2005 was a very important year for WWE. It was a time of transition with the torch being passed to John Cena and Batista at WrestleMania 21.
Batista may not have held onto the torch for as long, but Cena is still main eventing pay-per-views 16 years later.
The rest of the roster in 2005 was very strong as well and it resulted in a stellar year for WWE pay-per-view matches.
New stars were being pushed and we were still being shown fresh matches with established stars as well.
It is a fun year to look back on so let’s take a look at the eleven best WWE pay-per-view matches of 2005.
11. Chris Benoit vs. Booker T – Armageddon
You could always count on Chris Benoit to have a great match. You put him in a best of seven series with someone like Booker T and you can guarantee quality.
At Armageddon, the two squared off once again in, you guessed it, a great match. 2005 was a strange year for the likes of Benoit and Booker T. Both had success in WWE before and again after but neither had a ton of direction in 2005.
The only exception for both was their rivalry together. A highlight for them, and a highlight for the year itself.
10. The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton – Armageddon
The second Hell in a Cell match of 2005, The Undertaker finally put his rivalry with Randy Orton to rest.
Undertaker had gotten the win at WrestleMania 21 and Orton evened the score at SummerSlam. After the Fall where Orton tried to murder the undead Undertaker, Orton found himself locked in Hell in a Cell.
The match is a fairly underrated Hell in a Cell match with Orton putting on a great performance with some spectacular facial work.
However, this was The Undertaker’s match and showed once again why Hell in a Cell was the perfect way to end a rivalry with the Deadman.
9. Edge vs. Chris Benoit – Backlash
Chris Benoit was the man on top of the ladder when Edge swung a chair at the end of the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania 21.
As a result, the two battled at Backlash a month later and showed that their chemistry had not been extinguished.
Every time Edge and Benoit wrestled they had a good match. This was no different as Edge showed that him winning the briefcase in a multi-man ladder match was not a fluke, beating the former World Champion in a fabulous Last Man Standing match.
8. Triple H vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge – New Year’s Revolution
You won’t find many more star-studded Elimination Chamber matches than this one.
At New Year’s Revolution, Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Edge battled over the vacant World Heavyweight Championship.
You had Jericho, Benoit and Edge boosting the quality of the match itself while the Evolution boys were going through their dramatic breakup. Triple H chose not to save Batista from being pinned which made the crowd’s collective eyebrows go up.
This was before Batista turned on Evolution but the seeds had been planted. Ric Flair and Batista cost Orton the match with Triple H regaining the title in a wonderful Elimination Chamber match.
7. Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka – One Night Stand
Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka are not names that come to mind when you think of WWE. However, that is part of what made One Night Stand 2005 so special.
The two were historic rivals in the original ECW and were given the opportunity to have another match at the ECW high school reunion that was One Night Stand.
This was the best actual match on an excellent show, they both showed why their rivalry was so special to begin with.
6. Matt Hardy vs. Edge – Unforgiven
When the extremely personal rivalry with Edge and Matt Hardy kicked off in 2005, it was pretty clear Hardy was not the company’s guy.
Edge was Mr. Money in the Bank at the time and brutally beat Hardy at SummerSlam despite the fans desperately wanting Hardy to get revenge. This made it all the more shocking when Hardy beat Edge at Unforgiven in a great Steel Cage match.
Steel Cage matches are difficult to pull off in WWE because of their stupid escape the cage rules. In order to bypass those flaws, you need a proper grudge match. This was definitely a grudge match.
By getting the stipulation right, they managed to pull off one of the best matches of the year and one of the best matches of either man’s career.
5. John Cena vs. JBL – Judgment Day
John Cena and JBL wrestled each other a number of times over the years and never really had good matches. This was the one exception.
At Judgment Day 2005, JBL tried to win back the WWE Championship in an I Quit match. This was long before Cena’s “Never Give Up” persona made his I Quit matches unexciting.
This match was extremely violent with JBL continuing his streak of making people bleed at Judgment Day.
Their WrestleMania match sucked but this was a much better way to get Cena over as the new face of WWE, overcoming the big bully, covered in blood, winning a fantastic match as WWE Champion.
4. Edge vs. Christian vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kane – WrestleMania 21
The best way to debut a new stipulation is to make sure the first one is an excellent match. Similar to Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber, Money in the Bank hit the ground running.
The six men involved had all been involved in great ladder matches before and together they put on one of the best in WrestleMania history. The spots in the match were excellent and numerous with almost everyone being seen as a possible winner.
In the end, it was Edge who captured the contract, a move that helped launch his main event career. WrestleMania 21 is a very good show but this is one of the absolute best matches on a very good show.
3. Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle – Vengeance
Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels’ rivalry in 2005 was undeniably WWE’s best in-ring feud of the year.
Before 2005, the two had never competed with Angle being on SmackDown ever since Michaels returned in 2002. At Vengeance, they ran their WrestleMania match back and nearly reached that level of greatness again.
Michaels and Angle are both in the conversation of the best in-ring performers in WWE history. With that in mind, I could have watched them wrestle as many times as stars on SmackDown wrestle each other in 2021.
Michaels finally got his win back from Angle in a match befitting the two best wrestlers in the company at the time. This match gets overshadowed by their WrestleMania match but if you haven’t seen it, you gotta.
2. Batista vs. Triple H – Vengeance
Triple H had never lost a singles Hell in a Cell match before Vengeance 2005. Then he ran head-first into Batista.
Batista’s rivalry with Evolution was one of the great WWE storylines of all time. However, before Vengeance, the match quality hadn’t quite matched the greatness of the story. That was before Vengeance.
At Vengeance, the two had the best match of their rivalry and one of the best Hell in a Cell matches ever.
There was a barbed-wire chair used, a chain, Triple H’s sledgehammer, the violence was off the charts.
It also had an all-time great Hell in a Cell finish with Triple H unable to pull the trigger on a sledgehammer shot before being Batista Bombed to death.
Triple H’s best matches always come with a stipulation involved and this was a perfect example of Triple H at his best.
1. Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle – WrestleMania 21
Their Vengeance match may have come close, but Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle’s match at WrestleMania 21 is an all-time great match.
This match is one of the very best matches in WrestleMania history and think of the ground that covers.
Michaels went into this match trying to show that he could outwrestle the Olympic Gold Medalist. A bold strategy, Cotton we’ll see if it pays off for him. Spoiler alert, it did not.
What was even more incredible was that it was later revealed that this match was entirely called in the ring. These are two of the greats of all time and their ability to put on an all-time classic at WrestleMania with seemingly very little preproduction should be looked at as one of their greatest accomplishments.
This is one of my favorite matches of all time and if anyone goes out of their way to watch it I will consider that a small victory.
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