10 Most Important Matches In Modern Wrestling History
1. The Usos Vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn - WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 1
How much has WWE changed in the wake of Vince McMahon's 2022 retirement?
Cynics would argue not much: away from the main event crew that are trusted to cut their own (mostly great) promos, the interviews remain synthetic and are orated in that alien language and cadence. The matches still have that distinct WWE "feel". Authority figures, albeit better ones, still govern a format that hasn't much changed.
The main event of WrestleMania 39 night one however crystallised that which has changed for the better under the creative direction of Paul Levesque.
In the best subplot of a "saga" that has gripped the audience, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn took down the Usos in a thrilling feel-good tag team WrestleMania main event. Levesque responded to a series of longstanding complaints with this inspired choice.
Your guys got to win, guys who weren't "meant" to win on that stage, and in a tag team match no less - a beloved standard that Vince barely cared about for years. The content of the match, while great in a simplistic way, was not the point.
At one stage in the late 2010s, a WWE resurgence seemed a remote possibility - the true "never" in the never-say-never business. This match best underscored that WWE was all the way back: a towering achievement in its goal of winning back the audience.
One could also argue that, were it not for this irresistible bit of business, fans would have been less forgiving of the controversial decision to have Roman Reigns go over Cody Rhodes 24 hours later.
That wonderful tag did what was once thought impossible: it restored trust in the process.