More than probably any other year in recent memory, 2021 is going to be a year of two halves, and nowhere is that pandemic/post-pandemic divide more clear than in WWE with July being the month where they fling open their doors and welcome the unwashed masses back to professional wrestling.
With the first six months of the year in the books, in the pocket, out of sight (love you OSW Review), let’s have a look back at the 10 best matches from the final pandemic months of the big Dub, and hey we give out about WWE a lot (often with good reason) but this list was HARD, with stacks of honorable mentions, like both Rumbles (sorry, can’t bring myself to put no-fans rumbles on here) everything KUSHIDA is doing in NXT right now, vs Gargano, vs Santos Escobar, Ripley/Asuka/Flair, Adam Cole vs Kyle O Reilly was brutal, if a teeeeensy bit too long, the fatal five-way from In Your House, the SmackDown Chamber match, there were some savage omissions from this list and I look forward to hearing your furious reactions to all of them.
I’m Adam hailing from PartsFunKnown and these are the 10 Best WWE Matches of 2021 (so far).
10. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus – Raw (March 1)
WWE sure enjoyed hiding match of the year candidates on free TV this year didn’t they, with this being the first of two ‘former friends club the f**k out of each other on a fairly random-ass episode of weekly telly in a match that was somehow better than the corresponding PPV matches’. Catchy category, I know. I am a writer.
On March 1, the Celtic Hogbeasts went to War Bastard in a match drenched in history, whiskey and sweat. Honestly though, this match had no right to go as hard as it did, with the closing five minutes being nothing but hoss move after hoss move after hoss move, most of them off the top rope because why not, I guess, us soft southerners cheering on Ireland and Scotland destroying each other, hoping that they never have the idea of getting together and revenging themselves on the English.
Their No Holds Barred match at Fastlane three weeks later was also very good indeed but all the weapon spots in the world couldn’t match up to this match’s intensity, also that closing Brogue Kick/Claymore spot. Chef glasgow kiss.
9. MSK vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma – NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver
And now for some very beautiful dancing. After Undisputed Era finally fractured like a Westlife commemorative plate, there were slight doom clouds on the horizon for NXT’s tag team division. Thank the lord then for the adrenaline injection of MSK, two supernaturally charming and acrobatic showmen, whose feud with the forever underrated Grizzled Young Veterans held the division together in a time of trouble.
At Stand and Deliver Night 1, one of the strongest overall nights of wrestling in a very long time, the vacant tag straps were up for grabs in a three-way, MSK vs GYV vs LDF and it’s amazing what genuine unpredictability can do for a match. Would WWE call all-in on MSK after they won the Dusty Classic, would the Veterans take it to redeem their loss in the tournament, would Legado steal it so they could do the faction holds all the gold moment?
All three options worked, which gave the match an undeniably electricity even before it became a stupefying acrobatic casserole of mayhem and hurled flesh. A hugely exciting statement on NXT tag team wrestling, even before the brothers of dadstruction Ciampa and Thatcher got involved.
8. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens – Last Man Standing – SmackDown (July 2)
Part 2 in the ‘former friends club the f**k out of each other on a fairly random-ass episode of weekly telly in a match that was somehow better than the corresponding PPV matches’ category. Electric boogaloo.
Call in recency bias but hot dog this match ruled, one of the sassiest and incongruously violent affairs to not be featured on PPV in years. Look at Sami Zayn’s back after the match, the pain must be Castro-nomical. Everything you could want from a KO/Zayn last man standing match is here, KO building a tower of weaponry which of course guaranteed that his hamster ass would be the one to plummet through it, a match narrative told through amazing facials and, of course, callbacks to their long and cruel history together with that final trilogy of powerbombs harkening as far back as 2015.
I mean, it’s so hilariously WWE that these two men would legit shorten each others careers fighting over a spot in a money in the bank match only for in the very next segment Zelina Vega is just ANNOUNCED as also qualifying for a spot, but even loopy Vince logic can’t take away from this canucklefest of violence. Quite literally fight forever.
7. Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne – NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day
Has there been a wrestling glow-up in recent memory greater than Finn Balor’s return to NXT? Going from an empty-eye smiler on the main roster, reminiscent of your brother’s high friend who’s always somehow in your kitchen to a rocknrolla psychopath with history’s biggest and meanest penis. Throw him in with one of wrestling’s best current technicians in Pete Dunne and baby you got a stew going.
Short of maybe Kyle O’Reilly, there’s no one out here stretching people better than Pete Dunne and for the most part this is a clinic of psychologically focused, ultra-convincing joint manipulation and counter-wrestling, broken up by brief flashes of stiff and sinister violence. Dunne catching Balor’s Coup de Grace into a triangle choke is a thing of beauty, likewise the glorious false finish of Dunne crocheting Balor with his own arm leading to a Bitter End.
While the first half may be a little too technical for some, the closing five minutes are classic Takeover main event, big desperate moves, albeit still held together with Dunne’s fixation on breaking bones. A connoisseur’s choice.
6. Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman vs. Drew McIntyre – WrestleMania Backlash
Sometimes though, more is more, and this is a giant filthy cheeseburger of a match, three titans doing HORRIBLE things to each other in a match that skips the build and goes straight to armageddon. Some people say that Vince still hasn’t slept since this match, it is all his fantasies come true.
Just an endless carnival of thudding meat and a litany of things happening that shouldn’t be able to happen. Braun Strowman should not be able to hit a somersault plancha off the the ring apron, Drew McIntyre should not be able to hit a Michinoku driver to Braun Strowman, Braun shouldn’t be able to catch a claymore into a powerbomb through the announce table.
It’s so much, all the time, and all of it very dangerous-looking indeed. Silly wrestling. Silly silly stupid wrestling. Braun, you are missed.
5. Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro – WrestleMania Backlash
Spoiler alert: you’re gonna see a bit of Roman Reigns in the top 5, because, you know, he’s kinda the best thing in all of wrestling not called Adam Page. I will acknowledge Roman as the head of this particular table because his run’s been booked to pretty much perfection from SummerSlam, and a lot of that has to do with the choice of Roman’s opponents.
Every month Roman’s out here with the best indie stars of the generation and keeping up, Kevin Owens, a certain goat that we’ll get to, and of course, Cesaro, who hasn’t felt this important since 2014 and Jesus Christ it’s about time.
At WrestleMania Backlash, which zombies-aside was a glorious PPV, the big dog and the big Tony went 30 minutes and yes, this is what we’ve been asking for, we were right to want this all this time.
Some gorgeous fluid wrestling, paired with the well-executive storydriven moments we’ve come to expect from Roman Reigns matches, be it always great value Paul Heyman at ringside, the long-term Uso storyline, or simply the tribal chief’s poise and disdain for his opponent, even when that opponent is able to snatch him with an uppercut at a moment’s notice. Could have done without the distracting vampire teeth big Ces, but that’s my ONLY QUIBBLE.
4. Daniel Bryan vs. Edge vs. Roman Reigns – WrestleMania 37
Once this match starts it never stops, calling to mind some one of the greatest triple threats of all time, Seth Rollins vs John Cena vs Brock Lesnar, from the ringside goons getting involved before getting demolished, to the uneasy alliances to take care of the bigger threat, man that double submission spot devolving into duelling headbutts, such a punch-the-air moment of silly wrestling humour and desperate ingenuity. Like the NXT Tag triple threat we mentioned earlier, it’s another match hugely benefited by seeds of unpredictable doubt. Edge was the nostalgic favourite, Roman was the unstoppable champion, Bryan was the fly in the ointment, the pain in the ass, and those three stories wove themselves together seamlessly, with everyone looking like a superstar, right up until the finish which crowned Roman and the superstar who eats superstars for fucking breakfast, to be specific a pancake breakfast, stacks on stacks.
3. Bianca Bianca vs. Sasha Banks – WrestleMania 37
Sometimes it’s not about the moves, it’s about the occasion. It’s about the right people having the right match on the right night. The twin main events of WrestleMania 37 RULED and while the triple threat had the violence, this had the emotion, the culmination of WWE thankfully deciding to conclusively pull the trigger on Bianca Belair after numerous false starts, a move totally vindicated by the ‘this is awesome’ chants before the match even began.
The bout itself was stellar, Bianca’s a superstar and honestly there are fewer more reliable big match wrestlers in the industry than Sasha Banks. While most people will remember the hair whip spot, in isolation one of the best spots of the years, sounded like a fucking gunshot, there’s so much good stuff here.
Bianca gorilla pressing sasha and walking up the ring steps with her like a terrifying monster, Bianca suplex dead-lifting her three times in the same spot, Sasha wrapping Bianca up in her own hair. It’s grand stuff, for the grandest stage of them all.
2. WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa – NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver
Only Walter could convincingly end a match with a knife-edge chop. He’s one of the single greatest attractions going right now and please WWE do not f**k up Walter. [remembers Survivor Series 2019] please don’t f**k up walter AGAIN.
This match is eye-watering and oh I love it so. For a while Tomasso Ciampa’s brand of Rasputin-flavoured ultraviolence has lain dormant in NXT, occasionally bubbling to the surface to create magic. His matches with Thatcher were wonderful, his match with WALTER is another level.
The multiple chops, including the hilarious spot of Walter chopping through the announce table, him nearly decapitating ciampa in the best big boot since the late great Test, Ciampa somehow hitting a fairytale ending on the world’s largest and most threatening baby it all just feels real.
Every last horrible scrap of it, the selling, the strikes, the sounds, the welts, the finish, a wonderful exhibition in an increasing legacy of pain for both competitors. A dream matchup.
1. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan – Smackdown (April 30)
Match of the year so far was on bloody SmackDown, lads, I can’t believe it either. Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns with Bryan being banished from Smackdown if he loses. Doesn’t really get more blockbuster than that, and it lived up to it. And hell, what a match to debut a new theme, as Roman ascends to final boss, it’s WWE version of Sephiroth’s theme and I’m here for it.
Anyway, the match, the match is f**king brilliant, Daniel Bryan wrestles like its his last match, turbocharged with speed, intensity and raw facial emotion. Him and Reigns are a perfect blend of speed and power, Roman hitting him with huge moves like a top rope powerbomb but bryan able to strike little and often at roman’s arms while using his own speed against him.
Joyous stuff even without the huge and legitimate stake, which WWE, rare for them, actually followed through on, delivering a definitive finish, clean no less, and a result that increases in significance for every subsequent week that Daniel Bryan remains missing in action.
The only downside was that this match didn’t happen in front of fans, and honestly, I can’t wait for wrestling to be wrestling again.
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