Rate the last 5 years of the WWE

[Guest Hadley]

How would you rate the last 5 years of the wwe (not counting 2006). Heres my ranking:

1. 2001: Probably the best,,true, the invasion angle was botched, but at least the matches were good, and it gave us the best wrestlemania ever, as well as the second best summerslam ever.

2. 2004: Killer year,,RAW was untouchable, and even though SD went downhill with giving the belt to bradshaw and a series of crappy gimmicks (kenzo suzuki, mordecai, etc) it still was watchable. Plus, almost all the ppvs were good

3. 2005. The first 7-8 months of the year was just as good, with vengence, one night stand, and wrestlemania all being good-great shows, and summerslam and unforgiven also being good. However, the hassan angle was terrible, and after eddies death (not the wwe's fault i know), the company seemed to be on autopilot for the rest of the year.

4. 2003. Better than 2002, but thats not saying much. HHH was the champion for most of the year, and was driving fans away as a result. Not to mention bringing in goldberg when he wasnt even that over with casual wwe fans (ie, the ones who came in during the attitude era). However, SD was still good, vengence was the 2nd best ppv of the year behind WMXIX, and Jericho was a good heel that year IMO, even if he inexplicably lost most all his feuds (except for the nash feud)

5. 2002. AWFUL! Katie Vick, Austin leaving, Dudleys and acolytes being split up, HHH being given the belt, hogan winning the title when he didnt need to, the bruials of jericho and rvd, etc. Only highlights here were the best summerslam ever, the rise of brock lesnar, and smackdown (which didnt get into its groove until the fall)

How would you rate the years?

[iliketurtles 0]

2004, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005.

 

And 2006 shouldn't count anyways cause it's horrible.

[Dark Age 0]

I dunno, Raw has always been pretty horrible. The only time it was really any good was when SmackDown! was at it's worst.

 

I'm satisfied with each of the years, in regards to SmackDown! anyway. 2002 was consistently solid - very good. 2003 was very underrated, outside of a couple of pretty blah spells (the weeks surrounding No Mercy were terrible tv). 2004 was inconsistent, and the show seemed to be going nowhere, but there was still good wrestling. 2005 was fine. So far this year the wrestling has been top notch again, and I have found myself enjoying the shows as a whole more than ever.

 

Raw I don't care about.

[Dark Age 0]

But I guess Benoit's run as champ resulted in the best 6 months of Raw since the brand split. The booking was still terrible, but I was at least interested in (some) of the characters, and the matches were the best they have ever been.

[razazteca 0]

2/5 craptactular.

[10 Pounds 0]

I'd rank it : 2004, 2001, 2005, 2003, 2002.

 

But to be honest, the only periods where I truly enjoyed the product were 2001: Pre-Wrestlemania, 2002: the Smackdown Six and 2004: Raw the first six months. Wrestling's just not has been the same since WCW folded.

[Jericholic82 0]

1.2001 (great rumble and mania, angle and austin interaction, Jericho and Benoits one month push, benoit-angle feud, invasion that sucked but still interesting I suppose, Jericho-Rock feud, Jericho wins the undisputed title)

2.2004 (benoit and eddie win the titles, Randys rise (though it went sownhill after he won the title), getting the Eugene gimmick right- the idiot savant wrsetling machine (at first, he was booked correctly)

3.2002 (sure alot of crap, but had great moments like Rock vs Hogan, Flair vs Taker, the whole summer)

4. 2005 (Batistas big push, Cena ends jbls reign, the Eddy-Rey Feud (taking out the dominick angle, the matches were great), HBK's one month heel turn)

5. 2003 (the weakest, with crap like Mr. America, But Brock finally booked properly after his heel turn before summerslam, Eddie's cheating angle begins/Los Guerreros (and their feud with team angle)

[Taker666 0]

For Raw

2005 - Best

2004

2003

2002 - Worst

 

Seems like Raw has improved which each passing year. 2003 wouldn't be so bad if Triple H wasn't all over TV everyweek as Champion. 2002 was just a horrible year for Raw. crappy feuds, uninteresting mid-carders and little to no main-event talent thanks to Triple H. 2005 overall I thought was a great year for Raw though.

 

For SmackDown

2003 - Best

2002

2005

2004 - Worst

 

Even with 2004 being the worst year for SmackDown, it still wasn't that bad a year, that summer wasn't that great but when fall came around SmackDown made for some great TV IMO. I don't think SmackDown truly had a horrible period as much as Raw has. which is why I've always perfered SmackDown over Raw

[iggymcfly 0]

Why does everyone dislike 2002 so much. I thought it was much better than anything since. We had the most anticipated match in the last five years (Rock/Hogan), the best feud in the past five years (HHH/HBK), the best title reign in the past five years (Brock's first run), the most shocking angle in the past five years (the NWO runs over the Rock), the best wrestling week in and week out (the Smackdown six), and the best single match since I started watching wrestling ten years ago (the street fight from Summerslam).

 

I guess maybe it gets a bad rap due to the spring which featured a revolving door on the championship and the awful Hogan nostalgia run, but most of the year was tremendous. I can't imagine that anyone would rate it behind 2003 (the year where Steiner, Nash, and Goldberg were the main event faces on Raw), 2004 (the never-ending JBL run on SD and a now thoroughly stale HHH on Raw), or 2005 (super-Cena goes over the world).

[BorneAgain 0]

I will say that as much as Raw is bitched out for 2002, it was really only the last 4 months or so (after Taker, Benoit, and Eddie jumped) that it suffered, and even then with Bischoff as GM making matches and the atmosphere in general, wasn't too bad for its time.

 

Really its antectodal stand out stuff like HLA, Katie Vick, and HHH getting handed the title that stands out, but guys like Jericho, Christian, RVD, and Bookdust kept some entertainment value going.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

2001-The invasion was a joke, but you had the deepest talent pool WWE ever had with 3-4 good matches nearly every show (even on Heat and Jakked/Metal). RVD was having the best string of matches he ever had, Jericho-Rock was the last truly great fued and you had guys from WCW and ECW like Tajiri, Kanyon, Kidman and Storm who were carrying the midcard.

 

2002-Smackdown Six, Rock-Hogan, BookDust and some leftover WCW talent that kept the midcard strong. Brock was well booked until the fued with Taker that killed him. The booking became atrocious, Jericho had one of the worst reigns ever, WWE enjoyed a string of some of the worst WWE main events ever, thanks to Triple H, Hogan, Undertaker, and Raw became the Triple H show, as RVD, Jericho and Kane were buried.

 

2003-Stale Triple H holding the Title forever and fueding with WCW rejects like Nash & Steiner. You had Goldberg's botched run and Brock-Angle-Show wrestling each other 4 billion times, but SmackDown's midcard was strong with Eddie, Rey, Matt Hardy, WGTT, Ultimo, Benoit and Cena(who while not a great wrestler, was one of the hottest acts on the show), and at least the Brock-Angle-Show combos produced some decent matches, even if it was done to death. Raw was complete garbage with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

 

2004-Benoit & Eddie became champions, but Eddie was buried in a horrible fued with a fresh from Velocity Bradshaw that tanked Smackdown, and Benoit played third fiddle behind Triple H and Michaels neverending circle jerk. Then Bradshaw and Randy Orton both won World titles, becoming two of the worst and least deserving world champions in WWE history. The midcard was filled with green, heatless OVW call-ups that dragged the quality of shows down even further.

 

2005-Triple H-Batista was well booked, everything else was terrible. Midcard was complete garbage, on both brands.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Anyone putting over 2004 as a killer year is an idiot.

 

Seriously. Other than some great multi-man tags on Raw, the year SUCKED.

 

The World Champion Chris Benoit worked PPV matches that weren't the main event, was made to look "lucky" during a PPV match with Triple H, couldn't even defeat EUGENE in a Raw match, lost to shitty Orton in CANADA in the SummerSlam main, went to tagging with Regal in the ultimate de-push, and finally just played second or third banana to new babyface (HA!) Randy Orton.

 

Eddie Guerrero's title reign was even worse. Grandma Guerrero heart attack angle? Illegal mexicans "chased back to Mexico?" Getting beat by the then ultra lame JBL? Jesus. Then he resumed a steady string of mediocre matches with JBL (Smackdown cage), Angle (SummerSlam), and faced such great workers as...Luther Reigns, on PPV.

 

The tag team division, as always, was a joke. Booker T & RVD, literally, went from tag champs to enemies overnight. Such other ridiculous teams as heel Edge & face Chris Benoit and the horrible La Resistance added to the even more tainted belts.

 

What's the ultimate sign of lazyness and lack of creativity? No no, it's not booking a 45 minute snoozer of Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a non-title-related PPV match (though they of course did THAT!)...it's booking the challenger for the main event of SummerSlam...by HAVING A BATTLE ROYAL. Lame.

 

Smackdown featured a good No Way Out main with Eddie taking the title. But then it lost Lesnar. Not good.

 

Survivor Series was horrible. SummerSlam was pretty mediocre with a shitty Canadian crowd.

 

2004 was just as bad as the other years. Except the internet darlings (Benoit, Eddie) were seen as "players", when in fact, they were really transitional champions for the next batch of BIG TIME PLAYERS (Orton and JBL), both who failed.

[Enigma 0]

May 2003 was when I broke my habit of watching Raw obsessively every Monday and stopped watching Smackdown altogether.

 

I haven't "recovered".

[Enigma 0]

Eddie Guerrero's title reign was even worse. Grandma Guerrero heart attack angle? Illegal mexicans "chased back to Mexico?" Getting beat by the then ultra lame JBL? Jesus. Then he resumed a steady string of mediocre matches with JBL (Smackdown cage), Angle (SummerSlam), and faced such great workers as...Luther Reigns, on PPV.

 

2004 was just as bad as the other years. Except the internet darlings (Benoit, Eddie) were seen as "players", when in fact, they were really transitional champions for the next batch of BIG TIME PLAYERS (Orton and JBL), both who failed.

 

To be fair to WWE about Guerrero, Eddie was supposed to be a long-term champion and bring in the Latino market, but he started really cracking under the pressure and basically told Vince he didn't have what it took to be the champion at that moment. So they had to throw it on JBL before JBL or WWE were ever ready to do it.

 

And Benoit's reign could have been a lot worse if the Hirohito thing had gone down.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Eddie couldn't handle the pressure because SmackDown's business was tanking thanks to Bradshaw's push that resulted in countless house shows being cancelled and record low PPV buyrates.

[Dark Age 0]

The JBL and Angle matches weren't average, man.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Eddie/Angle at SSlam was nowhere near as good as Mania, which wasn't great itseld.

 

Eddie/JBL, the cage match, which I clearly stated was the match I meant, AFTER the title loss, was OK.

[Papacita 0]

Why does everyone dislike 2002 so much. I thought it was much better than anything since. We had the most anticipated match in the last five years (Rock/Hogan), the best feud in the past five years (HHH/HBK), the best title reign in the past five years (Brock's first run), the most shocking angle in the past five years (the NWO runs over the Rock), the best wrestling week in and week out (the Smackdown six), and the best single match since I started watching wrestling ten years ago (the street fight from Summerslam).

A World Title match where the champion plays second fiddle to a dog, feuds centered around t-shirts and shampoo, the whole Katie Vick storyline and some of the flat out stupidest booking I've ever seen. Even the stuff you mentioned really wasn't all that great IMO. HBK is my all-time favorite wrestler, and while I too enjoyed the hell outta the street fight, I thought the build-up and feud that followed was bland, predictable and at times intelligence insulting (I'm mainly referring to the whole "who took out HBK" angle that led to the signing of the SummerSlam match). NWO's running down the Rock would've been cool had the attack not been largely no sold a couple of weeks down the line...not to mention Rock going on to forgive and team with Hogan despite him trying to kill him a month earlier. Brock getting the belt wasn't that bad in retrospect, but the man had one sucessful title defense before dropping the belt to the Big Show, who a month prior had been jobbing to Jeff Hardy (though I'll admit they did a fairly good job of rebuilding him for the match). For the sake of not being too negative, I will say that the Smackdown six era was pretty good, and 02's SummerSlam and Survivor Series shows were among my all-time favorite PPVs, but aside from that I *HATED* 2002 with a passion.

 

Anyway, my rankings:

 

2001: The biggest knock against this year is probably the Invasion, but even during this period the TV was still fairly enjoyable with psycho Austin as Champion and feuds like Rock/Jericho. There were even a handful of cool "holy shit" moments thrown in there with the WCW buyout, DDP's debut as the stalker and the ECW reunion (although all were botched in the long run). And whether it made sense or not, I'll admit marking like a madman for the 2 man Power Trip (Austin and HHH). Austin's beatdown on Lita was a great moment.

 

2003: I thought 03 was fun overall, as things really seemed to fall into place after the brand split. One thing I really dug about this period (mainly on the Smackdown side, though) was the emergence of a lot of "new" stars (not necessarily new faces, but more in terms of how they were being presented). For example, Brock really started coming into his own (especially after the heel turn), you had Cena getting hot with the rap gimmick, Los Guerreros, Mysterio, WGTT, Mattitude, Christian, and even guys like Spanky and Tajiri seemed to be getting over for a time. There was some great stuff from the Rock on the Raw side, and we also had some great matches such as Benoit/Angle, HBK/Jericho (I know...), Brock/Benoit, and I personally enjoyed the Mysterio/Tajiri series towards the end of the year. And while Raw has been almost consistently bad since the split, I think they had probably their best run with Goldberg as champion. The booking really began to shape up during this time, as they made the best use of their full roster that I can remember (anyone remember Jindrak and Cade beating up Evolution and stealing their money during the Goldberg bounty angle?).

 

2004: I didn't really like 04 at all, for a lot of the reasons others have pointed out. I pretty much tuned out on Smackdown after that Angle with Big Show trying to kill Kurt Angle and Torrie Wilson, not to mention the JBL push and the gimmicky stuff with Kenzo and the like. Raw had some pretty good matches with Benoit as champ, but not much else. Just a really bland year overall. Favorite moment for me (excluding the obvious Mania ending) would be the Smackdown where psycho Kurt shows up to beat down Eddie, who had one arm tied behind his back.

 

2002: Already covered. Not last mainly because of the Smackdown 6 stuff.

 

2005: Had probably the best single match build I can remember with the Elimination Chamber stuff, and some great stuff from the HBK/Hogan program, but aside from that 05 sucked.

[cabbageboy 0]

2001 was certainly the best of those years. What the hell, I even think the Invasion is unfairly bashed. It really only had 2 truly terrible months that year, namely the April/May Two Man Power Trip garbage (as in the stuff right after WM and before HHH got hurt).

 

2005 finishes 2nd here with me, mainly because they didn't do anything I found truly hideous and abysmal. Well maybe the initial USA shows, but that's about it. At least they tried to establish two guys with the belts in Cena and Batista.

 

2003 I guess is 3rd here. I had to deliberate on this one, since for the most part I found the year to be the dead zone. But at least it didn't have crap like Katie Vick and Austin and Bradshaw vs. the NWO on every Raw for a month. Steiner was good for some unintentional laughs, and SD was a decent enough show (though the Angle/Lesnar stuff never interested me much at all). This year had the Rise of Eddie as well, which was great.

 

2002 gets a slight edge over 2004. SD was very good late in the year, and I think Raw had a good share of good stuff before guys like Eddie and Benoit left. Yeah there was stuff like Katie Vick but at least they didn't do anything truly moronic like putting the belt on Bradshaw.

 

2004. I was tempted to place this year higher due to Eddie and Benoit both getting the titles, but the 2nd half of the year was so totally disgusting that it made me sick. Eddie losing to JBL, Benoit losing to Orton (who himself simply jobbed to HHH immediately after it)...ugh. The Post SS stuff was particularly awful, as neither show was any good or had any direction. Think about that. 2004 was the only year since the split where both shows sucked for a large amount of time.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"at least they didn't do anything truly moronic like putting the belt on Bradshaw."

 

They did have Bradshaw main event a ton of Raws in a row, though.

 

"We had the most anticipated match in the last five years (Rock/Hogan)"

 

WHAT!?!? Dude, the build-up for that was a month. And no one expected it to be as fun and historic as it turned out being. Sting/Hogan (Starrcade 97), Austin/Rock (Mania 15), Austin/Rock (Mania 17) were way more anticipated, to name a few.

[iggymcfly 0]

"at least they didn't do anything truly moronic like putting the belt on Bradshaw."

 

They did have Bradshaw main event a ton of Raws in a row, though.

 

"We had the most anticipated match in the last five years (Rock/Hogan)"

 

WHAT!?!? Dude, the build-up for that was a month. And no one expected it to be as fun and historic as it turned out being. Sting/Hogan (Starrcade 97), Austin/Rock (Mania 15), Austin/Rock (Mania 17) were way more anticipated, to name a few.

 

Yes, they were UTSU. But how many of them were in the last five years? Read the post before replying to it, it's not that hard.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

You're correct.

 

However, if you're truly going by fan hype and not the post-match buzz and history:

 

- Rock/Lesnar was more anticipated.

- Benoit/HHH/Michaels was more anticipated.

- Batista/Triple H I was more anticipated.

- Michaels/Angle I was more anticipated.

- Hogan/Michaels was more anticipated (though you can thank the Rock/Hogan bout for re-energizing Hogan's mystique)

 

I think you overhype the build and need for the Rock/Hogan match, as it was silly (mack truck run-over) and Hogan had already faced Rock a week earlier. The insane crowd made it legendary, as most people predicted a stinker to something "OK".

[iggymcfly 0]

You're correct.

 

However, if you're truly going by fan hype and not the post-match buzz and history:

 

- Rock/Lesnar was more anticipated.

FALSE. The feud was initially intriguing, but everyone knew that Rock was leaving, so most people weren't that into the match when it actually happened.

 

- Benoit/HHH/Michaels was more anticipated.

FALSE. The smarks may have been anticipating it, but to the average fan, it was a pretty ho-hum main event for Mania. If Benoit was a big anticipated draw, they wouldn't have added HBK to the match in the first place.

 

- Batista/Triple H I was more anticipated.

Borderline, but I'm still going to have to say FALSE. Batista/HHH was a very anticipated match yes, and the fans wanted to see Batista win the title, but it was just copying the formula from the previous year. Whereas Rock/Hogan had the fans dying to see the once in a lifetime clash between icons, the Batista match was just a rehash albeit with a more popular wrestler.

 

- Michaels/Angle I was more anticipated.

So FALSE that it's silly. I think you're missing the difference between anticipated in the smark community and anticipated among wrestling fans as a whole. Sure, 10% of the audience wanted to see how these two would work together, but to the average fan this was just a run-of-the-mill upper-midcard match.

 

- Hogan/Michaels was more anticipated (though you can thank the Rock/Hogan bout for re-energizing Hogan's mystique)

COMPLETELY FALSE. Hogan had "mystique" in the Spring of 2002. By 2005, we'd been through Hogan jobbing to Rock, Hogan jobbing to Undertaker, Hogan being destroyed by Brock, a tag team run with Edge, the Mr. America storyline, Hogan vs. Vince, Hogan saving Eugene at WM, and basically enough to show that Hogan wasn't a main event star anymore. This is like saying Flair/Foley from Vengeance was more anticipated than Flair/Taker at WM.

 

I think you overhype the build and need for the Rock/Hogan match, as it was silly (mack truck run-over) and Hogan had already faced Rock a week earlier. The insane crowd made it legendary, as most people predicted a stinker to something "OK".

Once again, you're going on smark expectations. Most fans didn't think "this might be a stinker". They thought, "Wow, Hogan's back and he's gonna face the Rock. Those are two of my favorite wrestlers ever and I never thought I'd see them wrestle." Also, the staredown was a key point in the build, and with the commercials and everything, it really had the epic feel that no match has had since.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Michaels/Angle had arguably the two best WRESTLERS who never fought going at it. It featured the awesome Jannetty/Angle match. The return of Sherri and the hilarious singing promo. Also, Royal Rumble beatdown. There was major hype for it, not some "internet buzz".

 

Batista/HHH copied the formula from the previous year? How is that, since, oh, Benoit wasn't ON Raw until 2 months before the match, and it was a 3-WAY MATCH. A lot of people didn't even think Benoit would take it, and thought the title win would occur a month later in Edmonton.

 

Rock/Hogan had JR salivating, the bad memories of Hogan's pitiful last attempts at working matches on PPVs, and the stupid truck attack. Plus they got to see Hogan and Rock work on free TV that same week.

 

"basically enough to show that Hogan wasn't a main event star anymore."

 

Odd, since he was main eventing Raws and had the most anticipated bout at Backlash that year. You forget that after putting others over, Hogan left the WWE for 2 years. Not to mention the fans absolutely took over the HoF ceremony for minutes chanting "one more match!". Plus the entire focus of Raw became Michaels/Hogan. And no one really saw the turn happening on July 4th.

 

Quote: 'They thought, "Wow, Hogan's back and he's gonna face the Rock. Those are two of my favorite wrestlers ever and I never thought I'd see them wrestle."

 

You obviously love Jim Ross. I'm not arguing this anymore. WM 18 blew, except for one shockingly great match that became legendary AFTERWARDS. If it was held in any other town, it'd be less legendary. End of story.

 

Newsflash buddy: THE MAJORITY OF FANS WHO BUY PPVS AND ATTEND LIVE EVENTS ARE INTERNET FANS. THEY KNOW WHAT WILL SUCK AND WHAT WON'T.

[iggymcfly 0]

I guarantee you that less than 20% of the people who watch WrestleMania (you know, the PPV Rock/Hogan was on?) and probably less than 10% are internet fans. Not in the sense that they've never looked at anything to do with wrestling on their computer, but in the sense that they're not so workrate-minded that they'd be anticipating something like HBK/Angle to anywhere near the degree Rock/Hogan.

[Bruce Blank 0]

Newsflash buddy: THE MAJORITY OF FANS WHO BUY PPVS AND ATTEND LIVE EVENTS ARE INTERNET FANS. THEY KNOW WHAT WILL SUCK AND WHAT WON'T.

Depends - if by "Internet fans" you mean guys who post on forums such as these? then Nah - if you mean they have net access and stuff, then yes but that doesn't mean their views and tastes follow what's said on forums such as this - otherwise Cena in the main event would have totally tanked the ratings.

 

And "they know what will suck"? Oh lord where to begin - the fact that wrestling just isn't THAT predictable? the fact that opinions & tastes vary and what is shit to one person is gold to another.

 

You were doing alright up until that line buddy

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

2001 - The Invasion was a flop, but it was still easily the best year of the last five in terms of quality. No Way Out 2001 & Wrestlemania XVII are two of the best PPVs that the company ever put on. Even until Summerslam things were going pretty good. It was really starting at that show that the truly major burial of WCW/ECW started and the product starting going downhill for the rest of the year, although still much better than we would get for the next six months.

 

2004 - Chris Benoit had a nice little title run, and contrary to popular belief he main evented 4 PPVs while only being in the sub-main of 1, which is more than we can say for many champions. JBL had the single greatest title reign since Austin in '01 and is incredibly underrated as a performer. RAW tanked in a big way after Orton one the title, but Smackdown remained entertaining throughout the end of the year. With Benoit & Eddy in the main events, we also saw the best matches in the main events since 2000.

 

2005 - Almost by default as the other three years were all terrible. The first part of the year was entertaining enough for both shows, as Batista/HHH was great before it went on too long (although their best match was the last one) and Cena's feud with JBL was the last time he (Cena) was viewed positively. Bad writing (ex. Eddy/Rey, Angle lusting after Sharmell) infected both cards like the plague, but the RAW/Smackdown feud at the end of the year was enjoyable as was the Batista/Eddy relationship. Generally speaking, although it wasn't great, it was sure more fun than 2002-03, even with Eddy's death.

 

2003 - Smackdown remained strong throughout most of the year, as this was the year when Brock Lesnar basically carried the company on his back (with help from the oft-injured Angle). RAW was dreadful with the unending HHH title reign lasting until September before losing it to Goldberg, who was even more boring as champ than HHH was. Kevin Nash was given a main event push, which is never a good thing. But boring is still better than what happened the year before.

 

2002 - The Smackdown Six era was fantastic. Other than that, this year was a complete wash starting with Chris Jericho's complete burial as Undisputed Champ and the return of the last three guys anybody who watched WCW in their last years wanted to see. Hogan/Rock was a big deal, but Hogan's title reign dropped ratings almost a full point overnight. And that pales in comparison to the end of the year with wonderful decisions from creative like the Billy & Chuck wedding, HLA, Katie Vick & Al Wilson. The worst year in WWF history, and I'm not forgetting 1995.

[cabbageboy 0]

Okay wait up. Do you mean JBL had the longest title run since Austin in 2001 or that his run was actually GOOD? Cause it certainly wasn't any good. Did he have a good feud after the Eddie feud? Not really. A good match? Not really. I think JBL has been better since he lost the title oddly enough...he was just never credible in any way, shape, or form while he had it. They put it on him without building him any. If JBL had gone after the US title and then been built to the world title then he'd be viewed more positively.

 

2002 had possibly the worst stuff WWE has ever done, but there was at least a lot of good to go with the truly hideous. In 1995 there really wasn't much in the way of good stuff outside of whatever Michaels was doing. Nash was facing unover giants in the main event, Bret was being buried, etc.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Do you mean JBL had the longest title run since Austin in 2001 or that his run was actually GOOD?

 

I mean good. I agree that it would have been viewed more positively had it been built up better, but once he actually got the belt he made it mean something again. Most of his matches were underrated, aside from the Show feud and who has good matches with him besides Lesnar, and the match where he won the title was one of the best of the year. By the fall and winter it is especially notable as his matches against Kurt Angle were much better than what HHH was doing on RAW at the same time.

 

But I agree, inside the ring he couldn't compete with the likes of Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle as champion. Outside of it, he was the most entertaining champion in ages.

 

2002 had possibly the worst stuff WWE has ever done, but there was at least a lot of good to go with the truly hideous. In 1995 there really wasn't much in the way of good stuff outside of whatever Michaels was doing. Nash was facing unover giants in the main event, Bret was being buried, etc.

 

Yeah, but Michaels was around the entire year. I can't think of a single good thing (except maybe the brief Jericho/Rock feud in January) prior to Vengeance that occurred in 2002. That is a lot of dreck to get through, with no positives coming out of it. At least in 2002 there was some stuff in the undercard, and believe it or not, bad as they were Diesel's matches with Sid & Mabel were better than the Taker/HHH, Hogan/HHH & Hogan/Taker main events we got in 2002.

[Guest Princess Leena]

2001 would be the best, because despite the InVasion ending up as a total waste, there was still some entertaining TV during the early months of it with Angle-Austin, it didn't get bad until around Survivor Series, and even then we had Jericho's undisputed title win to keep up some hope. And the 1st half of 2001 was still really good.

 

2002 was probably the worst overall. The good workrate on SD at times was overridden by the dreadful booking from February-December... decisions that made you totally embarassed to watch wrestling at all.

 

I disliked 2003 more, though. The main event scene was basically only Lesnar on SD... and HHH/Goldberg/Nash/Shit on RAW... and it had its share of embarassing moments (all of HHH/Steiner, Zach Gowen, Mr. America, Egotistical McMahon crap).