Fave Five 9/19/16-9/25/16

1) Tetsuya Naito: There were a lot of shows this week, but Tetsuya Naito is a clear-cut winner here. His match against MIchael Elgin at Destruction in Kobe was the best of the week and another feather in the cap of the guy that I think makes the best argument against AJ Styles for wrestler of the year. Naito's win earned him his first ever IWGP Intercontinental Title. That would be enough to put him first but the win was more than that. It made Naito the first Grand Slam winner in NJPW. He has held the IWGP Tag Team, Heavyweight, Intercontinental and NEVER Openweight Championships, to go along with G1 Climax and New Japan Cup victories. Naito is easily the MVP of NJPW this year and this proved it again.

2) Roman Reigns: Roman Reigns is consistently a guy having very good to great matches for the most part. His character is just so bad and unlikable that mysel and many others just can't get behind him. This week, he didn't put on some of his best matches but he did rack up two major wins. First, in the main event of Raw, he defeated the WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens in a Steel Cage match. Then, at Clash of Champions, he bested Rusev to win his first WWE United States Championship. Though it is a midcard title, Reigns is still seen as one of, if not the top guy on Raw and his run as champion will most likely see the title be held in higher regard.

3) The New Day: I like the New Day. I really do. I disagree with the decision to have them retain at Clash of Champions though. It's about time Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson become champions. Either way though, the New Day retained their Tag Team Titles at the PPV in the best match they've had against Gallows and Anderson so far. The win marks a milestone for the team as they surpassed 399 days as champions and crossed into the 400 day section. It's nearly uncharted territory as they join only Demolition as 400+ day champions and now have less than 80 days remaining until they can break the all-time record.

            4) Kevin Owens: Yes, he lost in the Steel Cage match main event of Monday Night Raw to Roman Reigns. Yes, his first Pay-Per-View main event match turned out to be very disappointing. Still, Kevin Owens did successfully defend his WWE Universal Championship in the Clash of Champions main event against former two-time WWE Champion Seth Rollins. The match was kind of an overbooked mess but it showed that the company had some faith in Owens to carry the title for more than just a few weeks. A win over Roman Reigns on Monday and a better match with Rollins would have certainly placed Owens higher.


5) TJ Perkins: Successfully made his first defense of the Cruiserweight Championship against The Brian Kendrick at Clash of Champions.