WrestleMania! The grandest stage of them all. The platform for wrestlers to leave their mark on the profession they love. Unfortunately for some wrestlers though, WrestleMania has been a platform to leave the wrong kind of mark.

Here’s our list of 5 of the worst, most embarrassing moments in the history of WrestleMania.

5. The Undertaker ‘Hangs’ Big Bossman (WrestleMania XV)


Growing up myself and my sister always had a rivalry as to who was better. She foolishly thought The Undertaker was the greatest of all time (even then) while I knew the greatest wrestler on the WWF roster was The Big Bossman. Sadly the two legends paths never seemed to cross so we never resolved our feud. That was until they met at Wrestlemania XV when they fought it out in possibly the shortest Hell in a Cell match ever … maybe Undertaker’s worst ‘Mania match ever? So how do you make something as poor as this match even worse? Why not have Undertaker put a noose around Bossman’s neck and ‘hang him’ until he was dead. Of course he wasn’t dead so the whole angle was utterly ridiculous and in very poor taste.

 

4. Virgil’s Nose (WrestleMania VIII)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJSknVtflUU

OK, so this particular Mania moment doesn’t directly refer to Virgil’s nose, more his choice of words when he cut a promo as part of the Wrestlemania VIII card in 1992. You see, Virgil was wearing a face guard to protect his broken nose and in a truly lame moment decided to menace his opponents with the words “I wear this mask to protect my nose. But who’s going to protect YOUR nose?”. Who indeed Virgil? Amazingly no noses were hurt during the match, but the ex-bodyguard of Ted Dibiase certainly hurt his credibility – assuming he ever had any.

 

3. The Iron Sheik Wins Gimmick Battle Royal (WrestleMania X-Seven)

I’m a sucker for the old WWF gimmick days. How could you not be? The WWF had clowns, bin men, hockey players … Mantaur! So when a Battle Royal was announced for the 17th Wrestlemania featuring the best (and worst) gimmicks in WWF/E history I nearly wet my pants. I didn’t feel the same way however when it was quickly won by the ancient Iron Sheik, a wrestler so immobile that no one dared even try to throw him over the top rope. In fact I’m sure to this day that Sheiky-baby only won because he’s in such poor condition physically Vince McMahon feared legal action if he was hurt through elimination. A nice piece of nostalgia but one horrible Wrestlemania moment.

 

2. Brawl-For-All (WrestleMania XV)

Remember when the WWE decided to hold a legit contest mixing boxing with wrestling and martial arts? It had been designed to showcase just how tough recent acquisition Steve ‘Dr Death’ Williams was but instead he got knocked out by eventual winner Bart ‘Where is he now?’ Gunn. Surprising everyone involved Gunn then went into Wrestlemania XV against super heavyweight boxer Butterbean – an early attempt to crossover into other pugilistic endeavours for Vince and company. 34 seconds after the bell sounded Gunn was unconscious and his US wrestling career was over. Hell hath no fury like an embarrassed Mr McMahon.

 

1. Jerry Lawler’s WrestleMania moment (Wrestlemania XXVII)

Jerry Lawler was a legit talent once. His time in the WWE hasn’t exactly lived up to his legacy. In fact, his biggest push came in 2011, almost 20 years after he joined the company for the first time. An impressive mini-feud with The Miz almost saw him head to Mania as champion but instead it only served as a set up to his horrendous match against the new voice of the WWE, Michael Cole. The only thing that could have been worse than this match would have been Cole against Jim Ross in a bra and panties match. Lawler is better than this. It was such a horrible match I can’t even recall who won it – in fact I’m pretty sure I was too busy clawing out my eyes at that exact moment in time. Truly the worst moment in the history of Wrestlemania!
Where do these moments fit into your list? Are there others you feel we’ve missed? Can you believe we managed to make a list of the worst moments in Wrestlemania’s 28 year history without mentioning Giant Gonzalez?

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