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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