14. The Usos vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan - 2 Out Of 3 Falls For WWE Tag Team Titles (Battleground)
The greater emphasis placed on the mid-card in 2014 allowed mid-card title matches to be showstealers on a couple of different PPVs ahead of their higher profile peers. Take The Usos defending the Tag Team Championships against The Wyatt Family, for instance. In years past, their 2/3 Falls match at Battleground would have gotten shortchanged on time and been only a fraction of what it should have been. Not this year. They offered the top match in the month of July en route to one of the finest tag team matches of the last half decade or longer. In terms of pure tag wrestling without a creatively expanding gimmick involved, you would be hard pressed to name any better in WWE since DX vs. The Legacy at Summerslam in 2009. Throughout the year, Jimmy and Jey reminded people what a quality, over mid-card babyface duo could look like. It had been awhile since we had seen that from something beyond a thrown-together squad of otherwise underutilized singles wrestlers. The Usos entire series of matches with Harper and Rowan did become monotonous by the end, but the parting shot they gave us was a pure joy to witness. Allow this 2014 Tag Team Match of the Year to be the reason we cheers to a 2015 with just as much, if not more emphasis on the tag division!
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
