*By Request*
“now that 2025 is over, can you do a column that looks back at the first 1/4 of the century? you’re the writer so you can just pick how you go about it. i appreciate your time.”
I don’t know if this is where the request originated from, but I was actually thinking about a topic like this already after a recent episode of Chris Van Vliet’s “Ask CVV” podcast, where someone asked him a similar question about the first quarter-century. Before that episode, I don’t think my brain had fully comprehended the fact that we are, indeed, a quarter of the way through the century.
Looking back at the last 25 years presents a lot of options for me, but I just want to have some fun, so let’s make some Top 25 lists.
I’m going to throw a handful of lists out there… some of the more serious variety, and others not as much… but in the interest of keeping the column to a relatively sane length, I won’t comment on every single entry on every single list. Just a few on each one.
Obviously, the only real criteria to be included on these lists is that it needs to have been something from January 1st, 2000 to December 31st, 2025. Simple enough.
Let’s have some fun.
Hottest Women
25. Peyton Royce/Cassie Lee: First and foremost, I don’t want to hear about how “shallow” or “chauvinistic” this category is. It was given to me by someone else… a woman, mind you… and I’m not saying anything filthy about anyone listed. It’s all in fun. Relax. Anyway… while Peyton/Cassie was often overlooked by her longtime tag partner Billie Kay/Jessie McKay, due to McKay’s over-the-top character and personality, it’s Cassie that captured my attention with her good looks, gorgeous smile, and the ability to look good through several shades and styles of hair. That’s not something a lot of women can pull off.
24. Francine
23. Maria Kanellis: To quote the great philosopher Antonio Montana… it’s the eyes, Chico.
22. Anna Jay
21. Mina Shirakawa: Come on… you’ve seen her. You know why she’s listed here.
20. Sasha Banks/Mercedes Moné
19. Lana/CJ Perry
18. Iyo Sky/Io Shirai: What really separates her from a lot of the other woman in wrestling is that she doesn’t really “show off” her looks out there. Yes, she’s showing skin, but compared to a lot of the other women of wrestling through the years, she might as well be an Amish woman from the 1940’s. I’ve said this in my columns before, but she comes across as so incredibly wholesome and easy to root for, even before she begins a match.
17. Stephanie Vaquer
16. Liv Morgan
15. Trish Stratus: When she made her WWE debut, Trish was 24 years old. She was a month shy of her 26th birthday when she became the WWF Women’s Champion for the first time. When she first retired from pro wrestling, she was coming up on her 31st birthday. The reason I bring this up is because it’s amazing to realize that she has been beautiful from the first time we’ve seen her, and yet, one month removed from her 50th birthday, I think she looks better today than she ever did when she was a full-time wrestler. Fine wine wishes it could age as well as Trish has through the years.
14. Mickie James
13. Alexa Bliss
12. Nikki Bella: I can already see the complaints. “How can you have Nikki listed, but not her twin sister?” Because they look different, and I find one of them to be better looking than the other. Duh. I’m not saying that I find Brie to be a hideous monster. Not even close. She’s very attractive. The difference between her and her sister, though, is how they use their attractiveness. Like most men, I’m not 100% consistent when it comes to what I find attractive. Sometimes, in the case of Iyo Sky, it’s the fact that she ISN’T trying to be overly sexy that I like. Other times, in the case of Nikki Bella, it’s the fact that she IS trying to be overly sexy that I like. I’m not apologizing.
11. Stephanie McMahon
10. Blake Monroe/Mariah May
9. Torrie Wilson
8. Becky Lynch
7. Jade Cargill: Even though she might not be listed in the top spot here, there might not be a woman in the history of wrestling… and not many women in the history of ever… that pass the “airport test” more than Jade does. Even if you’ve never watched wrestling a day in your life… even if you aren’t attracted to black women… even if you aren’t attracted to tall women… no matter what the excuse is… as soon as you see Jade Cargill, you take notice. All the comments people have made about her looking like a real life superhero are accurate. She’s stunning, and looks like someone who was born to be famous in one way or another.
6. Bianca Belair
5. Rhea Ripley
4. Scarlett
3. AJ Lee: One thing I’ve noticed about AJ is that people seem to be all in or all out when it comes to how they view her in terms of beauty. She’s either ranked really high on lists like this, or not really ranked at all, and there doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between. Obviously, I’m quite fond of her, based on where I have her ranked. What can I say? I’ve always enjoyed a little bit of dangerously crazy.
2. Layla El
1. Maryse: You can say a lot of things about The Miz… and Lord knows, everyone has… but at the end of the day, he comes home to Maryse. He’s winning, and everything else in his life… the adorable daughters, the championships won, the fame, the fortune… is just icing on the cake of life.
Favorite Matches
25. Will Ospreay vs Michael Oku (RevPro High Stakes 2022)
24. Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso (WWE Hell In A Cell 2020): If this match took place in an arena full of fans, it still would’ve been enjoyable, but it was the incredibly rare match made better by having zero fans in attendance during the COVID pandemic. Without all of the extra arena noise, Roman and Jey (and later, Jimmy Uso) were able to communicate with each other in a different, more clear fashion, and viewers at home were able to hear all of it. It took us on a roller coaster ride that we weren’t really used to being on, and that built up to the emotional ending that remains one of the greatest match finishes I’ve ever witnessed in all my years of watching wrestling. This really helped show the world two things. One, that Jey Uso could be successful as a singles competitor. Most importantly, though, it showed that the new character shift for Roman Reigns (he had only been aligned with Paul Heyman for a little less than two months at the time) was going to be a game-changer for everyone involved.
23. Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega (AEW Dynamite 9/22/21)
22. Team Ring Of Honor vs Team Combat Zone Wrestling (RoH Death Before Dishonor 4)
21. John Cena vs Shawn Michaels (WWE Monday Night Raw 4/23/07): If you think back to this era of the WWE, Cena was heavily in his “Super Cena” phase, but the crowd had already begun to push back on him in a major way. He was viewed by many as someone who “couldn’t wrestle” and who only had his “five moves of doom.” Putting him in a match like this against Shawn Michaels, often referred to as the best in-ring performer in wrestling history, was a brilliant move. Wrestling Shawn Michaels for 60 minutes is the deepest of deep waters, and Cena proved that he was up to the challenge that night. It didn’t change everyone’s opinions of him, but for those paying attention, you got to see that it was never about what John could or couldn’t do in the ring, but instead, about what WWE would or wouldn’t allow him to do.
20. Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10)
19. Cody vs Dustin Rhodes (AEW Double Or Nothing 2019): While we had seen Goldust vs Stardust once in WWE (the match sucked, by the way), this was the first time we were seeing the brothers face off in a one-on-one contest where they just got to be themselves. The drama was high in this one, and the live crowd appreciated every bit of it. Throw in an all-time bladejob from Dustin, as well as an emotional post-match reunion, and you have something that is throughly enjoyable from start to finish.
18. Bryan Danielson vs Homicide (RoH Final Battle 2006)
17. John Cena vs Daniel Bryan (WWE SummerSlam 2013)
16. Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17)
15. Sasha Banks vs Bianca Belair (WWE WrestleMania 37): It wasn’t the first time that women wrestled in the main event of WrestleMania, but it was still historic, as it was the first time two black women had that honor. WWE didn’t exactly have a long history of treating blacks OR women well, so to see Sasha and Bianca in such a spotlight was wonderful. I will never forget seeing their reaction at the beginning of the match, understanding the gravity of what they were about to do and breaking character to let their real emotions out for a moment. The fact that the match itself ended up being great was merely the icing on the cake.
14. Bryan Danielson vs Will Ospreay (AEW Dynasty 2024)
13. Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles (WWE Backlash 2024): Honestly, as long as that crowd reaction remained that crowd reaction, I could’ve watched these two make chicken tikka masala for dinner and I’d be entertained. The match itself was phenomenal (pun fully intended), but the crowd was so insane that you probably don’t remember a single spot from it. All you remember is that crowd in the LDLC Arena in Lyon, France being arguably the rowdiest group of wrestling fans for a show that we’ll ever see.
12. John Cena vs CM Punk (WWE Money In The Bank 2011): Cena and Punk have always had great in-ring chemistry together, and have delivered a lot of fun matches with each other, but this was definitely my favorite of the bunch. The molten hot Chicago crowd made things so much more entertaining to watch. I really liked the story of Punk saying he would take the WWE Title with him as he left the company with his contract expiring, but it put you in the spot where you just KNEW he wasn’t leaving, and if he WAS leaving, certainly he wouldn’t be taking the title with him. It was just another added wrinkle of enjoyment here.
11. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega (NJPW Dominion 2017)
10. Kazuchika Okada vs Bryan Danielson (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18)
9. Christopher Daniels vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe (TNA Unbreakable)
8. Walter vs Ilja Dragunov (NXT UK TV 10/29/20): Remember what I said earlier about Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso being helped out by having no crowd noise in the arena? This match might be the ultimate example of a match being given a boost by having no fans in attendance. The level of violence these two dished out on each other was off the charts, but without all the extra noise from the venue, viewers heard every shot and every strike damn near echo and reverberate throughout the studio. You felt like you were RIGHT THERE as you watched them take time off of each other’s careers. Epic stuff. You can argue that they’ve had better matches together, but for me, none were as enjoyable to witness as this one.
7. Sasha Banks vs Bayley (NXT Takeover Brooklyn)
6. Bryan Danielson vs KENTA (RoH Glory By Honor 5: Night 2)
5. Samoa Joe vs Kenta Kobashi (RoH Joe vs Kobashi): I’ve told the story in my columns before, but this is the first Ring Of Honor match I ever watched. I was tired of merely hearing about RoH, and I wanted to check them out, so I asked some people who were in the know where to begin. This show had just taken place, and the DVD was out, so it was recommended to me. I made the order, watched the match, and fell in love with an entirely new style of wrestling. It changed absolutely everything for me as a wrestling fan, and would eventually introduce me to so many wrestlers that would go on to become some of my all-time favorite performers.
4. The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels (WWE WrestleMania 25)
3. Swerve Strickland vs Bryan Danielson (AEW All In 2024): From the moment Bryan Danielson made his AEW debut in September 2021, fans were totally sure he would quickly become the AEW World Champion. Three years later, he still hadn’t won the title, amidst rumors and reports that the reason he wasn’t the champion is because he didn’t want to be. Would he finally allow a title change here? A great story, plus a red hot crowd at Wembley Stadium in London, and then you throw in the added drama of Bryan’s wife, Brie, and their two children sitting in the front row… it all adds up to an incredibly entertaining watch. I love the story of Bryan using his love for his wife and kids as his motivation to dig deep and keep fighting through the beating he was taking at the hands of Swerve. As a husband and a father, seeing him literally and figuratively look to his family for strength in times of need really hit home.
2. Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes (WWE WrestleMania 40)
1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega (NJPW Dominion 2018): If you were to ask me what my all-time favorite wrestling match is, my answer has remained the same for nearly three full decades… Bret “The Hitman” Hart vs “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. However, if you were to ask me what I think is the BEST wrestling match of all-time, my answer has remained the same for over seven years now… Okada vs Omega at Dominion 2018. It’s infamous for also being the best match Dave Meltzer has ever seen, hitting a full seven stars on his five-star rating scale. It was the culmination of a multi-year that saw Omega finally able to topple the seemingly unbeatable Okada, ending a nearly two-year IWGP Heavyweight Title reign (not only the longest reign in the title’s legendary history, but also featuring the most successful title defenses of any champion in the belt’s lineage). An amazing career-defining performance from Omega, who rose to the massive challenge here. These two delivered 65-minute epic that was akin to a final boss battle in an award-winning video game or anime series. An absolutely beautiful work of art.
Best Wrestlers
25. The Young Bucks: Before I go any further, I’m using a bunch of criteria to determine who I feel the “best” wrestlers are. Championships won, match quality, positioning in a promotion, and the mark they’ve left on the industry, as a whole. Matt and Nick Jackson receive a lot of hate from people for a variety of reasons, but one thing that can’t be denied is their success. They have won titles everywhere they’ve been, whether it’s AEW, New Japan, Ring Of Honor, CHIKARA, House Of Glory, Dragon Gate USA, AAA, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and just about everywhere in between. They’re one of the most successful tag teams in wrestling history, and just because they haven’t achieved any of that success underneath the WWE umbrella, people hold it against them. That’s not fair.
24. Booker T
23. Jeff Hardy
22. Rey Mysterio
21. Shinsuke Nakamura: There’s a bunch of wrestling fans who never saw a Nakamura match until he made his NXT debut, and their opinions of him might be skewed a bit because of it. It was a huge deal when WWE signed him to a contract in 2016, as he had become a superstar in Japan for the previous decade-and-a-half. He became the youngest man to ever win the IWGP Heavyweight Title, winning it at nearly three months shy of his 24th birthday, when he was only 15 months into his pro wrestling career. His overwhelming natural charisma, combined with his in-ring skills, put him on the map of American promotions right away. While his WWE career may not have played out like many would have hoped, he has still won eight total championships since arriving, including being only the second man (at the time) to ever win the NXT Title more than once. He also has his name in the record books as one of only 28 men to ever win a Royal Rumble match.
20. CM Punk
19. Christian/Christian Cage
18. Kurt Angle
17. The Rock: In doing the research for this column, one thing stood out about Rock’s achievement history… an almost complete lack of anything outside of World Title victories. Since the start of the 2000 calendar year, Rock has won a total of seven World Titles and been a part of two Tag Team Title reigns. That’s it. On top of that, his two Tag Team Title reigns combined to last a total of nine days. With that said, he still finds himself listed here, even after moving to a part-time gig and then moving away from the sport completely for several years before making another brief part-time run. There aren’t many men who can say they’ve won seven World Titles over the last 25 years, and there certainly aren’t many men who can say they’ve won seven World Titles over the last 25 years while being one of the biggest and brightest stars of any kind on the planet.
16. Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley: While he had a good career for himself before signing with AEW… winning titles everywhere from IWA Puerto Rico to wXw in Germany to CZW here in the United States before making it to WWE… it’s his All Elite run that firmly planted him here. His seven total titles and a Money In The Bank win in WWE were great and all, but he has been “Mr. AEW” pretty much since the moment he arrived there. Nobody has won the AEW World Title, or has held it for as many days, as Mox has. He has also been able to take advantage of AEW’s working relationship with New Japan to win two titles for that company, including a reign as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. It has been an impressive run, and it’s one that doesn’t appear to be coming to an end at any point soon.
15. Kenny Omega
14. The New Day: While they haven’t won as many total Tag Team Titles over the last 25 years as The Young Bucks have, the members of New Day have combined for 13 total reigns in the largest wrestling promotion in the world. How much that counts is obviously determined by how much you enjoy WWE, but even if you hate the company, winning a bunch of titles there leads to an act making their mark in the industry. For the sake of this activity, I’m only including their work as a group, so I’m not counting any singles achievements that Kofi Kingston, Big E, or Xavier Woods have had. If that counted, can you imagine where they’d rank on a list like this? As it stands, they’re still the standard bearer for tag titles won in a major promotion over the last 25 years.
13. Tyler Black/Seth Rollins
12. Chris Jericho
11. Roman Reigns: Depending on how you look at things, does the “Tribal Chief” era of Roman Reigns hurt or help his case on lists like this? Instead of winning a bunch of titles, he simply won both of WWE’s World Titles and then simply didn’t relinquish them for years. WWE’s recent penchant for lengthy title reigns could also be hurting him further, as he has been without a championship of any sort for nearly two full years now, mainly because of Cody Rhodes and his own reign at the top of Smackdown. Whether you prefer a stat sheet to be filled with lesser, lengthier title reigns or more abundant, not-so-lengthy reigns, you can’t deny the mark he has made on the business over the last decade-plus, but especially since the COVID “era” began.
10. AJ Styles
9. Kazuchika Okada: The man holds a very strong claim to being the greatest in-ring performer in the history of pro wrestling. In New Japan, he basically went the route that I mentioned earlier with The Rock, where his championship history is almost exclusively nothing but the top titles in the entire promotion. People say that he’s the best tournament performer in the history of the sport, and it’s hard to argue against that, as he has won four G1 Climax tournaments, two New Japan Cups, and one AEW Continental Classic. He has worked the main event of Wrestle Kingdom (New Japan’s biggest show, and their version of WrestleMania) a whopping 12 times. A generational performer, he has been one of the biggest success stories out of puroresu over the last two-plus decades, and he continues finding success for AEW today.
8. Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan: If Okada isn’t the best in-ring performer in wrestling history, could it be this man? I’m on record, numerous times, saying that Danielson is my pick for the best ever, and I continue to stand by that. He’s another wrestler that has traveled the globe, wrestling for promotions near and far, but finding great success in all of them. He became one of the greatest independent wrestlers to ever lace up a pair of boots, then signed with WWE and, against all odds, became a megastar there, as well, before making his way to AEW and finding continued success. Not bad at all for a pale, unassuming son-of-a-logger that was told, for years, that he was too “bland” and “boring” to ever be a big-time pro wrestler without an over-the-top personality.
7. Brock Lesnar
6. Charlotte Flair: It doesn’t matter what you think about Charlotte, any nepotism that may or may not be involved in her career, the amount of championships that she has held, and so on. She’s going to receive hate, no matter what. The important thing to look at here is the number 14, which is how many World Titles she has held in her career. Throw in two reigns as the NXT Women’s Champion, two reigns as one-half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, as well as two Women’s Royal Rumble victories, and you have a career that is unrivaled by any woman in wrestling history. Frankly, it’s unrivaled by most of the men in wrestling history, too.
5. Triple H
4. Randy Orton
3. Edge/Adam Copeland
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi: In the initial drafts for this column, I had Tanahashi ranked a little lower on the list. He came in anywhere from #10 to #5 in those first few runs, but the more I thought about it, and the more I looked, the more I had to move him up. He had a total of 30 championships won during the period, including eight reigns as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, which is more than anyone else in the history of that title. The G1 Climax tournament was also won by Tanahashi three times, and the New Japan Cup was won by him on two occasions. When he has the nickname of “Forever Ace,” it’s because he was at the top of the New Japan mountain for years and years, helping take the company to wild heights.
1. John Cena: I think this is a pretty easy, and obvious, selection. He won 17 World Titles, breaking Ric Flair’s record for officially recognized reigns, and would also go on to achieve everything there was to achieve in WWE. As the biggest star in the biggest promotion in the sport, chances are he was the name that would immediately come to mind when the average person thinks about wrestling over the last two-plus decades.
Biggest Stories
25. David Arquette Wins The WCW World Title: Wrestling promotions have been searching for ways to get mainstream news coverage and attention damn near since the beginning of the sport. This was no different. WCW was already in full-fledged free fall mode, and they were desperate for anything that could potentially give them a boost. Putting their World Title on a Hollywood actor… even one that was a C-List actor, at best… was their latest attempt. In a way, it worked. There was a good amount of mainstream coverage when the title change happened, but unfortunately for WCW, it was almost universally negative and they never quite lived it down.
24. Is Muhammad Hassan A “Terrorist” Or Not?
23. The Debut Of TNA
22. WWE’s Connection To The World Of Politics: Obviously, there were connections prior to this, but I think things really changed in 2009, when Linda McMahon left the company to focus on a run for a seat in the United States Senate. While she lost the election in 2010 and then again in 2012, the seeds were planted, and in 2016, Donald Trump named Linda as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. She would hold the job until 2019, when she stepped down to work on Trump’s Presidential re-election campaign. In 2024, Trump would name Linda as the Secretary Of Education for the United States, and it’s a job she continues to hold today. Now, it seems like you can’t go a day without seeing Linda on the news, or without seeing at least one member of the McMahon family at the White House with Trump, or without Paul Levesque (the vice-chair of Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition) doing some sort of promotion involving Trump and the health of people in this country. The McMahon-Levesque family is one of the most intertwined families in the entire country with Donald Trump and his entire political run, and that gets a lot of attention and news coverage, whether you love it or you hate it.
21. Roman Reigns’ Leukemia: Wrestling injuries are sad, but fans are used to them. When Roman Reigns came out on Monday Night Raw and announced he was battling leukemia, that was unlike anything any of us were used to. Because wrestling fans are… different… there were a ton of people that immediately shouted “WORK” when he made the announcement. While I do think that Vince McMahon is capable of faking a cancer scare to gain sympathy for a wrestler… specifically a wrestler that he is trying to push as the company’s biggest babyface, but who is getting more and more heel heat on a weekly basis… I don’t think Joe Anoa’i is capable of going along with something like that. This was one of the most stunning moments in my time as a wrestling fan. It came out of nowhere, and it really showed how quickly life can change. One day, Roman was the Universal Champion and on top of the WWE mountain. The next day, he was no longer on the road and was fighting for his life.
20. CM Punk Returns To Wrestling
19. The Bloodline
18. The Debut Of AEW: Some people will say that this is ranked too low, but I think it’s still too early to truly judge AEW’s place in wrestling history. There’s still so much time left for the company to grab a much larger chunk of the pro wrestling landscape, but there’s also so much time left for the company to fall to the wayside and disappear. Time will tell. For now, they’re listed because they stepped in and became what TNA was supposed to be… a true blue alternative to WWE, with a nice mix of known star power and a wave of homegrown talent getting their biggest opportunity yet.
17. Post-9/11 Episode Of Smackdown
16. The Death Of Mitsuharu Misawa: While Misawa wasn’t the first pro wrestler to die in the ring, nor was he the last, but it can be said that he is the best wrestler to pass in such a way. He is an absolute legend and an icon in the world of Japanese professional wrestling, with championships and accolades galore. His death was magnified even further by the fact that it came at a time (2009) when access to everything is universal. It’s one thing to read about a wrestler who died in the ring in the 1950’s, with a couple hundred people in attendance and no television cameras around. Misawa died when you could go online and watch just about every moment in the match and the final moments of his life. Every now and then, wrestling fans get a reminder of just how dangerous this wonderful sport is. This was one of those times. A simple back suplex in the middle of a random match brought Misawa’s life to an end in an instant.
15. The End Of The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak: For years, fans debated on whether or not The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania would, and should, come to an end. Some were completely sure that he would eventually retire at 25-0, 30-0, or whatever number he would reach. Others were completely sure that someone, somewhere, would get the ultimate rub and defeat him on the grandest stage that the sport offers. No matter where you were in that debate, actually seeing him lose to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30 probably blew your mind. When it comes to who ended his streak, fans are also torn there, as well. I’m of the thinking that, yes, an up-and-coming wrestler could’ve had his entire career launched into the stratosphere with a win against Taker, but it’s not as if Lesnar’s win was wasted. Brock was already a huge star that accomplished a ton of things before beating Taker, but he and Paul Heyman rode the wave of ending “The Streak” for YEARS. It took an already dangerous man and took him to unprecedented levels of delivering danger. I have zero issues with Brock beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
14. The WWE Network
13. WWE’s Working Relationship With Saudi Arabia
12. The “Yes” Movement: I’ve said this on several occasions in the past, but I’ve never seen anything like the rise of Daniel Bryan in WWE, and chances are, I won’t see anything like it ever again. Against the wants and desires of Vince McMahon and everyone in any sort of position of power in WWE, he not only started to get over with fans all over the world, but he got more over than anybody else in the business. He got so over that the “yes” chants began to dominate the rest of the sporting world, as well, with fans doing them at games and matches in every sport you could imagine. Kids were doing it. Adults were doing it. Fans l-o-v-e-d this man, and they were determined to will him to the top of the mountain, no matter how hard WWE tried to push back against it. The fact that Vince was so determined to prevent more money from entering his bank account boggles my mind, well over a decade later. It would be nice if the story had a true happy ending, but the bad luck that Daniel Bryan went through after winning in the main event of WrestleMania… his career-threatening injuries, his father passing away, Connor The Crusher passing away… makes everything almost bittersweet.
11. The Death Of Eddie Guerrero
10. John Cena Breaks Ric Flair’s World Title Record
9. The #SpeakingOut Movement: The #MeToo movement really exposed a lot of depravity in just about every walk of life. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that pro wrestling also had its fair share of sexual predators and generally terrible human beings. Not a day went by without a story coming out about Wrestler A treating his girlfriend like garbage or Wrestler B being creepy around girls who aren’t even close to legal adult age and on and on and on. Careers were ended and lives were changed. It was a very uncomfortable time, but it was something that was entirely necessary, and I’m glad that the sport lost a bunch of people that didn’t deserve to be there in the first place.
8. The OVW “Class Of 2002”
7. COVID Changes Everything: I don’t need to tell you folks much. You were there, and you lived through what COVID did to the world. It was so crazy to watch pro wrestling on television with zero fans in attendance on a weekly basis. Obviously, you understood why it needed to happen, and I’m very thankful for the distraction that it provided me from everything else going on, but it was still weird.
6. The Women’s Revolution
5. The Death Of Hulk Hogan
4. The Sale Of WCW
3. Vince McMahon Leaves WWE: For as long as any of us have understood pro wrestling, we all believed that Vince McMahon would be in charge of WWE until the day he died, whenever that was. To sit there and read stories about Vince voluntarily leaving the company… no matter how much power he may or may not have had due to things like stocks, etc… was unfathomable at one point. It has been damn near four years since he initially stepped down as CEO and Chairman of the company, and it still feels weird to not have him around.
2. The Sale Of WWE
1. Chris Benoit’s Final Weekend: If you’re looking for the biggest pro wrestling story from the first 25 years of the century, look no further than what happened at the end of Chris Benoit’s life. The story was all over the news, and here we are, over 18-and-a-half years later, still discussing what he did, why he did it, what his legacy should be, etc. With the damage that this did to the sport, and the damage that it could’ve done to the sport if certain people had their way, it could be said that this was the biggest story in wrestling history.
What do you think about the last 25 years in pro wrestling history? Do you think a story is bigger than the end of Chris Benoit’s life? Would you say that someone other than John Cena is the best wrestler (using the criteria I used) of the quarter-century? What was your favorite match that you’ve seen anywhere since the beginning of 2000? Who are some of the hottest people you’ve seen in the sport over that time frame? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s switch things over to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
MJF vs Bandido: A pay-per-view main event quality match on television, with two of the best in the world competing for the AEW World Title. Simple as that. What more do you need?
AJ Styles vs Gunther: Another pay-per-view main event quality match on television. Some people didn’t like the finish, but I enjoyed it. Gunther gets to keep trolling, because he won the match. At the same time, though, AJ has a case for a rematch because he did make Gunther tap, even if the Referee didn’t see it. AJ vs Gunther again? Works for me.
Carmelo Hayes vs Leon Slater: The hot streak continues for the United States Title and the Open Challenge series taking place involving the title. It is one of the clear highlights of weekly wrestling television, no matter who answers the challenge.
Sami Zayn vs Ilja Dragunov: In a match where both men were competing for the right to compete in another match that will see the winner challenge for the Undisputed WWE Title at the Royal Rumble, I think both men deserved to win. You couldn’t go wrong with either man advancing in the mini-tournament. However, the story with Sami Zayn advancing is a lot stronger. The Four-Way to determine the winner of the tournament takes place in his hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and then the Royal Rumble takes place in Saudi Arabia, where the people have basically adopted Sami as one of their own. It makes too much sense for him not to win here, at Saturday Night’s Main Event, and to earn the Rumble title shot.
Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Liv Morgan & Roxanne Perez: A fun Triple Threat match that featured good pacing and chances for all three teams to look good. Hard to complain much about that.
Kit Wilson: First and foremost, his entrance music is a banger. Secondly, I found it very entertaining to watch him march his way to the ring, stop to briefly attack Matt Cardona, and then start marching all over again as his entrance music resumes. Honestly, I think people should attack Matt Cardona every week doing something similar.
The Young Bucks vs Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona vs Mark Davis & Jake Doyle vs JetSpeed: More spots than a Dalmatian orgy. It’s expected out of matches like this in AEW.
Darby Allin vs Pac: One man who isn’t afraid to take ungodly punishment in a match, and another man whose sole joy in life is dishing out ungodly punishment in matches. Seems like a good, and logical, combination to me.
Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs & Katsuyori Shibata vs “Hangman” Adam Page & JetSpeed: As soon as word broke that Powerhouse Hobbs’ AEW contract had expired and that he was headed to WWE, the outcome here was pretty obvious. The match was still good, at least. It’s an AEW Trios match. Of course it was good.
Lola Vice vs Kelani Jordan: Two of the more athletic women on the NXT roster got yet another chance to showcase that to the world. I’ll take it. I also like that Lola wins and announces that she’s coming after Jacy Jayne and the NXT Women’s Title. Lola has been rising steadily through the ranks, and it might be time to pull the trigger on making her the top woman on the brand.
This Week’s Playlist: “Jiu-Jitsu” by T-Bizzy & The Management, Twista & Krayzie Bone… “Bedroom Posters” by Yellowcard & Good Charlotte… “Into Oblivion” by Lamb Of God… “Where The Flowers Never Grow” by The Devil Wears Prada… “So Low” by The Devil Wears Prada… “For You” by The Devil Wears Prada… “Ritual” by The Devil Wears Prada… “Forlorn” by Ov Sulfur… “Disconnected” by Story Of The Year… “It’s A Sin” by Ghost… “Limb Of Leviticus” by Archspire… “Papered Up” by The Uce… “What U Came Fo” by Soulja Slim, Trinity & Twelve A Klok… “Versace On The Floor” by Bruno Mars… “Obsessed” by Calvin Harris, Charlie Puth & Shenseea… “Gin & Juice” by Snoop Doggy Dogg… “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” by Snoop Doggy Dogg… “Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None)” by Snoop Doggy Dogg, Warren G, Kurupt & Nate Dogg… “Doggy Dogg World” by Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound & The Dramatics… “Street Symphony” by Monica
