2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

33. Mark Henry/Big Show vs. Luke Harper/Erick Rowan WWE Raw 8/18

ER: Well on paper this seems pretty much like a Segunda Caida-booked tag match. I was hoping for 5+ minutes of 4 giant bosses thudding and smacking into each other, and I got 7+ minutes of just that. Yes please. Henry was a monster here, and between this and the Rusev tease later on he had a heck of a night. Loved how hot he went out of the gates here, really lacing into Rowan with stiff shots and headbutts, and then dishing a Harperesque big boot to Harper himself. I exercise regularly and can hardly kick over my head, so watching a guy like Henry kick up that high looks amazing. Harper and Rowan are a great team and it's cool watching them work differently against two of the only guys physically larger than them in the company. Harper is always a bumper but usually it's off his own momentum when a smaller, quicker opponent moves out of his way. Here he gets physically tossed by Big Show and takes a wild bump over the top where I wouldn't be shocked to find out he didn't know up from down until he hit the ground. We get a cool nearfall with Harper booting Henry as he's about to deliver the World's Strongest Slam, woulda bet money on that being the finish. But it's awesome that it wasn't, as then we still get two Big Show punches leading to the Henry WSS finish. This delivered everything I wanted it to.

PAS: Henry and Show looked like such beasts in the beginning of this match, totally bumping around the Wyatts, that I thought it would have been improbable for them to back down even a little. I figured this would mostly be a fun power squash (after watch Lesnar v. Cena last night, that seemed possible), loved how they got the advantage on Show and their offense on him was nasty looking, including Rowan's crazy looking bodyslam. The big finish run was super exciting, and I loved the punch, WSS combo finish. I love Godzilla v. King Kong matches, and this was a great tag version of that.


2014 MASTER LIST