“WrestleMania” as Content

“It’s what we do.”

By: Micah

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. “WrestleMania”, live from Las Vegas. One of the main events has Roman Reigns and CM Punk in it. The other has Cody Rhodes dealing with the sudden work-shoot machinations of TKO, who have inserted a previously unrelated mid-level celebrity. The finish will be convoluted in ways that are confusing and will leave more questions than they answer.

A mixed build will plague the month before. A sense of malaise will creep into the “WrestleMania” festival atmosphere. A crowd full of people (who had to pay too much) will leave feeling like one night was bad and the other night was better and (overall) the yearly ‘Mega Show’ was mostly okay.

The conceit here is, of course, that this could describe this year’s “Mania” or last year’s “Mania”. And I guess, last year went so well, why not do it again?

“It’s what we do.”

As a business, “WrestleMania” is wildly successful. Ignore the year over year decline for a minute. They get paid by the city for holding it there. They get paid by the streamers for the right to air it. They get paid by the fans who come to watch it. They get paid by the advertisers for the ads they run during it. And even with the boost in pay for talent over the last five years, they increase their profits by not paying the wrestlers nor the production staff nor anyone else what they are worth to the process.

As a fan, I don’t see those profits. I want them to be successful so they can continue to showcase this form of entertainment I love, and I want them to be successful so all the people making it can have that as their primary job. But ultimately, their return on investment and uptick in basis points doesn’t matter much to me. And increasingly, “WrestleMania” feels like it is about little else.

It’s in the same city, despite the original deal to return to New Orleans (a city full of life and history), because they could get a little more money that way. Less exciting, sure, maybe less interesting for the fans, but a better business move.

The build was Roman and CM Punk in a Triple Threat last year. Now they are getting their head-to-head “Mania” main event. Same people in the match wrestling in the same city. I think this worked out; the match was good, but the build was hit or miss. Some good lines in the promos, some good fire in the brawls, but also an inescapable feeling that we just saw this last year. The most alive part, the Pipebomb ‘26, stood out starkly because it felt like the one time we were getting things we didn’t expect.

“It’s what we do.”

The business model of WWE lately appears to involve pushing the boat out to sea and then rocking it as little as possible. This has been a critique of the TKO era of UFC, too. Gone are the era of guys being built up through the ranks and money fights based on the best fighters clashing. The lack of a need to sell big pay-per-views means making whatever match is available, for an interim title if need be, without much concern to the whims of the fans or the health of the sport. Fightful and the Observer and dozens of other places barely even cover UFC anymore.

UFC main events don’t need to be blockbusters. They just need to be good enough. A few extra tickets sold or a few extra viewers for the events? This doesn’t matter as much as just being consistent. Being ‘good enough’. New week, same show. It’s just content.

They’re like the Wendy’s of entertainment. It may not be impressive, but it won’t be too disappointing. Burger lovers may not be singing their praises online, but they have enough brand recognition that it’ll be fine. Despite interest waning, prices keep escalating, even as people openly wonder if fans are getting priced out.

“It’s what we do.”

“WrestleMania” is built as the showcase of the immortals. It’s the place where the biggest stars end their biggest feuds with their biggest matches. It’s meant to be exciting and alive and unmissable. But maybe that’s only in the eyes of fans, and possibly the wrestlers, too.

It’s hard not to think back on the show-after-show record gates era, when WWE would have someone come out with the applause line of “You all paid more money to see this show than any fans in history!” All about the profits. It wasn’t a statement of popularity, nor was it a statement about quality. Generously, maybe it was about the health of the company, or their position in the market.

As the shows feel more paint-by-numbers, as decisions feel increasingly mechanical and hollow, it can’t help but come across like the aim of the company isn’t delivering for fans, the same fans who are paying more money at a time many are less able to. It feels like the aim is delivering for the parent company and getting as good of a yield out of the cattle as they can.

© WWE

And yeah, that’s life, bay-bee. So when tickets aren’t selling quite right and the higher ups hotshot in their favorite ESPN personality for another TKO Outsider against Cody storyline, I get it. It’s a proven formula. Long-term storytelling be damned, who cares about Randy Orton or Cody Rhodes or their long history as mentor and apprentice? That’s just wrestling bullshit. Let’s get a real celebrity in there.

When ticket prices are too high, do we have the babyface character known as the Voice of the Voiceless secure the ticket discount? Do we do the pro wrestling thing and have the babyface going up against the evil corporation’s ‘chosen one’ to secure the discount, to show they’re on the side of the fans? Nah, let’s have the bad guy from outside the company do it, even though he’s the heel. He’s a celebrity after all. It doesn’t make wrestling sense, but who cares? It makes business sense.

There are some bright spots. Oba Femi’s win was the right move, both for the fans and for the long-term health of the business. And the crowd responded gloriously. The ESPN guy, who said that the company (fresh off the aforementioned record-setting era) was worse than it’d ever been, did lose and got embarrassed in the main event.

But in the aftermath, the yearly cuts hit sharply in tone. Gone were wrestlers whose stories had been delayed or dropped, or were suddenly off TV. Kairi Sane the most notable of them, but there’s word that some may have still been injured, or freshly cleared, and still fired anyway. That sort of firing typically didn’t take place in the wrestling business. But the old era is gone. Firing the injured, asking wrestlers to take 50% pay cuts, abruptly ending storylines, releasing fan favorites, these sorts of things are increasingly commonplace.

“It’s what we do.”

We’re in a downturn right now. And it’s more likely we were headed there anyway once the Bloodline ended and Cody finished his story. Probably Cena’s retirement angle held things up for a bit. I’m not saying the vibes being atrocious or prices being too high or the storylines being dull or the machinations of their corporate parent are the only reasons things are sliding. But fuck, it isn’t fucking helping, ya know?

Wrestling is an art form and it is entertainment and yes, even a business. But the skill is in balancing those demands. Delivering for the fans, keeping them happy, rewarding their investment — that’s what breathes life into the show and keeps them coming back.
And yes, fans are a smaller-than-ever part of the revenue stream. There’s the ESPN money and the Saudi money and the ad money and the government money from cities paying site fees. It’s all about keeping the ball in the air.

I get why it’s safe and predictable. I get why they’re repeating locations and themes and whatever worked before. I get why they’re throwing out plans and scrambling to inject something into it when the metrics drop by a point or two. I get that they need to put that stability and their business interests ahead of things like a compelling product that might be riskier and more rewarding.

“WrestleMania” just isn’t the ‘Granddaddy of Them All’ anymore. It’s content now. It’s all content. And that content, even room-temperature content made by a committee, it’ll still sell. How’s the old CM Punk line go? “Just a spoke on the wheel. The wheel’s gonna keep turning.” Fans will just keep watching, ya know?

“It’s what we do.”

If you talk to people? If you listen to the feedback, catch the vibe? More and more are watching less and less. ‘Live viewing’ gives way to ‘checking YouTube’ gives way to ‘just watching the clips you’re sent’. Excitement wanes, and the thrill fades. Some fans keep watching. But not all of them.

But what do I know? This all seems to be working out for the UFC.

© UFC

Top Ten “WrestleMania” Main Events

By Conor McFall

When people think about the best ever “WrestleMania” matches, the ones that come up – Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker at “Mania 25” or Bret Hart vs Steve Austin at “Mania 13” – are not usually the main event. Indeed, WWE have long promoted “WrestleMania” as a show that is about grand spectacle and memorable moments that live on in their video packages forever above being a show that is in any way about in-ring professional wrestling. When you look back over the now 40-plus year history of the event, you’ll see that many of these main events have been underwhelming or even downright bad. WWE would tend to throw some bait to the workrate fans in the upper midcard. Aside from the matches already mentioned, one could look at Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels at “Mania 21” or Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat at “Mania 3” as further examples of this. Indeed, the latter is almost their perfect example as it was the workrate match placed underneath Hogan vs Andre, perhaps the single greatest encapsulation of grand WWE spectacle. As a thought exercise, I did have some discussions with other fans about what we would consider to be the best “WrestleMania” main events. I also heard Trish & Sarah talk about how the “WrestleMania” main event wasn’t really about having a great match, which really set me to thinking that I should try to put together a top ten. As stated, there are actually a lot more bad “WrestleMania” main events than there have been very good ones. Nevertheless, there are a few obvious standouts that you won’t be surprised to see near the top of this list, but even with 49 of these things now in the record books, filling out the bottom end of the list with actually good matches was no easy task. You will notice that the list trends somewhat recent, as the working standard across the wrestling business has risen since the turn of the century, but there are a few older gems sprinkled throughout.

© WWE

 1. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock – “WrestleMania 17”

When we talk about “WrestleMania” main events as grand, symbolic spectacles, this one may even supplant Hogan vs Andre as the apex of this phenomenon. I can think of no better match that is so representative of its time and place in such an overarching way. This entire event serves as a culmination of sorts – the grand finale of the 1996-2001 hot period that began with Hulk Hogan turning heel at WCW’s “Bash at the Beach 1996” and closed out here with Steve Austin turning heel. Here, WWE had just purchased WCW and ECW, fulfilling Vince McMahon’s long pursued ambition of a wrestling monopoly, and his company put on arguably their best ever show that now looks like the grand finale of the Attitude Era. The quality of the TV was already starting to dip, as seen by the weak build for this match, but when you have two of the biggest stars of all time facing off, that doesn’t matter. The sheer magnitude of the star power carried the day, but those two men had their working boots on as well. These are two top stars that also cared deeply about the business and wanted to be great. They worked with ferocious intensity, laying it in thick but also featuring classic callbacks, like when The Rock reversed Austin’s sleeper hold into a pin fall à la Bret Hart (vs Piper at “Mania 8” and again vs Austin at “Survivor Series 1996”) and used each other’s finishes. As this show was in Texas, Austin was revered as a god by this crowd, meaning that The Rock frequently got booed for his efforts. This made the finish all the more difficult to land, as Austin aligned with his arch nemesis Vince McMahon to beat Rock half to death with a chair and win. In some ways, it’s probably hard to tell where they even could have continued to go with Austin as the top face. They really gave the fans everything here in a way that does fit as a suitable blow off for an entire era. The Austin heel turn preceded an alliance with HHH that resulted in heavy heel domination across TV and plummeting ratings, as there were no credible babyfaces to challenge them. In this way, this match is perfect as a piece of symbolism, even as the dodgy ending somewhat sucked the air out of what was a truly special match in the moment. *****

© WWE

 2. “The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels – WrestleMania 26”WrestleMania 26”

While the previous match on this list proves that it is not impossible to do a sequel that is better than the original, no one would deny that Taker and Michaels had a Herculean task here. Their match on the previous year’s show has been canonised as the greatest “WrestleMania” match in company history and many idiots to this day are still incensed that Dave Meltzer did not rate it 5 stars. They were not assisted in their uphill battle here by having the atrocious Michael Cole and Matt Striker on commentary, two absolute clowns who drew attention to themselves in a way that did not accentuate the match. But if you can tune them out, this is still an upper echelon WWE match. Building on the match a year before, as well as Shawn retiring Ric Flair the previous year, this match was based around Michaels putting his career on the line to have one last shot at the Undertaker’s “WrestleMania” streak. Shawn is the king of melodrama. He loves to play to the cheap seats with his soap opera acting, and this series of matches is largely blamed for the epidemic of ‘NXT Face’ in modern wrestling. I think some melodrama is fine when the moment has earned it – and a retirement match between two company legends on the biggest show of the year seems like one of the few of the few occasions that truly warrants it. Still, they did get a little bit cute with it. After an excellent spot where Undertaker caught a moonsault from Michaels to tombstone him on the floor, we got some hokiness with doctors running out and Taker beating them up. From there, we got a lot of finisher kick outs that the fans went crazy over as well as Shawn hitting a moonsault through the announce table, calling back to when he crashed and burned on a similar spot against Flair. The match also ended with a riff on the Flair match, as Michaels was defiant in the face of certain defeat and Undertaker was reticent to finish him off. Instead of the “I’m sorry, I love you” sentimentality, instead we got the trademark Taker throat slit and a killer jumping tombstone to finish off Shawn for good (just don’t mention that atrocious tag match in Saudi Arabia). ****½

© WWE

3. CM Punk vs Roman Reigns – “WrestleMania 42”

Lots of people will have divided opinions on this match because of the participants, particularly CM Punk. Over the course of his career he has, to put it mildly, been a lot of things to a lot of people. But one thing that he is undoubtedly is a pro wrestler, and after two nights of critically panned, low-effort slop at “WrestleMania”, it was refreshing to see a pro wrestler who had pride in their craft out there trying to have the best match they could possibly have. For me, this match was on a bit of a knife edge because if either of these men fell into their worst flaws – Punk’s physical incapabilities and Roman’s penchant for amateur dramatics – the whole thing could have fallen apart. But Punk kept up just enough that his physical issues played into the story of the match without detracting from it. And Roman toed the line as well, coming off as cocky and self-assured without tipping over into cartoon character. They worked in a way that made it believable that these men did not like each other, a rarity in today’s wrestling. And Punk, who has been desperate to main event “WrestleMania” for years and years, worked his ass off to make the most of what was probably his one shot at it. He took two big bumps through the announce table – one from a Reigns powerbomb and one from his own flying elbow drop from the top rope – and was upside down in the ropes for an eternity so Roman could hit him with Superman Punches, and eventually took ring steps right in the face, after which he ran the razor. Both men also played into the story of Punk being too old to hang at this level, with an inventive spot where Punk threw his wrist tape at Reigns and took advantage to hit a low blow when the referee was clearing it away, expressing Punk’s increasing desperation. The finish also played on this story as well – the exhausted Punk collapsed when trying to put down Roman with a GTS, only to be finished off by a super spear. This was a callback to “WrestleMania 34”, where Reigns also finished off the aging Undertaker in a similar manner, albeit in a far worse match. The only issue here, as in that match, is that Reigns’ spear just doesn’t look deadly enough to have the killer effect that it’s supposed to in kayfabe. Nevertheless, an excellent match and kind of a miracle performance from Punk at this late stage. ****½

© WWE

4. John Cena vs Shawn Michaels – “WrestleMania 23”

This is a bit of an underappreciated one. It has been overshadowed on three counts; overshadowed on this show by the Vince McMahon vs Donald Trump hair vs hair stipulation (yes, you read that right), overshadowed as a match by their almost hour long match on “Raw” in London not long after, and overshadowed historically because the Benoit murders later that year make this something of a forgotten period of WWE history. But actually, they were kind of cooking here. This was a hugely successful show and Cena was finally starting to find his feet as the ace of the company. In terms of his actual wrestling, I think 2007 is his physical and technical peak. His stuff did not look as clunky as before (see his match vs HHH at “Mania 22”), injuries hadn’t yet slowed him down and he wasn’t trying to do things he wasn’t capable of to live up to indie guys coming into the company. There’s a strong argument that Cena’s best ever match was against Umaga at the 2007 “Royal Rumble”, and this match just a few weeks later kept his hot streak running. But really, the stand out performer here was Shawn Michaels, who absolutely worked his ass off to give Cena a great match. The story here was the raw power of Cena vs the wily experience of Michaels. He was constantly ducking and diving, trying to avoid Cena’s strikes and taking him out at the knee. Both men also bled – Shawn from being run into the post and Cena following the most memorable spot of the match, a sick piledriver on the steps. Michaels shaded heel through the match, trying to act cocky when he had Cena on the ropes, but was the overwhelming fan favourite in the match. I’ll also note that, while often Cena’s offence looked too soft, he threw a really impactful lariat. He nailed Shawn with two in the course of this match. It’s something that he should have incorporated as a bigger move in his matches instead of some of the corny stuff he had in the repertoire. Anyway, it wouldn’t be a “WrestleMania” main event without a pretty long sequence of finisher teases and kick outs, but they’re done effectively here, including Cena catching a high cross into an FU. There was an FU – into Sweet Chin Music – into drop toe hold – into STF – into roll up near fall for Michaels that had the crowd at a fever pitch. Cena eventually trapped Shawn in his not very good looking STF, resulting in a tap out win, just like the year before against HHH. ****½

© WWE

5. Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar – “WrestleMania 31”

There is a segment of the wrestling fan base, one that I was around the edges of for a while, that earnestly considered this one of the greatest matches in company history. Ultimately, it was a very strong match that wasn’t very WWE-like, until they spoiled it all with the WWE bullshit finish. In 2015, Roman Reigns was reviled by the fan base. He was resented for being pushed down the fans’ throats as a continuity John Cena, with overcoming the odds finishes and corny bullshit promos, but without the same zany charisma. The fact that he was being positioned above Daniel Bryan also didn’t help. After the crowd completely shit on the Royal Rumble earlier in the year, there were fears that this could be a similar disaster. Yes, fans were against Reigns in the match, but the sheer spectacle of Lesnar beating the absolute shit out of him for the better part of 20 minutes made this pretty engrossing. This was before the Lesnar Suplex City thing was played out, and before we had seen all the obvious transition spots again and again. Lesnar chucked Reigns all over the ring and slapped him around until his mouth bled. When Reigns finally started to show some defiance and had Lesnar reeling with some Superman Punches (incredible Terry Funk wobbly leg selling from Brock by the way), I swear to God it felt like the crowd was going to actually get behind this guy that they had completely rejected…until the ridiculous Seth Rollins cash in to win the title. People acted like this was a genius move at the time, but these cash-ins always devalue the world title, and in this spot, also devalued the “Mania” main event position. This was some booking cowardice from a company spooked by its own audience. Reigns and Lesnar would wrestle a ton of times over the following years, never recapturing what they had here in matches that ranged from silly novelty (“Summerslam 2022”) to complete train wreck (“WrestleMania 34”). If only they had a proper finish to this match. ****¼

© WWE

6. Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior – “WrestleMania 6”

If ever a match was greater than the sum of its parts, it is this one. This is the crowning achievement of Pat Patterson as a booker and an agent, meticulously laying this thing out so these two could have the best match possible. Hogan was no technician, but he was a great worker in the most traditional sense, knowing exactly when to play to the crowd and time his spots for maximum effect. He really guided Warrior through this thing, as he was pretty blown up early on. Other than that, this match was all about playing on larger-than-life charisma, hugely dramatic facial expressions, and simple spots milked for all they’re worth. The crowd was at a fever pitch, divided pretty evenly in their support of the two men (actually, they probably shaded in favour of Hogan), as this was an ultra-rare-for-the-era babyface vs babyface match. There were a ton of mirror spots here to sell the story of these two as an even match – including criss-cross running off the ropes and the much memed ‘test of strength’ blowjob spot. Warrior spent some time working Hogan’s knee, but this didn’t really sustain as soon Hogan was on top, beating down Warrior and grabbing rest spots to let him catch some breath. Warrior fought back with his fake Hulk Up, running through his big spots on Hogan, ending with the press slam and splash finisher. But Hogan kicked out. Again, finish kick outs were pretty rare for this time. This is followed by the real Hulk Up from Hogan, as he ran through the classic comeback. However, he missed the leg drop and Warrior hit his running splash for the win. Again, this match was way more than the sum of its parts. It’s all big drama and spectacle, as Hogan did the rare clean job to the man that Vince had pegged as his replacement. Ultimately, Warrior did not have the instincts or ability to sustain in the top spot for long. Hogan’s hot-dogging to get his heat back at the end of the match was instructive of what was to come. But for this one night, this comic book superhero clash captured lightning in a bottle. ****

© WWE

7. HHH vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit – “WrestleMania 20”

Oh God. This is the least replayable “WrestleMania” moment in history, one that makes an uncomfortable watch for me as someone who has spent the last 19 years avoiding Benoit matches. The final scene of this show, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero embracing, has gone from being one of sweet vindication to one of its most bitter. To assess this as a match without the context of the Benoit murders in 2007, as well as Guerrero’s own death just 18 months after this show, is next to impossible, probably more so than any other Benoit match. And yet, this is one of the most critically acclaimed “WrestleMania” matches. I will say, though, that this suffered from the usual flaws of the ‘three way’ match, namely one person taking their turn to lie outside while the bout operated as a series of rotating singles matches. We got one of the early instances of Big Match Paul breaking out the white boots, which only appeared on special occasions. I actually liked this look, one of the scant highlights of his oppressive reign of terror. Michaels, who was booed by the crowd that hated him encroaching on Benoit’s moment, as usual worked his ass off under the “Mania” spotlight, although all three men kept up the go-go-go pace here, which was one benefit of having the extra man in there – it eliminated the WWE propensity for long stretches of dramatic selling. Michaels did a really nasty blade job after a catapult into a post, and they did the spot where Shawn was about to tap out to the crossface only for HHH to roll in and grab his arm to stop it hitting the mat. That’s an overdone spot now, but it had some novelty at the time. The biggest spot of the match came when HHH and Michaels put their rivalry aside to team up on Benoit, double suplexing him through one of the announce tables to seemingly write him out of the match. Michaels and HHH then faced off in the ring for a while, HHH also getting in a blade job in the midst of this, as the crowd begged Benoit to find a way back into the match. Inevitably, he did manage to return to the ring to prevent Levesque from retaining the title with the Pedigree, before getting a clean tap out on the champion for the win. HHH doing the clean, magnanimous job here was a clear sign that Benoit was going to get sidelined on TV even with the belt so that Paul could keep on being the main character. Same as it ever was. Speaking of which, it’s amazing how the Orton vs Batista vs Bryan match at “WrestleMania 30” was an inferior, sports entertainment copy of the structure of this match. By rights, this should probably be higher on this list but it’s simply impossible for me to fully divorce the match from its context. ****

© WWE

8. Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar – “WrestleMania 19”

This match started with Kurt Angle coming in half dead and ended with Brock Lesnar being in almost as bad a state. Angle was miraculously gutting out this match in spite of a severe neck injury, which probably limited the performance somewhat, but this was still a strong entry into the canon of “Mania” main events. These two being the most accomplished amateur wrestlers in the business, you knew that this was going to start with mat work and submissions and build up to a ton of suplexes. What is odd from a modern eye was seeing Lesnar doing things that weren’t German suplexes and F5s – he pulled out a military press slam, a spine buster and a power slam among other power moves. As was traditional, Angle worked the leg in preparation of the ankle lock, but the closing stretch of this match was ultimately built around them fighting over and landing German suplexes on each other. There was even one where Angle hurled Lesnar all the way into a backflip bump. They traded finisher nearfalls before Angle got the grapevine ankle lock in, which was usually his killer finish. Brock managed to crawl to the ropes and land an F5 in what would usually be the finish, but then something crazy happened. Instead of going for the pin, Brock Lesnar (yes, that huge muscular beast, you know the one) went up to the top rope and hit a shooting star press. What was even crazier is that he completely under-rotated and landed right on the top of his head. Perhaps the craziest thing is that he didn’t die right there in the ring. Angle somehow had the wherewithal to go for a pin fall to cover the botch. Lesnar somehow had the wherewithal to kick out and stagger his way through one more F5 to win the match. He held up the belt in the ring, but he was on another planet. This was a very rugged match with lots of big bumps, and given what we know about Angle’s physical state going in, it’s a bit of a miracle that they pulled it off to the extent that they did. Nevertheless, it didn’t quite get all the way there to being a great match. The most memorable moment of the entire thing was the crazy botch, which could have ended Lesnar’s career and even life. However, if he had landed that move and finished the match off, it may have been enough to move this into the higher echelons of this list. ****

© WWE

9. Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart – “WrestleMania 12”

At this point of the list, we have already exhausted the actually great “WrestleMania” main events and we’re getting into the territory of vanity picks. This match has been all around the houses in terms of discourse, from being overrated to underrated to being begrudgingly respected to being mocked. I think it deserves some reevaluation as a match that is borderline great, albeit with some flaws. If you’ve read through this list in order, you’ll notice a theme of two very hard working wrestlers having a good match before the time came for the sports entertainment gaga finish, which let the side down. That was sort of the case here, too, as they went 0-0 after the hour, only for Gorilla Monsoon to force Bret into an impromptu overtime that he subsequently lost in short order. I get that they were trying to protect Bret and keep the issue alive for future matches but…a lot happened there, and in the end it kind of just undermined Shawn as a champion. Another theme of this article is a top babyface that the fans boo – in this case Shawn Michaels – because Vince was out of touch with the times and tried to force a goody two shoes presentation that the fans didn’t want. The whole Jose Lothario thing was beyond lame. But I think there was actually a lot to like in the body of this match. Yes, the opening section was very slow, as they meandered through some arm work on Bret that didn’t figure into much. But they also made sure to sprinkle in moments of incident to keep things moving along, including the superkick that cleaned out the timekeeper and the wild bump that Michaels took over the top turnbuckle to the floor. The extended time also allowed them to bust out some things we don’t usually see, including a sweet gut wrench powerbomb by Michaels, as well as the traditional big match Bret trope that looked great. There were a few moments in the match where they did seem to be trying to work out what they should do next, but I thought they generally did a good job of keeping things moving and building the crowd up to a fever pitch as the time limit loomed, especially when Bret was trapping Shawn in that final Sharpshooter with the seconds ticking down. Yes it was flawed, but I respect the ambition of doing an hour long match in this position and mostly carrying it off. Plus, Bret’s son singing along to “Sexy Boy” at the end was a funny way to undercut the drama as his dad stormed up the ramp. ****

© WWE

10. Bianca Belair vs Sasha Banks – “WrestleMania 37”

My position on whether night one main events truly count as the “WrestleMania” main event is probably that they don’t really, although the symbolism of this match does, I think, warrant its inclusion. My hot take on this match is actually that it is quite overrated as an actual match. Really, there are quite a few good but not great matches which are much of a muchness in terms of quality that could have gone into this slot, but this is the one I’ve chosen. I was going to say that this was the first time in history that it would be conceivable to have two black women going on last at “WrestleMania”, but looking at WWE’s roster and booking today, I would actually argue that this occasion was the only time in history – that is, past or present – where this could have happened. And the gravity of the moment is not lost on either of these women. If I was going to be a real spoilsport, I would much prefer it if the sporting contest of the match had taken front and centre instead of the performance and representation aspect. It always felt way too much like WWE patting itself on the back. Bianca is an impressive physical athlete, but pretty raw as a worker. Really, she was the Sting to Banks’s Ric Flair, or even the Cena to her Michaels if you scroll back up through this list, as she did some very impressive power spots but it was the high impact bumping and experienced match structuring of Sasha Banks that really tied this thing together. Of the impressive spots Bianca pulled off, the most memorable include her walking up the steps while holding Sasha in military press position overhead, a long-delayed vertical suplex and a 450 splash from the top rope. Remember when I mentioned above how there is a time and place for melodramatic reactions to kick outs? One would think that this match would be one of them. But there was a terminal case of ‘NXT Face’ here, including the worst example I’ve ever seen from Bianca when Sasha kicked out of the 450 splash. She literally threw a temper tantrum and cried when she didn’t win. It looked absolutely ridiculous, especially given that she was supposed to be the babyface! The match ended with some drama built around Bianca’s ponytail, with Banks using it to choke her in the Bank Statement submission, before Belair finally overcame and won with the KOD. To me, this is not quite a great match but Banks did a great job at stitching together a good match out of Bianca’s cool spots and delivering a spectacle suitable for this stage. ***¾

I pretty much knew what matches I wanted to feature at the top of this list but once it got towards the final stages, it was a lot more difficult. There are quite a few good but not great matches that sit in the ***½ to **** range that I could have slotted in – Cena vs HHH at “WrestleMania 21”, Cena vs The Rock at “WrestleMania 28”, Edge vs Undertaker at “WrestleMania 24”, Austin vs Michaels at “WrestleMania 14”. Feel free to debate which of these warranted inclusion above what I have chosen. I would be interested to know if there is anything I have not mentioned at all that people think would be a credible candidate.

Ultimately, the “WrestleMania” main event is about delivering the big concluding spectacle that wraps up the WWE year and provides broad appeal across the fanbase. The matches above mostly manage to do that while also maintaining a high working standard, although it is notable that there are probably only a handful of matches on the list that are truly great. These mostly come from wrestlers who have pride in their in ring work and go out there to prove that point; although, it is notable as well how often a match is going incredibly well before the heavy hand of Vince McMahon’s booking bears its weight on the finishes. Lastly, as someone who was on the periphery of PWO-adjacent hardcore spaces, I have gone back and forth on Shawn Michaels over the years. But he occupies four out of ten spots on this list, and because it is only main events, it misses off some of his most acclaimed matches – versus Undertaker at “Mania 25”, versus Razor Ramon at “Mania 10”, versus Ric Flair at “Mania 24”, versus Jericho at “Mania 19”, and versus Angle at “Mania 21”. I never want to be the person who buys into WWE marketing propaganda but you know all that ‘Showstopper’, ‘Main Event’, ‘Mr. “WrestleMania”’ stuff? It’s all true.