Fave Five 5/16/16-5/22/16

1) Kyle O'Reilly: Last year, Kyle O'Reilly lost in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament to KUSHIDA in a match that ranked 15th in my Top 100 Matches of 2015 list. They met on the first day of this year's tournament and managed to put on an even better performance. Their chemistry is off the charts. For twenty minutes, they had a MOTY candidate, which included one of the best spots I've seen in years. Kyle was able to make KUSHIDA, the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, submit to his armbar before getting on the microphone and promising to win the entire tournament. He's a safe bet and my pick to win it as well. If he wins, it should lead to another match between these two, this time for the title.

2) The Miz: While KUSHIDA and O'Reilly had the best match this week, the IC Title match was a close second. The Miz, Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn went out and completely stole the show. Honestly, all four of them have strong cases for making the list, but I went with the winner, the Miz. True, he had to sneak in to steal the win, but that was perfect. I saw a lot of complaints about the result and I get that. However, Miz is the best heel they have (along with Owens) and elicits the actual heel response that the WWE wants. He's the best kind of chickenshit champion and I fully expect Cesaro to dethrone him soon to a massive pop. For now though, Miz continues to be awesome.

3) Rusev: TONG PO! There was no result on Extreme Rules that I was happier about than seeing Rusev regain the United States Title. I like Kalisto, but his run as champion was lackluster for the most part despite some good matches. Rusev has easily been one of the most entertaining acts in all of wrestling over the past few months. He was even the only tolerable part of the awful love rectangle angle with himself, Lana, Summer and Ziggler last year. Rusev deserves a chance to get somewhere with his personality and I hope they do it here. Of course, he could just be keeping it warm for a week until John Cena returns and wins it bac

k because Memorial Day and America and all of that stuff.

4) KUSHIDA: Considering how great the match between KUSHIDA and Kyle O'Reilly was, both had to make it. As noted, they put on a classic and both guys deserve all of the credit for their efforts. KUSHIDA came close on several occasions, but dropped a tough one to O'Reilly. KUSHIDA is still the reigning IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion though, and it's very possible that he wins out the rest of his block before coming close to or making the finals. Either way, he earned his spot here and will probably make it again over the next two weeks with consistently stellar performances.

5) Seth Rollins: Returned and took out WWE Champion Roman Reigns.