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.