2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Brock v. Joe 2

41. Samoa Joe v. Brock Lesnar WWE 7/28

PAS: This was a house show version of their great PPV match. Lots of the same beats with Joe jumping Lesnar at the bell, although not nearly as big of a beat down. Couple of nifty little wrinkles, with Joe breaking a belly to belly attempt with a irish kiss headbut, and Joe successfully getting in the hooks on the choke, forcing Brock to have to fight to the ropes. I am really sick of seeing finisher spamming, but again Joe goes down to a single F5 after taking most of the match, I think I would have liked to see him absorb a couple of more big shots and get a near fall. Still these guys match up well, and I always appreciate seeing house show versions of PPV matches I loved.

ER: This is definitely a scaled back version of their PPV match, but it does hold one major advantage over the PPV match, in that we get to sit right in the middle of the fans and here bigger reactions and tons of kids flipping out for every single movement. Kids changed their allegiances by the second, and it was great hearing them scream for Joe, then flip out for suplex city. I thought Joe's attacks looked really great and while he technically controlled far more of the match, I like how serious Brock's suplexes are treated; him hitting a massive overhead belly to belly and a couple Germans is enough to even the odds. But Joe looked like a guy who could genuinely stop Brock, and the two big moments here felt HUGE: Joe headbutting Brock on a suplex attempt, and him slowly breaking Brock down from a choke. Joe set up that choke like Bill Dundee used to, really turning it from a lariat into a choke. And each step of it felt like a big deal. Brock fading, dropping onto a knee...and then Joe finally sinking in the hooks, that felt like a massive deal. The finish did seem sudden and I was hoping Joe would somehow get a foot under the ropes or something, but I love house shows and this was a quality slab of house show man event.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST