For me, 2005 was one of my favourite years as a wrestling fan. It had the perfect mix of exciting to watch up-and-coming superstars like Shelton Benjamin and Rey Mysterio, along with larger-than-life characters like Batista, Triple H and the returning Hulk Hogan. Everyone seemed to know their role and WWE was preparing for the future. 2004 hadn't been great, with WWE really failing to create any proper new stars. 2005 was the year when John Cena, Batista and, to some extent, Randy Orton really began to break through and establish themselves. Of course they were going to be guided by the likes of The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle and, erm, JBL. These were the names that were headlining PPVs and, on the whole, they were increasing business from the previous year. The product had an air of excitement around it and that was reflected in their PPV output. While not every push or feud was a major success, there was certainly more bad than good and we were treated to some rather extraordinary matches. Off-screen, things were shaped further by some major events, such as the return of Hogan, the departures of Chris Jericho and Christian and the death of Eddie Guerrero. Things looked a lot different by the end of the year than they had at the beginning, but there were fourteen PPV events in-between. Here's how they rank, from worst to best.
