Tag Archives: Becky Lynch

WrestleMania XL Review

By Grimmas on April 8, 2024 | 2 Comments

I haven’t been this excited about a WrestleMania since 2004. Vince is gone, and they have an SA policy. Kevin Dunne is gone, too. The production is great, and the storylines heading into this one have been amazing. LFG!

WrestleMania XL: Saturday
April 6, 2024
Philadelphia, PA
Lincoln Financial Field

The new button was pretty cool.

After a nice intro video, Michael Cole gives us a weather update and wonders how the cold will affect the wrestlers. That’s a nice touch.

Hey, it’s the proper USA anthem, not the song Vince always wanted. Truly, this is a new era!

Speaking of a new era, Trips is here to tell us it’s a new era.

I will note here the production of WWE has gotten so fucking good. It’s great throughout, and it’s shocking how good it is since it was so shit even 6 months ago.

1. Rhea Ripley (c) vs Becky Lynch
“WWE Women’s World Championship”

Becky gets a cool entrance with her reading from her book, while Rhea gets a band to play her theme song!

Becky has had strep throat all week, so she’s the clear underdog. So much already feels different.

Becky tries to work the arm, but Rhea is just too damn strong, and she takes complete control for most of the early part of the match. When she goes to the top, Becky armbars her down to continue her strategy. Every time Becky gets the advantage with the arm, the power of Rhea is too much. That continues when Becky moves, and Rhea hits the post with the arm. Becky looks to win with the flying leg drop, but that gets countered into Rhea’s “Prison Trap,” but Becky rolls her up for a nice near fall. Both hit their finishers for more awesome nearfalls! A superplex by Becky turns into the Dis-Arm-Her after working the arm all match, but Rhea is too strong; she stands up, taking Becky to the outside with a move, and turns into an electric chair on the floor. Rhea hit a frog splash for a massive two! Becky tries the Manhandle Slam, but Rhea counters with a Riptide into the buckle and then a Riptide for the win! Great opener!

Rating: 8.75/10

Pretty Deadly takes the time to insult every team in the upcoming ladder match.

2. The Judgement Day (Finn Bálor & Damian Priest) (c) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs The Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth) vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Wood) vs Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate)
“Six-Pack Ladder Match for the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship”

The gimmick here is both sets of titles are hanging, and they are really pushing that the Championships will be split up here.

I have to admit I laughed at R-Truth getting the hot tag and then going through Cena’s move set and getting a “pin” in the ladder match. #DIY doing DX moves less fun, but R-Truth tells them to go for one belt while he goes for the other. However, Waller graps the SmackDown Tag Team Titles to win those. For his trouble, he gets power bombed through a ladder to the floor.

The Raw Tag Team Titles are still in play, so we continue. We get all the usual ladder match stuff you would expect until it looks like R-Truth has won. JD McDonagh runs out and makes the save for Judgement Day. When it looks like they will retain, New Day makes the save, by the way, dressed as Apolo Creed and Rocky from the first Rocky film. We get more teases, and eventually, R-Truth pulls down the belts for his first win at WrestleMania.

Rating: Some Fun Stuff and Ladders

Michael Cole brings up the weather again, I think he is really cold tonight.

3. Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs Santos Escobar & “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio

Andrade off the top rope with Rey on his shoulders to the floor was a wild dive! We settle down, and Mysterio works face in peril. Andrade gets a hot tag, and he looks so great throughout this match, but he doesn’t get the win. Rey hits 6-1-9 and Andrade hits a moonsault from the top to the floor, but Escobar’s group cheats to go back into control. All of the seconds start doing dives and brawling, leaving Escobar and Rey alone. Two large dudes in Mysterio masks attack, and Rey and Andrade win. LWO hugs the large dudes, and it’s Jason Kelcie and another football from the Eagles.

Rating: Good Match

4. Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso

The video hype package for this match is really great!

Lil’ Wayne raps Jey to the ring.

Because they are twins and longtime tag partners, it makes sense that this match was mostly mirroring and very even, but that doesn’t make it the most exciting match. Jey finally gets control, Jimmy begs for forgiveness, and everybody in the crowd knows he’s insecure. Sadly, Jey does not, and Jimmy takes advantage. However, a comeback by Jey and a big splash give him the win.

Rating: I’m Sure It Was Fine

5. Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Asuka, & Kairi Sane) vs Bianca Belair, Naomi, & Jade Cargill

For a six-person tag on the undercard, this match had a great build, and the video package highlighted that well. The entrances from both teams were amazing, and everyone looked amazing!

The glee Damage CTRL has while they work over Naomi was joyous to watch. After Bianca gets tagged in, she really unleashes some of the best offense. She goes to tag Jade in for the first time but gets cut off, which gives Damage CTRL the chance to work over Bianca now. A Ricky Morton rolling tag brings in Cargill, who KILLS Damage CTRL. We have some fun back and forth until Cargill pins Kai with her finisher.

Rating: 7/10

Sami Zayn is with his wife and kid, and his kid thinks he can do it, but he doesn’t want his kid to see it. He has doubts after losing to Roman Reigns in Montreal last year. Later, on his way to the ring, Chad Gable appears and says he’s not going out with him, and he believes in him. He does the Rocky 2, you owe me a favour gimmick. Further on his way to the ring, Kevin Owens appears, hugs him, and says he can do it! Damn, he better do it now!

6. Gunther (c) vs Sami Zayn
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”

This is an all-time classic. Sami fights really hard, but Gunther is the most dominant Intercontinental Champion ever. Sami gets in some nice hope spots, but every time, Gunther comes back on top. That is until Gunther hits two huge power bombs that don’t put Sami away. Some doubt comes on Gunther’s face. He is able to keep Sami down, and his confidence soars again, so he starts to taunt Sami’s wife at ringside. He hits a few top rope splashes without going for the pin. Sami tries to fire himself up as Gunther goes to the top again, and he does by hitting a Helluva Kick out of nowhere. He then climbs up and hits the Brainbustaaahhhhh! Yes, El Generico’s brainbuster onto the top turnbuckle. Two more Helluva Kicks and Sami ends Gunther’s 666-day reign as Champion in a beautiful moment!

Rating: 9.25/10

The two GMs, Nick Aldiss and Adam Pearce, are here to thank the viewers. They announced the attendance of 72,543 and told the fans to keep the noise for the main event.

7. “Main Event”
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & The Rock) vs Cody Rhodes & Seth “Freakin'” Rollins
“If The Bloodline wins, then the Universal Championship Match on Sunday will be fought under ‘Bloodline Rules'”

A nice long recap video in case you missed anything in this great build. Watching that build and then seeing Cody Rhodes giving his weight belt to his father-in-law and hugging his mom is foreshadowing. The Rock came out with the People’s Championship given to him at the Hall of Fame show.

The Rock actually looks great, like a wrestler not a statue. Way better than his previous run.

The match is fascinating, though. There were about 10 minutes of boring before a fun all-over-arena Attitude brawl. The Rock, being on the TKO board, tells the referee to let it go. After, it turns into a southern tag with Rollins isolated as they work the knee. Roman bleeds, and Cody gets a hot tag, but the match continues. The Rock gives Cody’s mom the weightlift belt from the angle on Raw. There is brawling at ringside this time, and Cody Rock Bottoms Rock through a table while Roman spears Rollins through the barricade. At one point, Roman hit the spear on The Rock after Seth saved Cody. After all the madness, Cody has the win, but Rock uses the weightlifting belt to stop his pin on Roman. From there, The Rock pins him with the People’s elbow.

45 minutes?

With editing, this could have been a classic, but there was too much that was not classic.

Rating: 7/10

That means Sunday’s match between Cody and Roman will be “Bloodline Rules.” I like the carryover booking here. Which leads us to Sunday.

WrestleMania XL: Sunday
April 7, 2024
Philadelphia, PA
Lincoln Financial Field

This is a very sports intro. Michael Cole talks about matches and shows wrestlers entering the building earlier today. He also brings up the weather again. It’s less cold today!

The opening video was amazing! You have to be hyped from it!

A different American anthem plays; why do Americans have so many damn anthems?

Speaking of sucking, here comes Stephanie McMahon. I so wanted to be done with McMahon BS. She’s excited about the Paul Levesque era and just says how great he is and does the DX intro.

1. Seth “Freakin” Rollins (c) vs Drew McIntyre
“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

Drew McIntyre has a whole bagpipe band playing Roddy Piper’s theme before they play his song. Punk is on commentary and is already pissed! Michael Cole gives another weather update, haha. Seth Rollins has a whole band of wild, colourful costumes to play him out. This rules! He’s dressed in a very fabulous outfit. The whole band marches him to the ring!

Drew hits the Claymore right away for a nearfall immediately, and then he goes to work on the knee as Seth tries to go outside to recoup. This is perfect playing off last night. Seth is broken but gets in a curb stomp, but his hurt leg from last night means he doesn’t hit all of it, and it’s an easy kick out for Drew. The whole story is that Seth is broken, and Drew is easily in control, but Seth keeps fighting, hurting his knee, and having to gut through it. Drew wastes time and stares at Punk and goes for the GTS, but it gets countered into a rollup for a good nearfall. Another Claymore gets two as well. He gets very frustrated and tries to power bomb Seth through the announce table, but that’s countered. Seth stomps Drew on the table but hurts his knee again. Back inside, a Claymore came out of nowhere for another kickout. Drew is fucking losing it. One more Claymore, and that’s it. I don’t normally like Seth, but this match was good, and the story was easy to enjoy throughout.

Rating: 7/10

Drew won his first World Title in front of a crowd. After a moment with his wife, Drew stares down Punk again. He gets in his face and waves the title, mocking him, and then Punk attacks. He takes his brace off and then hits Drew with it.

That’s when Damian Priest arrives with the Money in the Bank briefcase, and he cashes in.

2. Drew McIntyre (c) vs Damian Priest
“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

He hits his finish and wins the title immediately. Drew really brought that on himself. Great moment there!

Rating: WTF!

3. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam, & Rezar)
“Philadelphia Street Fight”

Snoop Dogg is the guest commentator for this one. That rules. On the other hand, Bubba Ray Dudley is the guest referee. That sucks.

The weapon shots are vicious and stiff. Kross argues with Bubba, and then Lashley and The Profits go through Dudley spots. The table spots were nice, and they ended the match there pretty easily.

The real highlight was B-Fab and Scarlet getting involved and brawling with weapons. Later, B-Fab did a Russian legsweep through a table off the apron onto Scarlet! The other big highlight was Snoop Dogg having a great time.

Rating: It was a WWE Dudley-inspired street fight.

Logan Paul does pushups, and then a video package about last night’s main event plays.

Kayla Braxton asks Paul Heyman what “Bloodline Rules” means. No DQ. No Countdown. One fall. Whatever The Bloodline wants, really. He name-dropped Brandi Rhodes!

4. LA Knight vs AJ Styles

The video package reminds me of how over the former TNA dude is now. Since I don’t watch regularly, it surprises me every time.

We don’t wait; punches right away from both. From there, it’s pretty back-and-forth until Styles works the leg. Knight almost makes a comeback, but his attempt to slam AJ onto the bare floor fails as AJ counters, leading to a near countout. AJ’s springboard 450 is stopped by Knight’s knees. We get more punching, and then they counter each other’s finishers until Knight hits BFT for the win. The crowd loves it.

Rating: Solid

A video package plays going over the Hall of Fame ceremony, and they each get their moment in front of the crowd. Bull had her nunchucks, so it’s great.

We get many commercials, highlights of their charity events, and a nice little tribute to Bray Wyatt.

5. Logan Paul (c) vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens
“WWE United States Championship”

A video package for this match makes sense, but we have spent so much time doing video packages since the last match it’s wearing thin.

Logan Paul comes in on a truck promoting his drink and has a drink mascot with him. Sami appears as Kevin makes his way to the ring to return the favour from last night, saying it’s his turn now. After looking at the truck, he gets a golf cart to come out on. Randy Orton comes out without a vehicle, so Owens offers him a ride to the ring, and he gets on the back. It’s a fun moment.

Orton and Owens just take turns beating up Paul, to begin with. After taking him out, they realize only one of them can win, and they both try to double-cross each other. They decide it’s time to fight each other, which gives Paul an opening. We get a more typical triple-threat match, with each man hitting big moves. Paul is a really hateable heel, which adds a good dynamic. Brass Knuckles by him and get two only on Orton. Owens is taken out by the knucks, too. He goes for a final brass knuckles shot, and Orton hits an RKO instead. Orton then gets the knucks, hands them to the referee, and goes for his classic punk kick, but the Prime bottle saves him. The Prime Bottle is Paul’s buddy and so Orton kills him with an RKO on the table. Of course, that gives Owens and Paul time to recover. Owens Pop Up Power Bomb is turned into an RKO, and then Paul hits a frog splash on Owens for the win after disposing of Orton.

Rating: Almost Spreadsheetable

6. IYO SKY (c) vs Bayley
“WWE Women’s Championship”

This is another great video package. Bayley does an Egyptian goddess entrance being carried by cat men. She is living the dream, basically. She looks amazing. Shirai looks great, too, so let’s go!

This is very intense to start. On a tope by Bayley, she tweaks her leg, and then Shirai goes to work. You almost forget, since she was such an amazing heel, that Bayley is an all-time babyface! The selling of the leg by Bayley, whether on offense or being beaten on, was great! Shirai has such great offense. Moonsault by Io to a fully extended leg of Bayley, but that hurt Bayley, too. Amazing spot! Bayley does a tentative attempt at a flying elbow, but Shirai counters into a submission! She’s frantic and turns it into the STF in the middle, but Bayley pushes her off. Bayley-to-Belly gets a big nearfall. The selling of Bayley is so great! Shirai decks her and laughs, but Bayley decks her, which fires Bayley way up! Moonsault for a HUGE nearfall. Standing moonsault. Second rope Moonsault. But Bayley moves out of the proper one and goes for Rose Plant, but Io flips out of it. Bayley hits the elbow drop and the Rose Plant for the win. This fucking ruled!

Rating: 9.25/10

Snoop Dogg is out with the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders and mascot to announce 72,755 attendance.

One final weather update before the main event! Then, a long video package recaps everything.

7. Roman Reigns (c) vs Cody Rhodes
“WWE Undisputed Universal Championship Bloodline Rules”

Wish me luck with this recap.

Cody gets a Triple H entrance for the main event and Brandi Rhodes is there to take his mask for him and wish him luck. Good stuff! His family is at ringside. On the other hand, Roman has a whole orchestra to sing and play his song for him.

Cody takes out a table, but Roman puts it back. After some okay weapon shots and brawling, there is a brawl in the stands, and they get on one of the longest tables ever. Roman tries to suplex him off of it, but Cody reverses, and they head back toward the ring, where Roman takes complete control after a GIANT powerbomb. He has a long control segment until double lariats take both out. Cody makes a big comeback and hits the Disaster Kick, but that’s not enough. Roman counters the Cody Cutter with Cross Rhodes, but that gets two. He misses the Superman’s punch, and Cody punches and bionic elbows him away to a comeback. He sets up the table, but a low blow by Roman stops everything. Roman power bombs Cody through the table, and Superman punch gets a big nearfall. Cody counters the spear and hits a Cody Cutter for two. Roman tries Rock Bottom, counter, then Cody hits the spear. We are spamming each other’s finishers. Cross Rhodes hits, and a second attempt has Jimmy Uso break it up. Superman punch brings out Jey Uso, and he brawls with his twin. Jey spears him off the stage through a table. Roll up by Cody for two, spear by Roman for a massive kickout! They both tumble to the outside, and Cody spears Roman through the barricade. Back inside, Cody hits two Cross Rhodes, but Solo breaks up the third attempt. A two count after the Samoan spike. Solo tries to kill Cody and then holds him up as Roman spears him, and Solo spikes him at the same time. That’s another two. That brings out John Cena for the save. Attitude Adjustment by Cena as he puts Solo through a table. That brings out The Rock. It’s Cena vs The Rock now; everyone else is dead. Huge staredown and Cena gets to Rock Bottom. Rock brings out the Mama Rhodes belt, but the Shield music plays and Roman takes out Seth dressed in Shield gear before he does anything. Rock then destroys everyone with the weight lift belt, but the Undertaker’s music plays, and the music goes off. He’s behind The Rock and they have a staredown now. Choke Slam by Undertaker. Gong. Lights off. Undertaker is gone. Roman is up, and Cody is trying to get up. he grabs a chair and goes to kill Cody, but Seth is getting up, too. He nails Seth from behind, just like Seth did to him when The Shield broke up. He goes for a spear, but it’s countered. Cody hits Cross Rhodes and rolls that into three. He wins.

Rating: How do you rate that? 8/10 I guess?

Big props to Samantha Irvin, who is the best ring announcer ever, it seems. Her announcement of Cody winning was great. He gets the belt and cries, and out comes Brandi. After his moment, more come out and put him on their shoulders to celebrate. More and more folks, including his mom, enter.

A fitting end to WrestleMania XL.

“Damn it, I love professional wrestling!” Michael Cole

Cody gives us a little speech. Cody brings out Bruce Pritchard and Trips because it’s a new era.

Cody hugs everyone, even Michael Cole, who is crying. Cena ducking to stay off camera is funny, but the last image shows Cody alone in the ring with the belt, shaking Seth’s hand. Trips whispers something in his ear, and then the fireworks come. Cole is emotional, and Cody shakes everyone’s hand and hugs the cameramen and anyone he can find.

Finally a good WrestleMania and WWE may be good again.

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Posted in: Reviews, Show Reviews | Tagged: AJ Styles, angelo dawkins, Austin Theory, authors of pain, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, bobby lashley, Cody Rhodes, Dakota Kai, damian priest, dominik mysterio, Drew McIntyre, El Generico, Finn Balor, grayson waller, Io Shirai, jade cargill, jey uso, jimmy uso, johnny gargano, Kairi Hojo, Kana, karrion kross, kevin steen, Kofi Kingston, la knight, La Sombra, logan paul, montez ford, naomi, pete dunne, randy orton, rey mysterio jr, Rhea Ripley, Roman Reigns, santos escobar, the miz, The Rock, tommaso ciampa, tyler bate, tyler black, WALTER, wrestling, WWE, xavier woods

2023 Match of the Year List

By Grimmas on December 31, 2023 | 1 Comment

2023 was an odd year, with a lot of great stuff scattered around, but I didn’t feel like there were any obvious picks for me. If I re-wrote this list in 2 months, it would be in a completely different order.

Honourable Mentions

Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn, WWE, February 18
Gunther vs Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus, WWE, April 1
Mina Shirakawa vs Saya Kamitani, Stardom, April 23
Suzu Suzuki vs Syuri, Stardom, July 23
Jaguar Yokota, Momoe Nakanishi, & Nanae Takahashi vs Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid, & Yuu, Stardom, August 19

Now, onto the list!

#10
Swerve Strickland (c) vs Nick Wayne
“DEFY World Championship”
DEFY The Realest
Washington Hall
April 8

Swerve had one of the best heel performances in years, and this is your perfect veteran heel champion putting over a youngster match!

Swerve’s control and build-up of heat was perfection, and Wayne’s hope spots were well placed. Some of the high spots were amazing, especially Wayne diving from the stage into the ring but Swerve timing it to do a dive and meeting him in the air. There was one kick out that I felt took the match out a little, but all the callbacks to previous matches and earlier in the match and the finish were brilliant. It’s a great old school, but with modern moves, match up!

#9
The Usos (c) vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
“WWE Unified Tag Team Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39: Saturday
April 1, 2023
SoFi Stadium

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

Although this match should have been the perfect end to Roman Reigns’ title reign, at least it was the perfect end to the reign of the Usos.

It was one of the best face-in-peril segments ever in WWE history. It led to a great hot tag for Owens. The staredown was great, and the ending was immensely satisfying with a Sami Zayn victory. A rare, perfect ending for the WWE.

#8
Titan (c) vs Mascara Dorada 2.0
“CMLL World Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
Arena Mexico
September 29

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

I haven’t seen much of the new Mascara Dorada, but he is insanely good for a wrestler who debuted in 2021. He reminds me of Rey Mysterio Jr., who came around and blew everyone away with his flying, but it never looked like he was showing off, but always competing in a match. Dorada is the same way.

Titan is no slouch, as he’s been great for a long time. With all the great flying, the spot that really hit me was Titan doing a double stomp from the top rope to Dorada on the apron. As it built towards the finish, all the submission nearfalls were amazing. It was a great match and probably in my top ten matches of the year.

#7
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus
“Cage Match”
WWE Payback
PPG Paints Arena
September 2

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

This was a perfect WWE cage match. It was not built around trying to do cool moves; it was built around the feud and legacy. For once, no blood, after being rammed into the cage, was perfectly covered, as Trish had a giant welt on her forehead. The tributes to the first-ever WWE women’s cage match and other cage matches in WWE history were perfectly done. They were even somewhat subtle, like the Bret-Owen superplex and the outside interference door slamming into the face. I loved the finishing sequence so much, where Becky had enough of Trish’s lackey, so she locked her in the cage too and took her out, leading to catching Trish on the top of the cage and hitting a super Manhandle slam.

#6
Arisa Nakajima (c) vs Saree
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG 8th Anniversary
Korakuen Hall
August 25

This felt like a classic stiff Nakajima battle from her prime, and it’s so nice to see her at that level still and Sareee getting back to being at that level. The strikes were, of course, on point, and some of the flying double stomps by Nakajima were just vicious. Actually, everything was vicious, and it had a great pace throughout!

#5
Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa vs The Usos
“Bloodline Civil War”
WWE Money in The Bank
The O2
July 1

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

It was one of the best tag team matches in WWE history and great WWE wrestling. It worked so well playing off storylines and building drama setting up the finish of what the fans wanted, which sets up a huge match down the line.

It started pretty traditionally with a great shine by The Usos, followed by a face in peril by Jey, including an amazing hot tag tease where Jimmy was pulled off the apron by Solo at the last second. After a fun hot tag, the match started building towards the finish with no silly kick-outs, as partner’s made the saves. There was a great near fall where Roman stacked both The Usos, only for them to kick out. I loved Roman not sure what to do, and in shock, Solo just starts kicking ass and is like Roman, what the fuck? After some more great action, we got the big shocking finish. Awesome.

#4
Queen’s Quest (AZM, Hina, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita) vs Oedo Tai (Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka, Saki Kashima & Starlight Kid)
“Loser Must Leave Unit Steel Cage Match”
Stardom Sunshine
Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2
June 25

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

The same rules as the other cage match, but the last person in the ring has to leave their unit this time. This works so much better because escaping saves your ass, even if it puts your team behind. Also, each escape felt like a huge accomplishment, as they were all battles. After people escaped, they still battled the other unit on the floor!

It was tremendous storytelling with great hatred and drama between the teams. Utami establishing herself as Queen’s Quest’s ass was the stand-out story as she helps Kamitani escape putting herself alone two on one. That led to a great finishing sequence with Utami bleeding, the teasing of a split between Utami and Kamitani, and Tora destroying Utami to leave, only to have Kashima be the final loser.

#3
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Monday Night Raw
Spectrum Center
September 4

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month blog post:

This played off the previous match and built upon it. Gable knew he could win, and Gunther had doubts for almost the first time in his reign. Gable again fought from underneath, but here, his hope spots meant more. The comeback and the Gable’s attempts to win were electric. This had the best ankle lock submission nearfalls I have ever seen. When Gunther finally survived and got back on offense, there was no back-and-forth bullshit. He delivered a bunch of vicious offense and just pinned him clean. The camera immediately moved to Gable’s daughter crying in the first row. This might be my match of the year.

#2
Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland
“Texas Death Match”
AEW Full Gear
The Kia Forum
November 18

It’s awesome to see such a violent modern grudge match that doesn’t have the pitfalls that I would expect in a match like this. Swerve is a perfect heel, and maintaining that throughout this match only adds to the story. Of course, people can point to the blood-drinking, cinder blocks, staples, barbed-wire, and piledrivers onto the guardrail for huge moments, but what stood out was the masterful job Swerve did keeping the heat on Page.

#1
Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
Yokohama Arena
April 23

From The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week post:

This may be my favourite feud of all time now. It’s gone on for years and has had many classics and this one may have been my favourite of the bunch. It did feel the most violent as their hatred had grown and grown over time. I loved that they saw red and didn’t even try to wrestle at the start before they realized they had a title to win. The snapmare from the top to the table looked so vicious, I was dying! By the end, they both tried everything before the Steiner Screwdriver by Tam finished Giulia off.

Years of Stardom booking long reigns really made Tam’s victory feel special.

Coming Soon

The top 25 wrestlers of 2023 list should be ready shortly, plus at the end of every month, I’ll write up the top 25 matches I watched during it.

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Posted in: Match of the Year List | Tagged: Adam Page, aew, Arisa Nakajima, azm, Becky Lynch, chad gable, CMLL, defy, giulia, gunther, hina, joshi, kevin owens, lady c, lucha libre, Mascara Dorada 2.0, Miya Amasaki, Momo Watnabe, natsuko tora, nick wayne, rina, Roman Reigns, Ruaka, Saki Kashima, Sami Zayn, Sareee, Saya Kamitani, seadlinnng, solo sikoa, STARDOM, starlight kid, swerve strickland, tam nakano, titan, Trish Stratus, usos, utami hayashishita, WALTER, wrestling, WWE

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month (November 2023)

By Grimmas on December 6, 2023 | 2 Comments

It was a very light month in November, probably because I spent too much time watching The Traitors. I did get a top-25 match, though!

#25
Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu
GAEA Break Out!
September 16, 1996

Intense, quick tags, lots of brawling, and a high-paced tag match. A lot of fun!

Rating: 7/10

#24
Gunther (c) vs The Miz
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Survivor Series
November 25, 2023

The story of Miz trying to work the leg to take down the unstoppable Gunther was good and it was sold well by Gunther. The big near-fall off the Eddie Guerrero hijinks was really fun. The knee almost took Gunther out, but he was too good and put The Miz down!

Rating: 7/10

#23
Tito Santana (c) vs Paul Orndorff
“WWF Intercontinental Championship”
WWF at Kiel Auditorium
September 1, 1984

From my review of The Best of The WWF Volume II:

It feels like they wanted to show the St. Louis crowd a more NWA-style match, as WWF just took over the territory. The structure was not typical for a WWF match from the time, and it had lots of cool nearfalls, a non-WWF structure, and a lot of action. Tito is one of the best babyface workers ever, and seeing him work from underneath is great. His hope spots are tremendous. The comeback was intense by Tito, as usual. They fought back and forth down the stretch, leading to a time-limit draw.

Rating: 7/10

#22
Rhea Ripley (c) vs Zoey Stark
“WWE Women’s World Championship”
WWE Survivor Series
November 23, 2023

I kind of loved this. It was intense, hard-hitting, and dramatic. Zoey stepped up and used her power but was overcome as it wasn’t enough. Perfect title defense.

Rating: 7/10

#21
Hiromi Yagi vs Jaguar Yokota
JWP on September 8, 1996

Jaguar continues to look great, no matter what year it is. This has a lot of fun stuff, and I loved the sudden submission finish out of nowhere!

Rating: 7/10

#20
Strike Force, The British Bulldogs, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers, & The Young Stallions vs The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The New Dream Team, & The Islanders
“Elimination Match”
WWF Survivor Series
November 26, 1987

A match filled with a lot of action, quick tags, and a logical format, and I loved the story of the underdog Stallions surviving with the Bees.

Rating: 7/10

#19
Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, & Templario vs Atlantis Jr., Mascara Dorada 2.0, & Mistico
“Best 2/3 Falls”
CMLL Grand Prix De Amazonas
October 27, 2023

This had exactly what you wanted, with spectacular moves, a hot crowd, and a good story about the feud between Templario and Mistico. Dorada continues to impress!

Rating: 7/10

#18
Bayley vs Bianca Belair
WWE SmackDown
October 27, 2023

A tremendous match, with Bayley working over the back and Belair selling it well. The highlight was a great segment that started on the apron and continued outside, and the finish was really good as well.

Rating: 7/10

#17
La Catalina vs Zeuxis
“CMLL Universal De Amazones Title Tournament Final Match”
CMLL Blue Panther 45. Aniversario
October 20, 2023

They both fought hard to win this tournament, and it was an exciting match.

Rating: 7/10

#16
The Powers of Pain, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, & The Young Stallions vs Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, Los Conquistadores, & The Fabulous Rougeaus
“Elimination Match”
WWF Survivor Series
November 24, 1988

It is similar to the previous year but with more action, more stories, and the really fun Conquistadores surviving against all odds. Plus, a double turn!

Rating: 7/10

#15
Chigusa Nagayo, Sakura Hirota, Sonoko Kato, & Toshie Uematsu vs Chikayo Nagashima, Mayumi Ozaki, Reiko Amano, & Sugar Sato
GAEA Endless Summer
August 18, 1996

Nagayo and Ozaki were awesome in this, controlling everything, but the rookies really came out to shine, and this was a blast!

Rating: 7/10

#14
Bryan Danielson vs Rush
AEW Dynamite
February 8, 2023

The first 2/3 of the match was great, with Rush just destroying an injured and bloody Danielson and being a cocky asshole about it. Danielson’s selling was great, and he was such a massive underdog. The comeback was good, too, but once we got to the longer finishing sequence, it fell apart a bit for me.

Rating: 7/10

#13
Chaparita ASARI vs Kyoko Inoue
“Japan Grand Prix”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
July 28, 1996

This was a blast. To start, they did the I’m taller than you exchange, with each standing on different things to get an advantage in a test of strength until it ended with ASARI hitting a top rope dropkick onto Inoue, who was standing on a steal chair. Immediately, ASARI sat in the chair while Inoue rolled to the floor and sat in a chair at ringside. A perfect start to the match. The rest was fun, too, with Inoue hitting one of the fastest giant swings ever and ASARI having tremendous spots throughout. It ended with Inoue’s death offense for the win.

Rating: 7/10

#12
Dynamite Kansai (c) vs Mayumi Ozaki
“JWP Openweight Championship”
JWP on August 10, 1996

This was dramatic and had a lot of great struggle between the two. The crowd brawling was awesome here, too.

Rating: 7.25/10

#11
The Usos (c) vs Drew McIntyre & Sheamus
“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”
WWE SmackDown
January 6, 2023

This told a great story of McIntyre and Sheamus outmatching the Usos regarding power and being one-on-one, but the Usos are the superior team. Usos are also the masters of tag nearfalls, and the crowd was insane for them in this one. I love the classic cheating tag finish and Sami and Roman’s reactions while watching in the back while eating popcorn.

Rating: 7.25/10

#10
Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa (c) vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato
“Japanese Tag Team Championship”
AJW The Rising Generation Queens Carnival
September 1, 1996

Oz Academy (Nagashima and Sato) do some wild Sabu shit, and it’s so much fun as they are the highlight of this really good tag match that comes down to a very exciting finishing sequence.

Rating: 7.5/10

#9
CM Punk vs Ricky Starks
“Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men’s Tournament Final Match”
AEW Collision
July 15, 2023

Punk is a master of playing the crowd and Starks is very charismatic and has the crowd with him, and the crowd was amazing here in Calgary! Punk really went out of his way to make Starks a superstar in this, and the finish was a perfect payoff.

Rating: 7.5/10

#8
Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami & Kyoko Inoue
JWP The Ryogoku Big Project
October 13, 1996

These two amazing teams have an amazing match, to nobody’s surprise. It started intense, with everyone hitting vicious lariats, but only kept it up all match. It built really well with a lot of great action and the main takeaway is this match looked like it hurt a lot.

Rating: 7.75/10

#7
Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair & Shotzi vs Asuka, Bayley, IYO SKY & Kairi Sane
“War Games”
WWE Survivor Series
November 25, 2023

I was a little apprehensive about the babyfaces winning the advantage as it goes against everything I know about War Games. When each person entering brought a new weapon, my skepticism was super high, but luckily, they salvaged things and turned it into a great match.

Bayley held everything together and worked her ass off. It was so nice to see KAIRI having so much fun upon returning to WWE too! Of course Io Shirai took some nutty bumps, including the jump off the top of the cage in a garbage can. The finish was very satisfying!

Rating: 7.75/10

#6
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Raw
August 21, 2023

I had completely forgotten that Chad Gable existed, but it turns out he is the perfect Gunther opponent. Gunther, in the middle of the best IC Title run ever, faced an unrelenting technical wrestler who had the power to match up with him. He pushed and pushed Gunther and finally got the shock count-out win, setting up a rematch. It’s a perfect way to give Gunther his first loss in the WWE.

Rating: 8/10

#5
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Swerve Strickland
“AEW International Championship”
AEW Dynamite
June 7, 2023

Although Cassidy can do amazing moves, amazing comedy, and garner amazing amounts of sympathy, the real key to his amazingness is the little things. The ability to stay in character in almost any situation. Like sitting on the apron trying to avoid getting hit by slowly scooting out of the way. That said, this match hits on all of his levels of amazing, and Swerve is no slouch and a really good opponent for him as he can keep up on those levels and is a great counterpoint to him. It was an awesome match that got a lot of time and built from a great character-driven match into a match filled with amazing spots and such an awesome finishing sequence where each looked like the winner, and it had a perfect finish.

Rating: 8/10

#4
Bison Kimura vs Li Fua
Jd’ Star on July 30, 1996

I had no idea that Li Fua was Jaguar Yokota until days after I watched this, so that adds to the awesomeness here.

Li Fua is a deranged Chinese masked woman who spent most of the match cheating and stabbing Bison, making her bleed everywhere. It’s a violent brawl that goes all over the ringside area and involved many weapons. It even involved Fua doing a moonsault from the stage to the floor onto Bison. This match is insane.

Afterward, Fua cuts her own head and pours the blood into Bison in some kind of ritual. A must-watch match!

Rating: 8/10

#3
Pedro Morales (c) vs Don Muraco
“WWF Intercontinental Championship”
WWF on MSG Network
January 22, 1983

From my review of The Best of The WWF Volume II:

Muraco attacks before the bell, and Morales fights right back. The really cool being thrown into the corner and turning it into a sunset flip by Morales is awesome. The early goings are just Morales destroying Muraco and Muraco selling his ass off. He’s such a chicken shit that when Morales looks to jump off the top to the floor on him, Muraco hides under the ring. A massive low blow by Muraco brings things even, and that’s when Muraco can finally remove his shirt. Of course, Muraco uses it to choke Pedro, only for Pedro to low-blow him back!

Muraco ducked, and Morales hit the turnbuckle with his knee, which finally evens the tides and led to some good knee work by Muraco. After a pushoff of the figure-four, Morales has a comeback and does a backbreaker onto his hurt knee like an idiot. The Boston Crab he does is too close to the ropes, and his leg is too hurt to keep it on. Muraco still can’t control it, though. Morales keeps fighting, but the cross body by Muraco is caught, only for Morales’s leg to give up, and Muraco wins the belt.

It is a great, short, and intense brawl with amazing transitions that tell a wonderful story. I love these two against each other.

Rating: 8.25/10

#2
Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue
“Japan Grand Prix Final”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
August 30, 1996

Kong is out for death in this match, and Inoue is a perfect underdog with tremendous selling throughout. It’s intense from the start to the tremendous run of nearfalls down the stretch. Every lariat and every throw and hit just look like they hurt; it’s on another level. A great match that seems to be forgotten if you listen to Cagematch.

Rating: 9.25/10

#1
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Raw
September 4, 2023

You know a match is special when the WWE uploads it to YouTube immediately.

With this win, Gunther has become the longest-reigning IC Champion ever!

Rating: 9.25/10

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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month (October 2023)

By Grimmas on October 31, 2023 | 2 Comments

I was really all over the place in October, but one thing kept me excited, and that was going through WCW’s 1996. We are in 1996 for our Joshi weekly watches, and I thought I’d get a head start on the rest of the world. Other GWE years I want to tackle are just not clicking with me right now.

Also, 2023 is turning out to be pretty damn cool, eh?

#25
John Morrison (c) vs CM Punk
“ECW Heavyweight Championship”
ECW on SciFi
September 1, 2007, aired September 4, 2007

These two had a long series, so they knew each other well and did a lot of counters. The crowd is really hot, and it’s a very exciting match with a great finishing stretch.

Rating: 7.25/10

#24
La Catalina vs Stephanie Vaquer
“CMLL World Women’s Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

Vaquer’s offense outside the ring was so vicious. They both worked stiff and had a very intense match that was a great counterpoint to a lot of the more high-flying of the rest of the card.

Rating: 7.25/10

#23
Bruno Sammartino (c) vs Stan Hansen
“WWWF Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match”
WWWF on August 7, 1976

A famous match with Bruno getting revenge after Hasnen broke his neck. The crowd is so into Bruno’s revenge, and he gets it here with lots of blood and violence.

Rating: 7.25/10

#22
Becky Lynch (c) vs Lyra Valkyria
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT Halloween Havoc
October 24, 2023

A tremendous main event, with Valkyria playing the big underdog against the legendary Lynch. It was filled with hope spots and nearfalls for Valyria, and Lynch did a great job of controlling the action and trying to find ways to put away the underdog. Some of my favourite types of wrestling matches, and this was a good version of that.

Rating: 7.75/10

#21
Mistico (c) vs Virus
“World Historic Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

Mistico is so spectacular, and Virus is so well grounded they make a perfect counterpoint for each other and a beautiful match to watch.

Rating: 7.75/10

#20
Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Super Calo
WCW Fall Brawl: War Games
September 15, 1996

Calo works over Rey’s arm so well and also hits some great dives and throws for the first large portion of this match. Rey sells his arm all the way through his comeback. A great stretch of nerfalls and Rey hits a double springboard hurrcanrana for the win utilizing the double ring. It was one of the better Cruiserweight matches in WCW history.

Rating: 7.75/10

#19
Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (c) vs The High Flyers
“AWA World Tag Team Championships”
AWA on July 7, 1977

It’s a really hot crowd in a very classic tag team format match. Lazna and Duncum bumped huge when The High Flyers were on offense, and The Flyers sold great on defense. It got more exciting as it went along to a great finish.

Rating: 7.75/10

#18
Dean Malenko (c) vs Rey Mysterio Jr.
“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”
WCW The Great American Bash
June 16, 1996

I’ve felt this match was odd because it’s Rey’s WCW debut, and Malenko grounds him for 3/4 of it by working his arm. The comeback is tremendous, though, and the arm work is really good. Truly the start of the new WCW cruiserweight era.

Rating: 7.75/10

#17
Natsupoi vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

Former enemies and current teammates can be really cool in a match against each other, and this one was that. It started with the know each other so well spots, but then they started to dig back into their former hatred. There were great nearfalls before a finish that was a little bit of a surprise, with Natsupoi pinning the Champion.

Rating: 8/10

#16
Suzu Suzuki vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 9, 2023

It was an excellent GP match, with Suzuki going for death and Nakano’s amazing selling leading the way. The last third was a tremendous run to the finish.

Rating: 8/10

#15
Umaga (c) vs Jeff Hardy
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE The Great American Bash
July 22, 2007

It was an amazing David vs Goliath match, with Hardy having awesome hope spots while Umaga killed him throughout. When it got to Jeff’s comeback, it was electric, and when Umaga did the run for the finish, it was death. Perfect wrestling.

Rating: 8/10

#14
Hazuki vs Suzu Suzuki
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 23, 2023

It’s all killer, no filler heated GP match.

Rating: 8/10

#13
Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Dean Malenko
“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”
WCW Halloween Havoc
October 27, 1996

After an amazing shine segment by Rey where he got his stolen mask back, Dean grounds him. The leg attacks are great, as well as Rey’s selling. In 1996, few had better comebacks than Rey. The finishing stretch is so great, ending with a vicious super bomb by Dean!

Rating: 8/10

#12
Mei Seira vs Nanae Takahashi
“Passion Injection”
Stardom New Blood 11
September 29, 2023

One of the highlights of 2023 is Nanae vs younger wrestlers, injecting them with passion. Mei was amazing, fighting to take it to Nanae and pushing her to the limits. Nanae was also great pushing back against it.

Rating: 8/10

#11
Maika vs MIRAI
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

The winner wins the Blue Stars block, so there is extra drama here in this awesome hoss battle.

Rating: 8/10

#10
Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta
“Japan Grand Prix”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
July 14, 1996

Kong completely brutalizes Hotta’s leg in the most violent way possible, and Hotta sells it so well. Hotta worked from underneath and had some good hope spots. For some reason, Hotta always really steps up against Kong!

Rating: 8.5/10

#9
Mistico vs Templario
“Best 2/3 Falls”
CMLL Super Viernes
October 13, 2023

Mistico might be the best babyface in the world right now. Being so over really helps, but the great selling and hope spots, added with the spectacular moves, make him so loveable. I love that Mistico dominated for a large early portion of this match until Templario got a lucky comeback in the second fall, leading to him destroying Mistsco. The finishing sequence and the comeback by Mistico ruled! I don’t want to discount Templario here; he’s a great rudo, too.

Rating: 8.5/10

#8
Antonio Inoki (c) vs Andre the Giant
“Real World Martial Arts Championship”
NJPW Toukon Series
October 7, 1976

It was a tremendous David vs Goliath contest that was really focused on the strategy of both. Inoki was amazing at finding his spots where Andre would leave an opening.

Rating: 8.5/10

#7
Maika vs Suzu Suzuki
“5STAR Grand Prix: Final”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

A surprising final, which had to be changed due to the injuries. However, it added an extra level of excitement because the winner could have been anyone. It was an intense, stiff, and exciting match, with both stepping up their game to win the 5STAR! It was really a perfect tournament final match, as either could have won throughout, and they played it as two equally matched competitors.

I’m very excited to see how far Suzuki can go at such a young age!

Rating: 8.5/10

#6
Ultimate Dragon (c) vs Rey Misterio Jr.
“J-Crown Championship”
WCW World War 3
November 24, 1996

Most of the match is a squash, with Dragon unleashing amazing offense, including one of the best and most brutal running power bombs ever. Rey is amazing at selling, and when he gets a comeback near the end, it’s electric with spectacular moves. The finish is otherworldly, with Rey attempting to complete the comeback with a springboard rana, only for Dragon to catch him and slingshot Rey off the top rope into a vicious sit-down power bomb for the win. It is a classic and very cool, for it does not follow the usual formula.

Rating: 8.75/10

#5
Becky Lynch (c) vs Tiffany Stratton
“NXT Women’s Championship Extreme Rules Match”
NXT No Mercy
September 30, 2023

Stratton is very impressive, with amazing physical skills and tremendous presence. She wasn’t just carried along by Lynch but added a lot. This was one of the better all-over-the-arena weapons matches I can recall from the WWE in a long time. The spots were violent and vicious, and the nearfalls were unbelievable. Great finish, too.

Rating: 8.75/10

#4
Manami Toyota vs Meiko Satomura
“Battlefield WAR Tournament Second Round”
Sendai Girls Live Vol. 8
May 6, 2007

It was really cool to see generational legends go at it, and they delivered. The early portions of Toyota using her veteran status to keep control of Meiko was really great. As they build up to the match, they had a great bomb-throwing segment and finishing rush.

Rating: 8.75/10

#3
Antonio Inoki vs Big Van Vader
NJPW Wrestling World In Tokyo Dome
January 4, 1996

Two legendary though guys stand up and fight each other on the biggest stage with a red-hot crowd. This is amazing. Both really go for the kill throughout, and the Vader German Suplex spot is incredibly memorable.

Rating: 9/10

#2
Titan (c) vs Mascara Dorada
“CMLL World Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

I haven’t seen too much of the new Mascara Dorada, but for a wrestler who debuted in 2021, he is insanely good. He reminds me of Rey Mysterio Jr., who came around and blew everyone away with his flying, but it never looked like he was showing off, but always competing in a match. Dorada is the same way.

Rating: 9/10

#1
Combat Toyoda (c) vs Megumi Kudo
“FMW Independent Women’s & WWA Women’s Title No Ropes Barbed Wire Current Blast Death Match”
FMW Fighting Creation: 7th Anniversary Show
May 5, 1996

Not much to say. It’s the best deathmatch and the best FMW match in history. It’s dramatic, it’s emotional, and it’s great.

Rating: 9.66/10

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Posted in: Best Matches I've Watched This Month, Lists | Tagged: Aja Kong, AJW, Andre the Giant, antonio inoki, AWA, Becky Lynch, blackjack lanza, bobby duncum, Bruno Sammartino, CM Punk, CMLL, combat toyoda, dean malenko, deathmatch, FMW, greg gagne, Hazuki, jeff hardy, jim brunzell, john morrison, joshi, la catalina, lucha libra, Lyra Valkyria, Maika, Manami Toyota, mascara dorada, Megumi Kudo, Mei Hoshizuki, Mei Seira, Meiko Satomura, MIRAI, Mistico, Nanae Takahashi, natsupoi, NJPW, NXT, puroresu, rey mysterio jr, Sendai Girls, Stan Hansen, STARDOM, Stephanie Vaquer, super calo, suzu suzuki, tam nakano, templario, Tiffany Stratton, titan, ultimo dragon, Umaga, Vader, Virus, WCW, wrestling, WWE, wwwf, yumiko hotta

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month (September 2023)

By Grimmas on September 30, 2023 | 1 Comment

I took a little break from GWE watching; I only had two 76/77 matches on the list this month. I was off-wrestling this month, but I got in a lot of the Stardom 5STAR and started to get back into CMLL.

#25
Superstar Billy Graham (c) vs Dusty Rhodes
“WWWF Heavyweight Championship Texas Death Match”
WWWF
October 24, 1977

This was bloody, with a superheated crowd in an intense brawl. It doesn’t really hit high gear, though, and the finish stunk, but a damn good match worth watching.

Rating: 7/10

#24
Hazuki, Shinobu Kandori, & Takako Inoue vs Natsupoi, Saori Anou, & Tam Nakano
Stardom MidSummer Fes
August 19, 2023

It’s a fun match, putting legends with current starts. All the legends hit their stuff and looked awesome, but the current stars carried the bulk of the work. It’s a textbook and is well worth watching stuff here.

Rating: 7/10

#23
Chigusa Nagayo vs Megumi Kudo
FMW New Year Generation
January 10, 1996

An amazing-paced 7-minute match where they fought with a great struggle like warriors! The power bomb finish was brutal!

Rating: 7/10

#22
Kaoru Ito & Manami Toyota vs Double Inoue
AJW Zenjo Strongest
January 3, 1996

This was just a super fun tag with a really hot finishing sequence and an insanely fast giant swing by Kyoko.

Rating: 7.25/10

#21
Akira Hokuto & Mima Shimoda (c) vs Double Inoue
“WWWA Tag Team Championship Best 2/3 Falls”
AJW Ota Ward Champion Legend
January 22, 1996

LCO work as psychotic heels against the sympathetic Double Inoue team, and it helps this tag for the first couple of falls. The third fall is tremendous action.

Rating: 7.25/10

#20
MIRAI (c) vs Konami
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom 5STAR Special In Hiroshima
September 3, 2023

I really dug this title defense. Konami’s arm offense and kicks were on point, and MIRAI’s selling was tremendous. I loved her comeback and the finishing sequence, too. MIRAI’s lariats are so brutal.

Rating: 7.25/10

#19
La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
“CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Title Match”
CMLL 90 Aniversario
September 16, 2023

A great opener to the Aniversario and a really fun tag match with some amazing dives and great double-team moves. There was a viciousness to this that made it extra appealing.

Rating: 7.25

#18
Momo Watanabe vs Saori Anou
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

It was a real blast where Momo was trying to knock out Anou all match, from an opening sneak attack to using her baseball bat and vicious heavy offense. Anou is pretty good from fighting underneath, so it’s worth watching.

Rating: 7.25/10

#17
Mariah May vs Mina Shirakawa
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

These two have been the most improved wrestlers on earth in the last two years, and they went out and had a good match between teammates. Mina’s leg work was on point as ever, and Mariah has developed some killer offense.

Rating: 7.25/10

#16
Mayu Iwatani vs Syuri
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Special In Hiroshima
September 3, 2023

These two are just great, and even in an undercard match, they will deliver something awesome. It was intense and stiff and led to a great finish.

Rating: 7.5/10

#15
Aja Kong vs Combat Toyoda
FMW New Year Generation
January 10, 1996

A wild brawl all over the arena with Combat bleeding and weapons. It’s a real fun hoss battle well worth your time.

Rating: 7.5/10

#14
Hazuki vs Syrui
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

A full-throttle intense 10-minute sprint that I loved. Two of my favourites doing everything to win their tournament match, but not in an epic way, but in a that put the other away as soon as possible way.

Rating: 7.5/10

#13
Manami Toyota (c) vs Kyoko Inoue
“WWWA World Championship”
AJW Wrestling Queendom
March 31, 1996

Putting aside the horrible design to not have Kyoko win and to have her lose to her own finish, this match was pretty damn good. The crowd really wanted Kyoko to win, which made every nerafall hot. The nerafalls all felt big, and it got better and better as it went.

Rating: 8/10

#12
Bomber Hikari, Chigusa Nagayo, & Sonoko Kato vs Eagle Sawai, Jenn Yukari, & Michiko Nagashima
LLPW
March 12, 1996

This is a rematch from a GAEA match higher on the list, and although it’s still pretty wild and a great match, it doesn’t hit the high levels the other match hit. The clipping makes it harder to rank, too.

Rating: 8/10

#11
Mayu Iwatani vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

Two legends of Stardom go at it for 15 minutes straight, trying to knock the other out. It’s as good as a 15-minute tournament match draw could be, really. These two need a big title match one day.

Rating: 8/10

#10
KAIRI & Saori Anou vs Unagi Sayaka & Sareee
AJPW Giant Series
September 8, 2023

Outside of the novelty of seeing these four, some of my favourites, in an AJPW ring, the match delivered. It was a great tag match where everyone was stepping up their game. Each team had really good team chemistry and double-team moves, too. The last few minutes were absolutely tremendous stuff.

Rating: 8/10

#9
CM Punk (c) vs Samoa Joe
“Real World Championship”
AEW All In London
August 27, 2023

This was a great opener and the only match I wanted to watch from this show. There were some nice nods to their previous matches with the headlock before Joe killed Punk into the table and blooded him up. Punk worked amazingly from underneath, and his comeback was fun, especially the Wrestlemania III tribute. A fun finishing stretch ended it. Punk then posed with a trans flag to push the match up even higher!

Rating: 8/10

#8
AZM vs Utami Hayashishita
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

The main event in Korakuen Hall delivered in a big way as teammates fought in the 5STAR. AZM used her high speed skills to try to sneak in a victory, while Utami used her power to pick her apart. It was a perfect power vs speed match.

Rating: 8.25/10

#7
Lince Dorado & Samuray del Sol vs. Soberano Jr. & Titan
“Best 2/3 Falls”
CMLL 90 Aniversario
September 16, 2023

The Lucha House Party makes a surprisingly good gringo rudo tag team here, and this was a dynamic, exciting tag. The first two falls were perfect, with great spots and good build-up. The third fall got a little extra, but this was filled with spectacular spots and some good playing character work.

Rating: 8.25/10

#6
Dragon Rojo Jr. vs Templario
“Mask vs Mask”
CMLL 90 Aniversario
September 16, 2023

There’s nothing like a mask vs mask match to end a CMLL Anniversary show, and this was a good one. I loved Dragon Rojo Jr. on offense for the first half; he kind of reminded me of Kikuchiyo in his movement. Templario’s comeback had a lot of spectacular dives, but the finishing stretch seemed like a letdown from what they were building.

Rating: 8.5/10

#5
Angel de Oro vs Volador, Jr.
“Hair vs Hair”
CMLL 90 Aniversario
September 16, 2023

A dramatic and great hair vs hair match made even better with Volador’s shoulder injury, making all his moves look more spectacular. I love these high-stakes matches. It makes everything feel way more important. This wasn’t just a spot fest. There was some great hate and submissions mixed in there.

Rating: 8.75/10

#4
Bomber Hikari, Chigusa Nagayo, & Sonoko Kato vs Eagle Sawai, Jenn Yukari, & Michiko Nagashima
GAEA War Is A Friday Night
February 16, 1996

This is as fun as a wild all over the arena crazy brawl can be. Chigusa and Eagle just killing each other in the audience is a blast, but the story of Kato losing her shit was amazing. Blood and brawling, GAEA is such a great promotion.

Rating: 8.75/10

#3
Jaguar Yokota, Momoe Nakanishi, & Nanae Takahashi vs Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid, & Yuu
Stardom MidSummer Fes
August 19, 2023

This was an exciting trios match main event. There was so much great action with everyone, especially the legends, getting their chance to shine. The action was really classic Joshi. I’m so blown away by how great Nakanishi was after 18 years of not wrestling a real match. She looked like she could main event today on a consistent basis. Unbelievable.

Rating: 9/10

#2
Terry Funk (c) vs Jumbo Tsuruta
“NWA World Heavyweight Championship Best 2/3 Falls”
AJPW NWA Champion Series”
June 11, 1976

One thing I immediately loved about this match was each fall was built like a regular match, albeit the later ones got shorter and went quicker toward finishing sequences. It has that great feel-out segment that leads to them figuring out what to do. Funk doing Jumbo’s finisher to him was fascinating, as I had no idea people were doing that before the 2000s. It is just tremendously well-built, and once it going going, it is an exciting match.

Rating: 9/10

#1
“Match of the Month”

Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus
“Cage Match”
WWE Payback
September 2, 2023

Rating: 9/10

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Posted in: Best Matches I've Watched This Month | Tagged: aew, Aja Kong, AJPW, AJW, Akira Hokuto, angel de oro, azm, Becky Lynch, billy graham, bomber hikari, Chigusa Nagayo, CM Punk, CMLL, combat toyoda, dragon rojo jr, dusty rhodes, Eagle Sawai, FMW, GAEA, Hazuki, jaguar yokota, jenn yukari, joshi, Jumbo Tsuruta, Kairi Hojo, Kaoru Ito, Konami, Kyoko Inoue, la jarochita, lince dorada, LLPW, lucha libre, Manami Toyota, mariah may, Mayu Iwatani, Megumi Kudo, michiko nagashima, Mima Shimoda, mini shirakawa, MIRAI, momo watanabe, Momoe Nakanishi, Nanae Takahashi, natsupoi, Samoa Joe, samuray del sol, Saori Anou, Sareee, Shinobu Kandori, soberano jr, sonoko kato, STARDOM, starlight kid, Stephanie Vaquer, Syuri, Takako Inoue, tam nakano, templario, Terry Funk, titan, Trish Stratus, Unagai Sayaka, utami hayashishita, volador jr, wrestling, WWE, Yuu, zeuxis

The Greatest Wrestlers of 2019

By Grimmas on June 20, 2023 | 5 Comments

In route to putting together my top 100 list of the Greatest Wrestlers Ever, I am going through each year and putting together a list for that particular year. Previously, on the podcast “Maybe Not Taue”, I put together a list for 1985, 1990, 1997, & 2021. You can listen to those here. 1983, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015, & 2022 are on the blog.

2019

I love 2019; it was the year I was so into watching almost every women’s indie match, and the first year, I started to dip into Stardom.

The List

All of the below stats are from Cagematch. Yes, they are not perfect.

The recommended matches are not a definitive list. It’s a list of matches I have watched for this process, plus matches on my spreadsheet from before. I will not go beyound 5 matches.

The matches listed are all 7/10 or higher; if they are bolded, they are 8/10 or higher.

Honourable Mentions

Arisa Nakajima
ASUKA
Charlotte Flair
Jonathan Gresham
Kairi Sane
Roman Reigns
Thunder Rosa

#25
Kris Statlander

Years Unranked: 2021 & 2022
Matches: 134
Places Worked: Beyond, CAP, NYWC, AAW, QOC, Limitless, WrestlePro, FSCW, AEW, CW, CZW, SHIMMER, WSU, ZERO1 USA, B!P, GCW, WWR, Femmes Fatles, AML, C4, IWTV, MTW, BCW, Dropkick Depression, Bar Wrestling, CHIKARA, EVOLVE, SHINE, REVOLVER, Sabotage, HMW, HOG, ROH, PWM, NOVA Pro, BLP, & WWE
Titles Held: NYWC Starlet Championship, IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship, B!P Bedlam Championship, WSUA Spirit Championship, CAP Television Championship, & AAW Women’s Championship
Tournaments: Queen of the North (finals), Beyond Treasure Hunter Tournament (winner), CZW Best of the Best 18, NYWC/Outlaw Wrestling King & Queen Tournament w/ Orange Cassidy (finals), Making Town Classic Tournament, REVOLVER One Night Tournament, & CHIKARA King of Trios w/ Nick Gage & Thomas Santell

Weirdly, Kris Statlander wasn’t even on my GWE spreadsheet. However, after I put out my match of the year list, Statlander was on their twice! I am saying her year was sneaky good as she completely broke out on the Indies and worked everywhere, bringing a different character and some fresh excitement to the scene.

Recommended Matches:

vs Ashley Vox, “Unsanctioned,” Limitless, January 11 (#5 MOTY)
vs Orange Cassidy, IWTV, May 26
vs Joey Janella, Beyond, June 12 (#8 MOTY)
vs Kimber Lee, “Cage,” Beyond, July 28
vs Mercedes Martinez, Beyond, November 14
plus more

#24
Tsukasa Fujimoto

Previous Ranking: 2021 (13th)
Years Unranked: 2010, 2015, & 2022
Matches: 125
Places Worked:
Title Held:
Tournament:

The veteran Fujimoto is always a threat for this list, as long as there are enough opportunities and footage of her. If she branched out from Ice Ribbon more to give herself more variety, she would probably be higher on this list. She is a dynamo in the ring with very sound psychology and a knack for having exciting finishing sequences.

Recommended Matches:

vs Maya Yukihi, Ice Ribbon, August 3
vs Sareee, Ice Ribbon, September 14
w/ Tsukushi vs Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera, Ice Ribbon, November 3

#23
Nanae Takahashi

Previous Ranking: 2004 (11th) & 2010 (20th)
Years Unranked: 1997, 2001, 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 54
Places Worked: SEAdLINNNG, Marvelous, Gatoh Move, WAVE, ZERO1, Ice Ribbon, AWG, Dragon Gate, & NagoJo
Titles Held: SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship & Blast Queen Championship

Always the hard-hitting veteran, it is nice to see Nanae sneak onto the list this late into her career. It does help running a promotion where you can give yourself a lot of cool opportunities.

Recommended Matches:

vs ASUKA, SEAdLINNING, March 20
vs Takumi Iroha, SEAdLINNNG, May 29
vs Arisa Nakajima, “Hair vs Hair”, SEAdLINNNG, November 2

#22
Momo Watanabe

Previous Ranking: 2021 (6th) & 2022 (16th)
Years Unranked: 2015
Matches: 89
Places Worked: Stardom & Tokyo Gurentai
Titles Held: Wonder of Stardom Championship & Goddesses of Stardom Championship w/ Utami Hayashishita
Tournament: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ AZM & Konami, Stardom Cinderella Tournament, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix, & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ AZM

The young Watanabe had a great year, winning a variety of championships in Stardom. She was already a bruiser striking this early into her career and really showed up in big match opportunities.

Recommended Matches:

vs Tam Nakano, Stardom, January 14
vs Jungle Kyona, Stardom, March 3
vs Utami Hayashishita, Stardom, April 5
w/ Utami Hayashishita vs Jungle Kyona & Konami, Stardom, July 15

#21
Daniel Makabe

Years Unranked: 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 65
Places Worked: 3-2-1 BATTLE!, WAC, wXw, ECCW, DOA, PPW, SCI, Riptide, BLP, Beyond, Breed Pro, 5CC, OWE, PWA, GCW, ISW, Pizza Party Pro, & Freelance
Tournaments: Scenic City Invitational (winner), wXw AMBITION 11, 3-2-1 BATTLE! Seattle Underground Title Tournament, Riptide Tag Team Tournament w/ Chris Brookes, wXw AMBITION Wildcard Edition (finals), PPW Title Tournament (finals), & 3-2-1 BATTLE! GO! Tournament (winner)

I’ve seen Makabe called the Budy Rose of the Pacific Northwest, and this is a really fun comparison. While mostly focused on matwork and submissions, his ability to story tell really sets him apart. A tremendous heel.

Recommended Matches:

vs Jonathan Gresham, 3-2-1 BATTLE!, April 19
vs Timothy Thatcher, 3-2-1 BATTLE!, July 12
plus more

#20
Konami

Years Unranked: 2015 & 2021
Matches: 93
Place Worked: Stardom
Titles Held: Artist of Stardom Championship w/ Hana Kimura & Jungle Kyona & Goddesses of Stardom Championship w/ Jungle Kyona
Tournaments: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ AZM & Momo Watanabe, Stardom Cinderella Tournament (finals), Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix (finals), & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ Jungle Kyona

I always enjoy Konami, but I didn’t think about ranking until now. She had a tremendous year as one of the big shots in TCS. She had plenty of bigger opportunities and delivered in those situations, including main event title matches. She reminds me of Tajiri, and seeing Tajiri in Stardom is great fun.

Recommended Matches:

vs Mayu Iwatani, Stardom, February 24
vs Kagetsu, Stardom, May 26
w/ Jungle Kyona vs Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita, Stardom, July 15
w/ Jungle Kyona vs Arisa Hoshiki & Tam Nakano, Stardom, November 24
vs Arisa Hoshiki, Stardom, December 24

#19
Asuka

Previous Ranking: 2010 (3rd) & 2015 (10th)
Years Unranked: 2004, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 120
Place Worked: WWE
Titles Held: WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship & WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship w/ Kairi Sane

Being a non-World Champion in WWE as a woman makes it hard to put together a case, but I think Asuka accomplished it. From the tremendous title match with Lynch at the Rumble to the amazing team with Sane, she was a great performer all year. I can’t reiterate enough how awesome Kabuki Warriors were, and her having another awesome heel run really was much needed.

Recommended Matches:

vs Becky Lynch, WWE, January 27
w/ Kairi Sane vs Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox, NXT, October 30
w/ Kairi Sane vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, “TLC”, WWE, December 15

#18
Chihiro Hashimoto

Years Unranked: 2021 & 2022
Matches: 97
Places Worked: Sendai Girls, DDT, Diana, WAVE, Marvelous, FCP, PURE-J, ZERO1, Dragon Gate, & Oz Academy
Titles Held: Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship w/ Mika Iwata, Sendai Girls World Championship (twice), & DDT KO-D Six Man Tag Team Championship w/ DASH Chisako & Meiko Satomura
Tournaments: Sendai Girls Royal Tag Team Tournament w/ Yuu (finals) & DDT D-Ou Grand Prix

I’m starting to think that any year Hashimoto has enough footage for me to watch, she’ll make the list somewhere. She is such a bruising brute of a wrestler who has a tremendous aura. Her taking on all challenges in Sendai Girls is perfect wrestling.

Recommended Matches:

vs Kyoko Inoue, Diana, February 24
vs Jordynne Grace, Sendai Girls, April 16
vs Sareee, Sendai Girls, June 8

#17
WALTER

Previous Ranking: 2022 (2nd)
Years Unranked: 2010, 2015, & 2021
Matches: 67
Places Worked: WWE, wXw, PROGRESS, OTT, EVOLVE, FCP, Smash, BJW, & FWF
Titles Held: OTT World Championship, PROGRESS Atlas Championship, wXw World Tag Team Championship w/ Ilja Dragunov, PROGRESS Unified World Championship, & WWE NXT United Kingdom Championship
Tournaments: wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament (finals) & wXw AMBITION 11 (winner)

A mixed bag from WALTER, from his usual hot start in wXw and the shocking match he dragged out of Müller to settling into NXT UK and having to have a rare show to have a great match.

Recommended Matches:

vs Veit Müller, wXw, February 15
vs Pete Dunne, NXT, April 5
vs Pete Dunne, NXT UK, April 19
plus more

#16
Io Shirai

Previous Ranking: 2015 (7th)
Years Unranked: 2010, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 69
Places Worked: WWE
Tournament: WWE Royal Rumble

Having a great run as a face and a heel in a single year is a great way to get ranked. She was still as great as she was in Stardom, just with fewer and different opportunities. Her heel turn and matches in that character were great.

Recommended Matches:

vs Bianca Belair vs Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler, NXT, April 5
vs Shayna Baszler, NXT, June 1
vs Shayna Baszler, “Cage”, NXT, June 12
vs Candice LeRae, NXT, August 10

#15
LA Park
aka La Parka

Previous Ranking: 2001 (4th), 2004 (9th), 2010 (5th), & 2015 (18th)
Years Unranked: 1993, 1994, 1997, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 76
Places Worked: AAA, MLW, G21, KAOZ, NLL, Invasion Indy, The Crash, Producciones Sanchez, Lucha Libre Boom, CMLL, PWM, AULL, IWRG, FMLL, Promociones Tao, WrestleRex, LEGEND, DEFY, Martinez Entertainment, Lucha Time, CWFH, LLE, Impact, GCW, TWE, WWW, & Warrior Wrestling
Titles Held: DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship, XWW Universal Championship, G21 Heavyweight Championship, & G21 Tag Team Championship w/ El Hijo de LA Park

Park is an all-time great brawler, and even though he was slowly down, he was still great in 2019. He brings that aura of unpredictability and danger that few can bring.

Recommended Matches:

vs Masato Tanaka, GCW
vs Jacob Fatu, “No DQ”, MLW, November 2
vs Blue Demon, Jr., IWRG, December 15

#14
Takumi Iroha

Years Unranked: 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 87
Places Worked: Marvelous, WAVE, SEAdLINNNG, Diana, & DDT
Titles Held: SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship & Regina Di WAVE Championship
Tournament: Catch The WAVE (winner)

I’m so glad I finally got to rank Iroha, as lack of footage or injuries held her back before. The ace of Marvelous got to travel to SEAdLINNING and show them she’s one of the best Joshi workers of this century. With tremendous offence, kicks, and charisma, she is a true protege of Chigusa Nagayo.

Recommended Matches:

vs Nanae Takahashi, SEAdLINNNG, May 29
vs Arisa Nakajima, SEAdLINNNG, Semptember 18
vs Mio Momono, Marvelous, November 3
w/ Kaho Kobayashi vs Hazuki & Kagetsu, Sumire Natsu Produce Forever, December 15

#13
Daniel Bryan

Previous Ranking: 2004 (18th), 2010 (12th), & 2021 (18th)
Years Unranked: 2001, 2015, & 2022
Matches: 90
Place Worked: WWE
Titles Held: WWE Championship & WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship w/ Rowan

The WrestleMania match with Kofi Kingston is a truly great performance which would cement Bryan onto the list. However, adding on his heel work throughout the year, he’s in the top 15.

Recommended Matches:

vs Kevin Owens vs Mustafi Ali, WWE, March 10
vs Kofi Kingston, WWE, April 7 (#3 MOTY)
w/ Roman Reigns vs Erick Rowan & Luke Harper, WWE, October 6

#12
Orange Cassidy
aka Fire Ant

Years Unranked: 2004, 2010, 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 102
Places Worked: GCW, Beyond, CHIKARA, NYWC, Outlaw Wrestling, PWG, AEW, BLP, LVAC, Bar Wrestling, F1RST, ICW, EVOLVE, Flying V, IWTV, A1, HOH, FCP, PWA Black Label, WrestlePro, Smash, WC, SFP, Wild Zero, MCW, OTT, Prestige, Ground Zero, B!P, BTW, Destiny, TRUE, & SLA
Titles Held: IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship (twice), F1RST Wrestling Uptown VFW Championship, & A1 Zero Gravity Championship
Tournaments: NYWC/Outlaw Wrestling King & Queen Tournament w/ Kris Statlander (finals), PWG Battle of Los Angeles, BLP Turbo Graps 16, CHIKARA King of Trios as Fire Ant w/ Green Ant & Thief Ant, PWA Black Label Colosseum Tournament, FCP Infinity Tournament, & AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring

Watching Cassidy transform from a comedy worker to the ace of the northeast indies was a great ride, and if you like his current title run in AEW, you’ll like this as well. He was not only hilarious but also found tremendous ways to bring his character into serious great matches.

Recommended Matches:

w/ Session Moth Martina vs Brian Cage & Jordynne Grace, Beyond, April 3
vs Jonathan Gresham, “European Rounds”, IWTV, April 4
vs Joey Janella, GCW, May 4
vs Kris Statlander, IWTV, May 26
w/ Chuck Taylor vs BLANK & Still Life, Beyond, June 19

#11
Sareee

Years Unranked: 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 85
Places Worked: Sendai Girls, Diana, Marvelous, WAVE, Dotonbori Pro, MBPW, JTO, Ice Ribbon, HEAT UP, ZERO1, & GPS
Titles Held: Sendai Girls World Championship & World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana World Championship
Tournament: Sendai Girls Royal Rag Tournament w/ Nanami

Sareee went from a young up-and-comer to the ace of Sendai Girls in 2019, and it was a great story. Her facing all these legends and not only keeping up with them but surpassing them was impressive.

Recommended Matches:

vs Meiko Satomura, Sendai Girls, April 16
vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls, June 8
vs Giulia, Minoru Tanaka Produce, June 18
vs DASH Chisako, Sendai Girls, July 7
vs Tsukasa Fujimoto, Ice Ribbon, September 14

#10
Tam Nakano

Previous Ranking: 2021 (4th) & 2022 (7th)
Years Unranked: none
Matches: 84
Places Worked: Stardom & Tokyo Gurentai
Titles Held: Artist of Stardom Championship w/ Mayu Iwatani & Saki Kashima (twice)
Tournaments: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ Arisa Hoshiki & Saki Kashima (finals), Stardom Cinderella Tournament, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix, & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ Arisa Hoshiki (winner)

Tam, the queen storyteller in wrestling today, spent most of the year with the Hoshiki story. As amazing as that was, it would be dead without Nakano. I may be biased due to her being one of my favourites, but I don’t think anyone can deny she was a great character in 2019 with some great matches.

Recommended Matches:

vs Momo Watanabe, Stardom, January 14
vs Kagetsu, Stardom, April 29
vs Arisa Hoshiki, Stardom, June 16 (#2 MOTY)
vs Mayu Iwatani, Stardom, September 7
w/ Arisa Hoshiki vs Jungle Kyona & Konami, Stardom, November 24

#9
Shayna Baszler

Years Unranked: 2021 & 2022
Matches: 80
Places Worked: WWE
Title Held: WWE NXT Women’s Championship

I had completely forgotten that there was a time when Baszler was treated properly in WWE. The badass dominant champion of NXT was a great run for her and put her in a fun contrast with the majority of the roster she faced. When it was finally time for her to lose and move on, she did so, making a new star.

Recommended Matches:

vs Bianca Belair, NXT, January 26
vs Bianca Belair vs Io Shirai vs Kairi Sane, NXT, April 5
vs Io Shirai, NXT, June 1
vs Io Shirai, “Cage”, NXT, June 12
vs Rhea Ripley, NXT, December 18

#8
Jungle Kyona

Years Unranked: 2022
Matches: 86
Places Worked: Stardom, YMZ, & Tokyo Gurentai
Titles Held: Artist of Stardom Championship w/ Hana Kimura & Konami & Goddesses of Stardom Championship w/ Konami
Tournaments: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ Natsuko Tora & Ruaka, Stardom Cinderella Tournament, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix, & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ Konami

Jungle in TCS is my favourite version of Jungle. Her getting so close but just coming up short led to dramatic storytelling. This might be the best year of her career.

Recommended Matches:

vs Momo Watanabe, Stardom, March 3
w/ Konami vs Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita, Stardom, July 15
vs Arisa Hoshiki, Stardom, August 10 (#7 MOTY)
w/ Konami vs Arisa Hoshiki & Tam Nakano, Stardom, November 24

#7
El Barbaro Cavernario

Years Unranked: 2015, 2021, & 2022
Matches: 125
Places Worked: CMLL, NJPW, ROH, The Crash, AULL, RevPro, Martinez Entertainment,
Lucha Libre Real, & Promociones Bello
Title Held: Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champion
Tournaments: Campeon Universal del CMLL, CMLL Torneo National de Parejas Incredibles w/ Titan (winner), CMLL Torneo Incredible de Parejas w/ Flyer, CMLL Torneo Gran Alternativa w/ Espanto, Jr., & RevPro British J Cup

Every single spotlight match he had, he delivered, and he was a lot of fun in the random pointless trios matches as well. They are such a ridiculous bumper with great charisma and real smarts for putting together an exciting match.

Recommended Matches:

vs Dragon Lee, CMLL, January 4
vs Titan, CMLL, February 22
vs Mistico, CMLL, May 24

#6
“The Boss” Sasha Banks

Previous Ranking: 2015 (1st) & 2021 (12th)
Years Unranked: 2022
Matches: 73
Place Worked: WWE
Title Held: WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion w/ Bayley

Banks spent the first half of the year trying to establish a women’s tag division and then moved into a great feud with Becky Lynch. She was great doing both of those things. The Boss, even limited, is one of the greatest in the world.

Recommended Matches:

Elimination Chamber Tag Match, WWE, February 17
w/ Bayley vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, WWE, September 9
vs Becky Lynch, WWE, September 15
vs Becky Lynch, “Hell in a Cell”, WWE, October 6 (#9 MOTY)
plus more

#5
Mayu Iwatani

Previous Ranking: 2015 (12th), 2021 (10th), & 2022 (5th)
Years Unranked: none
Matches: 78
Places Worked: Stardom, ROH, EVE, Diana, & NJPW
Titles Held: ROH Women of Honor World Championship, Artist of Stardom Championship w/ Saki Kashima & Tam Nakano (twice), & World of Stardom Championship
Tournaments: Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League

Mayu continued to be the GOAT of Stardom and had another great year with the Red Belt and, weirdly, the ROH Title. The ROH trips didn’t yield much, but at least she had some great defences of that belt in Stardom.

Recommended Matches:

vs Kelly Klein, ROH, February 10
vs Konami, Stardom, February 24
vs Tam Nakano, Stardom, September 7
w/ Arisa Hoshiki vs Hazuki & Kagetsu, Stardom, December 1
vs Kagetsu, Stardom, December 24
plus more

#4
Kagetsu

Previous Ranking: 2015 (24th)
Years Unranked: 2010
Matches: 97
Places Worked: Stardom, EVE, ROH, & Tokyo Gurentai
Titles Held: World of Stardom Championship & Artist of Stardom Championship w/ Andras Miyagi & Natsu Sumire
Tournaments: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ Hazuki & Natsu Sumire, Stardom Cinderella Tournament, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix, & Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ Natsu Sumire

The main heel in Stardom, Kagetsu spent a lof the year as the Red Belt Champion and all of the year kicking ass. He cut a unique presence as he could go with the more dramatic work-rate action, but he mostly enjoyed being a badass. I loved him against lesser opponents being arrogant and just plain mean, but giving them enough to come out looking great.

Recommended Matches:

vs Tam Nakano, Stardom, April 29
vs Konami, Stardom, May 26
w/ Hazuki vs Arisa Hoshiki & Mayu Iwatani, Stardom, December 1
w/ Hazuki vs Kaho Kobayashi & Takumi Iroha, Sumire Natsu Produce Forever, December 15
vs Mayu Iwatani, Stardom, December 24

#3
“The Man” Becky Lynch

Previous Ranking: 2015 (16th)
Years Unranked: 2021 & 2022
Matches: 131
Place Worked: WWE
Titles Held: WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship & WWE Raw Women’s Championship
Tournament: WWE Royal Rumble (winner)

Becky Lynch really took off in 2019, winning the first WrestleMania main evented by women. Her year stretched far beyond great promos, and being super over, she also had tremendous matches, including the great feud with Sasha Banks. She was must watch every time she was on screen.

Recommended Matches:

vs Asuka, WWE, January 27
w/ Charlotte Flair vs Bayley & Sasha Banks, WWE, September 9
vs Sasha Banks, WWE, September 15
vs Sasha Banks, “Hell in a Cell”, WWE, October 6 (#9 MOTY)
w/ Charlotte Flair vs Asuka & Kairi Sane, “TLC”, WWE, December 15
plus more

#2
Arisa Hoshiki

Years Unranked: none
Matches: 84
Places Worked: Stardom & EVE
Title Held: Wonder of Stardom Championship
Tournaments: Stardom Trios Tag Team Tournament w/ Saki Kashima & Tam Nakano (finals), Stardom Cinderella Tournament (winner), Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix, Stardom Goddesses of Stardom Tag League w/ Tam Nakano (winner)

What a wild career Hoshiki had. 2019 was the only year she worked over 15 matches; she debuted in 2018 and retired in 2020, and ended up #2 on this list. Her ability to get kicks off at unique angles and time them perfectly makes her stand out. She had such a great ability to step up in big matches and was instantly likable as a babyface. What a tremendous year as the Wonder of Stardom Champion, working the long-term story with Tam Nakano and Jungle Kyona.

Recommended Matches:

vs Tam Nakano, Stardom, June 16 (#2 MOTY)
vs Hazuki, Stardom, July 24
vs Jungle Kyona, Stardom, August 10 (#7 MOTY)
w/ Tam Nakano vs Jungle Kyona & Konami, Stardom, November 24
vs Konami, Stardom, December 24
plus more

#1
“The Latina Sensation”
Mercedes Martinez

Previous Ranking: 2010 (19th) & 2021 (17th)
Years Unranked: 2004 & 2022
Matches: 65
Places Worked: EVE, SHIMMER, Rise, Shine, NHPW, PPW, AWS, Beyond, AEW, Femmes Fatles, RevPro, AIW, VIP, Ladies Night Out, Hurricane Pro, WAW, UCE, Riptide, UPWA, F1RST, WOW, & APW
Titles Held: Phoenix of RISE Championship, IndyGurlz Australia Championship, PPW Women’s Championship, SHIMMER Tag Team Championship w/ Cheerleader Melissa, AWS Heavyweight Championship, SHINE Championship, Bellatrix World Championship, & Femmes Fatales Championship
Tournaments: NHPW Global Conflict X Tournament (finals), EVE Tag Team Title Tournament w/ Laura Di Matteo (finals), & EVE SHE-1

In 2019 Martinez worked everywhere, having great matches with great wrestlers and wrestlers she had to completely carry. It was similar to Chris Hero’s 2010, a year that also got him to #1 on my list. During that year, she had me ordering all kinds of shows and searching her out. Everything was entertaining to great, and I had 11 or so matches of her’s on my spreadsheet. Bonus, I met her in Toronto at The Summit, and she was the nicest person alive.

Recommended Matches:

vs Kay Lee Ray, EVE, February 9
vs Kylie Rae, “No Ropes Submission”, RISE, March 29 (#1 MOTY)
vs Charlie Morgan, SHIMMER, March 30
vs Thunder Rosa, Hurricane Pro, July 27
vs Jordynne Grace, The Summit, August 10 (#10 MOTY)
plus more

There we have it; after months of watching the footage, I can move on from 2019. Did you love this list, or did you love it? Contact me on Twitter or Discord to let me know.

Upcoming!

As a complete change of pace, let’s explore 1989 next!

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Posted in: The Greatest Wrestlers of the Year List | Tagged: Arisa Hoshiki, Asuka, Becky Lynch, Cavernario, Chihiro Hashimoto, Daniel Bryan, Daniel Makabe, Io Shirai, joshi, Jungle Kyona, Kagetsu, Kana, Konami, Kris Statlander, LA Park, lucha libre, Mayu Iwatani, Mercedes Martinez, momo watanabe, Nanae Takahashi, Orange Cassidy, puroresu, Sareee, Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, takumi iroha, tam nakano, tsukasa fujimoto, WALTER

2019 Match of the Year List

By Grimmas on May 31, 2023 | 2 Comments

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!

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Posted in: Match of the Year List | Tagged: aew, Arisa Hoshiki, Ashley Vox, Becky Lynch, Beyond, Bryan Danielson, CMLL, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, dustin rhodes, Goldust, Joey Janella, jordynne grace, joshi, Jungle Kyona, Kofi Kingston, Kris Statlander, Kylie Rae, lucha libre, Mercedes Martinez, Metalico, RISE, Sasha Banks, STARDOM, tam nakano, Virus, wrestling, WWE, WWF

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week: WrestleMania Edition (2023-04-07)

By Grimmas on April 6, 2023 | 1 Comment

It’s WrestleMania weekend, but I didn’t watch as much as in the past. I am not into the Indies as much as I was in 2019. Plus this week is ending early, as I am travelling this weekend.

#9
Brock Lesnar vs Omos
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023

Brock sold extremely well and Omos looked great throwing Brock around the ring. I probably would had liked this a lot more if Brock didn’t seemingly overcome Omos so easily in the end.

Rating: 7/10

#8
Ai Houzan vs Unagi Sayaka
Marvelous
March 26, 2023

Houzan came to fight, but Unagi was having none of her. Ungai’s stomp kicks seemed even more vicious in this one. I guess her size came into play. I thought underdog Unagi was the best, but maybe pissed-off overdog Unagi is better?

Rating: 7/10

#7
Emi Sakura vs Hikaru Shida
Gatoh Move Gtmv #3 ~ Cute Cheat Day
September 10, 2019

A really fun match where Shida was the badass heel here beating down Sakura for most of the match and mocking her. Emi gets some good hope spots until it gets a very exciting finishing stretch.

Rating: 7/10

#6
Athena vs Yuka Sakazaki
“ROH Women’s World Championship”
ROH Supercard of Honor
March 31, 2023

I’ve always been a fan of Athena and it’s very nice to see her getting a bigger push. Too bad the crowd sucked, because this was a fun match. Athena was a steamroller and Sakazaki did a good job of trying to overcome that, but ultimately falling short.

Rating: 7/10

#5
Becky Lynch, Lita, & Trish Stratus vs Bayley, Dakota Kai, & IYO SKY
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023

This match is filled with some of my favourite wrestlers ever, so it’s just nice to see. It starts slow with an okay face in peril segment with Lita, but once Trish comes in for the hot tag this match rules! It kind of breaks down and is filled with a lot of excitement and some great dives, including Io Shira’s moonsault! It all comes down tho the two main current stars as it should be for a definitive finish!

Rating: 7/10

#4
Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley
“WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023

A match that built from a slow start to upping itself all along the way until it had a great finish. It was so very physical and intense, even drawing blood. Charlotte not being able to put Rhea away was a tremendous moment, as was Rhea ending it!

Rating: 8.5/10

#3
The Usos vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Saturday
April 1, 2023

Although this match should had been the perfect end to Roman Reigns’ title reign, at least it was the perfect end to the reign of the Usos.

One of the best face in peril segments ever in WWE history on Uso, let to a great hot tag for Owens. We got a bueatufl teams stare down, and then the very satisfying Sami Zayn victory. A rare perfect ending for the WWE.

Rating: 8.75/10

#2
Bianca Belair vs Asuka
“WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023

Belair’s etrance was one of, if not the best, in WWE history. She may be the best big match wrestler in the WWE and her WrestleMania career is kind of unreal and she added to that here.

Belair has some of the greatest power moves ever, it’s really unreal. Asuka was so awesome in her evil way, always trying to count everything with a submission, but the power was hard to contend with. The whole apron segment was amazing, but nothing tops the finish. Bianca just powering out of the armbar into the KOD was a great WrestleMania moment!

Rating: 8.75/10

“Match of the Week”
Gunther vs Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus
“WWE Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat”
WWE WrestleMania 39 – Sunday
April 2, 2023

This was a straight forward stiff war. By the end, everyone had red chests and Sheamus’ was bleeding. Usually the “drama” of the Triple Threat matches bug me, but here taking a breather after all those beatings made sense. Gunther continues to look like the most unbeatable badass in the WWE.

Rating: 8.75/10

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Posted in: Best Matches I've Watched This Week, Reviews | Tagged: Ai Houzan, Athena, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Brock Lesnar, Charlotte, Dakota Kai, Drew McIntyre, Emi Sakura, Gatoh Move, Hikaru Shida, Io Shirai, joshi, Kana, kevin owens, Lita, Marvelous, Omos, Rhea Ripley, ROH, Sami Zayn, sheamus, Trish Stratus, Unagai Sayaka, usos, WALTER, wrestling, WWE, Yuka Sakazaki

The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-03-31)

By Grimmas on March 31, 2023 | 1 Comment

Now that 2001 is out of the way I was able to spend this week getting caught up on current wrestling and spending some time focussing on my next year of doing top 25s, 2019.

#12
Wasteland War Party vs 121000000
“Princess Tag Team Championship”
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023

An entertaining tag match with an amazing cast of characters! Max always tugs at my enby heart, but Maki Itoh was the star here. The War Party was dominant early and it told a great story of the TJPW super team overcoming the pure power of the War Party.

Rating: 7/10

#11
Aja Kong vs Yuki Arai
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023

This was a blast and hits my favourite type of match, young underdog vs dominant veteran. Arai used axe kicks to try to counteract Kong’s power and it worked, mostly. It was dramatic and another great Kong performance!

Rating: 7/10

#10
KARMA & Starlight Kid vs. MIRAI & Tomoka Inaba
“New Blood Tag Team Title Tournament Finals”
Stardom New Blood Premium
March 25, 2023

This was an excellent tag match that built up the drama and excitement as it reached its climax. SLK was on fire and seemed to be the focus of the match and she brought a lot of the High Speed elements into this match. Exactly what you want from the finals of a tournament.

Rating: 7.25/10

#9
Giulia vs Himeka
“Himeka Retirement Road”
Stardom
March 16, 2023

An emotional stop on the Himeka retirement tour as she faces her stablemate Giulia. It was a strike-heavy match and both were putting in maximum effort for a smaller show. An emotional post-match put this over the top for me.

Rating: 7.5/10

#8
Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Blizzard Yuki & Manami Toyota
Bridge of Dreams ~ Dome Spring Full Bloom
April 2, 1995

AJW represents at the Tokyo Dome with an excellent showcase match. Each had awesome moments and Kong looked especially brutal with her slams. Toyota and Kong work hard to make up for their disappointing title change a few weeks before this match.

Rating: 7.75/10

#7
Miu Watanabe vs Rika Tatsumi
“TJPW International Princess Championship”
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023

This match had a lot of elements I loved, but some I rather disliked. Watanabe has some of my favourite offences and I love the way she sells, I think she did a great job carrying this one. Tatsumi I had issues with it, I am not sure if it was the character or the too much comedy of the style, but it was rather distracting. The story of working on Watanabe’s legs to prevent her big offence later made sense. How can you not enjoy a match with a Spinning Dragon Sleeper?

Rating: 7.75/10

#6
Asuka vs Becky Lynch
“WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship”
WWE Royal Rumble
January 29, 2019

I am not sure how I missed putting this match in 2019, but it’s pretty darn good. The crowd is really hot as two top stars are very even trying to put the other away. They had tremendous transitions and both were really going for the submissions. The vicious bump off the apron elevates this, along with the great finishing sequence.

Rating: 8/10

#5
Miyu Amasaki vs Nanae Takahashi
“Passion Injection Match”
Stardom Miyu Amasaki Triumphal Return
March 19, 2023

The one-year anniversary of Miyu Amasaki’s debut and she is facing the legendary Takahashi in her hometown in the gorgeous KBS Hall and it’s a great match. Takahashi beats the passion into Amasaki it looks like it could be a legendary feud brewing. Amasaki has great leg submissions and focuses on offence, she’s rather smooth for someone so young in her career and Takahashi is great as the veteran bully. Great hope spots and a great match.

Post-match, Takahashi says the referee is on the take but she overcame. They set up future matches and I am very excited about that.

Rating: 8/10

#4
Chihiro Hashimto vs Mio Momono
Marvelous
March 15, 2023

A classic power vs speed match-up that started slowly, but built up to get more and more exciting until a great finishing sequence. Momono is such a cool wrestler watching her try to evade as much of Hashimoto’s power offence as possible.

Rating: 8.25/10

#3
Bayley & Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair
WWE Raw
September 9, 2019

The Four Horsewomen collide live in MSG in a tremendous tag team match! They felt like they were on a mission to upstage everyone and the crowd was really hot for it. My favourite moment was when Charlotte had the Figure-8 on Sasha and Bayley broke that up by rolling Becky Lynch up into it! Classic tag wrestling here!

Rating: 8.25/10

#2
KAIRI & Nanae Takahashi vs Tam Nakano & Waka Tsukiyama
Stardom New Blood Premium
March 25, 2023

After years of never getting a win in Stardom, Waka Tsukiyama has one last chance to win or she will be kicked out of Comsic Angels and she’s facing two legends. It’s a perfect story and it had a perfect ending.

Waka had her serious face on, and was overpowered, but fought and fought before she rolled up the legend in the end. The KAIRI and Tam parts ruled as well. It was very dramatic with the story throughout. The post-match was perfect too.

This is pro-wrestling!

Rating: 8.25/10

“Fan Favourite”
The Giant vs Lex Luger
WCW Starrcade
December 29, 1996

This one comes from Elliott on the discord and, weirdly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Starrcade 1996.

You could tell this was going to be a great one from the very hot crowd and with the amazing lock-up start to the match. It played the classic formula of seeing if the powerful man is strong enough to overcome the giant man. The Giant did a great job being the giant man early on and the hope spots by Luger were awesome. We get to a referee bump and Luger has it, but then nWo shenanigans. Thankfully it all ends with much better Sting shenanigans and an excellent finish.

Rating: 7.25/10

“Match of the Week”
Chigusa Nagayo & Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki
GAEA Memorial First Gong In Korakuen
April 15, 1995

This is the main event of the very first GAEA show and it’s the perfect way to establish a promotion!

I find it really interesting that Kansai and Nagayo are dressed normally, but Masami is dressed as Super Heel Masami and Ozaki is dressed for a street fight. Ozaki knew what was up because this was one of the most violent wild bloody brawls I have ever seen.

It was so out of control the ring crew started taking apart the ring mid-match and the wrenches they used became a weapon for Ozaki. The sight of a half-destroyed ring with brawling everywhere is a great sight!

The match keeps escalating and many times you think it is over, but it instead, just gets more violent! All of this leads up to an all-time great finish, where Nagayo goes for the Running Three on Ozaki, but Masami on the outside just stabs Nagayo with a sword, allowing Ozaki to counter into a rollup.

This is an all-time classic that will be on my greatest match-ever list!

Rating: 9.5/10

Thoughts

What did you think of these matches? What matches do you want to recommend me to watch? Preferably hit me up with those 2019 suggestions. You can do that with the info below!

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Posted in: Best Matches I've Watched This Week, Lists | Tagged: Aja Kong, AJW, Asuka, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Big Show, Charlotte, Chigusa Nagayo, Chihiro Hashimoto, Devil Masami, Dynamite Kansai, GAEA, giulia, Heidi Howitzer, Himeka, joshi, Kairi Hojo, KARMA, Kyoko Inoue, Lex Luger, maki itoh, Manami Toyota, Marvelous, Max the Impaler, Mayumi Ozaki, Mio Momono, MIRAI, miu watanabe, Miyu Amasaki, miyu yamashita, Nanae Takahashi, Rika Tatsumi, Sakie Hasegawa, Sasha Banks, STARDOM, starlight kid, tam nakano, tjpw, Tomoka Inaba, Waka Tsukiyama, WCW, wrestling, WWE, Yuki Arai

2022 Match of the Year

By Grimmas on December 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

2022 was an excellent year for high-end matches and a significant return for WWE on my list. Stardom, of course, reigned supreme for me. They are my go-to promotion. It was challenging to narrow this list down, so there are quite a lot of honourable mentions. I rated 178 matches in 2022 as 7/10 or higher.

Honourable Mentions

AZM vs Starlight Kid, Stardom, February 23
Giulia vs Syuri, Stardom, March 26
Mayu Iwatani vs Syuri, Stardom, March 27
Arisa Nakajima vs Tsukasa Fujimoto, SEAdLINNNG, April 29
Mayu Iwatani vs Starlight Kid, Stardom, October 1
Jordynne Grace vs Masha Slamovich, Impact, October 7
Mayu Iwatani vs Utami Hayashishita, Stardom, October 23
Syuri vs Utami Hayashishita, Stardom, November 19

#10
Pentagon, Jr. vs Villano IV
“Ruleta De La Muerte Final Mask Vs. Mask Match”
AAA TripleMania XXX: Mexico City
October 15
Arena Ciudad de Mexico

I always love a big mask vs mask match. They always have drama and emotions that are hard to reach otherwise. This one was not like the CMLL ones, as it was a bloody and violent affair. Villano IV was a great underdog. A true throwback to violent mask matches of the past.

#9
Deonna Purrazzo vs Mickie James
“Impact Knockouts Championship Texas Death Match”
Impact Hard to Kill
January 8
The Factory in Deep Ellum

A violent and bloody “Texas Death Match” is a must-watch. Similar to my #10 match, this is a blast from the past with a modern twist. A great feud ending hate brawl.

#8
The Bloodline (Jey & Jimmy Uso, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, & Solo Sikoa)
vs
Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Butch, Ridge Holland, & Sheamus
“War Games”
WWE Survivor Series
November 26
TD Garden

I seem to be alone for the love of this match, but I love great storytelling and the story of Sami Zayn trying to prove his loyalty to The Bloodline in this one was top-notch. Add in his friendship with Kevin Owens and this one had levels. Everyone played their roles well and this was a great brawl too. It was big-time dramatic down the stretch too with such a satisfying conclusion.

#7
Gunther vs Sheamus
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Clash at the Castle
September 3
Principality Stadium

These two beat the hell out of each other in their home continent which was really hot. This battle brought the IC Title back to where it should be, the worker’s title held by a future star. Sheamus doesn’t get enough credit for being a great babyface who can draw great sympathy. Let’s not beat around the bush here, this was a stiff war!

#6
The Usos vs The Street Profits
“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”
WWE Money in the Bank
July 2
MGM Grand Garden Arena

I didn’t see this match get too much hype, but it was the best tag team match of the year. The Street Profits were perfect underdog babyfaces against the Usos who refused to stay down. All of their comebacks were magical and this was a perfect mix of old-school tag team wrestling with modern excitement style.

#5
Giulia vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix 2022 Final Match”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2022: Championship Battle
October 1
Musashino Forest Sports Plaza Main Arena

The two long-term rivals reach the finals of the 5Star Grand Prix and have to do it one more time. Giulia and Tam added to their all-time great feud with another classic. Both play their roles perfectly with the high stakes of the tournament on the line.

#4
KAIRI vs Mayu Iwatani
“IWGP Women’s Title Tournament Final”
NJPW/Stardom Historic X-over
November 20
Ariake Arena

A historic match that main evented the first-ever NJPW/Stardom show for the first-ever IWGP Women’s Championship. These two know how to feel special and make matches feel big time and they delivered on that front. Great emotions and great storytelling in this one.

#3
Giulia vs Mayu Iwatani
“Rights to Challenge for the World of Stardom Title”
Stardom Nagoya Supreme Fight
January 29
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

This was the match to determine who would get the World of Stardom Title shot at Stardom’s biggest show ever and they fought like that. It had a very old-school approach, but incorporated modern Japanese wrestling in a fresh way. A thirty-minute draw that felt like a twenty-minute match, and didn’t let on that it was a draw.

#2
Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair
“WWE Raw Women’s Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 38: Saturday
April 2
AT&T Stadium

The main event of WrestleMania delivered big (Becks?) time! They called back to their SummerSlam match early and then continued with a brilliant heel performance by Lynch. The psychology was great and this was an instant classic.

#1
Giulia
vs
Syuri
“World of Stardom Championship”
December 29
Ryōgoku Kokugikan

I waited on putting out this list until this match had ended and that was a wise decision as it is my match of the year. A very long-term storyline that paid off in a highly emotional moment on a grand stage, this is pro-wrestling!

I loved that this was a different kind of epic. At no point did they try to pad the time with pointless limp work that went nowhere. Nope, these two went to war from the opening bell to the end. So many huge moments and spots including an Exploder suplex from the ramp to the audience!

They had the finishing sequence was perfect. They were struggling for everything. One could say it had “botches” or they were “sloppy”, but it really felt like they were destroyed. Great match, on the same level as the Dream Queendom match between Utami and Syuri last December.

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Posted in: Match of the Year List | Tagged: AAA, Arisa Nakajima, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, deonna purrazzo, giulia, gunther, impact, KAIRI, kevin owens, lucha libre, Mayu Iwatani, mickie james, NJPW, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, seadlinnng, sheamus, STARDOM, street profits, tam nakano, tsukasa fujimoto, usos, villano iv, wrestling, WWE

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Tag Archives: Becky Lynch

WrestleMania XL Review

WrestleMania XL: SaturdayApril 6, 2024Philadelphia, PALincoln Financial Field

1. Rhea Ripley (c) vs Becky Lynch“WWE Women’s World Championship”

3. Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs Santos Escobar & “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio

4. Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso

5. Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Asuka, & Kairi Sane) vs Bianca Belair, Naomi, & Jade Cargill

6. Gunther (c) vs Sami Zayn“WWE Intercontinental Championship”

7. “Main Event”The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & The Rock) vs Cody Rhodes & Seth “Freakin'” Rollins“If The Bloodline wins, then the Universal Championship Match on Sunday will be fought under ‘Bloodline Rules'”

WrestleMania XL: SundayApril 7, 2024Philadelphia, PALincoln Financial Field

1. Seth “Freakin” Rollins (c) vs Drew McIntyre“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

2. Drew McIntyre (c) vs Damian Priest“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

3. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam, & Rezar)“Philadelphia Street Fight”

4. LA Knight vs AJ Styles

5. Logan Paul (c) vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens“WWE United States Championship”

6. IYO SKY (c) vs Bayley“WWE Women’s Championship”

7. Roman Reigns (c) vs Cody Rhodes“WWE Undisputed Universal Championship Bloodline Rules”

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2023 Match of the Year List

Honourable Mentions

#10Swerve Strickland (c) vs Nick Wayne“DEFY World Championship”DEFY The RealestWashington HallApril 8

#9The Usos (c) vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn“WWE Unified Tag Team Championship”WWE WrestleMania 39: SaturdayApril 1, 2023SoFi Stadium

#8Titan (c) vs Mascara Dorada 2.0“CMLL World Middleweight Championship”CMLL Noche de CampeonesArena MexicoSeptember 29

#7Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus“Cage Match”WWE PaybackPPG Paints ArenaSeptember 2

#6Arisa Nakajima (c) vs Saree“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”SEAdLINNNG 8th AnniversaryKorakuen HallAugust 25

#5Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa vs The Usos“Bloodline Civil War”WWE Money in The BankThe O2July 1

#4Queen’s Quest (AZM, Hina, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita) vs Oedo Tai (Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka, Saki Kashima & Starlight Kid)“Loser Must Leave Unit Steel Cage Match”Stardom SunshineYoyogi National Gymnasium #2June 25

#3Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable“WWE Intercontinental Championship”WWE Monday Night RawSpectrum CenterSeptember 4

#2Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland“Texas Death Match”AEW Full GearThe Kia ForumNovember 18

#1Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano“World of Stardom Championship”Stardom All-Star Grand QueendomYokohama ArenaApril 23

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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month (November 2023)

#25Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie UematsuGAEA Break Out!September 16, 1996

#24Gunther (c) vs The Miz“WWE Intercontinental Championship”WWE Survivor SeriesNovember 25, 2023

#23Tito Santana (c) vs Paul Orndorff“WWF Intercontinental Championship”WWF at Kiel AuditoriumSeptember 1, 1984

#22Rhea Ripley (c) vs Zoey Stark“WWE Women’s World Championship”WWE Survivor SeriesNovember 23, 2023

#21Hiromi Yagi vs Jaguar YokotaJWP on September 8, 1996

#20Strike Force, The British Bulldogs, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers, & The Young Stallions vs The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The New Dream Team, & The Islanders“Elimination Match”WWF Survivor SeriesNovember 26, 1987

#19Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, & Templario vs Atlantis Jr., Mascara Dorada 2.0, & Mistico“Best 2/3 Falls”CMLL Grand Prix De AmazonasOctober 27, 2023

#18Bayley vs Bianca BelairWWE SmackDownOctober 27, 2023

#17La Catalina vs Zeuxis“CMLL Universal De Amazones Title Tournament Final Match”CMLL Blue Panther 45. AniversarioOctober 20, 2023

#16The Powers of Pain, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, & The Young Stallions vs Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, Los Conquistadores, & The Fabulous Rougeaus“Elimination Match”WWF Survivor SeriesNovember 24, 1988

#15Chigusa Nagayo, Sakura Hirota, Sonoko Kato, & Toshie Uematsu vs Chikayo Nagashima, Mayumi Ozaki, Reiko Amano, & Sugar SatoGAEA Endless SummerAugust 18, 1996

#14Bryan Danielson vs RushAEW DynamiteFebruary 8, 2023

#13Chaparita ASARI vs Kyoko Inoue“Japan Grand Prix”AJW Japan Grand PrixJuly 28, 1996

#12Dynamite Kansai (c) vs Mayumi Ozaki“JWP Openweight Championship”JWP on August 10, 1996

#11The Usos (c) vs Drew McIntyre & Sheamus“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”WWE SmackDownJanuary 6, 2023

#10Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa (c) vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato“Japanese Tag Team Championship”AJW The Rising Generation Queens CarnivalSeptember 1, 1996

#9CM Punk vs Ricky Starks“Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men’s Tournament Final Match”AEW CollisionJuly 15, 2023

#8Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami & Kyoko InoueJWP The Ryogoku Big ProjectOctober 13, 1996

#7Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair & Shotzi vs Asuka, Bayley, IYO SKY & Kairi Sane“War Games”WWE Survivor SeriesNovember 25, 2023

#6Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable“WWE Intercontinental Championship”WWE RawAugust 21, 2023

#5Orange Cassidy (c) vs Swerve Strickland“AEW International Championship”AEW DynamiteJune 7, 2023

#4Bison Kimura vs Li FuaJd’ Star on July 30, 1996

#3Pedro Morales (c) vs Don Muraco“WWF Intercontinental Championship”WWF on MSG NetworkJanuary 22, 1983

#2Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue“Japan Grand Prix Final”AJW Japan Grand PrixAugust 30, 1996

#1Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable“WWE Intercontinental Championship”WWE RawSeptember 4, 2023

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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Month (October 2023)

#25John Morrison (c) vs CM Punk“ECW Heavyweight Championship”ECW on SciFiSeptember 1, 2007, aired September 4, 2007

#24La Catalina vs Stephanie Vaquer“CMLL World Women’s Championship”CMLL Noche de CampeonesSeptember 29, 2023

#23Bruno Sammartino (c) vs Stan Hansen“WWWF Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match”WWWF on August 7, 1976

#22Becky Lynch (c) vs Lyra Valkyria“NXT Women’s Championship”NXT Halloween HavocOctober 24, 2023

#21Mistico (c) vs Virus“World Historic Middleweight Championship”CMLL Noche de CampeonesSeptember 29, 2023

#20Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Super CaloWCW Fall Brawl: War GamesSeptember 15, 1996

#19Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (c) vs The High Flyers“AWA World Tag Team Championships”AWA on July 7, 1977

#18Dean Malenko (c) vs Rey Mysterio Jr.“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”WCW The Great American BashJune 16, 1996

#17Natsupoi vs Tam Nakano“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”Stardom 5STAR Grand PrixSeptember 30, 2023

#16Suzu Suzuki vs Tam Nakano“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”Stardom 5STAR Grand PrixSeptember 9, 2023

#15Umaga (c) vs Jeff Hardy“WWE Intercontinental Championship”WWE The Great American BashJuly 22, 2007

#14Hazuki vs Suzu Suzuki“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”Stardom 5STAR Grand PrixSeptember 23, 2023

#13Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Dean Malenko“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”WCW Halloween HavocOctober 27, 1996

WrestleMania XL: Saturday
April 6, 2024
Philadelphia, PA
Lincoln Financial Field

1. Rhea Ripley (c) vs Becky Lynch
“WWE Women’s World Championship”

6. Gunther (c) vs Sami Zayn
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”

7. “Main Event”
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & The Rock) vs Cody Rhodes & Seth “Freakin'” Rollins
“If The Bloodline wins, then the Universal Championship Match on Sunday will be fought under ‘Bloodline Rules'”

WrestleMania XL: Sunday
April 7, 2024
Philadelphia, PA
Lincoln Financial Field

1. Seth “Freakin” Rollins (c) vs Drew McIntyre
“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

2. Drew McIntyre (c) vs Damian Priest
“WWE World Heavyweight Championship”

3. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam, & Rezar)
“Philadelphia Street Fight”

5. Logan Paul (c) vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens
“WWE United States Championship”

6. IYO SKY (c) vs Bayley
“WWE Women’s Championship”

7. Roman Reigns (c) vs Cody Rhodes
“WWE Undisputed Universal Championship Bloodline Rules”

#10
Swerve Strickland (c) vs Nick Wayne
“DEFY World Championship”
DEFY The Realest
Washington Hall
April 8

#9
The Usos (c) vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
“WWE Unified Tag Team Championship”
WWE WrestleMania 39: Saturday
April 1, 2023
SoFi Stadium

#8
Titan (c) vs Mascara Dorada 2.0
“CMLL World Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
Arena Mexico
September 29

#7
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus
“Cage Match”
WWE Payback
PPG Paints Arena
September 2

#6
Arisa Nakajima (c) vs Saree
“SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championship”
SEAdLINNNG 8th Anniversary
Korakuen Hall
August 25

#5
Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa vs The Usos
“Bloodline Civil War”
WWE Money in The Bank
The O2
July 1

#4
Queen’s Quest (AZM, Hina, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita) vs Oedo Tai (Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka, Saki Kashima & Starlight Kid)
“Loser Must Leave Unit Steel Cage Match”
Stardom Sunshine
Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2
June 25

#3
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Monday Night Raw
Spectrum Center
September 4

#2
Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland
“Texas Death Match”
AEW Full Gear
The Kia Forum
November 18

#1
Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
Yokohama Arena
April 23

#25
Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu
GAEA Break Out!
September 16, 1996

#24
Gunther (c) vs The Miz
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Survivor Series
November 25, 2023

#23
Tito Santana (c) vs Paul Orndorff
“WWF Intercontinental Championship”
WWF at Kiel Auditorium
September 1, 1984

#22
Rhea Ripley (c) vs Zoey Stark
“WWE Women’s World Championship”
WWE Survivor Series
November 23, 2023

#21
Hiromi Yagi vs Jaguar Yokota
JWP on September 8, 1996

#20
Strike Force, The British Bulldogs, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers, & The Young Stallions vs The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The New Dream Team, & The Islanders
“Elimination Match”
WWF Survivor Series
November 26, 1987

#19
Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, & Templario vs Atlantis Jr., Mascara Dorada 2.0, & Mistico
“Best 2/3 Falls”
CMLL Grand Prix De Amazonas
October 27, 2023

#18
Bayley vs Bianca Belair
WWE SmackDown
October 27, 2023

#17
La Catalina vs Zeuxis
“CMLL Universal De Amazones Title Tournament Final Match”
CMLL Blue Panther 45. Aniversario
October 20, 2023

#16
The Powers of Pain, The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, & The Young Stallions vs Demolition, The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, Los Conquistadores, & The Fabulous Rougeaus
“Elimination Match”
WWF Survivor Series
November 24, 1988

#15
Chigusa Nagayo, Sakura Hirota, Sonoko Kato, & Toshie Uematsu vs Chikayo Nagashima, Mayumi Ozaki, Reiko Amano, & Sugar Sato
GAEA Endless Summer
August 18, 1996

#14
Bryan Danielson vs Rush
AEW Dynamite
February 8, 2023

#13
Chaparita ASARI vs Kyoko Inoue
“Japan Grand Prix”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
July 28, 1996

#12
Dynamite Kansai (c) vs Mayumi Ozaki
“JWP Openweight Championship”
JWP on August 10, 1996

#11
The Usos (c) vs Drew McIntyre & Sheamus
“WWE Raw & SmackDown Tag Team Championship”
WWE SmackDown
January 6, 2023

#10
Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa (c) vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato
“Japanese Tag Team Championship”
AJW The Rising Generation Queens Carnival
September 1, 1996

#9
CM Punk vs Ricky Starks
“Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men’s Tournament Final Match”
AEW Collision
July 15, 2023

#8
Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami & Kyoko Inoue
JWP The Ryogoku Big Project
October 13, 1996

#7
Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair & Shotzi vs Asuka, Bayley, IYO SKY & Kairi Sane
“War Games”
WWE Survivor Series
November 25, 2023

#6
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Raw
August 21, 2023

#5
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Swerve Strickland
“AEW International Championship”
AEW Dynamite
June 7, 2023

#4
Bison Kimura vs Li Fua
Jd’ Star on July 30, 1996

#3
Pedro Morales (c) vs Don Muraco
“WWF Intercontinental Championship”
WWF on MSG Network
January 22, 1983

#2
Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue
“Japan Grand Prix Final”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
August 30, 1996

#1
Gunther (c) vs Chad Gable
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE Raw
September 4, 2023

#25
John Morrison (c) vs CM Punk
“ECW Heavyweight Championship”
ECW on SciFi
September 1, 2007, aired September 4, 2007

#24
La Catalina vs Stephanie Vaquer
“CMLL World Women’s Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

#23
Bruno Sammartino (c) vs Stan Hansen
“WWWF Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match”
WWWF on August 7, 1976

#22
Becky Lynch (c) vs Lyra Valkyria
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT Halloween Havoc
October 24, 2023

#21
Mistico (c) vs Virus
“World Historic Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

#20
Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Super Calo
WCW Fall Brawl: War Games
September 15, 1996

#19
Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (c) vs The High Flyers
“AWA World Tag Team Championships”
AWA on July 7, 1977

#18
Dean Malenko (c) vs Rey Mysterio Jr.
“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”
WCW The Great American Bash
June 16, 1996

#17
Natsupoi vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

#16
Suzu Suzuki vs Tam Nakano
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 9, 2023

#15
Umaga (c) vs Jeff Hardy
“WWE Intercontinental Championship”
WWE The Great American Bash
July 22, 2007

#14
Hazuki vs Suzu Suzuki
“5STAR Grand Prix: Red Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 23, 2023

#13
Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs Dean Malenko
“WCW World Cruiserweight Championship”
WCW Halloween Havoc
October 27, 1996

#12
Mei Seira vs Nanae Takahashi
“Passion Injection”
Stardom New Blood 11
September 29, 2023

#11
Maika vs MIRAI
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

#10
Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta
“Japan Grand Prix”
AJW Japan Grand Prix
July 14, 1996

#9
Mistico vs Templario
“Best 2/3 Falls”
CMLL Super Viernes
October 13, 2023

#8
Antonio Inoki (c) vs Andre the Giant
“Real World Martial Arts Championship”
NJPW Toukon Series
October 7, 1976

#7
Maika vs Suzu Suzuki
“5STAR Grand Prix: Final”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
September 30, 2023

#6
Ultimate Dragon (c) vs Rey Misterio Jr.
“J-Crown Championship”
WCW World War 3
November 24, 1996

#5
Becky Lynch (c) vs Tiffany Stratton
“NXT Women’s Championship Extreme Rules Match”
NXT No Mercy
September 30, 2023

#4
Manami Toyota vs Meiko Satomura
“Battlefield WAR Tournament Second Round”
Sendai Girls Live Vol. 8
May 6, 2007

#3
Antonio Inoki vs Big Van Vader
NJPW Wrestling World In Tokyo Dome
January 4, 1996

#2
Titan (c) vs Mascara Dorada
“CMLL World Middleweight Championship”
CMLL Noche de Campeones
September 29, 2023

#1
Combat Toyoda (c) vs Megumi Kudo
“FMW Independent Women’s & WWA Women’s Title No Ropes Barbed Wire Current Blast Death Match”
FMW Fighting Creation: 7th Anniversary Show
May 5, 1996

#25
Superstar Billy Graham (c) vs Dusty Rhodes
“WWWF Heavyweight Championship Texas Death Match”
WWWF
October 24, 1977

#24
Hazuki, Shinobu Kandori, & Takako Inoue vs Natsupoi, Saori Anou, & Tam Nakano
Stardom MidSummer Fes
August 19, 2023

#23
Chigusa Nagayo vs Megumi Kudo
FMW New Year Generation
January 10, 1996

#22
Kaoru Ito & Manami Toyota vs Double Inoue
AJW Zenjo Strongest
January 3, 1996

#21
Akira Hokuto & Mima Shimoda (c) vs Double Inoue
“WWWA Tag Team Championship Best 2/3 Falls”
AJW Ota Ward Champion Legend
January 22, 1996

#20
MIRAI (c) vs Konami
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom 5STAR Special In Hiroshima
September 3, 2023

#19
La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
“CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Title Match”
CMLL 90 Aniversario
September 16, 2023

#18
Momo Watanabe vs Saori Anou
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023

#17
Mariah May vs Mina Shirakawa
“5STAR Grand Prix: Blue Stars”
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix
August 15, 2023