Make Your Case III – Best Ever PPV

[Dave]

First of all, thanks for all the participation in these threads over the last 2 that I have created. It's been awesome to see some well thought-out arguments in favour of what you all believe. At the end of the day, we are all wrestling fans and we are all passionate about it. It's nice to see what makes you passionate about wrestling.

So with that in mind, we move on to the third thread in the “Make Your Case” series. This time, I would like you to think about the best ever PPV that there has ever been in wrestling. I am positive that a lot of people will have different opinions on what makes a perfect PPV and we will have a few different answers. But for the sake of argument, I'm going to forego making WrestleMania X-Seven my choice and go for something else. That said, feel free to make it your choice if you want to.

For me, SummerSlam 2002 is the greatest PPV event that the WWE has ever hosted and that there will ever be. Let's, first of all, have a look at the card...

Kurt Angle defeated Rey Mysterio
Ric Flair defeated Chris Jericho
Edge defeated Eddie Guerrero
Lance Storm & Christian defeated Booker T & Goldust
Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Benoit
The Undertaker defeated Test
Shawn Michaels defeated Triple H
Brock Lesnar defeated The Rock​

The first thing you might notice when you look at the match card, is just how much talent the WWE had at this point in time. 2002 was a quietly brilliant year in the WWE, if you ask me. The box office was on the fall as the last remnants of the Attitude Era disappeared but the sheer level of star power the WWE had on offer was out of this world. If you don't think that the WWE and Vince McMahon would trade these names for everyone on the current roster, then you are kidding yourself. In truth, it shows you just how much the WWE has lost with regards to main even stars. Kurt Angle versus Rey Mysterio was the opening bout for God's sake! That match was followed by Ric Flair versus Chris Jericho and Edge versus Eddie Guerrero. You haven't even reached the halfway mark in the PPV and you have 6 former or future World Heavyweight Champions. The depth on the roster was just utterly superb.

But the real quality of this PPV was the matches that it had. The opening match of the show between Angle and Mysterio is one of the bets opening matches that I have ever witnessed. They got less than 10 minutes to open the show and, in the end, they probably ended up stealing it. It was an interesting mix of styles but it showed that Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio were gold when they worked together and if either of them ever get a respective Greatest Matches DVD, this match will definitely be on it.

The under-card to the two main events is simply outstanding. Rob Van Dam and Benoit was a great match for the Intercontinental Championship and Edge versus Eddie Guerrero was superb for the most part. Upon watching this event again, nothing seems like a wasted motion or a waste of time. The Undertaker versus Test could and should have been so much better but it is what it is.

But it is the main events that really make this event shine. Brock Lesnar versus The Rock is a dream match by today's standards. I recall the finish of the main event being amazing and the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as they traded moves back and forth. But it isn't often that The Rock and Brock Lesnar were overshadowed, and that is exactly what happened at SummerSlam 2002. Shawn Michaels and Triple H didn't just have the best match of the night, they had one of the best matches in the history of wrestling. These best friends showed just how amazing they were and just why it was such a big deal that Shawn Michaels was back in the wrestling world. I am a huge Triple H fan and this stands out as being one of the finest matches he has ever worked. A show-stealer by every standard. Simply amazing.

So that's my pick. How about you?

 

[King Patrick Star]

It may or may not be the “Best ever pay per view”, but my favorite pay per view of all time is Vengeance 2001. Here’s the card.

Scotty 2 Hotty and Albert vs. WWF European Champion, Christian and Test
I liked this match. It was another great opener. Got the crowd going with the dancing. Only thing is, I wish Christian defended his Title in a Fatal Four Way with these 4 SuperStars.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Title match
WWF Intercontinental Champion, Edge vs. William Regal
Solid Intercontinental match here. Edge and Regal usually give great effort in their matches and both together showed a great example. I was really hoping that Edge would bring out both Belts, but oh well.

Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy with Lita as the Special Guest Referee
Hardy Boyz Explode!! I really didn’t know what was going to happen here, except for the fact that one of them was going to be mad at Lita at the end. I wish the feud lasted longer though.

WWF Tag Team Championship Title match
WWF Tag Team Champions, The Dudley Boyz (w/ Stacy Keibler) vs. Big Show and Kane
Stacy!! Anyway, seeing the Big Show and Kane, I thought for sure they would take the Tag Straps. They just look dominant together and as most of you know, they were, just later down the road. This win, I think, cemented the Dudleyz Tag Team legacy. Was there another team that the Dudleyz faced that looked as intimating as Big Show and Kane??

WWF Hardcore Championship Title match
WWF Hardcore Champion, Rob Van Dam vs. The Undertaker
Undertaker in the Mid-Card can only mean one thing, the card is that stacked. It was nice seeing Undertaker as the American Bad @$$ Hardcore Champion. It doesn’t get any more Hardcore than that. RVD did put up a good fight, but it’s the Undertaker we’re talking about. I felt that he could have taken any Title, at any time, at any place he wanted to. I think he should have held on to it longer. Maybe even a storyline where the Undertaker “fixes” the Hardcore Championship and just uses a new Winged Eagle as the Hardcore Title. That would have been Bad @$$.

WWF Women’s Championship Title match
WWF Women’s Champion, Trish Stratus vs. Jacqueline
Another solid match from Trish Stratus and Jacqueline. This is a prime example of why Women matches are better than Divas matches.

WWF Championship Title match
WWF Champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle
The first of 3 World Championship Title matches. This could have gone either way, but at the time, I was pulling for Austin to win. Glad he did. Stone Cold Steve Austin defeating Kurt Angle was 88% expected. Seeing Austin hold up the WWE Championship at the end of the match, just felt right, like it really belonged to him. After all, he was the first to hold the Big Eagle, so it was fitting. As soon as the ref counted to 3, I thought, okay, one more left, let’s go Rocky!!

World Championship Title match
World Champion, The Rock vs. Chris Jericho
The second of 3 World Championship Title matches. I was disappointed about The Rock losing, and thought to myself, are they really going to go with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the first Undisputed Champion?? Chris Jericho defeating the Rock was 12% expected. Seeing Chris Jericho hold up the WCW Championship at the end of the match, felt a little weird, but we’ve seen it about a month before. At the time, it took away my Dream Unification match, but in retrospect, it turned out for the better. I thought, at least if The Rock won, the outcome of the next match wouldn’t be so predictable. Boy was I wrong!!

WWF Championship and World Championship Title Unification match
WWF Champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. World Champion, Chris Jericho
The match starts off with interference from both Kurt Angle and The Rock and ends with interference from Vince McMahon, Ric Flair and Booker T. Chris Jericho defeating Stone Steve Austin was a 100% surprise to me. To see the last person who everyone thought had “No Chance In Hell”, who happen to have “No Chance In Hell” in his back pocket, was a complete shocker. To me, this is the most important overall match in the history of the WWE. This match is what put the notion in my head to buy replica Championship Title Belts. I actually bought the toy versions of both the Smoking Skull Belt and the Brahma Bull Belt that night. Funny thing is, my friend told me that I jinxed both Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock 12 minutes prior to the start of the event. I guess I did. Imagine if instead of the WWF Title, Jericho held the Smoking Skull Belt and instead of the WCW Title, Jericho held the the Brahma Bull Belt.

 

[SSJPhenom]

I've thought about this and I've thought about this and I didn't want to give the easy answer, but in all honesty there is only one answer. That answer is: WrestleMania X-7.

This isn't just the greatest WWE PPV ever, it's the greatest wrestling PPV ever. Not only did it have a great card, but every match on the card was highly entertaining and delivered. Everyone was on fire that night.

The Triple Threat Hardcore Championship match with Raven, Kane, and Big Show remains my all time favorite hardcore match. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit was a great match. TLC 2 with the Dudley Boys, Hardy Boys, and Edge and Christian is probably the greatest TLC match ever to date. 'Taker vs. Trips was a great brawl and a highly entertaining match. Shane vs. Vince was even a good match and their build up leading into the match was epic. Hell, even the Gimmick Battle Royal was fun to watch.

Then there was the main event. Stone Cold vs. The Rock. Sure it had happened 2 years earlier, but that match pales in comparison. The Rock was nowhere near Austin's equal during their first Mania, but at WrestleMania X-7, it truly was the two biggest stars in the business at that time going head to head and it was epic. Their build up to the match was epic. That sit down interview they did with JR is probably the best interview/promo ever as well. I didn't like the ending with McMahon, but it doesn't take away from what was a great great PPV.

Not only did it have great matches, a great card, and great performances, but when you look at it for what it was, it makes it all the more epic. We didn't know this at the time, but this PPV was the end of an era. The Attitude Era to be specific. After this, wrestling would never again be as popular, as wild, or as epic again. Don't get me wrong, wrestling was still good, but X-7 really was the end of the Monday Night Wars and what made wrestling so great during that time period. In a word, it was the end of head to head competition for the WWE. With a lack of competition and motivations, the WWE has progressively gone down hill since X-7.

X-7 really was the greatest PPV ever and the end of something special, not only in wrestling, but in pop culture.

 

[Kris Benwa]

I've thought about this and I've thought about this and I didn't want to give the easy answer, but in all honesty there is only one answer. That answer is: WrestleMania X-7.

This isn't just the greatest WWE PPV ever, it's the greatest wrestling PPV ever. Not only did it have a great card, but every match on the card was highly entertaining and delivered. Everyone was on fire that night.

The Triple Threat Hardcore Championship match with Raven, Kane, and Big Show remains my all time favorite hardcore match. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit was a great match. TLC 2 with the Dudley Boys, Hardy Boys, and Edge and Christian is probably the greatest TLC match ever to date. 'Taker vs. Trips was a great brawl and a highly entertaining match. Shane vs. Vince was even a good match and their build up leading into the match was epic. Hell, even the Gimmick Battle Royal was fun to watch.

Then there was the main event. Stone Cold vs. The Rock. Sure it had happened 2 years earlier, but that match pales in comparison. The Rock was nowhere near Austin's equal during their first Mania, but at WrestleMania X-7, it truly was the two biggest stars in the business at that time going head to head and it was epic. Their build up to the match was epic. That sit down interview they did with JR is probably the best interview/promo ever as well. I didn't like the ending with McMahon, but it doesn't take away from what was a great great PPV.

Not only did it have great matches, a great card, and great performances, but when you look at it for what it was, it makes it all the more epic. We didn't know this at the time, but this PPV was the end of an era. The Attitude Era to be specific. After this, wrestling would never again be as popular, as wild, or as epic again. Don't get me wrong, wrestling was still good, but X-7 really was the end of the Monday Night Wars and what made wrestling so great during that time period. In a word, it was the end of head to head competition for the WWE. With a lack of competition and motivations, the WWE has progressively gone down hill since X-7.

X-7 really was the greatest PPV ever and the end of something special, not only in wrestling, but in pop culture.

While I will admit I am not super familiar with WCW's older ppvs with the exception of a few I'm inclined to agree with this. Even if it's not the greatest wrestling ppv ever I'd argue it's the greatest effort WWE has put forth. For all the reasons and here and just because wrestling at this point was the hottest it has been in my lifetime and I don't believe it will get this hot again for at least a while. That's a pretty cool place to have if you ask me.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Survivor Series 2002.

I loved this PPV, first off the atmosphere at MSG was awesome! That made everything that much better. But aside from that there was some great wrestling and moments.

We had a really good 6 man tag between the Dudley's and Jeff and 3 minute warning. That was a damn good match filled with some good spots.

We witnessed Brock's first ever loss when Heyman turned on him. While the match wasn't that good it was a big moment.

We saw the debut of Scott Steiner. He arrived to a HUGE Pop cut an awesome promo and destroyed the future Broken Matt and Chris Nowinski. Again just an awesome moment.

Now we have a great wrestling match. One of the better tag team matches you will ever see. Los Guerrero's beat Angle and Benoit and Edge and Rey. Basically the Smackdown 6 showed their stuff in this match. Great stuff!

Finally we have the first ever Elimination Chamber match. Just an all around badass match and we get to witness HBK's final championship reign. Just another great moment on this card.

So all and all, this probably wouldn't compete with some Mania cards top to bottom but I don't think we should count those. Mania's should be seperate because those will always be the most stacked. But if we're talking non Mania PPVs this gets my vote, because of the atmosphere, moments and matches.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

An obvious answer here would be Wrestlemania X7 or Summerslam 2002, but since I started watching wrestling in 2009, I'll go with one PPV that I was there to watch it live, in my time and not on Dailymotion.

My answer is: Wrestlemania XXX

This had something not many PPVs can say they had and that was an emotional roller coaster.

It really felt like a well written put together movie. You know, the classic things like the hero getting some action in the first act of the movie, then the villains getting the lead or some tragedy happening then the big finale, where the here makes his comeback and everyone goes berserk.

Of course I'm talking about Daniel Bryan beating HHH to open the show, then Lesnar ending the streak and finally Bryan overcoming all odds to win. Say whatever you want, but Undertaker losing made Bryan's victory way bigger and emotional, due to the perfect manipulation of our emotions.

 

[HORRORHOLIC]

Well my personal favorite was Wrestlemania 3!! Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant was absolutely huge, Steamboat vs Savage, Alice Cooper coming to the ring with Jake Roberts etc... It was without a doubt the pinnacle of that whole era!!

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The answer to the question, "what is the greatest wrestling ppv of all time?" is undoubtably Wrestlemania 17. Just a phenomenal show, made all the better by WWE's decision to use a stadium rather than an arena for 'Mania for the first time since Wrestlemania 8.

However, if WMX7 was removed from the equation, which then becomes, "which is the best ppv apart from WMX7?", then my vote would be Canadian Stampede, WWE's fourteenth 'In Your House' event.

This show was a standard bearer for 'less is more', and played in front of a super-hot Calgary crowd at the Saddledome. Only five matches were televised in the two hour show, and even the forgotten fifth, a short 'free for all' (pre show) match between the Godwinns and the new Blackjacks, Bradshaw and Barry Windham, wasn't bad considering. But once the show began, just wow.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley, fresh off his King of the Ring win the previous month, fought Mankind in a rematch, in the early stages of Mick Foley'd face turn. Taka Michinoku and the Great Sasuke came from Japan and tore the house down - this was almost certainly the match that convinced WWE to run a light heavyweight division, although that didn't work so well in typical WWE fashion.

The WWE title match was a blessing, Undertaker was originally supposed to defend against the newly-heel Ahmed Johnson, but Ahmed got himself injured right at the start of what would have been the biggest push of his career. History shows us that he was largely useless after his injury healed, so in hindsight that worked out for the best. As a replacement, at short notice, WWE drafted in Vader, who at least was linked to 'Taker through his brief allegiance with Paul Bearer and Mankind. During this alliance, Vader actually pinned Undertaker at the Royal Rumble ppv earlier that year, so it wasn't completely random. What it was, however, was probably the last truly great match of Vader's career, which inexplicably plummeted not long after this (he was featured heavily on the upper mid card until the Royal Rumble 5 months later, then barely seen again)

And then we had the main event. And what a main event it was.

In one of the best pieces of booking WWE have EVER managed, in my opinion, the storyline was Bret Hart v Stone Cold Steve Austin's long running feud. Now, at various points over the preceding 6 months, WWE had planned a Bret Hart v Shawn Michaels rematch. Firstly at Wrestlemania until Michales lost his smile, and then at King of the Ring until Bret got injured. Every time, Austin was the go-to replacement. In this case, Hart had returned from injury at exactly the same time as Michaels got a short-term issue (hmm, convenient) - so Austin was again the stop gap. All this gamesmanship from Michaels actually led to a proper blow-off to Austin and Hart's feud, which had never properly finished (in part due to the litany of issues preventing Hart v Michaels).

At the same time, Austin and Hart experienced an organic double-turn at Wrestlemania, although in truth the seeds had been planted by Bret's portrayal of his character as one who was constantly denied the chance of being champion at the last second, and his frustrations with that (see his reactions after the Royal Rumble match and the steel cage match where her lost the title to Sid in February) - however, it felt much more real than the average heel turn. What made it feel even more real was that, in a departure to the norm, WWE allowed Hart to REMAIN AS A BABYFACE in Canada.

At Canadian Stampede, this culminated in one of the hottest crowds in WWE ppv history, where the face team (Stone Cold, Goldust, Ken Shamrock and the Legion of Doom) were the heels and the heels (Bret & Owen Hart, Jim Neihart, Davey Boy Smith and Brian Pillman) were given a heroes welcome in the Hart's hometown. WWE further played on this by allowing each competitor to enter seperately, which highlighted that it was the entire teams that were switched, not individual competitors.

It was also a bloody good match. All the wrestlers got their spots in, like they should in any multi-man match, and the match actually lasted a good 40 minutes. Finally, it progressed several storylines (Owen v Austin, Bulldog v Shamrock, Goldust v Pillman were all directly stemming from this match) whilst giving the aforementioned closure to Bret v Austin, who I believe never faced each other again, as Michaels was very shortly back on the scene.

All in all, the entire ppv was an example on how mega events should be booked.

 

[GhettoV1]

To me it's a tie between ECW Barely Legal (1997) and TNA Slammiversary (2007) these two events highlighted both companies were ready to expand and grow (and in TNA's case to move their brand away from the NWA and stand on their own two feet).

 

[RacistHulkHogan]

Well my personal favorite was Wrestlemania 3!! Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant was absolutely huge, Steamboat vs Savage, Alice Cooper coming to the ring with Jake Roberts etc... It was without a doubt the pinnacle of that whole era!!

Horror humbled by your love maniac. I still get chills thinking about slamming Andre. Love always. HH