10 Best WWE Matches of the Year 2006
To be honest, not many fans look too fondly back at the year 2006 in WWE. Much of 2006 for WWE was like a failed throwback to the '90s. We had the reunion of Shawn Michaels and Triple H as D-Generation X, which was nowhere near as entertaining as their first run 9 years earlier.
Back in 1997, DX was groundbreaking, pushing the envelope as far as possible. The two young guys were highly entertaining in their 18 TV rating antics, while in 2006, they were two 40 something-year-olds making toilet jokes, and they weren't very funny.
WWE also gave us that flop of an ECW revival, a pointless Kane vs. Fake Kane storyline, Rey Mysterio being booked very poorly as World Champion, the late Eddie Guerrero's name popping up in storyline, Kurt Angle parted ways with the company, and Vince McMahon beat God in a match, among other questionable and poor booking decisions.
Despite all that, WWE did still manage to present more than a dozen great wrestling matches. The storylines and angles may have been the pits, but the wrestling itself was great and that brings me to what I think are the top 10 best WWE matches of 2006.
#10 John Cena vs. Edge - Unforgiven
This was a very polarizing match for fans. It is one of the very few wrestling matches to ever be nominated for both Match of The Year and Worst Match of The Year by various wrestling media outlets. Obviously, by its inclusion on this list, I am among those who think it was a great match.
Today, I think John Cena is one of the best of all-time, who frequently gives us some of the best matches of the entire year. However, it hasn't always been like this for big match John, and in his earlier years as WWE Champion, he needed a little help in being apart of a really good match, so I would have to credit Edge a lot here in helping to carry Cena into giving such a great performance.
This match actually took place in Toronto, so despite being the heel, Edge was incredibly over. Consequently, they also had a WWE Championship match in Cena's home of Boston just one month earlier at SummerSlam, where Edge also seemed to have a bit more fanfare. This was a big match for John as if he lost, he was going to head over to SmackDown. According to a former WWE writer, there was a plan in place at one point that John was going to lose, go to SmackDown and make a big heel turn shortly after, but those plans obviously changed.
They brawled early on as Cena hit shoulder tackles while Edge gave some hard shots. Cena teased putting Edge through two tables outside the ring before Edge fought back and gave Cena a powerslam through another table. They used ladders as weapons on each other for a while, followed by some stiff chair shots from each. Lita showed up eventually to aid her man and was given an Attitude Adjustment from John.
The end came in the form of a huge bump when Cena and Edge were on top of the ladder and Cena hoisted Edge on his shoulders and gave him the Attitude Adjustment through two stacked tables that they set up beside the ladder and took the Rated-R WWE Championship spinner belt down.