BEST MATCHES OF 2019: THE TOP-10

10) David Starr vs. Timothy Thatcher - wXw 01/19

Starr has a taped up shoulder, but Thatcher doesn't go for it right away. They do some lovely work on the mat; it's all very tight & has a great sense of realism to it, as both Starr & Thatcher are among the best in the world. Loved Starr trying to actively fight out of Thatcher's single leg boston crab attempt, and Thatcher answering to that by kicking him back & then applying the hold. It's the little things folks. Thatcher eventually gets tired of this back & forth shit, and goes after the taped up shoulder - Starr sold his desperation there brilliantly, as when Thatcher grabbed a hold of that arm for the first time, he just started rapid fire punching him in full on panic-mode. He tries to go for his signature lariat, but Thatcher headbutts the arm, and then it's a full on arm torture-show. Dirty Tim's armwork is really great, super compelling to watch with brutal stomps, uppercuts & holds. Starr excels in the FIP role w/ his terrific all around selling. His comeback attempt with those chops was awesome; Thatcher just absolves them, because Starr had no power behind them w/ his shitty arm. It has probably happened in some other matches too, but I first saw it done in Danielson vs. Shiozaki, and it's one of those spots that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it there, so it's safe to say I popped big time for it here. Another great Starr comeback attempt moment was when he once again tried to go for that signature lariat of his, but he did it with the bad arm, so there wasn't much impact to it. Thatcher just absolves it like he did the chops, and tries to put him in a chickenwing right away. Oh & yet another awesome comeback moment by Starr was when he countered Thatcher's suplex/bodydrop attempt into a crossbody, he got Thatcher stunned for a bit, but he can't capitalize, because of how much hurt has been put into the arm. That cartwheel spot was absolutely amazing too with that arm giving up & Thatcher going to it immediately like a shark. And the finish was real lovely & pretty creative; great scramble & struggle with the counters, and Starr gets the flash roll-up victory. Fantastic ending to a truly fantastic match. Really tight psychology & amazing performances by both. All in under 10 minutes too!

9) Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shinjiro Otani - ZERO1 06/22

The big story of the match begins almost immediately with Otani going for a leg submission - there's this awesome bit in the beginning with him trying to fully lock in his sub, but Daisuke keeps on fighting, just trying to boot Otani away, but Otani ain't giving up his hold very easily, as he himself answers to Daisuke's frantic fighting w/ a couple of slaps to the stomach. Fantastic, simple struggle that really put over Otani's leg submissions as something to be scared of. Otani sure continues to go for those leg holds, and everytime he gets one in, Daisuke's selling is just amazing. His visceral roars & facial expressions are SUPERB. I thought that overall his selling was pretty outstanding all the way through. Like I mentioned, he sold the submissions fantastically, and everytime he got the control, he moved way slower than usual. A perfect example of that would be the moment where he is delivering some stomps to Otani in the corner. He is selling the fatigue & the damage Otani had done to his leg brilliantly. More great moments from a match that was full of them was Otani's own comeback; he worked that crowd magic to perfection by milking them to the maximum, asking for their energy before washing Daisuke's face in. Now going back to the selling - I've read that some people thought that Daisuke's selling of the leg wasn't good, but really the only few moments that somewhat annoyed me were the bridging pin & then the top rope splash, but those didn't annoy me enough for this match to be anything other than absolute top class in my eyes.

8) Bobby Gunns vs. Timothy Thatcher - wXw 10/05

The culmination of Thatcher's whole wXw journey. Amazing performances by both & a true feel good moment.

7) Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes - AEW 05/25

Dustin having a big singles match was easily my most awaited thing on the whole show, and he sure worked his magic here, to say the least. You just can't fake this kind of magic & emotion - everything felt organic & real. I already got a bit emotional when the brothers were staring each other down & the crowd was chanting their fathers name very loudly, but in the end, with the "I need my older brother" line, I MIGHT'VE shed a tear or two. Those bastards. Was certainly worth the wait to see them FINALLY get the big singles match between 'em - I remember back in like 2011 posting on other wrestling boards about wanting to see the match at Mania, and that continued for years, every Mania-season. Now it finally happened & it sure was something special. Everything from the atmosphere, to Dustin's all-time great babyface work, to Cody being an asshole, to the bladejob - which is one of the most disgustingly effective & awesome ones I've EVER seen, to the CODE RED, to the post-match. Pure magic. Pure damn magic. Rhodes Forever!

6) Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa - ROH 08/09

I already loved their Street Fight, but this was on another level. Amazing violence from start to finish with a natural chaotic & heated feel to it. Mark Briscoe is still a crazy bastard in 2019, Tama Tonga had a few superb spots w/ his sneaky attacks (that dropkick to Mark which sent him over the barricade + that cutter as Mark was climbing the ladder) & Jay mothafuggen' Briscoe. I recommended this match to a friend right after watching it, and his response was "are GOD matches allowed to be good" -- well, when you have Jay rocking the crimson mask like it's 2004 vs. Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage, then I'd say yeah, it's allowed.

5) Kazuchika Okada vs. Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW 03/23

This was just absolutely amazing from start to finish. I already loved the opening lock-up, and then the match just quickly explodes. Okada being a dick is always great, and it's especially great when he does it against his grumpy stablemate in the STONE PITBULL himself. Ishii answering to that by doing those exact same playful little kicks to Okada's head was superb & then the whole punishment section of him chopping the shit out of Okada was just WONDERFUL. Okada getting things back to his side w/ that DDT was great, and my goodness Ishii sold that thing like a boss. That of course did big damage to Ishii's neck, and that immediately becomes a big target for Okada's attacks; LOOOVED the whole sequence of Ishii waking up, Okada reacting to that immediately, Ishii showing that his neck is hurting & Okada then caving his forearm into that thing. I really could just make a long-ass list of my favorite moments in the match, but let's just put it that it was full of BADASSERY all the way through.

4) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA - NJPW 07/14

"The Takeover, the breaks over"... this was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be. KENTA as the brutal asshole invader taking on the home-promotion legend ace is such a compelling dynamic, and in many ways, it's puro at its purest & best. The staredown during the entrances is intense, and then as the bell rings, things get more intense after every moment. The stiff SLAP from KENTA during the clean break spot, Tana giving a receipt, Tana's aggressive & proud air guitar playing stopped by KENTA's lil kick to the back of his head.. My GOODNESS. Things are escalating at an incredible rate. Then as they take their fight to the outside, KENTA cements control by absolutely brutalizing Tana with kicks & a DDT on the floor. There's this great shot of KENTA's face in there where he has a complete mean-bastard-killer look. The show is his after that outside destruction - he continues beating the shit out of Tanahashi in an absolutely brutal fashion, and it's amazing. Him doing the classic kneepad pull-down spot to him was something that was expected, but oh man, the whole vibe & the setting of him vs. NJPW's golden boy added so much to that spot. Also him corner dropkicking the soul out of Tana's body with Shibata smiling is something I won't forget anytime soon. Other very memorable sequence was the slap one where Tana delivers two dramatic slaps in classic Tana fashion, but KENTA counters the third one with one of his own, followed by his vintage spinning lariat. And the whole PK sequence. Chills when he went for that, and then we he actually hit it - holy shit. This was so great. Like I said; exactly what I wanted it to be. Both guys delivered big with Tana being the fantastic ace babyface that he is with his emotional selling & dramatic comebacks, and that boy KENTA? He sure showed that he indeed is FUCKING KENTA! One of the best matches of the year, hands down.

3) Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 08/12

I actually watched this two times in a row the day it happened, just because of how in awe I was of the whole thing after the 1st viewing. There's so much that I loved about it, or actually, I could just say that I loved EVERYTHING about it, tbh. Even the entrances are amazing with White & the entire Bullet Club being together, and then Ibushi walking down all alone to the ring to see that corner of pure evil. White has been a tremendous piece of shit all tournament long, and it all showed again here w/ a fantastic performance -- his trashtalk was awesome & I can't praise his facial expressions enough. The moment where he triggers Ibushi into that classic Ibushi murder-mode w/ that slap was so epic, and a major part in why was the tremendous character work by White with those facial expressions. The Gedo run-in is done masterfully too, with it adding lots of more heat to the already super-heated battle, and then his whole tournament long shtick paying off with Ibushi kicking his head off & Rocky carrying him out of the ring. AMAZING STUFF. Really felt like a proper climax to the tournament that G1 29 had been. Ahh, so good! There's so much more I could say about it, but let's just sum this up by saying it's the NJPW MOTY & a bonafide G1 (& NJPW) classic.

2) Cain Justice vs. Trevor Lee - CWF Mid-Atlantic 02/16

Trevor's last dance as the CWF Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, and it's over an hour of everything that I had come to expect from his title matches. Which, to put shortly, is pure brilliance. Filled with extra emotion too with it being Trevor's last match there.

1) Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE 04/07

What can I even say? This was a masterful display of professional wrestling by the greatest who has ever done it. I don't want to say it was a carryjob, as Kofi definitely brought the goods & his whole story + connection with the fans added a TON, but this really was Daniel Bryan's masterpiece through & through. Everything from his facial expressions, selling, perfect timing of the cutoffs, to his vicious attack on the mid-section -- EVERYTHING he did was just about perfect. One of the greatest single match performances ever anywhere by anyone & one of the greatest matches I've had the pleasure of watching.

BEST MATCHES OF 2019 (20-11)

20) Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. - AAA 08/03

It's a classic lucha two old men beating the absolute shit out of each other & brutalizing one another with everything they can get their hands on. What's not to love?!

19) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 08/03

Unsurprisingly Tana did target Ibushi's knee, but thankfully it didn't last long & it was FAR from the main point of the match. Everything else apart from that kneework & the bad selling of it was absolutely fantastic. The thing was charged with so much pride & passion + the perfect amount of drama that it can't be denied. Maybe their best match against each other, even.

18) Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA - NJPW 08/03

I think most of New Japan, and specifically Okada, main events go much longer than they need to, so I was definitely not very excited about the prospect of him & SANADA going just about 30-minutes, BUT this was an exceptionally great New Japan main event. They had built a great story for the match, and the way it built inside that ring from the opening minutes to the unbelievably hot drama that was the last 10 or so, was simply fantastic.

17) Naoya Nomura vs. Suwama - AJPW 04/28

This was so goddamn great. Absolutely badass underdog story with Suwama completely dominating for the most part with his awesomely grumpy brutal veteran work. Nomura doesn't go down without a fight though, to say the least, and that sure annoyes ol' Suwama, who shows that brilliantly by slamming the mat angrily after Nomura has the NERVE to suplex him, and then later on when he gets a big nearfall. Those were some little touches that I LOOOOVED big time & added LOTS to the already-totally-great -match.

16) Kassius Ohno vs. WALTER - EVOLVE 09/21

These two have never had that one truly great match against each other; their NXT UK match was VERY underwhelming to say the least, and while their wXw & PROGRESS matches have been very good, they still haven't hit that level I would think they could've given who are involved. That all changed here though, as this was absolutely GREAT. WALTER does some of his most compelling work in all of 2019 here, as his beatdown of Ohno is superb, and then he does a great job of being the 'wounded bear' when Ohno goes to town on his hand & arm. Ohno's work over that hand (& the arm as a whole) is just terrific in every way -- it's vicious, it's focused & it's creative. Absolutely adored the finish too, it's very simple & fit the bout perfectly; just when it looked like Ohno had WALTER in big time trouble w/ that gameplan of his, he makes the mistake of going to the top, probably to try & pull off the Moonsault, but that leaves WALTER enough time to recover, resulting in him following Ohno to the turnbuckle & pulling off the win w/ that big belly-to-back superplex. Tremendous stuff. Extremely tight match.

15) Dragon Lee & Rush vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe - ROH 06/29

They go at it at a frantic pace right from the start with Rush bringing the fight to Dem Boys immediately, and that pace pretty much never lets up. All four men bring so much badass offense into the thing, and especially The Briscoes & Rush have their own unique swagger to them, making the already superb action all the more charming. FANTASTIC bout. Definitely one of the top tag matches of 2019. Kicked SO MUCH ass.

14) Buddy Murphy vs. Daniel Bryan - WWE 08/20

Fantastic. Bryan is incredible punishing Murphy - his trashtalk rules, and the little pre-match promo only added for what was about to happen. The way he started to stretch Murphy some more after he refused to give up to the LeBell Lock was so great too, and even his kicks looked & sounded harder than usual. Amazing stuff all around by him, and Murphy definitely was real good himself too. The way he pushed the pace with his explosive offense bursts was awesome, and a real great contrast to Bryan's style. They meshed so well together -- the two definitely proved to have wonderful chemistry with one another in their first meeting. An absolutely terrific underdog story w/ superb energy all the way through.

13) Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito - NJPW 06/09

This "suffers" from the same thing that matches like Okada vs. Shibata & Danielson vs. McGuinness do where there's that one spot that's so filthy, disgusting & horrifying that you (or at least I) just feel dirty for praising the thing, but oh well. I thought this was great. Naito's long-lasting, storied relationship w/ the Osaka crowd ended up adding a ton to this, because he decided to act extra nasty & mean throughout due to the partly negative reaction he got. Stuff like him refusing to let go of a submission, him rapidly stomping Ibushi's neck, him spitting on the refs face, the cocky pins & him doing his usual poses w/ extra swagger & arrogance - all just really awesome stuff. Then these two crazy fucks did their "usual" by absolutely destroying each others necks in very brutal & compelling fashion. I couldn't help but love it, even if that apron German spot took me out of it for a minute. Please never do that again. This was scary & great.

12) Timothy Thatcher vs. Yuki Ishikawa - wXw 03/09

This was absolutely fantastic. There's a fun "dad vs. son" dynamic to the thing, with Thatcher taking on the man he idolizes & someone who he has trained under a bit. The matwork is fantastic as expected, and they tell the story of Ishikawa pretty much owning Thatcher there, which then lead to Thatcher having to resort to some brutal strikes to try and get the advantage. Much like in the Inner Circle tag, Thatchman puts all of Ishikawa's work over big time by selling every hold like they're killing him. It of course helps that all of Ishikawa's holds look uncomfortable & brutal as hell.

11) Big E & Xavier Woods Run The Gauntlet - WWE 03/26 
This rocked my world. The first segment of the New Day going against Gallows & Anderson was pretty short, but I liked what we got very much; everything looked good and it served as a good opener for the Gauntlet. The 2nd segment w/ Rusev & Nakamura was very solid too - I actually thought that Nakamura looked the most compelling he has since probably SummerSlam vs. Jeff Hardy. And then out comes The Bar & things kick up into higher gear - Sheamus has a clear strategy going in, as he immediately starts doing some work over Big E's left leg; Big E is an awesome FIP with his selling & hope spots - loved the usual crawling-towards-your-partner-only-to-get-cutoff -stuff - might sound weird, but I thought Big E did that pretty amazingly. Not cheesy or over the top at all, he created just the perfect amount of drama in those, and the cutoffs by the Bar fellas were awesome as well. Xavier rules as the hot tag as much as Big E does as the FIP; some awesome, high energy flippy stuff w/ a nice amount of urgency & intensity to all of it. The finish of the segment with Big E pulling Cesaro from the top & Xavier then rolling up Sheamus was brilliant, as was the post-segment beatdown. The brilliance continued as The Usos' music hits, and they come out looking like the badasses that they are - LOVED Corey's commentary during this; between that, the presence of the Usos & the beatdown the New Day just received, there was a real great feel of danger & sadness, even. But then! BUT THEN! Just when it looks like Kofi's WrestleMania dreams might be done for, The Usos FORFEIT, because of the respect they have for him + Xavier & Big E. An absolutely AMAZING moment; it could've been so cheesy & cringe, but the way they did it, and with it being The Usos who did it, it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Then Bryan & Rowan come out, and start beating the crap out of the New Day - Bryan of course goes for Big E's leg right away - his torture of it is unsurprisingly great, and the moment where Big E finally rallied up some punches, but Bryan counters that into a half crab was superb. The rest of the action is red hot, and the finish was creative & brilliant - the crowd counting the count-out so loudly was an AWESOME final touch to the thing, and the post-match with all 3 of the New Day lads celebrating was a genuinely great, pure babyface moment. The whole thing was magic.

BEST MATCHES OF 2019 (30-21)

30) Arik Royal vs. Brad Attitude vs. Cain Justice vs. Kool Jay vs. Roy Wilkins vs. Trevor Lee - CWF Mid-Atlantic 02/02

This goes 73 MINUTES, so it's a real long boy, but if there's one man I trust in wrestling to have an awesome, super lengthy match, it's the Carolina Caveman himself. Having just watched it, I can confirm it was indeed an awesome one. Some very good storytelling throughout with the three heels in Attitude, Royal & Wilkins working together to try and eliminate the babyfaces. High-key felt like a trios tag match for the majority of it, but the babyfaces did go at it w/ each other too; Trevor had some really fun exchanges w/ Kool Jay in the beginning, and then the final battle between him & Cain was of course great. I'd say for like 95% of it I was thinking it's a really good match, but not really 4*-level great, but oh man, I can't deny the FEELS I was FEELING during & after it. THAT is what puts it over as a great 4*+ match. I remember a while ago Chris Hero tweeted something along the lines of "Wrestling still moves me. I think it always will." - and that tweet instantly came to my mind when I finished watching this one. An emotional ride starting from Trevor's entrance to his post-match speech. Was in near tears listening to him talk about calling his dad after Regal offered him an NXT contract.

29) Jonathan Gresham vs. Masashi Takeda - GCW 04/04

Some truly excellent matwork in this, and then when Takeda gets to taste his own blood, the thing EXPLODES into an unbelievable climax.

28) Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 08/10

This builds so excellently from the opening minutes to the molten hot action that was the last 5. Okada's performance was real spirited overall, with him showcasing great cocky ace work in the beginning, and then showing some somewhat rare pure fire later on in the bout. Ibushi's performance is wonderful as well -- much like in the great match vs. Tana, he brings his pure passion here into everything he does, and it translates perfectly. A fantastic piece of business.


27) Lucky Kid vs. Timothy Thatcher - wXw 03/08

They had a real banger at Carat the year prior, and this might've been even better. Very one-sided with Thatcher just destroying Kid throughout, and as a massive Dirty Tim fan, I of course absolutely loved it. Kid got just about the perfect amount of time on the offense himself, having some bursts of energy, but Thatcher always cut him off in his brilliant, vicious ways. The finish was amazing too & really put over the match as a pretty huge upset.

26) Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay - NJPW 07/18 
Who would've thunk that Ibushi vs. Ospreay would get better as they add 10 more minutes into the thing?! I certainly wasn't expecting it, but this sure was absolutely great; they start it off slower (by their standards), with Ospreay starting to go after Ibushi's ankle injury, and Ibushi responding by attacking Ospreay's banged up neck. It's really great stuff - I very much popped for Ibushi using the CRAVATE, which was probably the first time I've seen him do it. The match pretty much gets more & more brutal as it goes on, with them busting out some truly gnarly & vicious moves to try n' keep one another down. Some of the highlights, for me, were Ospreay's twisting powerbomb, which was just ridiculously explosive + the Hidden Blade after he landed on his feet after Ibushi's deadlift suplex attempt - the Ospreay-landed-on-his-feet! -spots are a bit tired by this point, but this one was actually pretty fantastic with him selling the neck big even when he landed on his feet, and there was no corny poses/faces to be detected! And that mentioned Hidden Blade was absolutely brutal as well, the best one he has done so far. My absolute favorite bit of the whole thing though was the tree-of-woe stuff w/ them reversing the roles from their first meeting - Ibushi's blank lunatic killer facial expressions were outstanding during it, as he dared Ospreay to slap him back, and he went to that classic Ibushi-zone with them strikes during it too. The match definitely could've shaved off a few nearfalls & the finishing stretch, overall, a little bit, but for the absolute majority of the thing, this was amazingly compelling.

25) Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson - NJPW 05/06 
MOX's NJPW debut was an absolute banger. Positively unique for a big NJPW match -- Juice's performance was all kinds of fantastic, and while Moxley did look a bit rough in the beginning, as their fight moved to the crowd, everything he did clicked & looked great till the end. Definitely a pretty darn fantastic way to start his post-WWE career.

24) Matt Riddle vs. Velveteen Dream - WWE 04/05 
Two awesome wrestlers & personalities clashing - loved the storytelling with Riddle straight up destroying Dream for majority of the match, but Dream used his small openings to the maximum & in the end caught Riddle by a surprise, as he countered Bromission into a pin. Terrific performances by both; Riddle with his killer work on the offense & Dream with his strong selling & really good hope spots. Loved pretty much everything bell-to-bell, but the moment that made me pop the biggest was Riddle no-selling Dream's German Suplex hope spot. Dream should've been watching his indy tapes, because if he did, he would've known that them Germans don't work on Riddle, BRO.

23) AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton vs. Samoa Joe - WWE 02/17

Everybody got their time to shine - Joe was eliminated first, but the whole time he was there, he looked like a killer just beating the crap out of everyone, especially Bryan. Jeff wasn't there for long, but he got that one big Swanton moment, which was legitimately a very neat spot. Styles looked like the all-time great that he is with his legendary bumping, selling & offense - that Tower of Doom spot they did w/ him, Kofi & Bryan was awesome, because it wasn't the usual; they did it uniquely with AJ doing the pull-up German. Orton was vicious during his time in the Chamber & that DDP-esq RKO he delivered to AJ was great. And then there were two. That is when the match kicked off into another level; Bryan & Kofi crafted a truly special final battle; one of the best of all-time, if not THE best. The scrappy slugfest to start it off was really good, and I LOVED Kofi getting fired up & asking Bryan to deliver some more kicks. The nearfalls were sooo goood - the callback to their Gauntlet match finish was great, and then the Busaiku Knee one was amazing; Bryan has protected that move so much since he debuted it in 2013, so Kofi getting to kick out of it felt pretty damn big, I thought. Also love, love, LOVED the LeBell Lock struggle with Bryan having to fight to get it locked in, and Kofi brought the goods with his emotional selling once it was locked in. The whole finishing stretch with them on top of the pod was also pretty phenomenal - extended battle there, and once Kofi got the upperhand, he went for the big risk in the dive & paid for it. Excellent stuff by the two, and overall I'd say this was the best Chamber in years. One of the best ever, too.

22) Josh Barnett vs. Minoru Suzuki - GCW 04/04 
There were some points of the match where I lost interest for a while, but the highs of it were so high it couldn't be anything less than great overall. The smacktalking between them, Suzuki's slowly-turns-his-head-to-the-camera-side-to-reveal-his-sadistic-smile -moment & the last 10 minutes or so were absolutely amazing. Truly a WrestleMania Weekend Bloodsport Spectacle.

21) AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan - WWE 01/27

This match will never get the love it deserves because of the lack of crowd heat.The place made no noise for Bryan busting out Dragon Suplexes or vicious stomps, and most of all, it killed almost all of AJ's comebacks. The two Calf Killer spots & the headbutt-bit were something that should've got huge reactions, but instead got absolutely nothing. Those were still awesome comebacks, but they would've been so much more great if the place had actually reacted to them. Very unfortunate. The finish was also AWFUL w/ Rowan. Other than that though, yeah, the match was terrific. Great start with them being very cautious with each other, not making any mistakes, but still bringing the intensity & dislike of one another w/ some fantastic looking punches. Eventually AJ crashes into the ring post hard & starts clutching his arm - Bryan of course sees that & goes to town on AJ's arm immediately. It's a Bryan torture show & there's not many things better than that; he brutalizes AJ's arm, busts out vicious looking kicks, and then notices that AJ's nose is bleeding & goes to that immediately with some brutal punches. Some little touches I also liked such as Bryan trying to keep the Danielson Special Armbar locked in by delivering some calf kicks to AJ, crossfaces to the face & then working the nose to get LeBell Lock locked in, Bryan doing his vintage stomps to the face & his leg giving out due to the damage he received in the Calf Killer, and of course "I HAVE TILL 5!". A clinic on the offense by the man, and AJ was really good throughout too with his selling & comebacks, even if they did come off as somewhat underwhelming because of the crowd reactions. Definitely not their best match, but still a yet another banger between two of the greatest wrestlers in the world.

BEST MATCHES OF 2019 PART 2 (40-31)

40) Angelico & Jack Evans vs. Chuck Taylor & Trent - AEW 05/25
 I was just smiling from ear-to-ear watching this. Jack Evans was his timeless self w/ that freaky athleticism & swagger, and the man sure doesn't stop running his mouth, and I LOVE him for it. And while his tag partner Angelico has never really done anything for me, I was quite surprised by how GREAT he was here -- all of his strikes looked viciously awesome, and he busted out some neat submissions too. Excalibur informing the viewers that he has done some training under Negro Navarro certainly made those even more neat. Best Friends were excellent as well, especially Trent who gave a casual reminder to why he is one of the current FIP greats in wrestling. EVERYBODY WAS ON POINT. SO MUCH FUN!

39) Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher - GCW 04/04 
A legit dream match that delivered. Great back & forth grappling throughout, with lots of little things to love, as I've come to expect by both guys. The slugfest portions of the thing rule big time too, and I especially loved Hideki's disrespectful little STOMPS & KICKS.

38) El Barbaro Cavernario vs. Titan - CMLL 02/22 
This builds so fantastically from fall to fall. Barbaro makes quick work of Titan to get the first one, and then in the 2nd fall, he delivers a vicious beatdown to Titan throughout, but Titan makes a wonderful comeback to even things out. The first two falls were already great, but then in the 3rd one, they go all out; Titan is a house of fire to start it off, and there's plenty of awesomely impactful & vicious looking dives. Barbaro in particular makes everything look nasty from suplexes to dropkicks to those aforementioned DIVES. His cutoffs of Titan's offense bursts were great. So was the match overall.

37) Eddie Kingston vs. Thomas Shire - HMW 03/01

This is Eddie doing his Kings Road tribute shtick, and it's fucking awesome. His opponent captivates too in my first time watching him; Thomas Shire is a tall, lanky dude, who is apparently trained by Dory Funk Jr. He does a lot of sweet suplexes + uppercuts, sells well & overall puts on a pretty great fighting from underneath performance, as Eddie just keeps on brutalizing him in an EXTREMELY compelling fashion. Badass scrap.

36) Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE 05/06 
Bryan's return to the ring after a one month absence, after he had lost the title to Kofi at Mania. It's an absolute banger with him delivering great punishment to Kofi's arm throughout, which Kofi sells greatly throughout, with some truly excellent "single-selling-moments" in there. Loved the finishing stretch too in all of its simplicity & low-key ruggedness.

35) Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens vs. Mustafa Ali - WWE 03/10 
This was a great three way dance. Just great spotfest action, with some great bursts of 1-on-1 action, especially by Bryan, in between the big spots. Bryan was great with everything he did, receiving & giving an asskicking, Ali was in his element bumping like a maniac & busting out those gorgeously vicious dives of his & these kind of matches definitely fit Owens' move-set & wrestling style very well. And of course -- dat finish!

34) Dalton Castle vs. Jay Lethal - ROH 01/13

Great psychology through & through -- started off super hot w/ Castle changing up from the usual main event World Title formula, but then getting punished big time by it w/ Lethal slowing things up as he works the crap out of his mid-section. Great, great stuff. Between this & their 16th Anniversary Show match, Castle & Lethal have proved to be one helluva pairing.

33) Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuji Hino - ZERO1 01/01 
I thought this was a great match w/ some pretty unique'ish storytelling to it. At first Hino isn't taking Otani seriously as a legit threat; the match starts off with him doing the sarcastic slapping to the chest after a clean break on the ropes, which then lead to a badass spot in Otani immediately going & getting the takedown on him. After Hino gets out of it, he starts effortlessly mauling Otani w/ chops & he even fucks with him a little bit by doing the facewash, but after a while of that, Otani gets FIRED UP & we get a tremendous bit w/ him eating Hino's chops, diving into them chest first - "AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE!", as one of the commentators put it. Hino, still not impressed by the old man, then offers Otani to get some free chops in by putting his hands behind his back. Otani is more than happy to oblige, and in a yet another brilliant bit, Otani had Hino sitting on the corner, Hino briefly gets up after receiving the OG FACEWASH, and puts his hands back behind his back, offering Otani to get some more free shots in. Still not impressed by him. Then things go outside, and in a major moment of the match, Hino, while trying to deliver a chop to Otani, hits his hand on the ring post instead, and Otani is of course immediately attacking the arm. That is when the urgency kicked into another gear & I feel like Hino went "oh shit, this old man is an OPPONENT after all". After that it's bomb/slug -heavy action as they kick it into it's finishing gear & one of the highlights include Otani's cool ass spinning kick to Hino's arm on the ground; very brutal looking & straight up awesome. Hino sure can throw a mean ass lariat to say the least, and the one he did throw after the slap by Otani was an absolute killer. Otani's selling of the FUCKING BOMB was a thing of beauty in the finish, too. No wasted motions whatsoever. Real tight package of badass action.

32) Starlight Kid vs. Utami Hayashishita - Stardom 01/03

Clocking in at just under 10 minutes, this was an absolutely awesome sprint. Reminded me a bit of the great Eddie vs. Benoit match from Nitro, which was also about 8-9 minutes long, and much like this, it featured some great limb work & equally great selling. Starlight Kid's attack on the knee was terrific -- that running dropkick to it was superb, and Utami's selling was fantastic all the way through. Even in the post-match.

31) Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura - NJPW 01/03
If you love grumpy old men, and I mean WHO DOESN'T, then this one is a must watch. I LOVED IT SO MUCH AHHHH -- Tiger & Liger are such an epic old man duo beating the fuck out of these youngsters who think they're hot shit.

BEST MATCHES OF 2019 PART 1 (HMs & 50-41)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Chris Jericho vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW 06/09)
Jon Moxley vs. Shingo Takagi (NJPW 07/24)
Eddie Kingston vs. Timothy Thatcher (Beyond 10/10)
Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin (AEW 10/16)

--------------------------

SO LETS GET ON WITH IIIIIIIIIIIIT

50) Matt Taven vs. Rush - ROH 09/27
Looking at this on paper, I went into it not knowing exactly what to expect from the two, but what they delivered was one helluva World Championship fight. Rush was his stupid sexy badass self, and Taven more than matched his charisma, explosiveness & viciousness.

49) Cody vs. Shawn Spears - AEW 08/31
Spears does fine, but this is the CODY show all the way through. He shows such classic babyface awesomeness in this, kicking Spears' ass all over the place while pumping up the crowd & slapping hands with kids -- HELL YEAH BABY. And of course: Arn FUCKING Anderson!

48) Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins - WWE 08/11
I kinda wanted to put this lower & higher at the same time. Seth is one of my least favorite wrestlers around, but here he was really damn good, a part from one extremely critical thing; selling. Brock destroyed his mid-section in such amazingly compelling fashion, but Seth doesn't really sell it at all. If he had sold, this could've & probably would've been a top-10 of the year candidate, but OH WELL. Still a badass match for sure & one of Rollins' best ones ever. BORK.

47) Drew Gulak vs. Matt Riddle - EVOLVE 07/13
EVOLVE has felt VERY dead ever since it became Paul's feeder system, but here these two beautiful bastards put on a real throwback to the good "ol'" days when the company provided the best damn pro-rasslin' on the planet.

46) Eddie Kingston vs. PACO - Glory Pro 02/24

This is a really great 2/3 falls match that builds fantastically. The meat of the thing is PACO's attack on Eddie's leg, and Eddie's selling is absolutely terrific all the way through.

45) Big E & Xavier Woods vs. Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. Otis & Tucker - WWE 07/14
What a terrific way to end the short, yet awesome tag title reign of Bryan & Rowan. The whole match is full of great, fun action w/ the highlights being Bryan's interactions w/ Xavier & Big E -- ESPECIALLY the the entire ending stretch with Bryan going against E; E getting fired up by Bryan's lethal kicks & that slap was AWESOME, and that lariat was a great follow-up, because nobody bumps for those lariats like D-Bry. The finish was so, so, SO fantastic too with Big E catching Bryan straight to the Midnight Hour position as Bryan went for his backflip. Great, great tag team wrestling bell-to-bell.

44) Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama - AJPW 03/19Definitely liked this quite a bit better than their BJW meeting from January. They don't do it in an overly flashy, classic way, but Sekimoto & Okabayashi do some subtle invader heelish stuff, and I looooove it. And of course the match is filled with your fun, BEEFY action between the four lads.

43) KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 07/06
A hard hitting affair to say the least, which was to be expected. KENTA is a joy to watch do his thing, which is beat the absolute fuck out of Ibushi, and Ibushi is absolutely wonderful taking that said beating. They even made the generic puro forearm trading spot interesting!

42) Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend - WWE 11/24

The Fiend's matches vs. Rollins were oh so extremely silly, but if there is one person in the entire wrestling industry that can make overly gimmicked stuff like that work, it's Soul Man Danny B himself. And make it work he did indeed, with his comeback bits in this match being some of the most magical pro-wrestling in 2019. Fascinating, great piece of business all around.

41) Cain Justice vs. Trevor Lee - CWF Mid-Atlantic 01/05

This is at least 90% Trevor on top, working over Cain's arms, back + both legs - including the right one, which he apparently injured recently. Trevor of course delivers on that said role on top, and there's this awesome teacher vs. student dynamic to it, as Trevor trained Cain, and they play it borderline perfectly for my tastes. Cain gets a few hope spot submissions, but Trevor always finds a way out & continues giving maybe his most promising young student in CWF a beating. A fabulous all around ace performance by the man.

GRIMES vs KUSHIDA

WWE NXT 12/18/19: Cameron Grimes vs. Kushida

A kind of a "dream match", but not something I ever have thought of. So bless 2019 pro-rasslin for giving it to us! Grimes was great as always with that classic, vicious style of his, and Kushida mixed more than well with him w/ his high energy bursts. Badass match! ***3/4

KENTA vs Ishii II

NJPW Power Struggle 2019: KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii

I actually liked their match from the UK a tad bit more, but this was also very good. It's a pure smackfest with both guys delivering plenty of hard hitting offense, and Ishii providing some fantastic selling as well. It suffers a little from the crowd not reacting at all to KENTA's big stuff, but thankfully by the end they did end up reacting to his stuff accordingly (that finish was awesome), so it's no biggie, but something that took away from some key moments of the match -- the Game Over spot is a great example of that. ***1/4

Omega vs Jack Evans from the Heavens

AEW Dark #8: Jack Evans vs. Kenny Omega

Looked like an extremely fun match-up on paper, and I'm happy to report it was indeed VERY fun! Most of it is Kenny just eating Jack alive -- Kenny looks like a proper beast on the offense with his already-devastating looking stuff, which Jack makes look all the MORE devastating with his amazing bumping & selling. Truly an instant hit pairing, these two were. ***3/4

Big Kazu Fujita in NOAH!

NOAH The Best 2019 ~ Battle Of Aesthetics ~: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Shuhei Taniguchi

A bit disappointing if I'm all honest w/ ya. Fujita definitely brought the VICIOUSNESS w/ a capital V (& all letters for that matter), and the match was at least PRETTY GOOD 'cause of it, but there wasn't nearly enough of that, as I felt Taniguchi got wayyyy too much of the match to his name. He wasn't interesting at all except for that one moment where he slapped the taste out of Fujita's mouth during the clean break spot. **3/4

AEW Catch Uppings! (PAC/Trent, LAX/Bucks, Cody/Jericho)

AEW Dynamite #6: PAC vs. Trent

The EXTREMELY confusing/botched finish sucked some juices out of this, but all in all, it sure was a good match. Trent is one helluva babyface, selling & bumping like a motherfucker, making all of PAC's already-vicious looking stuff look all the more nasty. ***

AEW Full Gear: Proud & Powerful vs. The Young Bucks

This didn't click for me much at all. They went at the pace you'd expect the two teams go at, with the spot-heavy action & all, but they also slowed things down w/ kind of a more "traditional" structure. I really didn't care for much of it tbh. Santana & Ortiz in particular offered nothing of note, but The Bucks were even more so disappointing, considering I actually usually like them a lot. Disappointing. **

AEW Full Gear: Chris Jericho vs. Cody

For the majority of this, the match doesn't capture the "magic" like I wanted it to, but it's definitely good stuff anyways. And when Hager gets thrown out, things do pick up big time & the rest is absolutely great. Real good match overall. ***1/2

SURVIVOR SERIES 2019

Women's Traditional 5-on-5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Match

This started off pretty roughly & awkwardly, and it remained that until the little showdown between Io & Kairi happened. After that the match is pretty good for the most part, save from some all around awfulness by Carmella. I think the biggest compliment I can say is that the almost-30-minutes flew by as if it was 10 or something. Good match! ***1/4

AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

2015 me would be salivating over this, seeing that these fellas were the absolute top-3 for me back then outside of D-Bry. Anyways this was pretty good. Some awkwardness & dead flow, but that is always to be expected in three way dances. I definitely think it also dragged quite a bit by the end, and comparing it to the opener, it actually felt longer than that one, which is quite something since it was over 10 minutes shorter in reality. Shoutout to Shinsuke who was the MVP in my eyes, really liked him just kicking AJ & Roddy around, roughing them up. **3/4

Adam Cole vs. Pete Dunne

They go for some double bodypart-targeting with Dunne going after Cole's elbow, and Cole getting back into things by going after Dunne's taped up knee, but as was to be expected of these two, they of course pretty much completely no sell all of that & have their little indy movezfest instead. Apronspots, "epic!!11" sequences & shitty strikes galore. I guess I could say this was better than I expected it to be, because I genuinely enjoyed the beginning stuff w/ the attacks on Cole's arm & Dunne's knee, but it still was FAR from good, for goddamn sure. *3/4

Daniel Bryan vs. The Fiend

The Fiend's matches vs. Rollins were extremely silly, but if there's one person in the entire pro-wrestling industry that can be trusted to make all of that shit work, it's Daniel Bryan. And he sure made all of it more-than-work here. The match starts off fun w/ Bryan immediately rushing Fiend with those kicks & corner dropkicks, but the Fiend takes over quick. His control segment is solid; Wyatt has always had some nice viciousness to his offense, and Bryan sure does his best to make everything lashed out at him look all the more vicious. Then--THEN! the match really picks up when Bryan busts out his big comeback; that ROAR after the Missile Dropkick fired me (& the crowd) the fuck up -- the whole atmosphere after that went from 0 to 100 real quick w/ the Chicago crowd going crazy for Bryan, and that added so much magic to the whole thing. The chants during the YES Kicks & especially the Busaiku Knee corner set-up were amazing. Talking bout amazing stuff -- they definitely did the Fiend no-sell stuff MUCH better here than w/ Seth (wow, what a surprise lmao) -- I actually liked that after each no-sell pop-up, Bryan just went back to it again, each kick sequence more vicious looking & sounding than the one before. Then there's the two AWESOME counters during the finishing stretch; first Bryan countering the Mandible Claw into an Armbar on the ropes, and then the last nearfall w/ the roll-up reversal to a Sister Abigail attempt. A GREAT PIECE OF BUSINESS ALL AROUND w/ the GOAT doing his thing & all. ****

Men's Traditional 5-on-5-on-5 Survivor Series Tag Team Match

For the most part, this was very enjoyable & on par w/ the women's SurSer Tag Match, but then the final showdown between Reigns & Keith Lee happens, and it gets elevated to greater heights. What an awesome ending to an awesome match, that was. ***1/2

Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio

There was pretty much no way this wasn't gonna be a banger. BORK is BORK when in control, and REY is REY taking a beatdown, which creates for a wonderful dynamic + then there's the super hot finishing stretch from the Dominick run-in on. Quality stuff. ***3/4

Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler

EXTREMELY underwhelming main event. Would've worked better if it didn't have to follow all the other matches, but even if it didn't, it still would've been the heatless, awkward bore of a bout that it was. *

Cole vs Bryan

WWE SmackDown 01/11/19

Adam Cole vs. Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan, the best wrestler in the world, is unsurprisingly absolutely fantastic in this. Adam Cole on the other hand? Not so much. It's not that he was [I]bad[/I], but I would be lying if I said he contributed anything worthwhile into the match. This truly felt like D-Bry wrestling a broom, and he sure did his best with that said broom, making this a very good, worthwhile match. The best match of that said brooms year, actually. He worked the cocky ace role excellently between his awesome trashtalk, those brutal kicks, which seemed even more vicious than usual & the same could be said for his submission holds. He was really GRUMPY, and my goodness does GRUMPY American Dragon rule. Even Cole and his random shitty & weak kick variations and bad looking headlocks couldn't ruin this one -- and well to be honest, he (thankfully) didn't even get that much offense in. One of my favorite bits was actually when he took over for like a minute or something, he then starts striking Bryan with some super weak looking forearms, which Bryan shakes off & puts Cole down with some actually fantastic looking forearms of his own. That kind of summed up the whole match in some ways. All in all, a very good & welcomed 20-minute Daniel Bryan, aka the GOAT, -show! ***1/2

NXT: Grimes/Riddle, Dijak/Keith/Roddy

WWE NXT 10/23/19

Cameron Grimes vs. Matt Riddle

Oh HELL YES. Goes about 5 minutes & every bit of it rules. That doesn't surprise me because Riddle was the best sprint guy when he was in the indies, and Grimes can do it all; 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 60 minutes, 104 minutes. Here Riddle destroys him for most of it in an extremely awesome, violent fashion -- Cameron sells great, and all of his brief hope spots are tremendous, especially that classic moonsault twist press slam thingy of his, which created a legitimately amazing nearfall. What a badass time this match was. ***3/4

Dominik Dijakovic vs. Keith Lee vs. Roderick Strong

Dijakovic & Keith Lee do their thing, which is being athletic monsters, and then there is Roddy who brings the energy & urgency into everything he does, while also being the shithead heel getting destroyed by those said monsters. Roddy rocks that role brilliantly, and this match actually low-key reminded me of his 2015 PWG run, which just happens to be one of my all-time favorite runs by any wrestler ever. So safe to say I liked this very much! ***1/2

BRYAN & NAKAMURA oh theres reigns and corbin as well

WWE SmackDown 10/18/19

Baron Corbin & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns

Obviously the main selling point of this match (for me anyways) is Bryan & Nakamura on opposing teams, and the match actually was, for the most part, those two going at it! Hell yeah. Nakamura hasn't been exciting in what-feels-like forever & the last great ****+ match of his happened over 3 years ago (imo of course), but that doesn't change the fact that in 2014 & 2015 I was salivating over the dream match that was him vs. Bryan on paper. Their chemistry here was very fun, and while this overall was a very basic TV-match tag, I still enjoyed it a ton because of the Bryan & Naka interactions. Very much here for the possible singles match between the two for the IC Strap! ***

Omega vs Fenix

AAA Heroes Inmortales XIII

Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix

Great in some small parts, but mostly "just" good. I thought it felt a lot longer than it was. The middle-section of it dragged badly, BUT the positives outweigh the very minor negatives -- the beginning was absolutely awesome, as was Kenny taking over by destroying Fenix's back w/ a couple of big moves, and then the ending few minutes were pretty fantastic. Good match! ***

AEW Dynamite Episodes 2 & 3 -- the STUFF

Private Party vs. The Young Bucks

An honest spotfest at heart, but the match also had a nice dynamic of The Bucks being the cocky favorites-to-win veterans going against the younger, relative unknowns in Private Party. Good stuff. ***

Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley & PAC

This was some real good stuff all around w/ them doing a great job of hyping up the Omega vs. Mox singles meeting + also setting up Mox vs. PAC for next week at the same time. Very fun action throughout. My personal favorite bit was probably the dive sequence -- goddamn do I love Hangman's Orihara Moonsault. ***1/2

Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin

I kinda knew I was gonna love this. It's a good ol' TV World Championship match with the classic setting of a nasty, confident heel champion defending against a wonderful underdog. Jericho plays his role more-than-well throughout & Darby OF COURSE rocks the shit out every moment in the match with his brilliant never-say-die underdog babyface act. Jericho dishes out pain in very compelling fashion, and Darby is one of the best in the world at getting destroyed, so it's great. ****

AEW DYNAMITE #1

Cody vs. Sammy Guevara

Cody was the right man to put on first in AEW's TV-debut, as his charisma & energy came through wonderfully through the screen. The super hot crowd obviously helped to make the match standout, and the action was very good throughout w/ Guevara getting to show off his athleticism & cocky swagger while Cody looked to slow him down. Good match! ***1/4

Brandon Cutler vs. MJF

A 3-minute match to establish MJF's persona inside the ring. I liked it! He was the shithead he is known to be, and I dug the little arm psychology throughout. Cutler also looked good with the few bits of offense he got -- that tope especially was a thing of beauty. **1/2

Adam Page vs. PAC

I'd definitely say this was better than their match from the UK earlier in the year. Maybe felt a tad bit too lengthy, but it didn't end up becoming bad in that regard. Pretty much slugs all around being traded w/ some bombs thrown in there as well, and it was the good stuff. ***

Nyla Rose vs. Riho

The highlight of the first ever Dynamite. The natural David vs. Goliath dynamic between the two worked extremely well with Nyla being a rock solid monster from start to finish, and Riho being a pretty excellent underdog. That finishing stretch was awesome. ***1/2

Chris Jericho & LAX vs. The Elite

The Elite run wild for a hot minute, but then it's MOXLEY time, and after that the match essentially becomes a 2-on-1 handicap bout. Matt FIPs most of it, and it's good stuff w/ them teasing the hot tag a few times really well, and then when Nick ultimately does get the tag, it sure is a HOT tag, indeed. Jericho coming in & cutting it off w/ that Codebreaker outta nowhere was real awesome as well. Good match & angle to end the show with. ***

KOPW stuff: BATTLE LIGER!

Jushin Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki

The build to this match has been absolutely amazing, and while the match they did here wasn't as hate-filled & 'hot' as one could've & would've imagined, it was still a one helluva contest. Minoru largely dominates, but Liger gets lots of time to shine & deliver an asskicking as well, and it's very, very good stuff. Two pros going at it, making every moment mean something. And then there's the post-match too, which was legitimately touching. ***1/2

El Phantasmo vs. Will Ospreay

This was boring as hell. Some of the bad-guy-stuff Phantasmo did help it be at least somewhat more memorable than your usual Ospreay workrate matches, but that doesn't mean it was any interesting, 'cause it sure wasn't. Apart from those mentioned minor heel shenanigans, this was your usual flippy floppy athletic workrate stuff, going almost 30 minutes to boot. Their BOSJ match smokes this all night long, as that one had much more soul & personality to it. This was just a big ol', generic yawnfest. *

Juice Robinson vs. Lance Archer

I don't want to call this disappointing, because I wasn't going like "oh hell yeah, this is gonna be a guaranteed banger", BUT I def would say that it was less fun than I expected it to be. Not a bad match by any means though, but I do think they have a better one in them. **1/2

Thatcher vs. Kingston

Beyond Uncharted Territory #2.02

Eddie Kingston vs. Timothy Thatcher

Well OF COURSE this was great. There was basically no chance it was gonna be anything less than very good after all. Eddie Kingston & Timothy Thatcher are very different, but also very similar in their styles at the same time, and their philosophies clashed beautifully here. They did what they do best and made it look like a beautifully ugly fight -- there was a wonderful struggle in everything they did, the selling was great, the strikes were absolutely hellacious -- basically EVERYTHING about this was just great, which indeed doesn't come to me as a surprise. ****

NXT: Lio/Gulak, Roddy/Swerve, WALTER/KUSHIDA

Drew Gulak vs. Lio Rush

This was really good, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Gulak is awesome smacking Lio around with his strikes & trying to keep him grounded with them holds, and Lio is equally, or maybe even more awesome w/ his always-great babyface from underneath work. Absolute banger. ***1/2

Isaiah Scott vs. Roderick Strong

Swerve is still as uninteresting & generic as ever, but they keep the thing pretty short n' tight, so it's far from bad. And while I didn't care for Scott, Roddy on the other hand was unsurprisingly great. They def had a good dynamic going with that solid, classic TV-storytelling with a relative no-name/newcomer pushing a champion to the limit as well. **3/4

Kushida vs. WALTER

Mauro going "...just remember all caps when you spell the man name" when big daddy WALTER was making his entrance is his first actually good pop-culture reference in a long ass time. The match was real good, too! Looked real intriguing on paper, and it sure delivered. They went with the most natural dynamic between 'em, which was WALTER mostly dominating & Kushida having to truly fight an uphill-battle from underneath -- WALTER was real good on top, all of his usual brutal offense looked even more devastating due to the big size difference between the two, and then Kushida was on FIRE with his comeback sequences. Very good performances by both & what seemed like natural chemistry = very good match. ***1/2

HIAC: The 2 Interesting Looking Matches

Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks

Comparing it to the first ever women's HIAC match in Sasha vs. Charlotte from 2016, this is nowhere near that level. The storytelling isn't nearly as strong (or loud, you could say) & the action isn't as compelling, but it's still very enjoyable stuff for sure. They go at it in pretty intense fashion, using the HIAC gimmick + all the weapons well. On par with their Clash of Champions meeting. ***1/4

Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns vs. Erick Rowan & Luke Harper

Harper & Rowan are a solid bulldozer duo with their work in this match getting better w/ each passing minute, and then of course Bryan & Reigns are a great babyface alliance. Real good action throughout & then fantastic last few minutes, especially with Bryan & Harper going at it. ***1/2

EVOLVE Gives A Real Gem

EVOLVE 136: Kassius Ohno vs. WALTER

These two have never had that one truly great match against each other; their NXT UK match was VERY underwhelming to say the least, and while their wXw & PROGRESS matches have been very good, they still haven't hit that level I would think they could've given who are involved. That all changed here though, as this was absolutely GREAT. WALTER does some of his most compelling work in all of 2019 here, as his beatdown of Ohno is superb, and then he does a great job of being the 'wounded bear' when Ohno goes to town on his hand & arm. Ohno's work over that hand (& the arm as a whole) is just terrific in every way -- it's vicious, it's focused & it's creative. Absolutely adored the finish too, it's very simple & fit the bout perfectly; just when it looked like Ohno had WALTER in big time trouble w/ that gameplan of his, he makes the mistake of going to the top, probably to try & pull off the Moonsault, but that leaves WALTER enough time to recover, resulting in him following Ohno to the turnbuckle & pulling off the win w/ that big belly-to-back superplex. Tremendous stuff. Extremely tight match. ****1/4

NXT: Cole/Riddle, Io/Mia, Candice/Shayna

WWE NXT 10/02/19: Adam Cole vs. Matt Riddle

After seeing the gif of that one no-sell sequence float around, I almost didn't watch this, but my curiosity ended up getting the best of me. I sure am glad it did, because this was actually really damn good. Now that said sequence sure was awful & the kind of shit I don't like, but overall, this ruled. A red-hot sprint'ish championship bout in front of a thunderous crowd w/ one of my favorites in Matt Riddle kicking all kinds of ass. Loved pretty much EVERYTHING he did, and he sure got to showcase most of his lovely arsenal here. Banger of a match. ***1/2

WWE NXT 10/02/19: Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim

Mia's times on the offense are already pretty good, but with how great Io is at selling all of it, it's so much better. Io of course brings it big time on the offense herself, making sure everything looks impactful & pretty nasty. Real good match, with every bit of it being compelling. ***1/2

WWE NXT 10/02/19: Candice LeRae vs. Shayna Baszler

Natural pairing with natural chemistry with their natural dynamic of Shayna being the violent bully confidently on top, while Candice does what she does best, which is fight from underneath. It's a banger. ***1/2

ROH DBD: Lethal/Gresham, Taven/RUSH

Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham

Some extremely generic "technical" work in the early exchanges -- it's of course not bad since it's these two, but it's not interesting at all tbh. Things thankfully do get better & A LOT more compelling pretty quickly though, as Gresham starts dishing out the punishment w/ his limb targeting. He's even more vicious than usual, playing off of the angle leading up to this bout. They overall do a good job of playing off of that said angle, as it translates well to a guy like me who hadn't been watching or paying attention to the build at all. Good match! Missing some of the spark of their best matches against each other, and the first few minutes of the 50/50 "technical wrestling" weren't interesting, but overall, the thing ended up being good. ***1/4

Matt Taven vs. Rush

What a fascinating looking pairing on paper, like as in, I wasn't sure what to expect from the two in terms of match quality, but this was absolutely AWESOME. Taven was GREAT dishing out the punishment when he had the control -- he was extremely compelling all the way through, and more than matched Rush's explosiveness + viciousness. The whole thing also had this great feeling of a FIGHT that's not too common in ROH World Title matches or for that matter, any main event World Title matches anywhere. This was great. ****

The Briscoes vs. Rush & Dragon Lee

ROH on SBG #410: Dragon Lee & Rush vs. The Briscoes

They go at it at a frantic pace right from the start with Rush bringing the fight to Dem Boys immediately, and that pace pretty much never lets up. All four men bring so much badass offense into the thing, and especially The Briscoes & Rush have their own unique swagger to them, making the already superb action all the more charming. FANTASTIC bout. Definitely one of the top tag matches of 2019. Kicked SO MUCH ass. ****1/4

The interesting stuff from Clash of Champions

The New Day vs. The Revival

This is all about The Revival showcasing their tag team smarts & superiority. They dominate most of the match, isolating both Big E & Xavier any & every chance they get to do so. It's very good & compelling stuff. Some good ol' body part psychology as well in Xavier's bum knee coming into play heavily throughout. ***1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks

A quality time from start to finish -- also including everything after the chair is introduced. The whole brawl all over the place was pretty damn fantastic, and the match that came before it was also awesome. Heated, intense action that played well off of their hot storyline leading to it. ***1/4

Braun Strowman vs. Seth Rollins

On paper this looked like an intriguing styles clash, and thankfully it was exactly that. 11-minutes of Braun being a fantastic monster bulldozer & Seth fighting against that with his high impact, speedy moves + aerial attacks. It's absolutely awesome -- a real tight & compact World Championship match, perfectly suit for a PPV like this. Best match on the show out of the three that I watched. ***3/4

WWE SD 09/24: Bryan Is Back

Daniel Bryan vs. Erick Rowan

HEY, The Big Red has his first name again! Neat. Also how damn good it feels to watch Bryan wrestle again? Feels like ages since I last saw him do that. And it definitely has been over a month since he had a match on TV. Anyways, this was an absolute banger. One of Rowan's finest, most spirited performances. He was such a good monster, full of energy + intensity, and he brought a great amount of meanness into his dominance over Bryan. And oh man, absolutely magical to see Bryan go full babyface with his wrestling, having the crowd in the palm of his hand w/ every bit of it. ***3/4

KENTA vs Ibushi II

NJPW Destruction in Kagoshima: KENTA vs. Kota Ibushi

Not as tight as their Dallas meeting, but still very good. KENTA heels it up big time here with his pre-match attack, and it right away sets up the natural dynamic of him, as the heel, doing most of the work on top while Ibushi has to come from underneath. Some of KENTA's work falls a bit flat because the crowd doesn't react to it that much (same problem I found in his G1 match vs. Okada), but all in all I enjoyed watching him be an asshole & kick Ibushi's ass for the majority of the match, very much. Ibushi is terrific from underneath, with the hometown Kagoshima fans giving that special extra something to every bit of offense he gets. Popped big for him busting out the V-Trigger during the finishing stretch, too. Quality match. ***1/2

NXT LIVE TV Debut!

Bianca Belair vs. Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai vs. Mia Yim

A very good match to kick off the show (& this new era of NXT as a whole) with. They only went just a bit over 10 minutes, which made sure there wasn't any truly boring moments in the thing. Everybody got to get some of their shit in & looked good. Fun spotfest. ***

Roderick Strong vs. Velveteen Dream

I think a more fast paced, "high impact" match would've suited them better, but this sure was still good. Roddy was good on top, working over Dream's mid-section w/ some brief holds, but mostly just slamming him down and lightning him up with those chops. Definitely brought the classic Roddy physicality into the thing there, and Dream was a solid babyface all the way through. Good match. ***

Lio Rush vs. Oney Lorcan

Out of the recommended matches from this show, this was quite easily the best one. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest either, because Lio & Oney going at it for the perfect length of just over 10 minutes sounds absolutely beautiful. Lio is one helluva babyface fighting from underneath with his ninja-like comebacks, and Oney is a joy to watch as he smacks n' slams him down any & every chance he gets. ***1/2

ROYAL QUEST: KENTA/Ishii, Tana/ZSJ, Okada/MiSu

KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii

This was actually so great up until the German Suplex moment where it became clear that KENTA was completely out of it. So uncomfortable to watch KENTA try & do (& blow) his spots at maybe half-speed (if even that) & then all the strikes to the face + that damn brainbuster... Damn. EXTREMELY uncomfortable stuff. I will still rate it high because I truly loved everything when KENTA was still operating without showing signs of being badly concussed, but goddamn do I feel dirty about it. ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Tana & Zack do their thing against one another -- it's always a good time, and such was the case here. Not as good as their most recent G1 outing, but still good. ***

Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki

Not their best match, but definitely not their worst either. This was good. Minoru works a mean control seg early on, putting Okada down with his deadly strikes & locking in some nasty holds, in particular targeting the Rainmaker arm. Thankfully he doesn't work over it too much, because of course when it's time for Okada to get back into things, he doesn't sell it at all. But thankfully indeed the big focus of the match wasn't about that; the meat of the bout was the ego-clash between the two very different characters in Kazuchika Okada & Minoru Suzuki. They constantly try to one-up each other & this best comes to show in the lengthy forearm battle where Okada refuses to go down easily to Minoru's dead-blows. It's hard to make a forearm battle like that interesting these days when they're so common, but Okada & MiSu certainly did it here. Good shit. Didn't care at all for the actual finishing sequence though, which came shortly after - very paint-by-the-numbers Okada stuff there to end the match with. A little trimming and this would've been great. ***1/4