2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Owens v. McMahon

78. Shane McMahon v. Kevin Owens WWE Hell in a Cell 10/8

ER: I am unashamed to admit that I completely loved this match. Shane jumps Owens and starts throwing those McMahon brand potato punches (I could totally see a poorly designed WWE shirt with cartoon potatoes that says McMahon Brand Potatoes and then the back says something stupid like "Want Fries With That!?") where 60% of them miss completely and the other 40% all land on the most annoying places possible. Shane is the blind squirrel accidentally finding Owens' ear and nose bridge. I am now over the moon as Shane sweeps the leg and then does a cartwheel kick!! Holy lord this rules. Shane dropkicks the cage door into Owens and Owens boots him off the apron, with Shane taking a big no look bump backwards into the cage. Match still rules. Shane eats a senton and cannonball, then Owens swantons right into Shane's knees. Shane sells the knee convincingly afterwards, then punches Owens in the ear a few times. Shane's face keeps getting redder, and then he misses a shooting star press! And then Owens hits a full force frog splash! OMG Shame MMAcMahon grabs a triangle off a pop up powerbomb, then grabs it again from the apron leading to him getting powerbombed onto the steps. People are shitting on this match but it feels like a total miracle match to me. Owens misses a cannonball off the apron through a table with aplomb. This still rules. Shane gets DDT'd hard on the entrance ramp, and it was the least flashy spot so far but looked great. You knew they were going up to the top of the cage, because McMahon wants to make his father proud or something? And the Russian leg sweep on top probably won't get talked about after the show, but you know they both smacked the back of their heads on the support beam part of the cage. They're doing a lot of stuff up on the cage, and I keep waiting for a giant hole to get torn through as they both die on their way down. I likely would have rolled an ankle taking my first step onto the top of the cage. I dug all the teasing around getting thrown off the cage, and Shane's kicks to the ribs while climbing down were sharp. Owens takes a big bump off the cage and yeah, you know Shane's gonna do something stupid now. And my god that was crazy. And Zayn saved Owens!! Holy cow the timing of that was amazing, with Zayn grabbing Owens' hand as Shane came violently crashing - HARD - through that table. That did not look like a classic Shane crash pad landing. That looked like a Parkour Fail video. And weirdly this doesn't totally feel like Zayn turning heel, it feels like Zayn pushing slightly towards heel and Owens getting pulled slightly towards face. This match FAR exceeded any kind of expectation I had for it. I'm kind of stunned how much I loved it. Really.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as Eric obviously, although I will admit it had it's moments. I always hated the McMahon nonsense in the WWE, and now that the country is basically ruled by the McMahon family it is even harder to watch. Shane as large adult son desperate to prove his manhood to his abusive lunatic of a father isn't funny anymore. Shane falls off a cage, Don Jr. retweets Nazi's, it's all the same toxic soup. The spots in this were undoubtedly nuts and I can imagine watching it live would be even better, because there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't die. Not only did it look like the roof of the cage might fall in, or one of the stunts might go wrong, but Shane looked like he might stroke out at any point. Owens was pretty good as a psychopath, he has been mired in crap for so long I had forgotten he could be semi effective. Shane's kids smirking through the match kind of hurt the whole "die for his family" shtick. Finish was great, the dive was truly lunatic, and I liked how they filmed the save.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST