With rumours of Vince McMahon coming out of retirement and back to the WWE, We will look at all of his matches at Wrestlemania and rank them from worst to best
If there’s one thing you can say about them, it’s that Vince McMahon‘s Wrestlemania matches are a spectacle. Spectacularly bad sometimes, but always worth a watch. Whether it’s to see an OAP try and fail to sell the easiest move it is to sell, or watching him beat his son with a chair while his drugged up wife watches on from a wheelchair, there’s something in a Vince McMahon match for everybody.
The chairman of WWE did not start wrestling until he was into his 50s, but that didn’t stop Vince McMahon from carving himself out a nice career in wrestling. He is former WWE Champion, multi-time ECW Champion and even a Royal Rumble winner, winning the 1999 edition of the match.
In this list, we’ll talk you through all of Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania matches. We’ll rank them from the worst to the best, with the emphasis on the worst. Some of his worst matches are genuinely the worst matches of all time, and have to be watched just to see how truly terrible they are.
Here are all of Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania matches ranked from best to worst.
Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania Matches
5. vs Pat McAfee (Wrestlemania 38)
Vince McMahon came out of retirement at age 76 for one last match. Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania match at Wrestlemania 38 came against former NFL kicker and WWE commentator Pat McAfee.
Pat McAfee had just defeated Vince’s protegee Austin Theory in a match, and as he celebrated in the ring, he goaded the now-elderly Mr McMahon to join him in the ring, looking for a fight.
Of course Vince McMahon wanted one last Wrestlemania match, stripping off his jacket and tie and entering the ring, referee in tow. The bell ring and the pair proceeded to have no just the worst of Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania matches, but the worst wrestling match in the history of the sport.
McMahon, now 76 years old, could barely, and his only form of offense was hitting some weak looking clotheslines on McAfee. He eventually won the match by kicking a football into the groin of McAfee, with such a punt to make Hans Moleman proud.
He was so old and so slow moving, this has to be the worst of Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania matches. It’s still worth a watch though, just to see how bad it is, and also to see Stone Cold Steve Austin stun McMahon one last time after the match. (It’s also the worst sell of the stunner since Linda McMahon)
4. vs Bret Hart (Wrestlemania 26)
Before Vince McMahon defeat Pat McAfee at Wrestlemania 38, this match was one of the worst Wrestlemania matches of all time.
Bret Hart was unable to wrestle at this point, concussions and stroke limiting his ability to take any bumps. Despite this he wrestled multiple times in WWE, at no point getting physical enough to produce any kind of quality in the ring. It was a sad end of one of the greatest wrestling careers of all time.
At Wrestlemania 26 Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon in a match that finally earned him revenge after the torment that was the Montreal Screwjob. This match was purely set up for Hart to beat down Vince as revenge, and he had the entire Hart family in the ring to help him do it.
It was not good to watch but was at least cathartic seeing Hart in the ring once again and giving Vince McMahon was he deserves. It was not a great Vince McMahon Wrestlemania match, but given the circumstances you can forgive that and enjoy it for what it is.
3. vs Hulk Hogan (Wrestlemania XIX)
One of the biggest attraction matches at Wrestlemania 19 was Vince McMahon vs Hulk Hogan. It seemed Vince spend the 2000s fighting all of his top stars, and ended up pulling great numbers doing just that despite not being a wrestler.
This was no different when Hulk Hogan was chosen as the opponent for McMahon. The feud was setup because Vince helped The Rock defeat Hulk Hogan, declaring that “Hulkamania is dead”. It later came out that Vince was angry about Hogan leaving for WCW years earlier, and always resented him for walking away from the WWE.
One added stipulation to the match was that if Hogan lost, he would be forced to retire. Naturally, Hulk Hogan won the match kept his career (Hulk Hogan’s last match was nearly 10 years later), but the match was great to watch. Both men utilised all the weapons they could in the Street Fight, and Roddy Piper made a surprise appearance for one of the best Wrestlemania returns ever.
2. vs Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 22)
One of the greatest wrestlers of all time was tasked by dragging Vince McMahon to a good match at Wrestlemania 21. It was a task that Shawn Michaels took to heart, and he did his best to make Vince McMahon look good as part of their long-running feud.
The pair fought many times in 2006, but Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania match against Shawn Michaels proved to be their best 1 on 1 encounter. Months prior McMahon had cost Michaels the chance to win his third Royal Rumble match, and this match was revenge for months of torment from Vince McMahon to Shawn Michaels.
As with most of McMahon’s best matches, this was No Hold’s Barred. The highlight was Shawn Michaels covering McMahon’s head with a trash can before nailing him with an elbow drop from the top of a ladder.
1. vs Shane McMahon (Wrestlemania X7)
The number one match out of Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania matches was his intense clash with his son Shane McMahon, at the greatest Wrestlemania of all, Wrestlemania X7. In a storyline which pitted Vince McMahon, owner of the WWF, against his son Shane, the new owner of WCW, the match weaved incredible storytelling elements into hardcore wrestling action that pulled the best out of the two McMahon’s.
This match was soap opera at it’s finest. It was McMahon family drama to it’s fullest, pulled off to perfection and accented by the inclusion of Mick Foley as referee and the long-awaited face turn by Mr McMahon’s mistress, Trish Stratus. Foley got involved, being attacked and attacking McMahon to huge pop from the crowd, although the biggest reaction would come from an unlikely source.
Linda McMahon sat in the corner of a ring in a wheelchair, drugged to the gills for months by her husband so he could continue on with Trish Stratus. However, at the peak of the match, she arose from her chair, hit McMahon square in the testicles and helped her son Shane win one of the most entertaining Wrestlemania matches of all time.
There is no doubt in my mind this Vince McMahon’s best Wrestlemania match, and his best match overall. It was pure drama done right, that played perfectly to the skills of the two non-wrestlers wrestling in the match.
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