22 Days Of WrestleMania (#3 Best WrestleMania And Match)

3. WrestleMania XX
WrestleMania was being hyped as "Where it begins...again". 20 years after the first WrestleMania, they returned back to Madison Square Garden for the third time to put on a 5 hour event with just about everyone on the roster getting some air time. So yes, there are some thrown together matches, but perhaps the greatest WrestleMania moment lies within this show. Often in professional wrestling, no matter how talented a certain wrestler is, they may not have exactly what the promoter is looking for. Sometimes politics plays a part, or their "look", or even their mic skills. In the case of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, no matter what their spot on the card was, they gave the crowd something worth remembering. Stuck in the upper-mid card for years, Guerrero was finally given his first title reign by defeating the soon to be exiting Brock Lesnar at the pay-per-view prior to this. Benoit won the Royal Rumble and was given the opportunity to face a champion at WrestleMania. Finally, after years of putting on great matches in the mid-card, these two professionals got to headline the biggest event of the year in two different matches. Knowing that this was the big pay-per-view, I didn't want to get my hopes up that both guys would win, since they aren't the "big name" guys Vince typically likes to have win. In the first of the two bouts, Guerrero defeated Kurt Angle in a very good wrestling match. Using his "lie, cheat, steal" philosophy, Guerrero's victory was greeted to a large MSG ovation. Next, Benoit stepped in the ring with two of the biggest stars in the last decade, HHH and Shawn Michaels. Triple threat matches are often sloppy, but these three guys did everything they could not just to make the match entertaining, but to make Benoit look like the champ he was. When Benoit got HHH to tap to the Crippler Crossface, I remember literally jumping out of my couch with excitement. Just as I thought the moment couldn't get any better, who was there to help in the celebration? None other than Benoit's close friend Mr. Guerrero. The two finally got the respect they deserved at the biggest event of their careers in the greatest WrestleMania moment ever.

3. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (WrestleMania X)
1994 was around the time that I took a hiatus from watching wrestling. It wasn't that I no longer had an interest in it, I just didn't find the time to watch it anymore. As soon as I got back into it, I kept hearing about this ladder match with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. I quickly found a rental store that carried WrestleMania X (which was not easy to do) and waited for this match to come on. When it came, I had hoped it would not disappoint. Usually when the WWE has to hype up a match, it means it's not as good (example: Andre the Giant/Hulk Hogan). This match more than delivered. Since I really only had exposure to WWE at the time, I had never seen such innovative "hardcore" wrestling. My jaw hit the floor on more than one occasion. When I recently revisited this matchup, I had expected it to seem tame due to the TLC matches and ECW in general. After watching that, I realized that all of that actually made the match better. This was the original ladder match that was the catalyst for all of great (and not so great) hardcore stuff to come out in the years to come. Now, yes I am aware there were other ladder matches and some even more violent brawls before this, but this match took it to the mainstream with two guys who were by no means garbage wrestlers. This is a match that is well worth it's reputation, even 12 years later.