With this year’s WrestleMania fast approaching, the excitement levels are starting to build. Fans are starting to wonder what we could see at the Showcase of the Immortals this year. However, if you look back over WWE’s history of success with creating epic final matches for Mania, you’ll see why we should just trust them. Here are five of the best WrestleMania main events of all time!
5. WrestleMania 5: Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage
Leading up to WrestleMania 5, best friends Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, the two biggest faces in the WWF at the time, turned on each other. This resulted in an epic feud like none that anybody had ever seen at that time. The match itself was a solid pay-off to their battles, with the crowd going absolutely mental for the two biggest wrestlers in the world. It was an epic encounter with the WWF Championship on the line. Now it is written in the history books as one of the most memorable matches of all time within the WWE.
4. WrestleMania 15: The Rock vs Steve Austin
Talk about the two biggest stars of the eighties, these two were surely two of the biggest stars in the nineties, and this being their first WrestleMania bout (albeit not their last) was a crowning moment at the end of a wonderful decade for the WWF. These two had a rivalry for the ages that truly peaked at WrestleMania 15, when they faced each other with the WWF Championship at stake in an incredible encounter. The match itself was amazing because it was no disqualification and these two really did everything they could to each other. Truly, one of the great rivalries and one of the great WrestleMania main events.
3. WrestleMania 3: Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant
Hulk Hogan dominated the WrestleMania main event scene in the earliest years of the event. He had already been the winner of the first two WrestleMania main events prior to this one. This is what WrestleMania is all about. You take the two biggest stars you can find, you make an incredible rivalry between them and then you bring it to a head in a match where the crowd scream the entire time for the hero. Andre was unbeaten in fifteen years of wrestling with the WWF. Hogan had been WWF Champion for over three years straight at that point. The moment that Hogan, having been beaten down all match, managed to lift Andre and scoop slam him before hitting the atomic leg drop for the victory is literally the most famous wrestling moment, not only of the eighties, but possibly of all time. Absolutely, one hundred percent, legendary. The only reason that this isn’t top of this list is because in truth it wasn’t a masterclass in technical wrestling. However, a match that was is…
2. WrestleMania 12: Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels
The question of greatest of all time is a never ending one which will never truly be agreed upon. Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Ric Flair, John Cena, they all get brought up. But surely as technical wrestlers, these two are on top of the list. Bret Hart, excellence of execution, and Shawn Michaels, Mr WrestleMania. How could these two legends fighting for the WWE Championship in a sixty minute Iron Man match in the main event of WrestleMania not be one of the greatest matches of all time? Answer, of course it is! These two may have their problems in personal life, but in the ring they put on legendary performances, and this was the most legendary of all. It truly was what WrestleMania is all about. The ending had Shawn Michaels lifting the WWF Championship for the first time, which is another truly legendary moment.
1. WrestleMania 26: The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels
I’m sorry but nothing beats this for me. At WrestleMania 25, Shawn Michaels was beaten by The Undertaker in a match which is considered legendary. Nevertheless, Michaels wasn’t done, and in his attempt to beat Taker’s incredible WrestleMania streak, he put his entire career on the line. The WWE Championship wasn’t on the line in this match, but the legend of the streak and the Heart Break Kid’s career are both worth even more than that. Somehow, these two managed, even in the twilight of both of their careers, to put on the greatest Mania main event of all time. This was the highest stakes match ever seen. The ending, when Undertaker won and Michaels really did retire from the ring forever, was something special. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see the like of this again in a WrestleMania main event.
And that’s all folks! If there’s any match across the years at WrestleMania you feel was better than these, let me know in the comments! Check out The Comical Theory on Facebook or @ComicalTheory on Twitter for more!
