10 Best Split-Brand Pay-Per-Views In WWE History

3. Vengeance 2003 (Smackdown)

Trish Stratus Chris Jericho Backlash 2004
WWE.com

Ordinarily, adding The Big Show to a match doesn't help it at all, but in 2003, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar could only fight each other so many times. Enter the world's largest athlete, who famously destroyed the ring in a Smackdown bout with Lesnar just prior to Vengeance.

The three men had one of WWE's more exciting triple threat matches, with Big Show playing spoiler to the two world-class wrestlers. Lesnar hit The Big Show with an F5 and, later in the bout, Angle and Lesnar managed to plant Show with a tandem chokeslam, but they couldn't keep the giant down. In the end, Angle hit Show with an Olympic Slam, then hit Lesnar with one to win the match and Brock's WWE Title.

Given that the show also featured The World's Greatest Tag Team versus Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman, Eddie Guerrero versus Chris Benoit and the sole John Cena-Undertaker pay-per-view encounter. Even the APA Barroom Brawl, Vince McMahon versus Zack Gowen and Stephanie McMahon versus Sable couldn't collectively bring the show down!

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013