10 WWE Matches That Defined Each Year Of The 2010s
It's been a decade of big matches, but which ones will go down in history one way or another?
Whether you like it or not, the 2010s are coming to an end.
It's been a monumental decade, one that historians will look back with a great deal of interest and, hopefully, not too much regret.
The same can be said for wrestling fans. The past ten years have seen several seismic shifts in the landscape of the industry; we've seen the WWE returns of Bret Hart, Goldberg, and The Rock, the end of The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak, and who could forget the most monumental innovation of all - Mixed Match Challenge.
There have been several pivotal moments in WWE since 2010, moments that have had huge ramifications on the company and the industry as a whole. Whilst some years have contained more of these moments than others, the following ten matches all have a case for being the most history-making, ground-shaking bouts to take place in their respective calendar years.
For good or bad, better or worse, these ten matches either led to, contributed to, or were the culmination of huge changes in the world of WWE.
They may not all be matches that people remember fondly, but they're definitely going down in history for one reason or another.
10. 2010 - Team WWE vs The Nexus
SummerSlam 2010 was all about one match - the huge 7-on-7 elimination main event between Team WWE and The Nexus.
The Nexus - led by Wade Barrett - were a group of rookie wrestlers who had burst onto the scene by attacking top stars, particularly John Cena.
Cena was leading the resistance, backed up by the likes of Edge, Chris Jericho, and a 53-year-old Bret Hart. Presumably they didn't want him to feel left out.
All logic pointed towards a Nexus victory. A win on this scale in the main event of the company's second-biggest annual show would launch all seven members into the stratosphere and create a whole host of new stars all in one go. Sadly, this logic didn't take into account one crucial thing - the Super-Cena variable.
The former Doctor of Thuganomics put that degree to good use and came back from a 2-on-1 handicap (and a DDT on the concrete floor) to win the match for his team as its sole survivor. The Nexus' push was dead, and the group never recovered.
This match was the perfect example of WWE sacrificing new, up-and-coming talent to bolster an already established star. Unfortunately, this is a trend that only got worse as the decade went on.