WrestleMania 18 was one of the company’s biggest events at the time when WWE continued expanding the biggest show of the year. Many fans view the previous WrestleMania 17 event as the greatest show in WWE history, so there was a lot of pressure involved in this event taking place the following year.

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Triple H vs Chris Jericho, Steve Austin vs Scott Hall, and the iconic Hulk Hogan vs The Rock matches were the main events and attractions for the night. Other stories like The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak or Kane stalking Kurt Angle added depth to the card. Quite a few interesting tidbits about the build to WrestleMania 18 deserve a deeper glance when thinking back to that huge night.

10 Triple H Dumped Stephanie McMahon

WWE ran through a few major storylines during the build to WrestleMania 18 to make sure everything was in place by the time it arrived. Triple H returned to WWE as a face character after his brutal torn quad injury, but he was still married to heel Stephanie McMahon.

There was a storyline of Stephanie lying about being pregnant and Triple H finding out via her mother Linda. Triple H dumped Stephanie during a vow renewal ceremony to officially place her as his rival in Chris Jericho’s corner as the main event program.

9 Chris Jericho Got Past The Rock & Steve Austin Again As Undisputed Champion

Chris Jericho winning the Undisputed Championship made him the #1 heel for WWE during the months heading into WrestleMania 18. Everyone remembers that Jericho beat Steve Austin and The Rock in the same night to win the gold, but both feuds continued.

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Jericho defeated The Rock at Royal Rumble 2002 with the help of Lance Storm, Christian and heel referee Nick Patrick. No Way Out featured Jericho once again beating Austin after the New World Order interfered. Both wins for Jericho got him past Austin and Rock to feud solely with Triple H.

8 Edge Stole Booker T's Shampoo Endorsement

One of the strangest builds in WrestleMania history came for this event when Booker T and Edge feuded over a Japanese shampoo commercial. Booker getting an endorsement deal for the shampoo saw fans making fun of him as a hated heel.

Edge stealing the commercial and becoming the new spokesperson caused the issues to form between the two. The win for Edge helped give him some momentum moving forward as a singles face. Booker showed he was strong on the comedy side in this feud.

7 Kurt Angle Won Triple H's Title Shot Before Losing It Back

Kurt Angle had a major role on the road to WrestleMania 18 despite not having a huge match on the card. Stephanie McMahon’s previous friendship with Kurt Angle in their former love triangle with Triple H saw her trying to have him steal her ex-husband’s title shot won in the Royal Rumble match.

No Way Out 2002 featured Angle defeating Triple H with Stephanie as the guest referee to win the title shot. However, co-WWE owner Ric Flair booked a rematch with Stephanie banned from ringside for Triple H to win it back and challenge Chris Jericho.

6 Steve Austin & Mr. Perfect Had Mini Feud

The return of Mr. Perfect came in the 2002 Royal Rumble match making it all the way to the final four. Perfect wasn’t going to be a main eventer due to his older age, but WWE placed him in a few short TV programs without the need for PPV matches.

Steve Austin and Perfect had a mini feud lasting a couple of weeks. The big match came on Raw with Austin scoring the victory. WWE wanted to find a way to keep Austin wrestling without burning a New World Order match before they returned to the ring.

5 The Undertaker Attacked David Flair & Arn Anderson To Get Ric Flair Match

One of the biggest matches on the WrestleMania 18 card featured Ric Flair trying to end The Undertaker’s undefeated streak. Undertaker was in the heel version of his American Badass character clashing with Flair as a face authority figure.

Ric refusing to fight Undertaker led to the dead man finding creative ways to change his mind. Undertaker attacked Ric’s son David and Ric’s best friend Arn Anderson in some vicious segments to finally have Ric accept his challenge out of anger.

4 Tag Title Match Merged Two Feuds

The four-team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship featured Billy & Chuck defending the gold against the APA, Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz. WWE actually had two separate feuds going between the two teams.

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Billy & Chuck attacking the APA at a bar put them on opposite ends heading into the biggest show of the year. The legendary rivalry between the Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz continued with various six-person tag matches. WWE decided to place them all in the same match since there wasn’t enough time for two matches there.

3 Kane Cost Kurt Angle Undisputed Championship

Kurt Angle managed to find a way to a world title match against Chris Jericho on Raw in the months before WrestleMania 18. Kane had an issue with Angle after their previous match ended with Kurt trying to injure him via a steel chair.

The revenge for Kane came here when he cost Angle his chance at winning the Undisputed Championship against Jericho. WWE booked the match between Kane and Angle on the biggest stage after this night in a forgotten program.

2 Diamond Dallas Page Mentored Christian Before Feud

The European Championship match between Diamond Dallas Page and Christian was among the better undercard matches of the night. WWE ran a storyline of Christian having tantrums and Page trying to mentor him into turning his career around.

DDP’s face gimmick of a motivational speaker soon saw him and Christian clashing with the mid-card title on the line. The event saw Page beating Christian to retain the title and causing him to have another tantrum after losing the title match.

1 NWO Won Dream Match Over The Rock & Steve Austin

WWE ran a match as big as almost everything on WrestleMania 18 just a few weeks before the show. Raw featured the huge dream match of The Rock and Steve Austin teaming up against the New World Order trio of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

An argument can be made these three acts were the biggest of the Monday Night Wars for both WWE and WCW. The match was a huge deal with the nWo winning thanks to the numbers game. This set up both Hogan vs Rock and Austin vs Hall on the grandest stage.