The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 WWE Moments of 2017

We’re off and rolling with a new year. As we gear up for 2018, it’s time for the Magnificent Seven to take a look back at 2017. So, this week’s column is dedicated to looking back at the top seven WWE moments of the past year.

In perusing the comments sections, I recognize that some people have asked why this column skews WWE-heavy, and I’d like to take this moment to address the point. Yes, there’s plenty of other good wrestling out there, some of it quite arguably better than the current WWE product. The hard part is that when you don’t have hard parameters like localizing to WWE, you’re claiming to speak for the entirety of the wrestling world. To be honest, Lucha Underground was the only other promotion I watched enough of in 2017 to feel comfortable ranking moments. The WWE product is more expansive and much more watched than Lucha Underground, and to count just the two promotions would feel like an odd combination. I wouldn’t feel comfortable presuming the best WWE and Lucha Underground moments were necessarily better than all New Japan, Impact, ROH, PWG, Chikara, etc. moments simply haven’t seen. So, for better or for worse, WWE gets the nod on its own.

This week’s countdown includes Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and Network programming like the Mae Young Classic. The column focuses on moments in a vacuum as they happened, with historical context and far-reaching impact as distant secondary concerns. As always, my personal opinion is a big consideration here.

#7. Brock Lesnar Gets His Win Back

There were a lot of questions going into Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg at WrestleMania 33. Would they fall into the same traps of their awful WrestleMania 20 encounter? After only working lightning quick squash matches in his WWE comeback, was Goldberg up for taking a bump, let alone working a full-fledged match? Would a Lesnar win—which seemed like the only reasonable outcome—going to deflate the crowd?

Perhaps it’s all of these concerns added up together that made this match end up working. Lesnar-Goldberg was about as a good as a sub-five-minute match can be, with the two trading heavy artillery with one another for the smash mouth brawl the pair had seemingly promised all along, but never previously delivered. It was genuinely exciting in-ring action with the added tension of whether WWE might book Goldberg to the be the guy Lesnar just couldn’t get over on. Add on the climactic spot of Lesnar leap-frogging the Spear and you have Goldberg’s all-time best WWE match, and another in a catalog of Lesnar spectacles that left fans talking.

#6. Braun SMASH at SummerSlam

2017 was the year that saw Braun Strowman evolve from a hoss prospect WWE was clearly high on to arguably the single most over guy on the roster whose feats of strength, real and worked, made him an unlikely folk hero on the modern WWE landscape.

You could argue that Strowman peaked when he thrashed Roman Reigns in their Ambulance Match, when he got the better of Brock Lesnar on Raw, or when he finally got his one-on-one title match at No Mercy. I’m picking this performance, particularly opposite Lesnar, but also against Samoa Joe and Reigns at SummerSlam. The performance was highlighted by Strowman powerslamming Lesnar through not just one, but two announce tables at ringside to create real doubt as to whether Lesnar would retain and, for those moments, make Strowman the most over monster of them all in the main event of one of the biggest shows of the year.

#5. Shinsuke Nakamura Returns to the Money in the Bank Ladder Match

This year’s Money in the Bank was a pretty historic one. Yes, there’s was the first women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match that WWE kept touting for it being a first-ever occurrence and, wonky ending aside, it was a good match (though I’d argue the more decisive rematch on SmackDown was a smidge better). But then there was the main event. Take AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, and, sure, Baron Corbin, and there’s almost too much talent involved for the match not to reach four-star status.

The booking here was sharp as well, including Corbin taking out Nakamura in a logical enough move of neutralizing a threat before the match began, only for Nakamura to return in dramatic fashion in the late stages of the fantastic match.

Nakamura was built as a star on SmackDown up to that point, but this was the first moment when he first truly looked the part. The crowd was positively electric and Nakamura more than lived up to the hype, simply annihilating the field and planting seeds of doubt that maybe he’d end up winning the match.

While Corbin ultimately winning was both predictable and a bit deflating, Nakamura’s re-entrance was a a mark out moment and one in which WWE simultaneously asserted its faith in him getting a star’s reaction, and Nakamura made good on that promise by having the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand on a phenomenal sequence.

#4. The Festival Friendship

Kevin Owens has really only worked one televised match for WWE as a face—his NXT debut. However, it feels like the guy has turned heel at least three times for the shocking moments in which he successfully pitches his character to darker places than where he started out. Yes, his annihilation of Sami Zayn at NXT TakeOver R Evolution was an outstanding piece of business, and his more recent pummeling of Vince McMahon was a shocking bit of brutality. The Festival of Friendship checked all the right boxes for a particularly stark turn for Owens and his storyline with Chris Jericho.

Part of the magic of the Festival segment came from just how good Owens and Jericho had been in their best friends routine. What started out as a tired retread of two top heels working together, bound to turn on each other, evolved into an entertaining duo that largely dominated Raw for nearly half of a year. The writing was on the wall that they’d have a falling out before too long—probably in time for a WrestleMania match—but it was unclear just how they would get there.

In the Festival, Jericho was at his best silly heel version of himself, with the completely over the top selling of his affection for Owens. Jericho’s mannerisms were all the better for their sharp contrast to Owens, as Jericho’s playfulness accented just how vicious and cruel Owens was when he turned on his buddy, giving him a brutal ass kicking that culminated in an apron powerbomb and throwing Y2J through the Festival sign. While Owens as a cowardly heel had made for an OK Universal Champion, this was Owens returning to his old self as a cold-hearted, ruthless villain. That’s what got him over in the first place, and this segment was a perfect reminder of what makes the guy great.

#3. Kairi Sane Wins The Mae Young Classic

The Mae Young Classic was by and large a success. The tournament purportedly drew a lot of viewers on the WWE Network, gave some great indie talent an opportunity to shine on a unique platform, and introduced some new stars. Sure, the tournament had its rough spots from a match quality perspective (particularly in the first round) and the commentary was underwhelming. Just the same, most one-hour episodes of the show included at least one good-to-great match.

Along the way, WWE successfully built up Shayna Baszler as a dominant heel force, who’d ruthlessly choke out anyone who crossed her path (Candice LeRae, in particular, did an awesome job of playing the white meat babyface to get chewed up and spit out). Meanwhile Kairi Sane was introduced as a little performer with a huge personality and remarkable skillset, particularly in regards to her aerial capabilities.

While there were other tournament favorites that some folks would have liked to have seen go further (personally, I was pulling for Abbey Laith, and I know Toni Storm had her backers) this pairing made for one best pure face-heel dynamics the tournament final could have had, and raised sincere questions about the match’s outcome. Yes, Sane had a ton of star potential, but Baszler had her legit MMA background and the specter of having Ronda Rousey join her in the WWE ranks if the company signed her to a full-time deal.

Best of all, the match itself was very good—easily a top five bout from the tournament overall—with some nice false finishes. Ultimately, Sane’s victory felt about as important as any victory a female performer had achieved in WWE this year and created a ton of buzz about how she (not to mention other tournament standouts) might figure into WWE’s plans moving forward.

#2. Tomasso Ciampa Turns On Johnny Gargano

While NXT doesn’t have as big of an audience as the WWE main roster, the product has at least as much buzz around it from hardcore fans and the brand’s TakeOver specials have become must-watch TV, even for fans like myself who can’t make time to keep up on the product on a week-to-week basis. These shows are based on shrewd, wrestling-based storytelling, practiced by tremendous pure talents and centered on forwarding simple, logical storylines.

The NXT TakeOver: Chicago special this past May was a worthy addition to the TakeOver catalog. Building off their momentum from great matches at the preceding TakeOvers in San Antonio and Orlando, #DIY and The Authors of Pain got the main event spot in a ladder match. Once again, The Authors of Pain over-performed, cementing their place as a legitimately very good tag team in their own right. Once again, Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa confirmed that they’re two of the best indie workers WWE has taken a chance on via NXT.

Yes, the match was great, and as heartbreaking as seeing #DIY lose their last title match was, it was all the more devastating to watch Ciampa positively destroy Gargano in the aftermath. In the preceding match, Johnny Wrestling had shoved his partner out of the way to take a stiff ladder shot on his behalf, confirming that Gargano was not only a partner, but a good friend. Ciampa paid him back in pure spite with a brutally violent attack, culminating in a sick table spot. The only drawback from this whole sequence was that Ciampa got injured in the match and wasn’t able to capitalize on his new white hot heel momentum in the immediate aftermath.

#1. The Hardy Boyz Return

WrestleMania 33 had a good card, and by and large delivered a solid, if unspectacular ‘Mania, which I suspect wrestling historians will wind up ranking squarely in the middle of the pack amidst other ‘Mania shows. There was one moment, however, when the show became transcendent. That was the return of The Hardy Boyz.

The return of Matt and Jeff Hardy, in and of itself, for fans who only watch WWE, after nearly a decade away would have been cool. Add in that it was an unannounced surprise at the biggest show of the year, and the moment turned electric. Add in that it was a multi-team ladder match, and it offered the perfect environment for the Hardys to do their thing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, you can add on that The Hardys were far and away the hottest free agents in the wrestling world based on their Broken Universe gimmick, and that they were defending their ROH tag titles against The Young Bucks in an amazing match for ROH the night before, and you have a recipe for something simply sensational.

The fans responded just as WWE must have hoped—possibly better than the powers-that-be may have expected by positively losing their minds with chants of “Delete!” and cheering the brothers on to victory in a very good match.

While The Hardys lost a bit of their sizzle over the months to follow, becoming a more regular part of the roster and the jury is still out on the “Woken” persona, this return nonetheless marks the most incredible moment WWE pulled off in 2017.

Which moments would you add to the list? AJ Styles winning back the WWE Championship, Samoa Joe choking out Paul Heyman, the NXT War Games superplex spot, various stages of The Shield reuniting, Kevin Owens destroying Vince McMahon, Charlotte Flair winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and The Undertaker leaving his gear in the ring were my nearest misses. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.