Every WrestleMania Main Event Ranked By Star Rating

Triple H vs. Randy Orton – WrestleMania XXV – 2.50 Stars

The build for this match was pretty good. Orton vowed to take revenge against Triple H for turning on him in their Evolution days years prior. He began systematically destroying the McMahon family punting Vince and Shane, and RKO’ing Stephanie.

This was one of the most disappointing WrestleMania matches of all time. Both hit their finishers within a minute of the match opening and had a very disappointing match after, but anything that followed the instant classic that was Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker paled in comparison.

Everyone who reviewed this match had the same reaction, “that’s it?”.

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Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan – WrestleMania V – 2.75 Stars

Remember when Hogan helped Savage win the title at WrestleMania IV? Savage held the belt that whole next year as part of the Mega Powers with Hogan and Miss Elizabeth.

After Savage unfortunately knocked out Elizabeth at ringside and Hogan left with Elizabeth to tend to her, Savage’s jealousy erupted and the Mega Powers imploded. With Elizabeth in the middle of it all, the two faced off at the granddaddy of them all.

The match was good, probably better than the star rating indicates. Hogan was victorious after kicking out of Savage’s diving elbow and hitting his atomic leg drop.

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Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor – WrestleMania XI – 2.75 Stars

The fact that American football player Lawrence Taylor took part in a singles match in the main event of WrestleMania that outranked almost a third of other main events with no real wrestling training speaks to either how gifted of an athlete he was, or how bad the previous 10 matches were.

Taylor put in a surprisingly good performance against Bigelow, who was in his own right a good performer for his size. Taylor got the win with a second rope-flying forearm and celebrated with his other NFL player friends.

This was one of the original WWE/NFL crossovers, and may very well have planted the idea for the XFL in Vince McMahon’s mind.

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Triple H vs. Batista – WrestleMania 21 – 2.75 Stars

After causing Vince McMahon to tear both quads a few months prior when he and John Cena botched the ending of the Royal Rumble, the Animal got to choose his opponent for WrestleMania 21.

Triple H, fearing he would have to face his protege and set up a plan to make big Dave face JBL at the show. Once he was found out though, he had no choice but to face Batista at WrestleMania.

The match was entertaining enough, but by no means special. It was hampered by Batista’s leg injury but it was the culmination of one of WWE’s greatest storylines.

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Triple H vs. The Rock vs. Mick Foley vs. Big Show – WrestleMania 2000 – 3.00 Stars

A four-way match with a McMahon in every corner. This is one of the few WrestleManias to end in something other than a singles match.

This match finally gave Foley his chance to main event the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’, though there were no intentions of him actually winning.

The match itself was chaotic and overbooked, which one would expect with four McMahons present. Triple H was victorious in the match, but Rock had the last laugh laying out Triple, Vince, Shane, and Stephanie. This was also the first time that a heel won the main event of WrestleMania.

• dave meltzer
• star ratings
• WrestleMania
• wwe

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