Top 100 Wrestling PPVs Of All Time: 100-81

With the success of our Top 100 Matches of the Past 50 Years list, we’ve decided to go in another direction this year. We’re going to rank the top 100 wrestling PPVs of all time!

Our ranking differs from the PWI 500 because we use math. Well, at least we try to. Just as we did before, we all submitted our own list of the top matches of all time, and each ranking represents points. For example, #1 = 100 points, #2 = 99 points, etc. At the end, we’d calculate which had the most points and assign ranking from there.

Without further ado, here is the first set of the top 100 wrestling PPVs of all time.

100. Turning Point 2005 (88 points)

It’s the night Sting signed with TNA. Abyss and Sabu were in a barbed wire massacre while Samoa Joe defeated AJ Styles for the X Division Championship. The tag team division was also on full display as Team 3D took on America’s Most Wanted. – Juan Bautista

99. Bash at the Beach 1994 (90 points)

Hulkamania has arrived and WCW would never be the same. Headlining the most-purchased WCW pay-per-view at the time, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair finally had their dream match on TV, and they delivered. There’s also a great match between Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat, as well as a swerve by (who else?) a Four Horseman. – John Corrigan

98. Open the Historic Gate 2009 (91 points)

I’m a proud DGUSA supporter. I saw every show and if you read my celebration of the promotion here at The Wrestling Estate, I actually omitted this event. Reason being the first show was just so good almost everything was unfairly judged up to it. So, while the DGUSA back catalogue may have suffered, wrestling fans certainly didn’t!

Open the Historic Gate AKA Enter the Dragon 2009 is a two-and-a-half-hour frenzy of speed, agility and outstanding hybrid wrestling. Once it has ended you want to watch again, again and again. Plus, if my facts are correct, this is currently the only debut PPV a promotion has put on which has subsequently been awarded the coveted Wrestling Observer Newsletter “Show of the Year” Award. If that’s not enough reason to grab this DVD set off eBay, I don’t know what is! – Steven Jackson

97. Survivor Series 2003 (92 points)

This PPV makes the list due to one of the greatest Survivor Series elimination matches of all time in Team Bischoff vs. Team Austin. With Stone Cold’s Raw GM role on the line in the match, Shawn Michaels delivered a bloody and gusty performance that ended in a 23-year-old picking up his first Sole Survivor (excellent storytelling). The PPV is also noteworthy for being the end of “Biker Taker” after Undertaker is buried alive by his brother Kane and Mr. McMahon. – Chad Gelfand

96. Invasion Attack 2013 (93 points)

The show which brought the world the most dominant brand since the now – Invasion Attack 2013 gave birth to the Bullet Club. Packing out Ryogoku Kokugikan, New Japan delivered a show which I hold very dear. This was the PPV which presented as the main event, the greatest iteration in the Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada feud. This match is my favorite NJPW match ever! It is a wonderful, layered story of the modest champion and the cocky challenger. Add in strong-style tag encounters and Shinsuke Nakamura tearing it up with DBS Jr. for the IWGP IC, and you’ve got an authentic New Japan PPV with ripples we’re still be feeling years on. – Steven Jackson

95. Fall Brawl 1996 (94 points)

It’s WAR GAMES!!! Before WWE began producing gimmick-specific PPVs, Fall Brawl was all about the brutal structure that is War Games. The 1996 PPV main evented by the nWo vs. WCW had it all on the line. It was about company pride and while the match wasn’t much from a technical standpoint, it was an emotional journey which saw Surfer Sting leave his WCW teammates and return with a new iconic look several months later. Add in a wonderful Cruiserweight Title match and Harlem Heat taking it to the Nasty Boys, Fall Brawl 1996 is a reminder that World Championship Wrestling wasn’t all bad! – Steven Jackson

94. Full Gear 2021 (95 points)

It was hard to hard to image that AEW could top itself after an amazing All Out three months earlier. Did this show do that? Debatable but it can’t be argued that this show doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the best events of 2021. The pace was set with a match that fans will likely see again in the main event spot in about three years, MJF vs. Darby Allin. The show picked up even more when with an out of control Fall Count Anywhere 6-man tag match with Adam Cole and the Young Bucks against Jurassic Express and Christian Cage. The cherry on top of the mega-event was the long-awaited crowning of a new World Heavyweight Champion, Hangman Adam Page. It was the culmination of a two-year storyline that had many fans on the edge of their seats when he defeated and ended the almost one-year run of Kenny Omega. – Neal Wagner

93. No Mercy 2008 (96 points)

The main draw on this card was Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels wrapping up their feud of the year in the match Michaels made famous: a ladder match. The match obviously delivered in the way one would expect out of Jericho and Michaels, incorporating the personal nature of the feud into the match and their ladder-based offense. Triple H and Jeff Hardy also had a great WWE Championship match in the first PPV match on the road to Hardy finally winning the Championship at Armageddon later that year. – Chad Gelfand

92. Halloween Havoc 1996 (98 points)

Snap out of it and skip Hogan beating Macho Man yet again. Everything else makes for a fun show: Outsiders vs. Harlem Heat, Faces of Fear vs. Chris Benoit & That’s Our Mongo, Jeff Jarrett vs. The Giant, Eddie Guerrero vs. Diamond Dallas Page and a fantastic opener in Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio. Plus, there’s a legendary surprise at the end of the night. – John Corrigan

91. SummerSlam 2001 (101 points)

This was smack in the middle of the Invasion storyline and by this point you could see the writing on the wall about how bad this story was. No one told the talent, though, from a good opener with Lance Storm and Edge for the Intercontinental Title to RVD and Jeff Hardy killing each other in a Hardcore Title match to the main events. The Kurt Angle/Steve Austin WWF Title match on this night is one of the least talked about main events in history. The Rock vs. Booker T for the WCW Title shouldn’t had been last, but because Austin and Angle went to a DQ, the fans needed to go home happy and Rock winning another World Title is always a good way to do that. – Neal Wagner

90. Great American Bash 1990 (105 points)

It’s an interesting juxtaposition of old-timers on the undercard (Iron Sheik, Harley Race, Junkyard Dog) while the “Wrestler of the ‘90s” is crowned in the main event. Sting winning his first World Heavyweight Championship from arch-rival Ric Flair gets all the praise, but the Midnight Express vs. the Southern Boys is the show-stealer. Also, Buddy Landell has his working boots on against Brian Pillman and the Steiners have a good bout with the Freebirds. – John Corrigan

89. WrestleMania XXV (107 points)

The obvious standout is Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker in arguably the best match in WrestleMania history. The match is a wrestling masterpiece, but there were also several other entertaining matches on the card, such as the MITB Ladder match and John Cena vs. Edge vs. Big for the World Heavyweight Championship. – Chad Gelfand

88. NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn (109 points)

The original NXT Takeover: Brooklyn took place at the peak of the golden age of the gold brand. When I showed some of the characters in NXT, like The Demon and Kevin Owens, to some of my non-wrestling fans, I was pleasantly surprised with the reaction. Fans were ready to embrace different looking characters than they’d grown accustomed to on WWE programming with all of the same little nuances that made some of the top stars of the Attitude Era great. It helped, of course, that many of those top stars were the ones pulling the strings of NXT at the time, but nevertheless, this is one of the greatest Takeovers ever.

Many people, including me, point to the Sasha Banks-Bayley match as a candidate for greatest women’s wrestling match ever, and Finn Balor, the humble, reserved babyface, made for a great foil to Kevin Owens. Plus, Samoa Joe was on this show and submitted Happy Corbin of all people. In all seriousness, Baron Corbin may have peaked around this time. This match came after he recently turned heel and began targeting wrestlers with an indie wrestling past. Needless to say, Corbin bit off a bit more than he could chew with Joe.

We also got the debut of the Forbidden Door! That’s right! Tony Khan wasn’t the first to kick down the invisible wall, but Triple H when he brought Jushin Liger over to North American for one time only to face… Tyler Breeze! I really thought Breeze was made after this. Of all the wrestlers they could have picked to work Liger in a one-off match, it should have been a huge rub to be the one chosen. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon just doesn’t see things the same way. Lastly, let’s not forget the pop the Vaudevillains, yes, the Vaudevillains got when they won the tag titles off Blake & Murphy. – Jack Goodwillie

87. Great American Bash 1996 (114 points)

The calm before the storm of the NWO. This show is filled with bangers: Malenko vs. Mysterio, Benoit vs. Sullivan, Sting vs. Regal and even Flair and Arn vs. Kevin Greene and That’s Our Mongo. Don’t forget Eric Bischoff’s historic interview with The Outsiders. – John Corrigan

86. In Your House: Badd Blood 1997 (115 points)

If you ask any fan what they remember about Bad Blood 1997, it will come back to one of two answers: the first Hell In A Cell with Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker or the debut of Kane. There is a good match between Owen Hart and Ron Simmons that ends in controversy thanks to Steve Austin. The Hell in a Cell match was a masterpiece that served as a great bridge from one storyline to another. It gave Shawn Michaels the necessary win to go towards his match with Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1997 and it gave the Undertaker his new foe in his brother. – Neal Wagner

85. SummerSlam 1999 (116 points)

This was one of the final Vince Russo-written WWE PPVs, and it has all the elements of his controversial booking: stipulations galore, fresh talent, a swerve or two and title changes. The show never drags, though, and the main event was star-studded as Governor Ventura returned to his roots. – John Corrigan

84. King of the Ring 2001 (117 points)

At a time when WWF needed to get some new stars established, this was the event that helped do just that. With The Rock filming movies and Triple H out on the shelf, WWF put together the best card it could. Kurt Angle wrestled three times on this night” the opener with Christian, the KOTR finals with Edge and a brutal Street Fight with Shane McMahon. One of the few reasons to enjoy the light heavyweight division is on this show with X-Pac and Jeff Hardy. The main event was a war of a triple threat where Steve Austin would retain the title over Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. – Neal Wagner

83. AEW Revolution 2022 (118 points)

For the beginning of AEW’s third year of operation, it seemed like Tony Khan just wanted to make sure everyone knew the company was around. This card from opener to main event just screams excellence. Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho started the show off right which led to an awesome 3-way for the Tag Team Titles, a war of a Ladder Match, and an amazing story that was the CM Punk and MJF Dog Collar Match. The show just seemed to speed up every time it appeared to be slowing down. The Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa ending took some steam out of the show, but it was quickly brought back with the 6- man Tag Team Tornado match, just in time for the main event that was Hangman Page retaining the AEW title over Adam Cole. This is so far the show of the year and it’s going to be hard to beat. – Neal Wagner

82. Royal Rumble 2008 (119 points)

When you end the night with the greatest Royal Rumble moment, you know this will rank high. Chock full of surprises, including the previous year’s final two (Undertaker and Shawn Michaels) kicking off the match, this Royal Rumble was thrilling. Plus, the undercard features two really good championship bouts with Randy Orton defeating Jeff Hardy and Edge successfully defending against the mysteriously hated Rey Mysterio. – John Corrigan

81. Spring Stampede 1994 (120 points)

The Dragon and the Nature Boy add a new chapter in their rivalry five years after their trilogy. It wasn’t on the same level as their classic encounters, but then again, they’re playing on a higher level than anyone else. The other reason to watch this show is Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys, a groundbreaking brawl that brought ECW’s hardcore style to the mainstream. – John Corrigan