Sure seems like WWE hopes to put to use The Rock, Dean Ambrose, Ronda Rousey, the 82nd Airbourne, the 1991 Denver Broncos, and a partridge in a pear tree in order to get Roman Reigns over at WrestleMania 32. Not that any of it is going to change the minds of potentially 100,000 fans that have no interest in Reigns as master and ruler of WWE. Triple H could threaten to throw Bayley off of the videotron at AT&T Stadium, and if it meant that Reigns didn’t win the belt, the consensus would be, “Well, she had a great run, and we’ll certainly miss her.”
Regardless of how viciously the crowd skins “The Juggernaut” alive, Reigns vs. Helmsley has a chance to be a good match. It would be far from the first good WWE Championship match in WrestleMania’s long history. But can it be as great as the matches that appear on this list?
Only WWE Championship matches make the cut, so all battles for the ‘Big Gold Belt’ are excluded. Hulk Hogan’s epic win over Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 was also left off the list, in spite of its historic weight. Tempting as it was to include it, I decided the list was only for matches that excelled at a high level of quality.
Naturally, I do anticipate some vehement disagreements with my picks. That said, here, now, the ten best WWE Championship matches in WrestleMania history.
10. Randy Orton Vs. Daniel Bryan Vs. Batista (WrestleMania 30)
The match that was delivered by popular demand. Bryan had already expended himself in a masterful wrestling match with Triple H in the pay-per-view opener to qualify for the main event, and was duly portrayed as the underdog against two Evolution brutes. It wasn’t as scientifically pristine as Bryan’s earlier match, but it needn’t be.
All the main event needed was obstacles for Bryan to gallantly overcome. Triple H’s interference, the bomb/neckbreaker through the table, and some excruciatingly-close near falls down the homestretch satisfied the match’s checklist of needs. Bryan’s hard-fought victory was the perfect capper for the best WrestleMania in close to a decade, a rare match these days that was assembled with discriminating tastes in mind.
9. Kurt Angle Vs. Brock Lesnar (WrestleMania 19)
WrestleMania 19 was an oasis in the barren desert that was WWE in 2003, a gem of a show that succeeded during desperate and clueless times. Even with Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon adorning the DVD cover, the show wisely ended with two of the greatest athletes to ever grace a WWE ring, and they thrived, one in spite of catastrophic injury, and the other nearly receiving one in the closing moments.
Lesnar’s shooting star press into near-paralysis is better remembered than the fact that Angle pushed himself through the match with a badly-ravaged spine. To see it, you’d have never known it, as Angle guts out his usual lofty-standards effort. It’s a ‘no-frills’ match where well-executed, heavy-hitting basics are the frills. No complaints.
8. Ric Flair Vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (WrestleMania 8)
The world was anticipating Hogan vs. Flair in the battle of ultimate wrestling supremacy, but instead had to settle for something even greater. It wasn’t particularly hard to cobble together a story for the two: let Flair be all lecherous toward Miss Elizabeth, unleash Savage’s protective psychosis, and ta da, a four-star match in theory. Turns out, in practice, too.
Even if both men were later fined for Flair’s transparent blade job on the outside, the crimson staining his popcorn-blonde mane only made the brawl that much more intense. Bonus points for the aftermath where an irate Flair smooches Liz, and Savage pulverizes him a second time. There’s something we’re missing in these anodyne times: the babyface stopping just short of attempted murder in the midst of defending his wife.
7. Macho Man Randy Savage Vs. Hulk Hogan (WrestleMania 5)
In death, Savage was lauded by just about all of his peers as a virtuoso at getting the most out of each of his opponents. Hogan echoed that sentiment during his surprisingly ego-free induction of Savage into WWE’s 2015 Hall of Fame class, and the WrestleMania 5 closer is Exhibit A for that kind of lavish praise.
Much more intense than most of Hogan’s battles with beasts and leviathans, there was very little margin for cartoonish beatdowns and over-the-top theatrics. Instead, it was the good kind of ugly, as Savage and Hogan ripped into each other believably following the severing of their friendship. This was Hogan outside the confines of his formulaic style, and it was also Hogan at his best.
6. Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle (WrestleMania 20)
Angle was always the working-man’s Big Show, in that he could be turned face or heel on a whim (and he often was) to suit company needs. When Guerrero needed an opponent for his recently-won WWE Championship for WrestleMania, Angle traded on the broad quality of envy for yet another heel turn. The ends would justify the means if the championship bout even flirted with expectations.
Guerrero and Angle surpassed them, stringing together sequence after sequence of athletic wonder and simple story, particularly around Angle weakening the leg of Guerrero. With the villain hellbent on drawing a submission, Guerrero’s victory spawned out of creative irony by loosening his boot to make the ankle lock escapable. It’s those little nuances.
5. Hulk Hogan Vs. The Ultimate Warrior (WrestleMania 6)
The wonders of choreography. It’s not a crime that Hogan and Warrior met up to piece together their title-for-title match for WrestleMania 6, nor is it wrong that Pat Patterson helped them bullet-point the match’s script minute by minute. The goal is to enthrall and enchant, regards of what road it takes to get there.
Hogan and Warrior far from stunk out the joint, succeeding with hair-twisting drama that had every fan unsure of the outcome until Warrior finally did score the pin. If two wrestlers were to be portrayed as mythically unmovable, they needed a match to back up the uncertainty of the outcome. Ever the pros, Hogan and Warrior delivered a match that’s fairly textbook, yet is somehow timeless.
4. John Cena Vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 23)
Already deep into his second year as a divisive headliner, Cena had at least demonstrated the ability to deliver exceptional performances in big matches. Even if fans were inclined to hate his technicolor pep, they could at least appreciate his performances once they passed a higher threshold of quality. A WrestleMania match with showstealer Michaels would be a slam dunk.
The best babyface-vs-babyface matches see the combatants rise beneath sportsmanship, to turn a phrase. Michaels piledriving Cena on the ring steps and splitting the back of his head open is a moment that doesn’t get enough love. Carried or not, it’s easily one of Cena’s five best matches ever, and yet it still couldn’t turn around the fans’ revulsion.
3. Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 12)
Naturally there’s a considerable range on the fan spectrum that will never understand who could possibly enjoy this sixty-minute Iron Man Match. There are also people who’d rather watch a Transformers movie over Lawrence of Arabia, because ‘art’ is in the eye of the beholder.
I won’t argue that this match could have used a 1-1 tie going into overtime to at least create a turning point. The decision to go sixty scoreless minutes is a fair argument against the match, but I won’t argue against the work. You do need to be in the right frame of mind to watch Hart and Michaels gut it out for an hour, but it can be appreciated with an attentive, open-minded view.
2. Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns (Vs. Seth Rollins) (WrestleMania 31)
If you haven’t watched it since WrestleMania night a year ago, rewatch this match. Now that the fear of Reigns ending the night as champion has subsided, you can appreciate the match for what it was: something that bent the framework of typical WWE fare, and delivered a brutal, hard-hitting war that was boosted with a brilliant ending.
That’s the thing about Lesnar’s matches: he doesn’t follow the WWE formula. It’s all about whatever barbaric idea comes next off of the conveyor belt. Reigns, love him or not, was game to take the beating and dish out his own anarchy in return. That’s all I ask: make it look like a real fight. Rollins’ briefcase cash-in gave it the historical ending required to become an all-time classic, which it most certainly is.
1. The Rock Vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WrestleMania 17)
It’s an easy pick for Rock’s greatest match ever. It’d be Austin’s best match ever if Bret Hart never existed. It’s something of an Attitude Era ‘greatest hits’ waged amongst the period’s two most prolific pillars. Attitude went to the grave under the elevated roof of a stadium packed to capacity. There, two all-time greats magnificently paced themselves through a titanic struggle without limits.
Does the ending in which Austin turns heel, accepting aid from Vince McMahon, hurt the match any? I’d say no, just that the story of Austin’s desperation should have been better told in the ensuing weeks and months. The match itself is the epitome of the old cliche, where the participants ‘left it all’ in the ring, as well as scattered about the entire ringside area.
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