WWE Programming's Best Matches for Week of July 25

Last week, you voted the excellent match between Seth Rollins and Cesaro from SmackDown as the best match of the week—a second consecutive appearance in the winning bout for the Swiss Superman.

Both Cesaro and Rollins can safely count themselves among the best talent in the world at the moment, so it's not surprising that they were able to deliver such a great match. However, Cesaro getting the opportunity to sell himself on his ring work, as he has been doing for the past few weeks, suggests he has a bright future.

Cesaro has been criticized for his lack of connection with his audience, but the plain truth is he forges that bond in the ring rather than on the microphone. That may not be the most common path to becoming a main eventer in WWE—but the biggest successes in pro wrestling invariably chart their own way to the top.

Candidate No. 1: Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens on Raw

This bout was billed as a first-time meeting, but based on how good it was, there's a strong chance we'll see plenty more of these two sharing the ring.

While Orton and Owens both had very different paths to WWE, they're actually rather similar in many ways. Both are masters of interacting with a live crowd—perhaps possessing qualities of bygone age. Moreover, they can both tie that work into a great match.

Credit: WWE.com

Of all the WWE superstars who would have an interesting run on the independent scene, Orton has to be among the most intriguing prospects. His in-ring style and impressive work rate would seem to lend himself to that kind of wrestling.

However, the influx of indie graduates reaching the heights of WWE means Orton can fight the best of the best without leaving his wheelhouse. This week's match was just a teaser of things to come, but it certainly did the job of building interest for a longer encounter in the future.

Credit: WWE.com

Television matches can sometimes feel ordinary in comparison to pay-per-view bouts, but it always shines through when the talent involved want to offer something above and beyond the norm.

From the atypical start to the level of intensity both men brought to this match, it's clear Owens and Orton wanted to give the crowd something special. Owens has more than enough feuds to keep him busy for the foreseeable future, but a program with Orton seems likely once he's cleared some of his backlog.

Candidate No. 2: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins on Raw

The last few months have seen a return of the classic Cena formula—he takes on all comers, and he wins just about every time. However, today's Cena seems to bring a good match with him just about every single time.

The majority seem to have turned around completely on Cena, and while he's not the perfect in-ring performer, it's easy to see why. His open challenges are regularly a highlight of Raw and have provided a platform for many talented members of the roster to showcase their skills.

Credit: WWE.com

However, this past week's match against Rollins for his United States Championship might be the tipping point. With Cena seemingly stepping back into contention for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, there's a danger his run with a secondary belt has forgotten its purpose.

Cena is the perfect figure to flesh out the undercard. He's a competitor everyone in the crowd feels strongly about, and that often transfers over to whomever he's facing on a given night. Having said that, it's still too soon for many to see him return to the main event picture he dominated for so long.

The wrinkle to this is that his matches with Seth Rollins always deliver. Seeing him in contention for the world title would seem like a step backward, but it's clear the match itself would be terrific—that's been the case since they first faced each other during the days of the Shield.

That level of familiarity was on show on Monday night, as even a rather brutal broken nose couldn't throw Cena off his game. It would be easy to think the pair pulled out all the stops for Raw—but if a SummerSlam rematch is in the works, there's likely plenty left in reserve.

Candidate No. 3: Paige vs. Sasha Banks on Raw

It seemed like a pipe dream for years, but women's wrestling finally seems to have the platform it deserves on WWE television. An injection of NXT talent has already worked wonders for the quality of the division on the main roster.

Credit: WWE.com

The only drawback to bringing three of NXT's best up to the main roster at once is the challenge of giving each the spotlight. Understandably, Charlotte has been a major focus, but this week's edition of Raw gave the Boss her chance to shine.

As expected, Sasha Banks took that opportunity and ran with it, delivering a compelling match with Paige. While the Anti-Diva has been on the main roster for more than a year, she's looked more at home in the past few weeks than ever before.

The Diva's division was long defined by an absence of style—talent was scouted based on sex appeal rather than wrestling acumen, and the in-ring product diminished over a period of years. That's how we got to two-minute matches bereft of any real value in terms of wrestling.

For the current crop of women wrestlers, that was never going to be satisfactory. Competitors such as Paige and Banks didn't rise to the top of their profession to compete in bouts shorter than your average ad break. Matches such as the one on Monday night capture the same fire we saw on their ascent through NXT.

Paige has been part of the backbone of women's wrestling on the main roster since she graduated from NXT, but she seems poised to come into her own like never before as the competition around her heats up.

Meanwhile, Banks looks set to replicate her progression in NXT on a far grander stage. Her brash personality is always going to put off fans to begin with—but as her NXT Women's Championship win demonstrated, people are destined to get behind the Boss sooner or later.

What was your favourite match this week? Don't forget to make your voice heard in the poll and join the discussion in the comments section below.