Every year, fans can expect a few matches on the WrestleMania card to leave such a lasting impression that they will fire up WWE Network every year and re-watch them in preparation for that year's Showcase of the Immortals.
The 36th edition of The Show of Shows is no different, presenting an array of matches that were each wholly different than the next.
From cinematic masterpieces to a brutal, high-risk gimmick match, these are the matches from this year's unprecedented and unique WrestleMania broadcast.
With their Firefly Fun House match Sunday,John Cena and Bray Wyatt crafted a high-concept piece of art unlike anything ever seen on WWE programming before.
A journey through Cena's deepest darkest fears and a look at his subconscious through the lens of The Fiend, it featured so many different elements and hidden Easter eggs that fans will rewatch it solely to find anything they may have missed.
The creativity of it and its cinematic nature made it the most unique presentation ever produced by the company and a viewing experience that left audiences in awe of what they had just witnessed.
Those looking for a traditional wrestling match will be lost, completely befuddled and dumbfounded. Those looking for a mind-screw of a match that presents something revolutionary and engrossing will look back at the match as one of their favorite pieces of WWE TV ever.
If the Firefly Fun House match was a foreign concept, a masterpiece of storytelling that lacked actual physicality, the Boneyard match was the polar opposite. Still cinematic in its nature, the match was WWE’s equivalent to an old Western.
The Undertaker rode his motorcycle into the cemetery as the last real outlaw in WWE to battle an arrogant and overconfident AJ Styles, who had tricks up his own sleeve. Over the course of the brawl, The Deadman would deal with interference from Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, evil druids and the constant insistence from his opponent that he was too old to hang with The Phenomenal One.
Just as it appeared Styles was about to bury the legend, Undertaker rose from the grave and whooped Styles. Then Gallows. Then Anderson. And back to Styles.
The American Badass put an end to the former WWE champion, burying him and riding off into the sunset, victorious one more (last?) time at an event he had become synonymous with.
The drama, the physicality, the presentation and the eerie aura of the match made it the most critically acclaimed of the entire broadcast, and for good reason. That it was a return to form for Undertaker, who desperately needed a hit to silence his critics, only made it that much better and a classic to be re-watched by generations.
The best traditional match of the show was Charlotte Flair dethroning Rhea Ripley as NXT Women's Championship.
A surprisingly physical match, it was defined by Flair's attack on Ripley's previously injured knee and the Aussie's grit and determination to fight through the pain. Unfortunately, by the time the match reached its conclusion, she had no choice but to tap out as The Queen bridged into her Figure Eight submission.
The hard-hitting match kicked off Night 2 in fantastic fashion and, at 20-plus minutes, never felt like it ran that long. In comparison to Edge vs. Randy Orton later in the show, which ran about 15 minutes too long and featured too many holes where action should have been, this was a nonstop battle between two women with an obvious dislike for each other and who made the most of the time afforded to them.
For a match that got lost in the shuffle on the way to WrestleMania and was overshadowed by other programs that got more television time to build anticipation, it completely exceeded expectations, reminded fans of Flair's consistent excellence at WrestleMania and solidified Ripley as the future face of WWE's women's division.
Take three of the most creative performers on the SmackDown roster, throw in a bunch of ladders and the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, and you have the recipe for a show-stealer. That is exactly what Kofi Kingston, Jimmy Uso and John Morrison provided on Night 1 of this year's event.
Originally slated to be a Triple Threat Tag Team Ladder match, this was adversely affected by a storyline injury suffered by Miz on Friday nightSmackDown that covered for a very real illness. Not to be deterred by the last-minute change, the performers still put in the effort and delivered the high spots expected from a match of this type.
Kingston, Morrison and Uso threw caution to the wind, channeling the frustration and disappointment experienced in years past, when they were left off the card, into a concentrated effort to wow the viewing audience.
The spots were fresh, and the sequences exciting. The finish, in which Morrison wrested the titles away from his opponents even if it meant crashing onto a ladder below, helped put an exclamation point on a match that may very well rank among some of the better multiman ladder matches in event history.
