TOP 5 WRESTLEMANIA BUILDS OF ALL TIME: Did the first WrestleMania make the cut? What about the Attitude Era and John Cena-headlined events compared to today’s era?

Being a full time entrepreneur has me busier than having two jobs! Well, that and an E.R. visit left me with no time to write. I should be back to weekly from here, as I think Wednesdays will allow me some time to sit and focus on my articles each week.

WrestleMania Builds

I have heard a little more this year than in previous years about the lack of build this WrestleMania is feeling. A few of the reasons used have been injuries, stale characters on top, and creative shake-ups. I don’t know if any of those are valid. I’m not a member of the creative team and don’t pretend to know what I don’t know. I do know that ice cream and cake tasted better as a kid, and not every build has been perfect. We not only reminisce, but we don’t have the ability to look back on the larger impact.

After what was pretty unanimously agreed upon to be a bad finish to last year’s WrestleMania, we as fans want to know we won’t be disappointed again. We want to be able to anticipate a great show, then have a memorable payoff.

Today I thought I’d write about five shows which accomplished that.

WrestleMania I

This was the do or die show. If this didn’t have the proper build up, the show would not have been successful in tickets sold for the live gate and the closed circuit tickets at the time. Conversely, the build could have all gotten them into their seats, but if the show was a stinker, there would have been a significant downturn in business. The legend told on WWE DVD documentaries is that Bobby Henan went up to Vince McMahon after the show and said, “Here’s to WrestleMania 2.” That couldn’t have happened without everything going well.

The Rock ‘n’ Wrestling era when wrestling was associated with MTV at the time is easy to discount to today’s audiences. MTV in the ’80s was a cultural juggernaut and was influencing teens and 20s much to the frustrations of the conservative parents and preachers of the era. It made the WWF’s style of cartoon play fighting cool. Cyndi Lauper was akin to a Sabrina Carpenter or Billie Eilish of today, and her involvement grabbed eyeballs. Those eyeballs saw this man in the main event named Hulk Hogan.

Hulkamania had been taking the wrestling world by storm already in St. Paul, Minn. in the AWA, then went national with WWF television. Here he was being introduced to a new audience, and he’s teaming with Clubber Lang and B.A. Baracus himself in Mr. T. The bouncer turned cultural phenomenon, cartoon character, and lover of mothers was another attention grabbing attraction.

When the match happened, so many new fans were introduced to a new cast of characters on the undercard. Windy Richter won the WWF Women’s Championship on behalf of Cyndi Lauper making the crowd happy. In the main event, you had the stars in Hogan and Mr. T, but the opponents and other cast of characters played important parts as well. This was a bouncer turned actor, turned wrestler. It was going to take a cast with smoke and mirrors around him, and with Roddy Piper, a hated villain at the time, and top level talent in his own right leading his team, the crowd and the performance was set. Add to Piper his tag partner of Paul Orndorf plus Bob Orton being featured at ringside, as well as “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka accompanying the opposition, it delivered and we still talk about the card that started it all.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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WrestleMania V

Hulk Hogan was head and shoulders the biggest name in wrestling at the time. So big in fact, they were going to make a movie starring the Hulkster. While away, another man was going to have to fill those shoes. The man chosen was The Macho Man Randy Savage.

A flashy star who helped introduce a newer and faster style to singles matches to a WWF fan at the time along with Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III. Savage’s impact is till felt today, and it was putting him in as the winner of the WrestleMania IV tournament that elevated him to main event status. When Hogan came back, they teamed up. Matching colors and Miss Elizabeth coming to ringside with the pair, they were deemed The Mega Powers. After a nearly year long story unfolded, the Mega Powers exploded and it all came to a head at WrestleMania V.

Savage, who saw the lust in Hogan’s eyes, changed back into his more comfortable heel character. The explosion culminated in a match at WrestleMania V, where Hogan, everyone’s hero, took Macho Man down and humbled him after Randy snapped.

WrestleMania 21

Wrestling fans, sometimes to a detriment, crave new. WrestleMania 21 was definitely a mark of a new era of what WWE wanted its presentation to be. On Smackdown, there was this young upstart, John Cena. He had a fire run with the U.S. Championship, leveled himself up, and was bound for the main event. John Bradshaw Layfield was a bridge to a new era, and Cena was the choice. It was Rural vs. City, Country vs. Hip-Hop. Cena came up, lost a U.S. Title to one of JBL’s cabinet in Orlando Jordan, so he went after the head and took out John.

On Raw, the true main event of the show was centered around the belt Triple H wore. Evolution had a split up story that started with a power-hungry Triple H after Summerslam. Batista was noticing everything in the background and when given the option of which title to chase at the big show, he chose his mentor. After winning each respective title, each were treated as big deals. They didn’t lose the titles six months later, or hold the titles while older talent took the final match while new champions proved themselves.

WrestleMania 30

This was the WrestleMania that wasn’t meant to be. It was set to be the returning star of Batista taking on his old Evolution teammate Randy Orton. The problem was, the crowd was very vocal in not wanting to see that match. There had been new guys working very hard to become main event players. C.M. Punk, Matt Cardona as Zack Ryder, Claudio Castignolli as Cesaro, and Bryan Danielson had been reaching for a “brass ring,” as Vince McMahon used to refer to it as, for years. C.M. Punk is given his title run, but wasn’t main eventing PPV cards at the time. Danielson had his title run destroyed with a single boot by Sheamus a year earlier. Fans didn’t want to see a returning star from another era come back in his skinny jeans, too good for wrestling, Hollywood self. Unfair to Batista or not, we wanted new.

WWE’s hand ended up being forced. It made for a much better build than we would have had with two older acts who weren’t quite nostalgia acts yet. They ended up making the right call, and having to overcome a match with Triple H in the opening, then a triple threat that he was added to. In that match, he won over both Batista and Randy Orton, sending the crowd home happy. Which became especially important after seeing their hero, The Undertaker, lose his streak earlier in the night.

WrestleMania 39/40

I don’t know if there’s a more perfect wrestling story. A kid who wanted to fill his father’s and older brother’s shoes. Not only did he want to be a big star in the big company, he wanted to be the biggest star and be the one who won that company’s title belt. His road to achieve that led to him leaving the company in order to prove himself. He would start up the new competition, then having a fallout there, he left. That was when the prodigal son returned. And it was a big deal. I was actually in the building that night, and it was a merch explosion for The American Nightmare, and the lines were long for it.

He spent a year earning his big moment, to headline a WrestleMania and claim what wasn’t his birthright, but something he earned on his own merit. In that moment, the WWE Universe was left in shock when the expected winner was told to take a lap. He passed Go, and collected no $200. It was the end of “Empire Strikes Back,” minus Roman bring Cody’s father. Our hero took the loss. And it was a good move. It gave Cody a year to slay more dragons, including Brock Lesnar in a trilogy of matches that helped establish Cody as a hard working wrestler, but also as a tougher man who deserved another chance. That chance gave us my favorite moment in my watching 34 years of watching wrestling, the WrestleMania 40 win.

(Griffin is a lifelong fan of wrestling, superheroes, and rebellious music of all forms. He is the owner of Nerdstalgia, and you can shop online, learn about visiting the store in Colorado Springs, or catch him at a comic con in the Rocky Mountain area by going to http://nerdstalgia.shop.)