10 Underrated PPVs From WWE's Ruthless Aggression Era

10. No Mercy 2003

Match of the Night: John Cena vs Kurt Angle

At this point in the year, SmackDown was starting to challenge Raw on a weekly basis for ratings. Seen as the second show compared to their flagship programme, they had more to gain and less to lose from the success of their brand exclusive PPVs. The weekly show was consistently delivering strong storylines and started the build early for WrestleMania by putting the emphasis on talent that would bring SmackDown success for years to come. By the time No Mercy came to be, it seemed every talent had a part to play in its dynamic brand, seemingly knowing that its use of authority figures worked with the amount of personable wrestlers they had.

Big Show would win the US Title from Eddie Guerrero and would hold that belt until WrestleMania XX, where he would lose to John Cena. Cena in turn lost to Kurt Angle at No Mercy, who would then go on to a programme with Eddie at WMXX. This just shows how talented and versatile the roster was at the time. One uncomfortable moment manifested itself in the Vince vs Stephanie ‘I Quit’ match, which typified the Ruthless Aggression era in a nutshell: WWE wanted the edge of the Attitude Era but didn’t know how to define the boundaries just yet. But we were treated to some hidden gems in the meantime.