Best match from every WWE WrestleMania event in history

WrestleMania XII

Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart

This is one of the easiest calls on this list. Shawn Michaels. Bret Hart. Iron Man Match. Too easy. WrestleMania XII only had six matches on the card, which obviously makes the call even easier but there were some other decent bouts in Anaheim that night. The six-man tag match to open the show was pretty solid and the Diesel vs. Undertaker match was very well done. This event also marked the WrestleMania debuts of Steve Austin and Triple H. Austin had a much better night, beating Savio Vega while Trips got squashed by a returning Ultimate Warrior. But this night was always going to belong to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, and the drama began from the start when Michaels entered the ring on a zipline from the rafters in one of the most iconic entrances in WrestleMania history.

As for the match itself, it was nothing short of extraordinary. It’s extremely difficult to keep up a quick pace for an entire hour, or in this case a little bit over an hour, but these two did a very nice job of it. The first 20 minutes or so was a little slower than the last 40 but that had to be expected and it was necessary to ensure that they could even make it to the finish line. Yet it was still some amazing technical wrestling with headlocks and armdrags and armbars and bridges and hammerlocks and everything else you might expect from these two. And let’s not forget about that vicious version of Sweet Chin Music that Tony Chimel took on the outside when Bret moved out of the way. I went back and watched that a few different times and he really gets hit hard and had to be stretchered out. Pretty good stuff there.

The next half hour had a few more impact moves with some punches and elbows and a slam from the top and it became quite clear after a while that this one was going to go right down to the end with no pinfalls as each man came close on a couple of different occasions. Now, while I’ve heard some people say over the last 20+ years that they thought they each should have gotten one or two, I disagree. I always loved how neither man was able to get a clear advantage and they just kept going back and forth with some great wrestling.

The last 20 minutes or so was amazing. Again, both HBK and The Hitman got close and the stamina was phenomenal. After 45 minutes, they still had the energy for a superplex and some vintage maneuvers and bumps such as Shawn kip up and Bret’s always-awesome run into the buckles.

The final minute of regulation saw Shawn come off the top rope only to get caught by Bret and put into the Sharpshooter as the crowd is still fully into it. They’re thinking Shawn is going to tap but he hangs on until the bell and there was no way this was going to end like that so Gorilla Monsoon came in and said this was going to overtime and Bret couldn’t believe it as he tried to walk away. We’re going to let that spit on the side of his mouth slide for now. Hart got back in the ring and eventually ate a couple superkicks and the boyhood dream came true for Shawn Michaels. Easily a top 20 match in WrestleMania history.