5 best wrestling matches of 2011
2011 was a year mired in controversy for WWE, especially thanks to questionable booking of its core storylines. On SmackDown, Edge announced his retirement, which left the show without a top babyface star. Although most fans wanted to see Christian win the title, the events that actually occurred spoke volumes to both Christian and his fans: of the Edge and Christian duo, Christian was very much the Marty Jannetty to Edge’s Shawn Michaels.
RAW wasn’t much better, as the top brass still insisted on pushing John Cena over everyone else. But most of that changed thanks to a man named CM Punk, who cut arguably the single-greatest promo in RAW history. After this, he set the wrestling world on fire, and became the centerpiece of the hottest wrestling storyline in years and one of the best WWE matches ever. Unfortunately, as WWE is wont to do, backstage egos messed that storyline up before it could reach its logical conclusion, leaving fans disappointed instead of elated.
Now, this isn’t to say that 2011 didn’t have great matches. There were a handful of these, which we will discuss below.
#5. Randy Orton vs. Christian - Over The Limit 2011
This was one of the most fun matches of the entire year to watch. The crowd was split evenly between supporting Christian and Orton. They were abnormally loud for a WWE crowd, cheering very loudly at even the most unrealistic near-falls. The wrestlers showed great storytelling and athleticism in the ring (including an interesting submission hold from Orton that he had never done before).
But most importantly, there was an underlying feeling of anticipation because Orton could hit the RKO out of nowhere. Because of the successful presentation of the RKO, the match came off as an unpredictable contest that could realistically end at any moment. You couldn’t turn away or zone out at any time; things happened so quickly that missing a single second would ruin your entire viewing experience.
While many people still bemoan what happened to Christian’s world title run, at least he got to have this great match with Orton, which ended up being one of the best matches of Orton’s career.