the Fortunate 4 is they're the last 4 guys that have been made into main event superstars and we're damn near 10 years later. Edge is gone, Batista is back now but temporarily, and Cena & Orton are stale. But I have to give it to these guys (minus Cena pretty much) they did a good job on the night of WM21.
I enjoy this show apart from the two world title matches. Rey vs Eddie had great story telling and wrestling. MITB was awesome best MITB in my opinion. Orton vs Undertaker was good as well good hinting Orton could end the streak. Finally Angle vs Michaels so awesome to be honest what hasn't been said about this match.
I'd say this Wrestlemania is in the Top 10 all time.... Eddie vs. Rey, first ever Money in the Bank match, 'Taker vs. Orton, HBK vs. Angle (Hell yeah!), and Cena/Batista. What a card! The rest is ok, 'cept the DREADFUL Akebono/Big Show Sumo Match..... Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
I liked WM 21, Eddie and Rey great, it was like an old WCW Cruiserweight Match, The first Money in the Bank Match was very good, as seeing the Hulkster. Taker & Orton was Awesome after Randy nearly was buried by GOD. Shawn & Kurt was Phenomenal. Piper's Pit was very funny. JBL & Cena was Terrible a sign of things to come.. The Greatest Hall of Fame Class ever? Triple H and Batista was solid. Yes Mania 21 was good to watch then.
Well....In terms of importance for the future this Mania "created" the next 9 Wrestlemania World title and mainevent matches:
21 Batista Cena
22 Cena Orton
23 Batista Cena
24 Edge Cena Orton
25 Cena Edge Orton
26 Batista Edge Cena
27 Cena Edge
28 Cena (Mainevent)
29 Cena
30 Orton Batista
IMO Orton made that match not the other way around and his Legend killer gimmick Is part of the reason takers wrestlemania streak started to seem so important
Yep, 100% agree with that. The assertion that match was one way is a bit disingenuous. Orton's performance in the match, the booking of it & the effectiveness of the legend killer gimmick really got "the streak" over as a marketable concept for future WrestleMania's. Was a rare instance of a match being proactively win-win-win.
This was the end of the wcw, attitude , ruthless aggression era. I feel like the boring era started after this
original plan was orton to go over taker here. woulda been interesting because the next top 3 faces in cena batista orton woulda gotta signature victories with cena and batista winning world titles and orton defeating taker of course that didnt happen because taker won but i heard reason orton rejected beating taker was out of respect its crazy cuz maybe we wouldnt have gotten those epic streak matches then
oh and i also forgot about edge winning mitb. so 4 of the next megastars this is the wm that started there big runs
this match was way better than Shawn vs Jericho at 19. angle was always a better wrestler than Jericho
This marked the beginning of the final year i watched WWE, i went to TNA for a year and a half then stopped completely until WM 25, even then just the UA-cam videos of Taker segments, and listen to raw and ppv reviews by OTRS and Bruce Blitz in hopes that I here of some positive change in the show; so far nothing. I'm actually hoping in WM 30 Taker, Wyatt, and Bryan all get squashed and HHH wins the belts to just drop them to Cena on Raw. Maybe then all these fans who keep giving money to a company who hasn't been remotely entertaining for 8+ years will finally move on and use their money to promote some up and coming brands.
I was intrigued reading this comment until I saw listened to bruce blitz and stopped completely
I have similar taste to him when it comes to wrestling and it is entertaining to watch how upset he gets week after week when he know nothing is going to change. plus i get multiple points of view that way. Oh and who are you to judge me on what I watch rather than what I say?
I take it you weren't a Cena fan then.
ahh carlito, one of those guys who could have done much more in WWE
The reasons why this mania is overrated to me: Akebono/Big Show, Hemme/Trish Cena/JBL and Batista/Triple H wasin't a great mania main event
Akebono Vs Big Show had no fucking business on this show. Otherwise a good solid WrestleMania.
This show was a great show no doubt but I find it hypocritical that you hate 17 this show it did build future stars Cena Orton & Batista which was great for wwe at the time but really this was the end what guys have been really built since. The buy rate was the same as 17 pretty much but since 21 ratings have plummeted buy rates in the toilet live attendance and merchandise sales down. To me this show is more damaging long term but I take the show as show not as the downfall off wwe and wrestling like you did with 17. 3 was a big wrestlemania probably the biggest 14 wasn't that good of a show but the birth of Austin. It just baffles me how you don't think 17 is one of the top 3'shows.
The ending of 17 still ruins it... It made no sense except for setting up the Two Man Power trip, but that went nowhere, and probably wouldn't have been much anyway if HHH hadn't torn his quad
MrLucidLJ what are you talking about?
1. WrestleMania 21 buyrates - 1,085,000, WrestleMania 17 - 1,040,000 buyrates.
2. 2005/6 had high ratings as 1998 had. The Raw ratings were from 4.0 - 4.6 at the time.
This was Ruthless Aggression era at it's finest.
The actual death of wrestling was in 2008.
Tom Bekhor So your point of saying that this show had 35k more what has that got to do with anything? Well I would like to compare the gates of both show and the fact that there is a 4 year difference so the inflation would make 17 slightly more there is not much of a difference. Like 17 was the start of going back to the stadium shows and pretty much every show bar 20 has been one. In 1998 Average ratings for raw were a 4.43, 1999 was 5.9. If you want to compare 2005 which did 3.81 and 2006 3.9 so some difference like a 500k- well over a million in viewers. Plus back in 1998 when Nitro was hot people were still watching that. I was saying that it hasn't created more stars bar like 4 guys Edge. Batista, Cena Orton and some degree Brock before he left.
MrLucidLJ what??? go check your facts again. from 2005 - 2006 ratings were between 4.0 - 4.6
Tom Bekhor
I don't doubt some weeks in this period like 3 hour raws and raws near mania got these ratings but thats not what I said if you read.
Average ratings for raw were a 4.43, 1999 was 5.9. If you want to compare 2005 which did 3.81 and 2006 3.9 so some difference like a 500k- well over a million in viewers. Plus back in 1998 when Nitro was hot people were still watching that. From www.gerweck.net