Got out my ticket from an old scrapbook I kept. This was definitely the peak of my WWE fandom.
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I was there too! I’ll look at my stub this afternoon (at the office right now lol)
I was on call this day and missed this 
I was at WM6 and imagine this would have eclipsed it.
We won’t see Babe Ruth vs Barry Bonds. We won’t see Mike Tyson vs Mohammed Ali. But we will see the Hulk vs The Rock.
Goosebumps thinking about that time
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Section 224, not bad!! I was a wCw fanboy so seeing the nWo walk out there was incredible, the only time in my life I’d ever cheer Hogan over the Rock lol
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I can’t believe it’s been twenty years.
My dad took me to the show for my high school graduation present (he took my brother to Woodstock 99… I think in hindsight, I won out.).
We managed to get floor seats. Final row on the floor, but still on the floor. It was incredibly difficult to see the ring, and for Hogan / Rock I remember standing on my seat watching.
I remember just laughing at the insane reaction and energy to that match. I still to this day feel that the Hogan cheering started in an ironic way, and then swelled into a full blown nostalgia fueled mass psychosis. It was just wild. Everybody got swept up into it and just cheered for everything he did.
I also remember seeing fans pouring out during the Triple H / Jericho match.
Aside from Rock vs. Hogan, the only other real highlight was Flair / Taker. The Arn Anderson run-in spinebuster was a crazy moment.
Unfortunately the show is really below average. It falls between the top two Mania’s ever (X7 and X9… for reference, XXX is my third). It was lacking ant sort of fun wild gimmick matches and the card itself was full of bad filler (Edge / Booker T, Kane / Angle, Maven / Goldust, etc). A solid roster, just a bad card. Even Austin / Hall was a nothing match.
It was a fun experience, and really one of the final ones before Mania weekend would become what it became in the following three years.
Still, Axxess was fun - and I answered a Howard Finkle trivia question, and won a free pizza pizza voucher.
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I’ve never really understood the narrative that the Jericho vs Triple H match was a huge disappointment or failure. Anytime I’ve rewatched the match the crowd seems very into it. The crowd reaction is a little odd because it’s almost like a face vs face match (even though Jericho was the heel). And the booking before the match wasn’t great (but neither was the booking for Rock vs Hogan).
But it was hardly a dead reaction. Considering how crazy they were for Hogan vs Rock for the crowd to have any energy left at all is impressive and they seemed into it to me.
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Wow! I can’t believe that was 20 years ago. Like anyone else that was there, that Hogan/Rock match was unlike anything I have ever seen or likely will see as the atmosphere was just electric. As a little kid Hogan was my favourite, so to finally see him wrestle a match live was just awesome. Just goes to show you how its not about doing cool moves (dont get me wrong, I like cool moves) but its more so about connecting with the crowd, and Hogan definitely did that on March 17, 2002.
I remember liking and being into the HHH/Jericho match, crowd was by no means dead, but after that Hogan/Rock classic, it was what it was. I dont care if it was Bryan vs Omega, nothing could live up to that on that night.
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I mean, from an audience’s perspective, there was the visual of plenty people leaving the building. And even if it were 5000+ people doing it, that’s a small fraction of the larger crowd. So it could happen and not affect the viewing experience.
The match was solid, but nobody in the building thought the outcome was in doubt. And I think the fact it was Canada, you were fighting the natural pro-Jericho stance for many. And to be clear, it was a match I was into. And one going in, I believed, it should close the show.
Plus, the casual Mania goer, which was a major thing then, totally would have been satisfied leaving after Rock / Hogan.
One more thing… Anybody relying on public transit likely wanted to get leaving, as it was St. Patrick’s day, and the confluence of mania fans and drunken green haired folks probably wasn’t an exciting prospect of getting too mixed up with.