Disclaimer, this list is WWE-only, because I didn’t watch enough of any other company. I could throw in some NJPW matches I saw, but I couldn’t safely say those matches best represent the year New Japan had. I’ve also seen some Lucha Underground matches that would fit in on this list, but I suppose WWE was the brand I cared the most about, so they edge out the competition.
10. Charlotte vs. Natalya (NXT Takeover) ****
I believe this is the first time I’ve ever picked a women’s match for the year-end top 10, and it’s also amusing to me that a match with the same participants got chosen for my worst match of the year. But on this spring evening in Orlando, Charlotte and Natalya surprised the hell out of me with this athletic, technically sound, and emotional title match. It was the finals of the NXT Women’s Championship tournament, so both divas had high levels of credibility going into it. Natalya had Uncle Bret in her corner, and Charlotte was accompanied by Father Ric. After almost 17 minutes of back and forth action, Charlotte put Natalya away with the Natural Selection and became the new champion. The display of respect afterwards between both women, as well as their legendary seconds, helped this stand out in my mind all these months later. Furthermore, I’m so very impressed with the development of Charlotte. In 2013, I made comments about her matches being “pretty good” for someone as inexperienced as she was, but in 2014 she blossomed into a bonafide star in the making. I just hope WWE’s main roster booking doesn’t get in her way next year.
9. Adrian Neville vs. Tyson Kidd vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Sami Zayn (NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way) ****
This match is a perfect example of the right way to do a 4-way main event. You spend the weeks leading into the match making sure that all four participants look credible and you create a scenario where any of the four guys are believable winners. Let’s compare that to the Battleground main event, where Cena had to defend against Kane, Orton, and Roman Reigns, and was already heavily rumored to be defending against Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. Battleground felt like filler, NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-way felt like an important chapter in a bigger story. The match featured crazy action from bell to bell, but told a story rather than just be a bunch of moves strung together. It was also the first time that Adrian Neville took a short cut to retain his title, when he pulled the referee from the ring to prevent a Sami Zayn pinfall.
8. The Shield vs. Evolution (WWE Payback) ****
This was the culmination of the Shield vs. Evolution feud, and looks like it may go down as being the final match for both factions. After they stole the show at Extreme Rules (in a match that juuuuust missed inclusion on this list) the expectations for this rematch were high. I don’t think anyone expected that the Shield would end up sweeping Evolution in this eliminations match. This gave a major dose of credibility to Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins, just in time for the major angle the next night on Raw when Rollins turned on the team. The Shield and Evolution both went out with a bang.
7. The Money in the Bank Ladder Match (WWE Money in the Bank) ****
The participants included newly hated rivals Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, as well as an appealing field including Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Rob Van Dam, and Jack Swagger. The fresh hatred between Ambrose and Rollins really carried the match, as Ambrose made it his mission to hurt Rollins as badly as possible. Meanwhile, everyone got a chance to tease a victory, with the live crowd really popping at near wins for Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler. Ambrose was in position to win the briefcase, but Kane ended up helping Rollins emerge victorious after a stunt show worthy of the great MITB classics.
6. Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE Wrestlemania XXX) ****
I almost can’t believe that Daniel Bryan won the WWE Championship in the main event of Wrestlemania and it’s NOT my MOTY. That’s not to say that this wasn’t a very good match, four stars is nothing to sneeze at, but by the time the match begun the result was such a foregone conclusion that I sort of just sat back and enjoyed it, and wasn’t really concerned that Bryan wasn’t going to win. Batista seemed out of place performing in a Wrestlemania main event in 2014, and Randy Orton was his consistently solid self, and Bryan ended up working well with both of them. There was a gasp-worthy spot on the announce table when Orton ended up taking a horrible landing on a monitor during an RKO spot. I suppose the reason this isn’t higher than four stars is because I have too much to nitpick, like how it didn’t seem right that Bryan won by submitting Batista, and not long-time arch enemy, Orton. Still, Bryan winning the title and leading 75,000 fans in the most epic YES chant of all time was an incredible moment that I won’t soon forget.
5. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WWE Wrestlemania XXX) ****¼
Unlike the triple threat match that main evented, I was very stressed out watching this one live. Was Triple H going to do the right thing? Was Triple H going to lose, but in a flukey fashion after dominating Bryan? Had Triple H completely lost his mind and going to insert himself into the Wrestlemania main event? The actual match was likely the best-case scenario, with Triple H wrestling a smart, unselfish match, and doing a fine job of elevating Bryan. The Wrestlemania crowd was 100% behind Bryan and was hot for this opener. Even more so than Bryan’s title win, this is a match that I already enjoy going back to watch again and again.
4. Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Big Show, and Ryback) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) (WWE Survivor Series) ****¼
The show-closing angle on the final Raw of 2014 might end up souring me on this match in the long run. The stipulation said that if Team Cena won, the Authority would be out of power, and only John Cena could bring them back if he so chose to. Well, as of last night, the Authority are back because Seth Rollins threatened to paralyze Edge if Cena didn’t give in to his demands. The Authority were gone for a whopping five or six weeks. Anyhow, this Survivor Series match in itself was epic, and felt fresh in that several unusual suspects were getting elevated. Luke Harper looked right at home on Team Authority, Erick Rowan held up pretty well on Team Cena, and Dolph Ziggler had yet another coming out party in his gutsy underdog performance as the sole survivor on Team Cena. As good as the match was, what really put it over the top was the long awaited WWE debut of Sting, who saved Ziggler from outside interference and put a hurting on Triple H. If the stipulations had meant anything, I might have ranked this higher, but as it stands, #4 is a good place to be.
3. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro (NXT Arrival) ****½
For the second year in a row, a Cesaro vs. Zayn match cracked my yearly top 10. This opened the NXT Arrival show and set the precedent for what to expect from those Network specials. In storyline terms, Zayn was unable to defeat Cesaro, but did succeed in earning his respect. This match was internally considered to be Cesaro’s “graduation” match and would not longer have one foot in NXT with the other on the main roster. I would love to be able to see these guys clash again on the main shows in 2015.
2. The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family (WWE Elimination Chamber) ****½
I’ll never forget the opening moments of this match, with a crowd going ape-sh!t from the anticipation, giving them a “This is awesome” chant before anything could happen. The pressure was on, and the six men involved made sure they delivered the goods. We spend a lot of time tearing WWE apart for bad booking and stupid decisions, but I have to give them credit for having positioned six up and comers in such a way that the fans were so interested in seeing them fight. This would have taken the top spot if I wasn’t considering NXT matches, which brings us to…
1. Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn (NXT Takeover: R-Evolution) *****
I was having a very difficult time coming up with a MOTY for 2014 up until this point. There were some worthy contenders, but none of them seemed significant or important enough to really make a case about it other than “I enjoyed watching it at the time.” Then NXT swooped in and made my job (if you can call it that) so much easier by having Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn surpass my highest hopes and deliver a classic match that already ranks up very highly in my all-time favorites list. The story heading into NXT R-Evolution was simple, yet detailed, and rewarded longtime viewers. Neville had taken some easy ways out in his past few title defenses, and was now playing a subtle heel. Zayn was cast as a hot talent who couldn’t win the big one, mainly because his niceness kept getting in the way. Zayn vowed to retire if he lost this match, which I took to mean that he could have realistically been getting a call-up to the main roster, so it increased the drama of the match. Then the bell rang, and everything Neville and Zayn did had meaning and built to an excellent crescendo. There was a scary false finish when it seemed that Sami was going to screw himself again just by being a decent human being, and he also teased going to the dark side when contemplating whether or not to use the NXT title as a weapon. But ultimately, Zayn put Neville away with the Helluva Kick and the following was one of the most emotional, memorable championship celebrations I can ever recall, complete with Kevin Owens embracing, and then turning on his friend. Neville vs. Zayn is my official Match of the Year for 2014.
