Ric Flair and the Biggest Superstars to Never Main-Event WrestleMania

Main-eventing WrestleMania is the dream for every WWE superstar. Being in the spotlight of the year's biggest show is the ultimate validation for anyone in the wrestling business. 

Anyone who wants to know how special it is to go on last at WrestleMania just needs to look at some of the biggest stars in the history of the sport who have never had the honor of headlining the show. 

Through the first 33 years of WrestleMania, Hulk Hogan and Triple H are tied for the most main event matches with seven.

Hogan also holds the record for most consecutive WrestleMania main events, appearing in five between 1989 and 1993. Roman Reigns could tie that record in 2019, assuming his match with Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship on April 8 closes this year's show.

Here are the biggest names in WWE history who never made it to the top of the WrestleMania stage.

Ric Flair

Ric Flair is on the shortlist of greatest professional wrestlers of all time, but his greatest success in the business came outside of WWE. 

The Nature Boy's career spans five decades from his debut in the American Wrestling Association in 1972 to making occasional appearances alongside his daughter, Charlotte Flair, in WWE today. 

Flair was only in WWE as a wrestler for nine years. He won the WWE Championship for the first time at the 1992 Royal Rumble, but his WrestleMania match against Randy Savage later that year went on in the middle of the card because Hogan got the main event spot opposite Sid Justice. 

That would be Flair's last WrestleMania appearance until he challenged The Undertaker at WrestleMania X8 in 2002.

The closest Flair got to being in the main event at WrestleMania was in his final WWE match against Shawn Michaels. Vince McMahon ruled in November 2007 that if Flair lost a match, he would have to retire.

The 16-time world champion went on to have a successful winning streak in singles competition, defeating stars like Triple H and Umaga to avoid being forced into retirement. 

Michaels finally sent Flair into retirement, at least in WWE, after delivering a line that made every fan watching tear up: "I'm sorry. I love you."

CM Punk

It's well-known that one reason CM Punk became so disillusioned with WWE upon walking out on the company in 2014 is he felt like the company was never going to give him a chance to main-event WrestleMania.

During Punk's infamous pipe-bomb promo in 2011, he said The Rock's position in the main event against John Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII "makes me sick."

There was also bad timing on Punk's part. He was at his most popular in WWE at a time when The Rock decided to come back for two WrestleMania matches against John Cena.

It's not like WWE didn't put Punk in high-profile matches. His last WrestleMania match, in 2013, was against The Undertaker, who was always the biggest star on the show because of his undefeated streak. The previous year, he successfully defended the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho in the semi-main event. 

But the self-proclaimed Best in the World never quite made it to the top of the mountain on WWE's grandest stage before leaving the business.

Goldberg

Unlike Flair and Punk, who both had fairly long runs in WWE, Goldberg had a total of 42 matches with the company during his original run between 2003 and 2004 and his five-month run from Survivor Series 2016 until WrestleMania last year. 

Because of his limited time in WWE, Goldberg has only had two matches at WrestleMania. Both of those were against Brock Lesnar, with each superstar winning once. 

Their first clash, at WrestleMania XX, is memorable because of the crowd's reaction. It wasn't a secret Goldberg and Lesnar were leaving WWE after the show, so the fans in Madison Square Garden turned on both stars and were rooting for special referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

Last year's match was a redemption for that showdown. Lesnar got his revenge by pinning Goldberg in a slugfest that didn't last five minutes. It was exactly the kind of contests those two giants should have, even though it didn't quite close out the show.

Rey Mysterio

Among the many unfortunate things about Eddie Guerrero's tragic death in 2005 is the way WWE exploited it for storyline purposes.

Specifically, WWE's creative team used Rey Mysterio's friendship with Guerrero in a half-hearted attempt to elevate him in 2006. His push was botched because of the circumstances around it, not least of which being that it was never about Mysterio.

At the 2006 Royal Rumble, the event's namesake match was placed third from the top behind two championship matches: John Cena vs. Edge and Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry. It was the first time the Rumble hadn't closed the show since 1998.

Even Alberto Del Rio (2011) and Sheamus (2012) won the Royal Rumble in matches that closed out the show.

In the buildup to WrestleMania 22, Randy Orton was given the job of making disparaging comments about Guerrero's death to get heat from the crowd. Orton beat Mysterio clean at No Way Out to steal his title shot against Angle.

SmackDown general manager Teddy Long randomly put Mysterio back in the match, which he would go on to win.

Ironically, Mysterio's best WrestleMania moment came the previous year, when he and Guerrero opened the show with a solid match that set the tone for one of the best 'Manias in WWE history.

Eddie Guerrero

The best moment of Eddie Guerrero's WWE career came four weeks before WrestleMania XX when he defeated Brock Lesnar at No Way Out for his first WWE title win. 

Guerrero would go on to have one of the best matches at that WrestleMania, defeating Kurt Angle to retain the title. But that bout went on third from the top, being followed by Kane vs. The Undertaker and Triple H's world heavyweight title defence against Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels.

That was the only time Guerrero was placed in a prominent position on WWE's biggest show of the year. His four other appearances at WrestleMania included an intergender tag team match, European title match against Test and a tag titles match.