WWE: Top 10 Matches of 2016
It’s been quite the year. We got a Brand Extension, five new championships, a brand-new show, Heath Slater got his above-ground pool and those good brothers from Japan finally made their way to WWE. But before we ring in 2017, it’s time to take stock of the year that was and review the best competition WWE had to offer. WWE.com editors (and Superstars) present our picks for the 10 best matches of 2016, all of which you can see for free on the award-winning WWE Network.
10. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler — Title vs. Career Intercontinental Championship Match (No Mercy)
WE SAID: In one corner, you have The Miz, the reigning Intercontinental Champion and self-proclaimed “Hollywood A-lister” who constantly criticized everyone who questioned his accomplishments to date. In the other corner, you have Dolph Ziggler, a challenger so frustrated with his career trajectory that he elected to risk it all for one last chance at championship glory. Each Superstar fought with equal parts intensity and desperation, knowing full well that their Title vs. Career Match at No Mercy 2016 was guaranteed to change at least one of their fates. Despite Miz’s resiliency and interference by Maryse and The Spirit Squad, Ziggler kept the battle in the ring. He didn’t stop fighting until he emerged victorious in a match that will always be remembered as one of The Showoff’s best, and there’s some stiff competition there. — MATTHEW ARTUS
THEY SAID: “Miz and myself, for maybe three or four years off-and-on, have had hundreds of matches. The sad thing is that even when they were for titles, they meant almost nothing and no one remembers them. And then, Miz had a rebirth, and I found myself finding a voice on the microphone that I hadn’t allowed myself to be a part of in a really long time. And all of a sudden, people went from, ‘Ugh, Miz and Dolph again: Boring,’ to, ‘I can’t wait to see what happens next week.’ It became the focal point of SmackDown [LIVE], when it wasn’t supposed to be.” — DOLPH ZIGGLER
9. Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose — WWE Championship Match (WWE Roadblock)
WE SAID: Dean Ambrose is dangerous enough when he improvises, but watching him go into a match with a plan is something else entirely. At WWE Roadblock — mere weeks before WrestleMania 32 — The Lunatic Fringe battled The Game not only for the WWE Championship, but also for the opportunity to change the landscape of The Show of Shows. Methodically focusing his attack on the left leg of the champion, Ambrose nearly dethroned The King of Kings more than once. Were it not for an ill-timed elbow drop onto the announce table, WrestleMania 32 just might have emanated from The Ambrose Asylum. — JAMES WORTMAN
THEY SAID: “Maybe my favorite match of the year. It was old-school. And it was at a special Live Event pay-per-view in a smaller venue. Not as much lights, set or anything and it was only a couple weeks before WrestleMania, which is all about spectacle and craziness, but this was just about two guys doing the dance in the ring under the lights. Not a lot of people can do that style of match. To be there in that kind of scenario and test myself against Triple H and go toe-to-toe and hold-for-hold was very personally rewarding.” — DEAN AMBROSE
8. John Cena vs. AJ Styles (SummerSlam)
WE SAID: “Let’s go, Cena!” … “AJ Styles!” … “Let’s go, Cena!” … “AJ Styles!” And so the thunderous back-and-forth reverberated throughout Brooklyn’s Barclays Center from the opening bell as the 15-time World Champion and The Phenomenal One squared off. The crowd was hot — five-alarm chili hot — for this SummerSlam spectacle. Rightly so. John Cena suffered a Styles Clash and modified Attitude Adjustment. For his part, Styles endured a Tornado DDT and Attitude Adjustment from the second rope. Having defeated Cena at Money in the Bank earlier that summer, though, Styles continued his winning ways, finally besting his opponent with a Phenomenal Forearm that brought down Cena — and the house. — GREG ADKINS
THEY SAID: “John Cena. Wow. SummerSlam. One of the biggest pay-per-views in WWE and I get to be in it against John Cena. That match was gonna be great, and I knew it even before we stepped into the ring together. There was something special and magical about that match. And despite what anybody thinks about John Cena, the guy’s a Clydesdale. He knows his stuff, he knows what he’s doing in the ring. That match had whatever makes matches special before we even stepped into the ring. And on top of that, we delivered.” — AJ STYLES
7. Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch — Triple Threat WWE Women’s Championship Match (WrestleMania 32)
WE SAID: In a year full of groundbreaking moments for the women of WWE, the one that started it all was the Triple Threat Match between Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch for the then–WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 32. With the eyes of the Universe — both WWE and otherwise — on them, a new title to usher in and an old moniker to set aside, the Generals of the Women’s Revolution refused to leave the field until the show was stolen … and they did just that. “Divas” were gone, but these Superstars? They were just getting started. — RYAN PAPPOLLA
THEY SAID: “Considering we were having that same Triple Threat Match a year earlier in Lakeland, Fla. in front of 22 fans, and then 101,000 the following year as one of the headliners for WrestleMania, I guess you could say it was the most special moment I’ve had in WWE. And having my dad walk me down to the ring, I don’t know if that’s ever happened. That’s what he spent his whole life doing, and walking his daughter, not his son, down the aisle at WrestleMania? That’s history in itself.” — CHARLOTTE FLAIR
6. The Miz vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens — Fatal 4-Way Intercontinental Championship Match (Extreme Rules)
The Fatal 4-Way Match at Extreme Rules 2016 did not just put Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in contention for The Miz’s Intercontinental Title. It also put a quartet in the same ring after weeks of meddling in each other’s business, capping a rivalry which had been boiling over since Owens and Zayn inserted themselves into a WWE Payback 2016 battle between The Miz and Cesaro. This foursome wanted to humble and humiliate each other at Extreme Rules as much as they wanted to leave as Intercontinental Champion. They blitzed each other with clotheslines, European uppercuts and Blue Thunder Bombs. They broke up nearly every pinfall attempt, brawled all over ringside. In the end, The Miz somehow escaped with his coveted title in as dramatic a Fatal 4-Way Match as any you’ll ever see. — MATTHEW ARTUS
5. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles — Extreme Rules WWE Championship Match (Extreme Rules)
WE SAID: Extreme Rules’ eponymous main event contained the sort of mind-bending athleticism and otherworldly reversals you’d expect to see in an overly imaginative video game, not real-life competition. AJ Styles rattled off Phenomenal Forearms from every perch imaginable, including the Kickoff announce desk and, later, from the top rope through a table on the floor. Roman Reigns launched Styles into barricades, through tables and onto steel chairs. By the time The Big Dog countered yet another Phenomenal Forearm attempt with a perfectly timed Spear, even hypothetical video game developers had to throw up their hands in disbelief. — JOHN CLAPP
THEY SAID: “There’s a lot of reasons [why it’s on this list] other than the fact that it was a pretty awesome match, but the story going into it was pretty important. Emotions were going everywhere, but despite not knowing who to root for, you knew you were in for something special.” — AJ STYLES
4. AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose vs. John Cena — Triple Threat WWE Championship Match (No Mercy)
No Mercy’s Triple Threat WWE World Title Match was unique from the word go as it was the very first pay-per-view main event in history to open the show. John Cena was out to tie WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair’s record by claiming a World Title for the 16th time, Dean Ambrose was looking to regain the title taken from him just one month earlier and WWE World Champion AJ Styles was determined to cement his place as “The Champ that Runs the Camp.” Let the free-for-all commence! In the end, Styles took advantage of the anything-goes rules of a Triple Threat Match, clobbering Cena with a steel chair to hang on to the WWE Championship. Phenomenal. — MIKE BURDICK
3. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (WWE Battleground)
WE SAID: Dubbed their final showdown, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens left their best for last. This is quite the remarkable feat when considering the classic matches these best friends turned bitter enemies produced previously. What transpired at WWE Battleground was every bit as brutal and personal as expected, right down to the final Helluva Kick that felled Owens. Even a sports-entertainment novice can watch this battle and become immediately hooked by Zayn and Owens’ story of betrayal. That it ended up not being their final match is more of a blessing than a curse: We really will get to see them do this forever. — SCOTT TAYLOR
THEY SAID: “It was a matter of this match having been done hundreds of times over the last 15 years, and still it felt fresh, which was the amazing thing to me. That’s the thing about my rivalry with Kevin that truly blows my mind: that it has managed to stand the test of time. No matter how many times we’ve done it, it’s always fresh. It’s a testament to our growth individually as performers. As we grow, so, too, does the match.” — SAMI ZAYN
2. The Revival vs. #DIY — 2-out-of-3-Falls NXT Tag Team Championship Match (NXT TakeOver: Toronto)
WE SAID: The Revival like to refer to themselves as “top guys doing top-guy things.” Well, there was nothing more “top guy” than this match, which saw the NXT tag team bulldozers go head-to-head against perennial challengers #DIY in the most grueling stipulation that didn’t involve a steel cage of some kind. The result didn’t just see The Revival cement themselves as one of the premier tag teams in the whole world, it saw Gargano & Ciampa rise to meet their level and earn the hardware to prove it. Come to think of it, that’s a top guy thing, too. — ANTHONY BENIGNO
THEY SAID: “Winning the titles, obviously, is super meaningful. But it’s what happens sometimes behind the scenes that can stay with you forever. Seeing people like William Regal and so many countless others that put their faith in us and trusted us and gave us an opportunity and seeing how proud they were. Even now, it’s like making mom and dad proud.” — TOMMASO CIAMPA
“It was vindication, really. It was vindication not just for everything we’ve gone through, but vindication for 12 years of hard work. You always dream of your moment. In Toronto, #DIY had their moment. It’s something that will never go away.” — JOHNNY GARGANO
1. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT TakeOver: Dallas)
WE SAID: In the same way music purists still debate the birth of punk rock, sports-entertainment historians will look back at The New Era of WWE and argue over when the sea change took hold. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura will always have a place in that debate. Matches like this used to happen in the shadow of whatever stadium WrestleMania was emanating from, and guys like Zayn and Nakamura weren’t even on the roster. Now the best match of the biggest weekend in sports-entertainment was happening between a bristling redheaded Canadian-Syrian and a Japanese glam rock surfer under a WWE banner. Who saw that coming? This wasn’t just a match. This was a movement. — RYAN MURPHY
THEY SAID: “It was my debut match in WWE. I had to prove myself. Who is Shinsuke Nakamura? What is King of Strong Style? That match, for me, required concentration. [Zayn] knows how to take rhythm, pace with a Japanese wrestler. But I know how to wrestle, how to prove, how to show myself. Both of us were great.” — SHINSUKE NAKAMURA
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