Moving on to round 3 of our countdown, here's where we get to the pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good stuff....
20. The Rock vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania XV
The Attitude Era was in full self-indulgent, decadent swing in March of 1999, with Vince Russo overbooking the living shit out of every show. His crash TV writing style was all over this PPV and the weekly television leading up to it (Imagine giving away a huge match like Austin vs. Big Show on free TV only a month after the latter's debut). The Rock had been rivaling Steve Austin's popularity in the fall of 1998, and at Survivor Series the company held a tournament to crown a new WWF Champion. Once Austin was unfairly eliminated The Rock became the fans' clear choice to win, a la Randy Savage a decade earlier. But then came the big swerve - The Rock was in cahoots with the McMahons the whole time, and his tournament win made him their new Corporate Champion. Austin was duly pissed and eventually targeted the young titleholder, becoming the #1 contender on a technicality (Vince won the 1999 Royal Rumble but since he forfeited his title shot, runner-up Austin would get it instead). With that, the two biggest stars in the company faced off at 'Mania. The match was typical Attitude Era chaos - loads of outside the ring brawling, smashed tables, run-ins from McMahons, substitute referees, etc. As Vince Russo clusterfucks go, this was a hoot, but it doesn't exactly hold up as an in-ring classic. Still, the crowd was electric and Austin's third WWF Title win sent them home happy. It was the one good match on a pretty terrible WrestleMania card.
19. Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania V
The MegaPowers EXPLODE! One of the greatest long-term angles in WWE history culminated in this WrestleMania V main event. Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, the two biggest wrestling babyfaces in late 1987, joined forces on Saturday Night's Main Event to form the MegaPowers, an unstoppable force for good. Hogan helped Savage win the WWF Title at 'Mania 4, the pair teamed up at SummerSlam and Survivor Series, and all seemed well. But Savage had slowly grown jealous over Hogan's bond with Elizabeth, and the situation came to a head at the second Main Event special in February of '89. Savage was thrown out of the ring during the MegaPowers-Twin Towers match, accidentally knocking out Elizabeth, and Hogan left him to fend for himself while he brought her to the back for medical attention. Savage took a beating for several minutes, realized his partner was nowhere to be found, and got duly pissed when Hogan returned. The Macho Man walked out on Hogan and the match, and the two men got into a heated altercation in the locker room, where Savage pummeled Hogan with the WWF Title and left him laying. The most emotionally charged WrestleMania main event in history was now on the marquee. The match was classic Macho Man, a hotly contested, somewhat unruly main event where Savage dominated much of the action. It was a pretty great match until the ending, when Hogan did his usual Hulk-up comeback in unintentionally comical fashion, puffing his cheeks and bulging his eyes as he no-sold everything. Hogan kicked out of the Macho Man elbow and hit his big boot-legdrop combination to regain the WWF Title, and Savage was gradually moved down the card on his way to becoming a King. At the time this was easily the best WrestleMania main event, and it would maintain that status for me until seven years later. Great stuff until the usual unimaginative Hogan finish.
18. Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania XIV
The Stone Cold Era began officially on March 29, 1998 (in my hometown of Boston), with a grueling WWF Title win over Shawn Michaels. I went into this match super-hyped, as Austin and Michaels were my two favorite wrestlers at the time, and the company had brought in Mike Tyson to be the ringside enforcer and bring lots of mainstream attention to the show. This was a dream main event for me, and while it was a damn fine match it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The problem was Shawn's back, injured in a casket match with The Undertaker two months earlier. Shawn began this match in expected high-energy form, but a botched whip into the turnbuckle seemed to aggravate his herniated disc, and he spent the rest of the bout barely gutting it out. Still the agony on Shawn's face during every move added to the drama, and these two pros managed to put together a pretty great piece of gritty wrestling business. The finish especially was perfectly executed - Shawn went for Sween Chin Music, Austin ducked and went for the Stunner, Shawn blocked it, shoved him into the ropes and went for another kick, Austin caught his foot, spun him around, kicked him in the gut and stunned him, as Tyson counted the pinfall. The Boston crowd went apeshit as the Texas Rattlesnake held the title over his head, cementing his place as the unlikely new face of the company. Shawn took a Tyson knockout punch to put an exclamation point on the night, and it would be his last match in over four years. As good as this bout was, I always wonder how much better it would've been had Shawn been at 100%.
17. Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair - WrestleMania 35
The historic main event of WrestleMania 35 marked the first time a women's match would headline the show. The white-hot Becky Lynch won the 2019 Royal Rumble to punch her ticket to 'Mania, but her animosity with RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey went back further than that. Their paths were supposed to cross at the 2018 Survivor Series, but a real-life broken nose/concussion handed to Becky by Nia Jax derailed plans (and also made Becky an even bigger star), and Charlotte Flair took Becky's place. Thus anticipation for the Becky-Ronda showdown built for months. Sadly the company felt Charlotte should be added to make the bout a triple threat; Charlotte vs. Ronda at Survivor Series turned out to be a violent, fiery encounter where Charlotte got herself disqualified and beat the tar out of Ronda with a kendo stick. So there were unresolved issues between Ronda and both of her challengers, but the addition of Charlotte served to muddy the waters a bit too much, particularly since she was also hastily booked to defeat Smackdown Women's Champion Asuka so as to make this main event a double championship match. The build became very confusing as the company didn't seem to know who should be sympathetic and who should be antagonistic. Ronda had been a fan favorite upon her WrestleMania 34 debut but by the end of the year was greeted with increasing crowd hostility, while Charlotte was viewed as being overexposed and overpushed. But hopes were still high that these three accomplished athletes would deliver in the clutch. And for their part, they put together a very good main event with a ton of atmosphere. The company sadly didn't set them up to succeed however, overloading the WrestleMania card with so many matches it was after midnight by the time the main event kicked off. An exhausted, overspent crowd couldn't be asked to respond with much enthusiasm, and the main event they legitimately wanted to see unfortunately suffered a bit as a result. Also working against the women was the finish, which saw Becky defeat Ronda not with her Disarm-Her finisher or even a decisive impact move, but with a botched crucifix pin where Ronda's shoulder was visibly off the mat for part of the three-count. For a groundbreaking WrestleMania main event with so much at stake, this was a mild disappointment, but it still delivered big from a mechanical and character standpoint.
16. The Rock vs. John Cena - WrestleMania XXVIII
The Once in a Lifetime....Until Next Year dream match between John Cena and The Rock took place in Rocky's hometown of Miami, in front of a vehemently partisan crowd, and was a major financial success for the company. The bout was set up a year earlier when The Rock returned from a seven-year absence to host WrestleMania and left that show's two main eventers laying in the ring at the end while he celebrated. A terrible ending to WrestleMania 27, but WWE's long-term planning was to be applauded at least. The company had an opportunity to build interest for this match at the following Survivor Series as Rock and Cena teamed up to face The Miz and R-Truth, but unfortunately that main event was a glorified 20-minute squash and the two babyfaces co-existed just fine, leading people like me to question the point of it all. The proper build began shortly before 'Mania 28, as Cena cut one of the most impassioned promos of his career, pointing out that while he was busting his ass week after week, The Rock had abandoned the WWE fans for Hollywood, and Cena needed to win this for the full-time WWE wrestlers. I couldn't have agreed more; this was one of the few times where I was fully in Cena's corner in terms of the story being told. But as they were in Miami, such an outcome wasn't in the cards. For just over thirty minutes the two megastars expertly worked the audience and put together a very good, epic sports-entertainment main event. I thought this went overly long; surely 25 minutes would've been enough. But this had a big-fight feel in spades, The Rock looked to be in the best shape of his life, and they told a good story. Cena kicked out of the first Rock Bottom of the night but fell to a second, to send the pro-Rock crowd home happy. Their rematch a year later would fall significantly short of this bout.
15. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 34
Perhaps the most underrated WrestleMania main event was this rematch from WrestleMania 31. The year was 2018, and the Roman Reigns Top Babyface experiment was still chugging along, with no change in the results from three years earlier. The fans still didn't like Roman in this spot, they still booed him out of the building every night, and the company still refused to turn him heel, using the dipshit excuse that "Any reaction is a good reaction." Yeah, not when the reaction is precisely the opposite of what you intended. Regardless, Vince once again stubbornly refused to change his plan, and booked Brock vs. Roman II as the main event of WrestleMania 34. After a very good undercard featuring Rollins-Balor-Miz, Charlotte-Asuka, Ronda/Angle-Triple H/Steph, the return of Daniel Bryan, and AJ-Nakamura, the New Orleans crowd simply didn't want to see this match, and they let WWE know it. Chants of "You both suck," "CM Punk," and "This is awful" rang out throughout this match, and Vince hedged his bets in the booking, changing the result the weekend of the show. Brock shockingly retained the title, Vince holding out hope that by SummerSlam the fans would magically come around to Roman's side (The tone deafness on display was staggering). So the company gave fans a lot of reasons to hate this match. It was two guys everyone was thoroughly sick of, it came at the end of a five-hour show, and the finish of the match made the whole thing kinda pointless. But really sit down and watch this match; it's a helluva fight. These two monsters beat the absolute shit out of each other, each guy kicked out of numerous finishers, Roman took an elbow shot that split his forehead in two, and it stands as one of the most purely violent spectacles to ever headline a WrestleMania. Was it as good as their first match? No. But was it light years better than the third and fourth? Absolutely. I don't care what anyone says, I liked this main event a lot. As far as I'm concerned it was Roman's second-best WrestleMania main event by far up to that point. That would change three years later...
14. Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes - WrestleMania 39, Night 2
Man, this match was on its way to a well-deserved Top 10 spot on this list. Really, just an epic, drama-filled, twisty and turny WWE Universal Title match between two consummate pros. The story was there, the build was there, the moment was there. And then the last thirty seconds happened. After an action-packed, story-driven 35 minutes that featured Solo Sikoa being ejected for interference and Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens running off the Usos, Cody hit Roman with a CrossRhodes, held on, hit another one, held on, and then Paul Heyman jumped on the apron to distract the official while the previously ejected Sikoa thumbed Cody in the throat, setting up Cody for a match-ending Spear. Roman retained the title, again, in the exact same fashion he'd retained against Drew, Kevin, Sami, etc. One of the least imaginative and most tone-deaf endings to a truly great match I've seen in years. The company rectified the situation a year later, and fortunately (miraculously) Cody didn't end up losing steam in the long run, but man, what a terrible, terrible finish. At 'Mania 39 WWE snatched a stalemate from the jaws of total victory.
13. Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes - WrestleMania 40, Night 2
Finally a year after WWE porked the ending of WrestleMania 39, plus a clusterfuck of booking changes involving Cody bequeathing his hard-earned second title shot to The Rock, changing his mind, Rock turning heel and attacking him, etc., we arrived at the big rematch. And this time, thanks to Roman and The Rock beating Cody and Seth Rollins the night before, this match would be contested under Bloodline Rules, which just meant run-ins and weapons were legal. For the first twenty minutes or so this was a traditional wrestling match, and a damn good one. Then the run-ins started and got borderline silly after a while. Jimmy, Jey, Solo, Cena, Rock, Seth, Taker. Gettin' to be a lot. But the crowd ate it all up and it served as a climactic build before the inevitable feelgood ending. This match wasn't quite on the level of the previous one in terms of the work being done, but I'm ranking it ahead of Roman-Cody I because it had the right result and served as a major turning point in WWE lore.
12. Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan - WrestleMania 37, Night 2
The final match of WrestleMania 37's two-night spectacular, this Triple Threat match pitted Universal Champion Roman Reigns, finally a monster heel at long last, against returning legend Edge, ten years removed from his untimely retirement, against perennial fan favorite Daniel Bryan. Edge had won the 2021 Royal Rumble, entering at #1 and running the table, to challenge Roman at the Show of Shows. But there was a problem; WWE forgot long ago how to book a likable babyface, and thus painted themselves into a corner by writing Edge as kind of a jerk. And without someone to root for, an Edge vs. Roman main event would certainly fall flat. Enter Daniel Bryan, the one man on the roster seemingly immune to inept booking. No matter how many times they had Bryan lose, he could still get a strong babyface reaction from the crowd. So Bryan was added to the match after Edge screwed up the Roman-Bryan bout at Fastlane, and suddenly it became much more intriguing. These three worked a fantastic, chaotic Triple Threat, complete with Jey Uso run-ins, bumps on the ring steps, a broken table spot, a great moment where Bryan and Edge locked in simultaneous crossfaces on Roman and traded headbutts to knock the other guy out, and a controversial but decisive finish where Roman brutalized both men with chairs and stacked them on top of each other before pinning both. Just an excellent, memorable way to close out the 2021 edition of WrestleMania.
11. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair - WrestleMania 37, Night 1
The historic WrestleMania 37 Night 1 main event was one of the most satisfying in recent memory. For the first time ever two women of color main evented a WrestleMania card, delivering an athletically marvelous, emotionally resonant near-classic that created a brand new top star in the division. Smackdown Women's Champion Sasha Banks turned in a Bret Hart-like performance as she steered the bout with a veteran's confidence and made her relatively inexperienced challenger look like a megastar. Bianca Belair played the self-assured, prodigious, eminently likable babyface to the hilt, keeping up with Banks and displaying incredible athletic feats, not the least of which was a spot where she caught Banks on an outside-the-ring dive, rolled through, pressed her over her head, and walked up the ring steps to toss her back in. After a clever tug of war with Bianca's hair braid that ended with Bianca using it like a whip on Sasha (complete with a sickening crack and a nine-inch welt across Sasha's ribs), the challenger landed a 450 splash and a Kiss of Death finisher to win her first WWE gold. Off-camera Sasha smiled with satisfaction, watching her opponent bask in the glory of the moment she helped engineer. Both women shined here; Bianca earned her spot as the new face of the division, while Sasha cemented her place as one of the best women wrestlers in WWE history.
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