10 Best WWE Pay-Per-Views: 2003-2005

#1 WrestleMania XIX

The second best Mania of all-time?

I like to think that WrestleMania X-7 from 2001 is probably the greatest WWE show of all-time. Wrestling wise, a close second, at least in WrestleMania terms, has to be WrestleMania XIX from 2003. The card was incredible and the action was fantastic.

The show kicked off with Rey Mysterio challenging Matt Hardy for the Cruiserweight Championship. It wasn't that different than a cruiserweight match you would have expected to see on SmackDown at the time, but still pretty decent. Hardy pinned Mysterio after a roll up.

The Undertaker beat the Big Show and A-Train in a Handicapped match. it was passable for what it was. Taker was supposed to have been joined by Nathan Jones in the match but the Australian was pulled due to not being ready for a big stage. He did appear to give a few kicks though.

Trish Stratus defeated Jazz and Champion Victoria for the Women's Championship in a short but decent match.

Charlie Hass and Shelton Benjamin retained the WWE Tag Team Championship over Los Guerrero's and Rhyno and Chris Benoit in an enjoyable but rushed match.

Triple H retained the World Heavyweight Championship over Booker T in a passable match with a rotten finish. The Game hit Booker with a Pedigree and lay in the ring for over 20 seconds (which felt like an eternity) before pinned him. Booker should have won. If there was ever a big match that Triple H should have lost in his career, this was it.

Hulk Hogan pinned Vince McMahon in a Street Fight. Considering both men were int heir 40's and 50's respectively and had various injuries, they put on an epic encounter. It was a bloody war and featured an awesome throwback of interference from Roddy Piper.

The Rock pinned Stone Cold Steve Austin in what would turn out to be Austin's last ever match. It wasn't as great as their battle at WrestleMania X-7, but far superior to WrestleMania 15 and other Rock/Austin battles from that era. A fine match to end it all on.

Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle to lift the WWE Championship in an excellent main event. Angle gave one of the greatest performances in wrestling history here, as one wrong move could have paralyzed him. Everything was crisp and perfect. Lesnar also gave us that incredible botch of a shooting star press to, nearly crippling himself in the process. Lesnar pinned Angle after three F-5's.

The best match of the night came from Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. As Jim Ross put it, the match was like wrestling yourself. It was a fantastic and incredible offering. Michaels pinned Jericho with a roll-up. After the match, Jericho offered to shake Michaels' hand and they hugged before Jericho attacked Michaels with a low blow in a great heel moment.