April 1st, 2007
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Venue: Ford Field
Attendance: 80,103
Theme songs: "Ladies and Gentlemen" by Saliva; "The Memory Will Never Die" by Default
In 1987, the WWF made history by hosting their first WrestleMania inside a stadium. A record-breaking attendance of 93,173 filled the Pontiac Silverdome to watch Hulk Hogan body slam Andre, the Giant.
Twenty years later, the WWE decided it was time to honor the legendary show and head back to Detroit, “All Grown Up."
With the Pontiac Silverdome demolished by the time we reached 2007, Ford Field was the destination for WrestleMania 23.
It nearly broke the Mania attendance record as the stadium held 80,103, the highest attendance for the big show since WrestleMania 3. Detroit knows a thing or two of having high capacity stadiums.
To continue commemorating their return to Detroit, WWE brought in a familiar face of WrestleMania 3.
The “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin returned to sing “America the Beautiful” in honor of her performance 20 years ago. With a gospel choir by her side this time around, she once again gave a memorable performance to help open WrestleMania.
The theme of the night would be “All Grown Up.” Promotional content featured children pretending to be younger editions of past and present WWE Superstars such as Edge and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (with milk and not beer cans, hilariously enough).
Before “America the Beautiful,” WWE presented a video of all WrestleMania logos, showing the show's evolution and memories from the last 22 years. After Aretha sang, current WWE Superstars spoke about the importance of being young before getting ready for The Showcase of the Immortals.
A massive display of fireworks (probably the best opening pyro in WrestleMania’s history) officially opened the show, and WrestleMania 23 was underway. The first thing you noticed was the incredible stage set up and the long walk to the ring.
WrestleMania 23 had the largest stage set up in history, roughly 300ft wide and 100ft tall. The ramp would end up being 187ft, one of the longest in the last 23 years (before the following year in Orlando after had something to say about that).
Eight matches were scheduled this time, and only three are worth mentioning before I move on to what stood out to me.
The night started off on a high note with the 3rd Money in the Bank ladder match. The competition grew from six to eight superstars, four from the Raw brand, and four from SmackDown.
Mr. Kennedy surprised everybody and was the last one standing on the ladder and retrieved the briefcase to earn a World Championship opportunity. However, midway through the year, he would gamble his briefcase and lose the contract to Edge. Personally, a shame and left us wondering, “what if?”.
Punjabi giant, The Great Khali, made his WrestleMania debut against The Big Red Machine, Kane. The match was terrible. Khali isn’t ideally “good” in the ring, to be nice about it.
The reason why I make a note of it was Kane decided to channel his inner Hulk Hogan and picked up Kahli for a body slam. Kane put on a face of shock when he realized he slammed the giant.
In the final highlight video package shown at the end of the night, Kane's slam's highlight was put side-by-side with Hogan’s iconic slam to commemorate the big moment.
It may not have been my pick of superstars to recreate it, but at least it worked.
Chris Benoit held on to his United States Championship after defeating Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP for short).
WrestleMania 23 was Benoit’s final WrestleMania before committing his monstrous crimes towards his wife Nancy, son Daniel, followed by taking his own life.
To hear my thoughts on the tragedy, head over to my WrestleMania 20 review. This will be the final time Chris Benoit is mentioned moving forward.
In saying that, it’s time for the daily tradition of seeing which three moments stood out to me from WrestleMania 23.
Freshly shaved
Back when I wrote about WrestleMania 5, I brought up that there would be a time in this series when I would bring up Donald Trump one more time. This is it! Who doesn’t love a good Trump story, right?! (I hope that came across as sarcastic)
The lead up to this one is weird. Not much happened on the road to Detroit, yet the match was known to be “high profile.”
In January 2007, Vince McMahon had a “Fan Appreciation Night” to give thanks to the WWE faithful for sticking around. Seems nice for an employer who terrorizes his employees but let’s just run with it.
During the show, Trump suddenly appeared and had money drop from the ceiling for the fans in attendance to try and “upstage” McMahon. Trump was looking to show that not only was he the better man, but the better billionaire.
McMahon hates when people try to outdo him, both in and out of WWE. As a businessman, who can blame him? But when it came to Trump, he was the last person McMahon didn’t want overstepping him.
When the two met again a month later, an interesting bet was made for WrestleMania labeled “Battle of the Billionaires.”
Trump and McMahon would each pick a representative to square off in Detroit. The catch? Whoever lost, the billionaire they represented would have their head shaved. I wish I was kidding.
Now, I know everybody hates Trump, but his hair isn’t that bad. Almost iconic with Donald himself. Do you really think this man would agree to have his representative lose and his head shaved?
McMahon would end up picking Umaga and Trump went with Bobby Lashley. To get things in his favor, McMahon wanted to pick a special guest referee to assure he would win.
Somehow, WWE’s board of directors came into the picture and told McMahon that they picked a referee. They chose a man who Vince knew very well and caused problems in the late '90s.
That man would be “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Fast forward to Ford Field, and oddly enough, a barber’s chair with a shaving kit had its own WrestleMania entrance. Somebody was pulling a string and having a platform with the chair come down the ramp. Also wish I made this up.
The match itself was entertaining, and Umaga would lose, which meant Vince would be bald.
Surely enough, Austin, Lashley, and Trump all came together to shave the Chairman’s head. It may have been a weird thing, but this still was a WrestleMania moment.
Kudos to Vince for actually agreeing to do it. All for our entertainment. So thoughtful.
The Prince of Darkness returns to his throne
You know what it’s time for? It’s time to start a story at the Royal Rumble! (It starts the Road to WrestleMania. Of course, it’s going to be featured at some point in these reviews.)
San Antonio was the host of another Royal Rumble for the first time in ten years after Michaels became WWF Champion in the Alamodome and Stone Cold won his first of three Royal Rumble matches.
In the Royal Rumble match, hometown hero Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker were the final two competitors trying to throw the other over the top rope to lock up a championship opportunity in Detroit.
In the final moment, Michaels was ready to win his third Rumble by super kicking Undertaker to eliminate him like how he eliminated Diesel in 1996.
‘Taker outsmarted Michaels and tossed him over to win his first Royal Rumble match. He also made history by being the first to win after entering at number 30. Somehow, that wasn’t a thing in the first nineteen years of this event.
On an episode of Raw, The Undertaker confronted WWE Champion John Cena, World Heavyweight Champion Batista, and ECW Champion Bobby Lashley (ECW became a third official brand in June 2006) to see who he would choose to face at WrestleMania.
The Deadman gave Batista a death stare, chokeslammed him, and made him his official pick for WrestleMania.
In the weeks leading up to Detroit, Batista and Undertaker were involved in tag team matches to test the waters. Batista also said he had great respect for ‘Taker and what he’s done in his career.
At No Way Out a month before, the two teamed up against Raw’s John Cena and Shawn Michaels for a bit of brand supremacy. Unfortunately, they would lose to Cena and Michaels. Batista would turn on Undertaker, stating he lost all respect for him.
In a move that surprised me when I was a kid, Batista and Undertaker went on midway through WrestleMania. For a world title, something we're used to seeing close the show (or at least close to the end), it came as a shock that it was on so early, especially before the Battle of the Billionaires.
After a back-and-forth fifteen minutes, Undertaker found the opportunity to hit Batista with his Tombstone Piledriver and pick up another win on the grand stage.
Just like what he did a decade ago in Chicago at WrestleMania 13, The Undertaker captured a World Championship and left Detroit with gold. He would become the first to win both the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.
More importantly, The Streak remained intact, and another individual failed to hand him a loss. The Undertaker improved to 15-0.
Super Cena
We’ve reached the main event of WrestleMania 23, and, unfortunately, it’s nothing different from the last few WrestleManias.
After The Undertaker picked Batista as his WrestleMania opponent, John Cena was left up in the air for a challenger and needed one quick. In a triple threat match between Randy Orton, Edge, and Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid would win and lock up his first WrestleMania World Championship match WrestleMania 14.
The one small issue that arose was that Cena and Michaels were tag team champions after winning it the week before. With the two developing a partnership and friendship, the tension between them grew, knowing that the bigger picture was the WWE Championship.
In a No Way Out rematch the week before WrestleMania, just as Cena was ready to give his team the victory, Michaels superkicked him as a reminder of what was at stake.
It would be the second time in that a pair of tag champions would face off at WrestleMania, the first being Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio two years prior at WrestleMania 21.
As Cena had two straight years of WrestleMania glory, most of those in attendance were pulling for Shawn Michaels to have his first World Championship since 2002. By this point, fans were already sick of John Cena. Unlike his counterparts Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, nobody wanted this generation’s top star to succeed.
Michaels came really close to winning this match and let the fans go home happy. But like his best friend in Triple H the year before in Chicago, Cena put Michaels in his STF submission and had no choice but to tap out.
The closing image of WrestleMania 23 had Cena holding his WWE Championship once again and was embraced with confetti. John Cena stayed on top of the world, and his reign had no end in sight.
Final thoughts
I was in grade 8 when WrestleMania 23 came around. I remember begging my dad to let me order the pay-per-view. I was going to different friends' houses for the previous three years and wanted to host my own WrestleMania party. My dad didn’t let me get off that easy and told me I needed to get straight A’s on my second report card of the school year.
Between elementary school, high school, university, and college, I never studied as hard as I did for that report card to earn it. I got my marks, had my friends over, and my WrestleMania 23 party was a go.
Shawn Michaels was one of my favorite wrestlers at the time, probably all-time now that I think about it. I was sad when he didn’t win at WrestleMania 20 in the triple threat for the World Heavyweight Championship.
I was also sad when he didn’t beat Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21 in their epic encounter. WrestleMania 22 was a relief, but I wanted to see gold around his waist again.
I can’t emphasize how mad I was on April 1st, 2007. I was furious and kept venting the entire week after WrestleMania at school. At that point, I was done with John Cena. I wanted to see change, and it never happened.
I also knew I wasn’t the only one who had the same sentiments. Up to this day, many fans still wish that Michaels had possession of the WWE Championship.
It’s been said that Shawn never wanted to win that night and wanted Cena to continue to lead the way as the company's face. Considering this was once a man who in the '90s was desperate to be champion and refused to drop the WWF Championship to Bret Hart, it showed a ton of humility. It showed that he did mature from those days.
As for the event, I thoroughly enjoyed the night. I will say that I probably was more excited that I had my first WrestleMania party with some friends. Not to mention, this would be the only party of my teenage years before I began the annual tradition of having my friends over from WrestleMania 30 and on.
When I look back, there were enjoyable moments, but also moments that just sort of shook your head.
Once again, the Women’s Championship wasn’t eventful, a trend that would carry on for nearly another nine years before that all changed at WrestleMania 32. Melina retained her title against Ashley but only lasted four minutes.
The ECW brand was just a waste of time that lasted four years and felt off. Fans wanted that extreme, hardcore ECW from the '90s, and it just wasn’t the same.
ECW’s contribution to WrestleMania 23 was an eight-man tag team match between veterans and up-and-coming talent. Rob Van Dam, Sabu, The Sandman, and Tommy Dreamer faced Elijah Burke, Kevin Thorn, Marcus Cor Von, and Matt Striker. The veterans would come out with the win. Simply put, this just felt off at WrestleMania.
In conclusion, WrestleMania 23 was memorable, and if you take out the weak matches, you have a solid event.
The following year would bring back an environment we hadn’t seen in fifteen years. It was the end of an era for one individual, and he would be reminded he was loved for it.
Results:
- Mr. Kennedy def. CM Punk, Edge, Finlay, Jeff Hardy, King Booker, Randy Orton, and Matt Hardy – Money in the Bank ladder match
- The Great Khali def. Kane
- Chris Benoit (c) def. Montel Vontavious Porter – WWE United States Championship
- The Undertaker def. Batista (c) – World Heavyweight Championship
- The ECW Originals (Rob Van Dam, Sabu, The Sandman, and Tommy Dreamer) def. The New Breed (Elijah Burke, Kevin Thorn, Marcus Cor Von, and Matt Striker) – Eight-man tag team match
- Bobby Lashley (with Donald Trump) def. Umaga (with Vince McMahon) – Hair vs. Hair match (Stone Cole Steve Austin as special guest referee)
- Melina (c) def. Ashley – Lumberjill Match for the WWE Women’s Championship
- John Cena (c) def. Shawn Michaels (via submission) – WWE Championship
Rating: B+
Thanks for reading. Look out tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 24.
12 days away until WrestleMania 35.
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