Best year of the last decade

[Dr. Mantis Toboggan, M.D.]

I want to know what your favorite year was in WWE from 2000-2010!

MODS- Not sure if this was supposed to go into Old School or into WWE section. Please move if needed.

For me it's a no brainer.
2002

We witnessed some of the most memorable moments that year, and it's the year that would change WWE into what it is now. I'm going to list some things first.

-Triple H returns from a career threatening injury and wins the Rumble.

-The NWO made their way into the WWE.

-One of the most iconic matches ever happened: Rock vs. Hogan WM 18.

-John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Brock Lesnar made their debuts with the company.

-The first ever WWE draft took place, changing the landscape of the WWE.

-Shawn Michaels returns after 4 years and is better than ever.

-Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Shawn Michaels all won their final World/WWE titles.

-Eric Bischoff, the man who almost killed the WWE, is welcomed to RAW as the new general manager.

-The World Heavyweight Championship is introduced to the WWE.

-The first ever Elimination Chamber match happened at Survivor Series featuring- Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Booker T, Kane, Chris Jericho, and RVD.


To me, this was the period between the old and the new. The attitude era was at it's very end, and the new, ruthless aggression era was just starting. We said goodbye to some of the old faces of the company (Austin/Rock) and hello to the new faces (Angle/Lesnar/Triple H). Nothing will ever beat the year of 2002 IMO.

Your favorite year?

 

[HBKStreakbuster]

For me it was 2010 simply because I got to witness HBK's last match in Arizona at Wrestlemania, something me and my son will never forget..one hell of a match too.

 

[BigRedPunk]

Really hard to pick but I have to go personally with 2003. Kane is my favorite WWE/WWF superstar of all time and seeing him be in the main event and the focus of RAW for awhile was very nice. Seeing Kane unmask live on RAW was a dramatic night for me. I enjoyed his rampage in the following months as well. That added on with the Rock having his last run as the still entertaining heel along with his memorable final feud with Austin. Goldberg was a welcome in the WWE and Lesnar was still a joy to see. Evolution was great too.

 

[SickJames]

Anyone would have to be crazy not to choose 2001 or 2002 though it's secondary for me.

I agree we had a lot of great things like DX in 2006, Trish's last match I believe which was awesome and well deserved, and ECW (which was the brand's best year), 2005 the REAL ECW getting one night of recognition and triumph as well as HBK and Hogan. 2004 we had Evolution's best year and I am not sure, but I truly believe the Katie Vick storyline was this year and I loved it, 2008 and 9 were decent enough despite PG ruining shit, 10 had Nexus, 07 sucked but was still good in parts, it's just not as memorable, but definately had big moments, 2003 was the debut of Golberg, 2011 had The return of The Rock

But 2001 and 2002 were the best years and last two great years of wrestling 96-02 was the shit. the first year and last year after the Attitude Era 98-01 mark the greatest time in professional wrestling.

2001 being the year WWE bought WCW and also acquired ECW guys as well may in itself trump out 2002 along with WrestleMania X7 being the greatest WrestleMania of all time, so with all those lovely moments, you, the OP, mentioned, I'm a 2001 guy.

It's 2001, which also had one of if not the greatest 3 Stages of Hell Match ever between Austin and HHH and more main event level talent seen in WWE than we see today making for loads of first time bouts and great stories waiting to be told. This year was the year that set the tone for the following year (nWo, Bischoff etc to come into play) so you gotta give the edge to 2001!

 

[Shawn]

For me it was 2007, this was the first year where i really got intrested in wrestling to the point i wouldnt miss it. As a matter of fact i only missed 1 RAW that whole year and that was when Orton RKO'd Cena on the table and injured Cena.. I think one of the reasons i got into wrestling so much that year was at the the time ECW was just brought back, RAW did some intresting things such as Vince getting shaved bald, Vince getting blown up, and believe it or not i'm a big fan of Cena and he had some really great fueds and matches that year such as with Orton and Bobby Lashley.

We also saw the awesome return of Chris Jericho. We saw HHH return after an injury as well as Mysterio. And for some reason i got really intrested into the whole "La Familia" Faction on Smackdown and things were a lot more unpredictable. So I realize that year probably wasnt as good to other fans as it was me but the year was just (dare i say it) entertaining to me. lol

 

[Rockyfolifebo!!!]

I agree with the OP. I didn't realize how great of a year 2002 was until you listed all of the facts. But you forgot Rey Mysterio also made his WWE debut that year! 2006 comes in at a close number 2. You had DX's return, ECW's official return, the debut of CM Punk. But on the downside, in 2006 we started to see SuperCena. (not bashing him). So for me, it's 2002.

 

[Gavschenko]

for me its 2002 if u look at all the ppv matches they had back then if u had them now the ppv buyrates would be skyrocketing up instead of 65,000 in 2011

 

[JSpaz]

Hard to disagree with 2002, with all the points you hit on. The Rock/Hogan match at WM was epic!

But......... If I had 2 favorite Superstars in my life, it was Bret Hart and Kane. In 2010 Bret Returned after 12 years, to a WWE ring, to kick off what might have been the return of the Monday night wars. To see him and Shawn in the same ring, stare down each other and hug, was a classic moment. Seeing him as GM was great also.

In July Kane won MITB and then defeated Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Title. (If you are a die hard Kane fan you know it was a long up down road)

And for about 10-12 minutes TNA was worth watching on 1/4/10 when it debuted on Monday Night. We were able to relive 1997, when at, 9:00 Bret Hart was on RAW, while Hogan, Bischoff, Hall, and Nash were in a TNA ring. at the same time.

So probably not the greatest year according the "Expert" Wrestling fan, but truly my favorite year!

 

[Dude_Love87]

2000 or 2001 The draft was the downfall of wrestling. Two shows are basically two different organizations? I'm no for it. Although, I'm not a good judge of wrestling, because I stopped watching a little after the WCW takeover. For me 2001 was the last great year for wrestling. Here recently, I've gotten back into wrestling, I only watch Raw, but it seems the writing has gotten a little better then it was 2004-mid 2010.

 

[brighamosity]

Even before reading any of the posts, I instantly thought 2002. Aside from everything the OP said, Ric Flair came in as well. 2002 was the year that the WCW holdouts contracts started expiring and one by one they all came in. Hogan, Hall, Nash, Rey Mysterio, Scott Steiner, Ric Flair, and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting. I just think the 2002 roster was the stacked roster in the history of professional wrestling. And the writing was great too. (Although I do feel like they kind of dropped the ball with the nWo.) One of my favorite storylines was Edge vs. Kurt Angle in the hair vs. hair match. After he lost, he started wearing wrestling gear with a wig on his head. It was hilarious.

 

[CocoaDr3amBoy]

In my opinion, I think 2005 was the best year of the decade. I watched wrestling from time to time before 2005 and remember watching Lesnar and Angle on Smackdown, but I really started to watch WWE nonstop in 2005 and it seems like I lucked out because it was an awesome year. There was the emergence of Batista, Edge, Orton (although he had already started his rise) and Cena (love him or hate him). Plus, there was the Angle/Michaels feud, Cena/Jericho feud, Hogan/Michaels, Mysterio/Eddie, Cena/Angle, and last but not least the unfortunate death of Eddie Guerrero. Overall, it was a great year with amazing feuds and amazing matches and its a good thing I started watching when I did or else I wouldve missed out.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

I'm going to agree with 2002, which is kind of funny because I was about to start a thread about how 2002 is the most underrated year in WWE history. I thought everyone thought that wrestling sucked "after the Attitude Era" or "after the draft" or "when they switched to WWE" so I thought that 2002, which qualifies for all those statements, was a hated year in the IWC. Luckily, I was wrong, and there are people here who see that 2002 was one of the best years ever, and I'll give honorable mention to 2000

 

[SylentEcho]

2003 in my opinion. We got to see Brock break away from Heyman and become his own man and it was interesting. Mr. America was hilarious, Evolution were dominating and Goldberg was back. Oh yeah! 2003 was the last great year of wrestling IMO.

 

[Vincent Michaels]

2010 because after the crappy year that was 2009 WWE finally got back on track and gave us some real quality fueds again. 2010 gave us possibly the greatest Royal Rumble match in history, perhaps the greatest WrestleMania since X7(seriously, XIX is WAY too overrated), and some of it's best fueds in a long time with Batista vs Cena, Edge vs Jericho, Nexus vs WWE, Nexus vs Cena, the returning Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon(I don't care if the match was crap, it was the story behind it that mattered), Kane vs Undertaker possibly for the last time(again, story was more important than the matches), and so on. We got people like The Miz, Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Jack Swagger(eventhough he failed), Rey Mysterio(again) and Kane(again) rise up from midcarders to main eventers to fill in for the likes of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Undertaker, and Chris Jericho in their absence. We saw the debuts of Daniel Bryan(solid midcarder), Alberto Del Rio(possible mainstay in the main event), and Wade Barrett(possible main eventer or midcarder). Not quite bad for a year, especially after the year of crap that was 2009.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

For whatever reason my "year" in WWF/E is always the day after mania up until the next mania. Which would be April 2002-Mania 19 for me as my favorite "year". Angle was actually awesome then and not a charicature of himself. Edge was on fire. You had the "smackdown 6". Brock Lesnar setting the world on fire. Hogan's last real run. Lots of good shit.

 

[Dagger Dias]

2008 is my pick because it had so many moments that really stood out for me. It started off with Cena's shocking Royal Rumble return, then we had Wrestlemania 24 which had several good matches and the cool outdoor setup, CM Punk giving Edge a taste of his own medicine by cashing in on him to get Raw a world title back after both titles went to Smackdown on Night of Champions, Shawn Michaels and Jericho gave us one of the best feuds of the decade that year on Raw, and then we had Edge VS Taker going on at Smackdown for most of the year. The Edge VS Taker match at Summerslam was awesome.

2010 was my second favorite year in the decade. Moments like Hart's return to make peace with Michaels, Raw destroying Impact in a short monday night wars sequel, Wrestlemania 26 going on to become one of the best Wrestlemanias in years, Nexus' debut, getting to see the Nexus VS Team WWE match live at Summerslam 2010 with the wifey just 4 days before we got married will also always be a fond memory for me. Other than the last month or so with Miz as champion, 2010 was a great year.

Honorable mention goes out to 2005 and 2006. 2005 saw Cena and Batista winning their first world titles after their rise to the top and becoming the new main guys of their respective brands when they traded places at the draft. 2006 had the DX reunion and the great feud against Rated RKO.

 

[punkworshiper]

MY FAVE WAS 2004 BECAUSE EDDIE FINALLY WON THE TITLE.