Usually when you watch an average episode of WWE’s Monday Night RAW or SmackDown, the “main event” of the show, is a forgettable tag team match or a short one-on-one match that nobody talks about past the next day.
Occasionally, they air a segment with a contract signing or some unnecessary 20-minute talkfest that dominates the end of the show.
A main event isn’t necessarily about when the match happens, but how much the company stresses its importance. The aforementioned forgettable tag matches and short one-on-one matches may be considered main events, but they could never headline a pay-per-view.
You sometimes also read about or watch matches that happen on PPV events that would have been better suited for weekly TV. The same idea applies – they are called headline matches or happen on “special” PPVs, but are barely worthy of taking up time on RAW or SmackDown Live.
This list is the opposite of that. Here are 10 matches that happened on WWE’s weekly TV programs that would have made great pay-per-view main events.
#10 The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler (SmackDown Live- September 20, 2016)
In what is probably the best match in the short-lived history of SmackDown Live, The Miz defended his Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler, in a rematch of their contest at Backlash. What makes this match so important, is the fact that it was a bout for the devalued mid card championship, that had the entire audience on the edge of their seats.
The crowd reacted like the fight was for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Miz and Ziggler are both having a career renaissance (as is the Intercontinental Championship) with the advent of the new brand split.
#9 Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW - May 3, 2004)
Chris Benoit started 2004 off in amazing fashion. He entered the Royal Rumble match at number 1 and eventually eliminated Big Show by himself to win the match. He followed that by defeating Triple H and Shawn Michaels two PPVs in a row in triple threat matches, making each Triple H tap out at WrestleMania and Michaels tap out at Backlash.
He ended up taking the back seat, after those matches, to the ongoing feud between Triple H and Shawn Michaels that his Rumble victory interrupted.
The beginning of the end for Benoit came, in a well-hyped match in Phoenix, Arizona. Titled “The Showdown in the Desert”, Benoit and Michaels had a great match to close that particular episode of Monday Night RAW. It ended when Triple H hit the Pedigree on HBK to screw him out of the title.
Triple H and Shawn Michaels would go on to main event the next RAW PPV against each other inside Hell in a Cell while Chris Benoit defended his title against… Kane. Benoit would go on to defeat Triple H one-on-one at the next RAW pay-per-view. Thanks to Eugene screwing up his interference on Triple H's behalf.
The months of January through May were pretty darn good, though, and the Benoit/Michaels match could have headlined any PPV event.
#8 Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle (SmackDown - September 18, 2003)
Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar became bitter rivals in 2003 after Lesnar won the Royal Rumble match and started chasing Angle for his WWE Championship. Brock did successfully take the belt at WrestleMania, but something changed.
After such a gruelling match and a gutsy performance by Lesnar in the main event of WM 19, the two men began to grow a mutual respect for each other.
By the summer they were a pair of ultra-competitive pals. Both men were good guys, but their nature forced upon them, the overwhelming need to find out once and for all who the better man was. Angle was coming off a very recent and unproven neck surgery at WrestleMania that year. Now, both men were healthy.
How do two men like them settle a score? Why, an Ironman match, of course.
An episode of SmackDown in September hosted the historic contest, which saw Angle fall short, 5 falls to 4.
#7 Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk (SmackDown - August 28, 2009)
CM Punk had finally begun using his ‘ straightedge’ persona as a heel tactic in mid-2009. He won Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 25 for his second year in a row and decided to shockingly cash in on Jeff Hardy immediately after, the future Brother Nero, successfully defended his World Heavyweight Championship in a ladder match.
They traded the belt back and forth a couple of times, all the while, with CM Punk using Jeff Hardy's history with drug abuse, as the driving force in the rivalry between the two contrasting characters. It finally came down to a Loser Leaves Town Steel Cage match on the final episode of SmackDown in August 2009.
Most people were aware, that Jeff was already on his way out and that he would be back in TNA soon, but that didn't stop the match from being great. Punk got the win when he left the cage, forcing Jeff to leave WWE. He hasn't been back since.
#6 Jeff Hardy vs. The Undertaker (RAW - July 1, 2002)
What’s better than a true underdog story?
Jeff Hardy was able to get himself a shot at The Undertaker in a ladder match by essentially making him angry. On the first RAW of July 2002, The Undertaker put his Undisputed Championship up for grabs against the popular Hardy brother, and nobody really thought Jeff had a shot.
It turns out that he had more of a chance than anybody expected, as he fought and scratched and clawed, but it was not quite enough.
In the end, The Undertaker showed Hardy some respect for putting up such a fight and asking for more, even after the match was over. It’s unfortunate that Jeff was destroying his body with narcotics at the time because this match could have been a major turning point in his career.
Instead, he was in TNA less than a year later, after doing a whole lot of nothing in his final 10 months with WWE.
#5 Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW - December 2003)
The final RAW of 2003, saw longtime friends and rivals, Shawn Michaels and Triple H, square off in a classic match that rekindled the rivalry into a new year. Shawn Michaels appeared to win the World Heavyweight Championship, but both his and Triple H’s shoulders were down, so the match was ruled a draw and the champ retained his title.
The follow-up match, a Last Man Standing at Royal Rumble, also ended in a draw but was not that good of a match. It's too bad that the quality of their encounter on RAW didn’t translate to what they did on pay-per-view a few weeks later.
#4 Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte (RAW - October 3, 2016)
Charlotte was a dominant Women’s Champion, holding the title, as both Divas and Women’s Champion, for over 300 days. She and her number one rival, Sasha Banks, were given the main event spot on Monday Night RAW. They were the first women who got to do so since Lita and Trish Stratus over a decade earlier.
Sasha won the match and her first Women's Title, in a thrilling affair that saw a massive corkscrew moonsault by Charlotte and a wicked suicide dive from Sasha. Many people say this match was better than the Hell in a Cell match they had a later in the month
#3 Chris Jericho vs. Triple H (RAW - April 17, 2000)
Chris Jericho was one of the most popular good guys in WWE. Triple H was the most hated man in the company. He was also the WWE Champion, and Chris Jericho got himself a shot at the title. And he won!
Sadly, the original referee was incapacitated and a second ref was sent out to take his place. This caused Triple H to intimidate the second ref, Senior Official Earl Hebner until he reversed the decision and struck Jericho’s title win from the record books. Amazing match, amazing moment, great storyline.
#2 John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW April 23, 2007)
After Triple H got injured in 2007, WWE had to change their plans for a WrestleMania rematch between The Game and John Cena. Shawn Michaels, known, of course, as Mr WrestleMania, got the call as his friend’s replacement. Cena and Michaels went on to main event WrestleMania 23 with an absolutely classic match.
Three weeks later, WWE was in England for a RAW taping. Those events don’t often feature a tonne of storyline development as the time difference causes the episodes to be taped. This never used to be an issue for WWE and doesn’t tend to be a problem these days, but in the middle 2000s, shows in England usually just took up time by having longer-than-usual matches.
That is how this match was born. Cena and Michaels went for almost an hour, in one of the only one-on-one matches in modern WWE, that holds that distinction without the stipulation of being an Ironman match. This match started at the top of the second hour of the show and went all the way to the close, and actually topped their WrestleMania classic.
This is the second best WWE TV match of all time.
#1 Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs.Triple H & Steve Austin (RAW -May 21, 2001)
One of the greatest and most memorable matches of all time happened on a mid-year episode of Monday Night RAW. Triple H and Steve Austin, who had been literally trying to kill each other, teamed up to turn their bad blood on everyone else. They became the Two Man Power Trip and won the WWF, IC and Tag Team Titles.
Triple H had already lost his title, so they were one championship down.
Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, who had long seen the short end of the stick, wrestling these two men, teamed up and gave everything they had, to defeat two of the company’s most prolific champions to take away more of their gold. They did so, and the pinfall made an already raucous crowd go absolutely nuts.
Not only is this match memorable because of how great it was, but also because of Triple H’s quad injury, which made this his last match, until he returned to the ring in the 2002 Royal Rumble match.
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