10 Best Wrestling PPVs Of 2017
Too Sweet.
Strangely, given the wall-to-wall match quality 2017 boasted, the major cards presented by major companies, on the whole, could not match their individual brilliance.
Much of this had to do with a very bizarre development coursing through the main roster of WWE; so many would-be great matches were rendered merely "good" through a fit of dumb layouts. Even the commentary teams, more or less programmed puppets, were not clued in on the rules of certain matches. Extreme Rules was a repeat offender; neither The Bar Vs. The Hardy Boyz, nor Neville Vs. Austin Aries, lived up to their potential because whomever was on agent duties had an absolute 'mare. Elsewhere, the endless churn necessitated copious inconclusive finishes ostensibly designed to spike interest in rematches. The strategy was optimistic in the extreme.
New Japan Pro Wrestling was not immune to the odd flub, either: the antics of Suzuki-Gun and the homogenised doubles division made for a few unfocused major shows, the epic durations of which were an inconvenient truth to those, your writer included, guilty of massive hyperbole. The twinned show format, too, created scope for some meh title challengers (El Desperado) and forgettable multi-man semi-mains.
Only NXT was consistently near-perfect...
10. WWE WrestleMania 33
There is a lot to be said for spectacle.
Put simply: matches held at WrestleMania are better because they are held at WrestleMania, elevated by the glamour, the scale, and the endless vista of enthralled fans illuminated by fireworks. In an age in which those fans don't seem to matter, it's also weirdly stirring to see them not bathed in the dimmed light of punishing primary colours.
More than a handful of attractions underwhelmed (Kevin Owens Vs. Chris Jericho) or might as well have not happened (Bayley Vs. Charlotte Flair Vs. Nia Jax Vs. Sasha Banks), but when 'Mania was good, it was bloody good. The return of the Hardy Boyz delivered the fabled "moment"; Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar was a true titan clash dripping in drama; Triple H and Seth Rollins toiled in the heat to little heat, wrestling a match far better than its reception obscured. A resistant reading of the maligned main event brings its pathos into focus; viewed as a story, not an attraction, Roman Reigns Vs. The Undertaker was rich in emotion, if not smooth in content.
It was far too long at seven godd*mn hours - but, in patches, 'Mania was a sensory feast.