Watch WWE WrestleMania IX For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I watched this back earlier today. I believe the last time I watched it was 1994. Time has not been kind.First and foremost while the outdoor setting and Roman Colosseum theme are quite cool but it's all papering over the cracks-the venue is rather small, which it has to be as the attendance was under 17,000. Also, the booking was terrible. Granted, WWF was struggling somewhat at the time, but given the high status the 'mania should have, some of the participants are shocking. The commentary really saves it and makes each match far more enjoyable than it actually is. Coming to this fresh for the first time in over a decade I was astounded by how bad things must have been for the WWF. Crush vs Doink the clown. Read that back and savour it. Not to belittle either performer (as they were good enough performers in their time) but they were on the mid card of Wrestlemania! The whole sordid mess is capped by Hogan's massive ego stroke. Bret Hart dropped the belt to Yokozuna in a not too shabby match, and Hogan, with his backstage politicking, won't leave it at that. Oh no. That's not good enough for Bollea, who comes out and defeats Yoko in 30 seconds and bags another title reign which he clearly felt he needed to have for the, oooh perhaps 5 minutes, maybe 10 before leaving WWF. Frankly, it pisses on the effort and reputation of Bret and Yoko and really didn't need to happen. More positive things in evidence were a genuinely solid 20 minute opening match (no, really, 20 mins! For an opener!) between Shawn Michaels and Tatanka, and the Steiners had a pretty good match. Also as mentioned, Jim Ross (debuting for the WWF) Heenan and the Macho Man on commentary is a laugh riot.In summary: Lacklustre cardAbsolutely disgusting finishFlat and rather small crowdAnd an absolute shocker of a match with 'taker and Giant Gonzalez -granted, Taker was hardly a top performer back then in terms of work rate and consistency but still, this match stunk to high heaven. Proof that Vince's obsession with big guys could actively hurt his promotion. Just a general bad "feel" to the whole thing. It just didn't feel at any point during watching it that it had that big-event mania magic.Overall the worst thing you can say about WM 9 is that you could skip it and not really miss anything. Even the other poor manias generally had at least one or two matches that were worth catching. This had Great commentary and Shawn Michaels in his midcarder days showing glimpses of the performer he would become and that's just not a good enough reason to bother with this. The only real good points are that this was the lowest point in the history of 'Manias and things would pick up. If you are having a marathon few weeks of watching all the manias sequentially, take heart, you are just 8 away from X-7!On the other hand I could well see this achieving 7 stars if viewed with alcohol and friends!

1993 was a time of change in the WWE but for this Wrestlemania they decided to wind back the clock as Hulk Hogan returned, along with his good friend Brutus Beefcake, who had been out of wrestling since a paragliding accident in 1990.This was not a great event. Only two matches had any real build and the whole thing came off as being rushed. The in ring action wasn't great and the twist at the end, which I'll discuss later, really wasn't the earth shattering moment the WWE hoped it would be.This forgettable night started off with Shawn Micheals defending his Intercontinental Championship against the undefeated Tatanka. Tatanka had beaten Michaels a couple of times leading into the fight. Michaels had a new manager, Luna Vachon while Tatanka was accompanied by Michaels' former manager and future WWE Hall of Famer Sherri Martel. Tatanka won by DQ. Michaels kept his title and went straight back into his feud with Marty Janetty, which had been put on hold just for Wrestlemania. Why, I have no idea.Next up saw the Steiner Brothers (Scott and Rick) defeat the Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu) with Scott scoring the pin after hitting Samu with the Frankensteiner. Good match.Doink the clown needed help from another clown to win his match against Crush. A second Doink distracting Crush when he was in complete control and allowing Doink to get the pin and the victory. Doink was an entertaining gimmick character, who got old rather quickly.Razor Ramon easily defeated the returning Bob Backlund in the next match.This brings us to the first in our double main event. As the Mega Maniacs Team of Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake, with the newly turned good guy Jimmy Hart in their corner, took on Hart's former buddies Money Inc (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R Shyster). This was a fairly sketchy finish. Beefcake, as mentioned, had been in a paragliding accident requiring full facial surgery and had wrestled the match with a face mask on. Shyster ripped the mask off him and beat Beefcake to a pulp. The ref went down, Hogan grabbed the face mask and knocked out DiBIase and Shyster and then Hart, who was wearing a referee shirt, counted the three. Another ref came down and reversed the decision, declaring Money Inc winners by DQ.Next up Lex Luger or the Narcissist as he was also known at the time defeated Mr Perfect. This match came about because Luger was being managed by Perfect's old manager Bobby Heenan. Perfect had is feet on the ropes when he was pinned, but the ref missed it.The Undertaker picked up a lacklustre DQ victory in a pretty poor match against the Giant Gonzales. THe Undertaker had earned the ire of Gonzales' manager Harvey Wippleman in 1992 and Taker had defeated his big monster Kamala at Survivor Series. Wippleman vowed revenge and took it at the Royal Rumble as Gonzales attacked Taker, costing him the match. Gonzales dominated Undertaker in this match, but was DQ'd for choking Taker out with chloroform. Weird finish to a bad match.This bought us to our main event as WWE Champion Bret Hart, seriously challenged as champion for the first time, put his title on the line against Mr Fuji's unstoppable monster Yokozuna. Yokozuna controlled the early going, but Hart resisted and then took control. He had Yokozuna in the sharpshooter, surely he would give in and Hart would be established as an heroic hero after taking out the big monster. But Fuji had other ideas, throwing salt in Hart's face, rendering the Canadian helpless as Yokozuna got the pin.What a downer ending. But wait here comes Hulk Hogan. He's checking Hart to make sure he's OK. Suddenly Fuji challenges Hogan to a WWE Title right then and there. Hogan accepts. Fuji throws salt towards Hogan, but hits Yokozuna instead. Hogan hits the leg drop and wins the match and the title. What did I just watch? And so, what most fans thought was going to be the night we either saw Hart establish himself as a giant killer, or Yokozuna establish himself as an unstoppable monster, we instead saw Hulk Hogan pick up a meaningless title win. A title that he would not defend for three months. As a matter of fact this was the only match Hogan wrestled for the WWE before the King of the Ring PPV in June 1993.

OK, you have got to admit it, wrestlemanias don't get more better than this one. There are superstars at their best, and major ones to, such as Bret 'The Hit Man' Hart, Crush, the Hulkster ( Hulk Hogan) and Yokozuna! There is also Doink the Clown, in fact TWO Doinks! Also, you can see Randy Savage squaring of against the Ultimate Warrior! WrestleMania holds spectacular battles and also an Undertaker and Jake 'the snake' Roberts. You can watch these battles in "The History of WrestleMania," a DVD which comes free in a smackdown vs. Raw game for the PS2. There's all kinds of matches at WrestleMania, but whatever you do, please, don't try this at home!

This was without a doubt the best Wrestlemania of it's time period. That period being the first half of the 90s. This is of course just my opinion. Being one of only 2 outdoor WWF events (and the only outdoor Wrestlemania) this one had a distinctive look that sets it apart from the others. It also had the smallest crowd of any Wrestlemania, since Caesers Palace doesn't seat many people. There is one big flaw here, though. The cheesy "Ancient Roman Times" theme. All the commentators were forced to dress in togas and enter the stadium riding on camels. WWF promoted the show as "The World's Biggest Toga Party", and hoped the fans would wear Togas too. That didn't happen of course. What fan would want to humiliate themself on live Pay Per View by wearing a bed sheet? Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan were the only fools dumb enough to do that.Getting past the cheesy theme, the rest of the show was fantastic. Tatanka and Shawn Michaels kicked off the show with an entertaining IC Title match that went almost 20 minutes. Lex Luger and Mr. Perfect were brilliantly matched opponents. Their match ended with Luger nailing Perfect with his Running Forearm, which WWF promoted as being an illegal weapon due to Luger's steel plate he had surgically implanted. Who else remembers that gimmick? Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez's match was a great show. It would have been entertaining even if they just stood there. Seeing the 6'10" Undertaker in the ring with the over-7 foot tall Gonzalez was a sight to see. Of course Bret Hart delivered an amazing math as always, against the challenger Yokozuna. It seems to be a forgotten fact that Yokozuna was the fastest rising World Champion ever. It took him only 5 months in the WWF to take the belt. Bret was an averagely sized 230 pound man, and Yokozuna was 500 pounds, which makes them an unlikely pairing. But both make the match work.Ultimately there is one reason above all else to rent Wrestlemania IX. That reason is DOINK THE CLOWN! A sadistic and violent evil clown. When I think professsional wrestling, sadistic and violent evil clown is what I think. Rent Wrestlemania IX and you get 2 Doinks for the price of one. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that's the highlight of Wrestlemania....... maybe I am alone in thinking that. Who cares. DOINK RULES!