There were great WrestleMania's way before XII and would be great WrestleMania's after it. But for its time, WM XII represents an enormous and long-await step forward in quality for the WWE.
This is the first time in nearly 2-3 years of WWE PPVs that I can say I legitimately was entertained almost all the way through. After the opening-card tag matches (which admittedly are kind of "blah"), here are some of the highlights...
-Piper and Goldust's "Backlot Brawl", which was just dumb/silly enough to work I think.
-A perfectly pedestrian match between Steve Austin & Savio Vega, yet important in establishing Austin's WWE presence.
-Ultimate Warrior vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley was a fun little moment, albeit one that (via hindsight) would never take root.
-Undertaker vs. Diesel being a legitimately fun "big men" match. Those two knew how to put on a good show and it bears out here.
Then, of course, there is the Michaels/Hart "Iron Man Match" finale for which this event will always be remembered. Surprisingly, upon a recent re-watch, the first half of the match teeters on being boring, but the latter half more than makes up for it. This is truly one of the best "WM finale" moments in the history of the event, with two of the WWE's Hall of Famers giving it all they had.
It really feels like the WWE turned a bit of a corner with WM XII. They managed to create a fun card almost from top to bottom, and each match added at least some sort of entertainment to the mix. I'd say the last time a WM did that previous to this was WM VIII four years previous. I can't remember if WWE was able to sustain this momentum going forward, but for just this event it was a refreshing step up in quality.
