5 Best matches of the week (31st January-6th February 2021)
Over the past seven days, we witnessed top tier quality of matches in wrestling. The question is, which match was the best of the week?
The 2021 Royal Rumble took place on Sunday, and the PPV was stellar from start to finish. We also saw the continuation of the Men's and Women's Dusty Classics on NXT. AEW presented Beach Break, bringing together Kenny Omega and IMPACT Wrestling Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers for tag team action.
There were a lot of great matches in the past seven days. Let's take a look at the best of the week, starting with WWE's annual January PPV event.
#5 WWE Universal Championship Match - Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble 2021
There have been so few screw-ups in the Roman Reigns "Tribal Chief" storyline since his return that you could count them all on one hand and have four fingers and a thumb to spare. Pitting the Universal Champion against Kevin Owens was, of course, another great step. The WWE Universe thought that we had moved past this storyline back in December, but a last-minute twist by Adam Pearce left the Prize Fighter with another opportunity, this time in a Last Man Standing Match.
Reigns and Owens did everything they needed to sell fans on this one, all that was left was for them to deliver at the Royal Rumble. Of course, they did. It was a hard-hitting slobber knocker for the ages. The Head of the Table was once again on the verge of losing his title to the only man who has been an actual threat to his rule during his reign. Reigns ran down Owens in the back with a golf cart, sending Owens through the window in the process.
It wasn't enough to put him away, though. Owens' never-say-die attitude was even able to drive Reigns through a table with a frog splash. Reigns, several times, was able to save himself by climbing onto whatever he could find. Roman's comments about his challenger's grandfathers fueled the fire, and Owens was close to victory on several occasions. In the final moments, Owens locked Roman Reigns up in a pair of handcuffs, leaving him unable to rise to his feet.
This moment is the only reason that this match isn't higher on the list. Unfortunately, Paul Heyman struggled with the cuffs, and while Roman managed to knock out the referee, a second ref walked in, unable to actually make the ten-count. They remedied this as best they could, with Reigns managing to get onto his feet while squatting down to the floor.
Kevin Owens would end up getting choked out by Reigns, failing to make the ten-count. Aside from that one slip-up, this was an epic war between two of the toughest competitors in all of WWE.