Kyle O’Reilly vs El Phantasmo (ECCW, 1/14/2017)

We are early into 2017, but the match of the year candidates are starting to pile up. Probably none are more out of nowhere then Kyle O’Reilly leaving ROH and returning to the company he started with (Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling) in his hometown. Here he gets a shot at the main title against the high flying El Phantasmo, as he takes a break before joining the WWE or whatever company he is going to end up at.

If you thought O’Reilly would take it easy here or if you thought El Phantasmo would not be up for the challenge, then you are completely wrong.

Although I have never seen Phantasmo, he really impressed here. For background he debuted in late 2005 and is a two-time ECCW Champion. He is a high flyer/spotty type wrestler in the vein of William Ospreay.

The first thing to note about this match is that the crowd is really hot and comes off incredibly well in this format. The format being a single shot fan cam. O’Reilly is a returning hero to these fans and these two have the crowd in the palms of their hands the entire match.

The theme of this match was kicks and submissions versus flash and flying with both competitors representing their respective styles to the highest degree. If you’ve watching Ring of Honor or New Japan Pro-Wrestling then you know what O’Reilly brings, but what does Phantasmo bring? Just some of the best high spots I may have ever seen, including:

a top rope-walk moonsault to the floor
and a corner to corner dropkick that went diagonally across the ring.

Those two spots were moves I have never seen, but that does not discount the other great flying he did.

What else did this match bring besides some crazy flying, great kicks, and awesome submissions? With the emotion the crowd had, it had this big time feel. As the match built and built you could almost convince yourself you were watching a big mask match in Mexico. Every near fall felt big and important.

I’m not going to spoil this match by giving away the finish, but it was a tremendous finish with great speeches afterwards.

Will this match end 2017 as my match of the year? Probably not, but it currently has that spot and it feels like a match that should be in my top ten when the year ends.