WWE’s 9 Best Matches of 2017 So Far
2. John Cena vs. AJ Styles – WWE Royal Rumble
For the first four-plus months of 2017, AJ Styles vs. John Cena from the Royal Rumble looked like the best match. It was the third match in their series, which began at the 2016 Money in the Bank PPV, continued at SummerSlam, and went to the 50,000-plus people at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX.
Styles and Cena’s first two matches were excellent and probably contenders for the best one of 2016. So with another year, they got the chance to do something again, and to say it was better may be an understatement, even with how great last year’s bouts were.
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Styles and Cena put on a technical masterpiece for their Royal Rumble match. The Face That Runs the Place isn’t even known for this, but every once in awhile, he pulls out a performance like this. It helped his chemistry with the Phenomenal One has always been terrific in the ring, leading to their previous show-stealing matches.
The spots and dramatic near-falls helped build the match’s suspense, which was a factor in the other two. Sure, this saw them kick out of each other’s finishers, which doesn’t help in building them up. But, when it comes to two extremely talented performers like Cena and Styles, they should be able to work through the best each other has to offer. Then, it takes multiple variations of their finishers to put the other one down.
Cena ended up winning the WWE Championship for his 16th World title victory. However, this lasted a disappointing 14 days and has arguably been forgotten about already. What hasn’t been is the match that was put on, which is something fans will look back on at the end of 2017.