While it was a pretty lackluster year creatively, WWE allowed its superstars to perform in top-notch wrestling matches all year long. These are the five best WWE matches of 2015.
5. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar - WrestleMania 31
This match was not as highly anticipated as WWE was hoping. After getting a very poor reaction when he won the Royal Rumble match, Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan to keep his WrestleMania title shot, and the vocal majority in the audience wasn't too happy about that either. When the time came for the main event at Levi's Stadium, the crowd wasn't jazzed to see Reigns, but he earned a lot of respect by putting in a very good match against the monstrous Lesnar. Reigns spent a lot of time getting pounded into the mat but kept getting up. He ended up dealing a number of good shots himself. Suplex City was born in this match as well. Seth Rollins shocked the world and cashed in his MITB title shot while the match was still in progress, and won the darn thing. That’s a two-for-one as far as first times. First guy to cash in while a match was already in progress and first guy to cash in at WrestleMania. All of the factors involved make this one of the best and most memorable matches of the year in WWE.
4. Kevin Owens vs. John Cena - Elimination Chamber
While John Cena was busy defending his United States Championship against anybody who wanted to take on the challenge, Kevin Owens was busy dominating NXT. Owens debuted on RAW and looked to be primed to take part in the US Title Open Challenge, but decided that he already held a more important championship. At the time, he was the NXT Champion, and he got himself a non-title match with John Cena shortly after he debuted by powerbombing the 15-time World Champion and stomping on the US Title belt. They wrestled at Elimination Chamber, the random WWE Network special that happened two weeks after Extreme Rules and two weeks before Payback, and Owens ended up winning his first WWE match. It was the best of their three encounters in what turned out to be a disappointing feud, as it was over before it really had a chance to begin. This match, however, was still absolutely fantastic and helped Owens break out as somebody to pay attention to.
3. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar - Royal Rumble 2015
Seth Rollins interfered in the Cena vs. Lesnar WWE World Heavyweight Championship rematch at Night of Champions 2014. He broke up a pinfall attempt that appeared to be set to put the title back into John Cena’s hands. Not only did he cost Cena the title, but he gave Lesnar the currently banned Curb Stomp. Both men surely wanted revenge on the squirrely man who turned on his Shield brothers, and they got it when he was made a part of their rematch at the 2015 Royal Rumble event. The match was balls-to-the-wall for the entirety, with Seth Rollins putting his body on the line, which in one instance ended up with a broken rib for Lesnar. These men all have great chemistry with each other, and it was a fantastic first pay-per-view title match of the year.
2. Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins - Ladder Match, Money In The Bank
The former brothers in arms from The Shield have fantastic chemistry with each other. They proved that in a number of matches in 2014 and 2015, but none of them were better than their encounter at the 2015 edition of Money In The Bank. Rollins had some disappointing title defenses against Randy Orton after winning the title at the end of WrestleMania, and his series with Ambrose more than made up for it. This was a thinking man's ladder match, full of psychology and smart strategy rather than a devil-may-care attitude and falling from high places. Even though there wasn't much of a chance that we would see Dean Ambrose as the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion, these two men made it believable that he could win that title against all odds. Great match, great story and so much fun to watch.
1. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn
There isn’t much to say about this match that hasn’t already been said by everybody. These two women have proven that they are two of the best wrestlers on the planet, male or female. Both have an amazing understanding of psychology inside the ring at such a young age and know how to put together a match to elicit all of the right reactions at all of the right times from the live audience. In this particular match, they had a crowd of over 13,000 people in the palms of their hands. Bayley, the lone member of NXT’s version of the Four Horsewomen left off of the main roster, was virtually guaranteed to win the match and the championship, but the story told throughout the match put that result in doubt on a number of occasions. The emotions were perfect and the wrestling was spot on. This is definitely the best match that WWE put on in all of 2015.
