It’s the most wonderful time of the year and now that we’re heading into 2016, I thought it would be great to look back at what I think are the top 5 WWE moments of 2015. Do you agree? Disagree? What are yours?
5) Seth Rollins cashes in at WrestleMania.
Going into WrestleMania 31, everyone had two options for their WWE World Heavyweight champion. The show’s main event was a brawl between challenger Roman Reigns and then-champion Brock Lesnar. This was a problem for some of the audience, because the choices were either a part-timer who appeared once a month, or the Royal Rumble winner who got booed out of the building even when celebrating with the Rock. The match itself was great, and Roman Reigns was not going down easily. Once the two had nearly beaten each other to death, out comes Seth Rollins to take the opportunity that the briefcase was meant for, and win the World Heavyweight Championship.
4) Kevin Owens defeats John Cena in his main roster debut.
A lot of wrestling fans know Kevin Owens from his previous work in the indies, or even his work in NXT, but most of the WWE fanbase only watches Raw and Smackdown. So when Kevin Owens debuted on Raw to start feuding with John Cena, most of the audience was wondering what made Owens so great to start feuding with the top star of the company. With battling promos between Cena and Owens before they would collide at Elimination Chamber, it would be noted that this match would be a Champion vs. Champion match. At the time, Kevin Owens was the NXT champion, and John Cena was the United States champion, and they were able to represent their respective divisions. At Elimination Chamber, both men put on a terrific match, with a lot of back-and-forth action, leaving the audience in suspense for when Cena would hit the Attitude Adjustment and get the win. However, that did not happen. Kevin Owens hit Cena with the Pop-up Powerbomb and picked up the victory, showing the audience that he’s a force to be reckoned with in the future of WWE.
3) Roman Reigns wins the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and wins over the crowd.
Roman Reigns has had quite a year. It started off with him being pushed to the moon after Daniel Bryan got injured, hopefully gaining Bryan’s sense of star power. There was a big difference between the Roman Reigns push and the Daniel Bryan push: Bryan got himself over, whereas Reigns wasn’t really doing much, but made it to the top. As mentioned earlier, the fans reacted to this when he won the 2015 Royal Rumble in Philadelphia and was booed out of the building.
After that night, Roman Reigns had to reinvent himself. It took a while after having a lackluster feud with Bray Wyatt, but eventually Roman just got pissed off. Every time he would come close to winning the big one, he would get screwed over. What won Roman over with the crowd was at TLC, after losing in the Main Event to Sheamus. After his loss, he destroyed the League of Nations, and manhandled Triple H. This was the drive and passion that the audience had been looking for in Roman, and now we’ve got it. The night after, Vince McMahon told him that he either had to win the World Heavyweight Championship, or he was fired. So Roman won the title, and instead of boos, was welcomed with cheers from the audience in Philadelphia, the same place they booed him months earlier.
2) Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks debut on Monday Night Raw.
For quite some time, the state of the Divas division has not been great. In a booking aspect, they would get a couple minutes each night on a three-hour show, with a thrown together story and nothing that makes too much sense. In a wrestling aspect, there has never been a wealth of exceptional talent. Each Diva could hold her own, but there were always a couple of standouts that were way ahead of their competition: Beth Phoenix, Natalya, AJ Lee, and Paige are just a few. With the departure of AJ Lee, Paige was the only one in the Divas division that was well-polished in all aspects (which makes sense considering she’s been wrestling since she was 13 years old), and it shined a light on a weakening roster. With the momentum of tremendous female athletes like Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey, WWE wanted to get in on the push for female talent, so they decided to start their own “Divas Revolution”. This started by Stephanie McMahon coming out on Raw and announcing the Raw debut of three of the Four Horsewomen: Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks. They all entered to a huge pop from the crowd, and made a statement by taking out Team Bella. Although the Divas Revolution was more talk than anything, this moment was a great start to it all.
and the winner is….
1) Bayley and Sasha Banks have the Match-of-the-Year at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn.
Speaking of Sasha Banks, most of her following this year has been through her work in NXT. In the early part of the year, she was the NXT Women’s Champion, and her main rival was the epitome of babyface, Bayley. After weeks of buildup, the two would square off in one of the most raucous wrestling cities, Brooklyn. Everyone watching knew that Bayley and Sasha are both incredible in-ring talent, and it showed. This match included great back-and-forth action, some high spots, and great character building. Bayley was the underdog who would fight harder than anything to win the NXT Women’s title, and Sasha Banks would continue to be The Boss. She even mocked Bayley’s biggest fan to gain more heat. This match had everything a classic match should have, and it showed that women wrestlers can put on 5-star quality matches. Sasha Banks and Bayley in NXT showed the world what the “Divas Revolution” should be.
