WWE was still going strong with their Brand Split in 2017 which meant twice as many pay-per-views as usual. While that made it hard to have Sunday nights free, it meant way more great pay-per-view matches.
That sort of thing makes writing these lists much more bearable. By 2017, WWE was well into a workrate-focused product with their matches.
The quality of the in-ring work got better and better through the years just as it did in other promotions.
Among the highlights were some great tag team matches, great Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles matches, and strangely a ton of multi-man matches. Let’s talk about them.
These are the eleven best WWE pay-per-view matches of 2017.
11. The Usos vs. New Day vs. Aiden English & Rusev vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin – Clash of Champions
When WWE does three-way or four-way tag matches, they don’t usually have one member of each team in the ring at the same time. This time, they did, and it kinda worked.
The Usos and the New Day had been feuding for most of 2017 and their work was always fantastic. Meanwhile, this was the match where Rusev Day caught on and the fans were super hot for it.
Rusev and Aiden English could very easily have won this match and maybe should have.
Also, this was one of the few times Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin got to really shine as a team. Gable ran wild with Chaos Theory German suplexes and it was awesome.
There is just so much stuff to love about this match and it doesn’t get talked about enough.
10. Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs. The Bar – No Mercy
WWE doesn’t often give their tag teams a chance to shine. It has become one of the company’s character traits at this point. However, in 2017 there were actually a few decent tag feuds.
One of the best examples of this was when Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose had to put their differences behind them to team up to face The Bar. After winning the Raw Tag Team Titles at SummerSlam, they had their rematch at No Mercy.
This match was even better than the SummerSlam match which was great to begin with. They just really went balls out with this feud and had main event quality matches in the middle of these pay-per-views.
9. The Usos vs. New Day – Hell in a Cell
While Rollins, Ambrose and The Bar were having great tag matches on Raw, The Usos and New Day were doing the same thing on SmackDown.
The bulk of their rivalry came to a head at Hell in a Cell in one of the few tag Cell matches ever. It was also fantastic, keeping with the standard these two teams had set for themselves.
The match had tons of action, innovative spots, and the feeling of a feud coming to an end. For many years, that feeling was missing from many of these matches. Here, it had it in spades and it greatly added to the presentation.
8. Roman Reigns vs. John Cena – No Mercy
The first time Roman Reigns and John Cena went one on one was portrayed as a big deal. Not sure why this couldn’t take place at WrestleMania or something but oh well.
At No Mercy, they had a symbolic passing of the torch match. It had been a few years since Cena was the top guy of WWE and Reigns had been struggling greatly to carry the company. These were things that were weaved into the story of the rivalry and it made things feel much more real.
The match itself was also very strong as WWE was dead set on pushing Reigns hard. He kicked out of several AAs and the whole match had a very big feeling.
There was a lot more going on here than in their SummerSlam match four years later but the two are about equal in terms of quality.
7. Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles – Survivor Series
Brock Lesnar is awesome. Brock Lesnar can have great matches. And Brock Lesnar does his best work with smaller, agile opponents.
Enter AJ Styles. The original plan for this match was for Lesnar to face Jinder Mahal and boy would that match have been much different than what we got. Styles won the WWE Championship a week before Survivor Series and replaced Mahal as Lesnar’s opponent.
What we got was one of Lesnar’s best matches. Lesnar’s dynamic of being big and scary, throwing his opponent around works significantly better when his opponent is someone like Styles.
Not only does it make Lesnar’s offense look better, but when Styles can get his offense in, it looks better too. Both men came out of this match looking great and it was a perfect example of the best way to utilize Lesnar in the ring.
6. Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns – Royal Rumble
Chris Jericho had been interfering in so many of Kevin Owens’ matches in 2016 that he had to be suspended in a Shark Cage at the Royal Rumble for Owens’ match with Roman Reigns.
With Jericho (mostly) taken care of, Owens and Reigns were able to have a very entertaining No DQ Match. Owens got pushed through a giant stack of chairs at ringside and there was plenty of unique weapon usage.
Jericho still tried to get involved, dropping brass knuckles from the cage but it was Braun Strowman destroying Roman Reigns that allowed Owens to get the win.
This match was one of the highlights of Owens’ reign as Universal Champion and unfortunately, there weren’t that many matches on that list.
5. Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
The 2017 Money in the Bank ladder match had a ton of talent involved.
Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, and Baron Corbin all competed to try and grab the contract and with that much talent you couldn’t help but have a great match.
The one part of the match that falters is when Corbin attacks Nakamura during his entrance. Nakamura was by far the most popular person in the match but he is only in it for half of the match.
The rest of the match is still great but it feels like a balloon being deflated by 20% when Nakamura was taken out. Still 80% full, but if Nakamura was there the entire time this might be the best Money in the Bank match ever.
4. Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt – Extreme Rules
When Brock Lesnar is away the mice will fight over who gets to face him in the main event of pay-per-views.
This is the drawback of having a part-timer as champion but thankfully this match is good enough that it doesn’t matter.
At Extreme Rules 2017, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt had a five-way match for the number one contendership.
With five of the best workers in WWE wrestling a main event match given plenty of time, it should come as no shock that this was great. This sort of match didn’t usually main event a pay-per-view because there isn’t usually a necessity for it but this match showed why it works.
Samoa Joe winning was also a nice surprise as fans were ready for something new. With him having only been on the main roster a few months, a match with Brock Lesnar was very exciting.
3. John Cena vs. AJ Styles vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz vs. Baron Corbin – Elimination Chamber
It had been a couple of years since the last Elimination Chamber match and the last ones hadn’t lit the world on fire. In 2017, a new structure was introduced and they christened it with a fantastic match.
While the winner seemed obvious with Randy Orton having won the Royal Rumble and having been in a storyline with Bray Wyatt for months, it was still a big moment to see Wyatt win the WWE Championship for the first time.
The match itself was excellent as well. Many of the eliminations set up matches for WrestleMania but the best work came when John Cena, AJ Styles and Bray Wyatt battled as the final three.
A match that just got better and better, peaking at the very end. A sensational time that should be revisited for most fans.
2. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman – SummerSlam
And we are back with another multi-man match. 2017 really was the year of four-ways, five-ways, six-ways, as they all really delivered.
In the main event of SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar put the Universal Championship on the line against Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns. This period was the height of Strowman and Joe’s popularity in WWE and it was also when people hated Roman Reigns more than usual.
Add in the stellar work of Brock Lesnar who is always a controversial figure and you have the recipe for a very hot match.
This match was pure destruction from start to finish. While some matches on this list deserve praise for their storytelling, this one deserves it for its carnage.
Years later this match still gets brought up when other matches feature lots of table spots and constant action. It truly is the best match of its kind and nearly the best match of 2017.
1. John Cena vs. AJ Styles – Royal Rumble
Just as John Cena and AJ Styles’ match at SummerSlam was the best match of 2016, their match at the Royal Rumble was the best match of 2017.
These two just created magic together. The best representatives of the WWE and non-WWE styles of wrestling, they always meshed perfectly. At the Royal Rumble, they had their best match together.
While it held the same structure as the SummerSlam match, this one ramped up the intensity. At SummerSlam, Styles needed the win to propel him to the WWE Championship. Here, Cena was chasing his 16th world title and pulled off an incredible finishing sequence, hitting multiple AAs, for the win.
Styles’ first WWE Championship reign was everything you could want out of Styles and Cena’s monumental title win came in as good a match as possible. You cannot ask for much more.
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