10 Hot WrestleMania Openers That Blew The Main Event Away

WrestleMania, famously, is a kind of "end of season" event for WWE. Not being a traditional television show, wrestling can sort of stop and start stories where it likes but everyone knows that the most important tales need to pay off at the biggest show of the year.

As such, these marquees contests are put in the high spots of the card. If you're feuding over one of the main championships or, in fact, have a heated rivalry that is even bigger than titles than you'll be going out last. The year doesn't just lead up to this point. In a vacuum, WrestleMania needs to build to the main event.

However, there's no guarantee that you're having the best or most impactful match of the night and it may well be that you are overshadowed by earlier bouts... right down to the curtain jerker itself.

Over the 38 editions of WrestleMania so far there have been plenty of memorable opening matches that set the tone in a big way.

In no particular order, here are some of the best WrestleMania opening contests that set a bar that the main event couldn't make it over.

WrestleMania XXVII holds the honour of being the first time in WWE history that the flagship event kicked off with a world title match. This has become not an uncommon occurrence ever since but Edge versus Alberto Del Rio certainly had the stink of “the other championship bout” next to the marketing of Cena, Miz and, buzzing around like a Hollywood fly, The Rock.

Del Rio’s road to the match was an example of the WWE corporate super-push that made fans uneasy. He’d been on the main roster for 9 months before winning the 40-man extravaganza version of the Rumble. As such, match interest was low.

Still, despite a shaky start, the match overall delivered. The challenger got a lot of offence, keeping Edge down and making the audience antsy for a comeback. When it eventually came, Edge brought the house down with a hellacious spear to retain the title, putting an end (for now) to Del Rio’s championship dreams.

It was a bright spot in a show that is about as bang average as you can get - not what you want from your culmination of the last 12 months.

And what of the main event? The Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave Cena versus The Miz a paltry 1.25 stars and fans tended to agree. Even The Rock running interference didn’t stop fans from coming away with very mixed feelings about the event over all.