Best match from every WWE WrestleMania event in history

WrestleMania VII

Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior

Ask a group of 20 old-school wrestling fans what their favorite matches are and I can almost guarantee that all 20 would put this somewhere in their top 10. I still find it a little humorous that I’m including The Ultimate Warrior twice on a “best of” list but there’s no getting around this one. Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII was fantastic.

Savage had tried for months to get a title shot with Warrior and when he refused to grant it, Macho Man decided to just cost him the title instead. He interfered in the title match at the Royal Rumble, causing Warrior to lose the belt to Sgt. Slaughter, who in turn would lose it to Hulk Hogan at this WrestleMania. Obviously upset, Warrior challenged Savage to a retirement match and we got a great bout and a great story out of it.

With Elizabeth, who hadn’t been with Savage in more than two years as Sensational Sherri had taken her place — don’t ever forget how awesome Sherri was — in the crowd that night (and plenty of camera shots of her throughout), Warrior took the advantage early on but Savage fought back and they went through a good back and forth with Sherri getting involved numerous times. After a while, they hit the double clothesline, which was needed at the time as this had a good pace to it.

We got a quick ref bump that allowed Sherri to once again get involved, this time with her shoe, but Savage took that shot and Warrior finally went after her and ran right into a near fall as he reentered the ring. Savage went back to the Steamboat days and worked the throat for a while before hitting not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE flying elbows and Warrior still kicked out. This is a little more commonplace these days but back then you didn’t kick out of finishers and it happened again when Warrior hit his gorilla press slam and splash and Macho Man kicked out of that, which turned into the best acting job Warrior has ever done as he looked to the sky to wonder if this was really supposed to happen for him. Great stuff there. He even went so far as to start leaving the ring and Savage pounced on him and went for the throat over the barricade shot but Warrior was able to move and he knew that it was his time. He sent Savage back in the ring and hit shoulderblock after shoulderblock after shoulderblock and just placed his foot on Savage for the 1-2-3. And while the match was fantastic, the aftermath was just as good.

With Savage having to retire after the loss, that means Sherri had to go too and she was not happy about it. She repeatedly kicked Savage while he was down, which brought Elizabeth out of the crowd, down the aisle and into the ring to dispose of Sherri as the crowd was going absolutely berserk. She tried to help Savage up but he was still thinking it was Sherri but was as surprised as anybody when he turned around. The two embraced in one of the most emotional moments in WrestleMania history and gave fans the reunion they’d been wanting for years. Great drama. Great match. Great WrestleMania moment.