10 Best WWE Matches Of 2017
4. AJ Styles Vs. John Cena - Royal Rumble
Looking at things cynically, you could just as easily label Big Match John Spot Fest John, or Self-Conscious John. As exciting at his best latter career work is, that CV is homogenised through a dramatic - but ultimately hollow - set of obvious tropes.
His WWE Heavyweight Title win over AJ Styles worked so well because he used his evident strength advantage as a strategy, not something to conceal in a defensive attempt to prove himself a worthy advocate of the über-athletic, definitive wrestling style of the mid-to-late 2010s. At the midway point, he rocked AJ Styles with a lariat - not a clothesline, but a d*mn lariat the likes of which Stan Hansen would throw up the devil's horn in appreciation for - before, in an awesome moment of psychological body language, flexing his muscles in full beast mode.
Of course, we did witness the typical exchange of big moves, all of which were timed to yield the maximum audience reaction - but underpinned by this realistic strand of psychology, they developed a new, deeper meaning.
The finish was a joy, too: Cena rolled through an AA to deliver a devastating, decisive double-header, framed with the grunting power of a man delivering a near career-best of a performance.