6. Steve Austin vs. The Rock (WrestleMania XIX)
This is going to be a controversial choice as Stone Cold and The Rock mixed it up at three different WrestleManias and WrestleMania X-7 usually receives all the love. It’s a great main event for sure, but the booking around it is iffy and it doesn’t quite hit the landing, especially with the Texas crowd refusing to play along with a Steve Austin heel turn. As for WrestleMania XV, it was also solid, but existed as little more than a pleasing catharsis in Austin regaining his title after a year of Vince McMahon messing with him.
Their third and final meeting was special in its own way, feeling like a genuine end of an era (unlike the Undertaker vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania XXVIII, which felt self-important). Austin’s body was falling apart, and this would be his last match for nearly 20 years. The Rock had a foot out the door, but despite all of his great accolades, he still felt empty due to his inability to beat Austin at the Showcase of the Immortals. That added to the emotion of the match, giving us an ending that really felt like Austin had exhausted every little bit of fight left in him so that both he and Rock could move on with their lives.
5. Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania X)
As the story goes, Shawn Michaels’ future with the company was up in the air, and as he was Intercontinental Champion, they wrote around his exit by claiming that he had not defended it in the allotted time, and they would therefore vacate it and crown a new champ. They did a battle royal where the two finalists would face off in a regular match, which gave us Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon. Then Michaels did come back after all, claiming that he was the legitimate IC champ. Hence, a Ladder Match to decide the one true champion.
While it was not the first Ladder Match in WWE history, it was the first to get such a big spotlight. The two proceeded to work their asses off, laying down the groundwork for dozens of other ladder-based matches in the decades that followed. WWE even organized a rematch between the two a year and a half later at SummerSlam 95, but it was nowhere near as good as the first hard-hitting clash between The Heartbreak Kid and The Bad Guy. The bout did run long enough to bump a 10-man tag match off the show, but in the end, it was worth it.
4. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz (WrestleMania X-Seven)
These three tag teams had already stolen the show with a crazy Ladder Match the previous year, and SummerSlam then did a rematch, calling it a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match, which was just the same thing, but with more emphasis on table spots and a few chair shots thrown in. That was an improvement, leading to the three teams to give it one more go at what is considered by many to be the all-time best WrestleMania.
The six men upped the game completely. It was 16 minutes of insanity, with these teams putting themselves through hell, including an iconic shot of Jeff Hardy hanging from the suspended titles, leaving himself open for Edge spearing him from a ladder. To increase the stakes, each party had a helper do a run-in, with Spike aiding the Dudleys, Lita aiding the Hardys, and Rhyno aiding Edge and Christian. They gave it their all to finish the trilogy and it still holds up as one of the best and most chaotic Ladder Matches of all time.
