5. Edge & Christian vs The Dudley Boyz vs The Hardy Boyz WrestleMania 16, April 2000
Watching this match provides both feelings of nostalgia and perspective. There are a lot of stars in this one; Jeff Hardy and Edge both went on to hold multiple world championships and become faces of the wrestling world, Christian became an internet darling for his underrated in-ring ability, and the others all went on to enjoy established careers in the WWE and TNA. Yet here they are, all newcomers within their first few years of the World Wrestling Federation, dicing with death on the midcard of WrestleMania 2000. The match is simply too anarchic to summarise in concise fashion. Its mainly remembered for Jeffs ungodly dive from the top of a ladder onto a prone Bubba Ray below, but there are too many set pieces of a similarly death-defying nature to count. The six men paved the way for the particular hybrid of high-flying and hardcore action we see all the time in the WWE nowadays. TLC matches, the Money in the Bank PPV, an influx of talent based on bravery and athleticism rather than muscle mass all changes which can be traced back to this one bout at the turn of the century. Theres a certain fondness shared between the six men for this match. Bubba Ray recently tweeted commemorating its 14th anniversary, while Edge gleefully revealed D-Vons unlikely fear of highs on Chris Jerichos podcast. Although every match on this last can claim to be brutal, not all of them carry the same degree of innovation as this one.
