Lil' Kazu Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Now that we're halfway through the year I thought it would be a good time to gauge what the best matches of the year have been. Here's my top 10: 10. Kazuchika Okada vs SANADA - NJPW's New Beginning in Osaka 9. Tomohiro Ishii vs Michael Elgin - NJPW's New Japan Cup 8. Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito - NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 12 7. Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa - NXT Takeover New Orleans 6. Johnny Gargano vs Andrade Almas - NXT Takeover Philadelphia 5. Golden?Lovers vs Young Bucks - NJPW's Strong Style Evolved 4. Hiromu Takahashi vs Taiji Ishimori - NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors Final 3. Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll - NJPW's Sakura Genesis 2. Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll vs Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA, NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 12 1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega, NJPW's Dominion Honorable mentions: WALTER vs Timothy Thatcher (PROGRESS Chapter 62), Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA (BOSJ Semi-Finals). Not 100% on the order, 2,3 and 4 can switch around and so can 7 and 8. But that's pretty much it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St★rstruck Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Dave, is that you? Wasn't expecting so many NJPW matches, or any non-WWE matches at all. Good list, I'll post mine in a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil' Kazu Posted July 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Not Dave, I don't have Jericho vs Omega anywhere near the top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Counting Lights Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Is this still the WWE discussion section? Cuz that is a whole lot of non-WWE matches there lmao Anyway, I guess here's my quick top 15 list, not really in order, but just in terms of what comes to mind: 1. Johnny Gargano vs Andrade "Cien" Almas - Takeover Philadelphia 2. Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet - Takeover Chicago 3. Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho - Wrestle Kingdom 12 4. Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa - Takeover Chicago 5. Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa - Takeover New Orleans 6. Will Osprey vs Marty Scurll vs Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA - Wrestle Kingdom 12 7. Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada - Dominion 8. Seth Rollins vs The Miz - Backlash 9. Royal Rumble 2018 10. Rusev vs Shinsuke Nakamura - Fastlane 11. Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali - 205 Live 12. Moustache Mountain vs Undisputed Era - NXT UK Special 13. Jack Gallagher vs Zack Gibson - UK Tournament Special 14. Womens MitB Ladder Match 15. British Strong Style vs Undisputed Era - UK Tournament Special Man, there's a lot of names I'd love to include on this list that just haven't had the chance to perform to their fullest potential (Cesaro, Revival). Also...really not a great year for the Women in terms of match quality so far... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil' Kazu Posted July 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 The best women's match I've seen this year was Asuka vs Charlotte or the Ronda match at Mania, if you include mixed matches. But I've only seen WWE women's matches so far, this year and neither of those were even top 40 for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St★rstruck Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 In no particular order... - NXT North American Championship Ladder Match (Takeover: NOLA) - Tomasso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano I (Takeover: NOLA) - Tomasso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano II (Takeover: Chicago) - Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (Dominion) - KUSHIDA vs. Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay (WK12) - Golden Lovers vs. Young Bucks (NJPW Strong Style Evolved) - Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori (NJPW BOSJ Final) - Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade 'Cien' Almas (Takeover: Philadelphia) - Men's Royal Rumble 2018 - Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll (NJPW Sakura Genesis) LMFAAO, I make fun of Kazu for having a lot of NJPW matches, but half of my list is NJPW. Also @Counting Lights, I'm super surprised to see Ricochet vs. Dream so high on your list. I personally thought it fell a little flat. I think I can say the same for Jericho vs. Omega, especially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil' Kazu Posted July 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 I thought Ricochet vs Dream was as good as I expected it to be. A very good match, cause Ricochet is such a great worker and it was in a big stage, but nothing outstanding because Dream is still pretty green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Counting Lights Posted July 3, 2018 Report Share Posted July 3, 2018 Also @Counting Lights, I'm super surprised to see Ricochet vs. Dream so high on your list. I personally thought it fell a little flat. I think I can say the same for Jericho vs. Omega, especially. It wasn't meant to be in order, I just wrote out a bunch of matches I thought were really good haha. If I were to actually rank it, it would be ranked under most of the other matches I listed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakebiteSB Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Can't argue with any of these. My only complaint at the time I had with Ricochet Vs Dream that it was too short. It was a 22 minute match, it went by so quick it felt it like it was only 10 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St★rstruck Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 I felt like Ricochet vs. Dream was a perfect amount of time. My only gripe with the match is that the pacing felt weird at one point, and was a bit slower than I was expecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creepia Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 I felt like Ricochet vs. Dream was a perfect amount of time. My only gripe with the match is that the pacing felt weird at one point, and was a bit slower than I was expecting. Yeah that's what I thought. They spent like 7 minutes aping Rock vs. Hogan right? Which didn't feel like a match Dream & Ricochet would have at all. It certainly picked up the pace, but it was certainly felt strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunchbox Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 10 Rusev v D-Bry v Samoa Joe v Big E v The Miz - Smackdown Live 9. PCO v WALTER - Joey Janela's Spring Break 2 8. Golden Lovers v Young Bucks - Strong Style Evolved 7. Cien v Johnny Wrestling - NXT Takeover Philly 6. Chuck Taylor v Trent? - PWG Neon Knight 5. Johnny Wrestling v Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover New Orleans/Chicago 4. Chris Jericho v Kenny Omega - Wrestle Kingdom 3. Lil Kazu v Tetsuya Natio - Wrestle Kingdom 2. Hiromu Takahashi v Taiji Ishimori - BOSJ 1. Will Ospreay v Marty Scrull - Sakura Genesis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!I!I!I Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Japan shit - top three are ordered, rest is all somewhat interchangeable imo 10. Ikuto Hidaka & Takuya Sugawara vs. Masamune & SUGI (Z1 1/1) 9. Ikuto Hidaka & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Shinjiro Otani (Z1 4/3) 8. Abdullah Kobayashi & Ryuji Ito vs. Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto (BJW 25/1) 7. Jiro Kuroshio vs. Seigo Tachibana (W-1 6/5) 6. Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu (AJPW 3/2) 5. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shigehiro Irie (DDT 29/4) 4. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shuji Ishikawa (DDT 25/3) 3. Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto (Fortune Dream 11/6) 2. Masashi Takeda vs. Abdullah Kobayashi (BJW 5/5) 1. Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 19/4) HMs/most fun: Five Way Tag Team Weapon Rumble Loser Anal Explosion Match (DDT 25/3), Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo & Great Muta vs. Danshoku Dino, Keisuke Ishii & Ken Ohka (DDT 25/3), Jaki Numazawa, Takumi Tsukamoto & Kenji Fukamoto vs. Takayuki Ueki, Masaya Takahashi & Toshiyuki Sakuda (BJW 5/5) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Counting Lights Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 lmao, all the non-WWE matches got this moved to a different section, damn Anyway, I'm a bit surprised at Okada vs Naito making some of your lists. I remember thinking the match was good, but now THAT good. The entire time I was watching, I couldn't buy into Naito as a credible threat to Okada at all, which really took me out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGPLX. Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 I didn't think Okada/Naito was all that, but I felt after 2017 (aka the best year of wrestling ever), expectations were way too high for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 I think their first match where Naito won the title was way better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil' Kazu Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 The psychology/storytelling was great in the dome match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil' Kazu Posted July 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2018 Well Goto vs Ishii needs to have a spot on my list, need to figure out where, though. Top 6 for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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