Well, this is very confusing. I seem to recall making this list before, and releasing it on my blog. However, there's no evidence to support this, so I guess it was just a dream? Anyway, here's my five favorite WrestleMania matches of all-time.
5. Triple H vs The Undertaker- WrestleMania 28
Tag-lines for matches and shows in WWE rarely mean anything. Remember when Bobby Roode vs Shinsuke Nakamura was "the biggest money match in NXT history"? Remember "Once in a Lifetime" with John Cena and The Rock? Remember "Oh God, what were we thinking?" with the WrestleMania 25 Diva's battle royal? In the build up to this match, WWE made a big deal out of the tagline, "The End of an Era". Naturally, many fans assumed this was just a marketing ploy, not taking the company at its word. The match itself was an emotional rollercoaster, with The Undertaker's kick-out of the Sweet Chin Music/Pedigree combo becoming a legendary WrestleMania moment in its own right. But as good as the match was, it gets a spot on this list for holding to its tagline. To my knowledge, although all three have been in the company and appeared multiple times, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and The Undertaker have not been on television together since. In the Sun Life Stadium, it truly was the End of an Era.
4. Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels- WrestleMania 10
Ole HB-shizzle may have been wearing the stripes in our previous entry, but eighteen years before, he made history with a fellow Kliq-mate in a legendary ladder match. As much as ladder matches are a staple in modern wrestling, these two broke new ground back in 1994, just edging out Bret-Owen from the same show for a spot on this list. The spots they used throughout this match are just pure genuis, with storytelling and selling treated with higher regard than pure athleticism. Shawn Michaels has made it a habit of putting on fantastic matches on the grandest stage, enough that I could just form a list out of just his matches and call it a day. For my money though, the first is the best, and on this night, over two decades ago, a legendary performer and a legendary gimmick match earned their spot.
3. Hulk Hogan vs The Rock- WrestleMania 18
It's a common belief among wrestling purists that spectacle and story are more important to a classic match than any amount of flippy sh**. This match is obviously the anti-thesis to that idea; did you not see the Hulkster pull out a 450? All jokes aside, this was more than just a match between two of the biggest name in the history of the industry. This was an event, a collision, a showcase of everything wrestling and the WWE(F) had to offer. This was WrestleMania as Vince McMahon pictured it, two men who reached far beyond the business, larger than life behemoths who worked a crowd better than they worked a headlock. To call this a wrestling match is a flat out lie, because it wasn't and it never pretended otherwise. Listening to the crowd's reactions on this night, it would be hard to disagree with the match earning a spot on this list. If wrestling is an art form, then this was a Picasso.
2. The Daniel Bryan Saga- WrestleMania 30
Let me let you in on a little secret: I didn't like Daniel Bryan. I enjoyed his ability, sure, and I wanted to see him reach the pinnacle of the profession, but I never felt than my wrestling fandom was based around his WWE Championship win. Let me let you in on another secret: I think WrestleMania 30 is wildly overrated. It's a good show, to be sure, but only the beginning and ending really resonated with me. Despite that, I have never felt as invested in a performer or in a show as I did on this night, watching Bryan do what he does best. It's a cop-out to include both matches in this list, but the story connected both very well, one of the only times WWE's biggest show told a story during the actual show. I enjoyed Bryan's opening match with Triple H more than the main event personally, but they both were incredibly entertaining to watch. Daniel Bryan is perhaps the only performer on Earth than could defeat three guys in one night, and not have the crowd immediately turn on him. For that, he gets all the awards in the cabinet.
And my favorite WrestleMania match of all time is....
1. Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat- WrestleMania 3
It is possible to feel nostalgic for a match you weren't even alive to see? I was born in 1999, and this match took place in 1987. It's twelve years older than I am! Yet somehow, someway, I feel nostalgia when I discuss this match. Maybe I need medication.
In my mind, there's no question this was my favorite WrestleMania match to watch. This is just my opinion, of course, and I'm sure plenty of you would think differently, but nothing quite tops this for me. If my mind, story-telling is at its best when it's simple and easy to follow for any human being in the world. Savage's dastardly acts, including injuring Steamboat with the ring bell, made him an easily hateable villain, a guy who talked trash and could back it up in the ring. Steamboat symbolized the archetype of a hero, a humble man who lived for the best competition possible. I've said before that I've seen matches that were so close to perfection, with a few of them even on this list, but this is, as they say, as good as it gets. You will perhaps never see a match so wonderfully executed, so meticulously crafted to get the most out of every single motion. A great match does not need a great crowd to succeed, but it can become a classic due to the response, and these two men got every single reaction perfectly. The single most incredible fact about this match was its length, clocking in at just over fourteen minutes. Despite that, it felt like an epic struggle, filled with emotion all the way to final pin count. For all of these reasons and many more, I believe Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat is on of the greatest matches of all time, and is clearly my favorite WrestleMania match ever.
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