 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?
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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. 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.  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've mentioned before here in the series that you won't find too many old WrestleMania matches on this list, and when I say "old" I'm talking about anything from the first 15 WrestleMania events. I consider myself a fan of '80s wrestling, but let's be honest: those early installments were painful to sit through. They had historical significance, sure, but when I watched all 30 WrestleManias last year, those were the most difficult to endure, especially as someone who has no emotional attachment to them. That said, I have a soft spot in my heart for Ultimate Warrior's WrestleMania matches, or at least his encounters with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. I already discussed Warrior vs. Hogan just a few days ago, but I liked the Warrior vs. Savage match from WrestleMania 7 slightly more. For a WrestleMania I didn't care too much for, this was a mach I absolutely loved and still enjoy watching back from time to time, if only to remind me of why both men are among my favorite legends in WWE history.  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. As we enter the top ten on my illustrious list, this is where we get to the nitty-gritty and my ultimate favorite WrestleMania matches. I know it may seem strange for this match to be slotted 20 places higher than Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H from the same WrestleMania, but there was just something about this matchup that stood out as special to me, and it's not hard to see what that special something was. I've said it before in this series and I'll say it again: it was storytelling at its finest. I already recounted the Bryan saga from SummerSlam to WrestleMania 30 and all the run-ins he had with The Authority in those eight months, so I'll stray away from repeating myself here. Rather, I'll attempt to do the best I can when it comes to breaking down this bout and each of the highlights that made it a favorite of mine. A small amount of Superstars can say they have pulled double duty at WrestleMania, but the elite few that have reeked the benefits in a big way. Daniel Bryan followed in Bret Hart's footsteps from almost two decades earlier. |
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