Top 5 – Most Influential WrestleMania Main Events

When we do Top 5 lists, they’re usually about the 5 best or worst of something.  But a match or angle’s quality (which is of course totally subjective) doesn’t measure it’s impact or importance.  Did a match usher in a new era of success?  Did it enact some lasting change in the business?  Or cement the company’s position in some kind of way or crown a new king of the company?  Those are the kind of things that are bigger than just how many stars a match may have gotten in somebody’s rating system.

5. John Cena vs The Rock, WrestleMania XXVIII

At a time when WWE was coming off one of it’s worst ever WrestleManias, it badly needed a shot in the arm, which this match provided.  It was the match that brought me (and I believe lots of others like me) back to paying attention to wrestling and WWE.  Rock was the top dog from when I was last a full time fan while Cena was the current one and a guy we’d mostly just heard about, so the prospect of the former coming back for one more match against the current boss was enough of a hook to reel us back in.  The match was a bridge between generations of fans and got more than a few of us older ones to give it a chance again.  14 years later, here we still are.

4. Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, WrestleMania XXXI

This was the match that set up the company for the last 11 years. Lesnar was a year off of breaking the Undertaker’s streak and into a run that would make him the in ring final boss of the company for almost a decade while Reigns was the embattled heir apparent to Cena trying to prove he belonged in that spot.  The match itself was one of the best main events ever, and then was punctuated with the arrival of Seth Rollins to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase and assume his place ruling next to Roman.  One man went in already established as a King and two more would come out of ready to build their own thrones.

3. Steve Austin vs Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania XIV

The first of many rebirths of WWE happened here.  In 1997 Austin ascended to the top of the popularity totem pole in WWE with his outlaw persona that took on all comers and didn’t trust anybody.  The Stone Cold character was some light at the end of the tunnel that WWE had been stuck in for well over a year, getting their heads handed to them week after week by WCW in the Monday Night Wars.  His coronation at WrestleMania XIV wasn’t just a title victory, it was the official beginning of the Attitude Era where WWE would fully embrace a more risqué product and turn the tide against WCW while entering it’s most lucrative and popular period arguably ever.  While the stories of them being almost out of business in the mid 90s are a tad overblown they were in danger of being relegated to second place on a more permanent basis had things continued.  But Austin gave them an answer to the NWO, and this is where he began to cement his place in company and wrestling history.

2. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant, WrestleMania III

The first WrestleMania was Vince’s biggest gamble, and this was the payoff.  The biggest match that Vince could have made among his roster at the time, and it drew 93,173 (yes, I know) fans and showed the country what was possible to do in professional wrestling.  It was the ultimate ‘scoreboard, MFers!’ moment for the WWF to throw in the face of the old territory bosses who thought Vince was insane for trying to create a national wrestling company and turn it into a major entertainment vehicle.  And it provided the first iconic WrestleMania moment – Hogan slamming Andre, a moment that would cement Hogan’s place in history forever.

1. Hulk Hogan and Mr T vs Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff, WrestleMania I

To be blunt, none of us here are doing this without this match or this show.  This was Vince’s first big gambit to show that he could create a bigger and better wrestling company than all his competitors.  Leveraged to the gills to put on this event, Vince was wagering his entire project on the success of this event, and this was the match that sold it.  It was the perfect marriage of pro wrestling and popular culture that he’d been seeking. It parlayed Hogan and Mr. T’s previous work experience on Rocky III into a marquee match that captivated millions, even getting Hogan on Saturday Night Live.  Without this match, the last 40 years don’t happen.

Who missed the cut?

There are a couple that were contenders at the moment they occurred but ultimately did not have the longer term impact that these five had.  The Ultimate Challenge at WrestleMania VI was supposed to be a passing of the torch but the Ultimate Warrior’s flameout as world champion rendered that moot.  Batista defeating HHH at XXI was deflated by the Animal’s injury prone and short post-Mania career.  The first ever women’s main event at XXXV looks a lot more like a peak in hindsight and not a gateway to bigger things for women’s wrestling.  And finally WrestleMania 40 was being hailed as the beginning of a new golden age but, it only took a year for much of the bloom to fall off of that rose.