WWE - greatest moments of the modern brand split era

[RedRooster]

Whenever WWE does "greatest moments" countdown show, the usual suspects tend to appear - Austin and the beer truck, Rock/Foley - "This is Your Life", Brock/Big Show and the ring break etc. 

Because of lockdown and general boredom, I was thinking about how hard it would be to put any form of countdown together for the modern brand split era (from July 2016 onwards) - particularly if you only focus on Raw (which I'm not going to do...) 

So what, in your view, have the greatest moments been from the current brand split?

I'll get an obvious one out of the way - probably my favourite moment from the last 5 years - Becky Lynch and the Smackdown women invade RAW: 

 

[DavidB6937]

That was my first thought. Fuck me I loved Becky Lynch at that point. Utterly captivating.

[Supremo]

“I. Choose. You.”

Edited March 17, 2021 by Supremo

[Perry]

For me it would've been anything that involved Ronda Rousey. She took to wrestling like a duck to water.

[HarmonicGenerator]

There have been a few. Off the top of my head...

 - Becky Lynch's rise to superstardom has already been mentioned. The Ronda moment and the Raw invasion are the big highlights.

 - The Goldberg-Lesnar rivalry was 2016 and 2017. Goldberg's return promo and either of those first two moments are absolute highlights.

 - Kofimania in 2018 ... or 2019 ... led to a wonderful moment when he beat 'The Planet's Champion' Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.

 - Edge's return might have led to disappointment but the actual return at the 2020 Rumble was a cracking moment. Likewise, Batista's "DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW" was the peak of that mini run but a great moment in itself.

 - Jericho vs. Owens at Mania wasn't a great match (there seems to be a pattern here of the highlights having disappointing follow-ups) but the angle where Jericho finds his name on the list was cracking.

 - The Hardys returning to WWE at (the same?) WrestleMania was brilliant, and must have been even better live.

 - He's almost the last wrestler I'd choose to watch at this point, but the first appearance of The Fiend at ... Summerslam?... 20...19,maybe ... was a properly scary and evocative few minutes. Didn't take that long to mess him up but Bray Wyatt had a superstar aura for a night again.

 

It's not an exhaustive list but there have been some genuine highlights over the last few years.

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by HarmonicGenerator

[cobra_gordo]

I'd have a montage of Braun Strowman going from green-as-grass oaf to killer when he started smashing up jobbers in his open challenge followed by all the mad shit he did with Roman in 2017 i.e tipping over a fucking ambulance.

[RedRooster]

There's so much WWE right now that you end up forgetting the genuinely good stuff. After looking for the Goldberg promo @HarmonicGenerator mentioned, I stumbled upon this gem: 

 

[DCW]

Bryan/Brock match where Brock sold convincingly for Bryan's submissions was excellent. You complete believed Bryan could/would beat him.

Sting's return at Survivor Series was brilliantly done. Everything after was a disappointment (Cheers Seth) but they nailed that first appearance.

Rousey/Becky/Flair backstage bit when they all got arrested and kicked police car windows out was great.

It's mad, they can do really fun/interesting things whenever they put their minds to it, but just seem happier churning out by the numbers dross instead. Laziness I suppose

[tiger_rick]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

“I. Choose. You.”

Goosebumps. Every time.

That was the last time I cared. They had me again. I'll never forget how badly they ruined it. I hung on week after week giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have a million hours of TV a week to fill but it wasn't just that. It was the stubbornness of having to get Flair involved coupled with the sheer ineptitude it takes to be handed lightning in a bottle and let it out. 

They'll never surprise me with their incompetence again. Turning your biggest star heel in an empty arena era? Saw it coming.

[bbabba]

Kofi winning the title for me.  Video below timestamped for the finish.

• The whole crowd clapping along in anticipation for the Trouble in Paradise - everyone was behind him.
• The football goal like celebrations in the crowd (at least it felt like that in the section of the stadium I was in that night).
• The real emotion of Big E and Woods.
• The culmination of an organic story arc in one of the best WWE matches of the year.

 

[Danny Franchetti’s Jazzbox]

I’ll echo the kofimania run, a particular favourite moment was during the gauntlet that Big E and Woods had to win to finally get the title match for Kofi.

The Usos were out as the second to last team, and Sheamus & Cesaro had attacked Woods & E after their match. Instead of competing though, the Usos cut a promo saying about how they and Kofi had earned their respect, the locker room and the fans respect, nice callbacks to their great feud and series of matches for the tag titles that carried through the latter half of 2017’s ppvs. Usos then forfeit the match.

Lovely simple storytelling, no convoluted twists or turns and the crowd went made for it.

I liked also how following this, the Usos then went to mania 35 and had the fatal 4 way tag to defend their titles, that also fitted in as if that was their punishment for forfeiting, and was good to have the Usos get a match and more importantly a win on the main show, rather than pre-shows (Mania 34 being their first main show appearance in a triple threat also against New Day and Bludgeon Brothers).

[Jacko]

40 minutes ago, bbabba said:

Kofi winning the title for me.  Video below timestamped for the finish.

• The whole crowd clapping along in anticipation for the Trouble in Paradise - everyone was behind him.
• The football goal like celebrations in the crowd (at least it felt like that in the section of the stadium I was in that night).
• The real emotion of Big E and Woods.
• The culmination of an organic story arc in one of the best WWE matches of the year.

 

Got to say Saxtons commentary was pretty damn good there felt genuine and real

[Accident Prone]

I've previously wrote about my love of 2016/2017. The brand split, and more importantly Smackdown, offered a chance to really make a go at a format that I believe is actually extremely beneficial when done correctly. It just so happens that like all things that WWE touches, they can't help but ruin it in 18 months. Ah well, WWE does what WWE does (which is turn chicken salad into chicken shit).

Anyway, here's what I would put into a Best Of 2016 - 2020* set, in no particular order. You'll notice that 2019 and 2018 don't get the same shine as 2016/2017, as that's when WWE went completely off the rails and lost me as a regular viewer, probably for good,

*of course there's jack shit from 202).

What's also great about this period of time, is that there's so much excellent stuff from NXT, the Cruiserweight Classic, the Mae Young Classic and even 205 Live (remember those blistering Ali vs Murphy matches?) as well, but I've kept within the parameters of just the main roster.

 

- KofiMania

-Rousey/Angle vs HHH/Steph

- Owens vs Jericho storyline (leave the blow-off match in the bin)

- The Undertaker/Brock mini-feud

- Cesaro continuing his PPV tag match after getting his teeth knocked out on the ring post.

- Miz vs Ziggler in a Title vs. Career match (one of the only times that we've ever given a shit about Dolph)

- Brock vs Goldberg feud

- The Cena vs Styles feud

- The 2019 Men's MITB match (terrible finish aside)

- The big lads world title match at Summerslam 2017

- The Survivor Series 2016 RAW vs Smackdown match

- Bit of a cheat here, but Smackdown in general being a really neat little show for 18 months, ushering in the 'Smackers'-era

- The Daniel Bryan/Miz segment on Talking Smack

- The Rumble debut of AJ Styles

- The Rumble return of Edge

- Becky vs Charlotte, Last Woman Standing

- The Styles vs Reigns matches

- DBRY VS LSNR

-  Zayn vs Owens being given their big PPV match before they drilled it into the ground

- Styles taking on Balor and Lesnar in back-to-back PPV bangers

- Seth Rollins going over an hour in a RAW gauntlet match

- Extreme Rules getting into a habit of putting on tasty multi-man matches like Miz vs Cesaro vs Owens vs Zayn and Joe vs Bálor vs Reigns vs Rollins vs Wyatt

 

It's not a lot really when compared to other periods of time, and would look a hell of a lot more beefier with the additional highlights from the other brands, but it was a swell time while it lasted...mostly.

[Supremo]

Daniel Bryan’s return promo. “I. Am. Cleared.” I was in tears watching that. And then when he started fighting back against Zayn and Owens, doing those crazy dropkicks? Wild.

Every time Samoa Joe squared up to Brock Lesnar and showed absolutely no fear.

Roman returning from cancer. “I’m in remission, y’all.” Most feel good moment in the history of Raw. What a mad industry this is that he’s playing a horrible, disgusting bully a few years later. That should have set him up as the biggest babyface of all time.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Supremo

[TheBurningRed]

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

The big lads world title match at Summerslam 2017

One of my all time favourite Summerslam matches. Still love watching that moment where Braun launched an announcers chair at Roman and Joe. Braun in that time period could do no wrong when he was just throwing people and chairs around. He should’ve got a run with the title then.