The Best Match From Every 2021 WWE PPV
Acknowledging 'The Tribal Chief' (and several others) who stole the show last year.
David Coverdale of the band Whitesnake once sang "I don't know where I'm going, but I sure know where I've been" and it seems that spirit also carries for WWE and their fans as a whole, particularly in the last couple of years.
It has become exceedingly easy (sometimes even fashionable) to ridicule WWE on a number of different fronts. Everything from the putrid state of the creative team, to Upper Management's hostile, for lack of a better word, "takeover" and reboot of the NXT brand, to the relentless deluge of talent releases that have plagued the company since WrestleMania 36 have been justifiably targeted.
Admittedly, even for the most forgiving of WWE's viewers (your writer included), positives are becoming increasingly difficult to find under the current management direction. As faint as they may appear, however, the silver linings still haven't completely disappeared from the landscape. In spite of innumerable flaws in the system, WWE did manage to forward at least one enjoyable contest for their Peacock subscribers at each of this past year's PPVs...*ahem*...'Premium Live Events'.
With WWE Day 1 and the Royal Rumble in the rear view mirror and the Road to WrestleMania well under way, here's a glimpse at the matches that salvaged our subscriptions in 2021.
17. AJ Styles Vs. Jeet Rama (WWE Superstar Spectacle 22 January 2021)
Despite the eventual fate of some of the participants in the special (among several others), WWE Superstar Spectacle was still an enjoyable 90 minutes upon rewatch. Filmed in advance and set for broadcast on India's Republic Day (January 26), the event was intended as an exhibition for the rich talent pool of Indian-born talent emerging from the WWE Performance Center.
Months before being relegated to becoming Jinder Mahal's lackey upgrade, Rinku (later Veer and later still Veer Mahaan) would join WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and then-Indus Sher partner Saurav in pinballing Mahal and The Singh Brothers in the main event. Meanwhile, fellow future Mahal monitor Dilsher Shanky and human skyscraper Giant Zanjeer rubbed elbows with crowd pleasing aerialists Rey Mysterio and Ricochet in an entertaining eight-man tag match.
A family emergency resulted in Sareena Sandhu stepping in last minute for Kavita Devi, WWE's first Indian-born women's wrestler, to share the ring with Charlotte Flair, Bayley and Natalya while NXT Champion Finn Bálor and Guru Raaj had a fast-paced barnstormer in the opening contest. However, it was Finn's Bullet Club successor who took home match of the night.
Before being inducted into the 4 November 2021 class of the WWE Hall of Budget Cuts, Jeet Rama gave The Phenomenal One all he could handle for nearly ten minutes. That is, until Omos lent a helping hand (literally) to keep Styles on the top rope during an attempted overhead belly to belly suplex, leaving Rama easy prey for a Phenomenal Forearm moments later.