Comparing WWE’s Big Four PPVs in 2017

This years big four Pay-Per-Views were strewn about a large spectrum of entertainment. With 2017 coming to a close, let’s take a look at how WWE’s bigest events stacked up against each other.

Royal Rumble

A great event overshadowed by negatives. Whilst Roman coming out at number thirty, eliminating the Undertaker, and almost winning the rumble again, the event as a whole was actually one to impress. Owens and Reigns put on a decent No DQ match involving Owens falling into a tower of chairs.

Braun Strowman cost Roman the Universal Championship, kicking off their amazing feud. Neville began his dominant run as Cruiserweight Champion. And John Cena and AJ Styles put on a match of the year candidate as Cena picked up his sixteenth world title. It is, however, a premature Bayley title victory and a number 30 rumble entrant that hold this event back.

WrestleMania 33

WrestleMania this year was a very up and down PPV, putting meaning to its tagline as the “Ultimate Thrill-ride.” There were no monumental matches as we had come to expect, the two best matches being AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon and Seth Rollins vs Triple H, neither of which will end up as a match of the year candidate.

Add in the fact the show was seven hours and the negatives seem to seep through. Not all was bad, however, as the two matches I mentioned were good, as was the Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho match, the return of The Hardys and even the five minute Goldberg/Brock Lesnar showdown. The highlight of the show, however, came at its closing moments, when the Undertaker… retired? It isn’t quite clear if we will ever see the Deadman again, but for those few minutes, we all shed a tear as our childhoods took a big hit.

SummerSlam

Lackluster match after lackluster match bombarded this PPV into submission until we were mercifully given a great Seth Rollins & Dena Ambrose vs. The Bar match and the main event with Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, and Samoa Joe.

Other than that, the rest of the card was forgettable: John Cena/Baron Corbin, Big Cass/Big Show, Randy Orton/Rusev, Shinsuke Nakamura/Jinder Mahal. Even a marquee match between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens was hindered by the abundance of matches they had had over the summer.

Survivor Series

It can be argued that Survivor Series was the best big four PPV last year, and it may have retained its title. While the main event was disappointing, the rest of the card was drenched in decent to phenomenal matches. The Shield vs. New Day kicked off the main show with a dream match, setting the tone for a great night. Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles put on a wrestling clinic, delivering Brock’s best match as Universal Champion.

The Usos and The Bar proved why they are the two best tag teams in the world today. Asuka picked up the win for the RAW’s woman’s division in a good sign moving forward. Even the main event had a good combination of dream matches we wanted to see, and Braun Strowman standing tall is always a highlight.

What do you think? Was Survivor Series the strongest of the proverbial Big Four? Did the others under-deliver? Were these outshined by any of the single-brand PPV events?