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Match of the Year 2016


Greggulator

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In 2013 I expanded my list to a top 10. I did this for 2014, 2015 and time to do this for 2016. Last year I introduced a TV category.

All:

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. WWE WrestleMania XXXII, 3rd April.

3. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Payback, 1st May.

4. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

5. Jason Jordan/Chad Gable vs. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

6. Bayley vs. Asuka. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

7. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

8. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. WWE Payback, 1st May.

9. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Sin Cara vs. The Miz. WWE WrestleMania XXXII. 3rd April.

10. Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens. WWE Royal Rumble, 24th January.

TV:

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

3. Jason Jordan/Chad Gable vs. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

4. Bayley vs. Asuka. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

5. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

6. Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles. WWE Smackdown, 11th January.

7. Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT, 9th March.

8. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Chris Jericho. WWE RAW, 4th April.

9. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens. WWE RAW, 11th April.

10. Big E/Kofi Kingston vs. AJ Styles/Chris Jericho. WWE RAW, 7th March.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So, what do we have after Extreme Rules 2016? Both Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles and The Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn will make my top five, just have to think about the order apart from Shinsuke Nakamura vs, Sami Zayn.

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1. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

2. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Bálor (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

3. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles (WWE Payback)

4. Bayley vs. Asuka (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

5. American Alpha vs. The Revival (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

6. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch (WWE Wrestlemania 32)

7. The Miz vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro (WWE Extreme Rules) 

8. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles (WWE Extreme Rules)

9. Bayley vs. Carmella (NXT weekly, 2/10)

10. Enzo and Cass vs. The Revival (WWE Roadblock)

After sleeping on it, Rusev/Kalisto is just outside my top ten. 

I'm sticking to only televised matches, but I do want to note that if I were adding house show and dark matches, American Alpha vs. The Revival on the Seattle NXT Live show would be #2 on my list right now. 

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All

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May.

3. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Payback, 1st May.

4. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. WWE WrestleMania XXXII, 3rd April.

5. The Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May.

6. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

7. Jason Jordan/Chad Gable vs. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

8. Bayley vs. Asuka. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

9. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

10. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. WWE Payback, 1st May.

As of right now I preferred Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles at Extreme Rules to Payback but I've only seen both the once.

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1. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May

2. The Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May.

3. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Payback, 1st May

4. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April

Those are my top 4. After that things get a bit too close for me to really call for at least another 7-9 matches, possibly even more than that.

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Current Top 5

1. AJ vs Roman (Extreme Rules)

2. Zayn vs Nakamura (Takeover Dallas)

3. AJ/Jericho vs New Day (RAW, March 7)

4. AJ vs. Roman (Payback)

5. Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto (Smackdown, 1/14)

Honorable mentions: Becky vs Charlotte (Smackdown, 1/7), Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler (Main Event, 4/12), 4 Way (Extreme Rules), AJ vs Miz (Smackdown, 2/4), Paige vs Naomi (Main Event 2/24)

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I feel like such a shit having the 4 Revival matches 1 thru 4 but whatever:

  1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn; NXT Takeover Dallas; 4/1
  2. Bailey vs. Asuka; NXT Takeover Dallas, 4/1
  3. Finn Ballor vs. Samoa Joe; NXT Takeover Dallas, 4/1
  4. American Alpha vs. The Revival; NXT Takeover Dallas, 4/1
  5. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles; Payback, 5/1
  6. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles; Extreme Rules, 5/22
  7. The New Day vs. Chris Jericho & AJ Styles; Raw, 3/14
  8. The Revival vs. Enzo & Cass; Roadblock, 3/12
  9. Sami Zayn vs. Samoa Joe; NXT, 3/9
  10. Bailey vs. Nia Jax, NXT 5/18

Think the Women's Mania 3 way, last night's four way, Trips/Ambrose, the Fastlane 3 way, and Charlotte/Natty from Roadblock would be the next tier maybe.

Man, January and February were kinda not great, huh?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alpha vs The Revival from The End is either my #2 or #3 match currently. I have Sami/Nak, tag title match from Then End, and Roman/AJ from ER as my top 3.

Aries/Nak would probably make my top 10. The more I think about Nia/Asuka the more I like it so I may do a rewatch on that.

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For my money the match from The End was better. I'm not someone who obsesses over a botch, and let's it ruin my enjoyment of a match. The tag title match from Dallas might have been the 4th best match on that show. Yeah it was really damn good, but not a top 10 moty imo.

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I just rewatched the Dallas match. It's still fantastic, there are elements from that match they used at Full Sail... but The End is definitely the better match... I'm not discounting Dallas... it's still a damn good match that happened to be one of the greatest nights in WWE history in terms of strength of card. A phenomenal opener.

Dallas is basically Dawson vs Gable with Dash running shenanigans on the outside and Jordan periodically cleaning house. Dash really makes the tag team work, imo. He's just so damn good outside the ring.

 

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4 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Was the missed spot in Dallas really that off putting for the match? That was the hottest tag match I've seen in years.

It was a really terrible botch. Not only did the spot itself look bad, but they didn't make any attempt to work around it. Dash and Dawson just stood there and absorbed "you fucked up" and "botchamania" chants for nearly a minute. They should've audibled straight to the hot tag after the miss.

Even aside from that spot, though, the action wasn't as smooth and all 4 guys weren't utilized as well throughout the match. It was still good, but The End was just a next-level match where everything flowed perfectly. The End match was a match comprised entirely of the very best parts of the Dallas match with none of the miscues or slow parts.

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1. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

2. American Alpha vs. The Revival (NXT Takeover: The End [of the Beginning])

3. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Bálor (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

4. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles (WWE Payback)

5. Bayley vs. Asuka (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

6. American Alpha vs. The Revival (NXT Takeover: Dallas)

7. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch (WWE Wrestlemania 32)

8. The Miz vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro (WWE Extreme Rules) 

9. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles (WWE Extreme Rules)

10. Bayley vs. Carmella (NXT weekly, 2/10)

I'm surprised that there isn't as much good television stuff this year as normal. I liked the one KO/Ziggler match that everyone talks about too, but I enjoy Owens doing Owens-type antics, and I'm glad that the company gives him the leeway to fuck around with the typical TV match formula and do different things. KO's been good on Main Event all year, but stuff like Owens/Swagger doesn't hold a patch on some of the TV matches from two or three years ago, or even from last year. 

The same goes for NXT weekly, which usually has at least three or four competitors for the top ten by this point in the year, but which this year only really has that Bayley/Carmella match that was textbook great match layout + Bayley walking Carmella through said match layout to perfection. 

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On 11/06/2016 at 3:45 PM, Wyld Samurai said:

Was the missed spot in Dallas really that off putting for the match? That was the hottest tag match I've seen in years.

I prefer that match to the rematch. Only watched both the once.

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Usually not big on rating or ranking matches, but had some time to rewatch what I really liked from this year so far and figured I'd take a crack at a top ten list going into MITB.  Basically just taking PPV/Takeover bouts into account, as I only infrequently watch a handful of recommended Raw/SD matches as they make it to Replay, and have also stopped watching NXT on a weekly basis for the most part:

  1. Nakamura/Zayn - Takeover: Dallas
  2. American Alpha/The Revival - Takeover: The End
  3. Nakamura/Aries - Takeover: The End
  4. Asuka/Bayley - Takeover: Dallas
  5. Reigns/Styles - Extreme Rules
  6. American Alpha/The Revival - Takeover: Dallas
  7. Owens/Zayn - Payback
  8. Miz/Zayn/Owens/Cesaro - Extreme Rules
  9. Owens/Ambrose - Royal Rumble
  10. Asuka/Nia Jax - Takeover: The End

Last ones out:

Charlotte/Banks/Lynch - WrestleMania 32
Reigns/Styles - Payback
Reigns/Lesnar/Ambrose - Fastlane
Rusev/Kalisto - Extreme Rules

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  • 2 weeks later...

First half of the year as the second half is almost upon us...

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May.

3. AJ Styles vs. John Cena. WWE Money in the Bank, 19th June.

4. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Payback, 1st May.

5. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. WWE WrestleMania XXXII, 3rd April.

6. Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn vs. Alberto Del Rio. WWE Money in the Bank, 19th June.

7. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

8. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

9. Jason Jordan/Chad Gable vs. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

10. Bayley vs. Asuka. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

I may switch Styles vs. Cena at Money in the Bank with Reigns vs. Styles from Payback. Might have Charlotte vs. Sasha vs. Becky a bit higher another time. I'm unsure whether to change the Money in the Bank Contract Ladder match with Balor vs. Joe from the NXT TakeOver: Dallas show.

TV:

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

3. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

4. Jason Jordan/Chad Gable vs. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

5. Bayley vs. Asuka. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

6. Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles. WWE Smackdown, 11th January.

7. Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT, 9th March.

8. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Chris Jericho. WWE RAW, 4th April.

9. Big E/Kofi Kingston vs. AJ Styles/Chris Jericho. WWE RAW, 7th March.

10. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens. WWE RAW, 11th April.

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  • 1 month later...

All.

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April. *****

2. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Extreme Rules, 22nd May.

3. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens. WWE Battleground, 24th July.

4. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles. WWE Payback, 1st May.

5. Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns. WWE Battleground, 24th July.

6. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. WWE WrestleMania XXXII, 3rd April.

7. AJ Styles vs. John Cena. WWE Money in the Bank, 19th June.

8. Sasha Banks/Bayley vs. Charlotte/Dana Brooke. WWE Battleground, 24th July.

9. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler. WWE Main Event, 12th April.

10. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe. WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas, 1st April.

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1 hour ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Last night's triple threat match bored me... I'd replace that with Nakamura vs Aries

I didn't like Nakamura vs. Aries as I thought I would. That goes for the whole NXT TakeOver: The End compared to NXT TakeOver: Dallas.

 

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