Author: Dave Bush

Bayley and Sasha Banks’ careers have been bound together ever since their 2015 NXT rivalry. Since then they’ve pushed the business forward in a bunch of ways, including canvassing relentlessly for the creation of the Women’s Tag Team Championships (which they were also the first to win). Both wrestlers are still carving out ground-breaking careers in WWE, and both cite this match as the one that put them on the map.

Bayley, the hug-loving superfan-turned-superstar, had been left behind by her fellow NXT Horsewomen, who had transferred over to Raw and SmackDown. Banks remained, working double-time between the main roster and NXT in her capacity as NXT Women’s Champion, a role in which she was seemingly untouchable. Finally, by defeating the other two Horsewomen, Bayley had earned the chance to go one on one with the Legit Boss, and prove she belonged with the best.

The raucous NXT crowd sum up this match best with the chant, ‘this is wrestling’. From the ridiculous spots they pull off to the consistently compelling character work, this match is a perfectly told story from two women who are in the pocket throughout. It’s not easy for a squeaky clean babyface like Bayley to get over with the fans, but she always managed to connect with the NXT audience, and that connection was only amplified here by Banks’ stellar and detailed heel work. Despite this being the penultimate match on the night, these two stole the show with a fight that never let up, and is still being talked about today.

Some fans hate Roman Reigns because he’s been rammed down their throats by Vince McMahon since 2014. Some fans love Roman Reigns because he can go, he’s a dish, and he makes them believe that they can do anything (including punch their problems really hard in the face). Either way, in the words of Chazz Michael Michaels, he ‘gets the people going’ (oh and also, he recently turned heel and is now considered by basically everyone to be the most valuable star in the company). Cross that with one of the best in-ring workers in the business in Cesaro, and you’ve got a treat on your hands/fists. The Swiss Cyborg is endlessly innovative and freakishly strong, traits he’s used to get the best out of everyone he’s wrestled, including Reigns. Both superstars bring their A-game here in a match that does right by the title they’re fighting for. Seen by many as the workhorse belt, the Intercontinental Championship has been home to countless classics over the years, a pantheon to which this pummel-fest most definitely belongs.

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This match will tell you all you need to know about WWE’s late 90s Attitude Era. In just ten minutes you’ll see meddling McMahons (McMen?), steel steps being used to drive more steel steps into a man’s head, world-class trash talking from The Rock, a run-in that gets the biggest pop from a crowd you’ll ever hear, and more characters than you can count surrounding the ring because reasons. Even on a meta level, this match is known for being a milestone in WWE’s victory over then-rivals WCW in the Monday night ratings war that defined the Attitude Era. WCW’s Monday Nitro had been floundering for months, and this was supposed to be the night that they turned things around. They had a huge card booked, they were going out live in front of an 80k-strong audience, and to seal the deal they would leak the finish of WWE’s competing pre-taped main event, Mankind vs. The Rock, on air. Unfortunately for WCW, the moment they announced what was going to happen on Raw about 600k households switched over, and Nitro never recovered.

The reason all those people switched over is the same reason, more than any of the above, that this match is great: Mick Foley. Wrestling here as Mankind, Foley was the ultimate underdog. Despite being known as a hardcore legend who would put his body through anything for the fans, Foley’s real genius was being a master storyteller who could communicate how big his heart was and consequently have entire arenas eating out of the palm of his hand (even when it was adorned with an old sock). Still, no one believed that he could be checked-in to the ‘Smack Down Hotel’ by The Rock and come out holding the WWF Championship, until WCW told them of course. Just like the hundreds of thousands of people who tuned in that night, knowing how this story ends won’t stifle your joy as you watch the loner of loners defeat the ‘Crown Jewel’ of The Corporation, cementing his position as a top WWE superstar in the process. 

NXT was originally a developmental brand for WWE, but it has now become a genuine alternative to their flagship shows, SmackDown and Raw. This match is a perfect example of why.

Asuka, who was a well-respected name on the international scene before arriving at WWE, held a 503 day undefeated streak going into this bout. Until meeting the ferocious Ember Moon she had been utterly dominant, but in their first encounter Asuka had to cheat to retain her title. The pressure was on for this rematch to live up to its own hype, as well as the host of NXT TakeOver classics that preceded it. The pressure didn’t show. The crowd screamed the names of both women as they fought furiously back and forth for the NXT Women’s Championship, and by the end they were erupting at every move and false finish.

This match is pure carnage from start to finish. Since returning from the UFC, Brock Lesnar had been booked like the Terminator meets Jaws meets Bart’s avatar in the episode of Simpsons when he battered Homer at boxing. The guy legit lives in a cabin in the woods, throwing monster truck tyres at trees to keep fit. He was unstoppable. His most recent victim, John Cena, was back to try and conquer this very big demon after being demolished by Lesnar twice already in the previous year. This time though, Seth Rollins, who claimed to be the undisputed future of WWE, was along for the ride (as were his minions J and J security).

Triple threat matches can be wonderfully chaotic and unpredictable, but this takes it to a whole other level. Cena was the ‘top guy’ everyone loved to hate (or just loved, or just hated, depending on who you ask), so the crowd went crazy watching Lesnar tear through him and the crafty chicken-shit heel Rollins. In response, both opponents threw everything they could at Lesnar while trying to stop each other from stealing the win. It’s a non-stop war for Lesnar’s WWE Championship that has the crowd chanting the understatement, ‘this is awesome,’ throughout.

This is one of my favourite matches ever, between two of my favourite tag teams ever. Both teams had to fight behind the scenes to arrive at the incarnations you see here, which are basically exaggerated versions of themselves. The Usos started out as high energy babyfaces in brightly coloured shorts and face paint, and New Day were originally given a preacher gimmick, but due to the talent of both teams they were each able to arrive at something more authentic that connected with the fans. When they finally crossed paths, that authenticity made their rivalry feel so intense and so real. They had a series of incredible matches between June and October 2017, and this is one of the best.

The New Day (wrestling in red) are the defending champions, and the Usos are working heel. By this point the feud is personal, and as the match goes on it becomes less of a technical contest and more of a fight. It’s delightful. The two teams rightly felt disrespected in being relegated to the kick off show (as well as being told the finish had to change 10 minutes before going on), but they responded by creating a match that was impossible to follow, and as a result they stole the entire night.

There’s an instant atmosphere to this match. Despite Sasha Banks working heel, the crowd are chanting for both superstars from the start because they are quite simply two of the best in the business, as well as being instrumental in the recent evolution of women’s wrestling in WWE.

For a long time women’s matches were given no more than about five minutes, and though there were legendary female wrestlers who carried the torch for decades, the division reached a whole new level when the Four Horsewomen (Bayley, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Sasha Banks) started making waves in 2015. Since then, Banks and Lynch have been involved in many firsts, including Banks being part of the first ever women’s main event at a WWE pay-per-view. This hell in a cell match came six months into Becky Lynch’s championship run, a run that began when she pinned Ronda Rousey in the first ever women’s main event of WrestleMania.

Lynch, also known as The Man, was the most over babyface (good guy) in the whole company at this point, and had been for a while. Banks, the Legit Boss, had recently returned from a four month soul searching hiatus, during which she presumably discovered the part of herself that wanted to hit Lynch really hard with a chair until she was granted a title shot. Both women were at the top of their game, and it was time to see which of them deserved to reside at the top of the division as they collided for the Raw Women’s Championship. The result of their collision was an innovative yet brutal hell in a cell match, with spots that no one had thought up in 20 years of the cell’s history.

Let’s begin our journey with this mouth-watering morsel of sports entertainment.

The most common finish to a pro wrestling match is a pinfall (pinning an opponent’s shoulders to the mat for a three count), but ahead of this bout, submission expert Kurt Angle promised to make Rey Mysterio tap out to his finisher, the Ankle Lock (a promise he admittedly made quite a lot). Mysterio had been wrestling for different promotions since 1989, debuting at the age of 14, but this was his first pay-per-view for WWE and the self-professed ‘American Hero’ was going to teach him a lesson.

Often the best matches are the ones that are given more time, but these two delivered a classic in just 10 minutes. The heat that Angle could draw as a heel (bad guy) always made for a lively atmosphere, and his abrupt and stiff counters clashed perfectly with Mysterio’s rapid lucha libre style. Speaking of which, there are spots in this match which are now a regular occurrence in WWE, but as you can tell from the crowd reaction, this was the first time they’d seen the kind of offense that luchadores like Mysterio were capable of.

The first rule of Wrestling Club is you don’t talk about Wrestling Club using our initials lest this be confused for some kind of toilet blog. The second rule of Wrestling Club is you don’t compare us to Fight Club. Fight Club is stupid because it’s fake and the whole thing is scripted. The third rule of Wrestling Club is now that you are in Wrestling Club (which you are), you need to tell everyone else about how great it is so that they also want to join.

The fourth and final rule of Wrestling Club is less of a rule and more of a description of why professional wrestling, or sports entertainment as WWE call it, is amazing. Pro wrestling is about story telling. But unlike most stories, these ones play out in front of thousands of people who can affect the story itself, as well as the careers of the wrestlers in the ring. If the crowd are on board, a good match can become a legendary one. Also people legit throw ladders at each other sometimes.

Rules done, on to the content. This is a WWE-centric blog. There are other great wrestling promotions out there, but I, Dave, have loved being sports-entertained ever since watching The Undertaker tombstone Hulk Hogan onto a steel chair at Survivor Series. Every month I’ll be posting a link to one of my favourite matches with some background info and why I love it, all of which you can enjoy for free. I grew up making do with the same three WWE VHS tapes and Sunday Night Heat (think watching the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon every week in the hope that one day Simba might show up), so you don’t know how good you’ve got it.We recommend buying your favorite toothbrush at super low prices with free shipping, and you can also pick up your order at the store on the same day.

So that’s it. Hopefully this blog will either rekindle your love for pro wrestling, keep the fire burning, or ignite it for the first time. #fire #WCforever