#5
WWF Championship Street Fight
Triple H (c) vs Cactus Jack
Royal Rumble 2000
This is the match that "made" Triple H. While he had been long established as a top-level talent and a phenomenal professional wrestler prior to this street fight with Cactus Jack, he wasn't the Cerebral Assassin before this. He wasn't The Game, The King of Kings, or any of the other million nicknames Jim Ross bestowed upon him until this match. And while he almost certainly would have reached the top whether this match occurred or not, this absolutely accelerated the process. Both Foley and Triple H put it all on the line in Madison Square Garden in front of a red hot crowd. As the first PPV match coming off what I find to be one of the worst years in WWE history in terms of the quality of the product, this match and this event got 2000 off to a good start that they would maintain throughout the year.
#4
The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin
WrestleMania 19
While this may not have been the best wrestling match of their three WrestleMania encounters, it was far and away the most entertaining. The spectacle of it being Stone Cold's last match and the story presented within it as The Rock is desperate to achieve the one thing that's evaded him in his career made for an incredible atmosphere surrounding the match, and although Austin had a nervous breakdown the night before, he delivered to the highest degree. With The Rock up to his typical antics and Austin playing his character to a tee, the match became an instant classic and my favorite match on a loaded WrestleMania 19 card.
#3
WWE Championship Match
Brock Lesnar (c) vs Eddie Guerrero
No Way Out 2004
Even if the quality of this match hadn't been as high as it was and is, this would be considered a classic simply due to the fact that it was Eddie Guerrero's finest moment. And although that absolutely does help the rating of this match, it was simply a fantastic match that just so happened to be the first and only World Title victory for one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. With Brock playing his part as the monstrous heel that he does so well and Eddie being the underdog fighting for his life, it told one of the most classic and most effective stories that there is to be told in wrestling. Complaints about this match typically boil down to it being "overbooked" with ref bumps and a Goldberg run-in, but I'm just not somebody who lets things like that hurt my enjoyment of a match, as long as they make sense in the context of the match and the storyline, which they all did. Eddie lies, cheats, and steals to win the big one.
#2
Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker
WrestleMania 25
I think I preferred the storytelling and emotion in the second match. But when it comes to spots, when it comes to unpredictability, and when it comes to the performances by both competitors, it's very hard to top the first Undertaker vs HBK match. This was probably one of the final matches in which Undertaker displayed his agility that he had shown all throughout his career for a man of his size, and HBK delivered another WrestleMania performance the caliber of which we had come to expect from him since his return in 2002. In what was one of the most highly anticipated WrestleMania matchups of all time, it met and even exceeded expectations. It's not often that a match is almost unanimously viewed as one of the 5 greatest WWE matches or just wrestling matches in general of all time, but this one is. That speaks to the quality of this match and both of the performers in the match.
#1
Interpromotional Match
Shawn Michaels vs Kurt Angle
WrestleMania 21
To the surprise of nobody, my number one pick is also a Shawn Michaels match. I've got probably 10-15 HBK matches scattered throughout this countdown, and for good reason. Michaels is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest professional wrestler of all time, and the quality of his matches prove that point. HBK and Kurt Angle put on a match that covered almost all the styles of professional wrestling. They did submissions, they did catch wrestling, they mat wrestled, they had high-risk, high-impact moves, they were stiff with one another, it was just the perfect mix of everything we love about pro wrestling. And when the final moments arrived, with Kurt Angle grapevining his legs around the Ankle Lock and finally forcing The Showstopper to submit, nobody felt as though there was any more that either of these men could have given to this match. It was two perfect performances combining to create my favorite wrestling match of all time.
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