WrestleMania 25: A Quarter Century Of Phenomenal

   This event was three times as big as the inaugural event. Literally. It took place from three venues and was simulcast across North America. Ray Charles sang "America the Beautiful" to open the whole thing. It also had three main events, all of which were well worth watching. The first, from the Nassau venue, pitted Roddy Piper in a boxing match against Mr. T. T beat Piper by DQ when Piper bodyslammed Mr. T in a hilarious ending. It was at the same venue earlier in the night that Randy Savage added to his legacy by defeating George "The Animal" Steele to win the coveted Intercontinental Championship. The second main event was from Rosemont, Illinois, and it was a 20-Man Battle Royal featuring both wrestlers and NFL stars. It was a match that was won by the then-unconquerable Andre the Giant. But it was the main event from LA that stole the show and reset the WrestleMania bar for future shows. This event featured Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy in a violent Steel Cage match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, a match that Hulk Hogan won despite bruised ribs.. The three venues, the steel cage, the giant challenge, all of this set standards for future WrestleManias and showed for the second time why this would eventually become the show of shows.

WrestleMania III:

   WrestleMania II was big, but WrestleMania III was huge. Again, quite literally. It set a record for the largest recorded attendance for an indoor sporting event in North America at a staggering estimated 93,173 raucous, ready fans. And the attendance wasn't the only huge thing. The main event itself was magical. It featured the two greatest of the time fighting for the title in a dream match. The whole thing was kicked off with the Vince McMahon announcement, followed by Aretha Franklin singing America the Beautiful.

   The first of three huge matches I'll talk about was the Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat for the Intercontinental Championship. It was a great match, a high-flying affair that ended with Steamboat getting the pin and providing a moment to add to his illustrious career, though Savage also had his moments. It was a 15 minute battle that is still today considered one of the greatest matches in WWE history.

   The second match I want to bring up is another classic celebrity moment. The match itself was Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. The Honky Tonk Man. HTM won the match due to Jimmy Hart's inteference, but it was Alice Cooper, in the corner of Roberts, who had the moment of the match when he attacked Jimmy Hart with Roberts's snake Damien, causing Hart to shriek in fear like a little girl and run screaming. Never underestimate the power of a rock star.

   The final match created one of the greatest moments in WWE history, a moment still admired and referenced by fans and superstars alike. The main event was Andre the Giant, still undefeated in his career, versus the unconquerable Hulk Hogan, for Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship, in Hogan's toughest challenge ever. In perhaps the single most important moment in WrestleMania history, Hulk took down Andre with a clothesline, then pulled him up and bodyslammed the largest man in wrestling history, following it up with a leg drop and the pin. It is a moment they relived twenty years later at WrestleMania 23...well, we'll get to that.

WrestleMania IV:

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