Tetsujin

Agreed. Destruction is the best one of the three. My MOTY throughout the whole year has been Andrade/Gargano and I don't think any match could top that in less than two months for 2019. It's the only ***** I have this year (I'm pretty fussy with those). For me there are only two matches nearly as good as that was, and those are Ishii/Omega from G1 (perfect escalation, drama and intesity) and Shirai/Satomura from April (one of the greatest exhibition matches I've ever seen). Those are ****3/4. Then, I have (in that order) Ciampa/Gargano 2, WALTER/Bate at PROGRESS, Naito/Omega and Devlin/WALTER at OTT, all of them as ****1/2, which is the greatest ranking I can give to a match without seeing it as one of the best matches ever. I still need to watch tons of highly recommended matches, 'cause this year I've been busy af. But, I'm very sure at least the top five won't suffer any changes.

I don't think I'm going to make it before WM 35, but sooner or later i'll finish my list and share it with all of you.

That's a great point I forgot to talk about, SmartMark. Charlotte really was giving everything she had to make Becky even a bigger star, she tooked the heaviest bumps, se was dominated almost all the time... She really learnt from his father how to make your opponent to look great. All the credits for her.

This match has awesome offense from both guys and a really strong climax, but god Kento really needs to learn how to long-time sell. All the damage he takes in the heat segments comes to nothing when he makes his comebacks, and that's not the exception here. It's not a coincidence I like much more Kento's big matches when he actually loses, because that's the only way the damage he gets matters. But yeah, still a great match and specially a wonderful Zeus performance, his control segment was a delight and shit that German Suplex kickout at 2.999 was done perfectly. ***3/4.

Updated with 1993! Hansen/Kobashi may be a boring pick, but some things are obvious 'cause we all know they're true. Freeza is the greatest DB villain. Messi is better than Cristiano. And Hansen/Kobashi is the 1993 MOTY, an instant classic that has become inmortal. The happiest surprise for me was how fucking awesome Hokuto/Kandori was, because I saw that match a couple of times a few years ago and I didn't think it was THAT great. Holy shit, holy fucking shit. If there's a match I can describe as 'larger-than-life', it's 100% this match. And the craziest part of all this is, neither one of those two matches are ***** on my book! But they define pro wrestling perfectly and they both deserve to be the highest picks from 1993.

Tl;dr: a very good match, with an awful referee work. These two finally gave us the match we all knew they could have, and in a big way. All the spots came naturally, as they made sure it was a personal fight. I was so convinced Charlotte was gonna win, specially after her big comeback after being buried, that the actual result of the match put the biggest of my smiles on my face. Becky deserved to win this feud soooo much, I love it. Yeah, the referee stuff was terrible and cut my disbelief a couple of times, without all of that bullshit it could've been a great match instead of a very good one, but still highly recommended. All hail to the new queen. ***1/2

They made Tanahashi win the G1 because there's no other superstar on their roster who could afford to lose at the main event of WK against Omega ('cause I can read Gedo's mind, he's thinking about "hey let's give our top gaijin a WK main event victory; here we go USA expansion!"): -Naito is super duper over and the fans will not forgive another big loss at the main event of WK for him. -Okada is Gedo's big project and noup, he's not gonna job against a gaijin at the Tokyo Dome. -Ibushi, you know, hasn't sign anything and probably never will. Too risky. -But yeah, Tanahashi is their perfect choosing. He's someone they can trust in both match quality and drawing power. Also, he's not the Ace anymore, so he can make the job with 0 problems. So yeah, I can see Omega/Tana as our WK 13 main event pretty clearly. It's funny how NJPW is giving more and more to Omega when he's going to leave them and going to WWE sooner than later...

The whole purpose of this match was to introduce the new Dean Ambrose, and holy shit he ruled here. The grappling opening sequences felt organic, Ambrose's headlock was ruthless, but then he started to give Ziggler some brutal chops and lariats and even a great fallaway slam. No rebound lariats, no shitty stinger's splash followed by a running bulldog, no suicide dive, none of that, just power. And it fix Ambrose's new body and attitude perfectly. The Dirty Deeds outta nowhere was a great finish for a very good tv match, and a perfect reborn for the Lunatic Fringe.

Updated with my 1992 picks. And, as I expected, nothing changed! Those three matches are among the ones I enjoy the most watching them over and over, and DreamRush is a clear GOATC imo. The crazy part is that I left behind Casas/Dandy, Piper/Hart, Pegasus/Villano III... Holy shit 1992 was a hell of a year in terms of excelent matches.

I actually loved the final pin. In current NJPW, somebody with the status that Kenny Omega have would've kick out of the first finisher. But here, he was so god damned destroyed that he felt short in the process. After the 3 count, Omega was like "d-did I kick out?" and then Ishii's music plays and It was awesome. It added even more suspense to the whole thing.

These two have one of those cases were two undisputed great wrestlers have chemistry, but not that "holy shit MOTYC!" kind of chemistry together. I'm thinking about Misawa and Hansen, Cena and Orton, etc. But this, if maybe not the best, might be the funniest one of their matches due to their character work in the first half; loved Naito pissing off Ishii to te extreme, that chop-spit exchange, those amazing chops to the troath... So much fun here. The second half was also very good, there was a lot of pride behind everything they did, neither one of them wanted to lose against that asshole. Ishii as an underdog is far way better than his "cliché-after-cliché" fightin spirit, and Naito was great as always. Very, very good fight. ***3/4

I can think about probably a dozen of reasons why WWE's product sucks right now. Workers doing their job and not wanting to lose it it's not one of them.

A great tv match between two of the best wrestlers in the world. Both of their movesets are amazing and here, together, they gave a little class about how to work an 'arsenal exhibition' kind of match: with perfect timing and giving value to every move and strike. Really loved the finish also, some CalfCrusher credibility is always good. Man, I hope they have the chance of main eventing a PPV this year for the title because that would be incredible. ***1/2.

Yeah, great tv match. I, of all people, specially enjoyed Bálor's performance here: he clearly was very pissed off about not getting the UC title shot he deserves since 2016 and both Roman and specially Drew payed for it. The only thing I didn't like about this match was Reigns not selling enough the consecutive chairshots, and his win felt a bit anticlimatic as always due to how many punishment the other two guys gave to him just a couple of minutes before. Great nearfalls towards the end, with Finn on fire and Reigns kicking out of everything at 2'9, something I really love about him. ***1/2.

These two know how to work this style better than anyone in the world today. Great character moments with Incredible action, terrific "yeah-that-move-just-killed-me" selling and the art of reversals and kickouts to add tons of emotion and to get the crowd even crazier than it already was. Top 3 of the year, and that's coming from their worst match together. Awesome. These guys need to be the main rivalry of New Japan, fuck Okada. ****1/2.

EVIL was pretty good with his facials and both guys' offense looked hard without being stiff, something that I apreciate a lot. It was kinda weird watching EVIL as the guy working on top against someone like Elgin. Yeah, the arm stuff was good enough , but I wish it were a heavier handicap to Elgin than it was. EVIL needs to stop doing the 'hey ref hold my opponent's leg for like five fucking hours while I do a superkick', that's a Scurllesque spot that always kills the match flow. Solid, decent match, but it could've been a lot better. **3/4.

Seems soooo great. It could mean a lot from newers generations of fans/wrestlers, too.

This had everything I wanted to have: high pace, great spots, nice teamwork, a hot crowd, UE bumping like HBK, Dunne fired up against Strong, and BSS winning. And even when they gave all that to me, I can still feel both stables made just a fraction of what they can do together, and that's something I appreciate a lot in today's wrestling: non-excessive matches that create hype for a rematch, yet entertain a lot. ***1/2.

You're doing a great work, thanks a lot. Also, very happy with the changes.

This is the first no-Takeover NXT match I've seen in a while, so it's pretty spectacular to me watching Pete Dunne so over as a babyface. The match ruled, with all that fast-paced technique and hard hitting, also the crowd helped a lot. Dunne's work on Kyle's arm could have been sold better, and it really meant nothing at the end of the match, but it was still a very good fight between the two best wrestlers of their stables. It's funny because I didn't know I wanted to see this match that much untill I saw it. *** 3/4.

This was great: two technical masters giving an unusual type of match in WWE, and the NXT crowd totally buyed it. In less than eight minutes we see quality matwork, tension, limbwork, good selling and a last couple of minutes of pure european brawling. Loved every second of it. It's funny how they tried to work a classic grapple match, 'cause they respect each other and know the other one is a worthy mat-rival, but due to their personalities things got crazy sooner than expected. That final headbutt looked brutal, as always. Very good match, yessir! ***3/4

I'm a big fan of the Okada/Omega trilogy, but this... This was awful. Cliché after cliché and devaluated spot after devaluated spot, it's everything I hate about modern big matches. Second worst match I've ever seen in New Japan (Dynamite/Tiger), and it pains me to say it. Terrible pro wrestling. I'm happy for Kenny, though.

Loving the project, but damn I wish we have 'till WM 36 instead of 35...

About the whole "Who should be the new Ace project" thing... What about Ambrose? Remember how hot as a top babyface he was in 2014? How he carried the 2016 Road to WM? How behind him the crowd was when he won the title? The guy's always over, even with poor booking. He's great at promos, one of the most consistent tv and house shows workers of the company (even with his in ring flaws, but I think he's kinda underrated at this point). He even sold more merch than Cena at one little period of time in 2014 and draw better than Reigns in house shows of 2016. And he's still young enough. If I were Vince, I would give him that chance throughout this current year, alongside with Bryan and Strowman (and maybe Rusev, yeah). Just think about it.

Is Reigns gonna get the big underdog treatment... Once again? 'Cause they tried in 2015 and it didn't work, and now that Bryan is back it's going to be even worse.