My bad folks! I shocked you all last week into thinking that last week was my last article of 2011, but fear not, I was only confused! Calendars? Who needs ‘em! Swiftly onwards up and upwards as I officially finish my WR shift for 2011 and I hope you all enjoy as most do every week.

This week we’re taking a look at my favourite matches of 2011. The order of these matches are my opinion and my opinion only, therefore please respect the matches I may or may not have put into this top 5 matches of 2011 article. Along with the match details you will also see my favourite photo from that match. Enjoy!
*SPOILER* Please be aware that if you have not watched WWE in 2011 you are severely behind the times and that this article will spoil the whole of 2011 for you, sincere apologies SUCKA!

1-      John Cena vs CM Punk @ Money In The Bank
This was the WRONG time to take a two week vacation on an island with no way of watching WWE. But once I got home I took another week off to recuperate, sit down and watch all the two weeks of WWE that I had missed.  Money In The Bank and the weeks before hand were when the IWC all knew that Punk’s contract was ending. Twitter was buzzing and forums in general were also buzzing. Throw in the fact that on Punk’s last day of his WWE contract he was challenging none other than John Cena for the WWE Championship. Mr McMahon knew that the future of the WWE was on the line, because if Punk was to win the match he would walk out of Chicago the new WWE Champion but he would also take the belt wherever he wanted. Predictions about this match floated about the IWC whether it would be a clean Punk victory, a clean Cena victory and most predicted a Chicago Screwjob; it turned out to be one of the best matches ever. Everything about this match was perfect. The implications of the match, the wrestling and the crowd all worked so well. Punk and Cena went back and forth but came to an end when Vince McMahon and the now widely recognised and widely hated John Laurinitius came to ringside to signal to the time keeper to ring the bell when Cena placed Punk in the STF, similar to when Shawn Michaels placed Bret Hart in the sharpshooter. However, Cena would then cancel the hold, smack John Laurinitius in the face, get back in the ring and get hit with a GTS resulting in the three count. The crowd went berserk, McMahon quickly signalled to his back up Alberto Del Rio to cash in his MITB briefcase that he had won earlier in the night and cash it in but before Del Rio could get to the ring Punk escaped with the belt but not before blowing Mr McMahon a kiss! This matched could not have been booked better. Everything that the IWC had predicted took place during the match but did not end the match.

2-      Dolph Ziggler vs Edge @ Royal Rumble.
At the start of the year we were given a great PPV to kick of 2011 in style! Not only did the Royal Rumble PPV give us a 40 man Royal Rumble but we also got a great WHC match in the form of Dolph Ziggler (who since the start of 2011 has become one of my fave five sucka!) and Edge. I thought the storyline leading up to this match was good, not great but good and during this match Edge was banned from using the Spear which as we all know is his finishing move. I think this was the match that I really started to appreciate how good Ziggler is in the ring and fro this match forward I was always interested in seeing him on SD. I think the stipulation in this match that everyone wanted to see broken but added a severe element of interest and when the referee was inadvertently knocked out our interests flared up and we began salivating at the screen, screaming for a spear… Okay so maybe YOU weren’t doing that but I was. All of our wishes were granted when we seen Edge hit Ziggler with the Spear, following it up with Christian’s Killswitch which allowed Edge to retain the title in a great match!

3-      Randy Orton vs Christian @ Over The Limit
Anyone have the number of matches these two men had with each other? Yeah, it got dragged out and became boring but that didn’t take away from the fact that these two guys work extremely well with each other. I sure as hell loved their epic encounters, although I feel less is more and if we would have gotten less of Christian and Orton that we would have appreciated the feud a whole lot more. Nevertheless that does not take away from the fact that their matches were gold and at Over The Limit this was most certainly the case! There isn’t much to say about this match other than: OH MY GOD, what great wrestling. Back and forth this contest went with each wrestler hitting big impact moves. The end came for Christian when Christian reversed a backdrop landing squarely on both feet, but he soon regretted this decision when Orton swiftly executed his finishing move the RKO for the three count! This was probably my favourite match of their feud although an honourable mention goes to their match at SummerSlam which ended when Randy landed a mid-air RKO onto the steel steps.

4-      SmackDown Elimination Chamber match @ Elimination Chamber
The SmackDown Elimination Chamber in my opinion was better than the RAW one. I loved every single second of the SmackDown EC and thought it stole the show. The match lasted a great 31 minutes, just two minutes shorter than the superior brand RAW’s EC, like I said I enjoyed every second, and a second was not to be missed. World Champion Edge started off in the ring with the master of the 619 Rey Mysterio, Wade Barrett entered 3rd, Kane soon followed, Drew McIntyre entered 5th and lastly, Big Show came out in the favourable position of 6th. It was Wade Barrett who would be eliminated first after a horrendous beat down being slammed into 2 pods and being knocked out with the WMD by Big Show. Big Show was then eliminated after Rey, Edge and Kane ganging up on Show hitting him with a 619, Spear and finally a chokeslam. Drew McIntyre was eliminated seconds after Show, being caught mid-air and chokeslammed right to hell! Kane was then eliminated when he was hit with a leg-drop, 619 along with a spear. Leaving the two starting wrestlers in the ring to battle it out for the WHC; and that they did! Both wrestlers put on a great show to end the SD EC, Edge hit Rey with a spear, Rey hit Edge with not one but TWO 619’s before Edge speared a mid-air Rey Mysterio for the three count.

5-      SmackDown Money In The Bank ladder match @ Money In The Bank
Heath Slater vs Justin Gabriel vs Sin Cara vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane vs Cody Rhodes vs Wade Barrett vs Sheamus. Bah Gawd what a line-up… Minus Heath Slater. Sorry but I’m heading towards the way of being a Slater Hater; shoot me! Anyways, moving onwards to the match details: This match contained many great moments, the first stand out moment for me was when Justin Gabriel tried hopping his way across the ring on a ladder in order to get the briefcase. This was nothing but innovation on the part of Gabriel. The next great moment for me was when Kane – WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE – lifted the ladder and simply tossed it outside onto Sheamus and Cody Rhodes. The next great moment which I think startled the crowd and us watching us at home was when Sheamus powerbombed Sin Cara through the ladder. This move isn’t new but Sin Cara was “injured” because of this move and could not take place in the rest of the match, damn give Sin Cara credit for selling it so well, I thought he was dying. Cody Rhodes managed to deliver not one but two Cross Rhodes in quick succession to Heath and Barrett. Heath was useful in this match because he delivered a great neck breaker of the top of the ladder to my BOI D-BRYAN!! Then got himself lifted.. Not by the police but by Sheamus and Wade Barrett, Heath was literally on the top of the ladder at this point and was swiftly dupped outside. Sheamus then hit Barrett, Cody and Gabriel with a Brogue Kick but was soon to feel a chokeslam from the ladder he was standing on to a ladder below him. Kane was then took out when he got hit with a Wasteland from Barrett which resulted in a 450 splash from Justin Gabriel who was propped up on top of a ladder that was sitting on the ropes. Barrett attempted to hit D-Bryan with a Wasteland from the top of the ladder onto the same ladder that Sheamus got chokeslammed on. However, Bryan soon avoided this elbowing Barrett on the head before swiftly kicking him in the head, this allowed Daniel Bryan to capture the briefcase which of course we know or should know he cashed in at TLC to beat Big Show.
I didn’t know which Money in the Bank match to choose, I felt that Raw was slightly better because of the high flying aspects, but I also feel that there was more to the SmackDown match, because we seen a variety of grapple moves and high flying moves. Daniel Bryan winning was better than Del Rio, therefore I went for the SD ladder match. But technically… it’s a tie. In that case I will include a video below of the highlights of the RAW MITB Ladder match.

RAW MITB Ladder Match:

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Favourite Divas match:

That’s it from me for 2011. Like I said last week, I appreciate all the support you guys have given me this year. I really do appreciate it. Let’s hope that WWE is even better in 2012, although it will be hard to top the wrestling that we have seen this year. Bigger, Badder, Better. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda! Thanks again folks and enjoy the rest of 2011!