#40
World Heavyweight Championship TLC Match
Jeff Hardy (c) vs CM Punk
Summerslam 2009
CM Punk's first real chance as a heel in WWE came in his 2009 feud with Jeff Hardy, where he made light of Jeff Hardy's issues with drug abuse, accused the audience of being enablers, and claimed to be able to "heal" them of their addictions. While all of this was despicable, the real highlight of his feud with Jeff Hardy had to be the series of matches they had in the middle of 2009, ultimately culminating with this TLC match for the title at Summerslam. The defending champion, in a match he helped create, has to defend against an evil preacher of sorts. It was the perfect conditions for a classic match, and the action didn't disappoint. Punk put on one of his best showings of all time, and the match instantly became one of my favorites of his. Plus, the surprise at the end makes me mark out every single time.
#39
Edge vs Shawn Michaels
Royal Rumble 2005
It's almost a guarantee that a match between two wrestlers the caliber of Edge and Shawn Michaels is going to deliver to the highest degree, which this match certainly did. But oddly, I never see it mentioned as either of one of these two wrestlers' best matches. This could definitely be due to the fact that both of them have such impressive in-ring credentials that it's simply lost in the shuffle, but it really is a fantastic match. Both guys at their top condition, wrestling at an incredibly high level. Everything was crisp, all the spots were well thought out, the right guy won, and as an opener to a strange but good PPV, it did its job perfectly in warming the crowd up.
#38
Winner Enters The Main Event
Daniel Bryan vs Triple H
WrestleMania 30
What more could possibly need to be said about this match? While some may prefer Daniel Bryan's performance in the main event against Batista and Randy Orton, this match remains my 2nd-favorite WrestleMania opening match of all time. It got the crowd rabid for the rest of the show, and managed to be, to me, the best match on that entire card. Triple H proved he hadn't lost a single step in the ring since "retiring", and Bryan reaffirmed once again why he deserved to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship that night. This match got knocked down a few spots because Triple H got to sit on a throne surrounded by NXT Diva servants and I didn't.
#37
Sami Zayn vs Cesaro
NXT ArRival
Storyline aside, this was just a tremendous wrestling match. And there's definitely room for that, especially in the first ever "NXT Special Event" match, on a brand new Network that is attempting to showcase this product for people who were unfamiliar. This introduced not only Sami Zayn to the majority of WWE viewers, but also the NXT product as a whole and what it has to bring to the table. Now, with the product not quite as hot as it was early this year, but still incredibly hot, NXT has a lot to thank both Sami Zayn and Cesaro for with this match.
#36
WWF Championship No Holds Barred Match
The Rock (c) vs Stone Cold Steve Austin
WrestleMania 17
In the every-other-year series of WrestleMania matches between Rock and Austin, this one holds the title of being my second favorite. While I may have enjoyed the entertainment aspects of their WrestleMania 19 encounter more, this match brings something entirely different to the table. It's hard hitting, it's gritty, and it's one of Austin's greatest performances in my opinion. Not to mention the fact that the turn at the end launched Austin into my favorite era of his, as the Bionic Redneck and with the Two Man Power Trip. The Rock was vulnerable as we'd ever seen him to that point, and Austin more vicious than we knew he could be. It was the platonic ideal of an Attitude Era main event, and some would even consider it THE main event of the Attitude Era. As in, the final match of the Attitude Era. If that is the case, it certainly wasn't a bad way to go out.
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