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Best Of The Year 2014


Greggulator

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I'll be adding Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose to my top ten. Just have to think about the placement.

 

I think I only like three matches more: Shield/Wyatts 1, Bray/Bryan and Shield/Wyatts 2. It's between that and Bray/Cena for me. I'll probably lean back to Bray/Cena because of stuff like the steps but Bray/Dean is a fresh match-up and that gets some points from me. Cena/Cesaro and Bryan/HHH also need to get rewatched promptly for my half-year list.

I know I'll be taken to task to this in some form but Bray's the best worker in the WWE right now. I don't think there's even much of an argument at this point, either. He's been involved in possibly the five best matches of the year.

 

 

Honestly, I think the only two of those that make top 5 for the year so far for me are the Shield tags, and I feel pretty comfortable saying Bray was, at best, the 4th best guy in those matches.

 

Not that I disliked the Bryan match or the Cena match, but I don't think either makes my top 5.  Cena/Cesaro on RAW and Bryan/Triple H at Mania were both, for my money, pretty clearly better.  And the first Shield/Evolution six-man was right there with the two Shield/Wyatt matches. 

 

None of which is to put Bray down as a worker.  But I don't think he cracks the WWE's current top 5 in ring guys with Cesaro, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose and a theoretically healthy Daniel Bryan.

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I'll be adding Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose to my top ten. Just have to think about the placement.

 

I think I only like three matches more: Shield/Wyatts 1, Bray/Bryan and Shield/Wyatts 2. It's between that and Bray/Cena for me. I'll probably lean back to Bray/Cena because of stuff like the steps but Bray/Dean is a fresh match-up and that gets some points from me. Cena/Cesaro and Bryan/HHH also need to get rewatched promptly for my half-year list.

I know I'll be taken to task to this in some form but Bray's the best worker in the WWE right now. I don't think there's even much of an argument at this point, either. He's been involved in possibly the five best matches of the year.

 

 

Honestly, I think the only two of those that make top 5 for the year so far for me are the Shield tags, and I feel pretty comfortable saying Bray was, at best, the 4th best guy in those matches.

 

Not that I disliked the Bryan match or the Cena match, but I don't think either makes my top 5.  Cena/Cesaro on RAW and Bryan/Triple H at Mania were both, for my money, pretty clearly better.  And the first Shield/Evolution six-man was right there with the two Shield/Wyatt matches. 

 

None of which is to put Bray down as a worker.  But I don't think he cracks the WWE's current top 5 in ring guys with Cesaro, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose and a theoretically healthy Daniel Bryan.

 

 

I think I would put Wyatt on that list before I put Seth Rollins on that list.

 

I think this heel turn will show us that we are still getting Tyler Black in the ring.

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I'll be adding Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose to my top ten. Just have to think about the placement.

I think I only like three matches more: Shield/Wyatts 1, Bray/Bryan and Shield/Wyatts 2. It's between that and Bray/Cena for me. I'll probably lean back to Bray/Cena because of stuff like the steps but Bray/Dean is a fresh match-up and that gets some points from me. Cena/Cesaro and Bryan/HHH also need to get rewatched promptly for my half-year list.

I know I'll be taken to task to this in some form but Bray's the best worker in the WWE right now. I don't think there's even much of an argument at this point, either. He's been involved in possibly the five best matches of the year.

Honestly, I think the only two of those that make top 5 for the year so far for me are the Shield tags, and I feel pretty comfortable saying Bray was, at best, the 4th best guy in those matches.

Not that I disliked the Bryan match or the Cena match, but I don't think either makes my top 5. Cena/Cesaro on RAW and Bryan/Triple H at Mania were both, for my money, pretty clearly better. And the first Shield/Evolution six-man was right there with the two Shield/Wyatt matches.

None of which is to put Bray down as a worker. But I don't think he cracks the WWE's current top 5 in ring guys with Cesaro, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose and a theoretically healthy Daniel Bryan.

I think I would put Wyatt on that list before I put Seth Rollins on that list.

I think this heel turn will show us that we are still getting Tyler Black in the ring.

*shrug* I liked Tyler Black in the ring.

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Seth Rollins has been a heel for 90% of his WWE run, and it's yet to stop him from having good matches. Even looking at his recent work, he looked great in MITB, and had a really good match with freakin' RVD the next night. It's hard to imagine the Ambrose matches won't be appearing in this thread in the next couple of months either.

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Seth Rollins has been a heel for 90% of his WWE run, and it's yet to stop him from having good matches. Even looking at his recent work, he looked great in MITB, and had a really good match with freakin' RVD the next night. It's hard to imagine the Ambrose matches won't be appearing in this thread in the next couple of months either.

 

A lot of Rollins singles stuff for me has suffered from what his ROH work and the little bit of his FCW work that I watched.

 

There is nothing he does in the ring that gets any kind of reaction to me. I rarely feel like an interesting story is being told or that he is drawing me in as a viewer.  I am largely apathetic towards him as a worker. It's the exact same problem I have with Davey Richards or a lot of the modern indie scene.

 

That Cena Match on Monday night was a perfect example of this. It was not a good match, and the crowd could care less about the match. They didn't really react to it for large stretches of the contest. They were too caught up in the Lets Go Cena/Cena Sucks dueling chants to care about anything else.

 

If you say, that is true of most Cena matches. I would say you are missing the point. Even when they do that for other matches, normally the heel can do enough to earn some reactions or Cena can do something to earn a few boos or cheers within the match. I didn't feel like we got that at all Monday night. Granted, it was a bad match.

 

You look at Punk vs. Rollins from earlier this year. Same thing. Granted, we were getting a disgruntled Punk who was roughly two weeks from quitting, but you could tell the sloppy spots were getting on his nerves throughout the match and that Seth just seemed lost out there.

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I think the only guy that looked good in the MITB this year was Kofi. He looked like an total crazy, yet refreshed guy doing all that crazy shit. Every other spot/bump wasn't complicated or anything new but looked like it fucking hurt and like the guy taking the brunt of the bump didn't want to walk the next day.

Edit: haven't we learns yet that if a Cena match is good, the crowd no matter how the crowd is, the crowd will react accordingly?

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I think the only guy that looked good in the MITB this year was Kofi. He looked like an total crazy, yet refreshed guy doing all that crazy shit. Every other spot/bump wasn't complicated or anything new but looked like it fucking hurt and like the guy taking the brunt of the bump didn't want to walk the next day.

Edit: haven't we learns yet that if a Cena match is good, the crowd no matter how the crowd is, the crowd will react accordingly?

 

I think that was kind of my point. If a Cena match is good or even interesting, the Crowd will take a break from the Let's go Cena/Cena Sucks stuff.

I really loved being in Wrestlemania for the Wyatt match when the crowd changed it to Lets Go Wyatt/Wyatt Sucks.

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As of now I have Shield/Wyatts from EC and Trips/Bryan from Mania as my 1 and 2. I'm having a hard time believing anything beats either of those but I am very optimistic about Cena/Brock at SS if they follow through with that.

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I'd say if those are the worst Rollins matches you can point to from this year, he's doing really well. I'll trade those two for his roles in the first two Wyatt matches, the tag with Ambrose against the Real Americans, and the double-injury match with RVD. Just like I'd trade Cesaro's first match with RVD for his matches with Zayn, Orton, and Cena. Or like I'd trade the Bryan vs. Kane for Bryan vs. Bray, Orton, and HHH. With the amount of exposure everyone gets these days, it's impossible for even the best workers to not have subpar matches occasionally. Even if Rollins isn't your cup of tea, it's hard to argue he hasn't been involved in a lot more good matches this year than bad ones.

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I'd say if those are the worst Rollins matches you can point to from this year, he's doing really well. I'll trade those two for his roles in the first two Wyatt matches, the tag with Ambrose against the Real Americans, and the double-injury match with RVD. Just like I'd trade Cesaro's first match with RVD for his matches with Zayn, Orton, and Cena. Or like I'd trade the Bryan vs. Kane for Bryan vs. Bray, Orton, and HHH. With the amount of exposure everyone gets these days, it's impossible for even the best workers to not have subpar matches occasionally. Even if Rollins isn't your cup of tea, it's hard to argue he hasn't been involved in a lot more good matches this year than bad ones.

 

He's really worked for me in a tag/multi-man environment, which is more than he has ever worked for me in the past. I am still hesitant to buy into him as a singles worker, and I have yet to really enjoy a singles match of his this year. A year from now I could be very much wrong, but he would be a guy that I have never understood the love for since 2008 (or whenever his first big Danielson ROH match happened).

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SAMI ZAYN vs. TYSON KIDD, NXT --

This match wasn't just a great match technically. I mean, it was certainly that -- there were so many fun spots and complex exchanges and it looked, at times, like a high end WCW 1990s or 2000s US indies cruiserweight match. But it didn't have any of the "spot fu" types of spots of moves just for moves. It was just a very efficient combination of aerial moves and chain wrestling.

 

But what so many of those matches lacked was a storyline or any emotional component. We know what a mess WCW was. The WWE always has its share of problems and its cruisers were a total afterthought. Even in ECW, which really pushed this type of wrestling, a lot of the "feuds" were based on whether Psichosis could beat Rey this time or if Tajiri could once again beat Super Crazy.

This had a feud with a strong emotional component to it. Tyson Kidd came to NXT with his more famous wife Nattie. He came in as we last remembered him -- a non-descript face. But along the way, the curtain of his soul was slowly revealed, as he showed himself to be a jealous jerk filled with insecurities about the security of his relationship with his more successful wife and his place in wrestling (ergo, his life), since he's in the borderland between the WWE itself and the NXT roster. He's fighting to save his spot on the roster -- which he feels entitled to, due to his connections to the Hart family (although not a Hart himself). He's struggling up a very steep hill and, in response, decides to take shortcuts. He's mean to his wife. He's put Sami Zayn in harms way a few times. And, most tellingly, he used his wife's injury to pin Sami in a tag match.

And we know Sami's character, since he's the best pure face in wrestling in years. He's exactly what a wrestling underdog hero should be -- He's a good man in a world filled with bad people, but always takes the high road. But he also has to stand up and walk tall against people who take advantage of him (and, by proxy, good people everywhere). He beat Cesaro in their first match and Cesaro acted like a total jerk in response. Sami had to prove that he was Cesaro's better in-ring. He wasn't, but along the way he did capture Cesaro's respect. Sami saw through Bo Dallas' hypocrisy.

And all of this directly ties into the end to this match. On paper, it's a pretty simple ending -- Tyson has Sami in the Sharpshooter, Sami pulls through, Tyson taps out to Sami's own submission. But it's a lot more to that in terms of personal character. Sami's willing to power through and fight for what he believes in. It's hard and it's scary and it would have been easier to tap out, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did that. But Tyson? He taps out at the first sign of trouble -- he's a total chickenshit, just as the fans labelled him during his great stalling in the start of the match. Tyson's gotten to where he is in NXT by giving into that temptation of taking shortcuts, and quitting in that fashion rather than struggling until you can't struggle anymore is the ultimate sign of personal weakness.

Wrestling's a morality play. There were better matches this year. But there aren't a lot better ones in terms of what it's like to be a hero taking on someone who became a villain.

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  • 2 weeks later...

DEAN AMBROSE VS. ALBERTO DEL RIO,MAIN EVENT --

We should have realized that this is a really great pairing from the start. Dean has that seemingly always injured arm. And ADR is the king of the cross-arm breaker. (They set that up really well at the beginning of the show.) But this pairing has so many other great things to go along with it.

ADR is criminally underrated. He's in a netherworld spot where he doesn't have much to do storyline wise. He doesn't have Ricardo or his bells-and-whistles that made him seem like a gigantic star. But he's still world-class. He comes off like such a threat in the ring -- he can wrestle a methodical style,but he also has a sinister and vicious offense that looks absolutely devastating. He gets this over so well with his facial acting. In one minute, he'll look like a total pretty boy rich kid. The next, he looks like a monster. The next, he's a begging coward.

There aren't too many people better at physically emoting than ADR. One of those people is Dean Ambrose.

Dean's awesome run as the most unexpected babyface of all-time continues. He plays to the back of the room like no one else. Frustrated? Angry? Crazy? Fighting spirit? Dean can do it all, and he's really starting to understand that. He's been great on the microphone since Jon Moxley appeared in our lives. But he's realized the importance of not just saying awesome stuff, but how to say that stuff awesomely. It's carrying over into the ring. That's why, more than anyone else right now, he looks like the next big thing. He has that Eddie Guerrero-type ability to get the crowd going with just one type of glare and glance.

These two just click fabulously well. ADR wants to get at Dean's arm. To get there, he breaks out his brutal kicks and the like. Dean scratches back anyway he can.

The end comes when Rollins comes out and brawls with Ambrose. It's a fairly weak ending but I'm guessing this match was a test run to see what Dean and ADR can do on a bigger stage.

Great stuff from two of the best.

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  • 3 weeks later...

AMBROSE VS. ROLLINS --

This match is awesome. AWESOME. I know no one wanted the stipulation before this but the lumberjack rules really added to this significantly. This match should have been a wild brawl and it was. If these two had a Last Man Standing match or something that usually allows brawling, it would be a good match but not a great match. But because of the lumberjack stipulations -- there to force the participants to duke it out in the ring -- it made all of Ambrose's stuff look that much crazier. His table run spot is one of the best signature spots in eons. Those guys brawling in the crowd in a match with this stipulations was inspired and sort of genius. Ambrose's whole love/hate bi-polar mess when stomping Rollins was one of the great bits of character acting in a WWE ring. And it ending the way it did -- sleazebag, coward Rollins clobbering Dean with the MITB briefcase, the reason why he betrayed his Shield brethren to start with -- was perfect.

What's crazier is the chance that these guys have an even better match in them, probably.

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Ambrose/Rollins, Raw --

This was amazing. This was the absolute best ECW match since the actual ECW was in existence. So many hardcore matches have props just for guys to use them -- they forget that these weapons are used to brutalize a person you absolutely hate. That's why I loved that Orton/Cena I Quit match so much. This match had an element of that in this. It was just two guys who completely hate each other going at it, finding whatever they could under the ring and wherever else to hurt the other person. Rollins is SO great at playing a total worm, trying to find backdoors out of Dean's psychosis. And Dean's the weirdest babyface ever, which makes him so incredibly great at it. His new hoodie says it all -- it has the A in his initial in an anarchy-style font, and that's what he is -- just a total out-of-control maniac.

The end was insane. The Dirty Deeds false finish was one of the best near falls of the year. The table bumps were horrible. And the very end with the cinder blocks... that's the absolute best possible way to write a guy out for a few weeks. And, not just that, but Dean's return when he's done making his movie is going to be Bryan-esque. And Seth looks like the absolute worst possible human being alive.

Kudos, guys.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

DEAN AMBROSE VS. ALBERTO DEL RIO,MAIN EVENT --

We should have realized that this is a really great pairing from the start. Dean has that seemingly always injured arm. And ADR is the king of the cross-arm breaker. (They set that up really well at the beginning of the show.) But this pairing has so many other great things to go along with it.

ADR is criminally underrated. He's in a netherworld spot where he doesn't have much to do storyline wise. He doesn't have Ricardo or his bells-and-whistles that made him seem like a gigantic star. But he's still world-class. He comes off like such a threat in the ring -- he can wrestle a methodical style,but he also has a sinister and vicious offense that looks absolutely devastating. He gets this over so well with his facial acting. In one minute, he'll look like a total pretty boy rich kid. The next, he looks like a monster. The next, he's a begging coward.

There aren't too many people better at physically emoting than ADR. One of those people is Dean Ambrose.

Dean's awesome run as the most unexpected babyface of all-time continues. He plays to the back of the room like no one else. Frustrated? Angry? Crazy? Fighting spirit? Dean can do it all, and he's really starting to understand that. He's been great on the microphone since Jon Moxley appeared in our lives. But he's realized the importance of not just saying awesome stuff, but how to say that stuff awesomely. It's carrying over into the ring. That's why, more than anyone else right now, he looks like the next big thing. He has that Eddie Guerrero-type ability to get the crowd going with just one type of glare and glance.

These two just click fabulously well. ADR wants to get at Dean's arm. To get there, he breaks out his brutal kicks and the like. Dean scratches back anyway he can.

The end comes when Rollins comes out and brawls with Ambrose. It's a fairly weak ending but I'm guessing this match was a test run to see what Dean and ADR can do on a bigger stage.

Great stuff from two of the best.

Really enjoyed this match, Dean is great at selling and injury and Del Rio is great at working an injury. they mesh well.

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