Honestly, if you were a wrestling fan in 2014, your wallet probably felt a whole lot heavier by the end of the year. It was a weird, transitional, and frankly chaotic time for World Wrestling Entertainment. This was the year the "Big Gold Belt" basically vanished, Daniel Bryan’s neck unfortunately gave out, and the WWE pay per view schedule 2014 became the guinea pig for the greatest gamble in sports entertainment history: the launch of the WWE Network.
Before 2014, you were dropping $45 to $60 every single month just to see a B-show like Battleground or Hell in a Cell. Then, out of nowhere, Vince McMahon stands on a stage in Las Vegas and tells everyone they can have every single live event for "nine-ninety-nine." It changed the math. It changed how we watched. But more importantly, it changed the stakes of the monthly schedule.
How the 2014 Calendar Looked from the Inside
The year kicked off in the traditional way, but the vibes were off. People were furious. You remember the Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh? Batista won, the fans booed him out of the building because they wanted Daniel Bryan, and Rey Mysterio—of all people—got heckled just for being the number 30 entrant who wasn't Bryan. That January 26th show set a frantic tone for the rest of the WWE pay per view schedule 2014. WWE was forced to pivot, and they did it brilliantly leading into WrestleMania XXX.
The Spring Transition
After the Rumble, we hit Elimination Chamber on February 23rd at the Target Center. This was the last "traditional" PPV before the Network launched the very next day. Randy Orton defended his unified title inside the structure, but the real story was the brewing Shield vs. Wyatt Family rivalry. That match was better than it had any right to be. It was raw.
Then came the big one. WrestleMania XXX on April 6th. New Orleans. The Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
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We saw the Streak end. 21-1. The silence in that stadium when Brock Lesnar pinned The Undertaker wasn't just "quiet"—it was a physical weight. You could hear a pin drop in a room of 70,000 people. Later that night, Daniel Bryan finally captured the titles, and for a brief second, the 2014 schedule looked like it was going to be the Year of the Goat.
The Summer Slump and the Rise of the Beast
Injuries are the worst. There’s no other way to put it. By the time Extreme Rules rolled around on May 4th, Bryan was already struggling. He beat Kane in a "Extreme Rules" match that involved a forklift and a lot of fire, but his body was breaking down. This forced the WWE creative team to scramble.
The June show, Payback (June 1st), was headlined by The Shield taking on Evolution in a No Holds Barred elimination tag match. It was a masterclass. But the very next night on Raw, Seth Rollins swung that chair. The Shield was dead.
Money in the Bank followed on June 29th. Since Bryan had to vacate the titles, the actual ladder match was for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship. John Cena won. Again. Fans groaned, but it was a necessary evil to set up the demolition that was coming at SummerSlam.
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SummerSlam and the Squash Heard 'Round the World
August 17, 2014. Los Angeles.
Brock Lesnar didn't just beat John Cena; he dismantled him. Sixteen German Suplexes. It was uncomfortable to watch. It shifted the power dynamic of the entire WWE pay per view schedule 2014. For the rest of the year, the champion was a "special attraction." He wasn't on every show. He wasn't even on most of them.
- Battleground (July 20): Cena retained in a fatal four-way. Kind of a filler show, if we're being real.
- Night of Champions (September 21): Lesnar vs. Cena II. It ended in a DQ because Seth Rollins interfered. A bit of a letdown for a show where "every title is on the line."
- Hell in a Cell (October 26): No Lesnar. Instead, we got Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins inside the cell. Bray Wyatt popped up as a ghost or a hologram—it was weird—and cost Ambrose the match.
Closing Out a Revolutionary Year
By the time we hit the tail end of the calendar, the "9.99" meme was in full swing. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were mentions it every five minutes on TV. Survivor Series on November 23rd became a massive deal because of one man: Sting.
Seeing the WCW icon finally step into a WWE ring to drop Triple H and help Team Cena (mostly Dolph Ziggler) defeat Team Authority was a "pinch me" moment. It saved what had been a somewhat lackluster autumn stretch. Ziggler looked like a megastar that night, even if the momentum didn't quite last into 2015.
Finally, the year wrapped up with TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs on December 14th. Yes, they actually added "Stairs" to the title for a Big Show vs. Erick Rowan match. It was as clunky as it sounds. But the main event of Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose in a TLC match kept the energy high, even if a TV monitor exploding in Ambrose's face was a bit of a hokey finish.
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Why This Specific Schedule Still Matters Today
Looking back at the WWE pay per view schedule 2014, you see the blueprint for the modern era. This was the year WWE stopped worrying about "buys" and started worrying about "subscribers."
They took massive risks. They let a part-time monster kill their golden boy at SummerSlam. They retired the big gold World Heavyweight Championship belt, merging it into one singular title. They gambled on a developmental brand called NXT, which had its first "Arrival" and "TakeOver" specials during this same window.
If you’re researching this era for a project or just a nostalgia trip, pay attention to the match quality of the mid-card. Guys like Cesaro, The Usos, and Luke Harper were putting on clinics while the main events were often bogged down by Authority storylines.
Key Takeaways for Collectors and Historians
If you are looking to revisit this specific year of wrestling, here is the most effective way to digest it:
- Watch the "Shield Trilogy": Their matches against the Wyatts at Elimination Chamber and Evolution at Extreme Rules/Payback are essential viewing.
- The WrestleMania XXX Opening: The segment with Stone Cold, The Rock, and Hulk Hogan is perhaps the best "nostalgia" segment ever produced.
- The Rise of the Network: Notice how the commentary changes between February and April. The hard sell of the WWE Network was a total shift in corporate strategy that you can hear in Michael Cole's voice.
- The Missing Champion: Study the fall months. See how WWE tried to headline shows with Rollins and Ambrose when the top title wasn't even in the building. It was a precursor to how they would handle Roman Reigns years later.
The WWE pay per view schedule 2014 wasn't perfect. It had some real stinkers (looking at you, Santino Marella and Emma vs. Fandango and Layla). But as a bridge between the old "cable" way of doing things and the modern streaming world, it is arguably the most important year in the company's history. It was the end of an era and a messy, loud, exciting beginning of another.