The boys and girls tried, you know?
1. Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic – Final: MSK vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (TakeOver: Vengeance Day 2/14/21)
All the beats are familiar but in this bizarre time that can be comforting, especially when they hit as well as they did here. Even more impressive is these four just powered through the drab Capitol Wrestling Center environment and had a whole epic tag match with grounded work from the GYV and spectacular spots from MSK.
2. NXT Title: Finn Balor [c] vs. Pete Dunne (TakeOver: Vengeance Day 2/14/21)
It’s ridiculous this isn’t #1 and like the best match of all time, but we are where we are. Balor and Dunne took it to the mat and had a big championship match. The approach and intensity is great great, the focus on Finn’s fingers not so much.
3. Tyler Bate vs. Bailey Matthews (NXT UK 2/25/21)
Bailey Matthews is William Regal’s son who spent time in the New Japan dojo and it shows, as he and Bate make the case they should both drop everything and go full Japan. They have a fun young lions match here built around holds and suplexes and being credible sons of bitches (no disrespect, Mr. Regal). It ruled.
4. Elimination Chamber – Winner Faces Roman Reigns for the Universal Title: Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn vs. Jey Uso vs. King Corbin (Elimination Chamber 2/21/21)
This had a bunch of great stuff in it even if the whole package was a little annoying. Daniel Bryan had a good match here with everybody, including a whole beginning-middle-and-end with Cesaro and a whole great squash match with Roman Reigns right after. Over the last year Owens, Zayn, and Jey especially have emerged (or re-emerged) as main event characters too.
5. NXT North American Title: Johnny Gargano [c] vs. KUSHIDA (TakeOver: Vengeance Day 2/14/21)
This is a fun match, a little too “hey you love this!” but a fun match with plenty of cool grappling, ridiculously impressive armbar spots, and KUSHIDA doing like 10 other things to remind you he’s still awesome.
6. Gauntlet Match – Winner Enters Elimination Chamber Match: AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, Sheamus (RAW 2/15/21)
This felt occasionally like the RAW crew, mostly AJ Styles, trying to make a point: mainly that they can still wrestle. He and Kofi have a whole psychologically-sound match based around limb work, then he and Drew kicked each other’s asses. It doesn’t really hold up after AJ is eliminated and there is definitely a part where spooky Alexa Bliss takes over the Thunderdome, but for around 20 minutes this is quite the run.
7. Daniel Bryan vs. Cesaro (SmackDown 2/5/21)
Bryan/Cesaro is a Thunderdome Regal/Finlay: even if the match isn’t super important, they get by with their badass wrestling sequences that sometimes have a guy doing a torture rack into a backbreaker.
8. Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic – Quarter Final: Adam Cole & Roderick Strong vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher (NXT 2/3/21)
9. Winner Earns Entry into Elimination Chamber Match: Daniel Bryan & Cesaro vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode (SmackDown 2/12/21)
10. Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic – Quarter Final: Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza (NXT 2/3/21)
Here are three quality tag matches where the fake crowd noise makes every impressive dive or near fall kind of weird. They didn’t power through like the Grizzled Young Vets and MSK, but they’re still pretty good.
Honorable Mentions: Ben Carter vs. Josh Morrell (NXT UK 2/18/21), Keith Lee vs. Riddle (RAW 2/8/21), Elimination Chamber Entry Match: Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz (RAW 2/15/21), Ricochet vs. Angel Garza (Main Event 2/3/21), NXT Cruiserweight Title: Santos Escobar [c] vs. Curt Stallion (NXT 2/3/21), Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus (RAW 2/22/21), Meiko Satomura (debut) vs. Isla Dawn (NXT 2/11/21), Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell (NXT 2/17/21), Finn Balor, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch (NXT 2/17/21), Asuka & Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (RAW 2/22/21)
