Since the 1980s, the biggest stage in professional wrestling is WrestleMania. The top event of the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment for decades, it has served as a breeding ground for classic matches and star-making performances. Of the many hundreds of wrestlers to grace the stages of “The Granddaddy Of Them All”, some of the bigger names have only had a solitary showing at the event. Yes – the following have had the same amount of WrestleMania matches as Little Beaver, Recon, Kitana Baker, Ernie Holmes, Pete Gas, Kevin Thorne, Koji Kitao, Brad Maddox, Uncle Elmer, Bruce Prichard, Aksana and The Orient Express’s Sato. Here are the most surprising WrestleMania One-Timers.
For this list, we count main show matches only. We allow multi-mans but pre-show matches are not counted. Fun fact: this technically means Lance Storm has never competed at WrestleMania.
WrestleMania One-Timers
Bruno Sammartino – WrestleMania 2
Still a strong candidate for the worst WrestleMania ever, ‘Mania 2 took place across 3 different locations, all of whom saw about 30 minutes of not-great action. The Nassau Coliseum got to see the Intercontinental title match but also a squash match, a double count-out that featured Paul Orndorff doing slanty eyes at Mr Fuji and also a terrible boxing match.
Elsewhere, the people at the Rosemont Horizon were unfortunate enough to witness a blin-and-you’ll miss it, clunky women’s match and a short and meaningless flag match. Los Angeles got the best deal but did have to watch a rather ‘unorthodox’ we’ll say bout between Uncle Elmer and Adrian Adonis – the latter in his “Adorable” phase.
Also at the show, the iconic Bruno Sammartino made his sole ‘Mania match. He had appeared last year but only as a cornerman for son David. His match here saw him in an unhyped match in which he was never the focus. The former 8-year WWWF champion was forced to stand across the ring from the likes of William “Refrigerator” Perry, Russ Francis and Harvey Martin in the WWF versus NFL 20-man battle royal. The Italian eliminated The Iron Sheik but would be eliminated by Big John Studd prior to the near-7-footer’s conflict with Perry.
Not even making it to the final 5, Bruno was clearly misused here even if years beyond his peak here. National Football League members aside, this was also the only ‘Mania bouts for former WWWF world champion Pedro Morales, Tony Atlas, Ted Arcidi and Dan Spivey.
WrestleMania One-Timers
“Cowboy” Bob Orton – WrestleMania 3
“Ace” Bob Orton was an integral part of the first WrestleMania event, even if not in the match itself. Instead, the Kansas City-born heel was a manager for Piper and Orton as they headlined the show against WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and B.A. “Get Some Nuts” Barrackus, Mr T. The next year, he was again a cornerman for “Hot Rod” as he helped train Piper in his Boxing Match against the fool-pitying star of The A-Team.
In fact, his only ‘Mania bout took place at the historic WrestleMania 3, where he opened the show. Managed by Mr Fuji, the team of “The Excellence Of Execution” and Don Muraco lost out to the youthful babyface tandem The Can-Am Connection; this consisted of Rick Martel and Tom Zenk. The outing was a fun and fast-paced one with the future model pinning “Magnificent” Muraco.
Orton would leave the company later that year, not wrestling at the promotion’s flagship show although he did get involved in his son’s (Randy Orton’s) WrestleMania 21 showdown with The Undertaker.
WrestleMania One-Timers
Dusty Rhodes – WrestleMania 6
It goes without saying that Dusty Rhodes is an icon of wrestling history. A 3-time NWA World Heavyweight champion, “The American Dream” proved to be one of the biggest stars of his era. Yet his WWF run was less than fitting for the 3-time Pro Wrestling Illustrated Most Popular Wrestler Of The Year award. Adorned in polka dots and jiving like a middle-aged and southern Red Rooster, Rhodes’ run left a lot to be desired with a stint far away from the success of his time in Jim Crockett. One of the more memorable aspects of Dusty’s run was his valet, “Sweet Sapphire”.
A feud started between Rhodes and “Macho King” Randy Savage as well as between their managers Sapphire and “Sensational” Sherri. This culminated to a WrestleMania 6 bout in which the face team emerged victorious in a good match that worked well in protecting the untrained Sapphire. In the end, Sherri Martel took the pin after some interference by ditched valet Miss Elizabeth.
Rhodes would not make it to the next WrestleMania, having departed the company by then, going back to his spiritual home albeit it in a different iteration as he shuffled over to World Championship Wrestling.
WrestleMania One-Timers
Scott Steiner – WrestleMania 9
Before he became the beloved mental case – allegedly – we all know and love, Scott Steiner was sighted as a gifted and slightly more restrained future prospect alongside brother Rick. Becoming critically acclaimed for their work in the NWA/WCW, The Steiner Brothers were snatched up by the WWF in 1992.
Despite original plans for a huge push for Steiner, the brothers stayed a duo – leading to the best match of WrestleMania 9 in which The Steiners prevailed over The Headshrinkers in a hard-hitting affair. Scott used the Frankensteiner on Samu to get the win. Although still in the World Tag title scene, the team seemed disillusioned in the WWF by 1994, not even wrestling in the month of WrestleMania X. Within a few weeks, the grappling twosome had departed the WWF for NJPW.
In 2002, Steiner returned to the WWE but due to poor World Heavyweight challenges against Triple H, did not compete at ‘Mania that year but did the next night. Steiner wrestled his last match at 2004’s Royal Rumble, missing out on that year’s WrestleMania – getting injured and subsequently released.
WrestleMania One-Timers | Kamala – WrestleMania 17
Despite having 3 different WWF stints and being a memorable star, Kamala only had 1 WrestleMania match and even that took place long after his in-ring career. The first WrestleMania Kamala could potentially be a part of was WrestleMania 3. “The Ugandan Giant” had just finished a programme with Hulk Hogan and was now teaming with Sika, but there was no major storyline present so neither competed at WrestleMania 3 that year.
After a 1992 return, he was set to compete at WrestleMania 9 against Bam Bam Bigelow although the match was cancelled. Kamala actually had very few PPV matches throughout his WWF run aside from both SummerSlam and Survivor Series matches that year. Kamala competed at WrestleMania X-Seven in the Gimmick Battle Royal. “The Ugandan Headhunter” performed well – eliminated Earthquake, Kim Chee, Doink The Clown and The One Man Gang before his own elimination by Sgt Slaughter.
WrestleMania One-Timers | Rhyno – WrestleMania 19
Towards the end of their run, one of the stars ECW were most keen on pushing was “The Man Beast” Rhyno. He was involved in early 2001 with Edge & Christian, leading into WrestleMania 17 and at the King of the Ring that same year. Amidst The Invasion, the WWF too booked Rhyno as a force of nature for the ECW team, with wins over such established names as Kane and Chris Jericho helping solidify the former ECW World Heavyweight champion as a big player.
Despite early success, Rhyno needed to undergo neck surgery so would be written off the TV in late 2001 with him being kicked out of The Alliance and not returning until early 2003.
At the 19th WrestleMania Rhyno had his only WrestleMania bout, teaming with Chris Benoit in an unsuccessful effort to win the WWE Tag Team Championships from Team Angle in a match also featuring Los Guerreros. The recently-returned Rhyno was kept strong, not being pinned and his own deadly Gore being the move that kept down his opposition for long enough for someone else to capitalise.
In 2005, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Rhyno was subject to pre-show battle royals – none of which he won. The last 3 of which were André The Giant Memorial Battle Royals. It does seem odd Rhyno has only had 1 main show ‘Mania match but I guess Gore fool you!
WrestleMania One-Timers | Tajiri – WrestleMania 20
Similar to the previous entry, Tajiri was also a popular star in the dying days of ECW. Despite being the Cruiserweight champion, Tajiri was noticeably absent from the card of WrestleMania 18 (X8). He would also not be at the event the next year (19). So, at WrestleMania 20 – or XX – he would finally step onto the grand stage albeit for a few minutes.
He was one of the faces in the Cruiserweight Open. Yet as you can likely infer from a match with 10 competitors lasting 10 minutes, “The Japanese Buzzsaw” got practically no time at all. He was the penultimate new entrant into the match but after a green mist-based miscue, was quickly pinned by Rey Mysterio after a victory roll. The match is more famous for Ultimo Dragon slipping…
This means Tajiri’s only WrestleMania performance was a short 1-minute section after a pinfall that would not even be the deciding fall – a far cry away from his billing in ECW.
WrestleMania One-Timers
Jerry Lawler – WrestleMania 27
It is a widely-known fact that despite collecting over 150 wrestling belts throughout his wrestling career, none of these has been in WWE. Similarly, he also has very few ‘Mania matches: only 1. “The King” has now served the WWE for nearly 30 years. Although a lot of this was not in-ring as a commentator, he has still had many high-profile matches and feuds throughout his run.
From his run in the 1990s, his biggest rivalry was with Bret Hart although he also feuded with Doink The Clown and Taz during his time in the squared circle and it is rather surprising that these matches never made it to WrestleMania; they instead made it to lower-level PPVs.
Rather sadly, Lawler’s only ‘Mania contest was at WrestleMania 27 where he lost to Michael Cole. Of course, “The King Of Memphis” plastered Cole around the arena for a lifetime – including attacking the career-announcer in his own Cole Mine – before forcing a submission. Then the Anonymous Raw General Manager overturned the ruling as special guest referee Austin had got physically involved with Cole. Thus a Dusty finish was the result of the only ‘Mania match of the ex-AWA champion’s career. *Sigh*
WrestleMania One-Timers
Ryback – WrestleMania 29
Ryback may have fallen down the card very fast but he was still a presence in WWE from 2010 to 2016. When Skip Sheffield was in The Nexus, he missed ‘Manias 27 and 28 due to injury before returning on the SmackDown after 2012’s WrestleMania.
By the 29th WrestleMania event, Ryback was still a hugely-popular star despite his first loss hindering any momentum he had built up.
In a rather peculiar and nauseating booking decision, ‘Mania 29 saw Ryback lose to Mark Henry – who himself had very little to gain from the win.
Ryback avalanched down the card at pace. At ‘Manias 30 and 32, he competed for titles on the pre-show (WWE Tag Team titles and United States title respectively) and ‘Mania 31 saw an unsuccessful appearance in the André The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
WrestleMania One-Timers
Paige – WrestleMania 31
It would generally be quite early to call an active roster member’s final ‘Mania match to date their last but considering Paige’s current injury status and happiness outside the ring, it seems this solitary match at “The Granddaddy Of Them All” is not likely to expand as of yet. Paige debuted on the main roster and won the Divas champion the night after WrestleMania 30, or XXX.
Just missing this ‘Mania, she had to wait a year until strutting her stuff on the biggest card in wrestling. A reflection of the poor booking of women in WWE at the time, the then-Divas champion Nikki Bella would not even be in a title match but a tag team match – the only women’s match on the card. The Bellas lost to the Frenemy team of Paige and AJ Lee. The match was fine enough but was the only main card match shorter than 10 minutes and nearly half as long as the second shortest match.
At ‘Mania 32, she was in a dark 10-woman tag match whilst ‘Mania 34 and 35 saw her on commentary. At 34, she commentated on the first and non-Fabulous Moolah-commemorative WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal and 35 saw her announce on the 4-way Women’s Tag Team title match.
Without tempting fate, the likes of Edge and Daniel Bryan have made a return from career-ending injuries. The retirement of Paige has remained fulfilled and though she could return, and the Royal Rumble 2022 is rumours… I wouldn’t hold my breath for a return.
(Note: Of course, now I’ve said that, by the time you’ll have seen this, she will have become a 13-time WrestleMania main eventer, 239-time 24/7 champion and officially reclaimed WWE as “her house”.)