contemplative2002 - I actually went to WrestleMania X8 in Toronto. The event was kind of forgettable in retrospect, except for the Rock / Hogan match which had incredible heat. The match was booked for the still-NWO-style Hogan to be the heel, but Hogan was still more over than Jesus in Canada, and everybody got behind Hogan. I don't remember much about the actual match, but being there to chant for Hogan was pretty awesome.
2003 - Saw XIX at the cinema in Bayer's Lake. This one is my favorite-so-far but it didn't do very well in PPV buys. The main event was Angle vs. Lesnar, and Lesnar was going over. I don't even remember who was the babyface and who was the heel - I just saw it as two great wrestlers with real cachet preparing to have a barn-burner. They certainly did! The only sour point was Lesnar's botched shooting-star-press - Angle was too far away for him to hit it. Lesnar should have moved Angle into a better position before going for it; it still would have looked legit. As it was, Lesnar completely missed the SSP and knocked himself out. Angle had to carry the finish on his own. He did respectably well, and the ending was satisfying, but if Lesnar had hit that SSP, it would have been one of the greatest finishes of all time. I also remember Hogan vs. McMahon from this event - it wasn't really a match, just a lot of spots. They really went over the top with the humour and the selling - it was an incredibly entertaining (and pleasurably kitschy) match.
2004 - Saw XX at Mike's when he was living on Oceanview Drive in Bedford. I found this one hard to get into, although it was cool that Guerrero and Benoit, two spectacular workers, went over in their respective championship matches. Earlier that year Benoit had won the Rumble, even though he drew #1.
And now, the ones I missed entirely, and why:
2005 - Was in PEI. I auditioned for Canadian Idol when it was in Charlottetown.
2006 - I'm still not sure why I didn't go; perhaps it had something to do with my new job at TeleTech.
2007 - I wanted to go but Mike's cousin wanted to go to his idiot friend's house to see it on his big screen (and Mike rightly stood by his cousin and his decision), and I was tired out anyway from the Twelfth Night cast party. I could have gone to Mike D.'s, but I'd have had no way home, so it just ended up not happening.
2008 - Was in Japan. More to the point, it was Monday morning already when the show was on, so even ordering the online stream wasn't really an option.
2009 - Bleh! Again, I want to go (Mike's showing it), but the Halo shoot on Monday morning (for which I'm a paid "background performer" - I call it "Halo: Standing Evolved") has a call time of 6:30am, if anyone yesterday thought 7:00am wasn't early enough. Considering that the show won't be over until well after midnight, and that somewhere in there I have to get a ride home (on Sundays, the last 80 leaves Halifax just after 11pm) and... well, it's just not worth it. I wanted to see Taker vs. Michaels and Orton vs. HHH, but I think I'll have to settle for watching it on DVD at some point. I considered ordering the PPV myself or ordering the online stream, but I really should be getting to bed at 10-ish. I may change my mind, though!
Not to be too pedantic, but as a caller to the LAW pointed out, it's really not the "25th Anniversary" of WrestleMania. Think about it - WrestleMania 2 would have been the first anniversary after the original WrestleMania, right? It's also kind of stupid how they flip-flop on the use of roman numerals. If I were them, I'd stick with it. The worst that could happen is that someone who missed the class on roman numerals in Grade 3 would learn something.
