Is it that time again when we finish a decade total of top 10s and make a summary of a top 20 to conclude the whole decade? We’ve already done it for The Top 10 Wrestling Pay-Per-Views of the 1980s, then The Top 20 Wrestling Pay-Per-Views of the 1990s, and now it’s time to do the same for The Top 20 Wrestling Pay Per Views of the 2000s. Wrestling in the 2000s was full of drastic changes. World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling were both bought out by Vince McMahon (and there was no worthy competition), The horribly done Invasion angle, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) changed it’s name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the company went through end of the Attitude Era, dividing into two separate brands in the Brand Extension (Raw & Smackdown) for the Ruthless Aggression era, bringing ECW back as a third brand just to bury it all, to supporting Linda McMahon’s fail political campaign to change the product to the PG-era, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling & Ring of Honor were the only alternative from the WWE promotion. Talk about the most transformative decade in wrestling. WWE was feeling the downfall of sales figure in the post-Attitude era as the Invasion angle got the majority of Monday Night War views to turn away. This is where being a wrestling fan from the 1990s got really frustrating for all of us here because there was no consistency and we couldn’t get behind the newer stars (Cena, Orton, Batista) since the old ones came and went (i.e. Steve Austin, The Rock, Brock Lesnar). There were fold faces like WWE’s Shawn Michaels and TNA’s Sting but the newer stars only connected with the younger fans that never grew up nor experience the Monday Night Wars. Plus without serious competition, Vince McMahon drowns himself in complacency and does the same thing. It’s no wonder WCW-die hards and ECW aficionados tried with TNA Wrestling and ROH but ultimately gave up on both of them later on because they were lacking in quality storytelling and production value. Despite TNA & ROH having the best collection of indie stars and ex-WWE employees, ultimately what big audience wrestling had only focused on WWE as comfort food. The exact same thing can be said about Pro-Wrestling NOAH being thig alternative for All-Japan & New-Japan during both of their darkest times of the company. However, NOAH was only top Japanese promotion for the first half of the 2000s until Kenta Kobashi Mitsuharu Misawa couldn’t keep up and younger wrestlers couldn’t sell as many tickets. It’s no wonder why marks look up to Dave Meltzer and see his critiques as gospel because they were directionless to finding that good wrestling that scratches that huge itch of theirs. Despite the 2000s being a much weaker decade compared to wrestling in the 1990s, this decade popularized more high-flying, technical, and physical wrestling than the hardcore mess that only backyard wrestling (like CZW) only materbates to. As the last time I’ve ever really cared about wrestling, the 2000s decade mean a lot to me in term of how much love to bitch about it and go back and appreciate what I couldn’t really appreciate at the time. Now that I finished reviewing wrestling pay-per-views form 2000 – 2009, I like to rank my top 20 favorite wrestling shows of the 2000s
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As the first official calendar year of the PG-era, it was insufferable to watch. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that putting the end of the Ruthless Aggression era from last year was all just to put Linda McMahon’s political campaign as Govoner of the state of Connecticut was straight up embarrassing. It’s already too late to put Linda in a good image since Vince already made WWE as vile of a television program as possible. And worst of all was when RAW began to have special guest hosts as General managers. You know each and everyone of their lack of wrestling experience that they couldn’t say the right things from the script and all this stunt of putting celebrities just to save raw from declining ratings is the worst viewing experience. The only merit of 2009 for WWE was CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, Jeri-Show dominating both Raw & Smackdown’s tag teams, and The Legacy faction was the only good things going on in this horrible, horrible year. In comparison, TNA Wrestling was having one of their weakest years up to this point. 2009 for TNA was still better than WWE but despite their undercard being solid, the ex-WWE stars coming in made the product worse. Aspects like Main Event Mafia, Mick Foley as TNA World Champion, and Hulk Hogan coming to TNA at the end of 2009 left a sour taste in our mouths. It only gets worse in 2010 when TNA allow Hulk Hogan and Eric Bisho Bischoff turn TNA into WCW 2.0. Meanwhile in ROH, I think Ring of Honor started going on cruise control and began showing really okay-ish shows. From 2007 – 2008 ROH stop making their shows too long and fill up the card. The ROH shows in 2009 got back to making unnecessarily long shows. Once again we got multiple shows that had to go on for more than one night and at this point, staying as an ROH fan became unsatisfying. This is Bryan Danielson’s last year in ROH and the company pushed Tyler Black as their replacement. Unfortunately, the man who eventually became Seth Rollins was not as good as Bryan Danielson nor was he able to carry the small promotion on his back. 2009 in wrestling got pretty exhausting considering the lack of quality and the amout of bullshit he had to withstand from all parties involved. To to mention Pro Wrestling Noah lost its status of as being Japan’s number one promotion because they couldn’t get any of their new stars to sell seat and Mitsuharu Misawa died at the worst time. 2009 was a really bad year to be a wrestling, but where there any good shows in 2009? 
After having a really bad year in 2007, WWE finally step up their game in making the 2008 calendar year a much improved one. What most people don’t know is that this is where the Ruthless Aggression era ended and the PG-era begun. Despite turning the product into PG (thanks to Linda McMahon’s failed political campaign) I dare say that 2008 is the best year since 2003 when Brock Lesnar was around. As the final year of the Ruthless Aggreesion era, they went out in a bang. 2008 is where the goods were finally delivered. Sure, the WWECW brand got worse and became a after thought at this point, but Smackdown started becoming an interesting show thanks to Edge & Vickie’s La Familia Faction and Raw had Randy Orton running the Legacy trio. The best thing WWE did was to finally push Jeff Hardy, CM Punk, and Chris Jericho to main event status during a time where maintained John Cena, Batista, and Triple H’s status into cruise control. Out of all of Chris Jericho’s time in the WWE, 2008 is arguably his best year considering that he was World Heavyweight Champion and had the best title defenses ever. This was certainly an improvement over his lackluster Undisputed Championship reign. Meanwhile TNA wrestling made Samoa Joe as their TNA World Heavyweight Champion and the face of the company. After he lost his title at Bound For Glory he never again recovered his career. However, 2008 is Samoa Joe’s biggest year in his career considering that he drew in a lot of money for TNA and carried the company like a legit force. TNA were doing more pay per views that got out of the Impact show and many of the seats filled up by the thousands. But I start to see that success got over their heads considering that Russo’s overbooking got out of hand (once again) and signing in ex-WWE stars like Booker T, Mick Foley, and started to expose TNA’s cracks. At this point, ROH was pushing Kevin Steen and Tyler Black while still utilizing what stars they had left before losing them all to WWE later on. 2008 was an enjoyable year for all parties involved and is remembered for being a year where consistency and quality for all North American promotions kept wrestling fans satisfied. With that being said, here are the best shows of 2008 for wrestling. 
WWE had one of the worst years in the company’s history. The double murder suicide committed by 
2005 is where every promotion in North America finally step up their game. 2004 is one of the most regrettable years for the WWE which gave newer, more promising promotions a chance. 2005 is where WWE fixed their mistakes, TNA grew into the undisputed number 2 promotion in all of wrestling, and Ring of Honor finally took more risks to make their calendar year more interesting. For the WWE, everything you’ve known about the Ruthless Agression era and modern wrestling finally had it’s kick start here. Vince finally found his top stars with John Cena and Dave Batista and finally (and mercifully) end Triple H’s reign of terror. This would be the last time were WWE were putting new act over in a consistant basis as Vince never again push many of his rosters to stardom quite like this. Though Smackdown still is a weaker half of the Brand extension, I can easily say that Raw was far more enjoyable now. What’s also interesting is that WWE offer us an ECW reunion show. After years of hearing ECW chants in WWE shows and a successful DVD sale with Rise & Fall of ECW, releasing One Night Stand was a no brainer. TNA wrestling became absolutely hot in time where monthly Pay Per Views were consistant, Jarrett’s reign of terror had more constrains, the X Division was becoming more of an attraction, and wrestling fans found a home outside of the WWE. TNA’s consistant calendar year was complete where they finally made their first signature event with Bound For Glory (could have picked a better name) and forever gave the company an identity where all wrestling fans understood what is there to be expected. Meanwhile ROH was was the year in the company’s history by having the great roster and finally producing fantastic shows instead of randomizing the bouts. I feel so bad for what was happening in Japan considering that NOAH was one cruise control and New-Japan kept sucking as they continue Inoki’s worked-MMA matches. For North American wrestling fans, WWE, TNA, and ROH were among the best times of being a wrestling fan. As one of the best years in wrestling, what was the best night to be a wrestling fan? 
Shame on WWE for making their product in 2004 one of the worst of all time! From 2002 – 2003 Smackdown once was the A-show because we had the best physical competition and the best starts. Not anymore because the moment Brock Lesnar left the company after Wrestlemania and made Eddie Guerrero drop the belt to John Bradshaw Layfield for the rest of 2004 was absolutely terrible. You would have thought that Undertaker’s return as the Deadman would have save the brand, but no, it got worse as he kept losing to JBL in a series of screwy finishes. Plus when Kurt Angle returned from a neck injury, his only opponent throughout 2004 was with Eddie Guerrero. Like it was nice to see him square off against Eddie since Wrestlemania but to do it throughout the rest of 2004 got REALLY stale. This is when Smackdown lost all credibility and became a worse show than Raw. Triple H’s reign of terror never stopped in 2004 and it was so bad. Kicking Randy Orton out of Evolution just to to push him as the babyface of the Raw brand fell completely flat on its face as Triple H just buried Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. And that wasn’t the worst that Raw offered. The Kane and Lita marriage and miscarriage was the most distasteful storyline I’ve seen since Katie Vick. Like this soap opera drama for raping Lita and then turning babyface because she had a miscarriage had no place being in wrestling it sucked more as it continued. WWE in 2004 lost a whole lot of viewers where Vince was really feeling the downfall of the post-Attitude era like never before. So where did all those wrestling fans gone to? Well, this is where TNA Wrestling and Ring of Honor gathered the most loyal, die-hard fans imaginable. ROH finally got it’s idenity by being the American pure wrestling promotion that smartmarks dream of having and TNA finally got out of the TNA Asylum and moved ot Universal Studios Orlando, Florida and got out of the Weekly Pay Per View model and started doing monthly PPVs as they should. 
2003 is a very weird year for professional wrestling. This was a year where WWE was having a really rocky year for the company. The brand extension split between Smackdown and Raw has been extremely one-sided. Like who the hell even wanted to watch Raw where Triple H’s reign of terror was in full compacity while Smackdown was giving you the most physical and competitive feuds on television. The WWE had the greatest roster in the palm of its hands, and somehow Vince McMahon decides to just screw the pooch with the roster on Raw. Goldberg, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Goldust, Kevin Nash, Kane, Test, and motherfucking Scott Steiner were tall brought into the spotlight only to have their credibility damaged and push them into the undercard. It was getting repulsive that Trips was continously pushing himself and makes his Evolution’s purpose of making Ric Flair relevant and make new stars to be top-tier bullshit. It’s no wonder why everyone was excited to see Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Big Show, Kurt Angle, John Cena and the cruiserweights in action because the left hand doesn’t even know what the right hand is doing. That’s not to say that Smackdown was perfect, because Hulk Hogan’s Mr. America was too damn predictable, Sean O’Haire wasn’t pushed to the uppercard, Zach Gowen was abused on screen, and Stephanie & Vince were having the most uncomfortable feud ever. Ordering Smackdown’s exclusive Pay-Per-Views was often a bargan over Raw’s shows, and their cross-overs in the big four Pay-Per-Views were a mixed bag via clash of quality. Ring of Honor was picking up some steam with hipsters by being an American promotion that does Japanese-style booking. This was when ROH had a fantastic roster and it got wrestling fans interested in indie wrestling. This was an opportunity for new-faces that would never catch a break to carry an entire show and it gave many smartmarks optimism. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was picking up some steam with the undercard while their main event scene is hampered with Jeff Jarrett’s over-exposure and Vince Russo’s degenerate booking as usual. This was when the Weekly Pay Per View model was getting REALLY out of hand and there’s a lack of quality and consistency as old faces come and go. While All-Japan & New-Japan were entering their dark times, Pro Wrestling NOAH became the best wrestling Promotion in Japan. It’s all thanks to Misawa and Kobashi’s efforts in making GHC Divisions work. Like NJPW doing MMA was embarrassing and All-Japan had no idead what to do without their stars. As one of the wierdest times being a wrestling fan, it’s not easy to look back at 2003 with any fondness. If anything it was a struggle to see what was the best night of wrestling in 2003 but let’s find out. 
After the travesty of Vince McMahon buying out WCW & ECW and tryed & failed with making the Invasion angle, thankfully 2002 was a better year for wrestling. The first half of 2002 was a mess having a failed nWo takeover and Austin walking out of the company was an awful moment indeed. The second half, however, is one of the best times of being a WWE fan. This was a year were so many drastic changes were made. The World Wrestling Federation changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (thanks to World Wildlife Federation winning the courtcase against Vince), the company’s top stars The Rock & Austin were out the door, Triple H’s reign of terror started here, smaller stars were getting pushed to the uppercard to main event, and the company split into two brands; Raw & Smackdown. Since the WWE’s roster was so big in 2002 that wasn’t enough time to give many of them airtime and there was no other promotion that could compete against WWE, why not have two brands fight each other for ratings. Since Triple H’s reign of terror spoiled all the fun and buried so many of their rost (may I remind you of Katie Vick?) Smackdown was the A show. But fanboys of WCW & ECW refused to watch WWE’s offerings in 2002 because of the shit effort they did with the Invasion Angle. Thankfully both of those fandoms were able to find a place with new companies such as Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor. ROH was such a small brand that would never succeed without having the best indie wrestlers & free agents at the time filling up their roster. It was nowhere as brutal or as fun as ECW, but ROH was the one wrestling promotion that actually succeeded by being pure professional wrestling instead of entertainment based. Jeff Jarret got a hold of NWA and opened TNA. It was the one promotion that had so much promise. For a company that continously put that Memphis mid-card peice of shit at the main event on a weely basis, they had the best free-agents, indie stars, and ex-WWE/WCW stars that save the promotion. It was really akward to watch ROH through the internet and obscured cable while TNA were not only doing broadcasting but also weekly pay-per-piews. Just who had the money to keep buy all of those shows on a weekly basis? The weekly pay-per-view business practice would only end in 2004 when TNA moved out of the TNA Asylum and start promoting like a professional wrestling company should. It was really interesting that ROH & TNA both shared talent with each other (up until Rob Feinstein got caught in an internet scandal as a pedophile). 2002 had a lot of ups and downs for all those on board, but it was an important year for wrestling to take a course to a better direction after plumetting viewership from 2001. So what were the best nights in the year known as the most major turning point in wrestling? 
Ever wondered with this many matches that the wrestling industry provided, which are the ten that are the best? A better question is what does it take to make the best match of all time? Is it workrates? Spots? Kicking out of finishers? Blood and weapons? So many flips and bumps? No. The simple answer is the rivalry build-up and how they showcase their hatred in front of a crowd to do ALL they can to prove that they are the better competitor. Wrestling has forgotten that now that WWE doens’t want to make any more stars and the delusion of winning and losing doesn’t matter is complete bullshit if I ever heard one. It’s true that its all about engaging crowd but it’s also delivering on a promise that the match will have a conclusion. The anticipation of having a wrestler win and the other to have their comeuppins (based on how the heel pissed us off) is why we care about winning and losing so much. That’s why storylines are created to elavate the feud that actually pay money to see the live result is what makes the industry last as long. No matter how many critics will argue that the match is fake, there’s no arguing that these storylines is what made wrestling so unique and engaging. And when selecting these ten matches, it has to be ten that deliverse on its promise in the most satisfying way possible. Also, there’s a rule in the list of having one wrestler per match! So get ready to see what are some of the best matches in wrestling history!
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