Austin below Undertaker and HBK? I don't know....Austin did have an impact by creating the attitude era, bigger than Undertaker, HBK and arguably more impact than Hogan.

But you are valued to your opinion Kev, looking forward to seeing your justification of the next 3, great reading as always Kev

For what it's worth , I was always a Stone Cold fan because my wife said I looked like him .

RESPONSE FROM KE: Is this the wife that looked like Traci Brooks?

Stone Cold should be 2nd to Hogan.
No way should the Undertaker and HBK be ahead of Austin.

(LOL) Yes, Kevin . I admire your memory !! LOL LOL
You saw the photo , right ?
Too bad we didn't have any offspring of our own !

VERY unfortunately , that's my "ex" wife .

I will agree with u that the Rock & Austin should be back 2 back but as far as their positions I will say just like i said about the Rock Austin's Byrate for his main events pre & post far excede Micheals & takers and shouldn't that be apart of the equation your impact on WM thats like saying Russell is greater than Jordan he does have more championship but by asfar Jordan had a greater effect on the ratings and attendence. also when Shawn was gone with his back injury as great as he is noone really cared if he would come back where as everyone wants to see Austin wrestle come every Wrestlemania and i would say 10 of his 12 WM appearences were must see u can throw the Savio match & Hall but every other appearence no matter what capacity was a must see u can't say that about the early Micheals or early Taker

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday Eck so I'll drop my #'s 5 & 4 on ya.
At # 5 I had Stone Cold, for for all the obvious reasons that you stated above.
# 4 I went with what some might consider an odd choice. I went with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.And I have to admit I'm marking out with this one, but after hearing all those stories about how Vince had it all on the line going into the first WrestleMania and needed it to be a sucsess,who was in the main event? Piper was the guy that everybody wanted to see get his kilt handed to him. Yes Hogan was UBER-OVER but Piper was the perfect villain and you can't have good in this world without evil.Not to mention WM 3 will always be my favorite WM, and the fact that I actually thought he was going to retire made that special to me.(I was 11, what did I know) I have a friend,and one of our all time favorite moments leading up to WM 3 was when Piper destroyed the Flower Shop.Do you know how much force it takes to shatter a baseball bat? Classic.
Honestly, when you first said that you were compling this list The first names that popped into my head were Hogan.HBK, Taker and Piper.Not Rock not Austin not Savage,Hart or HHH. Piper! I don't think the first one would have worked without him and if the first one didn't work we wouldn't be having this discussion. And I think that say's it all.

Hey Kev, I have yet to remark on this list as I can pretty much see your point on all the stars within a 1-2 position basis, but this one WOW, honestly surprised me, I have Austin at #2 borderline #1 to be honest, no one had a bigger impact in their time except maybe Hogan, but Austin Sold the HELL out of those PPVs for WWE, I give Taker Hogan and HBK Alot of Credit and am a huge fan of all Taker and Michaels and look forward to NO match more than that 1 at WM 25, but can you honestly say any of them brought the company more dough and gave more memorable moments overall???

I disagree with this choice. I thought 'Taker should've been here. Austin's matches were more memorable. His matches with Bret and Rocky (X-7) are two of the most talked about in 'Mania history. 'Takers matches aren't as prominent in 'Mania history. I can't put on a 'Taker match to someone who's never seen wrestling to illustrate what WrestleMania is about. I can do that for Austin.

I would have Austin no 3 and the Undertaker no 4, but pretty difficult to split these guys, so far call Kev. My prediction for your top 3.

Undertaker 3

Hbk 2

Hogan 1

Don't tell me Cena... I mean Michaels... comes first this. If he does, 'Spoiler: Michaels wins' is quite valid as a comment on your further blog posts.

Just to add to others: no one has produced more money for the company, no one has given bigger buy-rates, no one has gotten a bigger reaction than Austin. Austin's 3 matches with the Rock are so well known, Austin started the Attitude Era with a title win, Austin fought Bret in one the best matches in WM history. He is the biggest star there is.

Yet he's 4th.

K, mate.

i dont understand all the hater-ation against HBK in here. Ok, Kev's a Michaels mark. But is michaels not deserving of a top 3 berth?

Ok so maybe he didnt main event all the wrestlemanias he's been in. (Though, he's mainevented a lot). The truth of the matter is, very few people in the business has ever NOT needed to main event a show in order to impact the show. Shawn is one of them. Mania-wise, we've seen it time and time again (Flair retirement, Angle match, Chris Jericho match, ladder match with razor).

So the business was on a downturn when michaels was champion. and on an uptick when stone cold was. Coincidence? Maybe. maybe not. But the buy rates for michaels' reign wasnt a direct reflection of his popularity as champion. Just coincided with a short-lived fad (WCW).

Also, if you want to talk about impact, there's no MITB match/tlc match without Michaels/Razor. also, in fact, Michaels used to make the IC title a hot commodity. It was never the same after he didnt carry it anymore.

Attitude era? Sorry to bust your bubble austin fans, but michaels STARTED the attitude era and GAVE stone cold a chance to perfect it when he put stone cold over WM 14.

Also legitimized Benoit as a champion in one of the most memorable wm moments ever. as well as john cena two years ago.

how many pwi match of the years has shawn michaels had at wm. it's extraordinary.

more than that, how many oh $h*t moments has michaels had at mania. and how many has austin had?

outside of shawn, austin had 3 good matches at mania. and they all came against the same person. (rock). i think it's a testament to michaels that whoever he wrestles is elevated. even if it's not the top star in the company.

so take it easy on hbk in here. he deserves a WM top 3 berth. not because kev's a mark, but because that's just how it should be

Where are all the Hart fans saying: "I can't believe you have Austin above the Hitman?" Bret did win the WM match with Stone Cold.

Actually I'm surprised you listed Austin below Undertaker for many of the same reasons already noted.

I don't understand why so many of you think Austin is the best Wrestlemania star. He had four quality matches at Wrestlemania. The one agaisnt Vega was a snoozer and the one against Hall was terrible...and I like both Austin and Hall, but that match was terrible on a level that can't be described. His last match with Rock was only a shadow of their past performances. HBK, Taker, and Hogan have several more matches to their credit. HBK stole the show many more times than Austin ever did, and Hogan headlined the show more times than Austin even appeared. Undertaker's longevity alone puts him in the top two. Hogan will be number one.

I kind of agree with this placement. I mean the top four I think were indubitably gonna come down to SCSA, Hogan, HBK, and Taker, it's just a matter of who goes where. Personally, I think it's a toss-up between Taker and Hogan for no. 1, because never losing a wm match counts a lot for something. Keep in mind it's not top superstars period, but top superstars of WM. We give Hogan plenty of well-deserved Kudos, but I could honestly see either HBK, Taker or Austin going over him (though, maybe not all three)

Too bad Stone Cold's career was cut short due to injuries. He might have been even higher on the list . Besides my previous mention of my liking Austin , I always enjoyed his no nonsense appeal to the common man .

Yes, Austin drew huge dollars for WWE. But the "Attitude" era couldn't have happened without the groundwork that was laid by Hulk Hogan (and his era, etc.). It was Hogan who first became a household name, nationwide and internationally, and it was Hogan who built WrestleMania* into the institution that was able to draw those dollars in the first place.

Austin was the reason those people watched week after week, but Hogan was the reason they even knew what wrestling was, and weren't instead spending their dollars on CDs or movie tickets or whatever. Austin took the industry to new heights, but Hogan built it in the first place.

(* Obviously many others "built" WrestleMania, both behind the scenes and on the mat. But in the context of this list, you have to identify an individual, and that's definitely Hogan.)

When Steve Austin was still competing in the WWE, he simply overshadowed the Undertaker @ WrestleMania...

Kevin-

Are you surprised SCSA hasn't made a single appearance on Raw to hype his HOF induction?

It seems like the WWE has really dropped the ball on promoting his entry. I would have been playing videos every single week about Austin, like they did last year with Flair. It would have been time better spent then endless 12 Rounds previews.

I still can't accept that the biggest star in wrestling history routinely wore jean shorts.

Like the Rock, Austin can't match HBK and Taker as far as longevitiy, but his impact is unsurpassed. I've always felt that it was a clear cut #1 in Hogan, and 2-5 would be Austin, Rock, HBK, and Undertaker in some order, with no true right or wrong answer. Like Hart, I felt that HBK should also get dinged for the Rock n Wrestling era that was built around the two of them, and that the biggest boom period yet occured in their absense. Still, I think it's fitting that Rock and Austin are on the list next to one another, since their careers will forever be intertwined with their three classic Wrestlemania matches and as the top guys of the Attitude Era.

Enjoyed this list so far Kevin, and to all those saying Undertaker shouldn't be high up, why not? He's 16-0 at the event regardless of whether he's bled in all of the matches. That gives him a pretty impressive set of credentials.

what are gonna do, shock everyone that you didnt have shawn michaels first????? WOW HES GONNA BE 2ND. your list is ridiculous

Attitude era? Sorry to bust your bubble austin fans, but michaels STARTED the attitude era and GAVE stone cold a chance to perfect it when he put stone cold over WM 14.

The only thing Michaels started was the beatdown they received from WCW for two and a half years. The Attitude Era should be credited more to the competition from ECW and WCW, but Austin's 3:16 speech was what blew it off in the WWF. Before someone mentions DX, DX started in 1997 while Austin's speech was in 1996. The only reason Michaels put over Austin was because if he didn't Undertaker was going to tape his fists and beat him up. If it hadn't been for that, Vince probably would have let him forfeit the title like he did the previous year to Bret. I can understand Austin getting outranked by Undertaker and Hogan, but him, Rock, and Bret getting outranked by HBK is ridiculous.