The Definitive List of Must-Watch Matches from WWE's Attitude Era

The Attitude Era in WWE was a magical time of bold characters and edgy storytelling.

For all of the in-your-face bravado, curse words and beer-swilling, it was also home to some extraordinary matches that live on today.

From The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's many wars to TLC I and II, Triple H and Cactus Jack's pair of violent battles to Kane and Undertaker's epic encounter, there is something for everyone to sink their teeth into from wrestling's most iconic stretch.

In celebration of the beloved run and all that defined it, relive these 25 must-watch matches, ranked in accordance to both quality and historic significance. Then, join the discussion and talk about the matches that helped make you fan or enhanced your love for pro wrestling in the Attitude Era.

*For the purposes of this article, the Attitude Era encompasses the December 15, 1997, episode of Raw in which Vince McMahon introduced it to the audience and the June 24, 2002, episode in which he demanded ruthless aggression, thus marking the start of that period in WWE history.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Undertaker rode a highway to hell straight into Madison Square Garden and SummerSlam 1998, where The Texas Rattlesnake would defend his WWE Championship against The Phenom in the most anticipated match of wrestling's hottest summer.

The unknown surrounding the challenger's relationship with his estranged brother, Kane, and whether The Brothers of Destruction had reunited in time to potentially screw Austin out of his title, hung over the match like a pregnant cloud.

That, as it turned out, would not be an issue.

Undertaker dismissed his younger sibling, turning back any assistance he may have given as he sought to capture the title from the top dog in professional wrestling on his own. Despite a concussion suffered early on, Austin fought his way through the challenge of The Deadman and successfully retained his title.

The overall quality of the match was hurt by the concussion, and Austin has repeatedly given props to Undertaker for helping get it to the level it did, but it was still a good match that concluded a huge marketing push for the show.

Are there other, more deserving matches that could have taken this spot on the countdown? Absolutely, but none captured the attention of the audience and became destination viewing quite like Austin vs. Undertaker, which was the result of months of storytelling that culminated on one of the biggest stages in the sport, inside its most hallowed arena.

The rivalry between Stephanie McMahon and Trish Stratus was soap-opera storytelling at its finest.

Trish was the vixen who targeted the biggest pocketbook in the company, that being Vince McMahon's. Stephanie was daddy's little girl, jealous over the newfound attention paid to the gold-digging newcomer who threatened her inheritance.

Bad blood boiled over for months before coming to a head at No Way Out in February 2001, when the two mostly untrained performers did battle in a hotly anticipated singles match.

In what was a better bout than it had any right to be and a preview of things to come for Hall of Famer Stratus, they tore the house down. An intense, physical match that relied heavily on high spots and benefited from some late hijinx by William Regal, it surpassed all expectations and became one of the great hidden gems of the era.

Listen to the crowd when McMahon powerbombs Stratus and the near-fall that ensues. Everything hit the right note, the crowd reacted and Stephanie going over following the actions of a confused Regal was the right call.

It was booking perfection, one of the last great examples of just how important the layout of a match can be and a reminder of the quality of performers both McMahon and Stratus were.

There have been flashier wrestlers, but one would be hard-pressed to find a match that played to its strengths, enhanced its story and captured the fans the way this did.

The January 4, 1999 edition of the Monday Night Wars will forever be recognized as the night WCW hit the iceberg.

With a hot, advertised main event of Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash, the company booked itself down the drain before Tony Schiavone was instructed to delegitimize Mick Foley's first WWE Championship victory, spoiling the outcome of the main event before snidely remarking, "That'll put butts in seats."

It caused a mass exodus of viewers as 600,000 switched from Nitro to Raw to see the misfit cast out by WCW five years earlier capture the top prize in professional wrestling. 

Mankind and The Rock had wrestled before, but this time D-Generation X and The Corporation surrounded the ring to ensure there was no interference on the part of either team. Of course, there was, with both teams sparking a brawl around ringside before the glass shattered and Austin hit the ring to one of the loudest ovations of all time.

Mrs. Foley's baby boy would go on to pin Rock following a chair shot from Austin and complete his boyhood dream, exclaiming afterward, "Big Daddy-O did it!" in a message to son Dewey and daughter Noelle. 

It was a feel-good moment and the night WWE essentially stuck a fork in WCW, ending any semblance of competition in the Monday Night War. The historic significance of the contest alone earns it a spot on this list, even if the match itself does not come near the quality of others on our countdown.

Perhaps the greatest example of epic storytelling in WWE came in the initial feud between Undertaker and Kane.

In the summer of 1997, a vengeful Paul Bearer revealed Undertaker's long-lost brother, Kane, was not only alive but also coming for revenge for the fire that killed their parents. He did just that, debuting at Bad Blood in October of that year.

For months, The Deadman refused to fight his younger sibling until Kane betrayed him and attempted to burn him alive following a casket match at the 1998 Royal Rumble.

After months of emotional wear and tear, The Phenom agreed to battle The Big Red Monster, and they clashed at WrestleMania XIV in one of the best-built, most anticipated matches in the event's history.

Like the Mankind contest that precedes it on this countdown, there is nothing about the match itself that measures up to the others on this list. No one expected a mat classic between two heavyweights like Undertaker and Kane. What the fans in Boston did witness, though, was a physical battle that saw Kane kick out of two Tombstone piledrivers before succumbing to the third as Undertaker earned another WrestleMania victory.

The storytelling, the epic feel of the contest and one of the signature wins in the early days of The Phenom's streak make this one a must-watch from an era that gave us countless classics.

Of the matches on this list, there may be no more significant than the main event of WrestleMania XIV, which saw Steve Austin challenge Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship with Mike Tyson as special guest enforcer.

The contest had attracted attention back to the WWE product after two years of a one-sided ass-kicking by WCW in the Monday Night Wars and had fans buzzing about the company again.

Not only was Tyson a headline-grabbing attraction, but Austin was also poised to win the title and become the unquestioned top star and lead antihero of the company's newly embraced Attitude Era.

With the eyes of the wrestling world watching, Tyson betrayed D-Generation X and counted the three for Stone Cold. As the new champion raised his arms in victory, Jim Ross exclaimed on commentary, "The Austin Era has begun!" thus changing the course of WWE history as we knew it.

The match itself was a grueling affair as neither Austin nor Michaels was at 100 percent. Michaels, in particular, gutted it out through a near-crippling back injury that was apparent any time he took a bump. The toughness he showed does not get nearly enough praise because a lesser performer would never have had the quality of match with Austin that HBK did on that night in Boston.

This was an essential moment for the Attitude Era, which may never have gotten started without this transition from one industry giant to another.

The Invasion storyline pitting WWE against a united front of WCW and ECW wrestlers, led by Shane and Stephanie McMahon, may have been one of the biggest blockbuster flops in the long history of the industry, but it did give us a pretty badass main event at the 2001 Survivor Series.

Austin, Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Booker T and Rob Van Dam represented the antagonists, while The Rock captained a team consisting of Chris Jericho, Undertaker, Kane and Big Show representing WWE. The most star-studded main event in event history, it featured the highest stakes ever: The winning promotion would continue on while the loser would disappear forever.

Superb in-ring action, a red-hot crowd and intrigue surrounding the teams' ability to coexist made for a fantastic main event that saw both Jericho and Angle betray their teams, with the latter proving the difference as The Rock won the match for Team WWE by way of a pinfall on Austin.

The stipulations stuck until WWE realized it could milk money out of the ECW name, and most of the talent was back on television in some form by the spring, but the match was a fantastic example of how the elimination tag match can still work as a main attraction at Survivor Series and a reminder of just how stacked that late-2001 roster was.

The year 2000 may be the greatest for storytelling in WWE history. Brimming with stars, the company weaved many of them in and out of storylines with each other, creating an ultra-competitive world title picture.

It was only fitting then that the year came to a conclusion with an Armageddon pay-per-view headlined by a six-way Hell in a Cell match for the WWE title. Kurt Angle entered the match as champion, faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. His challengers? A Who's Who of future Hall of Famers: Rikishi, The Undertaker, The Rock, Austin and Triple H.

The wild and brutal match threatened not only to bring all the stories within together, but it also showcased the resiliency and toughness of Angle. To that point, he had been the All-American milk-drinker, a guy whose talent was undeniable but who had never really been presented as a badass by any means.

With blood pouring from a forehead wound, he successfully defended his title here after finding just the right opening and stealing the pinfall victory.

The most memorable moment is Rikishi's big bump off the cage and into the bed of a truck conveniently packed with hay bales, but the whole thing is necessary viewing for fans who want a taste of just how great the period just after the dawn of the new Millennium was for WWE.

Fans had become familiar with ladder matches by the time the 2001 Royal Rumble rolled around, thanks to WWE's growing reliance on the gimmick match. What they weren't prepared for was the instant classic Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit would deliver for the Intercontinental Championship in the night's second match.

Setting aside the death-defying high spots that would define the contest throughout the era, Benoit and Jericho opted for a punishing match that used the ladder as an implement of pain. There were still big bumps, but it was a match grounded in brutality.

Champion Benoit and challenger Jericho beat the life out of each other, before Y2J obliterated his opponent with a chair, dumped him to the floor and retrieved the title for the win.

A completely different ladder match from what you would have seen at that time, it is a hidden gem and one of the more underappreciated contests of that kind. It earns your attention, even if watching one of the participants perform isn't as easy as it once was.

The first in an iconic trilogy of WrestleMania main events, the 1999 showdown between Austin and The Rock was a wild brawl that culminated in The Texas Rattlesnake's return to the top of the industry after a year of the evil Mr. McMahon and his Corporation trying to hold him down.

The fight spilled up the aisle, around ringside and back into the ring. Earl Hebner, Mankind and McMahon all took turns serving as special referee as the Philadelphia crowd cheered on the beer-swilling antihero.

There were dramatic near-falls fueled by both champion and challenger kicking out of each other's finisher. It was a missed People's Elbow by The Rock that allowed Austin to turn him inside out with one last Stunner en route to another reign as champion.

The post-match celebration by Austin, his foot on the chest of a fallen McMahon and holding the world title overhead, is an enduring image and exactly what that match needed to project.

A great entry into the Austin vs. McMahon feud and the first big time main event for Stone Cold and The Rock, it planted the seeds for an even greater contest between the iconic competitors just two years later.

Prior to No Mercy in October 2001, no one questioned whether Jericho had the in-ring chops or charisma to be a top star in WWE. There was no doubt he could hang with the top stars and be every bit as entertaining as The Rock or Austin. All he needed was an opportunity.

He got it that fall when he started a rivalry with The Great One over the WCW Championship. No longer content to sit back and watch others doubt his abilities, he stood up for himself and sought to relieve Rock of his title.

And he did, but not before a grueling match full of ups and downs, referee bumps and late-match interference from Stephanie McMahon. It was ironic that The Billion Dollar Princess inadvertently aided Jericho in winning the biggest match of his career given their long history of trash talking and general disdain.

Yet, there she was, providing him with the distraction that would not only win him the title but also catapult him to a top spot on the card. 

In reality, there are three or four matches between Jericho and Rock that could have made this countdown. Their chemistry was off the charts and every one of their encounters built on the previous one. The match two months later at Vengeance was superb. The Royal Rumble showdown in January 2002 might have been their best from a flow and storytelling perspective.

This first match, though, brought drama and a split, molten-hot crowd ready to see two of the best and most popular wrestlers on the planet battle for a coveted title. They got that in spades and witnessed Jericho's coming-of-age moment in the process.

Maybe the most forgotten classic of the entire Attitude Era was the WWE Championship match that saw The Alliance's Austin defend against WWE's Angle in the co-main event of SummerSlam 2001.

Austin had betrayed Vince McMahon's company just a month earlier at the Invasion pay-per-view and emerged as the leader of the WCW/ECW faction looking to take over the wrestling world. Angle was the loyal leader of the WWE, an Olympic badass looking for revenge after The Texas Rattlesnake stabbed him in the back.

Their match was a physical war that saw Austin dominate and bloody Angle, only to repeatedly fail to put him away. With frustration setting in, he attacked official after official. Then, when the challenger mounted a comeback and opened up a can of whoop-ass on Stone Cold, the Alliance's scheme became apparent.

With no other official available, WCW referee Nick Patrick rushed the ring. Rather than counting the fall and declaring Angle the new champion, he called for the bell and disqualified Austin for putting his hands on a referee.

The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos and Angle took his frustration out on Patrick, trapping him in the ankle lock.

The finish is often cited as the one thing keeping the match from becoming a legitimate classic but considering the company was holding off Angle's win for a month later in his hometown of Pittsburgh, it made sense. Furthermore, it was an outstanding bit of heel chicanery that only made fans want to see Angle beat Austin that much more.

In that regard, it was an effective take on the ol' Dusty finish and the appropriate conclusion to a badass match between two of the best to ever do it.

The Fully Loaded 2000 pay-per-view saw WWE officials test out three uber-talented mid-carders against three established stars in hopes of elevating the Superstars to a new level and growing its main event scene. 

Angle, in his first year with the company, battled The Undertaker and Benoit squared off with The Rock. It was Jericho who left fans in awe, though, following a Match of the Year contender with Triple H.

What had developed into an intensely personal rivalry centered around Jericho's treatment of The Game's wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, gave way to a brutal Last Man Standing match.

Triple H, out to prove Jericho wasn't in his league, dominated for a good portion of the bout, even resting on the ropes as the referee went about counting Y2J out. Demonstrating the resiliency and grit that would come to define his babyface character, Jericho fought back and came within seconds of defeating the former world champion.

But it was not meant to be. Triple H barely rose to his feet before the referee's 10-count, earning the hardest-fought victory of his year. For Jericho, it was proof he could hang with the best and fans were willing to accept him in a main event position within the company.

Just over a year into his career, everyone knew Angle was an elite mat technician. He was as gifted a professional wrestler as had ever entered the industry. He also accomplished more in 12 months than any Superstar before or since. What he did not have was a ton of experience with was hardcore wrestling prior to the 2001 King of the Ring PPV. 

Throw in the added caveat of working with Shane McMahon, an untrained wrestler with a knack for the high-risk and theatrical, and you had a mixture that didn't necessarily favor a Match of the Year candidate.

Perhaps that is why the wrestling world was stunned by the excellence of the bout and floored by the unbridled violence within.

Angle broke his tailbone following a suplex on the floor. McMahon suffered several suplexes into what the performers thought was candy glass, only to learn after the fact that it had been reinforced to sustain pyro, as revealed on an episode of WWE Untold. When McMahon did not explode through the set as planned, Angle hurled him through the glass, twice, leaving shards embedded in the performers.

The finish, an Olympic slam from the top rope, was superb and put an exclamation point on one of the great hardcore ass-kickings in WWE history.

Maybe a bit much at the time, but the match highlighted McMahon's willingness to do whatever he could to ensure a memorable bout. It also gave Angle some much-needed edge, all within the wild and chaotic parameters established by the era. 

One month removed from a career-defining victory over Cactus Jack at the Royal Rumble that firmly entrenched him as the lead heel in WWE, Triple H again found himself confronted by Mick Foley’s maniacal alter ego, this time inside Hell in a Cell.

For Jack, the match represented an opportunity to capture the WWE Championship from his foe and headline WrestleMania. For Triple H, it was the chance to retire one of his greatest rivals and rob him of his opportunity to achieve a lifelong dream.

With emotions high, the combatants entered another violent entry into their legendary feud.

Like he did so many times over the course of their rivalry, Triple H absorbed considerable punishment but emerged with his arm raised in victory.

There was fire, barbed wire and another huge bump by the challenger. The fans were enthralled and Triple H added another notch to a belt he was still growing into. As for Foley, he would wind up headlining the very WrestleMania he feared he would miss out on as part of a star-studded Fatal 4-Way match that was decidedly less great than the pair of showdowns with Triple H.

The greatest Iron Man match in WWE occurred during the Attitude Era.

That may sound like an oxymoron given the attention span of fans during that time, but it is a testament to Triple H and The Rock’s ability to captivate the audience through raw in-ring chemistry and storytelling.

One of the greatest rivalries of the era, it played out over the course of 60 minutes, with special referee Shawn Michaels adding more drama as fans questioned whether he would remain impartial.

He did, but The McMahon-Helmsley Faction was not.

The heel group entered the match late, following a Michaels bump, and beat down The Great One. Then came the return of The Undertaker, eight months after he disappeared from television the previous September. The American Badass, debuting his new persona, wreaked havoc and laid waste to the heels before delivering a Tombstone piledriver to Triple H that was caught by a recovering Michaels.

The bell rang, The Game was awarded the final fall and title in controversial fashion, but none of it could take away from the superb bit of storytelling by two masters of their craft. It is probably the best of their many matches though not the most significant in their careers.

Triple H’s rise to the top of WWE was met with resistance by Austin, both in front of and behind the cameras. It was the feud between the two that played out on television that resulted in an instant classic at the 2001 No Way Out PPV in Las Vegas. 

The feud began in the summer of 1999, escalated with Triple H masterminding a vehicular assault on The Texas Rattlesnake and resumed the following year, when Austin returned from neck surgery to seek revenge on his assailant.

After months of each Superstar screwing the other out of title opportunities, they arrived in Sin City for a rare Three Stages of Hell match in which the first fall would be contested under regular rules, the second a Street Fight, and the third within the confines of a steel cage.

Austin stunned his way to a victory in the first fall, winning a straight match that was geared more to his opponent’s skill set. Triple H evened it up by outbrawling Stone Cold. Then came the steel cage match, in which both men struck each other with their weapon of choice. The Cerebral Assassin just happened to fall on top of Austin, earning him a hard-fought win at just under 40 minutes.

The epic encounter kept the fans on the edge of their seats and even managed to surprise them with an outcome most did not see coming. It’s worth checking out not only for its obvious quality but also the fact that it was one of the last great singles matches of Triple H's career pre-quadriceps tear.

There would be many more to come, but none hit quite like The Game at the height of his in-ring abilities prior to that injury.

The Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches popularized by The Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boyz wowed fans at the turn of the century and popularized a gimmick bout that eventually earned its own pay-per-view. 

It was an overshadowed instant classic from October 1999 that changed the course of four young stars' careers and introduced the industry to what the future would look like.

In the finale of the Terri Invitational Tournament (yeah, yeah), in which the winner would receive $100,000 and the managerial services of Terri Runnels, Edge and Christian and the Hardys captured the attention of the fans, promoters and industry insiders with a tag team ladder match that instantly elevated them to stardom.

They seized their opportunity, threw caution to the wind and executed innovative offense even the most creative wrestlers had never imagined possible. It was a collision course, a demolition derby of flying and crashing bodies. The spots they produced, the pain and agony they put their bodies through to leave an impression on the audience was unfathomable.

All four performers knew it was their one shot at stardom and they did not waste it.

The Hardys emerged victorious but the standing ovation awarded both teams indicated they had won over the fans and those in power behind the scenes. All four saw their careers thrive in the wake of the match and they remain active performers in the two biggest companies in professional wrestling today.

None of this would have happened had they not nailed their first shot at the big times in that high-stakes, high-reward match.

The summer of 1998 may have been dominated by Stone Cold and The Undertaker’s Highway to Hell but it was a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship that stole the show at SummerSlam as The Rock defended against Triple H in the first of their high-profile pay-per-view encounters.

The product of the intense rivalry between The Nation and D-Generation X, the match had significant build to it, including several moving parts. Beyond the competitors themselves, there was the storyline involving Mark Henry courting Chyna, despite several denials of his advances. They would play a role late in the contest.

The Rock targeted the injured knee of his opponent, showing ruthlessness fans had not associated with the self-proclaimed People's Champion. When Triple H mounted a comeback and bloodied The Great One, and Chyna threw powder in his eyes, the heel suddenly earned the respect of the New York crowd. Gone were the "Rocky sucks" chants. Instead, the most diehard fans in the business voiced their support for the young third-generation star. 

Were they overjoyed when Triple H retrieved the title and won the match? Absolutely, but there was credibility earned by The Rock on that night that would propel him up the card and give Vince McMahon and others in power all the confidence they needed to strap the world title on him within three months.

The Attitude Era was one of limit-pushing storytelling, in-your-face characters and wild brawls. It was that third element that was perfected at Over The Edge: In Your House when Austin defended his WWE Championship against Mr. McMahon's hand-picked challenger, Dude Love.

With Gerald Brisco as the guest timekeeper, Pat Patterson as special ring announcer and McMahon as the guest referee, the odds were stacked against Stone Cold. That is, until he produced The Undertaker as his backup. The Phenom kept all interfering parties at bay while Austin and Love battled around the arena, including a nasty bump from Love off a soundstage and to the concrete floor below.

The action climaxed with an errant steel chair shot from Love to McMahon, knocking the referee for the match unconscious. A replacement official found himself assaulted by Patterson and Brisco, which earned the stooges a chokeslam through the announce table by The Deadman.

Austin would seize an opening, drop Love with another stunner and use the lifeless hand of McMahon to count the pinfall, retaining his title in the first great main event of his title reign.

While forgotten by some in favor of the matches that would follow, the war with Love laid the groundwork for the style that would dominate the main event scene of WWE for years to come. For that, Austin and Foley deserve recognition and your attention.

After a show-stealing Triangle Ladder match at WrestleMania 2000, the rivalry between The Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz and Edge and Christian escalated. Weekly interactions involving weapons of the teams' choosing led to commissioner Mick Foley announcing the first-ever Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for that year's SummerSlam.

The revolutionary concept would up the ante and push the participants to evolve their creativity in hopes of avoiding repetition. As they had previously, the combatants rose to the occasion and delivered another death-defying performance that again changed wrestling as we knew it.

Each spot built on those that came before it, with callbacks to previous encounters involving the three teams. The presence of Lita added a new element and the fact that the Hardy Boyz were competing in their home state of North Carolina elevated emotions.

In the end, no dynamic appearance by Lita or hometown sentiments could delay the inevitable Edge and Christian victory. The heels retained their titles, but the three legendary teams continued to write history with every one of their innovative contests.

There were real questions about Triple H and his status as the lead heel in WWE entering the 2000 Royal Rumble.

He had excelled as the slimy villain who lured Stephanie McMahon away from her father and created the most hated couple in the industry, but did he have the necessary tools to be the guy in a key role during the height of pro wrestling popularity? 

He answered that question with a resounding "yes" in a five-star Street Fight against Cactus Jack in which his WWE Championship was on the line.

Jack was fueled by revenge after his livelihood was threatened by The Game and his cronies just a month earlier. He fought with his own title aspirations but also with the memories of Triple H mocking his family. He was unhinged, violent and malevolent. 

And justifiably so.

Proving to be every bit the Cerebral Assassin Jim Ross had labeled him, Triple H produced handcuffs and rendered the challenger defenseless, much in the same way The Rock did a year earlier at the same event. This time, it was The Great One saving Jack and keeping him in the fight.

It was Triple H who would earn the victory, his lower leg bloodied from a nasty laceration as he hooked Jack's arms behind his back and drove him face-first into a pile of thumbtacks with his Pedigree finisher. Just as every major star before him was forced to show he belonged in his position, The Game did just that, proving he could sell an ass-kicking and deliver one.

The critical reception was strong, the fans responded favorably and Triple H was a made man.

He could not have done it without Foley, whose chemistry with the performer was always strong, regardless of which one of his alter egos he competed as. Triple H would acknowledge as much on a 2020 episode of WWE Untold.

Two of the greatest icons in professional wrestling came together for a magical match on the industry's grandest stage at WrestleMania X-8 when The Rock battled New World Order's Hollywood Hogan.

Enormous stars with crossover appeal, they transcended an industry that made them household names and had fans spanning multiple platforms.

As they arrived in Toronto for the biggest match of their careers, fan fervor was at a fever pitch.

The crowd was overwhelmingly in favor of Hogan, which was a shock to a system that expected fans to support The Great One. The audience popped for every Hogan high spot, booed every bit of offense The Rock got in and sat on the edge of their seats as they awaited what was sure to be a climactic finish.

And it was. 

The Great One survived his opponent hulking up, dodged the legendary leg drop and finished him off with two Rock Bottoms and a People's Elbow for good measure.

In a moment of WWE making a necessary creative change when it was called for, Hogan shook the victor's hand, showing a sign of respect few expected from his character. It was a babyface turn for one of the company's most beloved figures and a passing-of-the-torch moment from one generation to the next.

Is the match the most technically sound? Absolutely not, but none on this list are. It was instead a masterclass in crowd psychology.

Two guys who understood the audience knew what to do to elicit the reactions they wanted and proved why performers of their stature are not manufactured in performance centers.

For the second time in WWE history, the tag team titles were up for grabs in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz. This time, though, the bout would unfold on the grandest stage in the sport: WrestleMania.

The pressure was on all three teams to deliver a match that lived up to the lofty expectations they had set by way of their performances in previous contests. By building on their prior encounters and perfectly utilizing associates Rhyno, Spike Dudley and Lita, they did just that.

TLC II at WrestleMania X-Seven did the seemingly impossible and improved upon a five-star classic from eight months earlier. The spots were bigger, the bumps harder and Edge and Christian again found a way to slink away as champions.

Controlled chaos. High-flying artistry. A decadent demolition derby.

All terms perfectly describe a match that, like its predecessor, altered what fans and wrestlers alike believed was possible in a gimmick match. For better or worse, expectations went through the roof.

There are some matches that stick with fans long after they first see them. They become etched in the minds of the audience, repeated in video packages and recalled by the wrestlers who lived them.

They become the stuff of legend, leaving some fans to question whether the retelling of tales actually equates to what unfolded in the ring on that night.

The Undertaker vs. Mankind contest in Hell in a Cell from the 1998 King of the Ring is one of those matches and, yes, it did happen exactly as you've heard.

First, Undertaker scaled the cell with a broken foot to clash with his longtime rival on the roof. Then, he tossed Mankind off the structure and through the announce table some 20 feet below.

When it looked like Mankind would be unable to continue, he pushed through agents and doctors, scaled the cage and was then chokeslammed through the roof.

Knocked unconscious, he was taken up the ramp, where he rolled off a stretcher and returned to finish the match. A broken tooth resting in his beard by way of his nose, thumbtacks and a crowd in awe followed.

The most mesmerizing match in WWE history was over and the winner was irrelevant. Foley suffered for his art, running on adrenaline and his own stubborn desire to finish the match. Undertaker gritted through what had to be an agonizing injury of his own to ensure Foley's efforts were not wasted.

Together, two grizzled veterans created the most stomach-churning match in company history and a piece of history that remains a topic of discussion to this day.

Odds are you have already seen it, but watch it again and allow yourself to live in the moment. Immerse yourself, feel as the crowd feels. See the high spots, feel the agony. Recall just how eerie the Igloo in Pittsburgh was, creating the perfect setting for a match of its type. 

You won't be disappointed.

If you have made it this far on the list, you are probably wondering what could possibly outrank them all. The answer? The Rock vs. Austin from WrestleMania X-Seven, a phenomenal match between the two most definitive stars of the era and its end as we knew it.

Rock and Austin had wrestled many times before their encounter on April 1, 2001. They had headlined PPVs, rewritten the history books and risen to the top of the profession at roughly the same time. They were two industry giants thriving in the same company and in the same era.

They were at their peak in popularity at WrestleMania X-Seven, though. That event was a celebration of WWE's unprecedented success in the three years prior. It was the grandest show the company had presented since the third Showcase of the Immortals some 14 years prior, and the main event was the perfect showcase of all that made it a global force in sports and entertainment.

The enormity of the moment was not lost on Austin or Rock, who delivered a spectacle of a match. Austin recalled his days as The Ringmaster as he broke out the Million Dollar Dream and Rock countered by employing the Sharpshooter, a normal part of his arsenal and an effective weapon utilized against Stone Cold by Bret Hart four years earlier.

The near-falls were dramatic, the crowd was red hot for fellow Texan Austin and every spot felt like it could bring about the end of the match.

Then came Vince McMahon's appearance.

"I need to beat you, Rock. I need it more than you could ever imagine," Austin told his rival prior to the show. He proved just how desperate he was to reclaim the title, aligning himself with the man he spent his entire main event run combating.

Together, they battered Rock, beat him down with a steel chair and stole his title in a tremendous swerve. 

Hindsight is 50/50 and the fans did not want to see Stone Cold as a heel, but the storytelling was superb.

So what makes the match the most must-watch one of the Attitude Era?

The star power. Rock and Austin were the Attitude Era. They embodied everything that made it great and engaged fans in a way few ever will be able to.

The match itself is excellent; a high-stakes brawl that forced both men to employ moves they had not used in years in hopes of emerging with the win. 

The storytelling, the swerve and the awe-inspiring image of Austin shaking hands with the devil himself all add up to a legendary match and one worth going out of your way to track down.

Wanna enhance it? Find the hype package set to Limp Bizkit's "My Way."

Goosebumps.