Image via Complex Original
11.
As we trek on the road to SummerSlam, the unofficial halfway point of the WWE year (which ends at WrestleMania and begins the following night), it seems appropriate to look back at all of 2015 (so far) in order to determine the best matches of the year. It’s been a spectacular year in both WWE and NXT so far, with plenty of candidates for a top 10 slot from both promotions and, more excitingly, from both the male and female Superstars in the company.
As WWE has moved into a more indie-friendly style of wrestling (with a higher pace in the ring, more dramatic kickout spots, and more counter sequences), the quality of matches has risen throughout the company (Sheamus matches not included). After re-watching and re-evaluating some of the best the WWE had to offer this year, we’ve narrowed it down to the 10 best matches of 2015 (so far).
Note: Aside from the Raw matches, you can find full versions of each of these matches on the WWE Network. WWE does not allow pay-per-view footage anywhere else.
10.Sami Zayn vs. John Cena (United States Championship Open Challenge)
Event: Raw
Date: July 4
In retrospect, maybe this match wasn’t a good thing. Don’t get it twisted: Sami Zayn debuting on Raw with a firecracker of a match against John Cena in the United States Open Challenge in front of his hometown of Montreal was compelling television matched by few things this year. The introduction by Bret Hart, the high-energy babyface fire from Zayn, the veteran heel tactics by Cena...it all worked. Over everything else, Sami’s patented through-the-ropes turnbuckle DDT made headline news in sports media the following day, and really showed fans that Sami is a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Zayn injured his shoulder during this match, an injury that basically cost him the entire second half of 2015. Was it a great match? Yes. Was it a legendary debut? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Doubtful. Get well soon, Sami.
9.Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match)
Event: Elimination Chamber
Date: May 31
Although it occurred before his tragic death on June 11, the main event of Elimination Chamber served as a strong tribute to Dusty Rhodes and his patented Dusty Finish, wherein a face challenger wins a belt but then has the decision reversed due to controversy. When Dean Ambrose pinned Seth Rollins to become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, fans of the Lunatic Fringe went absolutely apeshit celebrating, thinking that WWE had put their trust in arguably the most popular superstar currently going. It was not to be, however, as the referee ruled that Rollins was disqualified for throwing the official in front of Ambrose’s leaping attack from the turnbuckle. Still, the match itself had a little for everyone, as Ambrose and Rollins have undeniable chemistry together, and the ending just turned everything up to 11. The pair would have an equally satisfying match with a bizarre ending at the following month’s Money in the Bank, but the euphoria of Ambrose’s initial win and subsequent loss of the belt elevates the Elimination Chamber match into this No. 9 spot.
8.Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor (NXT Championship Match)
Event: Beast in the East
Date: July 4
What do you do to reward fans for waking up at an ungodly hour to watch a once-in-a-lifetime WWE Network live special from Tokyo? You give them the dream match they’ve been thirsting for since Kevin Owens broke everyone’s hearts in his NXT debut. Getting the obvious out of the way: Of course the Demon version of Finn Balor would beat Owens in front of his adopted homeland crowd. But it was the story they told on the way there that captivated the sleepy masses watching this before dawn on Independence Day. First off, the pageantry before the match: Japanese women bringing out bouquets of flowers for each competitor (Owens, of course, threw his out of the ring), and Balor receiving a shower of streamers both worked well to establish this a prize fight.
The match itself was fantastic. Owens wrestled like the shittiest person in the world, which he is, peaking at his choice to build up a head of steam only to lock in the world’s most passive-aggressive chinlock. Balor, for his part, busted out his full repertoire of moves, including old indie finisher Bloody Sunday, in front of a crowd that ate up his every move. We also got the first kick out of Finn’s Coupe de Grace by Owens, but after a second one, we had a new NXT champion. Long live the Demon.
7.Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan (For Title Shot at WrestleMania)
Event: WWE Fast Lane
Date: February 22
It’s easy to forget about him since he’s been hurt so often recently and might never wrestle again (say it ain’t so!), but Daniel Bryan is the best wrestler in WWE, full stop. He’s gotten classic matches out of pretty much every opponent he’s ever faced, using his combinations of kicks, reckless abandon, and unbelievable crowd connection to reach an atmosphere that few have since the Attitude Era. And so, despite the most obvious ending of the year, his match versus Roman Reigns in order to decide who would face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania stands as easily the best singles match of Reigns’ career. That’s not saying much, but it must be remembered that at this point, he had a miniscule resume, and there were doubts that even Master Bryan could carry him to a great match.
But not only did they do it, Reigns actually held up his end of the bargain, minus some cardio issues. Bryan threw every technical maneuver he learned from his years in Japan and Ring of Honor, while Roman did what Roman does and powerhoused Bryan into a pulp. Two spots stand out from this match: first, the spear counter into a small package that I believed would lead to a Bryan win, and second, the first-ever kickout of the Knee-Plus by Reigns, which was a curious decision but one that needed to happen to Make Roman Look Strong. In the end, a Spear put Bryan away, but for the fans that desperately wanted him to win, the match itself might have been a good consolation prize.
6.Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
Event: WrestleMania
Date: March 29
Hey, speaking of Daniel Bryan…after his loss at Fast Lane, Bryan hot-shotted into the messiest Intercontinental Title build-up in recent memory, with everyone stealing the belt from poor Bad News Barrett in route to a huge ladder match at the Showcase of the Immortals. Skipping over the build, the match itself delivered on its promising potential, as the seven men (Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Ambrose, Luke Harper, Barrett, R-Truth, and Stardust) threw themselves around Levi’s Stadium with reckless abandon. And who can forget Luke Harper basically shoot-murdering Ambrose by powerbombing him THROUGH a ladder? Ouch.
While none of these men are necessarily labeled high-flyers, the match had an agility and pace that made its rather short 14-minute runtime feel even shorter than that. And the ending, with Bryan and Ziggler exchanging brutal headbutts on the ladder, made every fan of the YES! Man fear for his health (reminder: Bryan had just come back at the Royal Rumble from a terrible neck injury). But it was to be his day, if only for a moment, as Daniel Bryan left WrestleMania 31 as the Intercontinental Champion. It’s a shame that his reign only last a couple of months due to yet another injury. Get well soon, Daniel. Please.
5.Cesaro vs. John Cena II (United States Championship Open Challenge)
Event: Raw
Date: July 13
No better place to start the Top 5 than with the most recent match on this list, and the best match in John Cena’s already-classic Open Challenge series. This match is the best Raw match of the year, in a walk, featuring Cena defending against his toughest opponent not from Canada (more on that in a few spots), Cesaro. It builds on the previous week’s match, which ended in interference from shithead Kevin Owens, while also letting two of the best workers of all time go long to end the show. Cena’s praises have been sung for his matches this summer, but the star of this match is Cesaro, who looks more and more like a main eventer every passing week.
This match shows his best skill, which is lifting people in the air and doing crazy shit to them; whether it’s uppercutting them to death, launching them across the ring, or even serving as a base for their counters (that Cena head scissors was clutch), Cesaro’s strength is one of the best things going right now. The finish was a perfect way to make both men look strong, which is a rarity in John Cena matches: Big Match John can’t put Cesaro away, so he busts out his super finisher, a second-drop Attitude Adjustment, to finally get the 1-2-3. Big ups to John for putting Cesaro over even more after the show in this speech. When Cesaro is main-eventing against Brock Lesnar in the next 12 months (ha, yeah right), we can look back at this match and consider it the beginning of his rise.
4.Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns [vs. Seth Rollins] (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match)
Event: WrestleMania
Date: March 29
Raise your hand if you screamed the second Seth Rollins’ music hit. There was no better reaction to the greatest Money in the Bank cash-in ever. After all, it accomplished three very important things: (1) It allowed Brock Lesnar to lose the title without getting pinned by Roman bleeping Reigns. (2) It actually made Roman look strong for hanging in with the Beast without making him hated for actually beating him. Most importantly, however, is No. 3: It allowed Seth Rollins to fully bloom into the chickenshit top heel he was born to be.
The match itself (before the cash-in) was a mirror of Brock Lesnar’s whomping of John Cena at SummerSlam 2014, but with more blood and, surprisingly, more believable offense from the challenger. When Reigns managed to stun Brock with three Superman punches in a row, you could feel the tension bubbling from fans that believed WWE would just hand its next golden boy the title, but it was not meant to be. One counter later, Brock hit a 4th F-5 that surely would have finished the match if not for Mr. Money in the Bank’s timely appearance. So, not only was the finish as picture-perfect as any WrestleMania finish ever, but the match that was built before it was as brutal and punishing as it needed to be to take it to a very real and frightening place.
3.Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks (NXT Women’s Championship Match)
Event: NXT Takeover: Unstoppable
Date: May 20
There’s been a lot of talk this year about women’s wrestling in WWE, starting with the #GiveDivasAChance back in February, through AJ Lee’s retirement, and into what was looking like a summer of the Bellas burying everyone in sight. Thankfully, WWE also contains NXT, which happens to feature the best women’s wrestling on the planet right now. As the main roster grows by three talented women (Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and the Boss and NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks), it’s important to look back at just how badass these women can be. No NXT match this year (or ever, in my opinion) shows off what these women can do better than the 1-on-1 matchup of Lynch and Banks from Takeover: Unstoppable.
The pressure on these two women to deliver was at a fever pitch following another top 10 candidate (the Fatal Fourway with Charlotte and Bayley from Takeover: Rival), but they delivered a technical match that stands as a highlight of 2015, regardless of gender or promotion. It was a beautiful hunt for submissions, with Sasha Banks escaping Becky’s armbar signature and then working over her opponent’s own arm so that she would be weakened to the point of tapping out. The counters and sequences all played both into this in-match story and the larger NXT story, which sees Becky Lynch as a lifer challenging for validation against the best character in wrestling, The Boss a.k.a. a formerly insecure tactician who is gaining confidence with every match along with a dose of swagger.
The finish to the match played into all of these concurrently, with Sasha Banks doing a top rope armbreaker into her signature Banks Statement submission, weakening an overeager Becky to the point where she could not escape. When she taps, it’s not because she’s weak but because she’s just been beaten by the best, and the NXT crowd, so often in it to make themselves famous, has a moment of goosebumps-inducing adoration for Becky, as they sing her theme song to show her how much they appreciate her quest to be the best. In the end, however, this is The Boss’s world and we’re all just trying to keep up.
2.Kevin Owens vs. John Cena (Champion vs. Champion Match)
Event: Elimination Chamber
Date: May 31
From the best NXT women’s heel, we move on to the best (ex-)NXT men’s heel. Kevin Owens is, seriously and truly, the worst person on WWE programming. There is never a moment where Owens doesn’t choose to do the worst thing he can do, and that’s why he’s perfect for his role. It’s also why his debut match worked so much better than Sami’s; where Zayn played the underdog face to Cena’s veteran monolith, Owens went full-on villain, allowing Cena to play up his fan favorite arsenal. One need only look at his in-ring promo debut to see how fantastic Owens can be: standing toe-to-toe with Cena on the mic, then kicking him out of nowhere and hitting him with the Pop-Up Powerbomb, before stomping on Cena’s U.S. title belt. It’s so perfect because he makes you do something modern heels don’t often do: hate him.
Although these two men have now had one of the best three-match series' of the decade, it’s the first match that stands out the most. Whether it’s because it was fresh and unpredictable, or because it was the first look at Owens, this match fired on all cylinders from the start, taking a page from the indies with lots of spots and false finishes. Cena busted out a bunch of new moves, including a Code Red that looked like he almost broke his neck attempting it, while Owens did what he does, which is move quicker than any man his size should and make every hit look as brutal as if it was real.
You could also say this was the best match of the three for a petty reason: it was the one Owens won, clean as a whistle. To beat John Cena clean is already the rarest thing in WWE, but to do it in your debut? That’s one for the ages. So when that final Pop-Up Powerbomb hit and the ref counted 1-2-3, did Kevin Owens celebrate respectfully? Of course not. He stomped on Cena’s belt and dignity some more, because he’s the best at what he does.
1.Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena (Triple Threat for WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
Event: Royal Rumble
Date: January 25
There was only one real choice for the top spot. The first pay-per-view of 2015 might have ended on a sour note, with Roman Reigns getting booed out of Philadelphia by a hostile crowd, but just an hour earlier, that crowd was losing its ever-loving mind over the best match of the year. The triple threat for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Seth Rollins was as perfect as a WWE-style triple threat can be. There was no slow build-up and ramping up to an emotional climax; instead, these three incredible performers threw every single bomb they could at each other and some that they couldn’t, too. From the get-go, which saw Lesnar just manhandle both men with his trademark suplexes, this match was the Spinal Tap of matches, cranking the moves and pain up to 11.
By the time Lesnar was put through the announce table by Rollins, you couldn’t blame the trio for taking a breath before building to the finale, but they were having none of that. Cena and Rollins engaged in some rather breathtaking 1-on-1 action, including Rollins’ first WWE Phoenix Splash (which he slightly botched but who cares it was the Phoenix Splash!). Every near-fall during this time only heightened the drama, because it was entirely possible that Lesnar would lose without being pinned. However, unlike WrestleMania 31, it was not meant to be, as the Beast climbed back into the ring for the grand finale. After taking two shots to the head from Rollins’ Money in the Bank briefcase, Lesnar countered an attempted Curb Stomp (on top of said briefcase) into a dazed F-5 for the pin. The Philadelphia crowd popped harder than they would the rest of the night, and everything was perfect for just a little while. As a member of that crowd, it was the high point of my night and of my year, and for that, this beauty of a triple threat battle gets the top spot on this list.