WWE news: Hulk Hogan vs The Rock, The Montreal Screwjob… 11 most important wrestling matches of all time
SunSport rounds up the 11 most important matches of all time – matches that created stars, broke barriers, and changed wrestling forever
IT’S Wrestlemania season once again, a time when every WWE superstar wants to make wrestling history – but can they top up to these historic moments?
SunSport rounds up the 11 most important matches of all time – ones that created stars, broke barriers, and changed wrestling forever.
The Rock v Hulk Hogan
WrestleMania X8 – March 17, 2002
It didn’t transform the business as other matches on the list did (except for kickstarting one last run for the Hulkster), but the sheer magnitude of it can’t been overstated.
The image of Rock and Hogan face-to-face represents so much: Hulkamania v Attitude Era. WWE v WCW. A defining “WrestleMania Moment”.
It’s also a belter of a match – the last truly great outing of Hulk Hogan’s career.
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Royal Rumble Match
Royal Rumble – January 26, 2014
Bret Hart v Shawn Michaels
WWE Championship Match
Survivor Series – November 9, 1997
AKA the “Montreal Screwjob” – a moment that changed WWE forever.
As the final match in the rivalry between Hart and Michaels – an epic, hard-hitting brawl – this crosses the line between fiction and reality and is very nearly an all-time classic.
That is, of course, until Vince McMahan orders the bell to be rung and screws Bret – who’s leaving for WCW – out of the title live on pay-per-view.
It’s the biggest moment in the WWE v WCW war. The moment that created the Attitude Era and WWE’s greatest ever heel, Mr McMahon. And the moment that put the spotlight on wrestling’s backstage politics.
Over 20 years later, the wrestling world is still obsessed with the Montreal Screwjob – proof that wrestling was never the same again.
Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant
WWE Championship Match
WrestleMania III – March 29, 1987
By no means a technical classic (though more entertaining that most people give it credit for), Hogan v Andre is the defining WWE match.
It drew an (alleged) crowd of 93,000-plus, created the ultimate ‘Mania moment in the pre-match stare down, and told the story of Hogan doing the impossible by slamming a defeating the Giant.
It’s a spectacle and level of gravitas that WWE has tried to recreate at every WrestleMania since.
But more importantly, none of what came after – Austin, The Attitude Era, Undertaker, John Cena – would have been possible without the success of this match.
It’s well known that Vince rolled the dice with ‘Mania III – a gamble that paid off and made WWE what it is today