The Bar vs. The New Day (Big E/Kofi Kingston), WWE Smackdown Live (8/7/2018)

This was the finals of a tag team #1 Contender’s tournament.

It’s a long long awaited rematch to one of the best WWE tag team matches of the decade, and if not quite on that level, it is yet another great match between The Bar and a New Day team.

While this match does not quite have the narrative advantage over a match that blew off a sixteen month long title reign, nor an angle that had lasted even longer than that, it is still really great, and perhaps given the advantages it did not have compared to their more famous match, it’s a little more impressive that this wound up still being pretty great after all.

The match itself is classic tag formula, but the charm of it lies in that it is on WWE television and gets fifteen to twenty minutes to genuinely develop, resulting in a better match than The New Day has gotten to have since the end of the Usos feud ten months prior, and a better match than The Bar (a depressingly underachieving team given the talent between them) has gotten to have since the last time they fought The New Day.

You can put a lot of that down to also being a television main event, giving these guys the green light to go a little bigger than they have in a while, that’s not unfair. It is a match with some less than common offense from everyone involved, and the sorts of twists, turns, and payoffs you might not get otherwise from a WWE television tag (that doesn’t involve a long term effort to get over one or more golden boys, so you know, don’t count 2013-14 Shield stuff). Kofi in particular gets to go a lot wild here, not only with a rare dive, but some bigger bumps and offense on the outside, but given how restrained their work had been for the past nearly two years together, Cesaro and Sheamus finally taking the machine out of neutral and putting a heavy foot on the gas is super noticeable as well.

Really though, so much of it just comes down to them now having the time to not only have a match that’s paced a lot better than usual on free television, but also one where they can really get deep in the weeds and establish themes and patterns, so that it means so much more later in the match when those themes and patterns get paid off in little moments, creating small individual victories within the larger one.

Cesaro and Sheamus spent ninety five percent of the match stuffing The New Day. They do so in a bunch of different ways, so it never gets boring, but the only moments when they are not in control are either quickly snuffed out, or lead directly to their defeat at the end. It’s a multiple control segment match, but one where both feel different because of the different tact required to control Big E as opposed to Kingston. They repeatedly send Kofi away and out, or catch him out of the air, and whenever New Day tries something even a little complex like the Midnight Hour finish, Cesaro and Sheamus swarm and cut it off. This match has a real gift for pulling things seemingly out of thin air as counters, resulting in a few nearfalls far more dramatic than you would think.

When it comes time to make some hay out of all of these ideas, to pay them off for those miniature victories, it’s maybe the best thing this match does. Kofi constantly being cut off when Big E needs help by being dodged and thrown into things leads to Kofi finally reversing by leaping onto the railing and hitting Sheamus with a Tornado DDT on the floor to take him out. Kofi’s able to finally be there when he has to, and in a match all about (a) striking in quick moments so as to signal that they still have The New Day’s number like in 2015 & (b) separating the members of the opposing team, it just feels right that The New Day ultimately succeeds when they’re finally able to separate the Cesaro and Sheamus war machine, before then striking in the quickest possible fashion for one singular moment.

Big E powers out of the Crossface and up with Cesaro on his shoulder, and as soon as the shot is clear, Kofi flies in with the Midnight Hour for the win.

These teams, given the time and freedom, have an outstanding match yet again. The proof of the success of this match, and the things it does and stands for, comes in the fact that despite The Bar feeling like a super middle of the road act for most of the last year and the obvious nature of the New Day’s victory (WWE is not running a heel/heel match with no build, sorry, we all know this), within twenty minutes or less,

Among the year’s more underrated matches, given how much praise even passable WWE television matches tend to receive.

***1/5

Daniel Bryan vs. Big E vs. Samoa Joe vs. The Miz vs. Rusev, WWE Smackdown Live (6/19/2018)

This was a #1 Contenders Gauntlet Match.

Despite what WWE tried to manufacture earlier in the year with the pre-Elimination Chamber Seth Rollins based gauntlet (and probably successfully did manufacture, given the acclaim it got despite being real average), the best gauntlets in WWE have what that lacked, what so many in recent years have lacked, and what makes this the best of the newer crop.

Part of that is that, rather than simply and obviously existing to fill up a gigantic swath of television time, this is a match with a real point to it.

Several, in fact.

This match not only continues the Bryan/Miz feud by having Miz yet again take advantage of Bryan without ever really facing him in any meaningful way, coming in fourth after two Bryan full-length singles outings already and pinning him, but there’s more than just that. Samoa Joe’s slow-building and self-frustrating quest for a title shot on Smackdown feels like something this match seeks to build as well, and that it does a stellar job with. Most obviously, it is a match that, out of nowhere, seeks to give Rusev a big and believable win to establish him immediately as a World Title contender. The match has three narrative aims, and succeeds wildly with each.

More obviously, in a match that is essentially three different singles match with a few interludes, they stick mostly really good to great wrestlers in there, in three unique and different kinds of matches, and things have a way of working themselves out.

Specifically, when Daniel Bryan gets to take the wheel for two-thirds of the match’s runtime, it’s hard to go too wrong.

Firstly, that comes in a brand new match for ten to fifteen minutes against Big E.

Bryan and Big E make a great enough pairing together that, in retrospect, it feels criminal that this is all that they ever did one on one (although those 2019 Bryan/Rowan vs. New Day matches are a lot of fun). They have a certain chemistry, and both display a gift for being able to walk a line against other babyface, being aggressive and occasionally a little mean, but without losing any of their natural likeability either. The match takes a unique approach, going with Big E on top rather than Bryan in a role he’s incredibly comfortable with, and Big E does a genuinely terrific job in one of the only chances he’s ever gotten at a match like this. He’s forceful and insistent, but never veers off into deeper waters than he can handle as a protagonist himself. When Bryan comes back and does eventually get into Bryan style work, his selling — although never focused on any one body part long term — is always terrific, especially of the leg near the very end.

They also approach the match (we can just call these matches, all three of the big ones are substantial enough to count) from a unique angle, beyond just that Big E controls. You expect Bryan to target a limb or something against a big guy, but in delaying that until the very end, Big E winds up leaving so much stronger than he came in. Throwing one of the most successful wrestlers of the decade off of what he always does and forcing him into a totally new approach at the end, it feels like a large step forward, even if the WWE would revert back to shameful incrementalism and hold off another three years.

Danielson is forced to chain a bunch of different holds together at the end, going from the Yes Lock to a Triangle Choke to finally his recently discovered heel hook, and even that’s a bit of a shell game in and of itself. Bryan uses it to damage the leg, sticks with that just long enough to rob Big E of the explosiveness and mobility he cut him off with earlier in the match, and lands the Busaiku Knee for the win. Big E puts forth a better effort than anyone would have probably expected, and certainly in a different way than anyone could have expected, and in adapting and finding a way to win that is both smart and impactful in a WWE Babyface sort of a way, Bryan looks better in every possible way for still finding a way to beat him.

On its own, Daniel Bryan vs. Big E is one of the better WWE matches of the year, a tremendous achievement for the best of all time, and a career singles match for Big E at this point. It’s outstanding professional wrestling, and a genuinely great match within a genuinely great match.

The same goes for the next one!

Samoa Joe follows that, and not only does a face/face power vs. technique match lead to a much meaner and more hostile version of that, but a brand new match up gives way to one of my favorite pairings in the career of either man.

Joe and Bryan are, again, remarkable together.

Everything that Joe lost to the ravages of time is made up for through intelligence and aura, and against one of his best opponents of all time, it barely even matters. In part, it’s because both are still so great at everything they do, but also because this is a totally different match than they’ve ever had before, both in that it is a more measured approach for television, but also because for once, Bryan is the underdog to Joe’s stalking maniacal villain. Every single thing they do looks and sounds incredible. Joe is intimidating and capable of feeling genuinely dangerous in a way nobody in the WWE but Brock Lesnar is, and yet again, Bryan is the best babyface in the world when he has something worth fighting back against. They play a few hits, but in a really wonderful touch, also break out a bunch of entirely new bits when they absolutely do not have to, including the ending.

When none of his usual stuff works and Joe keeps shutting everything down, they also go to a more unique finish, that winds accomplishing more than a real finish probably could have. Bryan is able to roll back out of the choke outside via the Bret/Piper spot off of the railing, but instead of anything Joe can catch, counter, or avoid, Bryan simply dives back inside before ten, and barely gets past Samoa Joe.

It certainly isn’t satisfying and it’s an unbelievable bummer that they never got a chance at it again under a WWE umbrella, but again, it is perfect for what it is. A beautiful show for people who never got to see the originals, a totally different sort of thing for everyone who did, and a match that again accomplishes so much. Bryan gets past another huge obstacle, but by contrasting his impactful win on Big E with him barely getting past Joe, Samoa Joe feels that much more dangerous. Samoa Joe’s frustration also clearly advances, setting up the next AJ Styles title feud after all of this, without ever putting that so obviously in flashing lights for everybody to see.

The last third of the thing is where this match falters just a little bit.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan aka THE HAMMER HOMIES (credit: brock) attack Bryan after the fall to set up some bullshit aimless little tag title program, and The Miz sprints down to take advantage to get Bryan without really getting Bryan, in a nice piece of heel bullshit.

Rusev is then the final entrant against a fresh Miz, and while it is a wonderful narrative, the coward heel running into a much more appreciated cult favorite antagonist and getting his ass kicked, the match leaves much to be desired. Maybe a simple sixty to ninety seconds of Rusev whipping ass might have accomplished the same but in a much better and more satisfying package.

That is not to say this is bad or anything. Miz tries his best, I guess, and Rusev is an electric situational babyface. However, after two incredible Bryan showcases, ten or so minutes of Rusev vs. The Miz simply cannot compare.

Still, between the Bryan falls, Rusev’s energy, and the genuinely great construction and concept of this thing as a whole, there is just too much here to deny, resulting in maybe the best chunk of WWE television all year that isn’t just one long match. That doesn’t mean what it used to, but if you’ve got to watch one individual half hour of WWE in 2018, you could do a thousand times worse than this. A hell of a thing, and truly, quality professional wrestling TV out of a place that often feels like they lost the manual on that sort of thing a long time ago.

(a long time ago in this case being the second week of April 2014)

It is not 2013 or 2015 anymore, but it’s nice to know that from time to time, when operated by the right hands and guided towards the right purpose, the old machinery can still work.

***1/4

The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. The Usos, WWE Hell in a Cell (10/8/2017)

This was a Hell in a Cell match for the New Day’s WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

Despite there being a whole bunch of these in 2017, this is probably the one you remember, and for good reason.

It’s the biggest one. The match where The New Day and The Usos get to have their longest, flashiest, and most significant match together. It’s been something like fifteen years since a tag team feud got this match prolonged attention and respect from the WWE, and they end it with a bang. It is maybe not booked in the way I would prefer, giving The Usos the duke seemingly because they needed it more whereas The New Day can heat themselves up again at just about any time given a microphone and a ring, but it is a big tag team match blowoff that absolutely delivers, to the extent that it is one of the best matches of the year full stop, and I love so much about what it represents and has to say about the style itself.

The thing here — and what sets this one so far apart from the others for me — is that while all of their other matches were classic kind of 2010s tag formula deals building to these spectacular and positively gorgeous firework show finishing runs, this is a much much meaner affair. Tensions finally boiling over and being unleashed when trapped in the Cell.

Outside of maybe the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar match from 2015, a match that succeeded in these confines by largely just working it as a classical bloodbath cage match, it’s the best Hell in a Cell match this decade because it recognizes what this ought to be. Not only in the sense that it’s conducted with real electricity and hatred, but also in the sense that it is the end of a feud, and for once, a match that needs a Cell around it, rather than the inverse as it’s been since this became a yearly pay-per-view.

That’s not to say that this doesn’t have some truly sensational spots though.

It does, and this is also one of the best matches of its kind all decade because it’s one of the few Cell matches (the womens division Cell matches are great at this too) to genuinely innovate.

Some of the things they’re doing here are among the coolest spots of the year, or in a match like this in a really long time. The famous New Day Penitentiary spot, in which an Uso is trapped in the corner of the Cell by four kendo sticks going from side to side wedged into the chain links, is genuinely incredible and one of the most inventive Hell in a Cell spots that anybody’s come up with in a decade plus. Likewise, some of the spots into the cell wall, such as the Doomsday Tope Suicida to Big E, are genuinely sick as hell, striking a perfect balance between the fireworks of their other matches, and something that’s reckless and violent, in a way a match like this really benefits from. Reheating the classic Orton/Cena handcuffs and kendo stick spot from the all-time great “I Quit” match in 2009 to poor Xavier Woods is something that strikes that same tone, combining something that is objectively cool as hell, and adding in enough force and intensity to make it into something even greater.

That feeling is something that’s so much more present in this match than any of their others.

From the start, this is more clearly about anger and punishment and pure feeling than any of the others. This is a match with some real nasty and mean spirited shots, and a million receipts. It’s a match conducted with a great amount of feeling and emotion, largely in terms of the way they move and the way they execute the big spots in this match, but also in the smaller moments in between those highlights. Nobody here is exactly wrestling’s greatest actor, but they each have a great moment or two of real energy and fire to them beyond the purely mechanical, be it Big E’s comebacks, The Usos expressing annoyance in the back half when none of their ideas work and swinging even harder, and especially, Woods fighting at the end without any hands, swinging blindly, and getting up with this look in his eyes like he knows that Big E isn’t coming to save him.

Xavier Woods is not the best wrestler in this match or on his team, but he’s the glue that holds the story of the thing together, and that allows the match to hit on a slightly higher level than simply being a collection of some enormously cool ideas. Narratively, the match does real well for him, allowing Woods to complete his transition from sidekick to maybe the most genuinely heroic of the group, choosing to fight through it rather than flee like he used to, or roll over and take it. His performance of these ideas is also especially strong, managing to be sympathetic during the moments when he’s beaten half to death with the sticks, fired up and believably desperate and frantic when saving Big E for once, and especially shining in those final moments, great enough that I am still genuinely bummed The New Day lost this match, and it’s not because of some outstanding Usos heel performance. This is probably a great match no matter what, but without Woods being as great as he is in this match, in the specific ways both big and small in which he is, I don’t think this is half as memorable as it turns out to be, especially in its closing moments.

Following Big E being taken out with the Doomsday Tope into the cage and the Double Uce, and finally a Double Uce to Xavier Woods under a chair, The Usos regain the titles to end the feud.

It’s not my favorite booking in the world, but in a match that seeks to make a point about their brutality and strategy winning out, opting to get rid of Big E entirely at the end instead of crowding the big man, it’s one that totally and completely succeeds at making that point.

(Whether or not that point is better than “likeable heroes succeed over their villainous foes at the end of a feud” is another debate (the answer is no, of course not you fucking dummy), as is what the point of such a savage villainous victory is when The Usos turn babyface within a few weeks anyways, but in the moment, this is a match that does as well as possible with the subject matter.)

As with any rivalry that’s built up like this one has, going bigger and doing more with (almost) every match, showing more and more not only in terms of sheer offensive scope but also in the evolving strategy of their matches, this gimmick match blowoff is far and away the best one. It’s their Big One together, where not only does everything kind of come to a head narratively (mostly), but in which they throw out the absolute biggest match they possible have, beautifully constructed and executed with as much feeling as they can possibly muster up. The match is a genuine triumph, not only out of a company that doesn’t make a habit out of offering stuff like this all that often, but out of a division that they haven’t allowed that privilege to in a real long time.

You buy the ticket and you take the ride, you never ought to expect anything and should always safeguard your brain before getting in line, but matches and feuds like this are why you go to the park in the first place.

***2/3

 

The Usos vs. The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston), WWE Smackdown Live (9/12/2017)

This was a Sin City Street Fight for the Usos’ WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

At only ten minutes and cut down by a commercial break, as is often the case for twenty first century television wrestling, this is not quite on the level of their pay-per-view matches. One could make an argument for the first match in June, which opted for a non-finish and was focused on establishing a foundation and baseline and that didn’t have a real and definite finish, but it is clearly and obviously not on the level of either the July or August matches.

Still, there is just something here.

First of all, it is again just super interesting to me on something akin to a real sports level, how they approach these New Day line ups. After losing with the Big E/Woods line up at SummerSlam, you can read the reversion as one of two things here. You can read it as that this Kofi/Big E team is what beat the Usos a lot in 2015 and 2016, and what has given them the most success historically as most of the near 18 month reign in 2015-2016 was through playing this line up. You can also go in a little deeper and note that this is the line up that the Usos ran away from in June, and maybe that Kofi’s veteran leadership helped Woods win in July without Big E, and without the player-coach on the floor at SummerSlam, they lost.

All of these concepts are more thought out and sensible than I would ever give the WWE full credit for. If such a thing was ever intended, you simply have to believe it came from the talent itself, but it is there, and it makes the matches more interesting.

What we have here, once the bell rings, is still a pretty great match.

Boiled down by the necessities of WWE TV and the formula it necessitates, is the best stuff. Big E’s hot tag, Kofi taking huge bumps, big chair and table and kendo stick spots, all of that. All of this works as well as it always has. Kofi doesn’t have the spirit or authenticity of an Xavier Woods, but he’ll take some real spectacular bumps and when needed, he’s there on offense. I don’t like him as much as the other two, but he is not a problem or anything.

On a longer term storytelling basis, it’s another fun development.

The Usos are not incredible, I never think they are the best tag team in the world, but they’re real solid at beating people up for like half a match. Great uppercut palms, they swing weapons with a lot of force and intensity, all of that. Big E is an unbelievable hot tag and/or comeback guy, and Kofi does exactly what a match requires and no more or less. While the match is not one that goes super far to earn its stipulation, between some real mean chair and kendo stick shots and a kind of psuedo Texas Tornado kind of composition, it at least goes farther than a lot of other WWE TV gimmick matches, and feels like it earns what it is, rather than solely being a match like this so as to enable some finish, or The Booking. It speaks to an overall strength of this pairing and this program, working hard enough and benefitting just enough from planning, so as to avoid pitfalls that just about everyone sees before them.

Kofi shoves one Uso off the top through a table outside, and immediately after, he and Big E once again hit the Midnight Hour to beat The Usos. The original line up really did maybe work the best, beating The Usos yet again, both through the strength of their connection, and maybe the inability of the Usos to entirely focus on both the strengths and weaknesses of this specific combination.

The forgotten match of the handful in 2017, but one still well worth your time.

***

 

 

The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. The Usos, WWE SummerSlam Kickoff (8/20/2017)

This was for The New Day’s Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

For the first time on a real big stage, The New Day uncorks the at-the-time rare New Day Power line up of Big E and Xavier Woods, and the result is easily the best match of the three so far. That’s not just because this is the best New Day line up (although it is), so much as that it’s the first time they really REALLY get cooking together.

What stands out so much is how exceedingly confident this match is.

It’s clearly a more measured match at the start than the previous two. These aren’t matches that tend to begin with a world of fireworks exactly, but with Big E not tagging in until halfway through and relying on a lot more striking and clobbering, it’s a match that begins totally and completely confident in itself. That surefooted nature seems like a little bit of a stretch on paper. The Usos aren’t quite on par with the teams they’d like to be and have clearly modeled themselves after and this is not the most experienced New Day pairing of the bunch. And yet, it completely works. Initial clobbering leads to bigger set ups, simple offense leads to more complex cut offs, and eventually all Hell breaks loose. It feels just as much like a product of things simply working out as well as possible as it does like there is some perfect and genius grand design, but at some point, none of that actually matters.

When the switch flips, this match reaches a level that the last one only teased.

The combination of Big E and Woods is perfect for a match like this in the way that Kofi Kingston just is not. Kofi has his charms, he can do a lot of cool things and he can be a big piece of great tag matches with both Big E and Woods as his partner, but he lacks the raw babyface energy that both Woods and Big E possess, in addition to being both rougher and less explosive in the ring. Big E has these gigantic and hugely impressive power moves, and Woods is both taking bumps and coming up with new offense that Kofi simply is not.

In addition to the ways the match up is just kind of naturally superior, they also just get to do more, and sometimes, that does actually matter.

These teams break out the sort of back half that it feels like they’ve been plotting out for a few months, but do so without it feeling entirely like this big planned thing. Save for the timing being just a little off on a superkick cut off to a Big E dive (the big man stops short because he’s not actually doing a god damned dive, the Usos are a little late on the kicks), everything is as crisp and precise as possible. The counters to stuff that worked before, or the big kickout spots, they all go over beautifully, and land with a little more weight than if they’d done it in the first or second matches together, as a result of all that ground work laid.

After going especially big in the last few moments with a slingshot DDT to the floor, Us Splash kickouts, and the Midnight Hour for an especially terrific nearfall, The Usos finally get a break in the way they couldn’t and/or didn’t in the last two matches.

Big E gets caught alone this time after the absolute mother fucker of a pop up over the top to Woods into a Samoan Drop on the floor, and unlike the Usos’ failure the month before, they waste no time once they’ve got a man alone. A series of superkicks sets up the far rarer Double Uce, and the New Day not only wins back the titles, but for the first time as a team (having also failed to ever do it in 2015-2016 in addition to twice in 2017 so far), outright beats The New Day.

There is still a feeling here that we aren’t seeing exactly everything these teams can do together. Chalk it up to being on the kick off show, if you’d like. What’s so impressive about this series though is that, despite that such a feeling exists through most of these matches save for The Big One, they still always show a little more each time and get a little better each time, resulting in a natural feeling of progression that you just don’t get all the time in wrestling anymore.

***1/4

The Usos vs. The New Day Classic (Big E & Kofi Kingston), WWE Money in the Bank (6/18/2017)

This was for the Usos’ WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

Over the next four months, these teams will go on to have a super prolific and creative rivalry that not only never fails to produce a great match given the stage for such a thing, but that in a lesser year for rivalries, would be the best rivalry of the year. That’s not even an insult to their work together in 2017, it’s just that this is a year with a ton of repeat pairings all over the world, even on the WWE main roster, and such a specific category is busier in 2017 than in maybe any other year this decade.

This is very much the first match in a series.

(I know it’s not the FIRST one. Do not ever at me about their late 2015 and early 2016 stuff. Given the change in the Usos since then, that is effectively non-canon, even if this match directly references the finish to one of the matches in that series. I know more than you, do not ever try and correct me.)

I don’t just mean that in the sort of New Japan sense where it’s held back and you kind of know they’re waiting on The Big One to totally unload. There’s some of that here, for sure, but it’s still a match with a lot of real high points that are hit and that avoids entirely feeling that way. Mostly, I mean that in the sense that this is a match about establishing a baseline and this is a match about ensuring future matches. Not a match that leaves room for something else, but with a bullshit finish (in a good way) that necessitates another match or, as it turns out, something like another forty six in the next half decade.

What works about this pairing in the future is already here though.

Firstly and maybe most obviously, this is an enormously creative pairing. Neither team is exactly super rote and boring at this point, but together, it is like they’ve found the opponents that they have been looking for all this time, or at least, they’ve finally found the opponents against which WWE will authorize a match like this on pay-per-view for long enough to really make an impression. There are so many cool little counters and ideas here, to the point that it feels like a match up that both teams are bursting at the seams with material for, which is such an exciting feeling. There are just matches and match ups sometimes that you, as a viewer, can feel the wrestlers’ excitement for in the match itself, and it is such a cool feeling.

Performance wise, I think it’s also the best that The Usos have ever looked up to this point. Their offense is sharp and all of that, but it is so much more about the little things. Great little cut offs in unusual ways, such as blocking a sunset flip through the other Uso dragging Kofi out by the braids under the bottom rope. Unusual but still brutal offense like a double suplex outside, right after the above, into the LED ringpost. What works for them in the past still works here, those big dramatic moments, the bargain Young Bucks stuff, but it’s a much tighter performance than they’ve put forward yet.

The match’s back third or so is also a real beautiful thing, largely in terms of construction, but with some really stellar ideas too. While it’s not as clean as at the 2016 Royal Rumble, Big E again catches an Uso Splash off the top into the Big Ending, only this time The Usos are able to break up the cover. It’s a simple thing, and WWE commentary being what it is, it’s never mentioned, but it’s hard to see that and not come to the obvious conclusion that it’s a show of the Usos’ evolution. Likewise, New Day are able to avoid a few different traps the Usos have used against less experienced teams on Smackdown, and there’s a similar sort of feeling, although a different one, that they are against a different caliber of opponent now.

Come the end of the match, there’s this perfect feeling for a feud like this, where The Usos are much better than they were the last time they met the New Day, but The New Day have improved as well, and The Usos still might not have what it takes. There’s enough to drive a few rematches on that alone, a new thing established, leading towards, once again on WWE pay-per-view this month, the sort of bullshit ending that helps so much more than it hurts.

Big E uses his power more effectively, Kofi flies around with more purpose, and New Day yet again have the Usos beaten off of the Midnight Hour, only for the other Uso to pull his brother out and take the count out loss instead to keep the titles.

It’s a great match for certain, but this one’s more about laying a foundation for the future than anything else, and they laid a pretty perfect one.

***

Roman Reigns vs. Big E vs. Bobby Lashley, WWE Raw (9/20/2021)

The ending to a shockingly good piece of WWE television, at least for 2021.

Nobody’s reinventing the wheel here.

It’s a big dumb WWE triple threat match with big guys hurling bombs at each other and some shortcuts to help them get there. It’s not even the first of its kind in 2021, although I think it does the same thing better than the WrestleMania main event by refining it to just these huge power moves and something a little more honest. The result is a better match than any of them have had or would go on to have against each other in one on one settings, having to fill less time, and being allowed to work a little bigger and do crazier things. Hard to have dead space when you have the ability, through rotating a man in and out, to pack a match like this full of big, cool, and wildly impressive offense from wall to wall.

On a talent level, everyone is great here.

With the exception of fighting the literal best wrestler of all time and currently in the world, it’s the best Roman’s looked as a bad guy bell to bell. Big E’s been champion for a week, and while the hype and excitement for that drops off after this because of the result here, he’s still wrestling BIG at this point. With the crowd with him and still working with that “well, shit, MAYBE” feeling at his back and that’s been at the back of every guy in his position before reality sets in, Big E is god damned electric. Again, he’s the dream. This charismatic and magnetic powerhouse, who not only has a ton of cool and impressive offense, but has that ultra-important thing to him, where you watch him and just want to see him succeed on some core gut level.

Big E vs. Roman Reigns once again has a way of feeling like The Match here, but when plugged into matches like these, Lashley also once again comes off as the best possible version of himself. All throws and Spears and big bumps for everything the others can do.

Unfortunately, the hot Big E title reign’s first main event leads to him getting destroyed with a chair by Bob Lashley and then Roman pinning Lashley with the Spear.

Not the worst of all possible finishes, but it’s a win Big E needed, not even a week after a title win that in and of itself, wasn’t especially strong either. Sentiment will get you so far, but you eventually have to actually book people like top guys for them to be accepted as top guys, and that never happened. As exciting as the win was and as Big E’s matches on this episode were, it’s another old WWE classic as that harsh reality seems to drop back in, and the excitement of that first week never quite comes back like it should.

In spite of the ending and of all that comes after, this is a great piece of classic WWE Clash of the Titans chaos and bullshit. One of the only WWE television matches all year that it feels like anyone could possibly remember fondly years later without sounding like a genuine psychopath. Certainly the only full episode of WWE television this year to fit that billing, and in a year like 2021, it’s one of the best wrestling shows of the year, period. The real shame of this isn’t just that they fed Big E’s push and the Big E/Lashley program to a Roman Reigns that didn’t even need the help anymore, seemingly just out of some literary muscle memory, but that after an episode this good briefly got the ratings back, they lost the urgency and desperation that drove them to do something as wild and off the reservation as [checks notes] booking a good wrestling show.

A reminder of how well this machine can still work when they want it to, before it’s brought back to a halt at the end, only being turned back on in the first place to drive it back to where they wanted it in the first place.

***

The New Day vs. Roman Reigns/The Usos, WWE Raw (9/20/2021)

In the panic over AEW doing actual numbers at the start of a great last third of the year, WWE did something almost unbelievable. I don’t mean putting the title on Big E, because that always seemed like an escape valve they could pull to make people shut up for a few months while ultimately doing nothing, outside of getting to call him a former WWE Champion for years to come (see: Kofi Kingston). I mean something far more drastic, the likes of which haven’t come out of this company with any regularity since 2017 at the very latest.

They put together a genuinely great episode of wrestling television.

WWE being WWE, it’s not perfect and I’m sure there are flaws to be had, but in terms of actual wrestling, it’s the best main roster television in years and years and years, as they remembered that they have a really good roster and that you can just run good looking wrestling matches for much of a three hour show.

As a result, this is the first of four (4) great matches from the same episode of Raw in the year 2021.

It’s the least of them, probably, being something of a solved equation at this point. New Day vs. Usos isn’t new, but it’s still really good. Adding in the Roman Reigns heel act and a red hot Big E, in the one week here where he really felt like he might be an actual Top Guy, is just enough to get them over the top. It’s also the sort of match that shows how important a crowd is, as there’s an energy to it that a dystopian hellscape of 1000 computer screens looking at the ring SOMEHOW can’t quite simulate. Reactions to a hot tag, the way Big E vs. Roman Reigns feels bigger when it’s been built up all match and people can go a little crazy for it, the energy when Lashley comes out at the end and tries to wreck everybody, even Woods lasting just a little bit longer at the end against Roman than anyone might have guessed. It’s all better with organic reactions, even if they can’t quite give up crowd_cheer_3.wav.

The real goal is to build up a Big E vs. Roman Reigns vs. Bob Lashley main event, and in another mystifying piece of work out of the worst company in the world, they genuinely manage it.

Not surprisingly, it isn’t just that Lashley running out at the end and running through people on the floor is a blast, but also that the chunk of Big E vs. Roman we get before that is all spectacular.

In a just world, this wouldn’t get blown on the same episode of TV or in your classic lifeless BRAND SUPREMACY Survivor Series main event, but be the actual end of Roman’s long reign. Big E’s it, the perfect powerhouse WWE style babyface, the guy who this should all be for, and it feels clear as day here when he gets to fight the top heel as something approaching an equal. It’s not only exciting and great, but above all, it feels correct.

Everything in its right place, a machine running as it is supposed to, even on accident.

Not the greatest thing in the world, nor the sort of memorable year-end-list sort of a thing that everyone needs to see, but being a great match that not only delivers quality but also makes one want to see the match it builds up is a rare enough thing in the WWE that this match — much like most of this episode — feels like something of an mirage.

three boy

The New Day vs. The Usos vs. The Lucha Dragons, WWE TLC (12/13/2015)

This was a ladder match for the New Day’s WWE World Tag Team Titles.

It’s a big dumb stunt show and I absolutely love it.

The trick is both a total honesty about that and also the ability to fill the match with big spot ideas that are both incredibly cool and fairly novel. This match also makes clear distinctions between the teams and wrestlers in the match in interesting ways (Big E is strong, Kalisto is the littlest but has the craziest brain, The Usos need to work in tandem to succeed), and it allows for some tension and struggle at all times. Everyone tries to take Big E out, and it always allows the space for Kofi Kingston to sneak around and so some stuff, and it’s how New Day hangs on despite this match being wildly out of the element of half the line up that they went with in this match. It’s a nice touch, and the sort of thought a match like this needs put into it to exist on a level beyond just shouting “COOL!” over and over for fifteen minutes and to stay in my mind for years like this has.

The one major spot also helps out, and if you’ve seen the match, I don’t even have to say more than that.

For the children though:

It’s the high point of the match, but not the end.

With Kalisto and That Uso being taken out, the other tries to handle Big E for good with an equally God damning splash off the top to Big E under a ladder lying on the floor. It’s the same sort of a move that removes someone at the price of also removing yourself, and shows the value Big E brings even when he can’t climb. The pro wrestling version of the gravity that a great shooter in basketball or a great receiver in football gives you. Kalisto manages to get up, as Sin Cara II has just somehow vanished, but Woods gets on the apron and delightfully hurls the trombone at his back. He’s distracted, and Kofi hurls him flipping off the ladder in another wholly unnecessary and wonderful bump, before Kofi pulls down the weird thing the belts are on in WWE and nowhere else.

A great match, but historically, largely a framework for one of the greatest spots of all time.

It’s a god damner of a thing, the sort of spot that belongs in highlight reels for years and years and years (obviously you feature and retain the sort of talent who can do this…). Like the match itself, if the WWE had any idea of how to canonize their history, or if they cared to, this would have a far greater reputation than it does. Better matches than this have suffered from the same problem, but it’s always a little bit of a bummer when you finish a great WWE pay per view match and come to that same realization.

If nothing else, the one spot at least seems to have had some staying power, which is more than you can usually say for a match like this.

***1/4

CIMA/Ricochet/Matt Sydal vs. YAMADoi/Masato Yoshino, DG Generation Gate 2015 (7/2/2015)

A real fun sort of reunion and all star tag.

CIMA tags up with his old Spike Mohicans partner and on the other side, Masato Yoshino joins up with the man who has betrayed him at least twice now and his new best friend, in the hopes that Naruki Doi will resist the temptation to turn on him a third time.

The match is everything it should be.

Equal parts build up for the YAMADoi vs. Ricochet/Sydal at Kobe World as it is a victory lap for our returning heroes. A nice riff session between a lot of old foes. A delightful fireworks show at the end with no mistakes in the first half for them to stumble over. Just a really really nice time. Not a lot of 2015 Dragon Gate is online, not to bemoan it again, but I’m really happy that this is one of the ones that made it through.

After the match, neither of them can resist it. Yoshino shakes hands with YAMATO and Doi, and immediately after, Naruki Doi turns on him once again. Dragon Gate is a company built around near constant change, but it is nice to always have a constant like this. Neither can ever help themselves. Naruki Doi can’t resist Yoshino’s back so long as he has a knife in hand, and Speed Sting will never ever learn from this.

A lovely match with an incredibly funny epilogue.

***1/4