Cageside Countdown: The Top 20 Moments of Wrestlemania 31 (Part 1)

Earlier this week, we asked you, the Cagesider to pick out your favorite moments from the 31st annual "Showcase of the Immortals". Needless to say, you've come through with dozens of moments and plenty of visual aids. From those moments, I sorted them using Microsoft Excel 2007 and have come up with your top ten. But before we get to the top ten, here are...

TEN HONORABLE MENTIONS...

Or the ten that almost made the cut.

1. Didn't catch the preshow? Shame on you. You missed a four-team tag team title thriller. A tag title thriller that featured a DOUBLE TOWER OF DOOM!

DOUBLE TOWER OF DOOM!

2. Wrestlemania 31 opened with a seven-man ladder match. One of those seven men that was there for some reason and... I dunno.. NOT FIGHTING HIS OLDER BROTHER... is Stardust. He wasn't much of a factor in the ladder match, but this bedazzled ladder was a nice surprise.

(pic via Nate_Tice on Twitter)

3. It's pretty much understood that Ronda Rousey is the baddest woman on this or any other planet. Triple H for some reason did not get this memo and was the victim of perhaps the most talked about moment of the night: this hip toss followed by an awesome hair flip.

That's an Olympic hip toss, homes. And that is Triple H flopping worse than a footballer during World Cup season.

4. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship was quite the stiff affair. Here's Roman not quite looking strong when he gets the taste slapped out of his mouth.

(GIF via ZombieProphet on Twitter)

5. Opinions on Sting's first (and possibly only) WWE match vary wildly. It was a fun nostalgia trip or an overbooked clusterfuck reminiscent of Sting's former employers. Because why else would you include a point in the match where Sting's baseball bat breaks Triple H's sledgehammer?

(gif via Wrestling-Giffer on Tumblr)

6. As mentioned earlier, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns had one perhaps the stiffest Wrestlemania main event since... well, ever. Here's an example.

Best you see it in pic form. I half expected streamers and Red Shoes as stiff as that was. Maybe an oversized trophy and a huge light show and dinosaurs.

7. So the Intercontinental title match was quite the barnburner, wasn't it? It won't go down as the best ladder match in Mania history, but it sure had the stiffest finish. In continuing the Japanese wrestling influence, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler forego concussion protocol and common sense by headbutting one another from about nine feet up until one man falls.

8. Daniel Bryan survived Headbutt Battle 2015 and became the new WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. What do you get when you win the Intercontinental title at Wrestlemania? You get to hang out with Maria Menunous and a few other people you may know.

You name one person in recent memory that had a better Wrestlemania run than that guy. Win two matches and get MANY fireworks last year, hang out with some of the best ever this year. Good living if you can get it.

9. And during this little gathering of past Intercontinental Heavyweight Wrestling Champions, there's a little Easter egg.

Why yes, that is Ric Flair chopping one of his biggest rivals ever, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.

10. Roman doesn't get credit for a lot these days, but the dude did stand toe to toe with the man known as THE BEAST INCARNATE. Check him out here laughing off one of Brock's slaps... with a mouth full of blood.

Roman Reigns is not impressed.

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With the honorables out of the way, now the countdown can properly begin.

Next time. Post is getting a little GIF-heavy, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the rest.

Unless noted, GIFs courtesy of r/SquaredCircle.