1) Kevin Owens: This has to be one of the hardest weeks to make these choices ever. A lot has happened but the thing I have to put at the top was Kevin Owens winning the NXT Championship. The guy has only had three televised matches but vaulted of the top of the brand. His mach was Sami Zayn featured storytelling at its finest and was another in a string of fantastic matches from NXT on their specials. He came out looking like an absolute monster as he destroyed Sami until the referee had to call for the bell in an impressive performance. Some people have complained online because he's only been around for two months but there was no better choice right now. The story we got at TakeOver: Rival was incredible. Owens could be Brock Lesnar like as a dominant force.
2) AJ Styles: Since leaving TNA AJ Styles has rejuvenated his career. He won the IWGP Heavyweight Title last year before recapturing it this week against Hiroshi Tanahasi. With the fact that the Bullet Club seems to have a stranglehold on the titles in NJPW, I can see Styles having a pretty sustained run with the gold. The match itself wasn't up to snuff with what I have come to expect from AJ Styles but that was more because he has set such a high bar. Don't get me wrong, it was good stuff but I was a tad disappointed. The Bullet Club seem poised to have another huge year in 2015, with AJ Styles at the very top of it all.
3) Sasha Banks: Yup, I'm going there and putting her in third. I realize that Tomohiro Ishii had a match of the year candidate but as a big fan of Sasha Banks, I had to show her love. The girl loves the business and she finally won the NXT Women's Championship. With the SHIMMER Title, it's the belt that I consider to be the pinnacle of women's wrestling. Banks went out with Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Bayley and had a fantastic match. She pinned the champion to win, which was unexpected, and her celebration was very emotional and just made me like her even more.
4) Tomohiro Ishii: This guy is built like a tank. I haven't seen much of him since I only recently got NJPW World but dammit if the match at New Beginnings wasn't incredible. It was for the vacant NEVER Openweight Championship and it stole the entire weekend. This was just two guys hitting each other hard and it was damn entertaining. It's another run with the belt for Ishii but the biggest thing is that he had the best match of the week during a time that saw NXT put on three match of the year candidates. Think about that.
5) Finn Balor: At NXT TakeOver: Rival, there was a series of three awesome matches. The first of those three was the finals of the Number One Contender's Tournament as Adrian Neville took on Finn Balor. I expected the outcome but getting there was glorious. Neville and Balor put on a great showing. Finn rocked the awesome body paint again, giving us goosebumps with his slightly modified entrance. Once the match started he continued to perform and they nearly stole the show. Balor won a hard fought match, being the only person besides Sami Zayn that I can remember pinning Adrian Neville. He is moving towards the top of NXT and it's going to be great.
