WWE: Lost in the Annals of History & Tragedy, a Tribute to the Year of 2007

In the minds of wrestling fans, the Attitude Era is widely considered the greatest era in pro wrestling history. This was when the infamous Monday Night Wars took place and was the launching pad for greats like 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock. 

When the Attitude Era came to an end, the Ruthless Agression Era was ushered in. And in my opinion, this is very underrated in WWE, especially if you consider the act it was forced to follow.

I must say, the original intent of this slideshow was for the Night of Champions pay-per-view in 2007, then the Ruthless Agression Era as a whole. However, I then decided to make it about the year of 2007 in the WWE.

This year, in the minds of most, was unfortunately marred by the Chris Benoit tragedy. Other, just don't seem to see the greatness it truly had. The sad irony about it is 2007 was the ruthless ending of the Ruthless Agression Era, likely because of the events that led to the murder-suicide of Benoit and his family.

That being said, I didn't allow such a thing to be my final memory of the year that got me hooked on pro wrestling. No, not for a second.

So without further delay, I take you through the many highlights of 2007.

WrestleMania 23: The Buildup and the Show Itself

2007 began with a bang when The Undertaker won the Royal Rumble, arguably the only feat that he had yet to accomplish coming into the event. This put a cap on his legendary career and everything since has been the proverbial icing on the cake.

Also notable, rising stars John Cena and Batista continued their reigns atop their respective shows as champions, defeating Umaga and Mr. Kennedy.

This led into WrestleMania 23, with the fitting tagline All Grown Up.

Mr. Kennedy won Money In Bank but would later lose the briefcase to Edge, due to injury. Of course, the match itself was terrific.

The ECW Originals (Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, The Sandman & Sabu) defeated The New Breed (Elijiah Burke, Marcus Cor Von, Matt Striker & Kevin Thorne.) Basicallly, this was the classic case of young loudmouths finally being muzzled by grizzled veterans. 

Bobby Lashley against Umaga; otherwise known as the Battle of the Billionaires. Vince McMahon had chosen Umaga, while Donald Trump selected Bobby Lashley. With two very agile big men, this resulted in a good match, with Lashley winning and Mr. McMahon getting his head shaved.

Chris Benoit against MVP was a fantastic match. Backstage, these two were best friends, which gave this match a student versus teacher feel. In the end, the teacher won in a match that the WWE claims to have never happened now. 

Meanwhile, Batista fell to The Undertaker, keeping the WrestleMania undefeated streak alive. Although he lost, Batista still came out of WrestleMania 23 smelling like a rose.

Lastly, John Cena beat Shawn Michaels in a match that lasted nearly thirty minutes. And who said John Cena couldn't wrestle?

If you do, just YouTube this match. 

At the end of the day, none of the aforementioned WrestleMania matches left you with a bitter taste in your mouth, which is a very rare thing these days. But it spoke to the greatness of not only the event, but the entire year.

The upcoming slides will take a look at some of the great post-WrestleMania feuds and attempt to be as chronological as possible. 

The Undertaker vs. Batista

This wasn't exactly a feud, but this series of matches were nothing short of epic.

It began when Undertaker put his streak on the line against Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 23. As we all know, 'The Phenom' kept his streak alive and won the world title. 

The following month at Backlash, the two fought to draw after Batista hit 'Taker with the spear off of the stage. 

After another draw between the two, this time inside a steel cage, Edge cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase. 

This would spark a feud between Batista and Edge, which I will get to in the next slide.

After Edge was injured, Undertaker returned, this time with Batista as the champion. After two Batista Bombs, Batista pinned The Undertaker, as 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin counted to three at Cyber Sunday.

Finally, the last of this series resulted in Edge's return, in which Batista retained his title. However, Edge soon won the title in a triple threat match, igniting a hot feud of 2008: The Undertaker vs. Edge.  

Edge vs. Batista

After Edge cashed in his (newly won) Money In the Bank briefcase against a beaten and battered Undertaker, he proclaimed that he had the greatest week of any Superstar in WWE history. In my opinion, this began the best part of Edge's career (despite multiple injuries sidelining him for months at a time.)

Then came 'The Animal' Dave Batista saying that he was going to have to take back what was rightfully his. 

This set up a match at Judgement Day between Edge and Batista where Edge would emerge victorious after rolling up Batista with a school boy pin. 

In the following weeks, Theodore Long announced that Edge would be defending his title in a steel cage match. Batista won a Fatal-Four Way match against Finlay, Kane and Mark Henry to be Edge's opponent at One Night Stand.

After attacking Edge on his show The Cutting Edge, Batista lost to the Rated-R Superstar after Edge escaped from the cage.

In their final encounter, Edge beat Batista when Batista was counted out, thus retaining his title. This ended the three month feud that really made Edge a main event player up until his retirement earlier this year.  

CM Punk vs. Johnny Nitro/John Morrison

This feud began after Chris Benoit didn't show up at The Great American Bash, thus Johnny Nitro was inserted into the match against CM Punk for the ECW Championship. 

At the pay-per-view, Nitro surprisingly won the ECW Championship, begining his only world title reign in the WWE (If you considered it a major championship belt.) 

After the pay-per-view ended, CM Punk earned himself an title shot after lasting in Nitro's 15 minutes of fame match. However, he would once again lose, and it appeared that this feud was over.

Wrong.

Instead, Nitro's lifestyle of glitz, glamour and overall, living like a rock-star collided with CM Punk's straight edge ways one more time.

Only this time, Nitro, now known as John Morrison, was defeated by CM Punk on an episode of ECW. Punk became ECW Champion and would enjoy a lengthy reign as champion after defeating both Morrison and The Miz to retain his title.

In hindsight, this is what made John Morrison and CM Punk what they are today. Both have become main event material and two of the most beloved figures in the WWE (despite Punk now playing to heel role to Morrison's face.) 

MVP vs. Matt Hardy

After defeating Matt Hardy at The Great American Bash, MVP claimed he was flat out better than Matt Hardy. 

A boxing match was set for Saturday Night's Main Event, only MVP couldn't compete due to a legitimate health issue. So MVP chose Evander Holyfield in his place, who eventually would knock MVP out after he was barking instructions at 'The Real Deal.'

Hardy and Porter would have different contests, such as Beer Drinking, Football throwing, even a Deep Dish Pizza eating contest. Usually, MVP would cheat to win.

After being forced to team, MVP and Matt Hardy won the WWE Tag Team Championships. After months of bickering between the two, they eventually lost their titles to the newly formed team of John Morrison and The Miz. After the match, MVP would give Matt Hardy a beatdown, focusing on Hardy's knee.

After time off, Hardy cost MVP the Money In The Bank match and would win the United States Championship (Yes, this part happened in 2008.)

Nonetheless, I firmly believe that this was the best work of both MVP's and Matt Hardy's WWE careers, which of course, have since both came to an end.

MVP's character as a Terrell Owens-esque character was absolutely genius. Every touch of it made it great, and he sold the gimmick to perfection.

As far as Hardy, he was as over as about anybody in the WWE. He was in great shape, and MVP made it work on the microphone. Hardy and MVP had such great chemistry; their feud told a story, and got MVP more heat than he already had. 

Simply put; this is one of the best mid-card feuds the WWE has seen in the past five years.  

John Cena vs. Randy Orton

After being greeted by an RKO, John Cena met the Joker to his Batman; Randy Orton.

Orton had been punting legend after legend, such as 'The American Dream' Dusty Rhodes, Sargent Slaughter, Shawn Michaels and Rob Van Dam. He nicknamed himself 'The Legend Killer,' in one of the most successful gimmicks in WWE history.

At SunmerSlam, Cena beat Orton and retained his WWE Championship. 

Then the bad blood would begin to boil over between Cena and Orton. You see, after interfering in Cena's match against Booker T, Orton would leave his arch rival laying on the mat. He followed up by pulling Cena's father out of the stands and punting him in the skull, like he did to many legends previously.

Despite this, Cena retained his WWE Championship, albeit by disqualifcation, thus, creating a Last Man Standing match at No Mercy. But the match never happened after Cena legitamately tore his pectoral muscle.

This is the last the two would see of each other in 2007, although it isn't clear how the Cena/Orton story ended.

Randy Orton had already made himself a big star, but this made him that much bigger. It would soon result in a gimmick change to the 'Viper,' which has worked out well, despite my dislike for it.

For Cena, he got his arch rival. Orton is still considered Cena's foe of the past, although now that Orton is a face, they seem to be best buddies... Yay!

(Sarcasm in the last sentence, if you didn't notice.) 

Other Highlights of 2007

Chris Jericho's Return

After months of mysterious vignettes, Chris Jericho interrupted Randy Orton's 'passing the torch' ceremony. He came back with shorter hair, and this time, as a face. He also proclaimed that the WWE would never, ever be the same again in one of the most entertaining returns in quite some time.

In side note, we are once again anxiously awaiting Chris Jericho to once again, save us. Hopefully he does, because Randy Orton is even more boring than he was before.

Shawn Michaels' Return

Randy Orton had demanded that every member of the Raw roster come out and shake his hand since he was the WWE Champion. 

Unfortunately for Orton, an old friend (well, enemy), Shawn Michales, came out but had no interest in shaking his hand.

He quickly hit Sweet Chin Music and began his last run inside the WWE ring.

Jeff Hardy's 30 Foot Swanton Bomb Onto Randy Orton

Just as Randy Orton was about to punt Jeff Hardy in the skull and off the stage, Jeff Hardy reversed the punt. This sent Randy Orton off the stage instead, setting up Jeff's amazing Swanton Bomb. You can view this in the video above. 

That's All Folks

As you've seen throughout this slideshow, 2007 was a tremendously underrated year in professional wrestling, specifically in World Wrestling Entertainment.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did making it. Do you agree that 2007 is very underrated for the WWE?