By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Sometimes a match is not bad. Sometimes a match is not good. Sometimes the best way to describe a wrestling match is simply mid. By virtue of this being the middle of the list AND WWE frequently producing mid main events, this is an action packed portion of the list! We have even more matches to cover in this part because WWE has given us five extra WrestleMania main events with two night shows!
Strap in and get ready! It’s time to enjoy the 15 mid-est main events in WrestleMania history!
Before we start, just in case you missed it, check out my list of the worst WrestleMania main events.
#35 – Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage – WrestleMania 2
How do you follow up the success of the first WrestleMania while actively planning for the major event that would be WrestleMania 3? You put the show in three cities, confuse the masses, and run with Hogan and Bundy in your main event!
Personally, I have some fondness for this match, as my older brother often describes his worry about Hogan after Bundy broke his ribs to me. While it’s neat that this angle caused my brother to believe and hope, I can’t say a big blue escape the cage main event is really going to do it for me. This was a placeholder meant to get us (eventually) to Hogan and Andre – thus merely mid.
#34 – Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntrye featuring Big Show – WrestleMania 36, Night 2
Look, the pandemic was a hard time for a lot of people. In an empty performance center, McIntyre had, what had become, the standard Brock Lesnar match. It was quick paced and quickly finished. It lacked the roar of the crowd Lesnar usually garnered, but that was neither man’s fault.
The aftermath, one of three times a WrestleMania main event had a human suddenly added in some way, was as mid as mid could be. No one believed Big Show would suddenly become WWE Champion and that match somehow being longer than McIntyre and Lesnar was baffling in every way. After a WrestleMania that took us to the boneyard and the innermost reaches of John Cena’s mind, this was a main event that felt barely there.
#33 – The Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship – WrestleMania 29
Twice in a lifetime! This match headlined one of my least favorite major WWE cards ever, with Cena and Rock appearing at an event that seemed more like an advertiser conference than a wrestling show. There was not an ounce of passion in this show from the creative effort, the fans, or the wrestlers themselves.
While Rock and Cena appeared dedicated to their build a year prior, this was simply WWE filling time until their second main event. The outcome was less in question than their prior match as well, with Rock obviously preparing to film another movie and Cena in need of a victory. This was a half-hearted story from WWE.
#32 – Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper – WrestleMania 1
This match had to appear somewhere on this list. And the middle of the mid list is the best slot for it. WrestleMania 1 made a lot of history and was a lot of things, but good is not one of them. It’s a show you watch once or twice just to say you saw it, but not one you go back to.
Mr. T is solid as a celebrity guest. Hulk Hogan does his Hulk Hogan thing. The heel tandem is dastardly. There is not a lot to say other than this match exists. Watch it once.
#31 – Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns – WrestleMania 33
Three years after The Streak ended this match happened. One year after Roman Reigns was in the worst main event in WrestleMania history, this match happened. WWE essentially made a documentary about how this match was Undertaker riding golf carts chasing down one last great moment – and failing to get it.
This was a mid match on a mid show in the middle of a mid run for WWE as they tried to figure out who they were after John Cena and before The Bloodline. As a main event, this match was more of a default than a true main event build. Reigns was left out of the WWE Championship and Universal Championship matches. He was seeking something to do without Triple H (who was facing Seth Rollins). Undertaker was there and seeking one more great moment.
Undertaker did not get it.
#30 – Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship – WrestleMania 34
For the second time Reigns and Lesnar would stand across the ring from each other in a WrestleMania main event. This match was the clearest attempt to bring out what WWE had at WrestleMania 31, but with the added bonus of both men now having beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
If it feels like a large amount of WrestleMania history in the 2010s was defined by the rapidly aging Undertaker, that is because it was! Reigns and Lesnar were both still coasting off of matches four and one year prior.
Add in a crowd that did not want this match and was clearly not into the show and WWE had a mid-fest! It was not their worst main event together, but it was bad.
#29 – Yokozuna vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship – WrestleMania 10
Now that’s more like it! It was a basic match. Yokozuna was a monster. Bret Hart was a plucky underdog. They had a good match for the WWF Championship!
WrestleMania has done interesting things to close all of it’s shows with numbers ending in zero and this was no exception. Now, without waffling, Bret Hart was made the definitive star of the promotion. The match was not great, but it filled its purpose.
#28 – Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase for the WWF Championship – WrestleMania 4
This was the first WrestleMania main event to not feature Hulk Hogan (formally) and the first WrestleMania main event between two truly great wrestlers. DiBiase and Savage, coming off of a night of matches, did their serviceable best. The tournament for the WWF Championship boiling down to them was a surprise compared to the prior Hogan domination.
Of course we would be saving Hogan and Savage for a year down the line and DiBiase would be able to hang his hat on this for years as he allegedly defrauded the good people of Mississippi.
Ending this match with the Elizabeth and Savage celebration – featuring Hulk Hogan – was a great call and almost elevates it out of mid territory, but at the end of a long show, there is only so much one can do.
#27 – Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championships – WrestleMania 35
I wanted this match to be so much better. I was so excited about women finally main eventing WrestleMania and so excited about the work Becky Lynch had been doing up until this match. What a run! I talked myself out of hating the random addition of Charlotte Flair. I tried my best to get into the new story suddenly involving the soon-to-be-disgraced Vince McMahon.
I wanted this match to rule. And it didn’t. This was the last one night WrestleMania and between the show being too damn long and the match being too damn illogical, I just could not get into it. Women deserve more spots on this list (and they’re in a higher one) but this match – the first to ever allow women to headline – was a bummer.
Ronda’s shoulder was up on the finish and Becky Lynch’s run in the following year kind of sucked. Also, if you’re looking for something depressingly mid, see Becky Lynch’s autobiography.
#26 – The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins – WrestleMania 40, Night 1
The build to WrestleMania 40 was an entertaining mess and this match was the clearest result of it. On one hand you had the super entertaining “Final Boss” character for Rock. On the other, this match set Seth Rollins up as a guaranteed fall guy and took a main event slot away from other stars.
This was the first time in the two night WrestleMania era that the main event of night one had direct consequences for night two. It was a setup show disguised as a WrestleMania, complete with high WrestleMania ticket prices. The result was imperfect but entertaining. It was a skippable main event, simply because the next night was the one that actually mattered.
#25 – Edge vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship – WrestleMania 24
When you look up inoffensive mid main events in the dictionary, you find this one. Was it impressive? Not really. Was the outcome ever in question? Not at all. Did these guys have a reasonably good match? Yes!
Undertaker was on his low-key great Mania run after his match with Batista the year prior. What makes this mid? The Michaels and Flair match on this show was so emotional that nothing could follow it. Shawn Michaels was snatching crowd reactions away from other matches with the sheer emotion of his work in this era.
Edge and Undertaker did their thing. It was fine. But it did not matter. They had some bangers later in 2008 though, including a TLC match and a Hell in a Cell match that both rule.
#24 – John Cena vs. The Rock – WrestleMania 28
No match has had more to live up to than this one. It was made a year out and had a whole different WrestleMania to build up to it. The Rock and John Cena stacked a borderline impossible task in front of themselves and sort of lived up to it.
The match was fine – basic and fun – suitable for Rock’s singles comeback. Cena was already a made man going into this, so dropping the match did not kill his character, but guaranteed a (less exciting) rematch. The best moment of this one is the opening bell, where fans applaud this thing finally starting after 15 months of build.
This match is remembered merely as existing – a mid main event with a long build.
#23 – John Cena vs. Triple H for the WWE Championship – WrestleMania 22
In the pantheon of perfectly fine matches, John Cena and Triple H are there! The Chicago crowd was the most interesting part of this one as, on WWE’s biggest stage, we saw the first large-scale rejection of John Cena. Jim Ross told us about the “traditional crowd” and made every excuse possible for their lack of love for Cena.
Triple H may be the king (of kings) of bad main events at WrestleMania (three out of the bottom five) but he worked hard to make John Cena look good. This match was overshadowed by WrestleMania going hardcore with Mick Foley and Edge, Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels, and the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Lucky for them, this was before WrestleMania was a 7 hour show or else the crowd may have just left.
#22 – Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Universal Championship – WrestleMania 37, Night 2
If I had a nickel for every time a planned WrestleMania main event needed Daniel Bryan to be compelling to fans, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.
Edge came back to his comeback and won a Royal Rumble in front of LED walls in the Thunderdome. It was a weird year and WWE was unsure of how anyone was reacting to anything at all. Roman Reigns was just beginning his forever title reign that no one knew would span four WrestleManias. Daniel Bryan was on the way out of WWE, but making one last stop in the main event scene before leaving.
It’s a fun match. I don’t love triple threats and truly don’t think this match needed to be one, but I also don’t mind any opportunity to squeeze Bryan in. The “smashed and stacked” ending from Roman Reigns is an enduring image of his title reign.
#21 – Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow – WrestleMania 11
At long last we come to the end of this mid list of mid matches, with a surprisingly good, but not good enough one! It was NFL vs. WWF – the feud no one really wanted. This is one of the best celebrity matches of its time – certainly better than the WrestleMania 1 main event, but not living up to the modern standard Bad Bunny has set.
It’s just good enough!
Next week on this list – #20-#11 – Finally escaping from the mid-zone and into the good-to-great stuff!
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
I actually would put Edge/Bryan/Reigns a bit higher than this, a rare non-boring Roman Reigns main event.