2023'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 > 2023's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

MOTY: Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal vs The Acclaimed (c) - Battle of the Belts V

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jan 7, 2023

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 05:21

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:00

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

How many weeks until WWE gets more MOTYCs than Jeff Jarrett?

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 06:16

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Jerusalem posted:

HM: Kazuchika Okada & Togi Makabe vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura - Wrestle Kingdom 17: NJPW vs. NOAH 1/21

They very, very, very wisely made the decision to have Okada and Kiyomiya just lose their loving minds and try to kill each other in complete disregard for the actual match and it ruled so loving much.

nth

# ¿ Jan 21, 2023 10:21

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

WMOTY: EC3 vs Kevin Kiley - NWA Nuff Said 2/11

Don't read a recap and don't look at gifs. You have to see it for yourself.

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Feb 12, 2023

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 03:18

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Jerusalem posted:

I assume this is a 2/11 show?

yes!

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 03:59

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

MOTYC

Kazuchika Okada vs Kaito Kiyomiya
Keiji Muto vs Tetsuya Naito

NOAH Keiji Muto Final Pro Wrestling �Last� Love ~Hold Out~ (2/21)

GEORGE W BUSHI posted:

MOTYC: Keiji Muto vs Masahiro Chono

Just because it happened

nth

# ¿ Feb 21, 2023 12:34

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

xbilkis posted:

MOTYC: Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Jeff Jarrett for the Leveled-Up AEW International Championship (Thanks to Shazam! Fury of the Gods), AEW Dynamite 3/15

it's the first time I've seen a title level up before my very eyes. there will be imitations but nothing will ever be as great and beautiful as this was.
2nd

# ¿ Mar 16, 2023 02:33

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

forkboy84 posted:

HM
18th March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 3: AJPW vs GLEAT
AJPW (Black Menso-re, Rising HAYATO, Ryo Inoue, Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu) vs GLEAT (Kaz Hayashi, Keiichi Sato, Kommander, Michiko Miyagi & Yu Iizuka)

HM
18th March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 3: AJPW vs GLEAT
Atsuski Aoyagi vs Kaito Ishida

MOTYC
18th March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 3: AJPW vs GLEAT
AJPW (Kento Miyahara, Shuji Ishikawa, Yuma Anzai & Yuma Aoyagi) vs GLEAT (CIMA, El Lindaman, T-Hawk & Tetsuya Izuchi)

2nd!

# ¿ Mar 18, 2023 22:35

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

forkboy84 posted:

HM
21st March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 4
Atsuki Aoyagi vs Dan Tamura
Watch this here

Possibly the best singles match of Dan's career?

WMOTYC
21st March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 4
Gungnir of Anarchy (Ryuki Honda & Shotaro Ashino) vs Voodoo Murders (KONO & Suwama)

gently caress this poo poo so much. Just loving dreadful, with the finish & post-match a real turd dropped on an otherwise deeply eh match.

MOTYC
21st March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 4
All Japan (Kento Miyahara, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai) vs NOAH (Kinya Okada, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)
Watch this here

All Japan continues to use NOAH younger guys better than NOAH, by an order of magnitude. There was some nice symtery here, Kento & Kitamiya had their history together from Kensuke Office days, Kinya & Ryo are your kick boys, & Inamura & Anzai are your nice strong heavyweights. It's great, this is how interpromotional stuff should be done.

MOTYC
21st March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 4
AJPW Tag Team Titles
Naoya Nomura vs Yuma Aoyagi(c) vs Kongo (Kenoh & Manabu Soya)
Watch this here

Match of the night. If you watch nothing else from this show, watch this (but also, watch Dan & Atsuki and the NOAH/AJPW tag). Kenoh & Yuma instantly have amazingly good chemistry, Kenoh is Kenoh, the best character in wrestling. I need to watch this back to decide if I go the full ***** on this or not.

HM
21st March
All Japan Dream Power Series Night 4
Triple Crown Title
Yuji Nagata(c) vs Shuji Ishikawa
Watch this here

My main takeaway here is this really made me even more impressed with Kento for his match with Nagata, because here he kind of looked his age, & so did the Big Dog. So they made up for what they lacked in stamina in just throwing huge bombs & taking big bumps that guys their age probably shouldn't be taking. It's a good match, it's just not a Kento match, & he's the gold standard for a Triple Crown holder.

2nd to all these. More people should be watching All Japan.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2023 23:55

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

SG Bamboo posted:

AJPW Dynamite Series ~ New Age MANIAx ~ June 17th
MOTYC
Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa and SUWAMA) vs Strong BJ (Yuji Okabayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto)
- BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT

Zennichi Shin Jidai (Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi) vs Zennichi Shin Jidai (Rising HAYATO and Atsuki Aoyagi)
- Fantastic jr vs heavy match, given the titles weren't on the line there was the definite feeling the younger lads could grab the upset

HM
Yuji Nagata (c) vs Yuma Anzai - Triple Crown

2nd

anyone reading this should check out the match with all the big dudes beating the piss out of each other.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2023 03:10

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

CMLL Fantasticamania Mexico 6/30

HM
El Desperado vs. Mascara Dorada 2.0

MOTY
NWA World Historic Welterweight Title
Rocky Romero (c) vs Volador Jr.

CMLL is back. Watch it.

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jul 2, 2023

# ¿ Jul 2, 2023 00:06

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

HM: Alex Kane vs Alex Hammerstone (c) for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship - MLW Never Say Never 2023

# ¿ Jul 9, 2023 03:14

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Jerusalem posted:

7/8 I'm assuming?

correct

# ¿ Jul 9, 2023 03:38

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

SG Bamboo posted:

NOAH One Night Dream July 15th
MOTYC
Kento Miyahara vs Katsuhiko Nakajima
- Action was fantastic as expected but the partisan crowd absolutely made this

oh HELL YEAH
nth

# ¿ Jul 16, 2023 02:38

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Defenestrategy posted:

ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 7/21

HM: Kommander vs Gravity
HM: Four tag team clusterfuck Tag Championship
HM: Samoa Joe vs Dalton Castle TV Championship
HM: Shibata vs Daniel Garcia Pure Rules Championship
HM: Dark Order vs Righteous(w/ Stu Grayson) Fight Without Honor
MOTYC: Pac vs Claudio ROH Title
MOTYC: Willow vs Athena Womens Championship

# ¿ Jul 22, 2023 04:15

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

MOTY: Rocky Romero vs Mascara Dorada 2.0 - CMLL 7/28/23

Drop what you're doing and watch this match. Rocky has been great in CMLL this year and MD 2.0 keeps up in front of a very hot crowd.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2023 05:48

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

WMOTY: Negro Casas vs Nicho El Millonario - AAA Triplemania XXXI Mexico City 8/12

this was just sad to watch. Nicho can barely walk and everything was in slow motion.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 05:10

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

CMLL Grand Prix Internacional 8/18
MOTY: Soberano Jr vs Stuka Jr
watch it here

A great match with another hot crowd in Arena Mexico. Go out of your way to watch this. More of you should be watching CMLL.

MOTY: Team International (Adrian Quest, Baliyan Akki, Francesco Akira, Hiromu Takahashi, KUSHIDA, Rocky Romero, Samuray del Sol & TJP) vs. Team Mexico (Angel de Oro, Averno, Dragon Rojo Jr., Mascara Dorada 2.0, Mistico, Templario, Ultimo Guerrero & Volador Jr.) - CMLL Grand Prix Internacional
watch it here

Drop what you're doing and watch this. This was a great night.

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Aug 20, 2023

# ¿ Aug 19, 2023 04:47

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

RevPro 11 Year Anniversary Show 8/26

HM - Dan Moloney vs Leon Slater
HM - Connor Mills (c) vs. Sha Samuels vs. Wild Boar vs. Robbie X vs. Jordon Breaks vs. Callum Newman - RevPro Undisputed British Cruiserweight Title Six Way Scramble Match
HM - El Phantasmo & Katsuyori Shibata vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay & Gabe Kidd) (w/Gedo)
MOTYC - Tomohiro Ishii vs. Luke Jacobs - GO WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW
MOTYC - Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Aug 26, 2023

# ¿ Aug 26, 2023 18:04

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

HM: Mistico vs Soberano Jr - CMLL 9/1

# ¿ Sep 2, 2023 05:47

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

forkboy84 posted:

HM
8th September
All Japan Giant Series Night 3
Burning (Jun Akiyama & Yusuke Okada) & Sanshiro Takagi vs Evolution (Dan Tamura, Hikaru Sato & Suwama)
Watch this here

A surprisingly heated brawl that goes all over Yoyogi Gym #2, Suwama throwing around Okada (a former Evolution member!), Dan kicking the hell out of some chairs, Sato trying to strangle someone with a guardrail he took up into the stands (Takagi I think). It's a pretty short match but I really got into it.

MOTYC
8th September
All Japan Giant Series Night 3
Kento Miyahara vs Yuma Anzai
Watch this here

The classic storyline of the veteran facing a rookie & not treating him seriously to begin with only to get beat up & realise "poo poo, I gotta go full throttle with this drat punk kid". Except the veteran is the company ace & Best of the Best (& your 2023 Wrestler of the Year) & the rookie is arguably the most impressive rookie since Kurt Angle, hands down Rookie of the Year, & the future ace of this company so long as New Japan or NOAH don't steal him. loving loved it. Anzai is 1 week away from his first anniversary in wrestling. He's already challenged for the Triple Crown, here he's main eventing Yoyogi Gym & holding his own against Kento. Lovely stuff.

2nd. this is what I'm all about

# ¿ Sep 12, 2023 01:09

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

CMLL Aniversario 90 - 9/16

MOTY:Volador Jr vs Angel de Oro - hair vs hair
MOTYTemplario vs Dragon Rojo Jr - mask vs mask

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Sep 17, 2023

# ¿ Sep 17, 2023 02:56

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

CMLL 9/22

HM: Torneo Cibernetico de Leyendas

This was fun for what it was. These men are very old but they are very over and the crowd eats it all up.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2023 05:14

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

MOTYC: Zennichi Shin Jidai (Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi) (c) vs. Voodoo Murders (Jun Saito & Rei Saito) - AJPW Tag Title Match - AJPW Oct 9

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 22:41

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

SG Bamboo posted:

Kakuto Tanteidan ~ We are the Fighting Detectives ~ October 12th
MOTYC
Takuya Nomura vs Fuminori Abe
- Two best friends beat the absolute gently caress out of each other, to do any less would do the other a disservice

Check out the main event at least, it got livestreamed of Wrestle Universe and is the stiffest poo poo you're likely to see

gently caress yes, nth

this is extremely my poo poo

# ¿ Oct 13, 2023 20:39

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Jerusalem posted:

HM: Mistico vs. Rocky Romero - AEW Rampage 10/20

Man this was a blast, right from Rocky walking out in THAT outfit through to the end this was just good times. Mistico was super impressive, which is no surprise to most of you I'm sure.

easy nth. watch more CMLL!

# ¿ Oct 21, 2023 03:35

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

All Japan 51st Anniversary 10/21
HM: Dan Tamura vs Shinya Aoki
HM: Eruption (Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani) (c) vs Suwama, Mayumi Ozaki, and Maya Yukihi for the AJPW TV 6-man Tag Championship
HM: The Saito Brothers vs Ryuki Honda and Yuma Anzai
MOTYC: Yuma Aoyagi (c) vs Kento Miyahara for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship

Sticky Nate fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Oct 21, 2023

# ¿ Oct 21, 2023 04:58

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

MOTYC: Speedball Mike Bailey vs Will Ospreay - Bound For Glory 10/21

# ¿ Oct 22, 2023 02:16

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

SG Bamboo posted:

AJPW Giant Series November 5th (Evening Show)
MOTYC
Yuma Aoyagi (c) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - Triple Crown
- loving hell, the tension here

HM
El Lindaman, Fuminori Abe and Atsuki Aoyagi vs Jonathan Gresham, Rising HAYATO and Dan Tamura
T-Hawk and Kento Miyahara vs Yuma Anzai and Ryuki Honda

2nd. AJPW is a worth your time

# ¿ Nov 5, 2023 16:51

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

Erin M. Fiasco posted:

What's the easiest way to watch current AJPW?

https://www.ajpw.tv/ doesn't have the Wrestle Universe video quality, but it does have the Wrestle Universe price of 900 yen per month.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2023 17:10

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

apophenium posted:

NJPW Strong Lonestar Shootout - 11/10

HM:
Eddie Kingston (c) v. Satoshi Kojima for the NJPW Strong Openweight Title
Mayu Iwatani (c) v. Stephanie Vaquer for the IWGP Women's Title

MOTYC:
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) v. "Speedball" Mike Bailey for the New Japan TV Title

2nd

# ¿ Nov 11, 2023 06:15

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

AJPW Real World Tag League 12/3
HM: New Period (Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai) vs Eruption (Hideki Okatani & Yukio Sakaguchi)

# ¿ Dec 5, 2023 00:33

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

AJPW Real World Tag League 12/6
HM: New Period vs The Saito Bros
HM: Katsuhiko Nakajima and Hokuto Omori vs Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi

All Japan continues to feel good. You're all missing out.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2023 02:04

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

SG Bamboo posted:

AJPW MANIAx December 31st
MOTYC
Katsuhiko Nakajima (c) vs Kento Miyahara - Triple Crown
- gently caress the hell yes. The crowd was far more behind Kento than their NOAH match which was more 50/50 which was great to hear. Dragged a little bit in the middle but once Nakajima started laying in the kicks to a seated Kento it reached the quality I was expecting from these two

HM
Shotaro Ashino and T-Hawk vs Seigo Tachibana and Kuroshio TOKYO Japan
Zennichi Shin Jidai (Rising HAYATO and Atsuki Aoyagi) vs 37KAMIINA (Yuki Ueno and Toi Kojima)
El Lindaman (c) vs Dan Tamura - PWF Jr Title

Very good show for the new viewers from FITE, the main was a bit below the NOAH match but that's no knock on it at all

2nd to all of those

that's a goddamn main event right there

# ¿ Dec 31, 2023 13:36

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:00

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

NOAH The New Year - Jan 2nd
HM: Masa Kitamiya vs Tomohiro Ishii
HM: House of Torture vs NOAH 12-man tag
HM: Kenoh (c) vs Manabu Soya - GHC Heavyweight Title

WMOTY: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi
Ibushi's performance would not be out of place on Heroes of Wrestling. This isn't funny bad but it's still bad enough that you should at least watch parts of it. It's importantly bad.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 23:05

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > 2023's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)