2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Charlotte v. Sasha in a CELL

48. Charlotte v. Sasha Banks WWE Hell in a Cell 10/30

ER: Well hot damn I loved this. This felt epic, this had some gravitas. Charlotte jumping her before the bell was awesome, and both of them beat the hell out of each other around ringside. Sasha showed real fire when prepping the table, and you knew something bad was happening. But I somehow didn't guess powerbomb. Sasha got planted with that powerbomb, sprawled across the collapsing table fantastically. I loved the lonnnnnnng stretcher set up. It was taking forever, but I loved it. Every minute that went by made it look like Sasha had more and more of a chance to recover. That powerbomb was nasty but juuuuuust maybe...so when she gets off the stretcher and slaps the hell out of an EMT, I was way into it. And they had a real assbeating fight. Sasha flew into her with knees, Charlotte landed kicks, they laced right into each other. There was a certain sloppiness that actually added to the gritty fight feel, totally made the match. I had no idea who would win, no clue where it would go, was constantly waiting for a swerve of some kind. But the table coming in, Sasha getting tossed all over it, ragdolling into and off of it, felt like a really violent human breaking move. The whole match felt like a big deal (which is annoying to type after how much I know they're going to pat themselves on the back because HISTORY), and they shocked the hell out of me. I thought they would work stupid to justify their spot in the main event, but I thought they were smart in this - even with a couple crazy spots. Awesome match.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as Eric. I thought they were pretty ambitious which I appreciate, and I did like the violence, but it is pretty hard to work a 25 minute match that starts with a stretcher spot. I really liked everything leading up to the stretcher spot, the cheap shot, the brawling into the crowd, the powerbomb and the selling, but WWE match psychology demands a long near fall section and Sasha is throwing suplexes 15 minutes after having her spine destroyed. After the first five minutes, this was pretty much worked 50/50. But I did like the violence, and individually there were a lot of cool things. If this had an editor it could be a real classic match, unedited this match fell short of that level.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST