WWE WrestleMania 34: Who is the Real Mr. WrestleMania?
By Bryan Heaton
Card Placement – Hulk Hogan
To determine a superstar’s average card placement is pretty simple. Last match on the card? Worth one point. Next to last is worth two, and so on and so forth. Take the average over a superstar’s career, and the lowest score wins. Make sense? For those who had more than one match on a single WrestleMania, latest match on the card takes precedence – so Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase each get one point for WrestleMania IV, Daniel Bryan gets one point for WrestleMania XXX, etc. (Oh, and Hulk Hogan’s little stunt at WrestleMania IX doesn’t count, either – that main event was Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna, because the match ended. Seth Rollins cashing in at WrestleMania 31 does count, because he legally added himself to the main event.)
Overall card placement is a pretty good indicator of just how valuable a particular superstar is to WWE. Would you waste the marquee match of your biggest show of the year on just anybody? It’s not like a retired football ever had a main event Mania match against a career mid-carder, right?
Still, WrestleMania XI aside, the final match of the card is usually what will put the most butts in seats. If you were at the top of WrestleMania cards for an extended period, it means you were the focus of WWE, for better or worse. So who are the top 5 in terms of average card placement at WrestleMania?
- Hulk Hogan
- Steve Austin
- The Rock
- John Cena
- Brock Lesnar
Honestly, there’s no real surprises there. Hogan main evented seven of the first eight WrestleManias. Austin and The Rock main evented twice against each other – as did Cena and The Rock. And though Brock Lesnar has only been in the main event twice, he’s clearly a big money draw.
Finishing the top ten, you have Triple H, Roman Reigns, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and Batista. Shawn Michaels clocks in at number 13 – no doubt hurt by all those early years as part of The Rockers.