1. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 3/21/16)
In an era of WWE TV matches that are “fun” but not great, or not given enough time to really develop, this was a high-end, balls out match between two of the best guys wrestling right now on WWE television. And as good as this was, there were zero This is Awesome chants – not because it wasn’t awesome, but because the crowd was too wrapped up in the actual god damn match. Incredible. Here’s what I wrote in the WWE TV Match of the Week post:
- First, from Owens’ early headlock, to Owens’ constant shit talk and Styles’ well-timed babyface cut-offs, every move and hold felt like it meant something in their struggle to gain control. When wrestling starts to feel like this – for me, it’s peak wrestling. No wasted movements. Feels like a battle. Feels like you are watching absolute professionals. This is wrestling as art, wrestling as an athletic competition. Second, these two successfully blended the modern day action-packed strike-and-big-move heavy modern day pro wrestling style with the character work and pacing of a match designed to bring the crowd up and down at their whim. In shorter terms, they worked a big spot style slowly enough to work the crowd. That’s next level shit, man.
2. WWE Tag Team Title: The New Day [c] w/ Xavier Woods vs. Chris Jericho & AJ Styles (RAW 3/7/16)
New Day has been entertaining outside of the ring for a while, but they’ve come together this year as a great all-around tag team with a really good tag formula down: Southern-style beatdown and plenty of schenanigans by whoever is on the outside. This is a New Day formula match but with the added ingredients of a hot Chicago crowd and two seasoned pros in Styles and Jericho. Styles is a guy eager to live up his “phenomenal” moniker, and Jericho is a guy eager to prove he can still put on a great match. It all adds up here. This has an insanely hot last few minutes too. And it might be Big E’s best ever performance, dude was just a monster here.
3. WWE Divas Title: Charlotte [c] w/ Ric Flair vs. Natalya (Roadblock 3/12/16)
If this happened on SmackDown!, JBL would be crowing about fighting on Friday nights. This was a gosh darn war, with both ladies grappling their hearts out. In an era of flips and sports entertainment, this was a wrestling match, and man was it fun. Each opening was fought for, and it peaked with an awesome Sharpshooter near fall.
4. Neville vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 3/7/16)
Here’s just a random balls out match on RAW … insane flying from Neville, great shit talk and control segments from Owens. Just a shade under the WWE Title tournament match from last year that I thought was incredible. These two have such great chemistry, just awesome matches every time.
5. Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens (SmackDown! 3/3/16)
A great way to main event the beginning of the SmackDown! on USA era, with a taped-up Ambrose constantly fighting from behind and Owens being a monster. This is a fun match, around 12 minutes, brought to another level by both guys’ playing their roles perfectly.
6. WWE Divas Title #1 Contender Match: Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks (SmackDown! 3/3/16)
One of the better stories of the first quarter of 2016 has been the Divas, soon-to-be Women’s, division finally finding its’ footing as the members of the Divas Revolution were put in proper roles to succeed. And after a string of really average and short TV matches, Becky and Sasha tore down the house here. Not as high-end as their TakeOver match, but this match gave me hope that they’ll more than get there again.
7. WWE Title: Triple H [c] vs. Dean Ambrose (Roadblock 3/12/16)
Modern day, leaner than ever Triple H is a sight to behold. He and Ambrose have a heck of a WWE main event style match here. They go almost half an hour and it hits all the marks – Triple H outwrestling the young guy, character moments, hot near falls. Didn’t love it, but sure did like it.
8. Dolph Ziggler & Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens & The Miz (SmackDown! 3/24/16)
After a slow start wrestling-wise for Sami Zayn on the main roster, here’s a really good tag match. Zayn vs. Miz is a lot of fun, and Owens continues ducking Zayn which is always great.
9. The Usos vs. Sheamus & Rusev w/ Alberto del Rio and King Barrett (SmackDown! 3/3/16)
The SmackDown! debut on USA was tremendous, with three matches showing up here. This was a really fun tag with one of the Usos playing a really great face-in-peril and Sheamus and Rusev throwing down a great beatdown.
10. Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt (RAW 3/7/16)
I think this might be my favorite match these two have had, and imagine it’ll fall way under the radar as time goes on. This had all the makings of a cold main event at the end of a mediocre 3-hour Raw, but these two had a really physical match that had the crowd all the way with them towards the end.
Honorable Mentions: Sami Zayn vs. Samoa Joe 2/3 Falls NXT Title #1 Contender Match (NXT 3/9/16), AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens (SmackDown! 3/17/16), Finn Balor vs. Neville (NXT 3/2/16), Finn Balor vs. Rich Swann (NXT 3/23/16), Kofi Kingston vs. Alberto del Rio (RAW 3/28/16), The New Day vs. Sheamus & King Barrett WWE Tag Team Title (Roadblock 3/12/16), Dolph Ziggler vs. Triple H (RAW 3/14/16), Neville & Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens & The Miz (SmackDown! 3/10/16), American Alpha vs. The Vaudevillains NXT Tag Team Title #1 Contender Match (NXT 3/16/16), AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston (SmackDown! 3/3/16), Zack Ryder vs. Tyler Breeze (Main Event 3/8/16), Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler & The Usos vs. The Wyatt Family (SmackDown! 3/10/16), Zack Ryder vs. The Miz (Superstars 3/11/16), The Usos vs. The Ascension (Superstars 3/11/16), The Lucha Dragons vs. The Ascension (Main Event 3/15/16)
