"20 best modern-day WrestleMania matches" P1

These are from WWE's YouTube list of "20 best modern-day WrestleMania matches". I am guessing by modern day they mean that everything from 2003 on, as there are no matches from earlier than 03 there.

20) AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon - WrestleMania 33

I definitely appreciate this a bit more than I did in 2017, but I still don't think it's a good match or anything even close to that. The beginning stuff with AJ paying for being too cocky & arrogant is legitimately pretty great, but as the middle-section of the match takes over, the match quickly loses me as Shane starts getting more & more offense in. It drags & isn't interesting in the slightest, but there's at least that one-armed Styles Clash spot, which is awesome. It really comes down to how much you can tolerate watching Shane do his thing w/ those killer submissions & devastating punches of his, and in my eyes, he had no business going 50/50 with a guy many call the best in the world. It's a shame the match ended up being like that, because the beginning had so much promise of some solid storytelling. *

19) Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 29

The first half isn't interesting at all, but eventually the match gets going. The highlight of that said boring first half was EASILY Michaels getting F5'd - he kept on getting Brock's attention to get HHH back into things, so him getting F5'd actually felt pretty rewarding/fulfilling. Really liked the drama of HHH softening Brock's arm with them chairshots, and then locking in a Kimura of his own - they milked that very well w/ Brock's selling of it being amazing. Overall it's definitely too long, and there's lots of dull/forgettable stuff + HHH from underneath just wasn't very interesting, but there was SOME very good stuff in there, especially that Kimura drama I mentioned. **1/4

18) Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker - WrestleMania 30

There's a real sluggish feel to this right from the get go - Taker gets to kick's Brock's ass for a while, but very soon Brock takes over & he is pretty damn dominant till the end. I liked Brock's beatdown throughout - he did some very good work over Taker's leg & mid-section. Now while I'm sure some of it (if not all) can be "credited" to the concussion Taker suffered, I thought that his selling was really good - he sold the exhaustion of being systematically destroyed by an entirely different animal, a BEAST if you will, fantastically. He did have some very nice hope spots as well. The match definitely felt very cold right from the get go, which is very odd w/ it being a Brock match, a Taker match, let alone a bout between them at WrestleMania, but overall I'd say it's actually a very enjoyable, good match. Prior to this I actually hadn't watched it since 2014, so it was pretty intriguing going back to it & focus more on the actual match rather than the gigantic moment that is the ending. ***

17) Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Sin Cara vs. Stardust vs. The Miz vs. Zack Ryder - WrestleMania 32

This was a very good spotfest, that more than served it's purpose in being the hot opener for the show. Everybody got some time to shine - Ziggler with his Superkick sequence, Owens & Zayn with them destroying each other, Sin Cara with his two big dives, Stardust with the polka dot ladder homage to Dusty & then Ryder with his victory, which was a very nice, feel-good moment out of nowhere. ***1/2

16) Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair - WrestleMania 34

This was full of competitive, intense back & forth action w/ a very nice feel of urgency to it. Some good psychology w/ Charlotte's shoulder & Asuka's neck as well. Loved Asuka's kicks & stomps + the Spanish Fly spot was pretty awesome. ***1/2

15) Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H - WrestleMania 34

This was pretty much perfectly laid out for Ronda's in-ring debut. Starting it w/ Angle & HHH was the right call to make the audience wait for Ronda to get her hands on Steph, and then Steph & HHH awesomely cutting her & Angle's tag attempts definitely added even more to that anticipation. Once Ronda gets the tag, oh boy are we in for a treat; she delivers one helluva hot tag & then the HHH deal w/ her delivering her finish to him was excellent. The whole finishing stretch with them kicking things up a notch was also awesome. Overall it's just an absolute banger - it somehow represents what WrestleMania is at it's best - a complete wild spectacle. Certainly didn't see something of this quality coming when looking at the match on paper as WM34 was looming on the horizon. ****

14) Seth Rollins vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 33

HHH works the knee for 25 minutes, but there is no payoff or anything to it. Just a couple of very solid selling moments by Rollins in the sunset flip attempt & then the post-Buckle Bomb selling, but overall his selling was suuuuuper spotty at best. Flying around like usual, if not even more than usual, making HHH's kneework meaningless. Not a good match at all. *

13) The Undertaker vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 28

The 14 year old me watching this live about 4 in the morning thought it was just about the GOAT, but now 7 years later, it's not so good. Or good at all, in fact. Slow brawling with long-ass chair beatdowns + overly dramatic acting by HBK. I am finding it hard to come up with anything I liked about it; I guess at least Taker’s punches looked good, and the post-match with him getting up, not having to be helped out was a good payoff to WM27, but yeah, this wasn’t my type of wrestling at all. *

12) Steve Austin vs. The Rock - WrestleMania 19

I've always love the staredown that starts the match off; it's intense, and you can feel something special is about to go down. It's one helluva brawl & bombfest - Rock was awesome with his heel work bell to bell, and Austin sure went out with a very strong performance. Superb atmosphere & energy too, but that goes without saying as it's Austin vs. Rock. A very fitting finale to their rivalry & the in-ring career of Stone Cold Steve Austin. ****

11) Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H - WrestleMania 30

Always been one of my favorite matches, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Everything from the legendary pre-match Monster video, to the entrances that show the differences in the two characters perfectly, to the actual match. The atmosphere is magical with the crowd reacting huge to everything Bryan did, thus making all of his comebacks even more amazing than they already are. Bryan's babyface performance is incredible - he took some absolutely BRUTAL bumps, and I loved him busting out some of his old ROH stuff, like that big dive he did to Triple H outside the ring. Might just be the best performance of HHH's career too - his armwork was focused & vicious as hell; the announce table spot was brutal, and the crossfaces + that Tiger Suplex were so awesome. Not only that, but his character work throughout was great too w/ his facial expressions. Gotta mention Steph as well - she was really great talking shit to Bryan the whole way through. Added quite a bit to the bout. It's all about as compelling as wrestling gets for me. Simply put, when I think about my favorite WWE matches of all-time, nothing comes to my mind faster than Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, WrestleMania 30. *****

Gonna continue with the top-10 later on!