Name Two WrestleMania's

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

I have been thinking recently which WrestleMania did the most with the least amount of talent, and which WrestleMania did the least with the most amount of talent?

WrestleMania XI: Worst Mania with best talent

The list of top talent at this event is pretty impressive. You have Bret Hart, Undertaker, Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Lex Luger and Yokozuna. All of these guys are under 40 and some are under 35 with guys like Owen, Shawn and Yoko under 30. You have Bret right in the middle of his prime and Taker and Shawn just entering theirs. Diesel at this point has been in the company for at least a full year and along with his previous experience has been shot up the card. Guys like Razor, Owen and Bulldog are also in their primes and while they never cemented themselves as main eventers, they all had a taste of main events up to this point. Luger having come from WCW a few years earlier is starting to regress some, but still in his physical prime and with Yoko this was about the last time he was taken seriously having been on top for the better parts of the past two years.

That is alot of talent that was firmly established to produce one of the worst cards in Mania history.

WrestleMania XIV: Best Mania with Worst Talent

The firepower at the top is their with Shawn and Taker in their primes and Austin about to become the biggest thing in wrestling. But outside of that the talent is fairly green to this point. Future main eventers like Rock, Trips and Mankind are on the card but were not their yet and Kane who went on to have a great career with that character was only about 6 months or so into it after bouncing around some horrible gimmicks.

The fact that this Mania can point to the WWE Title match/Taker v Kane match/Dumpster tag match as good to great matches and Trips v Owen/Rock v Shamrock as decent matches is a testament to how good the card turned out to be.

 

[Showstopper530]

WM11 was a good pick. I will say WM15. Right in the middle of the attitude era with the biggest stars of all time with Rock, Austin, HHH, Taker, Foley, Kane, Owen, Big Show, New Age Outlaws, even Edge & Christian made an appearance, and it was a horrific show. Rock vs Austin was about the only thing worthy of Wrestlemania.

As for the best show with the least this is tough but i might say WM28. The roster is very thin on stars in recent years, but they churned out 3 great matches and a couple of decent matches. HHH vs Taker in the cell was amazing. Punk vs Jericho was a great wrestling match. Rock vs Cena while not one of my favorites was still a good main event filled with suspense and hype. On the undercard you had a decent Orton vs Kane bout, Big Show beating Cody Rhodes for the IC title, and maybe the most important match that lasted under 30 seconds of all time with Sheamus beating Daniel Bryan for the world title. This was the night and the match when it all started for Bryan, culminating two years later winning the title at WM30..

 

[billmac]

The Mania that did the least has to be 8 for me. Macho Man, Ric Flair, Hogan, Sid, Bret, Piper, Owen, Michaels, and even the Warrior waiting backstage and the whole night felt like a flop with the exception of Piper and Bret Hart. I still can't believe they didn't book Hogan and Flair, And I know there are a lot of reasons that people say they didn't, but that's a match that you had to make happen at whatever cost. Instead you get a main event that ends in Disqualification, the match before that is a squash for Owen Hart, the match before that ends in a count out between two great tag teams in the Natural Disasters and Money Inc. Undertaker vs Jake the Snake came before the streak was a thing for obvious reasons, but these two are still both hall of famers and couldn't put on any kind of a memorable match, not even a singular moment.

The one that did the most has to be WrestleMania X. It's not exactly the most remembered Mania in history, but they had to have their top guys wrestle two matches each just to put on a full card, and this was the first time in history that WrestleMania didn't feature Hulk Hogan in any way. They still had two matches that are all Time classics with Hart vs Hart and the Ladder Match. Neither title match was especially memorable but it was at least an interesting concept. It isn't perfect, but when you have a mid card of Earthquake vs Adam Bomb, Luna and Bam Bam vs Doink and Dink, and Men on a Mission vs The Mounties you would expect one of the most forgettable and downright awful nights of wrestling in history. But you don't, you have a very fondly remembered card.

 

[Judah's Lion]

super great thread idea. really looking forward to all the responses.

Worst Mania with the Best Talent: Mania 11.
gotta side with Rougeau on this one. impossible to deny the level of talent available for this year but equally impossible to find any majorly redeeming quality to this show. the potential was there and the talent was available. just tons of dropped balls and/or missed opportunities.

Best Mania with the Worst Talent: Mania 21.
10 years later, we have a very solid Mania with not a whole lot of solid stars. great talent, but again, few top stars. the MITB Ladder Match was introduced and offered a guaranteed contract for a future World Title shot. 6 men competed, only 3 of which were former World Champions and 1 of those 3 held the World Title only for a single day. Taker's Streak was on the line against Orton. Batista and Cena both won their first World Titles in the Main Events. and Cena won said World Title from first time World Champ JBL, who in previous Mania shows was used primarily as a hardcore brawler or tag team competitor. so lots of forward movement on this card from young guys that were becoming the top stars of the future.

super fun thread. thanks again, Rougeau.

 

[MCMG]

The worst must be WM25. Cena, Orton, HBK, Taker, HHH, Edge, Punk, Jericho, Rey and an extremely over Jeff Hardy. It was such an underwhelming Wrestlemania with the HBK/Taker match being the one shining light. There were some ok matches elsewhere but Taker v Shawn is one of the best matches of all time but there was so much talent and it simply didn't deliver.

I'm struggling for the best. Overall, 12 isn't a great Mania but there were some decent matches. Given the time and the roster it delivered. Austin and Hunter were nowhere near big stars. Taker was kind of meh. Shawn was only starting to establish himself. Guys like Piper and Warrior were way past their prime. Bret was the only big star. It could have been a lot better but I thought it was decent. Taker v Diesel is a pretty good match and Shawn v Bret is a fantastic watch. Maybe not the classic some suggest but a great wrestling match nonetheless.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Wrestlemania X8 - Does it have to be a really shit Wrestlemania just to be considered the "Worst Mania with the Best Talent"? This is not a terrible show but it's definitely not a great show either. WWE had acquired WCW and ECW, they had the two biggest names in the companies history, The Rock, Triple H, the nWo, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle etc. They had a lot of star power on their roster and the show had tons of potential. We could've seen a lot of great dream matches take place, this should've been the greatest Wrestlemania of all time in fact, but due to backstage politics, egos, and crappy booking decisions, we got an okay show with the exception of one match. A lot of missed opportunities here.

I'm struggling with Best aswell, so I guess I'll just go with Wrestlemania 10 or 14 too.

 

[roipdh123]

Wrestlemania 27 is the mania that did worst with great talent (hhh taker cena punk orton edge sheamus).
And I must say that WM 14 is really the mania that did vest with the least amont of talent.