Your preference of one Wrestlemania pay-per-view over another is largely a matter of how old you are. To a child's perspective, WWE wrestlers are larger-than-life superheroes who take massive beatdowns, show up the next week ready to brawl, and fight abstract battles of good vs. evil. A kid will like whatever he or she is given; all objectivity goes out the window.
It's only when we go back years later and we discover that, perhaps, the Piper vs. Goldust Hollywood Backlot Brawl hasn't aged so well. Or we realize the Jonathan Taylor Thomas celebrity cameo wasn't so great in retrospect. Or perhaps, we gain a new appreciation for a technical match like Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, which lacked WWE's theatrical pageantry but was an absolute clinic in ring psychology and technical skill.
Here are the top five best and five worst Wrestlemanias in WWE history. Take a look at the match card and our predictions for Wrestlemania 34, which live streams on the WWE Network on April 8 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. And come back to GameSpot that evening for updated coverage on the Showcase of the Immortals.
Worst: Wrestlemania IX
Venue: Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas
Date: April 4, 1993
The outdoor arena at Caesar's Palace was decked with a garish, Roman emperor meets Egyptian pharaoh set, and the commentators wore togas. It was campy and a far cry from the glory days of filling the Pontiac Silverdome with 93,000 fans. It featured the worst Undertaker match ever (Giant Gonzalez tried to chloroform the Dead Man), and Hulk Hogan swooped in at the end of the broadcast to win the title from Yokozuna. Just like that, months of building the massive sumo wrestler as a monster were thrown directly into the garbage.
Best: Wrestlemania X-7
Venue: Astrodome, Houston
Date: April 1, 2001
This is the greatest of the Attitude Era PPVs. The main event pitted the two most popular guys in the company--The Rock and Steve Austin--against one another for the WWE Championship. There was an epic TLC match. Chris Benoit took on Kurt Angle. Chris Jericho took on William Regal. It was a stacked card, and it concluded with one of the biggest surprise heel turns in WWE history.
Worst: Wrestlemania I
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York
Date: March 31, 1985
There is not much positive to report about this event other than that it was the first of its kind. It is a credit to WWE that this has aged as poorly as it has. The television production today is so slick and smooth (some might argue too smooth) that this looks downright amateurish by comparison. There was a great sense of spectacle, with Mr. T in the main event and Liberace in a kickline with the Rockettes. But WWE would go on to produce much better programs than this one.
Best: Wrestlemania XX
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Date: March 14, 2004
The only negative of this event is that many fans will have retroactively sad memories of it. Eddie Guerrero is dead, under tragic circumstances. Chris Benoit is also dead, under even worse circumstances. And the final image of them celebrating in the ring, holding the top two titles in their hands, is no longer heartwarming. But Benoit fought with Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a classic Triple Threat. This was the same night that the Undertaker returned to his Dead Man persona, and it was also the same night that both Goldberg and Lesnar were booed viciously by WWE fans, who knew the two men were leaving the company. It was one surprise and thrill after another, which is what Wrestlemania is all about.
Worst: Wrestlemania 2000
Venue: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim
Date: April 2, 2000
With both Steve Austin and the Undertaker on the shelf with injuries, the rest of the roster had to bring in the new millennium without them. Nearly every match, including the main event, was an overbooked mess. And one of the only singles matches was a catfight between Terri Runnels and The Kat, with Val Venis as the special guest referee. There was so much squandered talent on the roster in 2000, but thankfully, in 2001, the company got its act together.
Best: Wrestlemania X8
Venue: Skydome, Toronto
Date: March 17, 2002
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan overshadows everything else. It was so much better than anyone guessed it would be, and it showed that after all these years, people were still emotionally attached to Hogan; it didn't matter how long he had been gone. Elsewhere in the card, a heel Undertaker took on Ric Flair in a No Disqualifications match, where Big Evil showed a darker, more sadistic side of his personality.
Worst: Wrestlemania II
Venue: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale; Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont; Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Date: April 7, 1986
Wrestlemania II went with the "bigger is better principle," which didn't turn out well. The company broadcasted from three different arenas, which meant that three live audiences were disappointed with the event instead of one. And the marquee matches were spread across all three locations, which meant that no one got a brilliant show (although Rosemont got the best). On the upside, Ray Charles sang the national anthem. And the Hogan vs. Bundy steel cage match, watched today, is a solid bit of nostalgia.
Best: Wrestlemania III
Venue: Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac
Date: March 29, 1987
Wrestlemania III is where WWE finally got the formula right. This is the classic PPV that all others were modeled around, and it was the figurative peak of WWE's mainstream popularity. It's where 93,000 fans gathered in the Pontiac Silverdome to watch Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant. It's where Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage put on a physical, technically wondrous match that is still the bar, even today. Pageantry doesn't get any more extravagant than this.
Worst: Wrestlemania XI
Venue: Hartford Civic Center
Date: April 2, 1995
There wasn't a single outstanding match on this card, although the main event between New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and "Beast from the East" Bam Bam Bigelow was fun and silly; Taylor looked out of breath, yet competent, thanks to Bigelow's selfless in-ring performance. But the rest of the matches were fairly boring. And at an event like Wrestlemania, "boring" is a worse sin than being gloriously bad.
Best: Wrestlemania XXX
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans
Date: April 6, 2014
This is one of the greatest Manias thanks to the WWE fans, who pushed and pushed for Daniel Bryan to be included in the main event. And when he won, the entire Superdome chanted in unison, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" In a very real way, WWE reaped what it sowed, by engaging fans over social media and letting them see glimpses of the backstage drama. You can't tell fans that they have a say in things and then be angry when they exercise that power. Fans booked Wrestlemania XXX. In this case, they did a better job than WWE's bookers.
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