There are 279 matches in WrestleMania (WM) history. Throughout this series I have taken a comprehensive look at the match times for all of the longest matches, the shortest matches, the main event matches, the Undertaker's streak matches, female matches, and championship matches. Of course there has been some overlap between those groups, but believe it or not, there are still around 90 matches remaining.
57 of the remaining matches were one-on-one matches. Even though these matches were not main events or championship matches, there are still plenty of memorable encounters here. Take a look for yourself:
- 18m 28s: Vince vs HBK (WM 22)
- 17m 54s: Austin vs Rock (WM 19)
- 16m 24s: Hogan vs Rock (WM 18)
- 15m 00s: Rude vs Roberts (WM 4)
- 14m 46s: Punk vs Orton (WM 27)
- 14m 43s: Jericho vs Christian (WM 20)
- 14m 37s: Foley vs Edge (WM 22)
- 14m 28s: Goldust vs HHH (WM 13)
- 14m 12s: Vince vs Shane (WM 17)
- 14m 03s: Angle vs Benoit (WM 17)
- 13m 45s: Lawler vs Cole (WM 27)
- 13m 43s: Goldberg vs Lesnar (WM 20)
- 13m 15s: Hardy vs Hardy (WM 25)
- 13m 14s: Piper vs Mr. T (WM 2)
- 13m 04s: Umaga vs Lashley (WM 23)
- 12m 43s: Sammartino vs Beefcake (WM 1)
- 12m 39s: Eddie vs Mysterio (WM 21)
- 12m 09s: Sheamus vs HHH (WM 26)
- 11m 58s: Cody vs Mysterio (WM 27)
- 11m 36s: Mayweather vs Big Show (WM 24)
- 11m 33s: Kane vs HHH (WM 15)
- 11m 08s: Vince vs Bret (WM 26)
- 10m 56s: Luger vs Mr. Perfect (WM 9)
- 10m 55s: Kane vs Orton (WM 28)
- 10m 45s: Angle vs Kane (WM 18)
- 10m 42s: Piper vs Goldust (WM 12)
- 10m 39s: Matador vs HBK (WM 8)
- 10m 02s: Beefcake vs DiBiase (WM 5)
- 10m 00s: Austin vs Vega (WM 12)
- 9m 51s: Austin vs Hall (WM 18)
- 9m 49s: Savage vs Crush (WM 10)
- 9m 40s: Andre vs Jake Roberts (WM 5)
- 9m 34s: Backlund vs Bret (WM 11)
- 9m 12s: Steamboat vs Valentine (WM 4)
- 8m 35s: Finlay vs JBL (WM 24)
- 8m 34s: Martel vs Jake Roberts (WM 7)
- 8m 28s: Doink vs Crush (WM 9)
- 8m 15s: Bulldog vs Warlord (WM 7)
- 7m 48s: Beefcake vs Mr. Perfect (WM 6)
- 7m 44s: Hercules vs Haynes (WM 3)
- 7m 38s: Virgil vs DiBiase (WM 7)
- 7m 27s: Steamboat vs Hercules (WM 2)
- 7m 06s: Batista vs Umaga (WM 24)
- 7m 04s: Jake Roberts vs Honky Tonk Man (WM 3)
- 6m 57s: King Haku vs Hercules (WM 5)
- 6m 54s: Piper vs Adonis (WM 3)
- 6m 50s: Mankind vs Big Show (WM 15)
- 6m 48s: Piper vs Bad News Brown (WM 6)
- 6m 32s: Edge vs Booker T (WM 18)
- 6m 29s: Punk vs Mysterio (WM 26)
- 6m 06s: Savage vs Valentine (WM 4)
- 5m 53s: Andre vs Studd (WM 1)
- 5m 48s: Blue Blazer vs Mr. Perfect (WM 5)
- 5m 44s: Muraco vs DiBiase (WM 4)
- 5m 32s: Khali vs Kane (WM 23)
- 5m 22s: Hogan vs Andre (WM 4)
- 5m 07s: Savage vs Reed (WM 4)
And the final 33 matches included more than two combatants. Here are the times for those matches:
- 19m 10s: Kennedy wins MITB (WM 23)
- 17m 01s: Evolution vs Rock and Foley (WM 20)
- 15m 17s: Edge wins MITB (WM 21)
- 14m 24s: Punk wins MITB (WM 25)
- 14m 22s: Steiners vs Headshrinkers (WM 9)
- 13m 55s: Punk wins MITB (WM 24)
- 13m 44s: Swagger wins MITB (WM 26)
- 12m 51s: Camp Cornette vs Ahmed, Yoko, Jake (WM 12)
- 12m 22s: RVD wins MITB (WM 22)
- 11m 42s: The Funks vs JYD, Santana (WM 2)
- 10m 45s: LOD, Ahmed vs The Nation (WM 13)
- 10m 42s: Rockers vs Barbarian, Haku (WM 7)
- 10m 40s: Bad News Brown wins Battle Royal (WM 4)
- 10m 39s: Headbangers Fatal 4-Way (WM 13)
- 10m 37s: Team Teddy vs Team Johnny (WM 28)
- 9m 17s: Brain Busters vs Strike Force (WM 5)
- 9m 13s: Andre wins Battle Royal (WM 2)
- 9m 05s: Boss Man, Bull vs D-Lo, Godfather (WM 16)
- 9m 01s: Orton vs Cody vs DiBiase Jr. (WM 26)
- 8m 57s: Jericho vs Steamboat, Snuka, Piper (WM 25)
- 8m 52s: Bulldogs, Santana vs Harts, Davis (WM 3)
- 8m 19s: LOD 2000 wins Team Battle Royal (WM 14)
- 8m 02s: Rockers vs Twin Towers (WM 5)
- 7m 39s: Harts vs Rhythm and Blues (WM 5)
- 7m 38s: Rockers vs Orient Express (WM 6)
- 7m 30s: Islanders, Heenan vs Bulldogs, Koko (WM 4)
- 7m 05s: Head Cheese vs T&A (WM 16)
- 6m 34s: Luger, Bulldog vs Blu Brothers (WM 11)
- 6m 33s: 8-Man Tag with Virgil, Slaughter, Duggan (WM 8)
- 6m 27s: ECW Originals vs New Breed (WM 23)
- 5m 44s: Killer Bees vs Sheik, Volkoff (WM 3)
- 5m 37s: Martel, Zenk vs Orton, Muraco (WM 3)
- 5m 12s: Bushwhackers vs Rougeaus (WM 5)
Because these 90 matches are just the loose ends without any strong connection to each other, I'm not going to go overboard picking them apart for random facts and average match time trends. But I will point out that 8 of these matches took place at WM 4.
As this match time series comes to an end, I think the main thing that stands out to me is the difference in match times from the earliest WM events compared to the more recent WM events. The earliest shows crammed dozens of matches or more onto the card at the expense of the average time per match, whereas more recent shows have focused on about 8 matches to shine the entire spotlight on. I greatly prefer this current trend, and even though it is nice to nostalgically look back on some of WM's earliest moments, it's not surprising that many of the perceived worst WM shows of all-time can be found in the first half of the WM era.
And while we have to occasionally deal with a Cena vs Miz main event in recent times, for the most part the big main event matches today are always given 20+ minutes for the biggest stars to show why they are the best in the world. Can you imagine ordering WM 29 and seeing Rock vs Cena only going for 5 or 6 minutes? That's essentially what happened to anybody who ordered WM 4, as the highly anticipated Hogan vs Andre rematch didn't even last 6 minutes and ended up in a double DQ.
The biggest negative about the recent WM events is that they have largely shunned the Intercontinental and Tag Team Championships, while often relegating the women's division to randomly thrown together group tag matches without any interesting potential for dramatic action. The lack of IC presence may have been fine when the MITB matches were around for 6 years from WM 21 to WM 26, but it doesn't seem that removing the MITB match from WM has really done much to help the status of the IC Championship over the last couple of years.
So that wraps it up for now, CageSiders. Do any of these 90 leftover matches rank among your all-time favorites? Did you forget that many of these matches even existed?