Ranking The Rock vs. John Cena and Best Builds to WWE WrestleMania Ever
The only thing more important than the matches themselves at any given WrestleMania event is the build to them, which generate the excitement and anticipation for the show that is such a key element of the biggest show of the year.
For 40 years, WWE has presented rivalries with extraordinary build, featuring twists and turns that take two (or more) Superstars and put them on a collision course entering The Showcase of the Immortals.
With much of the conversation being the so-so build to this year's show in Las Vegas, relive these 15 pre-show builds that made the eventual match that much more unforgettable.
15. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens (WrestleMania 33)
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For months in the Fall and Winter of 2016, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens formed a bond and friendship that made them one of the most interesting and entertaining duos on WWE television. Jericho as the comedic guy to Owen's more serious persona made for dynamic television at a time when that was simply not something that existed across the board.
Throw in the Universal Championship held by Owens and it was even more interesting, especially when Jericho got him a match against Goldberg, which he was sure his best friend would win and teach the explosive competitor a lesson.
He did not and Goldberg captured the gold, ending Owens' boyhood dream of being champion.
During a memorable Festival of Friendship, Owens gifted a brand new List of Jericho, only for the recipient to realize his own name was at the top. Owens brutalized and beatdown Jericho, ending their friendship and setting up a match for the United States Championship at WrestleMania 33.
That match may not have lived up to the billing or the story that preceded it, but the road there was unexpectedly fun and rewarding for the fans still tuning in every week.
14. Batista vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 21)
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Triple H learned in the lead-in to WrestleMania 21 that the big, jacked-up bodyguard is not as clueless as he may seem.
Though it appeared in the fall of 2004 that it would be Randy Orton challenging Triple H in Los Angeles at WrestleMania 21, it was Batista who gained momentum as the silent destroyer, tearing through the opposition while subtly hinting that he may not be as ignorant as expected.
Triple H was the conniving, cunning, manipulating bad guy who used everyone around him to get what he wanted. Batista recognized as much and used facial expressions and body language to convey to the audience that he was in on it all.
By the time he won the Royal Rumble in 2005 and earned a shot at a world title at WrestleMania, fans were ready to see him jump out of Triple H's shadow and challenge The Cerebral Assassin for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.
Despite a brief tease that he would choose SmackDown's JBL as his opponent, Batista ultimate gave The Game a big thumbs down and drove him through a table before officially signing on the dotted line to challenge his mentor on the grandest stage.
13. Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James (WrestleMania 22)
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The Fall of 2005 brought with it the arrival of Mickie James to the WWE women's roster. A massive fan of then women's champion Stratus, James came to the aid of her idol but often did so in a very forward, sometimes abrasive, even uncomfortable way.
She partnered with Stratus to battle Victoria, Candice Michelle, and Torrie Wilson throughout the end of the year before earning a shot at Stratus' title at New Year's Revolution in a match she just narrowly lost.
It was around that time that she became jealous of the friendship Stratus had with Ashley Massaro and got into with the Diva Search winner, all while continuing her almost obsessive relationship with the future Hall of Famer that included a holiday season kiss.
When Stratus finally revealed she needed some space from James, it ignited a rage in her that saw her lash out, attacking the champion on Saturday Night's Main Event in March of 2006, then challenger her to a match at WrestleMania 22.
"My obsession is your destruction," she said in the final build to the match.
A months-long program that made a star of James, gave the women's division a legitimate storyline, and created one of the most anticipated matches on the biggest card of the year, it remains one of the more highly touted programs in women's wrestling history by fans.
12. The Main Event (WrestleMania)
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At the War to Settle the Score on February 18, 1985, Hulk Hogan battled "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in a match that ended by disqualification when "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr. interfered.
Hollywood star Mr. T, sitting ringside for the show, came to the aid of Hogan, setting up the inaugural WrestleMania main event just over a month later.
The basis of the event was really the Rock and Wrestling Connection, which saw kicked off with Cyndi Lauper appearing for WWE to the dismay of Piper, who verbally lashed out at the idea of outsiders coming into pro wrestling. Hogan defended them, setting up that initial match-up with "Hot Rod."
The shortest build to a match on this list, it may have been the most important as it established that relationship between wrestling and celebrity on a national stage, bringing an immensely popular singer into the spotlight, then one of the most beloved television stars into the squared circle, thus elevating WWE's exposure and enhancing its nationwide appeal.
11. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant (WrestleMania III)
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Jealousy has ruined the best relationships and the friendship between Hogan and Andre the Giant is no different.
Once good friend, Andre was in the room with Hogan the night he won the WWE title, showering him with champagne amid his monumental victory. As time passed, though, he noticed Hogan getting accolades that used to be reserved for him and took exception.
When Hogan was presented a trophy for being WWE champion for three years, Andre not-so-subtly quipped that "three years is a long time to be champion," then was visibly upset when the trophy awarded to him for being undefeated for 15 years was noticeably smaller.
It culminated with an appearance on Piper's Pit, where Andre was accompanied by his new manager, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and officially challenged Hogan for a championship match at WrestleMania III before ripping his shirt and crucifix off.
Hogan accepted and the biggest match in the young history of the event was official, a match that would draw one of the largest crowds to ever watch a pro wrestling match live.
10. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. The Usos (WrestleMania 39)
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The match between the reunited Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and The Usos at WrestleMania 39 was not just the culmination of that individual rivalry, but it also served as the conclusion of one chapter of The Bloodline Saga.
In 2022, Zayn looked for acceptance by The Bloodline in an attempt to both keep him safe, but also make up for the fact that he was an on an island of one following his humiliating loss to Johnny Knoxville at WrestleMania 38.
After months of assisting Roman Reigns and forging a friendship with Jimmy and Jey Uso, he finally was accepted into the faction, named an "Honorary Uce." As that relationship soured following The Bloodline's targeting of his former friend, Kevin Owens, Zayn ended his time with the legendary wrestling family with a single chair shot to the back of Reigns at the 2023 Royal Rumble.
Zayn failed to dethrone The Tribal Chief as Undisputed WWE Universal champion at the following month's Elimination Chamber event following errant interference from Jey Uso.
The rivalry escalated from there and included the return of Owens to the picture. After weeks of hesitation and resistance, KO reunited with Zayn and challenged The Usos to a match for the tag titles at WrestleMania.
The months-long build, the layers that went into it, and the tearful embrace from Owens and Zayn that brought them back together and set the stage for one of the greatest main events in the show's history helped make this one of the elite builds in WrestleMania history.
9. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage (WrestleMania III)
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The heinous attack by "Macho Man" Randy Savage to Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat with a ring bell nearly let the No. 1 contender to the Intercontinental Championship permanently damaged, his larynx crushed and his voice nearly non existent.
As he recovered, a revenge-minded Steamboat set his sights on Savage and the IC title, leading to one of the most hotly anticipated matches on an already jam-packed WrestleMania III card.
Throw in the side story of George "The Animal" Steele's infatution with Miss Elizabeth and his previous encounters with Savage, including a year earlier at WrestleMania 2, and you have something worth keeping an eye on at ringside in suburban Detroit on March 29, 1987.
8. Bret Hart vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (WrestleMania 13)
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A brash "Stone Cold" Steve Austin first challenged Bret Hart to a match in September of 1996, even uttering the words, "if you put the letter 'S' in front of 'Hitman,' you get my exact opinion of Bret Hart!"
When Hart returned to the company and announced his intent to stay with WWE amid a bidding war with WCW, he accepted Austin's challenge and at the 1996 Survivor Series, narrowly defeated The Texas Rattlesnake by countering a Million Dollar Dream into a roll-up for the win.
Austin would not stop at that, though. Hellbent on making Hart's life a living hell, he controversially eliminated him to win the 1997 Royal Rumble after the referee missed Hart eliminating him moments earlier.
From there, Austin cost Hart the WWE Championship to Sycho Sid and set up the Submission Match between the two at WrestleMania 13, a match that would launch Austin into the next stratosphere of stardom and on WrestleMania 41 weekend, will become the first to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
7. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 30)
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Daniel Bryan was the antithesis of what Vince McMahon and WWE looked for in a Superstar. He was small, presumably devoid of character, and focused his attention on technical wrestling rather than sports entertainment.
He was a good hand, someone Stephanie McMahon called a "B+ player," but never intended to be the guy.
Until fans forced The Authority's hand.
At SummerSlam 2013, he defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship, only to be driven into the mat by special referee Triple H with a Pedigree, allowing Randy Orton to cash in Money in the Bank and take the gold.
Bryan would pursue the title through the Fall and Winter, failing to regain it. In December, in a notable segment from Seattle, the crowd vocally expressed its displeasure that Bryan was not in the title picture, defiantly chanting his name and overshadowing the segment between John Cena and Randy Orton setting up their pay-per-view main event.
Eventually, WWE had no choice but to give into the desires of a fan base that definitely wanted to see Bryan as champions.
After a massive YES! Movement, Bryan was booked for a match with Triple H in New Orleans at Wrestlemania 30, with the winner advancing to the main event of the night and wrestling for the WWE Championship.
6. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WrestleMania X)
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The relationship between Bret and Owen Hart took its first ugly twist at the 1993 Survivor Series team, when the latter was the only member of the Hart brothers team eliminated from their match after colliding with his older brother.
Hellbent on getting out of the shadow of The Hitman, Owen issued a challenge for a match between the two. Bret refused, clearly stating he would not fight his brother under any circumstance whatsoever.
A holiday reunion between them and a match against The Quebecers for the WWE Tag Team Championship at the 1994 Royal Rumble appeared to smooth things over but a knee injury suffered by Bret in the middle of that match and a referee stoppage enraged Owen, who kicked his brother's leg out from underneath him.
The Hitman would overcome the injury and become a co-winner of the Royal Rumble match, earning his way to a WWE Championship match against Yokozuna at WrestleMania X.
First, though, he would battle his brother in a one-on-one match that would elevate the sibling rivalry with Owen into one of the fiercest in WWE.
5. John Cena vs. The Rock (WrestleMania 28)
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The rivalry between John Cena and The Rock began over a war of words, with Cena taking exception to Rock calling WWE "home" when he was quick to abandon it and run to Hollywood.
Rock started modestly enough before targeting Cena in a few quotes from red carpet premieres. When he finally did come back to WWE in 2011 as the special host of WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta, he immediately took aim at Cena and at the event, cost him the WWE title in his match against The Miz.
From there, the tone of the verbal jabs intensified, leading to the challenge fans had waited for: Rock vs. Cena at Wrestlemania 28, in a match that would be labeled "Once in a Lifetime."
Rock took aim at Cena's good guy appearance, with his "Fruity Pebble" colored shirts while the franchise star of WWE criticized Rock for going away and even exposed him for using notes for his promos written on his wist, like a tattoo.
Ultimately forcing fans to choose sides between Team Cena and Team Rock, like it was pro wrestling's very own Twilight discussion, it led to the highest pay-per-view buyrate in WWE history and one of the most unforgettable matches in WrestleMania's four decades.
4. Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns (WrestleMania 40)
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Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns battled in the main event of WrestleMania 39, a match most expected the former to win, finish his story, end The Tribal Chief's historic run as champion, and win the one title that eluded his legendary father, "The American Dream" Dusty.
Instead, last-minute interference from Solo Sikoa led to a shocking, disheartening, deflating finish to The Showcase of the Immortals in which Reigns retained and The American Nightmare's future became muddied.
All Rhodes did was spend the next year besting Brock Lesnar in a series of matches, defeating The Judgment Day, and staying at the top of his game entering the 2024 Royal Rumble. There, he won the 30-man match for the second, consecutive year and made it abundantly clear that he would be running it back against Reigns.
Except, The Rock had other plans.
Returning from Hollywood, he teased a match-up with Reigns and when it appeared like that match would push Rhodes in to the background, the fans who had invested in the latter's story refused to accept it.
They initialized a "We Want Cody" movement and forced WWE to change its plans of a once-in-a-lifetime megastar battle to accommodate its original main event, but with a twist.
Rhodes and Seth Rollins would battle Reigns and Rock in night one of WrestleMania 40 and if the heels won, it would be a Bloodline Rules match. They did just that, with The Rock pinning The American Nightmare to put him at a deficit entering Sunday's blockbuster show and add another wrinkle to what had been a 12-month journey back to that moment for Rhodes and his fans.
3. Undertaker vs. Kane (WrestleMania XIV)
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In the summer of 1997, a revenge-driven Paul Bearer revealed to The Undertaker that his long-lost brother, Kane, was still alive. The Phenom refused to accept it, believing his younger sibling to be long dead in the funeral parlor fire that also took their parents.
The masked Big Red Monster made his first appearance at Badd Blood in October 1997, interrupting the inaugural Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels and coming face-to-face with his brother. He delivered a Tombstone piledriver, allowing Michaels to win the match.
Undertaker initially refused to fight his brother, citing a promise he made to his parents decades earlier, but ultimately changed his mind after he was betrayed by Kane following an obviously fake reunion and nearly burned alive in a casket.
Vowing to "walk through the fires of hell to fight" Kane, he accepted the match, which would be his toughest to that point.
2. The End of an Era Saga (WrestleManias 25-28)
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On the same night that Rock and Cena completed the one-year build to their epic encounter, The Undertaker and Triple H wrote the final chapter in a saga that spanned four WrestleMania events and included three of the most iconic Superstars in WWE history.
At WrestleMania 25, Undertaker defeated Shawn MIchaels in what may be the greatest match of all time. A year later, obsession with defeating The Deadman brought Michaels right back to the same stage, against the same opponent, this time with his career on the line against the unbeaten stream of The Phenom.
He failed, again, to blemish Undertaker's unbeaten streak and walked off into the sunset, his in-ring career concluded. This drew the ire of Michaels' best friend Triple H, who challenged The Phenom to a showdown at WrestleMania 27, a match that he lost but walked away from, the same of which could not be said of The Undertaker.
Stretchered out for the first time ever, Undertaker returned the following year to challenge The King of Kings to a rematch. This time, the match would take place inside Hell in a Cell, with Michaels serving as the guest referee. While that would seem like a bad thing for The Undertaker, his ability to use the egos of his rivals against them created tension and ensured there would be no two-on-one numbers disadvantage entering WrestleMania 28.
1. The Mega Powers Explode (WrestleMania V)
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In the fall of 1987, Miss Elizabeth recruited Hogan to save Savage from a beatdown at the hands of Honky Tonk Man and The Hart Foundation.
It would form the foundation of a partnership that would strengthen exponentially the following Spring, when Hogan neutralized Andre the Giant at ringside and helped Macho Man defeated "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase to win the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania IV.
Known collectively as The Mega Powers, Hogan and Savage would dominated WWE, defeating Andre and DiBiase at the inaugural SummerSlam in August 1988. With success, though, came jealousy and paranoia on the part of Savage.
Not only did he understandably feel pressure to continue succeeding because it was only a matter of time before Hogan came for the title he never fairly lost in the first place, but he also worried that The Hulkster and Elizabeth were becoming too close.
With hints of cracks in the relationship, it finally came to a sensational end on The Main Event on February 3, 1989, when Miss Elizabeth was injured at ringside. Hogan took her to the back to get assistance, only for an enraged Savage to meet them in the trainer's room. Telling Hogan he had "lust in your eyes," Savage snapped and attacked his partner, severing that relationship and setting up the main event of WrestleMania 5.
The first great, year-long build to a match, it was the realization of Vince McMahon's dream to tell dramatic stories that culminated in big-money matches and highlighted his Superstars as more than just professional wrestlers.
One of the greatest long-term stories ever told in WWE, featuring two enduring icons.
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