It's amazing how so many people think Undertaker is Mr. WrestleMania. The true Mr. WrestleMania is clearly Hulk Hogan.
To be considered Mr. WrestleMania, what criteria do we need to look at? Let's see...
- the legacy the wrestler has made for himself at WM
- the overall impact they made on WM, the WWE and pro wrestling as a whole, at WM
- the number of appearances they had
- the number of main events they had
- the number of championships they won/retained
- their win/loss record
- the ability to make their opponents look good/put over other wrestlers
- the draw/attraction they were
- the quality of the matches they had
- the special moments they had
^Those are the things we should be looking at when we're deciding who Mr. WrestleMania is. Obviously some of those things are more important than others, and there might be a few other things that Ive left out, but those are the ones I can think of right now.
To start off, let's look at Hogan. I don't think it can be argued that he has the biggest legacy in WM history. Hogan simply made WM. He put it on the map. He was a part of the first main event, and since then he's been in more main events than anyone else. He has also left WM as WWE champion more times than anyone else. He was UNDENIABLY THE greatest attraction in WM history. For the first 9 years, people watched it almost solely to watch Hogan. And when he returned at WM18 he was the main attraction once again. No other wrestler has reached this level of mega appeal, except for maybe Austin. He also had some really good matches against Savage, Warrior, Slaughter, Rock, Vince... (the ones against Warrior and Rock were absolute classics). He put Warrior over in the biggest way possible, by giving him the clean win at WM6, at the height of Hulkamanias popularity. He basically made Warrior in that one night. And finally, who can forget Hogan body-slamming Andre at WM3? Possibly the greatest, and most talked about moment in WM history? When you count all these things up, how can you not agree that Hogan is Mr. WrestleMania?
Now lets look at Undertaker. No question, he has an amazing legacy at WM, and there is no denying that his 15-0 undefeated streak is simply legendary. However, unlike Hogan, Taker was never the main attraction at WM
Never. He was in the main event (the last match) once, and that was only because HBK lost his smile and didnt want to job to Hart at WM13. And if you look at all of his matches, only a few of them were any good. The closest to a classic was the one against Triple H. The one against Batista was good, but far from a classic, and overrated in my opinion. His WM14 match against Kane and his WM21 match against Orton were pretty decent, but all of the rest were either mediocre, crap, or just down right awful. It seems that the people who say Undertaker is Mr. WM only have one reason... his streak. However, when you take everything into consideration, you can see that Undertaker is clearly NOT Mr. WM. Possibly not even in the top 5.
I'd put Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels clearly ahead of Undertaker.
Bret Hart's legacy at WM is awesome. He went from a tag-team champion to an IC champion to WWE champion during his record-breaking 12 consecutive appearances at WM... How about that for consistency? He had one of the most underrated IC title matches ever, against a never before been pinned Roddy Piper. And he made 3 stars at WM... Owen Hart, HBK and Austin (HBK and Austin being two of the biggest stars of all-time). Without their uber classic matches against Hart at WM, they wouldn't have had the successful careers that they had. Hart put people over at WM, and in Austin's case, beat him and still made him look good.
Shawn Michaels is pretty much equal to Hart, it's really hard for me to decide who was better at WM. HBK had classic after classic after classic after classic (against Razor, Hart, Jericho, Angle, etc), probably more great matches at WM than anyone else. But he never made a star out of anyone, the way Hart did. He could've given Jericho a HUGE rub at WM19, but he didn't.
Steve Austin was also great at WM. He had some great matches (especially against Hart (WM13) and Rock (WM17), and he was the second biggest attraction in WM history, behind Hogan.
Randy Savage also deserves a strong mention. He also had many classics at WM. His match against Steamboat at WM3 was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. His match against Warrior at WM7 is one of my all-time favorites, which told a masterful story, not to mention his other great matches against Hogan and Flair. Savage made every one of his WM opponents look like a million dollars.
Overall, my top 10 list of greatest stars in WM history would be:
1. Hulk Hogan
2. Bret Hart
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Steve Austin
5. Randy Savage
6. Undertaker
7. Triple H
8. The Rock
9. Kurt Angle
10. Chris Benoit