This is the final part of my four part series that is a look at the best WWE matches on PPV over the course of five years. Here are links to the previous parts in case you missed those: Part One, Part Two and Part Three. What I've done here is compiled a list of the top 50 matches over the last five full calendar years, which means every PPV from Royal Rumble 2000 all the way up to Armageddon 2004.
Rather than post a list of what's been shown so far, I'm just going to delve into the top five. The full list will appear after you read about match number one. Off we go with the top five:
5. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit for the World Title @ WrestleMania XX - 03/14/04
The Story: This was for HHH's world title. At the Royal Rumble two months prior, HHH and Michaels wrestled to a draw in a last man standing match when neither man was able to answer the ten count. On that same show, Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble from the number one position. The next night on Raw, Benoit showed up as the number one contender to the title. He had previously been on Smackdown, but there was some sort of stipulation that allowed him to pick what show he could be on after winning the Rumble. Michaels, meanwhile, didn't want to let HHH out of his sights so he claimed that he deserved the WM shot. Following a contract signing where Michaels signed the contract after superkicking Benoit, GM Eric Bischoff ruled that it would be a triple threat match for HHH's world title.
The Match: Fast action from the get go. Each guy got their time to be in control early on. With Benoit and Trips on the floor, Michaels hit a moonsault press on them. Benoit took control, putting Michaels shoulder first into the corner. HHH props Benoit up in the corner upside down and whips Michaels hard into him. Michaels comes back, hits the forearm on HHH, kips up and gets knocked out by Benoit. Three Germans on HHH, Michaels blocks a headbutt, HHH hits a DDT and off Michaels goes to the floor. After a struggle, Crossface on HHH by Benoit, but that gets stopped by HBK. Michaels hits a German, but Benoit counters for three of his own, then the headbutt gets two. Benoit gets knocked to the floor, Michaels hits the elbow and superkick for two, but that gets stopped by Benoit yanking HHH to the floor. Benoit slingshots Michaels into the post leading to a typically sick blade job by Michaels. Crossface, Michaels almost taps, but HHH blocks his hand from hitting the mat in a memorable spot. They go out on the floor and the former DXers reunite for a moment to double suplex Benoit through that announce table in another memorable spot. With Benoit out, Michaels goes in the ring to tell HHH to come get him. They go at it in the ring a bit, then Michaels sends HHH out and puts him into the ringpost so he can bleed now too. Trips fights back with a Pedigree that gets two as Benoit makes the desperation save. Sharpshooter on Triple H, he almost taps when Michaels superkicks Benoit for two. Goes for another superkick as the crowd is going nuts for Benoit, but he can't get it as Benoit dumps him to the floor. Now it's just Benoit and HHH in there, Pedigree gets reversed into the Crossface. Every time HHH tries to get ropes Benoit pulls back on it even more. The crowd's chanting for the tap, as is everybody at home, and HHH finally taps to end it, giving Benoit his first world title in WWE after 25 minutes of awesomeness.
The Analysis: I think I've said this before, but it's worth saying again, I'm not a huge fan of triple threat matches. I understand why they are done in the first place. I just find them to be too repetitive with the constant "hit the finisher, other guy breaks it up" stuff that happens seemingly in every triple threat match. With that said, this is my favorite triple threat match ever and I doubt any one in the future can top this. Sure, it's probably because of who was in it seeing as how Benoit and Michaels are two of my three all time favorites, along with Austin. I like HHH too, obviously, and the three of them combined for a great match worthy of the first ever triple threat WrestleMania main event.
There's so many things to like. They did a tremendous job of getting in nearfalls as well as near submissions. The fans were really into Benoit here, booing Michaels a lot of the time and of course booing HHH as well. My favorite spots were the Crossface on Michaels where HHH stopped the tap literally with his own hand. Then the other spot was that double suplex through the table because it was such a hard, emphatic bump for Benoit to take. Of course the ending was very memorable as well with HHH tapping clean to the Crossface. I think going into the match a lot of us had the feeling that Benoit was going to win, but for it to be in a clean match with no ref bumps and HHH tapping clean made it work all that much more. If this ended on a rollup or cradle or something then maybe it's not five stars. However, since it was a decisive ending I think it's worthy of the full monty. In terms of matches giving me a happy ending at the end of it, this one would be first overall because as a moment I don't think this could have been better.
Rating: *****
4. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit for the WWE Title @ Royal Rumble - 01/19/03
The Story: This is for Angle's WWE title, which he won the month before from Big Show at Armageddon. He was a quasi face during that match, soliciting the help of Brock Lesnar to overcome Big Show and thanks to a Lesnar F5 on Show he was able to win the match, then the title. Then he turned on Lesnar, siding with Brock's former agent Paul Heyman. The result? Lesnar attacked him and gave him an F5 into the ring post putting Angle on the shelf. This was his first title defense. He did have surgery to clear up cartilage in his knee, missed about a month of action and came back to defend the belt here against Benoit while sporting a knee brace. At the end of 2002 these two were tag team champions even though they hated eachother and wrestled against one another regular. The story going in was Benoit was up 2-0 on Angle in their recent matches, one of them being from Unforgiven (#27 on this list). Team Angle, who had just debuted the month before, got thrown out before the match started.
The Match: Early on, Benoit worked on Angle's knees while Angle went after his neck. Nice spot early as Benoit DDT's Angle on the apron. In the ring there was a nice suplex exchange with Benoit hitting a couple Germans, Angle getting one of his own and then Benoit getting another one. Benoit went up top for the headbutt after a snot rocket (I love that!), but Angle countered with his pop up superplex move that always has me marking out. Angle Slam gets countered into a Crossface, but Kurt gets ropes. Benoit sinks on the Ankle Lock, Angle turns it into one of his own and then Benoit turns that into a Crossface. Amazing counters continue as Angle turns that into a rollup for two, then another Benoit Crossface gets countered into an Angle Slam. Wow. Great nearfall for two. Ankle Lock countered into a roll through, then an Angle German suplex is turned into a roll through for Benoit that gets another long two. More German time as Benoit hits one, then Angle hits one and Benoit hits the last one as Angle takes the bump onto his stomach in that moonsault like bump. Benoit climbs the far corner and hits a headbutt from 3/4 of the way across the ring! Sick. Disgusting. That's the farthest I've seen him go for a headbutt. "Holy Shit" chant follows as Benoit gets two. Angle gets control, then powerbombs Benoit face first into the turnbuckle, then hits another Angle Slam for only two. Another fantastic nearfall. Benoit plays possum, hits Angle in the Crossface, but Angle counters that into an Ankle Lock, Benoit fights it off, Angle pulls him in the middle, drops the leg into the heel hook and Benoit is force to tap out after 20 minutes. Post match, Benoit got the very memorable standing ovation.
The Analysis: This wasn't a match for the people who like stand up brawls with lots of blood in a match. This was a technical wrestling masterpiece. This is the match you want to show people who want to get into the wrestling business. Put the thing on, tell the person to watch carefully how two masters are able to make us believe in every single thing they do in the ring. I don't think what I wrote can cover every counter they did. Everything was done so crisply, so sharp and so fast that if you blinked you might have missed it. I think that's why I like this match so much. Too many big matches rely on fighting on the floor, a ref bump, a cheap weapon shot and things like that. This match had none of that. They barely were on the floor. It was pure wrestling. A definition of pure wrestling.
I remember watching this match live and thinking how slow they were going at the start. The crowd wasn't into it until after about the eight or nine minute mark when they really started trading those suplexes. They won the Boston crowd over with their chain wrestling. Imagine that? Chain wrestling winning over fans in 2003. It was a good sign. The Benoit headbutt was so memorable not just because of how far he jumped from, but because it followed that sick bump that Angle took on his stomach following the German suplex. There were so many sequences in this match that makes it stick out. The reversals from the Ankle Lock into the Crossface and vice versa were not easy to do, yet they made it work. They pulled them off. They made them believable and everytime a submission was locked in you expected a counter. That's why the finish worked so well. When Angle had that final Ankle Lock sunk in you thought that Benoit would find a way to get out of it. Then, when he didn't, all you could do is sit and applaud the masterful effort by both men. The standing ovation for Benoit after it was over? One of my favorite moments in wrestling ever. Great match, and the best one in 2003 in my opinion.
Rating: *****
3. Triple H vs. Steve Austin in a Three Stages of Hell Match @ No Way Out - 02/25/01
The Story: Simply put, I feel like the build for this match was better than any match I had ever seen in WWE up until this point. There's so many good things about it that it's hard to list. Basically, HHH got Rikishi to run over Austin at Survivor Series '99 and they had a brutal match a year later. Austin dropped Triple H in a car from about twenty feet in the air, but of course HHH was fine within a couple weeks. The feud simmered over the next couple of months as HHH screwed Austin out of the title in a match against Angle on Raw, then Austin returned the favor by doing the same thing at the Rumble. After the Rumble, which Austin won, this match was announced. The rule was that they weren't allowed to have any physical contact before the match, so they had a contract signing where HHH roused Austin by attacking him before he actually signed the contract. It ruled. The match was also made into a two out of three falls match unlike any we've seen before, calling it a "3 Stages of Hell" match. First fall would be a regular match, second fall would be a street fight and the third fall, if one was needed (when is one NOT needed?), would be a cage match.
The Match: This match started out as hot as you'd expect it to. They were very aggressive from the very beginning, and the crowd ate it up huge. The first fall ended up going to Austin, who countered the Pedigree to win with the Stunner. It was a good sequence. The next fall was perfect, right up the alley of both men as they brawled all over the place. A barbed wire bat was used, a chair was used, Triple H got back dropped through a table and as expected when it's these two guys, there was plenty of blood. Hunter got the fall this time, hitting Austin with the Pedigree to tie it up. The cage came down next with the ring still filled with materials stemming from the street fight portion of the match. More brawling ensued with HHH dominating most of the way. After stealing from patented Flair moves (the flop and the slam off the top), Hunter hit him with the Pedigree for two. Then Austin hit HHH with the Stunner for two. At this point they both regrouped, Austin grabbed the barb wire bat, HHH grabbed the sledgehammer and they hit eachother at the same time. HHH fell on top for the fluke win. Amazing ending after 40 minutes of non-stop action.
The Analysis: This was a big match in many ways, especially for Austin. Just four months before this match he came back from neck surgery and we didn't really know what kind of shape he'd be in. He had some really good TV matches, and some okay PPV ones, but nothing to really tell us what we'd get from him here. What we ended up with was one of the finest brawls ever. The action did not stop here. Sure, at times they moved slower to sell the beatdowns and there's a good chance Austin was legit tired, but it didn't hurt the match one bit. What I liked the best about this match was it was booked so evenly. Neither guy was on the receiving end of punishment more than the other one. It was about as even a brawl as you could get, and obviously that was the goal of both guys once you saw the ending, which was also very even. I can't praise it enough. This was two guys at the top of their game in an element they had perfect. It doesn't get much better than this.
I remember at the time of match that I was upset with HHH going over here. While they made it clear that Austin wouldn't lose his Mania main event slot, I was surprised that he lost here. Then when I mulled it over a bit more, I realized it was done with a hint toward the future, for that future Austin/HHH match later in the year where HHH would point out that he beat Austin earlier. Austin didn't have to win here, so the booking did make sense after all. When I did my 2001 year end awards this was my match of the year (I've since changed my tune ever so slightly), as well as feud of the year. Austin was my wrestler of the year in 2001 while HHH was my wrestler of the year in 2000. While this match was exceptional, there was the sense that there'd be more from Austin and Hunter in the future. Sadly, there wasn't and there probably never will be, but that's okay because this match will stand on its own in my memory for as long as I live. Simply awesome.
Rating: *****
2. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack for the World Title @ Royal Rumble - 01/23/00
The Story: This was a street fight in New York. Triple H was the heel world champion, happily "married" to Stephanie McMahon as the two were "running" WWE since HHH beat the crap out of Vince a month prior to this. On the last Raw of 1999, HHH put Foley (then as Mankind) in a match against the Rock with the stipulation being a "Pink Slip on a Pole" match. Whoever got the pink slip off the pole would keep his job while the loser would be fired. Al Snow interfered for Foley, but Mick refused to cheat and Rock eventually won, thus firing Foley in the process. A week later HHH regained the World Title from Big Show to the shock of nobody. Meanwhile, HHH and a fake Mankind (played by Dennis Knight aka Mideon) did these funny skits to make fun of Foley now that he was "fired." A week after HHH won the belt, The Rock and all the wrestlers held a protest demanding that HHH re-hires Foley, so he does and Foley asks for a title match. During a tag match later that night, HHH put Foley through a table and bloodied him badly. On Smackdown a few days after that, Foley says he's not able to fight HHH in a street fight, but he knew somebody that could: Cactus Jack. Very memorable image there with Foley taking off the white shirt to show the Cactus shirt underneath. The build to this match was fantastic. Amazing intensity and beatdowns during the weeks of Raw and Smackdown leading up to it.
The Match: Brawl to start, Hunter bails and Cactus follows with a neckbreaker on the floor, then a leg drop to the back of the head. Cactus nails him with the ring steps followed by the ring bell. Hunter recovers with the bell to the head. HHH with a SICK chair shot, then Cactus with a legdrop on the chair for two. Into the aisle way near the crowd, Cactus suplexes HHH onto some wooden pallets and HHH gets a huge cut in his left calf. Running knee into the steps for Cactus, then he rolls him back in and finds the barbed wire 2x4 bat under the ring. Low blow by HHH, Cactus comes back with the barb wire bat into the nuts. Double arm DDT gets two. After the ref takes the bat away, he gets it back and nails HHH in the face with it, then does the elbow drop with the bat as the camera shows HHH’s bloody face for two. He works over the cut some more, then goes for a piledriver through the table, but HHH reverses it into a backdrop through the table. In ring, Foley counters the Pedigree with a facebuster into the barbwire for two. On the floor, Cactus takes his crazy hip toss bump into the steps that he takes on his legs, then another one into the steps that he takes on the knees. HHH gets handcuffs from a bag, revealing handcuffs, which is a nod to Foley’s match against Rock the year prior where he was beaten while in cuffs. After a shot to the knee, he cuffs him, then gets the ring steps, but Cactus counters with a drop toe hold onto the steps. Boot to the face, then a low blow, but HHH comes back with a clothesline. Couple of chair shots to the back send Cactus out to the floor where HHH drills him in the head by the entrance. As he’s going for another shot, the Rock (now a friend of Foley’s) comes out to chair HHH to a thunderous pop as a cop unlocks the cuffs that Foley is in. Cactus comes back, hits a stump piledriver on the Spanish table, but it doesn’t break. He rolls him in, then dumps a bag full of thumbtacks. Like an idiot, Cactus charges at HHH and takes a backdrop straight onto the tacks in a sick spot. The crowd was gasping as soon as he charged. Pedigree for HHH gets him just two. Awesome nearfall. This time, he Pedigrees him FACE FIRST ON THE TACKS and that’s it for the HHH win after 27 minutes.
The Analysis: The best kinds of matches are the ones where both competitors have something to prove. Was Triple H capable enough to carry his end of a streetfight against the man that many considered to be the greatest brawler ever? Did Mick Foley have another classic match in him after wrestling very little in the months leading up to this match? The answer to both of those questions was yes. A resounding yes. This match was the perfect example of intelligent storytelling meshing together perfectly with two performers that did their job as well as humanly possible.
There were four elements that made this match memorable. The first one being HHH's blood loss not just in his face, but in his leg. That wasn't supposed to happen, obviously, yet it was impossible to avoid seeing a heavy amount of blood squirting out of a man's leg. You couldn't watch this match without coming away with a huge amount of respect for the guy for working through that injury. Then there was the barb wire shots, those were greeted with huge reactions and they worked. The handcuff moment was very dramatic because everybody knew about the year before where Foley got the shit literally knocked out of him by Rock when the cuffs were on him. Finally, the thumbtacks paid homage to the first Hell in a Cell match where Foley memorably took some vicious Undertaker moves onto the tacks. He did it again here and I have to say the Pedigree into the tacks has to be one of the most conclusive endings to any match I have ever seen.
By the end of the match, both guys looked a lot better than when they entered the ring. Sure, Triple H had blood all over his face and Cactus Jack had tacks in his face, but I don’t think either of them complained too much. Triple H gained a lot of credibility as world champion because he defeated a man cleanly in his specialty match. Cactus Jack proved that he could hang with a hungry, young champion. Even though he lost he came out of the match looking like a champion. This match had everything that makes wrestling great: A lot of heat, tremendous psychology, a high level of workrate, a rabid crowd and two men that did a wonderful job of making the other guy look good. Foley said it himself in his book, Foley is Good, when he said that they helped "make" eachother here. When you combine great chemistry with a great story the end result will usually be a match for the ages and that's what we got here.
If you want to read more about this match, I wrote a whole column about it with detailed build, story and analysis. The link is here.
Rating: *****
To be perfectly honest, I was torn on what my number one match was going to be. At one point I had Austin/HHH in first, but then I realized I like HHH/Cactus more. Then I watched those two along with the number one match on the same day back to back to back and I realized what my number one match was going to be. My top three was set pretty much from day one of working on this project. It was just the order that was tough. Of course, if you ask me in a month what I liked best of the three maybe my answer will be different. Since I'm only doing this column once then I'd say the number one WWE PPV match of the past five years is…
1. The Rock vs. Steve Austin for the World Title @ WrestleMania X7 - 04/01/01
The Story: I think if you're a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment then you know about this match because it was basically the capper of the excellent Attitude era that consumed the WWE during the rise of these two fantastic performers. This was for the World Title with Rock coming into the match as the world champion and Austin coming in as number one contender due to his win in the Royal Rumble match. Both men came into the match as babyfaces, with Austin having more support since the match was in Houston and his home state of Texas. The build to the match was awesome, with both guys having face to face showdowns over the weeks on TV. There actually was a storyline with Austin's real life wife at the time Debra being appointed the manager of Rock, but after they realized it wasn't working that was simply dumped about a week before the match. Then they did this interview with JR in the locker room where Austin had this crazy look in his eye and said: "I need that title." The video package, although part of that annoying "My Way" song by Limp Bizkit, is probably my favorite of any WWE match ever. Even though these two had matches before, this one was different because you just knew, you had that feeling that you'd be seeing something special.
The Match: When the match began, it was announced as a no DQ match. That was a surprise to fans and JR mentioned it as well. The pop that Austin received to start this match was up there with any pop the man has ever gotten. Home state, over 60,000 people, yeah, it's what you expect. The action in this match was amazing. From the minute the bell rang, this was a standup brawl that never slowed down. Rock got booed at times because the fans were so into Austin, but that helped the match, I think. Early on there was the only bad spot of the match as Earl Hebner went to pass Rock the blade, but they ended up dropping it and Rock nonchalantly bent down to pick it up. Then he turned around, Austin caught him with the ring bell and there was the blood. It's okay Rock, I don't mind. Soon after, it's Austin's turn to eat the ring bell for some blood, which of course is a better cut than what Rock did. Rock takes some more shots to the head, selling it beautifully all the while. Then my favorite sequence comes next as Rock's sharpshooter gets turned into one of his own by Austin (paying homage to Austin/Hart @ WM13) and Austin hits the Million Dollar Dream only for Rock to counter by climbing the ropes and pushing back, but Austin lets go of the hold to save himself from getting pinned. The beauty there was that was the finish to Austin/Hart at Survivor Series '96, but Austin didn't release the hold there and it led to Hart's win.
Rock comes back with a stunner for two, then Vince McMahon comes out. Vince ends up saving Austin after Rock hit's a People's Elbow. Back in the ring, Austin hits him with a Rock Bottom for two. Love the stealing of finishers. Small ref bump leads to Austin telling Vince to come in to chair Rock leading to a two count. Stunner for Austin gets two. Chairshot for Austin gets two. Rock won't go away. Then it's finish time with Austin hitting Rock with about a dozen chairshots all over his body. Rock quivers, which is an awesome way to sell that because you know it had to hurt the whole body. That gets Austin the pin and the title after about 30 minutes of action. He shakes hands with McMahon post match while the crowd isn't really cheering or booing. Mostly cheers because they wanted Austin to win.
The Analysis: I think what's most impressive about the match to me was it never slowed down. Neither guy stopped. It was full of action with memorable moments happening all the time. There wasn't a point in the match where you could say it lagged for three minutes. It didn't. It continued to flow from the minute the bell rang until the match was over. I thought each guy was phenomenal, which is no surprise when you're talking about the number one match on this list. I don't know if Rock was ever better than what he did here. His chemistry with Austin was always amazing. They had several good matches before this, no doubt. It's just that this one went up another level.
The work Austin did here was the real story. He was, simply put, a machine. There was nothing flawed in his performance. The crowd was cheering him, but he wrestled as aggressively and as viciously as the best heels of any generation. The facial expressions he used when he couldn't pin were great. The way he would loudly swear after getting all those nearfalls at the end were excellent. You could look in his eyes to see the emotion. That's what professional wrestling is at its best. It's one thing to have a great brawl, but to have that plus each performer doing exactly what you'd hope for during the match shows just how great both of them were on this night.
Not only do I feel that this is the best match of the past five years, but also the best World Title match ever and the best WrestleMania main event match ever. I wouldn't put it ahead of Austin/Hart @ WM13, but it's damn close. This is one of those matches that will never get old. This match was the Hogan/Andre or Flair/Sting of this generation of fans. When it comes to defining moments, this is it. It was the end of the Attitude era, which will be remembered as one of the best times to be a fan of the World Wrestling Federation. I don't think they could have asked for anything better as the end of that era.
Pro wrestling doesn't get any better than this.
Rating: *****
Now that the list is done it's time to bring it home some facts about the lists as well as some final comments about why I decided to write this massive column in the first place.
The Top 50 Master List
Here's the final full list in descending order:
50. SSlam 01 - RVD over Jeff Hardy (Hardcore Ladder) - ***3/4
49. SSlam 04 - Orton over Benoit (World Title) - ***3/4
48. SSlam 02 - Angle over Mysterio - ***3/4
47. Backlash 00 - Malenko over Scotty 2 Hotty (WWE Light Heavy Title) - ***3/4
46. No Mercy 02 - Lesnar over Undertaker (WWE Title - HIAC) - ***3/4
45. Survivor Series 03 - Team Austin (Shawn Michaels, Booker T., Rob Van Dam, Dudley Boys) vs. Team Bischoff (Chris Jericho, Christian, Mark Henry, Scott Steiner, Randy Orton) - ***3/4
44. Armageddon 02 - Benoit over Guerrero - ***3/4
43. Vengeance 04 - Benoit over HHH (World Title) - ****
42. Survivor Series 01 - Team WWE (Rock, Taker, Jericho, Big Show, Kane) over Team Alliance (Austin, Angle, Booker, RVD, Shane) - ****
41. WM 04 - Guerrero over Angle (WWE Title) - ****
40. KOTR 01 - Angle over Shane (Street Fight) - ****
39. Rumble 02 - Jericho over Rock (Undisputed World Title) - ****
38. Backlash 00 - Benoit over Jericho via DQ (IC Title) - ****
37. Backlash 02 - Angle over Edge - ****1/4
36. Backlash 00 - Rock over HHH (World Title) - ****1/4
35. Survivor Series 02 - Michaels over HHH, RVD, Kane, Jericho & Booker (World Title - Elim Chamber) - ****1/4
34. GAB 04 - Mysterio over Chavo (Cruiser Title) - ****1/4
33. No Mercy 00 - Angle over Rock (World Title) - ****1/4
32. No Mercy 00 - HHH over Benoit - ****1/4
31. Vengeance 02 - Rock over Undertaker, Angle (Undisputed World Title) - ****1/4
30. SSlam 00 - Benoit over Jericho (2/3 Falls) - ****1/4
29. WM 01 - Angle over Benoit - ****1/4
28. NWO 00 - HHH over Cactus (HIAC World Title) - ****1/4
27. Unforgiven 02 - Benoit over Angle - ****1/4
26. Vengeance 03 - Angle over Show, Lesnar (WWE Title) - ****1/4
25. WM 00 - E&C over Hardys & Dudleys (Tag Title Tables & Ladders Match) - ****1/4
24. Fully Loaded 00 - Rock over Benoit (World Title) - ****1/4
23. Backlash 04 - Orton over Cactus Jack - ****1/4
22. SSlam 03 - Angle over Lesnar (WWE Title) - ****1/4
21. NWO 01 - Rock over Angle (World Title) - ****1/2
20. JDay 00 - Benoit over Jericho (IC Submission) - ****1/2
19. Summerslam 00 - E&C over Dudleys, Hardys (TLC Tag Titles) - ****1/2
18. Fully Loaded 00 - HHH over Jericho (Last Man Standing) - ****1/2
17. No Mercy 01 - Jericho over Rock (WCW Title) - ****1/2
16. Backlash 04 - Benoit over Michaels & HHH (World Title) - ****1/2
15. SSlam 02 - Michaels over HHH (Street Fight) - ****1/2
14. WM 03 - Michaels over Jericho - ****1/2
13. WM 03 - Lesnar over Angle (WWE Title) - ****1/2
12. Rumble 01 - Jericho over Benoit (IC title ladder match) - ****1/2
11. Bad Blood 04 - HHH over Michaels (HIAC) - ****1/2
10. NWO 04 - Guerrero over Lesnar (WWE Title) - ****3/4
9. WM 01 - E&C over Dudleys & Hardys (TLC Tag titles) - ****3/4
8. JDay 00 - HHH over Rock (World Title - Ironman) - ****3/4
7. SSlam 01 - Angle over Austin via DQ (WWE Title) - ****3/4
6. No Mercy 02 - Angle & Benoit over Edge & Mysterio (WWE Tag Titles) - *****
5. WM 04 - Benoit over HHH & Michaels (World Title) - *****
4. Rumble 03 - Angle over Benoit (WWE Title) - *****
3. NWO 01 - HHH over Austin (3 Stages of Hell) - *****
2. Rumble 00 - HHH over Cactus (World Title street fight) - *****
1. WM 01 - Austin over Rock (World Title) - *****
The Wrestler Appearances in the Top 50
First you'll see the number of appearances, then you'll see the wrestler's name and the match numbers that the person is in will be inside the brackets. I want to thank my buddy Cash for helping me with this part. Here's that list.
1. 16 Matches - Kurt Angle (4, 6, 7, 13, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 37, 40, 41, 42, 48)
2. 15 - Chris Benoit (4, 5, 6, 12, 16, 20, 24, 27, 29, 30, 32, 38, 43, 44, 49)
3. 13 - Triple H (2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, 18, 28, 32, 35, 36, 43)
4. 11 - Chris Jericho (12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 30, 35, 38, 39, 42, 45)
5. 10 - The Rock (1, 8, 17, 21, 24, 31, 33, 36, 39, 42)
6. 7 - Shawn Michaels (5, 11, 14, 15, 16, 35, 45)
7. (tie) 5 - Brock Lesnar (10, 13, 22, 26, 46) and Edge (6, 9, 19, 25, 37)
9. (tie) 4 - Steve Austin (1, 3, 7, 42), Christian (9, 19, 25, 45), Bubba Ray Dudley (9, 19, 25, 45), D-Von Dudley (9, 19, 25, 45), Jeff Hardy (9, 19, 25, 50)
14. (tie) 3 - Booker T. (35, 42, 45), Cactus Jack (2, 23, 28), Eddie Guerrero (10, 41, 44), Matt Hardy (9, 19, 25), Randy Orton (23, 45, 49), Rey Mysterio (6, 34, 48), Rob Van Dam (35, 42, 50), Undertaker (31, 42, 46)
22. (tie) 2 - Big Show (26, 42), Kane (35, 42), Shane McMahon (40, 42)
25. (tie) 1 - Chavo Guerrero (34), Scott Steiner (45), Mark Henry (45), Dean Malenko (47), Scotty 2 Hotty (47)
Notes: - The race for the top was a close one, but Angle just edged out Benoit. Each man has missed significant ring time, although each of them were active for about 75% of the time that this list was based on.
- Triple H has the most top ten appearances with four and the most top twenty appearances with eight. Even though he doesn't have the most appearances, that certainly makes him a candidate for being the best "big match" wrestler.
- While Angle and HHH are two of the top three, none of their singles matches made the list. All of them were close. I just didn't feel they were good enough. Their triple threat at Summerslam 2000 and six way match at Armageddon also were really close.
- Christian, D-Von, and Bubba all have the same matches in the top fifty. They're the three tag title matches as well as the tradition Survivor Series tag match from 2003.
- Angle and Benoit have four matches on here that they are involved in together with one of them being a tag team match when they were on the same team.
- Mick Foley has had five PPV matches since 2000, three of them made it and all of his singles efforts are on here. That's pretty good.
- There's only one traditional tag team match in this list, and it's the one involving Benoit/Angle vs. Edge/Mysterio
- There are four singles matches between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit in the list. Three of them were for the Intercontinental Title, all of which were the only IC title matches on the list.
- There are no Rock matches on the list from the past two years, showing just how good he was in the first three years of this time period.
- Shawn Michaels didn't even wrestle for the first two and a half years that this list is based on, yet he still managed to land in sixth place.
- Mark Henry wins the award as the worst wrestler on the list.
- There were 29 different people that appeared in this list.
The Years Represented in the Top 50
1. 2000 - 14 matches (#2, 8, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 32, 33, 36, 38, 47)
2. 2001 - 11 matches (#1, 3, 7, 9, 12, 17, 21, 29, 40, 42, 50)
3. 2002 - 10 matches (#6, 15, 27, 31, 35, 37, 39, 44, 46, 48)
4. 2004 - 9 matches (#5, 10, 11, 16, 23, 34, 41, 43, 49)
5. 2003 - 6 matches (#4, 13, 14, 22, 26, 45)
Notes: - The year 2000 ran away with this one. It was a year full of matches in the four star range.
- Despite 2001 finishing in second, it placed four matches in the top ten.
- Of the six matches from 2003, four of them feature Kurt Angle. The other two are from the Raw brand.
PPVs Represented in the Top 50
I'm not going to list the matches this time. I'm just going to list the PPVs and note how many times a match from that PPV appeared.
1. 8 Appearances - WrestleMania, Summerslam
3. 6 - Backlash
4 (tie). 5 - No Mercy, July PPVs (Fully Loaded, Vengeance)
6. (tie). 4 - Royal Rumble, No Way Out
8. 3 - Survivor Series, June PPVs (Bad Blood, King of the Ring, Great American Bash)
10. 2 - Judgment Day
11 (tie). 1 - Unforgiven, Armageddon
Notes: - I'm not shocked by WrestleMania and Summerslam being at the top. They have perennially been the best PPVs on a regular basis.
- Backlash being third isn't surprising because it's usually a card that follows up WrestleMania, so the quality tends to be there too.
- I am shocked that the Royal Rumble tied for fifth. Looking back, I notice a lot of Royal Rumble matches as ones that came really close to making the list.
While there are many PPVs with just one match on the list and eleven PPVs with two matches on the list, there are only two PPVs with three matches on the list. They are WrestleMania X7 in 2001 (1, 9, 29) and Backlash 2000 (36, 38, 47).
Closing Thoughts
Like I said in the first part, the reason I wrote this column was to celebrate the great wrestling that has existed in WWE over the past five calendar years. What's interesting is that if this list were to include PPVs from 1999 and 1989 then there'd only be maybe five or six matches total from those years that would have made this list. (I'm not about to list them, but off the top of my head I know there aren't that many.)That's because those years were focused more on storylines, angles and getting everybody on PPV cards. There were cards with ten matches a lot of the time back then. These last five years, there's been cards with just six matches on them because management felt confident that the wrestlers could have longer, better matches.
What can be attributed to this rise of workrate in WWE? I think there are three things. For one, I think fans have become smarter in terms of the product thanks to the internet. Sure, there's a lot of bad that you can say about internet fans, but because people like you and me follow WWE as closely as we do we're able to appreciate the quality wrestling more than John Doe does. Second, the influx of talent in late '99 and early 2000 was huge. As people like Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko and others started to have quality matches on a regular basis. Gone were the basic matches involving the likes of Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, Bob Holly and others, replaced by technically sound, physical and psychological matches that became instant classics on a monthly basis. The third and final key piece was The Rock and HHH developing both as performers and in ring competitors to the point where they had good matches all the time. With the return of Steve Austin in 2001, main events were of high quality for much of this time period.
Basically, I've enjoyed WWE plenty over the past five years. Has there been lows? Sure. Katie Vick comes to mind. The XFL debacle comes to mind. Still, I watch. Why? Because of the matches. I'm not loyal to Vince McMahon or anybody named McMahon. I'm loyal to the wrestlers that go in the ring, bust their asses and put on a show for us, the fans. I didn't write this for me. I didn't even write this for you. I wrote it for the wrestlers that do what they do. If any of those wrestlers are reading this then just know that at least this one fan thanks you for all that you do. Even you Mark Henry, you overpaid fatass. What? I had to insult somebody! Internet fans are evil, don't ya know?
With all of that said, I hope you enjoyed the list. Obviously not everybody is going to agree with every match order or rating, but I hope that the writeups I provided did a good job in detailing what happened in the matches. It was very hard to rank the matches at times, but overall I am happy with the list.
I welcome any and all feedback you may have about this column. I'm up for any questions you have. Ask me about a match that wasn't listed, ask me why I liked one more than another or anything else you have on your mind. My email address is oratoryjohn@gmail.com so please direct any and all comments or questions to that address and I will respond as soon as I can. Should there be a lot of feedback with similar questions I may do a follow-up column to this. Another possibility is the top 20 WORST matches over this five years span. I don't know. Depends on if you guys want that.
Last thing before I go. Thanks to one of my favorite sites, The Wrestling Information Archive, for listing the full PPV cards, the dates of the shows and also the match times. Very good site with factual information. Also thanks to my friend Greg for editing, Mike for the banner and Cash for the help at the end of the piece. You guys all saved me a lot of work.
Nearly 40,000 words later it's all done. Thanks to everybody that has read all of this.
Smell ya later,
John C. - oratoryjohn@gmail.com
Part One.
Part Two
Part Three
