The Greatest Match From Every WWE WrestleMania
33. WrestleMania III: Randy Savage Vs Ricky Steamboat
Some matches aren’t just great - they make everything else on the card look frankly silly. When Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat tied up for the Intercontinental belt at WrestleMania III, they put on a bout so athletic, free-flowing and fast-paced that they stopped the crowd dead, and almost overshadowed perhaps the most iconic match in pro wrestling.
The event’s draw was of course Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant, its most memorable image being Hogan body-slamming the colossus for the win. That match is great and important, but it’s not exactly high on quality.
Steamboat/Savage, meanwhile, is balletic. Savage was renowned for planning his matches down to the last detail, and while that wound up some of his colleagues, it pays dividends here. There isn’t a wasted minute, a wasted move. The pair are ahead of their time as far as McMahon’s product goes, and the crowd knows it.
Savage’s star would ascend ever further, but Steamboat was consistently misused by WWE following this. Vince McMahon’s preference is famously for the larger wrestler - if even this couldn’t change his mind, chances are nothing could.