Every WWE 2023 Premium Live Event ranked from worst to best
With 2023 coming to an end, we here at Vendetta Sports Media want to take the next few weeks to celebrate the best of what happened over the past 12 months, starting with WWE and every main roster “Premium Live Event” the company has presented to its fans.
2023 has been a banner year for World Wrestling Entertainment as more and more people are tuning in to their weekly TV shows, ticket sales are through the roof and the company genuinely seems like it’s entering a special time. WWE has put together 11 (12, technically, as one of them was spread over two days) Premium Live Events this year, and since the next one won’t take place until 2024, join us on a journey that spans three continents, five countries, and many hours on Peacock.
Welcome to Vendetta Sports Media, my name is Sam Palmer, and here is every WWE 2023 Premium Live Event ranked from worst to best!
11. Crown Jewel:
Like we said in the introduction, 2023 has been a great year for WWE and almost every PLE the company has put on has ranged from good to fantastic. However, we need to emphasise, the word “almost” in that last sentence because Crown Jewel is the one exception.
The show does have its merits, such as Kairi Sane making her return, the opening World Title match between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre setting a good pace and the company has put all of their trust in Logan Paul to be a top guy by giving him the US Title.
But when you step back and look at the big picture, the show lacks something. Every match on the show outside of Seth and Drew’s opener just seems to be missing that one thing to push it to the next level. Survivor Series was only three weeks after Crown Jewel too, which gives this show a sense of “OK, we need to get this one out of the way so we can get to the good stuff.” Nothing is bad, but nothing stands out apart from one match, a rare miss for a WWE Premium Live Event in 2023.
10. Fastlane:
One thing that Triple H has brought to the main roster from his days as NXT’s head honcho is limiting the number of matches on each PLE. One thing that made NXT TakeOver’s in the 2010s so special was that every show only had five to six matches, but you knew that every one of them would deliver. That said, when they don’t deliver, it can be a little bit disappointing, which is the best way to describe Fastlane.
With only five matches, every one of them needs to deliver, and it starts off promising by having Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso defeat The Judgment Day for the Tag Team Championships. It’s bookended by a Last Man Standing match between Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which is very good, if not a little too long for me, personally. But the filling just doesn’t cut it.
The three-way match for the WWE Women’s Championship should have really been a one-on-one match between Iyo Sky and Asuka. The Bloodline against John Cena and LA Knight would have been better served on TV, and the LWO against Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits … like what happened? Does anyone remember? If this show wanted to be like its namesake, every match should have delivered. However, it played it safe and stayed primarily in the slow lane.
9. SummerSlam:
This show is a perfect example of how a bad ending can leave you feeling like the rest of the show isn’t great. For context, SummerSlam is miles better than our previous two entries and, at times, does live up to being “The Biggest Party of the Summer.” LA Knight was the most over man in the world by winning the battle royale, Gunther and Drew McIntyre being two big lads just being proper big and Seth Rollins finally had the match with Finn Balor that we all knew they could have.
However, Roman Reigns against Jey Uso in the main event was … well, it was bad, wasn’t it? First of all, 36 minutes not including entrances is a bit far. Don’t get me wrong, I love a long match here and there, but only if it feels like it needs it, and this did not need it.
This match felt long for the sake of people on Twitter saying things like “aura,” “cinema,” and “let them cook,” and the finest example of how The Bloodline saga might have overstayed its welcome.
SummerSlam 2023 was good. It had some fun matches, memorable moments and is worth watching if you haven’t seen it already. But when a show doesn’t stick the landing, it leaves people with a sour taste in their mouths, and that’s exactly what happened here.
8. Royal Rumble:
On the opposite end of the spectrum, when a show does stick the landing, it’s one of the most satisfying things about watching a wrestling show. That feeling of watching the screen fade to black and thinking ‘YES! THAT WAS WORTH MY TIME!” That’s how I felt after watching the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble in January.
It wasn’t all great though, some things on the show were downright awful. I understand that everyone wants to remember the late Bray Wyatt for being a creative genius, and he was. But let’s call a spade a spade; his “Pitch Black” match against LA Knight was abysmal.
Had it not been for the overwhelming fan support and sheer charisma of Knight, this genuinely could have halted all of his momentum. Also, Bianca Belair and Alexa Bliss had a match, and that’s about as much as anyone can say for it.
The two Royal Rumble matches had their merits. The men’s bout saw Gunther break the record for the longest anyone had ever been in a Rumble, plus it set up matches against people like Cody Rhodes (yes please) and Brock Lesnar (YES PLEASE) for later on down the line. Cody winning was predictable, but was correct, as was Rhea Ripley in the women’s bout, who was the only person who looked like she could win it, giving people something to cheer for.
Roman Reigns and The Bloodline breaking Kevin Owens down wasn’t the greatest match in the world, but did as much storytelling in half the time the SummerSlam main event did.
Let’s be honest, it’s the post-match angle that people remember, where Sami Zayn finally snapped and turned on Roman and if you listen closely, you can still hear people cheering now. A perfect end to an otherwise decent show.
7. Night of Champions:
Gone are the days where WWE’s travels are nothing more than cash grabs and extravagant house shows that don’t mean anything, now they are cash grabs and shows that actually mean something. Case in point, Night of Champions 2023, a show that was a solid show from top to bottom.
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament between Seth Rollins and AJ Styles, a match that was expected to be a 9-of-10 match and came in at a solid 8. We had Asuka winning the WWE Women’s Championship in surprise fashion, while Rhea Ripley beat Natalya in less than 90 seconds ON NATALYA’S BIRTHDAY NO LESS.
On top of all of this, Gunther and Mustafa Ali put on a great “David vs. Goliath” match that I’m sure we will get more of from around the world now that Ali has finally escaped from the company.
Then the main event happened, and even though people were still furious that The Bloodline saga was still going on with Roman as champion, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn getting the win over Reigns and Sikoa is genuinely one of the best moments of the year in any wrestling company. A perfect example of a show being low on the list despite being very good all around.
6. Payback:
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this show worked as well as it did to be honest. For context, this event happened on the same day CM Punk was fired by AEW, so it wasn’t exactly the talk of the town by the time the show went live. However, WWE managed to suck you in from the minute it started.
Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus finally had a match that was fitting of their status as two of WWE’s greatest female performers, Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura were able to have a main event that, for me at least, was better than their Last Man Standing match, and the Tag Team Title match … good grief. Seeing Kevin Owens bleeding like a stuffed pig was wonderfully violent and violently wonderful.
This show won’t be high on many people’s lists this year, but for me personally, it was a show that took my mind away from the backstage politics of the business and made me remember why I enjoy watching shows as a fan so much. Payback 2023 won’t be remembered for much, but it will always hold a special place for me.
5. Backlash:
A prime example of how a crowd can take a good show and make it great. Backlash was the first show of its nature to take place in Puerto Rico since the inaugural New Year’s Revolution pay-per-view in 2005. Do you think the fans in San Juan had missed watching WWE live? Well, just listen to how loud the fans were when Savio Vega appeared backstage. No group of people in history has ever been more happy to see Savio Vega.
The fans had a similar response to the San Juan Street Fight between music sensation Bad Bunny and not a music sensation Damian Priest. Bunny’s entrance has gone down as one of the greatest of the year simply for how lively the crowd was, who kept energy throughout the match that made this bout a showcase of how to do “sports entertainment” correctly. Also, Carlito showed up, and by the sounds of it, people may have actually cried seeing Carlito.
Elsewhere on the show, The Bloodline saga soldiered on in a six-man tag against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle. Iyo Sky proved to everyone why she belongs in the title picture in her losing effort to Bianca Belair. Zelina Vega was the pride of San Juan for the night in her match against Rhea Ripley.
Cody Rhodes also did that funny walk that turned into one of the best memes of the year. There are shows lower than this that had more quality, but when a crowd is as good as this, nothing can beat it.
4. Survivor Series:
This show will always be remembered for CM Punk’s shocking return at the very end of the night, and rightfully so, it’s one of the most surprising things that has ever happened in wrestling. However, don’t let the former AEW World Champion showing up take anything away from a Premium Live Event that was extremely solid.
Like the Royal Rumble, when two of the five matches on the card are guaranteed to go long, the rest of the matches need to make the most of their time. Zoey Stark and Rhea Ripley didn’t quite pull it off, neither did Dragon Lee and Santos Escobar, but Gunther and The Miz managed to in what would be an appetizer for what was to come from their feud to close out the year.
When it comes to the two WarGames matches, they were both thoroughly entertaining. Outside of the fans voting for the babyfaces to have the advantage, the women’s match was a lot of fun, with Charlotte Flair and Iyo Sky doing big dives, and Bayley somehow being the MVP despite not wrestling. The men’s match was a showcase of how much star power the company had, which was emphasized by Punk’s return at the end. An easy watch and an example as to why WWE is so hot at the time of writing.
3. Money in the Bank:
Fans in England had been begging WWE to bring WrestleMania to Wembley Stadium for years, and while there is still no luck on that front, London did get a big Premium Live Event in the form of Money in the Bank.
Money in the Bank is one of, if not the most reliable gimmick event WWE has right now, and if you need any proof of this, watch the two ladder matches. Despite LA Knight being so over that any other winner of the men’s match felt like a slap in the face, Damian Priest winning the briefcase actually feels like the right decision looking back on it. As for the women’s match, Iyo Sky pulled off one of the best climaxes to a ladder match I’ve ever seen, and she didn’t cash in on the same night, so bonus points for her.
The Bloodline Civil War was the match that everyone wanted it to be. The soap opera storytelling that has really drove this saga was on full display, culminating in the cathartic moment of Jey Uso finally pinning Roman Reigns in the middle of the ring. If The Bloodline saga ended here, it would have honestly been rather fitting, but even though it wasn’t the end, the fans in London certainly got their money’s worth with this show.
2. Elimination Chamber:
Had it not been for Brock Lesnar trying to make sure that Bobby Lashley never has any more children, this could have been the best show of the year. Out of shows like the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Money in the Bank, Elimination Chamber got the balance right most when it came to having two lengthy gimmick matches on the card.
The women’s match was predictable, as Asuka was the clear and obvious winner going into it, but the match around Asuka was very good, even though I would have loved my girl Nikki Cross to get more of a showcase. The men’s match is easily one of the best Chamber matches in years and proved that WWE’s midcard is extremely strong right now. Also, Edge and Beth Pheonix against Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley was better than it had any right to be.
However, it was the main event that filled up the Bell Centre in Montreal. Realistically, Sami Zayn’s involvement in The Bloodline saga was the thing that took the story to the next level, and rewarding him with a win over Roman Reigns might not have been the right move in hindsight, but people really wanted it. Sami Zayn will be a World Champion one day, but it was not this day.
1. WrestleMania 39 (Both Nights)
Night one was better than night two by a considerable margin, let’s get that out of the way first and foremost. But for the first time since WrestleMania was split over two days, WWE’s biggest event didn’t feel like separate shows that just so happened to have the same name and take place on the same weekend. Both nights of WrestleMania 39 felt connected, making it feel grander in scale.
Both nights being headlined by The Bloodline made the whole weekend feel in tune with itself. It wasn’t like watching an episode of Raw on the Saturday and Smackdown on the Sunday. The Usos versus Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn felt worthy of the main event slot after everything the men in the match had gone through in the months leading to it, resulting in possibly the greatest tag team match in Mania history.
Yes, Cody Rhodes didn’t beat Roman Reigns. No, I don’t think it was the right decision. Will Cody win next year? I don’t know. But if the ending connected, it could have been on par with the end of Mania 30 when Daniel Bryan finally won the big one.
Outside of the main events, the IC Title match was incredible, Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair put on the best women’s match in Mania history, and Chad Gable threw Braun Strowman around the ring like a big bearded baby. WrestleMania 39 might be remembered as the weekend where the story didn’t end, but it is by far the best WWE Premium Live Event of 2023.
AND THAT IS THAT! What was your favorite WWE Premium Live Event of 2023? Let us know in the comments section below!
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