Hello readers and welcome to the tenth edition of “Keeping The Memories Alive“. In today’s edition, I will be reviewing
WWE Wrestle Mania 20. It was shown live on Pay Per View from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on March 14, 2004.
 Keep your requests coming.


Note from Jim: I am reviewing the DVD version of this event. It may contain edits from the original broadcast.


The show opens with the Boys Choir Of Harlem performing America The Beautiful.


We go to a nicely done opening video package, showing important moments of past Wrestle Mania’s and comments from tonight’s top performers.
The ending shows Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon with their newest family member, Shane’s son and Vince’s grandson.


Pyro hits as “Step Up” by Drowning Pool blares on the speakers. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcome us, they will be calling the Raw action.
Hugo Savinovich and Carlos Cabrera will handle the Spanish commentary while Michael Cole and Tazz call the Smackdown matches.


Match #1” The Big Show defends the WWE United States Title against John Cena.
Before the Big Show makes his entrance, Cena (sporting a Patrick Ewing jersey) does one of his corny/sometimes missed pre-match raps.
Big Show looks much heavier here than he does today. His diet did him a lot of good. Show takes early control, totally overpowering Cena.
Its strange to hear the crowd chant “lets go Cena” without female or child voices behind it. I wonder why the male fans turned on Cena? The raps?
I guess he ran out of rhymes. We are several minutes into the match now and still no offense from Cena, who is locked inside a cobra clutch. He finally
 breaks out and runs around a bit until nailing the FU but Show kicks out! With Show on rubber legs, Cena grabs his chain, wanting to use it.
 Referee Jimmy Korderas takes it away and while his back is turned, Cena grabs his brass knuckles, punches Show with them and hits another
FU to become the new United States Champion.


Backstage, Jonathan Coachman walks by Johnny Stamboli, Tom Prichard and Theodore Long, shaking their hands. Coach heads into
 Eric Bischoff’s office. Bischoff is with Johnny Nitro (Nitro looks like a young Raven here). Bischoff tells Coachman he wants him
 to go find the Undertaker.


Randy Orton, Batista and Ric Flair are shown standing above the same staircase that Orton tossed Mick Foley down last June. Orton’s promo
 is terrible here. He just keeps calling Foley a coward in different variations. We see clips of all of Orton and Foley’s encounters over the last year.
Randy refers to the Rock as “Hollywood”, that’s funny! Orton closes by saying that tonight is Evolution’s time and its where it all begins again.
 Flair and Batista say nothing.


Match #2: Rob Van Dam & Booker T defend the WWE World Tag Team Titles against La Resistance (Rene Dupree & Rob Conway),
 Mark Jindrak & Garrison Cade and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba-Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley) in a Fatal 4 Way Match.
This match is sudden death, no eliminations. Lots of constant tags in the first several minutes. The action finally slows down with Conway and Booker.
Conway has Booker in a series of holds. He very loudly says “USA my ass” to the NYC crowd. RVD gets tagged in and is nailing everyone with
 heel kicks, even the Dudleyz. Van Dam goes for the five star frog splash but D-Von pushes him to the floor. The Dudleyz almost hit the 3D on
 Booker but Cade breaks it up. Booker hits Conway with the scissor kick, RVD follows it up with the five star frog splash to retain the tag team
titles in a pretty mediocre match.


Backstage, Jonathan Coachman is looking for the Undertaker. He hears screams and pounding coming from a door.
Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan come out of that door. They have lipstick smeared all over their faces. The Fabulous Moolah
 and Mae Young then come out. They start kissing Heenan and Okerlund. Mae wants to show her puppies and then the four go back in the room.
 Coach looks disgusted.


We go to the Chris Jericho/Christian video package.


Match #3: Christian vs. Chris Jericho.
The referee for this match is Tim White. Its his first referee appearance since Judgment Day in May 2002. Ironically enough, Jericho was
 involved in that match where White was injured. This would be Tim White’s final referee appearance. Jericho does a huge back body drop
 to Christian, sending him over the top rope to the floor. Crowd is chanting “Y2J”. Christian does a similar move to Jericho, sending him over the top
 to the floor. It looked like he was going for an atomic drop but Jericho rolled over the ropes. Once Jericho gets back in the ring, he hit’s a
 sick enziguri, talk about shades of Owen Hart. Christian strikes back with a cross body off the top rope but Jericho does the roll through for a count of 2. Christian now has Jericho in the Texas cloverleaf. Jericho some how turns this into the walls of Jericho but Christian reaches the ropes. Jericho however
 does not break the hold, instead he takes the hold to the outside! The hold is finally broken. Jericho hit’s a nicely done double under hook superplex
but only gets a 2 count. Trish Stratus has now made her way out to ringside. Christian hit’s the impaler DDT but only gets a 2 count. Trish gets on the
 apron and Christian flips her into the ring. Jericho goes to check on Trish from behind but Trish nails him with an elbow (thinking it was Christian)
and Christian rolls Y2J up for the win. After the match, Trish slaps Jericho in the face and Christian hits him with the unprettier. Christian and Trish
then make out, Jericho was set up! I think most people saw this coming in order to make the feud more interesting.


Backstage, Lilian Garcia interviews Mick Foley. Lilian brings up the fact that this is Foley’s first match in four years. Before Foley can really comment,
 the Rock shows up and grabs the mic. He tells Garcia not to look at the people’s package. Rock takes a look around. He finds the Hurricane
 and Rosey, eating hamburgers. He calls them hamburgler and grimmis. Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco are also shown backstage. Rock finishes
 it off with….. If ya smellllllll, what the rock n sock is cookin!


Match #4: Evolution (“Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Batista) vs. Mick Foley & the Rock.
The crowd is chanting “Rocky”. I wish he’d come back. To date, this is actually the Rock’s last wrestling match. Orton and Foley take the action
 to the outside. Back in the ring now, Foley does his classic tree of woe. Rock is tagged in. Not showing any ring rust. This was his first match
 in nearly a year. Flair woo’s in Rock’s face and Rock smacks him off the apron. Rock and Batista are now going at it with big Dave getting the best
 of “Mr. Hollywood”. Flair is tagged in. Loads of chops and struts. Not much action in this match, a lot of kicking and punching which is usually
 what multi participant matches consist of. Foley takes a big bump on the outside, being thrown into the ring steps, that was loud! Rock is finally tagged
 back in and starts cleaning house on Evolution. Batista slows things down with the spine buster. Flair attempts to do the peoples elbow on Rock but
instead gets a spine buster and a peoples elbow from the master for a count of 2. Foley and Orton are tagged in. Foley pulls out Mr. Socko but Orton
 hit’s the RKO out of nowhere for the win. Rock and Foley hug and shake hands in the ring after the match.


We go to clips of the hall of fame ceremony from last night.


Gene Okerlund introduces the WWE hall of fame class of 2004.…… Bobby Heenan, Tito Santana, John Studd (represented by his son,
John Minton Jr.), Harley Race, Pete Rose, Don Muraco, Greg Valentine, the Junkyard Dog (represented by his daughter, LaToya Ritter),
 Billy Graham, Sgt. Slaughter and Jesse Ventura.


Match #5: Sable & Torrie Wilson vs. Miss Jackie & Stacy Keibler in a Playboy Evening Gown Match.
Before the match begins, Sable makes the proposal that these women wrestle without their evening gowns on. This is now officially a lingerie match.
 While the women are undressing, Tazz mentions how he wants to take his clothes off as Michael Cole screams no! Cole then says “Tazz, you stabbed
 me with your pencil”. “That wasn’t my pencil Cole”. Oh my. I do miss those two on commentary. This match was nothing spectacular, just pure eye
 candy, nice eye candy though. Lots of pin fall attempts with the camera zooming in between the women’s legs. This sure wouldn’t happen today in
WWE’s PG Universe. Referee Jack Doan gets rolled over by the girls, as he always does. Torrie rolls up Jackie in a matter of minutes for the win.


We see a clip from earlier today at the box office where several International fans were interviewed. Europeans, Australians, even the Irish.


Backstage, Eddie Guerrero is shown walking down the hall way. He is greeted by Terri, Paul London, Steven Richards, Spike Dudley,
Billy Gunn and Orlando Jordan before entering the locker room of Chris Benoit. Eddie tells Benoit this is the biggest night of his (Benoit’s) career.
 Chris says he knows. Eddie says nobody expects Chris to win. Benoit start’s screaming “I believe in me”. Benoit says tonight is his night.
Eddie says he was trying to pump Benoit up and it looks like he has succeeded.


Match #6: Cruiserweight Open for the WWE Cruiserweight Title…… Chavo Guerrero (champion, with Chavo Guerrero Sr.),
Nunzio, Jamie Noble, Tajiri (with Akio), Funaki, Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio.
In a very hilarious moment, I remember the Ultimo Dragon falling down when he made his entrance for this match (too bad its edited out on this DVD).
This unique match is held under gauntlet rules. Akio was originally part of the match but he got green mist in his eyes by mistake from Tajiri.
Shannon Moore and the Ultimo Dragon start the match out. Dragon pins Moore in about a minute with a DDT (I believe he calls it the Cancun tornado).
Jamie Noble is next in the ring. Noble wins by submission with some kind of choke, nicely done. Funaki comes in next, hit’s a cross body off the
top rope but Noble does the roll threw for the pin in about 4 seconds!. In comes Nunzio. I can hear a small “lets go Guido chant”. Nunzio gets
thrown to the outside. Noble does a flipping suicide dive off the top rope, nicely done. Nunzio is counted out. Kidman is in next. Nunzio
(who is still on the outside) drags Noble outside. Kidman does a shooting star press on both of them! That was pretty sweet. Kidman ends up
eliminating Noble with a BK Bomb off the top rope. In comes Rey Mysterio. Akio hits Rey from the outside while the ref was distracted.
Kidman and Rey Rey are battling on the top rope, Mysterio turns it into a sunset flip power bomb to eliminate Kidman. In comes Tajiri.
Best match so far in this open, as both performers use every move they know. Akio gets on the apron and holds Rey, Tajiri spits his green mist
 but Rey moves and it blinds Akio. Chavo Guerrero will be the last man in. Chavo Sr. gets involved and gets a suicide senton from Mysterio for
 his troubles. Rey does a sunset flip but cannot get Chavo over. Chavo Sr. holds his son’s arm down from the outside to give Chavo Guerrero
the victory. I thought this match is very underrated and forgotten. An excellent match for the amount of time they were given. But I mean, can you
 witness a bad match when Mysterio and Tajiri are involved?


We go to the Goldberg/Brock Lesnar video package.


Match #7: Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg (special referee: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin).
This is sure to be a brawl. The fans start chanting “you sold out” at Lesnar. Everyone watching this match was pretty well aware that this would
 be Lesnar’s final appearance in WWE, and probably Goldberg’s as well. Lesnar told WWE officials a few weeks before this match that he had
 accomplished all he wanted in wrestling and wanted to try the National Football League. Jim Ross confirms this in a very embarrassed voice.
 Goldberg’s contract was set to expire later that month. So who will WWE have win? The man not renewing his contract or the man quitting for football?
 Lets find out. The NYC crowd is so vocal in this match. Now they are chanting “Na na na na hey hey goodbye”. Several “Austin” chants as well.
Its seriously like 5 minutes into the match and all these 2 have done has had 3 lockups. Finally, Goldberg does a variation of his spear, taking
Lesnar from a press slam and then slamming him down. The crowd is now chanting “Goldberg sucks”. Lesnar does a nicely done northern lights suplex
 for a count of 2. Goldberg finally nails the spear, so close but only 2. Goldberg does not like Austin’s count. While all this is going on, Lesnar comes
 from behind and hit’s the F5, but only a 2 count. Goldberg hits yet another spear. He follows that up with the jackhammer for the win. After the match,
The fans start singing the na na na na song again at Lesnar. Brock gives the crowd a double bird and then does it to Austin. Brock Lesnar’s final
WWE appearance shows him on the receiving end of a stunner. Goldberg gets in the ring to have a beer with Austin but he gets a stunner as well.
This would be both men’s final WWE appearance. Lesnar would end up being cut from the Minnesota Vikings before even playing
a regular season game.


We see a huge pyro display from the roof of MSG, from outside the arena.


It is announced that Wrestle Mania 21 will take place from Los Angeles, California.


Vince McMahon comes out to the stage to simply thank the fans for making Wrestle Mania what it has become today.


Match #8: Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty defend the WWE Tag Team Titles against the World’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin
& Charlie Haas), the Basham Brothers (Doug Basham & Danny Basham) and the APA (Bradshaw & Faarooq) in a Fatal 4 Way Match.
This match is sudden death, much like the Raw tag title match from earlier. I’m pretty bored with this match. Its basically a replay from earlier tonight,
which is why you shouldn’t have similar gimmick matches on the same card but I understand how they wanted to fit everyone on the card.
 Charlie Haas is the man who falls victim to the stink face. Its nice to see Bradshaw here right before he became JBL. I believe it was the next
Smackdown where Paul Heyman fired Faarooq and told Bradshaw he is destine for better things, or something to that extent. Then on the next
Smackdown, Bradshaw showed up in a suit and tie and proclaimed himself John Bradshaw Layfield. The match ends when Rikishi does a sitting
splash on Danny Basham. Rikishi and Scotty retain the titles. After the match, Rikishi and Scotty dance, lights go out, pyro goes off.


A promo airs for the return of Edge. He had been out of action since February 2003.


Jesse Ventura makes his way out. He has come out to interview Donald Trump, who is ringside. Trump says he is having a great time and that
Vince McMahon and him go way back. Jesse asks Trump that if he were to get back into politics, would he have the Donald’s financial backing?
 Trump says 100%. Jesse then says that maybe their will be a wrestler in the white house in 2008! Obviously, this never happened.


Match #9: Victoria defends the WWE Women’s Title against Molly Holly.
A barber shop is set up at the top of the stage area. If Molly does not win the title, she will be shaved bald. Jerry Lawler asks an interesting question…..
 “JR, if Molly loses, you think this will be the first time she was shaved?” This is actually a pretty decent match as both competitors are pretty
good in the ring. Victoria hit’s a power slam for a count of 2. Victoria attempts a superplex but Molly turns it into a sunset flip power bomb, again
only a 2 count. Molly tries to give Victoria a taste of her own medicine with the widows peak but Victoria counters with a simple backslide for the win.
 After the match, Molly takes out Victoria and puts her in the barber chair, however, she cannot get the clippers to work. Victoria sprays hairspray
 in Molly’s eyes and then straps her in the barber seat before shaving her head bald! Such a shame, Molly looked pretty good, not so much now…..


We go to the Eddie Guerrero/Kurt Angle video package.


Back to the arena, Victoria is still shaving Molly. She’s pretty much all bald now.


Match #10: Eddie Guerrero defends the WWE Title against Kurt Angle.
Eddie comes out in a nice custom low rider truck. Lots of mat wrestling in the start of this match. The crowd chants “lets go Angle, Angle sucks”.
Back to the mat and then both men trade some German suplex’s. Angle takes a breather on the outside. Eddie dives to the floor but misses and
hit’s the barricade. Angle gives Eddie several belly to belly suplex’s but keeps coming up short. Angle perches Eddie on the top rope, looking for a
belly to belly superplex. Eddie pushes him away, goes for the frog splash but comes up short. Both men trade offense, Eddie went for the three amigos
 but Angle counters the third one. Just when Eddie thought he had Angle beat, Guerrero goes up top but Angle jumps right up and does a double
 under hook superplex, awesome! Angle goes for the Angle slam but Eddie counters with a tornado DDT. Eddie finally hit’s the frog splash but only 2!
Angle goes for the ankle lock, Eddie counters out of it and kicks Kurt to the floor. Meanwhile, Eddie is unlacing his boot. Angle gets back in the ring and
 puts the ankle lock on again but Eddie’s boot comes off. Angle looks stunned and Eddie hit’s a small package for the win! Eddie Guerrero just lied,
cheated and stealed his first major WWE Title defense. This was a really good match full of offense. I know Eddie and Kurt had another good one
at Summer Slam that year, besides that, I am not sure if many matches exist between these 2.


We go to the Undertaker/Kane video package.


Match #11: Kane vs. the Undertaker (with Paul Bearer).
Spectacular entrance for the Undertaker. Druids, fire and all. We had not seen Taker since Survivor Series at this point. It is the first time he has used
the dead man gimmick since the fall of 1999. Its also nice to see Paul Bearer back, heavier than ever. Bearer’s first on camera appearance
in 4 years. Kane screams “you aint real” as the fans chant “Undertaker” clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. Undertaker is just brawling away on his brother,
 not really allowing him to get in any offense. Kane manages to go to the top rope and executes a lariat for a count of 2. Undertaker goes for old school
 but Kane counters by grabbing Taker’s throat. Kane hit’s a huge choke slam but Taker sits right up. Taker hit’s a choke slam of his own, followed by
 the tombstone for the win. Not much of a match, but I remember sitting at home marking out that the Undertaker was back with his dead man gimmick.


We go to the Shawn Michaels/Chris Benoit/Triple H video package with ‘Step Up” by Drowning Pool playing in the background.


Match #12: Triple H defends the WWE World Title against Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit in a Triple Threat Match.
All 3 men fight outside the ring early on. Michaels executes a moonsault, taking out both H and Benoit. After that they start a rotation….
Michaels battles H, Benoit rests, Benoit battles H, Michaels rests, etc. Midway into the match, Benoit has got the crossface on Triple H but
Michaels breaks it up. Benoit nails the head bunt off the top rope on HBK but only a count of 2. HHH is back in the ring and runs into sweet
chin music from Michaels, Benoit breaks up the count. Crowd chants “Benoit”. Benoit now has the crossface locked on Michaels. Michaels tries
to tap but HHH stops his hand from hitting the mat before breaking the hold. Shawn Michaels has now been busted open. Triple H and Benoit fight
on the floor. Michaels joins them and now all 3 men are on the Spanish announce table. Michaels and HHH double suplex Benoit over threw the
Smackdown announce table! This leaves HHH and Michaels to brawl all over the place. This ends when HHH pedigree’s Michaels, 1, 2, nooooo!
Benoit comes out of nowhere and breaks the count. HHH is now sporting the crimson mask. Benoit puts the sharpshooter on Triple H, Shawn Michaels
 breaks that up. Man, they gotta be about out of moves here. Michaels is tuning up the band for sweet chin music, he misses Benoit and Chris body
 drops him over the top rope to the floor. Triple H goes to pedigree Benoit but Chris counters it into the cross face. HHH taps!!!! Benoit has done it!
He is the new World Heavyweight Champion. Benoit has tears in his eyes as Earl Hebner awards him his trophy. Eddie Guerrero comes out. He and
 Benoit hug and raise each other’s respective titles in the air. What a moment. That is one of my all time favorite moments in Wrestle Mania history.
 Benoit and Guerrero standing in the middle of the ring celebrating. Its to bad we will never see it again……


The show closes with a recap of tonight’s action to the tune of Godsmack’s “Touche” and Drowning Pool’s “Step Up”.


Final thoughts: I thought this was one of the all around better Wrestle Mania’s. It had a little bit of everything, which is always a good thing. Its no
Wrestle Mania 17, but it was solid. As much as most people like the main event (and it was good) I’d have to say Eddie and Kurt was my favorite
match of the night. I might just like it more because I prefer 1 on 1 over triple threat. The Smackdown tag title match was my least favorite of the night.
 It was just slow and short and the same match had basically already happened earlier in the evening. The 2 grudge matches were just that, grudge
 matches, special attractions. They were interesting because it was Brock and Goldberg’s last match and for the return of the Undertaker.
The Cruiserweight Open was hands down the most underrated match of the night. You have 9 guys, not much time and a lot of decisions to get threw.
I thought they all did a great job in the match (even Funaki and his 4 seconds).


I hope you enjoyed reading the tenth edition of “Keeping The Memories Alive”. In the next edition, I will be reviewing the first ever WCW Super Brawl.
Now I ask, what would you like to see reviewed? My complete collection can be found at www.freewebs.com/jbryan1984/.
Email me your feedback and requests at jbryan21408@yahoo.com.


Jim Bryan