I had Savage as eight, though he's a Wrestler I remember fondly from my childhood.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Oh Kevin. I fought back and forth over Savage and Piper, but not at 7-10, but 3-4. Its distressing as I was convinced being the old school wrestling historian that you are, that both of those guys would be higher on your list.
My actual #8 & #7 could be interchangeable. I have Austin #8 & The Rock #7. No question they were both huge stars, and they both helped Vince regain control over the wrestling world. You'll probably argue that the WWE never generated the revenue that they did during their era, and you'd probably be right. Hell, I was buying NWO shirts back then. But this list is a total body of work, not the best WM's during the best economical era.
BTW, HHH ahead of Savage?

Hey Kev - how come it took so long for Savage & Bret Hart to wrestle against each other, till they were both in WCW I believe ..they should have had some classic Wrestlemania Matches - it seems odd they never paired the two together in the WWef

RESPONSE FROM KE: They actually had a real good match on Saturday Night's Main Event in 1987.

small mistake, savage and sherri lost to dusty and sapphire at wm 6. you said savage and sherri won.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Good catch. I changed it. Thanks.

Wow Kev, you must really have a h***** for Triple H. First you rank Bret at 8 and now even Savage is below Triple H? Both Bret and Savage have had multiple all time great WrestleMania moments....whereas Triple H has only had ONE all time great match/moment at WrestleMania (XX) and that moment was more about Benoit than HHH.
I understand Triple H has had more main event title matches, but it's scripted entertainment. HHH main eventing 7 times cannot be taken in the same context as a team winning the Superbowl 7 times.

I love your column but I strongly disagree with placing Triple H above Savage and the Hitman.

I'm suffering from Macho Madness !!!

I think Savage deserves an induction into the hall of fame next year.

I see on the dvd "The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event" Bret Hart & Savage faced off in 1987 , but that was very early for both - & Bret Hart was mainly a tag team wrestler with the Hart Foundation - but when they met in WCW, they alluded in their feud - that one was "afraid" to wrestle the other and thats why they never met on a regular basis - is that true Kev ?

RESPONSE FROM KE: No, that's just story line. Hart and Savage got along fine, according to Bret's book.

Kevin Eck is a victim of circumstances. Triple H and WWE have spent years force feeding Triple H down our throats at WrestleMania just for lists and "historical" retrospectives like this.

Will Stephanie McMahon be providing special commentary on the upcoming DVD?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Nice one.

Jason-
I don't envy Kevin over the next few days if he chooses to defend himself once the inevitable placements of HBK/HHH surface .

I know you said you struggled with #6 - #8. I'm really interested to see what your opinions are about HHH and his impact on Wrestlemania. For years, Savage was a top performer and his matches @ Wrestlemania 3, 4 & 5 were significant in helping to shape the wrestling landscape that followed. At a time when PPV was in it's infancy, if you weren't in attendance your only way to watch Wrestlemania was either via closed circuit TV or on VHS three months later. When Savage won the tournament @ WMIV it was such a monumental moment that it made mainstream headlines. Yes, Hogan may have lost / been stripped of the belt a month prior to WMIV but in truth, Savage was the first wrestler other than Hogan to hold the belt in the past 4 years. A title reign of that length would never happen again, ever. Putting the belt on Savage was a historic decision and showed that even as amazing a draw as Hogan was, the WWF was more than just a one man show. It opened up opportunities for more and more talented performers. I'd argue that if it weren't for Savage, it would of taken even longer for other wrestlers similar in size to achieve main event status (more specifically, Shawn Michaels).

wow we had Bret & macho man flipped flopped which i guess is OK odn't worry though when u finally put HHH in his place I let all these haters know why he deserves it over Macho & hitman

Again can't argue this one Kev, I also have "The Macho Man" as my # 7. Although I stand firm in my belief that Hitman is # 8 and Savage is # 7,I have to concur with others that HHH shouldn't be above either of these guys, and this from a huge HHH fan. I know the criteria for your list but I kind of based mine purley on match quality and WrestleMania moments. You could put all of The Game's matches from Mania together and I'd put them up against either Hart's or Savage's and it's like comparing Mickey James' "apples" to Awesome Kong's "oranges".

RESPONSE FROM KE: I love apples, by the way.

its kevin's opinion, i don't see why so many people are taking offense. it's a subjective list. there is no right or wrong and the criteria is different for everyone.

Lots of interest in Bret/Macho matches, so I guess it's worth mentioning that they fought on a Japan tour in 1994. Bret made reference to it in his book, "When Jack Lanza came to us and flatly said to me, 'catch something quick on 'im,' it wasn't hard to read the dejected look on Randy's face ... So I told Randy, 'Let's just do it for us.' We went out that night and had a beautiful match ... and the usually sombre Japanese fans came to their feet when I slapped on the sharpshooter and Randy tapped out" (pg. 349, Canada).

Nobody is taking offense they're just disagreeing which people are certainly entitled to do

Kevin is entitled to his point of view, which is his opinion, not a statement of fact!

I am a Triple H fan (wait for the backlash), but I think he has stunk at WM every year. His best moments have been at other PPV's.

I can't wait to read the comments when Triple H finally appears on this list :D

Hey Kevin... Savage also had a non-wrestling role as a commentator for Wrestlemania IX. But i can see how it's easy to forget that WM.

In the 80s and early 90s when Bret and Randy wrestled there was only one world title so it was that much harder to be a main-eventer. With the three brands now it artifically gets more people into "main-events". The IC belt though was a bigger deal so that has to almost count as equalling one of today's world titles. Likewise Randy's retirement match was like the second main event on WM 7's card. I think Randy should be higher than The Rock and HHH. Maybe #4 or #5. Does anyone know what the story is behind McMahon and he not getting along? Does it go all the way back to 1995ish when he left for WCW? I really hoped he would've had a couple more years with WWE late in his career like Flair did.

Also I hated it when Macho went from the bandana, head-band and robe to the cowboy hat and mismatched outfits.
The Bret Hart vs. Macho 1987 SNME match is on youtube.
"Elizabeth, down the aisle!! OOOOH Yeah!!"

I always thought his character was cool but I didn't fully appreciate his skill in the ring until I recently got back into wrestling and started watching some of the classic WWF stuff.

Really enjoying the list. Can't wait to see the rest.

Wow, Macho and Hart below HHH. Very interesting indeed.

Ok. I wasn't going to say anything because this list IS subjective or whatnot, but this is starting to get ridiculous.

i realize that Trips has mainevented a lot of WMs. but come on. a lot of those were just paper matches. HHH's impact on WM is not nearly as big as Bret's or Savage's. He should've been put somewhere on top of Cena but def not the last two.

You can pretty much put the early wrestlemania and their success on the shoulders of 3 men. Hogan, Andre, and Savage. Hart carried the championship for years because you had a real sense that he was the best, not because of what he did behind the scenes, which let's face it, Triple H has done. It's easy to get paper view buys when there is no competition. even though bret main evented wm's that didnt gross much money, it's still a testament to him because he was going up against the unbelievable force of wcw at the time. bret pretty much carried the company along with michaels and 'taker.

this is list is starting to take a turn for the worse.

That's interesting bout what was said in Bret Hart's book bout Savage...however that makes the point that match was in Japan ..no one ever saw that match here - in a pay per view or at any Wrestlemania - it also is evident that Ric Flair & Hogan never, ever wrestled in a Wrestlemania only in house shows in the early 1990's - it took WCW to put those matches together and along with the Savage & Hart pay per view match - WCW also put back together the BLade Runners - Sting & Warrior - so they weren't as inept as the WWE makes them out to be ..the big question is why weren't any of those matches mentioned ever in a Wrestlemania or Pay per view ?

Hey, Just the sheer number of comments on the hitman and savage will show you that you've got it a little mixed up here... these guys deserve to be in the top 5 - keeping the wrestlemania caveat in mind...

1) Shawn (although I am hitman guy)
2) Hogan
3) Savage
4) Bret
5 and 6) Austin or HHH (u pick)

and then comes the crowd...

I'm impressed at the quality of his opponents. Steamboat, Hogan, Rhodes, Piper, DiBiase, Crush... wait, Crush?

Well, that's still a pretty impressive list.

Bret deserves no.8, which is very respectable and Savage, well i can't really say b/c I tuned into wrestling mid 90s but Rock needs to come next considering he has only had a handfull of big WrestleMania matchs before disappearing, then Taker cause while his streak has rejuvenated his WM career most of his matches heave been fairly normal on the grandest stage of them all. Following that I reckon HHH is next, then Austin, then HBK, then and it pains me to say it but Hogan

Wow, people really take this list of yours way to serious. I for one have been enjoying tuning in every day to see who is next. Keep up the good work!

im interested to see who ranks higher..... hhh or shawn michaels