- Black Terry, Negro Navarro & Dr. Cerebro v Solar I, Zatura & Suicida (IWRG, 1/28)
- Dr. Cerebro v El Hijo Del Diablo (IWRG, 1/31)
- Angelico, Solar I & Ultraman Jr. v Negro Navarro, Trauma I & Trauma II (IWRG, 1/7)
- Rey Mysterio v CM Punk (WWE, 2/12)
- Trauma I & Trauma II v Suicida & Zatura (IWRG, 1/14)
- Christian v Drew McIntyre (WWE, 7/30)
- Rey Mysterio v Jack Swagger (WWE, 6/11)
- Matt Hardy v Drew McIntyre (WWE, 6/25)
- Christian v Drew McIntyre (WWE, 8/20)
- The Young Bucks v El Generico & Chuck Taylor (PWG, 2/27)
- Chris Masters v Dolph Ziggler (WWE, 5/13)
- Rey Mysterio v CM Punk (WWE, 3/28)
- Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro & El Hijo Del Signo v Pantera, El Hijo Del Pantera & Zatura (IWRG, 2/11)
- Chris Masters v Chavo Guerrero (WWE, 8/12)
- Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro v Gringo Loco & El Hijo Del Diablo (IWRG, 2/7)
- Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro v Gringo Loco & El Hijo Del Diablo (IWRG, 1/24)
- Bryan Danielson v Kaval (FCW, 2/7)
- Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro & Trauma I v Pantera, El Hijo Del Pantera & Zatura (IWRG, 2/18)
- John Cena & Evan Bourne v Edge & Sheamus (WWE, 5/31)
- Chris Masters v Luke Gallows (WWE, 6/25)
- Christian v Ezekiel Jackson (WWE, 1/31)
- Rey Mysterio v CM Punk (WWE, 4/25)
- Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro v Pantera, Suicida & Zatura (IWRG, 1/7)
- Rey Mysterio v Tyson Kidd (WWE, 3/25)
- Rey Mysterio v Dolph Ziggler (WWE, 8/13)
- Evan Bourne & Yoshi Tatsu v Chavo Guerrero & Zack Ryder (WWE, 4/8)
- Christian & Kane v Ezekiel Jackson & William Regal (WWE, 1/26)
- Negro Navarro v Angelico (IWRG, 1/21)
- The Undertaker v Rey Mysterio (WWE, 1/31)
- Evan Bourne v Zack Ryder (WWE, 5/27)
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8. Matt Hardy v Drew McIntyre (WWE, 6/25)
Well this sort of came out of nowhere and struck me as being totally awesome. Maybe I'm just watching "the right stuff", but fuck me if Drew isn't becoming one of my favourites. Sort of makes me wish I had gone to see him in person when he was working shows 30 miles away from my house. I bought him as having a gnarly mean streak in the Christian matches, but this was violent beyond my expectations. Hardy's the kind of guy that you want to be wrestling if you're looking to get over as someone that's rugged and nasty, because he isn't afraid to take the sort of ass stomping necessary for that to be achieved. He eats a fair few stiff shots in this. There's one moment where Drew's got him in the corner and he fucking LEVELS him with a standing clothesline, but it's way more like a forearm club to the chin than a clothesline. Then he does it two more times and they all sound real nasty. Hardy's great at making this seem like a fight at points too, throwing his awesome punches, recklessly hurling himself at Drew and spearing him through the ropes, etc. Still, as good as all of that is, this is about the bumps. Holy Christ are there some great bumps in this. The first sick bump is one that I don't even think was intentional, and it doesn't look as nutty as at least two others, but I went back and checked it a couple times and I'm not entirely sure Drew yelling like he did was all a worked sell. It's similar to the bump that Michaels took against Undertaker in their casket match (the one he says put him out all those years), in that he tries to fly over the steel steps, but he undershoots it and clips his lower back on the jagged edge of the steel. Couple re-watches in slow-mo made me cringe a little. The two REAL big bumps are intentional, which makes them even nuttier. The first is Hardy taking an insane flat-back bump off of a back suplex on the floor, which looked and sounded fucking nuts. His subsequent sell is great with him lying motionless (or dead) for a while and getting a great teased countout out of it. The second is absolutely ridiculous and probably the best spot I've seen in any WWE match this year. Drew has Hardy's head rested on the steps and is about to stomp on it (which I think started this whole feud in the first place), but Hardy pops up and sweeps his leg out from under him, and McIntyre's bump is fuggin' HIDEOUS; flat-back on the steps and sounds like someone just shot a garage door with a shotgun from close range. And then he's back in the ring and taking Matt's Twist of Fate like a king about a minute later. I can understand someone thinking this lulled in the middle, but I dug it the whole way through and the high points in this are as good as the high points in any WWE match I've seen this year.
9. Christian v Drew McIntyre (WWE, 8/20)
"Did you just call me attractive?" Christian selling the arm in a ten minute match is probably as close to 'can't fail' as you'll get these days. The 7/30 match between these two was my first (sober) McIntyre experience and I was looking forward to more as soon as it was over. Still, it was Christian's selling that mostly made it for me and it would be Christian that'd get me stoked for rematches. Then I watched the Drew/Hardy match and I was WAY pumped for this. Didn't disappoint. I liked the 7/30 match a little more, but they're both more or less the same structurally, albeit with different spots plugged in. Drew comes out and goes STRAIGHT to the arm again. Same arm had come into play the previous week when Christian wrestled Cody Rhodes - who's an awesomely smug little prick on commentary here - and Drew knows it's a bullseye. Christian's able to keep it away from him initially, but then McIntyre comes up with another amazing transition into his control segment by tearing the ring barricade apart and using the steel to almost rip the arm out the socket. Christian's bump was buckets of Hellish. Drew has great hammerlocks and ways to work the arm, really cranking holds (the hammerlock) and cutting him off by going back to the arm - reversing an attempted flying mare into a hammerlock slam and busting out a really forceful arm wringer that Christian takes an unsurprisingly great bump off of. He also uses more stuff lying around the place to inflict nasty damage, like battering the arm off the ring post. Christian's selling down the stretch is amazing, my favourite instance being him hitting a jumping DDT off the middle rope and reacting like he just tore his own arm out in the process. Finish was fucking great too, especially the set up spot from Drew. If you asked me 2 months ago if I could ever see myself having Drew McIntyre and Chris Masters in my top 5 current favourite WWE wrestlers, I would've thought you were smoking crack.
14. Chris Masters v Chavo Guerrero (WWE, 8/12)
This was fucking awesome and Masters rules the God damn universe. Chavo also looked better than all but a few dudes on the indies here, too. One thing about Masters that has seriously impressed the Hell out of me this year is his willingness to bump like a freak for a dude with his build. When he's not taking ridiculous bumps off the apron he's making standard bumps looks great, case in point: Ziggler's Zig-Zag thing that I don't recall ever looking as good. He also looks 100% comfortable now and does a great job with selling. He gets his ribs worked over here and he takes and sells all of Chavo's stuff really well. And he takes a flat-back bump from the apron to the floor for good measure. Wasn't quite as spectacular as the one against Ziggler, but still. There's also some incredible spots in this. I've mentioned before that any match featuring one guy chopping another guy in the face will instantly storm its way into my heart, and sure enough Masters potatoes Chavo with a fucking chop to the face. He also busts out a motherfucking jackhammer as a reversal to Chavo's three amigos. What's really great, though, is that the most impressive spots play into the rib work. The first is Chavo's rolling senton from the apron to the floor (after Masters' previously mentioned bump), which he follows up on by hitting a hilo. Then they do something that I honestly don't recall ever seeing in this company before (unless it was Benoit, Finlay or Regal, although even then I don't remember it). Chavo has Masters in a bodyscissors (RIBWORK~), so Masters, after failing to escape a couple times already, just turns into Chavo's guard and starts blasting him with elbows. Chavo tries to cover up (IF HE CAN'T DEFEND HIMSELF IT'LL BE STOPPED, MAN), so Masters, still in the bodyscissors, gets to his feet and fucking OBLITERATES Chavo with the mother of all slingshots into the turnbuckle. Masters really has an incredible slingshot and THIS is probably the best slingshot spot ever, from the set up to the execution to the bump. Finish even pays off the rib work as Chavo counters a superplex by hitting a hotshot that Masters almost decapitates himself off of, and then he hits the best frog splash he's probably ever hit (TO THE RIBS, MAN) for the win. Words cannot express how much I dug this.
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