10 Best WWE Matches Of 2021 (So Far)

3. Bianca Bianca vs. Sasha Banks – WrestleMania 37

Sometimes it’s not about the moves, it’s about the occasion. It’s about the right people having the right match on the right night. The twin main events of WrestleMania 37 RULED and while the triple threat had the violence, this had the emotion, the culmination of WWE thankfully deciding to conclusively pull the trigger on Bianca Belair after numerous false starts, a move totally vindicated by the ‘this is awesome’ chants before the match even began.

The bout itself was stellar, Bianca’s a superstar and honestly there are fewer more reliable big match wrestlers in the industry than Sasha Banks. While most people will remember the hair whip spot, in isolation one of the best spots of the years, sounded like a fucking gunshot, there’s so much good stuff here.

Bianca gorilla pressing sasha and walking up the ring steps with her like a terrifying monster, Bianca suplex dead-lifting her three times in the same spot, Sasha wrapping Bianca up in her own hair. It’s grand stuff, for the grandest stage of them all.

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2. WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa – NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver

Only Walter could convincingly end a match with a knife-edge chop. He’s one of the single greatest attractions going right now and please WWE do not f**k up Walter. [remembers Survivor Series 2019] please don’t f**k up walter AGAIN.

This match is eye-watering and oh I love it so. For a while Tomasso Ciampa’s brand of Rasputin-flavoured ultraviolence has lain dormant in NXT, occasionally bubbling to the surface to create magic. His matches with Thatcher were wonderful, his match with WALTER is another level.

The multiple chops, including the hilarious spot of Walter chopping through the announce table, him nearly decapitating ciampa in the best big boot since the late great Test, Ciampa somehow hitting a fairytale ending on the world’s largest and most threatening baby it all just feels real.

Every last horrible scrap of it, the selling, the strikes, the sounds, the welts, the finish, a wonderful exhibition in an increasing legacy of pain for both competitors. A dream matchup.

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1. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan – Smackdown (April 30)

 

Match of the year so far was on bloody SmackDown, lads, I can’t believe it either. Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns with Bryan being banished from Smackdown if he loses. Doesn’t really get more blockbuster than that, and it lived up to it. And hell, what a match to debut a new theme, as Roman ascends to final boss, it’s WWE version of Sephiroth’s theme and I’m here for it.

Anyway, the match, the match is f**king brilliant, Daniel Bryan wrestles like its his last match, turbocharged with speed, intensity and raw facial emotion. Him and Reigns are a perfect blend of speed and power, Roman hitting him with huge moves like a top rope powerbomb but bryan able to strike little and often at roman’s arms while using his own speed against him.

Joyous stuff even without the huge and legitimate stake, which WWE, rare for them, actually followed through on, delivering a definitive finish, clean no less, and a result that increases in significance for every subsequent week that Daniel Bryan remains missing in action.

The only downside was that this match didn’t happen in front of fans, and honestly, I can’t wait for wrestling to be wrestling again.

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• best matches
• Roman Reigns
• Walter
• wwe

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