Ranking The WWE Pay-Per-Views So Far Of 2016 | The Odyssey Online
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Ranking The WWE Pay-Per-Views So Far Of 2016

There were some really good ones and some ones that made want to take a pile driver from Owen Hart.

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Ranking The WWE Pay-Per-Views So Far Of 2016
http://raleighco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/roddy-piper-vince-mcmahon.jpg

(Before you ask, I really like the image of Vince and Roddy so nyeh)

As some of you might remember from my Hulk Hogan articles, I am a wrestling fan. I love wrestling because it's always fun to hear the crowd cheer when their favorite character does something good or watching a pretty great feat of strength from two performers put on a great show. Most of the bombastic and big pops (loud cheers from the crowd) come from Pay Per Views, the different shows WWE put on once a month to a mixed variety of success. Today I'll be ranking the eight that have been broadcast so far. Big note to NXT fans, while I am aware that the Takeover specials are quite popular I only saw part of one and that was Takeover: Dallas and only to see Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sami Zayn because people told me it was match of the year candidate (it was but that's beside the point). So here it's from worst to best the eight PPV's of the year 2016. BECAUSE IT'S CURRENT YEAR!


Number 8: Fastlane (February).

Little background for those unaware, Roman Reigns (who you will see on most if not all of these pay per views) is generally regarded as one of the worst wrestlers as of recent to be pushed by WWE as the face of the company. Compared to previous faces of the company such as John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin/The Rock and Hulk Hogan it's easy to see that: he isn't charismatic, not entirely great in the ring, and his mic skills make the Zombie from ECW rebooted look eloquent. So when he head lines literally 7 of the 8 PPV's on this list it's easy to get tired of hearing about him. Fastlane is the PPV between the Royal Rumble, the second most popular PPV of WWE's career and Wrestlemania, the BIGGEST and most popular of WWE's career. So when it was immediate that the two incarnations of Fastlane the 2015 and 2016 just served as a way to get Roman Reigns to the main event of Wrestlemania people ended up not liking it. He did it this year and he did it last year. The other matches on the card weren't even important, the main even between Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar to determine the contender for the main event of Wrestlemania 32 vs Triple H. Now we all knew that Roman was winning, he had been winning for quite some time now, but didn't expect is for him to no sell a Kimura Lock from Brock (a move that could legitimately break your arm into pieces) and three chair shots from Dean.


Number 7: WWE Roadblock (March)

This whole PPV was a big middle finger to every Dean Ambrose fan in the WWE universe. Alright there's more to it than that. The only PPV that wasn't a PPV and more a Network exclusive, the card on this event was a mixed once, even containing an NXT title match, which was weird to see on a main roster "PPV" (weird but not bad). The rest of the card was fine however including a match from fresh face AJ Styles against mainstay Chris Jericho. That being said a 2 on 1 Handicap match between Brock Lesnar and the Wyatt Family was pretty predictable. However the reason this ranks so low is because of the ending. The hook of this PPV was that Dean challenged Triple H to the Championship Belt so that HE could face Roman at Wrestlemania. We all knew he wasn't winning in a throwaway event like Roadblock. But me and everyone in that damn stadium jumped to our feet when we though Dean had won, only for his pin to be counted ineligible because his foot was under the rope. The carpet that was yanked out from under us was then used to beat us while we were down when Triple H hit just one pedigree to win against Dean.


Number 6: Payback (May)

There was nothing lost or gained in this PPV. No titles changed hands, Roman beat AJ in a boring main event, and Enzo Amore almost died. The hook of this PPV was that Vince McMahon would decide who would run Monday Night Raw, the flagship show of WWE and the money maker, either his son Shane, or his daughter Stephanie. After a month of buildup, he picked both. Ok.... Anyway the matches weren't particularly special except for the women's singles match and the tag team match, which we'll get to. None of the matches had too big of stories nor big payoffs or technical showcases. That being said the women's match ended with a recreation of the Montreal Screwjob, with BRET HART AT RINGSIDE and if you're a wrestling fan going back to 1997 you know why that is dumb. In the Tag Team Match Enzo Amore legitimately got a concussion when he and Simon Gotch botched a move early into the match and knocked Enzo unconscious ending in the match being called early. Finally one of the positives of the main event involved AJ winning by countout (meaning the title didn't change) only for Shane to come out and say that's not how we do things in the "New Era" and restarted the match only for AJ to win by Disqualification (meaning the title didn't change again) only for Stephanie to come out and say her dumb brother forgot to include no wins via DQ in this match. I kept expecting Vince to come out and say "Do it again I wasn't looking!"

Number 5: Battleground (July)

The reason this isn't any higher on the list is because those after it had more matches that were fun to watch. However this PPV had two big moments that made me retain faith in it. First of all, Bayley debuted on the Main Roster on this event. Bayley had been popular on NXT for years and basically became the female face of it by the time that Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha had left. The crux of it was that the match she debuted in was a tag team match between Sasha Banxx and Dana Brooke/Charlotte. Sasha hadn't stated who her partner was and when people heard her music hit, naturally they went ballistic. Finally after slogging through a particularly boring card, the main event happened. A triple threat match between Dean Ambrose (the current champion), Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. Now, Battlegrounds was the last PPV before the roster was split between Raw and Smackdown and I though sure Dean was gonna drop the belt to Rollins or Reigns because they were headed to Raw and he was headed to Smackdown. Call me surprised when I found that they kept the WWE Championship Belt on Smackdown, the show that is often considered the weaker of the two.

Number 4: Wrestlemania 32 (April)

Before I get into why this is the top half this list, let make it perfectly clear that this was the weakest Wrestlemania in quite some time. That being said there were some good moments in this show. For example in Intercontinental Championship match the last person I thought was gonna win was Zack Ryder and sure enough the guy won. Course he lost it literally the next day to The Miz so that moment went out the door, but the surprise that Zack won was still a nice one. And as well aware as I am that wrestling is scripted and that cautions are taken to make sure that wrestlers don't get hurt, my jaw still dropped when Shane jumped off the Hell in a Cell cage attempting to finish the Undertaker. Finally, despite the main event being terrible I still got one awesome moment earlier in the show when Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin returned to beat the hell out of The League of Nations and The New Day.

Number 3: Extreme Rules (May)

I remember when we first watched this, my buddy Alex and I really disliked it. But upon reflection and having time to evaluate my opinion, this was a damn good show. First of all, there was a title change and I don't know if my memory is bad, but WWE doesn't change titles too easily anymore. Sure they just changed the women's title and the Heavyweight title but I was actually taken aback by the title change. Congrats to Rusev for getting the US belt back and making it a thing again. That being said the undercard of the event was mostly bad. The women's match ended in a dumb roll up win for Charlotte, the Tag Team tournament that had been built up for the last couple of months ended in a 6 minute match. However two things redeem the undercard. The Fatal Four Way for the IC belt was amazing, a chaotic free for all that may have had a bad ending but still great from start to right before the finish. Also, the highly touted "asylum match" was boring for all but those last two minutes when those thumbtacks came out and we were waiting Dean to drop Chris Jericho on those tacks...and then he did. A visit to times past where tacks and other violent weapons were freely used before concussions were a thing. Finally the main event was actually pretty good. The sequel to AJ Styles versus Roman Reigns from Payback was pretty good from start to finish. Roman actually started showing improvement especially when he launched AJ pretty high into the air from one announcers table to the other. Of course the fans still chanted "You still suck!" but hey what are ya gonna do. Oh and Seth Rollins returned and we were all happy that he was finally back and then he ruined it the next night by being a jerk to fans but hey WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?!

Number 2: Money in the Bank (June)

I struggled quite a bit of whether or not this should be number 1 but in the end it was a runner up. From start to finish there were only a couple of bad matches on this card. Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler was kind of boring, Apollo Crews vs Sheamus I ended up leaving the room for a little bit and missed most of it. Finally the Women's match was terrible, short and had a TERRIBLE ENDING. That being said I enjoyed Golden Truth vs Febreeze because a promo on Smackdown actually physically ended up affecting the match, The Fatal Four way Tag Team match was insane, with Big Cass going on a massive rampage at one point, Dean Ambrose winning the MITB contract in a really good ladder match only to cash it in at the end of the night and win the Championship after Rollins won it from Reigns in an admittedly decent match with a sort of Toeing the Heel line Roman. The real big reason why I didn't put this at number (besides my huge love for number 1) was because the real result of the night was not because the fans wanted Dean to win, but because Roman Reigns (real name Joseph Anoiai) failed a real life drug test and WWE was forced to suspend him due to their Wellness Policy and forced to have him drop the belt to Seth, who dropped it to Dean. That being said what could number 1 be...

Number 1: Royal Rumble (January)

Oh yeah it's the PPV that I'm a sucker for no matter what quality it is. The Royal Rumble had some huge stakes on it. Roman Reigns, at the time still unliked by the fans, was defending his belt in the 30 man royal rumble. Admittedly I didn't care about anything else on the card. I mean good for Dean for retaining the IC belt, and good Sasha Banks returning but I didn't care. That being said, the royal rumble was amazing from beginning to end. The massive pops for a debuting AJ Styles, a returning Sami Zayn, Brock Lesnar entering his first Royal Rumble since his debut Rumble match back in 2003. The fans made the match. Still little moments such as R-Truth thinking this was a ladder match, Kofi Kingston avoiding elimination by falling on the shoulders of his friend Big E, Sami Zayn eliminating his mortal enemy Kevin Owens, and the biggest pop of the night, Triple H eliminating Roman to a massive applause, just made the entire night a great one.


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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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