Gargano/Almas gets first 5 Star match for WWE since 2011

[Str8Shooter]

Meltzer gave Andrade Cien Almas vs Johnny Gargano from Takeover the full 5 stars. First match in WWE to get the 5 since Punk/Cena at MITB 2011. Pretty cool and well deserved.

[Hanley!]

It was very well deserved. I didn't expect to be saying this any time soon, but I thought it was probably better than anything on Wrestle Kingdom 12. And that's saying something, because that was a fantastic show and I particularly loved Okada vs Naito and the four way match for the Junior Heavyweight title.

Gargano is probably second only to Styles when it comes to in-ring abilities in WWE, and he's far and away the best baby face on their roster. I could see this really being his year, with a great feud with Ciampa in the works and the possibility of another title shot towards the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Almas has turned things around too. His original presentation was so bad in NXT, so I'm glad that he's managed to get over again and is working at such a high level as champion. The chemistry between these two guys is off the charts and between that and the usual high quality storytelling in the Takeover main events, this was destined to be great. The only way the match could have been better is if Gargano had won, but I can accept that it's not his time yet.

I'm glad to see Meltzer recognising a Takeover match. I usually have a lot of time for his rating system, and I appreciate that he's picky with the matches that he gives a five star rating. But there are a couple of NXT matches that were unlucky to miss out (Neville vs Zayn comes to mind) so I'm glad this one is getting the plaudits it deserves.

I'm happy for the wrestlers involved too. You just know that wrestlers (and WWE wrestlers in particular) don't give a fuck about Meltzer's ratings until they earn a 5 star match. They'd have to mark out at that though, no matter how cool they try and play things.

[Messiah]

I watched this match for the first time today.

1. It is rare for a match to get the critical acclaim Gargano/Almas has gotten and for it to live up to the hype, at least for what my tastes are. Too often nowadays, it feels like a lot of people get too caught up in the rapid finisher, false-finish matches that it is hard to find a match that is truly masterpiece rather than simply good with a lack of psychology (see: most of Cena's recent matches since the US Open Challenge began, with the Cena/Owens series being a prime example).

Not this match. This match lived up to the hype and then some. There are a lot of reasons why, but the top proof behind that is the fact that I knew Gargano was going to lose this match and they still managed to get me emotionally invested. That is the number one sign that a match is great.

2. The corner sequence in the middle of the match that included several counters is one of my favorite wrestling sequences ever. This match had a lot of fun runs like that, but that was the coolest.

3. The only criticism I would have for this match is that the ending was kind of flat. It wasn't bad by any means and worked well within the story, but I was kind of expecting something more climatic that matched how fast-paced the match was at times. For a match that was around 32 minutes, at no point did this match ever feel dull.