The road to Wrestlemania XX started at the 1994 Royal Rumble when Bret Hart and Lex Luger, the last two men in the ring during the Royal Rumble match, went over the top rope at the same time. It was determined that both men would get a crack at the WWF Championship, then held by Yokozuna. So rather than doing a triple threat match, which is probably what would happen now, they decided to do a coin toss to decide who would face Yokozuna first for the title. Luger won, and would be the first to get his shot at the title. However, to make sure that Bret didn’t have an unfair advantage with Luger having already fought, or Yokozuna having already fought, depending on who won, Bret was placed in a match with his brother Owen as well.
So in the opening match of the night, and one of my favorite matches of all time, Bret Hart faced Owen Hart in an instant classic. Owen got the win with a reversal of a victory roll, but that wouldn’t stop Bret Hart later in the night.
Outside of the WWF title picture, Wrestlemania X also saw the second (although it has highly been regarded as the first) ever ladder match. The first, if you’re wondering, took place the fall of 1992 between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels for the WWF title, and was released on home video and as far as I remember never shown on television. But the ladder match at Wrestlemania X is what put the ladder match on the map. Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon battled for the right to be the undisputed Intercontinental Champion in another instant classic. Shawn had been suspended a few months earlier and stripped of the IC title, which Razor had then won. When Michaels returned, he still had the old IC belt, and claimed he was still champion, which led to this awesome match. Razor retained and became the undisputed Intercontinental Champion.
Back to the WWF title picture, Lex Luger took on Yokozuna for the strap halfway through the night, with Mr. Perfect serving as the special guest referee. Luger had the match won, but Perfect had his back turned on the action trying to get Yokozuna’s entourage out of the ring. When Luger shoved Perfect to get him to make the count, Mr. Perfect disqualified him, thus resulting in Yokozuna keeping the belt and moving on to face the Hitman later in the main event. In the main event, Bret Hart defeated Yokozuna for the WWF title (Roddy Piper served as guest referee) when Yokozuna fell off of the ropes when going to deliver his finishing move, the Banzai Drop. Hart was them joined in the ring by all the faces, who hoisted the new champion onto their shoulders. As this took place, we saw Owen standing in the aisle watching in disgust.
I would say Wrestlemania X was an awesome night top to bottom, it had two instant classics and a lot of storylines came to a head and were built on from there, which is always a huge plus for any good show.
Until next time...
