2: Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior – WrestleMania 6
WrestleMania is often called the showcase of the immortals, and over the years there have been few matches which have had the same draw factor of the first meeting of Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Where as Hogan vs Andre was the meeting of the irresistible force and the immovable object, the Hogan Warrior match up was huge on another scale. Hogan was the face of the WWF, and Warrior at this time had exploded in popularity and was seen as an equal to Hogan in terms of strength, personality of popularity. Never before had a Mania main event pitted two faces against each other, and fans loved both of them.
The crowd and reaction to this match was insane and would be echoed years later when Hogan would face the Rock in the same location (that would be on the list, but wasn’t the main event). This match was famously the first time the WWF World Champion would challenge the Intercontinental Champion in a title for title match, and the Warrior was the first man to carry both belts at the same time upon winning.
1: Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker – WrestleMania 26
And at number 1 we have what was the sequel to perhaps the greatest match in WrestleMania history. When Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker wrestled the year prior at WrestleMania 25, it was a mind blowingly good match, and many would say this match from WrestleMania 26 didn’t top it. Well unfortunately for the purposes of compiling this list, the WrestleMania 25 match wasn’t the main event, so can’t be included. And whilst most agree this didn’t quite match up to their first Mania match I’d argue that being the second man on the moon still means you’ve been to the moon! And that shouldn’t be overlooked.
The saga of Taker vs Michaels actually began a couple of years earlier when they made a Royal Rumble match the first chapter in their war as they fought throughout. This wouldn’t be continued until the Mania 25 match, and as close as Shawn came to ending the streak, he didn’t quite manage it. Many have set their eyes on the streak, and once failed they moved on with their career and focussed on another goal. Not Shawn. The story was set. He had taken the Undertaker to the limit and knew in his heart that he could do it, and was so certain that he would put his career on the line.
At this stage it was far from a given that Shawn would hang up the boots, so with the stakes being Shawn’s career vs Taker’s winning streak, it actually had fans questioning if the Undertaker would come out on top here. Yes it’s true that the Mania 25 match should have been a main event, but that oversight wasn’t repeated here and Taker and Shawn went to war in this match.
The ending of the match was filled with emotion, and just as Shawn had looked at a defeated Ric Flair who knew his career was about to end, Shawn looked up to the Undertaker who pleaded with him to ‘stay down’. In a last moment of defiance Shawn copied the Undertaker’s own hand across the throat taunt before delivering a final thunderous slap to the Undertaker’s face. An enraged Undertaker then snatched up Michaels and finished him with a jumping tombstone piledriver to end the career of Mr WrestleMania.
So there you have our list! Do you agree with it or if not what do you think was the greatest WrestleMania main event in history? Put your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to check out all our other wrestling articles in the Wrestling section of the site. Also check out our weekly wrestling themed panel show The Slam Jam Wrestling Show on the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel.
