Kadaveri

As well as the blowoff to the rivalry with Styles, this match is like the culmination of John Cena's career. Ever since he became The Guy in WWE he's been criticised for his bad offense, his "unconventional" style as JR would put it. Triple H slammed him as 'uncoordinated' in the build to their title match 10 years previously, and it all has some basis in reality. He's sloppy and a clunky wrestler. But it's never really mattered. Cena's big calling card is his "Never Give Up" attitude and his lack of technical precision is just an obstacle for him to overcome. Through sheer heart and willpower he always seems to find a way to win. Dylan Hales sums this up very well in this clip here. Everything was going pretty wonderfully for Cena as the Ace of WWE, until AJ Styles arrives. Before their Money In The Bank 2016 match AJ does a promo on Cena saying if WWE had signed him 15 years ago there would never have been a John Cena, but "the powers that be" have protected Cena and kept him away. He's effectively saying the last decade of WWE has been a sham and Cena's a paper Ace. They have their 1st match, and it was AJ dominating Cena through technical skill. The whole match Cena could barely string 3 moves together before AJ cut him off. It took him absolutely ages to get a comeback together and even then it was on one leg as it'd been worked over so badly. The best bit is when Cena pulls off a five-knuckle shuffle on the one leg and it looks pitiful, he even has this dejected look on his face afterwards like he knows that was useless. He loses. The 2nd match at Summerslam isn't as good as a stand-alone, but what it is in the full story was Cena deploying his tried and tested "Never Give Up" strategy of just powering through every big move he gets hit with until he survives the war of attrition and hits the last big move to win That always won him the second match of a feud after losing the first. But this time it didn't work either, AJ was on another level to all his previous opponents. He's proven Cena was a false Ace all along. Or has he? On Talking Smack a few days before the Royal Rumble AJ assures viewers that Cena doesn't stand a chance against him because all Cena has is "John Cena, he's strong he's going that going for him, but there's a lot more to it than that" and says he can wrestle any style but Cena cannot. Then we get this match in front of 52,000 for the WWE Championship, and it's all an answer to that first encounter. Cena learns throughout the match that if he's going to beat AJ, strength and willpower isn't going to cut the mustard anymore (failed him twice already), he's going to have to finally outdo someone on technical execution, his historic weakness. His initial attempts at countering AJ's offence by just hammering with lariats doesn't get him very far as AJ still dominates the opening. In fact, every time Cena goes for one of his power routines it fails as AJ has a brilliant counter-offence up his sleeve. Cena's backbody drop into an AA attempt but AJ flying kicks him in the head. Later Cena goes for a protoslam only for AJ to turn it into a hurricanrana and takes back control. This isn't going well again, you see the cogs going in Cena's brain as he gives us these Hamlet facial expressions. But then right from when Cena ducks a headkick from AJ and hoists him up into an electric chair slam, this is now ON. Cena is now going to put on the most clinical performance he's ever delivered, it's the only way to win. AJ has pushed and challenged him into becoming the best version of Cena ever. And he totally does it. Later in the match where he hits a Code Red totally perfectly is the moment that best sells this, didn't look like anything like the sloppy John Cena of old. And then Cena and AJ are both on the mat towards the end of the match exhausted, AJ goes for calf-killer but Cena has outwrestles him on the match, this happens multiple times, every trick AJ tries Cena manages to reverse it into something else we don't usually see from him, including Cena managing to slip on a figure four leg lock at one point! (If Cena wins he ties Ric Flair's record for 16 World Title wins). Still think all Cena's got is strength AJ? Cena finally dodges AJ's attempt at a flying forearm (how he lost last time) and beats AJ with a cool-looking rolling double AA he innovated for that match. And in winning he vindicates himself and his legacy, showing that he still would have been the Top Guy of WWE had AJ been there the whole time, it just would have been an even bigger challenge for him. ***** and one of my top matches of the decade.

If Big Show had been agented to wrestle like he did on the great 02/27/09 Smackdown match with John Cena he would have been a much bigger star.

Wonder who Vince blames that for that.

Yeah I remember when he wrestled for Ring Of Honor back in the day and a load of young women were at the show who'd never be there otherwise. Him and Matt doing the Broken angle was the only thing that's actually popped a rating on TNA in many years. Don't get this "he isn't a draw" talk, he's one of the few wrestlers nowadays who has a solid drawing case.

Oh and also booing Bayley & Sasha for winning the tag titles is performative smarkdom at its worst. We wouldn't have women's tag belts at all if it weren't for those two. Fuck outta here with that "they don't deserve it" idiocy.

It is so refreshing to see a WWE crowd totally invested in the outcome of a match rather than just wanting it to be good. Kofi! Kofi! Kofi! I also think it's no coincidence that babyface Daniel Bryan was the guy everyone desperately wanted to win the title more than anything else (that Cena match at Summerslam 2013 is rare example of crowds truly getting behind Cena's opponent rather than just chanting Cena sucks), and now he's turned heel they desperately want his opponent to take it from him. All-timer. I might calm down by tomorrow but at the moment I'm ****3/4 on that match. Best Chamber match ever. Even the opening minutes were still really good with Bryan and Joe stiffing each other.

I thought that was really good except for when The Iconics were dominating everyone with very weak looking offense and being obnoxiously loud about it. Fantastic finish with Sasha having to use her leg to lock in the crossface as her shoulder was hurt.

I'd throw in Jerry Lawler vs. The Miz as a great emotional match from that 2010-11 period. But nah I don't think it's a serious contender either. WWE just wasn't good in 2010-11.

Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan was a pretty great match but not a MOTD contender imo, more remarkable for that Bray hasn't had a singles match anywhere near as good ever again. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn at NXT: Arrival is more worthy of consideration. If I had to do a Top 20 ballot for the decade here's what it'd look like: 1. Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena - Extreme Rules 2012 2. CM Punk vs. John Cena - Money In The Bank 2011 3. Andrade Cien Almas vs. Johnny Gargano - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia 4. AJ Styles vs. John Cena - Royal Rumble 2017 5. The Shield vs. The Wyatts - Elimination Chamber 2014 6. Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena - Summerslam 2013 7. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 8. DIY vs. The Revival - NXT Takeover: Toronto 9. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - Wrestlemania 31 10. Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk - Summerslam 2013 11. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks - NXT Takeover: Respect 12. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H - Wrestlemania 30 13. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Takeover: Dallas 14. AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns - Extreme Rules 2016 15. Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn - NXT Takeover: R-Evolution 16. AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar - Survivor Series 2017 17. Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: New Orleans 18. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks - NXT Takeover: Unstoppable 19. CM Punk vs. The Undertaker - Wrestlemania 29 20. Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks - Raw 11/28/16 Sheamus' matches against The Big Show (Hell In A Cell 2012) and Daniel Bryan (Extreme Rules 2012) just miss out but are certainly worth checking out.

I've watched the final segment of Raw now. Was it just me up did Charlotte get almost no reaction when she came out taking Becky's place at Mania? The camera cut to the fans in the arena and they just looked bored. And that same crowd had just earlier been loudly cheering Becky, booed HHH & Stephanie and gave a loud mixed reaction to Ronda.

And in weirder news, WWE are promoting Dean Ambrose vs. Nia Jax for a house show the week after.

I suspect this isn't being talked about elsewhere because it doesn't tie in with popular internet narratives, but the huge drop in female viewership the last few months coincides almost exactly with Roman Reigns leaving the show. Raw losing its Very Handsome top male star being the main cause seems pretty logical to me.

The match will be fine with Bayley/Sasha being the centrepiece. They've had good matches with everyone in there except Tamina.

The Shield was actually used as a vehicle to get Dean Ambrose over as a singles star. He's the one who got most of the promo time, the singles championship, match with The Undertaker, planned feud with Foley etc... Also worth noting the only times in WWE when tag teams were main eventing PPVs were the Two Man Power Trip in 2001, DX vs. Legacy/JeriShow in 2009 and Evolution vs. The Shield. Note the common denominator. Tag team wrestling can be main-event material when they want to present it as such.

By all reports KENTA/Hideo was set to win the NXT Championship from Kevin Owens in Japan before he got injured and was replaced by Finn Balor. History could have been so different.

That WWE have released a statement announcing Dean Ambrose is leaving is really really odd. I'm pretty sure they've never done that before. Makes me suspicious it's some elaborate work.

Very good fun opener. The Roddy/Kyle tag team has been one of the most consistently good acts in WWE the past year or so, can't think of a single match where it felt like they didn't believe. This was War Machine's big night though, they've been good on the indies/NJPW for a while but this was the night where they had to show newcomers what they're all about. Hanson looked great. ***1/2

I thought this was the worst match on the show. Went on way too long and nothing seemed to have any point to it until they get to Gargano tearing up the floor padding, didn't really need 25 minutes to tell that story. Ricochet's obsession with non-stop flipping is getting really tedious to me now, he can be really good sometimes but he's jumping the shark here. One point he sells a superkick by doing a flying backflip through the air, which if you're gonna do that at least sell it like its the most devastating kick to the head ever, only he's literally lifting Gargano up and giving him a body slam 3 seconds later. There is the odd cool spot in this incoherent mess and the ending had direction to it, but overall: Bad. *3/4

Sasha didn't say she wanted to leave the company or anything of the sort. This just comes from dirtsheets seeing her praising The Revival on Twitter when there's rumours of them requesting their release and leaping to the most sensationalist conclusion. She signed a long-term contract with WWE last summer. The stuff between her and Ronda is 100% kayfabe.

Such a good match, my favourite from this tournament so far. Hazuki has some of the most vicious looking offense in all of Stardom, looks like she's trying to just win the match for real the way she kicks the hell out of Momo not showing a moment's hestitation. ****

I'm a bit unsure how to rate this as it's a strange stipulation and feels like two matches in one. 6 women start the match and it's elimination rules until we're down to 2, then it's a Texas Death Match where victory is by a pinfall and then your opponent being unable to get to their feet for a count of ten. The first 30 minutes is quite fun. We start with all 5 of her opponents all beating the hell out of Mayumi Ozaki as they know she's going to play some dirty tricks to win if they don't take her out quickly. Doesn't last though. Mayumi's stable constantly interfering gets annoying after a while and it's a relief when she's finally eliminated. But it's the final 20 minutes that are amazing. We're down to just Aja Kong and Kaho Kobayashi. I don't know much about Kaho but I'm going to seeking out more from her as from this performance she looks like one of the best sellers/bumpers in wrestling. Aja is so brutal with her, backdrop suplex after backdrop suplex with urakens, lariats and piledrivers that almost kill her, but Kaho just won't stay down for that 10 count so long as there's a bit of energy left in her. Both of them put in great performances here. This part of the match at least is certainly worth watching as a prelude to the great title match on the big 09/17/18 Oz Academy show. ****1/4

Fantastic match, the best I've seen between these two and they've had lot of good ones. What I love about it is how they have a really compelling contest even though Walter controls at least 80% of the match, they don't feel any need to do though back and forth quick changes in momentum that's almost ubiquitous in wrestling now. Starr actually does pretty well in the opening few minutes, teases Walter a bit to come at him but dodging him, looking kind of cocky about it. He manages to knock Walter to the outside then looks like he's going for a dive but no.... He's tried that before in a previous match and it didn't end well. He's learning! Instead he lowers the ring-rope for Walter to get back in. Walter hits Starr with a chop, Starr fights back with chops of his own... Oh no... Why would you do that. Walter just grinds him down to dust from now on end, including an absolutely shockingly stiff lariat that looked like it could take his head off! Starr manages just one desperate comeback where he somehow manages to wriggle out of Walter's grip and lands a German Suplex for a two count, but Walter gets straight back up and goes back to smashing him up. Starr's selling is very good. I felt really sorry for him because beating Walter obviously means so much to him, he just can't do it. Some guy in the crowd is chanting "Please don't tap!" as Starr's getting choked out. Stop encouraging him! He's clearly outmatched. Live to fight another day Davey. ****1/2

*Broadcast January 9th 2019 25 minute trios match to hype up the Takeover show, and if those matches are better than this then we're in for a fantastic show. The last 15 is great stuff that's a bit let down by the first 10 minutes where you have long heel control segments by wrestlers who aren't that interesting at it even if Tyler/Trent both do really good struggling/selling in this. Once Pete Dunne is tagged in for the 2nd time and lays waste to everyone the tone changes though. Worth noting how he comes across as way above his partners in this, anytime he's in the ring the momentum seems to swing to BSS's side, even though Trent actually has the more powerful looking offense. ***3/4

Nice title defence for Rhea Ripley going into the Takeover show. Atomic German Suplex from Deonna looked really good as was the strike exchange towards the end of the match where they're blocking/dodging slaps. Felt like the match was just starting to get really good but then the finish comes out of nowhere and that's it. ***1/4

*Broadcast date 12/19/2018 This was a really exciting hard-hitting match. Joe Coffey just beats the hell out of Travis but can't seem to put him down. The moment Travis gets a bit of momentum and attempts a baseball slide he gets hit with an uppercut on the outside, dragged across the floor and swung into the barricade by Coffey, showing no regard for his wellbeing at all. Good stuff on an otherwise very boring show. ***3/4