1. NXT Tag Team Title: American Alpha [c] vs. The Revival (NXT TakeOver: The End 6/8/16)
Best in-ring thing going in the WWE. And I don’t keep up with anything else these days outside of catching up on mid-80s NWA so this is where I am seeing the most amazing current wrestling. American Alpha’s name is really stupid but their creative double teams, selling, and fire are on another level right now. Revival played their part, but their star-making match was the Dallas match – this was all about making Alpha look like the greatest tag team in wrestling and it totally worked. Finish was insane, and any time you have fans legitimately screaming at a finish in 2016, you did something special.
2. John Cena vs. AJ Styles (Money in the Bank 6/19/16)
The two best wrestlers in the WWE and probably the world just doing their thing. It was the prototypical first time Dream Match, so very fun though not the epic heat-filled match they have in them. As I wrote so elegantly in Quick Thoughts:
- AJ Styles and John Cena are very, very good at modern-style WWE wrestling. Exciting start, trading of crowd-pleasing spots, everything built around a few key signature spots, a big near-fall-filled finish, expressive body language for an arena crowd while at the same time playing to cameras. Cena has mastered the style, while AJ basically takes the formula and makes it more athletically impressive.
3. WWE World Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins (Dean Ambrose on commentary) (RAW 6/20/16)
A lot better than the Money in the Bank Main event they had the night before, this was Roman Reigns’ swan song before heading up north to grandpappy’s farm of suspended wrestlers. If Cena and Styles are the best guys going at WWE style, these two are right below them, and put out an excellent main event that had the crowd with them bell-to-bell and capped with a hot finish before the inevitable wackiness began.
4. Zack Ryder vs. Sheamus (Main Event 6/7/16)
Main Event has become this weird place of strange hidden gems with guys who don’t get many chances to have great matches on RAW and SmackDown! given time to go out and kill it. So here’s Zack Ryder and Sheamus, two underrated guys these days, going out and having a match that basically proves you could put them in a pay-per-view main event and it really wouldn’t look THAT out of place. Great WWE-style match, with all the stuff I brought up in the Cena/Styles review.
5. WWE U.S. Title: Rusev [c] w/ Lana vs. Cesaro (SmackDown 6/30/16)
Awww yeah, awesome match. You’ve already got some extra drama here with Cesaro going into this match immediately following a Fatal 4-Way #1 Contender’s Match as well as a nasty attack by Alberto del Rio. Then you get Cesaro fighting from behind with both a hurt shoulder AND ribs, Rusev just destroying Cesaro with interesting credible offense, and a super hot finish that kept messing with all the usual tropes you expect from WWE TV wrestling. Tremendous. With more time these two are going to do great things.
6. Sin Cara vs. Rusev (Main Event 6/7/16)
RUSEV CRUSH!!! This is like 5-minutes of a Rusev squash and then they just tack on another 10 and make it look like Sin Cara could actually beat Rusev. Crowd totally buys it. What a blast.
7. Steel Cage Match – NXT Title: Samoa Joe [c] vs. Finn Balor (NXT TakeOver: The End 6/8/16)
This series was pretty disappointing since it lasted so long and they never really clicked, but this was probably your standout match. And for a modern day WWE cage match I really liked it. From Quick Thoughts:
8. NXT Women’s Title: Asuka vs. Nia Jax (NXT TakeOver: The End 6/8/16)
This was the match it needed to be, and for that I loved it. Quick, efficient, never overstayed its welcome. Kept moving. Felt like the collision between the two beasts of the division that it was. Fun!
9. Jack Swagger vs. Viktor (Main Event 6/14/16)
That’s right, fucking VIKTOR. This was like something out of the god damn G1 Climax (and Viktor had a low key run in New Japan as The Shadow in 2003, so there’s that), with snug work and big time drama towards the finish. There’s a knee Viktor hits on Swagger towards the end that is just so fucking beautiful. I don’t know where this came from but man was it fun. #WatchMainEvent
10. Xavier Woods vs. AJ Styles (SmackDown 6/16/16)
Just a great TV match – nothing fancy, but good solid underdog good guy vs. douchebag bad guy wrestling. This was one of AJ’s first performances as a heel and showed he was just as good at it as he was a face, if not better. And Woods absolutely brought it, reminding you he can work his ass off too.
This was a good month of wrestling – maybe not high-end stuff, but sooo much really solid stuff. LOTS just outside the Top 10. Seth Rollins had some really good matches as he got his footing back, while Bubba Ray Dudley was low key awesome. Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura also did some really cool stuff. And Miz was missing for most of the month filming the Marine 5, but returned with an awesome midcard heel vs. main event face match against Ambrose on SmackDown.
Honorable Mentions: Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz (SmackDown 6/30/16), John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (RAW 6/27/16), Sami Zayn vs. Seth Rollins (SmackDown 6/23/16), Apollo Crews vs. Bubba Ray Dudley w/ D-Von Dudley (Main Event 6/14/16), Zack Ryder vs. Rusev (Main Event 6/21/16), Cesaro vs. Alberto del Rio (SmackDown 6/23/16), Enzo & Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (SmackDown 6/9/16), Jack Swagger vs. Rusev (SmackDown 6/2/16), WWE World Heavyweight Title: Roman Reigns [c] vs. Seth Rollins (Money in the Bank 6/19/16), Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho vs. Alberto del Rio vs. Kevin Owens (Money in the Bank 6/19/16), Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn (RAW 6/13/16), Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles (RAW 6/27/16), WWE U.S. Title: Rusev [c] w/ Lana vs. Titus O’Neil (Money in the Bank 6/19/16), The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) vs. The Club (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) (RAW 6/6/16), Kofi Kingston w/ Big E and Xavier Woods vs. AJ Styles w/ Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (SmackDown 6/2/16), Dean Ambrose, Cesaro & Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho, Alberto del Rio & Kevin Owens (SmackDown 6/16/16), Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa vs. The Revival (NXT 6/1/16), Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte w/ Dana Brooke (SmackDown 6/2/16), Dean Ambrose & Sami Zayn vs. Alberto del Rio & Kevin Owens (SmackDown 6/2/16), Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 6/20/16), Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Austin Aries (NXT TakeOver: The End 6/8/16), Fatal 4-Way Match – WWE Tag Team Title: The New Day [c] w/ Xavier Woods vs. Enzo & Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. The Vaudevillains (Money in the Bank 6/19/16), Jimmy Uso w/ Jey Uso vs. AJ Styles (SmackDown 6/23/16), The Hype Bros vs. Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa (NXT 6/29/16), Enzo & Big Cass vs. The Dudley Boyz (Main Event 6/28/16), Apollo Crews vs. Sheamus (SmackDown 6/23/16), Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte w/ Dana Brooke (SmackDown 6/2/16), Golden Truth vs. Breezango (Money in the Bank 6/19/16), Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Buddy Murphy (NXT 6/22/16), Sasha Banks vs. Summer Rae (SmackDown 6/30/16)
