Tag Archives: Seth Rollins

Top 10 Matches of Year 2013

Continuing the process of putting up match of the year lists, we are in the year 2013. The first year I started to keep track of matches on my google spreadsheet. In September I made the initial list that has ballooned out from there.

#10
CM Punk vs John Cena
WWE Raw
February 25

The classic “piledriver” match. I would say Punk is Cena’s best opponent and it’s the best WWE feud of the 2010’s. Another awesome match in that series, and sadly the last.

#9
Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Virus
CMLL
October 6

Two of the best mat workers in the world working a classic lucha title match. Anytime Virus gets the time in these matches they are must watches.

#8
Hirooki Goto vs Katsuyori Shibata
NJPW Dominion
June 22

I feel wrong putting this match on the list, due to what happened to Shibata in 2017. However this is my 2013 list (outside of a small edit later on). These two destroy each other with stiff strikes. Hard to watch in hindsight.

#7
Kota Ibushi vs Shinsuke Nakamura
NJPW G1 Climax
August 4

Shocking to say both of these wrestlers have competed in the WWE. They just have perfect chemistry and work at an extreme pace. Watch out for the kicks!

#6
Cesaro vs William Regal
NXT
November 21

The final match in the great career of Regal as he tried to put the cocky young jerk in his place. Everything you could want in pro-wrestling.

#5
Cesaro vs Sami Zayn
“2 out of 3 Falls”
NXT
August 21

Before NXT was on the WWE Network (and before the WWE Network was a thing) NXT was purely a development territory. However these two didn’t need to develop and they put up an amazing match here.

#4
The Shield vs Cody Rhodes & Goldust
WWE Battleground
October 6

A really underrated match where the Rhodes family had to win to get their jobs back. With an emotional Dusty in their corner, the Rhodes brothers were the perfect babyface southern tag team.

WWE_SummerSlam_2013_poster

#3
Brock lesnar vs CM Punk
WWE SummerSlam
August 18

CM Punk worked as a spunky underdog babyface against the monster here and it really worked. Punk pulled out all the stops and used his brains to make this match competitive. In the end, Lesnar is still the unslayable monster, but the ending was actually put in doubt.

#2
Daniel Bryan vs John Cena
WWE SummerSlam
August 18

My former #1 match of 2013 is an all-time classic. Cena went out there to make Bryan the star, and this is them doing a WWE main event match. The person possible version of that style!

#1
Dr. Wagner Jr. vs LA Park
TxT
May 11

On the original list I made in 2013, this match was #2, but my love for it has grown over time. This match starts out with LA Park lighting a Wagner shirt on fire that is draped over a chair and while Wagner makes his entrance, Park is flipping him off. It gets better from there. Blood, chairs, beer bottles, this is everything a brawl could possibly be!

Top 10 Matches of the Year 2014

For the last two years I have put up my lists for the matches of the year after voting in the annual Voices of Wrestling poll. Since I didn’t have this blog before hand, I have no older lists up. Over the next little while I work on getting up lists for the remaining years of years (not only from when I voted, but beyound). Let’s start by working backwards.

Note this list was created in 2014.

#10
The Hardy Boyz vs The Briscoe Brothers
OMEGA Chaos in Cameron
April 26

Two of the greatest tag teams of all-time collide in an epic. Just as wild and spectacular as you would expect. Before the Broken Hardys, we had this amazing Briscoe vs Hardy feud that people should revisit.

#9
Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt
WWE Royal Rumble
January 26

Remember when Daniel Bryan joined The Wyatt Family as a great tease then had that amazing moment when he betrayed them? Then he had this amazing match with Wyatt, made him look like a star? Then on the same night he lost the Royal Rumble and the WWE fans rioted? Those were wild times.

#8
Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn
NXT R’ Evolution
December 10

I remember loving this and it being the first time Neville really felt special in a WWE ring to me, but I don’t actually remember the match three years later. Not sure what that says about it.

#7
Bárbaro Cavernario vs Rey Hechicero
CMLL
June 20

The finals of the “En Busca de un Idolo” tournament and these two brought it. The crazy risk taking caveman against the mat wrestling demigod. Even if you don’t like lucha, you could like this match.

#6
Daniel Bryan vs Triple H
WWE WrestleMania XXX
April 6

Perhaps the greatest Triple H match in history as the company, for one night, tried to make Daniel Bryan the man and Triple H did the right thing.

#5
Cesaro vs Sami Zayn
NXT arRIVAL
February 27

The first match on the show that debuted NXT to the world (well not really, but it was not easily available before) and they hit it out of the park. A continuation of their great matches in 2013, these two pulled out all the stops to produce a classic.

#4
Biff Busick vs Drew Gulak
CZW to Infinity
April 27

Two future WWE wrestlers (Busick is Oney Lorcan) putting on a mat classic in CZW. At the time I thought this was the future of indie wrestling and I was super on board. The mat wrestling kind of came and gone, but the two have made it at least.

#3
A.J. Styles vs Minoru Suzuki
NJPW G1 Climax
August 1

The highlight of the G1 Climax for me. Suzuki brought his bad ass self and Styles was in fine form it felt different from the rest of the big NJPW matches with less Oscars more genuine.

#2
The Shield vs The Wyatt Family
WWE Elimination Chamber
February 23

The first trios match in WWE history that I feel made it to five stars. Some of the greatest booking the WWE has ever produced, having two dominate teams teasing but never touching until the match. The crowd was insane, and the Wyatts doing to The Shield what they have done to everybody else was a beautiful finish.

#1
Atlantis vs Último Guerrero
“Mask vs Mask”
CMLL 81st Anniversary Show
September 19

The other five star match of 2014, for me. There is little wrestling I love more than big emotional mask matches and this one is a great version of that. A long time running feud that had audiences crying afterwards. There are few matches that have more drama for nearfalls than this.