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WrestleMania 37 is only a few days away and has wrestling fans around the world looking forward to WWE's mega-show with live fans in attendance for the first time in over a year.
WrestleMania is all about those big, special moments. Over the extravaganza's 37 year history, there have been a plethora of historical and memorable moments. Moments such as Stone Cold Steve Austin winning the WWE Championship for the first time at WrestleMania 14 and Becky Lynch getting crowned double-champion at 36 live long in the memory. They kick-started epic runs in the business. But there are many moments of a different kind that make WrestleMania a special event - moments of the extreme kind.
As WWE Superstars look to make their mark on the promotion's biggest show of the year, they are not afraid to go that extra mile, climb that extra rung of the ladder or pull off that unimaginable spot. It is these extreme moments that make the spectacular so legendary.
In this article, we will look at the 5 most extreme moments in WrestleMania history.
#5 Shane McMahon goes Coast to Coast at WrestleMania 17
WrestleMania 17 played host to one of the best, wildest and most fun Street Fights in all of WWE history. This match had it all: story, drama, low blows and Linda McMahon recovering from a coma.
The lead up to the match was a crazy and complicated one. Vince had a public affair with Trish Stratus, which caused his wife and CEO of WWE to have a nervous breakdown and fall into a vegetative state. Stephanie McMahon sided with her father after they turned on and humiliated Stratus by stripping her and dumping sewage on her.
The McMahon family turmoil escalated when Shane O'Mac purchased WCW from under his dad's nose. Therefore, in true WWE style, the only way to solve this hyper-dysfunction was a Street Fight at WrestleMania.
The match was brilliant. Vince and Shane beat the hell out of one another in a fun-filled manic brawl. Everything came to a head when Vince and Stephanie lifted a comatose Linda and positioned her in the corner to watch Vince destroy their son. Stratus chased Stephanie to the back, leaving Vince alone and Linda to make a miraculous recovery to one of the great pops in WrestleMania history. Linda then kicked a shocked Vince in the privates, allowing Shane to recover and attack his father.
Vince lay slumped in the corner with a trash can placed upon him while Shane climbed up the opposite side's turnbuckle. Shane then took flight, leaping from one side of the ring to the other, dropkicking the trash can into Vince's face for the emphatic win. Certainly one of WrestleMania's most extreme moments.
#4 The Stairway to hell at WrestleMania 31
WrestleMania 31 played host to the seven-man Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match. The melee featured Luke Harper, Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, Dean Ambrose, Stardust, and Daniel Bryan put on a spectacular match as they all fought for the coveted title.
The WrestleMania ladder match is synonymous with crazy stunts, death-defying moves and insane bumps. But on this occasion, Dean Ambrose took all of the tropes to a whole new level.
The match was chock-full of the usual ladder-assisted violence, but the most extreme moment came when just Ambrose and Harper remained in the ring. The two warriors had a brief exchange of fists as they attempted to get a clear run at the ladder placed under the title.
Ambrose got free and sluggishly made his way up the ladder. Harper recovered and picked the Lunatic Fringe from the ladder and Power Bombed him out of the ring, through a ladder and onto the ring mat below. It was a terrifying bump and extremely dangerous. Ambrose dropped from Harper's shoulders, going backwards at a high angle and landed with all his weight neck first.
According to Ambrose, the bump was so bad that Vince McMahon thought he was dead, making the spot one of WrestleMania's most extreme moments.
#3 That Brock Lesnar Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania 19
At WrestleMania 19, Brock Lesnar challenged Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship in the main event. The match was an incredible outing from the two legitimate wrestlers.
The action was back and forth as both fighters matched the other hold for hold and move for move. Angle and Lesnar exchanged brutal blows, intense grappling and huge power moves, but nothing would put the other away.
A frustrated Lesnar smashed Angle with the F-5 before uncharacteristically climbing to the top turnbuckle. The crowd gasped as The Beast launched his massive frame, soaring into the air and toward the downed Angle. But what was meant to be an epic WrestleMania moment became one of the show's most extreme moments as Lesnar failed to execute the Shooting Star Press correctly and landed square on his head.
The result was near-catastrophic, and it is a miracle that Lesnar didn't break his neck or worse. It was an awful and scary moment and, therefore, one of WrestleMania's most extreme moments.
#2 Table, Ladder and Chairs Oh My! TLC II at Wrestlemania 17
WrestleMania 17 is widely regarded as the best WrestleMania in history. Several reasons for the show being held in such high esteem is because of the incredible Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match between Edge and Christian vs The Hardy Boyz vs The Dudley Boyz.
The three teams had clashed in the first-ever TLC match at SummerSlam the previous year and knew they had to up the ante for the WrestleMania match. And up the ante they most certainly did.
The action was frantic, thrilling, and unbelievable. The six combatants, as well as Spike Dudley, Rhyno and Lita, took extreme wrestling to new heights with a showcase of destruction and violence never seen before at WrestleMania.
No one was safe from the brutality as twisted bodies and broken weapons lay strewn all over the ring. Jeff Hardy took out Spike and Rhyno with a jaw-dropping Swanton Bomb from the highest ladder through two tables. Lita was then given the 3-D before the spot that stole the show.
Jeff Hardy stood at the top of a ladder in the middle of the ring. His hands-on the title belts. He seemingly had the match won, but Bubba-Ray Dudley removed the ladder from underneath the younger Hardy. Jeff was left swinging from the cable as Edge leapt from another ladder, spearing Hardy some ten-plus feet in the air, crashing to the mat with a sickening thud.
The match would continue for another few minutes, but the fans will never forget the spectacle for the spear that defied gravity and one of WrestleMania's most extreme moments.
#1 The Spear into hell - WrestleMania 22
At WrestleMania 22, the Rated-R Superstar Edge took on the Hardcore Legend, Mick Foley in not only one of WrestleMania's most extreme moments, but in WWE history.
The feud leading into the match was heated as Edge blamed Foley for losing the WWE Championship. He ridiculed Foley, calling him a washed-up has-been. The constant insults resulted in Foley shaking the lovable and comedic aspects of his character, awakening the sadistic side that lay dormant inside him for years.
The match that followed at WrestleMania was a tremendous spectacle of carnage as Edge and Foley tore themselves apart in the most brutal and violent match ever seen on WWE's "Showcase of the Immortals."
The hardcore violence on the show was terrific and featured every extreme instrument imaginable. Barbed wire baseball bats, chairs and thumbtacks were used in every way possible to inflict the maximum damage upon each other. The violence had the crowd at a fever pitch which escalated into an extreme crescendo.
Foley lay dazed on the ring apron after Lita hit him with a barbed wire bat before covering a table in lighter fluid at ringside. The fans stood stunned as she lit the table on fire. Just as Foley staggered to his feet, a bloodied Edge launched himself off the ropes at full force before spearing Foley off the ring and through the flames and table below. The live crowd erupted as they had just witnessed the most extreme moment in WrestleMania history.
