When it comes to the Feud of the Year for 2014, there are some worthy candidates. The hate filled rivalry between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose comes to mind, as does the lengthy Daniel Bryan vs. Authority angle. Also, Evolution vs. The Shield comes to mind but I had to go with a different Shield feud. The one that pitted them against the Wyatt Family. On Raw the night after the Royal Rumble, a show I was at live, The Shield faced John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Sheamus in an Elimination Chamber Qualifying match. With The Wyatt Family targeting John Cena, they interfered in that contest and Cena's team won via disqualification. This did not sit well with the Shield.
What followed next was something pretty amazing. The Shield vs. The Wyatts was announced for the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View and the fans were instantly pumped. Any time that the two teams were across the ring from each other, the crowd buzzed in anticipation. "This is Awesome" chants would ring out and the six men wouldn't even touch each other. They finally met at Elimination Chamber and provided the fans with the kind of match they've been waiting for. It was a match of the year candidate that the Wyatt Family won after Bray Wyatt pinned Roman Reigns. Could you fathom a world where that would be possible here and now, just 10 or so months later? I have only two gripes with this whole thing. One is that part of me wishing this got to be in an Elimination Chamber. Make the match elimination style obviously and we'd have had a different kind of Chamber than ever seen before. My other, bigger gripe, would be that this should have been saved for WrestleMania. It had a special feel that can't be replicated.
While both factions would move into separate feuds on the Road to WrestleMania, they did
meet again. On the March 3rd, episode of Raw, from Chicago, they faced off in another classic. The Wyatts again got the upper hand but they wowed us once more. A third and final meeting happened on an episode of Main Event that saw The Shield get their win back. So, while this didn't last as long as some of the other feuds, there was something special about this one. For one, we might never see it against considering the Shield split and the Wyatts seemingly going their separate ways. There things about other feuds that I really disliked (like the slime portion of Seth/Dean, which came in second for me), but this felt special and was done right each time, making it the Feud of the Year.
