1. WWE World Title: Dean Ambrose [c] vs. AJ Styles (Backlash 9/11/16)
Epic, epic match – another masterpiece from the AJ Styles 2016 run that’s just head and shoulders above anything happening inside a wrestling ring in WWE. I was just entranced the whole time, from the opening feeling out process to the freakishly dramatic closing stretch. Always love a wrestling match where each guy decides his solution to win is to just hit a guy in the face or slam his head into the mat repeatedly. Beautiful.
2. Best of 7 Series – Match #7: Cesaro vs. Sheamus (Clash of Champions 9/25/16)
Sometimes, pro wrestling is real. Awesome capper to an awesome series between two guys who’s thing is that they are MEN. Stiff shots, the insane tope that nearly killed Cesaro, epic I-must-win-this finish, Cesaro randomly working like Rey Mysterio. Like a G1 climax final in the middle of a WWE PPV. Loved it.
3. WWE Intercontinental Title: The Miz [c] w/ Maryse vs. Dolph Ziggler (Backlash 9/11/16)
The Miz has been on a roll this year, but this felt like his ascension from good wrestler to all-time great. Yeah I’m serious. This was a very basic WWE-style match with everything turned up to 11… as I said in my Quick Thoughts, it felt like the match everyone in WWE tries to do every time, but fifty times better. Miz controlled a lot of this and did nothing fancy in his beatdown – outside of a few Daniel Bryan moves to be a cock – and it felt like the ultimate basic WWE heel beatdown … totally compelling work out of absolutely nothing. Ziggler sold his ass off, got his comebacks in at all the right times, and the finish was super dramatic and led to a totally smooth way of doing a cheating heel finish.
4. Cruiserweight Classic – Final: TJ Perkins vs. Gran Metalik (CWC Finals 9/14/16)
I might have enjoyed more individual moments or performances in the CWC, and I could see arguments for Gargano/Ciampa, Ibushi/Cedric, Kendrick/Kota and even Metalik/Tozawa from August over this… but this was a tremendous send-off for the epic CWC. This hit all the right notes for a great match in this great tourney – interesting and unique feeling out process, crazy spots (both guys rana’s over the top rope), and a smart finish worked around the kneebar that was built up as death the whole tourney. Epic finish, epic match.
5. Cruiserweight Classic – Semi Final: TJ Perkins vs. Kota Ibushi (CWC Finals 9/14/16)
God bless you, TJP, and thanks for the memories as you head into that great disappointing gig in the sky called RAW. This was just such a fun match – all the pretty holds and moves from TJP along with nasty kicks and crazy dives from Ibushi. Super intense finish, and TJP’s kickout of the Last Ride was soooo dramatic. Such quality stuff, and something that should be cherished as it’s completely different from so much of WWE’s output. I might see similar matches elsewhere, but I don’t watch a lot elsewhere – so this was awesome.
6. WWE Intercontinental Title: The Miz [c] w/ Maryse vs. Dolph Ziggler (SmackDown 9/20/16)
Basically, the Backlash match’s little brother. Not as epic, but almost as good, and a great play-off of the Backlash finish.
7. Cruiserweight Classic – Semi Final: Gren Metalik vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (CWC Finals 9/14/16)
Just an awesome mesh of styles… Metalik’s Lucha Libre arm dragging and diving vs. Sabre Jr.’s cute British stretching and trickery. Loved Metalik going right at Sabre at the start with the tope, and ZSJ’s portion of control where he just tied Metalik up with all kinds of fun stuff was great. The springboard splash countered into the arm submission was incredible too. Michael Hayes cries; wrestling fans rejoice.
8. WWE Tag Team Title: The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) [c] w/ Xavier Woods vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (Clash of Champions 9/25/16)
It was less than a week ago, but this might go down as one of my favorite sub-10 minute matches ever. They packed enough in that it somehow felt like a long epic tag match. The early brawling was great and felt chaotic, and Gallows and Anderson looked like total monsters on offense. Finish was excellent too and felt totally unpredictable, with a bunch of ups and downs and some really well-timed saves.
9. Jack Swagger vs. Rusev w/ Lana (Superstars 9/2/16)
Lined up against a lot of stuff this month, this might not jump out as the most epic thing out there, but Rusev deserves some credit damnit. One of the best TV workers in the company. He and Swagger have this unreal chemistry too and just click every time. Rusev’s selling his ribs all match thanks to an attack from Roman Reigns earlier in the week, and while he controls a lot of the match every movement of his seems like it’s a desperate decision to avoid more damage. His facial expressions and sell of the ankle lock are epic, and Swagger’s collapse after trying to fight out of the Accolade is great. So good, so pro wrestling.
10. American Alpha vs. The Usos (SmackDown 9/20/16)
As far as telling a story through pro wrestling, here’s a good one. Performance was good, but let’s give it up for the agent too. This has a fine beatdown on the injured Chad Gable by the totally re-vitalized Street Thug Usos, and the finish is just so great – Jordan gets the hot tag but gets overwhelmed, then refuses to tag his ailing partner as he knows it’ll just hurt more. Jordan gets pinned as Gable slowly crawls to him, unable to make the save. New SmackDown is professional wrestling utopia.
11. Cruiserweight Classic – Quarter Final: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Noam Dar (CWC 9/7/16)
Look at these cute little fellas battling! This is just a god damn grappling contest that I seemed to like more than most folks on the Internet. Both guys sold this whole thing like they were two brothers just pasting each other for pop pop’s will. Sweet counters, stiff shots, each guy trying to break a limb (Zack on the arm, Dar on the leg), great near falls, and just a totally bonkers finish: Sabre just straight boots Dar in the head, then defies gravity to get him into a nutty submission where he uses his legs to pull back Dar’s arms because his own arm is hurting. Brilliant.
12. WWE World Title: AJ Styles [c] vs. Dean Ambrose (SmackDown 9/27/16)
If the epic Backlash match didn’t exist, this would probably be looked at a lot more fondly. It’s basically that match without the first 10 minutes and a less dramatic finish. No feeling out here – they went right at it and had themselves a pretty epic wrasslin match. AJ Styles is always good right now, but it’s still so impressive how fired up he is in these big matches, and Ambrose steps it up when he’s in there with him. Plus you got John Cena on commentary putting everything over. Had a screwy finish, but it wasn’t a bad one.
13. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs. Noam Dar & Cedric Alexander (CWC Finals 9/14/16)
Fucking awesome little 10-minute match… an old school WCW cruiserweight spotfest with kicks instead of flips. Cedric is just pumping out great performances – he looks at good here as he did in the Ibushi match. Yeah I said it.
14. Fatal 4-Way WWE Cruiserweight Title #1 Contender’s Match: Gran Metalik vs. Rich Swann vs. Cedric Alexander vs. The Brian Kendrick (RAW 9/19/16)
A great re-introduction of cruiserweight wrestling to Monday Night RAW … fast-paced work, fun dives, and everyone got a moment. Good times!!
15. Cruiserweight Classic – Quarter Final: Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins (CWC 9/7/16)
On the lower-end of your epic CWC matches, but still a pretty epic CWC match: you’ve got Swann grooving as the ref checked his pads, wild chain wrestling and rope-running based around dabbing spots, TJP wrecking Swann’s leg, TJP countering Swann’s jumping 450 with the kneebar, and a bunch of cool-looking shit. TJP immediately hugging Swann when he tapped out was so awesome.
16. Best of 7 Series – Match #6: Cesaro vs. Sheamus (RAW 9/19/16)
While the Cesaro/Sheamus matches before Match #7 kind of happened in a vacuum, they were still pretty awesome, with snug work, Cesaro selling his back hard, and the crowd with them all the way. This one also had a Celtic Cross on the apron, a nasty Celtic Cross backbreaker, and at one point Vince Carter ran away from them. So yeah, this was fun.
17. Best of 7 Series – Match #5: Cesaro vs. Sheamus (RAW 9/12/16)
I can probably repeat that for this one too., outside of Vince Carter running away and the apron spot. Good stuff.
18. SmackDown Tag Team Title Tournament – Final: Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. The Usos (Backlash 9/11/16)
Nothing fancy, but a solid heel beatdown by the freshly turned Usos and a great conclusion to a fairy tale story. HEATH’S KIDS, BAYBAY!!!
19. WWE Cruiserweight Title: TJ Perkins [c] vs. The Brian Kendrick (Clash of Champions 9/25/16)
A really good match – lots of fun technical wrestling to go along with some sweet high-flying from TJ and some really cool moments from Kendrick (the apron catch, the reaction on the Sliced Bread #2 kickout, the Captain’s Hook counter of a counter). A great example of what WWE seems to be going with on the cruiserweight division too – we ain’t just flyers, maaaaan.
20. Cedric Alexander vs. Oney Lorcan (CWC Exclusive 9/10/16)
This was helped a lot by the Full Sail setting, but I really loved it. A great WWE TV match with some wild exchanges and stiff-ass shots. All of Oney’s strike counters off of Cedric’s flying looked so good. Also has a great moment when Oney hit a half-nelson suplex off the top and Cedric looked to flip out of it but it kind of looked like it hurt him – so Cedric feels that, pauses ever-so-slightly, and waves his finger so they rally him into the comeback. What a pro.
21. Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Austin Aries (NXT 9/7/16)
Very fun match – I’m coming around on Aries after a bit of a rough start, and he’s settling in to being a piece of shit. So many pretty sequences. Almas does a bump off the top rope that’s nasty, and does a boot to Aries’ face off a rolling elbow that’s insane. Almas/Cedric and Aries/Oney are matches from NXT worth mentioning too … didn’t hit second gear like this did, but still fun.
22. Steel Cage Match: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 9/19/16)
Though this match actually happening reeked of desperation, it was a fun time, just like their other non-cage match a week before. Lots of fun stuff here like Owens going for the escape early, all the cage bumps, the Superman Punch counter of the pop-up powerbomb, and, though the result was questionable, they pulled off the finish really well.
23. WWE Women’s Title: Charlotte [c] w/ Dana Brooke vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley (Clash of Champions 9/25/16)
Everything surrounding the RAW women’s division just stinks so much right now but this was a very good match. They had a bunch of fun spots that they built-up well, Sasha did her crazy bumping thing (and it actually felt like a crazy bump and not like a sloppy bump), there were some nice teases of Bayley actually winning, and Charlotte hits a moonsault on both Sasha and Bayley here that is perfection.
24. No Holds Barred: Kane vs. Bray Wyatt (Backlash 9/11/16)
This match was classic WWE. They build up Orton/Wyatt for the show, then bait-and-switch on the show with Wyatt attacking Orton backstage. So out comes fucking Kane as the replacement, and, oh, surprise: it’s No Holds Barred!! These two made the best of a bad situation and had a very fun house show main event. Bray looked at his best for the first time in forever and though Kane’s lost a step he’s still a pro. There’s an awesome stretch of moves here too where Bray throws some nasty hammer fists at Kane on the outside, does the Orton pose, hits a running senton through the commentary table, and LAUGHS. A perfect match for a 5-year-old.
25. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose (SmackDown 9/20/16)
Not the most amazing match that ever happened, but this was a fine piece of work by two #TopGuys.
WHAT A MONTH!!! Had to do Top 25 again. With CWC over, I think I’ll be back to Top 10 next month. I think. So many things that are completely worth watching. A bunch of fun little cruiserweight matches, a TON of random big RAW matches that were fun but didn’t mean a whole lot and never got into second gear, and quite a few women’s division matches (both RAW and SmackDown) that were also really neat. Honorable Mentions are kind of in order. Kind of.
Honorable Mentions: WWE U.S. Title: Rusev [c] w/ Lana vs. Roman Reigns (Clash of Champions 9/25/16), WWE U.S. Title: Roman Reigns [c] vs. Rusev w/ Lana (RAW 9/26/16), WWE RAW Tag Team Title: The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) [c] w/ Xavier Woods vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (RAW 9/26/16), Enzo & Big Cass vs. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho (RAW 9/26/16), If Roman Wins, He Enters the Clash of Champions WWE Universal Title Match: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 9/12/16), Bayley vs. Charlotte w/ Dana Brooke (RAW 9/5/16), Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho (RAW 9/5/16), Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (RAW 9/5/16), Apollo Crews vs. Baron Corbin (Backlash Kickoff 9/11/16), Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Cedric Alexander (NXT 9/21/16), Austin Aries vs. Oney Lorcan (NXT 9/21/16), RAW Cruiserweight Division Match: Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado (Main Event 9/20/16), Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. Breezango (Main Event 9/20/16), Best of 7 Series – Match #3: Cesaro vs. Sheamus (RAW 9/5/16), Apollo Crews vs. The Miz w/ Maryse (SmackDown 9/6/16), SmackDown Tag Team Title Tournament – Semi Final: The Usos vs. American Alpha (SmackDown 9/6/16), SmackDown Tag Team Title Tournament – Semi Final: The Hype Bros vs. Rhyno & Heath Slater (SmackDown 9/6/16), Rhyno & Heath Slater and American Alpha vs. The Usos & The Ascension (SmackDown 9/27/16), Nikki Bella & Naomi vs. Natalya & Carmella (SmackDown 9/27/16), TM61 vs. Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari (NXT 9/7/16), Six-Pack Challenge – SmackDown Women’s Title: Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Naomi vs. Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Carmella (Backlash 9/11/16), 2nd Chance Match – Winners Enter SmackDown Tag Team Title Tournament Finals: The Hype Bros vs. The Usos (Backlash 9/11/16), Drew Gulak & Tony Nese vs. Lince Dorado & Kenneth Johnson (CWC Exclusive 9/12/16), Fatal 5-Way SmackDown Women’s Title #1 Contender’s Match: Nikki Bella vs. Naomi vs. Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Carmella (SmackDown 9/13/16), John Cena & Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles & X (The Miz) (SmackDown 9/13/16), Hideo Itami vs. Drew Gulak (NXT 9/14/16), Braun Strowman vs. Sin Cara (Superstars 9/16/16), Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho (Clash of Champions 9/25/16), WWE Universal Title: Kevin Owens [c] vs. Seth Rollins (Clash of Champions 9/25/16)
