WWE WrestleMania: Top 5 unexpected show-stealers in WrestleMania history
Whenever we approach WrestleMania, we tend to look at the card and decide which matches would be the best ones and garner the most excitement. This year, fans are looking at Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey and a couple of others, with another few certain to slip off the radar. A match like AJ Styles vs Randy Orton could surprise us.
This happens almost every year, when a match that we expect a lot from fails to deliver while a match that we do not expect much from ends up stealing the show. It is a great feeling when your expectations are exceeded, as that has happened so many times over the years. It is usually difficult to stand out during a 13-match show, but that makes it more impressive when any two, or four, performers end up doing so.
Here are five WrestleMania matches that stole their respective shows when we expected something else to.
#5 The Undertaker vs Batista (WrestleMania 23)
When the Undertaker won the 2007 Royal Rumble match, he was announced to be in the main event of WrestleMania. However, like many times before and after this, the Rumble winner did not close the Show of Shows.
The Deadman challenged Batista for his World Heavyweight Championship in a match that happened hardly an hour and a half into the four-hour show. John Cena vs Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship was favoured over them, to be the main event of the evening. Undertaker and Batista set out to steal the show, and they did.
Their match was extremely physical and hard-hitting, bringing out the best of both competitors. This was one of the Animal's best matches in his entire career, while the Undertaker stood tall at WrestleMania yet again. Cena defeated Michaels in a very good main event, but the show had been stolen earlier by Smackdown's top two superstars at the time.
This also kick-started the Undertaker's fantastic streak of WrestleMania classics over the next six years. Classics against Edge, Michaels, Triple H and CM Punk would follow, as the WWE finally knew, never underestimate the Deadman on the Grandest Stage.