By Graham "GSM" Matthews Here on WrestleMania Recall, I will be ranking my top 31 favorite matches in WWE WrestleMania history. A new installment will be posted every day in the month of March, culminating with my No. 1 favorite match on Thursday, March 31st, mere days before WrestleMania 32. Each article will offer an in-depth look at each match and an analysis of why it is among my favorites. One of the many reasons why I loved WrestleMania 31 was because similar to WrestleMania 17, it had a little bit of everything to offer: a hard-hitting main event (Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns), a special attraction (Triple H vs. Sting), a feel-good story (John Cena vs. Rusev), a train wreck opener (the Intercontinental Championship Ladder match), a solid women's match (AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins), and a wrestling clinic (Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins). I think most people recognized that Rollins vs. Orton had a great match, but when the screen faded to black, the focus was on Rollins' WWE World Heavyweight Championship victory and not the instant classic he contested with Orton earlier in the evening. Thus, I understand if you think this match is ranked a little high on my list, but in addition to match quality, I'm taking into consideration several other factors including build, atmosphere, finish, and overall impact.
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By Graham "GSM" Matthews Here on WrestleMania Recall, I will be ranking my top 31 favorite matches in WWE WrestleMania history. A new installment will be posted every day in the month of March, culminating with my No. 1 favorite match on Thursday, March 31st, mere days before WrestleMania 32. Each article will offer an in-depth look at each match and an analysis of why it is among my favorites. I discussed this briefly when I spotlighted Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar early on in the series, but it has always boggled my mind that WrestleMaina 19 generated as low of a buyrate as it did. I mean, just look at the star-studded card! You had Angle vs. Lesnar in the main event for the WWE Championship, Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon, The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (in what we later learned was Stone Cold's last match), and Triple H vs. Booker T for the World Heavyweight Championship. And those were only the main events! In my opinion, the greatest match on the show came in the undercard between Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho. At any other event, this easily could have been the main event as it was five years later at No Mercy 2008. They had one of the greatest rivalries in the history of WWE that year, but fans tend to forget that they clashed at WrestleMania 19 as well and contested one of the best-wrestled and beautifully-crafted 'Mania matches of all-time, and could you really expect anything less from HBK and Y2J? By Graham "GSM" Matthews Here on WrestleMania Recall, I will be ranking my top 31 favorite matches in WWE WrestleMania history. A new installment will be posted every day in the month of March, culminating with my No. 1 favorite match on Thursday, March 31st, mere days before WrestleMania 32. Each article will offer an in-depth look at each match and an analysis of why it is among my favorites. All right, all right, get it out your system now. "The Rock vs. John Cena was awful! How could that rank so high up on your list?" There's a pretty elementary answer: because I have an emotional attachment to the it, more so with the build than the match itself, but I loved everything about the bout. For years, my ultimate dream match was Rock vs. Cena, and at long last, it had become a reality. WrestleMania 28 is among my favorite installments of all-time, a large part due to its iconic main event. I remember reading rumors in late 2009/early 2010 that WWE wanted to do Rock vs. Cena at WrestleMania 26, but for whatever reason, those plans fell through. It wasn't until the following year that Rock made his highly anticipated return to WWE on the February 14, 2011 edition of Raw. I still get goosebumps watching that moment back. He announced he would be the special host of WrestleMania 27, though as soon as he name-dropped Cena's name, everyone knew it was only inevitable before they came face-to-face. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Here on WrestleMania Recall, I will be ranking my top 31 favorite matches in WWE WrestleMania history. A new installment will be posted every day in the month of March, culminating with my No. 1 favorite match on Thursday, March 31st, mere days before WrestleMania 32. Each article will offer an in-depth look at each match and an analysis of why it is among my favorites. If you didn't know it already based off my inclusions of Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair and Edge vs. The Undertaker in this series, you know it now: I love WrestleMania 24! The funny thing is that I wasn't even a fan for it (I officially started watching Raw weekly two weeks after it occurred), but when I saw the commercials for it, I desperately wanted to order it, before coming to the realization that it was on pay-per-view and would cost almost 60 bucks. Damn! I previously discussed the inaugural Money in the Bank Ladder match from WrestleMania 21, but this Money in the Bank match in particular from WrestleMania 24 holds a special place in my heart and is definitely among if not my favorite of all-time. I remember watching its highlights during the annual WrestleMania special on NBC in the fall of 2008 and just being blown away by it. I watched bits and pieces of it over the years that followed but never the full thing until CM Punk's 2012 documentary was released. And holy shit was it amazing. |
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