2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Lesnar v. Ambrose v. Reigns

3. Brock Lesnar v. Dean Ambrose v. Roman Reigns WWE Fastlane 2/21/16

ER: Well hot damn this was all hot damn. Wow. No bullshit, all mammoth spots and ass beating, really well laid out, just a great match. Brock is just the best. I could watch him murder dudes all damn day. Like just start up a Suplex City channel on the Network and post everything Brock has ever done, and I'm there. But the crazy thing about Brock just throwing dudes, is that Brock TAKING moves is maybe even better! I love how naturally he takes offense, how it's not just rapid fire flat back bumps, it's like a level of Kawada selling. When he gets blasted with the superman punch he just staggers back fast, drops quick spaghetti legged to a knee, rolls down to the floor. It's so much more layered than most selling, really shows how he fully understands who he is relative to his opponents. Watch him get speared by Reigns whole holding Ambrose and be impressed by him having the presence of mind to get speared, while tossing Ambrose's body PAST Reigns, instead of dangerously dropping him on Reigns' back and legs. Looked great AND was deceptively safe. The "Brock gets taken out" moments of his big matches are always big time, and I loved him getting plastered through a table and covered in the wreckage. It's a shame we usually don't get the visual of the monster emerging and roaring out of the collapsed building, but I like the surprise emergence of Brock no matter how it's shown. I liked the immediacy of Ambrose and Reigns once they had the monster buried, and I love how into Ambrose the crowd was. Ambrose going big time on everybody with a chair was great, and some of those chairshots looked gnarly. I was really hoping that Ambrose was just going to continue crushing everybody with chairshots until nobody had a chance of kicking out, but the finish still worked even if it created a match I have zero interest in seeing. But damn was this match every single thing I was hoping it would be. So damn good.

PAS: I agree this was good shit, I thought this was an impressive Ambrose performance, he has been hit and miss in the last year or so, but I loved his desperation when he got his chance, his crazy fast Tenryu combo felt like a guy unloading the kitchen sink on someone knowing the clock was ticking. The monster was at the door and he needed to finish Reigns before the beast rose from the swamp. Brock works well in these three ways, because he is booked so dominant that you almost need two guys to take him out, and him taking a break lets him sprinkle in his spots rather then just throw 15 germans. I thought Reigns was fine, he has some good looking signature spots and is good at timing them, which is a lot.  I am really looking forward to seeing what Ambrose and Brock can do in a singles match (which is the only thing I want to see on Wrestlemania).


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST