Every WWE WrestleMania Rematch Ranked From Worst To Best

To paraphrase a certain Mr. F. Gump, “Sequels are like a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re gonna get”.

For every Empire Strikes Back, there’s a Speed: Cruise Control. For every Godfather Part 2, there’s a Godfather Part 3. Heck, even the book Forrest Gump was based on had a subpar follow-up.

Is nothing sacred?

The same goes for wrestling, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the history of WrestleMania. The Granddaddy of Them All has seen several do-overs, some of which are legendary, others utterly repulsive.

Let’s find out which is which.

For this list, a “rematch” is counted as any match where all the participants are exactly the same as in a previous encounter. For example, John Cena and The Miz facing off in a mixed tag match at WrestleMania 33 does not count as a rematch from their Mania 27 main event.

This is every WWE WrestleMania rematch ranked from worst to best.

19. Shane McMahon vs. The Miz - WrestleMania 39

There is a massive asterisk next to this one, but we couldn’t leave it off the list, because it was just so damn funny.

On the second night of WrestleMania 39, The Miz was complaining to co-host Snoop Dogg about the rapper springing a surprising opponent on him, Pat McAfee, the night before.

Instead of apologising, Snoop played the same trick again, announcing that Miz had yet another impromptu match in the offing. Who was his opponent this time? Shane McMahon.

These two had previously tussled at WrestleMania 35, in a surprisingly decent Falls Count Anywhere match featuring a run-in from Miz’s Dad. This time, however, things would not run so smoothly.

During what should have been a relatively simple sequence, Shane legitimately tore his quads, which led to an on-the-fly decision to have Snoop take his place. After hitting the worst People’s Elbow ever, Dogg got the win.

18. Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt - WrestleMania 37

At Elimination Chamber 2017, Bray Wyatt bested five other men to win his first WWE Championship, setting the stage for a big WrestleMania clash against his then-follower, Randy Orton.

The Viper had spent months infiltrating The Wyatt Family, before finally turning on the cult leader by… burning down his shed?

The match was even worse, featuring a big projector that flashed up images of bugs onto the ring mat. Orton then won anyway.

Four years after this wet fart of a title match, Orton and Wyatt had the chance to do better at Mania 37.

With Wyatt now in his Fiend era, this was the perfect opportunity for him to get revenge on The Apex Predator and avenge his loss. That isn’t what happened, though, and a Vince McMahon change of plans led to The Fiend losing following an RKO after Alexa Bliss became more powerful than him. This all happened after Orton set The Fiend on fire at TLC 2020.

Both Orton and Wyatt matches were utter disasters, leaning way too heavily into the spooky side of Bray’s character, which distracted from the actual wrestling on display.

Sadly, this would be Wyatt’s final appearance at The Show of Shows; an ignoble way to go out.

17. Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan - WrestleMania 28

We toyed over whether or not to include this one, as the first Mania singles meeting between Sheamus and Daniel Bryan actually happened on number 27’s pre-show.

This Lumberjack match was for the United States Championship, but ended in a schmoz when all the men around the ring started on each other. This led to a spontaneous battle royal, which had no prize and was won by The Great Khali.

The following year, The Celtic Warrior and The American Dragon were promoted to the opening match of the main card, which this time was for Bryan’s World Heavyweight Championship.

Unfortunately, this is that match - the one that ended after 18 seconds when Sheamus hit Bryan with a Brogue Kick after he kissed AJ Lee at ringside.

Fans were livid that WWE hadn’t let these two talented grapplers put on an actual match. They were proven right the following month, when the two had a stellar rematch at Extreme Rules.

At the very least, this moment sparked fan support for Bryan, which in turn led to his triumphant Mania 30 win two years later. At the time, though, it was a load of crap.

16. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 34

Whilst you could say that the main event of WrestleMania 31 was technically a triple threat featuring Seth Rollins, the advertised match - and the one that happened for most of the allotted time - was WWE Champion Brock Lesnar against Royal Rumble winner, Roman Reigns.

Just saying those words makes my skin crawl.

Despite Reigns being as popular as a hand grenade in a submarine at the time, the match itself was pretty decent. Three years later, WWE ran it back for Brock’s Universal Championship, only this time, there was no Money in the Bank to save the day.

At WrestleMania 34, Reigns and Lesnar had a bafflingly bad match to close out the show, which saw both men repeatedly spam their finishers over and over again until the champ finally put the challenger down to end the bout on a severe anticlimax.

Fans didn’t want Roman to win, but they were also more than ready to see Lesnar drop the title. Knowing that Lesnar would continue to hold the belt hostage sent them into a rage, as the night’s finale was met with a chorus of boos.

15. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - WrestleMania 38

Four years on from the Superdome fiasco, Reigns and Lesnar were in very different places heading into Mania 38. Brock was even more of a part-timer than before, having grown a beard and ponytail and begun his Cowboy Brock character, but he was the WWE Champion.

As for Roman, he was now the Tribal Chief; an all-conquering baddie in the midst of a record-setting Universal Championship reign. This would have been a recipe for a mouth-watering main event, had fans not already seen these two fight about a bajillion times already.

It also didn’t help that WWE got to this point in the most convoluted way possible, moving the WWE title off and back onto Lesnar with reckless abandon. Then it was announced that the match would be for both belts, and everyone groaned even louder.

When time came to ring the bell, nobody was excited for Lesnar versus Reigns, and the match itself lived down to those low expectations.

Neither man did anything particularly original, and when Reigns pinned Brock to unite the championships, everyone was just glad it was over.

14. Triple H vs. Batista - WrestleMania 35

At seven-and-a-half hours long including the pre-show, WrestleMania 35 remains the longest single-night pay-per-view WWE have ever produced.

You know what could have been cut to save time? A 25-minute snoozefest between two old men fighting over an even older man.

Batista had instigated his Mania 35 match with Triple H by kidnapping and brutalising Ric Flair, Hunter’s long-term friend and mentor. This led to that hilarious “give me what I want” segment from Raw.

14 years earlier, these two had fought in the main event of WrestleMania 21, where The Animal beat The Game to win the World Heavyweight Championship and cement himself as a new top star.

This time, things were very different, as the two plodded their way through an extremely slow No Holds Barred match that had absolutely no right being the longest bout on the card.

Triple H pulled out Batista’s nose ring with some pliers, but can you remember anything else that happened here except Batista stacking it during his entrance? Didn’t think so.

After everything, Triple H got his win back, finally defeating his former Evolution faction mate.

13. Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna - WrestleMania 10

WrestleMania 10 famously hosted two WWE Championship matches, as the 1994 Royal Rumble had been won by both Bret Hart and Lex Luger.

Luger came up short against champion Yokozuna, which left only one man capable of stopping the gigantic sumo wrestler from leaving Mania with the belt - a man who knew exactly what it was like to go toe-to-toe with the behemoth.

One year earlier at WrestleMania 9, Hart was the champion defending against Rumble winner, Yoko. With a big assist from Mr. Fuji and his salt pot, the not-really-Japanese-Japanese star beat The Hitman, which then led to Hulk Hogan ending the night as WWE Champion after he came down to the ring to check on ‘friend’ Bret Hart and had an impromptu match with Yokozuna.

Not only was Bret looking to shake off the previous year’s loss, but also his defeat earlier in the night to younger brother Owen. Even with these crushing odds, Hart did it, ending the night as champion on the shoulders of the babyface locker room.

The match wasn’t spectacular or anything - even Bret couldn’t get a classic out of Yoko - but at least it ended Mania on a high, and at least it was better than the nonsense from the year before.

12. The Rock vs. John Cena - WrestleMania 29

You know that Talking Heads song Once in a Lifetime? Well, Vince McMahon sure didn’t, because he clearly didn’t understand the phrase when he booked The Rock and John Cena to fight again at WrestleMania 29!

The previous year, WWE had put on the exact same match with that very misleading tagline. This main event of WrestleMania 28 had been set in stone one year earlier and was marketed as a clash between two generational talents.

Whilst both men were certainly deserving of this moniker, neither was what you might call a ring general. The ‘Mania 28 match wasn’t half bad, but nobody wanted to see it again. Sadly, The Rock was WWE Champion and Cena had just won the Royal Rumble, so that’s exactly what happened.

Again, this battle was just fine, being greatly hampered by The Rock tearing his abdomen and abductor muscles. It was nothing special and somehow felt no different to the previous one, despite there being a whole year’s worth of history to draw on. Cena got his win back after taking an L the year before, leaving with the championship and Mr. Johnson’s respect.

11. The Undertaker vs. Kane - WrestleMania 20

In terms of actual in-ring action, this clash from Mania 20 should probably be further down the line. But this “match” wasn’t really a match - it was more of a spectacle.

At Survivor Series 2003, The Undertaker, wrestling in his American Badass guise, lost a Buried Alive match to Mr. McMahon, after intervention from his demonic half-brother, Kane.

The Big Red Machine claimed to have finally killed Taker, but a series of ghostly incidents quickly cast doubt on this. To prove once and for all that his brother was dead, Kane challenged Undertaker to show up at Mania and face him in a match, which is exactly what happened.

With torch-wielding druids and even Paul Bearer back at his side, Undertaker returned under his Deadman guise for the first time in over four years, as a bewildered Kane watched on in horror. The Phenom then proceeded to crush his satanic sibling in less than eight minutes.

Their Mania match six years earlier, when Kane still had his mask and was less than a year into his run, was definitely better between the bells, but in terms of pure wrestling theatre, it doesn’t get much better than this.

10. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant - WrestleMania 4

The first honest-to-goodness WrestleMania rematch took place at the fourth ever event, and was a rerun of what is perhaps still the quintessential match in the show’s history.

One year on from their epic main event encounter, Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant were paired together in the one-night world championship tournament at WrestleMania 4.

Two of the biggest stars in WWE history going at it once again, now with even more history between them. This had the potential to be epic… so of course it ended in a double DQ after about five minutes.

Goddammit.

After both men struck each other with chairs - Hogan did it first, so technically Andre should have won - they were both removed from the tournament, which ended up giving Ted DiBiase a bye straight into the final.

Whilst the match itself was a load of garbage, this one gets a pass because it was integral to the marketing of the show and ended up playing a key part in the night-long story. Just don’t get your hopes up if you’re expecting to see the same level of drama that there was at Mania 3.

9. Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg - WrestleMania 33

If you’d told a wrestling fan in 2004 that, in 13 years’ time, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg were going to have a WrestleMania rematch that would be one of the best bouts on the card, they’d have laughed you all the way out of Madison Square Garden.

What could have been a true clash of the titans at Mania 20 turned into the slog to end all slogs, as both men sabotaged their own match off the back of negative fan reaction to them leaving the company.

Not even special referee Stone Cold Steve Austin could save it, and that’s saying something.

Nearly a decade-and-a-half later, after renewing their rivalry at the 2016 Survivor Series, Lesnar and Goldberg were booked in a Universal Championship match at WrestleMania 33, and it was fantastic.

With less than five minutes of match time, these raging bulls played to their strengths, which basically boiled down to hitting all their big moves one after another and crashing each other through barricades.

Brock got the win and the belt, but both competitors had finally lifted the shadow of Mania 20, in this blistering, non-stop thrillride of a wrestling match.

8. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. The Rock - WrestleMania 19

Lord of the Rings. The original Star Wars movies. Indiana Jones.

These are some of the greatest trilogies in film history, just as this match was the final instalment in one of the greatest wrestling trilogies of all time.

First meeting in the main event of WrestleMania 15, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock battled once more over the WWE Championship - which we’ll get to later - before going at it one more time in a bitter grudge match at Mania 19.

The Rock, who was fully in his Hollywood douchebag phase at this point, couldn’t get over how he’d never beaten Austin at WrestleMania. This was all this story needed to be great, as the pair’s long history added all the necessary context.

Even though The Texas Rattlesnake was being held together by chewing gum and prayers at this point, he put in a stellar performance against his greatest foe, but it wasn’t enough. Rocky got the pin, finally winning the big one against Austin in what would be the Texan’s final wrestling match for 19 years.

7. Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley - WrestleMania 39

In 2020, Rhea Ripley was red hot as the NXT Women’s Champion, and was being pegged as one of the stars of the future. Unfortunately, she hit a bump in the road; a bump that looked suspiciously like the daughter of a 16-time world champion.

After winning the Royal Rumble, Charlotte Flair decided to challenge for Ripley’s title at Mania 36, and she won. This loss sent the Aussie on a downward spiral, affecting her confidence both in kayfabe and behind the scenes.

Fast forward three years, Mami had a shot at vengeance. This time, Ripley was heading into Mania as the Rumble winner, whilst Charlotte was the defending SmackDown Women’s Champion.

Although the build to this match had been trash, both women showed why they were two of the best performers on the roster, putting on a stunning match that might have main evented any other show.

After a stonking fight, Ripley struck with a top rope Riptide to pin Charlotte, and claim her rightful place at the top of the mountain.

6. The Undertaker vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 28

Alongside Rock-Austin and Roman-Brock, the other trilogy of singles matches to take place at WrestleMania was between The Undertaker and Triple H.

The third and final Mania encounter between Triple H and The Undertaker went down at WrestleMania 28, and WWE did everything they could to make it as grand as possible. Not only was Shawn Michaels, a man with deep connections to both participants, serving as the special guest referee, but this war would take place inside Hell in a Cell!

Though it may have overstayed its welcome a little at half an hour long, this gladiatorial clash lived up to the hype.

Drawing on decades’ worth of history between all three men, the match played out like a Shakespearean final act, including the greatest near-fall of all time, when Taker somehow kicked out of a Sweet Chin Music-Pedigree combo.

The Phenom eventually scored the win to keep his Streak intact, bringing to a close a spectacle befitting of the tagline “End of an Era”.

5. The Undertaker vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 27

For some bizarre reason, WWE went out of its way to promote the WrestleMania 27 clash between The Undertaker and Triple H as the first time these two had met at the Showcase of the Immortals.

Anyone with a decent memory or access to the Internet knew that they’d already faced each other at WrestleMania 17 - the crash pad match - but WWE carried on regardless, and Hunter and The Deadman pulled out all the stops to make everyone forget about a decade earlier.

Trips was fighting for the honour of his best bud Shawn Michaels, who had been retired at Undertaker’s hands the previous year. This added some extra spice to the match, which was no DQ, by the way, as these veterans damn near killed each other.

After spinebusters through announce tables, multiple chair shots, and another all-time great kick out by Taker, Mean Mark narrowly edged a win by trapping H in the Hell’s Gate. He then required assistance when leaving the ring, whilst Trips could head to the back under his own power, laying the storyline foundations for their third fight one year later.

A great match - certainly better than everything else on this wretched show.

4. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz - WrestleMania X-Seven

At WrestleMania 2000, a show with more ups and downs than a yo-yo factory, three of the Attitude Era’s greatest tag teams elevated the art form to a whole new level with the first ever Triangle Ladder match.

This triumvirate would meet again at SummerSlam 2000 in a similar match now called Tables, Ladders, and Chairs - or TLC, as it would become known - setting the stage for their final battle at Mania 17.

The teams in question were, of course, Edge & Christian, whose Con-Chair-To move was feared throughout the land, The Dudley Boyz, the masters of tables, and The Hardy Boyz, those ladder-loving daredevils.

With all three groups’ favourite toys in play, and with the World Tag Team Championships at stake, this was going to be wild.

Trying to describe this match would be like trying to describe the Mona Lisa - it has to be seen with your own eyes to be truly appreciated. And that’s the only time you’ll ever see Leonardo Da Vinci compared to Edge spearing Jeff Hardy in midair.

Boundary-pushing, bone-breaking, edge-of-the-seat stuff, TLC 2 is one of the damndest things you will ever witness.

3. Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena - WrestleMania 36

Out of all of the mad stuff we’ve seen on this list so far, this was the hardest match of all to place, principally because it’s not really a match.

When it was announced that Bray Wyatt would be taking on John Cena at WrestleMania 36, fans assumed this would be The Eater of Worlds getting his win back from Mania 30, where a loss to Cena seriously derailed his momentum.

Instead, possibly due to the fact that Mania 36 was held behind closed doors, we got this avant-garde video essay instead.

The Firefly Funhouse match was the pinnacle of pandemic wrestling - a pre-taped cinematic journey through all the worst parts of Cena’s career. The burials, the politics, the fan rejection, it was all there, as Bray picked his opponent apart piece by piece in the most creative way possible.

Some might argue that this shouldn’t be this high, or even on the list at all, but the Funhouse match was unlike anything wrestling had seen before and has seen since.

It is a true work of art and a reminder that, when the wrestling world lost Windham Rotunda, it lost one of its brightest minds.

2. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania 26

It’s strange to think that, despite being in the same company on-and-off since 1990, it took until 2009 for Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker to meet at WrestleMania. To the surprise of no one, they put on one of the best matches in the show’s history.

HBK then spent the next year haunted by the fact that he’d come so close to ending the Streak, desperate to get another shot. After costing Taker his World Heavyweight Championship, Michaels finally got his wish, but under one condition. If he lost, his career was over.

One year on from their all-time classic, Taker and Michaels put on another match for the ages in the main event of WrestleMania 26. Not only were both participants at the top of their physical game, but the stakes here were so high they may as well have been Rob Van Dam.

After a gruelling back and forth with more melodrama than an Eastenders omnibus, a defiant Showstopper slapped Taker round the face, leading to the mother of all Tombstone Piledrivers to end the match and bring Michaels’ extraordinary career to an extraordinary close.

1. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. The Rock - WrestleMania X-Seven

Whilst their match at Mania 19 had more history behind it and their one at Mania 15 had the novelty of being the first, for the greatest Austin vs Rock WrestleMania match, you have to go straight down the middle.

We could tell you how these two got to the main event of WrestleMania 17, or we could just direct you towards the legendary ‘My Way’ video package.

With Rock’s WWE Championship on the line, these two forever-intertwined deities of our sport went hell for leather in front of a rabid Houston crowd, making full use of the No Holds Barred stipulation to batter each other within an inch of their lives.

Then came the infamous turn; when Vince McMahon assisted Austin in winning the title, leading to the Rattlesnake shaking hands with Satan himself in a moment so big, it basically killed the Attitude Era.

Great in-ring action, exceptional storytelling, and an ending that will be talked about for decades, Rock-Austin 2 was a rematch worthy of a spot on The Grandest Stage of Them All.