10 Best Years To Be A WWE Fan
Best pro wrestling on the planet. For a period.
WrestleMania X-Seven is probably still the greatest show in the history of WWE, or if that take's perhaps a little too subjective, the best objective reflection of everything the company can and occasionally does do so well.
A sold out crowd looking on at a ginormous stage fit for the elite of an industry, with match after match more rewarding than the last resulting in a main event featuring the two biggest stars of the era usurp all that came before them with a match as bombastic as it was brilliant. The show is a pro wrestling masterpiece. But the failures of the remainder of 2001 present it as a season finale rather than a celebration.
Failures stack up in its aftermath - the loss of The Rock, the struggle to get Steve Austin over as a heel, the half-in/half-out efforts to elevate Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam and others, the quad injury that took the best all round player out of 'The Game', the miserable disaster that was the Invasion angle, and so on.
Your writer adores 1995. For its Diesels and its Bret Harts and its Shawn Michaels and its Razor Ramons and its vibrancy and even its bin men and dentists. But nobody else did - these redeeming qualities weren't enough to keep the water coolers in Titan Towers.
But this is positive - these are all good times. Now fight amongst yourselves arguing why they weren't...
10. 2015
The 2015 Royal Rumble may have foreshadowed a disastrous WrestleMania coronation for Roman Reigns, but the company put that off for a full year by coming up with an amazing solution in that year's 'Show Of Shows' that propelled the most consistent all-rounder in the company into the top spot.
Seth Rollins had stolen the show at the Royal Rumble, and his time on top resulted in the WWE Championship programme often reflecting the best work in the company. And when it wasn't, it was only because John Cena was somehow saving the United States title with an incredible midcard workrate run. The two of them coming together in the summer months felt like a celebration of their shared triumphs, with two bangers at SummerSlam and Night Of Champions doing much to preserve their own reputations and a renewed sense of vigour in the product in general.
Away from the biggest main roster moments, NXT's real impact was finally felt on Raw and SmackDown, with Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte all getting call-ups that put the brand over as a breeding ground for a potentially captivating future. Much of that benefit would be felt the following year...