10 Most Fascinating Stories In WrestleMania History

Three men.

One hour, 54 minutes and 56 seconds.

Four matches, wrestled across four years, that reached the pinnacle of pro wrestling, individually and collectively.

The story started in 2009, by which time the Undertaker's Streak had morphed into something even loftier than the greatest storyline achievement in WWE history. The task wasn't simply insurmountable; to even approach contention, the challenger had to enter the storyline fight of their life and the greatest performance of their careers. Michaels set an impossible standard that year. That the next three approached its orbit, while complementing each other so poetically, is cause enough to anoint this WWE's greatest artistic achievement.

Michaels lunged into his challenge, at WrestleMania 25, bumping like a pinball and kicking out of everything in a display of unreal fire and grit. A year later, he was cannier in his strategy, but not canny enough to save his career. Triple H learnt where Shawn had not in 2011, assaulting the Dead Man with a deadly, myopic onslaught without any consideration to theatre. The heart-in-mouth drama was a byproduct of his gruesome strategy. It was audacious stuff, a layout that enriched the next year's incredible End Of An Era blowoff - and a layout only possible with years and years of aura informing it.

WWE's soap opera schedule renders much of our fantasy booking projections deeply fanciful. But this was prestige.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without...