WWE Night of Champions Live Blog

We figured we would give this another shot.

ER: I skimmed through the pre-show as it said on the heading there would be an "exclusive match". Unless it was 90 seconds long, I didn't see one. What I did get to see was Alex Riley talking about an abdominal hernia, Goldust with cool new facepaint, and Randy Orton making a 15+ year old South Park reference. Also, when they were showing highlights of Mark Henry rallying America, Alex Riley said "Now THAT was a solid American rally!" I hate watching preview shows for actual sports, not sure why having a show with Alex Riley is necessary with 5 hours of weekly TV already acting as a PPV preview show.

ER: Tag title match is up first, and they show photos of past tag champs, showing the Blackjacks, Hart Foundation, Legion of Doom, Edge & Christian and…Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson?! They picked 5 tag teams to show, not sure how Atlas/Rocky made the cut. I guess they didn't have a good enough file photo of Bull Buchanan & The Godfather.

1. Goldust/Stardust beat the Usos

PAS: Man this was a great match. I have talked ad nauseum about how great Goldust is as a face in peril, but he is really great as an Arn Anderson heel working over a face in peril. Just nasty, I liked weirdo heel Stardust too, that glove slap spot was odd but worked with what they were doing. They had some neat counter spots, like Cody turning a Samoan drop into a neckbreaker and Dustin ducking one enzigiri and getting caught with a second. We had a great DGWWE crazy spot run finish and a great ending. Really looking forward to the rematch and whatever other face teams the Rhodes boys wrestle.

ER: Seriously Goldust's makeup is killer here. He also continues his 5 year streak of managing to look in better and better shape. The Dust Bros. have been one of my absolute favorite teams in WWE history, and the Usos are up there too. It's weird what happens when you let guys team for a long time. And this match was killer, a WWE tag match that finally lives up to the hype of all the really good ones earlier this year. Goldust is probably the most versatile guy in the company as he's easily the best FIP, but he's also an incredible aggressor. Here he adds an extra wrinkle by being the guy waiting to ambush an Uso when Stardust's eccentricity allows the Usos an opening. Jimmy hits Cody with a press off the barrier, Goldust is there with a nasty powerslam on the floor. Cody's squirrely goofball is a good thing for his ring work as it adds an intensity that wasn't there before. Him stomping an Uso while holding him by the puka shells was something that wouldn't happen before. Usos are real good FIP and their comeback uppercuts looked as good as ever, also really loved the connecting enziguiri on Goldust (after he ducked the first attempt) that led to the hot tag. I loved Stardust's cool neckbreaker out of a Samoan Drop. This was just a hot tag match, right up there with all the best ones from WWE this year.

2. Sheamus beat Cesaro to retain the US Title

PAS: That was as nasty as you would hope it would be. Really felt like a modern version of a Valentine v. Garvin match, with both guys just unloading with shots 1/3 harder then anyone else in this fed (except maybe Lesnar, we will see). Started out with some pretty gritty amateur wrestling and it kept building and building until it finished with the nastiest version of a New Japan slap finish, Okada and Tanahashi need to watch the end of this match on a loop.

ER: Opening standing and mat scrambles remind me of recent Thatcher/Gulak stuff, which is appropriate as those guys always remind me of Cesaro. Feels like Sheamus is a guy who should get pimped more as a top shelf guy. Maybe people are put off by his goofy promos? I think he's doing a fine job of replacing the Irish asskicker hole in my heart that Finlay's retirement left. Sheamus doing a drop toe hold, with Cesaro fighting it and Sheamus finally dragging him down by yanking on his arm was beautiful. These guys mesh so well together and neither has a problem laying in nasty shots. Both guys take turns seeing who can do a nastier kneedrop to the others' temple. I loved Sheamus getting flashy and "skinning the cat" to pull himself up to the top rope, but because of it not going smoothly it allowed Cesaro to immediately catch him with a big time uppercut. Phil made a WWEDG reference up above, made even more apt with Sheamus breaking out CIMA's Iconoclasm on Cesaro. SHIMUS? Finishing run of this is awesome, with both guys tossing each other around in cool feat of strength ways. Cesaro deadlifting a butterfly suplex and doing a weird fireman's carry slam made me rewind. God Cesaro has a great thrust kick and then follows that up with cool punches that he hardly ever uses. Sheamus pulling out the counter Brogue Kick was a fitting end as it was nowhere close to a decisive victory, so should hopefully lead to more of these two. Great match.

ER: Backstage Big Show pumps Henry up by telling him that 318 million Americans are Henry's tag partner tonight. Really though, there's a LOT of dead weight on that team.

3. The Miz beat Dolph Ziggler for the IC Title

PAS: Not bad for two guys I don’t care about and was stuck as a background to shilling that country act.  Actually built to a fun finish run, with the figure four being put over pretty hard,  I liked Ziggler selling the knee as part of the famasser. Full Worldwide point.

ER: Florida Georgia Line on commentary for the whole match makes me even less excited for this one. I'm a Ziggler fan but Miz is almost always FF time for me. I liked Ziggler in this, loved his rapid fire elbow drops. One of the guys in FGL has Beavis's hair. I'm sure Phil right now is talking about disliking Ziggler (note: I was totally right), but Ziggler is one of the athletic bumper type guys that Phil always dislikes, but usually likes something new he does in every match. Will they or won't they, right? The match did about as good as possible at using the seconds and FGL, and I really liked Ziggler putting over the Figure 4 as an actual damaging submission. That thing has been raked through the muck so much over the years that it was refreshing to see. Fun match that didn't overstay its welcome.

Reigns had emergency hernia surgery so the Rollins/Reigns match is off

4. Seth Rollins "beat" Roman Reigns by count out

PAS: Seth Rollins and Ambrose brawl was a nice piece of pro wrestling. I think everyone knew Ambrose was coming out, but no one does out of control nutcase as good as anyone. I loved his plancha on Jamie Knoble and Finlay, and I liked him being dragged out of the ring. Excited to see that match up again.

ER: I loved the camera showing Ambrose journey from backstage to ring. Actually felt like something they don't do that much anymore. Rollins flies over the top from a giant Ambrose clothesline and then gets tossed like a nut over the barrier. Ambrose does the best "through the crowd" brawls since Jimmy Jacobs or Necro Butcher. Ambrose cannonballed into a sea of agents like Gary Busey jumping into the pool in Point Break. God Ambrose would have been a perfect cast member of Point Break. I need a Point Break sequel with Ambrose as Bodhi Jr. You know Bodhi had to have tons of illegitimate children scattered around Santa Monica.

ER: Before the next match Lilian Garcia sings the National Anthem and Henry wells up with tears. I loved Henry's facials during the anthem, putting the song over more than any black man since Marvin Gaye at the All Star Game. Wrestling always seems to use the Anthem as a cheap pop but here it was fitting and Henry made it a legit powerful moment.

5. Rusev beat Mark Henry

PAS: I liked how this was worked at a slower pace then the earlier match, as it was built on stiffness and selling. Henry is great conveying emotion and selling. I loved the struggle when he finally got the worlds strongest slam up, and I liked how that was the last gasp Henry had in him. I feel bad because they built this up as a huge moment for Henry and had him fail. I am emotionally involved in Henry and I felt real disappointment.

ER: I liked this match but it was the first match of the night to fall below my expectations. Still, it was paced smartly and Henry was able to show how great he is at selling. I was very surprised they put Rusev this strongly over Henry, as he got to overpower and break him down. Rusev's superkick really looks great with the extra pump he puts into it, and I loved the one thrown at a hurt Henry while he was draped over the ropes. Henry's screams as Rusev locked on The Accolade were shockingly real. Henry's emotions in all this were incredible. I really hope they continue with this feud as I think it's good for both.

6. Randy Orton beat Chris Jericho

PAS: I have to give these guys credit for really trying their hardest to have a classic. Jericho was blistering Orton with chops, taking crazy bumps and working some really nifty counters and near falls.  That over the top bump was truly nuts for an old guy.  I am utterly indifferent to both guys, and they actually got me into it at the end.

ER: Man I wish there was a way to watch matches on the Network in double speed. Jericho looked good though, some of his chops were aimed at the throat, like Benoit used to do in matches against Regal. Jericho taking a crazy bump over the top past the turnbuckle got my attention. Michael Cole is the least convincing Diet Mountain Dew pitchman ever. I'm pretty sure the only people who buy Diet Mountain Dew are dads who bought it because they meant to buy regular Mountain Dew, the same accidental purchase market that allows Cheese Nips to exist. Jericho follows up his nutty earlier bump with a nice bump to the floor after Orton kicked him off a Walls attempt. Match overall was better than I expected and Jericho really busted ass. Orton is such a flatline for me though.

ER: Brie Bella is one of the worst stick workers in company history. Really lends creedence to a lot of Total Divas conversations being unscripted, as she actually sounds like she's having a real conversation most of the time on TD. But whenever she does a promo on TV she sounds like an alien trying its best to blend into American society.

7. AJ beat Paige & Nikki Bella for the Divas title

PAS: This is the night of everything exceeding expectations (except for Henry v. Rusev.) I have no reason to want to watch a longish Divas three ways, but this was pretty stiff and relatively entertaining. I liked Paige yelling "Why don't you love me" while headbutting her. I don't know the angle but Paige sort of got me into it in ring. Nikki Bella was sort of useless, but I might not fast forward through the Paige v. Lee rematch.

ER: I dug Nikki in this. She was probably useless as an addition to the match, but I didn't think her work within the match was useless. She cut real low on clotheslines, talks shit within matches more naturally than 90% of WWE workers (who usually work their matches silently) and had a couple cool slams (really liked her trapped arm forward slam). I'm actually amused by the AJ/Paige interplay, the weird not-totally-explained dynamic. I actually sorta kinda like Divas matches, which always leads me to telling Phil about them, and him telling me he won't watch them. So I'm glad he had to watch one here.

PAS: I really liked the stats intro for the Brock v. Cena match. The MMA stuff doesn't work for most match (it would be silly for something like Jericho v. Orton) but it works here.

ER: WWE seems to actually know when to smartly use stats breakdowns to hype matches, which is directly offset by the constant ear poison of their relentless Twitter stats and odd Facebook "like" brags (WWE has more likes than the U.S. Air Force!). But I dug the numbers breakdown here, and I love when they use the numbers to hype the Royal Rumble every year.

8. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title

PAS: I thought the first match this year was more of a spectacle then a great match, the rematch was more of an awesome wrestling match, with Cena learning from his mistakes and firing back with some really nasty looking potato punches and elbows. I also liked how Lesnar kept mixing in the Kimura.  I liked Cena totally unloading his entire arsenal on Lesnar, and I would have bought that being the finish. Really didn't like the Rollins run in, there had to be a better way to set up the third match.

ER: First match kind of left me a little speechless. I had no real way to analyze it. How many other times has a huge star taken that much of a beating without getting any real shine? So I was real excited for the follow up and I thought they delivered big time. I LOVE Cena getting German'd by Lesnar. I could watch that all day. Cena takes them impossibly great, like Inoki getting tossed by Vader. All of Cena's comebacks here were (I assume intentionally, though never picked up by the crack commentary team) based on Lesnar's past MMA weaknesses: Cena picking his ankle had echoes of Mir grabbing him, Cena overwhelming him with stiff punches and elbows was like Cain Velasquez completely overwhelming him with strikes. Cena's strikes here were really rough, especially his awesome back elbows (Rachel watching with me said "It looks like Cena's trying to hit Brock for real" which made Lesnar getting up with a bloody nose even cooler). The kimura reversals were great, and damn Lesnar holding Cena vertically in a kimura looked brutal, and I love Lesnar kicking out of Cena's AA's on the one count. I actually wasn't expecting a run-in, and I hope they don't do something silly like build a 3 way. But I did like the way Rollins stuff was handled even if it left the match really flat.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

19. Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro/Jack Swagger WWE Raw 3/24

PAS: Such a fun tag match. Real Americans went on quite a run in the waning days of their team. They developed a real good violent set of working over the face offense and Ambrose and Rollins were pretty remarkably good at standard babyface tag wrestling. We have an extended Ambrose face in peril, and damn is he great for I guy I had never seen work babyface before. His facial selling is great at conveying desperation and his Roddy Piper style hulk up when Cesaro was slapping him, and the Nigel lariat looked awesome here leading to the tag. Rollins hot tag was great, he comes in with such ferocity, flying all over the ring and to the floor, his dives never look set up he just flings himself recklessly. Really got me excited to see what the Shield does as a face act, they should never break them up.

ER: Another really fun match for these guys to put in their back pocket. It's really a testament to them as workers that no matter how many times all these WWE tag teams match up, all the match-ups still seem pretty fresh. That's not an easy thing to do when you're giving away long free matches on TV multiple times a week. Again, give any combo of these guys 12 minutes, sit back, mark out. Swagger has always seemed like the weak link in these matches, but you can tell the more they worked together in longer matches the more he figured out how to best integrate himself in the match. It's tough having a power wrestler gimmick when you're teaming with the guy with the most freakish power in the company. So Swagger has adapted with a cool stash of flapjacks and neat alley oops. I love the alley oop into Cesaro double stomp, sad we won't get that any longer. I loved how Cesaro and Swagger's team offense synced up and complemented the other. Cesaro does his epic flapjack uppercut, Swagger does his flapjack into an ankle lock. Rollins' hot tags have been making me rethink my "Goldust is best hot tag in the world" stance as he always kills it on the hot tags. Him adding in his double dive as a regular spot is great, as it's a regular spot but he only has done it when it actually fits organically into the match (i.e. two opponents don't just each roll out to opposite sides of the ring and wait for him to hit each dive). The way he does the dives always feels like him capializing on a situation. Hits a dive, sees the other guy outside, runs back in and nails him with a dive. The WWEDG tag team renaissance is so damn great.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

10. Real Americans vs. Rhodes Brothers WWE Main Event 3/19

PAS: Another absolute gem of a tag match. I loved the opening section with Goldust and Swagger, blindingly fast stuff. 44 year old 6'6 Dustin Rhodes is moving as fast as a 22 year old CMLL tecnico, the opening section felt like a first caida lucha exchange. We get a pair of great face in perils, I loved how Cody set up the disaster kick for the hot tag, and Goldust is a true master at timing near tags and big tags. If we didn't have the Rhodes Brothers, Wyatts and Sheild we would be talking about what a great run the Real Americans are having, I love how they have worked out their double teams, the big bumps they take and how Cesaro throws in fun twists in every match. I am a southern tag fan, and this had all of the halmarks of that style with crazy amped up offense. So good

ER: Awesome stuff. Just give these guys 10 minutes and color me happy. Love the way Rhodes Bros. work with each other, with not really double teams, but tons of moves that complement the others' offense. Goldust was on fire here, making everything look too easy. His powerslam, rolling senton, back elbow from the middle rope, etc. all look so great. It's like the perfect set of offense. Cody had a really great match here too. His hot tag clotheslines on Swagger were some of his best. I loved him hitting the Disaster Kick early, and then Swagger catching it late. His moonsault press was a nice false finish as well. These guys get me to buy into more false finishes than anybody. Loved the ankle lock and Cody rolling over and brutally kicking at Swagger's arm to get him to let go. I thought for sure Cody would tap and the cut to Cesaro pulling the rope farther away was nice. Again, 10 minutes of these guys, it's as good a sure thing as any.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

12. Antonio Cesaro v. Daniel Bryan v. Christian v. John Cena v. Sheamus v. Randy Orton WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23

ER: The Chamber match has been my favorite yearly gimmick match for some time now. I love all the nasty bumps on the grating, I love the "guy gets thrown through pod" spots, I love how bruised all the participants are the next night on Raw. They always feel a different sort of violent compared to other WWE matches. Cesaro and Sheamus was a great choice to start, with their work in the Christian/Sheamus/Real Americans tag being what put that match over. They match up nicely. Sheamus doesn't seem like a guy that people talk about being really good, but he is really, really good. He always surprises me with cool new things. My favorite here was him slumped in the corner and kicking out Cesaro's knee as he approached, with Cesaro dropping down hard to his other knee. Sheamus and Cesaro were the best guys in this. Cesaro's strength spots are tailor made for a match like this, where you get to see him powerbomb Christian into a pod and toss Bryan and Cena with one suplex. Sheamus gets the spot of the match by Brogue Kicking through Orton's pod to get to him (while the crowd chanted "pussy" at Orton. Don't think I've heard that before...). Everybody's personality slotted nicely into this match, with Orton's time kept to a minimum while he taunted the crowd, Christian getting to be sneakily overlooked, Bryan getting tons of big spots to make the crowd go nuts (him catching Orton with the running knee was a big spot, since they'd shown him winning on TV numerous times with that move in recent weeks) and him getting to kick out of the RKO was huge. Some nitpicks aside, like Cesaro tapping super quick to the STF, this was a great, violent match that never lagged or felt stale. I also think it aged well as I liked it even more on rewatch.  Tough match for me to properly rank.

PAS: This is a match type I never get super excited for, but always really enjoy. We were missing Rey who is the maestro of the Elimination Chamber, but otherwise we had a damn good group of dudes. I am not sure why they have run 50 Sheamus v. Christian matches lately as the Sheamus v. Cesaro match up is one of my favorite match ups right now. Sheamus can get a bit repetitive but Cesaro seems to force him out of his comfort zone. Really liked Christian as he got to do all of the athletic spots which Rey normally does. His top of the pod dive was really nuts because he doesn't have the smoothness of other guys who have done that spot and it looked really out of control and nuts. The booking finish was pretty bad though, I suppose they were in a spot if they weren't going to give the belt to Bryan (which they shouldn't have, no reason for him to get it in a fluky multi man match like this before Wrestlemania) but the run ins have been so overdone, that it just killed the match dead. Still the vast majority of this was great, I can't in good conscious put it above matches with satisfying endings

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Daniel Bryan vs. Antonio Cesaro WWE 2/18

ER: I have seen a Cesaro/Bryan work-a-body-part match live before (we were there for the infamous PWG headlock match some 8 years ago). The headlock match felt the whole time like a gimmick, like they set out to do something like The 5 Obstructions but within a pro wrestling ring and unsuspecting crowd instead of within experimental Danish cinema. This match is far more gripping than that match, with Cesaro taking advantage of Bryan's injured shoulder/arm, and the fact Bryan had just wrestled Swagger. Cesaro had a bunch of amazing arm stuff, just yanking on it, kicking it into the ringpost, slamming it onto the mat, double stomping it, even doing a Cattle Branding onto it! God that looked great. The Giant Swing looked epic on Bryan since he's one of the only guys in the company with long hair and the long air flying wild looks awesome while he's getting swung around. Bryan gets insane height off the flapjack uppercut. Cesaro's punches and uppercuts are so perfect during all of this. He charges at Bryan with a running uppercut and then dishes great body blows. His charging uppercut may be my absolute favorite strike of his. It really looks like he's throwing his whole body into that swing. Bryan gets an awesome comeback when he charges out with a flash flying knee, which was a nice callback to the Swagger match that had just happened (and won Bryan the match). As the match goes on I start realizing that the match can't really end clean, considering both participants, so of course Kane runs in for the DQ. Even though the DQ was logical in story, it was still a bummer as this was shaping up to be my favorite match of the year. But this was still 10 minutes of great ass beating by Cesaro, with Bryan selling the shoulder and making me believe the whole time. Awesome stuff that would have vaulted way higher with even a decent finish.

PAS; Yeah this was almost a completely awesome match, but only almost. I am not as in love with work the body part matches, as some of my peers. It is a cool way to tell a story, but sometimes almost feels reductive. Like the only thing that matters is working a knee and selling a knee (or a shoulder in this case), still these are a pair of guys who can work a reductive match really well. We have only gotten teased of these guys in the WWE but man alive when it gets to be a RAW main event or a PPV match it is going to blow the roof off. This was a tease of that, like a lightning match in CMLL and the ending was really deflating, but everything in the body was A+


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

2. Antonio Cesaro vs. John Cena WWE Raw 2/17

ER: Okay, so show of hands, how many people expected there to be this many awesome WWE matches 6 or 7 weeks into the year? Yeah, I expected to have about 3 at this point. As it stands, there have been some that would have easily made it in a slower year, but with Raw and Smackdown featuring a lot of high end work every single episode we had to start getting more selective. Shoot, I really liked/loved upwards of 11 TV matches in just the last week! It's getting out of control.

And here we go with another awesome one. This match was just so damn cool and unique. It already felt like a fresh match-up from the bell, and things were going cool...and then Cesaro caught Cena during a leapfrog and turned it into an overhead tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. That's when things started getting great and never looked back. That was like the ultimate "Rick Steiner catches a leaping opponent" spot. Cena is enormous, and Cesaro caught him and muscled him around his shoulders like nothing. I thought that spot was incredible, and then Cena had to go and reverse the giant swing by floating his body up to deliver a DDT. I rewound it too many times, still can't figure out how it was possible. Here's a giant man, who rises from the Giant Swing like fucking Nosferatu from the casket, and just plants Cesaro. Everything about it looked like it completely defied gravity. Completely like nothing else I've ever seen. Cena is always really great in matches where the opponent has good offense, as Cena has always bumped and taken offense incredibly. I loved him bumping to the floor from the top rope off a Cesaro uppercut, and getting unreal height off Cesaro's flapjack into uppercut. Cesaro may have the most freakish wrestling strength I've seen since Backlund. Suplexing Cena from apron to inside the ring when he was at a complete leverage disadvantage was jaw-dropping. Him doing a Giant Swing in DENVER of all places to a man larger than him, and then not even seeming gassed afterwards was incredible. I am a rube and the longer the match went on the more I thought Cesaro had a chance to win, and the crowd felt it too (you can tell the crowds are going insane for all these new match-up main events, and I'm right there with them). The finishing run was beautiful, with Cesaro flipping out of the AA to hit a yakuza kick, then wanting more and getting leveled with a lariat. Cena Oklahoma rolling him into the AA was so damn cool. There was so much in this match that I've never seen before, such a unique clash of abilities and neat strength spots. I loved it (though man I really wanted it to end on that lariat).

PAS: I loved how the announcers kept putting over the similarities of both guys. One of my favorite things about Cena is all of the cool ways he demonstrates his nutty strength and Cesaro is like an even crazier version of that. Eric mentioned a bunch of the specific spots, and they all ruled, I really can't remember ever seeing a match like this before, where you have a match filled with feats of strength highspots. Your strongman wrestlers when we were all growing up, never did a ton of things to demonstrate that strength, outside of a knuckle lock or a press slam. When Dino Bravo faced Hercules they weren't rolling through while carrying full bodyweight, or doing outside in deadlift superplexes. These guys would make an amazing new age Steiners tag team, and they are an incredible pair of dance partners. This really felt like the first example of a classic rivalry, hopefully they just pair off and we get a handful of PPV matches, some great Euro tour handhelds, some more three segment RAW matches, a match which not only did I love on my own, but a match which got me amped for the future.


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

4. Sheamus/Christian vs. Real Americans WWE Raw 2/10

PAS: Man WWE TV has been on fire lately, the Wyatt trios on this same show just missed the cut and this was a damn out of nowhere classic. It starts out good with some fun Christian and Cesaro mat work and then just goes into overdrive as Sheamus and Cesaro just start waling on each other, it's like a WAR match broke out in the middle of random TV tag, after that everyone stepped up their game a ton. Christian was a great face in peril, and the Real American's have developed some cool double teams, and then we get a WWEDG finish which was super, loved Christians DDT off the apron, and that finishing kick was tooth loosening. It's like Kip Frye is handing out bonuses backstage or something

ER: I don't really consider myself much of a WWE mark, but whatever they're doing matchwise right now is working pretty great. I used to be able to DVR an episode of Raw and blow through it in about 30 minutes. There have been stretches over the last couple years where a couple months go by without me really digging a match on Raw. And here we are in 2014 and it's become a must-watch show (well, I still fast forward like hell during most of the angles, Orton promos, HHH/Steph scissor sessions, etc.). I'm not sure when it happened but WWE Dragons Gate is the most fun thing possible for me right now. For years a complaint about WWE is that the matches could be too slow or plodding. Well, that talking point is pretty much dead and buried as now WWE is about as go-go-go as humanly possible for guys this size. The tag and trios format is really perfect for this style as you get to avoid a bunch of awful kickouts and keep the action constantly fresh with tag outs instead of rest holds. It's like the best kind of NOAH trios or yes, WAR tags. Match was fun for a couple minutes and then took off and never looked back once Cesaro and Sheamus started trading uppercuts and Cesaro overpowered him with dual left/right uppercuts like some sort of demon Punch-Out! character. Once we go into 5 minutes of Cesaro/Swagger double teams and set-ups I was losing it. The Cesaro double stomp followed by scream into camera, Christian's right hand sucker punch on Swagger on the apron, Cesaro's flapjack uppercut on Christian (Christian always gets crazy height on that kind of stuff), Cesaro leaping out of nowhere with a forearm to stop Sheamus dead in his tracks in the corner, the tornado DDT to the floor, Sheamus' big bump to the floor with Dutch getting in his face. When this match was over I rewound it and watched it all over again. Also, big props to Ryback, Axel, Swagger, Ambrose, really everybody over the last few weeks who are having a weird competition to see who can be first to get their nose pushed into their brain by the Brogue Kick. Everybody has been leaning hard into some stiff shots this year, as if they haven't been shown in HD for a few years now.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

2. Goldust/Cody Rhodes vs. Antonio Cesaro/Jack Swagger WWE Raw 1/6/14

ER: So it's been no secret the last few months that week in, week out the most consistently great thing about Raw/Smackdown has been Goldust performances in tag matches. This match is another awesome tag sprint on what's now a pretty impressive list for the Rhodes Brothers. Obviously the other participants are no slouches as Cesaro has been one of the best in the world over the last year, but these tags are all about the Goldust show. When he's in he's arguably the most electric performer in the world. When he's on the apron I find myself watching him and waiting for him to either tag in or just bask in his apron work. The match is a hot 10 minutes with a couple great nearfalls (WWE spent so many years having guys use a roll up as a finish that it's now one of the more believable nearfall tricks they can pull on me) including Cesaro leaping in from the floor with a glorious battering ram headbutt to break up a pin. Great callback spot with Goldust taking a mammoth yakuza kick that sends him spilling off the apron, climaxing with Dust roaring back in to save Cody a couple minutes later with a bigger yakuza kick. The Goldust swinging rana off the top is probably the coolest move a wrestler has added to his arsenal past the age of 40. Cesaro is such a great catcher that it's no shock it was Dust's best rana since adding the move. Expect more Rhodes Bros. tags to show up on our list as the year goes on, as Dustin hot tags are pretty much the most exciting thing in wrestling for me right now.

PAS: Yeah this was really fun. If they keep the team together I could see this list as 60% Rhodes brothers tags, as they have a really fun group of heel teams to work against, always seem to get enough time and are maybe the best working babyface tag team since the Rock and Roll Express. I am going to write ad infinitum about how awesome Goldust is, but I really think Cody is the most improved wrestler in the world. He has a set of impressive offensive moves which he has different ways of executing, takes big bumps and sells great. Honestly the coolest spot in the match was Cody freaking out and trying ten different counters before Goldust ran in with that awesome Yakuza kick.

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One November Spawned a Monster, In the Name of William Regal Who Later Cried

William Regal v. Antonio Cesaro NXT 11/21/13 - EPIC

PAS: It is pretty neat that Regal is given this forum to have one or two classic matches a year. I would love to see him get a more regular role, but it feels like this gives him a ton of artistic freedom which he wouldn't have on RAW or PPV. I thought this was structured early like the Regal v. Beniot match from the Pillman memorial as they pretty much stuck to the middle of the ring. Very nice grappling with Regal still looking like a master. Cesaro is really great at doing spots which showcase his strength and the lifting snap mare was awesome, as was the standing stretch plum.  I really dug the uppercut exchange too, with the big Cesearo uppercut being a really believable KO move, Regal is one of the best knocked loopy sellers in wrestling history. The dramatic melencholy regret finish was a little hokey, but was better without the hammy overacting Michaels or Helmsley brings to the spot.  Just excellent stuff lived up to its on paper promise, and it promised a lot.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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