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WWE’s 25 Greatest Pay-Per-Views of the Ruthless Aggression Era

By Joe Anthony Myrick

Triple H and Batista (Photo by J. Shearer/WireImage for BWR Public Relations)
Triple H and Batista (Photo by J. Shearer/WireImage for BWR Public Relations) /
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20. WrestleMania XX

I swear, WrestleMania 20 getting the 20th spot was completely coincidental.

Now, for obvious reasons, this is the Mania we don’t usually talk about. At least, it’s the Mania main event we don’t talk about. And rightfully so, there is still this uneasiness that towers over the post-match celebration angle, particularly when Chris Benoit meets eyes with Eddie Guerrero and celebrates with his family. Again, the reasons why are obvious.

With that said, whether you can bring yourself to revisit the main event or not, there is enough greatness throughout the rest of the card to justify a top 20 spot. The nostalgia of Undertaker reviving his Deadman character for the first time in years, The Rock teaming up with Mick Foley to take on Evolution, Trish Stratus turning on Chris Jericho – such great stuff.

Also, the crowd reaction to Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar is still pretty hilarious.

19. No Mercy 2002

We all remember the brutal Hell in a Cell main event between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar that cemented Lesnar’s status as The Next Big Thing, but let’s not forget we also got one of the greatest tag team matches ever that decided the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions.

18. Backlash 2008

A month removed from one of the best WrestleMania events ever, WWE delivered a worthy follow up. Matt Hardy finally proved he was better than MVP, Triple H won his 12th World Championship and the seeds of 2008’s feud of the year between HBK and Y2J started to plant.

17. WrestleMania 23

I’ll be the first to say that even as far as Manias go, this one isn’t perfect. There’s a lot of weird moments like Khali trying to murder Kane, and the WWE Chairman being tackled by a future President of the United States (I still can’t believe that is a sentence I can accurately type).

But if only because this was my first Mania I’ve ever seen, my first WWE PPV ever, and it all happened to go down in my hometown, I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Plus, Batista vs. Undertaker and John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels were both just fantastic.

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Triple H, Magic Johnson, Batista and Andre Johnson (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage) /

16. Vengeance 2005

Batista and Triple H closed out their trilogy of matches with a Hell in a Cell match that’s arguably the best of the lot. We also got memorable contests like Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle II and John Cena defending the WWE Championship in a triple threat vs. Christian and Chris Jericho.

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