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Welcome back to the Road to WrestleMania 31. Hundreds of men and women have performed on the grandest stage over the course of its rich history. For the next few months, we will celebrate them all…from worst to best. Anyone who has ever had the honor of competing on a Mania card has joined an elite group of pro wrestlers. I salute them all. These rankings are meant to be purely fun and not taken too seriously, especially right now. All the same, we are moving into a part of the list that separated themselves from their peers in the 200s and 300s. So, we're going to spend a little bit more time on each, breaking down their contributions and getting a little bit more serious. Enjoy!  Snowman is a genius QUESTION OF THE DAY (12): What is the worst WrestleMania of all-time, in your opinion? 164. Bart Gunn 163. Drew McIntyre 162. The Warlord 161. AJ Lee 160. Fandango 159. Raymond Rougeau 158. The Brain Busters 157. Chavo Guerrero 156. Melina 155. Hillbilly Jim 154. Leilani Kai 153. Barry Windham 152. Diamond Dallas Page 151. (Tie) Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race 157. Chavo Guerrero Oh, Chaaavooo… Something about the lesser Guerrero’s Mania career had me hold off on writing about him already. It was not so much what he did at the Show of Shows, frankly. At Mania, all that he did in the ring was lose the ECW Championship to Kane in record time and retain the Cruiserweight title after wrestling for just a couple of minutes, as well as unsuccessfully bid for the Tag Team Championships. Yet, I found myself noting some of the things that he did that were very important en route to Mania, as well as a few of the notable accomplishments that he had. For instance, when WCW was purchased by WWE a week before Mania 17, any signings that WWE announced, publicly, seemed like a huge deal. There was Chavo in Houston, sitting in a skybox, looking all important and stuff. Then, his CW title retention at Mania XX came against a litany of top flight light heavyweights that helped make the smaller, faster wrestlers popular in North America (Mysterio, Kidman, Ultimo). That same year, Chavo was instrumental in helping Eddie Guerrero build the momentum necessary to be in the WWE title match. A year later, he played a pivotal role in turning Eddie and Rey against each other. The loss to Kane was the only ECW title match in Mania history. Not to mention that being part of La Familia was a key role in the Taker-Edge saga that led to the Mania 24 main-event. He also celebrated with Rey when Mysterio won the title, standing in as a representative of his deceased uncle at Mania 22. So, I know he didn’t have that good of a resume at first glance, but if you look a little deeper, Chavo was important. 156. Melina Very little separated Melina from a lot of the era’s other Divas, but winning two of her three Mania matches was the deciding factor that gave her the boost. She successfully defended the Women’s title in the first Mania following the end of the Trish Stratus era. Back then, she seemed to be the successor to Stratus in some ways. She was talented, to the point that Bret Hart once referred to her as one of the best in the business. Mick Foley liked her, too. She had some fans in high places. Her success at Mania continued in Orlando, as she knocked the 2007 and 2008 Playboy bunnies down a peg. Though her only other appearance at Mania was the 25th Anniversary Battle Royal, she was a relevant name during her career. Before she was a star of the women’s division, she shined as arguably the most notable member of MNM (Mercury Nitro Melina), a very good tag team that missed their chance to have a match at Mania. 155. Hillbilly Jim Hillbilly Jim was a marginally successful wrestler in his day. His four appearances – at Manias 2-4 and X-Seven – were nothing to write home about, but he was one of those guys that quietly got over and added depth to the roster during a period in wrestling history in which the card was loaded with relevant names. Three of his four matches were Battle Royals, with one of them being the Gimmick version in 2001 that was merely fun and not to be taken seriously. He also managed the Godwinns, though, and had a match with King Kong Bundy the year after he had main-evented WrestleMania 2. I’ll give you the simple reason why he ended up in his spot, here – we live in a wrestling era that places almost no premium on mid-card acts. If you are not main-eventing, you’re basically around to do nothing but have irrelevant TV matches (though we’ve seen some change to that format in the last year). So, I greatly appreciate acts like Hillbilly that were never headliners, but maintained a steady presence and stayed over with the audience by putting his head down and doing his job well instead of complaining about his lack of push and sulking. 154. Leilani Kai The “committee” for the “Road to WrestleMania Rankings” assigned great value to the appearance of a performer in one of the biggest matches at a historically significant WrestleMania, even if that person’s presence was not necessarily the focal point or the reason for the match’s place in “Show of Shows” lore. Leilani Kai, you may or may not recall, was the beast of a woman chosen to hold the “Ladies” Championship so that the Cyndi Lauper-led Wendi Richter could win it and provide the original WrestleMania one of its pinnacle “feel good” moments. Kai was managed by The Fabulous Moolah and the two became thrust into a spotlight that no other women’s match in WrestleMania history has yet replicated. Lauper shined the light brightly and the key figures of the era’s female roster made the most of it. If you go back and watch Mania 1, you’ll be struck by how important Kai vs. Richter was to the narrative of Mania’s existence and ultimate success. You can’t take away Leilani’s participation in that, nor deny that WWE realized it when trying to launch Alundra Blayze a decade later as “The New Generation’s” female leader, bringing Kai back to put her over with heavy Mania 1 tie-ins. 153. Barry Windham We’re getting into the part of the Countdown where separation will begin to be defined by wins and losses. Amazing, right? Pro wrestling lists factoring in something so silly as winning and losing : ) . It pains me to put Windham so low, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve waited long enough. The fact of the matter is that Windham just never did much on the grand stage; the bulk of his Hall of Fame work came in NWA and WCW. He was, though, on the losing end of the first title change in WrestleMania history. He, alongside fellow US Express member and current brother-in-law, Mike “IRS” Rotunda, dropped the WWE Tag Team Championships to Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. Windham made a comeback in the mid-1990s as “The Stalker,” which was just weird. He later channeled his father’s gimmick with JBL, forming the “New Blackjacks.” They lost in a four corner’s tag match at Mania 13. For those who aren’t that familiar with Barry or the Windhams, they are where Bray Wyatt gets his actual name, Windham Rotunda. 152. Diamond Dallas Page I have a tremendous amount of respect for people that come up with ways to help others remain healthy. It’s my field. I got into it because my health tumbled out of control when I was young and individuals with serving hearts came into my life and changed my outlook, giving me my life back in the process. DDP has done that for a lot of people. In regards to wrestling, he has done it for a lot of grapplers who were on the brink of retirement from various injuries. With beaten bodies, these men and women turned to DDP Yoga and extended their careers. Chris Jericho is among the many top flight stars that have promoted it. In the ring, DDP’s contributions have been limited but memorable. We’ll call it from here on the “Raven corollary” to the Doc equation, but DDP’s one match at Mania left such an impression on me that I placed him ridiculously high compared to others listed before him that accomplished more, on paper. Page defended the European Championship at Mania X-8 against Christian in the conclusion to an amusing mid-card feud. But you know what? That match was one of the finer sub-7-minute efforts that you’ll ever see. It laid the foundation for what became a late blooming fandom for me of DDP. In just a shade over 6-minutes, both men displayed what made them legendary figures in the second tier of the WrestleMania Era’s top stars. 151. (Tie) Harley Race and Dusty Rhodes In comparison to his stellar NWA career, The American Dream did very little in his brief WWE tenure, but his one in-ring WrestleMania appearance was nothing to scoff at. Though the incredibly laughable Sapphire seemed to give evidence to the long-held rumor that Dusty Rhodes was the butt of a running joke during the entirety of his WWE run, the amusing mixed tag duo did manage to earn a tag team match against Macho Man and Sensational Sherri during the best stretch of Randy Savage’s career. The match was not overly memorable, but it was one of the main secondary attractions in support of Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. The other of Dusty’s Mania appearances was on the stage at one of the most profitable Manias in history the night after he’d been the headlining inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. The king of the NWA, figuratively, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Race joined WWE in the mid-1980s due to his own financial troubles. He put a lot of money into the St. Louis/Kansas City territory, but lost it thanks to Vince McMahon’s national expansion. WWE was so hot back then that Race accepted a deal so that he could regain his losses. Vince clearly respected Race and what he had done for the business. Unlike many of the rival NWA’s top talents (including WCW’s later), Race was treated on television with quite the respect. He was crowned King of the Ring and a procession of all the WWE stars was held in his honor after the fact. Harley had just the one WrestleMania match – against Junkyard Dog at WrestleMania III – but it was memorable. JYD was one of the top 5 babyfaces in WWE during the hottest period that wrestling had ever previously experienced. Of course, he also made an appearance on stage at WrestleMania XX, on the eve of which he had been inducted into the Hall of Fame. 164. Bart Gunn Sort of a curious choice, I know, but I kept holding off on him because, of the three matches that he participated in at WrestleMania, two of them were in relatively prominent positions on those cards. Mania XI was one of the weakest points in WWE history, in terms of the talent that they had at their disposal. The Smoking Gunns’ WWE Tag Team title defense was hyped pretty thoroughly thanks to Owen Hart’s spot in it. Owen was coming off a career year in 1994 and was slotted into the tag title situation with the promise of a mystery partner that wound up being Yokozuna. Since there was a record low in number of matches, to date, at Mania XI, every match with a title involved felt that much more important. Several years later, Bart outlasted his peers in a worked shoot (hell, I don’t know which way it leaned) boxing tournament that got some mainstream press because it ended in a match at WrestleMania with heavyweight boxer, Butterbean. You should know by now that mainstream attention weighs heavily as a tiebreaker for me. Bart got his clock cleaned pretty quickly, but he was there, positioned in an important bout at a resurgent WWE product’s premier event. 163. Drew McIntyre I really thought that the Scotsman had the potential to go very far in his career. He reminds me a lot, to date, of Rene Dupree, a similarly talented international star who had youth on his side but was derailed for one reason or another before fulfilling his destiny. He still has time to make a run at a successful career, but it might be hard to forget him as the useless member of the 3 Man Band that were fodder for arguably less talented wrestlers at last year’s Mania Battle Royal. Once upon a time, McIntyre looked poised to make a major impact. He was the favorite in 2010 to win the Money in the Bank Ladder match at Mania XXVI. A few months prior, he had been tagged by Vince McMahon on air as a future World Champion. He did not win MITB that year (or any other), but he still looked like he could make something of himself. Unfortunately, he got involved with the wrong girl. As gorgeous as she was, Taryn Terrell and her behavior reflected poorly upon McIntyre and prompted his own lousy behavior. In 2011, he hit a home run in the Elimination Chamber in February, but was left off the Mania 27 card altogether. A year later, he experienced a slight career renaissance as a member of Team Johnny at Mania 28, but nothing came of it. 162. The Warlord The Powers of Pain were two of the many clients managed by Mr. Fuji in the first ten years of the Mania Era. One half of the team was The Warlord. WWE spearheaded the effort to recruit more legitimate looking athletes to wrestling, encouraging a certain amount of physical conditioning from its stars. Warlord was a by-product of that push and also a casualty of the steroid era. Warlord was like a Michelangelo sculpture that made Chris Masters look like a street vendor’s work. He was a big dude. The Powers of Pain made a splash in the NWA and parlayed their marginal success into a significant angle straightway in WWE. In 1988, they were part of a great double turn at Survivor Series with Demolition, helping Fuji execute turning the Tag Team Champions into babyfaces after a dominant run as heels. The ensuing feud continued through Mania V. Warlord only made two Mania appearances, but the Tag Team title match at Mania V was one of the biggest bouts on the card. He was later repackaged into something straight out of an early 90s action movie (think Van Damme flicks), losing to British Bulldog at Mania VII in an underrated match from an underrated show. 161. AJ Lee Gauging the impact of wrestlers in the current era is a bit more difficult due to the lack of historical perspective that can only be gained by time. Someone like AJ has been an important figure for several years running, but her Mania appearances have arguably warranted a much lesser place on this list. However, they arguably deserve higher placement when you take into account the memorability of her character, for which there’s something to be said. Rewind the clock back to 2012. The most financially successful Mania of all-time, with more eyes on the PPV product than ever before, was kicked off by a World Heavyweight Championship match that put young AJ at the forefront of the proceedings. She was the innocent girlfriend, kicked around by the despicable Daniel Bryan. In giving Bryan a good luck kiss just after the bell sounded, she opened up the champion to a devastating, yet extremely important 18-second loss. A huge part of the product since Mania 28 has been shaped by that moment. Bryan’s rise, AJ’s ascension to most significant female character since Stratus, and all the TV time that has been dedicated accordingly to them; all of it started from that kiss. They playfully repeated the “kiss spot” a year later when AJ was accompanying Dolph Ziggler to the ring for a Tag Team Championship match against Bryan. Of course, a year ago, AJ spearheaded the efforts of the entire women’s division in a surprisingly well-executed Fatal-Fourteenway. Lee has been, thus far, maybe not overly prominent, but definitely memorable in her Mania career. 160. Fandango I am as guilty as any columnist on the internet of often overemphasizing history. In film, sometimes a movie is just fun and that’s it. Critics might try to shape it into something it’s not or fit it into a perspective that it was never meant to be. Well, for those of you wondering why Fandango is this high on the list, please just keep that in mind. The fact that his relevance didn’t last and will likely never reach a position anywhere close to as high as he did in 2013 is irrelevant when you take into account that he was never meant to be anything more than a fun side project to capitalize on something that WWE higher-ups found amusing. The TV ballroom dance craze, surprisingly, had not been picked on through a character. Enter a hapless chap named Johnny Curtis, who bombed in his post-NXT start-up phase and needed something to do. Fandango was hilarious. Curtis nailed it. The end result was a good match with one of the all-time greatest in Mania lore, Chris Jericho, and a mainstream, short-lived phenomenon that verified how hard Curtis and WWE had worked to get Fandango over. It was as simple as that. 159. Raymond Rougeau The Fabulous Rougeaus were an underrated tag team in the 1980s that the likes of Bret Hart has publicly praised for their work. Though they got lost in the shuffle in those days amidst one of the most stacked tag team divisions in WWE history, they were quite a formidable duo. Ray and his brother, Jacques, had a pretty good run at Mania. In the late 80s, the cards were not structured like they are today. Tag teams like Rougeaus were among the many acts to get decent time to perform their relevant match. It seemed like everything back then got a reaction from the people. The mid-card was deep and offered frequent, albeit short, opportunities for character development. The Rougeaus faced The Dream Team of former Tag Team Champions, Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake, at Mania III. It was a good match. They were involved in the Battle Royal at Mania IV that helped shape my glowing opinion of battle royals. At Mania V, they battled the era-specific tandem of Luke and Butch, the Bushwhackers. What separated him from his peers was that, after his wrestling career ended, he stayed on with WWE as the lead announcer of the French commentary team, which used to make their customary appearance like we still see with the Spanish guys. 158. The Brain Busters I’m playing the Hall of Fame card, here. Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson are two of the most significant second tier figures of the entire Mania Era, despite doing almost all of their significant stuff in NWA/WCW. They wrestled just one time at Mania when they were the top heel team of the WWE Tag Team title division for about a year or so. Their brief run in WWE was memorable and added important credentials to their resume. Managed by Bobby Heenan, they defeated Strike Force at Mania V in Atlantic City, meaning that they should probably be lower on this list. I’m not trying to be overly analytical, here, though. I love those guys. I’m a Brain Busters fanboy. They were finally inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012 with The Four Horsemen. That’s enough for me to overlook them for a hundred spots.
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