The biggest event in professional wrestling is less than a week away. There have been many classic matches at the WrestleMania. Bret Hart vs. HBK in an Iron Man match. Undertaker vs. HBK. HBK vs. Taker 2. HBK vs. Razor Ramon (notice the trend here?), but what about the forgotten matches? These matches that have seemingly been swept under the rug when HBK steals the show (like he does every year). Let’s take a moment to check out five WrestleMania matches every fan should check out.

5. Hardcore Shenanigans:

Some of you may remember WrestleMania 2000 as one of the worst WrestleMania’s of all time and your memory would be correct. Although, there is a phrase that says light shines on a dogs butt once in a while. One of the shining lights was the Hardcore battle royal. The hardcore title isn't revered as a major, but on this night, everyone in this math fought for it like it was the world title. Well, except Farooq and Bradshaw. The Acolytes spent the entire night outside the ring beating the poop out of everyone the entire night and not once did they even attempt to go for one pin. All they wanted to do was hurt people. Mission accomplished. The title changed hands a few times but was ultimately won by Hardcore Holly after smashing a glass candy jar over his cousin Crash Holly's head while he was in the Tazz's Tazzmission. Time runs out and Hardcore Holly is the new Hardcore Champion.

4. Undertaker vs. Ric Flair

Still a funny image
image source "ecwfrenchtribute.free"

First off, we all knew about the Undertaker's streak at this point. We also knew that there was chance in Hell that Ric Flair was going to beat the Undertaker. Especially not at Mania. But the two would go out and have an amazing match and anybody reading this shouldn't be shocked. Even in their advanced age, these were still the best performers in the WWE. As predicted, The Undertaker (now the American Bad A$$) dominated the match and instead of pinning Flair, played with him. That was a mistake. Arn Anderson would eventually interfere and give Taker a spinebuster that gave Flair an opportunity to try and win. Flair would eventually get Taker in his signature figure four-leg lock and Taker would sell it better than almost anyone. Taker's shoulders would hit the mat and the ref counted "1...2..." and Taker sat up and looked at Flair and I think Flair pooped and peed on himself a little. Taker eventually got the win after a Tombstone Piledriver.

3. Rock and Austin finale:

The People's Champ - The Bionic Redneck
image source "sportskeeda.com"

The Rock came back (again) and the one thing he hadn't done in his Hall of Fame worthy career is beat Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania. Every time the two fought at Mania, it was Austin that came out victorious. So Rock (now a heel playing the Hollywood jerk wad big shot) challenged Austin to a match. Austin, Of course, accepted the challenge. The match wasn't what you would expect from the two. Austin was on his way into retirement and The Rock had spent more time in Hollywood than in the ring, but the two putt on a beyond amazing show. Rocky goofed around and played the heel better than most. Letting Austin beat him down and Austin would stay down long enough to let The Rock make the audience laugh his shenanigans. In the end, it took three Rock Bottoms back to back to back to keep Austin down for good. After the match, you could see Rock say thank you to Austin for the match and Rock immediately left the ring and hugged his mother who was in the front row. Very entertaining match and worth watching again.

2. Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon

This was NOT a fun match. This is what happens when a boss realizes he has screwed up and he lets his employee get his revenge. If you aren't familiar with the "Screw job", you should stop reading this article, go read about, and come back to it after you're done. Are you back? Good. Now you understand why even though this match wasn't an actual match, it deserves to be watched. Vince didn't even get a punch in. It was just Bret Hart and members of his family all getting their hits in. And like a trooper, Vince laid there and took it. He even let members of the Hart family get their hits in too. In fitting fashion, the match ends with Vince McMahon tapping to the Sharpshooter. It did get a bit uncomfortable, but it's totally worth watching again.

1. Christian vs. Chris Jericho:

Former best friends and tag team partners now fighting over a woman. Jericho had spent some time trying to make Trish his girlfriend and Christian had spent a lot of that time trying to steal her from Jericho. So, like most old wars, it started over a woman. While it was a pretty flimsy reason for a match at WrestleMania, it shouldn't shock anyone that they had an amazing match. The two would start Mania off proper like and give the fans tons of ooohs and awes the entire match. In the end, Christian won after Jericho was betrayed by Trish Stratus. Christian got the victory after Trish kicked Jericho in the...gentlemen parts and Christian hits him with the Unprettier (now called the Killswitch). To add insult to injury. Trish and Christian would kiss at the top of the ramp while Jericho was in the ring defeated.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Mark Lynch
Comic Books, movies, and TV. Enjoy the shenanigans and all the awesomeness.