WWE Programming's Best Matches for Week of December 5

Last week, Bleacher Report readers voted the clash between Samoa Joe and Tommaso Ciampa as the best match of the previous seven days. At this point, it's a surprise that the Sicilian Psychopath hasn't been officially signed.

Ciampa has demonstrated he's in possession of all the qualities WWE has looked for in its recent talent acquisitions. He looks right at home among the roster, he's got plenty of potential in terms of character work and his in-ring acumen holds up against the likes of Joe.

It's a testament to Ciampa's ability he's able to stand out given the NXT talent pool is so strong. Hopefully we'll be seeing plenty more of him in the coming months.

Contender No. 1: Team Reigns vs. Team ECW vs. League of Nations vs. The Wyatt Family on Monday Night Raw

Putting a spin on the standard formula, this week's edition of Raw opened with a mammoth multi-man match rather than closing on that note.

While you can question whether it was the right move to place this bout at the start of the show, it's difficult to argue against the sheer spectacle of it. The horde of bodies stood on the ring apron made the match feel like a big deal, even if there was nothing at stake.

Credit: WWE.com

The key to a large-scale fight such as this is ensuring chaos only takes hold at the right moments. The reaction to the first time the ring filled up with all its participants demonstrated that those involved struck the right balance here.

The biggest detriment, on the other hand, was a lack of time. Erick Rowan's elimination came so early—and at the hands of Tommy Dreamer, which seemed like a bit of a waste—it undermined the abilities of the Wyatt Family as a whole.

Credit: WWE.com

This bout was booked to build up to the big feuds set to play out at TLC, but it was the unexpected mishmash of participants that got the crowd excited. The prospect of the Wyatt Family staring down the League of Nations ahead of the bell got the biggest response of anything on offer.

It's a classic example of WWE-style spectacle—not something you could build an entire card from, but always engaging when it's done right.

Contender No. 2: Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens on Monday Night Raw

While we've seen Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens face off before, their battle last Monday was a worthy successor to previous bouts.

In many ways, these two are a perfect match. Ziggler looks right at home as the fan favourite in peril, and Owens is the ideal figure to be distributing punishment—both in terms of in-ring offence and his constant verbal barbs.

It's a simple scenario, but both men are able to wring a lot more life out of it than most. The crowd would likely have been more engaged with a lengthy match like this one if it didn't come straight after the 16-man opener.

However, there's a case for this bout being the first thing to come after such a mammoth encounter. A two-minute squash would have been completely ignored in the same position, and although it took those in attendance a while to warm to Ziggler vs. Owens, they were drawn in by the end.

It's true this match was largely trotted out to fill up some time—the Breeze-Ziggler feud wasn't advanced in any meaningful way, and at this point, Owens was never likely to lose to the Showoff. However, it filled that time with something that had a little substance, which deserves praise.

Contender No. 3: Finn Balor and Apollo Crews vs. Baron Corbin and Samoa Joe

Both NXT and Raw this week were de facto go-home shows—but only one of them was a real success in terms of hyping up an upcoming event.

Nothing on Monday night managed to make TLC feel like a must-see event. However, this tag match from NXT did a tremendous job of reminding fans why two of the top matches on the card for TakeOver: London are absolutely unmissable.

Samoa Joe against Finn Balor for the NXT Championship was always going to be an exciting prospect, but the fervour both men have shown in recent weeks has definitely put it over the edge. This bout continued that process, perhaps giving a little too much away, if anything.

Meanwhile, Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews are embroiled in a feud that could potentially mint two future stars. It's the ideal rivalry for both men to engage in at this point of their careers, and the in-ring component is living up to a strong run of booking.

These two strong feuds came together well on Wednesday night in a main event that both hinted at the coming offerings and satisfied on the night. The bout was something of a masterclass in how to raise anticipation for a future event.

As we've seen several times over the last couple of years, there's a real difference between the way NXT operates and the way mainline WWE runs. At this point, it's difficult to argue against the developmental league doing a far better job on the whole.

Which bout was your match of the week? Don't forget to make your choice by voting in the poll, and then state your argument in the comments section below—and if you're tweeting about the contenders over the next seven days, use the hashtag #BR_MOTW.