Now that we're halfway through the year, make a case for match of the year.
2009 has surprisingly brought forth some pretty damn good matches, especially from the WWE. Despite the wrestling business being in a decline we have been able to see many great matches this year. So what was the best? Clearly the
SmackDown! Elimination Chamber from No Way Out 2009. Now I know me saying clearly after building this year up as big is a bit odd, however this just plain and simple blows everything else out of the water when it comes to match quality and excitement. Nothing can come remotely close.
To start the excellence off, we get the best decision possible for the two men to kick the action off in Jeff Hardy and Edge. Edge is of course at the time the WWE Champion, having won it off Jeff just a month previously thanks to Jeff being screwed by his brother Matt, ruining his dream. Now with Jeff never having got a one-on-one rematch, starting off with these two makes perfect sense since Jeff can get his chance for revenge on Edge. Having some quick nearfalls and finisher attempts was a great way to get us kick-started, getting the crowd excited early. Add in the fact that Jeff proved he can go with Edge by pinning him with a surprise small package and we have a really fun start. The match is filled with even more excitement from then on thanks to the fact that the WWE Champion was eliminated first, meaning that there will of course be a new champion heading into WrestleMania.
Having just overcome the odds, Jeff finds himself in peril for the next portion of the match, with the next entrants sensibly being the monster heels of Vladimir Kozlov and Big Show. Every match needs a bit of downtime to calm the crowd and this provided it, allowing the crowd to get excited for the entrances of Triple H and The Undertaker into the match. After the two made their way into the match Kozzy and Show are soon eliminated, leaving the three most over faces not only on SmackDown!, but perhaps in the entire WWE as the final three competitors. Could it have been more exciting to see what would happen at the time? I doubt it. After some exciting moves from the high-flying Jeff, ‘Taker is able to pull an elimination out of nowhere, pulling him from the steel on the outside over the top rope by the hair and into the Tombstone in a very original spot, which brought about the ending of Jeff.
The ending between Triple H and ‘Taker was simply awesome. Two warriors who are fighting for the chance to main event WrestleMania go back and forth, throwing everything they have. The two fan favourites have some great nearfalls and counters, including a foot on the rope from the Tombstone (not a kick out, which is much better. You cannot lift your shoulder after being dropped on your head. Being able to slightly move your leg is a hell of a lot more logical), and a kick out from the Pedigree after Tripper took his time to make the cover thanks to exhaustion. The match is finally topped off by Triple H countering out of the Last Ride spot that undid him at WrestleMania X-Seven, which shows great thinking and psychology, into the Pedigree for the victory.
The match had it all. There was excitement at first and a strong psychology to open up with, before a downtime to allow us to build to a frenetic finisher. Unlike Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker from WrestleMania 25 it didn’t feature a botch that almost killed one of the competitors, nor did it feature an unlikely kick out. And unlike Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett from TNA’s Turning Point, it wasn’t just the same match you’ve seen before from one of the competitors (Kurt Angle) replayed for all to see. The SmackDown! Elimination Chamber has far surpassed everything that has been thrown at it this year, and as such is a deserving match of the year thus far. I’d be willing to bet nothing will beat it by the end of the year either.