WWE: Top 10 Moments on the Road To WrestleMania

2. Shawn Michaels costs The Undertaker in the Elimination Chamber

To many wrestling fans, the two WrestleMania matches between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are considered wrestling gold. Both matches have been considered two of the greatest matches of all time. Fans are left arguing which match was better with both matches having their reasons for being a little bit better. However, I have to personally give the edge to their second match at WrestleMania 26. With Shawn Michaels’ career on the line, Shawn went into this match to give it everything that he’s got left.

Although, it was a match that The Undertaker didn’t want anything to do with at first. After Shawn accepted the Slammy award for the 2009 match of the year from their first match, Shawn challenged The Undertaker to give him another shot to break the streak. Unfortunately, The Undertaker declined Shawn’s challenge. After being denied, Shawn started to become obsessive about getting a rematch with Undertaker.

He declared that he would make history and win his record-tying third Royal Rumble in order to face The Undertaker for his World Heavyweight Championship. That dream would shatter when he was eliminated from the Rumble match by Batista. Shawn’s obsession with facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania continued to get worse. Shawn was attacking referees and getting himself fined. The obsession would even cost him his and Triple H’s tag team championships against the team of The Miz and Big Show.

Triple H attempted to talk some sense into his friend and partner but there was no getting to his head. Shawn’s mind was already made up. At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, The Undertaker looked to retain his championship inside the chamber. Four men were already eliminated and Chris Jericho was all that was left for The Undertaker to retain. The Undertaker had the match basically won when Shawn Michaels came from beneath the chamber and cost The Undertaker his World Heavyweight Championship with one lethal Sweet Chin Music.

After costing him his championship, The Undertaker finally agreed to Shawn’s challenge at WrestleMania with one catch. The Undertaker would only put his streak on the line if Shawn agreed to put his career on the line. Shawn didn’t hesitate to agree to Undertaker’s terms declaring he had no career if he couldn’t beat The Undertaker. As history now tells, The Undertaker’s streak continued and Shawn Michaels’s legendary career was over.

1. The Rock and Hulk Hogan’s electrifying meeting

When you think of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, The Rock and Hulk Hogan are two names that come up often in conversation. They are two of the biggest names to ever step into the ring and arguably made the business bigger by being a part of it. However, up until Vince McMahon resigned Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan back in 2002, the two men hadn’t crossed paths since The Rock was just a young boy. However, those two trains carrying megastars were on a path that was set to clash.

On February 18th, 2002, Hulk Hogan cut a promo where he blamed all of the fans for him leaving the WWE. He said that the fans turned on him and drove him out of the company that he never wanted to leave. After all of the love that the fans had given him over the years, Hogan told the fans that they could “kiss his ass.” While Hogan continued to stroke his own ego telling about he is the biggest name to ever step into a ring, the legendary “If you smell” hit the arena and the fans went wild. The Rock made his way to the ring and stood face to face with Hogan.

The wrestling world knew that they were seeing something special happen. The Rock had heard enough of Hogan putting down the people. The two had an intense staredown as the fans were cheering loudly.  As “The People’s Champion” opened his mouth, The Rock defended the fans from Hogan. He put Hogan straight as he told him exactly what he thought of Hogan. He told him that just like all of the fans that The Rock believed in Hulk Hogan. That it wasn’t the fans that turned on Hogan but it was Hogan that turned on him and all the little Hulksters.

After putting Hogan in his place verbally, The Rock laid down the challenge for Hogan to face him at WrestleMania. Hogan tried to talk back to The Rock but he wasn’t interested in hearing Hogan’s garbage. He demanded an answer for his challenge while trying to get into Hogan’s head talking about the dream match coming to life. The Rock turned the decision to the people as they cheered on the match. With The Rock and the fans getting in his head, Hogan agreed to face The Rock at WrestleMania 18 bringing one of the biggest matches to ever happen to life.

The two left with a handshake before Hogan wished The Rock luck because he was going to need it. The Rock uttered the iconic line “not as much as you, Brother,” before drilling Hogan to the mat with a Rock Bottom. The two went on to WrestleMania 18 to have one of the most iconic matches of all time. The image of The Rock and Hulk Hogan standing apart in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania continues to be shown every year. The ovation that Hulk Hogan received at WrestleMania convinced the company to turn Hogan face and he was never a heel again.