Best Wrestlemania opening match? Part 1

Battle royale from Wrestlemania IV.

Bret smashing the trophy was cool.

I like the Battle Royal, but I always hated how Neidhart was eliminated so quickly by George Steele who didn't even get in the ring.

This is Tough one. When I was younger I had WM2 and WM4 tapes...so those 2 beginning matches brings back some good nostalgia, but I had to go with Shawn and Tito. That match was sweet.

The Rockers vs Barbarian and Haku. Great, quick paced match. Big props to Haku who was able to keep up w/ Shawn and Marty's high paced offense.

HBK/Tito is decent, but Tito looked sluggish as hell. Shawn put on a solid show but looked to be constrained by Tito. He had to slow himself down a lot.

Under different circumstances I agree with you 100%. It was just the aftermath of both matches I think that determined their placement on the card. If it was just Savage winning the title and celebrating with Liz, then yes that should have closed the show, but all of the Flair drama and pull apart after the match wouldn't have ended the show with that one memorable moment. On the same token Hogan v. Sid was garbage and had a crappy finish, but the return of the Warrior and him & Hogan celebrating at the end of the show, was the moment they were looking for. Warrior's return halfway through the card, would have derailed the rest of the show and would have taken away greatly from Savage's title win later on. So while I see where you are coming from it just made more feasible sense to do it the way it was done.

I think half the reason that Hogan went on last is because they wanted to end the show with Warrior returning.

I wouldn't compare this to the Hogan/Rock situation at WM18. HHH and Jericho had a crap feud leading into the event and nobody gave a crap about it. Hogan's big WM return was what people want to see. W/ WM8, Savage and Flair had a compelling storyline that everyone was invested in. Its not like it was a match nobody cared about. It was a big deal at the time w/ Liz in the middle of them. Warrior returning in the middle of the card would have given the crowd plenty of time to recoup and re-energize before the main event.

If we are to assume that Vince felt the crowd would be dead after Warrior's return then it makes no sense that Warrior and Savage weren't the main event the year before. Hogan and Slaughter's storyline was basically dead by the time we got to the event while everyone was interested in Savage/Warrior. Savage and Liz getting back together stole the show and the crowd was dead by the main event. I still say that it was Hogan's BS that led to him and Sid main eventing.

Good point on WM7. I will never deny when someone makes a valid point. I wasn't comparing storylines with the Savage/Flair v. Jericho/HHH, I was just saying crowd reaction and maybe that wasn't the best choice of comparison. But at the same time, they were hyping it as Hogan's final match in the company "at that time" and that he was leaving, and he was their biggest star for the previous 10 years add to that the surprise of the Warrior, as much as that match with Sid sucked and so did the DQ ending, it made sense for it to close the show for those reasons. I would have liked to have seen Savage & Flair close a Mania too, but when I was watching at that point, I wouldn't haved cared less if the The Natrual Disasters v. Money Inc. closed the show. I think if the match ended with Hogan putting Sid over and not the DQ finish, there wouldn't be much of a problem. But this is 21 years ago, it really is irrelevant at this point. I have no doubt Hogan BS was involved, not in match placement however, but rather the finish. Because the way they were hyping it being Hogan's last WWF match, there was no way he wasn't going to close the show.

Lol Ar-Reba lol