Favourite WWE Year

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

I would have to say my favorite year in WWE would have to be 2001. I wasn't really a fan of WWE at the time, but it was such an amazing year. The Invasion Angle was great, Survivor Series 2001 was one of the best ppvs, Wrestlemania X-7 was arguably the best Wrestlemania yet, The 2001 Royal Rumble was great when Kane got 11 eliminations, the list is endless. 2001 was the last full year of WWF, and from what I've heard and seen, 2001 was the greatest year in WWE.

[Kenny Powers]

1997-1998 were great years for WWE as far as the attitude era. My personal favorite would be that along with 2001-2002 when WWE bought out WCW. The story lines were amazing with Vince competing with Shane. We had Austin and The Rock going at it, with tons of new talent coming in. The Invasion Angle was great when it started out.

It was amazing to see all that WCW and ECW talent inside a WWE ring. Not to mention, Ric Flair's return to WWE and Eric Bischoff becoming General Manager of Raw. I also can't forget of the NWO Invasion where Hogan, Hall, and Nash came to WWE to poison it. I never thought we would see Hogan or even the NWO in the WWE.

[Rob]

2003. It was the first full year I had watched WWE programming on a regular basis (every week, without fail) and some of the feuds completely captivated me. Brock Lesner/Kurt Angle was just amazing and I just had to tune in every week to see what happened next. I was absolutely pissed when Angle cheated his way out of his WWE Championship match again Lesnar on SmackDown.

Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho was probably the main reason why I became a Shawn Michaels fan. It almost taught me about Shawn's basic past, about how he was one of the very best back in the mid-90's. And that was the first really, really good wrestling match I ever watched and even then I understood that this was a quality match.

Triple H/Kevin Nash introduced me to Hell in a Cell, which since then has become one of my favourite match types. Plus again, it taught me more about the past 10 years in the WWE, about their friendship etc etc. Their HIAC match was the first really bloody match I ever watched.

And Undertaker/McMahon absolutely amazed me out to be honest. It was the first time I had ever seen Taker's really dark side and the whole buried alive concept really interested me.

There have been better years before and since then, but for me personally, 2003 was the year that really shaped me into the wrestling fan I am today.

[Baximus]

I'm shocked that I'm the first to post this, but there has never been a better build up to Wrestlemania than that of Wrestlemania 2000.

Starting when Stone Cold went out at Survivor Series, you had HHH establish the McMahon-Helmsley Faction which pretty much put HHH in charge and made him the best heel I've ever seen.

He has this sick feud with Cactus Jack through the Royal Rumble while the Rock is going after Big Show. Then Rock wins the controversial Rumble and No Mercy rolls around.

Rock v. Show for the #1 contender spot at WM2000 and HHH v. Cactus Jack in the Career v. Title Hell in a Cell Match where Foley was backdropped through the damn ring from the top of the Cell. On top of that Shane screwed the Rock over giving Show the title shot.

The next few weeks were chaos with Rock trying to get back his title shot. He puts his career on the line in a handicap match against Show and HHH and Vinny Mac comes back and counts the pinfall for the Rock to win his shot into the Main Event, making it a 3 way.

Then, there's a huge Raw in Chicago and Vince coerces Trips into having the WM2000 Main Event that night and its a shitshow and HHH holds on late after a ton of craziness. Just as Trips thinks its over, Linda comes out and puts Foley into the Main Event to give us the McMahon in every corner match.

We all remember that Vince screwed Rocky over there and that led to the best out of 3 falls match at Backlash where Stone Cold came out and cleaned house for Rocky to finally take the belt from HHH.

Their feud just kept going into the next month's Iron Man Match with HBK at the guest ref and the Undertaker returning and chokeslamming HHH gave him the disqualification win and thus the tiebreaking belt win.

That's just a sick run of action from 99-00 after the awesomeness of 98 and 99.

On top of that, you had the 24 hour defending on the hardcore belt, Angle, Jericho, X-Pac and Benoit on the mid-card and a great tag division that featured Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boyz, the Dudleys, Too Cool and the New Age Outlaws.

This all happened without HBK, Austin or Taker and look at the superstars that just owned the card! Without a shadow of a doubt my absolute favorite time in wrestling.

We're so far from that glory it makes me sad. I didn't even touch on how awesome ECW used to be and the fact that WCW was still decent at the time.


Bring Back the Great One and start it up again!

[deanerandterry]

My favorite year has to be 1997 for a number of reasons (I know that WCW was kicking WWE's ass at the time but IMO they shouldn't of been). This was the year bret had his huge heel turn, which turned into the US vs. Canada storyline (which I was a huge fan of). They had one of my all time favorite PPVs in Canadian Stampede (which was my first live event), Stone Cold becoming a fan favorite, the debut of Kane and his storyline with taker, the formation of DX, and the Montreal Screwjob (which really helped set up the Mr. McMahon character, who was a great heel). They also had one of my all time favorite matches with Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold at WM13. There are a few of the reasons why that was my favorite year.

[school-of-hard-knocks]

I have to go with 2001. Royal Rumble was great with Kane looking like a monster and Austin managing to eliminate him with a chair in the end. Triple H and Stone cold did some great work feuding one another. WM 17 was a great event top to bottom, Kurt Angle Vs Chris Benoit, Hardcore Triple Threat, Undertaker Vs HHH, TLC, Stone Cold Vs The Rock...what more can you want? The Invasion angle was botched a bit but it was still very exciting to watch for the first couple of months. Austin's heel turn... Jericho winning the title... There were just so many memorable moments that year.

[The Brain]

I actually started a thread on this topic a few weeks ago. Here's my post from then.

I think my favorite year was 2000. Everything seemed so fresh that year. Take a look at all the new guys that came in toward the end of 99 and beginning of 2000. We had Jericho, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Saturn, Tazz, The Dudleys, Rikishi, etc. Triple H and The Rock took their game to a new level. Undertaker reinvented himself as the American Badass. Edge and Christian and The Hardys became big time players. And all this without Austin for most of the year. One event that stands out is Fully Loaded. Here we had three main eventers, Rock, Triple H, and Taker, against Benoit, Jericho, and Angle respectively. Like I said it was just so fresh.

Also 2000 was hilarious. Angle was priceless. Edge and Christian were brilliant with their new characters. Rock was as funny as ever. Foley shined in his new role as commissioner. Every week the comedy was just as good, if not better than the action. Also Stephanie McMahon was ridiculously hot that year. Sorry I had to throw that in there.

I should also mention that 1999 was my least favorite year. I realize I’m probably the minority in that opinion. Everything about the over the top attitude storylines had grown old to me. All these fresh characters came in at the perfect time. It was a great turn around for the company from a creative standpoint. I’m noticing that things started to turn for the better as soon as Russo left. Coincidence?

My honorable mention would be 1989. Seems strange that my two favorite years are eleven years apart. 1989 had a stacked roster with some good feuds, matches, and storylines.

[iamcountrymusic]

i really loved the years Bischoff was GM.
Stephanie/HLA, Billy and Chuck being gay, Katie Vick and he introduced the Elimination Chamber.
Those days had better main events like with WCW wrestlers (Booker T, Kevin Nash, Goldberg etc). It wasn't just Cena, Orton and Triple H every main event. They had a bunch of guys going for the title.

To this day, i am still really gay for Evolution.

[byrnside]

Wow. Decisions, decisions. Now, I haven't read anyone elses choices because I don't want to be jaded. But, I think the obvious choice for me here is 1998.

Bret had just been screwed, the nWo was huge and about to implode, and possibly bring the entire ship down with it, and the WWF was ready for a clean slate. And they got it, in 1998, the dawn of the Attitude Era.

But in 1998, you had the Royal Rumble that Stone Cold won, and Kane burned the Undertaker alive in the casket match. At Wrestlemania, Stone Cold won the WWF title against HBK in a classic match that had HBK shelved for almost 5 years. DX was just getting started when HBK left, when Triple H brought X-Pac back in, and added the Outlaws. The war on WCW was waged by Triple H and DX. "Suck it!" Became more common in a wrestling ring, than a wrist lock. Vince McMahon became the most hated heel in wrestling's history, that fueled Stone Cold and basically won the ratings war for the WWF. We saw the Rock come into his own, and Mankind stepped up into the main event status. Of course, the Corporation, probably one of the top 5 stables in wrestling history, came to be in '98. The Undertaker threw Foley off the Hell in a Cell in '98, beginning the Hardcore era of the WWF. The Survivor Series that year was as good of a follow-up from the previous year as anyone could've hoped for with the World title tournament where the Rock shocked the entire world and joined the Corporation, and Vince turned on Foley.

[thetoko]

1999. WWF was turning around, they had a great mix of promos and wrestling. Stone cold, the rock, kane, mick foley, HHH. It had everything anyone could hope for at the time while mid way through the year,the NWO was already becoming stale.