Who should have main evented Mania

[PsychoBlack]

First off let me say that this is not a who is the best to never win a world title thread. This thread is about exactly what the title states. The wrestler could have been a 5 time champ but if they were never in the main event in the grandest stage of them all i want to hear your opinion on it.

An obvious choice is Sting but i wont use him since he wants nothing to do with WWE. So i have to go With my favorite wrestler of all time Curt Hennig. He was only in the main event scene for a short time with his feud with Hogan, but, he had the charisma and was one of the top heels in the company and could have made the face champion look great.

Now my unbiased choice has to go to Ric Flair. He was undoubtedly one of the biggest stars the industry has ever seen and during the tail end of his prime wrestled for Vince. Instead of putting on Savage vs Flair in the main event at WM 8 it was just a regular match and we got Sig vs Hogan which was at best alright.

 

[Disturbed]

Razer Ramon. One of mym favorite superstars of all time and he never even one a world title much less main evented WM. I would have liked to see HBK vs Da Bad Guy at Wrestlemania in ther main event for the world title.

 

[Attitude]

I have three guys that I'm going with. Ken Shamrock, The British Bulldog, and Bam Bam Bingelow.

Now Ken Shamrock I have seen the most. He was one of my favorites. I was surprised he never won the title and I thought he was deserving to be in the Main Event.

The British Bulldog I saw a little from him. When he returned to the WWE I really liked him and thought he was great. I think he would have been great in the ME at WM.

Bam Bam Bingelow I've been looking through old videos of him on youtube and realized how good he was. He deserved a ME spot at WM.

Just think about some of the ME's we could have seen just with these three in it.

The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels at WM.
Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock or Ken Shamrock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin at WM.
Bam Bam Wingelow vs. The Undertaker at WM.

Good ME's for WM.

 

[Rulk25]

Hate to tell you but Bam Bam did Main Event albeit in the worst main Event in Wrestlemania history(and worse in a losing effort. Still trying to figure out how that helped anyone to have a wrestler lose to a retired football player in the main event of your biggest PPV)

I have three guys that I'm going with. Ken Shamrock, The British Bulldog, and Bam Bam Bingelow.

Now Ken Shamrock I have seen the most. He was one of my favorites. I was surprised he never won the title and I thought he was deserving to be in the Main Event.

The British Bulldog I saw a little from him. When he returned to the WWE I really liked him and thought he was great. I think he would have been great in the ME at WM.

Bam Bam Bingelow I've been looking through old videos of him on youtube and realized how good he was. He deserved a ME spot at WM.

Just think about some of the ME's we could have seen just with these three in it.

The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels at WM.
Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock or Ken Shamrock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin at WM.
Bam Bam Wingelow vs. The Undertaker at WM.

Good ME's for WM.

 

[Midnite Express 2009]

I'm going to go with the reverse of WrestleMania X. In it you had Bret Hart, arguably the most over wrestler of that time in the company, wrestling two matches, one against his brother Owen and the other against Yokozuna. I know people were anticipating the rematch from the year before, but instead of having Owen and Bret open the match and certainly instead of having Yokozuna main event his second straight WrestleMania, the WWF should have taken the title off Yokozuna at The Royal Rumble due to interference from...Owen Hart. This could have been set up perfectly due to the feud they began at The Survior Series. Owen could have kept coming out to interfere in Bret's matches leading to The Royal Rumble, where he comes out and actually helps Bret win the title back. Everyone would have thought they were back to being family and then Owen could have went onto win the Rumble itself instead of it being God-awful Lex Luger AND Bret Hart. Luger could have kept his feud with Yoko going into Mania, and with Owen Hart winning the Royal Rumble it would have set up probably one of the most creative, entertaining and most over matches in Mania history. Bret vs. Owen for the Championship at the biggest stage of them all. Owen could have won, winning the title, probably for the first & only time and really proclaimed himself the King of Harts with the title to prove it.

WWF/E lemme ask you this: Why on Heaven's name would you invest so much into a man who subsequently bailed on your company anyway? Lex Luger did NOT deserve the spot he had even though he didn't necessarily main event that year's Mania. He should have never co-won the Royal Rumble and the WWF really dropped the ball on Owen several times, with this being the first of many.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

I've thought about this very thing many times, and I'll give my opinions on which Wrestlemania's should have had different main events.

Wrestlemania 8

Most people think Flair vs. Hogan would have been the big-money match, and they might be right about that. But, I enjoyed the Flair/Savage match (and feud) so much, that I actually wish it had ended the show. It was a far, far better match than Hogan/Sid, and the feud leading up to it blew Sid/Hogan right out of the water.

Wrestlemania 11

Bam Bam vs. LT was a disgrace. A complete and total disgrace. I liked Shawn vs. Nash for the title, it had a good story leading up to it. I think WM 11 would be looked at in a different light had HBK/Diesel closed the show.

Wrestlemania 13

I don't think my pick for the WM 13 main event was possible, but it should have been. I would have gone with Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker. That feud hadn't happened yet, and would have been a great face vs. face kind of match. Both guys were in their respective primes, and could have torn the house down.

Wrestlemania 2000

With Austin being injured, you couldn't have had Austin/HHH or Austin/Rock II. But, you could have just kept it to HHH and The Rock. I just don't think triple threats or fatal fourways should close Mania. I understand why Foley was in there, he was pretty hot back then. But Big Show? Not a good move, IMO. I could have even gone for Foley/HHH/Rock, but not the fatal fourway.

Wrestlemania 18

Not really a new match, just different positioning here. I would have put Hogan/Rock on to end the show. I don't care if it wasn't for the title, it was much bigger than HHH/Y2J. Hogan may have been the biggest draw on this show, and that's saying something for a man of his age. The match went over well. Technically, it wasn't great. But Hogan and The Rock, for my money, connect better (in the ring) with a live crowd than any other two wrestlers in the history of wrestling.

I would have loved to have seen someone like Rick Rude or Curt Hennig have the opportunity to put on a great match to close out a Mania. But when could this have happened? Over Savage and Hogan? Not a chance. Over Hogan and Warrior? Not even close. Over Hogan and Slaughter? Any one of those guys would have put on a better in-ring performance than Slaughter. But with the climate of the country at that time, Iraq vs. U.S. in Desert Storm, this was the big-money match.

 

[D-Will316]

KANE

I think that he should have won the Royal Rumble in 2001 and went on to face Kurt Angle for the WWE title. Instead we got Rock vs. Austin which was GREAT don't get me wrong but still ya'know?...

 

[tnarage2]

WrestleMania IX

This was By far the worst Wrestlemania and the main event was ruined. So This is what I would do I would have alot of people team up and eliminate Yokozuna. Then I would have Randy Savage win the Rumble and face Bret Hart at Wrestlemania. They would go in a back and forth match and have one of the best matches in Wrestlemania History. and I would have Hart retain.

 

[DanielJames]

KANE

I think that he should have won the Royal Rumble in 2001 and went on to face Kurt Angle for the WWE title. Instead we got Rock vs. Austin which was GREAT don't get me wrong but still ya'know?...

yes you are right...after having him put on such an impressive run in the rumble he loses to a man who wins 3 in total..cmon did scsa really need that one, kane could have put on a great main event

 

[XgringolocoX]

Owen, Rude, and Perfect I think are tied for numero uno. Whoever described the WM 10 with Owen and Bret in the ME was dead on. That match had a great fued leading up to it and deserved to be given the spot. Having Owen come in and kick Bret's ass after a grueling match with Yoko would have been money. Owen would have needed bodyguards to get outta the Garden. I can picture him screaming "I BEAT YOU BRET! I BEAT YOU!!!!!" shoulda happened IMO
Golddust was go amazing when he debuted. Put him against Michaels, Nash, Ramon.. whomever. Goldie was great back then.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Wrestlemania XI
- Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart - Yes this should have headlined WMXI, after having their moments in WMX it was only logical both would go at it at 11. HBK is the heel and Bret is the face, Bret wins but HBK wins the rematch at WM12 in an Iron Man Match.

Wrestlemania 2000
- Iron Man Match: The Rock vs. Triple H - This is the logical choice right there. Wrestlemania was back in Anaheim, Rock was the face of the company, Triple H was the top heel, they fought plenty of times so why didn't they go for an Iron Man Match as the ultimate blow off to the feud?

Wrestlemania XX
- Chris Benoit vs. Triple H - Shawn Michaels did not need to be here. It should have been a tradiotnal one-on-one with Benoit finishing off Triple H via submission. Butting HBK in kind of killed off Benoit's moment a bit.

Wrestlemania 23
- Batista vs. The Undertaker - They should have gone on last. It would have been a bigger WM moment if the show closed with Taker winning the World Title

Wrestlemania 25
- Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy - They should have held off their One-on-One match Until WM. I really saw no point of having HHH vs. Orton headlining WM, the feud made no sense, it felt forced, and the match just fell flat. Now compare that if Jeff Hardy won the Title at WM25, it would have been huge way to close the show. Don't believe me? Look at the pop when Jeff won the title at Armageddon.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I can't think of any permanent WWE main eventer who has not main evented wrestlemania. Ric Flair, Sting and Goldberg are all WCW talents and therefore they do not exactly deserve a mention in these threads. They have all main evented starrcade which was the WCW equivalent of wrestlemania. Kane has been more of an upper midcarder throughout his WWE run so I'm not going to choose him either.

If I want to nitpick maybe I'll pick Eddie Guerrero. He wasn't in the last match of Wrestlemania 20 but I believe he should have. Going into the PPV I was more interested in his rivalry with Angle rather than the HHH/HBK/Benoit rivalry. The latter seemed like a continuation of the rivalry between HHH and HBK with Benoit thrown in just for the fun of it. But I guess Eddie's match could be said to be Smackdown's main event.

So I'll say Eddie should have main evented Wrestlemania 20 just because he was a part of a better and a more personal rivalry that went beyond the title.

 

[mayankeagle]

Agree with the guy who said about Razor Ramon. Think of it, his ladder match with Shawn at Mania is one of the only 4 matches from WWE to receive a 5-star rating from Wrestling Observer. He should have had chances to main event Mania because he could have put up a great fight.

Another guy who should have done a singles' main event at Mania is Mankind. He was one of the best brawlers and his classics with Undertaker tell us that he had great capability and potential. He should have been given more main events (and singles ones) rather than that Fatal Four Way that he did.

 

[ScruffDog]

I got two; one that I think should have gotten one, and one that will get on in the future.

Jake the Snake, should have been in a WM main event. He is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. He was great in the ring and amazing on the mic. It no surprise though that he never got a WM main event, hell he never held a single title in the wwf. No mater what his in ring record says, or what titles he didn't hold, I don't think you will find many people who don't think that Jake was one of the all time greats.

Kane will be in a WM main event someday, probable this WM. No mater if it is this WM or a future one, Kane will eventually end up in a main event. He has done so much of this business, and I hear he is one of best guys back stage. I feel that one day they will reward him for all his hard work with a WM main event.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Owen, Rude, and Perfect I think are tied for numero uno. Whoever described the WM 10 with Owen and Bret in the ME was dead on. That match had a great fued leading up to it and deserved to be given the spot. Having Owen come in and kick Bret's ass after a grueling match with Yoko would have been money. Owen would have needed bodyguards to get outta the Garden. I can picture him screaming "I BEAT YOU BRET! I BEAT YOU!!!!!" shoulda happened IMO

Awesome idea. I can really imagine Owen screaming "I beat you Bret!!" Brilliant. This feud could have been pure gold for the WWE, it is a huge waste that the Harts never went at it for the world title in a main event feud.

Also, I think Bulldog would have put on a great Mania main event with Bret Hart, we all know how good their IC title match was at SummerSlam in England, and I am surprised WWE never transferred this to a world title match on the grandest stage of them all

 

[Vega]

This feud could have been pure gold for the WWE, it is a huge waste that the Harts never went at it for the world title in a main event feud.

At SummerSlam 1994, it wasn't really the Main Event (Undertaker VS Undertaker instad, a shame in my opinion), but the two brothers fought for the gold in a great, lengthy Cage match.

My pick is Ric Flair, who should've main evented WrestleMania VIII as the biggest thing going. Against Hogan, but even his match against Savage should've been higher than Hogan VS Sid.

 

[Hitman80]

Mr Perfect, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time could of and probably should have main evented a WM... Probably WM9 vs Bret instead of Yoko vs Bret match we saw.

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

Lex Luger should have faced Bret at WM 10. Its too bad these two never faced on TV in their prime. They had a brief feud in 93 I believe and were the two top baby faces. I think it was un neccessary to have Yokozuna vs Bret Hart two years in a row.

 

[The Idiot]

There's not much I would have changed about the early Wrestlemanias. During that time there was a clear number 1 face...and then the heels he was feuding with. It was obvious to have Hogan/Andre, Hogan/Savage, Hogan/Warrior, and Hogan/Slaughter as the main events. Anything else wouldn't have worked.

Wrestlemania 8

I would have swapped the 2 main events. Hogan/Flair should have headlined a wrestlemania...and that one would have been perfect, with both being in their primes. It should have closed the show and been for the world title. I was never a fan of Sid Justice but he did make a great heel back then. Him and Savage would have made a great co-main event...and then they could have done the Ultimate Warrior run-in on this match to help Savage since it only makes since (with Warrior retiring Savage the year before in a career match).

Wrestlemania 10

Bret/Owen opening the show with a shocking Owen Hart victory with a clean pinfall over his brother was the PERFECT opening to the 10th annual Wrestlemania. Wouldn't change a thing there. What I would change is having a face vs face match with Luger beating Yoko and then going on to face Bret to close the show. Bret would beat Luger to win the WWF championship.

Wrestlemania 11

This had to be the time where the WWF was at it's weakest, as far as talent is concerned. Shawn was still a year away from the main event spot...so unlike many I'm not going to say his match with Diesel should have ended the show as the true main event. However, Bigelow and Taylor should never have even happened. HORRIBLE. They could have had Luger turn on Bulldog to split up the Allied Powers weeks leading up to Mania to become heel and then go on to face Bret in a rematch from the previous years Wrestlemania in the main event. I'd be happy with Luger winning...I don't care. It would have been better than watching Bigelow/Taylor with Salt n Pepper singing his way to the ring. Disgusting.

Wrestlemania 2000

The only Wrestlemania I ever attended. The one thing that stands out in my mind the most was the Triangle ladder match. Unbelievable spots and many "holy shit" moments. I still think that match is underrated. Other than that...nothing...except for the Benoit/Angle/Jericho match. It was decent but not their best. The Main event? First heel in Wrestlemania history to win the main event...of course, I was there. Should have been Rock vs HHH for the title and that's IT. No McMahon in every corner. If they wanted to do a McMahon family feud they should have saved it for Summerslam...but not at Wrestlemania and decide to put on a Fatal 4-way in the main event. I remember after the match was over everyone in my section kept looking at the entrance way waiting for someone to come out. A returning HBK or Austin would have been huge. But nothing. Of course a year later one of the greatest Wrestlemania's of all time took place. I was one year too early. As Ron Simmons would say..DAMN.

There's some things I would change in some other Wrestlemanias but I could live with what happened in those. With the four I just posted...there was SO MUCH potential to put on a better show...but for some reason they decided to go the other way. Oh well.