The Greatest WrestleManias Ever
Which editions make up the Elite 8?
If you’ve been keeping up with the countless hours of WWE TV, you might get lost on the Road to WrestleMania.
While we know Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Ronda Rousey are set in stone, as is Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Seth Rollins and Batista returning to face Triple H, the rest of the lineup is anybody’s guess. That doesn’t bode well for the actual card, which hopefully won’t run close to eight hours as in recent years.
The Wrestling Estate Editor-in-Chief John Corrigan and fellow diehard Tim Jimenez of KYW NewsRadio shared their list of the top five best WrestleManias of all time. As you can imagine, they weren’t in full agreement. To hear the full conversation, listen to Corrigan’s Corner on Team LeftJab Radio.
WrestleMania 33
Corrigan: “You had the Hardyz come back, which was a total surprise. I still like the idea of John Cena and Nikki Bella having a WrestleMania moment. You’ve got Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, which is the greatest match I’ve ever seen live. And at the time, it was Undertaker’s last stand. There wasn’t a bad match on the card, except maybe the SmackDown Women’s Championship match, but that was just rushed. All in all, it was a fantastic show.”
Jimenez: “You bringing back all those memories, incredible stuff. The Hardyz thing was awesome. I had no clue. I hoped Taker never wrestled again because that final moment was the perfect way to end it.”
WrestleMania X-7
Jimenez: “I texted you right when the Network came out that the first thing I watched was WrestleMania X-7. It’s the best card I’ve ever seen in my life. It marked the end of the Attitude Era. Even when WCW was destroying WWF for all those years in the Monday Night War, I was a WWF fan. This seemed like a victory celebration to me. It was the first stadium show in a long time so it felt huge and epic. The main event of Austin-Rock was just off the charts. At the time, the heel turn was pretty shocking, but looking back on it, the follow up wasn’t so great. The TLC match was incredible as well. I’ll never forget Edge’s spear off the ladder as Jeff was grabbing the belt. Vince and Shane was fun. Triple and Undertaker was absolutely ridiculous. I think they had the longest ref bump in the history of wrestling. And of course, you can’t forget the Gimmick Battle Royal. I think that was the last time Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan was on commentary. So many great moments from that show.”
Corrigan: “For a long, long time, X-7 was the best WrestleMania. I had it taped on VHS and when my friends would come over to wrestle in the basement, we’d play it as white noise in the background. Eventually, you stopped playing and just got mesmerized all over again. But let me ask you about the Austin heel turn – does that tarnish WrestleMania X-7?”
Jimenez: “To me, it doesn’t. I look at everything as a whole and I guess they wanted to try something completely different. That moment marked the end of the Attitude Era as well. Even though it didn’t really work out so well, the match itself was so good that I’m still okay with it all these years later.”
Corrigan: “I loved Austin’s heel run throughout 2001. It’s funny because the Stone Cold character is a heel. He doesn’t play by the rules, he’s not someone a girl would bring home to their parents. It’s forgotten how great of a heel he was. Texas was probably not the best place to do the turn. Maybe if they did it in Miami or somewhere that would be Rock territory, it would have had a better start.”
WrestleMania VIII
Jimenez: “Most people overlook this one. My dad got a copy of the show soon after it came out on VHS. He had a coworker who taped it for him. On the same tape was Royal Rumble 92. So whoever my dad’s friend was, he was a good dude. That’s the whole peak of Ric Flair in WWE. Gorilla and the Brain continued their incredible commentary streak from the Rumble. The heat was off the charts for Savage and Flair. I was 5 years old at the time, so I didn’t really get the whole ‘She was mine before she was yours.’ But I got it enough to believe that Flair was bad and Macho was really good. Bret Hart-Piper told a great story. The blood really added to it and that was the match that took Hart to the next level in his career. Hogan and Justice was kind of lame, but Warrior coming out to help Hogan was wow. It was another one of those passing of the torch moments that ultimately didn’t work out.”
Corrigan: “The Piper-Hart match is one of my favorites. They don’t do storylines like that anymore. It was like a heightened take on ‘I’m better than you,’ man vs. man, two family friends who always felt they were better than the other. It felt real and mature, something that a lot of guys could relate to, even moreso than the Flair-Savage storyline.”
Jimenez: “That was the only time Piper had a belt in his whole run there. For him to have the Intercontinental Title felt special because he never needed a belt. And then for Bret to take it from him made Bret special, too.”
WrestleMania XX
Corrigan: “It is jam-packed with star power. Chris Benoit winning the World Heavyweight Championship against Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle. Undertaker, in his supposed return to the dark side, beating Kane. Evolution vs. the reuniting Rock n’ Sock. Goldberg vs. Lesnar. Jericho vs. Christian with an amazing heel turn by Trish Stratus. They also brought back the hall of fame so you had another Heenan and Mean Gene cameo. They just celebrated the anniversary of WrestleMania perfectly.”
Jimenez: “It’s always cool anytime they go back to Madison Square Garden. Was this the one with Molly Holly getting her head shaved?”
Corrigan: “Yes! They should bring that back today. Back in 2004, women’s wrestling was treated like a bathroom break. But if they did a hair match today with all the talented wrestlers and well-defined characters, that would be huge.”
WrestleMania X
Jimenez: “It was the first pay-per-view that our family ordered. My dad was a fan – that’s how I got into wrestling – but he never really ordered PPVs. The card wasn’t great overall, but you had Bret and Owen to start. Then it ended with Bret winning the title as Owen looked on with everyone celebrating in the ring. Telling that story from beginning to end was great. You also had the ladder match with Shawn and Razor – most people had never seen something like that before. And to see Yokozuna finally get beat. I didn’t want him to have the belt anymore. I was glad that Bret Hart was the one to beat him.”
Corrigan: “I wonder how many people’s first pay-per-view was a WrestleMania. I know it was mine and yours and most of my friends. WrestleMania is the event where everybody convinces their parents to finally buy one.”
Jimenez: “It was great. I had a friend over – everybody has that wrestling friend at school. It wasn’t as mainstream as it is today, so you couldn’t talk about it with most people.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzkIVPZoG2Q
WrestleMania III
Corrigan: “The irresistible force meets the immovable object. You hear so many announcers use that today, but they butcher it and don’t understand what Gorilla was saying. This event was well before my time, but it still holds up today. I’m not always into the flashy moves or technical expertise. A Ring of Honor card isn’t what I consider to be the best wrestling. I love the drama and spectacle. Heenan dressed in all white riding in the cart with Andre, finally going to win the title. Hogan slamming Andre as 93,000 people go nuts. You can still get wrapped up in it. You’ve got Jesse Ventura on commentary – he’s my favorite commentator. You’ve got Savage vs. Steamboat, which still holds up. Then you’ve got Piper vs. Adrian Adonis in what was billed as Piper’s retirement match, which in retrospect is ridiculous because he was so young and obviously wasn’t going to leave wrestling forever. And Bundy slamming midgets.”
Jimenez: “Such a great show. That was the first epic WrestleMania. Whatever the number of attendees are, you can debate them, but it’s just a massive crowd. You’ve got guys coming in on ring carts. The main event is such a historic moment. Like you said, you don’t need guys doing flips and dives and all that stuff for everything, especially for back in the day. And Savage vs. Steamboat is as good as it gets.”
WrestleMania XXX
Jimenez: “Austin, Hogan and Rock beginning the show in the Silverdome, brother. For those three guys to start the show was definitely a mark-out moment for me because those are the three I’ve cheered for harder than anyone in my life. And Daniel Bryan’s story was just like Bret’s at WrestleMania X, starting the show as the challenger and ending the show as the champion. It was the perfect ending for the Daniel Bryan story. You felt he was really being held down and never being given that spot, so you cheered for him even harder. Of course, you can’t talk about this show and not talk about The Streak ending. I mean, wow. I thought Taker would win every WrestleMania ever.”
Corrigan: “I remember when we were working together, we were all talking about who is going to win. We didn’t really give Brock a chance because The Streak was so firmly established, but you couldn’t count Brock out because if Taker had to lose, why not lose to a legitimate monster like Brock? Watching The Streak end live is the craziest thing in my life. It was like the cartoon where the wolf’s eyes pop out of his head. I actually say WrestleMania XXX is the greatest of all time.”
WrestleMania XXVIII
Jimenez: “It was the first pay-per-view I ordered since 1997. The reason being The Rock coming back and facing Cena. I watched it with one of my best friends and another friend, who isn’t really a wrestling fan at all, but he came over because of Rock and Cena. When you’re bringing in a really casual fan like that, you know it’s a special moment. You also had Triple H and Undertaker with Shawn as the ref in Hell in a Cell. I didn’t like how they called it ‘End of an Era’ when clearly both guys would keep wrestling after that. But the match itself was really good and really intense with J.R. on commentary. I was just a casual fan at the time, and this show introduced me to the Daniel Bryan ‘Yes!’ chant. That really started a huge path for him to become one of the big guys in the company.”
Corrigan: “The ‘End of an Era’ still bothers me because that was Undertaker’s 20th win, so I thought that would be his final match at WrestleMania. I’ll admit I totally thought Triple H and Shawn Michaels were going to screw him when Shawn hit Sweet Chin Music and Triple H pedigreed him.”
Click here for their picks for the worst WrestleManias ever.
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