100 Greatest WWE WrestleMania Moments

Much has been made of WWE's Performance Center and ability to self-produce excellent talents from the ground up via NXT and the newer ID recruitment portal. The company will always cherry pick fine workers from elsewhere (the independent scene, TNA, AEW etc), but being able to have an in-house production line? Yeah, that's a huge plus for Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

Pre-NXT and PC, Ohio Valley Wrestling acted as a hotbed for development. The indy territory helped give fledgling stars like John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar much-needed reps before they reached the bright lights of Raw and SmackDown. For proof of how well this worked, just check out the final two matches at 'Mania 21. Cena beat JBL to become WWE Champ, then Batista pinned Trips to hoist the World Heavyweight Title above his head in the true main event.

OVW had paid out big time for the McMahons, basically.

At first, it was only big Dave's moment in the sun that featured here, but that'd be unfair to Cena and to OVW's legacy. Less than five years before tasting glory on the biggest platform possible, both babyfaces had been striving to improve on small spot shows in Louisville, Kentucky. Now, here they were winning the richest prizes on wrestling's most iconic tentpole show.

This had to be a proud day for those who had worked diligently to coach Cena and Batista in Ohio Valley. WrestleMania closed with back to back triumphs that showed how vital a proper developmental program was to WWE's future.