Monthly Archives: May, 2023

2019 Match of the Year List

I love 2019 in real time it was the year I fell in love with women’s indies and was watching everything. AEW debuted too.

So what were the matches of the year?

Honourable Mentions

  • El Barbaro Cavernario vs Titan, CMLL, February 22
  • Charlie Morgan vs Mercedes Martinez, Shimmer, March 30
  • Dasher Hatfield vs Mr. Touchdown, “Ladder Match”, Chikara, April 5
  • Chihiro Hashimoto vs Sareee, Sendai Girls, June 8
  • Arisa Nakajima vs Nanae Takahashi “Hair Match”, SEAdLINNNG, November 2
  • Jacob Fatu vs LA Park, “No DQ”, MLW, November 2
  • Arisa Hoshiki & Tam Nakano vs Jungle Kyona & Konami, Stardom, November 24
  • Blue Demon, Jr. vs L.A. Park, IWRG, December 15
  • Kagetsu vs Mayu Iwatani, Stardom, December 24

The List

#10
Mercedes Martinez vs Jordynne Grace
“NCW Femme Fatales International Championship”
The Summit
August 10
Midtown Event Theatre

The best wrestling event I have ever experienced live was The Summit in Toronto. Multiple women’s promotions working together to put together the best show of SummerSlam weekend! The highlight of that show was this match. Martinez made Grace look like an absolute beast and they worked a very smart match that was very dramatic!

#9
Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks
“Hell in a Cell WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE Hell in a Cell
October 6
Golden 1 Center

One of the smartest and most creative Hell in a Cell matches in WWE history. So many innovative spots and callbacks to previous stuff highlighted this intense battle between two all time greats. I was hooked from the beginning with the attack before the cage was fully lowered and I stayed on till the great finish.

#8
Joey Janela vs Kris Statlander
Beyond Uncharted Territory
June 12
Electric Haze

This was a real coming out party for Statlander and one of the greatest intergender matches of all time. A really wild vicious match with so many bombs thrown and the winner was in doubt all match. The spot threw the door I still remember freaking out about when I watched it live 4 years ago!

#7
Arisa Hoshiki vs Jungle Kyona
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom X Stardom 2019
August 10
Korakuen Hall

Review here.

#6
Metalico vs Virus
“Loser Must Retire”
CMLL Juicio Final 2019
May 31
Arena Mexico

I always love big emotional matches and this one had that and an amazing crowd. I read this match described as “charmingly sloppy” and that is a lovely description. Each of these two shined and the drama of the nearfalls was beautiful to watch.

#5
Ashley Vox vs Kris Statlander
“Unsanctioned”
Limitless Snakebitten
January 11
Westbrook Armory

I love this match and it brings me back to the greatest ECW brawling main events. It was a great walk around the arena and hit each other with whatever they can, which included a giant wooden hook! This was violent and a really chaotic brawl in the midst of a great feud. The finishing sequence needs to be seen!

#4
Cody vs Dustin Rhodes
AEW Double or Nothing
May 29
MGM Grand Garden Arena

Just tremendous storytelling in a tremendous brawl. The history of these two brothers having this fight, where Cody was out to kill, and Dustin was out to survive. This felt like a violent version of Bret-Owen, so I was all in. This still might be my favourite AEW match ever.

#3
Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston
“WWE Championship”
WrestleMania 35
April 7
MetLife Stadium

Amazing babyface moment on such a great stage. The whole match is built around the underdog overcoming the odds to achieve a dream and I will always get behind that emotional story. One of the best WrestleMania matches of all time.

#2
Arisa Hoshiki vs Tam Nakano
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Shining Destiny 2019
June 16
Korakuen Hall

I am a sucker for great stories in wrestling and the best story in wrestling in 2019 was Tam Nakano and Arisa Hoshiki. The story telling in this match then lived up to the overall story, with each having great strategies and it all leading up to a brilliant conclusion. Everything was stiff and crisp and super emotional. A match of the year in most years, but this is a 2019 list…

#1
Mercedes Martinez vs Kylie Rae
“Phoenix of RISE Championship No Ropes Submission Match”
RISE 13: Legendary
March 29
Berwyn Eagles Club

Watching this live I thought it was great and it has only improved with time. Kylie is the perfect underdog likable babyface and there is nobody better in the veteran dominant role than Martinez. The ropes being removed added a level of danger to that match that I really loved. It starts off really great with Mercedes attacking Kylie while she’s covered in ribbons and only gets better from there. The legwork by Martinez was tremendous and Kylie sold it so well. The finishing run was so exciting! I need to mention that Allysin Kay and Veda Scott were tremendous on commentary as well. A real classic that doesn’t get enough love.

Upcoming!

The top 25 wrestlers of 2019 will be coming soon!

Twitter

You can discuss this on Twitter!

Discord

We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:

Join:

https://t.co/0pOARzaXHD

We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!

Trans Rights!

It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-26)

A great week of watching, just read below at all the awesome stuff I watched! The 2019 MOTY list is complete, just needs editing, and the top 25 wrestlers of 2019 list is very close!

#16
Mamani Toyota vs Mima Shimoda
“Japan Grand Prix 1995 Red Zone Match”
AJW Japan Grand Prix 1995
July 23, 1995

A fascinating match where if you edited out parts, this would be a 9/10 all-time classic, but with those left in it was really disjointed and jarring. The great moments were unbelievably great though!

Rating: 7/10

#15
Hazuki & Kagetsu vs Kaho Kobayashi & Takumi Iroha
Sumire Natsu Produce Forever
December 15, 2019

A fun little tag match with the real highlight of Hazuki and Iroha having amazing chemistry. Kagetsu also brought his evil badass self to add another fun wrinkle to this one. I forgot how fun old Oedi Tai was and this was a great reminder!

Rating: 7/10

#14
Mercedes Mone’ vs Willow Nightingale
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship – Final”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023

A tremendous match with a rushed finish due to an injury. Willow was amazing on top utilizing her power and the crowd was eating it up! This could have been a top match of the year with a comeback from Mercedes and a more exciting finish, it had been building so well up until going to the finishing sequence.

Rating: 7.25/10

#13
Daniel Makabe vs Timothy Thtacher
3-2-1 BATTLE! Wet Hot Seattle Summer 3
July 12, 2019

If you like the worked shoot style with logical progression and amazing technical wrestling, this is the match for you. It’s gritty and intense.

Rating: 7.25/10

#12
Takumi Iroha vs Arisa Nakajima
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG Endless Summer
September 18, 2019

These two are all time world beaters, so although this is a really good match it was disappointing. I’m not sure what was missing, but it didn’t have that usually energy I’d expect from these two. That said, Iroha’s kicks are great, and Nakajima worked smart and I’d recommend this.

Rating: 7.25/10

#11
Arisa Nakajima vs ASUKA
SEAdLINNING Stay Tune
May 29, 2019

A tremendous sub ten minute sprint with great bombs thrown and a lot of intensity. I have no idea what the story was here, but there was a prematch attack and chair shots and some wild dives. It was followed up by a cool post match too.

Rating: 7.5/10

#10
Mercedes Mone’ vs Stephanie Vaquer
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament – Round 1”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023

These two worked at a great pace and it was very hard-hitting. Kind of a perfect match for an early match on a tournament show. They did a great job of keeping Vaquer looking great in a match everyone knew she would lose.

Rating: 7.5/10

#9
Momo Kohgo vs Willow Nightingale
“NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament – Round 1”
NJPW STRONG Resurgence
May 21, 2023

I’ve always been a fan of Kohgo, but she rarely gets opportunities like this to deliver and she delivered big time here. She is such a tremendous underdog that she forced the loveable Willow into a heel role here. The hope spots were amazing and when Willow finally beat her away it was a big accomplishment.

Rating: 7.75/10

#8
Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita
vs
Jungle Kyona & Konami
“Goddesses of Stardom Championship”
Stardom World Big Summer In Nagoya
July 15, 2019

A great ending to the story of Jungle trying to overcome her big rivals and won the belts in her hometown. She was really the focus, but Konami added some awesome moments too. It was exciting and stiffly worked with a hot crowd.

Rating: 8/10

#7
Veit Müller vs WALTER
wXw Dead End XVIII
February 15, 2019

This is an indie version of the Gunther-Sheamus matches last year that ruled so hard. Veit is not Sheamus, but he’s tough and rough and comes to fight. His chest is disgusting in the end. WALTER is so good at controlling from on top and beating people up, this is shockingly good.

Rating: 8/10

#6
Kyoko Inoue vs Sakie Hasegawa
“Japan Grand Prix 1995 Blue Zone Match”
AJW Japan Grand Prix 1995
July 23, 1995

The two early DDTs from Kyoko Inoue were just unreal and it started to make the match feel like a squash until Hasegawa made an awesome comeback and they started brawling on the outside. Inoue hit a wild vertical suplex from the apron to the floor! Sakie almost destroyed Kyoko with a variety of head-dropping Exploders, but a comeback from Kyoko lead to a tremendous finish to a great under-ten-minute sprint!

Rating: 8/10

#5
Arisa Hoshiki & Mayu Iwatani vs Hazuki & Kagetsu
Stardom Goddess Of Stars
December 1, 2019

All four were hitting on all cylinders in this match. Kagetsu and Mayu always have excellent chemistry and it shined through here, but I also learned Hazuki and Hoshiki have amazing chemistry as well. They really beat the hell out of each other in this exciting tag.

Rating: 8/10

#4
Arisa Hoshiki vs Hazuki
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom World Big Summer In Tokyo
July 24, 2019

Another tremendous title defense for Hsohiki in 2019. These two have great chemistry and they worked a smart and dramatic match. The kicks, the power moves, the submissions, everything clicked here. I love how desperate Hazuki was to try to finally dethrone Hoshiki.

Rating: 8.5/10

#3
Blue Demon, Jr. vs L.A. Park
IWRG 57. Aniversario De La Arena Naucalpan
December 15, 2019

What a tremendously gritty bloody brawl! Some of the weapons they used were unreal, like Demon squeezing a lime into Park’s cut, or the final segment where a hammer is the main weapon! Usually I’d complain about the evil referee being biased, but after this year’s NHL Playoffs it felt real enough. The interference on top of that brought this down from the Greatest Match Ever candidate, but it’s damn close!

Rating: 8.75/10

#2
Bad Nurse Nakamura vs Chigusa Nagayo
GAEA Hearts On Fight
July 29, 1995

This is the most shocked I have ever been by a match being great. The story of this classic is that Bad Nurse and her second Shark just destroy Chigusa with weapons and brawling bloodying her up until Chigusa calls her out as a chicken and challenges her to wrestle. Nakamura takes up the challenge and argues with Shark leading to her throwing away the weapon and grabbing a headlock. Chigusa makes the comeback and after some tremendous nearfalls wins with a Running Three into a Dominator-type move that looked vicious.

After the match, Chigusa offers to train Nakamura to wrestle and challenge Shark. This match needs to be seen to be believed how great it is.

Rating: 8.75/10

“Match of the Week”
Arisa Hoshiki vs Jungle Kyona
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom X Stardom 2019
August 10, 2019

The Hoshiki great White Belt reign continues with an amazing defense against Jungle Kyona! Jungle comes into this one going for the kill! She spent the first half of the match destroying the leg, trying to limit Hoshiki’s main offensive weapon. It worked for the most part. Jungle brought some amazing offensive with some great power bombs, especially one on the apron, a giant swing, and one of the coolest ankle locks ever. She picked her up mid-ankle lock and bent her in half as well. Hoshiki’s used knees instead of kicks, due to her leg’s damage, and the few times she went for kicks it hurt her, and she could not capitalize on the well-crafted finish. A real classic and a top 100 Greatest Match Ever contender.

Rating: 9/10

Upcoming!

I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. The 2019 Match of the Year list will be released next week. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup has the best stuff from AJW August 13-14, 1995, FMW August 25, 1995, and JWP August 29, 1995.

Twitter

You can discuss this on Twitter!

Discord

We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:

Join:

https://t.co/0pOARzaXHD

We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!

Trans Rights!

It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-19)

Some serious 2019 progress! I believe I should have my match of the year list for 2019 up next week, and the top 25 wrestlers of 2019 are a few weeks off!

#11
Rush vs Tracy Williams
ROH Road To G1 Supercard
March 31, 2019

An opener full of two wrestlers trying to stiff each other. Rush has such an amazing presence and Williams does a decent job matching the intensity.

Rating: 7/10

#10
Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs Rie Tamada & Yumiko Hotta
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995

A fun tag with lots of great spots. Double Inoue was especially tremendous and they hit a super cool finish where Takako did a chokeslam as Kyoko came off the top for extra force!

Rating: 7.25/10

#9
Buddy Murphy vs Roman Reigns
WWE SmackDown
August 13, 2019

I’m a sucker for a big star vs a “rookie” on TV and this delivered. Buddy was on fire and working really stiff, while Reigns gave him everything he could to make Buddy look legit, while still having Reigns go over. Perfect TV match.

Rating: 7.25/10

#8
Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera vs Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tsukushi
“International Ribbon Tag Team Championship”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1004 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019
November 3, 2019

An exciting tag match with lots of cool stuff, a great pace, and nearfalls. Although a tad sloppy, it was a blast to watch!

Rating: 7.5/10

#7
A-Kid vs Jonathan Gresham
“Quarter-Finals”
PWG Battle of Los Angeles
September 22, 2019

This had tremendous technical wrestling mixed in with some amazing flying spots with an absolutely tremendous finish, however, the PWG’esque of it took it down a notch. There is just something about PWG that taints everything for my enjoyment. With that being said, still a great match.

Rating: 7.75/10

#6
Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita, & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito, Mariko Yoshida, & Reggie Bennett
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995

I loved the early going of this as Bennett was a real force, but it was all about the showcase of LCO being back together. It really picked up as Hokuto bleed a huge gusher and there was a really good dive segment. Lots of excitement and a damn good match!

Rating: 8/10

#5
Daniel Makabe vs Jonathan Gresham
3-2-1 BATTLE! BattleMania 2019
April 19, 2019

Two all-time great technical wrestlers having a technical battle in front of a rowdy crowd is great wrestling. I loved both focused on a different body part, and I really loved when Makabe realized he was outmatched, he resorted to cheating. It leads to Gresham being a great underdog leading to a great finish!

Rating: 8/10

#4
Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki
“Dress Up Wild Fight”
JWP
July 9, 1995

This was a match of two minds for me. On the one hand it’s everything I want. They brawled into the balcony, and they destroyed the ring. They destroyed each other with parts of the broken ring! It was awesome. Heck, Kansai even taped a wrench to her leg to make her kicks more deadly.

However, it’s 36 minutes long and that really takes it down, because it led to down moments.

Rating: 8/10

#3
Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong
“WWWA World Championship”
AJW Zenjo Movement 1995
June 27, 1995

The prematch staredown was so awesome, they completely tuned everything else out and it started the story well as the bell rang, Kong went back to her corner to be immediately sneak attacked by Toyota. From there the match started off slow but was intense. Kong’s missile dropkick was really devastating. The last half of the match of going for finishers and dramatic kick outs was awesome.

Rating: 8.5/10

#2
El Barbaro Cavernario vs Mistico
“2/3 Falls”
CMLL Super Viernes
May 24, 2019

This match is kind of ridiculous, but I loved it. The first two falls are all Cavernario kicking ass, including a great segment on the floor where he used the guardrail and whipped Mistico with wires. The 2nd Fall ends with Cavernario ripping off Mistico’s mask to be DQ’ed, after Mistico finally made a comeback. The final fall was unreal. Mistico was flying all over the place with such speed and grace it was unbelievable. Cavernario held his own and did awesome stuff like grabbing Mistico’s legs and swinging his head-first into the guardrail. It was exciting and it wasn’t ruined by silly kick outs since most of the big stuff hit on the floor. The finish was dramatic and this is a match I think most of you will enjoy.

Rating: 8.5/10

“Match of the Week”
Jacob Fatu vs LA Park
“MLW World Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match”
MLW Saturday Night SuperFight
November 2, 2019

A wild bloody violent LA Park brawl with an amazingly athletic Jacob Fatu. These two were out there for war and it was everything you could ever want plus it had fire! It does start a little slow, but soon enough Park is bleeding so bad everything from there is compelling and a real epic.

Rating: 8.75/10

Upcoming!

I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:

  1. Kyoko Inoue vs Sakie Hasegawa, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-23
  2. Manami Toyota vs Mima Shimoda, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-23
  3. Bad Nurse Nakamura vs Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA, 1995-07-29
  4. Sakie Hasegawa vs Tomoko Watanabe, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-31
  5. Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada, AJW Japan Grand Prix, 1995-07-31

Twitter

You can discuss this on Twitter!

Discord

We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:

Join:

https://t.co/0pOARzaXHD

We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!

Trans Rights!

It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-12)

I got back on track for watching this week and hammered out a lot of 2019! The Stardom pay-per-view dropped today, so I only got to watch the few biggest matches.

#16
Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU
JWP
June 16, 1995

This was a really fun tag match with the team of Fukuoaka & KAORU bringing the flying, Devil bringing the power, and Ozaki bringing the violence. A lot of great nearfalls and the moment after Ozaki wins and Devil is just flipping off the losers is awesome!

Rating: 7.25/10

#15
AZM vs Mei Seira
“High Speed Championship”
Stardom Fukuoka Goddess Legend ~Sweet Stardom~
May 4, 2023

The first part of the match felt like a generic defense for AZM, but halfway through she started to focus on Mei’s arm and it got really good.The High Speed counters while someone is entering through the ropes always pop me. The finish worked really well for me and I am excited for the eventual rematch.

Rating: 7.25/10

#14
Shayna Baszler vs Bianca Belair vs Io Shirai vs Kairi Sane
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT TakeOver: New York
April 5, 2019

Although it has the usual problems of four-way matches, this was a lot of fun. All of the interactions between Shirai and KAIRI were awesome, from teaming up at the start to trying to win at the end. Belair was not quite the elite worker she is now, but she really showed her potential, and that double KOD she did was ridiculous! Baszler is such a great badass when booked so well! The finishing sequence ruled too.

Rating: 7.25/10

#13
Maya Yukihi vs Tsukasa Fujimoto
“ICExInfinity Championship Match”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #974 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019 III
August 3, 2019

I am generally not a fan of a 30-minute draw and for the first 3/4 this match was a fine solid match, but the last quarter was awesome and more than made up for it. I love Yukihi’s offense and Fujimoto just has a great way of working that I am not sure how to describe. She fits into matches.

Rating: 7.5/10

#12
Ayako Sato vs Haruka Umesaki
“World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana World Championship”
Diana
April 29, 2019

A tremendous title match that felt like a big changing of the guard. The young underdog Umesaki did a great job fighting from underneath and getting in good hope spots, leading to their eventual comeback. Sato is great at working on top.

Rating: 7.5/10

#11
Command Bolshoi vs Hana Kimura
Command Bolshoi Produce Pure Princess
March 15, 2019

A really good battle with Bolshoi pulling out another new submission hold I had never seen before. Kimura looked like such a star, especially while working on top. Bolshoi is so giving and this was a great match to have a month before her retirement on a show she produced.

Rating: 7.5/10

#10
Miyuki Takase vs Tae Honma
“AWG Title Tournament Semi-Final”
AWG Act In Osaka
November 3, 2019

This is an awesome display of two wrestlers going all out to advance in a tournament for a title. The forearm exchanges were one of the stiffest and best I have ever seen. I like Honma’s strategy of trying to go for the arm since she can’t outstrike Takase. The finish was very well done.

Rating: 7.5/10

#9
Kyoko Inoue vs Unagi Sayaka
Diana
April 29, 2023

I may be biased on this one, but I thought this match was awesome. Unagi was really laying in her kicks, and Inoue fought back with some stiff lariats. They had two awesome segments in the crowd which really ramped up the heat. Down the stretch, there were some great near falls, which I bought on.

Rating: 7.5/10

#8
Sareee vs Tsukasa Fujimoto
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #992 ~ Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium III
September 14, 2019

This was everything you could want from these two. It was filled with stiff strikes and crushing suplexes. The match kept building up and had a lot of great nearfalls and vicious suplexes and it lead up to a good finish. A perfect undercard Joshi match to steal a show.

Rating: 8/10

#7
Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes
WWE Backlash
May 6, 2023

A fascinating match very laid out. It was a tremendous brawl with a really great finish. Brock was very bloody. 8 minutes is the perfect length of time for a Brock match.

Rating: 8/10

#6
Mio Momono vs Takumi Iroha
Marvelous
November 3, 2019

I loved the story of this match where it seemed like Iroha wasn’t taking Momono seriously, until too late. The crowd was wild and Momono was on fire to prove herself against Iroha who was just killing her with her offense. The powerbomb Iroha hit right before the time expired was so nasty!

Rating: 8.5/10

#5
Candice LeRae vs Io Shirai
NXT TakeOver: Toronto 2019
August 10, 2019

This was tremendous with Shirai as the vicious heel in her more cocky Stardom but more evil form. Candice was a worthy underdog, who took all of Shirai’s vicious offense from her moonsault to an Avalanche Spanish Fly. LeRae brought her own ridiculous offense with a tope DDT and a reverse hurrancanrana. It built to a good finish with everyone playing their roles till the end.

Rating: 8.5/10

#4
Arisa Nakajima vs Nanae Takahashi
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Title Hair vs Hair Match”
SEAdLINNNG Dynamic Show Case! ~ Kawasaki Monogatari
November 2, 2019

A great match that weirdly didn’t hit my expectations. I did love Nakajima going after Takahashi’s arm and that limiting Takahashi’s offense throughout the match. The intensity and the violence were there and it was dramatic on the nearfalls with the title and hair on the line. The issue was the kick outs felt like they were going into the epic territory too much, they didn’t fit well into the match. Outside of that, really great and hard to deny.

Raring: 8.75/10

#3
Mina Shirakawa vs Natsupoi
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Fukuoka Goddess Legend ~Sweet Stardom~
May 4, 2023

“Mina is not the White Belt Champion that we wanted, but Mina is the White Belt Champion that we needed.”

What a great change of pace from Kamitani’s title reign, as Mina brings the psychology, emotion, and drama back to the White Belt! Natsupoi upped her game too, bringing pure violence in her strikes and her selling of Mina’s leg attacks was awesome. Mina’s leg attacking legs every big match is great and she does it with such great variety that I love it. Mina mixes in the big moves and nearfalls to put this over the top.

Rating: 8.75/10

#2
Bianca Belair vs IYO SKY
“WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE Backlash
May 6, 2023

These two have had awesome chemistry in the past and that continues here. I loved Shirai’s work on Belair’s arm and Belair’s selling of it throughout especially the one-armed gorilla press of all things. Both played their strengths so well and the crowd was so into it on Shirai’s side! From the finish tease of the finisher to the outside interference is all-time territory. The finish is good and this is an easy MOTY contender. They better do a rematch.

Rating: 8.75/10

“Match of the Week”
Chigusa Nagayo vs Dynamite Kansai
JWP
June 16, 1995

This was a smartly worked war! The first segment was Nagayo and Kasnai trying for a knockout or a submission to really prove who was tougher. When they couldn’t do that, we got a lot of great nearfalls. The teases of the Aavalance Niagra Driver were great, and well thrown into this match. Everything in this was a great struggle to prove who was more badass.

Rating: 8.75/10

Watch Party!

I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching. Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:

  1. Double Inoue vs Rie Tamada & Yumiko Hotta, AJW, 1995-06-27
  2. Akira Hokuto & LCO vs Kaoru Ito, Mariko Yoshida, & Reggie Bennett, AJW, 1995-06-27
  3. Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota, WWWA Singles Title, AJW, 1995-06-27
  4. Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki, Dress Up Wild Fight, JWP, 1995-07-09

Twitter

You can discuss this on Twitter!

Discord

We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:

Join:

https://t.co/0pOARzaXHD

We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!

Trans Rights!

It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-05-05)

The strike is over, tentatively, as of Thursday. It’s a weird range of stuff this week, but very good matches from all over!

#9
WALTER vs Pete Dunne
“WWE United Kingdom Championship”
NXT UK
April 19, 2019, airing May 22

The match is what you would expect from these two. Stiff violence. It had a really nice beat-down segment by WALTER on the floor, and a pretty hot comeback by Dunne afterward. After that, it was going for too epic a match then had an old school seconds distract and attack finish. A good match, but could have been better.

Rating: 7/10

#8
Jordynne Grace vs Deonna Purrazzo
“Impact Knockouts World Championship”
Impact Wrestling Rebellion 2023
April 16, 2023

The classic power vs technique match up in the main event. They worked it really well and it was a worthwhile main event. I could watch Purrazzo pick apart bigger wrestlers all day.

Rating: 7.5/10

#7
Maya Yukihi vs Giulia
“ICExInfinity Championship”
Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #962 ~ Osaka Ribbon 2019 II
May 25, 2019

A young and upcoming Giulia vs the Ice Ribbon ace in a big title match. It’s weird to see after my previous experience with these two and a role-reversal title match from earlier this year in Stardom.

Giulia is a little green here, but you can see the violence these two have in 2023 all the way back here in 2019. It kept escalating toward a violent finish and a really awesome match.

Rating: 7.75/10

#6
Aja Kong & Yuu vs Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata
Sendai Girls Women’s Pro Wrestling Big Show In Niigata
June 8, 2019

This was a pretty good tag match. Kong and Yuu worked like The Colossal Connection, only with Kong being a lot more mobile than 1990 Andre the Giant. Kong and Satomura still have amazing chemistry from their past and they really lead the finishing sequence to be very exciting.

Rating: 7.75/10

#5
Momo Watanabe vs Tam Nakano
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom 8th Anniversary
January 14, 2019

It’s fun going back and watching a match from four years ago where Tam is trying to prove she’s worthy of the White Belt! That story was told really well and the kicks from both were deadly. Tam is such a great storyteller and Momo is such a beast. As awesome as this was, it’s amazing how much both have improved since then.

Rating: 8/10

#4
KAORU & Sonoko Kato vs Michiko Nagashima & Miki Handa
GAEA Second Battle Story
May 14, 1995

For the second GAEA show they come back with another crazy violent tag team brawl. This time with way less star power, but they made up for it with more flying. The blood really kicked the match up to another gear and I loved all the chair and kendo stick shots. Usually, those can come off as lame or overdone, but they really worked here.

Rating: 8/10

#3
Takumi Iroha vs Unagai Sayaka
Marvelous 7th Anniversary
May 3, 2023

What an excellent match and one of the best in Unagi Sayaka’s career. Her indie run has been awesome, but this was the biggest match she had facing the best wrestler she’s faced on a big show, and boy did she deliver. Her offense looked really mean and it was a great heat segment she had on Iroha. Iroha looks great as always and they built up a match that was a very worthy big dream match.

Rating: 8.25/10

#2
Nanae Takahashi vs Takumi Iroha
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG Stay Tune 2019
May 29, 2019

These two are truly a great match-up for each other. Both throw bombs and stiff shots and can really escalate things to an exciting finish and that is exactly what we get here. Everything hit and Takahashi was really on her game.

Rating: 8.25/10

“Match of the Week”
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Sareee
“Sendai Girls World & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana World Championship”
Sendai Girls Women’s Pro Wrestling Big Show In Niigata
June 8, 2019

It would be hard to pick better underdog vs dominant badass competitors for a big unification title match than this. I loved how they worked this with Hashimoto just dominating early and Sareee trying to battle back. At first, Sareee tried speed and technique, but when that didn’t work she resorted to vicious headbutts and German suplexes and just came head-on to Hashimoto. The finishing stretch was great and this match was intense and dramatic. A must-watch!

Rating: 8.75/10

Watch Party!

I’ll be back next week with whatever I’m watching, hopefully, Stardom and a lot more 2019! Remember to join the discord for Sunday at 4pm EST for this great Joshi Night lineup:

  1. Bolshoi Kid vs Cutie Suzuki, JWP, 1995-06-16
  2. Candy Okutsu vs Hiromi Yagi vs Hiromi Sugo, Triangle Rules, JWP, 1995-06-16
  3. Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU, JWP, 1995-06-16
  4. Chigusa Nagayo vs Dynamite Kansai, JWP, 1995-06-16
  5. Meiko Satomura vs Toshie Uematsu, GAEA, 1995-06-18
  6. Bomber Hikari & Sumio Toyoma vs Hiromi Yagi & Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA, 1995-06-18
  7. Chigusa Nagayo vs Devil Masami, GAEA, 1995-06-18

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