Best/Worst Non-Big 4 PPV's

[Unocal 76]

i.e. non Rumble/Mania/SummerSlam/Survivor Series

(And for the purposes of this, I'm not going to count King of the Ring because it would be almost too easy to choose 1995 King of the Ring in terms of worst PPV's. Plus, in terms of a big 5, that had a too-short timespan of 10 years whereas the other big PPV's have been around since the 80s)

1997 Canadian Stampede and Money in the Bank 2011 are probably going to be a frequently mentioned choices for best, but I personally think Backlash 2000 and Vengenance 2003 are near the top as well.

As for worst if you don't count King of the Ring? Maybe the early In Your House shows from '95.

[chazraps]

Best: No Way Out 2009 is top-to-bottom an excellent show and one of the VERY few PPVs where the entire broadcasts follows an inter-connected narrative. It holds up incredibly well.

Best: One Night Stand 2008 was hugely raved about at the time but seems to be somewhat forgotten in these types of conversations after the shadow cast the following year by No Way Out 2009 and Backlash 2009 both excelling far beyond Mania 25. Still, One Night Stand 2008 is an excellent show. While it may not look like much on paper, it's perhaps the best-directed show that half of the decade with so many memorable visuals. Definitely worth a revisit.

Worst: Armageddon 2004 is outrageously terrible. Easily the worst of the split-brand pay-per-views, which is the meanest thing I've written about anything on this board. Almost actively existing in contempt of its audience.

Worst: Great American Bash '04 & Great American Bash '05 are a stunning back-to-back train to awfultown. The type of show so bad that you throw your hands up like "how did they fumble so bad TWO YEARS IN A ROW?" More a revival of Bash '91 than anything.

[Germansuplex]

Unforgiven 2006 deserves a mention.

[Deleted]

I don't think Unforgiven 2002 takes anywhere near as much shit as it should. HLA with Rikishi in drag, RVD being sacrificed at the alter of Triple H, a Women's title squash randomly being Raw's main event for the evening instead of their new belt, and closing the show on a 20 minute borefest that ended in a drawn out DQ. Even Eddie / Edge and Angle / Benoit weren't really anything worth seeing.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

No Way Out had some awesome ones, February's a great postion for a PPV between the Rumble and Wrestlemania. I remember 2000 and 2001 being awesome.

[Gerard Gerard]

Feb 19, 2018 3:49:02 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I don't think Unforgiven 2002 takes anywhere near as much shit as it should. HLA with Rikishi in drag, RVD being sacrificed at the alter of Triple H, a Women's title squash randomly being Raw's main event for the evening instead of their new belt, and closing the show on a 20 minute borefest that ended in a drawn out DQ. Even Eddie / Edge and Angle / Benoit weren't really anything worth seeing.

Didn't Van Dam get a phantom pinfall on HHH during a ref bump? Speaking of said ref bump, didn't Van Dam only lose because Flair turned on him and whacked him with the sledgehammer?

I only mention it because I see this brought up a lot and feel there are far worse examples of the 'Reign of Terror' like the Booker T gig or vacating the WHC only to win it back a few weeks later regardless.

[A damn road sign]

Vengeance 2003 will always be a banger. The entire SmackDown roster was cooking on all cylinders that night.

[chronocross]

Definitely Vengeance 03, the best Smackdown brand PPV IMO.

For the worst, I'd go with Great American Bash 2004, that was horrid.

[WinOwensWin]

Vengeance 2002 will always bee one of my favorite PPVs. Solid from beginning to end.

[Push R Truth]

Does that December to Dismember count?

[dav]

Feb 19, 2018 10:59:27 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

Does that December to Dismember count?

I actually didn't think that one was too bad. Lackluster, certainly, but the main event and opener were really quite good.

[agent817]

Vengeance 2005 is definitely among the best Raw PPV's from that era. Sure, Victoria vs. Christy Hemme was bad, and I was a little underwhelmed by Kane vs. Edge, the rest of the card was decent to good.

[Jiren]

Best: Vengeance 2003

Worst: Armageddon 2003

This was a weird year, RAW's PPV's were the drizzling shits while SD's were awesome

[Nickybojelais]

Best- Backlash 2000

Worst- In Your House 4 (Great White North)

What a contrast of main events in these two shows!

[Deleted]

I place Great American Bash 2005 as the worst PPV WWE has ever aired.

That show was so bad they should have issued some sort of public apology for it. Up for some excitement? How's a 15 minute Orlando Jordan match sound? How about a 20 minute Batista vs JBL match with probably the longest sleeperhold used since the one where Andre the Giant literally fell asleep in one against Big John Studd?

[arrogantmodel]

Has anything good ever happened at an Unforgiven?

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Feb 19, 2018 16:14:17 GMT -5 arrogantmodel said:

Has anything good ever happened at an Unforgiven?

2001's looks pretty good, with Angle's big win over Austin.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Feb 19, 2018 16:14:17 GMT -5 arrogantmodel said:

Has anything good ever happened at an Unforgiven?

2008 gave us the Michaels vs. Jericho grudge match that transitioned into Jericho taking CM Punk's spot in the Scramble and becoming WHC.

Oh, and...

[arrogantmodel]

Feb 19, 2018 16:18:31 GMT -5 Futureraven: Beelzebruv said:

Feb 19, 2018 16:14:17 GMT -5 arrogantmodel said:

Has anything good ever happened at an Unforgiven?

2001's looks pretty good, with Angle's big win over Austin.

Was that the one with Austin's hands under the ropes?

[CH Punk]

Best: Backlash 2016. On paper, the first Smackdown only PPV of The New Era™ and it looked dreadful, even AJ's match looked pretty boring after the disaster of a match Ziggler/Ambrose had two weeks before where they both looked terrible. The basic consensus was that single brand PPV were going to die right off the bat. Instead, we got a top to bottom brilliant show with two incredible championship matches, some great feel good stories (Becky winning the Smackdown Women's Championship and Slater winning the Tag Titles and a contract) and even the bait and switch with Orton and Wyatt gave us a 10 minute Kane/Wyatt brawl that was better than anything Kane had done in at least a year.

Worst: Battleground 2013. With the exception of the Rhodes Brothers/Shield match, that card was a series of nothing matches, a power outage right before the main event and a WWE Championship match that never actually ended because Big Show just beat everyone up. In the Network era, you would have gotten your $10 from the tag match, but this was pre-Network, so WWE was charging people $70 for a show without an actual ending.