My Top 10 favourite WrestleMania matches:
#10 - Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WM 14) - HBK had his back broken, and essentially his career broken. Austin? Still reeling on huge pain and the effects of the broken freakin' neck. And even with a broken neck and a broken back respectively, HBK and Austin delievered a classic. Unbelievable. The atmosphere helped a lot too, since the Boston crowd was rabid for this one, and alongside the great psychology, brawling and big match feel, I see here perhaps one of the biggest What If's in WM history: what if this match still happened but neither man was injured? Shit you can only dream of.
#9 - Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage (WM 8) - Holy fuck, was this ever lovingly personal. It was nothing more than a Plan B after they didn't went with Hogan/Flair (alongside the horrible Hogan/Sid match), but for a Plan B, it quite worked. Sure, it helped that you had Flair and Savage beating the hell out of each other in their primes, but that's exactly one of the major reasons why this is so awesome. It's perhaps the closest you ever got to Hogan/Flair with both men in their primes. The build up was awesome, Flair went to WM like a strong heat magnet, and the match was a stiff, violent wrestling WAR. Amazing stuff and easily Flair's best WM match and Savage's 2nd best (2nd to #7 in this list) IMO.
#8 - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit (WM 20) - Emotion was just one of the minor keys. Here's the main ignition for the sucess of this Triple Threat: intensity. Pure raw intensity. That's what this match was all about. With three of the greatest of all time, the 'E did EXACTLY the right thing - to let them go completely balls out in MSG and give every damn thing they had. And boy, did they ever do it. Now, I don't want to be prejudiced and play with the whole "Krispin Wah" or "Chris who?" jokes, but I do admit that my ranking for this match was way higher, before a certain tragedy in 2007 killed (no pun intended) my respect for Benoit the person. Has it killed my respect for Benoit the wrestler? Well, no. Regardless of what he did, Benoit is a fucking legend, with one of the greatest legacies in history. And even though the future wasn't happy at all for him, he deserved every single bit of the WHC. Not to mention, the post-match celebration is one of the greatest moments in WM history.
#7 - The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage (WM 7) - And speaking of a post-match "celebration" being one of the greatest moments in WM history, the Savage/Elizabeth reunion is one of, if not THE single most heartwarming things I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. But of course, a moment only comes realized when it's backed by a great match - and boy, this wasn't great, it was phenomenal. The Ultimate Warrior's greatest match BY FAR, you could tell Savage carried him, but Warrior actually more than held his own. Some innovations in this match, like the multiple finishers in a row and the finisher kick-out (which at the time, were completely unheard of), made it even more of a classic. And unlike most matches of its kind, it wasn't more of a match or a moment - it was more of BOTH at the same time. That balance might be the reason that makes it so awesome. And yes, Savage, the loser, actually lasted more in the company than Warrior, the winner, when this was supposed to be a Retirement Match, but much like Flair's bullshit retirement, it's compensated by this match itself being a spectacle.
#6 - The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WM 26) - Another amazing match followed by an amazing moment. Sure, HBK retiring isn't "amazing" in any stretch possible, but you know what I mean. What no one can deny is that he lost and went away in a valiant effort. The unanimous big eye raiser was that, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't deliever a match that was as good as the one they had the previous year at 25. Well, that's arguable, but the fact is that both of these matches were completely different. The match at 25 was a spectacle, a wrestling technical masterpiece, essentially the feel of a dream match. This was much deeper, much more personal and much more storyline driven. Now admitedly, the 25 classic surely didn't call for a rematch, but if I was to know that it would be completely different (in a spectacularly positive way) than its predecessor, I would be all for it since the kickstart. Storytelling? Brilliant. Psychology? Potential GOAT. Atmosphere? Not as good at 25, but still nuts. Could you really ask for more in the circumstances this match happened? No, you couldn't. For its kind, this was PERFECT.
#5 - The Undertaker vs. Triple H (WM 28) - Many of you will think I'm insane by putting this one this high in my top 10 WrestleMania matches, but it's my top 10 FAVORITE, and believe me, this one was one of my favourites ever. Yes, it was slow paced. Yes, the Cell was essentially useless (other than that part where they spent pretty much the initial 5 minutes of the match throwing each other into the Cell's walls like pinballs and raking their faces on it). And yes, it marked the end of... well, nothing. BUT, the match itself was incredible. People that know me very well acknowledge that Undertaker vs. H inside HIAC is one of the biggest dream matches I ever wanted. After all, they are the kings of HIAC. And it actually happening at WM with HBK (2nd to SCSA as my all time favourite in WWE history) as ref was awesome. The match was brutal, it had insane storytelling, atmosphere and psychology, and it helped having like 10000 kick-outs. And yes, I was one of the thousands in the world watching WM 28 live thinking the Streak was over after the SCM-Pedigree combo. We all know that it wasn't HHH's final match, not even Taker's actually, but had it been, it would've been even better of a moment than Flair's final exclamation point at WM 24.
#4 - The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WM 17) - Does the word HUGE make this justice? The two biggest icons of the biggest wrestling company in the world, in their peak, in front of 60,000+ people, beating the shit out of each other. Screams epic. And it was. It was essentially the be all, end all of the time - just like the storyline demanded, they were pulling every single stop to beat the other. Ring bells, chairshots, enormous Superplexes, finisher theft, even allying to Vince fucking McMahon. It REALLY made you believe that they wanted to win, and they wanted to win more than anyone in the world. Both Austin and Rock looked like Thor and Hercules, unstoppable in win and defeat respectively. And while the heel turn kinda flopped because the Houston crowd was cheering for Austin regardless of him shaking Vince's hands (no surprise though, it was essentially Austin's hometown), it did set the bar for a terrific 2001 for HEEL SCSA. GOAT WM Main Event IMO.
#3 - Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WM 10) - Like KOK said, this CLICKED. And it clicked in every aspect. Both men played their parts in the build up as perfecly as possible, both men made people REALLY care about a brother vs. brother feud (which usually flops, but not this time). And they drew people into easily one of the greatest matches in WWE history. One could argue that the Steel Cage Match at SummerSlam later this year was as good if not BETTER, but this was way different than that match. It had much tougher circumstances to provide us a classic - it wasn't a title match, it wasn't inside a cage, it was the OPENER of the biggest show of the year... but, in that remark, its the single greatest opener in WWE history. One would think this was a Bret carryjob, but Owen proved here that he was as good as his brother, which was in a way the point of the storyline (though Owen actually wanted to be not as good, but better than Bret). Ladies and gentlemen, what you behold here is, quite honestly, the greatest piece of technical art in WM history, and one of the greatest in WWE (and perhaps wrestling overall) history. If you loved the Angle/Benoit, Punk/Bryan, Flair/Steamboat, etc. type matches where two guys go out there and put on a masterpiece, you will ADORE this one.
#2 - The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WM 25) - To many people, the greatest match in WM history. In my opinion, only 2nd to this next match, but believe me, it's just a fingernail below in overall awesomeness. Their 26 match was, like I said, absolutely different than this one, in that it had much better psychology, much better wrestling and much more deep significance. That wasn't the intent in this one. This was meant to be a big match. Well, not big - giant. Like Rock/Austin at 17 giant. These were two Texans in Houston, under the tagline of a war between Heaven and Hell, in their 1st singles match since 1998. The Streak vs. Mr. WrestleMania. No need for much more. The drama, the big match feel, the atmosphere, the incredible pace... well, I don't think I need to talk much more about this one.
#1 - Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WM 13) - HHH had the Street Fight with Mick Foley. HBK had the Ladder Match with Razor Ramon. The Rock had the I Quit Match with Foley too. And Stone Cold had the No DQ Submission Match with Bret Hart. The real start of the Attitude Era IMO, this was beyond incredible, and if you're a WWE fan and haven't watched this yet, make yourself a favour and DO IT. 'Nuff said.
It's crazy to think the number of classics in WM history alone, and to think there are still many more to come. Is it even possible at the end of the day to make a PROPER Top 10 WM matches of all time?