8. What Is The Single Greatest Show In Wrestling History?
By "single show", this means one particular year's pay-per-view event, not just saying "WrestleMania" or "Starrcade", in general. There are several options here, even though it's generally a subjective thing to talk about what is "good" and makes something "entertaining". After all, there are some who feel characters like Hornswoggle have a place in wrestling, while others feel characters like that are the worst things going. The first thing to look at is definitely how events hold up after time. Something can be really fun to watch in, say, the 1980's, but when you watch them 30+ years later, everything seems dated and out of touch. Two of the more popular choices for this debate are WCW's Great American Bash 1989 and the WWF's WrestleMania 17. Call it an "advantage", but WrestleMania 17 took place almost 12 years later, which allows it to be fresher in the minds of most wrestling fans. It means the in-ring action on the show was more "modern", so it's more easily digestible for younger fans and people who are fans of the way wrestling is these days. Being a more recent show means there are more recognizable names, as well. If you've never seen either show, and you sit down to watch them both, one of the first things you're searching for is names and faces that you know. Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Triple H, Edge, Christian, The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, Vince McMahon, Mick Foley, Stephanie McMahon, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kane, Big Show, Bradshaw, Chris Jericho, William Regal... the list goes on and on. There are so many names at WrestleMania that even the newest fans will recognize. Great American Bash, on the other hand, features longer matches on average, and one could argue that there's better "pure" wrestling, overall, with people like Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, The Great Muta, Terry Funk, etc putting in work. Both shows feature something for everyone, whether it's technical wrestling, hardcore wrestling, comedy wrestling, drama, and everything else. You have to look at a card from top to bottom, see how many sub-par matches can be "eliminated", see how many good-to-great matches can "carry" the card, and go from there. There isn't a "right" or "wrong" answer here, but you have to formulate something proper if you're going to discuss this with other people.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
