Top Matches of the Decade – Part 2
Click here for matches 41 – 50
40) John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (Monday Night Raw, 4/23/07)
A mere twenty-two days after Shawn
Michaels and John Cena stole the show at Wrestlemania 23, a rematch
was set for Monday Night Raw, live from merry old England. The psychology
in the match was elegant in its simplicity; Cena kept going for the
STFU time and again, playing off the idea that he had used that hold
to put Michaels away at Wrestlemania, before frustration led him to
switch focus to Michaels’ always vulnerable back. Meanwhile, Michaels
played professor for the crowd by teaching a wrestling clinic on how
to work a limb, targeting Cena’s injured right arm. The match was
exciting right from the start, but around the time Michaels kicked out
of the FU and the show went to its fourth commercial break since the
opening bell, it became clear that this was something really special,
the kind of match that virtually never appears on free TV. As Michaels
and Cena both grew more and more desperate to pick up the win, they
both started breaking out of their comfort zones, with Cena taking flight
off the top rope, and Michaels pulling off a rare Powerbomb to counter
an attempted FU off the second rope. The grand finale came at the forty
minute mark, with Michaels escaping another FU by flipping over onto
his feet and nailing his second Sweet Chin Music of the match to avenge
his loss from three weeks earlier. This wasn’t just a good match-
as Jim Ross so aptly put it, it was one of the greatest one on one matches
in the history of Monday Night Raw.
39) The Rock vs. Steve Austin- No
Disqualification Match (Wrestlemania X7)
This wasn’t just a Wrestlemania
match, it was the Wrestlemania match- a clash of titans, the
second match in a Wrestlemania trilogy between two of the biggest stars
in the history of the sport. At Wrestlemania X7, Steve Austin and The
Rock went to war for the WWF Championship in front of an explosive crowd,
and showed that they were both willing to go to any lengths to bring
home the gold. The Rock locked on a Sharpshooter on a bloodied Austin,
in an moment more than a bit reminiscent of Austin’s famous Wrestlemania
13 match against Bret Hart. Not to be outdone, Austin actually pulled
out the Million Dollar Dream for the first time in years. Both men even
tried their hand at stealing the other’s finishing moves (with Austin’s
version of the Rock Bottom actually looking a bit more punishing than
the genuine article). The finish of the match shocked fans around the
world and was arguably the final note of the Attitude Era, as Austin
sold his soul for the WWF Title by turning heel and siding with his
arch enemy, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. There may have been better Wrestlemania
main events, but none have ever matched the monumental feeling of this
epic encounter.
38) Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles-
30 Minute Iron Man Match (Against All Odds 2005)
A month after AJ Styles took home the
X Division Championship at Final Resolution (in match number 43 on this
list), the Phenomenal One stole the show once again with this Iron Man
Match against Christopher Daniels. The match was even more exciting
that anyone might have expected, an intense back-and-forth affair without
any wasted moves from either competitor. The match saw its first decision
around the fifteen minute mark when Daniels blocked a 450 Splash with
his knees and pinned Styles with the Angel’s Wings. Daniels worked
hard to hold onto his lead, grounding Styles’ wild offense at every
opportunity. Eventually though, Styles tied things up with a surprise
School Boy with six minutes left on the clock. Daniels reacted with
an aggression and viciousness that few had seen from the Fallen Angel
before, leaving Styles battered and bloodied. As the seconds ticked
away, Daniels took Styles down hard and locked him in the Koji Clutch.
Blood spurting from a gash in his forehead, Styles seemed to pass out
in the move, but before the referee could count Styles out, time ran
out with the match still tied at one fall apiece. Infuriated, Daniels
demanded that TNA Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes restart the match,
and soon enough the American Dream agreed, calling for an extended sudden
death final fall. Daniels looked like he stood poised to capture the
X Division Championship as he set Styles up for a Frankensteiner in
the corner, but it wasn’t to be; with a herculean effort, Styles shoved
Daniels off the top rope and managed to hit the Styles Clash to retain
the title, capping off one of the best matches TNA history. Still, while
Styles won the battle, the war was far from over, as this proved to
be just the opening salvo in a feud that would last for nearly the entire
year, including another incredible Iron Man Match at Bound for Glory
in October. So yeah- it was a good year to be a fan of TNA’s X Division.
37) Batista vs. The Undertaker (Wrestlemania 23)
When it comes to The Undertaker’s
famous Wrestlemania streak, his matches inevitably fall into one of
two categories- the ones where Undertaker faces one of the top wrestlers
in the WWE, someone who seems to pose a legitimate threat to the streak,
and matches against WWE’s newest monster or hoss designed to pad the
numbers, where the outcome is never in question. The match between The
Undertaker and Batista at Wrestlemania 23 seemed destined to fall into
the second group- as the ever eloquent JBL put it, the match had the
potential to be “monkey-butt ugly”. Even the top WWE brass seemed
to lack faith in the match- even though Undertaker won the Royal Rumble,
which would traditionally guarantee the main event spot at Wrestlemania,
his match against Batista was relegated to the lower midcard, overshadowed
by both the Raw main event and the much ballyhooed “Battle of the
Billionaires”. However, this slap in the face seemed to light a fire
under both competitors, who seemed determined to prove their critics
wrong by delivering an incredible match, a match that was much better
than it perhaps had any right to be. Batista and the Undertaker fed
off the incredible atmosphere that all of Undertaker’s Wrestlemania
matches seem to have, both men bringing their A-game. Batista established
his credibility by kicking out of the Last Ride and the Chokeslam in
short succession, while The Undertaker became one of the few men to
kick out of the Batista Bomb. The crowd was solidly behind the Undertaker,
watching with reverent silence between spots but exploding for every
punch or kick the Phenom threw. When The Undertaker climbed the ropes
for Old School, the crowd rose with him en masse, and when the Dead
Man went for his annual physics-defying leap over the top rope, there
wasn’t a single person in Ford Field who wasn’t on their feet cheering.
The match ended with a clean win for the Undertaker, who pinned Batista
with the Tombstone Piledriver to bring his streak to fifteen-and-zero,
and to capture the World Championship for the fifth time. And though
Batista may have left without the gold, he ended up having the best
match of his career to date, on the biggest North American wrestling
event in history- all considered, that’s a pretty good consolation
prize.
36) Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin (Genesis 2009)
When TNA announced a tournament for
the vacated X Division Championship, the Motor City Machineguns vowed
to face the challenge with a united front, promising that by hook or
by crook they would ensure that they would both make it to the finals.
Sure enough, Genesis saw partners Shelley and Sabin square off, putting
aside their friendship for a shot at the gold. What made this match
so unique was that it wasn’t the product of a blood feud, it didn’t
feature two arch-enemies trying to beat each other senseless. Instead,
Shelley and Sabin were concerned with simply having a great match just
for the hell of it. And the match was great- a lightning-fast
back and forth affair with countless innovative high spots and convincing
near falls, one of the most evenly competitions the X Division has ever
seen. Both men brought everything they had to the table, and each gave
as good as he got- Sabin managed to kick out of the Air Raid Crash,
a pair of Frog Splashes and Sliced Bread #2, while Shelley weathered
the Cradle Shock, a sick Tiger Suplex and one of the most sensational
lariats this side of Japan. When Shelley went for Sliced Bread again,
it appeared he had gone to the well once too often, when he was pushed
off, landed badly and seemed to jam his ankle. Instead of capitalizing
on the injury, Sabin went over to check on his partner- only to fall
prey to a quick roll up from Shelley, who had been playing possum. By
resorting to the dirty tricks that made him famous, Shelley captured
the X Division Championship for the first time. Despite his shady tactics,
there was no dissension between Detroit’s native sons, as Sabin raised
his partner’s hand, and the Guns celebrated together- a great end
to one of TNA’s best matches of the year.
35) Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker-
Hell in a Cell Match (No Mercy 2002)
There’s no question that Brock Lesnar
was booked to be a phenomenon from the very moment he made his WWF debut,
scoring decisive wins over the likes of Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan and
The Rock, in the process becoming the youngest WWE Champion in history.
After a shaky showing in his first title defence against the Undertaker
at Unforgiven, Lesnar squared off against the Phenom in his signature
match, determined to prove once and for all that he deserved the tagline
The Next Big Thing. Going into the match, the Undertaker was selling
a broken hand, and he quickly went all Bob Orton Jr. on Lesnar, repeatedly
smashing his heavy cast into Lesnar’s forehead. With blood running
down his face, Lesnar was dominated by the Deadman, who threw him again
and again into the side of the cell like a lawn dart. Even standing
outside the cell, Paul Heyman didn’t escape unscathed, doing heavy
color as well after catching a big boot through the cage mesh. The Undertaker
made sure to add to the damage, grabbing Heyman’s tie through a hole
in the cage and pulling his face into the mesh, shredding his face against
the sharp steel. The distraction let Lesnar take over the match, targeting
the Undertaker’s broken hand with a series of chair shots, eventually
wrenching off the cast to do even more damage. When Lesnar rammed the
ring steps into the Undertaker’s face, the Deadman was split open
even worse than Lesnar and Heyman had been- in fact, he did one of the
heaviest blade-jobs in WWE history, right at the top of the Muta Scale.
With blood pouring out of his head (and at one point, splashing onto
the lens of the camera filming him), the Undertaker pulled out all the
stops to dethrone the champion, but Lesnar managed to fight through
a Chokeslam and the Last Ride. In desperation, the Undertaker went for
the Tombstone Piledriver, but Lesnar countered, literally threw the
Undertaker onto his shoulders and nailed the F5 for the clean win, in
what was undoubtedly the bloodiest WWE match of the decade, if not all
time.
34) Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (The Great American Bash 2008)
After his much ballyhooed return and
subsequent tepid babyface run, Chris Jericho returned to true heel form
when he set his sights on Shawn Michaels. After weeks of accusing the
Heart Break Kid of being a liar and a hypocrite, Jericho finally physically
attacked Michaels during an edition of The Highlight Reel, ramming his
face through the obscenely expensive Jeritron 5000 video screen. Though
selling a serious eye injury from the glass shards that tore open his
face, Michaels gained a measure of revenge when he cost Jericho the
Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions. Thus, the match
was set- Jericho versus Michaels at the Great American Bash. Like most
of Michaels’ savvier opponents, Jericho spent the early part of the
match working over HBK’s oft-mentioned surgically repaired back, culminating
in a punishing turn in the Walls of Jericho. Though clearly the worse
for wear, Michaels fought back as only he can, with a Diving Elbow off
the top rope, and a Moonsault out to the floor. However, the tide quickly
turned again when Jericho lashed out with a blind elbow, opening up
Michaels’ forehead over his right eye, and aggravating his injury
from the Highlight Reel assault. As Michaels’ face quickly became
covered with the crimson mask, Jericho looked on with shock, though
quickly pressed his advantage, mercilessly targeting the wound with
one stiff right hand after another. Though Michaels valiantly sought
to fight on, he was quickly left unable to defend himself, and Jericho
was declared the winner in a rare case of victory by referee stoppage.
Strutting triumphantly to the back, his head and chest caked with Michaels’
blood, Jericho left the brutal match up having secured his well-deserved
status as the top heel in the WWE.
33) The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and
Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz- Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match (Wrestlemania X7)
In early 2001, the WWF’s tag team
division was going through a golden age, resting on the shoulders of
several top-notch teams, chief among them the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley
Boyz and the team of Edge and Christian. After reinventing the ladder
match at Wrestlemania 2000 and topping themselves in the first Tables,
Ladders and Chairs Match at Summerslam the same year, the three rival
teams stood poised to do battle once again in one of the most hotly
anticipated matches of Wrestlemania X7, TLC II: Electric Boogaloo. The
three teams fought tooth and nail to get to the Tag Team Championships
dangling high above the action- at one point, all six men stood at the
top of ladders in the middle of the ring, before all six were shoved
off, crashing to the mat below. The fracas grew even more chaotic with
the arrival of each team’s unofficial third member. The runt of the
Dudley litter, little Spike Dudley made his presence known when he put
Christian through a table with an Acid Drop to the outside. Edge and
Christian’s henchman Rhyno came next, Goring Matt Hardy through another
table. Last to arrive was the Hardys’ valet Lita, who helped save
the match for her boys by jerking Edge off. The ladder. The six legal
competitors took massive risks to eliminate one another from the action;
Jeff Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb off the requisite giant ladder on the
outside, putting both Rhino and Spike through a table (with poor Spike
taking the brunt of the impact). Not long after, Jeff miraculously made
it back into the ring and nearly retrieved the belts before being left
dangling helplessly when Bubba Ray Dudley stole his ladder out from
under him. Climbing another ladder in the corner of the ring, Edge flew
off in a leap of faith, spearing Jeff Hardy from a good ten feet in
the air, straight down to the hard canvas below. Bubba and Matt were
the next to try their luck at reaching for the titles, but the ladder
they had both been climbing was shoved over by Rhyno, sending Matt and
Bubba sailing out of the ring and through a quartet of stacked tables.
Indeed, Rhyno proved to be the MVP of the match immediately afterward;
With Christian too weak to climb the ladder, Rhino plunked the plucky
young lad from Toronto onto his shoulders and climbed the ladder for
him, allowing Edge and Christian to walk out of Wrestlemania as the
new WWF Tag Team Champions. Nine years later, this remains the standard
that all other TLC matches are held up to, and thus far none of them
have held a candle to this legendary match.
32)
Brock Lesnar vs. Eddie Guerrero (No Way Out 2004)
Going into No Way Out, it seemed like
a foregone conclusion that Eddie Guerrero was going to lose his WWE
Championship Match, that he was just being fed to Brock Lesnar to build
the champ up for his upcoming Wrestlemania feud with Goldberg (which
of course would end up being Lesnar’s last match in the WWE, and a
colossal clusterfuck). Instead, the match was one of the great fairy
tale stories, in which a beloved underdog who no one thought had a snowball’s
chance in hell of winning managed to upset one the most dominant big
men the sport has ever seen. The match began as a fairly one-sided beat
down, as Lesnar threw Guerrero around like a rag doll with a variety
of high impact Suplexes. However, when Lesnar went for a leaping high
knee in the corner, Eddie ducked and sent Lesnar crashing hard to the
outside, landing hard on one leg. Reinvigorated by the brief respite,
Eddie quickly took aim at Lesnar’s vulnerable leg, needling at the
limb with a series of kicks and quick submission holds. Nevertheless,
Brock’s incredible size and strength advantage allowed him to continually
counter Eddie’s attempts at offense, and when Latino heat missed a
Frog Splash, it seemed like the end was in sight. Hoisting Eddie up
onto his shoulders, Lesnar nailed the F5, but caught the referee flush
in the face with one of Eddie’s feet, knocking him senseless. With
no one to count the pinfall, Lesnar grabbed his title belt from ringside
and prepared to level Guerrero with it, but before he could take the
swing, Goldberg appeared from out of nowhere and speared Lesnar halfway
out of his boots. Dazed but not yet out, Lesnar tried to polish Guerrero
off with another F5 moments later, but Guerrero countered into a DDT,
planting Lesnar face first onto the belt. As Eddie covered Lesnar, time
seemed to stand still; three seconds later, Eddie Guerrero was the new
WWE Champion, and the crowd was going wild. Diving into the throng of
cheering fans, with his mother and brother Mando watching from the front
row, Eddie Guerrero revelled in his hard-fought victory- truly, one
of the WWE’s all-time best feel-good moments.
31) Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff-
Five-on-Five Elimination Match (Survivor Series 2003)
After months of simmering hostility
between Raw co-General Managers Eric Bischoff and Stine Cold Steve Austin,
a ten man elimination match was announced for Survivor Series that would
allow one GM to establish full brand supremacy, banishing the loser
to the unemployment line. Unable to step into the ring himself, Austin
was forced to break his personal credo of “don’t trust anybody”,
forming a tight-knit team of allies to go to war against Bischoff’s
cronies. To protect his future on Raw, Austin sought out the help of
the Dudley Boyz, Rob Van Dam and his fellow Texans Booker T and Shawn
Michaels. Bischoff meanwhile gathered together Austin’s most vocal
detractors, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Christian, and backed them
up with the hired muscle of Scott Steiner and Mark Henry. With both
General Managers watching anxiously from ringside, the two teams squared
off; Team Austin scored first blood with the elimination of Steiner
via a Book End, but Henry quickly evened things up again by taking out
Booker with the World’s Strongest Slam. With Henry stood poised to
be a huge factor in the match, Austin’s ECW alumni wisely teamed up
to cut him down to size, using a 3D and the Five Star Frog Splash to
send him packing. Not to be outdone, Bischoff’s boys used typically
dirty tactics to even things up again, as Jericho shoved RVD off the
top rope, leaving him easy picking for an RKO from Orton. Things quickly
began to go downhill for Austin’s team, as both Dudleys were eliminated
in short succession, (with Jericho delivering the Flashback to D-Von
and Bubba Ray suffering a low blow and an Unprettier), leaving Michaels
all alone against three opponents. Though outnumbered and badly bloodied,
Michaels fought back in his own inimitable fashion, connecting with
a Hail Mary Sweet Chin Music to Christian to cut down Team Bischoff’s
advantage. The handicap scenario quickly began to take its toll on the
Heart-Break Kid, as Bischoff’s remaining soldiers used every dirty
tactic in the book to score the final decision; however, Michaels scored
another miraculous pinfall, reversing the Walls of Jericho into an Inside
Cradle. Though the match was now an even one-on-one affair, Michaels’
uphill battle was far from over, as Jericho re-entered the ring illegally
and levelled HBK with a skull-crushing chair shot. Even then, Michaels
literally crawled up the ropes, hoping to finish Orton off with Sweet
Chin Music. Before he could take his shot, Michaels was attacked from
behind by Bischoff; turn about being fair play, Austin charged the ring
and began beating the holy hell out of Bischoff, stopping only to deliver
a Stunner to Orton. It seemed as though Michaels was about to defy the
odds once again and save Austin’s career, but it wasn’t to be- with
the referee distracted by the General Managers’ brawl, Orton’s Evolution
teammate Batista ran out through the crowd and took Michaels out with
a devastating Batista Bomb. Before the Stone Cold knew what had happened,
Orton had crawled over and covered Michaels, scoring the biggest win
of his career and ending Austin’s tenure as Raw co-GM. As the dust
began to settle on the epic match, Austin bid an emotional farewell
to the Dallas, Texas crowd. Though Stone Cold would make many countless
quest appearances over the following few years, this would mark his
last day as a full-time WWE personality- the end of an era had come
to pass.
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