2022's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > 2022's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

SalTheBard posted:

MOTYC - Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi - 1/4/22 - Wrestle Kingdom Night 1. The best match on a show filled with otherwise ok matches

MOTYC - Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado - 1/4/22 - Wrestle Kingdom Night 1. Great Junior match with a great ending

Nth to both.

also I'm going full MOTYC for Dangerous Tekkers vs. CHAOS - 1/4/22 - Wrestle Kingdom Night 1.
Good as these four were here I don't doubt they have a better match in them together. But as a few others have mentioned, the ending really ruled. The Taichi/tekkers babyface turn has been one of the true FEELGOOD stories of the pandemic era for me.

also MOTYC for Shibata vs his mystery opponent.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2022 17:47

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:27

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

Gonna go MOTYC. That ruled so much

third-ed. In a week packed with incredible wrestling this managed to still feel fresh and exciting.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2022 13:21

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

Jerusalem posted:

MOTYC: Kazuchika Okada (C) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - NJPW Golden Series 2/20

The ONLY thing this was missing was the crowd being able to lose their poo poo, and they still lost their poo poo at points anyway because HOLY gently caress WHAT A MATCH!

Nth. High end professional wrestling at it's high endest.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2022 09:16

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

Jerusalem posted:

HM: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Shingo Takagi - NJPW New Japan Cup 3/21
Great match but not the result I ultimately wanted (even though I predicted it!)

MOTYC: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Will Ospreay - NJPW New Japan Cup 3/21
Great match and not the result I expected but YESSSSS!!!!

Nth to both of these, though first was pretty close on the borderline to MOTYC for me, especially the last five minutes or so.

ZSJ vs William the Wankerer might be my favorite match I've seen this year and I'm not at all enthusiastic about Ospreay's heel persona. Generally I only get into his heavyweight matches when someone out powers and beats the dogpiss out of him Okada or Shingostyle, otherwise his obnoxiousness often tunes me out of the story. Zack's a god among insects to style this match the way he did.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2022 10:18

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

MOTYC: Okada/Naito, ZSJ/Shingo

Nth.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2022 19:19

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

Jerusalem posted:

MOTYC: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tetsuya Naito in the New Japan Cup Final - NJPW New Japan Cup 3/27

Magnificent ending to an incredible tournament.

Jerusalem posted:

HM: #STRONGHEARTS & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Okada, Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima & Tiger Mask - NJPW New Japan Cup 3/27

This match ruled, everybody (including Fujinama) looked great and T-Hawk and Okada have amazing chemistry.

Nth to both. Zack has had 3 absolutely top level matches in a six day period, he really deserves more serious conversation about being one of the absolute best in the world than he gets.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2022 09:14

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Hyper Battle April 9th
MOTYC
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Zack Sabre Jr - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
- The best technical wrestler in the world faces down God. Big match New Japan, there's nothing else quite like it, by the end the crowd got loud as hell considering the circumstances

HM
United Empire (Aaron Henare and Will Ospreay) vs LIJ (Tetsuya Naito and Shingo Takagi)
- These guys have great chemistry, and Henare really laid his shots in

Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto) (c) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan) - IWGP Tag Team Championships
- Crowd forgot they weren't supposed to cheer, started off slow but was awesome by the end

El Desperado (c) vs SHO - IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
- This was really good, hovered around MOTYC level until SHO started resorting to low blows near the end but still had some fantastic moments

Nth

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

Yes + HM for Bullet Club vs Tanahashi & GOD

Nth for this too, the post match was beautiful.

ZSJ vs Okada had the most ooh's and aah's and gasps of any Covid crowd I've ever seen.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2022 13:23

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

Rarity posted:

MOTYC: Taichi vs. Shingo Takagi, NJPW Golden Fight Series, 25/04

This is a KOPW title defence so there's a special gimmick where the winner is the first to get to 30 across all pincounts. This leads to some really interesting setups and makes the closing section an incredibly tense bombfest

Thirded

# ¿ Apr 25, 2022 13:24

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku May 1st
MOTYC
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii - IWGP US Heavyweight Championship
- Watch the match, it was incredible

Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Tetsuya Naito - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
- You know when you watch a match and it's incredible and you think it won't be topped. Then a match like this comes along and just shits all over it. Yeah it's their third match this year, but gently caress me this was amazing

HM
EVIL (c) vs Tama Tonga - NEVER Openweight Championship
- Jado the Hero got the crowd popping huge for this match, it certainly helps that Tama and Evil work really well together

El Desperado (c) vs Taiji Ishimori - IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
- Great action, hot crowd, interesting lead in to Best of Super Juniors next week

Nth to all these. Tana vs Ishii got me the most emotionally involved of any match I've seen this year, it wasn't even about who won or lost, they just got me really loving into the story of the match. Halfway in I too thought Naito and Okada were going to be hosed as there's no way they could follow it.

Then they came out and had the best match they've ever had together.

# ¿ May 1, 2022 15:48

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Best of the Super Jr Night 3 May 18th
MOTYC
Hiromu Takahashi vs Francesco Akira
- Top tier junior violence, Akira showed out for his first New Japan main event

HM
Ace Austin vs Yoshinobu Kanemau
- Crowd really enjoys Ace, as do I

Ryusuke Taguchi vs Taiji Ishimori
- Gooch is a miracle worker, he made Ishimori care

Nth to these

Cerebral Bore posted:

MOTYC: El Desperado vs Tit�n NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 17.05

Just two guys trying to murder each other, as you do. Extremely vicious, extremely fast-paced, extremely good.

Nth to this as well, loved this match. Also nominating Titan for best dressed.

# ¿ May 19, 2022 08:04

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

sorry for the double post, I've been wanting to check GLEAT out forever and finally had time to watch a few matches from yesterdays show.

SG Bamboo posted:

GLEAT G-Pro Wrestling Ver.25 May 18th
MOTYC
El Lindaman (c) vs Shigehiro Irie - G-REX Championship
- Irie is a loving monster

Takanori Ito vs Yu Iizuka
- I'm more used to these guys doing the UWF matches so this was different than what I was expecting, but still a fantastic match between two great talents. Yu Iizuka is one of those young guys who are extremely my poo poo

Nth to both of these, with Lindaman vs Irie being extra special hot poo poo. This probably had my highest "holy gently caress" count of any match I've seen this year. I don't know any of the story to this going in, Stronghearts used to do Singapore indy's pre covid so my memory was these two were supposed to be mates? Is there any particular reason behind Irie wanting him dead so bad in this match, or were they just in the mood?

Also from the same show

Pylons posted:

MOTYC Dash Chisako vs. Michiko Miyagi

I'll go motyc on this too. The ending was some of the higher quality brutality I've seen of late. If time allows I'll watch the rest of the show, really want to see Shingo and Cima against the bulk orchestra.

# ¿ May 19, 2022 10:23

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Best of the Super Jr Night 4 May 19th
HM

Robbie Eagles vs BUSHI
- The most I remember enjoying a BUSHI singles match in years

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

MOTYC on Titan/Lindaman,

Nth to both of these, I didn't get to see despy vs TJP though.

# ¿ May 19, 2022 14:48

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

BOSJ Night 7 (5/24)

MOTYC
El Lindaman vs El Desperado

Match of the tournament so far. Absolutely incredible performance from two of the best here. Linda is wrestler of the year.

Taiji Ishimori vs SHO

Funniest match I ever did see. SHO has found his calling as an idiot clown who eats poo poo

Nth, also want to agree that Lindaman vs Despy is best match of the tourney to date.

Pylons posted:

Nth all these, MOTYC for DOUKI vs. El Phantasmo

Thirded on motyc for this one too, and...

MOTYC
Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Ending put this one over the edge into Motyc for me. The emotional attachment I have to both guys is sufficient to make it one of the matches I remember most from this BOSJ season.

Really fun show from start to finish.

Sooper Gila fucked around with this message at 16:09 on May 24, 2022

# ¿ May 24, 2022 16:02

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Best of the Super Jr Night 8 May 25th
MOTYC
SHO vs Rysuke Taguchi
- I've completely turned around on SHO from when he first joined House of Torture, what a glorious bufoon

nth.

# ¿ May 26, 2022 10:06

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

Jerusalem posted:

HM: El Lindaman vs. Wheeler Yuta - NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 9 - 5/26
Yuta's improvement has continued but El Lindaman may be the standout junior of this tournament, at least wrestling wise, and he proved it again tonight.

HM: Hiromu Takahashi vs. SHO - NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 9 - 5/26
Wonderful mix of comedy and brutal moves, with a ton of delightful trash-talk. Then let down by typical House of Torture bullshit

MOTYC: El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles - NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 9 - 5/26
What the fucccccck? these two are lunatics. Crowd just gave up on the rules and were making so much noise by the end, haha.

The BOSJ rules this year. Goddamn.

Nth

Ziggy Tzardust posted:

2nd to all these but especially to that last one. Match of the tournament so far. These two work so well together

Indeed, it's a neo-classic

Sooper Gila fucked around with this message at 15:08 on May 26, 2022

# ¿ May 26, 2022 15:03

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Dominion June 12th
MOTYC
Shingo Takagi (h) vs Taichi - KOPW Provisional Trophy
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Jay White - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

HM
SANADA vs Will Ospreay - IWGP US Heavyweight Championship

Couple of fantastic matches, and even the meh ones didn't drag too much for me

Nth to these, main event was another level of pro wrestling entirely. Enjoyed the entire show, even stuff like Goto vs Tana and Anderson vs Tama was entertaining enough.

Not really a spoiler so much as I don't want my enthusiasm to suggest to people the match finish - but there's a pretty good argument for Jay White being the best in the world today. There's literally nothing he can't do at the highest level: in ring work, promos, character, storytelling, crowd reactions. he's perfect at all of it. .

# ¿ Jun 12, 2022 11:25

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
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and Harmony

KungFu Grip posted:

MOTYC: Black Taurus vs. Rey Fenix vs. Bandido vs. Hijo del Vikingo vs. Laredo Kid - AAA Triplemania Tijuana 6/19

nth

# ¿ Jun 19, 2022 18:28

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPWxSTARDOM Historic X-Over November 20th
MOTYC
Will Ospreay (c) vs Shota Umino - IWGP US Championship
- Starmaking performance from Shota in his first match back in Japan

KAIRI vs Mayu Iwatani - Vacant IWGP Womens Championship
- Fantastic match to end a great show, helped along greatly by Waka Tsukiyama in tears on commentary for her friend's struggle

HM
Syuri and Tom Lawlor vs Guila and Zack Sabre Jr
Black Desire (Starlight Kid and Momo Watanabe) and Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and DOUKI) vs Meltear (Tam Nagano and Natsupoi) and Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Utami Hayashishita and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Maika and Hirooki Goto

Goddamn all those mixed tag matches were fun, I could see them hitting MOTYC for me if the audience were allowed to cheer

Nth to these. Loved the show too, hopefully this will become an annual event at the least.

Jerusalem posted:

This was wild in a very different way, building off of how matches earlier in the card went, and doing some frankly stunning things Tanahashi laying in the boots and fighting Maika what the fuccccck!?!

yeah i don't know how to take that at all...

Sooper Gila fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Nov 20, 2022

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 22:08

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:27

Sooper Gila: Apr 23, 2014; Love
Peace
and Harmony

Lamuella posted:

Pro Wrestling NOAH The New Year 2023, January 1

MOTYCs
- GHC Tag Team Titles: Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura(c) vs KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji
- GHC Heavyweight Title: Kaito Kiyomiya(c) vs Kenoh
- Great Muta vs Shinsuke Nakamura

HMs
- Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Daiki Inaba, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura
- Alejandro, Dante Leon & Ninja Mack vs Kongo (Hi69, Shuji Kondo & Tadasuke)
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Title: AMAKUSA(c) vs Junta Miyawaki
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: Kzy & YO-HEY(c) vs Eita & Yoshinari Ogawa

nth to all these, really wonderful show.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2023 23:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > 2022's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)