20) Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin vs. Rikishi vs. The Rock vs. Triple H vs. The Undertaker- Hell in a Cell Match (Armageddon 2000)

For the last pay per view of the millennium, the WWF decided to go out as the WWF Title was put on the line in the first (and only) six-way Hell in a Cell match in history. Rising star Kurt Angle was forced to defend his belt against four of the biggest stars of in WWF history- Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker and Triple H- as well as Rikishi, who was inexplicably going through the biggest push of his career. Everyone was coming into the match with an axe to grind; Austin had recently learned that Triple H had hired Rikishi to run him down with a humvee over a year earlier. Rikishi claimed he had done so to eliminate an obstacle in front of his cousin the Rock- something the People's Champion refused to accept. Further attempts to help out caused Rikishi to inadvertently cost the Rock the WWF title. Rounding things out was Angle's dogged foe the Undertaker, who was looking for revenge after Angle upset to retain the title a month earlier.

The result of all this was one of the biggest, craziest matches of the Attitude Era, as five titans of the sport (and Rikishi) beat the holy hell of each other. Things got even crazier when midway through the match Vince McMahon and his flunkies came out to ringside in a huge truck, and proceeded to try to tear the cell down right on top of the wrestlers in the ring. After tearing off the cage door, Vince was stopped by Commissioner Mick Foley, who had the Chairman of the WWF forcibly ejected from the arena. With the door missing, the wrestlers in match spilled out of the cell and began brawling around ringside and into the smashed cars that made up the Armageddon set. With Austin laying a massive beating on Triple H, The Game tried to find safe ground by climbing up on top of the cage. They were soon joined up top by Angle, the Undertaker and ultimately Rikishi. Laying into the Undertaker with a steel chair, Rikishi stood dominant on the roof of the cell...right until the Undertaker sat up, started throwing haymakers and CHOKESLAMMED RIKISHI OFF THE CAGE. (Alright, So Rikishi may have landed on the bed of the truck, which has conveniently filled with sawdust...that's still an incredible bump for a guy his size to take.)

Back in the ring, it looked like curtains for Kurt when the champ ran into a Rock Bottom, but the cover was broken up by Austin. Stone Cold nailed the Rock with the Stunner (which the Rock hilariously oversold, in  the best possible way), but before he could capitalize, Austin was cut off by a Neckbreaker from Triple H. Before Austin or The Game could recover, Angle somehow mustered up the strength to crawl over to the Rock and drape a single hand over his chest, scoring the pinfall. Against all odds, Angle had managed to retain his belt in one of the wildest, most chaotic and most exciting matches the WWF has ever seen. 

19) Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio- Title vs. Mask Match (The Bash 2009)

I honestly don't think I've ever seen a bad Chris Jericho match. Outside of a few clunkers against guys like the Great Khali, the same could be said of Rey Mysterio. Overall, Jericho and Mysterio are two of the most consistently excellent performers in the WWE, if not in the entire pro wrestling world. Given that, and their long time friendship and history of working together in and out of the ring, it should come as no surprise that Jericho and Mysterio steal the show every time they face off. Their match at last year's The Bash was of course no exception, with both men pushing themselves to the limits- Mysterio looked every bit as spectacular and innovative as he did fifteen years ago, while Jericho used his rare size advantage to shake up his usual offense with some impressive power moves.

The feud behind this match started when Jericho began to take issue with Mysterio hiding his identity; Jericho vowed that Rey's mask would be his downfall. Jericho drew first blood with a sneak attack that saw him hiding in the front row under a mask, ambushing Rey as he made his way to the ring. A week later, Jericho face off against Mysterio for the Intercontinental championship at Extreme Rules; Jericho managed to fulfill his own prophesy when he countered the 619 by ripping off Rey's mask, then rolled him up for the pin while Mysterio desperately tried to keep his face covered. Mysterio managed to get a small measure of revenge the next week on Smackdown when he hid in plain sight among a group of masked fans in the front row, only revealing himself when he leapt over the barricade to attack Jericho. A rematch was soon set for The Bash, with both Jericho's Intercontinental championship and Mysterio's mask on the line. Jericho claimed that the match would be an intervention, and vowed to rid Mysterio of his addiction to masked anonymity once and for all.

Naturally, the match was amazing, chock full of brilliant spots such as Rey countering a Torture Rack into a spinning DDT, and Jericho catching Mysterio mid-springboard with the Code Breaker. Late in the match, Mysterio managed to connect with the 619 and went for a rare West Coast Pop, but Jericho countered the move into the Walls of Jericho in the dead center of the ring. Mysterio's small size allowed him to wriggle loose, leading to a series of near falls from both men, ending when Jericho ripped off Mysterio's mask. For a split second, Jericho gazed triumphantly at the trophy in his hand... unaware that Mysterio had in fact been wearing a second mask underneath the first. The distraction lasted just long enough for Mysterio to nail Jericho with an Enziguiri and the 619, following up with a Springboard Splash for the win. Mysterio had captured the Intercontinental championship again, but more importantly he had won the right to leave the Bash with both his honour and his masked identity intact. 

18) Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka (ECW One Night Stand 2006)

It's been said many times that a crowd can make or break a match; when Rob Van Dam announced he was cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase for a shot at John Cena's spinny WWE title at ECW: One Night Stand, it seemed likely that the match would take place in front of one of the most biased crowds in wrestling history. If anything, that turned out to be an understatement- not only were the ravenous hordes at the Hammerstein Ballroom vocal, they were angry, blood thirsty and straight up MEAN. The stands were filled with signs saying things like "I came to see John Cena die" and "If Cena wins, we riot"- and that wasn't much of an exaggeration. It seemed like even odds that if the WWE's golden boy were to leave One Night Stand with his championship reign intact, things might have turned ugly.

Right off the bat, the ECW fans showed where their loyalty lay, welcoming RVD home like the prodigal son returned. Naturally, Cena proved to be about as popular as Justin Timberlake at an AC/DC concert. He was booed mercilessly from the first note of his entrance theme, and when Cena tried to trow his shirt and hat to the crowd, the ECW loyalists threw them right back. Then the chanting began (and never really stopped): "You can't wrestle", "fuck you Cena", "same old shit" and by the end, "die, Cena, die".

In truth, Cena and RVD actually had a fairly straightforward match, hitting all of their usual spots without any real variation early on. After initially trying to maintain his babyface demeanour, Cena finally seemed to realize that simply wasn't going to fly, and dropped the nice guy act by locking Van Dam in the STFU and refusing to break the hold. When veteran ECW referee John Finnegan tried to assert his authority, Cena took him would with a hard clothesline, then knocked RVD silly with the ring steps. WWE referee Nick Patrick ran out to make the pin count, but to the shock of everyone RVD somehow kicked out. Cena tried to finish Van Dam off with the FU, but when RVD grabbed the top rope and refused to let go, Cena settled on dumping him over the ropes to the outside. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Edge ran out and speared Cena through a table, and took out Patrick with a right hand (while the ECW fans loudly chanted "thank you Edge"). Recovering quickly, Van Dam made it back into the ring and nailed Cena with the Five Star Frog Splash. With both referees down, ECW's own Paul Heyman ran out to count the pinfall himself. With his first ever world championship in hand, Rob Van Dam proved once and for all that he was The Whole Fucking Show, and seemed poised to lead the newly relaunched ECW into a brand new era of extreme action

...Or not. 

17) Benoit and Angle vs. Rey Mysterio and Edge (No Mercy 2002)

In late 2002, the WWE's newly formed Smackdown brand was a fascinating thing. The phenomenon known as Brock Lesnar was on the top of the card feuding with the Undertaker. Following in Lesnar's footsteps, several other OVW stars were called up to the active WWE roster, including John Cena, Randy Orton and Dave Batista. Eddie and Chavo Guerrero had joined together to form a permanent tag team, Rey Mysterio had recently debuted with the WWE and Chris Benoit had just returned from neck surgery. Behind the scenes, Paul Heyman was working as Smackdown's head booker, devoting his unparalleled talents to creating a new generation of superstars.

In October of 2002, Smackdown General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced a tournament to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions, a set of Smackdown-exclusive titles that would act as a counterpoint to the Raw brand's World Tag Team Championship. In the finals of the tournament, Benoit and Kurt Angle put aside their ongoing differences to face off against the upstart team of Mysterio and Edge.

Surprisingly, I actually don't have too much to say about this match. There's no one thing that makes this match special- it was just a really, really good match, with hot action from bell to bell and a ton of great counters and convincing near-falls. The fact is though, this match didn't need any unusual hooks or stipulations to be memorable- it was simply a case of four incredibly talented men putting on the best match possible. It also led to some of the greatest television matches in WWE history, as Angle and Benoit defended their newly won titles against both the team of Edge and Mysterio and against Los Guerreros, in an incredible three-way feud that made Smackdown a can't-miss show for months on end. As for the No Mercy match though, it was simply professional wrestling at its purest and best, and easily the WWE's best tag team match of the decade. 

16) Christian Cage vs. Kaz- Ladder Match (Genesis 2007)

I've always loved ladder matches. The idea of a match where two guys beat each other senseless while trying to retrieve something that's dangling high above the ring always struck me as being rather elegant in its simplicity. Ladder matches lend themselves to some of the most incredible spots you'll ever see, and though there's always going to be a good deal of people smacking each other around with blunt objects, the ladder match is also one of the few hardcore-rules variants that encourages agility and creativity in the ring as much as it does smash mouth violence.

When the final match of TNA's "Fight for the Right" number one contender's tournament ended in controversial fashion, a rematch was booked with the ladder stipulation thrown in for good measure. Thus, at Genesis 2007 the criminally underrated Frankie "Kaz" Kazarian faced off against a man synonymous with ladders, Christian Cage. Though Christian came into the match with a huge experience advantage, Kaz did his best to even the odds with his suicidal style of offense (no pun intended). The result was a match destined for the highlight reel, with some of the most innovative and breathtaking spots ever seen inside the six-sided ring.

Like all good ladder matches, the eponymous device came into play in many different ways. One spot saw Christian setting Kaz up on top of the ladder while it was stretched between the barricade and the ring apron, then nailing him with a picture-perfect Frog Splash, without an inch of give from the steel. Later on, Kaz channelled some old school Cactus Jack offense by Suplexing the ladder onto Christian while the Instant Classic was lying prone on the mat. In the end, Christian stood on top of the ladder, poised to win, when he was distracted by the unwelcome arrival of his partner AJ Styles, who had come out to play cheerleader despite Christian's explicit instructions to stay in the back. Thinking fast, Kaz met Christian up top and intentionally tipped the ladder over; Christian was sent to the outside in a flailing heap, but Kaz managed to catch his footing on the top rope, kicked off to get the ladder back upright, and retrieved the number one contender contract hanging above the ring for the biggest win in his career. 

15) Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle- Iron Man Match (Smackdown 9/18/03)

Brock Lesnar is a freak of nature- ridiculously agile for someone his size, stronger than a man has any right to be- he's the sort of guy who made Nietzsche feel all warm and tingly inside. Kurt Angle is more or less the greatest all around athlete in the history of the sport, whose technical skills and ability to work with almost anyone add up to an almost limitless capacity for having great matches. After a pair of epic encounters (at Wrestlemania XIX and Summerslam), Lesnar and Angle squared off for the WWE Championship one last time in the only match that was worthy of their credentials- an Iron Man match, only the third in WWE history.

Despite their comparable amateur credentials, Lesnar played things as dirty as he possibly could. Early on, he frustrated the champion by stalling outside the ring, and refusing to tie up. Proving that he was a thinking man's monster, Lesnar sacrificed the first fall to a disqualification which he earned through several brutal chair shots to Angle's head and back; with the damage done, Lesnar capitalized with a quick pin fall to tie things up, then pulled ahead by forcing Angle to tap out to his own Ankle Lock. Things began to look even more grim for Angle when he suffered an F5 on the outside, and a count out put Lesnar ahead 3-1.

Running on fumes, Angle somehow managed to staunch the bleeding by surprising Lesnar with a quick Angle Slam, scoring his first pin fall of the match. With the momentum finally on his side, Angle took the fight to Lesnar, putting the big man on the defensive for the first time. Angle came close to tying the match with a second Angle Slam, but unfortunately for him it came moments after Lesnar had accidentally obliterated the referee with a massive clothesline. With the ref down, there was no one to count the fall, or to see Lesnar nail Angle with a blatant low blow, followed by a vicious shot with the WWE title belt. Roughly reviving the referee, Lesnar covered Angle and brought the score to 4-2. With time ticking away, Angle grew more desperate, trying unsuccessfully to throw Lesnar off by mixing in some rare high-flying moves in with his usual offense. Lesnar proved as indomitable as ever though, and a huge Superplex allowed him to pull ahead with a seemingly insurmountable three-fall lead.

With less than fifteen minutes left, Angle was forced to pick up his game like never before. Outside the ring, Angle used Lesnar's own F5 to send the Next Big Thing into the ring post ankle-first. Lesnar managed to escape an Ankle Lock attempt, but made the tactical mistake of heading up to the top rope- a questionable decision after his disastrous Shooting Star Press attempt at Wrestlemania a few months earlier. Luckily, Angle saved Lesnar from experiencing the wonders of privatized healthcare by cutting him off with a running arm drag off the top, narrowing Lesnar's lead to 5-3. With both men exhausted and time ticking away, Lesnar and Angle traded series of German Suplexes, until Angle used a body scissors to roll through into the Ankle Lock. Clawing for the ropes, Lesnar was dragged back into the center of the ring, and finally tapped out. With less than four minutes left, Angle finally had a glimmer of hope ahead of him again, as one more pin fall or submission would send the match into overtime. Angle went after Lesnar's leg again with both the Ankle Lock and a freestyle Bow and Arrow hold, but Lesnar rolled out of the ring as precious time slipped away. Forcing Lesnar back into the ring, Angle delivered another quartet of Rolling German Suplexes, but Lesnar blocked a fifth by grabbing the referee, and nailing Angle with another low blow out of the ref's line of sight. Still, Angle somehow shook off the pain to pick Lesnar's leg for one last Ankle Lock. Angle sunk in the grapevine, but it was too late- with Lesnar on the very verge of tapping, time ran out; using every dirty trick in the book, Lesnar had cheated his way to the WWE championship, winning the belt in the biggest match in Smackdown history. 

14) Triple H vs. Steve Austin- Three Stages of Hell Match (No Way Out 2001)

Two months after the epic six-man Hell in a Cell match (see Number 20 above), the war between Steve Austin and Triple H was set to come to an end once and for all at No Way Out. Since a simple one-on-one match simply wouldn't be enough to contain their mutual hatred, Austin and Triple H agreed to square off one last time in an epic best two-of-three falls Three Stages of Hell match, consisting of a normal wrestling match, followed by a Street Fight, and if need be going to a deciding fall inside a Steel Cage.

Despite Triple H's promise to break Austin's spirit in the first fall, the early part of the match saw the Rattlesnake firmly in the driver's seat. Soon though, Austin made the mistake of going for a Double Axe Handle off the second rope, and flew into a boot from Triple H. Trips immediately went after Austin's most glaring weak spots, namely his surgically-repaired neck and his always vulnerable knees. Ultimately, the first fall went to Austin, who caught Triple H with a Stunner while he was coming off the ropes- the WWF's consummate brawler had beaten the master technical wrestler at his own game.

The second fall began without more than a few moments' rest for Triple H, as Austin continued to lay a beating on The Game. After suffering a nasty Vertical Suplex on the steel entrance ramp, Triple H tried to flee to safety through the audience, but Austin followed in hot pursuit and dragged him back to ringside through the cheering Las Vegas crowd. Soon, Austin pulled out something special he had stashed at ringside- a two-by-four wrapped in barbed wire. Triple H countered with his own secret weapon, his now-familiar sledgehammer. As both men continued to unleash on one another, using every weapon they could get their hands on, Austin and Triple H were both left bloodied and battered. HHH eventually evened the match up by nailing Austin in the head with the sledgehammer, then sealing his fate with the Pedigree.

As the cage began to lower, Triple H and Austin soon found themselves trapped inside the ring, along with a few weapons that had conveniently ended up inside the cell with them. The brutality of the match rose once again as Triple H and Austin took turns grinding the barbed wire into one another's faces. Triple H managed to counter a Stunner attempt and hit Austin with a second Pedigree, but to The Game's shock and horror, Austin kicked out of the ensuing pin cover at two. Austin countered Triple H's attempt at a third Pedigree and finally hit the Stunner, but Triple H proved his mettle by kicking out as well. With both men barely able to stand, they each seemed to have the same thought- Triple H snatched up his sledgehammer at the exact same moment that Austin made a grab for the two-by-four. Both men turned and swung their weapons with every ounce of energy they had left, both weapons connected, and both wrestlers collapsed...with Triple H landing on top of Austin for the final and deciding pin fall. Covered and blood and barely conscious, both Steve Austin and Triple H came out of the match looking like they had gone through a war- a fitting end to one of the most brutal feuds in WWF history. 

13) The Undertaker vs. Edge (Wrestlemania XXIV)

At Wrestlemania XXIV, the Undertaker put his 15-0 streak on the line for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship against one of the few men he had never beaten in a one-on-one match, the reigning champ Edge. Of all the men who have gone after the streak in recent years, Edge was perhaps the best prepared for the Undertaker- indeed, going into the big event, it looked as if the Rated R Superstar may have had the Deadman's number.

The match began with Edge cunningly targeting the Undertaker's lower back and arms, robbing the bigger and stronger man of his powerbase. Despite the Undertaker hitting his annual swan dive to the outside, Edge's strategy soon paid off, when Taker proved to be too hurt to lift Edge up for the Last Ride. In fact, Edge seemed to have an answer for all of the Undertaker's signature moves, countering Old School, the running Big Boot, the Chokeslam and a second Last Ride all in short succession. Finally though, the Undertaker managed to hit Edge with a brutal third Last Ride and covered him. The streak seemed to have remained intact, and a new champion was set to be crowned...until Edge somehow kicked out.

With the audience in shock that someone could escape one of the deadliest moves in the WWE, the Undertaker kept his cool and signalled for the Tombstone Piledriver, but Edge managed to reverse it into the Edge-O-Matic. Taker's persistence began to seem to pay off when he finally connected with a Big Boot and Old School, but another attempt at a running boot was ducked by Edge, catching referee Jimmy Korderas square in the jaw. With no official to see him, Edge hit the Undertaker with a low blow, then brought a camera into the ring. Just as he had months before at Survivor Series, Edge lined up and smashed the Phenom with the camera right between the eyes. Somehow, the Undertaker still managed to sit up, and quickly hit Edge with the Tombstone Piledriver. Referee Charles Robinson ran out from the back to make the count- and in a stadium the size of the Citrus Bowl, that's one hell of a sprint. Robinson hit the ring and counted one, two...and Edge somehow kicked out again.

With the crowd going ballistic, Edge's henchmen Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder ran out to help their mentor, but were quickly dispatched by the Undertaker. The distraction nonetheless gave Edge enough time to recover and nail his opponent with a Spear. He covered, but now it was the Undertaker's turn to kick out of his hated rival's finisher. Completely exhausted, Edge backed up and hit the Undertaker with another spear, but before he could stand back up the Undertaker  grabbed Edge by the neck and locked him inside Hell's Gate. Edge had found an answer to every other trick the Undertaker had up his sleeve, but the Deadman's newest manoeuvre proved to be too much...finally, Edge tapped out. 

12) El Generico and Kevin Steen vs. Jay and Mark Briscoe- Ladder War (Man Up 2007)

Like I said above, I love ladder matches, and this was one of the most spectacular, brutal ladder matches ever seen in North America. In the main event of Ring of Honor's second pay-per-view, Man Up, the ROH World Tag Team Champions the Briscoe Brothers put their titles on the line against the formidable team of Kevin Steen and El Generico. The match was billed as a "Ladder War"... and given the level of violence in this match, that's not much of an exaggeration.

The match began with a wild brawl through the crowd that saw the first few rows on each side of the ring completely wiped out and all four men giving and receiving devastating chair shots. When the action finally spilled into the ring, it became clear that retrieving the title belts and winning the match would be a daunting task; the belts hung so high above the ring that they were nearly impossible to reach even from the very top of the ladder. Complicating things further was the first ladder quickly being turned into a twisted, mangled wreck, bent out of recognition  when first Generico and later Jay Briscoe were sent crashing into it. As both teams proceeded to beat the holy hell out of each other, the Briscoes began to get the upper hand. Generico got the worst of things, suffering a massive double biel throw through the first ladder, and Exploder Suplex onto the second one, and a downright frightening German Suplex that landed him right on his neck. The Briscoes tried to spread the pain evenly around though, especially when Jay hit Steen with a nasty Death Valley Driver onto the side of the ladder.

Having obliterated both of the ladders at ringside, Jay called for a huge maintenance ladder sitting at the back of the arena, which the audience eagerly crowd-surfed over to him. Setting up the massive ladder in the ring, the Briscoes delivered a huge Springboard Doomsday Device to Generico, with Mark diving right through the open ladder to connect with his clothesline. The bad luck of going under an open ladder caught up with Mark shortly afterward, when Steen set up a smaller ladder as a platform between the bigger one and the ring ropes, then smashed Mark through it with a crazy Package Piledriver. Not to be outdone, Jay set up a similar ladder platform on the other side of the ring, and sent Generico crashing through it with an insane Jay Driller. With their respective partners both down for the count, Jay and Steen each climbed to the top of the ladder, and the match came down to a slugfest high above the ring. In the end, it was Jay who managed to Man Up, and with one final flurry of punches he sent Steen crashing into a wrecked ladder down below and reclaimed the tag titles. This may not have been the prettiest match in ROH history, but it was one of the most exciting, and it was damned sure one of the most violent. 

11) Edge vs. Mick Foley- Hardcore Match (Wrestlemania 22)

In early 2006, the WWE's top rising star, Edge, put his sights on the Hardcore Legend Mick Foley. Edge began goading Foley into a fight with a series of verbal attacks, accusing Foley of being overrated, washed up, little more than a glorified muppet for the fans to mindlessly cheer for. Foley ultimately acknowledged that as storied as his career has been, his biggest regret was that he had never had a truly great Wrestlemania match. Soon, the match was set- on April second at Illinois' All-State Arena, Foley and Edge were set to square off in a no disqualification, falls-count-anywhere, anything-goes Hardcore Match. For one man it was a last shot at glory; for the other, it was a chance to make his name by taking down a legend. For both, the match was a chance to make wrestling history.

Edge came out ready for a fight, baseball bat in hand. Foley charged out in black and white flannel, but apparently unarmed. When Edge went for an early Spear though, Foley proved to have been more canny than anyone had suspected; Edge connected with the Spear but rolled away from Foley clutching his arm in pain, bleeding heavily from his shoulder as Foley stood up and pulled off his black flannel shirt to reveal it had concealed a secret weapon- a string or barbed-wire, wrapped around Foley's torso. If anyone was still in doubt, Foley showed that he had left his loveable cartoon character persona at home- for Wrestlemania 22, he was once more channelling the sadistic and violent spirit of Cactus Jack.

The bloody battle continued, as both Foley and Edge were left with major lacerations across their foreheads, courtesy of a barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat that Foley had stashed at ringside. Edge's own hidden weapon, a bag of thumbtacks, proved to be a costly misjudgement when Foley slammed Edge into the tacks with a surprise Backdrop Suplex, turning Edge's back into a fleshy pincushion. Even Edge's hardcore harlot Lita found herself with a bloodied lip, courtesy of a barbed-wire wrapped Mandible Claw. Lita nevertheless proved to be the difference-maker in the match; when Foley began dousing a table at ringside with lighter fluid, Lita came out of nowhere and smashed Foley's injured knee with the barbed-wire bat. As Foley struggled to pull himself up to his feet on the ring apron, Lita set the table on fire. Edge charged at Foley from inside the ring and Speared him through the ropes and into the flaming table, in one of the most incredible moment in Wrestlemania history. With both men charred from the licking flames, Edge somehow found the strength to crawl over and pin Foley. Bloodied and broken, Foley had finally gotten his big Wrestlemania moment, while Edge proved he was willing to do absolutely anything- up to an including diving face-first into a wall of flame- to prove he was the greatest wrestler in the WWE.