11 Times WWE Was Better Than Literally EVERYTHING

So I don't know how you are feeling today, but I, Simon Miller the bald idiot, thought I would take my positivity pipe and stick it where the sun doesn't shine

That sounds terrible, but this is meant to be a good thing, because there's just so much doom and gloom, especially when you go on that there social media

So why don't we just jump back to some good times? Because that's right, on occasion, wrestling is the best thing ever

So here's 11 times where WWE literally just did that. Number 11, the best WrestleMania ever

So there is some recency bias here, and of course, we'll wake up tomorrow and feel differently

But if you do go back and watch WrestleMania 39 now, I want to walk into my house and say

Hello, dear Simon. I think that Mania 39 is one of the best WrestleManias to ever go down

I would sit down and have that chat with you. Because good grief, it's brilliant

Now, it absolutely helps that Cody Rhodes won at WrestleMania 40. We always have to make that caveat

Because if he never had finished his story, then yes, you go back to 39 and cry into your cornflakes

Because it would have been the stupidest decision of all time. However, he did win

And that Batman game is good because Batman's in it. so everything is fine. It was also really when I think a lot of people went

oh yeah, the two-night WrestleMania can work, and look at some of the things we got on this damn card

I mean, the main event of night one was a tag team match, which was crazy under Vince McMahon-controlled professional wrestling

and it saw Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn finally defeating the Bloodline, because they beat Jay and Jimmy Uso for the WWE Undisputed Super Wooper tag team titles

This match is also great, and it ends with you just feeling warm and fuzzy in your tum-tum

and given that the night two main event was going to do the opposite, this was actually terrific top-tier booking

Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley is one of the best women's WrestleMania matches ever too because, oh my gosh, they absolutely whoop each other's ass

and even that tag team showcase they did. Nobody thought much of that to begin with

but you sit down and watch it now, my gosh, it's a barrel of laughs. Seth Rollins and Logan Paul also surprises

most because Seth Rollins is brilliant and everything between Rey Mysterio and Dominic Mysterio

they hit a total home run. It was yet another moment where lots of people scratched their heads and realized

oh my gosh, the condom is a brilliant, brilliant star. You also had the triple threat intercontinental title match between Gunther Seamus and Drew McIntyre

which got five stars in the Wrestling Observer newsletter. It deserves every single one of them

That is a terrific match. And of course, also helped continue to restore the importance of that belt

So if you are a brand new fan, you haven't got around to watching this yet, I give you permission, it totally rules

Number 10, the beginning of the beginning of the end for the bloodline. So Sami Zayn's first night on screen with Roman Reigns came all the way back in 2022

and if you can believe it, this was meant to be a one-week thing. I believe Paul Heyman thought it would be funny

then everybody watched this skit and realised, yep, Sam needs to go into the bloodline

because he just makes their chemistry even better. The big payoff came about a year later at the Royal Rumble 2023

when Roman Reigns and friends had totally destroyed Kevin Owens after their match

when the tribal chief gave Zayn a chair and said, to prove your love to me, you have to destroy your friend

Sammy realized he didn't want to do that. He attacked Roman Reigns. And all you need to do is go and listen to the crowd response to this

People lost their minds. It was a genuinely awesome moment. You also get the whole hate to love trajectory with Sammy Zayn and Jey Uso

which also added to this because you got the emotion. And do not forget what happened going into the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view

that was meant to be a B-show. People actually wanted Sammy to end Roman Reigns' massive title run

because that's how flippin' invested they were. WrestleMania be damned. You also had all those great segments leading up to this with Sami Zayn making the bloodline break in the ring because he was genuinely funny

So when you do get to the Rumble and Sam decides he can't take any more of this

well, it's exactly the type of thing that WWE especially should always be building to

They're so damn good at sports entertainment nonsense, and they can make you feel something with these moments

You just don't want to overdo them or rely solely on them. But when they get it right, well, there's nothing quite like it

Of course, it's also set up that tag team title night one main event for WrestleMania 39

which we've already talked about. And really everything from January 2023 all the way to April

Well, it's WWE at its very best. Maybe something they want to look at some evidence right now

Number nine, the war of the supergroups. Let's jump forward to the summer of 2023, because once again

WWE was still firing on all cylinders. A lot of fans called it a creative dreamscape

I mean, that's a bit la-di-da, but good for you. This was never more apparent, however, than on October 23 edition of SmackDown, as Roman Reigns and Tarsapal Heyman were gaining back some control from WWE, following the losses of Sami Zayn and Jey Uso

You remember this scene it when the wise man struck a deal with Rhea Ripley and all of a sudden the Judgment Day were going to help out the bloodline It all went down before a Fastlane show that was co by Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso working together to dethrone Finn Balor and Damian Priest for the tag team titles

So here, when the baddies looked like they were going to beat up LA Knight and John Cena, all of a sudden the locker room opened, we got recruits, and we got one hell of a brawl

Now we didn't know that at first because it looked like Heyman and Rhea Ripley had figured this out, because I think it was five on two

but every single time a babyface did run down to help out well the pops just got louder and louder

and you could feel the energy in the room. Of course the singing of Cody's theme when he entered

well it was quite frankly ridiculous and the whole thing ended feeling totally white hot

The devil really wasn't the detail as well because this had built throughout the entire show

and at the end of it Paul Heyman also held Sola Sokoa back until he knew the odds were in his favor

he didn't want his brand new toy to be upstaged. That's also when we got the one-on-one confrontation

between Cena and Solo as well So once again, we were building stories for the future

Of course, Cody and Jay then did win those tag team titles, which set the bar even higher

So I'm just going to say what I said a minute ago. If you've never seen this, go watch it now

And then maybe compare it to WWE at the moment. You're allowed to scratch your head

Number eight, The Rock bloodies Cody Rhodes in the rain. And the best thing about the final boss when he does return to WWE is that he can do whatever the flub he wants

It's why he cut all those Instagram promos where he also dropped the iconic line

off is the direction you can flub. Obviously, he didn't say flub, but I like to see this as a family show

It's only one to feed Cody Rhodes being the absolute man in WWE 2

so when these two behemoths came together, my gosh, they were allowed to push the envelope more than WWE had done in years

It meant that as we got towards the end of an episode of Raw, we did see Rocky and Cody fighting in the back

when all of a sudden the Great One dragged Cody to the outside when it was raining

and I tell you, my friends, he beat the holy hell out of him and even whipped him with his belt

Cody started to bleed, and nobody ever saw the red stuff in WWE, so if you wanted to start getting a little bit uncomfortable, well, that was the entire point

It was also full-on aura and cinema, in other words, that people like to use in 2025

Of course, it was all building to a WrestleMania match as well, which totally worked, it got you so damn invested, and it really did make The Rock feel like the biggest heel in the business

Like there was a sense in the air that he may kill Cody Rhodes unless somebody was gonna step in

And there was also that awesome footage after the fact, when The Rock was like, do you think I'm going to stop whipping this guy's ass just because Raw is finished

Nope, I'm gonna throw his stupid head into the concrete and the rain's gonna make him wet

It also helped the American Nightmare because he was meant to be the company's top babyface

and how the hell could you feel anything but sympathy for him? He'd essentially just been assaulted by his actual boss

It also allowed him to show more edge going into WrestleMania. the air not adam coatman because he went to aew and he needed that too and do not forget when we

got to that tag team match the rock was allowed to walk around saying excuse me i make the rules

because i am in charge and all those seeds came back to this point i would argue this was the

peak of wwe over the last five years it was absolutely bloody quite literally brilliant

number seven the return of aj lee so we all know how powerful nostalgia is and it's why wwe likes

to bring many an old wrestler back. The problem is you can only do this for so many years

when eventually you look around and go, well, we're out of individuals, we're out of bodies

there's nobody left. It's why we all fantasy booked the return of AJ Lee

but nobody deep down thought it was going to happen because she had come out time and time again

and said, nope, that's not for me, I'm retired and there's nothing else to prove

But of course, this is sports entertainment, you never say never. And given that CM Punk had returned in WWE

the door was always going to be open. When we got to the summer of 2025, And AJ Lee was back

It all went down in Chicago too, which of course was always going to be a foothold for her

And all you really need to do is go listen to this comeback pop. It's one of the loudest things you're ever going to hear

And Becky Lynch selling it like she was going to be murdered by AJ Lee. Well, if we're talking about the modern times

this is one of the best returns you are likely to see. So many fans came out in droves as well and said how inspirational Lee had been to their childhood

and how happy they were that she had returned. And that's what it's all about, my friends

Wrestling is meant to make you feel something. And do not forget as well, in her first promo, she talked about mental health

What a flipping hero. If nothing else, it was a situation that felt impossible. So the fact we were able to work it out was totally nuts

I really liked this one. And I really liked AJ Lee. Long let it continue

Number six, Ussie. So we mentioned Sami Zayn breaking the bud line during many a segment on WWE television

And I would imagine if you were going to ask most fans for them to give you their number one of these They would point to the time that every single member of the group stood in the ring on SmackDown and Sami Zayn went around and said you know what Roman don be too hard on Jey Uso He hasn been feeling very oosie lately

And the reason you should watch this is because poor Jey Uso was not prepared for that

and he has to hold on for dear life. What I mean by that is he's aware he can't laugh

he's not meant to laugh, yet all he really wants to do is laugh. This also gets Roman as well

who has to build his own chuckle into his speech if he planned to do this, but that is not the case

And poor Jimmy Uso in the background has also broken down. I genuinely think this is one of the best segments you were ever likely to see

in the history of wrestling because it's real and it makes you feel good and like everything's going to be all right

It also ties into that Royal Rumble thing we mentioned because seeing the positive vibes to Sami Zayn

made you want them all to be together forever. When you remember, oh yeah, this head of the table

he's a manipulative asshole and somebody is eventually going to have to whip his ass

and hopefully it'll be Mr. Zayn. So ultimately, this is just a bunch of wrestlers

corpsing in the ring, but because they weren't all top stars, well, it was like watching movie bloopers

but in real time, because of course with pro wrestling, you have no safety net

It would also remind you why you felt in love with wrestling to begin with and really it's an intangible quality

you can't even explain. It's just great, man, and I would defy anybody to watch it

and not feel the same. It is an all-time hit. Number five, Raw is 30

A commercial-free first hour kicked off the celebratory 30th anniversary edition of Monday Night Raw

And by 2023, this was all perfectly normal. And actually, when you got to these kind of shows

well, they often sucked, kind of came and went, and nothing really landed home. I mean, you can go back to Raw 25 2018, which was absolutely lambasted by the fans

mostly because all of the new young wrestlers had to come out and be insulted by the older generation

who, of course, weren't going to be on next week's show. It meant when Raw 30 rolled around, people were desperate for something different

And given that Vince McMahon had exited and WWE was on fire, well, they absolutely found their momentum

The real big smash hit was the trial of Sami Zayn, which did fill in this first 60 minutes

And honestly, if you want to see how sports entertainment can be done when you don't have a wrestling match, this is absolutely what you should go to

It also saw psychopath Roman Reigns pinning every single mistake and mishap that had happened on Sami Zayn

and telling him to defend himself. Jey Uso also saved Sami from a solo Sokoa spike attack

And all of a sudden, that got you going too. How the hell was Jey ever going to stay in the bloodline

He also had evidence of his own, though, to prove that Sam was a benefit to the stable

And can you believe it? It actually moved Roman. And he started to agree

You also got a brilliant tie-in later because there was going to be a tag team match later in the show

And after Jimmy Uso got hurt, somebody was going to have to step in as the honorary use

And of course, it was Sami Zayn. and he did the job, once again curried favor with the big bad boss Roman Reigns

So it really was the best of the best booking with the titus plotting it over two decades

If you want to call this the new peak of the brand new era, you ain't going to get any argument from me

Number four, Bad Bunny Comes Home. So to continue on talking about the brand new WWE and what they were able to accomplish

if you want to focus on a one night show that somehow ticked every single box

even though nobody saw it coming, well you should probably go to Backlash 2023

It's mostly going to be remembered for an atmosphere so incredible that topping it has become something WW tries to actively encourage

but really, even to this date, not necessarily has been able to top. It all came down to the fact that we were in Puerto Rico

and Bad Bunny was going to take on Damien Priest. And as it turned out, the Naughty Rabbit was an absolute hero of the country

so when he made his entrance, oh my gosh, these people went absolutely nuts

Even when the camera cuts to Priest, you can see he's trying not to smile as well. He was taking it all in

The two also engaged in a street fight, and this is where Damien has to get all the praise

I'm not saying bad, but he didn't put the effort in, because he most definitely did. But this is an absolutely excellent match with somebody who is essentially still a novice

Having 18,000 people just cheering it on makes it even more special. And we essentially test-ran the ending to WrestleMania 40 here

De Savio Vega comes out, Khalil is here too. And his nostalgia pop was so big, he got a flipping contract off the back of it

So it really was just a special moment in time and vitally everybody experiencing it knew

and I actually think even retroactively, you can still get something from Backlash

It's a special pay-per-view and that's never going to change. Number three, Damian Priest cashes in

So the WrestleMania 40 opener between Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins was excellent

because they are two excellent professional wrestlers. Most people are aware that Drew was going to have to win the championship here because the story dictated it

And when CM Punk took his seat at ringside for commentary All of a sudden we did raise our eyebrows What kind of narratives are we about to tell Well it turned out some great ones because after McIntyre had won the belt with the Claymore and started celebrating

he decided he would goad CM Punk, who he was essentially having a feud with

After all, it was the Scottish warrior who had injured CM Punk at the Royal Rumble, and he wanted to let him know he didn't care

Punk felt the same, however, so tripped McIntyre on Ali in the announce table and beat the crap out of him

and I suppose Damien Priest must have been walking backstage, somebody gave him the word, his music hit

Philadelphia crowd went totally nuts because they wanted to see a Money in the Bank cash in and they got it

Now, regardless what you think about Damien Priest now, he totally deserved this moment because he was on fire during this period

But look what else we achieved too. Drew McIntyre the heel could now be twice as big of an asshole

because he had been screwed. And CM Punk could walk around like he was the cock of the walk

because he had finally got one over his enemy and he wasn't able to wrestle here because he was still recovering from a tricep problem

So the fact that WWE sat down and ensured that three people would be able to use something from

this, well, once again, that's just good booking. It helps Seth Rollins as well because he would

limp into that main event in order to help Cody Rhodes. So I tell you, man, this is great

great stuff. I apologize for repeating myself, but something that WWE needs to get back to

it's just so flipping layered. Number two, the return of CM Punk

So even after CM Punk returned to AEW in 2021, I still don't think people believed he'd ever go back to WWE

There was just too much bad blood there. We all know what happened in All Elite Wrestling that eventually saw Punk shown the door

And then a few weeks later at the Survivor Series in 2023, hell froze over because the Survivor Series in Chicago came to a close and a very familiar theme song started to play

It of course was CM Punk and all you really need to do is go and listen to that return pop

because no matter how many comebacks you do watch, you are going to struggle to find something that compares to this

It's like every single person in that arena had been told you're millionaires now

as long as you scream for around about 10 minutes straight. It's just one of those things in wrestling that you can't actually explain

and does something to your brain. And let's not also forget there was a story of Drew McIntyre walking out

There was Seth Rollins losing his mind. So we were also planting seeds for stories going forward

That's what WW was so good at doing during the latter part of 2023

they thought about literally everything. Of course, there was a bunch of questions as well

especially how was CM Punk going to get on with Triple H. And as of me talking to you right now

the answer was, well, super duper well. It was the aftermath of all this as well

because everybody just wanted to talk about it and in turn wanted to talk about WWE too

So if you have that kind of power in your hands and then you do make this big of a splash

well, how can you say it's not brilliant? Even if you're the most ardent CM Punk hater

surely even this must have made you raise an eyebrow. and he's truly brilliant and really is never going to be able to replicate it

you'd have to leave wrestling for around about a decade. Number one, Cody Rhodes finishes the story

Now you can roll your eyes and go, Simon, that is just way too obvious, but that is why it's brilliant

Wrestling is always at its best when it feeds you a simple narrative and tells you that it is going to come good

And at WrestleMania 40, 12 months after he failed in round one

Cody Rhodes did win the WWE title and brought to an end the 1,316 day of Roman Reigns

I mean, it was absolutely excellent. The match itself, too, is a barrel of laugh, especially because you get that Avengers finish

when The Undertaker John's seen The Rock's solo so-called and everybody else runs down

And even though deep down in your tootsie toes, you knew Cody was probably going to be victorious here

I still think WWE did a grand job of going, oh, yeah, but don't forget WrestleMania 39

Maybe we're going to screw you and do it again. Not even The Rock was able to stop that, which did make Cody feel like a bigger star

and after he'd hit that final crossroad to get the one, two, three, every single babyface under the sun comes out to celebrate with him

and it just makes you feel warm and fuzzy in your tum-tum. I know I've said that twice, but I'm saying it a third time

And do not forget, this is what Cody had wanted ever since he did leave in 2016

So he had just sent a message out to wrestling fans and wrestlers all over the place. If you want to achieve your dreams, well, you've just got to put the work in

I really do think it's one of the best things that WWE has ever done full stop

because you put the baby face over on the biggest stage and you could see he was so damn happy about it

He's also now rode that way for about two years to become the biggest star in the industry

So just tick that box all around, give it a golden up. This was absolutely fantastic

Know of any other times that WWE was better than literally everything? Well, make sure you get some positivity in those comments below

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and I will talk to you again very soon