10 Best WWE Matches Ever (According To The Internet)
Online, but are they on the money? WWE's best EVER matches, as voted for by the World Wide Web...
What makes an “Internet fan” now?
An ancient criticism tied to the mid-90s when early online adopters first dared to offer opinions along with an even more niche selection of newsletter subscribers (and wrestlers raged about them engaging with the matches on a second or third level), it seems to still hold currency in locker rooms despite half of the performers once embodying the term themselves and literally any person possessing so much as a pay-as-you-go phone now being able to dive into the discourse.
In this case at least, it applies to Cagematch. The ultra-detailed wrestling database offers all sorts of facts and stats on all the action, while also encouraging users to rate what they’ve watched in an effort to democratically arrive at the industry’s bests and worsts.
The consequences of this great collaborative process are, uh, divisive.
There are a host of piping hot classics that didn’t make the grade here, and before anybody boots off in this direction, your writer is trying not to quietly fume while listing some of those off too.
Sasha Banks/Bayley at TakeOver: Brooklyn, Johnny Gargano/Adam Cole at TakeOver: New York, Shawn Michaels/The Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House, Sasha Banks/Bayley at TakeOver: The End, Bret Hart/Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996, CM Punk/John Cena from Raw in 2013, Sasha Banks/Bayley at Hell In A Cell 2020, and on and on and on it goes.
These incredible offerings couldn’t crack the top ten. So what on earth did?
10. Chris Benoit Vs. Shawn Michaels Vs. Triple H
Starting not how we mean to go on, the highly-rated WrestleMania XX main event is something many fans may never have seen and many more may never watch again.
This is the legacy - if you can call it that - of Chris Benoit following his actions and the tragic events of the last days of his, wife Nancy and son Daniel’s lives back in 2007.
What makes this specific entry from Benoit’s exhaustive back catalogue so jarring compared to other clashes from his career is how shaped around his past, present and future it was.
He was the man that could never ascend in the market leader because of his perceived shortcomings. He especially stood no chance against a Shawn Michaels and Triple H being presented as at the top of their games. And he was the man, alongside Eddie Guerrero, tasked with shouldering a philosophical shift that Vince McMahon barely even committed to before their untimely deaths just three and one years later respectively.
All of the above feeds to in to an epic tale, but fictional physicality may simply never be enough to distract from the brutal and devastating reality.