Ranking of the wwe Pay-Per Views
By: Cameron Biddle
Well, it’s the end of the pay-per-view rotation for WWE this year. We saw many great matches, many great debuts, and many awesome spots. Today, I’m going to rank the pay-per-views from worst to best. So, here we go.
12. Battleground (October 6, 2013)
The pay-per-view’s debut not only failed to live up to expectations, it was a straight up awful show. The card saw some boring, uninteresting matches, such as Bray Wyatt vs Kofi Kingston and The Real Americans vs Santino Marella and The Great Khali. The match between Curtis Axel and R-Truth was pointless, and was really just an excuse to keep the title on Axel during the Punk-Heyman feud. Later was The Rhodes Brothers (Cody Rhodes and Goldust) vs Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns of The Shield, with Cody and Goldust’s jobs on the line. This was by far the best match on the card, and was even considered one of the best of the year by WWE. The match saw Cody Rhodes pin Seth Rollins after hitting his finisher Cross Rhodes for the win. The eighth match on the card saw CM Punk vs Ryback, where Punk (the face) defeated Ryback (the heel) after a low blow. The match itself was slow and boring, and looked like a match you’d see at a house show. Seeing the supposed good guy in the match blatantly cheat to win the match did nothing to help Punk, and in fact, it made Ryback look better, as it pretty much showed that CM Punk can’t beat Ryback without cheating (the two had three previous matches last year, where Punk (the heel at the time) cheated all three times). The main event saw Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan for the vacant WWE Championship. Though the match was decent, what irked many fans was the ending. At the end of the match, Big Show (who was being forced to listen to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon due to his contract) ran down to ringside and pulled the referee out of the ring (which for some reason knocked the ref out) and knocked out Bryan, with Orton pinning afterwards. Formerly fired crooked referee Scott Armstrong came down to the ring to count the pin, only for Big Show to pull Armstrong out and knock him out, and then he knocked out Orton, effectively ending the match in a no contest, meaning that there was still no WWE Champion. That’s what people ended up paying 50 bucks to see, a rivalry that was getting bland was going to continue for another month, no WWE Champion, and oddly putting the spotlight on the Big Show. Needless to say, Battleground was an absolute waste of time. Only one match was worth watching and pretty much was just an excuse to get you to watch RAW the next night. It’s really not to hard to see why this pay-per-view won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Worst Major Wrestling Show Award.
11. Royal Rumble (January 26, 2014)
Oh god, this again. I already talked about this event in my article about Daniel Bryan (cheap plug), but it doesn’t talk too much about the event as a whole. It was really bad. The opening match of the night saw Daniel Bryan face Bray Wyatt, which saw a surprising victory for Wyatt after hitting Sister Abigail (his finisher) twice, one of which where Bryan attempted a suicide dive, and Wyatt catching him and hitting the move on the ringside barricade. Bryan and Wyatt put on an incredible match, being well paced, well choreographed, and ending on an exciting and shocking note. If the show ended right there, it wouldn’t have been too bad (it would have only been 20 minutes long, but not too bad). Then everything just went downhill from there. Next was Brock Lesnar making a rare appearance to fight the Big Show. On paper, it seemed awesome, the two had a great rivalry back in 2003, so this should be pretty good. Unfortunately, it was horrible. Before the match, Lesnar attacked Show with a chair, which I guess doesn’t count as a disqualification if the match hasn’t started yet. The match started, and Show immediately hit a knockout punch on Lesnar, which Lesnar didn’t really sell by rolling around on his own power, and Show was too badly beat to pin him. Lesnar eventually hit an F-5 (which looked more like an Attitude Adjustment, but whatever) and pinned Big Show for the win. After the match, Lesnar attacked Show with another chair, which established the point that Brock Lesnar can beat anyone...as long you give him a chair. After that was Randy Orton vs John Cena for about the 1000th time, with Orton defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Cena. It was a typical Cena-Orton match, slow, boring, and pointless since you know Orton’s just gonna cheat to beat Cena. The match picked up a little when they both started stealing eachother’s moves, with Orton hitting an Attitude Adjustment (it’s still the FU to me dammit!) and locking Cena in an STF, and Cena hitting a RKO on Orton. After Cena locked Orton in the STF, The Wyatt Family interfered, allowing Orton to hit an RKO for the win. The match was, like I said, boring, slow, and we’ve seen it a million times before so let's stop seeing it please. Finally, there was the 30 man Royal Rumble match, where CM Punk and Seth Rollins entered at number one and two, respectively. The match was mostly exciting, with Roman Reigns eliminating a record 12 people from the match. One thing that upset me was the returns and surprise entrants. It is always cool to see legends or superstars we haven’t seen in a while, but this one lacked big surprises. Sheamus coming back was no surprise, I wasn’t even aware that Dolph Ziggler wasn’t announced for the match, no one really cares about Kevin Nash, Kane entering just to be eliminated by Punk was stupid, and Great Khali sucks. Although, JBL and El Torito (a little person in a bull costume) entering was pretty funny. After the final entrant Rey Mysterio had entered and Daniel Bryan had not, fans booed the match, and even booed even more when CM Punk was eliminated by Kane, who had already been eliminated, and booed EVEN MORE when Batista won the match, last eliminating Reigns. Batista looked exhausted after wrestling for about 13 minutes, looking like he had just wrestled for a half hour. This is one of the big four pay-per-views in WWE and is a fan favorite, so WWE should not let this happen again.
10. Survivor Series (November 24, 2013)
Another one of WWE’s “big four” pay-per-views that fell flat this year was Survivor Series. This years event saw easily the worst WWE Championship match of the year, two pointless rematches, and the worst match of the year. It started off strong, with a traditional 5 on 5 elimination tag team match, where Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Goldust, and The Usos fought The Shield and The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Cesaro). The match itself was good, but it did a very good job of building up Roman Reigns as a dominant beast, as he eliminated 4 of the 5 members of the opposing team, and was his team’s sole survivor. After a filler rematch between Big E and Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship, the worst thing in professional wrestling showed up...Divas. Ok, that’s a little mean, let me explain. There are some very talented female wrestlers in the world, and some very good ones in WWE. The problem is that for all the good ones in WWE, there’s usually two bad ones to fill her spot. Aside from Natalya, Naomi, Brie Bella, Emma, Paige and Tamina, there aren’t any really talented Divas in the ring. That’s a problem because there are 14 divas in this match. This was a 7 on 7 elimination tag match, just like the earlier match. However, unlike how everyone in the first match where they all are talented wrestlers, less than half of the Divas looked like they knew what they were doing. The teams were Natalya, The Bella Twins Brie and Nikki, The Funkadactyls Naomi and Cameron, Eva Marie, and JoJo, the Divas who star on WWE’s reality show Total Divas (which is so ungodly stupid it makes Jersey Shore look like Frasier) vs AJ Lee, Tamina, Kaitlyn, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Aksana, and Rosa Mendes, the “True Divas”. Unlike the first match, which was well paced, this one (until the ninth elimination) saw at least one elimination every minute, and at one point, three Divas were eliminated all within one minute. Where the first match was surprising, this one was so ungodly predictable. Obviously, the Total Divas won, with Natalya last eliminating AJ by making her tap out to the Sharpshooter. This disaster won the dubious honor of being named Worst Worked Match of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The main event saw Randy Orton defend the WWE Championship against the Big Show. This match was made under incredibly stupid pretenses. Big Show had been fired for interfering in the Orton-Bryan match at Battleground, but continuously showed up to harass the Authority. After announcing that he was going to sue WWE for wrongful termination, he said he would not sue if he was given a WWE Championship match. So he bullied his way to the main event. This is our good guy, everybody. The match, was slow, boring, and was just a filler feud so Orton could feud with Cena. The match ended when Orton punted Big Show in the head after being distracted by the Authority. Needless to say, this was not a great year for WWE’s “Big Four”
9. Night of Champions (September 15, 2013)
Now, when I first saw this pay-per-view, I was sure it was going to be the worst. Then the above pay-per-views happened. Now, there was nothing incredibly bad about this pay-per-view, there just wasn’t anything really good either. It was so bland and forgettable. My only big complaint about this show was the Tag Team Turmoil Match to determine the #1 contenders for the tag team titles that happened on the pre-show. A turmoil match is essentially a gauntlet match for tag teams, two start, and another enters after one team is eliminated until all the teams have entered. The smart thing to do would have a team enter first and eliminate the other teams to establish them as a strong contender. That didn’t happen. Instead, The Prime Time Players Darren Young and Titus O’Neil entered last, and beat the Real Americans to become the #1 contenders. It didn’t make the Prime Time Players look strong, they just got lucky because the got to come in last. Needless to say they didn’t win the titles. Other matches on the card saw Rob Van Dam beat Alberto Del Rio by disqualification, Curtis Axel beat Kofi Kingston, and Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel beating CM Punk in a handicap match thanks to interference by Ryback. The main of the night saw Randy Orton defend the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan. The match was OK, with Bryan winning after hitting a running high knee on Orton. This was great seeing Bryan as champ, but it was just odd booking. Even weirder, Triple H would strip Bryan of the title due to a quick count by referee Scott Armstrong, making that title change...entirely pointless. So yeah, this pay-per-view was forgettable, that’s really all I have to say about it
8. TLC (December 15, 2013)
One of the years most EXTREME pay-per-views was totally, absolutely, 100%...tame. Yeah, for a pay-per-view that's initials stand for Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, nothing was really extreme. Aside from the lack of extreme, the show was pretty good. Kicking off the show was CM Punk facing the Shield in a 3-on-1 handicap match, which saw Punk pull off the win after Roman Reigns accidentally speared Dean Ambrose. It continued a great storyline that was supposed to lead to the breakup of the Shield (key word “supposed”). Although aside from that, nothing was too special. The Wyatt Family beat Daniel Bryan in a 3-on-1 handicap match, The Rhodes Brothers retained the tag team titles in a fatal 4-way tag team match, and AJ retained the Divas Championship against Natalya. The main event saw WWE Champion Randy Orton (boo) and World Heavyweight Champion John Cena (BOO!) face off in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to unify both world titles. At the end of the match of the match, Orton handcuffed Cena to the bottom rope, but Cena untied the rope from the ring post, kind of freeing himself. While Cena was climbing the ladder, Orton pulled the rope, and Cena went head first into a table in the corner. Orton climbed the ladder to become the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Now, this show definitely should have had more gimmick matches and could have been more extreme, but overall, it was a pretty decent show.
7. Hell in a Cell (October 27, 2013)
Another show that wasn’t exactly really good, but wasn’t bad either was Hell in a Cell. The show kicked off with The Rhodes Brothers defending the Tag Team Championships against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns of the Shield and The Usos. The match was fast paced and had some very good spots, and ended with Cody Rhodes hitting Cross Rhodes on Rollins (which he always sell awesomely) and retaining the titles. Other matches on the show saw Big E defeating United States Champion Dean Ambrose by disqualification, CM Punk defeating Ryback & Paul Heyman in a handicap Hell in a Cell match, and John Cena defeating Alberto Del Rio to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. The main event saw Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan (I’m so tired of writing that) facing off in the Hell in a Cell for the vacant WWE Championship, with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. The match had a pretty nice spot where Orton hit a superplex off the top rope onto a pile of chairs. The matches ending is where it really shines. After Triple H distracted Shawn Michaels, Bryan accidentally shoved Orton into Michaels, who apparently suffers from referee syndrome and is knocked out after being slightly bumped into. Triple H gets the cage open after Bryan hits a running knee on Orton and pins, but Michaels can’t count the pin. Bryan tries to wakes up Michaels, Triple throws Bryan out of the way to get Michaels up himself, afterwards Bryan hits a running knee on Triple H. While Bryan was doing his “YES!” chant, Michaels hit Sweet Chin Music on Bryan. Orton crawled into the pin and won the match. Again, not that great of a pay-per-view, but still worth watching.
6. Elimination Chamber (February 23, 2014
As the last pay-per-view before Wrestlemania, this is usually the last time a titles will change hands, which makes it a very important event. And it didn't disappoint. One of the big matches of the night saw The Shield taking on the Wyatt Family. The two factions put on what was easily the best match of night, In a brutal match, Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt battled into the crowd, but only Wyatt returned. One great spot saw Luke Harper and Erick Rowan double chokeslam Seth Rollins through the Spanish announce table. Left all alone, Roman Reigns was outmatched, and was pinned after a Sister Abigail by Bray Wyatt. This match continued the implication that the Shield was coming to an end soon. After that, Divas Champion AJ Lee had an open challenge for any Diva in the back to face her for the title. Out came Cameron, whose tag team partner and likely #1 Contender Naomi was (real life) injured. The two would fight in an atrocious match, where Cameron won by disqualification, therefore not winning the title, making this match...entirely pointless. After that we saw Batista face Alberto Del Rio. Even though Batista was a face and Del Rio was a heel, the crowd booed Batista and cheered Del Rio. After faking an injury before the match started to attack Batista, Del Rio was squashed by Batista, who won after hitting a Batista Bomb. Finally, we have the Elimination Chamber match between Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Sheamus, Christian, and Cesaro. The match starts to get really good at the end. Somehow, the Wyatt’s get in the Chamber and attack Cena, with Bray Wyatt hitting Sister Abigail to finish him off. This allows Orton to pin and eliminate Cena. After fighting for a bit, Director of Operations Kane comes down to the ring to get the Wyatt’s away from the ring. Bryan sees this and hits Kane, and follows with a running knee on Orton. He pins, but Kane pulls the referee out of the ring. After that, Orton hits the RKO, pins, and walks out still the champ. The pay-per-view kept people guessing about whether or not Batista vs Randy Orton (two hated wrestlers) would actually be the main event of Wrestlemania.
5. Extreme Rules (May 19, 2013)
On WWE’s night of extreme, we were treated to some thrill seeking, and some top notch extreme moments. One match saw Shield member Dean Ambrose win the United States Championship from Kofi Kingston. His reign would go on to be the longest title reign since the championship was introduced into WWE. After that, his fellow Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns faced the Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) for the titles. The Shield hit a double team move on Bryan, and pinned him to win the tag team titles. This began a great storyline where Daniel Bryan believed people thought he was the weak link of his team because he was pinned, which eventually led to him being added to the Money in the Bank match for the WWE Championship briefcase. The next match saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Last Man Standing match. To end the match, Ryback drove Cena through the minitron. Both men were knocked out and couldn’t answer the 10 count, ending the match in a no contest. After that we saw Triple H face Brock Lesnar in a steel cage match. Before the match, Triple H attacked Lesnar, and threw inside the cage. After a brutal match, Triple H grabbed a sledgehammer hidden on top of the cage (just go with it) and attempted to hit Lesnar with it, only for Lesnar’s manager Paul Heyman to low blow him. Lesnar then hit Triple H with the sledgehammer, and finished him off with an F-5. The brutal match was considered one of the best matches of 2013, and was very exciting. I do give this crap though for starting a Triple H concussion storyline that ended after like two weeks. Still the pay-per-view did what it was supposed to do; be extreme.
4. Wrestlemania 30 (April 6, 2014)
The biggest event of the year in wrestling is always Wrestlemania. The stages are bigger, the arenas are bigger, the entrances are bigger, the matches are bigger, the whole thing is just...bigger. The stars past and present come out to entertain the crowd for four hours with some great matches and segments. And this year didn’t disappoint. Kicking off the pay-per-view was Daniel Bryan and Triple H finally facing of for the first time since their rivalry began back at SummerSlam. The winner would be added to the main event to face Randy Orton and Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H’s entrance was amazing, and he still has, in my opinion, the best entrance music of all time. Bryan would be able to withstand all the King of Kings could throw at him, and beat Triple H with a running high knee. After the match, Triple H attacked an already injured Bryan. Another great match on the card was John Cena facing Bray Wyatt. Though I’m not a Cena fan, I will give him credit here, he put on a great show. Bray Wyatt and his “family members” (his gimmick is being a cult leader) came out to his entrance theme being performed by Mark Crozer and the Rels, which is always cool, I absolutely love live performances by bands for entrance music. The match mainly saw Bray Wyatt try to “unleash the monster” inside of John Cena. Throughout the match, Cena would battle his demons, avoiding getting disqualified. One great spot saw Cena drive Wyatt Family member Luke Harper through a ringside barricade. At the end of the match, Wyatt slid a steel chair to Cena, and attempted to goad Cena into hitting him with it. Instead, Cena hit the other Wyatt Family member Erick Rowan, and after reversing a Sister Abigail, hit Wyatt with an Attitude Adjustment for the win. The match had some great psychology behind it and was rather well done in the ring. The next match was the Undertaker taking on Brock Lesnar, defending his 21-0 undefeated streak at Wrestlemania which he began at Wrestlemania VII. Many people (including myself) assumed this was an easy win for Undertaker, especially with all the rumors of WCW legend Sting finally signing with WWE. The match itself was bad. It was basically just a punch match between Taker and Lesnar, with an occasional (poorly executed) suplex by Lesnar. Then the unthinkable happened. After Lesnar countered a Tombstone Piledriver and hit his third F-5, he pinned Undertaker. A three count was recorded. The streak was over. The crowd was shocked. The commentators were shocked. I was shocked. The “21-1” graphic flashed on the screen, and Lesnar’s music hit. After this awful match, the guy who quit the company over a decade ago and only came back because for a ton of money, got the honor of ending the streak. After that was the 14-Diva match for the Divas Championship. I was so zoned out after the streak ending I didn’t pay attention. AJ won, I know that. And finally, we have Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan (dammit!) vs Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton's entrance included Rev Theory performing Orton’s entrance music live, which was awesome. Midway through the match, Bryan locked his signature Yes Lock on Orton, and Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Scott Armstrong came down to the ring, where Triple H pulled the original ref out of the ring and sent Armstrong in. This distracted Bryan long enough for Batista to hit a Batista Bomb, but Bryan kicked out at two. After dodging a Batista spear, Bryan kicked Armstrong out of the ring and hit a suicide dive on Armstrong, McMahon, and Triple H. Triple H then tried to hit Bryan with his signature sledgehammer, but Bryan countered and hit Triple H with it instead. Towards the end of the match, Batista and Orton teamed up to take out Bryan, with Batista hitting a Batista Bomb while Orton hit an inverted RKO, sending Bryan and Orton through the Spanish announce table. As the trainers tried to stretcher Bryan away, he got up and got back in the match. After taking out Orton, Bryan locked in the Yes Lock on Batista, and made him tap out. The show ended with over 75,000 people chant “YES!” Overall, the show had exciting moments, great spots, and was overall a great memorable show. PS. Stupid Lesnar.
3. Payback (June 16, 2013)
Unlike Battleground, Payback’s inaugural event was actually pretty memorable. One of the best matches on the card saw Kaitlyn defend the Divas Championship against AJ Lee. Yeah, I know, even the Divas match was good. The end saw AJ win by submission, forcing Kaitlyn to tap out to the Black Widow. It proved that when you give the Divas enough time, they can put on a memorable match. After that match we saw Dolph Ziggler defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio. The match was pretty good, but what made it great was the double turn that took place. Del Rio (the face) constantly targeted Ziggler’s head, since he had just returned from a legitimate concussion. Del Rio’s vicious heel tactics made him look a like a great villian and Ziggler refusing to give up until the very end made him look like a resiliant face. Later we got Chris Jericho vs the returning CM Punk, sporting Wolverine mutton chops and all. The two greats would sqaure off in a great match, where Punk would win after hitting two straight GTS’. The last match of the night saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Three Stages of Hell match. Ryback would win the first stage (a lumberjack match), but Cena would beat Ryback in the second (a tables match) and third (an ambulance match) stages for the win, ending the third stage by hitting an Attitude Adjustment on Ryback on top of the ambulance, sending Ryback through the roof (because apparently all of the ambulances at WWE shows have fragile tops). Still, Payback didn’t disappoint, and was definitely worth watching.
2. SummerSlam (August 18, 2013)
The biggest event of the summer was definitely a show stealer. The first match, however, didn’t make it look like it was gonna be good. The show started off with Bray Wyatt vs Kane in a Ring of Fire match, which was Wyatt’s debut. Due to the ring being surrounded by fire, all the moves looked very clunky and there wasn’t a lot of movement allowed. The match was won by Wyatt, after fellow Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan threw a fire blanket over the fire, allowing them to enter the ring and attack Kane. I will give them credit for a good post match moment, where the Wyatt’s carried Kane away, and he wouldn’t be seen again until Hell in a Cell. However, the rest of the show didn’t disappoint. Christian and Del Rio put on a very exciting match, where Del Rio retained the World Heavyweight Championship via cross armbreaker. After that was CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar in a no disqualification match. The two put on a brutal match, where Lesnar won after hitting an F-5. The last match and main event saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan with Triple H as the special guest referee. The match was spectacular, and one of Cena’s best matches in years. The match ended when Daniel Bryan debuted his newest finsher: the running high knee. After hitting the move, Bryan pinned and beat Cena without any kind of interference, a rare feat. What happened after the match however, is spectacular. Randy Orton came down to the ring with his Money in the Bank contract in hand. Instead of cashing in, he backed away. Suddenly, Triple H shocked the WWE Universe hit the Pedigree on Bryan, which allowed Orton to cash in and win the match and the WWE Championship. What followed for the rest of the year would be Daniel Bryan fighting the Authority in a great storyline. The event that is considered one of WWE’s big four truly shined.
1. Money in the Bank (July 14, 2013)
The always exciting, always fast paced, always great Money in the Bank didn’t disappoint. Both the Money in the Bank matches were good, but the show started off with a great pre-show. The pre-show match saw The Shield’s Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defending the Tag Team Championships against The Usos. In the fast paced, high energy match, we saw an awesome four-man superplex off the top rope. The match ended with a spear by Roman Reigns for the win. After that was the Money in the Bank ladder match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship between Dean Ambrose, Fandango, Wade Barrett, Cesaro, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow. Even though the WWE Championship Money in the Bank match was billed as the “all-stars” match, this one shined, with some great wrestling, great spots, but didn’t rely on them some previous Money in the Bank matches. The end saw Damien Sandow throw his tag team partner Cody Rhodes off the ladder to win the match and the breifcase. This began a rivalry between the former tag team partners, with Cody Rhodes turning face. The main event was the WWE Championship Money in the Bank ladder match between CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, and the returning Rob Van Dam. The match had some great spots and was very fast paced. At the end, Bryan was attacked by Curtis Axel, who was in turn hit with a GTS by CM Punk. Paul Heyman, Punk’s former manager, encouraged Punk to climb, only to backstab him by hitting him with a ladder. Van Dam tried to climb, but was yanked off the ladder and was hit with an RKO by Orton. With no one to stop him, Orton climbed the ladder and won the match. The always great pay-per-view excited again, and added another great show to it’s resume.
12. Battleground (October 6, 2013)
The pay-per-view’s debut not only failed to live up to expectations, it was a straight up awful show. The card saw some boring, uninteresting matches, such as Bray Wyatt vs Kofi Kingston and The Real Americans vs Santino Marella and The Great Khali. The match between Curtis Axel and R-Truth was pointless, and was really just an excuse to keep the title on Axel during the Punk-Heyman feud. Later was The Rhodes Brothers (Cody Rhodes and Goldust) vs Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns of The Shield, with Cody and Goldust’s jobs on the line. This was by far the best match on the card, and was even considered one of the best of the year by WWE. The match saw Cody Rhodes pin Seth Rollins after hitting his finisher Cross Rhodes for the win. The eighth match on the card saw CM Punk vs Ryback, where Punk (the face) defeated Ryback (the heel) after a low blow. The match itself was slow and boring, and looked like a match you’d see at a house show. Seeing the supposed good guy in the match blatantly cheat to win the match did nothing to help Punk, and in fact, it made Ryback look better, as it pretty much showed that CM Punk can’t beat Ryback without cheating (the two had three previous matches last year, where Punk (the heel at the time) cheated all three times). The main event saw Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan for the vacant WWE Championship. Though the match was decent, what irked many fans was the ending. At the end of the match, Big Show (who was being forced to listen to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon due to his contract) ran down to ringside and pulled the referee out of the ring (which for some reason knocked the ref out) and knocked out Bryan, with Orton pinning afterwards. Formerly fired crooked referee Scott Armstrong came down to the ring to count the pin, only for Big Show to pull Armstrong out and knock him out, and then he knocked out Orton, effectively ending the match in a no contest, meaning that there was still no WWE Champion. That’s what people ended up paying 50 bucks to see, a rivalry that was getting bland was going to continue for another month, no WWE Champion, and oddly putting the spotlight on the Big Show. Needless to say, Battleground was an absolute waste of time. Only one match was worth watching and pretty much was just an excuse to get you to watch RAW the next night. It’s really not to hard to see why this pay-per-view won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Worst Major Wrestling Show Award.
11. Royal Rumble (January 26, 2014)
Oh god, this again. I already talked about this event in my article about Daniel Bryan (cheap plug), but it doesn’t talk too much about the event as a whole. It was really bad. The opening match of the night saw Daniel Bryan face Bray Wyatt, which saw a surprising victory for Wyatt after hitting Sister Abigail (his finisher) twice, one of which where Bryan attempted a suicide dive, and Wyatt catching him and hitting the move on the ringside barricade. Bryan and Wyatt put on an incredible match, being well paced, well choreographed, and ending on an exciting and shocking note. If the show ended right there, it wouldn’t have been too bad (it would have only been 20 minutes long, but not too bad). Then everything just went downhill from there. Next was Brock Lesnar making a rare appearance to fight the Big Show. On paper, it seemed awesome, the two had a great rivalry back in 2003, so this should be pretty good. Unfortunately, it was horrible. Before the match, Lesnar attacked Show with a chair, which I guess doesn’t count as a disqualification if the match hasn’t started yet. The match started, and Show immediately hit a knockout punch on Lesnar, which Lesnar didn’t really sell by rolling around on his own power, and Show was too badly beat to pin him. Lesnar eventually hit an F-5 (which looked more like an Attitude Adjustment, but whatever) and pinned Big Show for the win. After the match, Lesnar attacked Show with another chair, which established the point that Brock Lesnar can beat anyone...as long you give him a chair. After that was Randy Orton vs John Cena for about the 1000th time, with Orton defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Cena. It was a typical Cena-Orton match, slow, boring, and pointless since you know Orton’s just gonna cheat to beat Cena. The match picked up a little when they both started stealing eachother’s moves, with Orton hitting an Attitude Adjustment (it’s still the FU to me dammit!) and locking Cena in an STF, and Cena hitting a RKO on Orton. After Cena locked Orton in the STF, The Wyatt Family interfered, allowing Orton to hit an RKO for the win. The match was, like I said, boring, slow, and we’ve seen it a million times before so let's stop seeing it please. Finally, there was the 30 man Royal Rumble match, where CM Punk and Seth Rollins entered at number one and two, respectively. The match was mostly exciting, with Roman Reigns eliminating a record 12 people from the match. One thing that upset me was the returns and surprise entrants. It is always cool to see legends or superstars we haven’t seen in a while, but this one lacked big surprises. Sheamus coming back was no surprise, I wasn’t even aware that Dolph Ziggler wasn’t announced for the match, no one really cares about Kevin Nash, Kane entering just to be eliminated by Punk was stupid, and Great Khali sucks. Although, JBL and El Torito (a little person in a bull costume) entering was pretty funny. After the final entrant Rey Mysterio had entered and Daniel Bryan had not, fans booed the match, and even booed even more when CM Punk was eliminated by Kane, who had already been eliminated, and booed EVEN MORE when Batista won the match, last eliminating Reigns. Batista looked exhausted after wrestling for about 13 minutes, looking like he had just wrestled for a half hour. This is one of the big four pay-per-views in WWE and is a fan favorite, so WWE should not let this happen again.
10. Survivor Series (November 24, 2013)
Another one of WWE’s “big four” pay-per-views that fell flat this year was Survivor Series. This years event saw easily the worst WWE Championship match of the year, two pointless rematches, and the worst match of the year. It started off strong, with a traditional 5 on 5 elimination tag team match, where Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Goldust, and The Usos fought The Shield and The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Cesaro). The match itself was good, but it did a very good job of building up Roman Reigns as a dominant beast, as he eliminated 4 of the 5 members of the opposing team, and was his team’s sole survivor. After a filler rematch between Big E and Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship, the worst thing in professional wrestling showed up...Divas. Ok, that’s a little mean, let me explain. There are some very talented female wrestlers in the world, and some very good ones in WWE. The problem is that for all the good ones in WWE, there’s usually two bad ones to fill her spot. Aside from Natalya, Naomi, Brie Bella, Emma, Paige and Tamina, there aren’t any really talented Divas in the ring. That’s a problem because there are 14 divas in this match. This was a 7 on 7 elimination tag match, just like the earlier match. However, unlike how everyone in the first match where they all are talented wrestlers, less than half of the Divas looked like they knew what they were doing. The teams were Natalya, The Bella Twins Brie and Nikki, The Funkadactyls Naomi and Cameron, Eva Marie, and JoJo, the Divas who star on WWE’s reality show Total Divas (which is so ungodly stupid it makes Jersey Shore look like Frasier) vs AJ Lee, Tamina, Kaitlyn, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Aksana, and Rosa Mendes, the “True Divas”. Unlike the first match, which was well paced, this one (until the ninth elimination) saw at least one elimination every minute, and at one point, three Divas were eliminated all within one minute. Where the first match was surprising, this one was so ungodly predictable. Obviously, the Total Divas won, with Natalya last eliminating AJ by making her tap out to the Sharpshooter. This disaster won the dubious honor of being named Worst Worked Match of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The main event saw Randy Orton defend the WWE Championship against the Big Show. This match was made under incredibly stupid pretenses. Big Show had been fired for interfering in the Orton-Bryan match at Battleground, but continuously showed up to harass the Authority. After announcing that he was going to sue WWE for wrongful termination, he said he would not sue if he was given a WWE Championship match. So he bullied his way to the main event. This is our good guy, everybody. The match, was slow, boring, and was just a filler feud so Orton could feud with Cena. The match ended when Orton punted Big Show in the head after being distracted by the Authority. Needless to say, this was not a great year for WWE’s “Big Four”
9. Night of Champions (September 15, 2013)
Now, when I first saw this pay-per-view, I was sure it was going to be the worst. Then the above pay-per-views happened. Now, there was nothing incredibly bad about this pay-per-view, there just wasn’t anything really good either. It was so bland and forgettable. My only big complaint about this show was the Tag Team Turmoil Match to determine the #1 contenders for the tag team titles that happened on the pre-show. A turmoil match is essentially a gauntlet match for tag teams, two start, and another enters after one team is eliminated until all the teams have entered. The smart thing to do would have a team enter first and eliminate the other teams to establish them as a strong contender. That didn’t happen. Instead, The Prime Time Players Darren Young and Titus O’Neil entered last, and beat the Real Americans to become the #1 contenders. It didn’t make the Prime Time Players look strong, they just got lucky because the got to come in last. Needless to say they didn’t win the titles. Other matches on the card saw Rob Van Dam beat Alberto Del Rio by disqualification, Curtis Axel beat Kofi Kingston, and Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel beating CM Punk in a handicap match thanks to interference by Ryback. The main of the night saw Randy Orton defend the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan. The match was OK, with Bryan winning after hitting a running high knee on Orton. This was great seeing Bryan as champ, but it was just odd booking. Even weirder, Triple H would strip Bryan of the title due to a quick count by referee Scott Armstrong, making that title change...entirely pointless. So yeah, this pay-per-view was forgettable, that’s really all I have to say about it
8. TLC (December 15, 2013)
One of the years most EXTREME pay-per-views was totally, absolutely, 100%...tame. Yeah, for a pay-per-view that's initials stand for Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, nothing was really extreme. Aside from the lack of extreme, the show was pretty good. Kicking off the show was CM Punk facing the Shield in a 3-on-1 handicap match, which saw Punk pull off the win after Roman Reigns accidentally speared Dean Ambrose. It continued a great storyline that was supposed to lead to the breakup of the Shield (key word “supposed”). Although aside from that, nothing was too special. The Wyatt Family beat Daniel Bryan in a 3-on-1 handicap match, The Rhodes Brothers retained the tag team titles in a fatal 4-way tag team match, and AJ retained the Divas Championship against Natalya. The main event saw WWE Champion Randy Orton (boo) and World Heavyweight Champion John Cena (BOO!) face off in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to unify both world titles. At the end of the match of the match, Orton handcuffed Cena to the bottom rope, but Cena untied the rope from the ring post, kind of freeing himself. While Cena was climbing the ladder, Orton pulled the rope, and Cena went head first into a table in the corner. Orton climbed the ladder to become the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Now, this show definitely should have had more gimmick matches and could have been more extreme, but overall, it was a pretty decent show.
7. Hell in a Cell (October 27, 2013)
Another show that wasn’t exactly really good, but wasn’t bad either was Hell in a Cell. The show kicked off with The Rhodes Brothers defending the Tag Team Championships against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns of the Shield and The Usos. The match was fast paced and had some very good spots, and ended with Cody Rhodes hitting Cross Rhodes on Rollins (which he always sell awesomely) and retaining the titles. Other matches on the show saw Big E defeating United States Champion Dean Ambrose by disqualification, CM Punk defeating Ryback & Paul Heyman in a handicap Hell in a Cell match, and John Cena defeating Alberto Del Rio to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. The main event saw Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan (I’m so tired of writing that) facing off in the Hell in a Cell for the vacant WWE Championship, with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. The match had a pretty nice spot where Orton hit a superplex off the top rope onto a pile of chairs. The matches ending is where it really shines. After Triple H distracted Shawn Michaels, Bryan accidentally shoved Orton into Michaels, who apparently suffers from referee syndrome and is knocked out after being slightly bumped into. Triple H gets the cage open after Bryan hits a running knee on Orton and pins, but Michaels can’t count the pin. Bryan tries to wakes up Michaels, Triple throws Bryan out of the way to get Michaels up himself, afterwards Bryan hits a running knee on Triple H. While Bryan was doing his “YES!” chant, Michaels hit Sweet Chin Music on Bryan. Orton crawled into the pin and won the match. Again, not that great of a pay-per-view, but still worth watching.
6. Elimination Chamber (February 23, 2014
As the last pay-per-view before Wrestlemania, this is usually the last time a titles will change hands, which makes it a very important event. And it didn't disappoint. One of the big matches of the night saw The Shield taking on the Wyatt Family. The two factions put on what was easily the best match of night, In a brutal match, Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt battled into the crowd, but only Wyatt returned. One great spot saw Luke Harper and Erick Rowan double chokeslam Seth Rollins through the Spanish announce table. Left all alone, Roman Reigns was outmatched, and was pinned after a Sister Abigail by Bray Wyatt. This match continued the implication that the Shield was coming to an end soon. After that, Divas Champion AJ Lee had an open challenge for any Diva in the back to face her for the title. Out came Cameron, whose tag team partner and likely #1 Contender Naomi was (real life) injured. The two would fight in an atrocious match, where Cameron won by disqualification, therefore not winning the title, making this match...entirely pointless. After that we saw Batista face Alberto Del Rio. Even though Batista was a face and Del Rio was a heel, the crowd booed Batista and cheered Del Rio. After faking an injury before the match started to attack Batista, Del Rio was squashed by Batista, who won after hitting a Batista Bomb. Finally, we have the Elimination Chamber match between Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Sheamus, Christian, and Cesaro. The match starts to get really good at the end. Somehow, the Wyatt’s get in the Chamber and attack Cena, with Bray Wyatt hitting Sister Abigail to finish him off. This allows Orton to pin and eliminate Cena. After fighting for a bit, Director of Operations Kane comes down to the ring to get the Wyatt’s away from the ring. Bryan sees this and hits Kane, and follows with a running knee on Orton. He pins, but Kane pulls the referee out of the ring. After that, Orton hits the RKO, pins, and walks out still the champ. The pay-per-view kept people guessing about whether or not Batista vs Randy Orton (two hated wrestlers) would actually be the main event of Wrestlemania.
5. Extreme Rules (May 19, 2013)
On WWE’s night of extreme, we were treated to some thrill seeking, and some top notch extreme moments. One match saw Shield member Dean Ambrose win the United States Championship from Kofi Kingston. His reign would go on to be the longest title reign since the championship was introduced into WWE. After that, his fellow Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns faced the Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) for the titles. The Shield hit a double team move on Bryan, and pinned him to win the tag team titles. This began a great storyline where Daniel Bryan believed people thought he was the weak link of his team because he was pinned, which eventually led to him being added to the Money in the Bank match for the WWE Championship briefcase. The next match saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Last Man Standing match. To end the match, Ryback drove Cena through the minitron. Both men were knocked out and couldn’t answer the 10 count, ending the match in a no contest. After that we saw Triple H face Brock Lesnar in a steel cage match. Before the match, Triple H attacked Lesnar, and threw inside the cage. After a brutal match, Triple H grabbed a sledgehammer hidden on top of the cage (just go with it) and attempted to hit Lesnar with it, only for Lesnar’s manager Paul Heyman to low blow him. Lesnar then hit Triple H with the sledgehammer, and finished him off with an F-5. The brutal match was considered one of the best matches of 2013, and was very exciting. I do give this crap though for starting a Triple H concussion storyline that ended after like two weeks. Still the pay-per-view did what it was supposed to do; be extreme.
4. Wrestlemania 30 (April 6, 2014)
The biggest event of the year in wrestling is always Wrestlemania. The stages are bigger, the arenas are bigger, the entrances are bigger, the matches are bigger, the whole thing is just...bigger. The stars past and present come out to entertain the crowd for four hours with some great matches and segments. And this year didn’t disappoint. Kicking off the pay-per-view was Daniel Bryan and Triple H finally facing of for the first time since their rivalry began back at SummerSlam. The winner would be added to the main event to face Randy Orton and Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H’s entrance was amazing, and he still has, in my opinion, the best entrance music of all time. Bryan would be able to withstand all the King of Kings could throw at him, and beat Triple H with a running high knee. After the match, Triple H attacked an already injured Bryan. Another great match on the card was John Cena facing Bray Wyatt. Though I’m not a Cena fan, I will give him credit here, he put on a great show. Bray Wyatt and his “family members” (his gimmick is being a cult leader) came out to his entrance theme being performed by Mark Crozer and the Rels, which is always cool, I absolutely love live performances by bands for entrance music. The match mainly saw Bray Wyatt try to “unleash the monster” inside of John Cena. Throughout the match, Cena would battle his demons, avoiding getting disqualified. One great spot saw Cena drive Wyatt Family member Luke Harper through a ringside barricade. At the end of the match, Wyatt slid a steel chair to Cena, and attempted to goad Cena into hitting him with it. Instead, Cena hit the other Wyatt Family member Erick Rowan, and after reversing a Sister Abigail, hit Wyatt with an Attitude Adjustment for the win. The match had some great psychology behind it and was rather well done in the ring. The next match was the Undertaker taking on Brock Lesnar, defending his 21-0 undefeated streak at Wrestlemania which he began at Wrestlemania VII. Many people (including myself) assumed this was an easy win for Undertaker, especially with all the rumors of WCW legend Sting finally signing with WWE. The match itself was bad. It was basically just a punch match between Taker and Lesnar, with an occasional (poorly executed) suplex by Lesnar. Then the unthinkable happened. After Lesnar countered a Tombstone Piledriver and hit his third F-5, he pinned Undertaker. A three count was recorded. The streak was over. The crowd was shocked. The commentators were shocked. I was shocked. The “21-1” graphic flashed on the screen, and Lesnar’s music hit. After this awful match, the guy who quit the company over a decade ago and only came back because for a ton of money, got the honor of ending the streak. After that was the 14-Diva match for the Divas Championship. I was so zoned out after the streak ending I didn’t pay attention. AJ won, I know that. And finally, we have Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan (dammit!) vs Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Randy Orton's entrance included Rev Theory performing Orton’s entrance music live, which was awesome. Midway through the match, Bryan locked his signature Yes Lock on Orton, and Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Scott Armstrong came down to the ring, where Triple H pulled the original ref out of the ring and sent Armstrong in. This distracted Bryan long enough for Batista to hit a Batista Bomb, but Bryan kicked out at two. After dodging a Batista spear, Bryan kicked Armstrong out of the ring and hit a suicide dive on Armstrong, McMahon, and Triple H. Triple H then tried to hit Bryan with his signature sledgehammer, but Bryan countered and hit Triple H with it instead. Towards the end of the match, Batista and Orton teamed up to take out Bryan, with Batista hitting a Batista Bomb while Orton hit an inverted RKO, sending Bryan and Orton through the Spanish announce table. As the trainers tried to stretcher Bryan away, he got up and got back in the match. After taking out Orton, Bryan locked in the Yes Lock on Batista, and made him tap out. The show ended with over 75,000 people chant “YES!” Overall, the show had exciting moments, great spots, and was overall a great memorable show. PS. Stupid Lesnar.
3. Payback (June 16, 2013)
Unlike Battleground, Payback’s inaugural event was actually pretty memorable. One of the best matches on the card saw Kaitlyn defend the Divas Championship against AJ Lee. Yeah, I know, even the Divas match was good. The end saw AJ win by submission, forcing Kaitlyn to tap out to the Black Widow. It proved that when you give the Divas enough time, they can put on a memorable match. After that match we saw Dolph Ziggler defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio. The match was pretty good, but what made it great was the double turn that took place. Del Rio (the face) constantly targeted Ziggler’s head, since he had just returned from a legitimate concussion. Del Rio’s vicious heel tactics made him look a like a great villian and Ziggler refusing to give up until the very end made him look like a resiliant face. Later we got Chris Jericho vs the returning CM Punk, sporting Wolverine mutton chops and all. The two greats would sqaure off in a great match, where Punk would win after hitting two straight GTS’. The last match of the night saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Three Stages of Hell match. Ryback would win the first stage (a lumberjack match), but Cena would beat Ryback in the second (a tables match) and third (an ambulance match) stages for the win, ending the third stage by hitting an Attitude Adjustment on Ryback on top of the ambulance, sending Ryback through the roof (because apparently all of the ambulances at WWE shows have fragile tops). Still, Payback didn’t disappoint, and was definitely worth watching.
2. SummerSlam (August 18, 2013)
The biggest event of the summer was definitely a show stealer. The first match, however, didn’t make it look like it was gonna be good. The show started off with Bray Wyatt vs Kane in a Ring of Fire match, which was Wyatt’s debut. Due to the ring being surrounded by fire, all the moves looked very clunky and there wasn’t a lot of movement allowed. The match was won by Wyatt, after fellow Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan threw a fire blanket over the fire, allowing them to enter the ring and attack Kane. I will give them credit for a good post match moment, where the Wyatt’s carried Kane away, and he wouldn’t be seen again until Hell in a Cell. However, the rest of the show didn’t disappoint. Christian and Del Rio put on a very exciting match, where Del Rio retained the World Heavyweight Championship via cross armbreaker. After that was CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar in a no disqualification match. The two put on a brutal match, where Lesnar won after hitting an F-5. The last match and main event saw John Cena defend the WWE Championship against Daniel Bryan with Triple H as the special guest referee. The match was spectacular, and one of Cena’s best matches in years. The match ended when Daniel Bryan debuted his newest finsher: the running high knee. After hitting the move, Bryan pinned and beat Cena without any kind of interference, a rare feat. What happened after the match however, is spectacular. Randy Orton came down to the ring with his Money in the Bank contract in hand. Instead of cashing in, he backed away. Suddenly, Triple H shocked the WWE Universe hit the Pedigree on Bryan, which allowed Orton to cash in and win the match and the WWE Championship. What followed for the rest of the year would be Daniel Bryan fighting the Authority in a great storyline. The event that is considered one of WWE’s big four truly shined.
1. Money in the Bank (July 14, 2013)
The always exciting, always fast paced, always great Money in the Bank didn’t disappoint. Both the Money in the Bank matches were good, but the show started off with a great pre-show. The pre-show match saw The Shield’s Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defending the Tag Team Championships against The Usos. In the fast paced, high energy match, we saw an awesome four-man superplex off the top rope. The match ended with a spear by Roman Reigns for the win. After that was the Money in the Bank ladder match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship between Dean Ambrose, Fandango, Wade Barrett, Cesaro, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow. Even though the WWE Championship Money in the Bank match was billed as the “all-stars” match, this one shined, with some great wrestling, great spots, but didn’t rely on them some previous Money in the Bank matches. The end saw Damien Sandow throw his tag team partner Cody Rhodes off the ladder to win the match and the breifcase. This began a rivalry between the former tag team partners, with Cody Rhodes turning face. The main event was the WWE Championship Money in the Bank ladder match between CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, and the returning Rob Van Dam. The match had some great spots and was very fast paced. At the end, Bryan was attacked by Curtis Axel, who was in turn hit with a GTS by CM Punk. Paul Heyman, Punk’s former manager, encouraged Punk to climb, only to backstab him by hitting him with a ladder. Van Dam tried to climb, but was yanked off the ladder and was hit with an RKO by Orton. With no one to stop him, Orton climbed the ladder and won the match. The always great pay-per-view excited again, and added another great show to it’s resume.