Best build to wrestlemania?

Blueblood9

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Dec 11, 2011
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After watching takeover last night and playing on YouTube watching the Daniel Bryan build to wm30. And realizing a lot of the builds to this year's events were underwhelming for 1 reason or another. What are some of the best builds and payoffs to wrestlemania. One that sticks out is the rock and stone cold 1. And for all the slack the authority angle gets I really enjoyed the bryan build yo 30 and that pop is one of the biggest I remember.

Thoughts?
 

LEAFANFORLIFE23

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Jun 17, 2010
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The best build they ever did was WM 17 they have never come close to it since and they never will because they will never have that level of star power again.
 
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BigBadBruins7708

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WM14.

You had the long build of Austin chasing hist 1st title and emerging as the mega star. And you had the perfect heel in cocky, DX Shawn. Add in the feud with Tyson and it worked

You also had the long and turbulent build between Taker and Kane. Great build starting with the Taker/Michaels HIAC and only went up from there.

HHH/Owen had good build for the European title. Between Owen's injury, Chyna's interference to the point of being handcuffed to Slaughter, the bat to the injured ankle
 

BonMorrison

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WM30 had an incredible build that was entirely not by WWE's own doing which is always very funny to me.

The build to Orton/HHH was amazing but the match was a failure.

But yeah, WM17 as a whole is the winner here.
 
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WingsMJN2965

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In the last 5 years, KO vs. Jericho is probably the best built. I don't even count Bryan in WM30 because they literally were forced into that and didn't really want him.
 

boredmale

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I would have to say Wrestlemania 3. Taking 2 of the biggest names in wrestling at the time and having them face off was huge. Even I who couldn't stand Hogan was interested to see where the WWF would take this match to
 

Habsfan18

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I seem to recall the buildup for Rock vs Austin at WM 17 was pretty awesome. I don’t think I had ever been so excited for a main event.
 

Cor

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It’s pretty rare to have good buildups because WrestleMania isn’t about the buildups or even quality of wrestling but about having the biggest moments.

They sometimes do fall into good builds (some mentioned in here) but it’s usually the bland point to the sign stuff
 
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BigBadBruins7708

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It’s pretty rare to have good buildups because WrestleMania isn’t about the buildups or even quality of wrestling but about having the biggest moments.

They sometimes do fall into good builds (some mentioned in here) but it’s usually the bland point to the sign stuff

no, thats just the PG era Wrestlemania builds.

from WM1 up to around WM20, it was all about the build ups. The point of Wrestlemania was to be where all the major storylines of the year had their blow offs. It was 12 months of back and forth feuds leading up to that one big match at Wrestlemania
 
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AfroThunder396

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It’s pretty rare to have good buildups because WrestleMania isn’t about the buildups or even quality of wrestling but about having the biggest moments.

They sometimes do fall into good builds (some mentioned in here) but it’s usually the bland point to the sign stuff
This, Vince doesn't care about storytelling or wrestling. He wants Wrestlemania to be a spectacle. The biggest thing that ever bigged, the greatest that's ever greatest. Everything needs to be history, everything needs to be a moment.

A lot of fans feel like Wrestlemania should be a season finale where everything climaxes but the creative team doesn't see it that way at all.
 

BonMorrison

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Yes, the lack of build has been a characteristic of recent Mania's not an all-time thing.

The irony of this is that in order to create these "moments" WWE so craves, there generally has to be a build up for it to happen. Ya know - storytelling. :laugh: This is why Bryan's WM30 win was so amazing.

I'm not opposed to starting/continuing stories at Mania but in general, I do think it should be a "finale" of sorts for most of the stories. Even on Raw the other night, they were talking about Raw like it was the premiere of a new season of TV.
 

Engebretson

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The irony of this is that in order to create these "moments" WWE so craves, there generally has to be a build up for it to happen. Ya know - storytelling.

Just imagine Hogan slamming Andre without any actual build to the match. It might have impressed some folks, but it would not have been the moment it was without the build that went into that match.
 

ManofSteel55

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1, 3, 5, 14, 17, 20. Even 21 was okay with the long build up of Batista-HHH, but it was a step below the rest. The only recent ones that I felt were along the same lines as the glory days of Mania builds were Cena-Rock, but those weren't executed well in my opinion.

I think WM 20 is the last truly great WM build.
 

BruinDust

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Depends on how long you consider the build to Wrestlemania to be.

Because IMO you'd be hard pressed to find a better stretch of wrestling television than Survivor Series 1998 all the way up to the climax of the story of Rock/Vince/Corporation vs. Austin/Foley/DX/etc. at WM XV in April 1999.
 

bruins309

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Personally, I dig Wrestlemania 3 because ALL the matches had some sort of well thought out build.

And the biggest ones had memorable and great angles around it: Hogan-Andre, Savage-Steamboat, Piper-Adonis.

As years pass, some stuff gets lost in memory and you forget stuff lower on the card but that show had it all. WM17 was great, but other than the main event it was mostly tossed together in late stages.
 

HandsomeHollywood

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Mar 20, 2017
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Personally, I dig Wrestlemania 3 because ALL the matches had some sort of well thought out build.

And the biggest ones had memorable and great angles around it: Hogan-Andre, Savage-Steamboat, Piper-Adonis.

As years pass, some stuff gets lost in memory and you forget stuff lower on the card but that show had it all. WM17 was great, but other than the main event it was mostly tossed together in late stages.
That's a fair assessment.
I personally found Rock and Austin's build a little hollow. The Debra stuff, Vince's involvement. Rock and Austin was a feud out of necessity due to being the two top guys at the time. Great match, great promo video package, but I never thought of them as natural foils to each other from a creative point of view.
Mania X-7 also featured a rushed Undertaker vs Triple H program. I did very much enjoy the builds to TLC and Jericho vs Regal though.

WrestleMania 5's main event might be my all time favorite build for a single match. Mega Powers explode indeed.
 

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