Top Seven Matches in WrestleMania History

Happy WrestleMania weekend, everyone!

Wrestling is currently in one of those phases where more kids are watching than pretty much anyone else, but if you have a soul, you can get excited for WrestleMania no matter what.

Looking at this year’s card, you have your obligatory "random old guys match" with Superfly Snuka, Roddy Piper, and Ricky Steamboat going against Chris Jericho, and a solid brother versus brother match between the Hardys.

You also have the Undertaker trying to go 17-0 at 'Mania against Shawn Michaels (which has to be up there with the 56-game hitting streak as the greatest streaks in sports), your standard match where someone is nearly killed (“Money in the Bank” ladder match), and the main events (Edge/Big Show/Cena for one title, and HHH/Randy Orton for the other).

It’s only natural for my top seven list to take a look at the greatest matches in WrestleMania history.

Of course, you have to take historical implication into account when discussing the best matches in history, as well as crowd reaction, which is why matches like the Bret Hart/Owen Hart cage match misses the cut.

Onto the list:

7. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon, WrestleMania X

This is the match that started the tradition of having guys nearly beating themselves to death with inanimate objects. This one just included a ladder and nothing else.

Looking back, it doesn’t even seem that brutal compared to the things some guys do now, even if Michaels flopped around like a rag doll most of the match.

It’s kind of like the first season of Seinfeld: It doesn’t seem as funny anymore, but you still can appreciate its purity and why it grew into such a phenomenon.

6. Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior, WrestleMania VII

For years, Macho Man treated the lovely Elizabeth like absolute trash.

It continued on and on and eventually became second nature. They finally made a storyline out of it with Hulk Hogan, but there never really seemed to be a payoff for it.

At WrestleMania VII, Savage had a new manager, Sensational Sherry, and fought The Ultimate Warrior in a “retirement” match. It was an extremely intense match, climaxing as Savage hit Warrior with five elbows off the top rope.

Warrior kicked out, and eventually won the match. Elizabeth had come down to ringside, seemingly to “rub it in,” as Bobby Heenan said.

Instead, she slapped Sherry across the face after she confronted Savage.

It was the Savage/Elizabeth reunion, and people were literally crying in the stands. There is no way they could pull anything off like this now. This storyline was literally years in the making.

Savage retired, but came back several times. He is now a multi-platinum rapper.

5. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock,WrestleMania XVII

The NBA was lucky enough to have Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in their primes at the exact same time, and the WWF was lucky enough to have Austin and Rock.

They did WrestleMania three times in five years, but this match was by far their best. The interviews leading up to it were some of the best ever, and the promo hyping it was by far the best use of a Limp Bizkit song.

Held in Texas, the crowd didn’t even care when Austin made a “heel” turn at the end of the match, siding with Vince McMahon. They still went insane.

It was the runner-up loudest crowd in WrestleMania history, second only to…

4. The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan, WrestleMania XVIII

The entire match was like the late innings of a World Series game seven.

Every single move Hogan made was cheered ferociously, even those little back scrapes that he does. On the flip side, every single move that Rock made prompted deafening boos.

The storyline leading up to the match was that Hogan almost killed the Rock with a runaway car, but it really needed no storyline besides the original one: legend versus legend.

The crowd sure didn’t care that Hogan almost killed his opponent. Everyone was ready for some nostalgia.

Even if you have no interest in wrestling at all, you can watch this match and be amazed at how loud a crowd can be for an extended period of time.

3. Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, WrestleMania III

If you are at all interested in wrestling politics, this is an interesting one to read about.

The Savage/Steamboat match was so good, even former governor and then-announcer Jesse Ventura, who was not prone to hyperbole, called it “one of the best matches” he had seen, even as the match was going on.

Since Hulk Hogan was headlining this particular WrestleMania, he was not too happy about being overshadowed by such an incredible match, and ended up wielding his power to have Steamboat pushed to the side after WrestleMania III.

2. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, WrestleMania XVIII

No match was bigger to launch the WWF’s “Attitude” era than this one, which featured typical '80s good guy Bret Hart turning into the bad guy while Stone Cold Steve Austin, the worst of bad guys at the time, turned into the good guy simply by never giving up.

The shot of Austin bleeding from his face onto the mat is one of the most famous moments in wrestling in the last 15 years (with Mick Foley’s fall from the cage being No. 1).

1. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, WrestleMania III

It’s the single most famous wrestling moment of all time, one that even your average guy-who-does-nothing-but-rip-on-wrestling-as-if-he-is-too-good-to-watch-it could easily identify with.

It also shows why WrestleMania III was the greatest WrestleMania ever, and will probably never be topped.

With over 78,000 in attendance (the record books say 93,000, but according to authority-on-everything Dave Meltzer, they lie), this was the single most anticipated match, and the greatest undercard match, in wrestling history.

It launched wrestling into an unprecedented period of mainstream popularity that lasted for several years.

It would be nice if that would come back—life is better when wrestling is popular in the mainstream.

It’s like low gas prices.