Greatest Moment of the Decade

[tiger_rick]

Vote for the greatest moment of the decade. Polls close January 17th.

[Chest Rockwell]

It's Ric fucking Flair, you philistines..

[tiger_rick]

It's Ric fucking Flair, you philistines..

I didn't like it that much at the time, I had every bit of love for Flair driven out of me by having to watch him every week. Now that he's pissed all over it, I like it even less.

[Tommy!]

Paul Heyman's 'shoot' promo just makes me cringe. Great show, but that segment I just hate. The only highlight is edge taking the piss

[NEWM]

Several of these were absolutely superb at the time, but have been sullied too much by other things; WM20 & Flair's retirement being the main offenders. Eddie wins my vote by default. At least Fat Titted Piper's lousy, unnecessary return isn't doing well. Can't see how that even got nominated.

 

Edit: Shit! It occurs to me now that I forgot to nominate my favourite moment, Cena's return in the 2008 Rumble leaves everything on this list in the shade. Can't believe it didn't even make it.

Edited January 6, 2010 by NEWM

[Adam619]

I'm hate to nitpick but Flair retirment ceremony was in March 2008

[Mr. Baxter]

Surprised Batista's face turn didn't make the cut. Most phenomenal crowd reaction to any WWE development in years.

 

As it stands, Edge's first "cash-in", which restored my faith in the WWE product for approximately 24 hours; whereas the alternative I considered - formation of the ECW/WCW alliance - only succeeded for around two minutes.

[Magnum]

My choice by some distance would have been the Austin/Vince handshake after the Wrestlemania X-7 main event. Quite simply, it was an iconic moment that set the seal on possibly the best match of the decade at the end of definitely the best PPV of the decade, and more significantly rounded off the defining rivalry of the Attitude era in a scenario featuring its three most influential and charismatic performers.

 

That not being in there, I went for Benoit/Eddie.

[aaron]

Benoit/Eddie for sure. Maybe not just of the past decade but maybe in my lifetime. It was real dammit!

[TheBigBoot]

Several of these were absolutely superb at the time, but have been sullied too much by other things; WM20 & Flair's retirement being the main offenders. Eddie wins my vote by default. At least Fat Titted Piper's lousy, unnecessary return isn't doing well. Can't see how that even got nominated.

 

Shock and timing. Piper had spent the last however many years mocking WWE for being pornography or whatever, and if anyone knows anything about Piper's wrestling character it is that he hates Hulk Hogan. So it was a shock to see him in the ring and the timing of it came at a perfect place in the match giving us an interesting moment to watch who he would hit.

 

Flair's retirement ceremony isn't ruined for me because I always had the sneaking suspicion he'd be back (but hoped I was wrong). The 2000s had some great moments, although I'm not sure I'd put it ahead of the 90s where a lot of the ones I would consider the most memorable moments (Douglas throws down the NWA belt, Hogan's heel turn, Bret hugs Owen and Davey Boy, Austin stuns McMahon in MSG, Goldberg beats Hogan) for the most part led to something good afterwards.

 

I still think Benoit/Eddie is the defining moment for the decade for both positive and negative reasons.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

For me it's Hogan and The Rock at WrestleMania 18. Watching it at 2.30 was such a surreal thing to witness. The staredown with the camera's flashing in the background was class. Far better than Guerrero and Benoit's moment. The reaction and the way Hogan worked the crowd and the way The Rock sold the boos without actually doing anything heelish was an example of great storytelling.