WWE is creatively hit-or-miss right now, but between RAW and SmackDown having 1-2 quality matches per show, a TakeOver, the Rumble, the UK Tournament, and 205 Live finally stepping up, this was an incredible month for their wrestling matches. It was tough to even do a top 25 here – there was so much great stuff.
1. WWE Title: AJ Styles [c] vs. John Cena (Royal Rumble 1/29/17)
I loved the UK Title Tournament Finals. Wish more wrestling was like it. But John Cena winning #16 was just the best. Here’s what I wrote about in Quick Thoughts:
I am sure a lot is going to be written about AJ Styles vs. John Cena. What I will say is this: it truly is a pleasure when you get to watch the two best professional wrestlers in the world having themselves a professional wrestling competition. Wrestling stories are scripted, the matches are pre-determined, but these two called that shit in the ring, hit so much impressive stuff, and turned this into the ultimate battle of two superheroes pulling out every trick they knew to win this match. AJ Styles and John Cena are so good at what they do. Everything clicks, everything is bigger, everything has credibility. I didn’t take notes because I was transfixed the entire time. They threw everything at each other. Motherfuckers were COUGHING. Cena got FRUSTRATED. Cena somehow became the guy who throws the best lariat in wrestling. Styles somehow became the guy who applies the best-looking STF in wrestling. The setup for the figure-4 was incredible. Cena’s Code Red was inhuman. Styles kicked out of the top rope AA, but another AA followed by a roll-through AA finally got him. I don’t know if I want to go full 5, but can understand anybody doing it. Cena’s emotion sold this; AJ’s athleticism made this. Sublime.
2. WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Final: Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17)
I love it when a plan comes together. This one had it all – a tournament final, statement match from the U.K. scene, two great characters, big fight feel, no wild bumps, big time drama, realism, and by the end of it an establishment of two guys ready to lead a company. All that is great about British wrestling too – chain wrestling, working holds, using momentum to fight out of holds. Bate’s shoulder was hurt going into it and they milked everything they could out of that, and the build and payoff to each guy’s finisher was tremendous. Nod to Cole and Nigel for the commentary too, really sold this as an epic match.
3. NXT Tag Team Title: #DIY [c] vs. The Revival (NXT 1/11/17)
Will go down as the lesser of The Revival/#DIY classics, but this is still another dissertation on the greatness of tag team professional wrestling. Classic good guy vs. bad guy stuff, beautiful complex wrestling sequences (go check out the TV Week in Review for a rundown of some of these, just batty stuff), Dawson being Dawson (big bumps, wild swings, great reactions), Revival’s timing and double teaming, Gargano’s face-in-peril selling, Ciampa’s hot tag fire. The Revival HUGGED each other as #DIY finished them off. Incredible match.
4. WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Semi Final: Mark Andrews vs. Pete Dunne (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17)
Sometimes it’s fun when wrestling is silly, but it doesn’t reach its’ highest peaks until it just makes sense. This was pretty much a perfect 10-minute match, with no wasted movements and two characters that perfectly complemented each other: the bruiserweight butthole vs. the flyer with a hurt neck. Every second of this match took that story and told it beautifully. Dunne is an absolute beast here, going right after and staying on Andrews’ neck, while all of Andrews flight-based comebacks looked beautiful. Finish is absolutely wild too.
5. No DQ Match – WWE Universal Title: Kevin Owens [c] vs. Roman Reigns (Chris Jericho in a Shark Cage) (Royal Rumble 1/29/17)
A little bit silly, but so much fun, with enough little touches to go from “that was fun!” to “that was great.” Kevin Owens is at his artistic best when he can brawl around the ring, use some toys, and work matches around building to a couple big spots, and damn were there some big spots here – KO going through the Picasso-esque chair setup was complete insanity. Roman meanwhile is just a beast – throwing big shots, brawling, keeping things moving and the crowd buzzing, and just being athletic as all hell. Awesome near fall off Jericho’s brass knucks at the end and the BRRAUUUUNNN run-in was leap-out-of-your-seat awesome.
6. NXT Title: Shinsuke Nakamura [c] vs. Bobby Roode (NXT TakeOver San Antonio 1/28/17)
A near-30 minute match with awesome characters and presentation, a breakout performance from Roode, and Nakamura showing why once in a while people call him one of the greats. Lots of fun stuff here early and the last 10 minutes are just insane with an all-time great sell job by Nakamura.
7. RAW Women’s Title: Charlote Flair [c] vs. Bayley (Royal Rumble 1/29/17)
Charlotte and Bayley have just perfect heel/face chemistry and it all clicked here. Another great Charlotte PPV performance and Bayley brought the pain with an awesome dive to the outside and a classic Macho Man elbow drop. Big drama at the end with the crowd going nuts for the Figure-8. Ended a bit sudden to hit epic territory, but a perfect first time big match.
8. SmackDown Tag Team Title: American Alpha [c] vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton) w/ Luke Harper (SmackDown 1/10/17)
With a proper finish this goes way higher. Amazing tag performance by Bray and Randy with them looking like Cowboy Bob and Dick Slater were tearing up some blowjob babyface tag team in 1983. Both Gable and Jordan took a beating and the Wyatt’s just brought all kinds of purposeful beautiful old school shit with tons of great little touches I wish there were more of (like Randy helping Bray get momentum on a clothesline or stepping on Gable to trap him), along with some great spots where they just wrecked the poor Alpha boys.
9. WWE U.S. Title: Roman Reigns [c] vs. Chris Jericho (RAW 1/2/17)
Roman Reigns and Chris Jericho have this bizzare chemistry where they just know how to work a perfect WWE-style TV match together. They work it all around big signature spots, bring the crowd up and down with counters, and have the people buzzing the entire time. Everything flows well and moves right into the next thing; meanwhile Roman sells his ass off too. Jericho tries to use the old Eddie Guerrero trick at one point to get Reigns DQ’d too which is incredible.
10. Last Man Standing Match: Sami Zayn vs. Braun Strowman (RAW 1/2/17)
A wild brawl with a ton of fun spots, Sami using everything in his environment to take it to Braun, Braun doing insane strong-man shit, and an all-time great moment when Braun grabs a chair Sami is holding and brings Sami up to the ramp with it. Sami bumps like an insane man too. Just a blast of 15 minutes of pro wrestling TV.
11. NXT Tag Team Title: #DIY [c] vs. The Authors of Pain w/ Paul Ellering (NXT TakeOver San Antonio 1/28/17)
So much great stuff from #DIY, amazing selling by Gargano and fire by Ciampa, an admirable job by the young Authors of Pain, and a really hot finish. It was really good, just felt like something really really really good was lurking beneath the surface if the big bad guy team was a little bit better.
12. Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble 1/29/17)
Despite a few issues I had with it, this ended up a high-end Rumble and tons of fun. It’s really impressively laid out – they weaved a lot of stories and feuds and callbacks together, got almost all the big showdowns you’d hope for, and had some laughs and some “oh shit” moments. Things flowed well, it moved fast, and there are just TONS of great characters on the WWE roster in 2017. Lots of highlights like Gallagher going over the top with the umbrella, Braun killing everybody, Tye Dillinger, the Kofi spot, Wyatt Family issues, Brock killing everybody, and about as good as you could hope from Billy Goldberg.
13. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin (SmackDown 1/3/17)
This one really snuck up on me. It moved fast, had a lot of neat counters, and like a top tier WWE match everything smoothly went to the next thing with some eventually really hot near falls off their signature spots. Dolph did his usual sell and comeback job that was strong, while Corbin was the difference maker here for me and looked really good cutting off everything.
14. Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles (SmackDown 1/31/17)
A 15-minute AJ Styles match against a game opponent – it’s good stuff, man. Workin’ HOLDS, back-and-forth, wildly hot finish. Bonus commentary from The Miz too.
15. Cedric Alexander vs. Neville (205 Live 1/24/17)
These two will have an epic match one day. This was not it, but it was a great god damn tease. Good stuff from start-to-finish… trying to out-wrestle each other early, Neville’s new bad guy persona where he’s confident early on, annoyed when he loses control, and seething when he gets it back. Finish here is hot stuff, with a possible screw-up actually adding to how good it is.
16. Royal Rumble Qualifying Match: Seth Rollins vs. Sami Zayn (RAW 1/23/17)
A fine if not mediocre first 10 minutes and then HO-LY SHIT. If you’re gonna bring out the big moves and the near falls and the whatnot then this is how you should probably do it. Shocker of a finish too.
17. Cedric Alexander w/ Alicia Fox vs. Noam Dar (205 Live 1/10/17)
This is like 15 minutes and it isn’t the most exciting match in the world but everything is all sweaty and hurty and physical as fuck and both guys’ sold their exhaustion really well and I liked it a lot. It also has Cedric going after Dar’s LIPS at one point, which is just the best.
18. Lumberjack Match – WWE Intercontinental Title: Dean Ambrose [c] vs. The Miz w/ Maryse (SmackDown 1/24/17)
Is Dean Ambrose the greatest Lumberjack Match worker of all time? First the Rollins one at SummerSlam, now this. A silly blast of a TV main event… worked the Lumberjack gimmick, kept moving, closed strong.
19. John Cena & Luke Harper vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton) (SmackDown 1/31/17)
A fun 10-minutes of tag team wrestling that was laid out really well around the mystery of Luke Harper’s intentions – he and Orton go at it no problem, but he and Bray don’t touch. Most of this is John Cena taking a beating and he remains one of the best sellers in the game. Crowd is all in on all these guys too – Harper hyping them up as he took it to Randy was incredible.
20. Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper (SmackDown 1/24/17)
A 10-minute solid Randy Orton match that A) we don’t see a lot at this point, B) has some extra meat to it thanks to the presentation of SmackDown, and C) had Luke Harper being fucking awesome. This is half a slugfest and brawl on the outside, and half a smooth beautiful signature move-heavy WWE professional wrestling match.
21. WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Quarter Finals: Pete Dunne vs. Sam Gradwell (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17)
This was when I started to realize Pete Dunne is legit. Just about the perfect 5-minute match: short, to the point, got the story over, and ended with a fucking BODYSLAM.
22. Kalisto vs. Dolph Ziggler (SmackDown 1/10/17)
A great little TV match fresh off of Dolph Ziggler’s heel turn… Ziggler schools Kalisto on the mat early and the last few minutes are really fast-paced and dramatic and fun. Great angle after this one too.
23. Lince Dorado vs. Neville (RAW 1/9/17)
It’s 6:05 Live! The best WWE squash since Braun Strowman killed the Mile-High Trio and before that I don’t even know. Neville does not fuck around here – he looks like a psychopath with his hair draped over his face, works the arm like he’s Bryan Danielson, and finishes Lince off by just stretching him to death. So good.
24. WWE Intercontinental Title: The Miz [c] w/ Maryse vs. Dean Ambrose (SmackDown 1/3/17)
Good TV main event – lots of action, Ambrose kicks ass, Miz is a dick, and the crowd goes nuts for the finish.
25. Mustafa Ali vs. Noam Dar (205 Live 1/3/17)
Just such a solid match, only a hair above like 17 matches on the Honorable Mentions list. Mustafa Ali deserves some love this month though. Felt like they had to really work for every hold early which is something missing from WWE TV, and Dar finally started bringing the skeezy fuck act to his ring work here and it works. Dar works the arm while Ali sells his ass off and gets in a couple awesome spots including the astonishing reverse 450.
Honorable Mentions: Becky Lynch & Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss & Mickie James (SmackDown 1/31/17), John Cena vs. Baron Corbin (SmackDown 1/10/17), TJ Perkins vs. Neville (205 Live 1/3/17), Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho (RAW 1/30/17), Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman (RAW 1/9/17), Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak (205 Live 1/17/17), Tye Dillinger & Buddy Murphy vs. Bobby Roode & “The Drifter” Elias Samson (NXT 1/4/17), Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young w/ SAnitY (NXT TakeOver San Antonio 1/28/17), Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton (SmackDown 1/17/17), AJ Styles vs. The Miz (SmackDown 1/17/17)
Fatal 4-Way Match – NXT Women’s Title: Asuka [c] vs. Nikki Cross vs. Peyton Royce vs. Billie Kay (NXT TakeOver San Antonio 1/28/17), Roderick Strong vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas (NXT TakeOver San Antonio 1/28/17), Lince Dorado vs. Brian Kendrick (Main Event 1/25/17), RAW Tag Team Title: WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Semi Final: Tyler Bate vs. Wolfgang (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17), Cesaro & Sheamus [c] vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (RAW 1/16/17), Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho & Braun Strowman (RAW 1/16/17), The Revival vs. Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli (NXT 1/4/17), Sheamus w/ Cesaro vs. Luke Gallows (RAW 1/9/17), Oney Lorcan vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas (NXT 1/11/17), Wolfgang vs. Tyson T-Bone (UK Title Tournament Night 1 1/14/17), Tyler Bate vs. Tucker (UK Title Tournament Night 1 1/14/17)
Cesaro vs. Karl Anderson (RAW 1/2/17), WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Quarter Finals: Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17), Neville vs. Tommy End (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17), WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Quarter Finals: Mark Andrews vs. Joseph Conners (UK Title Tournament Tournament Night 2 1/15/17), WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Quarter Finals: Trent Seven vs. Wolfgang (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17), Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax (Royal Rumble 1/29/17), Two Referees – RAW Tag Team Title: Sheamus & Cesaro [c] vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (Royal Rumble 1/29/17), TJ Perkins vs. Tony Nese (205 Live 1/24/17), WWE U.S. Title: Chris Jericho [c] w/ Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns (RAW 1/23/17), Mustafa Ali vs. Tony Nese (205 Live 1/17/17)
NXT Tag Team Title: #DIY [c] vs. TM61 (NXT 1/4/17), I Forfeit Match: Jack Gallagher vs. Ariya Daivari (205 Live 1/17/17), Lince Dorado vs. Ariya Daivari (Main Event 1/3/17), Steel Cage Match – SmackDown Women’s Title: Alexa Bliss [c] vs. Becky Lynch (SmackDown 1/17/17), Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Charlotte & Nia Jax (RAW 1/9/17), Handicap Match – WWE U.S. Title: Roman Reigns [c] vs. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho (RAW 1/9/17), Rich Swann vs. Tony Nese (205 Live 1/10/17), Darren Young & Sin Cara w/ Bob Backlund vs. The Shining Stars (Main Event 1/10/17), Danny Burch vs. Jordan Devlin (UK Title Tournament Night 1 1/14/17), TM61 vs. The Revival (NXT 1/18/17), Akira Tozawa (debut) vs. Aaron Solow (205 Live 1/31/17)
