March has always been a critical month in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment. When WrestleMania began, March was the month that the Show of Shows was held in. It had become the time of year when WWE put on its biggest show. As the years moved on and more shows were added to the schedule, March and April began to share hosting duties. It has now been over a decade since March had the honour of hosting WWE\u2019s biggest show.<\/p>\n
The third month of the year no longer seems to be sharing hosting duties with April, but that shouldn\u2019t take away from the impactful moments that have taken place at March WrestleManias. There have been some monumental championship changes that have taken place at March \u2018Mania, and we will be taking a look at those changes below.<\/p>\n
The inaugural WrestleMania was a huge success for WWE. It contained the biggest wrestlers and celebrities competing in the biggest matches. It was a massive night for the company, but an evening that also contained a single title change. That took place when the \u201cevil\u201d foreign invaders toppled the U.S. Express in front of a rabid Madison Square Garden crowd.<\/p>\n
Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik were the most hated men in the company. This was when anyone not from the United States was a heel, and WWE was more than willing to lean into that idea. They paired the men together and pushed them towards crowd favorites Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo.<\/p>\n
The crowd wanted to see Volkoff and The Sheik get their comeuppance, but were disappointed when the heels cheated their way to victory. It was a nice deviation from the babyface-heavy victories of the first WrestleMania, and the only title change that happened on that historic evening.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n WrestleMania 3 was the biggest PLE that WWE had ever put on. Attendance is disputed, but even the lowest estimate of 78,000 is impressive. It was a gamble to go into the Silverdome, but WWE was ready to amaze, and its battle for the mid-card was at the top of the list.<\/p>\n Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat\u2019s battle for the Intercontinental Championship had become a thing of legend. It was a type of match that would have been taken for granted today, with how wrestling matches are put together.<\/p>\n There was such a contrast between the chain wrestling and numerous near falls that we saw compared to the big man matches of the age. The world instantly fell in love with this match, and it’s rightfully considered one of the best in WWE history.<\/p>\n Ricky Steamboat winning the Intercontinental Championship was the feel-good moment of WrestleMania 3. He ended the historically long reign of Randy Savage and established the long history of the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Demolition was the quintessential tag team of the Golden Era. They epitomized everything the era stood for with their larger-than-life presence, overpowering physicality, and awe-inspiring entrances. They were the team others aspired to be, and at WrestleMania 4, they started down a path that would make them legends.<\/p>\n Their WWE Tag Team Championship match against Strike Force was a marquee match, but one that fell slightly flat. The story was more about Tito Santana and Rick Martel\u2019s split than the domination of Demolition. It was the drama that ran the course of the contest, but looking back, it\u2019s not the story that everyone would be talking about.<\/p>\n When Demolition had their hands raised in victory, no one could have predicted that this was the moment that history was made. Ax and Smash held onto the tag straps for a then record 478 days. A record that would stand until just recently. Demolition started their path to glory at WrestleMania 4.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>WrestleMania 12 was a one-match card. Sure, there were other contests promoted, but everyone was there to see Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart compete in the first Iron Man Match in WrestleMania history. It was a match that very few men could have pulled off. Wrestling for an hour and keeping the crowd entertained seemed nearly impossible, but HBK and The Hitman made it a reality.<\/p>\n This match had so many angles to it, but the most important was Shawn Michaels realizing his childhood dream. Once he became a babyface, the storyline followed that HBK was coming for the WWE Championship, a piece of gold he had coveted since he was a young man in San Antonio.<\/p>\n As the match drew to a close, the emotion was at a fever pitch. The crowd erupted as HBK pinned Bret Hart to capture the WWE Championship finally. The boyhood dream was realized, and WWE had a sound bite to run back for decades.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The eras that have spanned WWE\u2019s history have always been debated. It is hard for one to pinpoint the exact moment one ends and the other begins. Luckily, for the wrestling world, the beginning of the Attitude Era can be easily traced back to one special WrestleMania moment.<\/p>\n A moment when a star that shouldn\u2019t have been was crowned as the flag bearer for WWE\u2019s most successful era.<\/p>\n Steve Austin taking on Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 14 was a huge deal. Not only because Mike Tyson was the ringside enforcer, but because this was the moment that Steve Austin became the man. He was not your prototypical WWE wrestler, but his connection with the audience was undeniable.<\/p>\n He reflected the attitudes of the audience with his foul-mouthed anti-authority gimmick. He mirrored the feelings of the wrestling world, and WWE could not waste this talent any longer. Stone Cold raised the winged eagle belt high as we witnessed the beginning of the Attitude Era.<\/p>\n In 2015, the world was treated to an incredibly physical match that closed out WrestleMania 31. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns engaged in a war of attrition that saw each man decimate the other. There were stiff shots, colour the hard way, and as many spears and F-5\u2019s that anyone could want.<\/p>\n It was as real a wrestling match as anyone could imagine, and was supposed to be the crowning moment for Roman Reigns. That is, until something happened that not a soul saw coming.<\/p>\n As the WWE Championship match was coming to a close, Money in the Bank holder Seth Rollins’ music hit as the Architect came sprinting to the ring. He had cherry-picked his moment and inserted himself into the main event of WrestleMania. A few Curb Stomps later, and Seth Rollins was having his hand raised as the new WWE Champion. It was a brilliant move by Rollins, and one that had never been attempted in the past.<\/p>\n This was exactly what the spirit of the Money in the Bank briefcase encapsulated, and Seth Rollins used it as the biggest possible moment. He became a top guy, WrestleMania ended with a huge shock, and WWE had a massive program to move forward with. The heist of the century was a win-win-win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March has always been a critical month in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment. When WrestleMania began, March was the month that the Show of Shows was held in. It had become the time of year when WWE put on its biggest show. As the years moved on and more shows were added to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":154903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,2192,4,3],"tags":[629,363,76,395,396],"class_list":["post-154897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-ricky-steamboat","tag-seth-rollins","tag-shawn-michaels","tag-wrestlemania"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154897"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154904,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154897\/revisions\/154904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ricky Steamboat Achieved Greatness In Victory (WrestleMania 3; March.29th<\/sup>, 1987) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Demolition Begins Its March Towards History (WrestleMania 4; March.27th<\/sup>, 1988)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Boyhood Dream Comes True For Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania 12; March.31st<\/sup>, 1996)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Austin & Attitude Era Begins (WrestleMania 14; March.29th<\/sup>, 1998)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Heist Of The Century Takes Place (WrestleMania 31; March.29th<\/sup>, 2015)<\/strong><\/h2>\n