WrestleMania 17 vs SummerSlam 2013

[Eddenn]

The best WrestleMania vs The best SummerSlam !

Which of these two ppv is the best ?

At Wrestlemania 17, we have :

Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit
TLC II
Undertaker vs Triple H
Stone Cold vs The Rock

At SummerSlam 2013, we have :

Christian vs Alberto Del Rio
CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar
John Cena vs Daniel Bryan

[nate]

Now, if this had been Summerslam 2002 ... I'd have conflicts.

[Craig H]

WM X-7 and it's not even close.

[Craig H]

Not mentioned that were good to great matches were the Eddy vs Test, McMahon vs McMahon, and the Hardcore title matches.

[Raziel]

Wrestlemania X7 might be the  best PPV of all time. 

[Marty Sugar]

This is some wicked deja vu to the discussions/arguments I had over how much I didn't like Punk/Lesnar. WrestleMania X7 was a lot of fun, regardless.

[Go2Sleep]

Yeah, Mania 17 is a real easy choice. There's a few things that define an elite ppv:

• Great matches
• Key storyline/era-defining moments
• Every match feeling important in its role
• Match variety and maximizing the roster
• Luck with timing/setting/crowd

Mania 17 has all of those qualities. Summer Slam 2013 is an odd choice to put against it and is really out of its league. Cena/Bryan and Christian/ADR don't really hold up for me in the sense that they're pretty indistinguishable from any other 2010s WWE main event style match. Then the Orton cash-in was just an majorly bad way to end the show and set up months of terrible angles and shows. Not to mention most people would be hard pressed to name even one other match outside of the top 3 from that Summer Slam. WM 30 would've been a better option from that time frame.

Comparing it Mania 17 is just unfair. Just about every match felt important (Angle/Benoit was the only one I felt like got lost in the shuffle). Even what should've been a throwaway 6-man with RTC and the APA/Tazz had a really good fired-up Bradshaw promo leading into it. Mean Gene and Bobby Heenan made the gimmick battle Royal more than filler, moving it into special comedy match territory. There were 4 different No DQ matches on the show but they were all very different in presentation and well-executed in their own way. You had the standard borderline comedy hardcore-title style with Show, Raven, and Kane. High-end spotfest style with TLC, including the all-time spot with Edge spearing Jeff off the hanging belts. Vince/Shane was a very well written over-booked attitude style smoke and mirrors match, and possibly the best match ever between two non-wrestlers. Then there was the Rock/Austin main event which was just a gritty epic combining the best aspects of a territory fight and the attitude era, one of the all-time great WWE matches between 2 legends at their peaks. Even the HHH/Taker match had a lengthy crowd brawl segment due to a ref bump that didn't feel like it stepped on anyone's toes with this card. Just top-notch work up and down the card with a hot crowd in one of WWE's first big-venue shows in a while with the WCW-buyout as the backdrop and the attitude era winding down created a perfect storm for a show that is difficult to top.

There's probably only 4 or 5 shows ever that I'd say were as well put together as Mania 17, and the only one from WWE this decade is NXT R-Evolution.