10 Best Opening Matches In WrestleMania History
Ladder matches. Ladder matches, everywhere.
It is the biggest event of the entire wrestling calendar, and the greatest spectacle in sports entertainment. For 37 years, WrestleMania has been the pinnacle of the WWE, and has been home to some of the most iconic moments in the history of the business.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that for the event of the year, Vince and co. would pull out all the stops for every aspect of the show, particularly the opening. Surely WrestleMania has to be kicked off in such a way as to immediately set it aside from the rest of year's PPVs, right? An opening fit for the Show of Shows?
However, the Showcase of the Immortals has strangely lacked in this department, historically starting with some of the worst matches on the card. While a good lot of Manias failed to open with a bang however, more recent years have seen the quality take a huge upturn.
With the pre-show allowing the company to get some of the dead rubber matches out of the way before the official start of WrestleMania itself, we're able to see much stronger starts these days, and some have been truly special.
10. WrestleMania XXIX - Sheamus, Randy Orton, And Big Show Vs The Shield
At WrestleMania 29, The Shield opened the show against the put-together trio of Sheamus, Randy Orton, and The Big Show. Though one team were never likely to gel and function as a well oiled machine, watching Reigns, Rollins, and Ambrose work - even coming through the crowd - was an entertainment guarantee.
The match itself started quite slowly, and came almost to a stand still as The Shield began wearing Big Show down, but as it went on it got better, and finished as more of a tornado tag than anything. Reigns hit Orton with a spear for the win, despite Ambrose being the legal man.
In a match like this there was never really any drama or tension, as the result was always going to be a Shield win. The team of Sheamus, Randy Orton and The Big Show were never going to be the ones to break the team's undefeated streak.