WWF Wrestlemania X

WrestleMania X took place on March 20, 1994, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, bringing WWF’s biggest event back to the home of the first WrestleMania. Its tenth edition features two WWF Championship matches, a fight between brothers, and WrestleMania’s first ladder match.

The unusual championship schedule comes from the 1994 Royal Rumble, where Bret Hart and Lex Luger landed on the floor at the same time and were named joint winners. Both earned a shot at Yokozuna’s WWF Championship.

A coin toss gave Luger the first challenge, with Bret facing whoever holds the title afterward. Bret also has to wrestle earlier in the evening so that both men in the final championship match will have competed twice. That means opening the show against his younger brother, Owen Hart. Owen’s tired of living in the shadow of Bret, a former WWF Champion, and wants a chance to prove he’s the better wrestler.

Their attempt to settle their differences ended at the Royal Rumble, when an injury to Bret’s knee caused the referee to stop their tag team title match. Owen blamed Bret for refusing to tag him in and kicked his injured leg. Now Bret has to face the brother he’d hoped to avoid fighting.

The next match grows out of Doink the Clown’s pranks on Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow teams with his girlfriend and manager, Luna Vachon, while Doink brings his smaller clown partner, Dink. Their mixed tag team match has specific pairings. Doink wrestles Bigelow, and Dink faces Luna, so a tag changes the action on both sides.

Former friends Randy Savage and Crush follow in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Crush blamed Savage for taking too long to help when Yokozuna attacked him after a match, then returned alongside Yokozuna’s manager, Mr. Fuji, and attacked Savage himself. Their WrestleMania match adds an unusual rule to their fight outside the ring. After a pin on the floor, the pinned wrestler has 60 seconds to return to the ring and continue. Failing to get back in ends the match.

Alundra Blayze then defends the WWF Women’s Championship against Leilani Kai. Blayze won the revived championship in December 1993 after the title had been inactive for several years. Her challenger brings a connection to WrestleMania’s beginning. Kai also wrestled for this championship at the first event, in the same building.

The WWF Tag Team Championship is next, with the Quebecers, Jacques and Pierre, defending against Men on a Mission. The challengers pair the much larger Mabel with Mo, giving the champions two very different opponents to handle.

Luger then gets his championship match against Yokozuna. Their previous title meeting at SummerSlam 1993 ended with Luger winning by count-out, which meant Yokozuna kept the championship. Luger had agreed that it would be his only title shot, but his Royal Rumble win earned him another opportunity.

This time, the patriotic challenger has to do more than keep the sumo-style champion outside the ring. Mr. Perfect serves as the special guest referee, with a second championship defense awaiting whoever leaves with the belt.

A brief break from the championship matches brings two more heavyweights together as Earthquake faces Adam Bomb.

Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels then meet in a ladder match to settle a dispute over the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Michaels was stripped of the title in 1993 for failing to defend it, and Razor became champion while he was away.

When Michaels returned, he carried his own championship belt and argued that he’d never been beaten for it. Both belts hang above the ring at WrestleMania, and winning requires climbing a ladder and retrieving them. With Michaels’ bodyguard, Diesel, accompanying him, Razor enters a match where pinfalls and submissions can’t settle the argument.

The evening ends with Bret returning for his WWF Championship opportunity against the champion from the earlier title match. Roddy Piper takes over as special guest referee. After beginning the show with a family rivalry, Bret has to prepare for a different opponent and a different challenge, with the chance to regain WWF’s top championship still ahead of him.