Match of the Year

[klunderbunker]

Typically the best debate.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

For me, there are probably only about 5 matches on that list that I think genuinely deserved the 5 star treatment: Bate vs. Dunne, Black vs. Dream, Styles vs. Cena, New Day vs. the Usos at HIAC and Omega vs. Naito.

Omega vs. Okada was great but it really started dragging after about 30 minutes or so and it felt like they were just purposely extending the match longer than it needed.

Styles vs. Lesnar showed just how good AJ Styles is even at 40 years of age, he's probably done the best work of his career over the course of the last 4 years or so. What took away from this match is that we all knew he wasn't going to beat Lesnar.

WarGames was a great chaotic brawl that, in my opinion, was an overall improvement over the original concept but matches of this type don't usually win MOTY with so much focus being put, and rightly so, on the carnage.

The SummerSlam hoss fight was a hell of an outing that was carried primarily by Reigns, Joe and Strowman. However, you just knew that nothing short of a nuke right to the face was causing Lesnar to lose.

The New Day vs. The Usos at the SummerSlam kickoff was a huge surprise, easily the best match of any WWE kickoff show.

Styles vs. Balor was a fantastic treat, but there was no build or storyline to it. They put forth a tremendous effort but ultimately, the match didn't matter when you get right down to it.

I'm leaning towards Bate vs. Dunne at NXT TakeOver: Chicago and if there was one flaw in the match, it's that the build wasn't stronger.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I cant be shaken from Dunne Vs Bate, but War Games made me hesitate. What an absolutely brutal shit show barnburner of a match.

 

[SSJPhenom]

Gotta go with AJ Styles vs. Cena. What a match. It showed why Styles has risen so fast in the WWE and why Cena is genuinely the best wrestler of the past decade. Great match.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

How did Revivial vs DIY vs AOP not even make the list? There goes my vote for MOTY.

 

[Bernkastel]

Cena vs Styles. Summerslam 4 pack challenge was a close second.

 

[Nate DaMac]

How did Revivial vs DIY vs AOP not even make the list? There goes my vote for MOTY.

Wasn't that last year?

 

[klunderbunker]

Takeover: Orlando in April.

 

[Khalifa]

Wow Bálor vs Styles and Bálor vs Lesnar made the list. Definitely pretty shocked on the first one, could make an argument for the second but I feel WWE have had better matches. I want to vote New Day vs Usos at Hell in the Cell because I think the tag team division deserves a lot of credit this year and for two teams who have wrestled each other in the hundreds put on potentially their best match against each other ever. The match itself made me excited for more tag team/multi man hell in the cell matches in the future.

However I gotta give it to Okada vs Omega at Wrestle Kingdom. JackHammer made a good point that it started to drag at the end I think it was just so highly anticipated and certainly delivered. I don’t even watch New Japan but the Omega/Okada matches have me a reason to.

If I was voting

3: Cena/Styles
2: New Day vs Usos HiTC
1: Okada/Omega

 

[ShinChan]

Omega/Naito II.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Styles vs. Cena was the same rote finisher fest that Cena's been having for three years now and I'll never understand why people gush about them so much. They're fine but tiers beneath his older work.

I cant be shaken from Dunne Vs Bate, but War Games made me hesitate. What an absolutely brutal shit show barnburner of a match.

I called that match a clusterfuck at the time, because it was, but I only ever meant it in the most affectionate way possible.

How did Revivial vs DIY vs AOP not even make the list? There goes my vote for MOTY.

I'd have nominated it but I feel the ending was a bit of an anticlimax, it was beneath The Revival's own impossibly high standards, and the other two teams have had better matches this year.

I'm split between Black/Dream and Bate/Dunne. They're both types of matches I'd like to see more of, but I think that's only a reasonable expectation of the former. Then again, since when is solid writing and character work a reasonable expectation of WWE? And I'm nothing if not a patriot, and there's two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures - and the Dutch.

BSS 4 Lyfe

Edit: Oh, and a brief shoutout to the best Brock Lesnar match since The Best vs. The Beast, and perhaps a small glimpse at what a Daniel Bryan match would have been like, to the Survivor Series match with AJ Styles. For what was basically an exhibition match, it was excellent.

Edit: And another shootout to my hidden gems: Oney Lorcan vs. Lars Sullivan on NXT, the fatal four-way for the number one contendership between Lars, Black, Dain and Wrestling, and the tag title match between Sanity and the Authors of Pain, which apparently only I have the analytical capacity to adore.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I called that match a clusterfuck at the time, because it was, but I only ever meant it in the most affectionate way possible.

As someone who has been involved in two threesomes and a legit orgy (is eight people an orgy? Does everyone have to be in the same room? ) I can attest that just because something is a clusterfuck doesn't mean it isn't spectacular entertainment.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I believe it only qualifies as an orgy if it begins as a theeesome between team captains and two additional members of each team are added at regular intervals.