Top 100 Wrestling PPVs Of All Time: 80-61

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.

Read 100-81 here.

80. ECW Living Dangerously 1999 (121 points)

Taz and Sabu put on a hell of a main event with a defiant Sabu refusing the towel and passing out. Taz unified the FTW and ECW World Titles. RVD and Jerry Lynn didn’t disappoint with their TV Title match either. – Juan Bautista

79. SummerSlam 1998 (122 points)

The Attitude Era was in full blast at Madison Square Garden as Stone Cold collided with the Undertaker on the highway to hell. Plus, The Rock and Triple H tore the house down in a brutal ladder match, Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart went to war in a Lion’s Den and Howard Finkel told New York City to suck it. – John Corrigan

78. Royal Rumble 2007 (123 points)

A decade after Hell in a Cell and the casket match, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker reignited their war in the final 10 minutes of the Royal Rumble. Although it was HBK’s backyard of San Antonio, the crowd was satisfied with either legend earning a title shot at WrestleMania (and both did). The undercard featured the hellacious Last Man Standing match between John Cena and Umaga, which earned SuperCena some much-needed street cred. – John Corrigan

77. Slamboree 1994 (124 points)

Philly always made for a lively, somewhat hostile environment. Sting and Vader have another barnburner in the main event. But before that, Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan go to war with the Nasty Boys in a hellacious falls count anywhere match. Even Tully Blanchard came out of retirement to fight Terry Funk in a fun brawl. There’s actually not a bad match on the card. – John Corrigan

76. WrestleMania VIII (125 points)

Flair-Savage ’92! I have a soft spot for WrestleMania VIII, even though it wasn’t headlined by the WWF Championship match OR the rumored Hulk Hogan-Ric Flair super fight. Granted, it should have been, but it wasn’t and the story behind why it wasn’t has been told many times before. However, in a vacuum, WrestleMania VIII was a pretty great show. Hulk Hogan vs. Sid may be on the weaker side of main events, but we still got Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair, a match that combined the best parts of a standard Randy Savage match with the best parts of an average Ric Flair match with the result being a Grade-A wrestling match with theatrics.

That match is one of my favorite Randy Savage matches, but perhaps just as memorable to me is Ric Flair’ post-match promo, a bloody mess having lost his title. His handlers, Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect, start by cutting the promo on his behalf before Flair, who is rarely at a loss for words, pipes up and says, “What we have right now…. is a man…. CLAIMING TO BE the WORLD CHAMPION.” Moments like this seem to be few and far between these days as far as them being included on the actual show, and it’s not every day that a WWE Championship match is mid-show fodder at WrestleMania, but that’s what we got. The promo is a favorite of mine from Flair because of the way he seems like he’s about to give the Macho Man props before reverting back to a standard “you got lucky this time” promo.

Elsewhere on the show, Bret Hart met Roddy Piper in another highly technical match that some may prefer to the Flair-Savage match. Shawn Michaels wrestled Tito Santana, The Undertaker fought Jake Roberts and we did get the really weird Hogan-Sid match in the main event. WrestleMania VIII is one of the more underrated Manias and should flirt with the top-10 on most lists. – Jack Goodwillie

75. Bound for Glory 2006 (126 points)

There was a time when TNA produced better PPVs than WWE. Bound for Glory 2006 is a prime example of a marquee show delivering the goods…and it blew away WrestleMania 22 in almost every way. The first three-hour PPV to take place outside the Impact Zone, Detroit was the perfect venue. With a hot crowd for every match, lots of variety and a fantastic conclusion to the Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting feud, BFG 2006 shows what TNA could achieve. P.S.: The hype video with Fozzy is STILL fantastic 15 years later! – Steven Jackson

74. Backlash 2007 (127 points)

A two-match show that is carried by both of its world title matches. Batista and Undertaker continued to show the great chemistry they had in their WrestleMania 23 encounter with a hard-hitting Last Man Standing match that ended in a no contest but featured a cool finish. The main event was basically an all-star game with four first-ballot Hall of Famers making the lineup in John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge and Shawn Michaels. The finisher flurry at the end of the match is beautiful and helped to further the HBK/Cena feud, with Michaels accidentally super kicking Cena to victory. – Chad Gelfand

73. Final Battle 2021 (128 points)

When the announcement came down that ROH would be shutting down for three months while it rebranded, it was immediately known that the December 2021 Final Battle pay per view would be a very emotional one. It was unclear what was going to become of Ring of Honor. No one told the talent that night to collect the final paycheck and go home. The entire roster decided to try and top one another match to match to match. They knew that if this was the “End of an Era”, they were going to go down swinging.

A late replacement of Jay Lethal for Bandido (late positive COVID-19 test) to face Jonathan Gresham in the main event led to a great match and the passing of the torch from the “Franchise” of ROH to the future of ROH. That wasn’t even the best match/moment of the show. As one in attendance that night, the moment goes to The Briscoes for winning their 12th ROH Tag Titles and having an unbelievable brawl with a debuting FTR. There is also an awesome “Fight Without Honor” between Shane Taylor and Kenny King that you have to go out of your way to find on HonorClub. – Neal Wagner

72. Vengeance 2003 (131 points)

Anyone remember the WWE brand split? You do? Do you remember the brand-only PPVs? You do! Well, what was your favorite? It’s actually quite a difficult question because looking back, a lot of the brand-exclusive PPVs sadly didn’t deliver. But one show that DID deliver was Vengeance 2003. The first SmackDown exclusive event, Vengeance 2003 has tons of variety, with several awesome matches, too. The main event is one of the most overlooked triple threat matches of all-time, and the WWE Tag Team Title match is full of innovative offense that never tires on repeat viewings. Not only that, but you get to see a rare match between two of wrestling’s biggest icons…The Undertaker vs/ John Cena! – Steven Jackson

71. Starrcade 1983 (132 points)

A Flare for the Gold (or is it Flair?)! The first Starrcade, this event is one of those that is notable not only for what happened inside the ring, but the circumstances surrounding it. The NWA utilizing closed-circuit television to broadcast the event caught the ire of Vince McMahon, who had been using cable television himself to cut into the business of some of the smaller territories, NWA included.

However, this event was a massive success for the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions, thanks in large part to the main event: a steel cage match between champion Harley Race and challenger Ric Flair. That match was everything a steel cage match ought to be – violence contested at a methodical pace with a satisfying ending. The match was viewed as a passing of the torch from Race to Flair, as Harley Race would go on to take some time away from wrestling after this, his days as a cash cow champion in the South essentially over.

The show also featured solid action up and down the card, with names such as Ricky Steamboat, the Brisco Brothers (no, not those Briscoes), Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, The Great Kabuki w/ Gary Hart, Kevin Sullivan, Dick Slater, Bob Orton Jr. and Abdullah the Butcher, to name a few. It truly was a collection of the top stars in wrestling not contractually tied to the WWF, hence the name, and Starrcade would go on to become a WrestleMania-type event for WCW in the years to follow. – Jack Goodwillie

70. WrestleMania XXVIII (133 points)

“Once in a lifetime.” My ass. Ignore that, though…WrestleMania XXVIII was pretty good. Rewatching this one took me back to watching in my college dorm and the thing I keep coming back to is Sheamus beating Daniel Bryan in a matter of seconds to open the night. In the end, it all worked out though and the show only got better from here. This was the WrestleMania where we got the great visual of Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and Triple H helping each other up the ramp after the latter two’s Hell in a Cell match, which for me as a kid was always a dream match of mine. It always seemed like Hell in a Cell matches revolved around The Undertaker or Triple H, so what if they faced each other in one… at WrestleMania? Well, we finally got the answer to that, as the Deadman reigned 20-0 at WrestleMania.

I also really like CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho. This was at the time where Jericho cryptically returned to the company as vignettes were teased that it would be the “end of the world as we knew it.” I didn’t love that, but once Jericho settled into feuding with Punk, all we got was solid professional wrestling programming and this match delivered and COULD have main evented the show had it not been for Rock-Cena. Al Snow once said (and I always seem to come back to this) that the best match of the night is the match that draws. Well, Rock-Cena was probably the biggest match WWE could deliver at the time, and Taker-HHH was probably a close second.

Although the main event didn’t really deliver as match in the way some may have liked, it didn’t matter. Everyone was fixated on how The Rock would look in his return to the ring for the first time in almost eight years, and honestly, he didn’t look bad. The match just ran a little long for my taste. Why couldn’t they have shaved 10 minutes off and added another match? In hindsight, the show felt light compared to the WrestleManias we’ve grown accustomed to over the years. – Jack Goodwillie

69. SummerSlam 1991 (134 points)

The greatest SummerSlam of the ’90s. You know about the match made in heaven and the match made in hell, but don’t forget about the classic Intercontinental Championship bout, LOD making history, Virgil earning his freedom and Mountie going to jail! – John Corrigan

68. No Way Out 2000 (135 points)

Cactus Jack and Triple H put a bow on their feud that cemented Triple H as “The Guy” in WWE. The two engaged in brutal Hell in the Cell match that resulted in Foley once again going through the roof of the cell, albeit more safely this time. This also marked his first retirement from pro wrestling, which lasted about a month until he competed in the main event of WrestleMania 2000. – Chad Gelfand

67. WrestleWar 1991 (137 points)

War Games headlines this one with two dream teams: Flair, Sid, Barry Windham and Larry Zbyszko vs. Brian Pillman, Sting and the Steiners. It’s one of the greatest matches in WCW history, notwithstanding Sid almost killing Pillman…twice! If it was any other night, Lex Luger and Danny Spivey would have stolen the show. There’s also a donnybrook between Vader and Stan Hansen, as well as a return and a breakup. – John Corrigan

66. WrestleMania XIV (139 points)

The official birth of the Attitude Era will be debated until the end of time, but for me, the closing moments of Steve Austin holding the WWF Championship aloft is the beginning of the Attitude Era. WrestleMania XIV has a real big show feel, combined with a passionate crowd and amazing presentation. It’s what a PPV should feel like and a card that brings the atmosphere to life. Also, it features The Undertaker’s best WrestleMania match up to that point against his half-brother Kane. – Steven Jackson

65. Judgment Day 2000 (140 points)

The Rock and Triple H added another chapter in their classic feud by putting on a wild, sometimes overbooked, but always entertaining 60-minute Iron Man match. The match also features the return of The Undertaker in one of the most memorable moments of the Attitude Era. Honorable mention to Shane McMahon once again finding a way to jump off a Titantron. – Chad Gelfand

64. Survivor Series 2009 (141 points)

This may be the perfect WWE PPV. The two traditional elimination matches, featuring a collection of veterans and rookies with feuding captains, ended with future prospects (Miz, Sheamus, McIntyre and Kingston) as the survivors. Continuing his hot heel run, Batista destroyed Rey Mysterio in a short, but effective David vs. Goliath match.

The World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship were both defended in triple threat matches with each champion battling tag team partners, yet both matches were distinctly different. Jeri-Show mostly remained on the same page while fighting Undertaker, whereas D-X split within the first two seconds while challenging John Cena. The show never slowed down and the fans popped for everything, cementing Survivor Series 2009 as an all-time classic. – John Corrigan

63. Royal Rumble 2004 (142 points)

This was a great kickoff to the Road to WrestleMania. Eddie Guerrero beats his nephew and former partner Chavo as a way to set him up for the WWE Championship. Shawn Michaels and Triple H put on an awesome Last Man Standing match that is only hampered by a finish that didn’t crown a winner but made sense leading to WrestleMania XX. The Rumble match was just awesome. The storytelling behind Kane and the return of The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar screwing Goldberg out of the Rumble and Chris Beniot starting at #1 and going the distance. – Neal Wagner

62. All Star Extravaganza VIII (143 points)

You all know I love ROH. Old school, middle years or the SBG era, I’m an Ring of Honor fan through and through. And while many people might have missed out on All Star Extravaganza VIII in 2016, this countdown is the reason why you need to see this show. Taking place during the height of the ROH and NJPW relationship, there’s dream matches aplenty! Plus, one of the craziest Ladder Wars you’ll ever see between three of the greatest tag teams of all time. The pinnacle of ROH’s modern era, this is a wonderful show. – Steven Jackson

61. Driven 2007 (144 points)

Back before Ring of Honor had a weekly TV deal, ROH was given a series of PPV slots in 2007. These were ideal showcases for the company to present what it had to offer. Similar to the WWE In Your House PPVs, they were short and sharp bursts of energy determined to make you an instant fan. Clocking in at just over two hours, Driven 2007 is an absolutely fantastic show! You get to see Naomichi Marufuji tear it up, the Briscoes and Steenerico continue their heated war and the greatest (yes, the greatest, not Unified 2006, guys) match in the Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness feud! Plus, if you got the two-disc DVD version (like I did), you get some cool extra matches. – Steven Jackson