10 Best WWE Pay-Per-Views Of The Decade
The WWE Network might have killed pay-per-view, but quality came back to life in the 2010s...
A common way to assess exactly how the WWE landscape changes over time is to look at gaps of around ten years for the befores and afters. On the precipice of 2020, it's easy to assume that little has changed since the not-so-halcyon days of 2010.
It's the year The Nexus collapsed under the weight of WWE's booking and their faith in John Cena. It's the year CM Punk ended as a commentator before transforming the next one with a series of remarkable curtain-pulling promos. It's the year that two of the prior decade's dependable stars headlined WrestleMania only so one could depart never to really be replaced.
It...doesn't otherwise feel like ten years ago.
Whilst much has stayed achingly familiar, the monolithic and minted organisation have mastered the "solid, if unspectacular" pay-per-view format. There's only been one genuine duffer of note in 2019, and that was mostly down to one of the worst finishes in company history. They've reset their standards, but exactly how many could be considered "best"?
Well, one, as it turns out. But that's why the entire decade has been mined for this list instead...
10. WrestleMania 31
A thoroughly enjoyable WrestleMania despite the foreshadowing of the extended run-time, the 'Show Of Shows' Bay Area setting shone a bright light on the audience and roster alike. The daytime scene wasn't ideal for The Undertaker's senseless squash of Bray Wyatt, but then, the meeting between 'The Deadman' and 'The Eater Of Worlds' wasn't ideal for the card itself.
Away from that, Seth Rollins gave Randy Orton his best WrestleMania singles match in forever before returning at the end of the show to become the first Money In The Bank winner to cash in on 'The Grandest Stage'. His intrusion was a sublime solution to the super-heated Roman Reigns/Brock Lesnar main event.
Speculation had previously ran rampant that Lesnar's UFC return was imminent, but a deal-sealing WWE contract signing earlier in the week added substantially more intrigue to the bloodletting of 'The Big Dog' sure to satiate his increasing number of dissenters. Manhandling Reigns as few others had, Lesnar had punched himself out by the time 'The Architect' arrived to build his part in a hastily-rearranged triple threat main event.
Sowing the seed for one of the greatest rookie years ever, Ronda Rousey shooed off Stephanie McMahon and Triple H alongside The Rock in a retrospective WrestleMania Moment™. Then undefeated and a white hot mainstream star, Ronda's placement in a WWE ring was a genuine coup for the group, much like Sting's maiden McMahon voyage on the undercard.