By the time WWE arrived in the year 2003, they were well removed from the heights of the Attitude Era.
The Ruthless Aggression Era was in full swing and it can be best seen in this list.
The likes of Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Chris Benoit populate this list of best matches and it is a perfect display of WWE moving into a workrate era with their pay-per-view matches.
2003 was an unremarkable year for WWE business. The Royal Rumble outdrew WrestleMania in pay-per-view buys for goodness sake. But it was a year with a number of excellent pay-per-view matches.
Thankfully for us, that is what we are here to talk about today. These are the 11 best WWE pay-per-view matches of 2003.
11. Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle vs. Big Show – Vengeance
The rivalry between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle will be a recurring topic on this list. Shocking, I know.
At Vengeance, the two added the Big Show to their WrestleMania rematch and produced one of the better Triple Threat matches in WWE history.
Angle and Lesnar were the core of the match with both having to take the monstrous Big Show out of the equation periodically to get at each other. These are three very big and very strong men and seeing them throw each other around will never get old.
It may not have been the best clash between Lesnar and Angle in 2003 but it definitely deserves a spot on this list.
10. World’s Greatest Tag Team vs. Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman – Vengeance
Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin were one of the few highlights of WWE’s tag team division in the Ruthless Aggression Era. They were two shooters and called themselves the World’s Greatest Tag Team.
In matches like this one against Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, they tried to prove their name correct.
Haas and Benjamin were not high-flyers but their amateur style came with great agility. This made them perfect opponents for real high-flyers like Mysterio and Kidman.
This was a fantastic tag match, a rarity in WWE at the time, and an example of how great the artform can be with complimentary yet different styles such as these.
9. Brock Lesnar & Chris Benoit vs. Team Angle – No Way Out
This was originally supposed to be a six-man tag match before Edge was sidelined with a broken neck. Had he been involved, this match could have placed even higher on this list.
As it stands, Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit took on Team Angle in a two-on-three handicap match. Handicap matches are not usually much to write home about, but then again most of them do not have this much talent in them.
This was a preview of the WrestleMania XIX main event but also featured great work from Benoit, Haas and Benjamin.
This match was also where Angle suffered a neck injury that would put him on the shelf after WrestleMania. Despite the injury, this match absolutely delivers.
8. Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit – Vengeance
WWE decided they had a need for midcard titles again in 2003. Raw reintroduced the Intercontinental Championship while SmackDown brought back the United States title at Vengeance.
The two men to first compete for the title were Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. If you want to start your new(ish) title on the right foot, those are two good ones to start with.
Guerrero and Benoit have loads of history together all over the world, but they competed in a shockingly low number of singles matches in WWE. When they were given the chance, they performed at a level few could match.
7. The Rock vs. Steve Austin – WrestleMania XIX
It is truly astounding to think that Steve Austin was in critical condition the day before WrestleMania XIX and was still able to put in a performance of this caliber.
He walked to the ring with OMR stitched to his vest. “One More Round” signifying the last match of his legendary career, even if we didn’t know it at the time.
Austin stood across from The Rock for the third time at WrestleMania. This was as appropriate a sendoff as you could ask for to one of the great rivalries in WWE history.
The Rock paraded around with Austin’s vest, taunting his most prolific rival. They used each other’s finishers because that is just what you do when you wrestle someone a lot.
This was a key reason why WrestleMania XIX is considered the best workrate ‘Mania in history and a thrilling sendoff to a legendary rivalry.
6. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar – SummerSlam
Everyone remembers Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar’s match from WrestleMania XIX for good and bad reasons. However, it seems far fewer ever talk about their rematch from SummerSlam 2003.
It was a fun trend for a few years to have the big WrestleMania rematch at SummerSlam and this was one of the best examples of this. Lesnar and Angle continued their stellar rivalry at WWE’s biggest event of the Summer with another great match.
Angle appears on this list a lot and with good reason. After returning from his neck injury, Angle went on an incredible run, which hit its peak with this match with Lesnar where he regained the WWE Championship.
This is an underrated gem that you should go out of your way to see. Also, no one lands on their head trying a Shooting Star Press in this one.
5. Kurt Angle vs. John Cena – No Mercy
In 2003 John Cena did not have a track record of good matches. That makes this entry all the more impressive as Angle and Cena had one of the year’s best matches at No Mercy.
Angle would be one of Cena’s earliest rivals when he won the WWE Championship in 2005 but Cena was a long way from being a main eventer in 2003. This was his first great match and what a match it was.
This was another example of a midcard wrestler being elevated in defeat just by having a great match with an established talent, even in defeat. Cena wasn’t able to get the win here but his stock was definitely raised by this match.
4. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania XIX
Hey, it’s Kurt Angle again. Had Brock Lesnar not brained himself on a Shooting Star Press in this match, this might be the best WrestleMania main event in history.
I spoke about a new era being in full swing in 2003 and it is most felt at WrestleMania XIX. This was the first WrestleMania held under the WWE banner and the inclusion of Brock Lesnar in the main event was a big sign of WWE changing.
The match itself was also different. For years, WrestleMania main events had featured the likes of Triple H, The Rock and Steve Austin. These men created good matches, no doubt, but their styles were much slower than those of Lesnar and Angle.
This was the main event for the next generation and it was nearly perfect. Nearly.
3. Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff – Survivor Series
Traditional Survivor Series matches have a mixed history. Some are brilliant, most are forgettable. Thankfully, this was the former.
At Survivor Series 2003, two teams battled for control of Raw, representing Eric Bischoff and Steve Austin respectively.
This remains one of the best matches of its kind to date, with the story being focused on Shawn Michaels trying to combat insurmountable odds.
Michaels put on a performance for the ages, eventually falling after a valiant effort.
2. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho – WrestleMania XIX
Chris Jericho has said that stealing the show at WrestleMania was more important to him than main eventing the show. Thankfully for him, he got the opportunity to do so at WrestleMania XIX.
Jericho’s match with Shawn Michaels was built on his idolization of the Heartbreak Kid. WWE played video packages showing how similar the two were with a teacher vs. student vibe.
That story was carried into the match itself as Jericho performed a number of signature Shawn Michaels spots, trying to do them better than the originator. As far as a story told in one match, this is among the best in WrestleMania history.
This was the precursor to Michaels and Jericho’s excellent rivalry in 2008 but the quality is consistent throughout.
1. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit – Royal Rumble
Fantastic matches have become something of a regularity in WWE in recent years. As the wrestling business has moved towards a workrate-focused business WWE has put on more and more great matches.
In 2003, a match of this quality was an incredibly rare treat. At the Royal Rumble, Kurt Angle defended the WWE Championship against Chris Benoit in a match that Angle says Triple H told him was a masterpiece.
You could make the argument Benoit and Angle were the two best wrestlers in WWE at the time and with a match like this, you wouldn’t need much more proof.
Unfortunately for this match, it had to follow Triple H vs. Scott Steiner which, as we all know, was the REAL best match of 2003.
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