Essential WWE shows since brand split?

[tmoney404]

I've watched the WWE since the late 1980s, but stopped around the brand split. Since around 2002 until now, I've watched very sporadically, mostly relying on shoot interviews, old wrestling tapes, the autobiographies, some of the nostalgic WWE DVD releases, etc.

So...I don't want to just say "tell me everything" about a 9 year span...but I read a lot on these boards about the WWE from around the time the brand split started obviously and I'm totally ignorant.

Now, my friends have told me this was a very poor time for WWE...but still, I'm interested.

I've never seen a Batista match, have no idea who people like Snitsky, Heidenrich, Umaga, Boogeyman, etc. really are. I have no idea how the hell Hornswoggle became a permanent wrestler. Never seen a Lashley match, have no idea what Nexus really was, etc.

So...what are some of the best moments, PPVs, memories you have of RAW since the brand split?

[Chardee MacDennis]

Watch Wrestlemnia 21. Second best Wrestlemania (aside from Wrestlemania 17). Especially for the Angle/HBK match alone.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Here are my favourite feuds/moments. . .

The Nexus invasion: One of the all time great wrestling moments, it was pure genius and it's well worth checking out. Just the shock of it, the fact it came at the end of an otherwise s*** show, the brutality, the fact noone was safe and even the commentary when King and Cole realised what was up was spot on. It was perfect.

Edge vs Cena - Great feud that spanned several months, stopped for a while, then restarted a few months later and had some great matches and moments.

Edge vs Foley Fun feud that led to some great promos from both guys and a really good hardcore match. It also led to a nice tag match at One Night Stand between Edge & Foley vs Dreamer and Funk.

Edge vs 'Taker feud - Some excellant matches and my all time favourite WWE promo (Even if you have no interest in watching the feud, Edge's 'I understand' segment with Foley was pure gold)

HBK vs Flair - A decent enough feud, the 'Old Yeller' promo by HBK was awesome and is worth checking out, as is their 'Mania match if you haven't seen it. The "I'm sorry, I love you" before the superkick was great, as was Flair's subsequent sendoff the next night on Raw.

HBK vs Jericho - The entire feud was awesome. One of my all time favourite feuds.

HBK vs The Undertaker - Great build up to both their 'Mania matches and great matches at 'Mania too.

Cena vs Edge - Their feuds have been amazing and they've had some epic matches with each other.

Jeff Hardy vs CM Punk - Another great feud filled with awesome promos, great matches and memorable moments.

Miz and Morrison's tag run - They just had a number of excellant matches against a variety of tag teams from Moore & Wang Yang to The Colon's and of course, their was the Dirt Sheet too which was a lot of fun.

Jericho vs Rey Mysterio - Just an amazing feud that made the IC title seem important.

Christian's ECW title run - He was a great fighting champ, defending the belt against all comers like Zack Ryder, Yoshi Tatsu, William Regal, Tommy Dreamer, Jack Swagger etc and they were all really fun matches.

Mark Henry's House of Pain run that's still ongoing Just amazing, turned Henry into an okay but otherwise bland midcarder into one of the most entertaining guys on the roster.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Survivor Series 2002 is a simply staggeringly good show. Every match on it is fantastic; even the women's match is great, and the Chamber match is fantastic considering the chambers buzzed people out in the wrong order.

[Big Daddy Bad Booking]

Jan 25, 2012 15:39:15 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Survivor Series 2002 is a simply staggeringly good show. Every match on it is fantastic; even the women's match is great, and the Chamber match is fantastic considering the chambers buzzed people out in the wrong order.

As someone who wrote a review for this PPV on thehistoryofwwe's site, buy the event now before it goes out of print!

Backlash 2007 and Survivor Series 2007 are two great shows as well.

Also Summerslam 2002 and Wrestlemania XIX, which are on my my best DVD's of all time list.

[breakdownthewalls]

You ain't missing much by not knowing who Snitsky and Heidenreich are, that's for sure.

Seek out the Manias and Rumbles for all those years, that's my suggestion.

[fw91]

Wrestlemania 19 should be at the top at the list, closest thing to a "super card" in this generation

[Bo Rida]

ECW One Night Stand 1&2.
Old School Raw.

They should feature enough people you reconise to ease you into these new fangled wrestlers.

[rapidfire187]

Jan 25, 2012 15:51:29 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Wrestlemania 19 should be at the top at the list, closest thing to a "super card" in this generation

I greatly prefer WM 20. I know it has the abysmal Brock/Goldberg outing and Kane/Taker was boring, but it also has a great Eddie/Angle WWE title match and a 5 star Benoit/HBK/HHH World title match. I also enjoyed the cruiserweight battle royal and The Rock/Foley vs Orton/Batista/Flair. Oh, and there's a really good Jericho/Christian opener.

IMO WM 21 was dragged down by two subpar main events. WM 19 was good, but not as stacked as the WM 20 card.

[chazraps]

Backlash 2009 and Money in the Bank 2011 are the best of the non-big 4 PPV non-ECW events since then.

[fw91]

Jan 25, 2012 16:29:51 GMT -5 rapidfire187 said:

Jan 25, 2012 15:51:29 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Wrestlemania 19 should be at the top at the list, closest thing to a "super card" in this generation

I greatly prefer WM 20. I know it has the abysmal Brock/Goldberg outing and Kane/Taker was boring, but it also has a great Eddie/Angle WWE title match and a 5 star Benoit/HBK/HHH World title match. I also enjoyed the cruiserweight battle royal and The Rock/Foley vs Orton/Batista/Flair. Oh, and there's a really good Jericho/Christian opener.



IMO WM 21 was dragged down by two subpar main events. WM 19 was good, but not as stacked as the WM 20 card.

Ah, I was at Wrestlemaina XX and it was really good, and terribly underated(easily top 5,my second favorite WM ever)
But mania 19 had like a quintuple main event (HBK/Jericho, HHH/Booker, Rock/Austin III, Hogan/Mcmahon, and Brock/Angle) the undercard was really good as well. Hell, I like it a whole lot better than X-Seven which seems to be the consenus of the greatest mania of all time. Mania XX had a bit too much filler, (we didn't need two tag title fatal 4 ways, the playboy thing, or the ventura skit that took way too much time)

[rapidfire187]

Jan 25, 2012 16:32:51 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Backlash 2009 and Money in the Bank 2011 are the best of the non-big 4 PPV non-ECW events since then.

Backlash 2004 was great as well as Vengeance 2006 IIRC.

[________ has left the building]

The CM Punk "shoot" promo from last year

[Urfarkendarf]

I dont think there are full shows bar Manias/Rumbles that are must sees. There's moments, the majority of which can be found on Youtube.

Outside of some that have already been mentioned, the first Elimination Chamber match springs to mind.

[Deleted]

Check out all the Backlash PPV's. For an event that had to follow up Wrestlemania every year most of these are very watchable shows. Also check out all the Vengeance PPV's, except one, that I cannot remember.

[Trout Stratus]

Out of the Wrestlemanias and Rumbles that made this time so great, I have to say the WWE taking fans as close as they could to the 'old ECW' with ONS was sooooo gooood!

[tmoney404]

Oh by the way, I forgot to mention...CM Punk is a huge reason I'm watching regularly again (also with how great the shows seem to be regularly now I also love Ziggler and Rhodes) so I've seen MITB and followed that angle very closely last year.

I will definitely check some of these out...so what was the deal with Evolution?

[Chronos]

Pretty much anything Edge did in 2006 is worth watching, he was on fire that year.

Check out some of the SmackDown Six stuff from later 2002 if you haven't, great match after great match involving those guys which peaked at No Mercy 2002 in one of the greatest tag matches ever.

As far as Batista goes his feud with HHH in 2005 and his heel run from fall 2009 until he left in May of 2010 are his two brightest points, but his feud with Undertaker in 2007 is also good. I liked his storyline with Eddie Guerrero in late 2005 as well, but it was sadly cut short by Guerrero's death.

Recommendation lists!

Feuds:
Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker, 2002
Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, 2002-2004
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, 2003
Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels, 2004
Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley, 2004
Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL, 2004
Batista vs. Triple H, 2005
John Cena vs. JBL, 2005
Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels, 2005 (he's just a sexy Kurt, he'll make your ankle hurt)
Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker, 2005
John Cena vs. Edge, 2006 and 2009
Batista vs. The Undertaker, 2007
Edge vs. The Undertaker, 2007-2008
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, 2008
Randy Orton vs. Triple H, 2009
Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio, 2009
CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy, 2009
John Cena vs. Batista, 2010
Nexus vs. everyone, 2010
Randy Orton vs. Christian, 2011
Mark Henry vs. anyone fool enough to get in his way, 2011

PPVs:

Every Royal Rumble except 2006
Every WrestleMania except XXVII
Vengeance 2003 and 2005
No Mercy 2002
Backlash 2004 (but it's Benoit Appreciation Night so there's that), 2007, 2008, 2009
Survivor Series 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011
SummerSlam 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011 (and 2010 if you're interested in the Nexus storyline)
Money in the Bank 2011 Looks like you've already seen it

And check out all things Hollywood Rock (2003). Everything that The Rock did as that character was incredible.

Re: Evolution, it was HHH's version of the Four Horsemen, his stable during his 2003-2005 Reign of Terror. Ric Flair was "the past," HHH "the present" and leader/perennial champ, Randy Orton "the future" and Batista the group's enforcer/muscle. It splintered in 2004 after Randy Orton won the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam and was kicked out of the group the next night on Raw, and broke up for good when Batista turned face in 2005.

[chazraps]

Jan 25, 2012 16:53:41 GMT -5 Urfarkendarf said:

I dont think there are full shows bar Manias/Rumbles that are must sees. There's moments, the majority of which can be found on Youtube.

Not a fan of No Way Out 2009? In terms of a full show, it has its pacing set perfectly so that one match keeps momentum going into another and the entire night tells a story.

[TOK Is the Target Demo]

Jan 25, 2012 17:20:45 GMT -5 tmoney404 said:

Oh by the way, I forgot to mention...CM Punk is a huge reason I'm watching regularly again (also with how great the shows seem to be regularly now I also love Ziggler and Rhodes) so I've seen MITB and followed that angle very closely last year.

I will definitely check some of these out...so what was the deal with Evolution?

They were full of mystery. Full of change that no one sees.


It was HHH trying to pull a Flair with his version of the Horsemen. He picked out Orton and Batista as those who could be the next generation of the business, and do things his way.