Ranking Every WWE Title Match At WrestleMania Worst To Best

Reflecting back on every WWE Championship match to take place at the Showcase of the Immortals.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE WrestleMania 29 John Cena The Rock
WWE

With WrestleMania XL on the horizon, it's traditionally the time of year where wrestling fans tend to look back at WrestleManias of the past and rewatch some of their personal favourite iterations of WWE's Granddaddy of Them All.

An annual event that began back in 1985, WrestleMania is the place where some of the greatest matches in history have taken place, and it's also the place where some of the best WWE Title matches have taken place. And it's on those WWE Championship bouts the attention is on here, as your writer looks to rank them in order from worst to best.

In terms of lineage, this list is about the long-standing WWE Title that's nowadays part of Roman Reigns' Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. As in, the prize that throughout WrestleMania history has been formerly known as the WWF Championship, the Undisputed WWF Championship, the Undisputed WWE Championship, and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

To date, there have been 40 WrestleMania contests with that title on the line. Famously, the first 'Mania didn't have said belt defended due to then-WWF Champion Hulk Hogan being in tag action. On the other hand, this championship was on the line twice at WrestleMania IX thanks to Hogan bafflingly getting a shot at Yokozuna's freshly-won WWF Title, and likewise Yoko defended his WWF Title twice at the following year's WrestleMania X.

Reflecting back on all 40 of these bouts, then, here's how they rank when comparing the absolute worst to the utterly brilliant best...

40. WrestleMania IX - Yokozuna Vs. Hulk Hogan

WWE WrestleMania 29 John Cena The Rock
WWE.com

For those non-Hulkamaniacs who'd rejoiced at the prospect of finally seeing a WrestleMania main event where Hulk Hogan wasn't in the spotlight, the Hulkster gave the ultimate F-U by walking out of WrestleMania IX as the WWF Champion - despite the PPV being headlined by Bret Hart defending that prize against Mr. Fuji's Yokozuna.

The Hitman lost the WWF Title to Yoko due to the classic 'salt to the eyes' from Fuji, and Hogan came down to protest to the officials and ultimately talk himself into an impromptu shot at Yokozuna's WWF Title.

This was the equivalent of your pal coming to console you after a break-up, only to sneak off to sh*g your now ex-partner. It was Hogan being Hogan, and it was total bulls**t as Hulk dropped the big leg and won a sham match that went 22 seconds.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.