10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2021 (So Far)
9. WALTER vs. Tomasso Ciampa (NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver - Night 1)
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.