 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. And we're back with another bout from one of the greatest WrestleManias since the dawn of the new millennium, this time looking at its amazing main event between Batista and Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship. Anyone who knows me well enough would know that I'm a sucker for a stellar story, and this match had just that. Any match that has a long and organic build-up and a satisfying payoff is solid in my book, but there was something about their feud I found extremely endearing. Of course, the original plan for the WrestleMania 21 main event was to have Randy Orton win back the world title from Triple H after Evolution ousted him from the group in August 2004. He was going to be the breakout babyface and complete his chase by regaining the gold on the grand stage, but as is usually the case in wrestling, plans changed. Officials noticed Batista, not Orton, was the one who was winning over the masses, so they went with him as the next "guy" instead.
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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. As you have probably noticed by this point in the series, there aren't many matches from the early installments of WrestleMania. There were a handful of classic contests, but they are far and few between, and even then I don't consider all of them favorites of mine. For example, and please don't burn me at the stake for this, but Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat will not be a part of "WrestleMania Recall." To say it was an amazing match is an understatement, but it's simply not one of my favorite 'Mania matches. This matchup between Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior, however, is among the elite on this exclusive list. WrestleMania 6 isn't looked back on too fondly as being a stellar show, but of the first ten WrestleManias, I enjoyed it more than most of the others. The Canada crowd was raucous for a majority of the evening, and although there were an excessive amount of matches on the card, the near-four hour extravaganza was worth it for the exhilarating main event championship clash.  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. Did WrestleMania 31 exceeded everyone's expectations or what? There's a reason why I have a tough time answering the ever-asked question, "What's your favorite WrestleMania of all-time?" because as much as I love WrestleMania 28, this event in particular was near-perfection in my mind, not to mention that I have zero clue it would be so incredible. Ten years from now, it will be remembered most for its brutal and breathtaking main event between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Initially, I was excited at the idea of Reigns being the one to dethrone Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 after Lesnar decimated John Cena to win the WWE title at SummerSlam 2014, the same show where Reigns slayed Randy Orton. It seemed to make the most sense storyline wise, that was until Reigns was sidelined with a hernia injury in the fall that caused him to miss three months of valuable in-ring time. Fans were happy to have him back in time for the Royal Rumble, but the timing was way off. The returning Daniel Bryan was the favorite to win the Rumble.  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. You won't be surprised when I tell you that this is the only match from WrestleMania 29 you'll find on this list, but I'd be dammed if it wasn't terrific and if it didn't deserve to be placed so high up. That whole WrestleMania felt like a four hour episode of Raw to me, and once it ended, it left me feeling like nothing had changed. "Wait, that's it?" was what I said to myself when the screen faded to black. If there was one match that saved that show from being a total disaster, it was The Undertaker vs. CM Punk. The match had been rumored dating back to December 2012 when it was made clear that Punk wouldn't be a part of the WrestleMania main event, and I was excited at the idea of it. I held out hope that Punk would somehow retain the WWE Championship against The Rock at the Royal Rumble and go on to defend against 'Taker in a Streak vs. Title match at 'Mania, but no such luck. They went on to have a hell of a match regardless of there not being any gold up for grabs.  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 final 15, it's only appropriate we get to the first match from one of my top favorite WrestleMania events of all-time: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 28. Ten years from now, that show will be widely remembered for its once in a lifetime (or so we thought) main event between John Cena and The Rock, but this championship contest deserves an incredible amount of credit as well. It undoubtedly would have been the last match on the card had Rock vs. Cena not taken place that year. Once Punk started calling himself the best wrestler in the world right around the time he cut his "pipebomb" promo in June 2011, his lofty claims immediately drew comparisons to Jericho. Prior to his departure, Jericho was known to refer to himself as "the best in the world at everything I do." Surprisingly enough, although Punk and Jericho had clashed in singles competition in the past, they had never actually engaged in a full-fledged feud with each other, and this change in character for Punk allowed that to finally come to fruition. |
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