100 Greatest WWE WrestleMania Moments

There's no denying that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels tried to be a bit too ambitious by working a full 60-minute 'Iron Man' match without even one fall to break things up or pique interest. This was an exercise in stamina and sheer workrate from both, but hindsight reveals they probably should've put some numbers on the board. Even a 2-1 scoreline, or something else on the lower end of the scale, would've sufficed.

Nope, these post-Hulkamania wrestling machines had a point to prove; to themselves as much as anyone.

The lack of pins, submissions and other decisions has coloured opinion on the 'Iron Man' over the years. Fair enough, but the finish was unrivalled drama for the era. Onscreen WWF President Gorilla Monsoon decreed that the bout should go into overtime after ending 0-0 (much to the chagrin of Hart), then Shawn blasted him with some Sweet Chin Music to take the thing 1-0 when it mattered most.

Vince McMahon's commentary call in the afterglow became iconic. "The boyhood dream has come true", Vince said. WWE would use that line, along with the sweet image of Michaels staring longingly at the WWF Title belt, hundreds if not thousands of times in the future. You can expect to see it again every time WrestleMania rolls around.

'Mania XII's main event was overly ambitious in terms of meat and potatoes grappling over expected panache, but it boasts one of the more pleasing conclusions to any World Title affair in living memory. Shawn's "boyhood dream" was real. Finally, it was real.