WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year and the opening match is what sets the tone for the entire show. Every year we hope for a big show to entertain us as wrestling fans and when you are entertained by the opening match it gives you hope for the rest of the show.
So I’m going to give you five great opening matches in the history of WrestleMania, so let’s get right into the list.
FIVE: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Sin Cara vs. Zack Ryder
Ladder Match – Intercontinental Championship
WrestleMania 32
How do you open a WrestleMania and make it mean something? A title change can do that. This was Zack Ryder’s big moment (really his only moment.) to shine, and it almost didn’t happen. Ryder was a replacement in this match as he took the place of an injured Neville. Forget that this triumphant victory would mean nothing a mere twenty-four hours later. This match was how you open a WrestleMania and give the fans something big that will get them talking.
The action was all over the place with everyone’s offence being felt throughout with people flying off of ladders and big dives as well like this spot where Sin Cara was shoved off a ladder on top of capacitated Stardust was draped over a big ladder bridge.
Let’s not forget this was the first meeting on the main roster of long-time friends turned enemies Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, whose long-standing rivalry from NXT and years prior before WWE would also continue here and they would destroy each other again with ladders this time. Sami would give Kevin this gruesome-looking Half and Half suplex on top of a ladder.
Just when it looked like the Miz had the match won after the ring was cleared he gloated for a little too long and Zack Ryder was able to capitalize and send Miz flying off the ladder and out of the ring with Ryder picking up the biggest victory of his career to boot. This is a hell of a match that everyone should check out if you haven’t recently it’s worth the watch.
FOUR: Wade Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. R-Truth
Ladder Match – Intercontinental Championship
WrestleMania 31
One year prior to our previous entry, another ladder match, this time a much harder-hitting affair. The big story coming into this one was Daniel Bryan, who returned months prior from neck surgery and failed to return to the World title picture. So he set his sights on the Intercontinental Championship, alongside six others. All former champions in their own right, R-Truth was the only other one who hadn’t won the Intercontinental title at the time. As mentioned this was a hard-hitting match with a lot of big spots and falls.
Guys like Stardust and Dolph Ziggler took some crazy bumps in this one and you could tell everyone was leaving it all out there. This also isn’t a long match at all as it’s on the short side for a ladder match but they really went from zero to sixty pretty quickly. Dean Ambrose in particular took some real damage in this one with some gruesome ladder spots like a lawn dart into a draped ladder and a huge powerbomb onto a big ladder bridge.
There are some other great spots like Daniel Bryan repeatedly dropkicking Stardust in the corner while leaning on a ladder, Wade Barrett passing out Bull Hammers to literally everyone, even to R-Truth on a ladder and to Dolph Ziggler and Stardust in mid-air. As well Ziggler put a sleeper on Luke Harper while he was climbing a ladder and hitting a huge Zig-Zag of the ladder. The match would come down to Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler and they would have a huge headbutt exchange on the ladder.
Daniel Bryan would win this exchange and capitalize to win his first and to this point only Intercontinental Championship, however, this exchange looking back probably wasn’t a great idea knowing what we know about Daniel Bryan and what would happen in the coming months because a series of concussions would end his career for the time being until his triumphant return in 2018. Regardless of all that this match is on the list and is worth the watch again for the physicality alone.
THREE: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio
WrestleMania 21
It’s hard to believe that this was Eddie Guerrero’s last WrestleMania match and that this November will be sixteen years since his passing. This match, in particular, is remembered not just for being his last Mania match, but for being a match that sparked a feud that nobody can ever forget, we all know what happened there but this match was set up out of the spirit of competition. The two being tag team champions at the time, instead of defending the WWE Tag Team Championships, they faced one on one in this match.
It’s not the best match the two have ever had it’s not even the best match they ever had in WWE but it’s a hell of an opener to get the crowd hot for the rest of the show. You get the first few minutes of one-upmanship, matching everything each had to offer. Then Eddie would take control and make one mistake that completely turned the match around. There are some minute details in there that foreshadow the months to come with this rivalry. Eddie wants to beat Rey to prove something to himself and nobody else and you get that in this match without even knowing that.
When Rey gets one over on Eddie you see the frustration on his face and even though he’s happy for his friend who got this win at WrestleMania, Eddie can’t accept that loss because he wanted this win. The cracks in their relationship immediately started here and the downward spiral continued leading to that Summerslam story that isn’t necessarily a good story (because it isn’t) but the match they would have there to follow this up was great. Watch this match for a fast-paced opener that turns into psychology at its finest.
TWO: Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H
WrestleMania 30
Hard to believe this match was seven years ago. This is the beginning of the crowning moment of Daniel Bryan. This is the match that made Daniel Bryan and it wasn’t even supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen until CM Punk walked out, creating a domino effect that not only gave us this stellar match but the result at the end of the night as well.
The backstory here is Daniel Bryan was the biggest star in WWE according to the fans but WWE wanted the main event of this show to be Batista versus Randy Orton and nobody wanted that. The fans turned on that, Daniel Bryan is who they wanted. The on-screen authority however didn’t want that and made Daniel Bryan work for it. Bryan had to win this match to enter the main event. Of course, Triple H entered extravagantly playing the King that needs to be toppled and gave us a glimpse into the future with, Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair coming in for his entrance.
The thing I love about this match more than anything is its full-on psychology from the get-go, Triple H doesn’t want Bryan in the championship picture and is willing to do anything to prevent that from happening and you have Bryan working to get there facing the biggest threat he’s ever faced in WWE to this point and Triple H tried to play mind games with Bryan from the very beginning extending his hand in what appeared to a show of respect but Bryan knew better and tried to get a surprise victory early.
This is actually the longest match of this WrestleMania, which isn’t surprising at all there is so much back and forth, and each man has an answer for everything. Bryan having the taped shoulder Triple H would target it throughout the match but Bryan would put his body on the line more than once to get the upper hand.
Triple H would continue working on the injured shoulder and continue to breakdown Bryan as the match went on, even trying to beat Bryan at his own game locking on a cross-face and having an answer for Bryan’s German suplexes by hitting a move he’s never done before in his career a Tiger suplex.
That would lead to a near fall, but Bryan would get back into it and build momentum again reversing a superplex attempt by Triple H into a sunset flip powerbomb. Then with Triple H in the opposite corner, he hits a combination of his patented running dropkicks, and Triple H has an answer for that as well with a huge clothesline.
Triple H would continue the onslaught and lock in another cross-face which Bryan would get out of and turn into a Yes Lock, but he’d get to the ropes, and Bryan would continue to fight back, and just when he thought he had it in the bag, his shoulder killing him and he can’t even lift it he goes for the running knee and Triple H would turn it around into a spine buster and follow that up with a pedigree for a very close near fall.
Following this near fall, Bryan surprises Triple H with a small package for another near fall. Triple H clearly frustrated starts driving knees into the face of Daniel Bryan and goes for another Pedigree but Bryan fights out of it, kicks Triple H right in the head, and follows it up with another running knee for the pinfall victory.
I can’t express how much this match sets the tone for the entire night, and sets the tone for the culmination of Bryan’s rising to the top storyline. The psychology here is off the charts, the match builds in all the right places, and it gets bigger as it goes on. I love this match, it’s worth it to watch every time just to see the beginning of the crowning of Daniel Bryan, and would be number one on this list if not for this next entry.
1. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart – WrestleMania 10
As mentioned if not for this match, the previous match would be number one on this list. This match is a master class of not only storytelling but wrestling at its finest, and you might not know this but this match almost didn’t happen for a very stupid reason. Vince McMahon almost didn’t do this feud at all because he claimed “brothers don’t fight” he found it unrealistic which is mind-boggling but we are talking about Vince McMahon after all. This became one of the most remembered WrestleMania matches of all time.
The story coming in saw Owen Hart grow uncontrollably jealous of his brother Bret. The seeds were planted when the two teamed with their older brothers Keith and Bruce at the 1993 Survivor Series and Bret accidentally got knocked into Owen causing him to be eliminated when Bret won the match for his family Owen wasn’t pleased and thought Bret did it on purpose and they argued after that match despite the victory. Owen would then challenge Bret to match but Bret would decline, refusing to fight his brother, then the two would start teaming on a regular basis and even get World Tag Team Title shots at the Royal Rumble.
During this match, Bret would hurt his knee (in the storline) and be unable to tag Owen in at one point after being in the match for a long period of time. This frustrated Owen and when the referee stopped the match to protect Bret, Owen snapped and attacked Bret’s knee, fully beginning their feud. Owen would accuse his brother of being selfish and holding him down. After Bret was a co-winner of the Royal Rumble and earned himself an opportunity at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania so Owen just wanted the opportunity to prove himself as a star and he’d get that chance at WrestleMania in the opening match against his brother Bret.
I mentioned how this match is a master class of wrestling and storytelling and that’s exactly what it is. It’s so good I don’t even want to talk about it, it’s too good not to watch it. The beginning is a back and forth of one-upmanship then it becomes more technical and heated. Then Owen targets the knee which was a big story point throughout the beginning of this rivalry. Bret wasn’t going to let that keep him down though and he turned it up to eleven, hitting a bulldog, a piledriver for a near fall and a huge superplex. Then in a sleeper, Owen would kick out the knee again and lock in the Sharpshooter but Bret would power out and lock in his own Sharpshooter but Owen gets to the rope. Owen fires Bret into the corner Bret gets a foot up and goes for a victory roll and Owen reverses it into a surprise pinfall and the victory.
Owen Hart finally felt vindicated he got one over on his brother when nobody thought that he would, until the main event of the night when Bret would become WWE Champion once again, in the end even though Owen beat his brother, he wasn’t the star still because his brother was on top of the world again. That is storytelling, that is wrestling and their feud would continue into the Summer but the build to get here and the way WrestleMania 10 as a whole became the turning point of the feud is masterful and that’s why it is number one on this list.
Is there a match that kicked off WrestleMania that didn’t make the cut, that you believe should be on the list? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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