Dylan jackson
WWE WrestleMania 40 comes to Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday and Sunday. Ahead of the historic event, WWE’s business is booming, managing to gain momentum despite Vince McMahon recently resigned from the company disgraced after yet another round of sexual abuse allegations.
Much of that momentum has come from The Rock’s return to WWE, where he will now team with Roman Reigns to face Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in the main event of WrestleMania Night 1. But The Rock’s return is just one of the reasons why this year is gearing up to produce several legendary moments as WrestleMania enters its fourth decade.
WrestleMania has produced so many classic moments since the event debuted in 1985, often signifying major changes in the business.
With that in mind, and with such a historic event approaching, we look back to identify the most significant moment from each decade of WrestleManias thus far.
WrestleMania 1-10: Hulk Hogan bodyslams Andre The Giant at WrestleMania III
In all honesty, the most significant moment of the first 10 WrestleManias is the moment WrestleMania I aired on March 31, 1985. It was a moment that forever changed the entire industry. But when considering an individual moment from the first decade of pay-per-views, the image that always stands out is that of Hulk Hogan pummeling Andre the Giant in the main event of WrestleMania III.
WrestleMania III was a huge success, even though WWE and Hogan himself attempted to openly mythologize the event, inflating the number of paid attendees and Hogan repeatedly stating that Andre weighed 700 pounds that night – among Hogan’s other lies about the match – But nearly four decades later, the image of Hogan catching Andre and hitting the leg drop to retain the WWF Championship remains a staple of WWE highlight packages and is a moment that signifies wrestling’s boom period of the 1980s as no other.
Hogan was, of course, the star on whom Vince McMahon focused the company as he expanded the WWF and dismantled wrestling’s territorial system. Andre was the perfect foil for Hogan, a friend-turned-enemy who, even with his body destroyed in 1987, was such a unique presence that a simple 12-minute match with Hogan still stands as one of the company’s greatest matches. history.
WrestleMania 11-20: Steve Austin and Bret Hart double at WrestleMania 13
There are so many incredible moments and matches in this stretch of WrestleManias, but most of them can’t happen if Austin and Hart don’t execute a near-perfect match and turn it around twice at WrestleMania 13. Austin vs. Hart. with Mike Tyson as guest referee) at WrestleMania XIV was certainly up for grabs, as Austin winning his first WWF Championship truly cemented the Attitude Era.
But if Austin and Hart hadn’t played their roles so well in last year’s finale, the ripple effect could have changed everything. Maybe Austin will still become “The One” anyway, but it’s hard to see things as hot without Austin vs.
Fans were already buying into Austin as an antihero and Hart, the longtime babyface who helped the WWF endure some dark years, was losing fans and falling apart as everything was suddenly going against him. After previous encounters where the two men proved to be equals to each other, with Austin even proving he could hold his own with Hart, WrestleMania 13 was a to fight. And Hart went to dark places in that match to get the job done, eventually forcing special referee Ken Shamrock to stop the fight after a bloodied Austin passed out on Hart’s shooter. The image of Austin, his face covered in blood, pushing himself off the mat and screaming as Hart held on to his legs, stands alongside Hogan beating Andre as one of the most iconic WWE moments of all time.
The fight, which is one of the best in wrestling history and the best In the history of WrestleMania (apologies to Michaels vs. The Undertaker fans), it wasn’t about who won, it was about Austin proving to be a top guy and Hart proving how far he was willing to go to get the win.
The matches don’t get any better than Austin vs. Hart, and they’re rarely more important to the direction of the business.
WrestleMania 21-30: Brock Lesnar Ends The Undertaker’s Streak at WrestleMania XXX
The Undertaker’s legendary “streak” of WrestleMania victories was not originally planned. Instead, WWE realized at some point that Undertaker had an undefeated record at the biggest event of the year and capitalized by making him nearly invincible whenever WrestleMania came around.
Eventually, it seemed like The Undertaker would simply never lose a WrestleMania match. It became a given in the later years of “The Streak” that Undertaker would show up, put on a good-to-great match, and have his hand raised once again.
When The Undertaker and Lesnar met, it looked like it would be more of the same. Yes, Lesnar was a dominant force in WWE, but The Undertaker’s run was synonymous with WrestleMania, and 2014 marked the 30th edition of the event. What could make more sense than The Undertaker improving to 22-0 on wrestling’s biggest stage?
It wasn’t meant to be, however, and after Lesnar landed his third F-5 of the match and the referee completed the three count, the result was a stunned audience struggling to make sense of the outcome as 21-1 appeared on Nova’s screens. Orleans. ‘Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Although The Undertaker had a few more WrestleMania matches as he ended his career, Lesnar’s victory signaled the end of an era for one of WWE’s biggest stars.
WrestleMania 31-39: Covid ushers in era of two-night WrestleMania events
A global pandemic affects every part of the world, including the entertainment industry. Ahead of WrestleMania 36 in 2020, WWE was forced to begin holding events inside the promotion’s Performance Center in Orlando without fans in attendance. This carried over to WrestleMania, which was taped over several days to limit the number of wrestlers in the building at any one time. The event aired over two nights, making it the first two-night WrestleMania.
Many fans have long been pushing for WWE to extend WrestleMania to two nights. Loaded shows could burn out live crowds as they went on for hours and hours. It was an unfortunate situation that led WWE to finally go the two-night direction, but once live crowds returned, the promotion never looked back, with every WrestleMania since then following the same two-night formula.
WrestleMania 36 will forever stand out as the most exclusive show in the company’s history. It was surreal to see such a huge event in a small building with no fans and many matches suffered from not having fans fueling the energy. At the same time, WWE experimented with “cinematic matches,” which looked more like short films than traditional wrestling matches. The two cinematic WrestleMania 36 matches are the most fondly remembered, with the late Bray Wyatt facing John Cena in a surreal Firefly Fun House Match and The Undertaker defeating AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match. The latter was later revealed to be “The Deadman’s” retirement game.
Although the circumstances were far from ideal, WrestleMania 36 changed WrestleMania seemingly forever.
