The defending champion of the WWE Title: Triple H, with his girl Stephanie McMahon and his new father figure Vince McMahon at ringside; as well as having the benefit of Shane McMahon as Special Guest Referee to provide Quick Counts in his favour and to refuse to count the pinning attempt of the Challenger when he scored a DDT on the Game. And who was this seemingly unfortunate challenger? None other than The Rock, who was supposed to have had Stone Cold in his corner to even things out, but for some unknown reason Stone Cold was seemingly "not present" thereby leaving The Rock with seemingly impossible odds. Despite all this, The Rock managed to dislocate HHH's arm and he took Referee Shane out of action by giving both him and Trips a Double Rock Bottom through the Spanish Announcers' Table.
And after the odds still proved too much and he was overwhelmed by a Pedigree and an assault by all male members of the McMahon-Helmsley regime; the match got even more awesome when the all too familiar sound of BREAKING GLASS sounded and an irate Stone Cold came out and laid out ALL OF THE ROCK'S OPPONENTS WITH A STEEL CHAIR.
Even more awesomeness happened when Linda McMahon came out with the recently fired Earl Hebner and shoved her protesting daughter to the ground with almost total indifference.
And then to cap it all off, The Rock scored a spinebuster (the pop when Rocky hit the spinebuster was SUPERSONIC; one'd thought the arena was going to implode) and a People's Elbow to score the pinfall victory after Hebner made the count. Then Stone Cold came out again and after a brief stare-down, The Rock and Stone Cold celebrated with a beer-bash. Truly the highlight of The Rock vs Triple H feud and a brilliant CMoA that definitely more than made up for WrestleMania 2000, which was four weeks prior, letting a heel champion (Triple H of course) successfully retain his title in the main event.
2001:
The 30-minute Ultimate Submission match between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle was about as technically sound of a wrestling match as you could have, and the fact that only submissions counted for falls allowed it to really showcase both of them at their best.
Shane McMahon's Last Man Standing Match against The Big Show was not bad, but the ending - where Shane won the match by hitting a super-leap-of-faith off the top of the Titantron onto Big Show - was certainly a CMOA for Shane. You can see the entire match here.
2004:
This year's event featured a WrestleMania rematch between Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship...in Canada. During the match, the assigned referee is knocked out, and Michaels puts Benoit in the Sharpshooter. Immediately, the fans react - and when Earl Hebner (the man who helped screw over Canadian wrestling legend Bret Hart as part of the Montreal Screwjob) runs down to the ring, they start booing even louder. (Why there wasn't a riot over this, no one knows.) The Screwjob tease was played out for all it was worth for about five minutes, finally ending with Triple H breaking up the hold. Afterwards, Benoit locked Michaels in the Sharpshooter to make him tap out, ending a match just as good as their WrestleMania outing (if not better) and giving the Canadian crowd a symbolic apology for the Montreal Screwjob.
"Ring the bell Earl! Ring it! You've done it before!"
Benoit's promo the following night on Raw, given he's not thought to be considerably talented in this regard, deserves mention too.
On the undercard was an Intercontinental Championship match between Mick Foley and Randy Orton. The match - considered by Foley himself to be the best of his career - was filled with several highlights, but none as intense as when Foley dropped Orton back-first on a pile of thumbtacks to counter an RKO. The sight of Orton screaming and writhing in authentic agony with dozens of thumbtacks buried to the base in the bare flesh of his back is one of the most unforgettably gruesome moments in WWE history.
2006:
Getting revenge from after the Shawn Michaels / Vince McMahon WrestleMania 22 match, the five-man team of the Spirit Squad attacks Shawn Michaels, lifting him up into the air and dropping him through a table.
2009:
The 2009 event ended up being something of a CMoA for WWE's top heels: Edge captured the World Heavyweight Championship by defeating John Cena (with a little help from The Big Show and a chokeslam into a spotlight), and Randy Orton pinned Triple H clean in a six-man tag to win the WWE Championship.
Chris Jericho had been feuding with WWE Legends for much of 2009 up to this point, with the one who'd given him the most difficulty being Ricky Steamboat in their 3-on-1 elimination handicap match at WrestleMania 25. After he'd aggravated the feud against Steamboat further, the Dragon accepted Jericho's challenge to have his first singles match in 15 years at Backlash- and hot damn did he still have it! They went for 13 minutes, and when Steamboat hit Jericho with a belly-to-back suplex off the top of the turnbuckle the crowd exploded! Jericho still won, but he knew damn well that he'd been a hair's breadth from defeat against a man he'd dismissed as "washed up" and rapidly vacated the ring, leaving the Dragon alone with the cheering crowd. He was fifty-six and still put on one of the best matches of the event!
2016:
The entire event was a huge Moment of Awesome for the Smackdown brand. Though it had been for the most part praised since the revival of the brand extension, this event solidified Smackdown as the top brand of the WWE.
Becky Lynch became the inaugural Smackdown Women's Champion in a pretty good six-pack challenge.
The Miz successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler in a great match that kicked off their fantastic feud for the upcoming months.
AJ Styles won his first WWE Championship by defeating Dean Ambrose in an excellent, hard-hitting main event.
2023:
Bianca Blair vs IYO Sky had an amazing opening match with numerous reversals and the audience rooting for IYO. Even if she lost, IYO had the fans' support.
Zelina Vega's fight against Rhea Ripley for the Women's Championship match had the crowd roaring for Zelina, as the match was being held in Puerto Rico. Despite her loss, the entire arena stood up in standing ovation for her.
Carlito returns to help Bad Bunny, Savio Vega, and the Latino World Order fend off The Judgment Day's attacks. The Puerto Rican crowd was roaring in awe at the sight of their homeland hero as he delivers a Backstabber to Finn Bálor. He also took his sweet time to munch an apple in front of said crowd. Now that...that's cool.
Bad Bunny enters the arena to his song "Chambea", with the entire crowd serenading him. He also pulls off all the stops whether it be through a Singaporean cane, a Michinoku Driver or a Falcon Arrow.
