10 Best Wrestling PPVs Of 2017
6. NXT TakeOver: Orlando
A great opener - almost the sole preserve of NXT, on the evidence of 2017 - exists to unglue the crowd and immerse them in the experience of a wrestling show without exhausting them. The chaotic eight-person tag achieved precisely that, simultaneously (and belatedly) positioning the SAnitY faction beyond the realm of the curio.
Aleister Black Vs. Andrade 'Cien' Almas was well above the level of serviceable, let down slightly by Andrade's lack of relevance while also doing much to restore it, ultimately - following which the show entered categorical classic territory.
The Triple Threat war between #DIY, The Revival and the Authors Of Pain yielded perhaps the greatest shared enemy sequences ever, in which the former teams subverted their own rivalry and their own make-up in an attempt to overcome the combined might of the latter. It was wonderful storytelling both logical and entirely unexpected - elusive stuff for a genre in which those creative philosophies are all too often wildly divergent.
Asuka Vs. Ember Moon elevated the latter and reinforced the former, achieving Paul Heyman's ideal of wrestling perfection, while the marvellous, slow-burning headliner between Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura conclusively indicts the rapidity with which both were sullied on the main roster.