10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2021 (So Far)

9. WALTER vs. Tomasso Ciampa (NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver - Night 1)

Tommaso Ciampa WALTER
WWE.com

The Capitol Wrestling Center makes for a difficult and exhausting viewing experience. It's a place where the volume is never not turned all the way up, no matter the situation, with screaming announcers, blinding lights, and aggressive sonics. There's no ebb and flow to the presentation style it forces upon NXT - and it never shuts the f*ck up.

It's fitting, then, that the best match to come out of it so far features the man most capable of bucking WWE's more harmful trends.

WALTER is immune to the house style. He has somehow found a spot allowing him to wrestle his way, not the company's, with only minor concessions. Sure, the chops don't always flay like they used to, but he's still the same WALTER he was pre-WWE and far from overexposed, hence why his matches always feel distinct.

Tommaso Ciampa is having a sneakily great year himself and worked an expert strategy into this brutal beating, destroying WALTER's hand in ways that forced the Austrian to completely change his strategy. This attention to detail, coupled with the match's stiffness and unique finish, filled the Capitol Wrestling Center with fire, thunder, and world-class selling.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for six years and is currently WhatCulture's Senior Wrestling Reporter. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.