The biggest event in professional wrestling — sorry, sports entertainment — is nearly upon us. It’s WrestleMania week.
The landmark marvel of storytelling, violence and athleticism is the standard bearer of the squared circle. Everyone knows about WrestleMania, even if they don’t care about pro wrestling. And as such, the pressure is on the WWE each spring to create a memorable event that can sustain the brand’s success for the year to come.
Sometimes this works out better than others. This showcase has been the backdrop of several indelible moments woven into the fabric of wrestling. It has also served to prop up uncompelling storylines and stars who shined in longtime company head Vince McMahon’s eyes but not in the hearts of fans in the stands.
Let’s talk about those headliners and whether or not they lived up to the pressure of closing out WrestleMania. There have been 41 headlining matches across 38 WrestleManias to date — including the six from the last three years, where the WWE wisely opted to spread the card over two nights. This is my crude attempt to rank all 41 from worst to best, hopefully overcoming my own recency bias in the process.
Additionally, please excuse the somewhat bizarre choice of section images. It turns out USA Today Sports doesn’t have an extensive archive of pre-2020s wrestling photos.