*article courtesy of Kyle Ross

I couldn't imagine anyone having their top 2 not be the 2 in question, so I'll rank them first, then explain..........

2. WrestleMania 17 (2001)

1. WrestleMania 3 (1987)

Surprise. Surprise. These are clearly the two best WM's representing the two "boom" eras of the company. I assume that most will have my ordered reversed, but "most" would be wrong. Here's why...

WrestleMania 17 ends with the terrible decision of turning Steve Austin heel. This essentially led to the end of this "boom" period as ratings dropped significantly in the month that followed. They were given a tremendous "mulligan" with the Invasion angle, but instead they continued with Austin as a heel siding w/ WCW/ECW and that was that. WrestleMania 3 is a "celebration" of its era with the "right" ending. They did not turn Hulk Hogan heel, have him side with Bobby Heenan and reveal it was all a ruse to fool Andre the Giant. That would have been the equivalent.

As for the wrestling on both shows, WM 17 is clearly superior. However, it should be pointed out that of the two shows, WM 3 has the best overall match with Savage-Steamboat clocking in at ***** as the 2nd best WM match in history and best WWF Match of the 1980s. Dave Meltzer is much better at doing these things than I am, but him giving that match "only" ****1/2 is beyond ridiculous.

WrestleMania 17 features an incredible three matches at ****1/4 or higher and five at ***1/2 or higher. That doesn't happen very often, if ever, on a non-Japanese show. The best match is TLC 2 (****3/4), which I rank just slightly below the first one from SummerSlam the year prior. It is a Top 7 WM match all-time. They build off the incredible bumps set forth in the original (with the highlight being Edge's spear of Hardy), but the only minor quibble is that the crowd is basically waiting for the massive bumps as opposed to the SS version when they all were coming as surprises. Rock-Austin (****1/4) has lost some of its luster through the years, again due to an absolutely terrible ending, about which everyone (even Austin) now agrees. Had they done ANY other ending (and I don't have that answer), this would have been a near ***** affair as it was - dare I say - All Japan-ish with all the kicking out of big moves. The third-best match is clearly Angle going over Benoit and these two obviously had even better matches as time went on. At the time, this was considered one of Angle's best matches ever. Now, it's not even top ten. Vince-Shane is about as good as it gets when you have two non-wrestlers. They wrapped up a bunch of storylines here & I have to say that Linda McMahon getting out her chair to kick Vince in the balls was a great call by someone. Triple H & Undertaker likewise benefited from being allowed to do the kind of wild brawl that midcarders aren't allowed to do. Just to illustrate how "the streak" was viewed back then, Taker was reportedly booked to lose here, but Triple H got punished for HBK showing up wasted to a RAW. At least that's what they tell me. As for the rest of the show, there is actually quite a bit of the same filler that a show like WM 20 gets knocked for. The legends battle royal features some excellent commentary from Okerlund and Heenan (Okerlund: "The Repo Man got my mother-in-law about six years ago.” Heenan: “Everyone got your mother-in-law six years ago!"), but is a real atrocity when you get past the nostalgia factor as most of those guys sucked when they were in their "primes." I don't even want to discuss Chyna-Ivory. In all seriousness, considering the shape the economy is in now, you should never "root" for someone to lose their job, but I was doing backflips when Joanie Laurer got her pink slip. Jericho deserved better than curtain-jerking, didn't he? Same thing as RVD the following year as Y2J beat Regal in an IC Title Match. Speaking of underappreciated, Stevie Richards and Right To Censor's run comes to an end with a squash at the hands of Tazz and the APA. Good promo from Bradshaw beforehand and, hey, the Orange guy wins a WM match! The hardcore match featuring Raven, Big Show and Kane was a bit silly, but a proper use of all three guys. Eddie Guerrero was floundering when he beat Test for the European Title. One thing I really love about this show is that it’s the only WM with Paul Heyman on color and he does his usual fabulous job of annoying the sh#% out of JR. Overall, this was the best WWE show of the decade, without question, and better than any show in the 90's, but it is not the greatest PPV or even WM of all-time with the ending being the sole reason. And yes, an ending alone can taint a show.

read the rest here:
http://thefdhlounge.blogspot.com/2011/04/ranking-wrestlemanias-2-and-1.html