With apologies to the UK readers and other international wrestling fans who have to wait indefinitely, the good ol US of A will be getting the WWE Network on February 24. And with it, we have access to every WWE, WCW and ECW Pay Per View ever aired. With all of this content right at our fingertips, the logical question to ask yourself is, What the heck do I watch first? My suggestion is that you watch the shows that fell a bit under the radar but were of high quality. So take a little trip down memory lane with me as I present my list of 15 underrated WWE Pay Per Views you should definitely check out on the WWE Network. This list is in chronological order, and Im selecting one show from each year starting with 1999 and making my way to 2013.
15. No Mercy 1999
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEiEy6ZqLYg If this Pay Per View rings a bell for you, its probably because of the epic ladder match between The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian that put both teams on the map (bet you dont remember they were fighting for the managerial services of Terri Runnels, did you?). What you also probably dont remember about this show was the unique matchups that were presented. Kudos to WWE for taking a risk and elevating unusual talent. This was the start of Val Veniss heel push, and he was matched up with Mankind, who was a three-time WWF Champion at that point. The Rock, the second-biggest star in the company at the time, was facing The British Bulldog, who had just returned a month prior for the first time since the Montreal Screwjob. A woman won a major WWF championship for the first time, with Chyna defeating Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Title. According to Chynas autobiography, Jarretts contract with WWF had expired the day before, and he was paid half a million dollars to wrestle that match. To cap off the weirdness of the evening, two tag teams (X-Pac/Kane and The Acolytes) wrestled each other in a four corner survival with partners facing each other. Ill be damned if I can remember how that came about. Finally, there was the main event. A lot of ballyhoo was made a couple months prior about Steve Austin refusing to drop the title cleanly to Triple H, so they went through the awkward transition of having Austin drop cleanly to Mankind, who dropped cleanly to Hunter the next night on Raw. Austin finally did the j-o-b to H-H-H on this show (albeit after taking a sledgehammer shot to the gut), and nobody seems to remember it. Hopefully this brings some light to the subject. Note: Its interesting to note that WWE are planning on releasing Over The Edge 1999, the infamous Pay Per View where Owen Hart accidentally fell to his death in a stunt gone wrong, for the first time since the event originally aired. Those with a morbid curiosity can check it out, and Id be hard-pressed to believe theyd include the moments immediately following Owens fall or the announcement of his death, but you can watch how visibly shaken up the wrestlers who performed following the fall looked.
