Phil's Ongoing 2009 MOTY List

1. Jack Swagger v. Christian WWE 2/24
2. Negro Casas/Heavy Metal v. La Sombra/ Volador Jr. CMLL 2/13
3.Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho v. Kane v. Mike Knox v. Edge v. John Cena WWE 2/15
4. John Cena v. Big Show WWE 2/27

1. Jack Swagger v. Christian WWE 2/24

I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this. Christian isn’t a guy I ever thought much of at all, and I hadn’t really bought into Swagger either. So this was kind of a bolt out of the blue. It is great to see an amateur guy use his amateur wrestling, and all the early takedowns were really powerful looking, I also loved the head and neck turns later in the match, really violent looking for a freestyle move. He also has a really great C.B. Dollawayish amateur wrestling douchebag charisma. Christian isn’t a particularly appealing character, but you really wanted him to kick this dudes ass. Seriously though, when did Christian get good? The spinning out of the armbar, the counter of the powerbomb, he looked like Angel Azteca. Plus the arm selling, the bumping, the top rope headbutt. He had the look of one of the top guys in the world, and he isn’t a guy I would have ever considered before. I don’t know if this will end up being a fluke, but this was the match of both guys careers.

4. John Cena v. Big Show WWE 2/27

Cena is at his best working underdog against monsters, and Show is the best monster around so you know this would be good. Cena gets bumped around the ring great, that Dustin style bump on the pieface was excellent. He also has a tremendous connection with the crowd, which always helps when a guy is taking a beating. Show’s weight gain and injuries has helped him a bit, when he was more agile he was taking athletic bumps from smaller guys which kind of hurt his gimmick. Now when he takes a bump it looks way more like toppling a mountain. It is pretty hard to throw a punch well enough to have it look like a finisher, but Cena avoiding it all match, only to get wasted by it at the end was awesome. I am really hoping for this to get run back a bunch of times. A long feud between these two would be excellent.