HEAR YE! HEAR YE! The end is nigh! The end of 2016 that is. As per usual, I’m coming in hot at the last possible second with some WWE commentary.
This year was definitely a banner year for the company. We went from the Year of Injuries to the Year of Suspensions. We had shocking returns and a retirement, revolutions, and debuts aplenty. We also saw some spectacularly low points as ratings hit an all time low this year for Raw, and the main event of Wrestlemania just being an absolute shitshow, when it’s supposed to be the pinnacle of the entire WWE season. But we also saw new life breathed into the company with a brand split and move to live broadcasting for Smackdown that revitalized the blue brand for the first time in a decade and recently saw it top Raw in ratings for the first time this entire year.
On the whole, this was still a great year to be a WWE fan. With that said, here are my Top Five WWE Moments for 2016. Going in reverse:
5. Sasha Banks finally winning the Women’s title.
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4. Kevin Owens winning the Universal Championship.
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Listen, let’s face it: we all know KO is money and was destined to get that belt. We just didn’t expect it to play out the way we did. Throwing Roman into that Fatal Four Way was a hell of a swerve because usually, when Reigns is within sniffing distance of a belt, he eventually gets it. We were all still skeptical since he was still hot off his suspension, but we figured that the company thought he had been punished enough. No one had seen nor heard from Trips since Wrestlemania so to not only see him come out, pedigree Reigns, then turn on Rollins, pedigree him and stand over both him and Owens while KO got the pin was just….insane. The look on Stephanie and Mick’s face during this was just the icing on the cake.
3. Rollins returning at Extreme Rules.
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By the end of this PPV, we were all exhausted from being on the edge of our seats for the entire match. Yes, Roman won. But the entire Reigns/Styles feud was nothing short of magic. AJ pushed Reigns to the absolute brink and the man delivered. If you seriously think Roman cannot wrestle after this, you’re absolutely blind, you’re wrong so you sit there in your wrongness and continue being fucking wrong. That said, everyone was under the impression that Rollins wasn’t coming back until July. I mean, he blew his knee out – ACL, MCL and medial meniscus. That’s not something you just bounce back from in weeks. The expected recovery time for that is typically nine months. He was back in six months and showed no signs of ever having had an injury. Seeing him suddenly appear in the ring and pedigree Rollins…I legitimately screamed. This was on par with him cashing in the case at Wrestlemania 31 and winning.
2. AJ Styles debuting in WWE at the Royal Rumble.
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IT HAPPENED, Y’ALL. IT FINALLY HAPPENED. We had been hearing for weeks, if not months, rumors that AJ was in talks with the company. In late 2015, it was strong rumor, with people claiming they had seen him visit the Performance Center in Orlando (posted on Cageside Seats.) In the very start of this year, it was announced that he, along with Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were leaving NJPW and becoming free agents. Word was that the three members of The Bullet Club were TNA bound again. Fast forward to January 24th, the main event, the actual Rumble. Roman is in the ring, having already eliminated Rusev. We get the buzzer and we hear unfamiliar music, hip hop, almost gospel tinged and though we watching at home didn’t initially see it – the crowd saw “I Am Phenomenal” hit the Titantron and promptly lost their shit, which in turn gave us turn to lose ours because we knew exactly what was happening. Side note: if I were to nominate any one male talent for WWE MVP of the year, it would certainly be AJ; Wrestle Kingdom, Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, #1 Contender for the WWE Heavyweight Championship, a battle for supremacy with Cena, WWE Championship – all in one year. Literally no other talent in the world will ever be able to boast that.
1. Shane McMahon returns to WWE.
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I’m biased for this pick, and I’ll tell ya why. Story time. I got the idea to attend Raw on a complete whim, the night before it was due to hit near my town. So I hit up a friend and we threw down for seats. Nosebleeds, but we didn’t care, we just wanted to be there. It was the night after Fast Lane and we were curious to see what the fallout was. While there, my buddy asked me what happened to Shane. This was during the opening segment, when Vince was talking about the award he was going to give Stephanie. I gave the cliff notes of Shane leaving, and said he’s probably never coming back.
Stephanie comes out. My friend says, “If he ever came back, this would be the perfect time.”
Two seconds later, his music hits. We jump up. We shrieked. The prodigal son had come home.
I had a lot of people on my Facebook cursing me out that night because of what I was witnessing live and it was glorious.
Looking back, Shane returning to the company seemed to signify incoming changes. Post Wrestlemania, we saw a shift in the way Creative was handling storylines. Though it wasn’t great 100% of the time, marked improvements began to show. Maybe he does have some input, I dunno. All the rumors seemed to point to him just having a tv role, as opposed to any sort of say behind the scenes. But he is a McMahon, so I would not be at all surprised if he does have some influence after all.
Dig this list? Got any moments you’d like to share? Holla in the comments!
