Thursday, March 28, 2024
NewsWhich is the best Wrestlemania of all-time?

Which is the best Wrestlemania of all-time?

12 views

TRENDING

*Warning: Longest article in

eWrestlingNews history imminent

** Seriously, it’s over 4,000 words

*** But it was hard work so please do
read

**** Most importantly, ENJOY!

It’s the
most woooooonderful timeeeeee of the yeeeeear. Nope, not Christmas, its
Wrestlemania season!

With the
granddaddy of them all looming large over our heads, I thought I’d metaphorically
inject myself with some Wrestlemania spirit (as the WWE has forgotten how to do
it). Now I cannot conclusively say what the greatest incarnation of the event
is as I have seen WM 15-23 and then after a hiatus from watching WWE I watched
all of 29.

In the
coming years I will amend this travesty by watching ones I have missed; from
the earlier shows to the dreaded 27th one. I know lots about them of
course, I’ve just never got round to watching them. So I stress that this
opinion will be based on the aforementioned Wrestlemania shows I have listed.

Regardless
of the one’s I’ve missed; after lots of reading, researching and perusing
articles on the almighty internet, opinion seems to be fixed on the same few
events where the best is concerned. All of this article is subjective and is MY
opinion, so I don’t want to hear childish moaning in the comments section
saying “You don’t know what I’m talking about” or other nonsensical
non-educated gibberish. Excellent, onto the shows!

In MY
opinion:

Wrestlemania
15

This was a
poor PPV with undoubtedly the worst Hell in a Cell match of all-time, hell (no
pun intended), the stupid post-match hanging was better than the match. Apart
from the first glorious instalment in the Austin/Rock trilogy; the less said about
the event the better.

Wrestlemania
16

2000 was
close to the pinnacle of WWF at the time. They churned out tremendous PPV’s at
will; sadly the weakest PPV of the year was their biggest one. NO singles
matches (that’s not a good thing….that’s….a bad thing). Yes the Triangle Ladder
Match was incredible, the main event was better than people give it credit for
and the 2-fall double title match was good but short; however the rest of the
card is very poor. Who in their right mind would want to see The Godfather and
D-Lo Brown take on Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan? At Wrestlemania no less!
*major sigh*

Wrestlemania
20

This is
definitely a mixed bag here with some very good and some just plain bad.
Cena/Big Show? Very bad. Jericho/Christian? Good. Lesnar/Goldberg? KILL IT.
KILL IT WITH FIRE. Eddie/Kurt? Superb. Undertaker/Kane? Bad.
Benoit/HHH/Michaels? Spectacularly marvellous. Throw in some ok tag matches, a
good Cruiserweight invitational and meaningless filler Women’s Title Match and
you have a very mixed event.

Wrestlemania
23

There is so
much to be admired here but just not quite enough quality, in MY eyes, to
shine; despite some solid bouts. It was too low down on the card for my liking
but Undertaker’s World Title victory was amazing to see; he really deserved the
spotlight to finish the show. But some of the stuff really killed my liking for
the event such as Ashley being on the card; she was hot as hell but couldn’t
wrestle to save her life and Kane and Khali should only be shown for torture
purposes. But I believe we saw the making of John Cena on this night. Yes he
had been around for nearly 5 years at this point but he put on one of his finest
matches ever, in the main event, for the WWE Title, against a true legend. But
do you know something? Cena didn’t look like he was being carried at any point
during this match; I may not like what he has become, but on his day, John Cena
can certainly wrestle.

Wrestlemania
29

This was a
relatively weak card and didn’t do much for me. I expected
Faaaaaaaandaaaaaaaangooooooooooo to go over but he wasn’t spectacular in his
victory and his subsequent demise has made his only WM appearance, to date,
worthless. Some ok matches followed, Del Rio and Swagger impressed but overall
the event was saved by its main events. Punk and Undertaker tore the house down
with an excellent match. Lesnar and Triple HHH really added some brutality and
bite, albeit the match being slow-paced; whilst The Rock and Cena put on
another solid main event match. Thankfully Dwayne hasn’t hogged the spotlight
this year; although with this year’s card, I wish he had.

Right, now
we get to the BIG ones. Counting down from 5……I bet you’re already guessing
the number 1 spot……

#5
Wrestlemania 18

I really do
think that this was a highly enjoyable and underrated show. Flair and “Booger
Red” concluded a very personal rivalry, the opener was a nice surprise between
Regal and RVD; not forgetting the amusing side-story of the hardcore
championship all night. But of course, who can’t forget THAT match? I could
watch Edge and Booker T parade their passion for Japanese shampoo commercials
all day long! Joking aside, Rock/Hogan showcased a classic wrestling match with
Hogan’s limited but effective offense counteracting the young lion’s agility
and power. The crowd is still arguably the greatest crowd for a match I’ve ever
heard, but it should have been the main event as the crowd was dead for the
Undisputed Title match.

#4
Wrestlemania 21

We’re going
Hollywood! We also get an undercard which was about as good an undercard as you
will ever have for a Wrestlemania or PPV to be honest. It’s a bold statement,
but when you take into consideration the magnitude of the matches and their
respective quality; it becomes plainly obvious. Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero
opened the show in excitable fashion as you’d expect and it’s one of the best
openers I’ve seen. The first ever Money in the Bank match was highly
innovative, historic and catapulted Shelton Benjamin, in more ways than one,
into the spotlight. The Undertaker, supposedly, offered the Streak to Randy
Orton but he turned it down out of respect. Despite Orton’s arrogance, if this
is true then that is commendable. These two produced an incredible match to
sustain the unstoppable start to this show. Christy Hemme put in a poor
performance at Wrestlemania, similarly like Ashley, she was a pretty face but
didn’t deserve that spot as she couldn’t wrestle. Angle and Michaels then tore
the house down with a 5-star show stealer. Far too much praise for this match
as it’s perfect and utterly flawless. But the show went downhill from here with
an appalling and unnecessary Sumo Match and two less than stellar main events.
Cena and JBL was just an awful match were Cena performed what would become his
staple, Superman heroics, to come back at the end and win his first title
rather anti-climactically. On the other hand, HHH and Batista could have been so
much better after such a long build-up between them both. It wasn’t terrible,
but they would have better matches in the future.

#3
Wrestlemania 22

This edges
21 because it has more consistency, more quality in its card and has MUCH
better main events. Save for a couple of exceptions, 22 was more stacked and
had more fun with stipulations akin to a very popular Wrestlemania event. A good
tag team match opens the show with an experienced team and a young team with
potential kicking things off. We got another awesome Money in the Bank ladder
match, which may have surpassed the year before, but Shelton Benjamin still
stole the show, AGAIN; WWE really dropped the ball with him! Benoit/JBL was ok
and the Boogeyman, Mr and Mrs Booker T was forgettable. But we saw the best Wrestlemania
Diva’s match in years, an entertaining Casket Match, a fiery (pun intended) Hardcore
Match and a personal no-holds barred grudge match provide some very welcome
action to watch. The Hardcore Match was downright extreme and the crowd loved
it, rightly so. One downside is that we didn’t have our technical wrestling affair;
I suppose the Playboy Pillow Fight was deemed adequate enough to satisfy this
criteria. The Triple Threat Match was very good, not quite WM20-esque, but
still good and Cena and Triple H put on a very solid match to close out the
show; awesome entrances mind.

2 to go…..

I first
watched Wrestlemania 17 for the first time about 10 years ago and I’ve seen it
more times than I care to count. I finally bought and watched Wrestlemania 19
just under a year ago and have now seen that multiple times.

Both of
these are events are widely regarded as 2 of the greatest, if not, THE greatest
events ever. I have gone back and forth and watched both of them multiple times
to decide what I think to be the truly outstanding event and FINALLY…..The
ROCK has come back to…..sorry……The Rock temporarily took over me then. Finally
come to a conclusion as to what I believe to be the greatest granddaddy of them
all.

#2
Wrestlemania 19

It was very
close but 19 finished a narrow second. The glowing positive this Mania has over
the #1 spot is that it has fewer poor/worthless matches. The overall card is a
lot more satisfying.

1.      Matt Hardy (c) w/Shannon Moore vs Rey
Mysterio: WWE Cruiserweight Title Match

It seems
that the more athletic wrestlers have the tendency to open PPV’s as the
high-flying, fast-paced action is favourable to get the crowd going. For what
we get, these two delivered nicely. Shannon Moore adds some nice spice to this
match by constantly hindering and illegally attacking Rey. Some great stuff
here and if we could just have had that extra 5 minutes from the Catfight and
added it to this, we could have had a real classic. ***

2.      The Undertaker vs Big Show &
A-Train

Now even
though it says Undertaker & Nathan Jones on the DVD box, that is not the
case; this was a handicap match. Neither situation would make for a good match
anyway. Undertaker does what he can to make the match competitive with a solid
solo effort. It made Big Show look very weak and the strange decision to have
Nathan Jones score a kick in the middle of the ring was baffling. He was no
longer a participant in the match and therefore it was a blatant
disqualification. Alas, that’s wrestling logic. This is easily the weakest
match on the card. **

3.      Victoria (c) w/Steven Richards vs
Trish Stratus vs Jazz: WWE Women’s Title Match

A very
competitive match with all 3 women looking strong; Jazz in particular looking
very strong. It’s nice to see a really solid Women’s match and believe it or
not we used to have a respected Women’s division. Victoria’s psycho personality
and bizarre boy toy were in effect here so we had some good use of characters
in this match. Trish boasted her traditional arsenal of flexibility and skill
to win the title to a great reaction from the crowd. ***

4.      Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin
(c) vs Eddie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero vs Chris Benoit & Rhyno: WWE Tag
Team Title Match

Another
match that was hurt by time! I mean seriously, I like my hot women as much as
anyone but if you’re that desperate for that then use the internet; wasting
valuable match time with this rubbish is frustrating. ANYWAY, all 3 teams were
packed with talent and there was great interchanging and tag team wrestling as
you’d expect from them. The soon to be World’s Greatest Tag Team stole a good
win here but again, more time would have allowed this match to develop better.
***

5.      Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho

Put your
feet up and enjoy. This is a match for the ages. The 3 month build-up was good
and didn’t drag, just like the match didn’t drag. The ability of these 2 men is
astonishing and the chemistry between them was mesmeric to watch. No botches or
even a hint of error in this match, even Bret Hart wouldn’t be giving this
4/10. I, however, would give this match a 9/10. Why only a 9? It’s a personal
gripe and this will certainly vary with people, some of you may even think me a
fool for my reasoning but I care not. The sudden roll-up ending just sours matches
for me to be honest. I favour a definitive finale with perhaps a final devastating
Sweet Chin Music from an attempted Lionsault; how devastating would that have
been? But then again, maybe Jericho would have been too out of it to engage in
the hug moment. Regardless, in terms of a wrestling standpoint the contest is unrelenting
and the displays are special. ****1/2

6.      Triple H (c) vs Booker T: World
Heavyweight Championship Title Match

“Your kind
will never be the world champion”. These cringe worthy comments from Triple H
led to another controversial storyline involving himself on Raw. The vomments
(vomit worthy comments) were intended differently but the nature of them surely
meant Booker T HAD to win the title. Instead he was buried as his career
stagnated after this pleasantly surprising match. Aside from the Hell in a Cell
match against Kevin Nash, this was easily the best World Heavyweight Title
Match in a dour 2003 for Raw. Both put lots of effort in and the leg-work on
Triple H was characteristic of the Cerebral Assassin; the Indian Deathlock is a
personal highlight of the match. Terrific selling from Booker T and some good manoeuvres
made this match enjoyable. But the victor was the wrong man and it setback
Booker T’s career by at least 2 or 3 years. ***1/2

7.      Vince McMahon vs Hulk Hogan: Street
Fight

We had two
guys who were 49 and 57 respectively at that point, they’re not the best
wrestlers and they’re not the most athletic. But their characters are powerful
with a terrific back story of personal hatred between them. The match has a
weird beginning as Vince laughably ‘outwrestles’ Hogan and works on his arm
before an excruciatingly lengthy test of strength. Even more laughable is the
fact Hogan forgot that Vince has been working on his arm for 2 or 3 minutes and
forgets that ‘selling’ is a thing. Once we get past this then it becomes a
blood fest with chair shots; strangely both of these applied to commentator
Hugo Savinovich who takes a shot, I’ve never seen a commentator get busted open
before. Oh, did I mention Vince’s 10ft Leg Drop to Hogan off of a ladder
through the announce table? Throw in some overbooking, an odd but welcome appearance
from Rowdy Roddy Piper and you’ve got an entertaining Street Fight here. ***

8.      Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock

“Everybody remembers
Act 3”…..that’s not true and the The Rock knows it. We will always remember
them but thankfully we’ll always remember Act 3 too. It’s probably the 2nd
best match in the series and, if you’ve watched the documentary about WM19, you’ll
understand the importance of this match more so. Austin was on his last legs
and still managed to put in a great effort on his part as he and The Rock took
the audience through a final journey. The Rock really played to the crowd and
solidified his heel role in the match; adopting Austin’s trademark jacket
midway through the match was clever. It seemed like The Rock had to win at the
third time of asking and with 3 hard-hitting Rock Bottom’s he put Stone Cold
away in another classic. ****

9.      Kurt Angle (c) vs Brock Lesnar: WWE
Title Match

What better
way to end the show than have your 2 best amateur wrestlers tussle on the
canvas in yet another classic wrestling match on the card. Again, if you know
your wrestling, you’d know that Kurt was running on adrenaline to get through
the match but boy, give me some of that adrenaline as he was brilliant; same
for Lesnar. It had lots of mat-based wrestling, submission wrestling and power
moves; a droolfest if you’re a purist like me. If you made a checklist for a
traditional wrestling contest then this match would surely tick all the boxes.
I’d have liked this to have gone on a bit longer but their Iron Man Match would
more than make up for this. I also won’t sugar coat this but there was only truly
notable sore point; Lesnar nearly killing himself. Now let’s get this straight,
short of dangerous unsupervised wrestling with my cousins when I was younger, I
have never wrestled before. I am not an all-American, collegiate, accomplished wrestler
like Brock Lesnar. But he says he over-rotated on his jump which led to him
practically crushing his head; did he? If you look at the footage, Kurt is
halfway across the ring and I think anyone would have struggled to reach that
far with a Shooting Star Press. The match is still amazing without the
potential death of the WWE’s top guy at the time. ****1/2

#1
Wrestlemania 17

It just had
to be. WWE.com put this as their #1 PPV ever; you go on any wrestling forums or
search for the best wrestling PPV on Google and 9 times out of 10 the answers
will point to one show. Wrestlemania 17. It simply had everything.

1.      Chris Jericho (c) vs William Regal: WWF
Intercontinental Title Match

 These two had an amusing story of authority vs
rebel, Jericho urinating in Regal’s tea just about summed up the silliness.
There was some nice wrestling here and it opened my eyes to the ability of
William Regal. Jericho prevailed with a win courtesy of a rare match-ending
Lionsault. Great opener. ***1/2

2.      Right To Censor vs The APA and Tazz

You can’t
really get more basic than this match really. The pre-match promo from Bradshaw
was surprisingly brilliant with lots of passion. But this match was nothing
special and didn’t need to be on the card. *

3.      Raven (c) vs Kane vs Big Show:
Hardcore Match for the WWF Hardcore Title

WOW. This
match was fun and in terms of hardcore status, it deserves more recognition.
The concept of the match is one of pity, for Raven, facing off against a couple
of 7-foot monsters. But he holds his own and is the centre of some memorable
spots: being thrown through a wall and a window, Kane and Big Show destroying
more walls and doors, golf carts and the final spot off the stage. The hardcore
title may mean very little, but this was still a very well-worked, entertaining
match. ***

4.      Test (c) vs Eddie Guerrero: WWF
European Title Match

Falling just
short of his match against The Undertaker at Summerslam 2002, Test put in one
of his better matches in his career with Eddie here. Eddie can make a match
with almost anyone look good and it showed here. Some good wrestling and dominance
from Test made the interference for Eddie look better in his heel victory; a
perfectly acceptable contest. **1/2

5.      Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit

To the day
of writing this article, I have never seen 2 wrestlers with better chemistry.
The 2003 Royal Rumble match, the 30-minute Ultimate Submission Match,
2-out-of-3 falls match etc. This match was no exception. They just work in
tandem as bona fide show stealers. Lots of amateur mat wrestling, holds,
counter-holds, the best display that Paul Heyman has ever seen apparently. They
well and truly put on a clinic with Angle extending their feud with a cheeky handful
of tights to win an epic match. ****1/2

6.      Ivory (c) vs Chyna: WWF Women’s Title
Match

Chyna had never
actually held the Women’s Title before and to be honest I think it’s obvious
why. She absolutely overwhelms any Diva in Women’s history apart from maybe
Beth Phoenix and Kharma. Chyna effortlessly and swiftly squashes Ivory for her
first title reign.  DUD

7.      Shane McMahon vs Vince McMahon:
Street Fight

Family.
Feud. Humiliation. Retaliation. Redemption. The storyline had it all and it was
in this concluding chapter (until Invasion of course). This was a really good
back and forth rivalry between the McMahon family and we finally saw the
Father/Son match that intrigued people. Sure it was overbooked, very overbooked
in fact; but it was necessary. Shane’s top rope elbow to the announce table,
signs, kendo sticks, chairs, face turns, Linda’s awakening and the famous
coast-to-coast. Solid from Shane as ever and probably Vince’s best match. ***1/2

8.      Edge & Christian (c) vs The Hardy
Boyz vs Dudley Boyz: TLC Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles

I’m going to
quickly start out by saying that this is not quite the best match between these
teams. I think that honour is reserved for TLC I from Summerslam 2000 which was
more balanced and only had one interfering person. Nevertheless, anyone who’s
anyone has seen or at least heard about this match will know it reeks of
awesomeness. The spots are unforgettable and all 6 men really put their bodies
and reputations on the line. A couple of spots were botched e.g Jeff walking
the tightrope of ladders and his Swanton on the outside, but we the ones that
came off were spectacular. The mammoth 20ft spear, Matt and Bubba going through
all 4 tables (the only timer I’ve ever known all 4 break!), the Dudley Dog to
the outside etc. It’s an encounter that was befitting of the Wrestlemania stage
that will never be forgotten. ****1/2

9.      Gimmick Battle Royal

This is what
I like to call a ‘cooldown match’ as it bridged the gap between TLC and
HHH/Undertaker. For lots of the older fans watching it would probably have
provided a bit of nostalgia and nothing more. Standard brawling and
eliminations ensued. DUD

10.  Triple H vs The Undertaker

Two of the
biggest names collided in an unofficial street fight (I’ll explain later) with
The Undertaker boasting that Triple H had never beaten him before. I’ve had
reservations about this match for years, but I’ve now come to appreciate it for
what it is; a brawl. As for the street fight aspect, referee Mike Chioda is
down for over 11 minutes in this match after Taker beats him blue. 11 minutes!
In wrestling terms that is almost an ice age. It was also conveniently long
enough for both participants to battle through the crowd and engage in heated
combat on a camera tower. I think it rates better than the WM27 match but falls
short of the WM28 match. The in-ring action is really good and the crowd were
well-behind this match. ****

11.  The Rock (c) vs Stone Cold Steve
Austin: WWF Title

Of all the
matches I’ve ever seen, I have only deemed several matches to be 5-star
matches: Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit at the 2003 Royal Rumble and Kurt Angle vs
Shawn Michaels at WM21 being a couple of them. This is another one. I can
honestly say I would give anything to have been in the Astrodome in Texas for
this match alone. The pre-match promo was my favourite one I’ve ever seen and
this match had an unreal amount of anticipation. This near 30 minute war was
paced to perfection, these 2 clearly gave it their all and left their blood,
sweat and ermmm…more blood in that ring. Countless uses of finishers,
stealing each other’s finishers, finishers from previous gimmicks, weapons,
excessive gesticulation and an explosive crowd made this match legendary. The
other factor that made this so memorable was the twist of having Vince McMahon
walk down the aisle towards the end. He had a history of screwing over and
feuding with both of these men; most notably Stone Cold. To see Vince aid
Austin to victory so viciously and passionately is shocking to see; even now. I
can watch this match all day and find new ways to appreciate it. *****

If you’re
still with me up until now then congratulations and thank you.

To
summarise, we’ve had some cracking Wrestlemania’s amongst some of the rubbish.
I think PPV’s with stipulations make for a better event personally, PG or
no-PG. Wrestlemania 17 was a majorly stacked card with true quality whereas
WM19 focused on mainly wrestling and still produced a great event. But 19 had
direction with a superb roster of talent; the WWE is currently lacking both.
Storylines nowadays seem to last as long as Great Khali promo.

Wrestlemania
30 is shaping up to be a horrible Wrestlemania, perhaps worse than 15! We currently
have only 7 matches on the card as one of the matches I was actually looking
forward to, the Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Title match, has been put on the pre-show.
So we get a Diva’s Invitational that no one really cares about, the Andre The
Giant Battle Royal which is just a way to get all the talent on the card and
doesn’t really mean much; plus The Shield being wasted because of the New Age
Outlaws selfishness.

Lesnar and
Undertaker should be good but won’t bring the house down and in recent year’s
Lesnar stands the least chance of ending the Streak since Batista in 2007 or
maybe Edge in 2008 (I researched it). John Cena vs Bray Wyatt has had quite
possibly the best build-up of all the matches and I’m definitely looking forward
to it. But if Cena doesn’t let Bray go over him then it will do nothing for
Cena and severely hurt Bray’s credibility as a monster.

As for
Daniel Bryan, Triple H, Batista and Orton…you would think that Triple H will
get his comeuppance and Bryan gets his moment 8 months in the making.

But what do
I want to happen? I want one of the greatest heels ever ripping the crowd apart
with his cockiness and authoritative power as he enjoys one last run. A Triple
H title run would be fan-frigging-tastic for business. But I have a feeling
that Bryan will go through a marathon night and spit in the face of adversity to
claim the belt(s).

What if
Batista wins the belt(s)? It’s safe to there would be the single biggest uproar
in sports entertainment history, but I guess we’d have to deal with it. However,
in light of the response to him since his return, I think it’s safe to say he
won’t be leaving as champion.

Orton? His
reign as champion has been poor and he has not looked like a convincing
champion for a very long time. So I’d wager that in WWE’s creative plans he is
the least likely of the 4 to leave as champion.

A Fatal 4-way
main event is still a possibility if Bryan manages to win and that would be
epic. But we’re not allowed epic anymore so I’ll veto my own idea.

Daniel Bryan
will probably leave with the gold. Will it end Wrestlemania on a high point?
YES!

Will it make
the PPV good? NO!

Wrestlemania
30: The Ragin’ Anti-Climax!

I’m a mark,
the world needs us.

- Advertisment -

LATEST NEWS

- Advertisment -

Related Articles