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)

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

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 January 4th
MOTYC
FTR (Dash Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (c) vs Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto) - IWGP Tag Championships
Ren Narita vs Zack Sabre Jr - Vacant NJPW World Television Championship
Taiji Ishimori (c) vs El Desperado vs Master Wato vs Hiromu Takahashi - IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
Will Ospreay (c) vs Kenny Omega - IWGP US Championship
Jay White (c) vs Kazuchika Okada - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

HM
Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira and TJP) vs LiYoh (Lio Rush and YOH) - IWGP Jr Tag Championships

Chock full on weird moments and odd decisions and dumb botches, but when New Japan is on it's loving ON

Nth to all these, also HM to Kairi vs Tam.

Punch McLightning posted:

nth, this was as good as it could have been but what's scary is I think they have another level in them.

I do too, this feels like they're just getting started.

Hoping I get to watch the TJPW show this weekend...

# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 16:37

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:09

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

Rarity posted:

HM: The Main Event, NJPW New Year's Dash, 05/01

It's a mystery card so no one knows who's involved in the matches until the music hits, not even the announcers and not even the participants. poo poo gets wild.

nth! very glad I made it home just in time to see it too

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 13:15

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

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW/NOAH Present Wrestle Kingdom 17 Night 2 January 21st
MOTYC
Shingo Takagi vs Katsuhiko Nakajima
Tetsuya Naito vs Kenoh

HM

Hiromu Takahashi vs Hajime Ohara

Real fun show, the 4 hours breezed by

nth to these.

Seconded ( referring to Kazuchika Okada and Togi Makabe vs Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura).

The Match itself was what it was, but this is the Angle of the year right here and now. As the clips are starting to go round the internet i see a lot of people even asking if this was a shoot because of how well Kaito and Okada executed this.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2023 19:10

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

Jerusalem posted:

MOTYC: Bryan Danielson vs. RUSH - AEW Dynamite 2/8

Blood and violence. Violence and blood. BLOOD AND VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE AND BLOOD! BLOOD AND VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE AND BLOOD! BLOOD AND VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE AND BLOOD!

Nth, haven't had time to watch the rest of the show but I this was one I had to see.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 14:34

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

Rarity posted:

MOTYC: Jay White vs. Hikuleo, NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka, 11/02

Incredible character work from Jay combined with a genuinely uncertain outcome makes this a must watch

MOTYC: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Shingo Takagi, NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka, 11/02

Okada in 'I'm the goddam best, don't gently caress with me' mode in front of an electric crowd, this is the New Japan I fell in love with

MOTYC: Tama Tonga (c) vs. El Phantasmo, NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka, 11/02

Built up slowly but the back end was phenomenal, I bit numerous times

nth to these. Shingo vs Okada was a literally perfect match in terms of artistic execution, these guys looked like (and probably are) the two best wrestlers on the planet earth.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 07:57

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

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 to these

# ¿ Feb 21, 2023 12:40

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

MassRafTer posted:

CMLL 1/20
MOTYC: Rocky Romero vs Volador Jr

This was so loving good. I didn't expect this from the title match to set up the apuestas match but both guys killed themselves in this match and the crowd just built and built and built as they did progressively crazier stuff.

Hopefully CMLL leaves it up on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRh5JuWgLKc

nth, finally had a chance to watch this.

hopefully can watch nagata vs miyahara soon.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2023 09:00

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

i haven't been able to watch very much rasslin in the last few months, but here's a few i did see from the almost-MOTY-list that I wanted to NTH

MOTYC:

06/09 | Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kaito Kiyomiya & Kento Miyahara vs. Kazuchika Okada, Kenoh & Yuma Aoyagi - AJPW/NJPW/NOAH All Together Again

06/07 | Orange Cassidy (C) vs. Swerve Strickland for the AEW International Title - AEW Dynamite

06/04 | SANADA (C) vs. Yota Tsuji for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - NJPW Dominion

05/03 | Zack Sabre Jr. (C) vs. Jeff Cobb for the IWGP Television Title - NJPW Dontaku

# ¿ Jun 23, 2023 09:28

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

Jerusalem posted:

MOTYC: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb - NJPW G1 Climax Night 8 7/26
The way these two use their bodies in wrestling is always incredible, but none moreso when they're doing it against each other. Just insane, inhuman poo poo in entirely different ways for both of them.

MOTYC: Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW G1 Climax Night 8 7/26

Rarity posted:

MOTYC: SANADA vs. Kaito Kiyomiya, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 7, 25/07

nth to these

# ¿ Jul 26, 2023 19:48

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

Chinston Wurchill posted:

NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 9 July 27

MOTYC: Okada vs. Ospreay
MOTYC: Kidd vs. Kiyomiya
HM: SANADA vs. Narita
HM: Tsuji vs. Hikuleo

Nth to these

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 17:28

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

MOTYC Yota Tsuji vs Gabe Kidd NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 13 05/08

MOTYC Kaito Kiyomiya vs Ren Narita NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 13 05/08

HM Shota Umino vs Hikuleo NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 13 05/08

MOTYC: El Phantasmo vs. Will Ospreay - NJPW G1 Climax Night 14 8/6
HM: Hikuleo vs. Tetsuya Naito, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 17, 10/08

MOTYC: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 17, 10/08

MOTYC: Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 16, 09/08

MOTYC: Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Semi-Finals, 12/08

HM: Shota Umino/Yuji Nagata/Master Wato/Tomoaki Honma vs. Strong Style/Yuto Nakashima, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Final, 13/08

HM: Shingo Takagi/Hiromu Takahashi/BUSHI/Yota Tsuji vs. Will Ospreay/Great O-Khan/Jeff Cobb/HENARE, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Final, 13/08

MOTYC: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito in the G1 Climax Final - NJPW G1 Climax Final 8/13

nth to all these

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 14:58

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

Pylons posted:

AEW Dynamite 10/25

MOTYC: Orange Cassidy & Kazuchika Okada vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Bryan Danielson)

Nth, rainmaker hug is spot of the year for me. Surely Orange Cassidy is the best wrestle dude in the USA.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2023 18:06

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

I saw some wrestling matches! and i liked them too!

SG Bamboo posted:

DDT Ultimate Party November 12th
MOTYC
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Kazuki Hirata - ~ Nivea Cream Care Body Wash Presents ~ Dramatic Dream Round �Let�s Have Fun!!� What Will Happen!? Fun Death Match for the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight TItle

Nth, this was so wonderful.

Jerusalem posted:

Hangman Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland in Texas Death - AEW Full Gear 11/18
Bloody, monstrous, disgusting, revolting. Just sickening.

I nominate it for Match of the Year.

Nth, Swerve did the best blade job since Dandy in the Triangular Incre�ble with Casas and Santo 25 years ago. These guys need to feud for the next couple of years, do a hair vs hair next and act like it's all settled, then heat it back up again a few months later, and so on until they eventually become mates and adopt a child together. Meanwhile, Swerve needs to be the dude who dethrones MJF, I say with the full knowledge and authority of a guy who watches one AEW match a month( but I do watch HEY! AEW every week).

forkboy84 posted:

MOTYC
25th August
SEAdLINNNG 8th Anniversary
Beyond The Sea Singles Title
Arisa Nakajima(c) vs Sareee
Watch this here

I don't want to tell you what to do, but at the same time I'm going to have to. You should watch Nakajima vs Sareee. Best women's match of 2023. Possibly the best wrestling match of 2023, I need to do some reflection on that, but it is one of my 4 ***** matches this year. Phenomenal stuff from the Violence Queen & the Sun God. A match I had extremely high expectations for coming in considering the 2 times since Sareee returned from WWE hiatus they've met they'd been real good teaser tags, and their tag matches in 2020 & 2021 when Sareee was teaming with Yoshiko were fantastic. One of those times where unfair expectations aren't just met but arguably exceeded.

Nth, finally got to watch this!

# ¿ Nov 20, 2023 21:12

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

SG Bamboo posted:

NJPW World Tag League Night 16 December 10th
MOTYC
Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto) vs Guerillas of Destiny (El Phantasmo and Hikuleo) - WTL Finals
- Fantastic way to end the tournament. Bishamon rock, ELP rocks. Hell, even Hikuleo rocks

Thirded/nth'd. I didn't catch the official time on this, but think they went pretty close to 40 minutes. Hopefully this will get Hikuleo some more credibility with critics because I don't know of any way you can have a match this long and hide bad work. I mean he's not Blue Panther or anything but he is a six foot eight dude doing frogsplashes and going through tables head first.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 12:16

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

MassRafTer posted:

ROH Final Battle 12/15

MOTYC: Vikingo vs Black Taurus

MOTYC: Mark Briscoe and FTR vs Blackpool Combat Club
MOTYC: Athena vs Billie Starkz

Nthing those last two matches and upgrading Vikingo vs Taurus to MOTYC.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2023 06:11

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:09

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

Pylons posted:

AEW Dynamite 12/27

MOTYC: Swerve Strickland vs. Jay White vs. Jon Moxley
MOTYC Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston

NTH'd these two

Regarding Almost match of the years, I'm going to try to get caught up on All Japan this weekend so hopefully I can add a few votes there just based on the good vibes I've picked up on.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2023 19:00

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)