1. WWE U.K. Title: Tyler Bate [c] vs. Pete Dunne (NXT TakeOver: Chicago 5/20/17)
Best live match I’ve ever seen, one of the best examples I can point to of a wrestling match escalating so well and building into a crescendo. A perfect blend of the madness of modern day wrestling with the restraint of old school wrestling. Right place, right time – a special match that wasn’t just jump-out-of-your-seat awesome, but the emergence of two young superstars. Jaw-dropping spots, peaks and valleys, standing ovations – awesome.
2. WWE Title: AJ Styles [c] vs. John Cena (Royal Rumble 1/29/17)
John Cena and AJ Styles’ masterpiece – Cena’s emotion sold this, AJ’s athleticism made it. This was the two best professional wrestlers in the world having themselves a professional wrestling competition, a battle of superheroes for different parts of the fanbase. Every move clicked, felt bigger than usual, had credibility. They threw it all at each other. Cena was coughing. Cena got frustrated. Cena threw one of the greatest laritats ever. AJ Styles inexplicably applied one of the best STFs ever. Counters, near falls, hot crowd – peak WWE.
3. WWE U.K. Title Tournament – Final: Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne (UK Title Tournament Night 2 1/15/17)
Another classic by the best pair in wrestling in 2017, both an awesome wrestling match and awesome tournament final. The Dunne/Bate series has felt more professional wrestling than anything I’ve seen this year, and I started watching New Japan again. 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. It had a lot 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. Epic stuff.
4. SmackDown Tag Team Title: American Alpha [c] vs. The Usos (SmackDown 3/21/17)
The most classic tag of the year, and the cream of the crop in an incredible Usos 2017 run. It was 10 minutes long and everything had a purpose, up to and including the balls out finish: Alpha out-wrestling Usos, a great cut-off, big bumps by face-in-peril Gable, Jordan doing apron work, crowd going crazy for hot tag teases… all good stuff. And then that FINISH. So gorgeously and beautifully compact, they only had a few minutes with it but every second was used and escalated perfectly, leading up to a massive near fall that made the crowd legitimately gasp. A moonsault from the top to the floor by Gable was the cherry on top.
5. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman (Payback 4/30/17)
The best week-to-week feud in professional wrestling paid off here. A fun, big time main event wrestling match – stiff shots, big pops, and what might have been an all-time great sell job by Roman Reigns. Crowd was going nuts for everything, Braun was hitting everything with such gusto – witness Braun grab that brass ring and Roman keep his.
6. WWE Universal Title: Goldberg [c] vs. Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman (WrestleMania 33 4/2/17)
A short action film of a professional wrestling match – a battle right from the bell, old-ass Goldberg taking 10 suplexes, big near falls, crazy hot crowd. Brock Lesnar LEAPFROGGED OVER A SPEAR. BIG TIME WWE WRESTLING can be just the best sometimes.
7. Big Show vs. Braun Strowman (RAW 4/17/17)
A match laid out for maximum fun… popped the crowd a few times, teased a superplex a few times, delivered a superplex, and then the god damn ring broke. GIANTS!!!! WRESTLING!!!!!!! RAAAWWWWRRRR!!!!!!!!!
8. Drew McIntyre vs. Oney Lorcan (NXT 4/12/17)
You don’t see a match like this in the WWE, ever. A 5-minute statement match from the returning McIntyre, a perfect return opponent in Oney who just does not fuck around, no wasted movements and everything looked legit and stiff as shit. The plancha catch on the outside and top rope belly-to-belly spots are all-time great spots.
9. Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles (WrestleMania 33 4/2/17)
This is here for sheer spectacle, for being all that is great and a little bit goofy about professional wrestling, for being a perfect WrestleMania opener, and for AJ Styles being the best in the world while working with the boss’ son.
10. RAW Women’s Title: Charlotte [c] vs. Bayley (RAW 2/13/17)
A confident performance by Charlotte (body part work, cockiness when in control, frustration when she wasn’t), great selling by Bayley, good shifts in momentum, great near falls, hot crowd, storybook ending… just top shelf stuff. Amazing heel vs. babyface wrestling. They blew the WrestleMania moment on RAW, but for one night the fairytale was real.
11. 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. 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.
12. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Neville [c] vs. Austin Aries (WrestleMania 33 4/2/17)
In which straight-up junior heavyweight professional wrestling appeared in WWE. A few other matches on this list might pop out as more of a spectacle or have less quiet moments, but this match was one of the most incredible impressive things I saw all month – not go-go-go, but go-go-stop go-go-stop and they had the crowd with them the whole time. Impressive, stadium-worthy movements and bumps by both guys. Doesn’t hurt it was in a daylight stadium, which I am a mark for.
13. 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, 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. Incredible match.
14. 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.
15. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (205 Live 3/28/17)
This is such a great wrestling match – Tozawa had spent February and March developing a ton of signature moves in his squashes, and starts this out by just BOOTING KENDRICK IN THE FACE and hitting all of them with a ton of intensity. After he does that this match becomes a gritty war, with Kendrick desperately trying to apply the Captain’s Hook and both guys just fighting and fighting for control – elbowing, slapping, whatever they can do. Tozawa hits a pump kick towards the end here that was worth $9.99 by itself.
16. Triple Threat WWE Intercontinental Title #1 Contender Match: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. The Miz w/ Maryse (RAW 5/1/17)
Love a good chaotic RAW main event. A match that not only had great action and everyone playing their part well, but one that got over three storylines at once – even if one of those was dropped a week later. The chaos of the finish really puts this one over the top: “WHAT THE HELL – NOW WHAT!?”
17. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman (Fastlane 3/5/17)
A star-making performance by Braun Strowman and a reliably great performance by Roman Reigns. Braun had all the big spots, big bumps, hit hard, and at the end he went to the top damn rope. Roman meanwhile sold everything like he had been in a car crash, and his reaction to the spear kickout really put this over the top for me. Awesome finish too – two Superman punches have Braun on the ropes, they do some rope-running that you think will be a spear but BOOM Braun takes Roman out. Then Braun tries the top rope splash, misses, and goes down to a spear. Soooooo good.
18. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Neville [c] vs. Austin Aries (Payback 4/30/17)
These are two indy fellas who got to WWE and got better. An impressive match, with everything looking all crisp and painful, and a couple of insane bumps – Aries bumping off the top turnbuckle dick-first, and Neville taking a dropkick from behind and flying over the top-rope. Had a lot of fun moments, Neville looking like a comic-book villain, Aries continuing to look incredible, and a screwy finish that completely worked.
19. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe (RAW 6/19/17)
Roman Reigns was the most consistent-guy for the first half of 2017, with a ton of great TV matches. This was my favorite – Roman selling his ass off, Joe with a killer beatdown, a lot of fun complex wrestling sequences from two big dudes. Roman hits the spear at one point and Joe gets his foot on the rope at 2.9, then rolls outside to sell, which I thought was just incredible. This felt like watching Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night’s Main Event if all the wrestling looked like it actually hurt.
20. SmackDown Tag Team Title: American Alpha [c] vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton) w/ Luke Harper (SmackDown 1/10/17)
For one night in January 2017, 80s professional tag team wrestling came back. 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.
21. Triple Threat Match – WWE World Title: Bray Wyatt [c] vs. John Cena vs. AJ Styles (SmackDown 2/14/17)
Perhaps the last classic SmackDown match from its’ peak September 2016-February 2017 period. There’s all kinds of wrestling with deeper meaning and more meat to it but this was just non-stop madness with big moves and near falls that had the crowd absolutely freaking out. It went like 15 minutes and felt like they were having a big finishing stretch from the bell. A classic pop song of a professional wrestling match.
22. Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor (RAW 5/15/17)
A tremendous match that would’ve gotten kudos if it was main eventing a pay-per-view, let alone opening the third hour of Monday Night RAW. Great example of a cold babyface vs. babyface match getting over via two guys playing their roles and a slow build leading organically to ACTION! Really impressive selling by both guys here too… Reigns just looked broken down trying to keep up with the young fella, while Balor was great at making Roman look like a monster and looking just wrecked towards the end.
23. Elimination Chamber – WWE World Title: John Cena [c] vs. Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles vs. The Miz vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Baron Corbin (Elimination Chamber 2/12/17)
A peak Elimination Chamber, with a great layout and world class performance by AJ Styles. Just non-stop fun, they always had the action and were moving the story forward. Styles was having a blast in there just doing crazy shit and he had a couple mini-epics with Cena and Wyatt, while Corbin looked like a monster and had strangely good chemistry with Ambrose. Cena vs. Styles whenever it happened was great too. Awesome definitive finish to begin the (brief) Era of Wyatt.
24. Mustafa Ali vs. Neville (205 Live 3/21/17)
There’s a little 205 Live apathy here, but this was SO good and a great performance from two guys who have quietly been a couple of WWE’s best performers in 2017. The early stuff wasn’t your usual hold-trading and wristlocking but worked around Neville being cocky and Ali being all fired up ready to prove himself. Then they take it to another level with big bumps and some glorious high spots. Neville’s sell after a springboard Spanish Fly (yup) is one of my all-time favorites.
25. Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal (RAW 3/13/17)
A match that made two stars – Roman proving he could have a heated match with anybody, Jinder proving he could have a heated match with somebody. The greatest 2-minute match of ALL TIME.
