Wrestling Inc's Top 5 Matches Of The Week: 12/1/2023
We're living in a golden age of American pro wrestling. There are two major televised promotions, each with three shows across cable and network television. WWE has seven hours of weekly programming; AEW has five. If you watch both those companies and also, say, Ring of Honor (also promoted by Tony Khan) your only wrestling-free evening is Sunday — and that's if there isn't a pay-per-view.
The result is that there is more wrestling available on a weekly basis than ever before. Over the past week (thanks to Survivor Series) WWE, AEW, and ROH combined to produce 45 matches. In one week. That's a lot of wrestling in a 168-hour period! Understandably, you might not have had time to watch all that wrestling, and you might be looking to check out just the best of those 45 matches. Which is where Wrestling Inc. comes in.
So, welcome to the very first edition of Wrestling Inc.'s Top Five Matches of the Week! Every Friday, five members of the WINC staff will provide their personal pick for the best match they watched that week. It could be from WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact, or any other promotion — if we watched it and it happened during the previous 7-day period, it's fair game. That means this inaugural column could pull a match from last Friday's "WWE SmackDown" or from Wednesday's "AEW Dynamite" — and in fact, we will be ordering them chronologically, because this is an overall top five, not a ranking.
All that having been said, let's get to the matches!
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, and Shotzi vs. Damage CTRL, WWE Survivor Series (11/25)
This year's WWE Survivor Series: WarGames event emanated from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, featuring five matches on the card. In addition to the two WarGames bouts, WWE also hosted two title matches, and a singles match between Santos Escobar and the recently called-up Dragon Lee. The show itself seemed to receive an overall positive reception from the WWE Universe, but perhaps the most exhilarating contest was the one WWE slotted to open the show: women's WarGames.
Last Saturday, Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY, Kairi Sane, & Asuka) was tasked with taking on a stacked team comprised of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, and Shotzi. Starting off the action were Bayley and Lynch, who each competed in the 2022 iteration of women's WarGames. Shotzi and SKY entered shortly afterward, with this being SKY's fifth consecutive performance inside the caged structure.
Amidst the intense action, Damage CTRL received some outside assistance from their injured stablemate Dakota Kai, who gifted SKY a trash can. As she sat atop the cage, SKY utilized the trashcan to recreate a moment from the 2021 "WWE NXT" Women's WarGames match, which saw "The Genius of the Sky" position a trash can over her head before diving onto the competitors below her. Flair later took a dive of her own, delivering a cage-topping moonsault to Damage CTRL.
The closing moments of the match saw Bayley absorb a quadri-chain of moves from her opponents, including Flair's spear and Belair's KOD. Flair, Belair, Shotzi, and Lynch finally secured the win after Lynch landed her Manhandle Slam on Bayley, which simultaneously sent "The Role Model" crashing through a table.
Written by Ella Jay
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Daniel Garcia, AEW Collision (11/25)
Some may have enjoyed the Eddie Kingston/Brody King main event more from Saturday's "AEW Collision," but I was particularly fond of the dynamic between Claudio Castagnoli and Daniel Garcia — two men who have both been sports entertainers and professional wrestlers.
I was already excited for this bout on paper, but it was Garcia's pre-match promo during the cold open that really grabbed my attention. Garcia had something to prove here as the up-and-comer with a hip-thrusting gimmick taking on a world-class veteran and member of the Blackpool Combat Club. We saw that translate in the ring, as Castagnoli pushed Garcia around in the opening minutes until Garcia was fired up enough to showcase his own offense.
The latter half saw Garcia pull out as many tricks as possible with a sleeper hold, ankle lock, and a jackknife cover. As intense and flashy as it may have been, Castagnoli weakened Garcia's back with the sharpshooter before planting him on the mat with a powerbomb for the three-count. Castagnoli may have scored the victory points here, but I believe this was just another chapter in Garcia's bigger story as he grapples with his identity of being a sports entertainer or a pro wrestler. This was the perfect way to kick off "Collision."
Written by Colby Applegate
Wes Lee vs. Bronson Reed vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Cameron Grimes, WWE NXT (11/28)
Now this was a "NXT" main event for the ages.
Wes Lee, Johnny Gargano, and Cameron Grimes were pretty much guaranteed to put on an entertaining, fast paced, exciting match with each other given their similar in-ring styles. While Bronson Reed takes a different approach in the squared circle as a brawler, he ended up fitting perfectly into the fold. All four men put on an absolutely fantastic match and came out looking strong, with Lee scoring the win after pinning Grimes, Grimes coming close to getting the pinfall in the closing moments of the bout, Gargano putting on a great performance, and Reed being taken out by all three of his competitors working together, plus an interfering Ivar.
Fatal four-way matches usually turn out to be pretty entertaining in general, but what made this one even better is the fact that there were high stakes attached to it. Despite it not being hard to foresee Wes Lee emerging victorious, given that he needed to win in order to earn himself a rematch for Dominik Mysterio's North American Championship at "NXT" Deadline, that still didn't take away anything from the match.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Rush vs. Mark Briscoe, AEW Dynamite (11/29)
The AEW Continental Classic has seen some pretty intense matches since kicking off last week, including this past Wednesday's episode, which saw Rush face Mark Briscoe. The match was a fun one because both men were looking for their first win in the tournament — a week earlier, Briscoe lost to Jay White, while Rush lost to Jon Moxley.
The match saw a lot of chops, suplexes, and just two guys who giving it their all. Their in-ring styles are entirely different, but still complement each other well. The match was fast-paced with intense action that saw some insane stuff outside of the ring, too. At one point, the official even had to step in because he thought Rush was injured, but that didn't stop Briscoe from going on the hunt. In the end, Rush won the match with the Bull's Horn, but both competitors were hungry, and it showed.
Written by Kellie Haulotte
Swerve Strickland vs. Jay White, AEW Dynamite (11/29)
When AEW announced that they would be holding an ersatz version of the G1 Climax known as the Continental Classic, many fans were skeptical, but on Wednesday, Swerve Strickland and multi-time G1 Climax runner-up Jay White crafted a match that was everything a round-robin tournament match should be.
Round-robin tournament matches have a time limit that can make for easy drama if used properly, but it often leads to matches being backloaded so that the most drama and effort is saved for those final few minutes when the time limit nears. White and Strickland did not fall into this trap on Wednesday. The two men wrote a blistering song of two sociopathic, clinical, explosive heels doing battle, both of whom have seemingly no qualms about ending an opponent's career or life. The two men's similarities made for a violent harmony that built to a shocking conclusion. Just as the time limit neared, and fans' brains began buzzing with the possible ways the match could end in the ever-shrinking amount of time left, Strickland wrapped up White in a clutch pin and defeated the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
The match was a sensational example of how round-robin tournaments can make for easy drama when things are kept simple, that it elevated the insanely popular Strickland further just added to the emotional weight the match carried.
Written by Ross Berman