(7)Mario vs (1)Sephiroth (Legends Bracket) 2018

Ulti's Analysis
One match after Tifa went out there and got annihilated by Samus, Sephiroth went out there and showed he was not to be outdone in the "Final Fantasy 7 is a choking dog" department. Tifa losing the way she did was eye-opening and was a measure of revenge for Samus for that 2006 match, but it was nothing compared to the revenge Mario was after in this one. For years, we called Sephiroth Mario's kryptonite. For good reason.

Mario ripped through the bracket in 2002, including close wins against Cloud and Crono, before losing in the final. In 2003 it looked like he hadn't missed a beat, until, well....

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1363-south-division-final-mario-vs-sephiroth

He didn't just lose to Sephiroth. He got thoroughly and absolutely embarrassed.

Okay, sure, whatever, Mario had an off day. Two years later, Clinkeroth were removed from the main bracket. In their place, Mario went on some anabolic steroids, some HGH, some TRT, and some EPO. The guy was on more juice than Brock Lesnar or Jon Jones before USADA showed up to ruin the UFC heavyweight division. He was on more juice than John Cena, Ultimate Warrior, The Rock, or Hulk Hogan, who are dudes that clearly don't do the correct 4 month cycles. Look at them. I know it sounds ridiculous to compare Mario to real life supermen, but he really looked that insane in 2005. He won the main bracket with hilarious ease. Tournament of Champion time. A rematch with Sephiroth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=676A6VymGCk

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2130-tournament-of-champions-semifinal-sephiroth-vs-mario

Mario getting 44% instead of 38% was great and all, but that was still an embarrassing loss given how good he looked. Sephiroth gave no fucks.

Oh, you thought it was just 1 on 1 where Sephiroth embarrassed the dude? Here's Sephiroth beating Mario in a LOL 4way so badly that Mario still doesn't win if he takes all of Fox's votes.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2913-division-3-final-sephiroth-fox-mario-big-boss

Here's Sephiroth beating Mario so badly in a 4way that if you take all of Vincent's votes and give them to Mario, Mario only wins by 900 votes. But frankly, if that was a 3way poll Seph would naturally go up in strength and beat Mario anyway.

Oh, you thought the pain stopped there? Here's the Battle Royale from 2006.

Day 1: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2562-battle-royale-day-1 Day 2: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2563-battle-royale-day-2

We can stop on day 2, because that's when Mario got eliminated.

Needless to say, when this match was slated for the legends bracket in 2018, all those old wounds reopened for Mario fans. It's like really, the guy couldn't draw anyone else?

Well Mario ended those fears in literally two seconds, and then took 15 years of pent up frustration with this Sephiroth guy ending a bunch of his runs and just beat the absolute ever-loving shit out of him with it. This was a good old fashioned ass whuppin, and for Mario fans it was a joy to watch. Mario finally got his revenge. This was clearly Mario's Super Bowl, too, because he took his eye off the ball for the rest of this contest. I doubt he even cares, either, because he finally beat the one guy he could never beat.

(Link doesn't count.)