Your favorite Wrestlemania opening match ?

[XtheXlegacyX]

The title basically explains itself. I am asking for your favorite opening match from the last 28 Wrestlemanias. I personally will have to go with Owen vs. Bret at Wrestlemania 10. It was a perfect opener and had a good story to back it up ( Owen feeling "held back" by his older, successful brother) , and it's a great technical match that ends with Owen pinning Bret clean. So, what is your favorite opening contest on the grandest stage of all ?

 

[The Brain]

It's Owen vs. Bret by a mile. By a hundred miles. Nothing is even close. That was not only one of the best mania opening matches, it was one of the best mania matches ever. That was not only one of the best mania matches ever, that was one of the best matches ever. Go through all the other manias and pick out anything even close to this match. Can't be done. Owen vs. Bret was flawless.

 

[HBKperfect23]

Yea this isnt going to be much of a contest. Bret and Owen was a classic. Probably the best Owen match ever. For arguments sake, ill throw out Eddie/Rey at WM21 and Rockers vs Barbarian/Haku as distant seconds. Michaels/Tatanka deserves to be mentioned, one of the better openers, but nobody is touching Bret/Owen. Maybe with the World title match opening up WM each year,we'll have competition for WMX someday.

 

[XtheXlegacyX]

Maybe with the World title match opening up WM each year,we'll have competition for WMX someday.

Yeah, possibly but the way the past Wrestlemanias have been going, I don't see it happening honestly, but who knows ? And yeah, a close second for me would have to be Eddie and Rey , cos they worked together very well also.

 

[xavyer]

In my opinion, it was at wrestlemania 18, a match between William Regal and RVD for the intercontinental title, it was RVD's first wrestlemania, and it was an exiting back and fourth match........

 

[XtheXlegacyX]

Another one that just crossed my mind would be Wrestlemania 27 Edge/Del Rio, sure the match isn't too special but it was a hall of famers last match.

 

[Potatogod93]

My vote for number two would probably be Tatanka vs Shawn Micheals that was a really good match. Shawn vs Tito Santana WM8 was solid as well.

 

[Aquaman6686]

For in-ring action, I'd say Bret Hart vs. Own Hart. But my personal favorite is Matt Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight Championship from WM19, I thought it was a fantastic match, and I like having a championship match open WrestleMania.

On a side note, I am completely against the recent pattern of WrestleMania being opened by a World title match. In my opinion, with VERY rare exceptions (such as HBK's retirement), the final match of WrestleMania should always be the Royal Rumble winner vs. the champion of his choice, with the other World title match immediately before that.

 

[Pedigree1]

Bret Hart V Owen Hart by a hundred million miles!! What a opener and that match definitely set the tone that night!! wow that match could have been the main event of any WM in my opinion!! That is my all time favorite opening WM match ever!! Kudos to both gentleman on that masterpiece

 

[The Man of 1,004 Holds]

Hands down Bret vs. Owen is the greatest opening match in WM history. This was the first WM I saw live on PPV. This is the match that got me hooked on pro wrestling. And one of the reasons why Bret Hart is an all-time great.

 

[#heel420]

I know everybody's gonna say Bret Vs. Owen and I can't disagree with them its a masterpiece. But I have to say Eddie Guerrero Vs. Rey Mysterio its a match we've seen dozens if not hundreds of times and they delivered again. IMO this match greatly helped make Wrestlemania 21 one of the best Wrestlemanias in history.

 

[demetrius15]

Bret vs. Owen of course, Eddie vs. Rey: was a good match, Rey vs. Hardy: underated, Edge vs. Del Rio: also underated, But one good opener, that fails to be recognized is John Cena vs Big Show at Wrestlemania 20 this really launched Cena into being a possible main event contender.

 

[demetrius15]

Bret vs. Owen is my favorite, of course, Eddie vs. Rey: was a good match, Rey vs. Hardy: underated, Edge vs. Del Rio: also underated, But one good opener, that fails to be recognized is John Cena vs Big Show at Wrestlemania 20 this really launched Cena into being a possible main event contender.

 

[XtheXlegacyX]

Yeah that's another one I hadn't thought of, Big Show/Cena, only because it launched a superstars career

 

[ProWrestlingFan84]

Probably Bret vs Owen is the best opening match considering it wasn't some cheap 18 second match like Mania 28. But seriously though what everyone else has said about that match holds very true, 2 Hart brothers going at it and put on a wrestling clinic and Owen even went over Bret clean. The best part was that feud would continue for a majority of the 94' year in one fashion or another. With that being said, some honorable mentions I feel go to Mania 4 with the battle royal just because you don't see that very often. Mania 7 had a pretty good tag match with the Rockers vs Akeem and the Barbarian. Finally Mania 8 had HBK in his singles Mania debut have a pretty good 15 minute match with Tito Santana.

 

[HBsam31]

I have to obviously go with the consensus here. I put HBK/Tatanka as number 2 though. Bret and Owen was amazing to me as a kid, and I couldn't believe Owen won. I still remember that as one of my favorite matches ever. It was a technical masterpiece, that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I actually just watched it on the Mania Anthology about a month ago, and it is even better watching it now. Will always remeber it to be one of the best matches ever.

 

[justinept]

A few things...

As many have noted, Bret vs Owen is obviously the run-away favorite. It was one of the best feuds the company did during the "New Generation" Era, and it was the first time WrestleMania opened with a truly great match, in my opinion.

While there's a lot of love going on for the HBK/Santana match and the HBK/Tatanka match, consider me in the minority. I just thought they were average matches. I do, however, find it crazy that Michaels wrestled the opener in three straight WrestleManias (7,8,9) before going on to become Mr. WrestleMania.

I like the late rally for Big Show/Cena since that match cemented the idea in my mind that Cena would become a top guy in the company. The crowd was ridiculously behind him at that point, and it's crazy to realize how quickly the crowd turned on him within the next 18 months.

I'm going to go out on a limb here with WrestleMania 23 as my favorite opener. It was the first time they opened with the MITB match, and it provided 20 minutes of action featuring FIVE wrestlers that had won - or would eventually win - the WWE/World Title. By this point, the MITB match had become one of the most anticipated matches at 'Mania, and for it to go on first provided an immediate spark for the show.

 

[c13vyper]

28 - Sheamus v Bryan, it had everything, a bell ringing, a kick, a one-two-three!!!

But in all seriousness, WM21 Rey vs Eddie for one v one match
WM23 - MITB for the spot factor

 

[Hbkfan4eva]

hands down hart vs hart they tore that to shreds but im also a big fan of wrestlemania 21 where it was eddie vs rey. i feel this is a very underrated match that told a great story and started the show strongly

 

[theBusiness]

No offense, but pretty pointless thread. Bret-Owen SHOULD be every wrestling fans favorite opening match. If you weren't a fan of this, you aren't a fan of wrestling. Second place would have to go to the MITB Ladder Match at WrestleMania 23.

1. Bret vs. Owen
2. MITB WM 23
3. Eddie vs. Rey

In that order, no dispute IMO.

 

[Wald]

It's Owen vs Bret for me too.

That is one of the greatest matches of all time, period, and really set up the rest of Owen Hart's career. That's how good it was.

 

[XtheXlegacyX]

No offense, but pretty pointless thread.

Not really, as the point is to see everyones favorite opening match. Obviously the majority agreed with me, but some others have put in their own matches, which is the point. This thread isn't about the best match, it's about everyones favorite. And some people haven't seen Wrestlemania Ten.

 

[BrunoFlair]

As good as Bret vs. Owen was, I have to say that it isn't my favorite opener for Wrestlemania. There is one other match that IMO is very underrated and for some reason is never put on any HBK or Tag Team DVD's even though it should be and that is The Rockers vs. The Faces Of Fear (Haku and Barbarian) at Wrestlemania 7. The match was really quite good and featured the guest commentary of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan.

 

[syxxeffect]

There is no denying that Bret vs. Owen is the best opener ever. You can argue the point all day, but it was wrestling at it's purest form. That being said the Wrestlemania IV battle royal is my favorite. Wrestlemania IV was my first, and due to nostalgia this is my favorite.