7 Matches That Should Have Headlined WrestleMania
5. The Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania 25
Triple H, in rare poetic justice for a man immune to the karma threatened by Julie Hart in the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob, repeated a fatal mistake twice on the Show of Shows, tarnishing his legacy on it in the process.
Precedent and his hubris alike concealed from him the inevitable bomb that was his WrestleMania 25 main event. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels was never not going to reach classic status; they'd mastered the Hell In A Cell match at the first attempt, in 1997, and their synergistic showings at the 2007 and and 2008 Royal Rumbles proved that they were capable of something even better than that under the heady glow of the Grandest Stage.
It was a classic. An influential classic, a fusion of physicality and psychology performed by two old warhorses. Triple H Vs. Randy Orton was not a classic. It was never not going to not reach classic status, given the optimistic and arrogant layout. Almost defiantly methodical, Trips and Randy wandered through a 23 minute slog in defiance also of its hysterically violent storyline. It was peak Triple H babyface chutzpah. Nobody wanted to see him out-wrestle Orton in a lesson imparted by the veteran.
Better veterans had taught him a lesson about an hour earlier.