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Gavin Jasper Apr 3, 2017

As the Undertaker announces his retirement, we look back at his Wrestlemania record...

This article is from Den Of Geek Us.

WrestleMania XXX was an eventful show. It calmed the fears of those afraid that it would crash the WWE Network and cause major damage to the company's latest venture. Cesaro broke away from his tag team and broke out by winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Trophy. Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and the Rock hung out in the ring and had a blast. Mr. T and Roddy Piper buried the hatchet. Daniel Bryan went through an endless supply of punishment before being defeating Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista.

That was a big moment and a major story, but the thing people will be talking about for a long time is the end of Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar. For the first time ever, Undertaker lost at...

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs The Rock- Wrestlemania 17

“Shaking hands with Satan himself.”

Wrestlemania 17, hands down, is the best Wrestlemania booked to date. Apart from a horribly short Women’s Championship match with Chyna facing off against Ivory, from the opening match to the main event, every match was great.

The main event of the show was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs The Rock. The previous year, Austin had been recovering from long needed neck surgery sustained at the hands of Owen Hart at Summerslam 1997. During his time away, superstars like The Rock and Triple H stepped up their game and became main event players in their own right. When you are out of action for close to a year, there is a very real fear that by the time you get back in the ring you would have lost a step or two. Or worse, that the fans would...

It’s that time of year again. Wrestlemania is soon upon us. This event has become the most important event in professional wrestling, showcasing the best of the best of the sport putting on the show of their lives. With Wrestlemania appearing this Sunday on the WWE Network, I thought I’d take the time to discuss my ten favorite Wrestlemania matches, matches that to me epitomize everything that is great about the event. Like any list, it is purely subjective so if you disagree with anything or feel I left something out, let’s discuss it in the comments below.

Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant- Wrestlemania 3

“The irresistible force meeting the immovable object!”

Without Wrestlemania 3, it’s possible that Wrestlemania could have gone the way of Starrcade. The first two Wrestlemania’s, while star studded and showing some glimpses of what the event eventually became, were more events of their time.

WWE.com

I cannot even begin to comprehend what Vince McMahon was thinking when he laid out WrestleMania 32. If what occurred in Dallas is not proof positive that he is out of touch with what his core fan base wants, then nothing is. He is the captain of the sinking Titanic, refusing to believe that his ship even hit an iceberg, let alone is being being sank by it.

I thought the wrestling throughout the night was solid at worst and pretty good at best, without anything blowing me away. Not the most glowing praise, but given the hotchpotch mess I was expecting going in, it actually delivered slightly beyond my expectations.

The issue – as always – was not with the in-ring action, but with the way it was booked. WWE got it wrong not just in all of the big matches, but in every single contest.

WWE.com

WrestleMania is ultimately remembered for its moments,...

WWE.com

It used to be that the Intercontinental Championship would be afforded a glamour position every WrestleMania. As the belt that was fought over by prospective future WWE Champions, the Ic title was worth a prominent spot when the big card rolled around.

Once WWE officially adopted the World Heavyweight Title to fortify the brand split, the Intercontinental Championship began to increasingly lose its value. Since WrestleMania 18 in 2002, the belt has only been defended at WrestleMania on four occasions, one of which was a pre-show bout.

Gone were the days of the Intercontinental strap being the ‘workhorse’ belt. Instead, the champion would often be inserted into multi-man ladder matches or battle royals that he wouldn’t win. Hell, the champions lose enough non-title matches on free TV, so what’s another run at playing cannon fodder on wrestling’s biggest stage?

The apparently-forthcoming match between Kevin Owens and Sami...

WWE.com

Traditionally, the main event of WrestleMania is the one match that fans should be expected to get excited for. Think back to ‘Mania X-Seven, when The Rock collided with Steve Austin, or even WrestleMania VI, when Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior met in a match dubbed ‘The Ultimate Challenge’. Those were matches to build the entire pay-per-view around.

Then, there’s the other side of the coin. For example, which match from WrestleMania 13 do people remember most fondly, Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart or The Undertaker vs. Sycho Sid? Of course, it was the double turn, blood-soaked battle between Austin and Hart, yet that wasn’t the main event on the show. Instead, ‘Taker and Sid struggled to follow on from the wonderful antics of their peers.

Fast forward to 2016, and it looks like the main event of WrestleMania 32 will similarly struggle to justify its...

WWE.com

When people talk about the World Wrestling Federation’s New Generation Era, many fans will argue about when exactly the era started.

In my eyes, it began once the majority of the 1980’s acts like Jake Roberts, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and others parted ways with the company. Following the exodus, WWF then debuted Monday Night Raw in prime time in January of 1993 and would air vignettes about the ‘New Generation’ of WWF stars.

Performers like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon were championed on television as being the new faces of the company. Due to this era not being commercially successful, a lot of great matches have unfortunately been forgotten, while only the major pay per-view encounters have seem to have stood the test of time.

There are great bouts that people still regularly discuss, like The Heartbreak Kid and Razor Ramon Ladder Match from WrestleMania X...

WWE.com

In this regular feature I intend to put my quarter-of-a-century of wrestling viewing to good use by helping to educate and inform the modern fan about the greats of a generation they missed out on.

Bret Hart was one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time, possessing the ability to contest barn-burning matches with a variety of different opponents. He was a master technician. A creator of fine art between the ropes. He has not wrestled in a decade-and-a-half, so chances are many of the new generation of wrestling fans have never had the pleasure of watching him wrestle.

It would be all too easy to randomly select seven great Bret Hart matches, and lists of that ilk are readily available for those who want them. Everybody knows about Hart’s classics with Davey Boy Smith (SummerSlam ’92 and In Your House 5), Steve Austin (Survivor Series ’96 and WrestleMania 13...

WWE.com

So here’s the problem with writing a list-based article based on the bloodiest pro wrestling matches you can find that have been on the telly: there are, at last count, Seven And A Half Billion Of Them. And every one of them is supposedly bloodier than the last.

Us pro wrestling fans – the proper, hardcore nerdy types who remember the dates and runtimes of individual matches in Japan seventeen years ago – are incredibly precious about blood. It’s one of the signifiers that differentiates a casual fan from a real fan, after all: we know that red means green, and what a crimson mask should really look like. We understand the difference between hardway and a blade job (in fact, we call it ‘gigging’ like we read that they do in the business, just to make sure everyone knows we’re smart to it). We have our favourite bloody matches,...

It’s one of the most iconic moments, not only in WrestleMania history, but in the entire history of pro wrestling. You’ll be able to picture the image without looking: Bret cranking back on the Sharpshooter, Stone Cold’s face covered in blood and contorted in agony.

Bret Hart and Steve Austin’s WrestleMania 13 war is a crucial match in so many ways. It turned the Rattlesnake babyface, an event which would change the course of the Monday Night Wars. It simultaneously turned Bret heel, and can be seen as the beginning of the end of his time in the company. Its finish is remembered as one of the most iconic ‘Mania moments of all time, and – on top of everything else – it’s simply a very, very exciting match.

Because its ending sequence is so iconic, it can be easy to forget just how many awe-inspiring, wince-inducing...

wwe.com / 2K

WWE 2K16 is less than a month away, and a post on the 2K forums has revealed the confirmed Stone Cold Steve Austin matches in 2K Showcase Austin mode.

There’s some classics in there, no doubt about that. Getting to play through Austin’s epic feud with Bret Hart that culminated at WrestleMania 13, and his unforgettable match with The Rock at WrestleMania 17, it is going to be a nostalgic rollercoaster of excitement.

But there’s also a range of classics that 2K have neglected to include. Some of the omissions are forced on 2K, as not every wrestler from the period is under a WWE contract or were available for the game. Other omissions are blatant oversights, but at least the overall quality of the Austin content looks good.

The matches to be included are-

vs. Pillman – Clash Of The Champions Xxv

vs. Steamboat – Bash At The Beach ’94

vs.

2K

The matches for WWE 2K16’s Showcase Mode are now confirmed. The list was published on the 2K forums, and it reveals that Stone Cold Steve Austin mode is going to be a comprehensive story of his entire career. The matches you’ll be playing are as follows-

vs. Pillman – Clash Of The Champions Xxv

vs. Steamboat – Bash At The Beach ’94

vs. Whipwreck – November To Remember ’95

vs. Vega – WrestleMania Xii or In Your House: Beware Of Dog

vs. Roberts – King Of The Ring ’96

vs. Hart – Survivor Series ’96 (Bret’s attire)

vs. Vader vs. Hart vs. Undertaker – In Your House: Final Four

vs. Hart – WrestleMania 13

vs. Rock – D-Generation X: In Your House

vs. Michaels – WrestleMania Xiv

vs. Undertaker – Rock Bottom ’98

vs. McMahon – St. Valentine’s Day Massacre ’99

vs. Rock – Backlash ’99

vs. Undertaker – Fully Loaded ’99

Royal Rumble 2001

vs. Triple H – No Way Out 2001

vs. Rock – WrestleMania 17

Some of those matches...

WWE.com

Bret Hart took part in a Periscope chat with Tsn’s Off The Record where he answered fan questions for 16 minutes. As always, he was very opinionated about a number of subjects, including his late brother Owen Hart being inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame.

“I’m hoping next year at WrestleMania that he’ll be inducted and I’ll be really sorely disappointed if he’s not. It’s really overdue.”

He said he was looking forward to the Owen Hart DVD that will be released in December, but that it was too controlled and that WWE had to tip-toe around things so they didn’t offend Owen’s widow Martha Hart. Bret thinks that Martha has made an ass of herself and it has pissed him off because she has tried to erase his legacy.

He spoke about how people should remember Owen fondly, that...

WWE.com

Shawn Michaels wasn’t a very nice guy back in the day, by his own admission. Listen to the man speak now, and it’s clear that the man enjoying retirement from the pro wrestling business now wouldn’t exactly get on with the Hbk of the mid-90’s. Arrogant, brash and probably a handful to be around, Michaels was a difficult guy to like during his heyday.

Thankfully, even after drug and alcohol problems threatened to derail his life, Michaels is here now to retrospectively look back on his lengthy career. It’s a tenure decorated with many titles, along with a plethora of magical moments the man can reflect on, but there have been times when Shawn Michaels hasn’t always been so keen to return the favour to wrestlers who have laid down for him in the ring.

Whether wholly true or not, the general...

You don’t have to be a fan of WWE for too long before you notice that they tend to like their superstars to be larger than life. Some of them aren’t just large in attitude but also have the appearance of being huge monsters, often towering over other superstars and using their height and strength to dominate matches. With WWE: True Giants we take a look at some of the larger behemoths.

Featuring some superstars you would expect, and lacking a few that should really be there the main documentary is a good look at some of the wrestlers from the past and present that we’ve come to love (or love to hate). Some of them have been “faces” often others were “heels” but they still had their place in the history of the squared circle and have also many made their way into the Hall of Face.

WWE.com

As we have seen from previous installments, sometimes the biggest stories in WWF/E happen off screen rather than on screen. Last time, in 1997, we learned that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were supposed to face off at Wrestlemania 13, the Road Dogg ended the Ecw Invasion, and Vince McMahon tried to re-sign the Ultimate Warrior…again.

In 1998, the WWF gained momentum in the Monday Night War against WCW. Stone Cold Steve Austin won the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania, the second incarnation of D-Generation X became fan favorites, and The Rock rose to prominence.

With so much happening on- and off-screen, you’d think you would know everything that went on backstage in the WWF, but you’d be wrong. There are plenty of little nuggets of trivia that came from this year. Some of these you may have also known about, but simply forgot.

10. The Quebecers Reunited...

wwe.com

Ken Shamrock was a crossover Mma / WWE star long before Brock Lesnar, he was the originator of the much needed legitimacy to the current WWE product. He was considered to be the pioneer of Mma in the United States, and was one of the biggest draws in the history of Ultimate Fighting Championship. Not only did he conquer everything in the world of Mma, but he also made a successful transition to professional wrestling, and won the prestigious WWE Intercontinental title, as well as the ‘King of the Ring’ tournament.

Ken Shamrock, in his prime was undeniably the ‘world’s most dangerous man’. The Ufc Hall of Famer was also involved in the match that laid the foundations to the Attitude Era in the WWE, when he refereed the bout between Bret Hart and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. My colleague Ratish Menon and I had...

deviantart

WWE’s handling of WrestleMania 30 has been filled with controversy. The traditionally named ‘Road to WrestleMania’ from the Royal Rumble to Mania itself has been nothing short of a confused and short-sighted mess. Huge errors have taken place and could yet cost the company big. The planned card has changed on multiple occasions over the last few months, and not by design, the company has simply not had a grip on what they are doing. In addition to the creative folly there has also been mis-steps on the corporate front. It is hard to remember such a tumultuous road to WrestleMania, with the dark days of 1997 and WrestleMania 13 perhaps being the last fumbled effort of clearly headless decision making.

The frustrating thing about WWE is it shouldn’t have been hard to get right. All the areas the company has fumbled on should have been easy home runs.

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WrestleMania turns 30 years old this year. It’s a phenomenal achievement for World Wrestling Entertainment as they hope to entertain another 70,000+ fans clamoring for some more memorable moments that we can talk about for the rest of our lives.

Over the years, there have been plenty of things that they want us to celebrate. That makes sense. It’s supposed to be an event with a lot of positivity and the good guys getting the win. WrestleMania is about sending the fans home happy.

For as much as we celebrate the great moments, there are also some things that WWE wants us to forget over the years. This isn’t necessarily about match finishes or putting the wrong people over. It’s about booking terrible matches, hiding things from the fans and just avoiding certain people.

By the mid-1990s the days of the All American Hero “kissing babies and hugging fat girls” (kudos Batista) had well and truly passed. Once their winning formula, the WWE and Vince McMahon were initially reluctant to accept change and move with the times. A victim of their own stubbornness, the WWE would soon find themselves an increasingly distant #2 behind the more relevant WCW. Ratings and ticket sales began to suffer resulting in one of the worst financial periods in the company’s history.

Heading into 1997 with business at an all-time low Vince McMahon finally admitted defeat and began to rebuild. Wrestlemania 13 is where the pieces would all fall into place. That year’s installment of Wrestlemania would prove to be the spark that ignited the biggest boom period in wrestling history – ‘The Attitude Era’.

In the current day WWE is among the strongest financially it has ever been,...

Wrestlemania XXX Teaser Wallpaper by i-am-71

There’s magic in Wrestlemania. It’s the one night of the year where wrestling fans fly from all across the world with the united expectation of witnessing history in the making. It’s the one event that can make or break a wrestler’s career and move a main eventer from Superstar to legend. And it all hinges on experiencing one special flash in time that is revered as a “Wrestlemania Moment.”

Unlike traditional sports, pro wrestling is very subjective. The wins and losses are predetermined, so calculating which wrestler is truly outstanding and the contrary is all a matter of opinion. The same can be said about a good or bad match. But a Wrestlemania Moment is one event or action that is so memorable and above and beyond everything else on the card that it becomes synonymous with that year’s event.

Copyright: WWE – Randy Orton: The Evolution Blu-ray

There isn’t a more gargantuan event for professional wrestling than WWE’s self proclaimed annual ‘showcase of the immortals’. Each year, it’s perpetually riddled with unabashed spectacle, defining moments of various wrestlers careers and creating countless future video package staples that transcend the context of the business itself.

It is – by all accounts – wrestling’s must-see event.

The scale and importance of WrestleMania is clearly at such a forefront in the minds of WWE’s hard-working creative forces, that it often provides a large quantity of moments that will set the rest of the year in motion. There’s everything from shocking championship wins, to the pulse-quickening token Undertaker match. But occasionally, there are also huge face and/or heel turns that can change the landscape of the company, or sometimes just the careers of those involved, for the foreseeable future.

AP/Press Association Images

We all make mistakes in life. That’s just a part of living and growing as people. You know who else makes mistakes? World Wrestling Entertainment. They sure do. Some of those mistakes also involve a show they run every year called WrestleMania. You might have heard of it. It’s kind of a big deal.

The mistakes that WWE can make surrounding a WrestleMania can be vast. There are 29 WrestleMania events to pick from, so it’s difficult to narrow it down to just 10 of the worst decisions they have made over the years.

Before I get to it, here are a couple of things that some people think are mistakes, but I can understand why WWE did it.

WrestleMania 8 main event – A lot of people think Flair vs. Savage should have went on last. The reason it didn’t is because WWE brought back...

Copyright: WWE – Money In The Bank 2013 Blu-ray

The Gimmick Match. Depending on your viewpoint, these can be the highlight of a pay per view or an unnecessary distraction to the ‘real’ wrestling.

Those in favour like the difference it brings to a traditional wrestling match, and even the most anti-gimmick fan could not argue with some of the classics that have been produced. The submission match at Wrestlemania 13 between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart is one of the all-time great Wrestlemania matches for instance, and the hardcore match between Mick Foley and Edge is spectacular in its brutality

Others would say there is less skill involved in gimmick matches and they are merely combinations of ‘spots’ or a way to show-in a flavour of the month celebrity. Did the sumo match at Wrestlemania 21 between the Big Show and Akebono really take place on the same card...

Ric Scuteri/AP/Press Association Images

When discussing the greatest WWE performers of all time, the name Bret Hart should be near the top of everybody’s list. The “Excellence of Execution” was one of the most consistently great performers in WWE history that had a number of awesome matches with a variety of opponents. Whether they were big guys or guys around his size, he found a way to have memorable matchups with everybody.

In terms of Bret’s WrestleMania history, he started back in 1986 at WrestleMania 2 and wrestled at every WrestleMania all the way up to WrestleMania 13 in 1997. After a 13 year absence, he returned in 2010 for one more “match” against his boss Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 26.

Hart had 14 actual matches at WrestleMania. For this column, the focus will be on ten of them because four of them weren’t much in terms of matches largely due...

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Now that WrestleMania is really here, it’s time to look back at the matches in the history of some of WWE’s best performers. Over the course of the next two months we’ll put together a listing of WrestleMania matches for many of WWE’s biggest names ever.

The first man that we’ll look at is somebody the world knows as Dwayne Johnson the movie star, but wrestling fans know him simply as The Rock. He’s arguably the biggest star in the history of pro wrestling when you consider how much success he’s had in the ring and also in movies where he can make the claim that he was the highest grossing actor in 2013.

His WrestleMania resume is impressive. His ten matches began with his WrestleMania debut in 1997 at WrestleMania 13...

Last night’s WWE Raw results from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Justin Roberts is in the ring and introduces WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart to a huge pop from the crowd as he makes his first return in a WWE ring to Montreal for 15 years, since the infamous WWE Survivor Series 1997.

The crowd eventually calms down and allows Bret to speak. He thanks the fans for getting him through one of the darkest days of his life. WWE Champion Cm Punk’s music hits and out he comes.

Punk talks about Bret’s book and Punk says he doesn’t have the ego to ever write a book about himself. Punk asks what would have happened if he had wrestled Bret at the Survivor Series instead of Hbk. Bret says it wouldn’t have mattered because the fans know Bret would have tied up Punk like a pretzel in the Sharpshooter.

It’s been one year since Cm Punk gave his famous ‘pipebomb’ promo on Raw, starting the switch from a heel to a face. Weeks later he went on to defeat John Cena at Money in the Bank and leave the company as the champion, much to the chagrin of Mr McMahon, whose newest onscreen stooge, John Laurinaitis, was making his WWE debut. The reaction from his native Chicago crowd solidified his position as the new major face of the company. But how did it go so wrong?

A little over a month later he was facing Cena at Summerslam, where, despite beating the leader of ‘CeNation’ to unify the WWE Championships, he was pinned by Alberto Del Rio cashing in his Mitb briefcase, following a powerbomb by a returning Kevin Nash. He then entered a feud with Nash and Triple H, which didn’t come to any great conclusion,...

Making his first appearance in a WWE ring in 15 years, former WWE Champion Psycho Sid returned on last night’s WWE Raw from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He returned to face Heath Slater, who really should stop bothering packing his trunks for Raw, who Sid defeated in a quick squash match and pinned him after his signature Powerbomb.

Psycho Sid, real name Sid Eudy, turns 52-years-old on July 4th, last left the WWE in June 1997, three months after he lost his WWE Title to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13. At WWE King of the Ring 1997, Sid and the Legion of Doom were defeated by the Hart Foundation (Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart and The British Bulldog). On the next night on Raw, Sid made his last appearance on Raw by defeating Owen Hart.

Sid had a brief time in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1999 before turning up at World Championship Wrestling for it’s final years of existence,...

Just making the card of wrestlemania is enough to fulfil the dreams of some of the members of the wwe roster but then there are others who aim a little higher to pursue a coveted wrestlemania moment and to steal the show with their match on the grandest stage of them all. It is the grandstand wrestling event where the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock watched childhood heroes such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage engage in combat and where today’s main eventers such as Cm Punk and The Miz were captivated in turn by the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.

With so much desire in the air it is perhaps not surprising to discover that Wrestlemania has been responsible for numerous great matches, many of which had to be sacrificed for this elite list but what follows is simply my...