Monday, December 7, 2015

Top Five 11/30/15-12/6/15

1) Tetsuya Naito and EVIL: Boy, it's been a really slow week hasn't it? New Japan's World Tag League is still going on and is probably the biggest thing currently happening. The finals are set and on one side, the duo representing Los Ingobernables are in. Tetsuya Naito and EVIL not only made the finals, but they pretty much dominated until the end, finishing with ten points, more than anyone else. They also bested their rivals, Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto in one of the better tournament matches. I don't see them winning since I think they have something else planned for Wrestle Kingdom, but they still deserve the top spot this week.

            2) Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma: As noted, the finals of the World Tag League are coming up shortly.The other team in the finals of the World Tag League is Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma. There has certainly been a lot of controversy surrounding Honma in the past week with the domestic abuse allegations but New Japan hasn't seemed to change their booking plans. Makabe and Honma continue to rack up the wins and they are honestly my picks to win the whole thing. If Honma isn't getting in any trouble, then having him and Makabe win the Tag Titles at WK10 makes sense. Makabe is still a big name and Honma is absurdly over. They've had a good tournament run.


3) Samoa Joe: In a pretty lame week of WWE television, the standout match was between Samoa Joe and Tommaso Ciampa in the main event of NXT. Since joining NXT, I've been very "meh" on Joe. He's a bit past his prime and wasted his best years in TNA. In NXT so far he's been good but certainly not great. The heel turns seems to have motivated him a bit and it shined brightest against Ciampa this week. The match only went about seven minutes but it was balls to the wall and hard hitting. Joe won, gaining momentum heading into his NXT Title match at TakeOver: London in a bit over a week.

                                        4) The New Day: For a long time, the New Day has been the best part of the main roster WWE programming. This week, they opened Raw with a pretty good segment featuring Sheamus. They joined commentary later on and then closed the show alongside the League of Nations. They may not have had a great match this week, but being put on Raw so often shows how the WWE knows that New Day is golden. On Smackdown, New Day got a really solid win when they defeated the Usos and Dean Ambrose in a six man tag. 


5) Chad Gable and Jason Jordan: The best tag team in NXT is easily Chad Gable and Jason Jordan, even if the champions are Dash and Dawson. Last time out, they beat the longest reigning NXT Tag Team Champions, the Ascension. This week, Gable and Jordan bested another unit of former NXT Tag Team Champions, the Vaudevillains. It wasn't a particularly long match but it was solid and once again showed off the dynamic chemistry between Gable and Jordan. There is something very special about this duo and they are just an absolute joy to watch. I expect to see them on this list a lot in 2016.