#15
Hardcore Match
Mick Foley vs Edge
WrestleMania 22
This match probably pushes the limits of my personal hardcore tastes more than any match in this list, except for maybe the Edge/Foley/Lita vs Dreamer/Funk/Beulah match. But it took the hardcore elements of the match and matched it with creative spots and great storytelling, all building to perhaps one of the most memorable endings to a match in WrestleMania history. While this match was just buried in the middle of a really good WrestleMania 22 card, it stole the show for me. It went a long way in establishing Edge in his Rated R Superstar persona, as well as revitalizing some fire (no pun intended) for Mick Foley.
#14
NXT Women's Championship Match
Sasha Banks (c) vs Bayley
NXT Takeover: Brooklyn
You've all heard the match and seen everything possible to be said about it. I'm really not sure what I can add here. Sasha Banks is my favorite wrestler alive, period, and Bayley is a tremendous talent in the ring. Not sure what more there is to be said about this match. Go watch it again.
#13
WWF Championship Match w/ Special Guest Referee Shane McMahon
Triple H (c) vs The Rock
Backlash 2000
If you took every Attitude Era main event, took all the best parts out of them, put them in a blender and made a wrestling smoothie, it would look like this match. Special guest referee set in place by authority figures to screw the top babyface? Check. Steel chair shots? Check. Nefarious heel tactics? Check. A multitude of run-ins? Check. Spanish announce table spot? Check. Like 15 storylines shoved into one match? Check. It had everything. And when the match is between two people as immensely talented as Triple H and The Rock, it was a given that it was going to be special. This exact match should have been the WrestleMania 2000 main event. Like, this exact match. Every spot.
#12
WWE Championship Match
John Cena (c) vs CM Punk
Money in the Bank 2011
I'm not sure it would have even mattered how good the match was from an in-ring perspective (it was great). The atmosphere from the crowd was electric, and while I don't typically endorse contrarian crowds, it made perfect sense in this instance. Punk in his hometown, threatening to leave the company, up against the WWE's white meat, plucky, unstoppable machine of a babyface. This match really launched a bit of a change in Cena's character, or at least in the way that character is positioned as being more vulnerable than before, and it began a historic run for Punk that established his spot at the top of the WWE.
#11
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Triple H (c) vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit
WrestleMania 20
Triple H's white boots aside, there's really not much negative to be said about this match. The fact that it isn't even Top 10 speaks more to the quality of the matches on this list than anything else, as this was one of the most perfect WrestleMania main events of all time. At the tail end of a FIVE HOUR show that seemed to drag on and on with pointless four-corner tag team matches and divas getting naked, this match coupled with Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle, which narrowly missed the list, turned WrestleMania 20 into a memorable show, even if I do think it is pretty heavily overrated by some people. Regardless, it's always nice to see a deserving guy get their WrestleMania moment, which Benoit certainly did here. Well, it was nice to see. Until, well, you know.
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