WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

From Orlando, Florida

KEVIN OWENS vs. DEAN AMBROSE "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH": Good match. And these two have been facing each other a million times in the last month, so it's nice to know it's good enough to not get sick of (kind of how you never got sick of seeing Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins during their endless feud). They used Singapore canes. Owens power-bombed Ambrose through two sitting-up chairs. Ambrose delivered a top rope elbow through Owens on a ringside table. The genius finale had Owens on the top rope ready to flip onto Ambrose who was laying on a bunch of chairs set up. Ambrose got up and pushed Owens from the top rope and through two tables set up on top of each other at ringside. Good opener. Ambrose retained the IC title. *** (out of ****)

THE USO'S vs. THE NEW DAY: This was about as good as a Smackdown match. The crowd tonight was total insider wrestling fans. They booed The Uso's and cheered The New Day. The New Day retained the tag titles when Big E. caught a leaping Uso off the top rope and slammed him and pinned him. Entertaining but average. **

KALISTO vs.  ALBERTO DEL RIO: Kalisto did some cool, high-flying moves...but Del Rio is so fucking boring. Kalisto won the title clean after delivering a second Salida Del Sol. Kalisto winning would be a big deal (it was for the U.S. title) if he hadn't already won it on RAW (he quickly lost it on Smackdown). Bringing Del Rio back was a major mistake. *1/2

BECKY LYNCH vs. CHARLOTTE: The best part? After Ric Flair interfered to cause Charlotte to retain the Women's title...Sasha Banks came out to a big crowd pop. She kicked Lynch out of the ring and then turned on Charlotte and put her in a submission hold. I guess it's a good thing that the Women's division is more relevant than usual...but the problem is all the best matches with the Diva's are happening in NXT. *1/2

THE ROYAL RUMBLE (TRIPLE H): The favorite won, even if HHH was unannounced and entered as the surprise #30. The biggest deal was AJ Styles debuting in the WWE at #3. He got big crowd chants all night. Kevin Owens eliminated him about halfway through. The big story line was that Roman Reigns was defending his title and entered at #1. During the match, Vince and The League of Nations came out and dragged Reigns under the ropes, beat him up, then Rusev ran across the announce tables and splashed onto Reigns and through the collapsing French announce table. Reigns was taken to the back by the EMT's and later came back out looking perfectly fine. Brock Lesnar was in the match. Unfortunately it was only to set up a Wrestlemania match with Bray Wyatt that no one wants to see. The Wyatt Family teamed up to eliminate Lesnar. The final three were Ambrose, HHH, and Reigns. HHH tossed Reigns out. This was set up so that Reigns and HHH weren't left alone. Reigns was booed all night. They didn't want HHH to be cheered since he's the evil heel. They knew Ambrose would be cheered and he was. Manipulating the live crowd so often lately just to protect Reigns has to tell the WWE something, right? Like...maybe he isn't the guy? Either way, Wrestlemania has Lesnar vs. Wyatt and HHH vs. Reigns and those are two extremely lame match ups. This Rumble was entertaining in spots. It had too much of the usual guys-walking-around-fake-punching filler as usual. Seeing AJ Styles on the big stage was pretty cool...but knowing that this year we won't be seeing him in any NJPW masterpieces just breaks my heart. **1/2

Best Wrestler of 2015: JOHN CENA

Even I'm almost embarrassed to admit that John Cena had such a phenomenal year. This is because I am not a John Cena fan. I'm not sure what changed exactly. Did his in-ring work get better? A little, most notably during his 3 ppv's in a row feud with Kevin Owens when he unveiled a new move (a leap off the ropes into a Stone Cold stunner). Did his opponents get better? Well, he did have good matches against Brock Lesnar, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Owens, and Seth Rollins...so he did have great opponents. Or was it just that the WWE was so bad this year that any hint of entertainment was magnified? Whatever happened, Cena was in 3 of the top ten best matches of the year. His U.S. Open challenge was a highlight of the year for RAW, producing surprise oppenents and good matches with Zayn and Cesaro, among others. I even admitted that his first match against Kevin Owens in May was Cena's best match ever (and it was topped a few weeks later against Owens). Even though he is corny as hell, he's still light years better than just about anyone on the mic in the WWE (compare his promo's to WWE's new "star," Roman Reigns' awful, awkward promo's, and you'll understand). Cena wasn't in good matches every time out of course. His feud with Rusev was average, although their final match, an "I Quit" match at May's Battleground, was decent. And at the end of the year he had a dull match with the returning Alberto Del Rio. But Cena was in some really great matches. The crowd-favorite Rumble match with Lesnar and Rollins was awesome. And his first two matches against Owens featured some of the best wrestling the WWE's seen in years. And it says a lot that I changed my mind this year about a guy I never cared for.

Best Match of 2015: THE LUCHA DRAGONS vs. THE USO'S vs. THE NEW DAY "LADDER MATCH" WWE TLC

On Sunday, December 15th, there was a moment that will live in wrestling infamy. It is, without a doubt, the new Mankind-gets-tossed-off-the-cell type of highlight. Kalisto, a member of The Lucha Dragons, delivered a Salida Del Sol (basically a flip into a pile-driver) on Jey Uso from the top of the ladder down and through a ladder bridge. It was crazy, insane, wild, and the moment of the year. The rest of the match was just as entertaining and brutal to watch. It was a classic ladder match and a classic match and the match of the year.



Other Notable Matches:

January 4th
Okada vs. Tanahashi  NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9

January 25th
Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena  WWE Royal Rumble

February 11th
Finn Balor vs. Neville  NXT Takeover Rival

February 14th
Ishii vs. Honma  NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai

May 31st
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens  WWE Elimination Chamber

June 14th
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens  WWE Money in the Bank

July 5th
Okada vs. AJ Styles  NJPW Dominion

August 14th
AJ Styles vs. Tanahashi  NJPW G1 Climax 25 Day 17

August 22nd
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks  NXT Takeover Brooklyn

Best Show of 2015: NJPW DOMINION (July 5)

This was one hell of a show. The main event, which was one of the best matches of the year, had Okada beating AJ Styles for the title. The opener was another fun spot-fest with The Young Bucks, reDragon, and Rappongi Vice. Shibata and Sakuraba had a breathtakingly brutal match. Kushida beat Kenny Omega to win the Jr. title in a good match. And the final few minutes in the Nakamura/Goto match was awesome stuff. The show started great and ended great and featured the best wrestling in the world today.

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 10

Sunday, January 4th, 2016 from the Tokyo Dome in Japan

RICOCHET & MATT SYDAL vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. reDRAGON vs. RAPPONGI VICE (16:42): Richochet might just be the most entertaining wrestler in the world, so adding him to the mix definitely made this even more exciting and fun than these tag-team melees usually are. And, let's be honest...I could watch any of these four tag teams fight each other on every show until the end of time and never get bored. A ton of high-flying, super-kicks, comedy, action. This was awesome stuff. Sure, it's all been done before, but it's still a fucking spectacle. The Young Bucks won the Jr. tag titles. ***1/2 (out of ****)

THE BRISCOE'S & TORI YANU vs. BAD LUCK FALE, TAMA TONGA, & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI (11:34): Nice to see the Briscoe brothers from ROH make their NJPW debut. And the crowd kind of got into them (they are awesome). The other derelicts in this match are fairly mediocre, though, so it was entertaining but nothing special. The winners won the (new) 3-man tag titles. **1/2

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. JAY LETHAL (12:00): You know...having the ROH title defended on this show might seem like a good idea. More people probably watch this show than ROH. It makes the title seem global and special. Introduce Lethal to Japan (Elgin was in last year's G1 tournament...and got a good crowd response). But it was short, early in the show...and ended up making the title feel less special. It was a good enough match (except for the lame, Vince Russo ending where Lethal hit Elgin with a book then pinned him to retain to title). I'd have rather seen this as a thirty-minute main event match on a ROH ppv. **1/2 

KENNY OMEGA vs. KUSHIDA (12:48): This was a great match. Omega and Kushida flew all over the ring. It was crazy move after crazy move and wild and kinetic. The finish, a reversal into a small-package, was a bit of a letdown...but this was awesome stuff. Kushida won the Jr. heavyweight title. ***1/2

TOMOAKI HONMA & TOGI MAKABE vs. DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON (12:49): Honma, the crowd favorite and my favorite, and Makabe won the tag titles here. In December they won the tag tournament to get this shot. Decent match. The Bullet Club dudes, Gallows and Anderson, are dull, but Honma is awesome and that made up for every detraction. **1/2

HIROOKI GOTO vs. TETSUYA NAITO (12:16): The evil Naito put Goto through a table. Funny how the tables in Japan are small and built sturdy. Naito as a villain is amusing but not as exciting as he was before. This was just okay. **

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (17:19): Well they beat the shit out of each other. And early it was as awesome and it gets. Shibata sat down and let Ishii kick his back. Then Ishii sat down and let Shibata kick his back. A test of wills! It did get a little slow in the middle...but picked up at the end. Not either guy's best match, but worthy of expectations. Shibata won the NEVER openweight title. Yes, there are too many titles. ***

AJ STYLES vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (24:18): Exceptional match. The last ten minutes of this (the near-falls, the drama, the big moves, the brutality) was the best wrestling you will ever see in your entire life. And, sure, with two of the best wrestlers in the world wrestling for the first time on Japan's biggest show of the year, you expected a classic...but AJ hurt his back last month and had to leave early during NJPW's tag team tournament. He did wrestle on Ring of Honor's Final Battle ppv in the main event against Jay Lethal a few weeks ago, but he didn't look 100%. In this match he didn't look on top of his game early, but by the end when he was doing somersault splashes from the top rope he was on fire. The match was brutal. It was hard to watch when Nakamura was delivering flying knees and back breakers knowing AJ is hurt and probably won't be wrestling too much longer. The final minutes were a masterpiece and this was the match of the show. Nakamura retained the IC title. ***1/2

KAZACHIKA OKADA vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (36:01): This is the current generation's Rock vs. Austin rivalry. They're the two big names battling for the third time at Wrestle Kingdom in the main event for the title. Okada came in as champ and left as champ and he finally defeated Tanahashi to do it. With that said, this was their worst match against one another. There are a myriad of reasons. The match before this was hard to top. These two have had big matches before so it's a little old now. They're also both older in age and Tanahashi is on the down-swing of his career. It was also too long. The first half felt like filler. And after seeing Ricochet and Kushida and Styles flying all over the place, a lot of what these guys did felt a little less bombastic in the early going. The final five minutes were awesome, though, with near-falls and drama and emotion and a hot crowd. It was a good match, alas not great. **1/2

Excellent show. And, really, the end of an era. After the show, word came out that AJ Styles, Nakamura, Gallows, and Anderson, were going to the WWE. Styles may in fact be at the Royal Rumble. And this is sad news since, realistically, you'll never see a match as good as Nakamura vs. Styles in the WWE. What you'll see is comedy and run-ins and poor booking. And I can't see Nakamura being a star in the WWE. And isn't Styles still hurt? So this show is the last time you'll probably see some of these guys on a NJPW show. They've still got Honma and Ishii and Okada and Tanahashi so they'll be okay. But...man...I'm going to fucking miss seeing Styles and Nakamura in big NJPW matches. It'll be different without them, that's for sure.