5 best wrestling matches of 2011

#2. The Undertaker vs. Triple H - WrestleMania XXVII

Ten years after their first WrestleMania encounter, Undertaker and Triple H delivered another show-stealing performance. They didn’t bother starting off with basic moves or building anything up. Instead, they went nuts from the opening minute, breaking ringside equipment and hitting as many big moves as possible.

That became the central story of the match: two wrestlers kicking out of each other’s finishers. Each of these kick-outs was seen as huge deals since both Undertaker and Triple H’s finishers were – and still are – two of the most protected moves in WWE. Few wrestlers, if any, had ever kicked out of so many Pedigrees and Tombstones, yet both of these men did.

The story between these wrestlers – that HHH was willing to do anything to win – was believable and incredibly dramatic. They even broke a cardinal sin in WWE by doing a chairshot to the head, which is something that had been banned years prior. Even without the dramatic reversal sequences in the Taker-HBK matches of earlier years, this epic encounter was amazing in its own right.

That drama was especially true when Triple H hit Undertaker with a Tombstone of his own, only for Undertaker to kick out of it. It goes to show you that sometimes you don’t have to do much to tell a great story. All it took was a handful of different moves and some subtle storytelling and you had one of the best matches of the year.