So, right now, WWE plans to host WrestleMania at the Performance Centre hosted by of all
things, the gronk. The gronk of all things. The gronk. Roman Reigns and Goldberg will
be taking place in the same ring that sees WWE’s young lions practicing forward rolls.
On one hand, that’s oddly nice, WWE retreating to the bunker where it creates and hones stars
to safeguard its future, the birthplace of the next generation sheltering it’s greatest
show from the storm, disregarding spectacle to bring the fans at least some facsimile
of a show they’re invested in. On the other hand, WWE is disregarding spectacle and, I
don’t know, guys, Drew winning the title to silence, that’s … love you, Drew. Mania
36 won’t have so much of what makes WrestleMania more than just a wrestling PPV and more of
a cultural touchstone and, just saying, maybe now would be a good time to buy the t-shirt
of a wrestler you really like. Even if you don’t get to wear it in the stands. Anyway,
let’s put real-life aside for a while and take a lovingly look back and some of the
greatest spectacles WWE have ever produced
Now, let’s just get one thing very clear please. This is not a list of greatest WrestleMania
matches. This is a list of which WrestleManias, when taken as full shows, looking at the main
card from top to bottom, which are the best. Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels at Mania 25 might
have been the greatest mania match of all time, but it sits on a show with Chris Jericho
beating up a load of old men, a dud of a WWE title match between Trips and Orton and Santino
Marella winning the battle royal that was meant to be a celebration of 25 years of women’s
wrestling, so.. Yeah. Point is, despite the branding, the very best WrestleManias aren’t
just ‘moments’. We might remember individuals matches, but the truly special WrestleManias,
the ones that we most revisit, are the ones with variety in their spectacle, the ones
that craft show-long narratives that lead an audience emotionally this way and that
before building them up to a huge burst of triumph, the ones that serve as proud statements
on the depth and capabilities of a roster. There are few better things in this world
than a really good WrestleMania.
These are the 10 Greatest WrestleManias in WWE History
Honourable mention - WrestleMania 35
It’s TOO LONG. Goddamn you, WWE I have things to do. There’s a lot of really great stuff
in this Mania, Kofi/Bryan, Rollins/Lesnar was a surprisingly great little oddity, Becky
Two Belts hooray, but when the whole thing runs at over 7 hours, including the world’s
saddest retirement and almost HALF AN HOUR of Triple and Batista flicking each others
piercings then no. No I’m sorry. If this show was 4 hours and trimmed out all the fat
it could legitimately be top 5, but no. Look at me. Look at me all of you. No.
10. WrestleMania 18
Most people remember 18 as a one-match show, and that’s not entirely fair. The No DQ
match with Taker and Flair was fun, mostly because it had Arn Anderson in it, which is
boss, Triple H/Jericho is better than you remember it being despite the burnt out crowd,
and the throughline of the hardcore championship changing multiple times was really fun, but
yeah. It’s the Rock Hogan show, but hey, if people are only going to remember one match,
might as well make it one of the hottest of the all time. The match itself isn’t much,
outside of finishers there are about three moves and one of those is ‘twat you with
belt’, but like most of Hogan’s Mania matches that’s not really the point. So
much of the Hulkster’s main event appeal was built on people just happy to be in the
same place as him, being in a crowd who want to see him hulk up, hit the legdrop, be part
of that overwhelming sensation of getting to watch a superhero live and in person. After
almost a full decade away from WWE the crowd were just overjoyed to see this match despite
what could fairly be regarded as an otherwise middling card, and that is enough to give
the whole event a sense of occasion which just about carries throughout. In that way
it’s the most traditional Mania since 3. Speaking of
9. WrestleMania 3
Gosh the old wrestlemanias are hard to watch. Not necessarily for production values, where
even with WWE’s upscaling the footage for the network the golden era stuff still looks
like it was filmed through a series of ghosts, but because generally they try and cram more
than a dozen matches on the card. Sounds like modern Manais right, yeah they squeeze them
all into three hours, also none of the golden generation ever wanted to lose if they didn’t
have to so large chunks of old Showcases of the Immortals are Billy Jack Haynes vs Hercules
going 7 minutes and ending in a double countout or Sheik and Volkoff defeating the killer
bees in 5 minutes by f****** DQ, thats a bit much. A lot of old manias have a business
as usual feel, just a parade of house-show matches, but even by modern sensibilities
WrestleMania 3 still exudes some spectacle. The crowd size is genuinely still blockbuster
and it truly feels like this was the first mania that WWE tried to mirror that hype more
with their own roster and less with celebrities. They’re still there but the wrestling really
takes centrestage with high-stakes affairs like Piper vs Adrian Adonis Hair vs Hair,
or the amazing build to Steamboat/Savage, and of course the biggest money match of the
golden era, Hogan vs Andre. It’s still a bit of a struggle, but for cultural significance
alone, this was the greatest show on earth at the time, that slam is an important landmark
moment and the buzz of crowd, the anticipation for the box office wrestling, rather than
just pop culture pageantry, it gives the whole show a cohesive enthusiasm that the early
manias so often lacked and would struggle to replicate until the attitude era. Plus
it had King Kong Bundy almost killing a little person, so, yeah … legacy.
8. WrestleMania 21
So straight off the bat, let’s all agree that normally WWE is about as funny as sepsis,
but I actually have a real soft spot for the Hollywood skits at Mania 21. The theme for
this Mania was ‘hey y’all remember movies’ and the whole show was littered with Dub Dub
lads putting on southpaw quality wigs and doing their best ‘you talking to me.’
Kurt Angle did when harry met sally. He’s the f****** best. It's actually all pretty
charming, because yeah of course wrestlers wish they were in pulp fiction. Anyway, we
should probably talk about the wrestling I suppose. So this is chiefly remembered as
the Mania where an infected looking Belly Button tattoo and vanilla ice were crowned
as the two top champions, acting as a huge changing of the guard. Yup, said WWE, these
two for next 5 years. Considering that seismic shift, neither of the two world title matches
actually lived up to their historical significance. Cena/JBL was a bit slight, in a match that
only just went 10 minutes and Triple H/Batista went the other way, being quite a plodding
20 minute affair, trips and batista sure do like those, huh. However, to answer the question,
well why is this on the list then, the answer is, because the Undercard was absolutely fantastic.
Had the two mains been better, we’d be mentioning this mania as a top 3 candidate, easily, because
the show opened with Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero, it was great, the first ever money in the
bank ladder match, featuring one of the best spots in Mania history with Shelton running
up the ladder to clothesline jericho, Orton vs the Undertaker was the first match to properly
address the streak as this huge narrative stake and was also bloody wonderful, Kurt
Angle vs Shawn Michaels was one of the genuine top 5 mania matches of all time, it had Piper
meeting Austin for the first time, in theory it’s one of the best cards ever assembled,
just didn’t quite stick the landing.
7. WrestleMania 10
There’s something special about a Madison Square Garden WrestleMania. New York has always
been WWE spiritual home territory, from back in the days of it being WWWF under Vince Sr,
and MSG was its crown jewel venue. Even now when WWE returns to the Garden, even if it’s
just a house show, big things tend to happen, and it's hard to argue that Mania 1, Mania
10 and Mania 20, the MSG Manias aren’t all significant offerings, though the latter’s
is obviously downplayed today. In terms of viewing quality, Mania 1 is like watching
community theatre through broken binoculars, Mania 20 is more boring than you actually
remember apart from the two world title matches and, of course, Goldie and Bork’s infamous
stinker, but Mania 10 still by god holds up. The show has quite a lot of New Generation
Era bulls*** to wade through, Crush wrestles, that’s bad, there’s a mixed tag match
featuring Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon vs Doink and Dink that somehow goes 6 f******
minutes, but the show has three major things in its favour GOOD THING NUMBER ONE: the WWF
Championship storyline ran from the first match and was a compelling narrative throughout
the night. Lex Luger and Bret Hart had both won the Rumble through a devastating mutual
cuddle and were both giving Championship matches. Luger would wrestle champion Yokozuna first
and whoever won that would face Bret in the main event, only problem was GOOD THING NUMBER
TWO: Bret was wrestling in the opening match against his brother in the peak of the greatest
rivalry of that wrestling Era. It was a sumptuous technical feast of a match, great psychological,
amazing speed and plenty of storytelling between the brothers. It would have easily been match
of the night if not for GOOD THING NUMBER THREE: the ladder match between HBK and Razor
Ramon. Really good this. This really good. The second ladder match in company history,
but most people’s first exposure to it, and it ruled. Two matches of the year and
the ultimate triumph by Bret after losing to his brother, that’s more enough to elevate
this to the best Madison Square Garden Mania ever.
6. WrestleMania 22
What an odd mania 22 is. It’s given the tagline Big Time, but it’s also the last
Mania to be held in an arena before they started exclusively booking Stadiums so it’s small
time, but I guess there isn’t a peter gabriel song for that. Undertaker faces Mark Henry
in a casket match which is… alright… there’s a playboy pillow match in the semi-main spot,
it’s the first Mania where the fans started to turn on Cena which the company are NOT
prepared for and also Shawn Michaels kills an old man in front of 17 thousand witnesses.
Yeah it’s weird, but it’s also pretty fantastic. Money in the Bank is the usual
frantic delight, the aforementioned Michaels/Vince match is preposterous with HBK dropping a
show-stealing elbow from the f****** rafters onto a trashcan with Vince’s insane legs.
Speaking of insane the Mick Foley/ Edge Hardcore match is unbelievably good, Sweet ever-loving
Jesus. From the booby-trapped with barbed wire spear to the flaming table spot accompanied
by Joey Styles trademarked OH MY GOD, it’s all wonderful. There are some fantastic title
matches in here too, before the Triple Threat at Mania 32 obliterated it, the Mickie James/Trish
Stratus match became the standard bearer for Women’s Wrestling at Mania for a full decade,
the triple threat match for the World Heavyweight title managed to squeeze an insane amount
of stuff into 10 minutes and the WWE Title Match was fun, if only to watch the chicago
crowd sink their teeth into Cena. 2006 was an odd year in general for WWE, it was the
year vince wrestled god, so it tracks that this Mania was similarly oddball, but at its
peak, it’s a really fun and memorable show in front of rabid Chicago crowd, back when
Mania was still small-time enough for a crowd to really be a factor in the show.
5. WrestleMania 24
A hugely underrated Mania, this almost never gets mentioned in the same breath as some
of the all-time greats, but as a card it’s fairly spotless. With the possible exception
of the playboy lumberjill match, ending with the weird shot of Snoop Dogg macking onto
Maria Kanellis, all the matches are good. Yes, even the belfast brawl between JBL and
finlay is fine! Money In The Bank is always great and goddamn you really feel for shelton
benjamin watching these things. Always involved in the match’s highest spot, never winning,
all the love in the world for you, gold standard. The triple threat for the WWE championship
is a lot of fun, and genuinely the Floyd Mayweather match against Big Show is legit brilliant,
mostly because the crowd absolutely turn on the tiny horrible millionaire and rally fully
behind Big Show, it’s hilarious. The main event of Edge vs Undertaker is one of the
least remembered in Mania history but it’s fantastic, building to a genuine heart-stopping
false finish after the interference of the Edgeheads, and then, of course … I’m sorry.
I love you. Nature Boy Ric Flair, the kissingist man in pro wrestling history, who dressed
like a rich grandma expecting a gentleman caller, one of the 80s greatest draws and
the life and soul of the NWA, was retired by Shawn Michaels in one of HBK’s perfect
record of post-2000 wrestlemania barnstormers. Emotional, and deftly booked - they actually
tricked you in thinking Flair could win several times, it’s a tour de force by both men,
and a surprisingly consistently wonderful WrestleMania.
4. WrestleMania 31
If this was a list of worst-built WrestleMania cards of all time, Mania 31 would be near
if not top of that list. Holy lack of anticipation, Batman, it cannot be overstated just how much
everyone thought this mania was going to be absolute chunks. The Triple H Sting build
was underwhelming, Daniel Bryan was sidelined from the main event which caused everyone
to turn on Roman in his big road to wrestlemania storyline, undertaker didn’t even SHOW UP
for his feud with Bray Wyatt, every match seemed predictable, yeah, fans were CONCERNED.
Little did anyone expect for this to be secretly one of the best manias of all time. It’s
also possibly the stupidest wrestlemania of all time, a big silly show with big silly
theatrics. Whether it’s Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler each doing their very best to
end Bryan’s career as quickly as possible with a battle of duelling headbutts from the
top of a ladder. Triple H vs Sting turning into the Mania X-7 Gimmick Battle Royal, Rusev
showing up on a f****** tank like he was going to install a fascist dictatorship in the middle
of WWE, as if anyone would notice (satire), and then Seth Rollins, fresh off being RKO’d
so hard he burst, scampering in, kicking everyone in the advertised main event of mania in the
bum, nicking the belt, and running away. However, as I guess this depends on your generosity,
all the matches were good. Ladder match, great. Best RKO ever. GeriatricMania was a blast.
Rusev/Cena delivered, the women’s match was way too short, but still decent, Menacing
Michael the Frightful Disciple and Bray Wyatt did their thing and despite the crushing weight
of fan scorn, the Main Event was bonkers good, with the two men going full rage mode on each
other until the heist of the century. It was clearest example of under-promising and over-delivering
in WWE history and honestly, looking back, the only major bits of bulls***were a) triple
h winning, boo this man, and b) Too Spoops McKenzie wrestling in the daylight, which
is a fundamental no-no.
3. WrestleMania 30
There’s just something about the SilverDome that brings out the best in a WrestleMania,
huh? It’s possibly the most eventful wrestlemania of all time. Let’s start with the sad. After
a fairly bad match, as a result of an accidental concussion early in the proceedings, the Streak
Ended, a loss from which Undertaker has never fully recovered, Bray Wyatt lost, which was
wasn’t the character ruination that some fans label it as, that came from a full year
of protracted s*** booking afterwards, the shield six man tag was too brief to really
register and the Women’s invitational was a hot mess. Everything else though was pure
WrestleMania wonder. In terms of in-ring quality, it’s not the strongest Mania by some distance,
but in terms of sheer emotional impact, nothing comes close to 30, let’s just say the wrong
WrestleMania had a rollercoaster as its mascot. The Monster Daniel Bryan video package is
for my money the best WWE have ever made, yup better than My Way, as much as some hated
the Streak ending, it remade Lesnar as a box office monster once again, something we forget
that he had lost after his endless feud with Triple H, Cesaro winning the first Andre the
Giant Battle Royal (the only year it was treated like a big deal) was a wonderful payoff of
a surge of crowd support for the Swiss Superman. For all that we can say the wrong man won,
the Cena Wyatt match was very very good, especially on a rewatch, and then of course, let’s
talk about this guy. Daniel The Bryan. Captain Planet. Dr Kick Medicine Goat. By all accounts
one of the nicest, funniest, smartest and most vegan men to hit the industry, his wasn’t
just a story of a kayfabe underdog dismantling a kayfabe tyrannical authority, but of an
industrial defining workhorse overcoming creative perceptions of the believability that wrestling
geniuses who look like him could overcome outmoded aesthetic tradition and truly capture
the love of the crowd. Pretty much every year WWE tries to create a headline narrative of
triumph over adversity, and so often it feels forced. Not at WrestleMania 30. For once the
bookers intentions and the fans heartfelt desires lined up perfectly. For once we all
felt exactly how they wanted us to feel. Happy.
2. WrestleMania 19
Holy s***, WrestleMania 19’s good you guys. Like, we all know what number 1 is and yeah
fair enough it should be, but damn WrestleMania 19 is good. f***. It’s a list of matches
that not only over achieved in the ring but also carried that crucial Mania starpower
to elevate the whole show into something that felt truly mythic in places. There were one
or two slight bum notes - Triple H and Booker T would have been a brilliant match if it
hadn’t had a completely tonedeaf and momentum destroying ending. Also Undertaker vs Albert
and Big Show isn’t at the top of Taker’s Mania resume, but pretty much everything else
on the card rules so hard. Despite physical shortcomings, Hogan vs McMahon was the most
WrestleMania-feeling match on the card, that’s just indisputable, and oh my god they killed
each other. Grandpa death matches forever. Rock and Austin had their third in their wonderful
trilogy, which also served as a beautiful in-ring goodbye to the rattlesnake, Michaels/Jericho
was unreasonably good with top-shelf heeling from Certified Dick Kick Prick Chris Jericho.
The Triple Threat tag match was great, always nice to see Shelton benjamin win at a WrestleMania,
the triple threat women’s match was great with trish taking her first major step forward
on her journey to actual great generation defining wrestler, and holy s*** Angle vs
Lesnar, where Lesnar managed to botch a Shooting Star Press so hard he nearly died and yet
still ended up champion and looking like a total monster chunker. Big beef. Bork beef.
Mania beef. The attitude era may have long been over, but in many places this show exemplified
the very best aspects of that era. The spectacle, the starpower and the phenomenal midcard.
And, well, speaking of the best of the Attitude Era
1. WrestleMania X-7
Not only the greatest WrestleMania WWE has ever produced, not only the greatest PPV WWE
has ever produced, but possibly the greatest wrestling pay per view ever produced by any
company. In making this list I actually went back to rewatch it just to make sure that
it’s as good as we remember. Folks, like Atlas himself, it still holds up. After WrestleMania
2000, the company went on something of a PPV hot streak, turning out ludicrously great
show after ludicrously great show. Heading into 2001 the company was the best it would
ever be. Royal Rumble 01 is possibly the best incarnation of that PPV, No Way Out 2001 is
DEFINITELY the best incarnation of that PPV, and then March 2001, WrestleMania X-7. I don’t
think there’s anything to say about it that’s not going over old ground. Regal/Jericho,
hot opener, fan favourite won, The APA and Tazz demolished Right To Censor in the series
wrap on RTC, good. The hardcore triple threat was a stupid amount of fun with Kne f******
Raven through a window being the highpoint of the WWF hardcore division, Guerrero vs
Test is what, the worst match of the night but still also somehow really good?? Angle/Benoit
was two of the greatest technicians ever, wrestling in their prime for 15 f****** minutes,
Chyna pays off a months-long storyline beating Ivory in a prestige feel-good squash that
was also the last really good memory we have of the ninth wonder, Shane/Vince is easily
the greatest soap opera match WWE ever booked, Linda’s pop, Jesus rumbling christ, TLC
2 was well, you know, the gimmick battle royal was a GENIUS way off cooling down the crowd
whilst also being nostaligicly charming, Triple H/Undertaker was the best American Badass
match of that entire run, and then the main event between the two biggest stars during
wrestlings biggest boom period, which was not only anchored by a fantastic story of
Austin slowly unwinding in his rabid obsession with becoming champion, but also featured
one of the top two most iconic heel turns in all of wrestling. God, I need a cigarette.
There’s a lizard part of your brain that will try and tell you, maybe I’ll seem cool,
and interesting if I try and argue that it’s not the best mania of all time. And that is
wrong. That is not a good part of you and you must leave it behind, because this is
truly as good that mainstream wrestling can get.