As much as we like to say wrestling is about one thing or another, what really matters is getting fans to buy the show. The big shows are the things you really remember and that’s what we’re going to look at today. Of all the major shows of the year, which one was the absolute best? These will be presented in no particular order and if I don’t list a show, I either didn’t think enough of it or I didn’t see it.

1. Royal Rumble

We’re actually going to start off with an odd one here as this is the definition of a one match show. That’s almost always the case with the Royal Rumble but this one was even bigger as for the first time since 1992, the WWE World Title was on the line. Champion Roman Reigns, who entered the match first, had to survive twenty nine other entrants, including the debuting AJ Styles, to retain his title.

That right there really is all you need to know about this show. When one match runs for over an hour, gives you a new champion, and features almost every big name on the roster including Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Roman Reigns and the Wyatt Family, there was almost no way this wasn’t going to be amazing, and that’s exactly what it was.

There’s just something about everything being on the line in one match. It’s not about setting up a title match later on because everything is going on right now. Everyone in the main event could have been the next champion and that immediately gives the match an electricity. The rest of the show was perfectly watchable as well, giving us a great card up and down. It set up “Wrestlemania XXXII” and gave us a great show to start the year off on a strong foot.

2. Takeover: Dallas

I might be a bit biased for this one as I was in the crowd for the show but my goodness what a card. It’s a five match show and the absolute worst match on the card is completely watchable. Above all else, this show knew how to start out a night with the instant classic of American Alpha winning the Tag Team Titles from the Revival. The titles would change back later but this got the crowd going with American Alpha showing that they were just flat out better on that night.

The key to this one though was the debut of Shinsuke Nakamura as he fought Sami Zayn in what was pretty clearly Zayn’s NXT farewell. These two beat the living heck out of each other in one of the hardest hitting fights you will ever see in wrestling. The crowd was already fired up during the entrances and the wrestlers didn’t disappoint, giving us twenty minutes of pure violence with Zayn finally going down to the Kinshasa knee.

That left us with a great main event between NXT Champion Finn Balor and Samoa Joe, which was quite a brawl in its own right. All that being said though, this show has absolutely no flaws and is one of the best things NXT has ever put together. When the only possible issue is the match order (Nakamura vs. Zayn could have closed the show), you know you’ve done something right.

3. Takeover: The End

If this was the end (which only meant the end of a rivalry), it certainly went out on a high note. This show might not have had the hype as the Dallas version but it might even be a better show up and down the card. Much like Dallas, when the worst match on the card is perfectly fine and everything else ranges from very good to excellent, you know you have one heck of a show.

The big draw this time was the first ever steel cage match in NXT as the new NXT Champion Samoa Joe defended his title against Balor, who was running out of things to do down in developmental anyway. Samoa Joe wound up retaining his title in what could be considered a huge upset, more or less sending Balor into his farewell tour in the process.

The rest of the card featured another great Nakamura match and the crowning of the first two time Tag Team Champions in NXT history as the Revival got the belts back. There might not have been as much atmosphere with this one in a smaller arena but it can hang with Dallas’ in ring quality all day. This one is worth another look with the main event alone being worth the time.

4. Money in the Bank

We’ll leave NXT for a bit and come back to the drama around the WWE World Title. This is another very simple idea: put a bunch of people in a match built around climbing a ladder and whoever pulls down the briefcase gets a World Title shot at anytime in the future. However, the real drama comes from not knowing when the cash-in is actually going to happen.

In this case, we didn’t have to wait very long as Dean Ambrose won the ladder match and cashed his contract in to end the show. He was only the second Money in the Bank winner to ever do so and that made for a very interesting evening. All three Shield members held the title in the span of about five minutes for a feat that will probably never be done by any other trio in history, which gives the show some history.

Couple all that with a very solid remainder of the card, including a long Seth Rollins vs. Reigns match with Rollins getting the title back in the first place and you have one heck of a show. Money in the Bank is often just remembered for the ladder match and whatever it offers as a main event, and to be fair that really worked quite well in 2016.

5. Clash of the Champions

This show makes me think of “Wrestlemania XIX”: there might not be a great match on the card (though several come close), there are enough especially good things to make the show into something special. There’s nothing bad on the whole card and you have a strong variety of matches to give you a little bit of everything.

This was the first “Monday Night Raw” stand alone show and that put a lot of pressure on the card. While it didn’t do much to relieve the issues that plague the Monday night show every single week, it did to a lot to show that they knew how to blow off some feuds. Sometimes you just need a good night of wrestling matches and that’s what you got here. It helped so much to take away all the drama and plot devices and just let the talent wrestle.

What I like about this show is how it gives you a little bit of everything. You have a big title match in the main event, one heck of a fight in Cesaro vs. Sheamus, a surprisingly awesome performance from Anderson and Gallows and an NXT style women’s triple threat match to cap it off. Everyone did everything they needed to and turned what should have been a nothing show into something worth watching, which is really hard to do.

6. Takeover: Toronto

We’ll wrap it up with the last Takeover of the year and it’s certainly going out on a high note. This show focused on tag wrestling with the finals of the second annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic where the Authors of Pain defeated TM61 to become the first regular team to win the tournament. In addition to that, Samoa Joe defeated Nakamura to become the first ever two time NXT Champion. Mickie James returned to unsuccessfully challenge Asuka and Bobby Roode defeated Tye Dillinger to win the battle of Toronto.

All that being said though, none of it compared to the NXT Tag Team Title match which saw DIY defeat the Revival in a two out of three falls match to finally win the titles. This match is on a very short list for Match of the Year (WWE.com already named it as such) and it’s one of the best tag matches I’ve ever seen. Nothing was going to follow this and everyone knew it.

If nothing else, it was cool to see NXT in another huge arena with well over 15,000 people watching the show. It really shows how far NXT has come from just a few years ago when even their biggest shows were only held at Full Sail University. This was a great way for the series to go out for the year and it did so with one of the best matches that had been put on in a long time.

7. Wrestle Kingdom X

Every year I talk about how much I’m not interested in the biggest New Japan show of the year and then every time it winds up being at least a very good if not flat out excellent show. That’s the case here as Wrestle Kingdom X more than lived up to (most of its) the hype. I mean, nothing is ever going live up to ALL of its hype but this came close.

The main event was one of New Japan’s standard big angle conclusions as Kazuchika Okada FINALLY beat Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom after losing so many times. I’m not as big a fan of this feud as so many are (mainly because IT’S JUST A FREAKING CLOTHESLINE) but there’s no denying that it’s a big moment and something that has been built up for a very long time.

On top of that there’s the whole Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles in the last big match both of them would have for the promotion in case you need a bonus. Wrestle Kingdom is still one of the biggest shows of the year and thankfully they make it work almost every single time. That’s more than Wrestlemania can claim and it’s worthy of some praise.

8. Final Battle

It’s amazing what happens when you let Ring of Honor be Ring of Honor instead of just throwing out a superkick party (though there was one here) or a bunch of New Japan wrestlers who are all “special attractions” yet completely dominate anything else going on with the talent you’re there to see.

Final Battle felt like a major show and that’s not something you often get around here. Everything worked like it was supposed to with the three main matches all delivering and the undercard being more than good enough to live up to the hype that this show was supposed to deliver. Even when several of the wrestlers weren’t the most well known, the matches still felt important, as they should have.

Ring of Honor doesn’t often get the credit that it deserves but a lot of the time they bring that problem onto themselves by not having the best matches that line up with what they’ve been showcasing on TV. Let us see what we’re supposed to be seeing and you get a better show than you would otherwise while also making me care about it. Why is that so complicated?

9. Takeover: Back To Brooklyn

This show is rapidly becoming the biggest NXT show of the year and they certainly knocked it out of the park one more time. The key to the Takeover series is to have one big match after another and nail the top of the card. That’s what happened here with the big matches of Bayley vs. Asuka II, DIY vs. Revival and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe all being outstanding matches.

On top of that, the undercard certainly delivered as I’m still waiting on any Takeover match to be bad. Think about that for a second: do you remember there ever being a truly bad match at one of these things? It wasn’t the case here as everything from Bobby Roode (with the GLORIOUS entrance) vs. Andrade Cien Almas and Austin Aries vs. No Way Jose both being very entertaining.

Brooklyn is a big deal for NXT and it’s very cool to see it tied in with Summerslam. The 2015 edition was outstanding and this one might have been even better. Nakamura slaying the Samoa Joe dragon on the biggest stage NXT has to offer was a great way to end the show and it made for another great night of wrestling, which might as well be the series’ slogan at this point.

That leaves us with the winner and the more I think about it, the more I can’t get “Takeover: Dallas” out of my head. It really is one of the most complete shows I’ve ever seen and I didn’t even touch on Asuka ripping Bayley’s shoulder apart to become the new Women’s Champion. The atmosphere, the look of the show, the quality of the wrestling and the expectations of having it be over Wrestlemania weekend for the first time all added up to make this the show of the year.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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This is another big one and something more interesting than several of these. We’ve all seen some bad matches from WWE every single week and it’s always fun to go back and look at what might be the worst of them all. In case you might be a bit slow today, we’re looking at the worst matches of the year in WWE. As usual, these are in no particular order.

1. Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose – Wrestlemania XXXII

We’re hitting the ground running with a no holds barred street fight between two people who should have been able to beat the heck out of each other. That’s basically what was teased as we came into this match with various hardcore legends giving Ambrose weapons to use, such as a chainsaw and a barbed wire baseball bat. On paper, this had the potential to be one of the best fights of the year.

And it just wasn’t. Lesnar destroyed Ambrose for the majority of the match and unfortunately that was the trend for most of Lesnar’s matches over the year. Ambrose hung around for a good while and had a few hope spots but above all else this was just boring. The aforementioned weapons were brought in but not really used as the chainsaw didn’t work and the barbed wire bad shot missed (of course). One F5 later and Ambrose was done.

This was really just about being boring than bad and that’s not a good thing. The problem with Lesnar was the fact that almost no one was able to do anything to him and he would just disappear for months on end while the loser would be stuck doing nothing. Ambrose was treated like a jobber and then won the World Title a few months later. It’s hard to overlook Ambrose’s complete destruction here though and that’s not a good thing.

2. Carmella vs. Nikki Bella – Tables, Ladders and Chairs

If you want to see why so many people don’t like Bella, this is where you start. The story behind the match was Carmella calling Bella out for being a reality start with everything handed to her and whose whole relationship with John Cena was based on her fame. Instead of taking this as a bunch of insults like they really were, Bella basically said “Yeah, what’s your point?”

A No DQ match was set up and it all fell apart from there. Carmella worked on the knee for most of the match and then Bella just popped up like there was no injury, shrugged off everything Carmella did to her and won clean. In other words: let’s all praise Bella because she’s so amazing and interesting when she treats so many people like they’re beneath her and acts all serious because she’s famous or whatever WWE wants you to buy at this point.

Above all else though, the match wasn’t any good to go along with a horrible story. Carmella could be something special in the division going forward but this is another loss to Bella, who really doesn’t seem phased by all of the insults and rather true statements because she’s famous and therefore above any criticism. That’s not interesting and it’s even worse when the match was horrible.

3. Natalya vs. Charlotte – Payback

You know what’s a bad idea? Pushing a feud over and over long past the point where it stopped being interesting. You know what’s an even worse idea? Having the ending to a match tied back into the Montreal Screwjob, which has been brought up over and over again for years despite it being less interesting and more eye roll inducing every single time it comes up.

Yes, somehow in 2016, we got another Montreal Screwjob finish to a match and they made it even better by tying it into the idea of Charles Robinson being a huge fan of the Flair Family. It felt like a way to back out of a story without actually giving us anything logical or a good idea in general. Charlotte vs. Natalya wasn’t the best story in the world in the first place and then giving us a bad ending made things even worse.

This is a case where the booking brings what could have been a totally fine match down. It’s a stupid decision that feels like a way for WWE to chuckle at themselves and stretch their story out even longer because, for some reason, Sasha Banks wasn’t allowed to face Charlotte until later in the year so we were stuck with something like this. Lucky us indeed.

4. Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker – Wrestlemania XXXII

Let’s get this out of the way right now: McMahon was pretty clearly a replacement after names like Cena and Randy Orton were both left off the card due to injuries. Either of those two against Undertaker inside the Cell would seem like a much better main event level match but this was about as good as we were going to get. Based on that, this match deserves a little bit of a break.

However, that doesn’t make up for the fact that it was one of the worst executed matches I’ve seen WWE put together in a long time. First and foremost, I do not accept that McMahon can give Undertaker a real run for his money, including kicking out of a chokeslam and Last Ride as well as surviving Hell’s Gate. This is the same Undertaker who took Lesnar to the limit just a few months earlier but now he’s having issues with McMahon? Really?

Couple that with the THIRTY MINUTE run time (longer than Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, Undertake vs. Mankind, Undertaker vs. Lesnar (either time) and Undertaker vs. Edge among other Cell matches) and there was almost no way this was going to work. The big dive, while entertaining, was also terrifying (assuming you ignore the crash pad underneath the table) and not enough to save the match. This should have been fifteen minutes long and a glorified squash rather than a competitive match that lasted twice as long. But hey, you have to fill that six hour run time somehow.

5. Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho – Extreme Rules

Here’s a story about a potted plant named Mitch, who became the plot point of a feud between these two major stars. For some reason Ambrose was given his own talk show to replace the “Highlight Reel” and he brought Mitch in as a decoration. Jericho broke the plant over Ambrose’s head and a huge feud erupted, eventually setting up a cage with weapons match at “Extreme Rules 2016”.

What followed was a nearly thirty minute long match with the weapons barely being used and the plant (one of the weapons included) not being used AT ALL. If there has ever been a match that missed the point worse than this one, it hasn’t happened recently. The match was a watchable brawl at times but the big problem is it was supposed to be all about the violence rather than just some mild brawling.

In a word, this one missed. There’s more to a match than what you do between the bells. You also have to do the things that make sense instead of just doing something that you want to do. The whole point of this match should have been the plant (as ridiculous a premise as that is in the first place) but it wasn’t even touched, despite the fans waiting on it to be picked up at some point. I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fans not being all that into the match at times.

6. Triple H vs. Roman Reigns – Wrestlemania XXXII

This is a match that was doomed from the start. To begin with, the fans really weren’t interested in seeing Reigns in the main event of the biggest show of the year. Making it even worse was Triple H, whose feud with Reigns hadn’t been interesting either and really wasn’t doing anything to make the fans care that much more. On top of that, by the time the match began (counting the pre-show), “Wrestlemania XXXII” had run for about six and a half hours. Think about that for a minute and wonder how tired you would be.

It didn’t help that they then went on to have a twenty seven minute match (not counting Stephanie McMahon’s WAY too long intro with some weird Mad Max theme) which was built around working on the arm instead of the violence and anger that the match needed. It was all about standing around, waiting on the inevitable Reigns spear and pin that the fans were dying to boo. Not exactly main event caliber stuff there.

That’s the part that really brings this down: it was the main event of the biggest show of the year, making it probably the biggest match of the year by default. You can’t go with a match this dull with a bad story after all this horrible buildup and expect it to work in any way. This match was a disaster and neither of the two has really gotten over it in the nine months since it’s taken place.

7. Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar – Summerslam

Again, this one has to do with the stage. This wasn’t some nothing pay per view like “Battleground 2016” or “Fastlane 2016”. No, this was the second biggest show of the year and the main event should be a major deal instead of just some nothing match. The match was even hyped up over a month in advance with Orton being announced as Lesnar’s opponent a full pay per view in advance.

What wound up happening? A squash. Lesnar absolutely flattened Orton, defeating him in less than thirteen minutes with Orton managing a quick RKO and elevated DDT for his lone important offense. Other than that, Lesnar squashed him with a string of German suplexes and F5’s before beating Orton so badly that his head was busted open and the match had to be stopped.

That’s it. That’s how the main event of the second biggest show of the year ended. I don’t know if that bleeding was the planned ending or not but the build towards it certainly wasn’t the most interesting idea in the world. It was even more of Lesnar destroying someone with almost no recourse before walking away. Orton didn’t need to defeat Lesnar here but he should have at least given him a challenge, which wasn’t the case here.

All of these matches have something bad about them but only one of them had the honor of being the main event of the biggest show of the year and that’s enough to make it the worst match of the year. Aside from Reigns spearing Stephanie McMahon, there was nothing here that entertained me. It was a disaster up and down and there’s really no way around that.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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As much as wrestling is built on wrestling, what really matters the most are the moments that come to define wrestling. The little pieces of a match or a show are what will be put on highlight reels and designed to last forever. How many times have you heard about the Wrestlemania moment being what matters almost more than the match results themselves? Every year has a list of special things to see and today we’re looking at the moments of the year. As always, these are in no particular order.

1. New Day Breaks Demolition’s Record – Monday Night Raw – December 12

We’ll start with the most recent moment as one of the longest standing record title reigns came to an end. Originally set in 1989, Demolition had held the record for the longest Tag Team Title reign in WWE history (assuming you ignore the Women’s Tag Team Titles of the late 1980s) and it had seemed almost unapproachable. However, about halfway through the year, it became clear that New Day might actually have a shot at it.

New Day won the Tag Team Titles at “Summerslam 2015” and managed to hold onto them for over a year, putting them just a few months away from the record. With just a few weeks to go, New Day had one team after another thrown at them with a final triple threat match left between them and the record. New Day survived that title defense and then a second announced during the show, leaving them with the new record in a great show of emotion.

This is one of the moments that is more historic than anything else. The idea of someone breaking a record that was set the better part of thirty years ago seems almost unthinkable anymore but New Day managed to pull it off. The smiles on all three members’ faces showed you everything you needed to know about the moment and the team surviving was exactly what it needed to be.

2. AJ Styles Debuts – Royal Rumble

Since the debut of TNA in 2002, Styles was one of the biggest names to never work for WWE full time. Early in 2016, that changed forever as Styles debuted for the company as the #3 entrant in the Royal Rumble. This was the kind of thing that the Royal Rumble is made for and it became one of the best debuts ever in the history of the event.

Now that being said, WWE almost managed to screw this up. If you notice in the video, we don’t actually see Styles make his debut as the camera is locked in on Roman Reigns. You can hear the fans’ reactions but for the life of me I don’t know why we need to see Reigns at this point. Thankfully WWE released a slightly edited version of the video which shows the reason the crowd reacted.

Styles lasted nearly half an hour in the match but the bigger story here was the debut itself. This was one of the few dream signings left in the wrestling world and everyone knew what was coming as soon as Styles stepped through the curtain. The crowd knew what was coming and it helped that Styles wound up more than living up to the hype, but it was the entrance that really made it work in the first place.

3. Dean Ambrose Cashes in – Money in the Bank

dThis is one of those ideas that is done too often but when it works, it works to perfection. That’s what we had here as Ambrose became the second Money in the Bank winner ever to cash in on the same night (along with Kane in 2010). It was also a way to tie it back into the previous year when Seth Rollins defeated Ambrose at the exact same show, meaning Ambrose was finally back to even with his former Shield teammate.

The idea of someone cashing in on the same night that they win the Money in the Bank briefcase is something that is teased every single year but almost never winds up happening. Ambrose is the kind of crazy man who fits the idea of cashing in on the same day because you just can’t predict what someone like him is going to do.

The Shield is another important part to this story as Ambrose cashed in on Rollins, who had just won the title from Reigns. In other words, in the span of about five minutes, all three Shield members held the WWE World Title. That’s not bad for the same night and is something that is almost never going to be topped.

4. Goldberg Squashes Brock Lesnar – Survivor Series

Over a month has passed since this one happened and I’m still not sure what to think about it. Goldberg defeated Lesnar in less than ninety seconds, handing Lesnar his first pinfall loss in over three years. It was an old school Goldberg squash and I don’t think that’s what anyone expected. This is one of those things where there are going to be different opinions on it no matter what but it was certainly something that got people talking.

Lesnar had been the most dominant force in wrestling for a very long time and he just loses in less than a minute and a half. While some people could have seen Goldberg winning the match, the idea that the match would actually happen this way was borderline unthinkable. I remember it flashing in my mind as soon as the first spear hit but then it immediately left my head. By the time I knew what had happened, Goldberg’s music was playing again.

This is something that is a once in a generation idea but it certainly worked at the time. I’m almost sure we’ll see them fight again in a much longer match but there’s almost no way it’s going to live up to this one. I still don’t think it was the right call and would have had someone actually on the regular roster be the one to take down Goldberg but I will certainly never forget this one or how much I lost my mind as soon as the match ended.

5. Shane McMahon Returns – Monday Night Raw – February 22

Now this one is all shock value because everything after it was kind of a mess. McMahon hadn’t been seen since 2009 and he was one of the last names you would ever expect to actually show up again. Depending on who you believe, this was the replacement for an injured John Cena as McMahon would go on to face the Undertaker at “Wrestlemania XXXII”.

So in other words, we had not only a huge return but the returning star now has a big match set up. It’s a rare moment where the fans were somewhat worried about who might be coming through the curtain but no one expected it to actually be McMahon himself. Despite being in his mid-40s, the fans ate up the idea that he was back and standing up to his father for everyone else.

Watching all the WWE wrestling offered every single week often numbs you to surprises because either A, you’ve heard the rumors in advance or B, you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen. This was a rare instance where the necessity met the surprise and everything wound up working as well as it could have. That doesn’t happen often and it’s one of the best moments of the year.

6. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Main Event “Hell in a Cell 2016” – Hell in a Cell

This is one that really could have been a double entry as the fact that the women were even inside the Cell in the first place was historic enough. However, as soon as Rollins and Kevin Owens started their match, it was clear that we were in for something that had never been seen before in wrestling: women main eventing a major pay per view event.

As has been the case with so many of the milestones involved in the women’s revolution, this is something where you have to consider where things were just a few years ago. A few years back, it was reasonable to expect the women to get five minutes on a pay per view if they were lucky that month. The idea of the match being even remotely entertaining on top of that was just a bonus.

The match was immaterial compared to the fact that it was taking place though. What should have been a pretty nothing card wound up being something that had been built up for the last year plus and was finally being paid off by what was little more than a pipe dream beforehand. Banks and Charlotte are the first women to ever do something like this and hopefully they won’t be the last. It happened once though and that’s what makes it matter.

7. Shane McMahon’s Cell Dive – Wrestlemania XXXII

It’s rare to have a moment that works both as an homage to a more famous moment and as a moment all on its own. While a lot of people (myself certainly included) weren’t happy with Shane being on the show in such a high profile match, it’s safe to say that this made up for a little bit of it.

With nothing else working against the Undertaker (because Shane McMahon needed to get in offense on the Undertaker), Shane knocked him onto the announcers’ table, climbed the Cell, and dropped a huge elbow….which completely missed as Undertaker moved away. Ignoring what looked to be a crash pad underneath the table (thank goodness), this was one of the scariest bumps in years around WWE.

This was one of those moments that just worked based on what it was. He flew off the Cell and crashed through a table in a moment that doesn’t quite rival Foley but at least it was one heck of a memorable moment. Shane is always good for some excitement and that’s what we got here, assuming you can ignore the fact that this was what Undertaker was doing at Wrestlemania.

8. AJ Styles Wins the WWE Championship

One more AJ moment because this was his year. A few years back, who would have thought this could actually happen? Styles was stuck in TNA, clearly miles ahead of most of the roster but that pesky loyalty of his kept him from jumping to WWE and left him stuck there, dealing with whatever nonsense Dixie Carter approved that usually involved her being on TV in prominent positions.

Now flash forward to September when Styles beats Dean Ambrose and becomes the Smackdown World Champion, which is the title carrying the original WWE Championship lineage. That happened and it happened on a WWE pay per view. The fact that he debuted just a few months earlier and was rocketed up the card is amazing enough and, as expected, the match was great.

Styles is someone who had some very high expectations coming in to WWE and at least he lived up to so many of them. FINALLY seeing him reach this level in America was worth the wait and the fact that he’s been one of the best wrestlers in the world on the biggest stage makes things all the better.

For the first time this year, I’m really not sure which one to pick. Is it the moment that shocked almost everyone watching or the moment that is going to mean something in the history books? Honestly this is a very hard one to go for and I could see it going either way, which isn’t often the case.

However, there’s one thing that makes my decision for me: the feelings that came with the moment. Based on that, I have to go with Goldberg squashing Lesnar. That match had my head spinning for a good while after it was over and that doesn’t happen to me very often. It made me want to see what was happening next while leaving me a combination of excited and upset at the same time. It’s rare to have emotion like that in wrestling today and it makes all the difference in the world.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQKDV5O

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

We’ll wrap it up with probably the most subjective of all the awards: worst wrestler of the year. Now this can have a few different definitions and the nominees encompass both. In this case it could be either the worst in ring performer or the person who serves the least important purpose. It’s very rare to have one person do both but maybe that’s the case here with the worst wrestler of the year. As usual, these are in no particular order.

1. Dolph Ziggler

This is one of the most controversial of all the possible options. Depending on whom you ask, Ziggler is either the most overrated wrestler of the year or the most underutilized wrestler of the year. My issue with him is very simple: he’s not going to win the big one and there’s no reason to think he will. Ziggler has spent years on the exact same story: he’s on a roll and needs that one big win to put it all together and become a star.

We got it again this year on multiple occasions, starting with the Ambrose feud over the Smackdown World Title and then again with Miz over the Intercontinental Title. Sure Ziggler eventually won that title, but it’s not like that really means anything for him as he’s held it multiple times before. It also doesn’t help that if you’ve seen one Ziggler match, you’re pretty much seen them all. He wrestles a very repetitive style and that gets old in a hurry.

Overall, Ziggler is a case where we’ve seen all this before and it’s not interesting enough to keep seeing it. His in ring work is passable but as soon as you hear that music, you know what you’re going to get. I can’t put into words how disappointed I was when Daniel Bryan was responding to Miz’s amazing promo from “Talking Smack” and our big reveal was Ziggler coming out to fight Miz instead. We’ve seen it so many times and there’s just no reason to see it again, especially as often as it happens.

2. Braun Strowman

Remember last year when Strowman was part of the Wyatt Family and basically acting as a more muscular lackey who was otherwise interchangeable with Erick Rowan? Well now he looks like he’s primed for a World Title run on “Monday Night Raw” and one heck of a big match at “Wrestlemania XXXIII”. That’s where people have issues with Strowman and I can’t say I disagree: he’s nowhere near seasoned enough for this spot.

Strowman only debuted back in December 2014 and is already near the top of the card having matches against World Champions. His offense consists of a bunch of power moves, none of which really offer anything beyond that of someone with about two years’ experience in the business. It’s rather hard to care about someone who is constantly doing the most basic power moves and little more.

Can you remember any single good match Strowman had in 2016? He had a few watchable ones but almost all of them were built around the other people who helped carry him through. Strowman is little more than a power guy who is in WAY over his head, which doesn’t make for the most logical or interesting push in the world. He’s passable enough at what he does but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to be on this stage.

3. Eva Marie

I was hesitant to put her on the list because I’m not sure if she even qualifies as a wrestler. In theory, to be a wrestler, you need to actually wrestle somewhere and I don’t know if wrestling on the occasional house show is enough of a qualification. At the end of the day, Eva Marie was given a spot on the roster because she comes off as stupid on a reality show and looks great in a swimsuit. That might have been enough a few years back, but now things have changed a bit.

Believe it or not, in today’s wrestling world you need to be able to wrestle a match instead of just looking good on the floor. I liked the idea that they were going with in Eva Marie’s case as it was clear she couldn’t be trusted to wrestle a match on live TV so they came up with one excuse after another (If nothing else it gave us the amazing over the top entrance.). However, at some point you need to be able to do something in the ring and it really doesn’t seem to be likely with Eva Marie.

She’s been on the roster for a few years now and after all that time with some of the people she’s been working with, you would think she would have gotten a little bit better. Somehow that’s not the case though as she continues to be little more than semi-competent in the ring. Why we need to sit through her matches when there are people like Charlotte and Sasha Banks on the roster, I don’t see why she’s necessary.

4. Carmella

This is a case where there were forces working against Carmella in the first place and by that I mean the Brand Split. Much like Strowman, Carmella hasn’t been in the ring for very long and she is in desperate need of more ring time. In theory she was going to be able to get that down in NXT but with the Brand Split, she was called up to the main roster WAY earlier than necessary.

The fact that she came out to crickets most of the time didn’t offer a good sign for her future and while the heel turn helped her, she was then stuck in a feud with Nikki Bella. Compare this to Alexa Bliss, who has only been wrestling for a few months fewer than Carmella but seems a few steps ahead of her at this point. Do you think that might have anything to do with working with Becky Lynch instead of Bella?

Carmella should still be down in NXT and there’s nothing wrong with that. The idea of NXT, for some people at least, is to be able to be built up into a wrestler instead of being thrust into a role you’re not ready for yet. Longtime fans of the NXT product could have told you that she wasn’t ready to be on the big stage, especially without Enzo Amore and Big Cass. However, this is the reality she’s stuck in and while she’s FAR from a lost cause, she’s still in over her head and it’s showing badly at times.

5. Brock Lesnar

Now we’re getting somewhere and again in depends on how you like your wrestlers. Lesnar is basically the annoying kid playing a video game who finds the one move that works and keeps using it over and over again because he knows no one is going to beat him. That might be entertaining in real life but it doesn’t make for the best professional wrestling matches.

However, I get the appeal of Lesnar in this case. It doesn’t make sense for him to do anything other than what works, but that really doesn’t make for entertaining wrestling a lot of the time. Lesnar just doing suplex after suplex might make sense for his character but ENOUGH ALREADY. I remember his time right after returning when he was doing more submission work and going after the arm and all that jazz. Why can’t we get more of that version of Lesnar?

It also doesn’t help that he keeps destroying everyone (not named Goldberg) in his path. Consider his matches with Ambrose and Orton, neither of whom got in much of any real offense on him. An RKO gave Orton a breather but that wasn’t enough to come close to finishing Lesnar off. The matches are boring squashes which could be made better by something as simple as two or three more moves. Why is that so hard to get?

6. Baron Corbin

We’re going to jump back a little bit here as Corbin is quite like Strowman. While Corbin has been wrestling for a bit longer, he’s never really learned how to do anything more than a short match. He’s got a good finishing move and won a battle royal but after that, he’s really just been beating up Kalisto and acted like a bully for a few months. Couple that with a pretty weak offense and you don’t have much to go on.

It also doesn’t help that he has a pretty generic character. Yeah his look is good with all the tattoos but the biker music and leather vest have been done to death. Sometimes it’s ok to come up with a slightly more interesting character (or even a character at all) before bringing someone up to the next level.

Corbin is another case where he could wind up meaning something eventually and there were some glimmers of good stuff near the end of the year but he’s still in WAY over his head for the most part. The problem is there really wasn’t much left for him to do down in NXT so they kind of had to bring him up to the main roster when they did. That doesn’t leave him with much but it does leave us with having to watch him struggle through so much of the year.

7. James Ellsworth

We just can’t get away from this guy. Ellsworth is someone who took WWE by drizzle in the latter half of the year and came very close to Eugene levels of overstaying his welcome. While the idea was to have him be little more than just a goon who can’t do anything more than throw an occasional superkick, the problem is he was just there week after week with multiple moments that should have wrapped him up.

Ellsworth came in and played a role, which is perfectly fine for him to do. Unfortunately there’s a point when that role is done and it’s time to move on. For some reason that only recently happened and now he’s with Carmella for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. That’s a much better level for him to take before he’s released (with his indy bookings going through the roof as a result, meaning it’s hardly a bad thing).

As I said at the beginning of this, the person considered the worst wrestler of the year could be someone who either didn’t have a role or was incapable of having a good match. Ellsworth’s character certainly falls into the latter category as his character prevents him from having any kind of strong wrestling. Maybe he can manage to do something at a lower level but I really didn’t need to see him do anything else near the main event after all that time we saw him there.

8. Shane McMahon

You had to know we were coming to this one eventually. McMahon’s problem is far more his booking than the in ring abilities but that’s still a major problem. When you consider his two matches this year (vs. the Undertaker at “Wrestlemania XXXIII” and in the big Survivor Series match at “Survivor Series 2016”) were on major stages and McMahon was treated as the biggest deal in either, it’s hard to argue that he was booked properly.

When McMahon came back to WWE, I lost my mind. It was one of the best surprises I ever could have imagined and I was even ok with him being on the “Wrestlemania XXXII” card due to all of the injuries. However, he completely lost me when he somehow lasted half an hour against Undertaker and whatever he had left went flying out the window when he was put on the Survivor Series roster. There was NO ONE else you could put in that spot? Like, no one at all?

McMahon is the kind of guy who is brought in for the sake of hyping up a crowd. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, he’s been pushed as the greatest thing to ever happen to the roster. Despite not wrestling a match since 2009, he’s able to hang with people like Undertaker and the best that “Monday Night Raw” has to offer? In what world does that make sense? It’s certainly not this one and he’s one of the worst things around as a result.

As weird as it is to say, I think I have to go with Lesnar. It’s not so much that his abilities aren’t great but his matches come off as lazy booking. Instead of something competitive, it seems that we’re just there to see Lesnar squash someone a few times a month, only to get destroyed by Goldberg in a big surprise. There really isn’t someone miles ahead of the pack here but Lesnar is far enough ahead to take this one.

Wrestling is built on the backs of feuds. When you add up all the matches and promos, they combine to form a feud between two wrestlers or teams. Over the course of 2016, WWE has produced more than its fair share of them but a handful have stood out above the rest. Today we’re going to look at the nominees for Feud of the Year. As will be the case with all of the awards we’ll be looking at over the next few weeks, these are presented in no particular order.

1. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks.

This is a feud that has lasted a long time as these women fought down in NXT with Banks taking Charlotte’s NXT Women’s Title early last year. Both of them debuted on the main roster as part of the Divas Revolution later in the year, setting them on an inevitable path towards each other, likely over the Women’s Title.

This led to a long series of matches between the two of them with both women getting the better of it at one point or another. Both have taken the title from the other on multiple occasions, though Banks was never able to defeat Charlotte in a pay per view setting. All of her three title wins came on episodes of “Monday Night Raw” and all three ended in less than a month with Charlotte taking the belt back every time.

However, as good as their matches were, there was a much bigger historical significance to their rivalry. At “Hell in a Cell 2016”, Banks and Charlotte wrestled in the main event, making them the only women to ever do so at a WWE pay per view. To call this a huge moment would be an understatement as just a few years ago, WWE Divas (a term which has thankfully gone by the wayside) were lucky to have a two minute match with a chunk of that going to entrances.

Charlotte vs. Banks produced some excellent matches but more importantly, they set the bar for women’s wrestling at an entirely different level. What used to be a sideshow attraction turned into something that headlined one of WWE’s most important events of the year. The feud also had a conclusive ending, which isn’t something you get often enough in wrestling. It’s very good but also historic and that’s going to take something special to beat.

2. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler

While Charlotte vs. Banks was built on action, this feud was built entirely on emotion. Ziggler has spent a large portion of this year talking about how he needed to win the big one no matter what happened. Unfortunately, this led to loss after loss after loss as Ziggler continues his career trend of not being able to pull off the big one no matter what he did.

After the Brand Split, Ziggler challenged for the Smackdown World Title at “Summerslam 2016” and was defeated by Dean Ambrose. Soon after this, Ziggler entered into a feud with the Miz, who seemed to have been ready to enter a feud with Daniel Bryan, despite the fact that Bryan was retired. It was Ziggler instead though and the reaction wasn’t exactly positive. Rather than having the huge moment of a potential Bryan return, we were stuck with Ziggler being all talk and no success all over again.

Boy were we wrong though. What followed was the performance of Ziggler’s career as he fought against everything Miz threw at him (including two male cheerleaders in something that probably didn’t need to take place) and FINALLY won the Intercontinental Title at “No Mercy 2016” in an amazing performance.

Miz might have won the title back in the end and pretty clearly won the feud as a whole, but the key thing was Ziggler pulling off the win and getting somewhere for a change. The emotion more than carried the feud and while the match didn’t main event “No Mercy 2016”, it was certainly the most interesting and biggest match on the card.

3. DIY vs. Revival

If you’re not a fan of the feuds based on talking and emotion like Miz vs. Ziggler, this one should be more your speed. These two teams went at it over the NXT Tag Team Titles over the course of several months with Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano chasing the belts in a series of matches but never being able to catch up to the Revival.

It took leaving the country but in the end, DIY finally pulled it off and won the titles in one of the best tag matches you’re ever going to see. In a two out of three falls match at NXT’s “Takeover: Toronto”, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder tapped out at the same time to make DIY the new champions once and for all.

This was more of your traditional style of wrestling feud with DIY defeating the Revival in a non-title match earlier in the year to prove they could pull it off before getting closer and closer to the titles every single time. That’s what made the big blowoff title match work so well (aside from the fact that it was an instant classic and a Match of the Year candidate of course): it was such a long time coming that the fans wanted to see the title change because they bought into all the close calls.

NXT is one of the few promotions where you know what’s coming more often than not but the fun is in the journey to the finish line. It wasn’t much of a surprise when DIY finally took the belts but that didn’t make it any less of a blast to see them put Revival away. This feud had the classic match (two of them actually) and one of them might have been the best match all year. What more can you ask for?

4. Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

We’ll stay in NXT for one more as these two did something unheard of in the promotion’s history. Nakamura debuted back in April and took NXT by storm. In his debut with the company he took Sami Zayn beyond his limits and had one of the all time great NXT performances. This was followed up by a victory over Finn Balor and then a challenge to the NXT Champion.

That champion would be Samoa Joe, who had surprised quite a few people by defeating Balor to become NXT Champion. This set up a collision course between Nakamura and Joe over the title with Nakamura taking the belt away at “Takeover: Brooklyn”. It seemed that Nakamura would go on to hold the title for as long as he wanted as no one had ever been a two time NXT Champion.

That’s just what Samoa Joe did though as he defeated Nakamura for the title at “Takeover: Toronto”. The title reign would only last fourteen days though as Nakamura would defeat Samoa Joe again in a match held in Osaka, Japan. Nakamura finally defeated Samoa Joe once and for all inside a steel cage in Melbourne, Australia. The feud was punctuated with some great promo work from Samoa Joe, who injured Nakamura and then demanded that NXT General Manager William Regal either hand him the title or bring him Nakamura. This led to Nakamura returning and losing the title in a big surprise.

This feud had some excellent, hard hitting matches but also took NXT and its title to some new places. Instead of having someone win the title, defend it against the former champion and then move on, it was actually something fresh with the two wrestlers trading the title. This gave us some very strong surprises to go with the intense matches and promos between the two, making it an NXT classic.

5. AJ Styles vs. John Cena

There’s nothing wrong with a feud between the old guard and the new guard. Cena has been one of the best wrestlers and biggest in WWE for well over ten years. Few have been able to challenge him for that crown but Styles pulled it off. Debuting in January, Styles was instantly a dream opponent for Cena as they had been the two biggest stars in the two biggest promotions in America for years.

A match was quickly set up over the summer with Styles taking a surprise heel turn on Cena to set things up. In an even bigger surprise, Cena lost to Styles, albeit with some help from Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. With one classic under their belts, the only solution was to have a second match on the bigger stage of “Summerslam 2016”.

In the real shock of the feud, Styles pinned Cena completely clean for one of Cena’s only such losses in several years. Styles was instantly a huge star in WWE and would go on to win the Smackdown World Title at “Backlash 2016” while Cena was soon on his way to a hiatus, leaving Styles as the undisputed ace of the “Smackdown Live” roster.

This is how you make someone into a huge star by way of a big rub. Cena is someone who is going to be able to lose matches like this and bounce back with almost nothing lost along the way. Styles on the other hand was able to gain more in those two wins than almost anything else he could have done in months against other opponents. The shock of Styles winning clean still holds up and Cena will be just fine when he gets back in the ring full time.

6. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens

Yeah you knew these two were going to be on here at some point. These two seem to have a great feud over year or so and that’s what matters. This time it was your old standard: they’ve hated each other for so long that they have to feud again at some point. Owens is such a perfect bully and Zayn is the ultimate underdog so how can the matches not work?

They had two great matches on pay per view this year at Battleground and Payback with the two of them splitting the wins. That win for Zayn at Battleground was a huge moment because he never won the big one over Owens at any point. This made Zayn into a player for the first time and if you ignore him doing nothing special after the win, it should have been a turning point in his career.

On the other hand, Owens got a big run out of this and would wind up being the World Champion as a result. Now, logic would suggest that Zayn would go on to be the #1 contender but since WWE decided that THIS IS THEIR LAST MATCH (until a few months later when they fought on Raw), that went nowhere. At least the two matches on pay per view were great.

Zayn vs. Owens is one of those feuds that is going to work no matter what because they know each other so well. Some people just have natural chemistry together and you can’t teach that. They had a few great matches in 2016 and I’m sure they’ll have great matches for years to come because that’s what great wrestlers do.

7. Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly

This is similar to Zayn vs. Owens as they’ve been fighting for so long now that it’s just kind of what they do. This feud went on for several months on and off over the course of the year with O’Reilly finally winning the World Title at Final Battle 2016. The matches were mostly great with Cole promising that Kyle would never win the World Title on his watch.

The key thing to this feud was how well it built up on all of their matches over time. The idea of Kyle getting closer and closer to the title with Cole holding him back just before he could cross the finish line made the title change all the sweeter. You even had some great storytelling in the title match with Cole hiding because he’s a coward and Kyle fighting because that’s what good guys do.

Again, must like Zayn vs. Owens, this one worked because of the story that came before it. They were both part of a great team and that made for an even better feud. There’s a big difference between just having a match for the sake of having a match and building up a story to get to the big blowoff.

The feud was violent, personal and entertaining as the big payoff was worth the build in the end. Kyle made the title seem important and beating one of the biggest stars in the history of the company helped so much. The fact that it was his old partner and rival was the big icing on the cake, which made everything work so well.

As for my pick though, I’m going with DIY vs. the Revival.

For me, it was the perfect balance of everything needed in a major feud and had no problems along the way. Each of the other four options had a flaw that holds it down just a bit. Charlotte vs. Banks felt repetitive, Miz vs. Ziggler was a bit much as Ziggler kept changing what he had to do to consider himself a success, Nakamura vs. Joe didn’t have a big enough ending and Styles vs. Cena was only two matches long.

That’s not to say that DIY vs. Revival was leaps and bounds better but it found the perfect balance for an amazing feud. The story went on at a good pace, the matches were outstanding and the blowoff was executed perfectly. It felt like it had a beginning, a middle and an ending instead of just going through the motions until everyone had something else to do. I was completely sold on the final match and it never got anywhere close to boring. It’s the best feud of the year in a year with some very strong candidates.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Let’s move on to the far more entertaining part of these things: the bad side. There’s less to cover here but we’re going to start with one of the big ones: the Worst Major Show of the Year. WWE is notorious for being able to put on some horrible shows and today we’re going to look at what their absolute worst of the year really was. I know some of these might not be the worst shows but they’re the worst options available. These are in no particular order, as usual.

1. Tables Ladders and Chairs

We’ll start with one of the last major shows of the year as we look at “Smackdown Live’s” last offering. This is always an odd show because it’s almost all about the gimmicks and the violence. The problem with that is it forces a lot of matches into gimmicks that really don’t need to exist in the first place. For instance, was there any reason for Kalisto vs. Baron Corbin to be a chairs match other than the show required that one exist?

It also didn’t help that most of the matches were just ok at best. The main event (AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose in the show’s namesake match for the Smackdown World Title) was by far the best thing about the show but it really wasn’t strong enough to make up for a rather lackluster show. That tends to be the case with this show almost every year and that’s not a good thing.

“Tables Ladders and Chairs 2016” was a watchable enough show but that doesn’t mean it’s a show that needs to exist. I’ve never been a fan of having these shows because the calendar says so and it’s rarely proven to work. On top of that, the use of these gimmick matches on a single show weakens those gimmicks later on in the year. We can’t have a TLC match when the show calls for it other than there’s one at the end of the year just because it’s December. That doesn’t make sense and it almost never works.

2. Payback

I went back and forth on this one for a long time but the more I thought about it, the more I thought of the annoying decisions and how many of them I have to sit through today. This was the show where we had a Natalya vs. Charlotte match end in a Montreal Screwjob reference for the sake of keeping the title on a Flair. I mean, ignore the fact that IT WAS NINETEEN YEARS AGO and add in the fact that it was for another Charlotte vs. Natalya match when the fans were begging for Sasha Banks.

Other than that we had what should have been the layup of the summer with Cesaro winning the Intercontinental Title from Miz. The champ tapped but AGAIN WWE found a way to avoid giving Cesaro a big win for the sake of…..well to be fair Miz keeping the title wasn’t the worst thing in the world but it really should have been Cesaro getting the title for a change.

Now, that being said, there were two Match of the Year candidates on the show and that should have been enough to make the show great. However, those two big issues are just enough to pull it down to the lower levels of the shows this year. It might not be the worst but those two decisions were so annoying that they took so much of my enjoyment away from the rest of the show.

3. Fastlane

Now we’re getting somewhere. Fastlane wasn’t anything interesting in 2015 and that’s the case again with “Fastlane 2016”. They might as well just call the show “Filler 2016” or “Annual Car Themed Show” and it would be just about the same. Most of the wrestling went nowhere and the main event only confirmed the obvious “Wrestlemania XXXII” main event that we all knew was coming.

If the triple threat between Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar wasn’t clear enough, we also had a live interview with Edge and Christian talking to New Day (which was nowhere near as funny as you might expect) and Curtis Axel vs. R-Truth on a pay per view. Is that really the best you can do on a three hour pay per view? A lot of the wrestling was tolerable but really, this just didn’t need to exist.

That sums up “Fastlane 2016” as perfectly as anything else could: the show didn’t need to exist. Stephanie basically made the main event on a whim and that made it illogical to go along with the fact that it wasn’t really interesting. The show was watchable but pay per views really should be more than just filler, which is all “Fastlane 2016” really was.

4. Roadblock: End of the Line

This is a show that really isn’t going to age well and I’m not really surprised. Overall, this show really didn’t need to exist and I think everyone knew it. The biggest problem here, as is the case so often on “Monday Night Raw”, is the lack of interest in the main event. The wrestling itself was fine with Kevin Owens defending against Reigns being fine but absolutely nothing interesting whatsoever.

The problem really boils down to the fact that nothing feels special. It’s not a show that I’m ever going to want to watch again and that’s rarely a good sign. I spent most of the show waiting on it to end and only enjoyed parts of it because some of the wrestling was good. This really is a case where the individual parts don’t add up to the whole score which doesn’t fill you with hope.

Finally, there’s the name. Was there really no other name available than Roadblock, which already took place back in February? Come up with any generic name (Vengeance, No Way Out, Over the Limit etc) and forget this whole obsession with car names. They hammer the idea in well enough and then have such a boring build that the show is only good in spite of its card. That’s really not too good.

5. Backlash

“Smackdown Live” started having its own pay per view as well and for the most part the show was spent crowning new champions. The entire roster was basically brand new and starting from scratch, meaning they had almost nothing going on coming in. Ambrose was the Smackdown World Champion but wound up losing the belt to Styles in the only really good match of the night.

Aside from that, the Usos wrestled twice, Kane defeated Bray Wyatt and Dolph Ziggler managed to lose another match, which was apparently even more important than his World Title shot back at “Summerslam 2016”. You really could have accomplished most of these things on a few major episodes of “Smackdown Live” instead of doing all of it on one pay per view, but they didn’t have much else to use to fill in a pay per view.

You could probably attribute a lot of the issues on the show to not having enough time to really establish things before getting to a pay per view. Then again, that’s how so much works in WWE: it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the stories because it’s all about getting things going as quickly as possible. If that means the pay per view doesn’t need to exist and suffers as a result, so be it.

6. Wrestlemania XXXII

Oh boy we had to get to this one eventually. Where do I even start with this one? Ah well how about with the run time? If you take away the two hour pre-show, this was still a nearly five hour wrestling show and that’s WAY too long. This problem came from the simple fact of having too much crammed onto the show. Be it Rock taking nine minutes to get to the ring, Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon taking half an hour (not even counting entrances and post match stuff) or the main event going twenty seven minutes in front of a worn out crowd, this was too long of a show.

The build wasn’t great either and a lot of that is due to injuries. It’s fairly clear that the big Undertaker match was supposed to be against Cena but, due to the injuries up and down the card, the best we could get was McMahon. Now, in theory, that match probably shouldn’t have gone half an hour but then McMahon doesn’t get to do his big dive off the cage and that just wouldn’t be any fun.

The show is much more disappointing than bad but that’s still covering quite a bit of ground. The biggest show of the year shouldn’t feel like a never ending night of boredom with matches seemingly ending with a main goal of making the audience wonder what the WWE is thinking. That was the case with Styles vs. Jericho (which I’ve lightened up on) and New Day vs. League of Nations, which really isn’t how things should be going. It’s not a good show and that’s much more due to being boring than bad, which is often even worse.

7. Survivor Series

This is another case of the main event being all that people are going to remember and in this situation, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I’ve thought about Goldberg vs. Lesnar a lot now and I’m really not sure what it really means. I don’t know if I should be mad about it or not but I know it made an impact. Unfortunately, when the main thing people remember about your show is a match lasting ninety seconds, there’s a lot left to be desired.

The other problem is how unbalanced this show really felt. You had the men’s Survivor Series match lasting nearly an hour while the tag team and women’s versions felt like they were rushed out there because we needed to fill in time elsewhere. The big match is still good but it took up so much time from everything else and that’s not a good thing.

Overall, this show is all over the place and unfortunately that doesn’t pan out all that well. It’s definitely one of the weaker shows of the year and when your show is approaching five hours counting the pre-show (those thinks are way too pesky) with ninety seconds basically defining the entire thing, there’s almost no way for it to really work. The show is a pretty big mess with an infamous main event which overshadows all the good, leaving it pretty low on the WWE charts.

8. Bound For Glory

It just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t put a TNA show on here and while it’s still a stretch to call anything TNA does major, this is about as good as it’s going to get. The problem here isn’t so much that anything is bad but much more along the lines of it’s just kind of there. You know, much like almost everything else TNA does.

As is far too often the case in TNA, Bound For Glory just kind of came and went without anything of note going on. I had to look back at the review to remember anything about it, including the main event. That’s a really bad sign for TNA when the show was just a few months ago. The Great War was good enough and a big spectacle but that doesn’t mean the match was, you know, good.

I’m really not sure what else there is to say about this show. Like, what else even happened here? The World Title didn’t change hands in a mostly Impact level main event. The X-Division Title match was good but, again, really nothing worst checking out. Like I said, for the biggest show of the year, that’s really not a good sign.

It’s not a good sign that I had to keep dropping nominees from the list because they really weren’t all that bad. Really, there are only a few options to really pick from here and there’s only one major option: “Wrestlemania XXXII”. The show is a glorified disaster with barely any standout matches and a horrible aftertaste in many of the fans’ mouths. When fans are leaving the show early to watch the ending of the show on the WWE Network, it’s clear that you’re doing something very wrong.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQKDV5O

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Now we’re at one of the big ones. All the stories, all the hype and all the talk doesn’t mean much if the match at the end is worthless. That’s where we’ve arrived: what is the best match of the year? As uninteresting as WWE has seemed, it’s actually been a stacked year for big time matches and there are several to pick from. As usual these are in no particular order and only WWE matches will be considered. Also note that if a match isn’t included, it’s either because I didn’t think it was as good or, far more simply, I didn’t see it.

1. AJ Styles vs. John Cena – Summerslam

Let’s get one of the big ones out of the way early on. This is the definition of the Big Match John fight with Cena coming back to face Styles one more time, only to actually get pinned clean. That’s something that might happen to Cena once a year (twice at most) and for him to put Styles over was a huge deal. This is the match that made Styles into a main event player and broke the idea of Cena losing the first match but winning the rematch.

Above all else though, this was about the action. These two beat the heck out of each other for over twenty three minutes and it felt like the big match it was supposed to be. This was two top level stars at the top of their game fighting at one of the biggest shows of the year. While that happens a lot, this felt like they lived up to the hype, which is what you have to expect from people at their level.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. TJ Perkins – Cruiserweight Classic Finale

This is a simple idea: take a pair of talented guys and let them fly around the ring for the better part of fifteen minutes because they’re some of the most talented cruiserweights in the world. Ibushi was one of the favorites to win the tournament from the start but Perkins gave him a real challenge, eventually beating him to advance to the finals and winning the tournament later in the night.

Instead of wasting time with generic moves and almost no characters, we had two guys who are talented and doing all kinds of things to fire the crowd up. The crowd helped as well with the kind of people who wanted to see this style match and appreciate it far more than the average WWE fans. The lack of a story is fine because this was all about the action, which is the point of something like the Cruiserweight Classic.

3. Royal Rumble

Take thirty people, put them in a battle royal with timed intervals, the last man standing is the WWE World Champion. It’s a very simple concept and something that even non-wrestling fans can easily understand. This was all about the World Title with defending champion Roman Reigns having to start the match because everything was rigged against him. This included the eventual winner Triple H coming in as a surprise entrant.

The match was all about the drama because there was always the chance that someone was going to be a surprise World Champion. The ending was a bit predictable but the mere chance was enough to make things more interesting. For once it wasn’t about the title match down the road because it was all about the title then and there. It’s a risky play but for once it actually worked, making up for the fact that it hadn’t happened since 1992.

4. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte – “Monday Night Raw” – July 25

This has easily been the greatest year for women’s wrestling (at least on the main roster) and it would be criminal to not have at least one match from them on here. In this case, we’ll go with the first post-Brand Split episode of “Monday Night Raw” when Charlotte FINALLY lost the title she had held (realistically) since October. Banks had been the most popular woman on the roster for a long time and the title change was long overdue, meaning the time was right on a major show like a landmark episode of “Monday Night Raw”.

The fact that it was the main event of the show is an afterthought at this point and that’s what’s the most amazing part. Trish Stratus vs. Lita in the main event of “Monday Night Raw” was legendary and now these two are main eventing multiple times a year. It’s also one of the best women’s matches of the year because these two have amazing chemistry and it was excellent television watching them change the title here.

5. AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns – Payback

Steve Austin called this one of the best WWE matches he’s seen in years and that means it’s at least worth a look. Styles won the title shot on the “Monday Night Raw” after “Wrestlemania XXXII” and wound up giving Reigns a run for his money. Sure it took the help of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson but you don’t need a newcomer giving the new champ a real test on his own just yet.

What followed was an outstanding power vs. speed match with Styles giving him everything he had and getting some insane near falls. Reigns eventually won with a spear and then won the rematch in the same fashion, but these matches made Styles feel like a major player. He was facing Cena soon after and then winning the Smackdown World Title. Sometimes it’s all about that first match though and this one was a blast throughout.

6. DIY vs. Revival – Takeover: Toronto

Now we’ve got one of the frontrunners. If there’s one thing NXT knows how to do, it’s set up things from the beginning and move forward until you NEED to see the big ending finally take place. That’s what we had here with DIY getting closer and closer to winning the NXT Tag Team Titles. It was finally set up for the big time NXT gimmick match: two out of three falls. That meant you could see extra wrestling and my goodness did they blow the roof off the place.

The match itself was some of the best wrestling NXT has ever put together with some of the hottest near falls I’ve ever seen. The ending was even better with DIY hooking a double submission to make Revival tap out at the exact same time because there was just nothing left for them to do. It’s much more about putting everything together to tell a complete story with the challengers getting closer and closer until they FINALLY captured the titles because they were the better team. That’s how wrestling is supposed to work and it was in one of the best matches of the year.

7. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens – Battleground

If you have a feud between two very talented wrestlers, at some point one of them actually needs to win their share of the matches every now and then. That’s been the problem for Zayn over the years as he very rarely actually beats Owens. It had to happen at some point though and that’s what happened here. After all those major losses (and one win on a nothing “Monday Night Raw”), Zayn FINALLY got to beat Owens on the big stage at “Battleground 2016”.

Much like the DIY vs. Revival match, this was all about the story. The idea was that Owens was just flat out better than Zayn, who kept getting close but could never close the deal. That’s what “Battleground 2016” was all about and the fact that it was billed as the final match between the two of them (of course it wasn’t) made it feel like a huge moment. Zayn needed the win, so of course WWE then did a total of nothing with him after that and made Owens the Raw World Champion. But still, Zayn winning was a great moment and the natural chemistry between the two of them made it even better.

8. Team Smackdown Live vs. Team Monday Night Raw – Survivor Series

It was billed as the other main event of the show (along side FANTASY WARFARE) and my goodness did it manage to work well. This match lasted almost an hour, making it even longer than some Royal Rumbles. The eliminations took their time and the match was allowed to build up instead of being rushed along until we get to the big ones at the end, making it feel like an event instead of just a regular match.

The fact that it was the Wyatts being the sole survivors instead of Reigns and Seth Rollins made it even more important. For once, Bray Wyatt got a big win and looked like a star, which hopefully means something going forward. Unfortunately the match is almost entirely forgotten after the big main event became all anyone remembers from the show. That being said, we had a great match beforehand and it’s worth looking at again.

9. Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler – No Mercy

Unlike several previous moments, this was all about drama instead of the action. While the wrestling was good, the idea that it was someone’s career vs. a title made it seem important. Ziggler was on a downward spiral at this point and Miz looked better and better every week so the idea that Ziggler could win seemed like a long shot. It was such a long shot that the official preview for the following episode of “Smackdown Live” talked about Ziggler’s exit from the company.

Ziggler of course won, but the fact that it was billed up as a match that he HAD to win was the key to the whole thing. Miz can talk his way into anything and he had us believing that Ziggler’s whole life revolved around this one match. It told a great story and set up the match as something that feels like it matters for a change instead of “eh we can just do the same thing next week.” Sure Ziggler dropped the title back a few weeks later but he won here, which is what mattered more than anything else.

10. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn – Takeover: Dallas

Until DIY vs. Revival, this was the undisputed clubhouse leader for Match of the Year and it’s still one of the most amazing things I’ve seen. I was lucky enough to be in the crowd for this show and I bought all the way into everything that happened throughout. This was all about beating the absolute heck out of each other with the winner being the one to survive. It was also Zayn’s grand finale in NXT, which wasn’t the biggest surprise when you consider he was in the Intercontinental Title match the next night.

This isn’t a match that needs a lot of talking about because it was all about beating the heck out of each other and little more. Nakamura was the new kid on the block and Zayn was on his way to bigger and better things but we were lucky enough to get to see one of the hardest hitting brawls I’ve ever seen for the transition between eras. Absolutely incredible stuff and something truly special.

11. Cesaro vs. The Miz vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn – Extreme Rules

We’ll wrap it up with a forgotten classic as Miz defends the Intercontinental Title against three guys who probably should have been able to rip his head off without blinking an eye. What followed was a nearly twenty minute long match with all four more than working hard and getting in near fall after near fall. As you might expect, Miz wound up stealing the pin after someone else did the work and that’s exactly what should have happened.

This was all about the action and the question of who was going to wind up with the title in the end. In other words, it made me wonder what might happen and I wanted to see what they were going to do at the end of the match. You don’t see that happen in matches like these very often and it made the Intercontinental Title feel important for the first time in far too long.

12. The Final Deletion – Impact Wrestling – June 28

While there were better matches throughout the year, I don’t think any of them came close to this one’s level of creativity and shock value. I know there were other, bigger versions of the same formula but the first one worked better than the rest. By the time we got to Tag Team Apocalypto or the Great War, a lot of this stuff had lost its steam. The first time we saw it though, it was some of the most creative stuff ever done on a wrestling show.

The Hardys really have put together something amazing and it worked so well as a total change of pace. It might not have had much to do with wrestling but there was a ring and a three count so I guess we can classify it as a match. This is more of a glorified honorable mention but it wouldn’t be fair to leave it out.

That brings us to the winner and I don’t like doing something like this but I have to give it a tie. I have to go with a combination of Zayn vs. Nakamura and DIY vs. Revival. No matter how many times I think about these two matches, I just can’t find a way to pick between the two of them. DIY vs. Revival was a long term story but Nakamura vs. Zayn was the short term story that began and ended at the bells. Either of those can work to perfection and these two tied for Match of the Year.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQKDV5O

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

It wouldn’t be right if I was on time with these things but they’re mostly written up.  I’ll be able to do more than one a day (not saying twice a day) and hopefully get these done before they’re completely ridiculous. Today we’re going to have something a bit more long term with Angle of the Year (aside from Kurt of course). This time we have the best stories of the year and see which ones were the absolute strongest, be it for comedy, drama or just good storytelling in general. As usual, these are in no particular order and only WWE stories were considered.

1. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens Are Best Friends

You might be seeing Jericho on here later but this one deserves its own entry. These two have been the top heels on “Monday Night Raw” for a few months now (depending on what mood Stephanie McMahon is in that week) and have produced some great comedic moments. Jericho has had one of the best career resurgences I can remember in recent years in 2016 and his material with Owens is some of the best stuff he’s done this year.

I can get the idea that the constant teases of breakups are getting annoying but it’s going to make things even better when they finally do split up for good, likely due to Jericho putting Owens on the list. I know Jericho is going to get most of the praise for this team but Owens has more than pulled his weight throughout the entire angle. He’s been a perfect partner for Jericho and the World Title makes the story seem even more important.

Above all else though, the story has been funny. They have great chemistry together and Owens is so great at insulting a crowd that Jericho has something to bounce off of. It’s been funny, had some drama and is just all around entertaining. That’s really hard to do in today’s WWE and these two Canadians have done it as well as anyone has in a good while.

2. Heath Slater Has Kids!

If there’s one person who has been playing with the house’s money all year and has no business being this high on the card for this long, it’s Slater. After a few weeks of being bounced back and forth between the two shows in an attempt to earn a contract, Slater was given an ultimatum: find a partner to win the Smackdown Tag Team Title tournament or get out for good. In what might be the surprise of the year, Slater and Rhyno actually won the titles and earned Slater a contract. Why is this so important you ask?

As the title says, Heath Slater has kids! This turned into a battle cry for Slater, who had somewhere between two and ten kids (who we would eventually meet). He and his very redneck wife had a dream of installing an above ground pool while eating spray cheese and crackers like a real, middle class family.

This was a great example of what “Smackdown Live” does best: take something so simple and basic as Heath Slater is a country boy and turn it into a story. They wound up getting some crazy mileage out of it, especially when you consider how much Slater has floundered over the years. This gave him a much longer shelf life in WWE and was entertaining at the same time. That’s a great story and one of the best angles of the year.

3. James Ellsworth

Nothing specific here but rather just Ellsworth in general. Ellsworth appeared over the summer as a victim of Braun Strowman and then came back later on in the year as AJ Styles’ mystery tag team partner. While Ellsworth was attacked and replace by Miz, Dean Ambrose took notice and eventually made Ellsworth something like a charity case, treating him as a little buddy for the next few months.

This turned into one heck of a roll for Ellsworth, who went on to defeat Styles three times in a row, earning himself a WWE contract and Smackdown World Title shot in the process. Above all else though, the key to Ellsworth was he barely ever had a single offensive maneuver. Most of his offense was either done by Ambrose behind the referee’s back or some pathetic right hands. Ellsworth’s only move, a superkick, was dubbed No Chin Music due to his, shall we say, oddly shaped face. When Ambrose wasn’t helping, Styles defeated Ellsworth in less than a minute, though Carmella of all people took a liking to Ellsworth next.

While there is certainly a case to be made that Ellsworth overstayed his welcome, I classify him as someone who is completely harmless and rather entertaining at times. There’s just something entertaining about this weird looking guy going further and further every week, only to get destroyed when it came down to a straight match. The character goes too far if it’s something like Eugene, who was put in a competitive match against Triple H at one point. Ellsworth wasn’t very good and was never treated as very good, which kept him as harmless and entertaining like he should have been.

4. Broken Matt Hardy

I’ve said almost all I can say about this story but my goodness does it get much more amazing than this? I’m really not a big fan of it as the Broken Universe has almost nothing to do with wrestling but GOOD GRIEF the effort put into this has been remarkable. Hardy has literally created his own set of rules and an actual continuity behind them to turn it into one of the most creative things I’ve ever seen.

I know the wrestling isn’t all that outstanding (if you can even still call it wrestling most of the time) but that’s not the point here. It’s given the Hardys a completely new take on wrestling and turned them into something interesting for the first time in way too long. Some of the big matches have gotten repetitive but the original Final Deletion is still outstanding.

That being said, I’m not sure where it goes from here. Hardy is seemingly starting to run out of ideas and the story really has run its course. Like, how do you do more than an entire show built around a single idea? It’s very entertaining but I’m hoping they cut it off before it gets all stale, which TNA has a major problem avoiding a lot of the time.

5. Mick Foley and Sami Zayn

This is an odd one but the talking has carried it to the levels the company has likely been shooting for. Much like Ellsworth, this one starts with an incident involving Strowman. For weeks, the monster known as Strowman had been demanding that “Monday Night Raw” General Manager Foley give him more competition, but that only resulted in a string of rather boring handicap matches. One night, Zayn answered but Strowman wasn’t interested in someone Zayn’s size.

Eventually they did fight and, as is his custom, Zayn was completely destroyed. He wanted a rematch and Foley said no, prompting Zayn to demand a trade to “Smackdown Live”. Foley agreed and the trade offered was Zayn for…..Eva Marie. This set Zayn off and brought out a fire in him that Foley had wanted all along. There was never any trade agreed to and Zayn was given his rematch with Strowman, which he somehow won by lasting the same amount of time as Strowman (just because it’s entertaining doesn’t mean everything has to make sense).

This story worked because it had a distinct arc. Zayn grew a lot out of it and Foley gave him a strong endorsement in the process. One of the keys to this was the fact that Strowman never actually pinned Zayn. Strowman might have had him dead to rites in their first match but Foley stopped it for the sake of saving Zayn’s health. The fact that Zayn wrestled to a draw (or a win as it seems to be called now) was a big moment for him, though I’d be surprised if Strowman doesn’t annihilate him in the final match between the two. If so, at least it was a good story to get us there.

6. The List of Jericho

Where do you even begin with this one? Earlier in the year, Jericho debuted the Gift of Jericho, which was basically just him posing like an imbecile and letting everyone praise him. Eventually he started calling things the “insert name here” of Jericho, culminating with an incident on the September 19 episode of “Monday Night Raw’.

Foley had been getting on Jericho’s nerves so Jericho said Foley was going on the list. Soon thereafter, Jericho started carrying a physical list with him and wrote down various names and things that annoyed him. This led to a VERY popular catchphrase of “YOU JUST MADE THE LIST!”. It turned out that Jericho was actually writing things down the entire time and he actually released it, complete with spelling errors, on his Facebook page.

One of the most important keys to this though has been how everyone has sold it. People like Xavier Woods and Ellsworth seemed terrified of being put on the list and nearly begged Jericho not to put them on. When everyone is playing along (except for McMahon who is of course WAY too cool for something like this), it makes the angle that much stronger. This whole thing worked as well as anything Jericho has done in several years and I continue to be in awe of everything he does. It’s the most entertaining thing I’ve seen all year and is going to be hard to top.

7. Randy Orton Joins the Wyatt Family

We’ll wrap it up with something that not only made sense, but has been played off very well. Orton and Wyatt feuded with each other for a few months with the rest of the Wyatt Family attacking Orton almost every time. Unlike most of the Wyatts’ victims, instead of getting partners to help him with the fight, Orton said “if you can’t beat em, join em”, and that’s exactly what he did.

In the weeks since then, the fans have been waiting on Orton to turn on Wyatt in a big swerve and it just hasn’t come yet. While I can’t imagine this partnership is going to last until “Wrestlemania XXXIII”, it’s still done a very good job at giving us some storytelling, along with FINALLY giving Wyatt his first title in WWE. That was long overdue and it took Orton to actually get us there.

This story isn’t rewriting anything or doing anything we haven’t seen before but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been good. Orton is the kind of guy that can go from good to evil at the drop of a hat and that’s something that can make this story work so well. I’m sure Orton will turn on Wyatt at some point but all that matters is how big the pop is when that first RKO connects. Until then, just sit back and enjoy something being done by good wrestlers.

You might have noticed how I put these nominees together. That’s right: it’s been on a list, and that’s the choice here. The List of Jericho is even more proof of what happens when you take the dumbest ideas in the world and give it to someone as talented as Jericho. I’ve had more fun seeing Jericho put people on that List than I’ve gotten out of anything else this year and there’s a good chance it’s going to put him back in the World Title picture. Also, I’m going with this over the Broken Universe because, very simply put, the List has led to more wrestling instead of insanity that doesn’t serve many people other than Matt and Jeff.  That’s more than enough for the best angle of the year.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s Complete Monday Nitro and Thunder Reviews Volume V at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQKDV5O

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Told a buddy I’d pass this along.  Check it out if you can afford to donate to a good cause.

So, if you saw 205 Live, you may have seen someone that lingers around my profile. John Yurnet known outside WWE as Mr. 450 is pretty much the top wrestler in Puerto Rico and also works in Mexico’s Lucha Libre ELITE. The man in 2014 was responsible for a boom in wrestling on the island after years of it just existing with no interest.

On 205 Live, his first time ever wrestling in a main roster WWE show, live no less, he blew out his meniscus on the first move. It’s a lingering injury. Something hard to cover when wrestling in Puerto Rico is as low and slimy as it gets. After announcing he would be selling his wrestling gear to raise funds, a Go Fund Me was started in order to help pay his bill.

Seriously, this man is a fantastic worker and I believe he can be something notable inside the WWE. Unfortunately, this happened when he was at the cusp of finally achieving his dream. If you can lend any help, it would be greatly appreciated.

The link is here: https://www.gofundme.com/7e-mr-450s-medical-expenses

We Hope This Slammy Awards Rumor Isn’t True. December 14, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/we-sure-hope-this-slammy-rumor-isnt-true/

Which Big Name is in Talks to Return to TNA? December 14, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/big-name-talks-tna/

Which Former TNA Champion Has Caught WWE’s Eye? December 15, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/former-tna-champion-caught-wwes-eye/

WWE Signs Three New Female Talents. December 15, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/wwe-signs-three-new-female-talents/

When is Big Show Planning on Retiring? December 15, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/big-show-planning-retiring/

Randy Orton Talks Eventual Retirement and Winning More World Titles. December 16, 2016.

http://wrestlingrumors.net/randy-orton-talks-eventual-retirement-winning-world-titles/