WWE’s 25 Greatest Pay-Per-Views of All Time
By Tim Sherry
credit: wwe.com
20. Armageddon 2008
On December 14th, 2008, in Buffalo, New York, something happened that many wrestling fans had been waiting a very long time for. At Armageddon that year, Jeff Hardy, after more than a decade with the company, and after numerous attempts, finally achieved his greatest goal as a wrestler. In a scintillating 3-way match with Triple and Edge, “The Enigmatic One”, finally became a WWE world champion.
Up until that night in Buffalo, Hardy had essentially done almost everything that a superstar in the WWE could do besides win a world title. At that point time, he already had won 13 secondary titles (not counting the Hardcore title because…..come on) and was seen as the best wrestler in the company to never have accomplished that feat. So it was actually a bit stunning to see Jeff pull it off and it was even sweeter for him to take the championship from Edge, who had always been and still was, Jeff’s biggest rival. It was one of the more emotional moments in pay-per-view history and much like Hardy, the near 13,000 fans in attendance basked in the moment.
And of course, like the rest of the shows on this list, other parts of the card was good too. Earlier on in the night, CM Punk proved that his star was just beginning to shine in a victorious performance over Rey Mysterio to become number 1 contender to the Intercontinental title. Chris Jericho and John Cena battled over the World Heavyweight title in another very good match. And the Randy Orton/Batista battle exceeded expectations. But for how good the rest of the show was, it’ll always be remembered as the night Jeff Hardy officially arrived as a main event player, thus making this a must-see show.