WWE Survivor Series 2017 Live Blog

"We were all picked essentially at random to be on the brand that we're on, and nobody talks about brand loyalty except for one month out of the year...but tonight, that brand loyalty MEANS SOMETHING for reasons."

1. Elias vs. Matt Hardy

ER: It's so strange to be running a match when the arena is maybe 20% full, feels like those opening card UFC fights where you're hearing individual voices from the crowd and everything is echoing. I think Matt Hardy matches that leave him to sell a specific limb almost always deliver, so I like Elias going after the arm, running the shoulder into the buckle, and breaking out an awesome leaping kneedrop to the arm. The crowd is sparse, but quietly getting into a Hardy comeback, and Elias' double underhook shoulderbreaker is pretty cool, but probably should have been treated as a bigger deal. This never really hits a new level, though. Hardy gets a comeback with the side effect on the apron, but Hardy is moving really slowly these days so even his comeback doesn't feel very exciting. I still like his injury selling, and he takes the post shot great, snaps over on Elias' fishermans suplex neckbrearker, but this was mostly an extended Elias squash.

2. Kalisto vs. Enzo Amore

ER: Crowd is still slowly filling in but my are they silent for this one. Enzo is at least good for a couple dumb bumps a match, and he really whips the back of his head into the mat on that code red, and Kalisto hits a cool rolling death valley driver that I don't think I've seen. Enzo's offense looks pretty bad, that falling boot offense almost always looks dumb. Kalisto gets yanked into the buckle really nicely, but this was nothing to blog home about.

3. Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens vs. Breezango

ER: I don't follow the backstage news as much anymore, but I heard something about Owens and Zayn getting sent home from a tour, and here they are opposite Breezango on a pre-show. And the two of them really lock in those chinlocks. Breeze this rows a nice back elbow but he's mostly in there building to Fandango's hot tag, and his hot tag is good! I liked Fandango's hot jabs and his run up the buckles tornado DDT was nice. Owens finishes with a real nasty pop up powerbomb. He really planted Fandango with it. But this match also wasn't much.

4. The New Day vs. The Shield

ER: This is nuts to see the reunited Shield opening up the PPV, but it's cool to officially open things up with something big. Hey those halfsie Raw/Shield shirts look bad. And I'm into this, as I should be, because these teams should match up well. Kingston's offense looks all flimsy, but we build to Big E's big spear to the floor which always looks the greatest. Ambrose tags in Rollins with the most hilarious fake Ricky Morton hot tag ever, because he "leaps" to tag him, but he's literally standing right next to him. It had to be done to be silly. I think. Thankfully the rebound lariat gets reversed by a huge Big E tilt-a-whirl slam. The New Day stacked splash in the corner is a little silly, but then they shut my mouth by doing a truly silly leaping double DDT with Rollins and Ambrose stacked onto E's shoulders. This whole thing was pretty underwhelming. Roman's spear to Kingston looked nice, but the triple powerbomb somehow looked weaker than Owens' bomb on Fandango.

5. Becky Lynch/Carmella/Natalya/Tamina/Naomi vs. Alicia Fox/Bayley/Sasha Banks/Nia Jax/Asuka

ER: Not enough attention was paid to Lana's awesome Smackdown cocktail dress. Raw team really should run the boards, meaning instead they will just have Tamina eliminate everybody. Tamina has been on the roster for EIGHT YEARS!! She is still really really terrible at pro wrestling. The internet will be furious at the early Lynch elimination. And man they are really actually spending way too much time on Tamina. She is the clear #10 on the totem pole in that ring, and somehow she is being treated as the big star here. It's terrible. I don't so much care about her eliminating Bayley, they've already done the damage to Bayley. But having her treated as as big or bigger star than Nia, and man does Tamina throw some of the absolute worst headbutts I've seen. Tamina has a terrible look, and is really bad at wrestling, and you no longer owe anything to her father. Let the Tamina push DIE. Crowd gets lit up every time Asuka tags in, and her stuff against Carmella looks awesome. That flying hip attack looked near decapitation level. We really have Tamina sitting in the final 4. What have you done. Who wanted this. Sasha is really great at putting over Natalya's stuff, leaning into the 360 lariat and snapping her neck back getting run into the buckles. Boy we are really getting some Tamina Time. Asuka gets the final two eliminations, but man I am confused by sudden big deal in 2017 Tamina. A lot of this was handled pretty poorly. Even the final 2 on 1 was silly, because there wasn't any kind of attempt at a save. They just kind of let Asuka get the pins. This was bad.

6. The Miz vs. Baron Corbin

ER: Miz goes after Corbin's knee and I like how they handle it. Though I was really surprised that they basically had Miz wrecking Corbin the whole match, and had Dallas and Axel at ringside...but Corbin basically took a bunch of damage and then hit his loopy finisher on him to get the win. I have friends over so maybe I missed some of the nuances of this match, but it really felt like Miz worked really hard in this one to wind up with that finish.

7. Sheamus/Cesaro vs. The Usos

ER: The brand vs. brand has been kind of weird as we have a lot of heel champs right now, so we're getting a lot of heel on heel action, so the crowd is just picking guys as default faces. Which I guess is fine. The work in this is both really good, and also not really captivating. They're all doing good looking moves, they just aren't building in a very interesting way. The end run is really fun, but even then it felt like a sudden call to go home. But these guys are all total pros and hit their stuff really well, and they all have cool stuff to hit. The final Uso hot tag is great, with one of them tagging his brother while doing a running no hands dive over the top and into Cesaro. That's awesome.

8. Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: Really liked when this broke open with Alexa whipping Charlotte's shoulder into the floor off the apron. Her abdominal stretch was really great too, digging in her elbow into Charlotte's exposed sides, scratching at her. I love how tenacious Bliss is, loved that guillotine choke build. And both of them going after the other's lower jaw was awesome, just grabbing at jawbone to get to a standing position. Bliss eats knees spectacularly on her twisting moonsault, but leans way out of Charlotte's follow up yakuza kick. This was a fun one, probably the best match on the show so far.

9. AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar

ER: I'm not sure how well this will go for Styles fans, but I'm curious how they'll work this one. And as many of us assumed, this is an absolute mauling. Brock tosses AJ around like a total dead body, and AJ has some of the more spectacular German suplex bumps. AJ is flying around spectacularly, including a wild bump over the top to the floor. All of Lesnar's knees to the ribs look absolutely devastating. AJ comes back nicely and I always love Lesnar's missed knee bump in the corner. And then AJ gets probably the longest actual run of offense we've seen against Brock in probably 3 years. They flub that corner tornado DDT, but then Brock bumps around big for him, including an awesome moment where he gets run through the ring steps. AJ hits a bunch of big flying moves, and the big moment of AJ locking in the calf crusher was awesome. Lesnar was selling it great, and the size difference was completely erased in that moment. And then Lesnar just smashes AJ's head into the back of the mat a bunch, and it looks horror movie violent. Every time AJ went up for a flying move I got nervous that Brock would catch him, and sure enough, we got there. AJ takes the F5 super great, and this was really fun. I'm happy AJ did as well as he did.

10. Kurt Angle/Finn Balor/Samoa Joe/Braun Strowman/HHH vs. Shane McMahon/Randy Orton/Bobby Roode/Shinsuke Nakamura/John Cena

ER: I know we all want this to come down to HHH and Shane. I kind of want that. HHH looks really stiff...not in his strikes, but in his mobility. But I think overall this is handled pretty well, with everybody getting time to do their stuff.  But we knew where this was going, and it was awful. There were individual moments I liked, but as a whole none of it worked. When one of the things I wrote down as enjoying is "Angle grabbing an ankle lock when Cena was going to do a fistdrop", or "Shane really flew hard into the ring barrier on that dropkick"...that cool stuff is really minor compared to the blatantly awful longform storytelling once we got to Shane being the lone survivor. There was approximately 12 minutes of guys standing around silently making eye contact while breathing heavily. And thank goodness Raw has HHH on their team, so that he can outsmart venerable warrior Shane McMahon. He sacrificed Angle so he can claim the victory for RAW BRAND! Which comes with no actual reward whatsoever, other than bragging rights that not one single person actually cares about in any way. Braun barely gets any sort of comeuppance, gets to choke him down briefly, which will no doubt lead to a 25 minute WM match with a 10 minute HHH cosplay ring entrance. You knew where all of this was going, and knew it was going to be awful. It was. You could see the crowd actively not enjoying much of the last half. It never got to them chanting or singing or something stupid like that, but people just looked tired and bored and defeated. I can't really blame them.

ER: Underwhelming card. The bad stuff was bad, the elimination matches were the worst, and the good stuff was merely good. Nothing stood out as particularly great. These longer cards are almost always the pits, even the ones that look interesting on paper. The upside is that Brock/Styles exceeded expectations. That was a real high point.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

38. Shield v. The Wyatt Family WWE House Show 3/7/14

PAS: This is a house show version of my favorite match up of the year, and had a bunch of the fun elements I loved in their more high profile stuff. We started out with a cool staredown and brawl which included Rollins doing a super fast, really crazy for a house show dive. Two long face in peril segments one with Rollins and one with Ambrose, Wyatt's were a really great bully trios team, cutting off the ring violently working over someone with a mix of simple violent slams and throws and some very quick high impact stuff. Ambrose was the star of the Shield team, he was at his best during their brief run as a face trios team, he had an awesome crazy man hot tag, and followed it up with a great Terry Funkish face in peril where he keep begging the Wyatts to hit him harder. They kept Reigns on the apron until the end where he unloaded all of his cool offense in the crazy bang bang finish. Such a bummer we never really got a big blowoff to this feud, as even in this format it was some of the best stuff all year.

ER: Fun match and really it's matches like these that made me not care about going to TV tapings when WWE rolls through town, only the house shows. House shows seem to bring out more excited screaming kids, less people trying to get over with their signs. And the crowds seem hotter because there's no down time for commercials or promos. Here the crowd was hot before the bell, as a "This is Awesome" chant started while the teams were just staring each other down. I could see that kind of thing annoying me most of the time, but here I was kinda with them as in my head I was like "*squeal* a Shield/Wyatts trios I haven't seen!" so I can only imagine how much I would be flipping out live. And, sure enough, this ended up being a Shield/Wyatts trios. We do lose a lot with the fancam aspect as these are all guys who add stuff with their facial expressions, so seeing just white blurs for faces isn't as engaging, but since it means we actually get to see this match instead of never seeing it then I'll obviously take it. There's still enough high end work in here that shines through without the mugging. I thought Harper looked fantastic here. The crowd seemed to respond to him more than any of the Wyatts, and his stuff with Ambrose was great. I loved them trading blows, Ambrose getting repeatedly knocked back into the ropes. All the strikes looked great, and Ambrose is such a house show pro because you know he was teasing the rebound clothesline every single time. Harper would uppercut him, Ambrose would stagger backwards into the ropes, the whole crowd expecting the rebound...and then he ends up hitting it several minutes later when people aren't expecting it. Bray was good with the house show crowd and he even added a new little wrinkle to the crab walk, flopping to his back for a couple of beats before springing up on all fours. It looked creepy and the crowd was delighted. It's weird seeing Wyatt in brown sweatpants instead of white slacks. He looked like Mick Foley at an autograph signing. The finishing run was really hot with a couple great saves and nearfalls, and all the guys seamlessly running in one after the other and believably cutting the others off. Wish I could have seen these teams live. At least we have this.


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

The Shield v. Evolution WWE Extreme Rules 5/4

PAS: Another classic Shield big match trios. Evolution were fine as a bunch of roided up old meatheads thumping on some younger crossfit guys. It was kind of like a fistfight at a Golds gym. I really liked Batista in this, he had a couple of nice bumps, a good looking spinebuster and some fun stumbly selling, Orton was technically fine, and Helmsley has credibility. This was the Shield show though, these three guys have just mastered their face trios roles. Ambrose is great as wild firey brawler, his running double table dives wasn't an athletic marvel, but it was a great lunatic move, like when Terry Funk would do an Asai. Reigns was pretty great as a heel bully, but his has really come into his own as an electric hot tag. He has such force and athleticism in his moves, it almost feels like early 90's Scott Steiner, he just explodes out of the blocks like Russel Westbrook on a fast break. Rollins is great as the crazy risk taker, swinging for the fences and crashing and burning when he fails. His tope into the wall was Rey Hechicero crazy, and the balcony dive was awesome, real props to camera guys who kept it hidden until the moment he comes flying into the shot. I was shocked at how much I dug this, put the Shield in a big match atmosphere and they deliver against anyone.

ER: Blah blah Shield trios blah blah match of the year blah blah give them 20 minutes. I doubted this would be as good as other long Shield tags, given their opponents, but I was wrong. This was super fun and it was fun seeing Shield work as equals (or higher) with three established names. HHH, for better or worse, always brings an extra element to matches aside from ring work, as you're always wondering in the back of your head how he's gonna make guys look like they don't belong in the match. It adds a weird sense of drama that could only be created through years of being an asshole, in the same way that women suffering in Lars Von Trier films always has extra gravity because you know they had to work with Lars Von Trier. The Shield looked great as usual, and this kind of "around the arena" brawl works great for them, as once you start to think "Hey where'd Rollins go" then suddenly Rollins is dropping 15' out of the air onto everybody. They're all really good at doing their own thing and then meeting back together in perfect time. I really loved Batista here. I saw a lot of people talk about how bad he looked on his most recent run, always gassing out and working soft, but I thought he looked really good. Here he was awesome, taking a big bump off the apron and an even bigger one getting thrown into the barrier, leaning into everything and taking the Shield's dangerous offense really well. He also had a real nasty running kick with Rollins draped over the ropes (nice note to he and Reigns respective roles in their stable). Fun match, still bummed they predictably rushed a break-up.


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

The Shield v. The Wyatt Family WWE Raw 5/5

ER: Well, this is what we asked for and so far we're getting it. All of the Shield/Wyatt matches, given all of the time. We're 4 matches into their series and they keep finding cool new things to do and cool new approaches. This time we had Ambrose playing the FIP which usually goes to Rollins, but Ambrose was in a fun battle royal earlier in the evening that left him more susceptible to damage. As usual with these 6, I had a hard time deciding who my favorite was here. But damn does Rollins continue getting more star making spots, as I was initially afraid he would be buried if the group ever broke up. Here he gets to fly all over the ring and crash into both the Wyatts and Evolution with big dives. I especially liked earlier in the match when he kicked a charging Bray in the face from the apron. He also takes some major bumps, getting shoved off the top rope by Harper when attempting a springboard, spilling over the announce table, and slickly flipping out of the corner only to get immediately leveled by a Harper superkick. Even if there were no sort of storyline matches and they were just worked in a bubble, these matches would be really good just on quality of work alone. None of these guys half asses in these six mans, they all really work up to the time given them. Love these guys.

PAS: I really enjoy face Ambrose, it might be my favorite thing currently in wrestling. He has this awesome punch drunk Terry Funk selling, and he has these wild Piper style wild punches. I loved the double pulling down the ropes, to set up the hot tag. Rollins has some great hot tag spots and takes a bunch of crazy bumps. So cool to see how over and good Harper has gotten, I used to love his tag team with Necro Butcher (who would make an awesome Wyatt family member) but I never imagined him being as big a deal as he become. Reigns isn't in this much, but his one burst of offense was pretty electric, he isn't much of a singles wrestler, but he is great in trios.  This is a great match up, although not being part of a feud took some of the steam out of it, compared to the other three. I really hope we get another big run between these two teams once their feuds run their course.


2014 MASTER LIST

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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

2. The Shield v. Wyatt Family WWE Raw 3/3

ER: Holy lord. This shit was wild. "Wild" isn't really something that WWE does. They're very structured and very micro-managed, so even the wildest matches from the fed tend to have some sort of order and disconnect. But THIS. This match felt like no other WWE match I've ever seen. We start with The Shield doing dives, Rollins dropkicking dudes out of the ring, Rollins hitting a huge flip dive on Harper then sprinting back in to do one on Rowan, then getting launched sideways into the barrier by Harper. There's just so much wild reckless shit in this. People are flying around the whole time working their own angles and stories while other exchanges are happening. Again usually even wild WWE brawls are clearly structured and this one felt like the best kind of sloppy. It came off like all of those great short 80s set matches that always place really highly. It felt like it was constantly breaking down. Harper looks like a beast in this, flying all over the ring (take a manly bump into the timekeeper's pen), big booting everybody off the apron, dishing nasty clubbing strikes, hitting a dropkick that looked like it should have caved Ambrose' chest in. Love Rowan's fist-assisted head vice, and I love Ambrose escaping it by yanking HARD on Rowan's beard. As a man with a large beard, this is a daily fear of mine. Ambrose brings the Nigel rebound clothesline out of the mothballs and LEVELS Harper with it. Harper leans so damn hard into every move every match, he just might have a lumpy Takayama face under that beard by the end of the year. Wyatt hits a Mike Knox cross body (why the FUCK is Mike Knox not rehired in the Wyatt Family yet!?), and then gets planted with a nasty Ambrose DDT that he took basically vertical. Reigns hits arguably his best ever Superman punch (or maybe Harper is to thank for it...) with Harper's head whipping back while his body crumbles in front of him, like half of his momentum was going one way while Reigns knocked the other half the opposite way. Reigns spears Rowan over the announce table and both tumble wildly over it, while Harper kicks Ambrose asshole over elbow back in the ring. This whole thing was just fucking AWESOME and felt entirely unique in a WWE setting. I mean, it felt entirely unique when compared to the 2014 wrestling landscape, and I hate hate HATE that I don't get to watch these two teams feud for eternity, with new members and shifting face/heel dynamics. I still can't decide which match I liked more. The Chamber match had a cool longtime story, and this one was them pissed their own tactics worked against them and just bringing the fight to the Wyatts. My heart says this one...

PAS: I think the Chamber match was slightly better, I am going to take a match with a clean finish over something that is undergirding for an angle when all else is equal. Still this was damn close, the work was great. I love faceish Ambrose he is like a crazy ECW Terry Funk, everything he does is the right kind of intense and out of control. His Thez press looks like a guy on PCP flinging himself at a cop. I loved his bridged figure four, and Harper's double stomp to break it up was disgusting looking. Plus that rebound clothesline looked spectacular, loved when Nigel did it, love it from Ambrose. I liked the 2 on 3 dynamic of the finish, but was a bit iffy on Rollins motivation, and his acting. Felt like he hit his lines a bit hard. Still when your only complaint about a match is the vocal acting, it is pretty damn great


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

The Shield v. The Wyatt Family WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23

ER: Fans are already chanting This Is Awesome before the match even starts, and I'm kinda right there with them. I've been excited for this one for weeks. And it's fucking great. We've seen a lot of great WWEDG sprints from these teams and here they get to have a long story driven match with elements the sprints didn't really have. My favorite was Luke Harper doing Bray's dirty work. Every time Harper would go manbeast on somebody (which happened a lot), Bray would be sleazily waiting there for the tag. It was never presented as a cowardly heel taking advantage of a situation, just a guy dutifully beating ass for his boss. Also loved all the teamwork of the Shield, from their early quick tags to their later saves and trying to have each others' backs. It was all so much fun and about 10 minutes in when Rollins hits a dive we never look back. Rollins can get overshadowed in other trios, but he really got to shine here, sticking and moving against all the Wyatts, ragdolling for all the power spots (loved him being sent flying from a Rowan fallaway slam). Harper has always been a big guy I really liked, but whereas I used to think he was a fun Necro Butcher tag partner, now I think he's one of the best workers in the world. He was an absolute monster in this. His big boot is one of my favorite current spots, although that may be because I love how Ambrose and Reigns each run into it. His suicide dive was massive (of course followed by Rollins folding him in half on a flip dive). Ambrose was so great in this, always flying into frame like a dirtbag on Cops who keeps breaking free of restraint. Him saving Rollins from a double chokeslam through a table was perfect, leading to Bray tackling him into the crowd and Rollins getting blasted through a table anyway. The Reigns/Rowan power spots were killer and they actually made me dig a double clothesline spot. This was just a beautiful match in terms of hierarchy and story and just great spots.

PAS: Super impressive match and a real testament to the WWE training program, no way Husky Harris/Thoruf/Brodie Lee v. Tyler  Black/Jon Moxley/Leakee would be anywhere close to this good. I really loved how the Wyatt's out Shielded the Shield, as for over a year the Shield would win by isolating people and picking off the weak link, and here the Wyatts did it to them. It was like watch a fast break basketball team run into a team who can out run them. Man did I love Ambrose here, he always kind of had a Piper feel in promos, but here he really was wrestling like peak Piper, an out of control lunatic who was always popping off and throwing wild hands. I think the RAW singles match showed it couldn't work in big doses, but the Bray v. Roman battle of the bulls was perfectly pulled off here. It is too bad they rushed this feud a bit, I would have loved to see this a hundred different ways, really the best heel v. heel match in US wrestling history, and the rematch wasn't far behind.


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

5. Sheamus/Daniel Bryan/ Rey Mysterio v. The Shield WWE 1/28

ER: How can you pick your favorite in a match like this!? Sheamus has been bringing it since his return and here he's killer. Love his trapped arm clothesline, love him punting Reigns in the back, love his shoulderblocks, but I guess I moreso love how The Shield runs into all of those things. I love Ambrose hot tags as he always throws a whole bunch of arms legs and angles into them. He doesn't just come in with a clothesline, he comes in throwing shots to the body, headbutts, elbows, stomps, like a greasy neighbor kid practicing karate on the lawn while having no formal training. Rey of course is ridiculous as well. He and Rollins work really well together (feel kinda bad for Dolph Ziggler as Rollins is just as crazy a bumper as Ziggler but gets to do it in main events) and Rey is a natural fit for the new WWEDG style. I love Rey keeping the Halloween sliding splash bump to the floor alive. Love Rollins leaping knee drop to Rey's face, and his punches right in between Rey's shoulder blade, and taking a header straight into the turnbuckle off a Rey head scissors. Love Bryan kicking Reigns a dozen times, hitting a dive on him and then sprinting back in and across the ring to hit another dive past the turnbuckle. Love Reigns flying recklessly over the top on a bump, and reminding people how cool the Spear can look after they've seen Edge's version the last decade. These kind of matches are just too much fun, impossible to pick a favorite, and I hope it's not just something that's happening to build up to Mania or something. I can't imagine getting sick of this.

PAS: Every week for a year the Shield have been dropping gems, and we get another to end January. It was great to see Rey mixed in her with the Shield and he looked like he shaved off a decade. Whatever he has done to his knees has seemingly brought back his initial burst and prime Rey has one of the fastest first steps in wrestling. Bryan can bring the explosiveness too, and the big difference between Dragons Gate and the WWEDG is that the individual small spots are executed so much better, the punches, the kicks to the stomach all land perfectly and the highspots are being done by huge guys like Reigns, and that finish on Rey looked like he was hit by a crosstown bus. Love televised wrestling


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

5. Daniel Bryan/John Cena/Sheamus vs. The Shield WWE Raw 1/27

ER: Another good six man from The Shield. If you give those guys 20 minutes I don't really think it even matters who the other 3 guys are. The Shield just pushes all the right wrestling buttons for me. Match does start slow but picks up when Sheamus unleashes his 10 count clubbing forearms on Rollins. I love that spot, one of the cooler crowd interaction spots that nobody really talks about. Then we get Reigns doing a running dropkick onto the apron while Cena is draped over the ropes and shit just gets better. I loved Reigns setting up the Superman punch like he's a character out of SoulCalibur. Him powering out of the STF was epic. I love Ambrose selling the Brogue Kick like he stepped on a rake, and then bumping like Ted Knight falling off the couch in Too Close For Comfort, all stiff-bodied. Bryan is also absolutely on fire in this match. Watching him fly all over the ring and outside the ring is one of the most awesome things in wrestling right now. Real nice two night performance for him with this match piggybacking off the Rumble match the night before.

PAS: I didn't love the first part of this, Cena is normally good at FIP, but this was a bit dull, but man did it kick into gear. Reigns has really developed a series of fun signature spots, I love the jumping apron dropkick, he is a hell of an athlete seems on a different level athletically then most of their big guy wrestlers (outside of Henry and Langston). Bryan is always fun when he breaks out his frenzied hot tag and the end runs of these Shield matches are really the best Dragons Gate stuff around.


2014 MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

2. Goldust/Cody Rhodes/Big E Langston v. The Shield (Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns) WWE Raw 1/20

ER: Well, so far Phil's prediction of Rhodes Bros. MOTY list dominance is coming true. This match was a 7 minute sprint that was just spot-spot-spot but done better than most juniors matches worked similarly. There was a lot to love here. Dean Ambrose is my favorite worker since Finlay to make guys work honestly. If Finlay was working somebody and they weren't keeping up, or spacing out thinking of the next spot, he'd send them a nice little reminder that just made the match better. My favorite was when somebody was lingering on the mat he'd stomp their fingers. It's a much better way to move the match along that just bending down and picking them up. Ambrose does that too, and my favorite in this match was when Cody was running back into the ring with The Shield chasing, he made sure to keep chasing until Cody was back in and safe. This meant that Cody actually had to roll back in and get out of the way, couldn't rest on his laurels. It's a little thing that makes it seem more legit, and Ambrose injects every match with that stuff. Really this match had too much stuff to mention, but aside from Ambrose I loved Cody's surprise run-up-ropes plancha, Goldust's somersault senton off the apron and his bomb snap yakuza kick, and Big E hit one of the all time greatest splashes I have ever seen. Awesome stuff from everybody, though.

PAS: Yeah this was a totally awesome workrate match. Kind of a WCWSN lucha match if all of the guys were really big. Cody was great here, that double jump plancha may be one of the prettiest signature dives in wrestling, and Goldusts flip senton was crazy too, he got some nutso height and speed for a 6'6 guy in his mid 40's. This kind of Dragon's Gate is so much better when the guys sell and land their stuff with force. Reigns did this great head trauma sell of the disaster kick and looked like he splatted Cody with the Superman punch. Would have liked a little more time before the finish, but that was as good a spotfest as I imagine we will get this year.

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