The explosive: Punk vs Cena
I don't really have a word to describe this match and angle other than explosive. The video package before the match would summarise the build to this incredible match. This is one of those rare times when something completely captures the attention of absolutely everyone.
The revolutionary: TLC I
One of the best things about this company is that people are just going out there to find something that works. My favourite instance of this is TLC I. Although the interest in multi man ladder match types was really sparked a year before when E+C and The Hardys had a tag team ladder match, the real payoff came at the first TLC match. The match between these six men was so successful it not only marked the popularity of TLC itself as a match type (instead of falling to the wayside like the other failed gimmick matches of the past) it spawned all the other multi man ladder matches including MITB, and completely changed what ladder matches were looked at from then on.
The legacy: Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker
This match is the epitome of legacy, to me. There could be another match chosen like Rock/Hogan or Rock/Austin in its place I suppose, but the fact that two of the very best end up having two of the very best matches at the 'grand stage' of Wrestlemania really captures the idea of the prestigious side of the business. When you have icons of the business going at it like that, especially when it's the Streak vs Career match, it gives things a sense of gravity that you only rarely get, and really puts over how important (and awesome!) Wrestlemania is.
The hardcore:
Actually I'd like to cheat in this one and just show a ten minute highlight reel of Mick Foley and his shenanigans. He's been thrown off cells, thrown through cells, been bulldogged into barbed wire, speared through a flaming table and all sorts of other hideous things. He has also thrown people onto thumbtack beds himself, whipped them with barbed wire, generally brutalised people's faces with that barbed wire bat of his...
The everything else: Edge vs Dolph Ziggler RR11
The reason why this is one of my favourite matches of all time is that it quietly captures a little bit of everything in pro wrestling, which is what makes it such a classic encounter. The babyface goes in with the odds stacked against him, but even so there's a kind of certainty that he'll win because Dolph Ziggler is still an up and comer. The audience doesn't care too much about Dolph at this point because of that, but by the end of the match they are on their feet because of how tight the match has been.
