12: Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase – WrestleMania 4
WrestleMania 4 was a unique WrestleMania in that the whole show was centred around a tournament to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion after controversy where Andre the Giant captured the belt form Hulk Hogan. This was due to the famous evil twin magic of Dave and Earl Hebner. After this Andre, who had turned to the dark side and betrayed his friend Hulk Hogan before WrestleMania 3 then sold the WWF Championship to the Million Dollar Man, but WWF officials stepped in and held the title up.
The event over all perhaps isn’t one of the best of early Manias, but it did give us the first main event that didn’t feature Hulk Hogan as a competitor. Hogan and Andrew had met in a rematch from the year before in an early round of the tournament and with a double DQ it gave Ted DiBiase a free pass without an opponent to go straight into the finals against the Macho Man Randy Savage.
Savage vs DiBiase is on paper a great wrestling match as both are great in the ring, and this was an exciting end to the tournament after a long build. It was also refreshing and a surprise to see Savage in the final instead of Hogan, and just as it looked like DiBiase was going to win the Hulkster was still present to help make sure that WrestleMania would continue it’s tradition of the hero standing tall at the end.
11: Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle – WrestleMania 19
The prospect of seeing Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle was a dream match at the time. Brock was known as a legitimate bad ass long before his time in the UFC as he was a former NCAA wrestling champion, and Kurt of course was an Olympic gold Medallist. We heard the rumours that the two did lock on for a short armature contest which was reported saw Kurt take an early lead before being broken up.
All these rumours lead fans to want to see a match on TV between the two and we almost didn’t get it. Brock was the world champion and had dominated since his debut including becoming the youngest ever world champion at the time and did it by defeating the Rock. Kurt was scheduled for the match, but was repeated neck injuries it looked for a brief moment that Kurt would be replaced by Chris Benoit as a last minute replacement. This almost happened, but Kurt found it in himself to go ahead with the match and then take time off afterwards.
The match had a big main event feel and was perhaps the most wrestling focussed main event that is on the list.
