The other day we took you through the 10 worst Mania matches of all-time, and keeping with our theme, today I want to run though my opinion of the ten Best Mania’s overall of all-time. I think that some of the results may actually surprise you when it comes to what cards were overall the best. And these are in the order of number one being the best of all-time and so on and so on…
1. WrestleMania III – March 29th 1987, Detroit MI: Sorry, I can’t help but still get chills when I think about this event, possibly still to me the biggest and best event in all of wrestling history. 93,173 was the announced attendence, which to this day is an indoor attendence record. There was so much about this show to love – Savage vs Steamboat, Piper vs Adonis, and of course – Hogan vs Andre. This event truly put wrestling and WrestleMania on the map as the premiere event in wrestling history.
2. WrestleMania X-Seven – April 1st 2001, Houston TX: 67,925 and a great atmosphere in Texas made this a special event, to me the 2nd best Mania of all-time. The Rock vs Steve Austin main event was awesome, and that was just the end of a great night with a solid group of matches – Chris Jericho vs William Regal, Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit, Shane McMahon vs Vince McMahon in a street fight, and of course the memorable TLC match in which Edge and Christian won. A great night only second to Mania III.
3. WrestleMania XIV – March 29th 1998, Boston MA: A speical night in which the company used Mike Tyson to push the attitude era over the top. The main was Austin winning his first WWE title vs Shawn Michaels in a classic 20-minute match. You also had Taker vs Kane for the first time, The Rock vs Ken Shamrock, and Triple H vs the late Owen Hart for the European title. A very solid card that came at a time when the company was really gaining momentum.
4. WrestleMania VIII – April 5th 1992, Indianapolis IN: A very good card with a double main event showcasing Ric Flair vs Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice. The Hoosier Dome also had some solid undercard matches, the best of which was Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart for the IC belt. An early heel Shawn Michaels vs Tito Santana, and Undertaker vs Jake Roberts also were the best on the card. The Flair vs Savage match was very well done, and the title change was a bit of a surprise, while the Hogan vs Justice match which ended with the return of the Ultimate Warrior was a pretty fun match as well.
5. WrestleMania XV – March 28th 1999, Philadelphia PA: The first Rock vs Austin match for a main which again, was great. You really could never get a bad Rock vs Austin match in my opinion, so this was very, very good. Plus add in Mick Foley making the three-count, and it was pretty memorable. The rest of the card was okay, Foley beating Big Show by DQ, in a match that was supposed to be to see who would be the ref for the main event, Kane vs Triple H, Sable vs Tori, a heel Shane McMahon vs X-Pac, and a rather bad Taker vs Bossman in a Hell in a Cell which was overlooked. Good card that was clearly defined by the main event.
6. WrestleMania XIX – March 30th 2003, Seattle WA: The first real joint-promotion Mania with RAW and SmackDown, as they did the SmackDown side as the main event for the first and only time, with Brock Lesner and Kurt Angle having a very good 21-minute match that had a scary shooting star press that Lesner missed and almost knocked himself out. The final ever Rock vs Austin match, where Rock won was very good, and the Hogan vs McMahon match was well done, with Roddy Piper being a surprise along with Shane McMahon involved after the match. Jericho vs Shawn Michaels was also very good, going 22:33. Interesting enough the match that no one remembers is Triple H as the World Heavyweight Champion beating Booker T. to retain the title. It’s the last time HHH won at Mania.
7. WrestleMania 22 – April 2nd 2006, Rosemont, IL: For an arena with only 17,159, which at the time was a rather small crowd for a Mania, this was one of the hottest crowds I can remember at an event, and their reaction for the main event between John Cena vs Triple H was awesome. It was the first time that a crowd really gave heat to Cena, which now is the “in” thing to do. The Money in the Bank match was very good, Edge vs Mick Foley in a street fight was well done, and about the most confusing part of the night was why the three-way for the World Heavyweight Title between Kurt Angle, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio was only 9:18, while the Mark Henry vs Undertaker casket match was 9:26. Of course this also leads us to wonder why Shawn Michaels vs Vince McMahon got over 18 minutes. Nevertheless, a good card and good crowd.
8. WrestleMania VI – April 1st 1990, Toronto, CA: The night was built around the Ultimate Challenge, with two faces going at it with Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior. While the crowd seemed split on the match, the Warrior was supposed to be the next big thing, only to eventually be derailed since he couldn’t handle having the belt and Hogan wanting it back. The 22:51 match was pretty good, with a lot of great back and forth, and a memorable ending. The rest of the card was not all that memorable, but the main was so pushed, it didn’t matter. Demolition getting the tag belts back and Andre the Giant going face was part of the show, the Roddy Piper-Bad News Brown match was awful, and the mixed tag with Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire vs Randy Savage and Sensational Sherri was okay, but again – it was a mixed tag. Only on the list due to the main event.
9. WrestleMania X8 – March 17th 2002, Toronto, CA: The earliest a Mania was ever held, and it was misbooked in that the Hogan vs Rock match was truly the main event, while by the time we got around to Triple H vs Chris Jericho for the undisputed title it was a letdown. There were some other good matches on the card, but Hogan vs Rock really is what drew the card to be one of the better Manias. Rob Van Dam beat William Regal, Taker beat Ric Flair in a no-DQ match, and a medicore match with Steve Austin vs Scott Hall made up the best of the undercard.
10. WrestleMania 23 – April 1st 2007, Detroit, MI: Over 80,000 at Ford Field, which was a very cool thing to see, and a card that was very well put together with Batista vs Taker being better than we all throught, and Shawn Michaels vs John Cena was a solid 28 minute match. Then you had the build up with Bobby Lashley vs Umaga, which really was a hair vs hair between Donald Trump and Vince McMahon. Good match with a lot of celeb in it from the word go. Money in a Bank was a sick bump show, which gave the crowd a lot to cheer about from the start, but overall, just 8 matches made you wonder if they booked this show enough.
Labels: andre the giant, hulk hogan, randy savage, undertaker, wrestlemania, wrestlemania 3
