This is always a trick one to define. Sometimes there are stories that mean something outside of the ring and often times, those are even bigger stories than anything between the ropes. There were a fair few stories like that this year and for once they don’t all pertain to WWE. These stories are in no particular order and hopefully we have more to pick from next year.
1. Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker
Let’s talk about Hulk Hogan’s sex tape. While the story broke a long time ago, the trial itself actually took place in 2016 and saw Hogan eventually awarded a $31 million settlement which resulted in Gawker closing its doors. Hogan wasn’t exactly shown in the best light but at least it struck a blow for privacy instead of celebrities having their privacy invaded.
Unfortunately it resulted in Hogan basically being removed from WWE programming and anything associated with it. That’s really not the most surprising reaction as the idea of having Hogan shown in a sex tape isn’t exactly the most PG thing in the world. Hopefully we see Hogan back in WWE soon enough, though hopefully with him wearing pants.
2. Billy Corgan Kicked Out of TNA
Just…..wow. So basically TNA was out of money (again) and Billy Corgan offered to loan/give them money to survive through their next TV tapings on multiple occasions. Now here’s the amazing part: he actually WANTED SOMETHING IN RETURN. Yes indeed: a multimillionaire who has several business ventures actually hoped to gain something out of another investment.
Well that’s what Dixie Carter thought was ridiculous, eventually calling Corgan a “predatory lender”. Corgan would be thrown out of TNA with his money back and absolutely no authority in the long term because TNA is ridiculous enough to act like this. There’s a reason they come off as the joke of the wrestling world and this is a great example. Maybe Anthem can help things but this came off as horrible and there’s little other way to spin it.
3. New Japan Talent Comes to WWE
So you remember back in the day where WCW and WWE would steal each other’s talent over and over? Well that’s kind of what’s happening now but WWE took some of the big names. Just after Wrestle Kingdom X on January 4, Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson all jumped to WWE, making it one of the biggest signing periods in WWE history.
This really is a big deal as WWE replenished their roster in one swoop and also punched their only major international competition in the face at the same time. Styles became one of the top stars in the company in his first year and Nakamura seems primed for a main roster run in 2017. It was a huge moment and changed the way WWE looked for a long time to come.
4. UK Championship Tournament and Potential for More
If there’s one thing WWE has seemed interested in doing lately, it’s expanding internationally. On top of that, they love the idea of expanding content on the WWE Network. By running this tournament, they were able to do that in one move. WWE ran a UK Title tournament in Blackpool, England which seemed to open the door for some UK content airing on the Network.
While the tournament was a success, it also seems to have planted the seeds for other tournaments going forward. I know they might not be on the same level as WWE but there are a lot of independent promotions out there which could be major players on the WWE Network. Just imagine one of them getting a weekly spot on the Network going forward. That’s a huge upgrade and opens a massive audience that had never seen them before. It’s certainly something I would check out which I wouldn’t do otherwise.
5. Goldberg Returns
While this was almost certainly tied in with the new WWE video game, it’s still a huge deal that changed several things for WWE. Like having him beat Brock Lesnar in less than two minutes for example. Goldberg was one of the big free agents out there who could wind up being a major player in WWE and that’s what he’s been in one match over the course of several months.
The WWE video game reveal has been a fun day to look forward to every year and that’s what we had here. It’s gotten to the point where someone who is put on the front of a video game gets to appear in WWE, which means we get a major match as a reward. I’m still not sure on Goldberg beating Lesnar like that but at least he gave us a major moment.
6. Shane McMahon Returns
Now this was a big one. I mean, Goldberg wasn’t exactly expected but this was in the range of WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED. As soon as Shane’s music hit, you knew something was changing in a hurry and it made a lot of people very interested to see where it was going. While the story wasn’t all that great, the initial surprise certainly was and that’s important.
This was a big deal because Shane had been gone for so long. It really felt like he was out of the company for good but now things seem to have changed again. I don’t think Shane has any authority behind the scenes but he’s always been the one who felt like he could change things in a much better way. Granted I don’t think that’s going to happen but at least it was a great moment and gave us something to think about.
This might not be the best year in the world for wrestling news stories but it’s definitely the New Japan guys. That’s the kind of story that changes things in two companies and two different wrestling worlds. Those names could all be major players in WWE (Styles already is) and could help WWE expand into other areas of 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:
We’re down to the final two and this is one of the harder ones to get through. Over the years, wrestling tries all kinds of things to get their wrestlers over. In this case, we’re going to be looking at the worst angles of the year. Which stories that WWE put effort behind wound up going nowhere and doing more harm than good for everyone involved? As usual, these are in no particular order.
1. Cesaro and Sheamus’ Excellent Adventure
Over the course of the end of the summer and a good chunk of the fall, Sheamus and Cesaro engaged in a best of seven series for a future championship opportunity. While the matches were entertaining enough, the fans really seemed to get tired of the same match over and over again. I was one of them and, knowing WWE, I had a bad feeling they would somehow have the series end in a draw and give Sheamus and Cesaro a Tag Team Title match instead.
AND THAT’S JUST WHAT THEY DID! No matter how much people were sick of seeing them fight, now it was time to see them as a tag team who still fought each other despite going after a title. They actually wound up winning the titles off New Day but that doesn’t really make up for everything we had to sit through on the way there.
This was a good example of having to put up with what WWE wanted whether we were interested in seeing it or not. While the end result wasn’t the worst, it was the equivalent of going to the dentist, having a tooth pulled, and then hearing your condescending dad say “oh come on it wasn’t THAT bad”. Yeah, actually it was that bad and in this case it took the better part of four months to finally get to the point.
2. Emmalina Debuts. Eventually.
Injuries are horrible things in any sport and wrestling in particular as there’s no off season to eat up some of the down time. In this case, Emma was put down with a horrible back injury that has left her off TV for several months. While she’s been working house shows as a special guest referee for some of the women’s six man tags, she hasn’t been seen on WWE TV in a long time.
Well not live at least. Instead we’ve been getting vignettes for the Makeover of Emmalina, which really seems to just be Emma in various swimsuits. During her time on the main roster, Emma hasn’t exactly been one of the women to turn up the sex appeal but that’s what we’re getting here for some reason. These vignettes have been going on for months now and there’s no indication that they’ll be ending anytime soon.
The worst case scenario is that this is the female version of Brodus Clay. You might remember that idea: over the course of several months, we were teased with the unveiling of Clay as a monster (which we had seen before). What we wound up with was Clay as a dancer in bright red and called the Funkasaurus. I liked the surprise, but I have a bad feeling about what WWE might find funny.
3. Anderson and Gallows Aren’t Funny
Speaking of comedy, we have this gem. Over the course of the year, Anderson and Gallows chased New Day for the Tag Team Titles, just like several other teams. Anderson and Gallows came close to defeating them a few times but could never actually get their hands on the belts. They could however do one thing over and over: put on some of the worst, most unfunny vignettes you’ll ever see.
The big problem with them was they tried to use the WWE brand of “comedy”, which is to beat you over the head with the same joke until your head hurts from getting the same idea over and over again. These were such brilliant ideas as “New Day is old and we work at a retirement home” or “we’re doctors and want to crush New Day’s testicles”. That’s really the best thing they can do to sell a title match on a pay per view?
Overall it just wasn’t a good idea and I don’t know of anyone who actually enjoyed the vignettes. They weren’t funny and they didn’t advance the story to any special degree. Anderson and Gallows might be able to get in a few little chuckles here and there but they’re not the kind of people who are going to get somewhere by just saying “Hey, here are jokes! LAUGH WITH US!”
4. Roman Reigns vs. Lana
I really don’t even know where to start with this one. So back in the fall, Reigns started feuding with Rusev over the United States Championship. Around the same time, Rusev and Lana were married and spent a lot of time bragging about how amazing their wedding was. One of these nights included a party, which of course had a cake. As you might expect, Reigns came out and crashed the party which included shoving Lana’s face into the cake.
Let me make that a little bit more clear: Rusev and Lana were celebrating the fact that they were married and Reigns shoved Lana’s face into a cake for no real reason other than they were considered bad guys. How in the world is this supposed to make me want to cheer for Reigns in the situation? In what way is he the good guy in this whole story?
I know WWE is obsessed with the idea of making Reigns into the king of all things good and wholesome about wrestling. Somehow though, I don’t think this is the best way to go about the whole thing. People aren’t going to look at Reigns and think he did anything great. Well in theory at least, but I’m not sure I’d want those people to be supporting my product in the first place. This is just a horrible idea that doesn’t make a bit of sense, unless you’re in some weird WWE style mindset.
5. Naked Enzo Amore
It wasn’t a good year for Lana and these stupid stories. One night on “Monday Night Raw”, Big Cass locked Amore out of their dressing room and, because it’s a wrestling show, Amore was missing his clothes. If that’s not bad enough, he then ran into Lana. This turned into an awkward flirting session with Lana seemingly getting into the idea. Rusev wasn’t cool with it though and wound up destroying Amore as a result.
This continued the following week as Rusev and Lana seemingly had a fight, which led to Amore offering a shoulder to cry on. As a result, Lana invited Amore to her hotel room for some, ahem, entertainment. Since Amore isn’t the smartest guy in the world, he accepted and wound up getting one heck of a beating from Rusev, who was of course waiting on them in a trap.
What in the world was the point of something like this? I know it gets us to Cass vs. Rusev but did we really have to sit through Amore hitting on a married woman while standing around without any clothes on? It was awkward, it felt really out of place and while funny, it really wasn’t the best way for them to go.
6. James Ellsworth
Now this is a case where your individual miles may vary. Ellsworth debuted in WWE back in July in a match where he was completely destroyed by Braun Strowman. While being off TV for a bit, Ellsworth would be brought back as a mystery partner for AJ Styles, which resulted in several weeks worth of appearances, including a series of victories over Styles in non-title matches, one of which gained Ellsworth a contract.
Those losses are where a lot of people gave up on the story. Ellsworth wasn’t around long and he was defeating the Smackdown World Champion. I mean, Ambrose was helping him but that doesn’t make it the best idea in the world. It was all about setting up something between Ambrose and Styles and the title was never in any real danger but the champion still lost three times in a row.
That being said, Ellsworth being around was still very tiresome for a lot of people. He overstayed his welcome in the main event and even influenced the ending of the main event at “Tables Ladders and Chairs 2016”. It also doesn’t help that Ellsworth didn’t really gain anything as a result. He’s still the comedy goof that was fun to cheer for over a few weeks but then was just kind of there as the story wouldn’t end.
7. Shane McMahon’s Lock Box
If the Lana stories were just stupid, this one is something that was so confusing that a lot of the audience just gave up trying to figure out what was going on. The problem here was very simple: we never actually got an explanation for what was going on. Shane returned and got into an argument with his father Vince over who would get to run “Monday Night Raw”.
Shane brought up something about a lock box that contained evidence of Vince doing…..something so Shane agreed to put up its contents against running the show. The match wound up being against the Undertaker at “Wrestlemania XXXII” and Shane lost (thankfully). Depending on who you believe, Shane was originally going to win but Undertaker put his foot down.
This brings us to the second problem. After the match with Undertaker was over, Vince just gave Shane control of “Monday Night Raw” anyway, making the whole thing a big waste of time. It was a fun idea when Shane returned but the whole thing wound up being a huge mess over something that was never made clear in the first place. And what did this wind up being? More McMahon drama, because that’s all any of the big stories around WWE would become.
8. Triple H Likes ME Better!
Oh boy this one. Do you remember “Clash of the Champions 2016” with its main event of Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens for the Universal Title? The match itself was fine but do you remember why it was happening? Allegedly it was over the title but I’m talking about the real reason. What were most of the promos about and what did Rollins say his end goal was?
Well that would be proving to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon that HE should have been the chosen one that was receiving the Authority’s backing instead of Owens. That’s right: this was all about Owens and Rollins trying to impress the McMahon and Triple H, the latter of whom had handed Owens the title in a four way elimination match. Think about that for a minute: this match was about people trying to impress their boss, as in the top heel of the company who was never there.
And people wonder why the match and feud was so poorly received. This whole thing was a complete mess and made both guys look like someone who had no idea what they were doing and had no business being anywhere near the main event. When your whole story is about who should have been Triple’s protege and featured star. Not a title, not a personal feud and not even fighting over the profits from a lemonade stand. No, this was all about the Authority and how they were really more important than anything else on the show.
9. The Cabinet
How can I put this? Ah yes: the Cabinet WAS NOT FUNNY. I know everyone went election crazy in 2016 and almost every wrestling promotion tried to do something with it (such as making Darren Young great again) but Ring of Honor decided that they needed a full on election committee.
Comprised of Kenny King, Rhett Titus and Caprice Coleman (all with rather stupid nicknames such as the Secretary of Shoulders), the group wanted to make wrestling great again. It was beating you over the head with an idea and it just wasn’t funny. Everyone knew the story was dead after the election was over and that’s what happened. The team wasn’t done though and then it got even worse.
Now the team is called the Rebellion. Yes the Rebellion, which is just below the Revolution on the list of REALLY STUPID TEAM NAMES THAT EVERY PROMOTION HAS HAD SOME VERSION OF OVER THE YEARS. This was really low intelligence and uninspired booking, which isn’t something that should be happening in Ring of Honor. Be creative with it somehow because this was a disaster.
As tempted as I am to go with Rollins and Owens, I’ve got to go with Cesaro and Sheamus. This was a situation where we knew what they were going to do and then we had to sit through it for months on end with only one ending in sight. I have no idea why WWE wanted to do this one storyline so much or why they kept shoving it down our throats but this is what we were getting, whether we liked it or not. Most people didn’t and WWE did it anyway, which is why it’s the worst 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:
If there’s one thing that can make or break a wrestling show, it’s how the talking is handled. Over the years, a lot of great matches have been set up and then destroyed by horrible promo work. So much of the wrestling business is built on what happens before the bell rings because that’s how you get people to care about the matches. It really is more important than what happens during the actual matches and that’s why it’s so important here. Today, we’re looking at the Best Promos of the Year. Again, these are in no particular order.
1. “I’m the guy.” – Roman Reigns, “Monday Night Raw”, April 4
We’re starting off with an interesting one here as I really don’t think it’s all that great of a speech but it certainly the big line that set up everything for Reigns going forward. It’s a perfect way to sum up Reigns and is the closest thing that we’re going to get to a heel turn, at least for the time being.
Unfortunately, it feels like the definition of a line that was handed to Reigns, who isn’t the best talker in the world. This comes off like the most set up line I’ve ever heard and it doesn’t really make me want to hear more from Reigns at this point. I know WWE wants him to be the biggest name in the company but you need something better than a quick line that doesn’t really change anything but him.
That being said, it still sums Reigns up perfectly, or at least what they were going for with him: you might not want to cheer for him but he’s not supposed to be a straight up good guy. While the delivery might not have been perfect, this line stuck with Reigns for a long time and that’s what they were going for here.
2. “YOU’RE LAST!” – Goldberg, “Monday Night Raw”, October 17
Now this is a little more like it. This is a very simple, to the point and effective line from someone who didn’t talk all that much over the course of his career. Goldberg has one of the most effective catchphrases in wrestling history with a simple statement of “YOU’RE NEXT!” Now that he was back in wrestling with one more match to go, the line of “YOU’RE LAST” was as perfect as it was going to get.
Above all else, this set up the idea that the match was going to be something special. After all the people that Goldberg had run over in his career, Brock Lesnar was going to be the final opponent for a legend. It’s simple, it’s to the point and it gets the message across with something that is going to stick in the fans’ heads as we came closer to “Survivor Series 2016”.
The promo hyped up a single match and the fact that Goldberg almost was almost immediately scheduled for a second match after defeating Lesnar didn’t matter. What was important was setting up the match against Lesnar and two simple words were more than enough to make the fans care about what we were getting. It was certainly a better way than hyping it as “fantasy warfare”, which I’m still not entirely clear on.
3. “Bring me Nakamura or bring me my championship!” – Samoa Joe, “NXT”, October 12
It’s about time we got to something based on violence. As you might have heard, Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe had some issues in NXT over the latter half of the year and it all started when Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe for the title at “Takeover: Brooklyn”. Soon after this, Samoa Joe injured Nakamura and put him on the shelf for the next several weeks.
That meant that the NXT Champion was out of action for a while, meaning Samoa Joe felt that he deserved to be champion again. This led to him making such a demand to NXT General Manager William Regal because for Samoa Joe, it was that simple: he either should be made champion again or get another title shot against Nakamura immediately.
The fact that there was a choice tells you a lot about Samoa Joe. Instead of just wanting to be handed his title, he had no issue with defeating Nakamura in a fight because he knew he could take down the champion on equal footing. It was a great way to set up the rematch and show that Samoa Joe was more than just a regular bully who was going to back down in the face of a challenge. The fact that he delivered it with such rage made the statement come off that much stronger.
4. “Why don’t you quit and go to the Bingo halls with your indy friends?” – The Miz, “Talking Smack”, August 23
Sometimes in wrestling, it’s difficult to tell when someone goes off script and is shooting from the hip. It’s really rare in today’s WWE but this promo made me wonder why the script ended and where reality began. On the debut episode of “Talking Smack”, Intercontinental Champion the Miz exploded on Daniel Bryan, taking severe offense at Bryan’s comments calling Miz a coward.
What followed was a tirade of emotions that Miz has never approached in his entire career. Miz went on and on about how Bryan was the real coward for leaving the fans waiting on his return that was never going to happen. If Bryan loved wrestling that much, why did he not just quit WWE and go wrestle somewhere else? Bryan walked off the set with no response, leaving Miz to look like the conquering hero for one of the only times in his career.
If this winds up leading to a Miz vs. Bryan match and then a potential Miz World Title reign, this is the promo of a lifetime and the moment where Miz reached the level that he’s been building towards for so long. The in ring work might not be at the heights of some others, but this was one of the most emotion filled promos I’ve ever heard and made me want to see these two fight, which is exactly the point (in theory at least).
5. “You’re immortal to them. To me? Dead.” – Charlotte, “Monday Night Raw”, May 23
Speaking of emotion, this one was all about personal emotions between real life family. Charlotte debuted in WWE back in July 2013 and immediately took the women’s division by storm. She would win the Divas Title in October and then become the inaugural Women’s Champion by winning a triple threat match at “Wrestlemania XXXII”. For a long stretch of this time, her father Ric Flair was by her side.
That all changed on May 23 though when Charlotte started talking about how her father was never there for her because he was too busy being the Nature Boy. Growing up, Charlotte wanted to be her father but she had realized that she didn’t need him anymore. Charlotte was the star that her father had once been and she could do it on her own. With her father in tears, Charlotte basically fired him on the spot. Flair’s slow walk up the ramp sold the entire thing to perfection.
This is one of the rare instances where a lot of people can relate to what either of them are going through. Flair himself is the father who only wants what’s best for his daughter and didn’t realize when he had been around too long. Charlotte was the young upstart who thought she could do everything on her own. This was a great way to make Charlotte look like an evil woman who could stand on her own, which she had been ready to do for so long now.
6. “Why are you still here?” – AJ Styles, “Smackdown Live”, August 2
Over the years, John Cena has lost his fair share of matches. A lot of people have defeated him more than once but for some reason he almost never seems to lose the final match of a feud. Cena is the kind of guy who will lose a match and shrug it off without seeming to lose anything as a result.
However, AJ Styles didn’t seem to be too happy with this. Following his victory over Cena at “Money in the Bank 2016”, Styles wanted to know why Cena hadn’t left for Hollywood already. Why was Cena still here after losing to Styles, especially when he wasn’t seeming to be all that upset by a major loss. This led to a rematch being made for “Summerslam 2016”, where Styles would actually win again.
The story here is very simple: Styles was the new star of “Smackdown Live” and saw no reason for Cena, as in the man who lost the match, to still be around at such a high level. The fact that Styles backed it up by winning the rematch made this speech even better as he was proven right, which isn’t something you often see from a heel.
7. “Brother Nero, I knew you’d come!” – Matt Hardy, Impact Wrestling, May 31
Just….dang man. If there is one line that sums up all of Matt’s insanity in one moment, this might be it. It’s the gleam in his eye and you can feel that he just buys everything that he’s saying. The line is the part that people remember but it’s also Jeff wondering what in the world he’s gotten himself into and everything that follows.
Matt might not be everyone’s taste but he’s one heck of a performer and can make you believe that he’s either insane or the greatest wrestling actor in years (aside from people who pretend Stephanie is interesting that is). Just go back and look at his face and see if it doesn’t feel a little creepy.
On top of the one moment, it actually became a catchphrase that the fans seemed to have a very good time chanting. In other words, not only was it a good line but it had staying power going forward. I know it doesn’t prove much in TNA but at least there was one great moment and something that might take them somewhere. Or maybe it just takes Matt back to WWE.
Some of these are better than others but only one actually had the hair on my arms standing up. As unpopular as he might be, the Miz has been on one of the strongest rolls of his life this year. The promo against Bryan might be the best thing Miz has ever done. Almost everything he said was completely accurate and Bryan had NOTHING to say back to him. If this had led to a match (which it still could), it’s one of the best of all time. As it is, it’s the best of 2016.
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:
A lot can change in the course of a year. Titles will change hands, people will turn face or heel and new memories can be made. All that being said though, the point is that wrestlers are supposed to get better, which is what we’ll be looking at today. We’re going to be looking at the most improved wrestler of the year, which can mean someone either getting better or being used better by the company. As usual, these are presented in no particular order.
1. Heath Slater
This is a case where it’s been about how the character is presented rather than the wrestling itself. Slater has almost always been at least a passable hand in the ring but he’s often little more than a comedy character, especially due to his time in 3MB. That being said, he’s still a comedy character but he’s gone from almost nothing on the card to a champion in 2016, which I don’t think anyone was really expecting.
The key change for Slater has been in actually having a story. This is all about showing the details behind him. Slater isn’t someone we knew that much about, save for him being a former boxer in West Virginia. With the introduction of his family, who were only mentioned and shown in a few segments, Slater has been rounded into a more well developed character and that’s the best thing for him.
Instead of Slater getting better in the ring, he’s gotten better as a character and that’s going to make people care about him far more than they would have otherwise. The fact that Slater was a champion in WWE in 2016 is astounding enough but the fact that people cared about him makes it all the more remarkable. That’s certainly an improvement and a good way to get things going.
2. Alexa Bliss
Now this one is a bit more interesting but again it’s almost all about the character development. Bliss certainly isn’t great in the ring but that’s never been the point to her. I know it’s easy to write Bliss off as eye candy and a passable wrestler at best but she’s turned into one heck of a performer and someone who belongs either near or at the top of the women’s division.
The key to Bliss is in her facial expressions. If you know your wrestling, you know that getting people to hate you is more important than anything you’re going to be able to do in the ring. What’s easier to hate than the gorgeous blonde who thinks everyone else is beneath you? That’s the character that Bliss has given us with just those eyebrows up looks where she basically says everything else here is worthless because it’s not something she’s done.
The “Smackdown Live” women’s division was made from scratch and it’s a major necessity to have some fresh talent brought into the mix. Bliss was called up from developmental a bit too early for most people’s tastes but she’s turned into one of the better developed characters on the show, which says a lot about someone whose in ring debut only came a little over three years ago. It’s been quite a year for Bliss and she’s more than met the challenge so far.
3. Braun Strowman
What a difference a character makes. This is a case where a lot of people are going to roll their eyes but think about it for a second. Strowman is a case where the best response comes from Shawn Michaels. Back at “Wrestlemania XIII”, Michaels was doing commentary on the main event and said Sid was going to stick with his power game because it was going to take him wherever he needed to go.
That’s where Strowman comes in as well. There’s no need for him to do anything more than the big power stuff and that’s what he seems to have figured out. Strowman has gone from any monstrous lackey for Bray Wyatt to one of the few consistently interesting things on “Monday Night Raw” every week. Above all else, he’s finally figured out that all he needs to do is use his size and power to dominate people instead of just running around behind Wyatt all the time. In other words, he’s been booked better and ran with it, which is exactly the point.
Strowman has benefited from figuring out how his character should work and that’s the best thing for him. It’s a very simple character and that’s the right way to book someone who doesn’t have a ton of experience and needs to learn how to work in the ring. I don’t think he’s ever going to become a great worker but he can become a great big man, which is all he really needs to be.
4. Baron Corbin
This is probably the frontrunner and someone very similar to Strowman. Corbin hasn’t been in the ring all that long and didn’t do much besides lay out NXT talent and beat them in about thirty seconds. Now he’s rapidly climbing the card and is coming off like a great bully character who can have a watchable match when he’s given the right circumstances. In other words, he’s learning on the job and turning into the performer that people were expecting him to be.
Corbin is the kind of guy who can become a big deal in a few years, based almost entirely on his look. If he can add in something resembling a personality and the work to go with it, he’ll be a star. This year showed some of the necessary progress and there’s a good chance he’s going to be ready to make the jump a bit sooner than he was expected to. Maybe it’s the coaching or maybe it’s being on the main roster but he’s certainly getting there.
I know there’s a long way to go and he’s going to need more than just a cool finisher but at least he’s getting better. The key there is to grow from the progress already made and thankfully that seems to be happening. Corbin looked like a star in the Smackdown World Title match on the year’s final episode of “Smackdown Live” and in theory, he should be able to grow on that. A few more wins should be enough to elevate him to a new level and that’s good for everyone.
5. Becky Lynch
It really is amazing how much a title reign can help someone. Lynch has been the woman who has never been able to put it all together. She’s the only member of the Four Horsewomen to never win the NXT Women’s Title and it was something that always hung over her head no matter what she did. At the end of the day, the other three were the ones that had the great matches and Lynch just happened to be the one in the ring with them, leaving Lynch as a bonus.
Lynch really was someone who needed a big win to establish herself as the star of the division. It’s pretty clear that she’s better than anyone else on the “Smackdown Live” women’s roster (including Nikki Bella) and is ready to be a big star. She’s a beautiful woman who can more than go in the ring but now she’s won something. The title win was what she needed and that’s what elevated her to the ace of the show status.
In the span of a few months, Lynch has gone from someone with a ton of potential to someone who has realized that potential. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say she could be ready to face Charlotte in a huge feud at the drop of a hat and now that she’s won something, you could believe that she might be able to pull off the upset. That’s quite the jump up in the span of a few short months and one heck of an improvement.
6. Charlotte
So how can she be the most improved when she was already pretty easily one of if not the best in the division already? Simply put, this year Charlotte has separated herself so far from the pack (save for maybe Sasha Banks) that it’s almost unfair. She’s just so much better than anyone else in WWE that she’s a mile ahead of almost everyone. Her matches have gotten even better and she’s doing it without Ric Flair running around in the background. What else can she really do?
That’s where the improvements have come in this year: she’s already great in the ring but now she’s starting to get better on the mic. Now Charlotte is turning into a dominant character and presence in the ring, which means she can put someone over huge when she actually loses on pay per view. The feud with Banks has done wonders for Charlotte and, as was mentioned multiple times during the buildup to their final match, iron sharpens iron. Giving Charlotte someone closer to her level helped build her up even more and she’s at the top of her game.
Charlotte is in a weird place as she’s already the best around and is getting better at such a rapid rate that she’s running out of realistic challenges. That makes things even more impressive for her as she’s getting better despite being above the competition, which is normally what makes you even better. The rest of the division isn’t miles beneath her but she’s running out of people who can really give her a run for her money.
7. The Miz
Next up is someone else who has always been good and is now even better than ever. Miz is an incredibly talented wrestler with his talking making things all the better. Couple that with the promo of his life against Daniel Bryan on the debut episode of “Talking Smack” and this was one of the best years of Miz’s career. Things might get even better in 2017 as Miz could be primed and ready for his second World Title reign and yes, he deserves it.
At the end of the day, Miz is someone who suffers from one major run dragging him down and never being able to come back from it. So many fans can’t seem to get beyond the fact that Miz was in the main event of “Wrestlemania XXVII” and was in WAY over his head with John Cena and the Rock around him. They were the focus of the match and that’s what people can’t get around: Miz not being as strong as two of the best of all time.
In the last few years and especially over the last year, Miz has grown up considerably with the awesome A-lister character. The in ring work is more than fine enough because the character is driving Miz everywhere he needs to go. He’s one of the best performers in the company and one of those guys you just want to punch in the face. Back in my day, that would make him a good heel but for some reason, a lot of people can’t seem to stand how great he’s really been this year.
8. Matt Hardy
If this was about most improved performer, this would be Matt’s award for probably the next three years in a row as the Broken Universe has taken off so strong that it’s almost unfair to everyone else. He just went insane (possibly literally) and there was no turning back for him. The big matches/segments (more on that in a second) were some of the most creative things I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately…..the were barely wrestling. I get what Hardy was going for with the concept as it was all about the insanity and showing off the creativity but really the big draw continues to be how insane the things could get. However, that doesn’t make them wrestling, which really hurts him in something like this.
This is a really rare case where I want to like what Hardy is doing (I certainly respect it, or at least I’ve grown to respect it) but things can only be stretched so far before it turns into a big mess instead of wrestling. Yes I know I sound like a snob but there are parts of this that I still have issues with on a wrestling show.
9. Eli Drake
Sometimes there are people that you just like and that’s the case with Drake. The guy is just entertaining to listen to and that’s what matters the most in wrestling. Drake might not be the best in ring performer (his finisher sucks) but he can command a microphone like few in TNA have ever been able to do and that’s worth far more than the ability to work a proper wristlock.
Drake just knows how to be an obnoxious jerk that you want to see get punched in the face. It worked for Honky Tonk Man, it works for Miz and it’s worked for dozens of others over the years. Drake is a master at getting a mic in his hands and working magic with it, which could take him very far.
Drake used to be in WWE and I could easily see him being back there again (he was only released due to some issues with social media) based on the improvements he’s made in recent months. Fact of Life has become a highlight for Impact and that’s a very rare thing to see on that mess of a show.
Overall though, I’m more amazed by Bliss’ development than anything else. She debuted on the main roster less than six months ago and she’s already one of the best women on the show. It’s amazing development in such a short amount of time and for me, the best improvement of anyone else this 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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
Best of 2016: Feud of the Year
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.
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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.
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