article courtesty of Kyle Ross

9. WrestleMania 23 (2007): Twenty years later, they return to the Detroit area to celebrate the anniversary of WM 3. This show did monster business (record 1.2 million buys) in large part to the Donald Trump vs. Vince McMahon hair vs. hair stip involved in the Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga match. McMahon deserves credit for following through, but what's more important I think is that this match was supposed to turn Bobby Lashley into a star for years to come and that just didn't materialize as he wasn't with the company even a year later. Both of the two World Title Matches - Cena/HBK and Batista/Taker - are given time here and as a result it's the only WM in the "brand split" era where one of the World Title matches isn't really treated as inferior.

Of course, there was plenty of controversy as to which match would go on last behind the scenes. The call was made for Cena/HBK (although Taker won the Rumble) and Batista and Taker were reportedly not happy. They go out and have a tremendous match, probably slightly better than Cena/HBK, which didn't have as much drama b/c who thought HBK (in reality a sub for the injured Triple H) was going over? Interestingly, there would be rematches of both title matches in the following month and in both instances the rematch was even better. Mr Kennedy won the last very good Money In The Bank match. That should have kicked off a great WWE career as they had big plans for him (main eventing WM 24), but injuries (story of his career) ruined that. Honestly, nothing else on this show mattered.

8. WrestleMania 26 (2010): The string of recent WMs continues with last year's event, which was very good. Almost nothing sucked save for Bret-Vince, which was so anticipated and after all that time just came off flat. I remember the song in the video package being very bad. I had no issue with the chair shots to Vince as that's what the payoff should have been given the history. Of course, after they tore the house down the year prior, Taker and HBK go on last here in streak vs. career and to Michaels' credit, there hasn't even been a peep about a comeback. As for the match, I'd give the previous year's a slight nod, but this was still ****1/2. Cena-Batista was a good World Title match (****) that could have meant even more had they not rushed a program between the two several years earlier at a SummerSlam. From the Smackdown side, Edge-Jericho and Rey-Punk both deserved more time, yet were still very good. Did Triple H really need to go over Sheamus, given that he was leaving? The answer is no. When the decision was made to go with Orton as a face and ditch Legacy, it was pretty much projected that kind of booking would do no favors to Rhodes and Dibiase. That turned out to be very accurate. Orton was getting the title back soon anyways. The Money In The Bank match, won by Jack Swagger of all people, was the weakest of the six ever at a WM. One year later and it’s almost comical to think that Swagger was ever a champion. The Tag Title opener was so rushed, it could have fit in at WM2.

See more of the rankings here:
19 to 10:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2011/03/ranking-wrestlemania-19-to-10.html
26 to 20:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2011/03/ranking-wrestlemanias-26-to-20....
For more articles click here:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2011/03/ranking-wrestlemanias-9-to-3.html