The WWE Network's
Ten Best Matches of 2016
Last year, I ranked my favorite ten matches from the WWE Network and thought it'd be fun to do the same again. With some further ado, my list...
Honorable Mentions:
- Kalisto vs. Baron Corbin (TLC 2016): The best Chairs match ever? Maybe. But also just a really, really good Big vs. Little match. Corbin and Kalisto needed to wow the crowd after pretty quiet summers and did.
- Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (Battleground 2016): I described this as a "very strong match...but not the best they've ever put on." I stand by that summation, though, I may be underselling just how fun a match this was. One of the most emotionally-charged matches in a year with a fair number of great lengthy rivalries.
And now...The Top Ten:
10. TIE - AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose - Backlash 2016 & TLC 2016
In 2014, Dean Ambrose was one of my favorite wrestlers and I wasn't alone. After the Shield's dissolution, despite being the most natural heel of the group, he'd become a breakout babyface. He was anti-authority like Austin. He was unpredictable like Piper. His offense was wild like Terry Funk's. With Seth Rollins, he produced the best lumberjack match ever at that year's SummerSlam. A star should've been born.
But it wasn't. He started 2015 in a hokey rivalry with Bray Wyatt then landed in a overcrowded Intercontinental Championship storyline for WrestleMania 31. He meandered back to feuding with the Wyatts tfor months after as his edge softened and his once chaotic offense became as mundane as everyone else's.
At the start of this year, the Lunatic Fringe was irrelevant. An unimaginative, disappointing match with Brock Lesnar, a guaranteed hot ticket 18 months earlier, didn't help. Ambrose was rewarded the WWE Championship over the summer to help kickstart the newly-independent SmackDown brand, but his stinker against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam certainly didn't inspire much confidence that the Blue Brand's main event picture would produce any classics.
Enter AJ Styles: the best and most consistent active wrestler in the WWE today. While maybe not the draw that Cena or Lesnar is, Styles has made up for the gap in marquee value by consistently delivering excellent matches since debuting in January. At September's Backlash show, Styles challenged Ambrose for the strap and took the lead in-ring, serving as the athletic, more technically-minded foil to the off-the-cuff brawler. The juxtaposition served both well and Ambrose seemed to be having fun for the first time in years. Their Backlash match saved his 2016.
Their TLC match in December was just as terrific. Again, a majority of the credit should probably go to Styles for the ridiculous daredevil spots he employed, but Ambrose deserves some praise too. Jettisoning a majority of his signature spots (I don't recall a rebound lariat in the whole 30-minute match), Ambrose stuck with tried-and-true weapon shots and his own brand of high-risk/high-rewarded offense to try to win back the title, showing there is some premeditation going on behind the lunacy. The finish won't age well, but the match was great fun and probably the best stipulation match Ambrose has had since his show-stealing lumberjack match in 2014.
9. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe - NXT Takeover: Dallas
The first of two matches from the NXT Takeover: Dallas show to grace the top 10, Balor/Joe is two old pros wrestling without a net, creating an excellent match in unexpected circumstances. Within the first two minutes, Joe suffers a nasty gash above his eye and the crowd has every reason to worry - blood stoppages have become a necessary evil of the WWE's PG Era and, in at least one awful, awful case this year, have even been intentionally used to end matches. Joe getting bloodied in minute two was a worst case scenario moment for fans expecting an epic.
They made it work, though. Referee Drake Younger (no stranger to juice after years wrestling for ECW-inspired promotions like Insanity Pro and Combat Zone Wrestling) stopped the match multiple times, but Joe and Balor wove the pauses into the narrative expertly. Joe especially used the real-life frustration of having his momentum curtailed to ramp up his intensity while Balor showed the inverse emotion, his confidence visibly shaken with the realization that even a gruesome head wound wouldn't deter the Samoan Submission Machine. In a fitting touch, the finish harkened back to another quintessential battle fondly remembered for its "color" - Bret Hart and Roddy Piper's classic from WrestleMania VIII.
8. AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns - Payback
I devoted several paragraphs above to Dean Ambrose and the same attention must be paid to Roman Reigns. Beloved as the Shield's brooding powerhouse, Reigns would suffer a tremendous "smart" fan backlash in the build-ups to both WrestleManias XXXI and XXXII, his move-set ridiculed for its simplicity, his promos lambasted for their corniness, and his credibility challenged because he'd not paid his dues like the Daniel Bryans and Kevin Owenses of the world. Along the way, questionable booking tainted nearly every one of his major victories.
But like John Cena before him, Roman Reigns has slowly won over many of his critics. His match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXXI showed he had grit. He followed it with a better-than-it-ought've-been brawl against Big Show at Extreme Rules 2015 and then had my #6 Match of the Year last year against Sheamus at TLC. This year, he held his own in a solid triple threat against his former Shield partners at BattleGround 2016 and put over Finn Balor in one of the better TV matches of the year. If Reigns is getting "carried," as the haters want to believe, he's being carried by a wide variety of guys in a wide variety of situations.
That isn't to say that Reigns doesn't benefit from having a world-class opponent to challenge him - as he did at Payback - but who doesn't? The incredible chemistry that Reigns and AJ share can't be explained away so easily. While the false finishes and inconclusive conclusion to this match will keep it off some people's list, the bulk of the contest was excellent. Styles, like Daniel Bryan at FastLane 2015, sculpted a match that didn't needlessly pull Reigns out of his wheelhouse while still providing enough twists and turns to create an epic encounter. Reigns and Styles both came out of this one looking like maybe the only two guys not named Cena or Lesnar that deserve to be called main eventers. Its too bad this match will be woefully mislabeled as a "Styles carry job" without giving proper credit to Reigns' subtle, borderline heel work or the "big fight feel" that only he and very few others can bring.
7. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch - WrestleMania XXXII
WrestleMania XXXII was a death march. Shane McMahon and the Undertaker had the worst match of the year. Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose had the most disappointing match of the year. Chris Jericho and AJ Styles had a match I'd call forgettable if it wasn't so memorably mis-booked. Triple H vs. Roman Reigns might've been good, but I don't remember as it ran around midnight. Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and the Rock were there... to shit on the current roster.
WrestleMania ceased being a "wrestling-based" show a long time ago but this year's edition didn't even get the "entertainment" half of "sports-entertainment" right.
Except, of course, for one match - the WWE Womens' Championship bout. For 20 minutes, fans were treated to a triple threat that delivered on every level. There was glitz and glamour fitting of the WrestleMania name in Ric Flair and Snoop Dogg's guest spots. There were nostalgic nods to Manias past with Banks' Guerrero-inspired entrance and attire. There was darn good wrestling with each competitor given time to shine. Loaded with an insane number of high spots, this was a trip to the fireworks store with a torch in hand, the lone bright spot on an otherwise historically bad WrestleMania.
6. Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Takeover: Toronto
Joe/Nakamura II is what a major championship match should look and feel like. Clear hero, clear villain. Intent to do harm behind every strike. Physicality from bell to bell. Urgency. A challenger who has done his homework and a champion who is being pushed to new limits. The template is simple and could be used to describe any number of classics, from the Flair/Steamboat masterpieces of 89' to Shawn Michaels' underrated string of title defenses during his first World Title run. What makes this match truly great, though, is the minutiae added by the specific characters.
Samoa Joe proved his toughness at April's Takeover: Dallas show, but here he upped the intensity by jawing at Nak from before the bell, channeling The Rock circa 98'. When match begins proper, he is relentless with his attack, bringing the fight to the King of Strong Style much more aggressively than in their first encounter. There's no time wasted with "feeling eachother out," the brutality beginning the instant the fight goes outside the ring. There are some gasp-inducing spots throughout the match and Nakamura gets to look vulnerable for the first time in his WWE run, giving this match the much-needed drama that their first lacked. The controversial finish prevents this from landing further up my list, but as a fan of both guys, the end didn't leave me at all disappointed.
5. The Revival vs. Gargano and Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II
There are many reasons to love this match, but at least two of mine are almost wholly unrelated to anything that actually happened in this match.
One: Johnny Gargano, the 29 year-old Cleveland native who I remember watching in the early 00s for the now-defunct Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling. Yes, Dolph Ziggler was born in Cleveland and The Miz in nearby Parma, but neither is really from here. The Miz is from The Real World. Ziggler will always be linked to collegiate competition at Kent State, 40 miles from downtown.
Gargano, on the other hand, began his pro-wrestling career in smoke-filled gymnasiums like Turners' Hall, tucked away in the blue collar Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
He wrestled on cards featuring regional "stars" like Hitler-heiling brawler The BasketNazi and the morbidly obese Canadian Badboy (who I think was probably from Lorain in retrospect).
When CAPW dissolved, he helped launch local fed Absolute Intense Wrestling, giving the upstart some much-needed credibility in its earliest days. Fellow Cleveland indie stalwarts Matt "M-Dogg 20" Cross and Gregory Iron served as groomsmen at his wedding. Plus, if the wrestling thing doesn't pan out, he can still fall back on the family catering business that operates over on West 25th.
Other WWE stars have been born in Cleveland, but Gargano is the first really from Cleveland. I'm a Cleveland homer and he's our guy.
Two - Steve Austin, and more specifically, his podcast (the best wrestling-based one out there), and his emphatic praise of this match. Austin has raved about many specific matches and workers on his show over the years. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Ric Flair are name-checked weekly, for example, but his glowing review of this particular match was different.
Austin, like 90% of fans watching, probably expected a good match when the bell rang, but an all-time classic? No one saw it coming. Hearing Austin mark out about it on his show mirrored my own enthusiasm (and the enthusiasm of countless other "serious" wrestling fans). Was Austin lurking at wrestling nerd hubs like WrestlingClassics and ProWrestlingOnly all along? The question no longer seemed preposterous. Austin loving this match was like finding out that he agrees Tusk is better than Rumours.
Again - this is all tangential to what actually happened in the match, but whatever. The match is a classic "Southern tag" laid out brilliantly, engaging the audience through sound fundamentals and storytelling. By living up to their motto - No Flips, Just Fists - the Revival masterfully manipulate the crowd into supporting the more dynamic (but relatively unknown) challengers. Via a bounty of ref distractions and cut-offs, blind tags and just enough (but not too many) big spots, the teams raise the suspense until they're getting huge reactions from Wrestling 101 sequences. A star-making match for both teams and one that "students of the game" will dissect for years to come at the developmental camp.
4. Asuka vs. Bayley - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II
Bayley came into her first match with Asuka at NXT Takeover: Dallas with confidence. She had bested Sasha Banks definitively in consecutive Takeover specials and enjoyed a well-earned victory lap around the UK before submitting the monster Nia Jax last winter. In the first quarter of 2016, her winning streak continued with wins over Emma, Eva Marie, and Alexa Bliss. Bayley was on top of the world with only one challenger left - Asuka.
Its easy to reduce Asuka as the "female Shinsuke Nakamura." They're both from Japan. They both have unforgettable entrances. They're both known for hard-hitting strikes and strange mannerisms. They're both "must see" performers, every one of their matches presented as a big deal.
Nakamura is undeniably influenced by the King of Pop, though, while Asuka's persona is not as easily pinned down. Her outfit is Ultimate Warrior meets Steven Tyler mic stand. Her spine-chilling facial expressions Basic Instinct-meets-The Terminator (so kinda like T3). She enjoys drawing blood of her opponents and doesn't mind tasting her own. She's not a hero or villain - she's a merciless bad ass.
Four months for their showdown in Brooklyn, Bayley had no answer for the unflinching Asuka's vicious strikes. Having barely survived their first encounter, attempting to regain her title seemed like a suicide mission and Bayley plays up the insecurity early on with great character work. Back in the underdog role, its impossible not to feel for the former champ as she tries to go toe-to-toe with Asuka, determined to muster up a mean streak that will match what comes terrifyingly natural to the champ. As I wrote in August, "Call it outright theft from Japan and its storied 'fighting spirit' matches, but [Bailey's] stubborn refusal to stay down came through perfectly...it [is] impossible not to get emotionally invested in her cause." Needless to say, a tremendous match ensues that not only cements Asuka as an unstoppable monster, but reaffirms why Bayley might be the best babyface in the entire company, man or woman.
3. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte - Hell in a Cell 2016
In my review of August's overall awful SummerSlam, the little bit of praise I did give out went to Sasha Banks and Charlotte for the risks they took wrestling the match of the night while still leaving enough on the table to make subsequent showdowns "must see" events.
This past October, they delivered one such classic, making history by not only competing in the first ever womens' Hell in a Cell match, but also becoming the first two women to headline a WWE pay-per-view.
Historical significance aside, this match wouldn't have ranked so highly if it wasn't the best cage match of the year. Earlier on the same show, Owens/Rollins traded signature moves ad nauseum in a suspense-less encounter while Roman Reigns and Rusev had a solid street fight with the cell serving as mere backdrop.
If not every sequence was wholly original (the opening drama was a hokey throwback to more extreme versions), the athleticism, speed, and daredevil spirit on display made up for it, Banks and Charlotte producing a Hell in a Cell match unlike any the WWE has ever done. This was the dream Hell in a Cell match that we never got to see out of a Jeff Hardy or Rey Mysterio, workers that, like Banks and Charlotte, wouldn't view the stationary cage walls as hindrances but would cleverly use them to show off their agility. It was a much-needed change-up from the usual brawling we get in these matches and they successfully did it without betraying the "blood feud" seriousness of the match. In a year full of show-stealing performances from these two (including a strong Ironman Match at December's Roadblock: End of the Line show), this was their pinnacle performance.
2. The Revival vs. Gargano and Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Toronto
Sometimes the "best match of the year" is not the Best Match of the Year.
A few short months after their star-making match at Takeover: Brooklyn II, The Revival and #DIY put on a near-flawless follow-up (I scored it a rare 5-out-of-5) at Takeover: Toronto. In a year when countless undeserving matches drew "This is Awesome" chants because of the amount of innovative spots shoehorned into them, this match earned the chant the right way - expert pacing, good vs. evil storytelling, and clever sequences that both harkened back to their previous (also excellent) match and added fresh ideas to the mix. If their Brooklyn bout was the unexpected gem on a stacked card (think Rockers/Orient Express from Royal Rumble 91'), this was their Rock n' Roll Express vs. Midnight Express moment, the fans expecting greatness and then getting more of it than they knew possible.
Now, that isn't to say that this match was a simple trip down memory lane, shtick, nothing more than a nostalgic retelling of a fantasy Brainbusters/Hart Foundation match. Neither #DIY or The Revival are a mere tribute act - its just been so long since any teams have put together matches this good without the aid of furniture and ladders. The lack of bells-and-whistles is so pronounced it just can't be described without invoking the true golden era of tag team wrestling.
So what prevents this almost unassailable classic from being my pick for Match of the Year?
Again, we have to look a little outside of what happened between bells.
If execution was all that mattered, this match would have no equal this calendar year. What this match lacked, however, was the sense that, when it was over, a sea change had occurred. This may have been the perfect wrestling match, but it was only that - a wrestling match. It wasn't a bellwether of a new dawn for return-to-roots 'rassling.
#DIY and The Revival have bright futures, no doubt, but looking at whose holding the tag titles right now on SmackDown and RAW, a tag renaissance is not on the horizon. This match will go down as these teams' artistic peak. Impatient crowds and even more impatient producers guarantee it. As much as I look forward to what these four men will do once they are called up (and there's no way they won't all have some very good-to-great matches one day), I'm realistic about how rare the circumstances were that produced this kind of match.
The same can't be said about my Match of the Year. The Revival, Gargano, and Ciampa broke away from the pack in 2016, but Shinsuke Nakamura showed us the future of American pro-wrestling...
1. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Takeover: Dallas
On April 1st, 2016, Shinsuke Nakamura debuted in the WWE and from that day on, he's basically been all I can talk about when I talk about modern wrestling. If 2017 is the year that Nakamura gets brought up to the main roster, he will likely dominate my conversations for another year.
In 25+ years as a wrestling fan, there are maybe a dozen guys I can recall seeing early on in their careers and saying "He's going to be huge one day." Steve Austin in 91'-92' WCW comes to mind. Chris Jericho in 98'. Obviously, Kurt Angle had "it" from the first minute he debuted. CM Punk in Ring of Honor. Nakamura is the next name on that list.
Technically speaking, Nakamura is a 15-year veteran and already an established draw in his home country, but to most US fans, when Nakamura finally does pop up on RAW or SmackDown, he'll be a rookie, a relative unknown with a reputation of greatness but no real credits to his name. "Yeah, yeah, he's main-evented shows in front of 50,000 at the Tokyo Dome, but how many Battlegrounds has he been in?" they'll ask. "He's too odd," they'll say.
Any perception that Nakamura "won't work" in the WWE was blasted away on April 1st, 2016, though. His ascent is undeniable. He is the first Next Big Thing since Brock Lesnar.
If this seems hyperbolic, watch this match (or watch it again).
If not every move is executed flawlessly, if the longterm selling of damaged limbs is brushed aside at times, if some of the spots seem just a touch telegraphed, it doesn't detract from the match's enjoyability or significance. This was the "must see" wrestling match of 2016 and it is wrestled that way. Even on re-watch, goosebumps are guaranteed. How many other wrestling matches can one name that have that kind of lasting feel? 10? 20 maybe? There certainly weren't any other in 2016.
While the story focuses (deservedly) on the debut of Nakamura, its worth mentioning how impeccable a selection Sami Zayn was as his inaugural opponent. As we'd see in his subsequent, disappointing match against Austin Aries at Takeover: The End a few months later, as special an attraction as Nakamura is, it takes two to create an all-time great match. Zayn will never match Nakamura in the intangible "It" department, but his more subtle, low-key performance, especially at the start of the match, is equally brilliant.
For the first time in his NXT run, Zayn doesn't have full crowd support. The audience doesn't boo him, but they're firmly backing Nakamura, the debuting rock star. An impatient, less confident worker might take the opportunity to inject heelishness into their offense to steer into the curve and tell a basic heel/face story. Sami doesn't break, though. He remains laser-focused, staring down his opponent with fierce determination to defeat the near-mythical Nakamura, even if it spoils the fun of everyone in the room. He doesn't change who he is just because his supporters have a new toy they like more.
As much as it pains me to write it, the crowd itself is an integral part of the match's greatness too. I've been critical of "smark" fans on this blog and for good reason. These metaphorical children of the ECW Arena greaseballs and their workrate-is-all attitude are loathsome. En masse, they like to show their "insider knowledge" by sabotaging segments, rooting for heels and booing faces until nobody can get over as either, and "What?-ing" promos because "'Memba Stone Cold?". Most irritatingly, their Pavlovian response to finisher-spamming and 300-pounders busting out lucha moves is "This is Awesome," even when it clearly isn't.
In this match, their hooting and hollering is impossible to ignore - but, like The Grinch hearing the Whos' singing on Christmas - I can't help but smile when they start that stupid, stupid "Fight Forever" chant. Maybe because, for once, it feels organic...even if it is the absolute dumbest "meta" chant to ever exist. And, so, in this rare instance, I'm willing to begrudgingly acknowledge that the atmosphere provided by this collection of wrestling dweebs benefits the presentation.
For 20 minutes, Zayn and Nakamura destroy each other in a ballet of spellbinding acts of quickness and precision culminating in moments of unmatched brutality. Nakamura's use simple knee strikes to full damaging effect is remarkable and Zayn does the same with his haymaker clotheslines and eventual delivery of his signature offense. It may be common in other locales, but in the WWE, in 2016, building a match around super-stiff forearms to the mush is almost unheard of and, to my knowledge, has never been done so well. One doesn't have to suspend their disbelief to enjoy this match - it legitimately looks like these two are beating the crap out of each other, a descriptor that no other match on this list warrants.
Easily the best match of 2016 and a harbinger for Nakamura's inevitable rise to superstardom.
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