After World Championship Wrestling went out of business in 2001, TNA became WWE's biggest competition after it launched the following year. The promotion started out great and gave diversified content to wrestling fans who were looking for an alternative. Both companies had their ups and downs. Even though WWE won the Monday Night Wars, it didn't retain the quality of the product afterward. Some years, it was painful to get through WWE shows, while TNA thrived. However, some years it was the other way around.
But which promotion was better in terms of quality overall? The 2000s was a great decade for wrestling and both promotions tried their best to keep their product engaging.
20 WWE: The Rise Of The PG Era
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WWE fans like to criticize the company for turning it into a PG corporation. That's because most of the good storylines happened during the Attitude Era and the Ruthless Aggression Era and changing the whole product for a PG audience was a huge gamble.
But business-wise, this proved to be the best decision Vince McMahon made in the 2000s. When WWE officially turned PG in 2008, it gave stars like John Cena an opportunity to shine and become even bigger wrestlers.
18 TNA: Main Event Mafia
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During its initial years, TNA used former WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestlers over homegrown superstars. This led to one of the best storylines in the company's history. The Main Event Mafia was a stable consisting of Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Kevin Nash who wanted to take over the company.
AJ Styles and Samoa Joe then formed TNA Frontline with Team 3D to feud with Main Event Mafia. This battle between wrestlers of the past vs present proved to be one of the best angles for the company from 2008-09.
16 WWE: Money In The Bank
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The Money in the Bank concept was first introduced in 2005 and, for the next five years, the event took place as part of WrestleMania until WWE named a pay-per-view after it.
Edge was the inaugural Money in the Bank winner and he had the most impressive cash-in that decade. The Rated R superstar waited until the next year to make his move on an exhausted John Cena who had just finished an Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution 2006.
14 TNA: TNA Knockouts
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Long before the Women's Revolution had even begun in WWE, TNA had already found great draws in female wrestlers. TNA's Knockouts Division was created in 2007 and Gail Kim was the inaugural and probably the best Knockouts Champion the promotion has ever had.
In the 2000s, there weren't many moments that defined women wrestling in WWE. TNA had a better roster and their writers focused more on women than WWE ever did during that decade.
12 WWE: Better Pay-Per-Views
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In the year 2000 alone, WWE had produced great PPVs such as Fully Loaded and Backlash, and that's without counting the big four. There wasn't a single TNA pay-per-view that could bear comparison with WWE's annual extravaganza, WrestleMania.
For the first three years, TNA did weekly pay-per-views and most fans didn't like paying a wrestling company weekly when there's very little buildup. Even when TNA came out with monthly pay-per-views to complement their weekly programming on Spike TV, it still couldn't compete with the PPVs that WWE produced.
10 TNA: The X Division
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TNA's X Division was a concept that was very similar to WCW's Cruiserweight Division, except there were no rules. However, the "rules" for the X Division were slightly changed in 2011, and the company added some weight restrictions.
Before that, TNA's X Division was one of the best things about the wrestling company. It had no weight limitations, meaning stars like Samoa Joe could come and challenge anyone of their choice. It also helped TNA build stars like AJ Styles and many others.
8 WWE: Batista & Randy Orton's Rise To Stardom
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Triple H and Ric Flair formed Evolution to help two rookie wrestlers, Batista and Randy Orton, make their way to the top. It was actually impressive that WWE succeeded in making stars in Batista and Orton simultaneously. The promotion even had similar plans for both of them for a while.
On the other hand, Randy Orton was killing it as The Legend Killer. He attacked many legends and made a reputation for himself. Batista's face turn against Triple H, for instance, was also beautifully done. Aside from Cena, these two were probably the biggest homegrown talent in WWE in the 2000s.
6 TNA: 2006
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Sting, Christian, and Kurt Angle were the biggest reason 2006 was probably the best year to watch TNA in the 2000s. These wrestlers had so much star power in them and by having them on the roster, TNA finally gave WWE a run for their money for some time. Kurt was the biggest signing by TNA in 2006.
Undoubtedly, Angle vs Samoa Joe was the biggest storyline of the year. Joe was on a hot winning streak, but it all ended when Kurt defeated him at Genesis 2006. TNA extended this rivalry until the next year and fans liked every bit of it.
4 WWE: WrestleMania XX
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At No Way Out 2004, Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship with assistance from Goldberg. Two months later, Eddie successfully defended his title against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XX.
On the same night, Guerrero's best friend and Royal Rumble winner, Chris Benoit, faced Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship. After an outstanding 20+ minute performance, Benoit was able to execute a crippler cross-face and make The Game tap out. Later, Eddie entered the ring and celebrated with his friend. This was one of the most stand-out moments at WrestleMania.
2 TNA: Samoa Joe's First-Ever World Championship Victory
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Lockdown 2008 was a huge night for Samoa Joe. A month before the pay-per-view, he had promised the fans that he would do "everything and anything to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship." Things got even more interesting when Joe vowed to retire from wrestling if he lost to Angle at the pay-per-view.
Both wrestlers fought in a steel cage, giving fans UFC-esque vibes. In the end, Joe prevailed after executing a Muscle Buster on Angle and won his maiden TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
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