Chris Jericho vs. Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat & Roddy Piper

[3.0] "This match was painfully boring to me. I understand they wanted to get heel Jericho over by beating up old-timers and they also wanted to get some legends in for the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania, but the Divas Battle royal made better of use of the legends by just having them in a battle royal. This was a weak match, Piper and especially Snuka should not be wrestling at this point."

[5.0] "A match that starts exactly how you'd expect it to, with Jericho feeding and selling for the legends. Snuka shouldn't even be here. Piper is at least doing enough to warrant his inclusion. After Jericho bumps enough to not make them looking too foolish, both of the prior names get eliminated, leaving Steamboat. Then, and only then, does this match really become worth watching. Steamboat obviously isn't quite as fast or as smooth as he once was, but how could you discredit him for it? He's in his mid 50's and he STILL has the technique and psychology down. He's a better worker in his mid 50's at least technically than at least a good percent of the roster. Steamboat makes the audience FEEL. BELIEVE. He makes the audience genuinely start to think he can pull off an upset. I'd have given this match 6 points, but the Backlash one on one match between Jericho and Steamboat exists the following month which sort of makes this one irrelevant. Any highlight you could find in this match, Backlash does 3 times better without the filler. Steamboat and Jericho turned this match from a joke into an actual match. But you should watch Backlash instead."

[5.0] "An odd match to say the least. Snuka was terribly slow, Piper wasn't much better, the only one that could still go was Steamboat. Fair play to Jericho for how much he had to sell in this one."

[6.0] "The dragon's still got it. Hot Rod got off through his charisma. Superfly couldn't do much (understandably so). Jericho did well bumping for them all."

[7.0] "What did I just witness? Steamboat still had it. I am absolutely sure they regret not making it a one on one match instead. Steamboat absolutely made a fan out of me tonight. Snuka and Piper did their job as they well could but Steamboat absolutely carried this match which is a crazy statement when you have Chris Jericho on the opposite end. Without the actor, this was an easy 10/10 for me."

[6.0] "It's a functional match. Honestly, until Steamboat and Jericho are alone, the match is just functional. Jimmy Snuka falls apart, Roddy Piper, despite not doing much, is still moving, but Steamboat is a beast. No wonder they gave him a tour of live events after that match and a nearly thirteen-minute one-on-one at Backlash."

[6.0] "After a difficult opening five minutes, given Piper's and, especially, Snuka's obvious limitations, the match became interesting when it became a one-on-one between Y2J and Steamboat. It's incredible how a 56 years old man, after 15 years without wrestling, can have a genuinely interesting match at WrestleMania. Props to Jericho too, he made the best he could do to make this work."

[5.0] "Obviously, this match was working with a - dare I say - handicap from the get-go, considering who was in it. Three long-past-their-prime retired legends against Jericho, and credit to Jericho, he made them look about as good as possible. Steamboat in particular came to play, though obviously still limited with his age, but it was a much better showing than it should have been considering the combined age of the men involved in here."

[6.0] "This is a hard match to rank, as the parts with Snuka and Piper are very sad, as the two legends are way past it. However, the part with Steamboat, competing in his first match in 15 years, were captivating and had the crowd believing the upset could happen."

[6.0] "Clearly, they were hoping Rourke was going to be in the match, so it almost feels like they had to panic book something for Jericho. Rourke doesn't even look like he wants to be there. Snuka is moving like a zombie, Christ! Piper has no-filter here and I'm here for it. The most un-dropkick dropkick in the history of wrestling by Piper. Steamboat is finally in and he hasn't missed a step. This match would be so much better if it was a one-on-one with Steamboat/Jericho. Summary, Snuka was pointless, Piper did try & the final stretch with Steamboat was great. The rating is purely down to Steamboat's role in this one."

[5.0] "A spectacle designed to highlight the legends, and with Jericho's heel work at this time being a hit, I think this was a success that even overachieved with the work in the ring, as they were able to get the crowd immersed. The heat worked along with the babyface comebacks and hope spots--the pinfalls were definitely abrupt, though, due to time constraints. Snuka was obviously the least mobile of the three, and Piper had his issues, but what he lacked mechanically, he made up for with aggression and effort, and produced some good fire with his time. Steamboat was the outlier, looking like a true pro's pro and having the best work mechanically. This was a charming piece of business with a fun post-match angle that soon turned hilarious with Mickey Rourke's involvement. **3/4"

[7.0] "***1/2 (07/10) Piper looked like a shell of his former self. Snuka looked like a shell. But Steamboat looked like an All-timer who was running it back one last time after 15 years out of the ring, and no one seemed a more natural than then the Dragon. Except for Jericho, of course. You could hear Vince smelling the money he would capitalize later that month at Backlash."

[6.0] "This was a pleasant surprise as I thought this would be super slow given the veterans' age, but I am glad that wasn't the case. Ricky Steamboat impaticular looked really good and was moving well and actually having a pretty decent match with Jericho. Overall I thought that this was a fun match which made for a cool Wrestlemania moment."

[6.0] "Veterans were fortunately in a pretty good shape. Good throwback for 80s fans. Some sort of Wrestlemania moment for sure."

[5.0] "Snuka & Piper had no business being in a wrestling ring at this point in time. Both were way, way past it. Steamboat on the other hand, he absolutely killed it. Fantastic performance from The Dragon and is the only reason why this match is even worth watching. Props to Jericho for making all 3 look strong, feel as if he really worked hard to make sure they didn't come across like old fools. It's not a great match by any stretch of the imagination, but Steamboat seemed to come alive and put on a great performance."

[7.0] "This is at least "pretty good", but a match like this does require context, because otherwise you'd naturally be baffled at why it was happening. Obviously the angle is that Jericho resents the Legends, the Hall of Fame, and so forth; they're washed-up hasbeens. Actually, before this, in a TV promo encounter Piper specifically implicitly grants this: he only has one hip (and you can see this from his slight shambling gait), but as long as he can go, he'll keep getting in the ring for the crowd. Jericho is screwed up by the hard truths he hears in their promo encounters from Piper and Steamboat, particularly; there is a strong angle here. Jericho is the Man but he's psychologically screwy about the past, beating down on broken-down old men because he, the motormouth, can't out-talk them. The match itself does tell this story too. Snuka looks awful, and Piper actually does work and bumps outside but is obviously well past it. After an initial set of tags and double-teams, the first two old men are eliminated in the first half of the match. They're meant to look old and past it (even if Snuka's condition is beyond the limit, really, of viability). Then Steamboat comes in, and I guess the assumption is that he'll last a couple minutes and get his spots and then be eliminated to save him from looking really bad - and time spins backwards, and he flies everywhere, chops, arm-drags, bumps, sells, and keeps up 100% with Jericho. He gets multiple plausible nearfalls, which you can tell the crowd are stunned at but want to believe in, before Jericho comes back. Even then, Steamboat is stubborn and stays up, with a sharp facebreaker needed for the pin. Jericho is proven decisively wrong, even though he wins; proven wrong by the heart shown by the two actual has-beens, and the fact that Steamboat isn't a has-been - in his mid-50s, he's fantastic. 3.5/5"

[5.0] "I'm not a big fan of this match, Jericho beating a bunch of veterans just felt off and the action was mostly weak."

[5.0] "Snuka and Piper were in no shape to wrestle and it was horrible watching them to the point that the crowd got silent at times, but Steamboat was another story. He looked phenomenal and even though obviously he wasn't wrestling like in his glory days he was moving exceptionally well for his age and as a result you could actually get invested in his sudden death fight with Jericho and believe it."

[6.0] "Honestly I think this match might have been better if it were just Steamboat vs Jericho. Ricky could still go at that age and he showed it here. The end segment overstayed its welcome but the match itself wasn't the worst. 6/10."

[6.0] "This was a better match and segment than it had any right to be considering two of the four in ring competitors were damn near decrepit. Ricky Steamboat at his age here is unbelievable and Jericho's character work here is fantastic. A very fun match that had the crowd white hot by the end solidly behind Steamboat and the use of Mickey Rourke was smart and fun coming of his movie "The Wrestler". I feel like at this point in time Ricky Steamboat could outwork some of the current roster WWE had."

[7.0] "This match really caught me by surprise when I watched it live - Ricky Steamboat is just incredible. He was so far beyond what anybody expected he would be capable of at this stage in his life. Piper had a pretty impressive performance as well, for that matter. He clearly still knows how to brawl with the best of them, even if he isn't exactly in prime wrestling shape. Snuka looks really poor and probably should have been replaced with somebody else, but everybody else does such a remarkable job defying expectations, and I had so much fun watching Steamboat turn back the clock, that I'm happy to be lenient with my rating here."

[4.0] "Match without more except that Steamboat's performance at his age is incredible, worth seeing just for that. (2*1/4)"

[6.0] "Fun Idea for a match three old school legends vs a current legend. Its a Shame Piper was nowhere near his best anymore and that Snuka could barely do anything. That early part was not great, but at least it made sense that Jericho gets them out quickly once he has offense. On the other hand Steamboat was awesome and the whole time he is in the ring is actually a pretty engaging bout and I think enough to bump this up to a 6"

[6.0] "Man Steamboat ruled in this match, everything he did in the ending stretch was super fun. Shame that Piper and Snuka dragged down the beginning parts a lot - ***"

[6.0] "This is a fun match and steamboat was so good and very surprising and him and jericho carried this match. ***"

[5.0] "A fun match given what it was. Steamboat especially was a highlight and would go on to have a good match with Jericho after this at Backlash."

[8.0] "This match deserves a good rating simply because Ricky Steamboat is essentially immortal. Steamboat and Jericho had a brilliant bout and really deserve praise for producing something great, after the 2 other 'legends' made it clear they were in no physical condition to be there."

[7.0] "This whole angle is built around the Mickey Rourke movie 'The Wrestler' and he's sitting front row. Snuka and Piper's stuff looks rotten, but they aren't in the ring long before they're eliminated and Steamboat gets his chance to shine. He might look like yer da, but Steamboat wrestles like he's still in 1989. He hits all the signature Steamboat spots flawlessly and gets in a number of convincing near-falls. No one expected Steamboat, who retired in 1994, to still have it in him. Jericho puts him away with a Codebreaker before beating down Ric Flair. Mickey Rourke gets in the ring and sparks out Jericho. This was a nice bit of cross-promotion."

[6.0] "I loved this at the time. Snuka looked, worked and is dreadful but Piper was so much fun despite his in-ring ability and Steamboat tore it down with Jericho."

[5.0] "This match was really only worth matching for the Jericho v Steamboat encounter, which was astonishing at the time for just how much the guy could do at his age. Jericho plays to his strengths well here, being the arrogant heel brutalising the vets and building the crowd up to a few close near-falls by Ricky but ultimately coming on top in the end. Snuka and Piper really didn't add anything worth mentioning outside of being bodies for Jericho to beat, but they did condition the crowd into thinking this match was gonna be a bore until Steamboat flies off the top rope when he comes in, so I suppose that was useful. Jericho and Ricky would have a better singles bout later on but this was on the big stage, so the atmosphere really helps in making it look a lot better than it was."

[5.0] "This was okay. Really only highlight or thing of any note is Ricky Steamboat's ability to wrestle still even after so many years of not performing. Roddy Piper was meh and Snuka was pretty dogshit. The ending with Rourke was decent and memorable"

[5.0] "Did anyone else's jaw drop when Steamboat showed that he could still wrestle? Piper and Snuka honestly had no business being in a match at their age and condition, but Jericho got the chance to have some fun in the short time he had to work with. For someone who hadn't wrestled in 15 years, The Dragon had a lot of pent-up athleticism, skinning the cat at 56 years old before hitting a Plancha to the outside. Their scuffle only lasted 4 minutes, but the crowd loved every second of it. A nice post-math segment with Flair and Rourke getting one over Jericho. **1/2"

[6.0] "The parts with Steamboat and Jericho was awesome. Despite his age Steamboat was pulling out the moves perfectly. But Piper and Snuka (especially Snuka) had slowed down the match. Snuka nearly did nothing in the match."