9 Underrated WrestleMania Matches Thomas Hall Wants You To Watch
- Thomas Hall
- 4 minutes ago
- 8 min read
We’re only about a month away from WrestleMania and that means it is time to look back at some of the show’s rather lengthy history. There have been all kinds of matches over the course of the forty plus years the show has been taking place. WWE does a great job of hyping up the biggest and most prominent matches that WrestleMania has ever seen, but with over 430 matches in the show’s history, there are a few that deserve a bit more attention, which is what we’ll be seeing today.
Today, we’re going to look at some of the more underrated matches in WrestleMania history. Now obviously this is the definition of an opinion, as you could argue for an Undertaker’s entrance of time about what is underrated or overrated or rated properly or belongs on this list for one reason of another. That’s part of the fun of WrestleMania season, as there are a lot of memories being brought up. Hopefully this brings you a few that haven’t been in your head for a bit, as they very well could be worth another look. Let’s get to it.
Naturally this is not meant to be an exhaustive list and save for the last one, they’ll be in no particular order.
The Steiners Vs. The Headshrinkers (WrestleMania IX)
Here we have one of those ideas that is just always going to work: take two big power teams and let them beat the living daylights out of each other. That’s exactly how it worked and my goodness did it get good by the end. The Steiners have a reputation of being incredibly snug in the ring and you never have to ask some of the Anoa’i Family if they’re willing to go hard either.
That wound up giving you one of the hardest hitting tag matches you would see from the WWF, as these guys beat the living daylights out of each other for a little while. Rick Steiner’s powerslam/belly to belly out of the air looked outstanding (as it often did) and the Frankensteiner for the finish was just as good. This WrestleMania often gets a bad reputation but this very well may have been the best match of the night.
Nation Of Domination Vs. Legion Of Doom & Ahmed Johnson (WrestleMania 13)
This match had one major thing working against it, and that’s the fact that it came after the Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart all time masterpiece. The match is a Chicago Street Fight and they didn’t bother trying to pretend it was anything but that. At the end of the day, Johnson and the Legion Of Doom weren’t exactly the most polished workers in the world, but they were all powerhouses and could beat the living daylights out of people. On the other side you have the original Nation, complete with all of their various goons.
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So what did you get? A bunch of guys tearing the house down in front of the Legion Of Doom’s hometown crowd. These guys beat the heck out of each other and even made a bunch of silly weapon shots look great. Of course it’s not on the level of quality of Austin vs. Hart (not much is) but this was incredibly entertaining in an entirely different way. It’s a good case of “exactly as advertised” and that is nice to see.
AJ Styles Vs. Shane McMahon (WrestleMania 33)
Shane McMahon is not exactly an all time wrestling star. What he is, however, is a guy who has some outstanding athletic abilities and can do some wrestling moves, a lot of which he probably picked up just by watching over the years. That being said, he has also had some incredibly memorable matches throughout his career and if you get him in the right spot, he can make some magic. In this case, it just happened to come in a football stadium against one of the best wrestlers of all time.
Styles vs. McMahon had no business being a good match but they managed to go out there for 20+ minutes and keep the fans entertained throughout. While a lot of that was probably due to Styles carrying the match and putting it together, McMahon was more than there to hold up his end. I was so surprised by this match as it wound up actually being good rather than just entertaining, which is a lot more than I was expecting.
Rock 'N' Sock Connection Vs. Evolution (WrestleMania XX)
Ok so on paper, this is an easy one to remember, but how much of it do you actually remember? This show took place in Madison Square Garden so you know that everyone was working extra hard, with Ric Flair and The Rock especially tearing the place down. You had things like Flair doing the People’s Elbow and the veterans helping the far younger stars like Randy Orton and Batista, who were able to make their parts work as well.
At the end of the day though, this wound up being all about furthering the Orton vs. Mick Foley feud, with Orton basically catching Foley with a quick RKO for the win. It wasn’t their big blowoff, but it set up their big blowoff at the following pay-per-view. The whole thing wound up being a great step in a bigger story, but if you go back and watch it, the quality is right there as well.
Edge Vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXIV)
Here we have another match that isn’t so well remembered because of something else that happened on the show. Fans, as well as WWE, love the “I’m sorry, I love you” superkick from Shawn Michaels to Ric Flair earlier in the night, but these two stole the show with an absolutely classic. Unfortunately, it isn’t a match that people remember and that is a shame because it really is that good.
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The gist of the story is that Edge is trying to screw Undertaker over to both retain his title and keep the Streak, which in this case meant help from Vickie Guerrero and La Familia. That’s a fine plan in theory, but there’s this thing called “it’s the Undertaker at WrestleMania” standing in their way. The good thing is that Edge actually came close, with his spear being a great false finish. This is a match that is definitely worth another look, as it’s one of Undertaker’s better showings on the grandest stage.
The Miz Vs. Seth Rollins Vs. Finn Balor (WrestleMania 34)
There’s a little secret that a lot of fans somehow have yet to grasp: The Miz is a rather good professional wrestler. He’s not going to go out there and tear the house down with a bunch of flashy moves or do anything close to it most of the time, but he knows how to make use of the skills that he has. At the same time you have Finn Balor and Seth Rollins, who are more than capable of handling the athletic side of things.
When you mix all of that together, you wind up with one heck of an opening match, as the three of them gelled together rather well with the Intercontinental Title on the line. There have been better triple threats, but dang these guys left it all out there as they were given a chance to show what they could do. That wound up working very well and it’s a great match worth another look or two.
The Funk Brothers Vs. Junkyard Dog & Tito Santana (WrestleMania II)
WrestleMania II is one of the weird WrestleManias and really does deserve an asterisk. Ultimately, the company had no idea what they were doing to follow up on the previous year’s edition and what we got... was not good. This show is mostly remembered for the three venue gimmick (which Starrcade had already done the previous year) and a totally run of the mill steel cage match in the main event.
There are, however, a few good matches on the show and this is the one that doesn’t get the attention. While you’ll hear about the British Bulldogs vs. the Dream Team, this was a match where you had all kinds of talent and no reason for it to be anything special. As a result, they wound up having a heck of a match, with everyone working hard and putting in a great performance. I like this match more every time I watch it and that’s always a nice feeling to have.
Men's Tag Team Showcase Match (WrestleMania 39)
This was billed as a Men’s Tag Team Showcase, which is code for “we don’t have anything else for you so go have a wild match”. That’s exactly what these guys wound up doing and they took advantage of every second they had. Tag team wrestling does not always get the most attention in WWE but dang if these guys did not make it work as well as they possibly could.
Now, did the match wind up meaning anything? Not really. It honestly did come off as little more than a bit wild clash between a bunch of teams with nothing else going on. That being said, sweet goodness did this ever wind up being fun, with everyone giving it everything they had and making it into a heck of an enjoyable night. I was very surprised by this and it showed what happens when people make the most of a chance.
I absolutely loved the Dr. Doom period for Cody Rhodes. The idea here was that Rey Mysterio had injured Rhodes’ face and caused him to lose his Dashing good looks, even though he looked pretty much the same after surgery to repair the damage. The scars were on the inside and Rhodes wanted revenge, which came in the form of getting the chance to beat Mysterio at WrestleMania.
This was the time when I started to think there could be something with Rhodes, as this was the kind of character driven stuff that he had been missing. It didn’t wind up working out that way, but this kind of match gave me hope for his future. Granted it wound up taking quite a long time to get there, but this was one of the first times I remember being interested in Rhodes, with the match quality being there as well.
And the most underrated WrestleMania match of all time:
The Undertaker Vs. Triple H (WrestleMania X-Seven)
You probably remember the second one, at WrestleMania XXVII. You definitely remember the third one, inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania XXVIII. You even more probably remember the match that came after this (Rock vs. Austin II) and the match that came two matches before (TLC II). But how well do you remember this one? You should remember it a lot better than you probably do because this match is GREAT.
This was a case of taking two of the biggest stars in WWE and putting them together on a big stage for the first time. HHH had said he had beaten everyone there was to beat, which brought out the Undertaker to say “you ain’t never beat me”. Things got personal in a hurry and what followed was one of the most hate filled brawls you will see in a long time. These guys beat the tar out of each other, including an incredible near fall off a sledgehammer shot. Like other matches on this list, it suffers from being stuck on a show with far more memorable (and to be fair, better) matches, but absolutely check out this hidden classic again.
The amazing thing about WrestleMania is I could have gone on a lot further with this kind of a list. There have been some incredible matches throughout WrestleMania’s history and a lot of them have fallen through the cracks of time. As we come up on the most important wrestling event of the year, try to find some time and go check out some of the matches you might not have seen in a bit, as there is some stuff in there that has definitely flown underneath the radar.