Wrestlemania: quality of the in-ring product

Still focusing on Wrestlemania!

After having seen that Wrestlemania matches have tended to get much more actual in-ring time over the years, let's now take a look at an arguably more interesting question: How has the quality of the in-ring product developed over time?

I have collected star ratings from two of the most-renowned WWE reviewers - Scott Keith (see http://blogofdoom.com/) and Dave Meltzer (Pro Wrestling Observer) - for all 32 Wrestlemanias and have computed the average rating for every single match.

Fun Fact: The average rating for a Wrestlemania match is two stars (2.04 to be precise). Ok, in isolation this isn't really saying a lot ... we'll get to a comparison of this average to the average of other events later. ;-)

The graph below shows two different values for every Wrestlemania. First, the average match rating is shown (darker blue) and second, the average in-ring minute rating is shown (light blue). The latter measure takes into account whether a good or a bad match took a lot of time. Hence, this latter measure will differentiate between a Wrestlemania which had two matches combining for 40 minutes of bad wrestling and a Wrestlemania which had two matches of bad wrestling but which combined only for 10 minutes.

Key takeaways:

• Clear trend of rising quality between Wrestlemania I (1985) and Wrestlemania X-7 (2001): No matter which measure one focuses on, the in-ring quality has improved strongly during that time frame
• Notable exception: Wrestlemania III (1987) was way ahead of it's time in terms of in-ring product quality (Thank you, Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage!)
• Best Wrestlemania: The usual suspect is the widely-loved Wrestlemania X-7 (2001). However, according to this analysis of the in-ring product it is beaten by another! The best minute-by-minute in-ring product has been produced by Wrestlemania 28 (2012)! That Wrestlemania had Triple H/Undertaker, Jericho/Punk and Rock/Cena and very little crap besides.
• When it comes to average match quality, Wrestlemania 25 (2009) is the best Wrestlemania. I believe the twenty minute snorefest of a main event between Triple H and Randy Orton have really dragged the memory of that Wrestlemania down, because the numbers don't lie (and Taker/HBK was brillant stuff)!
• Last year's Wrestlemania was pretty bland: When I first saw the results for the average match measure with last year's Wrestlemania 32 finishing in the top 3 all-time I was shocked. No way could that be a top 3 Wrestlemania - in no category! This feeling is corroborated by the more nuanced per-minute results: the average minute of Wrestlemania 32 was pretty mediocre. According to the average minute measure, Wrestlemania 32 has been the worst Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania X-8 (2002) which was truly awful. Yeah, that is certainly more in line with how I remember it!
• There is a price to pay for 60 minutes of Shane McMahon trying to murder himself in order to make completely broken Undertaker look somewhat dangerous and Roman Reigns getting booed by 100.000 people while slugging it out with heel-but-not-really-heel Triple H.