WWF/WWE Wrestlemania's Greatest MatchesMar 15 '04 (Updated Apr 09 '04) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Movies
The Bottom Line Check out the 20 greatest matches in Wrestlemania history.
It has been a long journey. It started a little over a year ago. The goal was to review each and every Wrestlemania before Wrestlemania XIX. I figured I could write about every match and just go by memory. Was I sure wrong. I decided to re-watch every Wrestlemania and write about everything else that was happening at the time in the WWF/WWE. It turned into a great series where I spent more time researching than writing itself. What did I get out of it? Nothing other than reliving some moments I had as a child and another reason to watch more wrestling than I should have access to. What happened is that I started writing pretty long reviews that encompassed more than just match descriptions. They became my own version of what was happening at the time and what I remembered as a child. And there was no way I was going to finish them in a month. I then decided to allow myself a full year to finish writing all the reviews, and I hit my deadline. And now, I'm going to use that material and put together two all encompassing lists. The first one which is below is the greatest matches of Wrestlemania. I will also rank the Wrestlemania's from worst to best in a later post. You can find reviews of Wrestlemania from XIX through the inaugural show on my profile page The 20 Greatest Wrestlemania Matches Ever (Some matches I considered but just missed the mark: Rock N Sock Connection vs. Evolution from Wrestlemania XX, Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XIV, Rock vs. Steve Austin III from Wrestlemania XIX, Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage from Wrestlemania V, and Rock vs. Steve Austin from Wrestlemania XV) 20. The British Bulldogs vs. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Brutus Beefcake from Wrestlemania 2: The Bulldogs were crazy over as a tag team and this finally cemented them as one of the best tag teams ever in the WWF. The finish was crazy as Dynamite Kid took a bump over the top rope, but the speed of the match was awesome. 19. Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock from Wrestlemania X-8: The match itself wasn't great, but they had the fans eating out of their hands. You can watch Hogan get himself some security and another chance to hold the strap as he steals the crowd from the Rock. 18. Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper from Wrestlemania VIII: It was the first time I really noticed anyone break kayfabe (breaking character or the wrestlers' code of keeping wrestling a secret) as Roddy Piper acknowledged knowing Bret Hart as a child during the build up to this match. It was a passing of the torch in a sense as Piper gave way to Hart who would hold the WWF Heavyweight Championship not too long after beating Piper here for the Intercontinental Championship. 17. Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero from Wrestlemania XX: Yes, I already have matches on this list from the latest version of Wrestlemania which took place just a few hours earlier than when I published this (March 14th). This was a match that was expected to be one of the greatest matches ever, and it wasn't even the best match on the card. But, it doesn't mean it was bad. This match was a slower style match than I expected, but it had it's great spots including an interesting finish where Eddie faked an ankle injury to sneak up on Angle to pin him and yes, he lied, cheated, and probably stole the win. 16. Triangle Ladder Match from Wrestlemania 2000: This was the 16th version of the show and this was really the only good match on the card. It was an interesting match and really started the great feud between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge and Christian. It was a spot fest and worked well and set up things to come later in the feud. 15. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit from Wrestlemania X-7: Wrestlemania X-7 started out slowly. By watching much of the first half of the pay per view, you would never think this was most likely the greatest PPV the WWF/WWE would ever produce. But then this match happened. It was short in time for what they did. Kurt Angle would say that this was closest to Olympic style mat wrestling anyone would ever perform in the WWF/WWE. This set the table for what was a great night. 14. Christian vs. Chris Jericho from Wrestlemania XX: Yet another match from Wrestlemania XX and not the last. This was the first match-up from this show that was classic status. The match was building to a climax in which Trish Stratus would turn heel on Jericho in a quirky ending that took away from the match. But, both guys worked their butts off and went back and forth with both guys kicking out of close pin falls. 13. The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan from Wrestlemania VI: If you knew these two guys were to wrestle and had to think of what the perfect match these two guys could possibly have, this is what you'd wish for. Much like Rock vs. Hogan twelve years later, they had the crowd eating out of their hands. The finish was even more impressive as Hogan went for the leg drop and missed, setting up Warrior's finishing move and win. We'd never seen Hogan miss his leg drop before. Hogan would steal the light from Warrior by raising his hand in victory. 12. Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair from Wrestlemania VIII: It's an underrated Wrestlemania match as far as I'm concerned. I thought it was almost as good as Savage's match from the Wrestlemania the year before when he carried The Ultimate Warrior to the greatest match of his career. Savage and Flair went back and forth and when Savage scored the upset, I was really surprised and popped hard. 11. TLC II from Wrestlemania X-7: At Summerslam the year before, Edge and Christian, the Dudleys, and the Hardy Boyz put on a great match that consisted of what Commissioner Mick Foley said at the time was, "Tables, ladders, and chairs, oh my." This match was the rematch and again Edge and Christian won. I thought this was the best of the series of matches between the three teams. 10. Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs. Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XII: This is the most overrated match in Wrestlemania history. Yes even more so than Rock vs. Hogan. Here's the reason. You could've grabbed your snack, your beverage of choice, went to the bathroom a few times and not have missed much. It was a nicely put together match, but there were no pinfalls until after the 1 hour time limit. It was supposed to be an Iron Man Match. That means most falls in 1 hour. And there were none. I know some people who are huge Michaels' fans will think I'm nuts, but I can't put a match where I was bored throughout any higher than here. 9. Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior from Wrestlemania VII: This was the best match that The Ultimate Warrior has ever been in. And it wasn't because of him. It was because of Savage. It was a "career vs. career" match and his character did everything he could do to beat Warrior and when he couldn't do it, he was able to understand his fate. And at that time, Elizabeth walked into the ring and she and Savage embraced. There was not a better piece of outside of the ring drama at a Wrestlemania ever. 8. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XIX: This was almost the show stealer from Mania XIX. It was Chris Jericho versus his idol, the Heartbreak Kid. There was also another sideline to this story as it was Shawn's first Wrestlemania match since he put over Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XIV. They tore the house down in a back and forth classic and even though HBK won in the end, Jericho got his heat back. I understand it was Jericho's idea to put HBK over at the end. Classic stuff. 7. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit from Wrestlemania XX: If you need one reason to watch Wrestlemania XX, this is the reason. Chris Benoit seemed to be on his way to win the World Championship until it seemed Vince McMahon changed his mind and put Shawn Michaels into this match and made it a three way. The match was great as Triple H put his working boots on and even though he looked really out of shape, he did the right thing for the business and put Benoit over cleanly by submitting to the "Crippler Crossface". HBK was great in this match as he bumped like crazy and hit one of the best "Sweet Chin Music" side kicks I've ever seen as it came out of nowhere to break up one of Benoit's chances at making HHH submit. Great match overall. 6. The Rock vs. Steve Austin II from Wrestlemania X-7. With this match being like a home coming for Austin, you knew the crowd was going to react to him like crazy. But they also booed the heck out of the Rock. The guys went back and forth, kicking out of each other's finishing holds with the dramatic two counts. In the end, Austin went with Vince McMahon turning heel in one of the biggest booking mistakes ever. But, before business went bad, this match was just an awesome display between two of the biggest stars the business has ever seen. 5. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar from Wrestlemania XIX: The drama was there. Kurt was wrestling with a broken neck. Brock was on the biggest scene of his career. There wasn't much room for error. These guys put on a wrestling show going back and forth and even persevered through Brock's near crippling miss of a "Shooting Star Press" where he landed on his head. Angle with his broken neck was tremendous. Just pure wrestling at it's best. 4. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon from Wrestlemania X: The match was maybe the most pioneering match in today's wrestling. We hadn't seen a ladder match on television before and to do it on the biggest stage was risky, considering Razor wasn't really on Michaels' level. But Shawn put on a masterful performance in taking bumps that wouldn't be seen as all that outrageous today, but for the time were breath taking. And most importantly, they weren't put together just to have a high spot, they made sense. 3. Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs. Owen Hart from Wrestlemania X: This was Bret's first of two matches at Wrestlemania X and he and his late brother Owen, put on a classic performance. It wasn't known if Owen could keep up with his older brother, mostly because he hadn't yet got the chance, but for those who had followed Owen knew that he was second to only Bret in the Hart family of wrestlers. The match was even made more so because Owen upset his brother and legitimately made his career in the WWF/WWE. 2. Steve Austin vs. Bret "The Hitman" Hart from Wrestlemania 13: This was the only noteworthy thing on this entire card. It was the match that cemented Steve Austin as a true player in the WWF/WWE and also did two things. First, it turned Austin face and he happened to become the biggest face this side of Hulk Hogan and it also turned Bret heel. The ending was probably the greatest finish to a Wrestlemania match as it was an "I Quit" match and you really didn't see either guy quitting. Bret Hart put Austin in the "Sharp Shooter" and instead of tapping out, Austin passed out in a pool of blood. Austin's bloody face was then put on T-shirts and sold tons. Blood of a stone. Ken Shamrock was the guest referee here. 1. Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat from Wrestlemania III: Some people will probably say that this match has slightly aged and might not compare in drama to one of the better matches today. Some people might also say that this match is hurt by the fact that Steamboat had better matches with Ric Flair some two years later. But I don't care. To me, this is where wrestling started. Yah, Vince went national and had already produced two supercards in Wrestlemania and Wrestlemania 2. But here you had two guys, both being right under Hogan, tear the house down in the biggest PPV of the time. It was the biggest stage and both guys put on the greatest match on one of the greatest shows. The back and forth between them was great and when Steamboat finally got revenge on Savage, I thought I'd just seen the greatest thing ever. It still has that effect on me. Also, check out Wrestlemania Ranked From Worst To Best.  |
| Read all comments (5)|Write your own comment |
