It’s been a while since Shawn Michaels, the original Mr. WrestleMania, retired at WrestleMania 26 after losing to The Undertaker. The moniker “Mr. WrestleMania” came from Michaels himself, and for the most part, he lived up to the name. No one in the history of the event has a more storied and varied body of work than Shawn Michaels when it came to WrestleMania. The ladder match against Razor Ramon, the classic with Kurt Angle, an Iron Man match with Bret Hart, and of course the famous back-to-back matches with the Undertaker. Even earlier, lesser-known WrestleMania performances from Shawn are impressive. One match as part of The Rockers against The Orient Express (WrestleMania 6), and a fun undercard match against Tito Santana (WrestleMania 8) are two that stand out.
With all this being said, it’s been enough time since he’s retired that someone else should have the job. Of course, due to the product of the time, there were not many female counterparts in the company. However, this is no longer true, and there are multiple women who could also lay claim to the title of Mr. (or Mrs.) WrestleMania.
Who is Mr. (or Mrs.) WrestleMania?
Seth Rollins
While his WrestleMania career may have been off to a tepid start, with back-to-back Shield matches with lackluster builds, he more than made up for it as a singles wrestler. Of course, at WrestleMania 31, he cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to steal the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. After missing WrestleMania the next year, Rollins had a good, even if far too long, match with Triple H after a several-month build. After this though, Rollins’ WrestleMania performances are nothing but great.
The First Stand-Out Performance
WrestleMania 34 saw him in a triple threat against Finn Balor and The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. After a match that just about stole the show, Rollins won to a huge babyface reaction, one of the few times he was over as a babyface. The following year, he won the Royal Rumble and opted to challenge the Universal Champion at the time, Brock Lesnar. In a surprise twist, Lesnar sent Paul Heyman out to start the match immediately, claiming if he wasn’t the main event, he’d open the show so he could fly home as soon as possible. It was a smart decision, and made for a hell of a start to the show, with the two having a short but sweet sprint that saw Rollins overcoming the Beast and winning the Universal Championship.
Pandemic Strikes
Unfortunately, everything was downhill for babyface Rollins after this point, and by the end of the year, he was without a championship and working as a heel again. While it’s unfortunate, Rollins once again found his true fit as a heel and had a decent feud with Kevin Owens that ended up even involving Samoa Joe. By WrestleMania, everything was set-up for Rollins and Owens to have a classic. Unfortunately, a few weeks prior, the pandemic struck. Instead of being in front of a sold-out (or nearly sold-out anyway) stadium of raucous fans, WWE’s biggest event of the year was held in an empty warehouse with no crowd to speak of. Despite this, Owens and Rollins put their absolute all into a match that easily could have been phoned in, and no one would’ve blamed them if it was.
While it has little to no rewatch value, it’s still a performance Rollins can be proud of. It also lends credence to the idea that he is the current Mr. WrestleMania.
For the Benefit of Others
Last year’s WrestleMania, or at least Night 1 of it, was very solid. One of the best matches of the night, possibly the best, was Seth Rollins vs Cesaro. Cesaro, who is no longer with the company, was getting a bit of a single push at the time. The story was simple; Cesaro never having had a singles match at WrestleMania. Rollins, on the other hand, has had multiple, one of which was a victory against Brock Lesnar. It added an element of Cesaro being a bit of an underdog and made the moment when he won all the better. It’s also a belter of a match, probably Rollins’s best actual performance, as it’s just a good, clean match, where he’s at his best and there’s no strings attached, no bells and whistles. And all of it done to make Cesaro, not himself, look strong.
Charlotte Flair
While Sasha Banks is more like Shawn Michaels as a performer, emulating the same Americanized style of Lucha Libre that Shawn was a master of, Charlotte Flair has a far better WrestleMania history than Sasha Banks, even beyond Sasha’s staggering 0-6 win/loss record at the event. Charlotte Flair has more good matches at WrestleMania under her belt than any other female on the roster for sure and is easily the most eligible to claim the title of Mrs. WrestleMania, and it started with her very first one.
3 of the 4 Horsewomen of NXT on the Grandest Stage of Them All
WrestleMania 32 wasn’t a very good show at all, but 2 of the matches on the show save it from being completely bad: the ladder match for the Intercontinental title that opened the show, and the triple threat match between Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch. It was not only one of the only 2 good matches but was the better of the 2 and was the best match on the show by far with all 3 women stealing the show in their first WrestleMania appearances. Charlotte was victorious over the other 2, winning the new WWE Women’s Championship in the process. Not bad for a first outing.
The next year saw a Fatal Four Way against Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Nia Jax. While passable, it’s nothing to write home about and is easily Charlotte’s weakest WrestleMania performance.
Defeating the Undefeated Empress of Tomorrow
The following year of 2018 saw the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble in WWE history. Asuka, who at that point had been undefeated for the better part of 2 years, outlasted 29 other women to challenge Charlotte for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 34. The build was simple, and maybe a little lackluster, but the match did indeed deliver. Despite the disappointing result of Charlotte winning in the end, breaking Asuka’s streak when someone else probably could’ve done so and made it mean more, it was an excellent contest, one of the better on the show in fact. They work at a good pace and work a hard, physical style on each other. It’s probably one of Charlotte’s best matches period, let alone just at WrestleMania.
First Women’s WrestleMania Main Event
A year later, Charlotte would make history by being 1 of the first 3 women to main event WrestleMania when she competed against Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch for both the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships at WrestleMania 35. While it’s a historic moment for the company, the match itself isn’t the best it could’ve been. Still, it’s a fun wild brawl if one considers the deflated, exhausted crowd who had been there all day and just wanted to go home at that point. On a shorter show, this match would’ve been much better, but as is it’s still pretty good, and a worthy notch in Charlotte’s belt.
Reclaiming the NXT Championship After 5 Years
After winning the 2020 Royal Rumble, Charlotte became the first woman to challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship instead of either the SmackDown or RAW women’s titles. The champion at the time, Rhea Ripley, accepted, and the match was on. Unfortunately, it was to happen in front of no crowd, but even so, it is still one of their better matches together, as many of their other contests were sloppy by comparison. It is a good match that once again has the baffling finish of Charlotte winning unnecessarily, but is still very good and worth the watch, that is if the haunting nature of pandemic WWE shows don’t bother you that much.
Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens is a performer who almost never fails to deliver on the big stage. Against a variety of opponents, and in a variety of match-styles, he can still go, making him easily one of the most versatile wrestlers in the world, let alone the company. Debuting on the main roster in mid-2015, he was instantly put in a feud with John Cena, winning his debut match against him clean as a whistle, instantly making him a bigger star than he already was. It wasn’t long before he was a reliable WrestleMania hand.
Multi-Man Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship
KO’s WrestleMania debut is a bit of a mixed bag. The big downside to it is that it’s a multi-man match where the focus isn’t on him. The upside is it’s a great match and one that allowed him to do some crazy spots. Despite walking in as champ, Owens, unfortunately, does not walk out the same way, but he gets to help steal the show in a crazy match in the opener of WrestleMania, and with his best friend Sami Zayn no less.
Jeri-KO Implodes
After a several month-long build in late 2016-early 2017, including them being a tag team, with Kevin Owens eventually turning on Chris Jericho after losing the Universal Championship to Goldberg, Owens and Jericho blew off their big program at WrestleMania 33. As far as an actual wrestling match, it was definitely the best on the show. It was equal parts an emotional brawl (as close to one as WWE will allow anyway) and an innovative wrestling match, with the best spot of the match being a simple rope break via a fingertip. It’s a seriously underrated match, and one of KO’s best.
Return of the Dragon
After several months of harassing on-screen authority figures Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) and Shane McMahon on SmackDown, it was announced that Bryan would be returning to the ring after a 3-year absence, teaming with Shane to take on KO and Zayn in a tag team match at WrestleMania. It’s not a bad match, with the crowd being hot for Bryan’s return and the majority of the match being built around that. It’s not very complex, mostly just getting heat on McMahon to eventually make the tag to Bryan, but it works for what it is, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are a large part of that. Plus, Owens can always say he faced Bryan in his first match back at WrestleMania.
Unfortunately, Owens would go on to miss next year’s WrestleMania, and the year after that would have the match with Seth Rollins at the empty arena Mania.
Destined to Do This Together
Last year, at WrestleMania 37, Kevin Owens had a 1-on-1 match against sometimes-friend and sometimes-rival Sami Zayn. This time the roles were reversed, with Owens being the babyface and Zayn being the heel, a dynamic they’ve rarely found themselves in. It’s certainly not the first time they’ve faced each other, but KO and Zayn could have a good match together while asleep at this point, and it’ll always be nice to say they had a 1-on-1 match at WrestleMania, even if it was far from their best contest together and involved Logan Paul.
Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar definitely fits the idea of Mr. WrestleMania more than anybody else. Since coming back in 2012, Lesnar has been at every single WrestleMania with the exception of last year’s, and all of them were good-to-great. His match against Jon Moxley (then known as Dean Ambrose) at WrestleMania 32 was lackluster, and his match against Triple H at WrestleMania 29 was a waste of a booking for him, but even those aren’t really bad, just not what they should’ve been. The match against Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 isn’t very good as a match, but no one was really going to remember the match anyway. They were going to remember the ending…
Ending the Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak at 21-1
The most legendary thing Brock Lesnar has ever done, and will ever do, is end the Undertaker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak after 22 years. It was a once-ever kind of event, one that we’ll likely never see the likes of again. The match itself suffered due to Taker suffering a concussion early in the match, leaving him loopy for the rest of the match. Still, the moment is what people will remember, and it made Lesnar into an unstoppable force of nature once again after a somewhat botched return.
The First of Many Wars with the Tribal Chief
This match is especially topical to talk about, considering they’re slated against each other again at Mania this year. The first match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31 is easily their best match together. Reigns walked in with a chip on his shoulder, eager to prove himself amidst massive doubt from the fans going into the match due to his very fast, hard push in late 2014-early 2015. Brock Lesnar was Brock Lesnar and was expecting to simply run through Reigns as he did with just about everyone else.
It wasn’t meant to be that way, however, and Reigns hung on longer than anybody had with Lesnar at that point. The match is a wonderful brawl, entirely non-WWE in so many ways. There are no real planned spots. Lesnar starts the match by pulverizing Reigns like anyone else, forcing him to absorb the initial onslaught of punishment. He does though and ends up giving it right back, taking the fight to Lesnar with stiff clotheslines and spears. Eventually, Rollins cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase and steals the title from both men, but it works. Rollins stealing the belt after both men gave such a hard-hitting, spirited battle, just makes him that much easier to hate.
Redemption Against Goldberg
One of the worst WrestleMania matches of all time is Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg at WrestleMania 20. It’s a lazy, not even phoned-in performance from 2 men who were understandably checked out from the business at that time. It was an insanely disappointing match considering how much of a dream match it was for fans. World Championship Wrestling’s killing machine vs WWE’s killing machine. Thankfully, they got to re-ignite and redeem their rivalry in late 2016-early 2017 when Goldberg returned to the company. Goldberg squashed Lesnar in 1 minute and 26 seconds at Survivor Series in 2016. Following this, and elimination from the Royal Rumble match at the hands of Goldberg again, the match was booked for WrestleMania; Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg, this time done right.
First, the match was for the Universal Championship. While it probably shouldn’t have been, and Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho from the same card would’ve benefitted from the title, it definitely makes it automatically better than the first Goldberg vs. Lesnar match. The first match had no stakes, especially with most fans knowing that both men were leaving the company immediately afterward. Both men also gave it their all this time. The match was only 4 minutes and 45 seconds long, just under 5 minutes, but it didn’t need to be any longer. Through the almost 5 minutes there were only 5 moves used; the Spear and Jackhammer from Goldberg, and German Suplexes, F5s, and a singular leapfrog from Lesnar. A masterclass in getting the most effect out of the least amount of effort.
Unfortunately, the following year would host the rematch between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, what would ultimately be their worst match together, at WrestleMania 34. A disappointing match that should’ve been better than it was.
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Cementing the Star of WWE’s Hardest Era
The pandemic era was easily one of the hardest to get through in WWE’s history. No crowds made for awkward shows, especially when big stars came out for big shows. Brock Lesnar had exactly one appearance during this era; at the very beginning when he dropped the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre. It’s upsetting that McIntyre didn’t get to have his big moment of defeating Brock Lesnar for the WWE title at WrestleMania with people in attendance, but it still goes to show the faith they had/have in him to put him over Lesnar clean. And for what it is, it’s a fun match. It’s short, sweet, and to the point, just 2 big men throwing each other around and hitting each other really hard. It’s a fun match that would’ve killed in front of a crowd, and one they should absolutely run back in front of an audience.
