Match of the Year Discussion

with only a few weeks left in 2014 thought I would start a topic about MOTYC, I have a top 10 list kicking around right now but I'm going to try to go back an re-watch all of these, would love to hear thoughts from others too

1. AJ Styles v Minoru Suzuki- G1 Tournament NJPW
2. Young Bucks v Time Splitters- Dominion NJPW
3. Kota Ibushi v Tomohiro Ishii- Back to Yokohama Arena NJPW
4. Shield v Wyatts- Elimination Chamber WWE
5. Katsuyori Shibata v Tomoaki Honma - G1 Tournament NJPW
6. Young Bucks v reDRagon- War of the Worlds ROH
7. Kazuchika Okada v Shinsuke Nakamura- G1 Finals NJPW
8. Adrian Neville v Sami Zayn- nXt REvolution
9. Kenny Omega v ACH - Battle of Los Angeles N2 PWG
10. Sami Zayn v Cesaro - nXt Arrival

Some honorable mentions- AJ Styles v Hiroshi Tanahashi G1 Finals, Daniel Bryan v HHH Wrestlemania, Young Bucks v reDRagon Border Wars, Okada v AJ 2 and 3, Shield v Wyatts from Raw, Shield v Evolution both, both Tanahashi v Shibata matches, Cesaro v Cena

Admittedly, I haven't been able to watch many of the NJPW matches and I am a little bias. However, I think Dragon vs HHH was the best thing the WWE did this year and would have to be near the top of my list. I know people liked the Wyatts vs Shield match a lot (and it is great), but I think as far as an all around fantastic match with big time feel and big time storytelling, that mania mach was fantastic.

Again, I am bias though.

My match of the year might be Neville/Zayn. I don't know gotta really think about it but no match made me feel what that match made me feel this year.

i have not watched any of these, my personal favorite, my favorite tag team if that is separate (that i have seen) is Devastation Corporation V.S. The Throwbacks Tow out of three falls, that was just great to watch.

SBR wrote:My match of the year might be Neville/Zayn. I don't know gotta really think about it but no match made me feel what that match made me feel this year.

I can see that. I think if you consider the whole thing (the build, the post match, etc) it is right up there. I was really taken by that match.

CapitalTTruth wrote:Admittedly, I haven't been able to watch many of the NJPW matches and I am a little bias. However, I think Dragon vs HHH was the best thing the WWE did this year and would have to be near the top of my list. I know people liked the Wyatts vs Shield match a lot (and it is great), but I think as far as an all around fantastic match with big time feel and big time storytelling, that mania mach was fantastic.

Again, I am bias though.

I get where you're coming from, and I really liked the Bryan/HHH match as well, the one thing that brings it down IMO is the obviousness of the outcome, and I know that's kind of a copout but like I just never really got into that match as much as I would have if Bryan had any shot of losing, but still a great match definitely in the conversation

There were a ton of Drew Gulak vs. Biff Busick matches this year, and I absolutely loved all of them. I could probably pick out a better MOTY, but these two guys were the shit in 2014. They were two guys that I would go out of my way to see wrestle, and I feel like out of the MOTYC that they had that I have to give one of their matches my vote.

Dave gave Zayn/Neville ****3/4 btw.

That bastard.

TeeBeeKay wrote:

CapitalTTruth wrote:Admittedly, I haven't been able to watch many of the NJPW matches and I am a little bias. However, I think Dragon vs HHH was the best thing the WWE did this year and would have to be near the top of my list. I know people liked the Wyatts vs Shield match a lot (and it is great), but I think as far as an all around fantastic match with big time feel and big time storytelling, that mania mach was fantastic.

Again, I am bias though.

I get where you're coming from, and I really liked the Bryan/HHH match as well, the one thing that brings it down IMO is the obviousness of the outcome, and I know that's kind of a copout but like I just never really got into that match as much as I would have if Bryan had any shot of losing, but still a great match definitely in the conversation

I buy that. It being early in the card took some from the energy (even though the building was on fire for it). I guess it was because I wanted so badly for Bryan to win the title that night, but I actually feared they would overbook the whole show and have Bryan lose the match HHH and then throw a bunch of swerves in. So it didn't seem so obvious to me. I thought they did a good job building some uncertainty into that whole storyline.

Anyway, we agree it was a fantastic match. So many good ones this year. I need to get on watching some of those NJPW matches.

I feel like I gravitate towards matches that make me feel like a kid again. DB's two matches at Mania, Zayn/Neville and first Shield/Evolution where I was in the crowd top my list.

For New Japan I saw a couple of G1 shows on DailyMotion and I saw the finals on UStream. Shinsuke/Okada, Suzuki/Styles & Tanahashi/Shibata (even though I don't think it was 5 stars) all top my NJPW list for the year.

On the indies anything that had The Young Bucks was a MOTYC.


I thought about this a lot at work today.

I am currently undertaking a thinly veiled attempt to put off writing my dissertation where I am reviewing as many of my favorite matches of all time as I can think of using a rating system I designed. This is not particularly important for anyone else, but I am finding that it is getting me to watch wrestling a little different and I am realizing how much "fun factor" matters to me. That is partially why I don't think anything would top Bryan vs HHH for me. I was there, dragon has been my favorite wrestler since like 05, and the match was just a blast. I think Zayn vs Neville is very similar. I watched that on my couch and was just having fun.

Maybe my memory is bad, or maybe I'm just a jaded asshole, but I don't remember a single thing about DB/HHH at mania. My memory of it is that it was a good match, but nothing amazing. Maybe its because i just refused to believe HHH would go over.

but in no real order, here are some awesome ass matches from 2014:

Young Bucks vs. World's Cutest Tag Team - Guerrilla Warfare Match, PWG 11
Adam Cole and The Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega, Zack Sabre Jr and Chuck Taylor - PWG BOLA Night 1
Kenny Omega vs. ACH - PWG BOLA Night 2
Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW G1 Finals
AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki - G1 Night 7
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata - Destruction in Kobe(and their G1 match was pretty rad too)
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto - NJPW Power Struggle
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8
The Shield vs. Evolution - WWE Extreme Rules
Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville - NXT REvoltion
Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd - NXT Fatal 4 way
The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family - WWE Elimination Chamber

Just curious, since the predictability of the HHH-Bryan match's outcome ruined the enjoyment factor of that match, then did it also hurt the Zayn-Neville match from Takeover: [R]Evolution?

Especially because of that match's stipulation of Sami vowing to quit if he hadn't won the belt?

I don't think anyone said the predictability "ruined" the match, everyone seems to agree it was good or great, but the predictability did hurt it

Zayn v Neville was a little different IMO, I expected Zayn to win, but there was doubt in my mind, they could have gone a lot of different ways with Sami had he lost, he could have just been moving up and they needed a way to write him off, it could have been a way to have him try and turn heel to see how he worked as a heel before moving up, lots of different things could have happened there IMO, so instead of being 99.9% sure Bryan was beating HHH, I was only like 90% sure Sami was winning and that does make a difference

but still both matches were great and near the top of my list

I don't think predictability hurts it as much for me. In both cases in question there were moments in the match that I wondered. They had build the match and told the story in a way that I could see them justifying going the way they clearly shouldn't with the finish. I think that is what makes both matches so good, despite being somewhat predictable.

somehow forgot about Ibushi v Ricochet, which I just re-watched and it was spectacular

I haven't been as actively into wrestling this year but Cesaro/Zayn really, REALLY stands out as top three of the year at minimum. Anything AJ Styles did during the G1 Tournament was incredible, I have never seen a man have so many great matches with such a wide variety of talents, Styles cemented himself as one of the best workers in wrestling history this year. Turns out leaving TNA for Japan was the best thing he could have done. Maybe Styles wouldn't be a good fit for the WWE but he is a good fit for absolutely every other promotion on Earth and that is no simple task.

In terms of impact, Bryan's entire WrestleMania was probably the biggest moment of the year. Sting's return would have been bigger if they had done a follow-up of some sort. His gimmick can overcome his age, if they book him properly then he might have a match-of-the-year candidate next year just because he is brilliant at working within his limits and can tell a good story. Still, Bryan/HHH is good but Bryan/Orton/Batista had the biggest moment, it is hard to say which is more worthy of a spot.

And if we're mentioning WrestleMania, Brock/Taker may not have been a very good match but Brock destroying the streak may have been the only thing that could give Daniel Bryan a run for his money in terms of biggest moment. Brock/Cena was one of the best in-ring stories told, with Brock having another big moment by destroying Cena, which (again) had poor follow-up but was one of the standout moments of the year regardless.

This year as a whole has sucked, but there were a lot of moments that will make 2014 one of the most significant in wrestling history. It is hard to decide which moment, especially with so many great matches, is deserving of top honors when so many feel completely even to me.

I haven't seen how it comes off on screen yet but I was there for Ricochet vs Gargano and that match was lights out in person.

This year as a whole has sucked, but there were a lot of moments that will make 2014 one of the most significant in wrestling history. It is hard to decide which moment, especially with so many great matches, is deserving of top honors when so many feel completely even to me.

Interesting that you think 2014 sucked. Personally I thought it was fantastic, perhaps it is just the phenomenal access we have to shows now, but there really has never been a year I can remember where I was so pumped for a number of shows and they almost all delivered.

I think WWE January through May/June was really strong, and then kind of fell of a cliff, but I felt overall it was a super strong year for PWG, ROH, and NJPW.

I think the last couple of months of WWE TV are what you will think of when thinking of 2014. Mind you I really only think two of their 12 PPVs this year were bad (Battleground and TLC). But Raw being horrific for a while really hurts but I have watched way more wrestling than I have in a long time.

I bought a NJPW iPPV and watched way more Japanese wrestling than I ever have, Lucha Underground debuted, PWG was insane, Chikara came back and was pretty decent once you got used to their new guys.

2014 was pretty cool, considering I gave up on indy wrestling for a while I think myself and the indy scene bounced back nicely.