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Who will be crowned the WrestleMania GOAT? On a loaded two-night card, there is no shortage of options. (Photos: Getty Images/WWE. Design: Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports)
Without a true season or playoffs, it’s sometimes difficult to separate week-to-week performances and premium live event showings for WWE superstars. In traditional sports, you can rattle off names of athletes who seemingly flipped a switch when it mattered most. Think Larry Fitzgerald during the Arizona Cardinals’ run to Super Bowl XLIII or Madison Bumgarner’s heroics in the 2014 World Series for the San Francisco Giants. Shoot, there are guys whose legacies are built on elevating their game when the stakes are highest — a la “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson or “Big Shot Bob” Robert Horry.
So, with WrestleMania 41 rapidly approaching, who — if anyone — lives up to that billing in WWE’s version of the Super Bowl? For years, it was Shawn Michaels — quite literally nicknamed “Mr. WrestleMania" — and The Undertaker, but they’ve long since hung up their boots.
This time around, there are more than 30 WWE stars on 2025's two-night card for the “Showcase of the Immortals,” and we’re breaking them down into four tiers — Riser, Superstar, Legend and GOAT — based strictly on how they’ve performed when the lights have shined brightest. The catch here is that despite the loaded nature of the roster, only two wrestlers — one male, one female — will find themselves in the GOAT ranking. As we go through the list, we’ll break out specific performers, identifying significant moments as well as those we think could jump a tier or two in the future.
As a reminder, along with almost everything pro wrestling related, these are subjective and we not only embrace but encourage debate here at Uncrowned, so sound off in the comments or on social media.
The Risers:
L.A. Knight
Jacob Fatu
Jade Cargill
Raquel Rodriguez
Liv Morgan
Penta
Bron Breakker
Tiffany Stratton
El Grande Americano
Damian Priest
Lyra Valkyria
Erik (War Raiders)
Ivar (War Raiders)
Our largest group of the four, most of the names here simply haven’t gotten as many opportunities to steal the show at WrestleMania as their peers. Despite their status here, some of the biggest names in WWE find themselves with nowhere to go but up, starting with this weekend's show at Allegiant Stadium.
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Tiffany Stratton defends her WWE Women's Championship against Charlotte Flair on Night 1 of WrestleMania 41. (Heather McLaughlin/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
Of this group, it’s hard to look at the two mid-card title matches and not be excited by the potential of relative newcomers Penta and Jacob Fatu getting the chance to perform at their very first WrestleMania. In addition, WrestleMania 41 represents by far the biggest moment of Tiffany Stratton’s nascent WWE career — a title match against "The Queen" herself, Charlotte Flair. Because of how much Stratton has to gain or lose in her match against Flair — and the scrutiny that their match will have in the wake of that promo on "WWE SmackDown" — I’m going to pinpoint her as the Riser with the most potential to move up a tier this time next year.
It's also worth keeping an eye on Lyra Valkyria, who is a must-watch any time she is in the ring and is the inaugural Women's Intercontinental Champion. She's teamed with Bayley in a match against Women's Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, which feels a bit off, but at least she is on the card.
The Superstars:
CM Punk
Gunther
Jey Uso
Iyo Sky
A.J. Styles
Logan Paul
Naomi
Dominik Mysterio
Finn Balor
Drew McIntyre
Xavier Woods
Kofi Kingston
This tier is STACKED. Every name on this list has held a singles title in either WWE or NXT, including the current World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Women’s World Champion Iyo Sky. Locking in the Risers was relatively easy, simply because it was a matter of volume, so differentiating between Superstar, Legend and GOAT was no easy task.
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CM Punk finally gets his long-awaited WrestleMania main event on this year's Night 1. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
There’s an argument to be made for CM Punk to be up a tier, considering his WrestleMania history includes a trio of Money in the Bank Ladder matches (he won two), a successful WWE Championship defense and an Undertaker match. That said, when you see who we have in the next two levels, it may be a bit more understandable why he didn’t necessarily make that cut. An all-time performance against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in Night 1's main event will erase any doubt though, and firmly put the "Best in the World" in at least the Legend conversation.
The other stars who I think can do the most to elevate themselves in these rankings are both aforementioned champions — Gunther and Iyo Sky — who are in this level due more to quantity than quality. Both Gunther and Sky have two previous WrestleMania matches to their name, but their performances last year in Philadelphia was enough to move them simply from Riser to Superstar in my eyes. Like Punk, their future status doesn’t depend directly on the actual outcome of their matches, they just simply need to live up to the hype and standard they have set for themselves.
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Jey Uso enters into a pivotal crossroads against Gunther on Night 1. (WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
On the flip side, I believe this is a make-or-break moment for Jey Uso. Last year’s match against his twin brother, Jimmy, was one of the more forgettable contests of WrestleMania 40 weekend, even with the built in emotion and history surrounding brother-versus-brother matches at the grandaddy of them all. Coming off a legitimately surprising Royal Rumble win, Uso’s build with Gunther had been a bit rocky before finally hitting its stride over the past few weeks. The atmosphere surrounding Gunther vs. Uso will be electric and there’s a potential for a true WrestleMania moment if the challenger dethrones "The Ring General," but Uso's in-ring work will need to be stellar to really leave his mark on the event.
The Legends:
Roman Reigns
Cody Rhodes
John Cena
Charlotte Flair
Rhea Ripley
Rey Mysterio
Bayley
You guys like heat? Based on the names I have in the second-highest tier, I think it’s clear I do.
After WrestleMania 41, Roman Reigns will have double-digit main events at WrestleMania. When the show closes in Las Vegas next Sunday, John Cena will have performed in main events in three different decades. Cena’s opponent, Cody Rhodes, has arguably the greatest three-year stretch in WrestleMania history. Charlotte Flair is a WrestleMania trailblazer and in the conversation as the greatest female star in WWE history. These are all unfathomable accomplishments.
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John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes headlines Night 2 of WrestleMania 41. (WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
BUT (there’s always a but), even with all of those audacious accolades, are any of their ‘Mania moments truly seared into your head? Ingrained into the WWE zeitgeist? I’d argue no.
Before Reigns reinvented himself as the "Tribal Chief," there was very real fatigue surrounding him perpetually being in the main-event picture. Cena’s early WrestleMania career is impressive, but his matches at 33 (Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse), 34 (The Undertaker) and 39 (Austin Theory) are largely forgettable. Flair, for all of her greatness, has flirted with the same fatigue that plagued Reigns and felt a bit like a third wheel in arguably the most significant moment in WWE women’s history at WrestleMania 35.
Realistically, with Cena retiring and Rey Mysterio being near the end of his career as well, it’s hard to see them leaping the rest of this tier to put themselves in the GOAT category. Even Rhea Ripley, one of the best performers in WWE today, will have a hard time breaking through this year because she’s directly involved with my pick for women’s WrestleMania GOAT.
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Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes have a storied WrestleMania rivalry. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Tim Nwachukwu via Getty Images
That leaves us with Reigns and Rhodes, two stars who are most closely linked together after back-to-back WrestleMania main events.
A successful title defense against Cena would make it very hard to not call Rhodes the greatest WrestleMania performer in modern WWE — his four-year stretch since returning to WWE at WrestleMania 38 is right there with Undertaker’s quartet against Michaels and Triple H from WrestleManias 25-28.
Reigns, with another major performance against Punk and Rollins, will move us further away from the “Big Dog” days and add to his overall string of dominance, forcing another very difficult conversation in 2026.
The GOATS:
Seth Rollins
Bianca Belair
Remember a few paragraphs ago when I mentioned WrestleMania moments being seared into your brain? Well, for me, Seth Rollins’ WrestleMania 31 is forever imprinted on me.
Not only was Rollins’ match against Randy Orton very good early on in the card — including maybe the best RKO of all time — he also became the first person to ever cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania, shocking Reigns, Brock Lesnar and the WWE universe by winning the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. Rollins helicoptering the title at the top of the ramp at Levi’s Stadium is one of the defining WWE images of the previous decade. I’m not certain anyone on this list outside of Cody Rhodes has had a more significant WrestleMania moment.
Rollins doesn’t have the main-event tally of Reigns or the overall volume of Cena, but if you were to ask me who is the in-ring spiritual successor to "Mr. WrestleMania" himself, Shawn Michaels, Rollins would be my pick. Add in the fact that he pulled double duty last year while dealing with a major knee injury and that’s enough to solidify him as my GOAT.
As far as the women go, as hard as it is to overcome the longevity of Flair, no female performer in WWE has had a four-year WrestleMania stretch as good as Belair, period. Her matches at WrestleMania 37 against Sasha Banks and at WrestleMania 38 against Becky Lynch are in the conversation for the best women’s matches ever — regardless of event. She followed up those epic performances with a successful title defense against Asuka at WrestleMania 39 and a win with Cargill and Naomi against Damage CTRL last year. Belair hasn’t lost at WrestleMania since coming up to the main roster.
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Bianca Belair has shined in every WrestleMania opportunity. (WWE/Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
Even if Belair doesn’t win against Ripley and Sky this weekend, if the match manages to even sniff the expectations surrounding it, the "EST" of WWE will cement herself even further as the greatest female performer in WrestleMania history.
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