Most influential matches of 2010s?

By Scott Keith on 6th December 2020

Hi Scott,

In the 90s, we had Razor/Shawn at WM X and Austin/Bret at WM 13 as the most influential matches that spawned numerous copies or created their own style. I'd say the HIAC between Shawn/Taker and Taker/Foley warrant a mention too.

In the 2000s, we had the first TLC at SummerSlam 2000, Hogan/Rock at WM 18 (it spawned WWE's endless attempts at dream matches at WM) and perhaps Austin/HHH at NWO 2001 (three stages of hell).

So which matches can be considered the most influential in the 2010s?

IMO, it's Sasha/Bayley at the first Takeover (it put women's wrestling on the map in WWE), the Shield vs Team Hell No/Ryback at TLC 2012 (it spawned the wild tag team style that became synonymous with The Shield), Brock Lesnar/John Cena at ER 2012 or SS 2014 (because it influenced WWE's main event scene up to now). Other than that, I don't think anything was very influential really.

Would you agree with this, or can you think of other choices? Other decades too if something springs to your mind. Not strictly WWE, it can be NJPW, or anything else too. But the point is that the matches should be influential, not just great.

Thanks!

I’d vote for something like the Keith Lee vs Dijak matches, which created the new style of heavyweights doing cruiserweight wrestling.