Opinion: 10 worst WrestleManias of all time

This weekend, WrestleMania 41 will take place from Las Vegas, Nevada. The show is scheduled for two nights with 13 big time matches set to take place this weekend.

With 40 WrestleManias having come and gone over the years, questions will be asked immediately following the show about where it ranks among all time WrestleManias.

As I said in my 10 Best WrestleManias of All Time article last week, some have been great and some have been terrible. Let’s hope WrestleMania 41 does not end up on this list next year. Let’s have a look at the 10 worst WrestleManias of all time.

10. WrestleMania 35

The WrestleMania that was so long it forced the show to become two nights. The show ran five and a half hours long on top of a two hour pre show.

That is too much wrestling for one sitting. Outside of the egregious run time, Kurt Angle had his retirement match against Baron Corbin. Triple H vs Batista was also slow and boring and went on for nearly 25 minutes.

9. WrestleMania 29

The show that will be remembered for twice in a lifetime and not much else. CM Punk vs the Undertaker is the only good match on the card.

The rest of these matches included Mark Henry vs Ryback and Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio, matches that would be in the middle of the card of an episode of Raw.

Brock Lesnar vs Triple H was too long and the Rock vs John Cena lost all its luster from the year before.

8. WrestleMania 11

The main event of the show was Bam Bam Bigelow vs Lawrence Taylor. A mid carder who was best known for his work in ECW and an NFL player in the biggest wrestling match of the year.

The worst part is that the rest of the matches on the show probably did not deserve to be the main event either.

7. WrestleMania 2000

Fun fact, there was only one traditional one-on-one match on the card, the catfight between Terri Runnels and The Kat. This was a weird show based on that fact alone but add in the fact that Triple H won in the main event when everyone wanted the Rock to win was not a good look.

6. WrestleMania 32

The WrestleMania that started the trend of one night manias being way too long. This show was cursed with injuries and had a terrible street fight between Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose.

This show also followed the tradition of Triple H matches being excruciatingly long with his main event WWE Championship match against Roman Reigns going 27 minutes and felt even longer.

5. WrestleMania 2

The only WrestleMania to take place on a Monday and in three different cities. There is a reason they have done neither of those things since. The boxing match between Roddy Piper and Mr. T is objectively one of the worst WrestleMania matches ever.

The longest match on the card was the Tag Team Title match between the British Bulldogs vs the Dream Team at 13 minutes, which was alright and probably the best match on the card. This was a really awful show both at the time and with hindsight.

4. WrestleMania 4

This show is the OG of too long WrestleManias with 16 matches on the show. The show ran for three and a half hours with all those matches and they were all terrible.

The longest match on the show is 15 minutes between Rick Rude and Jake Roberts and that ends in a time limit draw. At least the show ends nicely with Macho Man Randy Savage winning the WWE Championship over Ted DiBiase.

3. WrestleMania 36

This WrestleMania took place smack dab in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic in the empty Performance Center. This is not WWE’s fault, but I will never go back to watch this WrestleMania ever again.

The only good matches were the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker and the Firefly Funhouse Match between John Cena and the late great Bray Wyatt.

The rest of this show was unwatchable with no crowd and was packed with matches that should not have been on WrestleMania, Baron Corbin vs Elias chief among them.

2. WrestleMania 9

The top two could be switched depending on your taste but WrestleMania 9 gets the benefit of being in an era of bad WrestleManias, and boy is this a bad mania.

It is home to the worst match in the Undertaker’s streak, where he beats Giant Gonzalez by disqualification after the giant knocked him out with chloroform after seven agonizing minutes.

It was also the site of one of the worst WrestleMania main events in history where Bret Hart had been cheated out of the WWE Championship against Yokozuna, before Hulk Hogan appeared and challenged the champion to a title match that was accepted and ended with Hogan becoming WWE Champion.

It was also outside and Roman themed for some reason, so minus points for that too.

1. WrestleMania 27

The worst WrestleMania of all time and the most boring WrestleMania of all time. One of the worst wrestling matches ever between announcers Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler ended with a reversed finish by the anonymous Raw general manager, aka a laptop.

Actress Snooki took part in a six-person tag match for some reason. The Corre were on this show and yes the Corre had a WrestleMania match. Then there was the main event of John Cena vs the Miz.

The match saw the Miz get concussed early on and had a double countout finish before the match was restarted. After the restart, the Rock laid out Cena and helped the Miz win to set up the once in a lifetime clash at WrestleMania 28 between Rock and Cena. It all came at the expense of WrestleMania 27, the worst WrestleMania of all time.

Nate Johns is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jzn5275@psu.edu.