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Mathew’s Top 25 Matches of 2020: #25-21

The official start to Mathew’s Top 25 matches! Starting at the bottom, peep 25-21!

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Welcome to the Top 25 Matches of 2020! I’m sure you all have seen the honorable mentions in the previous article and probably thinking to yourself, “what could be on this list?” Well, we’re about to find out together. This has been a rough year for all of us, especially with American wrestling…and I guess the pandemic. This year will be a little bit different due to the circumstances as I usually do two top matches per wrestler but that’ll be lifted for this year, especially with a certain wrestler.

Let’s get down to it, shall we?


25. Kenny Omega and Adam Page vs. Young Bucks (AEW Revolution 2/29/2020)

– It’s no secret to those that know me that I’m not a big fan of AEW and find it to be very mediocre. However, I will give credit where credit is due whenever a good match is involved and this is the best AEW match they’ve produced. The build-up to the match has also been really well done with the tension between all four of them along with the tease of a possible betrayal between the champions. Once the match happened, they gelled well and gave us a good half hour of entertainment.

You’re probably asking yourself, “why is this in here and not Golden Lovers vs Young Bucks when that happened two years ago?” While it is true that it basically is the same match in terms of story, just a different partner for Omega. The real main difference for this is that this one was less sloppy compared to the other one and that was what hurt the quality of the match for me personally. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of the Bucks and Omega, this was still a great match and Adam Page is someone I am a fan of, so I was glad to see he was able to keep up with their style of wrestling. Good storytelling, emotion, the conclusion, all-around fun time.


24. Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles (WWE SmackDown 6/12/2020)

– This was for the final round of the Intercontinental Championship and this was a match I didn’t expect to get the amount of time as they did since I was gonna assume they would give them ten minutes on television. I’m glad that’s not the case as they were able to deliver their best match together in the WWE. All of their matches have been enjoyable together and this match is just another one added to the books. It would go on for a half-hour and it made the title seem a little important like how it used to be back in the day, it reminded me of those matches.

The two may be getting up there in age but they have shown that they can still go and show why they’re WWE’s best in-ring workers. We got an actual wrestling match out of it and there was no dusty type of finish of anything, it was clean and that’s what made it better. When AJ finally won the Intercontinental Championship, I did have a small glimmer of hope that we would be getting these types of matches for the title. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case as it didn’t last too long but they did try it at the beginning, so that was at least. We were able to get one of the best matches for the title in a long time and that’s something fans will remember.


23. Charlotte Flair vs. Io Shirai vs. Rhea Ripley (NXT Takeover: In Your House 6/7/2020)

– NXT was another brand that has been a mixed bag compared to its glory years but this is what happens when you try to force change its magic to try and compete. There was been some great matches from time to time but the rest of the matches on this list were just better than NXT’s best. One match, however, was lucky enough to get on the list and it was the NXT Women’s Championship between Charlotte Flair, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai. I know a lot of people hate Charlotte from how much she gets pushed but it’s hard to argue that she is one of their top stars in the company. You had two of NXT’s best women with Io and Rhea going against WWE’s biggest female star, and they were able to get a great match out of each other.

Io Shirai was someone who reinvented herself over the past year instead of being another foreign babyface like Asuka and Kairi Sane before her, so she was able to get the slow build during all of that and it came into a full circle. All three of them would deliver great action and they would pull the surprise by giving Io Shirai the victory since people would assume Charlotte would either retain for a one-on-one rematch with Rhea down the road, or Rhea would get it back to redeem herself but that’s thankfully not the case. Io has worked hard in WWE and I know people said she should’ve won the title years ago but this moment felt more perfect to work her way up through the ranks and reinvent herself rather than getting it soon as she stepped into their doors. Great match and the right person won that night.


22. Undisputed Era vs. Imperium (WWE World’s Collide 1/25/2020)

– If this had a proper build-up and were able to do long-term storytelling, this probably would’ve been one of the best matches of the year with the story alone before getting into the match. We had the top heel factions of NXT and NXT UK battling it out for brand supremacy to see who was the real top heel faction. The two invaded their respective territories to help hype up the match for the past month at the very least. This alone was enough for the fans to get invested in it and to nobody’s surprise, the payoff in the short-term of things was worth it. Everyone involved in this match looked like a star and it made Imperium feel like they were exactly on their level, which is something you needed to do for this type of match.

The one big takeaway in this match was the unfortunate injury that occurred to Alexander Wolfe, causing him to be taken out for the rest of the match. Despite being a man down, WALTER would make up for the slack and wrecked everyone during his comeback after being taken out by UE. WALTER would get the win for his team, showing the world that Imperium is something you need to be watching. Undisputed Era is already well-established stars, so they didn’t need the win here to get over since they were already over. The right team won that night and we had a great match out of it, making all of Imperium look good in the process.


21. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi (Wrestle Kingdom 14 1/4/2020)

– Honestly, this match in general almost didn’t make the list, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I watched this live in the Tokyo Dome, high chance this wouldn’t be on here. This was the biggest match in Ibushi’s career than when he fought Nakamura five years ago and this was when he won his first G1 Climax leading into this match. The entrance Okada had before he came out was godlike, especially when you’re in the crowd to experience it live, it was just incredible and you know you have a star right in front of your eyes. Watching it on the television days after it happened would show the flaws of the match with how they paced it out.

But I’m not gonna talk about that version of the match and gonna focus on my live experience with it instead as I go forward with talking about it. The atmosphere for this match was intense, the moves were crisp, the story for it was top-notch between the two of them together. This was their best match together on a bigger level, and it showed that Kota Ibushi could potentially be an IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Kota would fail to win the match but still left a big impression on the fans, even coming close to winning. Kota is in the main event of the same night but against Tetsuya Naito, so let’s see if he can bring it home or at the very least, deliver another classic.

This will conclude the first five matches of my list and very excited to show the next five tomorrow. Till next time!

 

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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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