10 WWE Matches That Delivered On Their Massive Hype
"This is awesome."
Sunday's Traditional Men's Survivor Series Elimination Match did not deliver on its massive hype. They should have renamed it Satire Series: this match was the gravest fears of the most jaded pocket of the fanbase, manifested.
"They'll eliminate Shinsuke Nakamura first."
"Bobby Roode is only in there for comic relief."
"Everything will come down to Shane McMahon."
"Triple H will bury at least one member of Team SmackDown."
Shinsuke Nakamura was eliminated first, but he at least was treated with a degree of dignity; Bobby Roode was only in there for comic relief. He did his 'Glorious' pose, and that's about it. Shane McMahon outlasted his entire team - which included John Cena! - in order to portray him as a man of of immense intestinal fortitude. Triple H exhumed the shovel, and so clearly positioned himself as above everybody but Braun Strowman it was beyond parody - and he only protected Strowman to get a match out of him down the line. It was arguably worse than satire; nobody expected Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to run worse interference than Brutus Beefcake trying to talk down Randy Savage in 1989.
WWE's pay-per-view canon is littered with disappointments - and many of those involve Triple H, incidentally. That said, you cannot entirely loathe the man; he was responsible for something absolutely incredible just 24 hours earlier...
10. WarGames Match - NXT TakeOver: WarGames
WarGames was so awesome.
If the Survivor Series main event was an exercise in abject nostalgia, WarGames was its complete antithesis. On Saturday night, the elixir of nostalgia was used to make something new from something old.
The iconic roof was removed in order to remove the shackles of a long-defunct style. The classic five-on-five formula was shelved in order to let the organic storyline play out. The single entrances were doubled down upon to further suit that storyline, reinforce the classic heel gang psychology, and speed up the build to suit an audience used to something approaching warp speed.
The inherent brutality of the WarGames match was magnified via modern weaponry, introduced by Killian Dain in what was a magnificent star-making performance. The man's appetite for destruction was made literal when he ate a d*mn key, and his star shone as he rocked the Kyle O'Reilly with the Coast To Coast. Adam Cole also benefited from this grand platform; his astute slimy heel act got over huge as he evaded the carnage with a sh*t-eating grin. The match as a whole was an über-dangerous spectacle benefitting from hardway blood and the sort of insane stunts not possible under the old constrictions.
New stars; new drama; new tropes: new WarGames was nostalgia made perfect.