The Most Productive Year in WWE History...

[Michael_3165]

I have to admit that I have not watched WWE consistently since 2002 though took an interest in watching the PPVs when they became available on DVD. With that in mind I have been a Network subscriber since march of this year and found the overall product to be fantastic from an in-ring quality perspective. Although I see less 'psychology' in matches these days it is undeniable that the athleticism on display throughout the whole card is generally of a very high quality. 

 

I have been thinking about the WWE/F of yesteryear, wondering whether the old school 'working' would be accepted by the masses today, given the state-of-the-art 'moves' driven matches. Would the casual fan be willing (or able) to appreciate the storytelling of the past and how could this be weaved into the type of fast paced, high impact matches of today. 

 

I have been critical of the desire to have every performer kick out of each others finishers in recent times, though the WWE seem to have been less inclined to devalue their finishing moves compared to mid-2015. When I look back on the action in the past 10 months there have been some fantastic matches that have delivered on a consistent basis. For instance, John Cena has had perhaps his best year from an in ring perspective, working with new-school talent. 

 

Off the top of my head I can think of many great matches this year including:

 

Rollins vs Lesnar vs Cena (Royal Rumble)

Cena vs Owens (Elimination Chamber)

Bayley vs Sasha Banks (NXT Takeover Brooklyn)

Lesnar vs The Undertaker (SummerSlam)

Rollins vs Ambrose (Money in the Bank)

Intercontinental Title Ladder Match (WrestleMania 31)

Owens vs Balor (WWE Beast in the East)

Cesaro and Tyson Kidd vs The New Day (Extreme Rules)

Cena vs Rusev (Payback)

Four Way Tag Title Match (SummerSlam)

 

From a in-ring perspective are there many years that exceed WWE in 2015? If so tell me which so I can watch! 

 

 

 

 

 

[jonnybgoode82]

From an in-ring perspective, 1997, 2000 and 2002 spring to mind.

 

97 you had:

 

Undertaker v Vader v Bret v Austin in the Final Four match

Austin v Bret (WrestleMania 13)

Austin v Bret (IYH: Revenge of the Taker)

Taker v Mankind (IYH: Revenge of the Taker)

Austin v Bret - Streetfight (RAW)

Austin & HBK v Owen & Bulldog (RAW)

Austin v HBK (KOTR)

Austin, LOD, Shamrock & Goldust v The Hart Foundation (Canadian Stampede)

Taker v Vader (Canadian Stampede)

HHH v Mankind (Canadian Stampede)

Great Sasuke v Taka Michinoku (Candian Stampede)

Great Sasuke v Taka Michinoku (RAW)

Steve Austin & Dude Love v Bulldog & Owen (RAW)

Steve Austin, Dude Love & The Undertaker v Bret, Bulldog & Owen (RAW)

Undertaker v Bret (SummerSlam)

Austin v Owen (SummerSlam) - great match until the finish

Bret v Patriot (Ground Zero)

Undertaker v HBK (Ground Zero)

Undertaker v Bret (One Night Only)

Owen v Vader (One Night Only)

HHH v Dude Love (One Night Only)

Undertaker v HBK (Bad Blood)

HBK v Bret (Survivor Series) - really underrated because of the screwjob, it was a blueprint for the Austin era of main event matches

 

2000 is arguably WWE's best in-ring year. They seemed to have a good/great match on TV each week for the first nine months of the year with only WrestleMania being a real disappointment on PPV.

 

HHH was GODLY for the majority of those nine months too. He had crackers with the usual suspects like Rock, Foley, Jericho etc. but he also had crackers on TV against lesser likes, such as Rikishi, Taka, Tommy Dreamer and the Brookly Brawler to name a few.

 

There's a ten man tag on RAW between DX and the Radicalz against Cactus, Rock, Rikishi and Too Cool that is one of the best matches in RAW history and has Kane getting an INSANE pop at the end.

 

All the tag stuff with E&C, Dudleys & Hardys was going on in the background too, so with that roster you could pretty much guarantee a great match on each TV Show.

 

It's the same for 2002. They had tag matches between the main eventers for much of the first three months and then when they have the brand split, SmackDown really comes into its own with the early stuff between Jericho/Edge/Angle, even Hogan and then later on with the SmackDown Six.

 

But I could probably list 25+ matches from 1990-2002 that would be worth watching. It's after the initial excitement of the brand split has worn off that matches just tend to mould into one another because people face each other so many times.

[Sergio Mendacious]

It's 2000, for me — HHH was a magician all year, and the fact that I remember all of the matches against midcard (and lower) types mentioned above seals how awesome he was — the talent hanging around and being allowed to let it all hang out was incredible.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

2000 was excellent. The good wrestlers were really good. Royal Rumble, Backlash 2000 and SummerSlam especially were tremendous from top to bottom. I doubt anything compares to 2000 era WWE. Especially at the minute, where everything is dull apart from a few good matches. Possibly that period in 2013/14 where you had the Shield and Daniel Bryan on fire every single week could rival it for TV matches. There were some good stuff at that time.

[ColinBollocks]

Definitely 2000. It was the brilliant combination of being super hot crowds & matches with people you actually are bothered about seeing. Triple H had at least 5 of my favourite matches ever during that year, such was his performances.

 

You also had folk like Jericho, Angle, Benoit, E&C, Hardys etc creating top notch midcard content.

 

2000 is their high point in every regard.

[King Pitcos]

In terms of rewatchability, 2000. WWE over the last few years has been brimming with really good matchups, but relatively few memorable ones, and they'd mostly be boring to rewatch. 2000 has great work that actually matters and feels important as well, that was probably the WWF's high point of in-ring stuff.