Best match from every WWE WrestleMania event in history

WrestleMania X8

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan

You can go ahead and scream at me all you like for this choice but The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8 (still a horrible name) is one of the best matches in the history of WrestleMania and I’ll argue that forever. Was it a technical wrestling masterpiece? Absolutely not. But it never needed to be because the story they told in the ring to go along with the insane crowd in Toronto made it so memorable.

WWE was trying so hard to make Hulk Hogan a heel when he came back in the nWo with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash but the Toronto crowd was not going to let that happen. Hogan has always been huge in Canada but I don’t know if he’s ever gotten the kind of response he got that night. He came out to a huge pop and while some in attendance cheered for The Rock, it was at least 75 percent Hogan and that might be a little low. The staredown at the beginning of the match was fantastic and sucked everyone in immediately and things took off from there. Hogan used his power to knock down Rock early and the crowd loved it. Hogan did a couple quick poses and had them eating out of the palm of his hand from the get-go. But The Rock deserves so much credit for being aware of what was happening and ended up working a lot of the match in the heel role, even when Hogan went to the heel tactics like using his weight belt.

Of course, that all happened after a ref bump — yet again from Mike Chioda — that saw Hogan tap out to the Sharpshooter, which Rock used in freaking Canada in the ultimate slap in the face. He hit a Rock Bottom shortly after but Hogan kicked out at two and Hulked up in what may be the loudest ovation I’ve ever heard in WWE. He hit the three punches and the boot and the leg drop but Rock kicked out and got the cover after two more Rock Bottoms and the People’s Elbow.

The two shook hands after the match and you can clearly see The Rock tell Hogan “thank you” as they embraced, which led to Hall and Nash hitting the ring to beat down Hogan before Rock jumped back in to make the save to set up Hogan and Rock posing in the ring together in a true WrestleMania moment. This will always be one of my favorite matches and while The Undertaker vs. Ric Flair and Triple H vs. Chris Jericho were good, ask most people about WrestleMania X8 and this is what they’re going to remember.