2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

12. Antonio Cesaro v. Daniel Bryan v. Christian v. John Cena v. Sheamus v. Randy Orton WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23

ER: The Chamber match has been my favorite yearly gimmick match for some time now. I love all the nasty bumps on the grating, I love the "guy gets thrown through pod" spots, I love how bruised all the participants are the next night on Raw. They always feel a different sort of violent compared to other WWE matches. Cesaro and Sheamus was a great choice to start, with their work in the Christian/Sheamus/Real Americans tag being what put that match over. They match up nicely. Sheamus doesn't seem like a guy that people talk about being really good, but he is really, really good. He always surprises me with cool new things. My favorite here was him slumped in the corner and kicking out Cesaro's knee as he approached, with Cesaro dropping down hard to his other knee. Sheamus and Cesaro were the best guys in this. Cesaro's strength spots are tailor made for a match like this, where you get to see him powerbomb Christian into a pod and toss Bryan and Cena with one suplex. Sheamus gets the spot of the match by Brogue Kicking through Orton's pod to get to him (while the crowd chanted "pussy" at Orton. Don't think I've heard that before...). Everybody's personality slotted nicely into this match, with Orton's time kept to a minimum while he taunted the crowd, Christian getting to be sneakily overlooked, Bryan getting tons of big spots to make the crowd go nuts (him catching Orton with the running knee was a big spot, since they'd shown him winning on TV numerous times with that move in recent weeks) and him getting to kick out of the RKO was huge. Some nitpicks aside, like Cesaro tapping super quick to the STF, this was a great, violent match that never lagged or felt stale. I also think it aged well as I liked it even more on rewatch.  Tough match for me to properly rank.

PAS: This is a match type I never get super excited for, but always really enjoy. We were missing Rey who is the maestro of the Elimination Chamber, but otherwise we had a damn good group of dudes. I am not sure why they have run 50 Sheamus v. Christian matches lately as the Sheamus v. Cesaro match up is one of my favorite match ups right now. Sheamus can get a bit repetitive but Cesaro seems to force him out of his comfort zone. Really liked Christian as he got to do all of the athletic spots which Rey normally does. His top of the pod dive was really nuts because he doesn't have the smoothness of other guys who have done that spot and it looked really out of control and nuts. The booking finish was pretty bad though, I suppose they were in a spot if they weren't going to give the belt to Bryan (which they shouldn't have, no reason for him to get it in a fluky multi man match like this before Wrestlemania) but the run ins have been so overdone, that it just killed the match dead. Still the vast majority of this was great, I can't in good conscious put it above matches with satisfying endings