Widely regarded as the best Mania of all time and the night the Attitude Era ended, WrestleMania 17 was the culmination of the WWF's cult popularity in 2001. Doing over a million buys in this period was a great achievement given that Mania didn't sell itself as easily on the 'brand value' as it does these days. The buy number was down to the strength of the WWF's star power, particularly in the main event of Austin vs Rock. Ideally this is what every Mania main event should be, the top two guys in the company facing off. It was a huge match and delivered on the night, before Austin infamously turned heel and joined Mr McMahon to steal the win. Every match on the card can take some credit for the buy number, the company really did get it right in the line up. You had Undertaker vs Triple H, Edge and Christian vs The Hardys vs The Dudleys in a TLC match, Shane McMahon vs Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit in a mat classic. Vince McMahon was at the height of his power, he had a roster which was rammed with talent, but after this night nothing was ever the same again. Within the year Rock and Ausitn were gone as full timers, Triple H and Benoit went out injured long term, even the departure of Chyna was the end of an era.
