If we were to have a thread on the greatest Wrestlemania of all-time, I fully believe that 90% of the responses here would point to Wrestlemania 17. For good reason as well, as I personally consider it to be not only the best Wrestlemania ever, but among my favorite PPV's ever. With Benoit/Angle, TLC 2, HHH/Undertaker, and of course Austin/Rock, you have four matches that could have main evented another PPV, and people would have been pleased. With four of these matches, is it even close as to what the best Wrestlemania of all time has been? So, in the spirit of pretending Wrestlemania 17 never happened, what was the greatest Wrestlemania otherwise?
For me, this is a very difficult decision. I looked closely at Wrestlemania 19, and was leaning that way. This was Shawn Michaels first Wrestlemania since WM 14, and he and Jericho had the best match on the card, and certainly one of the best matches of Jericho's career. The main event between Lesnar and Angle was gold, but the ending with the botched SSP and the improvised finish kept this from possibly being a classic. Vince and Hogan is very good, especially for men of their age and physical condition, but it's not a classic. Finally, Austin and Rock in Austin's final match to date was also very good, but fell short of their previous two WM encounters.
My problem with this card is two-fold. One, the other matches surrounding these went from average to very bad. Mysterio and Matt Hardy as the opener was such a disapointment at under 6 minutes. This was followed by one of the worst streak matches, with Undertaker vs Big Show and A-Train. The triple threat Women's Title match was well below average for what you'ld expect from Jazz/Trish/Victoria. The triple threat tag match that followed was average, yet the best match thusfar. For the fourth match on the card, that's less then impressive. The only other match that I've failed to mention is the World Title match between Booker T and HHH, and this was simply a case of where Booker was simply fodder for HHH, with no realistic chance of winning the match.
My second problem here is the order of the matches on the card. The final five matches were all big-time matches, with HBK/Jericho, the Raw Title, Hogan/Vince, Austin/Rock, and Lesnar/Angle. I understand that all of these are big matches, and earned their palces on the card. But the problem is the pacing, as it's one big match after another, with no "down time." Placing the tag title match and perhaps the Divas match in between some of these would have made for a much better pacing for the show. Also, unlike my choice(getting there), there's no real classic on the show. Some very good to great matches, but nothing that will be remembered in history as an all-time great.
So with that out of the way, I'm going to go with Wrestlemania 10. I'm going to sound hypocritical here somewhat, as this was simply a two match card. I criticized 19 because the card surrounding the big matches weren't very good, but the matches surrounding the two great ones at 10 absolutely sucked. Bigelow/Vachon vs Doink/Dink and Men on a Mission vs The Quebeccers are absolute travesties that didn't belong on any PPV, let alone Wrestlemania. And then there's the train wreck that is Luger vs Yokazuna, with Luger being DQ'd in his title match, a terrible match with an even worse finish. So how could this possibly be the best Wrestlemania other then 17? Simple.
Unlike with 19, this show has two absolute classics. Not only is Bret vs Owen considered to be the best opener in Wrestlemania history, it's also one of the greatest matches in history, period. This or his match with Davey on Raw is the best match of Owen's career, and the psychology was off the charts. Both men spent the entire match working the other's limbs in attempts to set up for the Sharpshooter, so when they applied it, it was meaningful and believable. Each reversed the other's attempts at the Sharpshooter over and again, so the ending was perfectly fitting with Bret attempting a victory roll, only for Owen to reverse himself, was beautiful. It was a nod to the rest of the match, and was a classic in every sense of the word. The shock factor of Owen beating his brother, who had won the Rumble along with Luger and had a title match later in the night, was unbelievable.
I don't need to go through the details of the other match for everyone to understand why the HBK/Razor Ramon Ladder Match was a classic. The storyline was simple but great. SHawn was suspended, Ramon won the IC title in the interim, but when Shawn returned, he refused to give up the belt. So they introduced the ladder, with both belts hanging above the ring. How often does a match truly make stars out of two men? This is one of the rare occasions where this was the case, as it shot both men into the upper elite. Certainly the best ladder match of all time, even with all of the innovations and spots that have been added in the 18 years since.
As I said, I come across as highly hypocritical here, because the matches surroundign Bret/Owen and HBK/Razor weren't very good. Bret's second match where he won the title from Yokozuna was decent, as was Randy Savage and Crush, but the rest of the card was simply awful. But this is one of those rare cases where the two matches that were great were such classics that the rest of the card doesn't truly matter, in my eyes. So if you eliminate Wrestlemania 17, Wrestlemania 10 is my choice for greatest Wrestlemania.
I went on a bit here, but my choice is clear. Obviously, Wrestlemania 17 outshines this and any other Wrestlemania for me, but that's not up for consideration here. But every other Wrestlemania is fair game here.
Excluding Wrestlemania 17, what was the greatest Wrestlemania of all time?
For me, this is a very difficult decision. I looked closely at Wrestlemania 19, and was leaning that way. This was Shawn Michaels first Wrestlemania since WM 14, and he and Jericho had the best match on the card, and certainly one of the best matches of Jericho's career. The main event between Lesnar and Angle was gold, but the ending with the botched SSP and the improvised finish kept this from possibly being a classic. Vince and Hogan is very good, especially for men of their age and physical condition, but it's not a classic. Finally, Austin and Rock in Austin's final match to date was also very good, but fell short of their previous two WM encounters.
My problem with this card is two-fold. One, the other matches surrounding these went from average to very bad. Mysterio and Matt Hardy as the opener was such a disapointment at under 6 minutes. This was followed by one of the worst streak matches, with Undertaker vs Big Show and A-Train. The triple threat Women's Title match was well below average for what you'ld expect from Jazz/Trish/Victoria. The triple threat tag match that followed was average, yet the best match thusfar. For the fourth match on the card, that's less then impressive. The only other match that I've failed to mention is the World Title match between Booker T and HHH, and this was simply a case of where Booker was simply fodder for HHH, with no realistic chance of winning the match.
My second problem here is the order of the matches on the card. The final five matches were all big-time matches, with HBK/Jericho, the Raw Title, Hogan/Vince, Austin/Rock, and Lesnar/Angle. I understand that all of these are big matches, and earned their palces on the card. But the problem is the pacing, as it's one big match after another, with no "down time." Placing the tag title match and perhaps the Divas match in between some of these would have made for a much better pacing for the show. Also, unlike my choice(getting there), there's no real classic on the show. Some very good to great matches, but nothing that will be remembered in history as an all-time great.
So with that out of the way, I'm going to go with Wrestlemania 10. I'm going to sound hypocritical here somewhat, as this was simply a two match card. I criticized 19 because the card surrounding the big matches weren't very good, but the matches surrounding the two great ones at 10 absolutely sucked. Bigelow/Vachon vs Doink/Dink and Men on a Mission vs The Quebeccers are absolute travesties that didn't belong on any PPV, let alone Wrestlemania. And then there's the train wreck that is Luger vs Yokazuna, with Luger being DQ'd in his title match, a terrible match with an even worse finish. So how could this possibly be the best Wrestlemania other then 17? Simple.
Unlike with 19, this show has two absolute classics. Not only is Bret vs Owen considered to be the best opener in Wrestlemania history, it's also one of the greatest matches in history, period. This or his match with Davey on Raw is the best match of Owen's career, and the psychology was off the charts. Both men spent the entire match working the other's limbs in attempts to set up for the Sharpshooter, so when they applied it, it was meaningful and believable. Each reversed the other's attempts at the Sharpshooter over and again, so the ending was perfectly fitting with Bret attempting a victory roll, only for Owen to reverse himself, was beautiful. It was a nod to the rest of the match, and was a classic in every sense of the word. The shock factor of Owen beating his brother, who had won the Rumble along with Luger and had a title match later in the night, was unbelievable.
I don't need to go through the details of the other match for everyone to understand why the HBK/Razor Ramon Ladder Match was a classic. The storyline was simple but great. SHawn was suspended, Ramon won the IC title in the interim, but when Shawn returned, he refused to give up the belt. So they introduced the ladder, with both belts hanging above the ring. How often does a match truly make stars out of two men? This is one of the rare occasions where this was the case, as it shot both men into the upper elite. Certainly the best ladder match of all time, even with all of the innovations and spots that have been added in the 18 years since.
As I said, I come across as highly hypocritical here, because the matches surroundign Bret/Owen and HBK/Razor weren't very good. Bret's second match where he won the title from Yokozuna was decent, as was Randy Savage and Crush, but the rest of the card was simply awful. But this is one of those rare cases where the two matches that were great were such classics that the rest of the card doesn't truly matter, in my eyes. So if you eliminate Wrestlemania 17, Wrestlemania 10 is my choice for greatest Wrestlemania.
I went on a bit here, but my choice is clear. Obviously, Wrestlemania 17 outshines this and any other Wrestlemania for me, but that's not up for consideration here. But every other Wrestlemania is fair game here.
Excluding Wrestlemania 17, what was the greatest Wrestlemania of all time?
