Category: Review

WWE Super ShowDown 2020: Every Match Ranked

Another Saudi Arabia show is in the bag and…do you know what? I actually thought it was ok. Not great, not by a long way, but I don’t think there was anything particularly bad on the show and overall it was certainly no worse than any other B-show WWE PPV these days. The matches were still plagued with the standard problems that come with having to fly for 14 hours, spend two days running the media circuit and then wrestle in 100 degrees Farenhieght.

Let’s get to breaking down the matches.

9 – Goldberg def. The Fiend Bray Wyatt(c)
(Universal Championship)

Fine, whatever.

8 – Brock Lesnar(c) def. Ricochet
(WWE Championship)

Yup, thought so.

7 – Roman Reigns def. King Corbin
(Steel Cage)

It’s over! It’s finally over! Assuming Michael Cole didn’t lie to us about that…alright so maybe it’s not over.

Probably unsurprisingly, this match didn’t have anything interesting going on with it. What little in-ring chemistry Reigns & Corbin had has since been played out beyond the point of it being entertaining and the addition of the Steel Cage into the mix didn’t help the match quality at all. All it did was mean that every minute or so the action had to stop so one man could very slowly climb the cage only to be thwarted by the other.

Even though these two will technically be facing each other in the Elimination Chamber next Sunday, I’m just glad that we’re finally at a point where we can say we’re done with this feud. If Reigns vs Goldberg really is the plan then I actually think there could be some good stuff there, even if I would’ve preferred Reigns vs The Fiend and quite honestly, I couldn’t give less of a shit about who Corbin fights next.

6 – Mansoor def. Dolph Ziggler

Now we enter the “just fine” portion of the show, where the matches are enjoyable, but nothing noteworthy.

As far as opponents for Mansoor goes, I think Ziggler was a pretty good choice, admittedly, Dolph Ziggler as a heel seems to think that “slow the pace down and only do headlocks for offence” is the only possible way he can do it, which isn’t ideal, but Mansoor spent a pretty good portion of the match on offence and the match didn’t feel too slow.

In terms of Mansoor winning, that’s great, but like I say every time he does one of these shows, there’s no point in doing any of this or giving him these wins if you’re not going to feature him on other shows and try to build him into an actual star. I know that with this show WWE proved to us all that they just don’t want any new stars and would rather have the ones from yesteryear, but if you’re going to treat Mansoor like this big heroic wrestler, then us see him wrestle more than twice a year.

5 – Angel Garza def. Humberto Carrillo

Another match that was just fine.

I thought this match was enjoyable, it held my attention the entire way through and showed off a lot of what these guys have to offer, however, they’ve had better matches together before and they will almost certainly have better matches together in the coming weeks too.

My main problem with this whole feud comes with it’s proximity to Wrestlemania because unfortunately, it’s not a big enough match to get a one-on-one blowoff on that show, so it’ll probably end with one of them eliminating the other in the ARMBAR. I like both Garza & Carrillo, but there’s only a limited amount I feel ok with investing in both of these guys because time and time again, WWE will spend a couple of months building guys like this up, only to suddenly drop them with no explanation. I hope that doesn’t happen here, but I’m remaining cautious.

4 – Bayley(c) def. Naomi
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Wow, Naomi’s entrance looks like crap when she’s not allowed to wear any of the glowing stuff.

Much like many other matches on this list, it was better than I was expecting in the circumstances. I’m sure the two of them could put on a much better match if they weren’t so restricted, but I think they did a good job with the hand they were dealt. The action the match followed was still a fair basic formula, but I thought it was an enjoyable incarnation of that formula, Bayley is really finding what heel style works best for her and she was able to ground and slow the action without resulting to five minutes of boring rest-holds.

Naomi’s comebacks were kind of exciting but again, she didn’t seem to be able to do a lot of her more crowd popping moves (speaking of the crowd, they were dead silent for this one). Even though Bayley won clean, there is the element of a dirty finish in there with Bayley using Naomi’s government-mandated shirt to trap her legs, so there’s room for Naomi to claim a rematch if that’s the route they want to go down, which at this point, I think it probably is.

3 – The Undertaker won the Turwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match

Well, the in-ring action wasn’t anything interesting, but the storytelling was pretty compelling.

To be entirely honest, when I saw R-Truth starting off against Bobby Lashley, I thought we were in for 3 or 4 matches of Lashley running through people until Mysterio came out, but the way they turned it around and had R-Truth picking up a bunch of surprising victories over some fairly imposing heels was a lot of fun. Going through the 24/7 Championship stuff over the past year has led us all the slightly forget that Truth is actually a very capable wrestler when he wants to be and I found myself rooting for him with each victory in this match.

Then there’s the stuff with The Undertaker, which to be entirely honest with you, I thought was goofy and cheesy, but absolutely brilliant. The way the scene was set up with The OC beating down on Rey Mysterio only for that to suddenly be turned around to the OC getting beaten up. I particularly loved the way those black boots & coat stepped into frame, it was a nice variation on revealing The Undertaker outside of the usual gong hitting. It built this hype towards the entrance because we all knew it was The Undertaker, but first, they wanted to make us really want to see The Undertaker.

I doubt we’ll ever see the trophy again and it’s certainly not going to be mentioned in The Undertaker’s eventual Hall of Fame induction, but the story told throughout the phases of this match was well-done and quite enjoyable.

2 – The Miz & John Morrison def. The New Day(c)
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Don’t worry everyone, the tag teams will save the day with good matches!

This is the first time since his return that I’ve actually been glad that he’s back. The stuff he’s been doing in the build to this has been fun and all, but this is the first time that I’ve been able to see the value in him returning as an active competitor in the company. It’s no secret that for the majority of 2018, The Miz was floundering as a face and once his short feud with Bray Wyatt was over, it was entirely possible that he was going to go right back to that formula, happily, his reuniting with Morrison has made The Miz as a face and interesting character again and I’m very glad they’ve won the titles.

Once again, this match was slightly slower than it probably would’ve been under normal circumstances, but I still thought it was a very enjoyable watch. Big E felt like the MVP of the match to me as he seemed to be able to keep the pace going just enough throughout the moments where it seemed like the action was dropping. Although the chair shot was a little “blink and you miss it” it’s entirely in-keeping with Miz & Morrison as characters and gives The New Day plenty of reason to get back on their feet and keep this feud rolling into Wrestlemania, where hopefully, they’ll get a chance to tear the house down.

1 – Seth Rollins & Murphy(c) def. The Street Profits
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

I really don’t understand why people seem to be down on Rollins & Murphy as tag champs, it seems to me like they’re exactly what the Raw tag division needed to become interesting again.

As I mentioned in my predictions, Rollins has slid so naturally back into a heel role and this new Farcry 5 esque spin on his heel persona has been such great fun to watch in recent weeks. Thankfully, this also extends to the matches, where I think all four guys involved got a chance to feature themselves and keep the fun rolling the whole way through the match. Rollins seems to be learning his lessons from his last heel run and is able to make himself look beatable in the ring, without looking like a total chump. This extends to Murphy too, who I’m very glad is still being treated like a competent wrestler, rather than a bumbling sidekick.

Given how little build The Street Profits had for this match, I’m very glad they weren’t just cast aside like they were no threat to the champions at all and that Rollins & Murphy had to resort to slightly underhanded tactics to win the match. I’m not entirely confident that any of the credibility gained in this match will carry over for very long into the coming weeks and months, but for this moment at least, I think this match was nothing but beneficial to everyone involved AND it was a lot of fun to watch.

So there you have it! Those are my thoughts on WWE Super ShowDown, thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what your thoughts on the show are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this way next Saturday as WWE give us little time to breathe, and I’ll be covering Elimination Chamber!

NXT Takeover: Portland: Every Match Ranked

Another Takeover, another great night of wrestling. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to discover that the show last night was just as good as they always are. I was worried the addition of a 6th match would mean that one of the matches get slightly shafted, but instead, the length of the show was simply extended to make room, which is fine with me and I don’t think 3 hours is too long of a show, especially when compared to Raw & Smackdown PPVs. So let’s not waste any more time and take a look at the matches.

6 – Dakota Kai def. Tegan Nox

Interesting how on one show we can have examples of two match-interferences, one of which was to the match’s benefit, the other its detriment, no prizes for guessing which one this was.

The action between Nox & Kai was great stuff, as I mentioned in my predictions, this whole build has done a great job of making both women seem like legitimate contenders in the women’s division and the brutality on display here has capped that off perfectly. I know I’m not normally a fan of weapons matches but I think this one kept the pace fast enough to hold my interest.

The interference at the end feels to me like a case of short-term loss for long-term gain, which is ultimately a good thing, but it doesn’t stop it from bringing this match down. It didn’t help that I – and seemingly the whole arena – had no idea who it was that interfered in the match, but I kind of like that, it immediately creates intrigue surrounding them and it lets them have a real ground-zero for a new character. That said, I’m not sure giving Dakota a lackey is the greatest idea, especially when you consider that we’ve already done that story very recently with Baszler, Duke & Shafir.

I have faith in the NXT creative team to make it feel like something different, however, until I see proof of that, I shall remain wary.

5 – Finn Balor def. Johnny Gargano

I know, I know. This match was fantastic, but there was so much good stuff on this show and I just couldn’t put this above the other matches from last night.

I think one of the main reasons I dropped this one is because it didn’t quite live up to my (admittedly, very high) expectations. I think because of Johnny’s injury, it lost a little bit of steam and the match as a whole just felt like it was missing something. What exactly that something is, I can’t quite put my finger on, but it dropped my enjoyment of the match just a bit.

That said, the match was still really good. I know people have soured on Gargano slightly, but I honestly don’t know where those people are coming from because I don’t think he’s lost a beat. These two matched up about as well as you’d expect them to and the action was, fast, hard-hitting and full of spectacle as a result.

Against, what I said in my predictions, I actually think Balor winning is the better idea now I’ve considered it. Gargano has had his status reinstated by what happened in the main event, so giving Balor this win to give him that boost in credibility after his return & subsequent heel turn was definitely the right way to go.

4 – Rhea Ripley(c) def. Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

This match is actually a really great look into how far Bianca Belair has come over the past year.

When Belair got a title shot against Baszler this time last year everyone viewed it as an opportunity to proves she belongs in the uber-high quality of the NXT Women’s division and she succeeded. Now, a year later she has another opportunity and it’s clear that she’s easily on par with any other competitor in the NXT locker room. In an era of NXT where the majority of stars are wrestlers who come in with a wave of indie support & hype behind them, looking back I’ve loved watching Belair become the fantastic performer she is today.

I had a lot of fun watching this match. Rhea has settled into her role as champion so easily that it only further proves how worthy of a successor she is to Shayna Basler’s crown. The chemistry here was stellar and there was such a wonderful sense of flow to the whole thing that kept my attention ticking over from one spot to the next. I don’t really have anything special to say about it, it was yet another great performance from two great performers and I’m very excited about what Rhea & Charlotte have in store going into Wrestlemania.

3 – Adam Cole(c) def. Tommaso Ciampa
(NXT Championship)

Oh! That’s the direction they’re going in, alright, you’ve got my attention.

This match was exactly what I’d hoped it would be and honestly, I think that’s the best thing I can say in its favour. This easily had the strongest story going into it and both guys feel like huge stars in both their presence and in the ring. There was a subtle brutality to this match, even though there wasn’t a great deal in terms of big “OMG” spots. Probably helped by that fact that Ciampa looks ripped, this felt like a real hard-hitting fight between two men who genuinely despise each other.

Despite Ciampa’s overwhelming presence and being the one with all the steam behind him currently, Cole made sure that he wasn’t forgotten as the champion and just in general, this match really cemented both of these guys as two of the biggest stars NXT has ever had. This fed into the finish, where we got a bait-and-switch with the interference, as Cole used all his greatest hits in terms of using underhanded tactics to try and win the match. The Undisputed Era getting involved, the low blow, the ref bump;  it felt like a real swan-song for Cole’s title reign and right up until Gargano showed up, I was certain Ciampa was going to win.

Gargano’s arc over the past three years has been so interesting to watch, it’s like when Ciampa’s around, Gargano just can’t help but become the worst version of himself. It’s almost like some kind of deeply ingrained trauma inside his mind that just turns him into a completely different person whenever Ciampa gets involved. There are so many pieces involved here and I’m not sure exactly how they’re all going to come together, but I’m very excited for wherever this whole thing ends up.

2 – Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne def. The Undisputed Era(c)
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

In my predictions, this was easily the match I was the most negative about and when it comes to the character stuff, I stand by what I said. I liked the caddy they drove themselves & the trophy out on, but I was not a fan of the “Fish” stuff. I understand why other people would find it funny, but it’s just really not for me. When it comes to the in-ring stuff, however, that’s the kind of stuff I live for.

In the past, I criticised the fact that Riddle & Dunne have a distinct lack of chemistry in the ring and while I still wouldn’t say it was perfect here, it was absolutely much better than it has been in previous matches. This match was back-and-forth the whole way through which is where I think tag matches are at their best, there was never a chance to settle into the groove of the match because as soon as one team established control, it somehow got broken and stuff started going mental again.

Something I think this match did particularly well was towards the finish when it kept me guessing as to who was going to win right up until the referee hit for three. It continued that form that I talked about earlier, I was never allowed to settle into the finish which meant that the excitement just kept building and building until Dunne & Riddle finally got the win. Despite what I said in my predictions, I’m actually glad the titles changed hands here because I think a shakeup in the tag division is absolutely in order because it’s really lacking in major talent right now. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get on board with their odd-couple pairing, but as long as they keep churning out matches like this, I really don’t mind.

1 – Keith Lee(c) def. Dominic Dijakovic
(North American Championship)

So THIS is what an all-out hoss fight is supposed to look like…I like it!

Quite simply, these guys went all-out and unleashed just about everything they could possibly think of to do and it was just fantastic fun to watch. it proves that big-guy fights don’t have to be slow, plodding affairs full of tests of strengths and grunty pushing. This match had such a different feel to everything else on the show, it was able to have an incredible sense of spectacle to all the big spots, while still maintaining a sense of a hard-hitting fight.

Not to mention, it helped to make an absolute star of Dijakovic. I know most of the NXT faithful know that he’s a great wrestler, but this was his first match on a big show like Takeover and I’ll be very surprised if he didn’t turn some heads. I could sit here listing all of the awesome spots that filled this match, but let’s be honest, you’ve already seen the gifs. I didn’t even know it was possible for people the size of Lee & Dijakovic to pull off some of the stuff they did last night, but quite frankly, I’ll never see gravity in the same way again.

It had just about everything you could want from a big match like this (both figuratively and literally) it was loud, proud, impressive and, most importantly, an absolute blast to watch, easily the best match of the show.

That’s all folks! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article, please let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back on Saturday, where I’ll be running down the best speeches from Doctor Who!

Every Episode of Doctor Who Series 5 (2010) Ranked

Out with the old and in with the new…well, new from 2010’s perspective anyway. It’s needless to say that Matt Smith had a monumental task ahead of him having to follow David Tennant as The Doctor, who was easily the most beloved actor to ever play the role. Smith’s time as The Doctor as a whole was quite interesting because the type of personality he portrays in series 5 is distinctly different from the rest of his series, but that’s something I’ll discuss as we get to them.

Series 5 was the first chance the show had gotten at a completely fresh start since 2005, with a new Doctor, new companion, new head writer and many new people filling major roles behind the scenes as well. it was time for a completely different style of writing and storytelling and, for series 5 at least, I’d say it was a success.

How much of a success? Well let’s take a look, shall we? As I rank every single episode from series 5.

10 – The Vampires of Venice

This episode ended up having a lot of elements to it that didn’t come together quite in the way I think the writers wanted it to, both from a single episode perspective and also a series-wide perspective.

Firstly, “Vampires, but aliens” is just a lazy premise. Of course, that doesn’t automatically make it bad (just look at what a thrill ride “Tooth and Claw” turned out to be) but the fact of it was that the idea of them being aliens didn’t add any extra layers to the story outside of allowing the writers to give them some more exotic technology, it felt more like a plot device than a story element. Not to mention the main plan of villains was a little bit goofy; “So we’re in Venice…I know, let’s flood it!” I mean, come on, try to think outside the box just a little.

The other main thread, which is more of a series-wide story, is Amy and Rory’s relationship. At this point in the series, it had become obvious that Rory was going to play more of a major role in the series than it first seemed, but it was also clear that Moffat wasn’t entirely sure where he wanted this particular thread to go. Probably down to the fact that he wasn’t sure how long the actors would be staying in the role for, there wasn’t a great deal of long-term planning when it came to telling the story of their relationship, so the conflict they go through in this episode feels like it’s rushing things a bit.

That said, I did like how the conflict was presented. Instead of making it a big melodramatic thing that takes up far too much of the time reserved for running away from monsters, it’s cleverly weaved into the rest of the plot as it goes along. The Doctor and Rory will have conversations about Amy while running away from the monsters which is great for making sure it doesn’t cloud too much of the episode’s story and adding a bit of levity into tense moments.

Ultimately, this isn’t necessarily a bad episode, but with a fairly weak villain and plot threads that seem odd compared to the direction they would eventually go in, this one ends up falling to the bottom of the pile as an episode I don’t particularly fancy rewatching.

9 – The Beast Below

This episode is brilliant at one thing but fairly mediocre at everything else.

What it’s brilliant at is allowing Amy (and by extension, the audience) to get a really good look into the new Doctor’s mindset when faced with tough situations. As great as The Eleventh Hour is (we’ll get to it), it never puts The Doctor on the back foot, he’s always in control of the situation and only suffers temporary roadblocks, so this episode makes sure to do the opposite and sticks The Doctor in a situation where he has no idea what’s going on and is faced with a horrible decision when he finally does figure it out.

Seeing any character at their lowest is always the best way to get a sense of who they truly are and that’s exactly what we see from The Doctor here, but because it’s mostly seen through Amy’s perspective, it means we also get a chance to see inside her head as she figures out exactly how The Doctor works and builds that unbreakable bond between the two of them that becomes so vital later down the line.

Unfortunately, that’s more or less the only thing I really like about the episode. There are plenty of versions of the “decent society with a horrible secret” story out there and this isn’t among the best. For one thing, we get straight up shown one of the main horrible things immediately, so it doesn’t create much of a mystery for the rest of the episode and it takes away a lot of the tension. Also, the elements of this society don’t make a great deal of sense. I can buy the idea that they take children who don’t achieve and put them to work, but the method seems incredibly stupid. So they ban them from taking the elevator? That just seems more inconvenient for everyone involved than anything else, they only get to kidnap them when they don’t do as they’re told anyway, it just seems so weird.

I’m also not a big fan of Liz 10’s character either. It reeks of trying-too-hard if you ask me. Yeah, we get it, she’s a queen who doesn’t act like a queen is supposed to, but the episode is insistent on continuously rubbing that fact in our face and I find her more of an irritant than an impactful character.

Like I said, there’s an absolutely masterful thread buried in this episode, which is why I ranked it so high, but unfortunately, it’s covered by a lot of stuff that I don’t particularly enjoy watching.

8 – Victory of the Daleks

This is perhaps the definition of a 50/50 episode. There’s so much like, but just as much to dislike.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first, The Paradigm Daleks. I’ve always thought the designs were a bit much, gaudy for the sake of gaudy if you will. If they weren’t immediately scrapped as an idea then I could’ve perhaps looked passed the visual design if they became much more interesting as a concept; the idea of Daleks with assigned roles is very intriguing to me. At the end of the day, these designs were immediately shouted down and any plans that may have existed for them were scrapped and they’ve existed as mere background scenery ever since and I can’t say I blame them, the golden Dalek design that had been used up until this point was just so perfect that a change was never going to go over well.

While we’re on the negatives, I’ve never really bought into the idea that Bracewell could be disarmed purely by proving he has human memories and emotions, especially since the Daleks aren’t supposed to even understand any emotions other than hate. It also takes the sting out of the fact that the Daleks outfoxed The Doctor because that should’ve been a big deal for him but immediately gets swept under the rug when Bracewell lives.

Onto the positives now, and straight away a massive thumbs up goes to making the Daleks seem actually intelligent and threatening again. It’s been far too long since we saw Daleks scheming and coming up with a plan outside “bring a massive army to murder everyone”. The way it subverts everything we know about the Daleks to see them acting like helpful robots and the reveal that it was all a ploy to trick The Doctor into identifying them as Daleks was an absolutely genius twist. Not to mention they do it again when they reveal Bracewell was a bomb, forcing The Doctor to stop his attack on the ship so that he can save the Earth instead. As much as that moment does get quickly brushed over, it’s still great when it happens.

I think the main reason this episode gets overlooked is that it ended up making no impact on the Daleks in any way since the only change was negatively received and was promptly never featured again. Innovating with the Daleks is a dangerous game, so much so that the only time I think it’s ever worked in Modern Who was in this year’s Resolution episode, but we’ll get to that later.

7 – The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

There are many episodes of this show that I would say needed more time in order to fully flesh out their story, this is one of those rare cases where I actually think splitting this episode into two parts was a bit too much.

The pacing of this episode is a bit start-stop. The episode starts out with a very harsh sense of urgency and almost immediately after The Doctor & Co discover what’s going on, Amy gets kidnapped. This is an event that should’ve taken place towards the end of the second act in order to rev the action up towards the climax, but instead, we have to go through a whole bunch of different stages where the pace dies off completely, before suddenly putting the pedal to the metal again in order to give us a decent cliffhanger.

The second part has a great deal of padding to it as well, with people wandering around the Silurian base, getting captured, freeing themselves, getting captured again, escaping again and so on. There are some good elements in there, such as taking a look at what people will do when their family is at stake and how people snap under pressure. The problem with having it here is that we already saw it in the previous series with Midnight, which played that string MUCH better than it’s done here.

I think a huge chunk of the middle could’ve been cut out of this episode, most notably the section where the Silurian’s come to the surface and The Doctor captures one. The only real purpose it serves is to give information to the audience and that could’ve been done some other way when The Doctor got down into the Silurian’s base anyway. If this episode had been a bit more focused, then I think it could’ve been really fun, but it was unnecessarily made into a two-part story which greatly hindered its ability to tell the story it wanted to tell.

6 – The Lodger

I find this episode extremely weird to go back and look at because all of the elements in it are stuff I wouldn’t expect to like very much, but it ends up coming together quite nicely.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of James Corden as a comedian, he fits into much more of the American style of comedian which is a style I’m not overly fond of so I generally don’t find much of his stuff funny. That said, I think he did a great job in this episode and I really like Craig as a character. Being an episode that almost entirely focused on comedy, there was always going to be a handful of jokes that didn’t land, but for the most part, I always find myself laughing when watching this one back.

The way the dynamic evolves between The Doctor and Craig is very well done, although it perhaps goes a bit over the top with The Doctor being better than Craig at everything, I don’t think we needed to watch The Doctor slaughter everyone at football for example. Regardless, the way Craig responds to The Doctor unintentionally wrecking his life and the awkward, apprehensive way that Craig deals with it all is hilariously British.

Where the episode falls a bit flat is in its main mystery, because unlike most episodes where we get drip fed little hints and clues before the big reveal of what’s actually going on, but this episode doesn’t give us anything the whole way through until everything suddenly gets revealed right at the end and it all feels a bit underwhelming, not to mention it’s slightly odd that there’s just this bungalow in the middle of a street of terrace houses, but whatever.

This was an episode that decided it wanted to focus more on its characters than its plot and although that leaves a glaring weak point in the episode, it’s still a fun one to watch.

5 – Amy’s Choice

Amy’s relationships with both The Doctor and Rory were a constant theme during her time in the TARDIS and it eventually became a little bit of a crutch to lean on when it came to creating conflict between the trio, however, this episode was a great example of how that conflict looks when it’s done right.

It’s a classic example of how everything seems so much more dramatic and important when you show instead of tell. So many of these arguments lie on what *might* happen if Amy and Rory live their normal lives together and what *might* become of Amy if she spends too long travelling with The Doctor. Instead, this one drops us right in the middle of both of those potential futures in order to give us a better understanding of how giving one up would affect Amy emotionally.

The Dream Lord is also a great villain, being able to show The Doctor his darker sides without going down the route of lunacy and jealousy that a villain like The Mater gives us. Toby Jones put on a brilliant performance in this episode as being with almost deity-like control of the dream worlds and the way the character was written feels to me like an accurate representation of what The Doctor would be like if he decided to turn to a life of villainy.

While it’s true that both of the worlds the trio were forced to chose between being dreams did retroactively take a lot of the tension out of the episode, the emotional impact and decisions the characters had to make were still very real and that’s what has a lasting impact on them going forward.

Not only did this episode give us a compelling take on Amy’s inner conflict, but it did it through the medium of an intriguing mystery and wonderfully performed & written villain. Very nice indeed.

4 – The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone

Many fans of modern Doctor Who would be quick to tell you that Blink is the only good story that features the Weeping Angels, those people are wrong because this one is brilliant.

Part 1 has mastery over its sense of tension and mystery. Not only do we get the second-ever appearance of River Song, leading us to revisit all of the mystery surrounding her and then we start to dive into an expanded knowledge of the Angels’ powers. The scene early on in the episode where Amy has a close encounter with an image of an Angel that became an Angel – which incidentally, is a brilliant idea – served to ramp up the tension early on and helped to keep us on edge throughout the whole episode.

Having such a large group of people investigating the ruins with The Doctor could’ve been a recipe for disaster, but they’re very quickly killed off one-by-one in off-screen attacks, keeping all of that tension boiling over nicely until the conclusion. The mystery of the first part is brilliantly written because all of the elements we need to solve it are right there from the beginning; we’re told very expressly that the Aplans had two heads and we can clearly see that the statues only have one, but it stares us in the face so obviously that we just can’t see it until The Doctor joins the dots, leading to a rather epic – if a  bit cheesy – cliffhanger

The second part of the story moves away from the mystery and instead focuses in on the action. You wouldn’t think there’d be many exciting ways to have a chase scene when the creatures doing the chasing are statues, but this episode manages it and the first half of the episode is very exciting as the crew make their way through the Byzantium. When things slow down again, we get a real look into the mystery box for Series 5 with the crack in the skin of the universe, doing something we never saw during Davies’ era and getting an understanding of exactly what this treat is and what it means before we fully address it in the series finale.

The episode isn’t flawless though. While I’ll admit that the sequence where Amy has to blindly make her way through the forest, with the angels potentially attacking any moment was very tense to watch, when you think about it for any more than a few seconds, you realise that it makes absolutely no sense. I thought the whole point of the angels was that it was physically impossible for them to move when someone was looking, but this concept makes it seem like they don’t actually know when someone’s looking, so they actually could move if they really wanted to? I know The Doctor said the angels were scared, so their instincts would be off, but that doesn’t quite feel like enough to satisfy the problems I have with it.

Ultimately, that is a rather minor complaint when compared to the rest of the episode though, because as a whole this story manages to have a dose of everything that makes Doctor Who exciting. There is a well-written mystery, exciting action and an iconic villain, alongside a little bit of timey-wimeyness to whet our appetites for the season finale. As a sequel to Blink, I think it does a great job of expanding on the lore of the Weeping Angels and shows the full potential how truely exciting they can be when written properly.

3 – Vincent and The Doctor

Quite simply, this is the kind of episode that every “historical figure” episode should aspire to be.

In previous episodes like this, the episode spends so much time with The Doctor fawning over whoever it is they happen to meet, and there is an aspect of that here, but it’s in a very different way. Van Gogh in this episode is written as a character first and Vincent Van Gogh second, which is exactly how these episodes should be done, because it’s all well and good spending time with a famous person, but why should I care about anything that happens to them if I don’t get a good sense of their character.

This episode has a nice helping of mystery to it, with an invisible monster that made for some weird action scenes and was a clever way to save on the CGI budget, but it’s mostly there as a tool to help tell Van Gogh’s story. There are the more obvious parallels of Van Gogh being able to see things that no-one else can, but more than that there’s the sense of him being an outcast from society and feeling like he just doesn’t understand how he fits into the world around him.

All of this leads to the touching ending to the episode, where The Doctor brings Van Gogh to the modern-day, in order to see his paintings,  the things he – and everyone from his time period – thinks are utterly worthless, being adored by hundreds, if not thousands of people, as an art expert explains what a brilliant genius he thinks Van Gogh was, showing him how truely appreciated he will become. Only to rip it away from you with the reveal that despite this, he never overcame his demons, but it still doesn’t feel like heartbreak, as The Doctor’s speech reassures us that, just giving him that moment of knowing how loved he will become was enough to change his life in a deep, but unobservable way.

This is an episode that doesn’t rely on the historical figure to carry the episode, but instead tailor-makes the entire episode for that historical figure. It gives us an honest look into the mind of Van-Gogh and takes us on an emotional journey that gives us a slightly bittersweet but still ultimately happy ending.

2 – The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

While it’s true that I do love a series finale that focuses in on the characters and their internal conflicts, sometimes a massive scale thrill-ride to decide the fate of the universe can be just as fun to watch.

The first part of this story is absolutely one of my favourite episodes of modern Doctor Who ever. The way it sets up its mystery is marvellous, quickly and concisely showing us how Van Gogh’s painting came to be in River’s possession, while simultaneously giving us a whirlwind tour of some of the places The Doctor has been throughout the series. The rest of the episode is a tense walkthrough of what the Pandorica is and what could possibly be inside of it.

Although there’s very little in the way of action, there are enough big moments sprinkled throughout to make things extremely exciting as each little bit of the mystery unravels; including one of the best speeches The Doctor has ever given, as he gets all of the armies above his head to argue to each other (even if it turns out that was never the case by the end). The speed at which we get new mysteries, while ongoing ones get answers are paced almost to perfection, as we get little pieces of information bit by bit, keeping just one step ahead of us so that we don’t quite work out what’s going on until it’s time for the reveal. A reveal which gives us an absolutely amazing cliffhanger, by the way.

The Big Bang shifts the focus of the episode from solving the mystery, to fixing the problem. As an episode, it’s much faster and louder, keeping us on the edge of our seat with lots of chase scenes and a healthy dash of comedy. The only time the episode would ever stop to breathe is when it had a big moment or reveal to give us, like The Doctor appearing from the future and “dying” in front of everyone or that really cool moment where River stopped fucking around and straight-up murdered the Dalek.

Normally, I’d call something like “rebooting the universe” a pretty rubbish way of solving everything, but the elements where set up so well throughout both this story and the series as a whole that I think it works really well. The solid character moments come in towards the end of the episode and it ties everything up in a neat little bow, tying in that really confusing scene from Flesh and Stone and cleverly implanting the memory in Amy’s head of how to bring The Doctor back (although I’m not sure how River knew she needed to give Amy the diary).

This story consists of two very different styles of episodes that are both brilliant in their own way – one a slow & tense mystery, the other and fast & frantic action-adventure – but both fulfilled their purpose almost perfectly and created a series finale that not only tied together the main mysteries from the current series but set up some new mysteries for the next.

1 – The Eleventh Hour

Easily the best introduction to a new Doctor we’ve ever had.

While The Christmas Invasion before this did a great job of establishing the new Doctor, it suffered somewhat from being rather lite on The Doctor himself, spending most of the episode in a post-regeneration daze. The Eleventh Hour had that task, only bigger, because not only was this the first episode in 4 years not to feature the beloved David Tennant, but they also had to introduce a brand-new companion to boot.

The episode manages to get everything you could possibly want from such an episode. Giving us the comedy of The Doctor being a bit loopy post-regeneration, but keeping it confined to Act 1 so once the episode really kicks into gear, we can just watch The Doctor be The Doctor and get a real good sense of who this new incarnation really is. It also does a great job with the new companion, introducing us to young Amelia Pond and seeing The Doctor bond with her, only for the rug to be taken out from under us as The Doctor overshoots his timing and re-encounters a fully-grown Amy instead.

As the episode pans out, we get to see these two characters build on that bond with young Amelia, with a character who feels very different, but is still clearly the same person; a lot of credit has to go to both actresses for pulling that off. We don’t have to go through that period of Amy not believing a word The Doctor’s saying because she already went through it as a child, instead, it’s more about Amy learning to trust The Doctor, after he abandoned her and cursed her to a life of seeing therapists because everyone else was convinced he wasn’t real.

While the main threat in this episode – both Prisoner Zero & The Atraxi – isn’t anything special, it’s exactly what it needs to be, because it puts an extreme amount of pressure on The Doctor to solve the problem in a very limited amount of time, which is arguably when The Doctor as a character is at his most awe-inspiring, thus bringing out the best performance in the person playing him. If anything it was actually quite a huge risk to have such a huge task in Matt Smith’s very first episode, it was a real sink or swim moment.

Thankfully, Matt Smith absolutely nailed every moment of it. Later on in his run, I had a lot of problems with this incarnation of The Doctor, but in this episode (and in fact, this whole series) those problems are virtually non-existent. Even watching this as a 10-year-old, I instantly fell in love with Smith as The Doctor and accepted him as a worthy successor to Tennant’s throne, culminating in that epic moment where Smith stepped through the image of his predecessors and declaring that he is The Doctor, a statement I absolutely believed.

This was an episode that managed to perfectly establish a new Doctor, Companion and Head Writer all in one, while still managing to be an exciting adventure that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

So there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, please let me know what you thought of this series of Doctor Who, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this time next week, where I’ll be running down my favourite music from the Pokemon franchise!

WWE Royal Rumble 2020: Every Match Ranked

The Road to Wrestlemania is officially underway and if it’s going to be anything like this show last night, it’s a road I’m very excited to be going down!

Everyone who’s ever used the internet has said it at some point over the past week, but Royal Rumbles are always so much fun to watch and this year was no exceptions, with two Rumble matches that were among the better ones as far as I’m concerned. Even better than that is that the Rumbles weren’t the only thing to write home about, as many of the other matches on the show were quality watches too.

Let’s not waste any more time getting into it and breakdown Royal Rumble 2020 match-by-match!

8 – Roman Reigns def. King Corbin
(Falls Count Anywhere)

No prizes for guessing this one would be last.

Quite simply, this match had everything that I hate about Falls Count Anywhere matches all rolled into one. The action was extremely samey the whole way through (the portaloo spot notwithstanding) as almost the whole thing consisted of Reigns & Corbin wandering around, occasionally hitting each other and throwing each other into the nearest, vaguely solid object.

Even when Roode, Ziggler & The Usos showed up, I still didn’t find myself getting excited, the spot where one of The Usos launched themselves from one of the stands was cool looking, but given that none of the four men involved in that spot were actually a part of the match, I just couldn’t find a reason to care. Also, the camerawork was just plain awful, I don’t know whether the cameramen were being told to shake the camera vigorously throughout all the action, or whether they were just bad at their jobs, but I almost got motion sickness from watching the action at one point.

It certainly wasn’t the most boring match ever and I’d rank it above the match that these two had at TLC, but that’s not exactly saying much. At least the right man won

7 – Sheamus def. Shorty G
(Kickoff Show)

Not much to say on this one, other than it was a lot more competitive than I was expecting it to be. I have no idea where creative are going with this storyline for Sheamus, but I’m happy to wait and see where it goes and that included not having much worth saying about this match. It’s nice that Shorty G wasn’t just annihilated like I thought he would be, but I honestly think watching him get slaughtered by Sheamus might’ve been a bit more fun to watch.

Like almost any pre-show match, it was perfectly acceptable, but not something I’m going to be talking about for very long after the fact.

6 – Andrade(c) def. Humberto Carrillo
(United States Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

Much like Sheamus vs Shorty G, this match was perfectly fine and the only reason this one goes above that match in my rankings is because it lasted slightly longer.

The dynamic between the two was quite different to Sheamus & Shorty G’s though, as these two men have very similar in-ring styles and it felt much more like the new kid on the block trying to get a feel for one of the older fighters, in order to find a weakness. Unfortunately for Carrillo, that weakness never presented itself and while I wouldn’t say Andrade dominated him in this match, he certainly seemed to get a lot more offence in than Carrillo did.

This match wasn’t as exciting as the match these two had at TLC last month, but I still thought it was a decent showing for a pre-show match where, ultimately, everyone knew the outcome going in.

5 –  Bayley(c) def. Lacey Evans
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

I think this is the match that I was the most pleasantly surprised by because, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t expecting much going in.

Bayley’s Pay-Per-View matches this past year have, for the most part, been rather underwhelming and I’m still not much of a Lacey Evans fan, but I think the two did a great job at putting on a well-paced and enjoyable match. For one thing, Lacey’s daughter is ADORABLE and her smile just seemed to instantly brighten my mood, but I also thought there was a lot of good action between the two.

I wouldn’t have thought Lacey could work that well as a face, but I found myself getting behind her as the match went on, thanks in large part to Bayley’s great ability to work as a heel. Watching this match it’s clear just how much Evans has come on as a wrestler, especially when you compare it to something like her matches against Becky Lynch from last May.

Admittedly, this wasn’t some super exciting match to set the world on fire, but I think these two women did an admirable job and made me finally see the potential in Lacey Evans’ new character direction, and more generally as a performer, so I’d rate that a success.

4 – Charlotte Flair won the 30 Woman Royal Rumble Match

With each year that goes by, I think the women’s Royal Rumble match keeps getting better and better. As WWE hires more and more credible female competitors, it no longer feels like the match is relying on the nostalgia pops and thread-bare action in order to get the crowd interested, finally putting it on par with the booking philosophies of the men’s incarnation of the match.

For the past two years, the downfall of the women’s Royal Rumble has been the first half but that wasn’t a problem here because I thought the first half of this match was the best portion of the whole thing. I wouldn’t have thought that Bianca Belair would be the one to get the rub of dominating the early portions but I absolutely loved how it played out. There was a good mix of everything in there, from the serious to the comical and it kept the action flowing at a good pace.

From when Charlotte entered through until Shayna Baszler showed up wasn’t all that interesting, but I still had a good time seeing people like Beth Pheonix & Shotzi Blackheart showing up and briefly kicking arse, even if blood somehow started POURING out of the back of Beth’s head.

While I’m a bit disappointed Shayna Baszler didn’t win the match, I’m not mad about it. While she is absolutely a ready-made star, I can understand why people think it might be a bit too early to give her a rub like winning the Royal Rumble and, let’s be honest, Charlotte was always going to have to win one of these eventually. Not to mention that sequence towards the end where Baszler just decided she’d had enough of this shit and eliminated EVERYONE still in the ring in space of about a minute was great to watch.

While it wasn’t perfect, it was undoubtedly the best of the women’s Royal Rumble matches we’ve had so far and I can honestly say I’d happily watch it again and have a good time doing so.

3 – Becky Lynch(c) def. Asuka
(Raw Women’s Championship)

This is one of those situations where I think a disinterested crowd took away from a match that was a lot better than the reactions it was getting. I don’t blame the crowd, however, if I had already gone through 3 hours of action and knew there was a Royal Rumble match immediately after this one, I’d try and conserve my energy too, but it doesn’t stop it taking away from the match somewhat.

Still, there was a lot of solid wrestling to this match and I don’t think we should let a muted crowd take away too much from that fact. These two have clear chemistry in the ring together and if I’m being entirely honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing another clash between them in front of a more lively crowd. Asuka did a good job of striking a balance between heelishly slowing down the action but keeping things relatively exciting and tense as she worked her magic.

Meanwhile, Becky did was Becky does and it was as much fun to watch as it always is. She’s so good at making herself look just about beatable, before striking out with the comebacks and sneaking away with the win. I especially liked the finishing sequence where both women were escaping each other’s submission manoeuvres and I’m happy that Becky finally got her win back.

2 – The Fiend Bray Wyatt(c) def. Daniel Bryan
(Universal Championship)
(Strap Match)

Told you they’d make it work.

If I’m being honest, I was starting to lose faith that we’d ever see a really great Fiend match, his character didn’t seem to leave much room for competitive matches, however, I was thankfully proved wrong last night as I thought this was a great way to go about it.

Strap matches usually tend to restrict the performers in the ring, but that wasn’t the case here as they were able to get some really impressive action in and still feature the strap heavily in most of their spots. Throughout the match, I really got the feeling that Daniel Bryan was finally able to get a feel of The Fiend and had plenty of counters prepared for the erratic offence The Fiend threw his way.

It was a little slow to start, but that was necessary to get the damage in on Bryan and lend a lot more drama to his comeback, which definitely worked. Every now and then Bryan would get a little advantage over The Fiend and each time he managed it, he kept the momentum going for just a little bit longer. Unfortunately, the fact that it was extremely obvious going in that Bryan wasn’t going to win sapped a bit of the drama out of the final LeBell Lock, but I still came away from the match having had a great time watching some great wrestling, so I can’t complain.

 1 – Drew McIntyre won the 30 Man Royal Rumble Match

Well, I sure didn’t see that one coming.

This was very clearly a Rumble of two halves and I think that both halves were as entertaining as each other, but in different ways. The first half where Brock was eliminating everyone was so fun to watch, it could’ve lost its novelty pretty quickly, but there was enough variation in both the entrants and the method by which they fought that kept it entertaining and it was clear from his face that Brock was having a great time, which helps LOADS.

My personal favourite moment in that first half was when Shelton Benjamin came out and Brock greeted him as an old friend because we knew that turn was coming, but Brock was so uncharacteristically cheery that I couldn’t help but chuckle. The drama was there too, with Kofi, Big E and Rey did their best to take on the Beast, it’s a bit disappointing that Kofi didn’t get his moment, but when the three of them prepared an attack on the outside, I felt the drama of it. Also, honourable mention to Brock bopping to MVP’s music.

Eventually, Drew came out at 17 and things went off the chain. Ricochet giving Brock the low-blow was a nice bit of poetry and the Claymore Drew hit to eliminate Brock was brilliant and Brock sold it like death to boot. As the ring filled up with people we got the more standard Rumble action and thanks to the calibre of the guys involved it was all great stuff.

Edge’s return was brilliant, even if a lot of us sort of knew it was probably going to happen. I became a wrestling fan not too long after Edge retired, but I’ve seen so much of his stuff since then and that look on his face as he walked out – pumped and ready to fight, but also on the brink of crying tears of joy – that hit me right in the feels and it was a wonderful moment. On top of that, he got a great showing, Spearing everyone in sight and giving us a cheeky little Rated RKO reunion for our troubles.

As I mentioned in my predictions, while Roman wasn’t the person I necessarily wanted to win, I would’ve been happy if he did and I’d come to accept the fact that it was just how it was going to happen. So when Drew threw Roman over the top and won I was genuinely shocked and overjoyed. I never would’ve picked Drew to win, but now the prospect of Drew vs Brock is in front of me I am GAGGING for it, make that man the first-ever UK-Born WWE Champion, I need that in my life.

As far as a Royal Rumble match goes, this was a resounding success on all fronts and it easily up there with many of the better Rumble matches to ever take place.

And that’s it! Those are my thoughts of Royal Rumble 2020! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back on Saturday where I’ll be running down Doctor Who Series 5!

 

WWE Match of the Year 2019

As we close out another year, it’s always fun to look back at what some of the best stuff we got to see from the previous year was. The world of wrestling had no shortage of great stuff this year, both inside and outside the ring, so I can’t wait to run down these matches that I loved the most.

A quick disclaimer, while I do talk a bit about matches outside of WWE I liked, I didn’t watch enough non-WWE wrestling this year to make a full list, although I intend to broaden my horizons as much as possible next year, so hopefully, that will change in time for next years list.

11 – Tag Team Gauntlet Match – Smackdown 3/26

Perhaps the biggest storyline to come out of this year is Kofi Kingston’s ascension to the WWE Championship for the first time in his career and, trust me, this isn’t going to be the last time we talk about it on this list.

This was a match that came towards the end of his storyline, but is one of the most important and one of the best, which is weird when you consider that Kofi wasn’t even in it. Vince had declared that just two weeks out from Wrestlemania, Kofi had been given more than enough chances to earn himself a title opportunity, so the onus was now on his partners in The New Day, Big E & Xavier Woods to do it for him. They had to face off against Gallows & Anderson, Nakamura & Rusev, The Bar, The Usos and Bryan & Rowan in a gauntlet match and if they won, Kofi would go to Wrestlemania.

The action in the ring was great stuff, but it’s the story and the way it was told that makes this great. Big E & Woods gave the impression that they were fighting with all their hearts and souls in order to give their best friend the opportunity he deserves, amplified by Kofi watching from the back, with a slowly growing number of Smackdown wrestlers joining him to cheer E & Woods on to victory.

The pacing was perfectly done, with New Day getting solid victories early on in the match until disaster struck when The Bar put Big E through a table following their elimination. This led to what may very well be my favourite storyline moment from the whole year as The Usos came out, as Big E laid there and Xavier Woods stood ready to fight alone, before The Usos told them that Kofi had already earned their respect and refused to fight, forfeiting their spot in the match.

The whole final sequence of that match was nailbiting, after being disappointed so many times over the past couple of months it still felt like Kofi getting his shot was impossible, but when it finally happened it was wonderful. The celebration after the fact with The New Day and most of the locker room was one of the most feel-good moments of the year, but it wouldn’t be the biggest for Kofi, that was still to come.

10 – Women’s Royal Rumble Match – Royal Rumble

As a whole, this wasn’t one of the best Rumble matches and it certainly won’t go down as one of the greats, but I still get choked up at Lynch’s insertion into the match and eventual victory, so it’s earned a spot on this list.

The space between Survivor Series and Wrestlemania 35 this year was a very tense time for any Becky Lynch fans. Everyone knew that Lynch was such a huge star by this point that her spotlight at Wrestlemania should’ve been undeniable, but this is WWE and they’ve disappointed us plenty of times before, however, this was the night where it became clear that we were going to be getting what we wanted and it felt amazing.

After putting on a fantastic match against Asuka earlier in the night, Lynch wasn’t originally given a spot in the Rumble match, however, an injury sustained by Lana on the pre-show gave her an opening. I remember being on the absolute edge of my seat as she stood there, desperately pleading her case to Finlay and the moment where she gets the green light and her music hits is the kind of moment in wrestling that’s going to stay with me for a very long time.

The final 10 minutes of that match told a fantastic story that kept the emotional moments coming. There were plenty of tense “almost” eliminations as the match entered its final moments, including a potential injury from Becky that threatened to hand Charlotte the victory, which led to the fantastic line as Becky pushed the doctors away and got back in the ring and screamed at Charlotte, “You’ve taken enough from me, you’re not taking this”.

Everything Becky did in this match was the perfect encapsulation of why we all fell in love with her as a performer mid-way through 2018 and why she’s still THE biggest star in all of the wrestling industry to this day.

9 – Velveteen Dream(c) vs Roderick Strong vs Pete Dunne – NXT Takeover: Toronto
(North American Championship)

Unsurprisingly, this won’t be the last NXT match on this list.

NXT Takeover events are shows that usually only feature one on one (or two on two, in the case of tag teams) matches and it’s understandable why. The kinds of stories NXT tells only tend to work with two people and these singles matches tend to be the overall highest in quality. So a triple threat in this era of NXT in quite a rarity. However, after seeing this match I’d love to see a lot more in future.

The three men in the match are easily among the best pure wrestlers in WWE today and both Dream & Strong have very clear and powerful characters to them as well, so a clash like this was always going to be amazing. This match had everything you’d expect from it, a lot of quick action early on with all three men jockeying for position before things began to focus on technical prowess and great look dives.

The match as a whole was paced to perfection, there was very seldom a moment where nothing was happening as all three men seemed to appear in just the right place at just the right time. There wasn’t a great deal of the classic triple threat trope where one man peters out while the other two fight, instead, all three men were more or less constantly involved in the action that made for a fast-paced match that built and built all the way to the finish.

Speaking of the finish, it was rather shocking and great fun. The camera work was spot on to make me believe that Strong was about to win before Dream quite literally dropped out of the sky to break it up and steal the victory. While this match didn’t tell any kind of revolutionary story, it’s been an absolute blast to watch every time I’ve gone back to it.

8 – Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan vs  Jeff Hardy vs
Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles vs Randy Orton – Smackdown 12th February
(Gauntlet Match)

We’ve already spoken a bit about Kofi’s story and now it’s time to go back to when it started.

This was a gauntlet match that took place just 5 days before the Elimination Chamber match between all 6 participants and it’s incredible to think that Kofi wasn’t even supposed to be a part of it. Mustafa Ali was originally set to take the final spot in the match but suffered an unfortunate injury the week prior to this match taking place, so Kofi was brought in as a reliable performer who could get the job done. Little did WWE know what would happen next.

What happened next was Kofi went out to the ring and put on the performance of a lifetime. The match opened with a 25-minute back-and-forth between Kingston and Daniel Bryan, during which Bryan pulled out every little bit of skill and knowledge he had in his body to make Kofi look like an absolute superhero, climaxing when Kofi pinned Daniel Bryan – The WWE Champion – clean. Kofi wasn’t done.

Kofi continued his roll, putting on three more great matches against Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles, falling at the final hurdle to Styles after a star-making showing. People had always thought Kofi was deserving of recognition for his 11 years of hard work for WWE, but it was this match that made the fanbase put it’s foot down and DEMAND it. Without this match, Kofi never would’ve had the amazing year that he did and it was an absolutely fantastic bout bell-to-bell to boot.

7 – Shayna Baszler(c) vs Rhea Ripley – NXT 18th December
(NXT Women’s Championship)

A late addition to this list, but a worthy one nonetheless, it’s time to talk about Rhea Ripley.

When Rhea Ripley showed up on US NXT in the summer, it was quite exciting, I wasn’t massively familiar with her stuff in NXT UK but I’d liked what little I’d seen, then not a lot happened with her for a few months. It seemed like she was going to be Shayna’s next big challenger but plans changed and Mia Yim got that spot instead. However, eventually, November came around and more or less overnight turned Rhea into an absolute star.

For one thing, she kicked ass in the build to WarGames & Survivor Series, being put over as the strongest women’s wrestler in NXT time and time again, even beating both Charlotte & Sasha on Smackdown one Friday. Then WarGames came about and she more or less carried the match for her team and came out victorious, the roll continued into Sunday where she put on an excellent showing and won the elimination tag match for her team, the crowd were so into everything she did it was wonderful.

Then this match came about and after spending most of the year feeling like Shayna could never lose that title, I could not think of a better successor to that throne. The Full Sail crowd were white-hot for this match and both competitors made sure to play up to it as much as possible. Shayna is one of the best heels in all of wrestling at the best of times, but when she’s got a crowd like this to play to her performance is transcendent.

The action was a lot of fun too, with both women going back and forth at such a nice pace and the overall flow of the match came together so nicely to form one of smoothest matches I’ve seen in quite a while. Like I’ve said though, what really made this match something worthy of this list was the atmosphere around it, this feeling that a champion who has seemed invincible for so long could finally have met her match created such a tense and exciting feeling to every moment of this match.

It all paid off too, with Ripley getting the win and taking her place at the top of NXT’s women’s division. The celebration after the match with all of the fans in the ring was a nice touch too and it elevated Ripley from a star to a mega-star as far as I’m concerned and I can’t wait to see where she goes from here.

6 – Adam Cole(c) vs Johnny Gargano – NXT Takeover: Toronto
(3 Stages of Hell)

Look, I know it wasn’t branded as 3 stages of hell, but that’s literally what the match was, so I’m sticking with it.

Gargano and Cole had arguably one of the best feuds of the year when it comes to match quality, so I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone when I say that there’s one more match between these two later on the list. This match was designed to be the climax of the feud, so it had a lot to live up to, especially when a large portion of the audience was getting a little bit tired of the feud by this point.

The key to what made this match so great was it’s pacing. In a heavily weapons-based match like this, it would’ve been so easy to go too big too soon and the whole thing would’ve fallen apart, but each stage of the match was filled with callbacks to earlier points in their feud and some great character work. You could feel the energy in the ring as both wrestlers knew they were more or less evenly matched and watching these two brilliant wrestlers trying to outthink each other was such a joy to watch.

The first two stages kept me on the jook just long enough so that by the time the ridiculous cage filled with weapons lowered, I was all in and hyped to see how things ended. From there onwards, things went crazy in just the right way, as each new weapon upped the intensity just enough to that it didn’t kill the pace, meaning I didn’t even notice the slightly slower action and spot set-ups, which are normally the main things that totally kill any weapons match for me.

It was a match that managed to capture all the elements of the Gargano/Cole feud that came before it while still adding to the story in its own right, making for an extremely satisfying conclusion to one of the best feuds of the year.

5 – Daniel Bryan(c) vs Kofi Kingston – Wrestlemania 35
(WWE Championship)

I’ve talked about the beginning, I’ve talked about the middle, now let’s talk about the end.

Personally, this was the match I was the most excited for going into Wrestlemania 35, with the fantastic build and quality of the wrestlers involved – not to mention the fact that I genuinely had no idea who was going to win – I just knew this one was going to be a killer match.

I’ve mentioned it once or twice already, but Daniel Bryan worked his ass off in this match to make Kofi look like the most worthy champion WWE’s ever seen. The two men gelled so well in the ring and it made for an extremely tense match, where Bryan was pulling out everything he could to keep Kofi grounded but Kofi kept pushing back and breaking free.

I was hooked on absolutely every near-fall, desperate to see Kofi win the title, despite the fact that I’m a die-hard Daniel Bryan fan. This was one of those matches where everything came together exactly how I’d hoped it would as all of the story elements came to a head in a technical masterpiece of a match that gave the saga of Kofi’s rise to the top the conclusion it absolutely needed.

I was on the edge of my seat all the way up until the final moment and the celebration after the match was over was perhaps the greatest feel-good moment of the entire year. No matter what happens to Kofi in the remaining years of his career, we’ll always have this moment to remind us that he’s absolutely one of the best of this era and he got his due in the end.

4 – Seth Rollins(c) vs AJ Styles – Money in the Bank
(Universal Championship)

With all of the problems Rollins has had this year, it’s easy to forget that he’s an incredible wrestler, so this match served as a wonderful reminder of that match.

As I talked about during my predictions for Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles was the one match that I’d desperately wanted ever since AJ first showed up in WWE and the two men had always managed to just miss each other whenever they came close to facing off. It’s safe to say I was very excited for this match and I was very happy with what I got.

There’s no special story or atmosphere to this match, the story going into it was basically non-existent, this match was just two of the best wrestlers doing some of the best wrestling. Both men were face at the time which meant they held nothing back in terms of speed & offence and that made for a match that was so much fun to watch from start to finish. Neither man stayed on offence for too long and the whole match just kept on rolling through at the kind of pace that I adore from my wrestling.

This was Rollins’ first title defence after winning it at Wrestlemania and it set the idea that this is exactly what his title reign was going to be full of. Unfortunately, he then faced Baron Corbin for 3 months straight, but let’s not focus on that. Let’s instead focus on the fact that one of my personal dream matches happened this year and it was everything I’d hoped it would be and more.

3 – Johnny Gargano(c) vs Adam Cole – NXT Takeover: XXV
(NXT Championship)

That’s right, my favourite match from this trilogy is the only normal singles match of the bunch, I’m sure that’s a real surprise.

While I do think the first encounter between these two at Takeover New York was brilliant, it had some pretty big pacing issues that ultimately meant it dropped off of the end of this list; this match, however, had no such issue.

Much like the previous match, the main reason I like it is very simple it’s just fast-paced pure wrestling from bell-to-bell. What elevated this above Rollins vs Styles though is that there was a substantial amount of story going into this match and with it being the mid-point of the feud, it was able to start taking their story in a new direction.

Cole knew that he and Gargano were equally matched, however, he also knew that getting the Undisputed Era involved only ruined things for him last time around. So instead he had to find a different way to out-think Gargano. This came in the form of Adam Cole seemingly doing what Gargano was expecting him to do and very obviously calling out the Undisputed Era to come and help him, only for it to turn out to be a bait and he stole the title from Gargano.

This was such a clever wrinkle to add to the story and one that saved Gargano for looking like a chump in losing to a guy he’d already beaten once before. Not only was it an excellent match but it allowed Adam Cole to win the NXT title in the most Adam Cole way possible and built the story and spectacle to its peak for their final encounter.

2 – WALTER(c) vs Tyler Bate – NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff
(United Kingdom Championship)

Forty-Two goddamned minutes of top-level wrestling. Amazing.

WWE has told the “David vs Goliath” story many, MANY times before, but I honestly don’t think it’s ever been done quite as well as it was in this match. After Tyler Bate lost the UK titles in 2017, I feel like the fanbase at large generally forgot about just how amazing of a wrestler he was. Thanks to the UK division’s relative lack of exposure for the better part of a year and a half, Tyler Bate seemed to be one of those performers who faded into the background slightly in favour of guys like Pete Dunne and Trent Seven.

Then he came out and had this match and reminded us all that he’s no-one to sleep on. Bate & WALTER have two very different styles but they were able to mesh them so perfectly here to create an epic-length match that never felt dull or like it dragged on at any point. The focal point being in Tyler Bate’s surprising level of strength in the face of a guy as huge as WALTER was such a great tone to set as it meant that myself and the crowd in attendance were on their feet for just about every spot where Bate looked to have hope of toppling WALTER.

WALTER got a chance to show his more brutal side here too, it’s no secret that his chops can cave a man’s ribcage in, but WOW those were some chops. The whole match flowed so perfectly for the whole length, which is something that absolutely blows my mind because it’s something we very rarely see in the modern era of wrestling.

As we’re about to discuss at even greater length, UK wrestling is better than it’s ever been this year and I would’ve loved to see this match in person, however, I was somewhere else that night…

Non-WWE Match of the Year:
Kazuchika Okada(c) vs Minoru Suzuki – NJPW Royal Quest
(IWGP Heavyweight Championship)

I’ve only been to a handful of wrestling shows in my life, but this is easily the best match I’ve ever seen live.

These two men had all the great chemistry you’d expect them to have and those feelings were amplified by the fact that I was watching from about 10 feet away from the ring in the 4th row. I’ve believed for a long time that Okada is the best in-ring storyteller in the business and I think that was absolutely on full display during this match because the two men in this match clearly identified who the crowd was siding with and played into it perfectly.

I’ve never felt more on the edge of my seat than when Suzuki kept almost getting the Piledriver off, I was able to entirely suspend my disbelief for 20 minutes and think that maybe I really was going to see Suzuki win the title right before my eyes. I’m well aware that from a pure wrestling standpoint there were plenty of better matches out there this year (Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13 and Cody vs Dustin at All Out, come to mind) but nothing from this year is going to beat that amazing feeling of seeing that match happen right before my eyes.

1 – Pete Dunne(c) vs WALTER – NXT Takeover: New York
(United Kingdom Championship)

I’m telling you guys, UK wrestling was REALLY good this year.

From a technical standpoint, I’d put this match on par with WALTER vs Tyler Bate, however, the reason I’m ranking this match higher is because it opened my eyes to a style of wrestling that I previously didn’t care very much for. I’ve never been a fan of the “mat-based” style of wrestling, I’ve always thought it was quite slow, with not much happening of great interest to me. This match proved that I was an idiot for thinking that because slower, mat-based offence can be just as good as anything else that I love from wrestling

I’ve gotten so used to be being enthralled by the flashy, fast-paced style of wrestling that I didn’t realise how a slow, hard-hitting affair could be as good but the way this match played out not only gave me an enjoyable ride but gave me an understanding of what makes it so great. It built slowly, the whole way through, the whole match felt like it was this gruelling back-and-forth fight where neither man was going to let up for a second as they kept hitting each other as hard as humanly possible.

Dunne and WALTER took all of the classic, traditional tropes of these kinds of matches: Constant lock-ups, the test of strength, a big guy beatdown before the small guy comeback; and they executed all of them to perfection. They had me at home and the audience in attendance hanging on every single move, to the point where I heard several gasps from the live crowd when Dunne would suddenly have a burst of offence against the bigger WALTER.

All of this made it so that when the big spot finally came at the end, it felt like a huge deal and it just highlights the fact that throughout the whole match, ever move mattered and every move had an impact.

Not only was this match a technical masterpiece from bell to bell, but it opened my eyes to a style of wrestling that I’d never been able to appreciate before, which is why I think it’s the best of what WWE had to offer in 2019.

So there you have it! Those were my favourite WWE matches (and one from outside WWE) that took place in 2019. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article, please let me know what some of your favourite matches from this past year were in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back on Tuesday where I’ll be ending the year with my Game of the Year list for 2019!