Top 3 closing matches in WWE WrestleMania history

The Grandest Stage of Them All, WrestleMania, is just a few months away. The anticipation for the long-running extravaganza is sky high. With two high profile matches already set for the big stage, the expectations couldn't be any higher.

Seth Rollins will take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship while Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair will take on Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship.

Which match will end up deserving the honour of closing the biggest show of the year is another matter.

Throughout history, the WrestleMania closing matches have fluctuated in quality. Some matches set the new standards for what a WrestleMania main event should be while some matches made you wonder how they ended up main eventing the show.

In this list, I will take a look at 3 matches that I think are the best closing matches in WrestleMania history.

#3 The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, WrestleMania X-Seven

The Rock and Steve Austin having a staredown while promoting their match at WrestleMania

The reason Paul McCartney and John Lennon were so successful is that they had chemistry. In music, the bar was set by Lennon and McCartney. In wrestling, the bar for chemistry was set by Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.

These two giants of professional sports never had a bad match with one another. It was always intense, and each match seemed epic, but none more so than their match at WrestleMania 17.

In front of over 67,000 fans at the Astrodome in Houston, Stone Cold Steve Austin sided with Vince McMahon and defeated The Rock for the WWE Championship. The match exceeded all expectations. It toppled their previous WrestleMania main event match from two years prior.

If you're looking for a match to introduce novice fans to the greatness of The Rock and Steve Austin, this should be the match. Everything flows smoothly. If it weren't for the awful bad guy turn by Austin, this match would have been perfect.

#2 Chris Benoit vs Triple H vs Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania XX

Benoit, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels stare each other down

On January 2004, Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble and jumped ship from the SmackDown roster to Raw to challenge Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.

The problem, so the storyline went, was that Triple H had a pre-existing feud with Shawn Michaels, and Shawn had sort of had his heart set on taking the main event title shot himself. So instead of the one on one match Benoit's Rumble victory promised, we get the dreaded triple threat match, the rules of which allow a champion to lose the match and the title without actually losing the fall.

I've never liked this gimmick, mostly because it seems lazy to end a match with three guys after one guy gets pinned. Why not have an elimination match, like WCW used to do with its triangle matches? Because if you end it after one fall, the prima donna star who whines and moans about not going over can lose the match without actually taking the fall.

I, in an uncharacteristic moment of cynicism, assumed this was why Michaels was inserted into the match, so Benoit could go over him and win the title and Triple H, having never lost a fall to Benoit, could come back in a few weeks (or months, if he was feeling generous), face Benoit in a singles match, no-sell the Crippler Crossface and win "his" belt back.

It turns out I was hilariously wrong about all of this. Triple H not only does the job for Benoit at WrestleMania XX, but he also goes out like a man, tapping out to the Crossface - the first time a WrestleMania main event ever ended in a submission.

The match itself was a masterpiece, with Michaels nearly killing himself and bleeding like a pig in the process. The finish came when Michaels was tossed from the ring, and Benoit clamped Triple H into the Cross-face. Hunter almost made it to the ropes, but Benoit rolled him back to the middle of the ring and cranked it for all he's got. Triple H tapped out, and Benoit won his first World Title.

Chris Benoit, the best wrestler of his generation, is finally a World Champion, standing in the ring holding the belt, confetti flying everywhere. But if that's not good enough, Benoit turns around and sees Eddie Guerrero in the ring all of a sudden. Eddie, also a World Champion as the holder of the WWE Title on SmackDown, embraces Benoit in the ring and they celebrate together.

#1 The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania 26

Shawn Michaels with a figure-four locked in on Taker

This match was billed as the "Streak vs Career" match and had so much emotion and heart, which you rarely see in a WWE ring anymore, and it is an all-time classic.

From the start of this feud, WWE did an amazing job of making this so personal, with Michaels costing the Undertaker the World Heavyweight Championship at the Elimination Chamber, and not letting the Undertaker refuse one more match between the two.

From the entrances, it told the classic story of a man walking to the end of his career. It was like all the fans that night knew that this was the last time we’d ever see Shawn Michaels wrestle.

It was back and forth, as these two legends battled it out to keep what was so important to each of them. Both men pulled out all the stops as they hit their signature moves multiple times, but in the end, as we all know, the Undertaker’s streak lived on, and the storybook of Shawn Michaels' career was closed forever.

After the celebration for the Undertaker was over, the sorrow from Shawn Michaels set in as we saw a legend walk away from the thing he loved the most. The Undertaker helped HBK up to his feet showed him the ultimate respect and shook his hand. Undertaker then left the ring, and gave Shawn his final moments in the ring, as he said goodbye to the fans.