2001 Match of The Year List
2001 is a weird year for me because it was my first year of University so I missed so much. It was also 12 years before I started my spreadsheet, so I had almost no starting point. It’s taken a long time to finish this year off.
It was a fascinating year though, with the Invasion, the death of WCW/ECW, the start of Indies, Joshi still having great stuff, lucha libre being great, NOAH’s rise, and AJPW with a bit of a resurgence.
How does that play out for the top 10 matches of the year? Before the top ten, here are some honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions
- AKINO vs Ayako Hamada (ARSION, January 27)
- Carlos Amano & Chiyako Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Sumie Sakai (Oz Academy, February 18)
- Command Bolshoi
- Dr. Cerebro vs El Hijo del Santo (IWRG, March 3)
- Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka (GAEA, April 8)
- Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato (GAEA, April 22)
- Kumiko Maekawa vs Momoe Nakanishi (AJW, May 4)
- Kumiko Maekawa vs Momoe Nakanishi (AJW, August 17)
- Damian 666, Rey Mysterio Jr., & Vamprio vs Halloween, LA Park, & Rey Misterio Sr. (Tijuana, October 26)
- El Hijo del Santo vs LA Par-K (Tijuana, November 16)
#10
Command Bolshoi vs Azumi Hyuga
“JWP Openweight Championship”
JWP
February 18
Differ Ariake
#9
Megumi Yabashita vs Sumie Sakai
“AWF Women’s & Queen of the Ring Championship”
Jd’
March 18, 2001
#8
Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada
“IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament Final”
NJPW Wrestling World
January 4
Tokyo Dome
At the Tokyo Dome in the finals of the tournament for NJPW’s main title, it’s the NJPW star vs the former AJPW star in a true dream match that lived up to the hype. To add to the drama, Kawada had one less match in the tournament that night making the hometown NJPW star the underdog. It was a glorious sprint with a tremendous comeback finish by Sasaki.
#7
Command Bolshoi vs Kayoko Haruyama
JWP
December 9
Differ Ariake
#6
Sumie Sakai vs The Bloody
“AWF Women’s & Queen of the Ring Championship”
Jd’ Nameless Endless “5th Anniversary Show“
April 29
Korakeun Hall
The Bloody sets out to kill Sakai early in this match with some insane offence and blood. Bloody even throws her down a flight of stairs. The bumps Suaki takes are unreal, like missing a huge moonsault onto a pile of chairs! Sakai’s relentless fighting-back comeback was such a great performance and this feud is an all-time great feud that needs to be experienced.
#5
Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle
“WWF Championship”
WWF SummerSlam
August 19
Compaq Center
This is peak Kurt Angle and peak Steve Austin heel turn. Angle is the brave WWF loyalist trying to take the title back from the turncoat, giving all of his blood and energy to do so. Austin is a lunatic who is trying to kill Angle and take out anyone who stands in his way including multiple referees. The jealousy Austin has for Angle even shines through in how Austin works, as he is resorting to throwing Angle-like German Suplexes to show that he can do anything Angle do can better! Such a great story and a great match!
#5
Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura
GAEA Edge of the Heart
March 11
Korakeun Hall
This is another violent awesome match with Hokuto and Ozaki being the best heel tag team ever! They literally put dog collars on Chigusa and Meiko to connect them, so they can destroy them with weapons. As you can imagine, Chigusa and Meiko are the valiant babyfaces who try to overcome. It’s a perfect brawling GAEA tag match!
#4
Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh
“AJPW Triple Crown”
AJPW Super Power Series 2001 “Super Power In Budokan”
June 8
Nippon Budokan
A well-known classic that really cemented the resurgence of Keiji Mutoh. The story here is tremendous with Mutoh hitting the Shining Wizard early and Tenryu having to throw everything he has to fight back. The legwork is really good and the finishing sequence is amazing. Not your typical AJPW match of the time, which really makes it stand out.
#3
The Bloody & Fang Suzuki
vs
Sumie Sakai & Hiroyo Muto
“LSD 2001 Match: No Rules Falls Count Anywhere Weapons Death Match for the TWF World Women’s Tag Team Championship”
“Jd’ … and Justice for All!”
July 22
Korakeun Hall
This is one of the most insane matches I have ever seen. They used every weapon imaginable and every part of the arena imaginable to try to kill each other. Heck, they even hung someone. This match has to be seen to be believed and will be making my top 100 matches of all-time list the next time I make one.
#2
El Hijo del Santo vs LA Par-K
“2/3 Falls”
Wrestling In Monterrey
December 23
Arena Coliseo de Monterrey
#1
Akira Hokuto
vs
Meiko Satomura
GAEA Limit Break
April 29
City Gymnasium
This is a top ten all-time match for me and one I keep watching over and over again since I was introduced to it a few years back.
The legendary badass Dangerous Queen tries to put down the new badass Satomura and it feels like a Rocky film, right up to the Rocky II finish. The crowd is amazing. The strikes are beyound vicious and the drama is HIGH! Seeing Hokuto’s second jump into the ring because they felt Hokuto was going to submit is a scene etched into my wrestling mind.
A must-watch all-time classic, watch the link above!
Coming Soon
The 2001 Wrestler of the Year list!
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Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-02-24)
I’m going to try out something new this week. A quick synopsis of the best stuff I’ve watched this week (2023-02-18 to 2023-02-24.) A weekly progress update, if you will.
What am I watching? Current stuff I follow, obviously. Also, each Sunday as a group on the discord we watch Joshi chronologically, this weekend it was action from 1995-03-17. On top of that, I am working on 2001 in my project of doing the top 25 lists for each year to build my overall “Greatest Wrestler Ever” list!
Plus there is a bonus, “Fan Favourite” match which was selected by someone from Discord.
Honourable Mentions
- Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (WWWA Tag Team Championship 2/3 Falls, AJW, 2001-01-04)
- Steve Austin vs The Rock (WWF Championship Cage Match, WWF Raw, 2001-04-02)
#10
Atlantis vs Dr. Wagner, Jr.
(2/3 Falls, CMLL Super Viernes, 2001-01-19)
This started off on fire with Wagner attacking pre-match leading to the first fall. The second fall had Atlantis valiantly and ruthlessly fight back. The third fall was good as well but didn’t hit the heights of the first two. I liked the roll-up finish which probably lead to more of this feud I need to see.
Rating: 7/10
#9
The Bloody & Megumi Yabushita vs Fang Suzuki & Sumie Sakai
(Jd’, 2001-02-11)
Another good match in the feud between The Bloody and Sakai, but this one falls short of their other classics. A might fine tag match though and the chemistry between those two is unreal.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Beth Phonix & Edge vs Finn Balor & Rhea Ripley
(WWE Elimination Chamber, 2023-02-18)
One of the matches I was dreading the most coming into the show, but it turned out to be one of the best. They smartly focussed on Ripley and Phoenix and those two hoses had a battle! I loved the Bull Nakano tribute facepaint by Beth.
Edge and Balor added sparks here and there, but this was all about Phoenix and Ripley!
Rating: 7/10
#7
Aoi & Unagi Sayaka vs Maria & Riko Kawabata
(Marevlous, 2023-02-12)
Going into this Aoi and Unagi are a dream team for me, so there may be some bias, but this rocked. Good work throughout and the tag teamwork was tremendous. Maria and Kawabata put Aoi in an armbar while the partner did a brutal kick to the exposed arm. That worked towards a great and finishing sequence with some awesome nearfalls!
Rating: 7.25/10
#6
Candy Okutsu & Devil Masami vs Cutie Suzuki & Hikari Fukuoka
(JWP Jazz and Soul, 1995-03-17)
Sometimes we come across a match on our weekly Joshi chronological watching that nobody talks about and it’s awesome, this was a great example of it.
Masami was on her game having fun and destroying everyone. The rest all played their parts well making this a really exciting tag match that probably should have been rated higher if I didn’t watch it while so tired.
Rating: 7.75/10
#5
Kumiko Maekawa vs Momoe Nakanishi
(AJW, 2001-05-04)
I usually have more issues with a 30-minute draw, due to the time and the way they are built, but this one was awesome. Nakanishi is such a great babyface, who filled the match with fighting back and hope spots and nearfalls off of roll-ups. Maekawa was a badass throwing some of the most violent kicks I can recall. The interference hurt it a tad, but overall an awesome match.
Rating: 8.25/10
#4
Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka
(GAEA Limit Break, 2001-04-08)
The greatest tag team of all time vs the greatest wrestler of all time and another great heel is a tremendous matchup that did not disappoint. They both came out with weapons look all badass, weapons they incorporated into the match. The face in peril segment on Lioness was an all-timer, as they attached a dog collar around her neck and beat her up with chairs and a vicious onslaught. Chigusa eventually made a save and they tied a noose around Ozaki’s neck and put her through a table. Glorious work!
The hot tag to Chigusa was tremendous too as she was out for revenge! Everyone was awesome and out for blood here, blood which we got! What a great brawling tag match!
Rating: 8.5/10
#3
KAIRI vs Mercedes Mone’
(IWGP Women’s Championship, NJPW Battle in the Valley, 2023-02-18)
Sasha Banks is back and she didn’t miss a beat. These are two of my absolute all-time favourites and Mercedes is attempting to do what KAIRI did last year, in returning from leaving the WWE and having a great year.
They worked really well with each other and had an awesome match that was nicely built throughout. I can’t wait to see where both go from here!
Rating: 8.5/10
#2
Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn
(WWE Unidisputed Championship, WWE Elimination Chamber, 2023-02-18)
From the crowd to the announcers to the camera work to the in-ring work this match was absolutely perfect…. until the last few minutes. The finish was utter dog shit and illogical. The melodrama would have been okay if it didn’t lead to the finish it lead to.
What’s more frustrating is Kevin Owens sat in the back, didn’t save Zayn during the match, but waited till after to save him? They even had the perfect finish after the match, where Owens was between Zayn and Roman and stepped out of the way leading to Zayn hitting his kick. If they did that, this would easily be #1 of the week, year, and who knows how high. Very frustrating.
Rating: 9/10
Fan Favourite
Hotstuff Hernandez vs Low Ki
(ACW/IWA Mid-South Sunday Bloody Sunday, 2007-04-22)
Each week I’ll also watch a match suggested to me by the lovely discord. This week it comes from CheapPop1999, who gave me this.
I don’t like Low Ki. With that being said, I did enjoy this match.
Hernandez is such a huge beast that it added a nice element of monster vs smaller person to the story. Hernandez does a great job beating down Low Ki for the first big segment of the match, although I despised Ki’s hope spots. I’m never sure how to explain my hatred towards shoot style and the hit people so hard to make it look real style. Maybe it’s because Ki really wants you to think he’s a big tough man. Regardless the Hernandez control segment was good.
Ki’s comeback was okay, but mostly really hard kicks leading into the more back-and-forth finishing sequence. Some really good nearfalls and I dug the finish of a roll-up by Ki because Hernandez was actually way too big and tough to defeat.
Rating: Enjoyable
The #1 Best Match I watched all week!
Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki
(Street Fight, JWP Jazz and Soul, 1995-03-17)
This match was a wild street fight that was bloody and violent and out of control. The ring was destroyed and they used a chain like it was a dog collar match, just because they wanted to kill each other, not because of the stipulations.
This escalated so well and never lit up. The finish was kind of a surprise, but I kind of dug it. An excellent match!
Rating: 9.25/10
You can discuss this on Twitter:
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
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