Jump to content

Best Non-WrestleMania PPV Of All Time?


Liam O'Rourke

Recommended Posts

So we're doing another Squared Circle Gazette Radio podcast this week, and we're going to broach the subject of the best Pay-Per-View of all time, with the caveat of eliminating WrestleManias from the discussion, which should make for some interesting choices. No limit to promotion or timeframe, so long as it was on PPV - in your opinion, what do you feel is the best Non-Mania PPV of all time, and more importantly, why?
 
As always I'll be reading the feedback on the show and discussing your choices, but it'll be fun to see what gets people's picks and for what reasons, and see what debate flares up when judging one great show against another.

 

Can be for personal nostalgia or general quality, what's your personal pick?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 39
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Paid Members

Canadian Stampede. July 1997. Ignoring the free for all of course. Hot opener between Mankind and Helmsley that continued their feud from the King Of The Ring and beautifully set up their cage match at SummerSlam. Taka vs. Sasuke in one of the best Light-heavyweight matches the WWF ever managed. Undertaker/Vader in a decent but not brilliant title match. Then the incredible ten man tag main event. Red hot crowd, great match, excellent finish and a post match celebration like you've never seen in the company before or since.

 

Brilliant, brilliant show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd imagine the usual suspects of Summerslam 2002 and ECW One Night Stand 2005 will come up in short order, so I'll leave it for someone more eloquent to give details on those.

 

However, a couple of personal favourites besides those two gems:

 

Vengeance 2005

 

After the massive success of ECW's One Night Stand PPV, and the fact that it eclipsed most of what WWE had been offering (even putting aside the nostalgia factor), WWE responded a couple of weeks later with a stacked PPV that rivalled that year's Wrestlemania for quality and booking. It featured the Wrestlemania 21 re-match of Angle vs. Michaels, and the HIAC finale of Batista vs. HHH which was as brutal as anything in WWE for the last 10 years. Also, John Cena defended the WWE title in a triple threat against Y2J and Christian, at a time when Christian was getting red-hot as a singles star- sadly, he was jobbing to the Mexicools just a couple of months later and went off to TNA, but that doesn't change the fact that these three men had excellent chemistry. The fact that WWE were in the midst of a draft meant that Raw had both world titles at the time, which meant that it was as loaded as a single brand PPV could possibly be.

 

The undercard was solid, although not incredible, but when you had the triple main event listed above, it really didn't matter. Carlito vs. Shelton was a nice athletic opener which showcased how hungry the Raw guys were to out do ECW, and Kane & Edge showed two veterans working very well, back when Kane hadn't slowed down as much with age and Edge was really coming into his own as the Ultimate Opportunist after winning the first MITB. The only real mark against this card was Christy Hemme vs. Victoria, and it wasn't that bad. Hemme was very green, but Victoria carried the 5 minutes well and Christy looked hot as fuck. So, no harm done.

 

Plus, a Viscera segment took a turn for the awesome as WWE saw The Godfather (and his Hos) for the first time in over 3 years.

 

Unforgiven 2006

 

Another single-branded Raw PPV that was packed to the gills, Unforgiven took place in Toronto, historically a fantastic wrestling city, and they set the tone for an incredible card. The opener was the return of the clean and sober (at the time) Jeff Hardy, who delivered a thrilling opener with the athletic Johnny Nitro. Kane and Umaga had a nice hard hitting monster match to contrast, and then we get to the big stuff (for the sake of this, I'm pretending the Spirit Squad never existed). DX had recently reunited, and Vince could still function enough to be a good foil for the older, but no more mature, Triple H and Shawn Michaels. So we had, Vince and my boy, Shane O, enlisting the help of the reinvigorated ECW Champion, the Big Show, for a handicap Hell In A Cell! Everyone worked hard and it was fairly entertaining throughout, if somewhat lacking in athleticism.

 

However, the following matches made up for that deficit in spades. Trish Stratus had her retirement match against Lita in her hometown, which I maintain is the greatest WWE women's match of all time. Randy Orton and Carlito followed that, and while both men could be accused of going through the motions at times, they were motivated as hell here, and the end result was one of my favourite finishes to a Randy Orton match ever.

 

2314051944_0c6c2fd4f7_o.gif

 

Edge and John Cena followed that with a TLC match- obviously Edge's speciality, in Edge's hometown. This was the (temporary) ending of a rivalry that began at New Year's Revolution 2006, where Edge cashed in MITB for the first time. One of the biggest gimmick matches in the post-Attitude Era, with these two stars having to follow DX, a Hell In A Cell, a retirement match, and a motivated Randy Orton. And dammit, they delivered. One of my favourite gimmick matches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Obligatory nod towards Summerslam 92.

 

How about Slammiversary 2012? Its the only pay per view in my adult years, that I can remember going back to watch in its entirety just days after its initial broadcast. Many here may not have seen it because its TNA, but a genuinely solid show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love Fully Loaded 1999.

 

The main event first blood match between Austin and Taker is action packed with big stakes on the line.

 

HHH v Rock on PPV delivered as usual.

 

DX v DX.

 

Brutal matches including Snow/Bossman, Kane/Show (with The Big Shot as special ref) and Blackman/Shamrock.

 

Fantastic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Obligatory nod towards Summerslam 92.

 

Non-obligatory pointing out that it's fucking dire!

 

We've got this far without a mention of Royal rumble 1992. Madness. Good opener, Piper winning the IC belt in what felt like a mega moment and probably the greatest hour of wrestling in WWF history.

 

Agree with above, Backlash 2000 and Vengeance 2005 are great cards. Also agree with how much fun Spring Stampede 1999 is. Easily my favourite WCW PPV ever. Great American Bash 1996 is pretty great though. Also love Wargames 1992 (Wrestle War I think). It's a one match show but what a match.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Also love Wargames 1992 (Wrestle War I think). It's a one match show but what a match.

The Steiners match and Pillman vs Zenk on that show were good as well, I thought. But yeah, that War Games match is fucking brilliant.

 

Superbrawl 2 from the same year was another cracking PPV from WCW. With the Pillman vs Liger opener which was unlike anything I'd ever seen at the time. When people say the Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask blew them away because it was something they'd never seen before, Pillman vs Liger was that for me as a 7 or 8 year old little shit having seen only a handful of WWF and WCW videos.

 

Rest of the show was fun too. I've seen people say Sting vs Luger was crap and it might be, I haven't seen it in years, but at the time I was well into it. Rude vs Steamboat was class, Windham and Rhodes vs Austin and Zbyszko was pretty great as well.

 

On the WWF side of things, I've got to throw some love SummerSlam 89's way. Maybe it's just me being nostalgic because it was my first WWF tape, but I loved pretty much everything about it. It had a bit of everything. A big main event tag match with loads going on. Savage was all over the place, I thought Zeus was terrifying, Hogan was Hogan doing his thing. Even Beefcake was alright in that match. Then there was the Elizabeth (who I think might have been my first crush looking back) and Sherri stuff. Warrior beating Rude in a great match. All the mental interviews from Warrior, Piper, Dusty, Savage etc. The Hart Foundation vs Brain Busters opener was fantastic. The six man Santana/Rockers vs Martel/Rougeaus was a ton of fun. Then you had Andre, Bossman, Demolition, Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, Perfect, Million Dollar Man. Just an incredible cast of characters and colourful pants, leotards, tassels and face paint. SummerSlam '89 sums up 80s WWF better than maybe any other PPV of the time for me. I still love it. To top it all off you had Tony Schiavone and Jesse The Body being an awesome double-act on commentary. It's the only Silvervision VHS I've still got in my house. Don't know why I've kept it because I don't even own a VHS player anymore. But I can't bring myself to chuck it out.

 

SummerSlam '89 in 60 seconds;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=0GmK5d7-_7M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recently watched Summerslam 89 based upon the PTB Rewind Series and found it to be a really fun enjoyable show. Even with the face in peril roles being reversed and played in the majority by the Brainbusters and this being quite unusual, the opener is one great match that hardly lets up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i still love the Royal Rumble 92, just so many things to love. great opener, the feel good moment of Piper winning the IC title. The Rumble itself is the most genuis put together match i've seen.

 

an honourable mentions for me Judgment Day 2000, Benoit/Jericho, good six man tag opener with Angle, Edge & Christian vs Too Cool and a great Main event the Iron Man Match with Rock/HHH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fully Loaded 2000

 

2 MOTY contenders in Rock/Benoit and HHH/Jericho

 

Decent undercard too. T&A and Trish v Team Extreme was a very good opener. Then there's the genuine holy shit moment with Rikishi's splash off the cage onto Val Venis.

 

The show sums up the year perfectly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Why doesn't anyone ever mention Great American Bash 89 in these things? Greatest PPV ever. Best comedy match in Cornette vs Heyman, crowd going apeshit for the Skyscrapers, the blow off to the Varsity Club vs Rick Steiner feud, and the powpowpowpow quadruple hit of four fucking AMAZINGLY SUPERDUPER matches in Sting vs Muta, Luger vs Steamboat, War Games and Flair vs Funk.

 

It had a badass theme tune too - 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why doesn't anyone ever mention Great American Bash 89 in these things? Greatest PPV ever. Best comedy match in Cornette vs Heyman, crowd going apeshit for the Skyscrapers, the blow off to the Varsity Club vs Rick Steiner feud, and the powpowpowpow quadruple hit of four fucking AMAZINGLY SUPERDUPER matches in Sting vs Muta, Luger vs Steamboat, War Games and Flair vs Funk.

 

It had a badass theme tune too - 

Probably just because not as many of us experienced it at the time like most WWF events back in those days, so it doesn't have that nostalgia factor going for it. Of course it's amazing, but it's more difficult to favour those that you didn't live, breathe and obsess over for weeks leading up to it as a kid. It's for that reason that I'd have difficulty putting it right at the top despite loving it when I eventually did get to see it years later - likewise for Summerslam '89.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...