Pro Wrestling Power

Here are my top 5 favorite pay per view events/super cards in pro wrestling history:

Honorable Mention: WWF Wrestlemania 7, WWF Royal Rumble 1990, WCW Uncensored 1998, WCW Super Brawl IX 1999, WCW Uncensored 1999, WWF Wrestlemania 3, WWF Wrestlemania 5, WWF Wrestlemania 6, WWF Wrestlemania 9, WWF Wrestlemania 14, WWF Wrestlemania 17, WWF Wrestlemania 18, WWF Summerslam 1988, WWF Summerslam 1989, WWF Summerslam 1990, WWF Summerslam 1992, WWF Survivor Series 1987, WWF Survivor Series 1988, WWF Survivor Series 1989, WWF Survivor Series 1990, WWF Tuesday in Texas 1991, WWF No Way Out 2002, WWF Backlash 2002, WWE Summerslam 2005, WWE Summerslam 2006, WCW Bash at the Beach 1994, WCW Halloween Havoc 1994, WCW Bash at the Beach 1995, WCW Bash at the Beach 1996, WCW Hog Wild 1996, WCW Road Wild 1997, WCW Road Wild 1999, WCW spring Stampede 1998, WCW Spring Stampede 1999, WCW Fall Brawl 1996, WCW Super Brawl VIII 1998, WCW Starrcade 1996, WCW Starrcade 1997, WCW Great American Bash 1998, WCW Super Brawl 2000, WCW Uncensored 2000

5. WWF Royal Rumble 1991

Best. Opener. Ever. Not for nothing, but was that not the most exciting tag team match or opening contest to a pay per view you have ever seen? I’m of course referencing The Rockers vs. The Orient Express, and if you  have yet to see this match, or this pay per view for that matter, go watch it right now. Seriously, I’ll wait.

Ok, so on to the rest of the show now that you’re back. We had some really solid, underrated stuff in the mid card with matches like the The Big Boss Man vs. The Barbarian, The Mountie vs. Koko B. Ware, and the tag team encounter between Ted Dibiase and Virgil vs. Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes. The WWF Championship match between The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter was also memorable, especially with the interference from the Macho Man Randy Savage.

Then we come to the Rumble match itself. It was the second best ever in my opinion behind 1992′s match. The lineup of superstars in these two Rumble matches is unsurpassed and completely awesome. Every guy matters, and the crowd was pumped for just about everyone. The current day WWE roster should be extremely jealous of these early 90′s Royal Rumble pay per views and the time period in general. The fact that Hogan won his second straight Royal Rumble on his way to his third WWF championship when he defeated Sgt. Slaughter at Wrestlemania 7 just makes this event that much more enjoyable in retrospect.

4. WWF Royal Rumble 1992

I liked the undercard for Royal Rumble 91 a little more than this one, but the actual Rumble match for the 1992 event was the best ever in my opinion. I’ll touch on the commentary of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby the Brain Heenan again when I talk about Wrestlemania 8, but this event probably had the best, most entertaining commentary of any wrestling show in history. The crowd was hot for the entire Rumble match, and Ric Flair put on what I still feel is the best performance ever in a Royal Rumble. And he did it against an all-time classic lineup of WWF superstars that even exceeded the previous two years and anything from the Attitude Era in my opinion.

This show was a great lead-in to Wrestlemania 8, but it was fantastic as a stand-alone event on its own merits, mostly because this Rumble match meant more than any other. The winner of this match was to be crowned WWF champion, and Flair shocked the world with a thrilling ending to capture his first WWF title. This legitimized him in the eyes of the WWF audience, much of whom were not familiar with his legendary NWA career. Flair entered at number 3 and proceeded to take a pounding for the next hour, coming very close to being eliminated several times. This was a result that shocked and disappointed me when I was younger, but much like Ric Flair’s career, I’ve come to appreciate this match and this pay per view much more over the years to the point where it’s one of my favorite shows to watch period.

I recommend it to anyone that’s only seen more modern Royal Rumbles and might not be familiar with this era of the WWF or these awesome early Rumble matches. To me, this is the year everything really started coming together and the WWF officials finally understood how to book the Royal Rumble event from start to finish. It wasn’t as much of a messy battle royal as it was in previous years. This was an unforgettable show that led to my second favorite Wrestlemania ever:

3. WWF Wrestlemania 8

Much like Royal Rumble 92, this event was elevated so much by the commentary of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby the Brain Heenan. Not that the actual event itself wasn’t great because it was. Now I have to say that the last match main event did not live up to its potential, mostly because of Sid Justice and the botched run-in ending by Papa Shango, but Hogan came out fired up and this wasn’t a terrible match overall. The Warrior’s comeback at the end was also a really big deal at the time and it left the awesome Hoosier Dome crowd with a good taste in their mouth after the match ended in a disqualification. You may not understand if you’re a young fan watching this Wrestlemania today, but if you were a young fan at the time, this was the talk of the wrestling world and a really cool thing to have the Warrior come back unannounced. Remember, there was no Internet dirt sheets to spoil this surprise in 1992.

Two matches stand above the rest at Wrestlemania 8.

Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair for the WWF title was one of my favorite feuds and matches of all time. These two legends put on a classic match that had an exciting finish and enabled the feud, mostly over Miss Elizabeth, to continue on into late 1992.

The other excellent match of this show was the Intercontinental title match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bret the Hitman Hart. Although I’m a huge fan of Piper and his character, I never really like his brawling, somewhat sloppy working style. But he was more than capable of putting on a quality match with an opponent who was a great inside the ring. Bret Hart was definitely great inside the ring, and he carried Piper to perhaps the best match of his career. Also, the interviews surrounding this match, much like the ones before and after the Savage vs. Flair match, are some of my favorite in the history of the WWE.

The rest of the card was very enjoyable and really brought to life by the enormous, electric Indianapolis crowd and the phenomenal commentary. Undertaker vs. Jake Roberts was a very good match, despite the weak tombstone piledriver at the end. Shawn Michaels got his singles career off to a terrific start against Tito Santana. And while the other matches could be considered filler by some, they were all Wrestlemania worthy in my opinion and once again showcased the depth and star power of the WWF’s mid card at the time.

This was a fantastic, underrated event that was far from a perfect show but still one of the best I’ve ever seen and one that has great replay value, much like the next two.

2. WWE Wrestlemania 19

One of these things just doesn’t belong here…Wow, I never thought I’d be completely blown away by a wrestling show again after the Attitude Era ended, and for the most part, I’ve been right. The only major exception in the last 11 years has been Wrestlemania 19. If you thought pro wrestling died after the WCW buyout and the excellence of Wrestlemania 17, think again, because you need to see this show. We got four very solid undercard matches followed up by easily the best 5 match main event run in the history of wrestling. One match after another blew me away, and each exceeded expectations even though they were very high to begin with.

Let’s start on Sunday Night Heat, that’s right, Sunday Night Heat, where we got an above average world tag team championship match between the team of Lance Storm and Chief Morley (Val Venis) vs. the team of Kane and Rob Van Dam. The we move on to the actual pay per view, where Matt Hardy defeated Rey Mysterio Jr. in a short but entertaining opener for the Cruiserweight title. Then we had the Undertaker defeat The Big Show and A-Train in a handicap match, with a little assistance from Nathan Jones. Next up was probably the best women’s wrestling match I’ve ever seen, a triple threat match for the title featuring Trish Stratus, Victoria and Jazz. Fourth on the card was Team Angle retaining their WWE tag team titles against Los Guerreros and the team of Chris Benoit and Rhyno. These were all good matches and worthy of being on a Wrestlemania card, which is much more than you can say for a lot of Wrestlemania undercard matches since then, but starting with match five, things really got intense.

You could make a pretty valid argument that Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho was one of the best wrestling matches ever. It’s definitely in my top 10. If there’s one match from this show you need to see, it’s this one, although this is really an event that needs to be viewed in its entirety to be fully appreciated.

The next match completely shocked me, because my expectations for it weren’t all that high and I was really interested in a bunch of other matches on the card much more than this one. But Triple H and Booker T really brought it on this night. I think they knew what they were surrounded by and they didn’t want to get overlooked, and I’d say if that was their goal, they achieved it.

The most anticipated match for me was Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon in a streetfight, which if you’re not familiar, is really just wrestling lingo for a match without rules. I did expect this to be good, despite the age and physical limitations of both men, but they both put on a performance that went way beyond what I expected from them, and I’m sure almost everyone else watching felt the same way. Roddy Piper’s interference was a nice touch, but in reality it wasn’t needed. I like the way McMahon was booked strong like he had a chance to win, and Hogan was booked as kind of the underdog babyface like he had been earlier in his career. Critics and haters always say Hogan should have retired long ago, after this match or that match, and usually I disagree. But if the Hulkster had chosen to hang up the boots after this match, I wouldn’t argue that decision at all. I’m glad this was his last Wrestlemania match, and in my mind at least, he sealed his legacy on this night as the best wrestler ever. Had had come completely full circle and ended the war with Vince that was 20 years in the making.

That could have ended the show and the crowd would have went home happy. But we were then treated to another one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling history, the third Wrestlemania encounter between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Honestly, it was probably the third best of the three matches they had at Wrestlemania, but it was still fantastic, and it had a surprising ending that I won’t mention here in case you haven’t seen it.

Finally, the actual last match main event of the evening was the WWE championship match between champion Kurt Angle and number one contender Brock Lesnar. This is another match that has to be seen to be believed. If you knew the backstory behind this match, how Angle was injured leading up to this event and how legitimately messed up Lesnar was after his botched shooting star press at the end of the match, then you’d appreciate this even more. And when I say “botched,” it was probably the greatest botch in the history of the business. I actually think Lesnar missing that move made the match even more epic than it would have been had he hit it cleanly as he was supposed to. Instead, after more than 20 minutes of a classic wrestling match, Lesnar nearly broke his neck coming off the top rope with that move, and in his concussed state, managed to use his F5 finisher on Angle and pin him for the 1-2-3.

The end of this match and this entire show left me with my jaw dropped, completely stunned that the WWE was still capable of putting on this type of a show. Not only was this a reminder that they still had “it” when they wanted to, but it was arguably the best pro wrestling show in history. If only they could recapture this magic today. Taking nostalgia completely out of the equation, this was probably the best professional wrestling event I’ve ever seen and if you have yet to see it, I can’t recommend anything else more than Wrestlemania 19.

1. WWF Summerslam 1991- The first pay per view event I ever saw on pay per view is still my favorite. This pick is not just about nostalgia though. It actually was one of the best wrestling events ever, for several reasons. Most fans remember this show for the classic Mr. Perfect vs. Bret Hart Intercontinental title match, and rightfully so. This was one of my favorite matches of all time and the launching point to Bret Hart’s legendary singles career in the WWF. But to me, this event had so much more to offer.

“The Match Made in Hell,” featuring the team of Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior against Sgt. Slaughter, Gen. Adnan and Col. Mustafa, does not get many rave reviews from hardcore wrestling fans on the Internet, who tend to favor meaningless things like “workrate” and “technical wrestling ability,” but this match was one of the most memorable of my youth and to this day, it has that big match feel that you just don’t get nowadays. Plus, Sgt. Slaughter, as he had done for Hogan in their Wrestlemania 7 singles match for the WWF title, sold like hell and made Hogan and Warrior both look good. I am one of the few people who thought this match actually delivered on the hype and was worthy of being a main event to one of the best shows in history.

The best thing about this card is that it had no weaknesses, which is something you just can’t say for any WWE show since Wrestlemania 19 in my opinion. The most dull match was probably IRS vs Greg the Hammer Valentine, but even that was a quality match and a nice addition to the show. The rest was just awesome. You had the main event and the IC title match which I already mentioned, plus the entertaining six man tag team match to open the show, Legion of Doom winning the tag team titles, Virgil winning the million dollar belt over Ted Dibiase, the Big Boss Man defeating the Mountie in the “Jailhouse Match,” including the memorable humorous spots with the Mountie going to jail, and finally the Natural Disasters vs. the Bushwhackers.

This event just screamed early 90′s WWF and it showcased a true superstar lineup of a wrestling roster, unlike what we have today unfortunately. The WWF delivered on the hype with the actual wrestling matches, but who could forget “The Match Made in Heaven,” with the wedding of the Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth.

The commentary with Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby the Brain Heenan and Rowdy Roddy Piper was superb as well. In fact, everything about this show was.

Ok, so maybe I’m very biased here as I had just turned 7 years old when this aired, so it would be ridiculous to say nostalgia doesn’t play a big part in my high opinion of Summerslam 91, but if you’re a young fan or just someone who never saw this pay per view, I highly recommend you watch this immediately as well.

So that’s my list. Feel free to share your favorites and discuss my picks in the comment section below.