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He's hit or miss for me most of the time, but when pieces of his chest are literally falling off because he's taken such a beating while continuing to fight on, he's convinced me that he's an underdog with fighting spirit. This is sort of my feeling. I am not as high on that match as some, but I find the brutality of that one hard to not get on board with.

Good Question... I would say you could start in lots of places The most recent C. 49: Super Strong Style might be a reasonable place to start if you wanted to get into sort of the thick of the stories. That would more or less catch you up quickly to that point and then give you a solid grasp on the homestretch of the BSS era, which was great to me. For that matter, you could probably start with any SSS16 tourny and follow along from that point. They are really nice nodal points in the Progress universe where you get your work rate super match, but typically catch everyone up on the plot and move their central stories along nicely. You could skip ahead to Ch. 55: Chase the Sun, where they blew off a bunch of stuff and sort of turned a page to the chapter (no pun intended) they are on now. That would give you a running start into a lot of the current stories. If you wanted to just sample shows and see if you dig it, I would suggest the NYC show. I think that is their best match-for-match show to date. Its kind of a super show in a way, but you can start to "get" Progress from it. Ch. 46: I Like to Chill Out Here and Shoot Some Dinosaurs is another good one and it has a good bit of variety. Ch. 13: Unbelievable Jeff was the first show I ever saw because it was free on youtube (still might be). I quite enjoyed it. It was still a bit before I got around to subscribing, but the show was good and really put Progress on my radar. Ch. 44 is where I started watching show-to-show so anything before that I sort of have an out of order, cherry picked understanding of right now, but I have started to go back in my free time and start from Ch. 1. I wouldn't recommend starting from the beginning. The wrestling is good, but it isn't going to get you hooked on the product most likely. There are probably some other good ones in there I just haven't gotten to yet.

I really wanna get my hands on BOLA from this year soon.

Beat the Champ is one of my favorite albums. That is awesome.

For what its worth, I don't post here that often or frequently and I am certainly not a central part of this, but I am really happy this place helps you. Wrestling has always been something I turned to when things were hard and stressful. Its dope that wrestling can and internet wrestling stuff can help you too.

You should give CWF Mid-Atlantic a try. They put their shows on YouTube weekly for free. I would second this. They film two hours up the road from me so my wife and I go to tapings from time to time, making me kind of a homer for the product... but if you haven't watched I would highly recommend them as great modern studio wrestling that is narrative and continuity based. You can more or less jump in anywhere and they will catch you up.

Here is my top 15 as I have them right now. I am in the process of going back through most of these to sort them out for my final (and extremely unimportant) match of the year list. The top six (bolded) are the matches I have highest (4.75 as of today) and the only ones I think of as really in the running for the top spot for me. There may be some changes here as we close in on the new year, but these are more or less the matches I think the most of this year. Katsuyori Shibata vs Kazuchika Okada (IWGP HW Championship – 4/9) Trevor Lee vs Chip Day (CWF Mid-Atlantic Championship – 3/25) Walter vs Zack Sabre Jr (10/21) AJ Styles vs Brock Lesnar (WWE Universal Title – 11/19) Walter vs David Starr (10/28) Kento Miyahara vs Shuji Ishikawa (Triple Crown Title – 8/27) Tomohiro Ishii vs Keith Lee (11/9) Walter vs Matt Riddle (Progress Atlas Championship – 8/12) Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada (1/4) Rush vs L.A. Park (3/11) Walter vs Ilja Dragunov (16 Carat Gold Final – 3/12) Pete Dunne vs Tyler Bate (WWE UK Title – 5/20) Dr. Wagner vs Psycho Clown (Mask vs Mask – 8/26) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Timothy Thatcher (Evolve HW Title – 2/25) Walter vs David Starr (16 Carat Gold R1 – 3/10) P.S. I haven't seen this Ki/Sami match people keep going on about.

Discovering this board a couple years back really helped me discover a lot of new wrestling and - equally - investigate my own tastes and what I like and don't like. I very much need an outlet from time to time to talk about wrestling and not just consume and this has served that purpose on numerous occasions. I am very appreciative to those who come here to talk about wrestling. Happy Holidays, Folks!

Have been working through your list of WALTER matches you posted a while ago, so thanks for that. I have watched enough of him now from this year to say he is definitely in the top few wrestlers of the year. He’s just been spectacular. I totally agree re: the general quality of 2017. I have loved so much stuff this year from so many different promotions and different styles. Awesome, glad to hear you have enjoyed that stuff. He is just so much fun to watch. Yeah, looking back now I wish I had more time to keep up more with Japan and Mexico. I really cherrypicked both. I have some NJPW, AJPW, and Rush on my potentials list, but I just don't have a good enough grasp on their entire body of their work for them to compete - for me - with guys I have seen so much more of.

I only got on twitter within the last year and to be honest I am sort of learning the intricacies and norms. I don't really @ wrestlers much anymore at all (good or bad). I honestly have no idea if anyone has blocked me and I would be a little surprised because I have a pretty small presence on Twitter. I actually have a lot of mixed feelings about twitter. So much of it seems really toxic I don't really enjoy the interaction unless its positive and even that sometimes feels like it backfires because lots of fans are trying to feel like they are part of the business. I like talking about stuff I like, hyping stuff, sharing things I think are cool. Then I started to realize that it came off as nut-huggy sometimes, like I was trying to get over myself or buddy up to wrestlers or something, which wasn't really my intention. Maybe it is just my lack of experience with it and feeling old about it, but the window for the kinds of interactions I want to have on twitter seem really small. In other news, my handle is in my sig. I'd be into following other fans from here, esp since I don't get on PWO as much as I used to/would like

Yeah... that match was a lot of fun.

I have a lot of time for the bucks, but at the same time a lot of what they are doing now isn't really for me. It isn't that I don't enjoy them, it just doesn't resonate (as seems to be the case for a lot of people). What is more important to me is that they have so clearly proven themselves as talented and deceptively diverse wrestlers. Look at the recommendations in this thread. They have high highs. They are extremely skilled and can wrestle in more or less whatever way you want to. They have, however, found their niche and they have exploited it in a really savvy way. Good for them. They have a better grip on the future of mainstream wrestling (like it or not) than probably anyone else in the business right now. That isn't to say everything will look like that eventually, but in terms of how one builds buzz, creates identities, reaches fans, and makes themselves a crucial piece of the wrestling landscape... they get it. Long story short, they aren't where I spend much of my merch money or what I spend a ton of my time watching right now, but I am really glad they are part of wrestling. I think they are a net positive and I find most of their most vocal detractors (particularly on twitter) to sound bitter and/or like they are just trying to get themselves over on line.

For me it has to be Walter. This was a great year for people having LOTS of great performances, and my watching was certainly far from exhaustive. I think a lot of overall resumes were built in 2017. For me, Walter had the best combination of high ceiling, high floor, and incredible consistency. He has at least 3 matches in my top 10 right now, was part of my second favorite live match of the year, and didn't have a bad match I saw. He had my favorite rivalry of the year with Starr and another top contender in that category with Riddle. While Dragunov was the star of 16 carat I think Walter was the backbone that made Dragunov such a standout (and for some people - myself included - a breakout) star. His tag work was excellent in both Progress and wXw. He stood out where continuity was important and he stood out in super matches. i am putting my top 10 together soon and am considering a lot of people, but Trevor Lee is probably the only person I would consider to challenge Walter. His main event work in CWF mixed with his varied work in different promotions across the country make him another candidate with a lot great matches, a high ceiling, and a high floor. He might even have a little more diversity than Walter. I don't see much drop off from last year. I think the match with Day is a top 3 match of the year (maybe my favorite). He also had such a plethora of challenges in the second half of the year and I think made ever segment and everyone he worked with shine in CWF. Wrestling was so good in 2017, so much fun. Other people in the running for me (in no particular order): ZSJ, Okada, Styles, Omega, Reigns, Miyahara, Naito, Thatcher, Dunne, Janela, Starr, K. Lee, Rush. I am sure I am forgetting some people.... there was a ton of good wrestling.

I watched this right before I left town for the holiday and I really loved it. It is in the mix with out about 5 other matches for my top match of the year. I really need to watch it again before I articulate too much about why it is a real contender for match of the year, but it just stands out in a sea of wrestling and that is becoming increasingly hard to do. I think it is probably getting at least ****3/4 from me. I haven't given anything 5 this year yet, but I am going to rewatch this among my top 10 or matches and see if where it falls.

Trips beating Jinder in India is so blah. It just seems so pointless. Why give the crowd what they wanted? Ohhh well. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, just an annoyance. I am pretty excited about Woken Matt Hardy, but I think there is a legit chance this is what crushes Bray. I know I know, there are mixed feelings about Bray, but he has more or less stayed relevant in the WWE universe because he hasn't been really upstaged in terms of crazy cryptic promos and being an over the top character. I always felt like has been able to lose because he is such a unique part of the world in which they operate. They can always reset him and run with it. Woken Matt Hardy will very likely upstage him. He will out-Bray Bray and turn him into the second tier crazy person. That strikes me as something that could actually hurt Bray in the eyes of the general audience, make him less interesting.

Yep, Gargano has really become such a great face. I was sort of surprised they went with a Gargano win. This seemed like a great place to get Hero a win, keep him in his gatekeeper role, and continue to push the Gargano's strategic losing streak. Either way, they played off that expectation really well in the homestretch. Really fun stuff.

really great match. Gargano has truly become one of the best babyfaces in all of wrestling right now. Hero is great working on top here (of course). Both men keep the energy high. I guess I assumed that Hero was going to win and it feels like they really played off that assumptionto add a bit of drama at the end. ****

Yep. I am also of the mind that this is a 5 star match. I can pinpoint this as the match that I could clearly identify as my favorite/the best match of the era that brought me back into wrestling. I probably saw it a few weeks into my dive into ROH (which was what really sucked me back in) and I thought it was so clearly a classic match. I can see why some people might have issues with it, but I think when you are considering the time and place and how well it holds up, this is incredible stuff. It is hard hitting, paced well, high drama, high emotion developing through the match. Fantastic.

I have never understood Brock haters. Most of it feels like misdirected hostility to be honest. He is far from flawless and has certainly been a little up and down as of late, but his total body of work is so good. At his best he is a singular type performer and he has so many great matches.

What are the WALTER matches I need to be seeking out? vs. Dragunov (3/12/17) vs. Riddle (3/12/17) vs. Riddle (Progress 3/26/17) vs. Riddle (7/9/17) vs. Riddle (8/12/17) w/ Thatcher vs. Briscoes (WXW 10/6/17) w/ Thatcher vs. Simmons & Starr (WXW 10/8/17) vs. David Starr (WXW 10/28/17) There are many others if you want some deeper cuts, especially on the tag side, but those are some of my favorites from this year. Thanks!!! Gonna check these out. I have seen some of him but not as much as I should. Sorry, I was super busy the last few days and missed this, but that is almost the exact list I would give you. I would also add... Walter vs Starr (wXw 3/10/2017). That was his first round match of 13 Carat this year and I personally liked it as much as the final (v Dragunov), though I am very much in the minority in that regard. Walter vs Riddle vs Thatcher (Progress 9/10/2017). It isn't as stand out as some of his singles matches with Riddle, but its really a pretty good triple threat. Ring Kampf vs British Strong Style (6-man, Progress 4/23/2017) - Absolute blast of a 6 man tag. Maybe a little too cute in places, but lots of good wrestling and Walter really serves as a strong foundation here. To give you some perspective, I have 11 Walter matches at 4+ this year, at least three of those are in my top 10 of the year, and his match vs Starr at wXw Fight Forever (10/28/2017) is one of five matches I am considering for match of the year right now. This is without me seeing a single match from him in PWG (which I know people have mixed feelings about in general). To return to my original point, comparing someone like Styles and Walter is somewhat like apples and oranges right now. Walter gets the time and space to have snowflake magnet matches every week, so I think if I were just thinking in terms of the vaunted snowflake, Walter would be tough to beat. Obviously, that isn't the only way to think about wrestling and Styles is a guy who produces such insane consistency, especially considering how he has been positioned this year (not necessarily poorly, but he has always been put in the best spots). He has his share of good to great matches, but this one with Brock was great to me. It is also on that short list for match of the year and it just shows that Styles can produce one of those at the drop of a hat. So - for me - it pulls those two very close and makes me at least think about Styles as the best wrestler of the year.

If Punk or Bryan are on this card it will def hit 10,000. I think they will do it anyway, just because they are making a deal of it. Wrestling has become a destination thing in a way. People are more willing to travel I think if they are going to be part of something "special". They will sell this as special. Fans from all around will want to say they were part of this.

called it off at least a few days back. I am not sure where I read that, but i remember them killing that match well before the show.

Really good, fun match that accomplished everything it should have. Starr goes ALL IN on taking a beating here. No holding back at all. It was painful to watch sometimes. He sells everything like murder and brings a level of emotion to the match that really sets it apart in a way. On the other end, I feel genuinely sorry for people who don't "get" or enjoy Nick Gage. That dude makes everything feel real.... EVERYTHING. It is painful and awkward to watch their bickering after the match. He brings a level of violence and danger you can't buy or teach. These two bring out the best in one another here and really compliment the each other's strengths. The match was a load of fun, brought out an edge in star, showed a little bit of another layer to Gage, and - most importantly here - sets up Starr vs Janela in whatever bat-shit insanity they are planning.

Short list for match of the year for me. I really love the pace and the build of the match. Admittedly, I am mostly cold here. I haven't been watching AJPW recently. In a way that means I am reading only part of the book, but I also really value a match that can paint a solid picture of what is/has been going on when I come in cold. That was done here. When they hit their stride halfway through the match and started to amp up the offense i was really invested. Good selling, good execution. Shuji's cutoffs were my favorite part. This is one of 5 matches I have given ****3/4 to so far this year, nothing with top marks from me yet, so it is probably locked into my top 10 at worst.

Yeah, I don't really get the Riot hate. I like her. I am generally for all the "call ups" even though the execution has been puzzling if not outright lazy. Sure, women like Cross, Sane, Moon are "more ready" I suppose, but the more talented women on both rosters the better as far as I am concerned. I am guessing they will at least work to keep everyone relevant till they can do a 20 woman Royal Rumble. I just hope they keep it up after that.