The first weekend of April has recently become Wrestlemania weekend, the most significant time of the year for the professional wrestling industry. The annual event is anchored by WWE's Wrestlemania show, a live event that began in 1985, now expanded to dozens of additional WWE and independent wrestling events held throughout the weekend. For all intents and purposes, Wrestlemania has become less of an event than an all-purpose industry festival that draws fans from all over the world, making the pilgrimage.
This year, obviously, is decidedly different.
The CORVI-19 pandemic has canceled or postponed every major sporting event, and day after day, new restrictions are announced that discourage or prohibit social gatherings. Despite all this, Wrestlemania is still happening. No fans can attend, but WWE moved the location from the original planned spot in Tampa, Fl., to their decisively smaller Performance Center in Orlando. They also made it a two-night event on Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5. There are announced matches that have already been taped in an empty arena, but there are stories that several wrestlers cannot or would not perform, so most people are unsure what to expect from all this. Also, Rob Gronkowski, former New England Patriots tight end legend and party Hall of Famer, is going to host.
Wrestlemania is going to be weird, man.
The good news is that the WWE opened up availability on their streaming Network service to make all their past Wrestlemanias, Royal Rumbles, Summerslams, and Survivor Series free to the public. If you’re looking to get into the mood before Wrestlemania 36's black box theater approach, or are looking for something to pass the time stuck at home, check out these 10 matches that built the legacy of Wrestlemania as we know it today on the Network or for free on WWE’s YouTube Channel. To keep things interesting, I'm only recommending one match from individual wrestlers to vary the list, in case you're wondering why this isn't all Shawn Michaels matches.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat (Wrestlemania III 1987) – Wrestlemania began two years previously in Madison Square Garden, but the third edition sold many more tickets to fill the former Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan with a main event between WWE Champion Hulk Hogan defending against Andre the Giant. However, it was the Intercontinental match between two of their generation's best and most athletic performers that stole the show. "Macho Man" Savage and "The Dragon" Steamboat stepped on the gas for 15 minutes (a speed that was unusual for wrestling at the time) to set the standard for "Best Match Ever" in the modern era. With WWE struggling to create top new stars that could generate the interest of a Hogan vs. Andre feud, fans tuning nowadays are more hopeful to see a great match than a big attraction.
I Quit Match: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (Wrestlemania 13 March 23, 1997) – Like Savage and Steamboat, "The Hitman vs. Stone Cold" wasn't the main event. It wasn't even planned out far in advance, as Austin found out he was fighting Hart while sitting home watching TV. And yet, the two engaged in a battle that literally changed the course of company history. Once the WWE's top hero, Hart had become enraged by the cheating and bad behavior by others in the company. Austin was the poster boy for the new era, as his rebellious nature and trash-talking was winning over fans every week. By the end of the night, the hero and villain switched places. By the next year, Austin would become the biggest babyface in WWE history. But even taking away the historical implications of this one match, it's still entertaining enough to be one of the top five Wrestlemania matches ever, and that's the bottom line.
TLC Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Dudley Boyz vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian (Wrestlemania X7 2001) – Ladder matches have a long history at Wrestlemania, from Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon's classic 1994 encounter to the multiple Money in the Bank contests before those gimmicks anchoring its own show theme. The three teams involved in this match had all wrestled each other at the prior year's Wrestlemania in a ladder match, and then again at the 2000 Summerslam in with TLC rules: Now tables, ladders, and chairs were all legal. The Wrestlemania X7 closes the trilogy and is the best of them all, as the stakes continue to rise even higher for all three teams. These matches made new superstars for a generation, and two decades later, Edge, Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy continue to be difference-makers in the business.
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan (Wrestlemania XVIII 2002) – The success of the original Wrestlemanias was built around Hogan, and it's not a coincidence that "Hulkamania" and Wrestlemania were pushed at the same time. Hogan left WWE and signed up with WCW in 1994, which helped ignite an intense promotional battle between the two companies. In Hogan's absence, The Rock was one of the new superstars who rose up to become a company sensation. Once WCW collapsed in 2001, Hogan returned to WWE to face one of the men who took his place, and this generation vs. generation battle lived up to the hype. The match encouraged one of the most intense fan reactions in WWE history, as the Toronto crowd eagerly jumped on the bandwagon to cheer the bad guy, but the one who made many of them fans in the first place. I know, because I was one of the fans there cheering like he was 10 years old again. A must-see.
WWE Championship: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar – Since his return to the WWE in 2012, Lesnar has been the company's most consistent attraction (which is a pretty damning statement in itself, considering how rarely he works). But go back to his original run from 2002-2004 to find several forgotten gems, including this main event from 2003. The match was highly anticipated because of the legit amateur wrestling credentials of both athletes, but it almost didn't happen. Angle's badly reinjured his neck a month prior and required surgery, but he held off until this match. The match almost didn't end either, as Lesnar attempted a Shooting Star Press (a backward somersault off the top rope) that concluded with strong NOT GREAT BOB vibes. Despite the obstacles, the duo brought a great match home, and it remains one of the most athletically competitive encounters of Lesnar's pro wrestling career.
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero (Wrestlemania 21 2005) – For as popular as he was, Guerrero was only in WWE less than five years before his sudden death in 2005, just as his career was at an all-time high. A year before this, he won his only WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar, and now he was facing one of his most significant rivals, Rey Mysterio, at the start of a long-term storyline. Take a moment to enjoy a match between two of the most innovative and influential wrestlers of their generation on the grandest stage.
WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 22 2006) – From Lou Thesz to Steve Austin, pro wrestling works because fans pay to see their favorite heroes beat up on the villains. But for the first time in WWE history, the company's top promoted babyface hero, John Cena, started getting booed out of the buildings by the loud, adult fan base. Now dastardly villain Triple H, a cocky bad guy in the story, was the hero to the fans because he opposed Cena. Suddenly the Rock/Hogan dynamic mentioned above was dominating the mentality of fans year-round, and they actively rejected Cena. All this made for a lively atmosphere for this fun main event match in Chicago and started a pattern of problems for WWE heroes that the company still hasn't solved years later.
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 25 2009) – Finally, we come to arguably the two most celebrated performers in Wrestlemania history: Michaels, the wrestler most likely to have the match of the night on any given day, and the Undertaker, who was walking into the show with an unmatched undefeated streak at the big annual show. The attraction here was not only the fundamental skills of the performers, who practically dared anybody else in the locker room to keep up with them, but the fact they very rarely competed against each other despite being in the same company for decades. Whenever they did, it was magic, and this match may just be the best of them.
Undisputed Championship Match: Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Batista (Wrestlemania 30 2014) – The first Wrestlemania to be streamed on the WWE Network, the show marked the beginning of a new era for the company with younger stars stepping up to replace the old guard. On a show notable for Lesnar finally ending the Undertaker's undefeated streak, the highlight was the coronation of Daniel Bryan as WWE Undisputed Champion. Overlooked because of his size and look, exceptional skills and passion helped Bryan become the industry's premiere pro wrestler, winning over tens of thousands of fans with "Yes!" chants in arenas across the country. While the company resisted (both in storyline and real-life), circumstances and momentum left them no choice than to give Bryan the spotlight. Along the way, he defeated Triple H earlier in the night, and then Orton and Batista in the main event. Bryan's run at the top was short-lived because of serious injuries that derailed his career for a few years, but at this moment, his legacy in the industry was certified gold.
Women's Championship Match: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks (Wrestlemania 32 2016) – For years, WWE and its fans often treated women performers as either titillating sideshow attractions or a bathroom break. Still, through the developmental NXT system, several athletes were ready to step up and make everybody take their gender seriously. The three women involved were in their first year on the main WWE roster, and were absolutely determined to change conventional wisdom in wrestling. They not only succeeded here with a great match, but one that stole the show as Savage and Steamboat did 29 years earlier. In the following years, women were frequently involved in the best Wrestlemania matches of the modern era, and Lynch, Charlotte, and Banks continue to lead their division to new heights.