Moving on to round 3 of our countdown, here's where we get to the pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good stuff....
20. Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania XIV
The Stone Cold Era began officially on March 29, 1998 (in my hometown of Boston), with a grueling WWF Title win over Shawn Michaels. I went into this match super-hyped, as Austin and Michaels were my two favorite wrestlers at the time, and the company had tapped Mike Tyson to be the ringside enforcer and bring lots of mainstream attention to the show. This was a dream main event for me, and while it was a damn fine match it didn't quite live up to my expectations. The problem was Shawn's back, injured in a casket match with The Undertaker two months earlier. Shawn began this match in expected high-energy form, but a botched whip into the turnbuckle seemed to aggravate his herniated disc, and he spent the rest of the bout barely gutting it out. Still the agony on Shawn's face during every move added to the drama, and these two pros managed to put together a pretty great piece of gritty wrestling business. The finish especially was perfectly executed - Shawn went for Sween Chin Music, Austin ducked and went for the Stunner, Shawn blocked it, shoved him into the ropes and went for another kick, Austin caught his foot, spun him around, kicked him in the gut and stunned him, as Tyson counted the pinfall. The Boston crowd went apeshit as the Texas Rattlesnake held the title over his head, cementing his place as the unlikely new face of the company. Shawn took a Tyson knockout punch to put an exclamation point on the night, and it would be his last match in over four years. As good as this bout was, I always wonder how much better it would've been had Shawn been at 100%.
19. Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair - WrestleMania 35
The historic main event of WrestleMania 35 marked the first time a women's match would headline the show. The white-hot Becky Lynch won the 2019 Royal Rumble to punch her ticket to 'Mania, but her animosity with RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey went back further than that. Their paths were supposed to cross at the 2018 Survivor Series, but a real-life broken nose/concussion handed to Becky by Nia Jax derailed plans (and also made Becky an even bigger star), and Charlotte Flair took Becky's place. Thus anticipation for the Becky-Ronda showdown built for months. Sadly the company felt Charlotte should be added to make the bout a triple threat; Charlotte vs. Ronda at Survivor Series turned out to be a violent, fiery encounter where Charlotte got herself disqualified and beat the tar out of Ronda with a kendo stick. So there were unresolved issues between Ronda and both of her challengers, but the addition of Charlotte served to muddy the waters a bit too much, particularly since she was also hastily booked to defeat Smackdown Women's Champion Asuka so as to make this main event a double championship match. The build became very confusing as the company didn't seem to know who should be sympathetic and who should be antagonistic. Ronda had been a fan favorite upon her WrestleMania 34 debut but by the end of the year was greeted with increasing crowd hostility, while Charlotte was viewed as being overexposed and overpushed. But hopes were still high that these three accomplished athletes would deliver in the clutch. And for their part, they put together a very good main event with a ton of atmosphere. The company sadly didn't set them up to succeed however, overloading the WrestleMania card with so many matches it was after midnight by the time the main event kicked off. An exhausted, overspent crowd couldn't be asked to respond with much enthusiasm, and the main event they legitimately wanted to see unfortunately suffered a bit as a result. Also working against the women was the finish, which saw Becky defeat Ronda not with her Disarm-Her finisher or even a decisive impact move, but with a botched crucifix pin where Ronda's shoulder was visibly off the mat for part of the three-count. For a groundbreaking WrestleMania main event with so much at stake, this was a mild disappointment, but it still delivered big from a mechanical and character standpoint.
18. The Rock vs. John Cena - WrestleMania XXVIII
The Once in a Lifetime....Until Next Year dream match between John Cena and The Rock took place in Rocky's hometown of Miami, in front of a vehemently partisan crowd, and was a major financial success for the company. The bout was set up a year earlier when The Rock returned from a seven-year absence to host WrestleMania and left that show's two main eventers laying in the ring at the end while he celebrated. A terrible ending to WrestleMania 27, but WWE's long-term planning was to be applauded at least. The company had an opportunity to build interest for this match at the following Survivor Series as Rock and Cena teamed up to face The Miz and R-Truth, but unfortunately that main event was a glorified 20-minute squash and the two babyfaces co-existed just fine, leading people like me to question the point of it all. The proper build began shortly before 'Mania 28, as Cena cut one of the most impassioned promos of his career, pointing out that while he was busting his ass week after week, The Rock had abandoned the WWE fans for Hollywood, and Cena needed to win this for the full-time WWE wrestlers. I couldn't have agreed more; this was one of the few times where I was fully in Cena's corner in terms of the story being told. But as they were in Miami, such an outcome wasn't in the cards. For just over thirty minutes the two megastars expertly worked the audience and put together a very good, epic sports-entertainment main event. I thought this went overly long; surely 25 minutes would've been enough. But this had a big-fight feel in spades, The Rock looked to be in the best shape of his life, and they told a good story. Cena kicked out of the first Rock Bottom of the night but fell to a second, to send the pro-Rock crowd home happy. Their rematch a year later would fall significantly short of this bout.
17. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 34
Perhaps the most underrated WrestleMania main event was this rematch from WrestleMania 31. The year was 2018, and the Roman Reigns Top Babyface experiment was still chugging along, with no change in the results from three years earlier. The fans still didn't like Roman in this spot, they still booed him out of the building every night, and the company still refused to turn him heel, using the dipshit excuse that "Any reaction is a good reaction." Yeah, not when the reaction is precisely the opposite of what you intended. Regardless, Vince once again stubbornly refused to change his plan, and booked Brock vs. Roman II as the main event of WrestleMania 34. After a very good undercard featuring Rollins-Balor-Miz, Charlotte-Asuka, Ronda/Angle-Triple H/Steph, the return of Daniel Bryan, and AJ-Nakamura, the New Orleans crowd simply didn't want to see this match, and they let WWE know it. Chants of "You both suck," "CM Punk," and "This is awful" rang out throughout this match, and Vince hedged his bets in the booking, changing the result the weekend of the show. Brock shockingly retained the title, Vince holding out hope that by SummerSlam the fans would magically come around to Roman's side (The tone deafness on display was staggering). So the company gave fans a lot of reasons to hate this match. It was two guys everyone was thoroughly sick of, it came at the end of a five-hour show, and the finish of the match made the whole thing kinda pointless. But really sit down and watch this match; it's a helluva fight. These two monsters beat the absolute shit out of each other, each guy kicked out of numerous finishers, Roman took an elbow shot that split his forehead in two, and it stands as one of the most purely violent spectacles to ever headline a WrestleMania. Was it as good as their first match? No. But was it light years better than the third and fourth? Absolutely. I don't care what anyone says, I liked this main event a lot. As far as I'm concerned it was Roman's second-best WrestleMania main event by far up to that point. That would change three years later...
16. Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes - WrestleMania 39, Night 2
Man, this match was on its way to a well-deserved Top 10 spot on this list. Really, just an epic, drama-filled, twisty and turny WWE Universal Title match between two consummate pros. The story was there, the build was there, the moment was there. And then the last thirty seconds happened. After an action-packed, story-driven 35 minutes that featured Solo Sikoa being ejected for interference and Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens running off the Usos, Cody hit Roman with a CrossRhodes, held on, hit another one, held on, and then Paul Heyman jumped on the apron to distract the official while the previously ejected Sikoa thumbed Cody in the throat, setting up Cody for a match-ending Spear. Roman retained the title, again, in the exact same fashion he'd retained against Drew, Kevin, Sami, etc. One of the least imaginative and most tone-deaf endings to a truly great match I've seen in years. The company rectified the situation a year later, and fortunately (miraculously) Cody didn't end up losing steam during that time, but man, what a terrible, terrible finish. At 'Mania 39 WWE snatched a stalemate from the jaws of total victory.
15. Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes - WrestleMania 40, Night 2
Finally a year after WWE porked the ending of WrestleMania 39, plus a clusterfuck of booking changes involving Cody bequeathing his hard-earned second title shot to The Rock, changing his mind, Rock turning heel and attacking him, etc., we arrived at the big rematch. And this time, thanks to Roman and The Rock beating Cody and Seth Rollins the night before, this match would be contested under Bloodline Rules, which just meant run-ins and weapons were legal. For the first twenty minutes or so this was a traditional wrestling match, and a damn good one. Then the run-ins started and got borderline silly after a while. Jimmy, Jey, Solo, Cena, Rock, Seth, Taker. Gettin' to be a lot. But the crowd ate it all up and it served as a climactic build before the inevitable feelgood ending. This match wasn't quite on the level of the previous one in terms of the work being done, but I'm ranking it ahead of Roman-Cody I because it had the right result and served as a major turning point in WWE lore.
14. CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins - WrestleMania 41, Night 1
Vastly superior to its Night 2, counterpart, the Night 1 main event, while not really containing any substantial stakes, was nonetheless a very strong 33-minute bout where the drama centered around whether Paul Heyman would remain in CM Punk's corner as promised, or if his loyalties still lay with longtime associate Roman Reigns. The action here was well put together, with loads of nearfalls and finisher kickouts. I had issues with the overdramatic nature of the finish, where Heyman slid Punk a chair but then turned on him, gave the chair to Roman and then turned on him, and aligned himself with Seth Rollins. But overall the match was very effective and places high on the all-time 'Mania main events list.
13. Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan - WrestleMania 37, Night 2
The final match of WrestleMania 37's two-night spectacular, this Triple Threat match pitted Universal Champion Roman Reigns, finally a monster heel at long last, against returning legend Edge, ten years removed from his untimely retirement, against perennial fan favorite Daniel Bryan. Edge had won the 2021 Royal Rumble, entering at #1 and running the table, to challenge Roman at the Show of Shows. But there was a problem; WWE forgot long ago how to book a likable babyface, and thus painted themselves into a corner by writing Edge as kind of a jerk. And without someone to root for, an Edge vs. Roman main event would certainly fall flat. Enter Daniel Bryan, the one man on the roster seemingly immune to inept booking. No matter how many times they had Bryan lose, he could still get a strong babyface reaction from the crowd. So Bryan was added to the match after Edge screwed up the Roman-Bryan bout at Fastlane, and suddenly it became much more intriguing. These three worked a fantastic, chaotic Triple Threat, complete with Jey Uso run-ins, bumps on the ring steps, a broken table spot, a great moment where Bryan and Edge locked in simultaneous crossfaces on Roman and traded headbutts to knock the other guy out, and a controversial but decisive finish where Roman brutalized both men with chairs and stacked them on top of each other before pinning both. Just an excellent, memorable way to close out the 2021 edition of WrestleMania.
12. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair - WrestleMania 37, Night 1
The historic WrestleMania 37 Night 1 main event was one of the most satisfying in recent memory. For the first time ever two women of color main evented a WrestleMania card, delivering an athletically marvelous, emotionally resonant near-classic that created a brand new top star in the division. Smackdown Women's Champion Sasha Banks turned in a Bret Hart-like performance as she steered the bout with a veteran's confidence and made her relatively inexperienced challenger look like a megastar. Bianca Belair played the self-assured, prodigious, eminently likable babyface to the hilt, keeping up with Banks and displaying incredible athletic feats, not the least of which was a spot where she caught Banks on an outside-the-ring dive, rolled through, pressed her over her head, and walked up the ring steps to toss her back in. After a clever tug of war with Bianca's hair braid that ended with Bianca using it like a whip on Sasha (complete with a sickening crack and a nine-inch welt across Sasha's ribs), the challenger landed a 450 splash and a Kiss of Death finisher to win her first WWE gold. Off-camera Sasha smiled with satisfaction, watching her opponent bask in the glory of the moment she helped engineer. Both women shined here; Bianca earned her spot as the new face of the division, while Sasha cemented her place as one of the best women wrestlers in WWE history.
11. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (vs. Seth Rollins) - WrestleMania 31
Maybe the most unexpectedly great WrestleMania main event took place at the 2015 edition, as the reviled babyface Roman Reigns challenged the unstoppable Mayor of Suplex City (a phrase he coined during this match), Brock Lesnar. Brock had decimated John Cena for the WWE Championship at the previous SummerSlam, allowing almost no offense during their 16-minute squash, and then all but disappeared with the title for most of the next six months. At the 2015 Royal Rumble Brock, Cena and Seth Rollins had a spectacular Triple Threat match, where Brock turned back both challengers in dominant fashion. Enter Reigns, the company's handpicked "it" guy, with whom the fans wanted nothing to do. Reigns won the Rumble match that night to earn his WrestleMania spot, but was booed unmercifully, and this main event had all the markings of a dud; an absentee heel champion vs. an unliked babyface challenger. But the match ended up being an exercise in brutality as these two monsters beat the piss out of each other. Brock took a legit headbutt to the ring post which opened a huge gash on his forehead, while Reigns got suplexed into oblivion and kept getting up. But the most memorable thing about the match was the unique finish, as Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase mid-match, curb stomping Brock, attempting a second stomp that was countered into an F5 attempt that was thwarted by a Reigns spear, and then curb stomping Reigns to win the match and the WWE Title. The Santa Clara crowd exploded at the surprise finish and Rollins stood tall, swinging the strap over his head as Michael Cole dubbed the title change "The Heist of the Century." Thus began Seth Rollins' excellent run as the company's top heel.
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