Daryl Surat · @DarylSurat
17th Jan 2016 from TwitLonger
Draft #1: 2015 Top 10 Professional Wrestling Matches of the Year
My 1st draft of Top 10 Matches of the Year for 2015. Please critique/offer substitutions, as I feel like I'm neglecting WAY too much:
#1: T-Hawk vs CIMA vs Shingo Takagi vs KZY vs YAMATO vs Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Mask vs Hair Steel Cage Survival Double Risk 6 Way, May 5th (Dragon Gate)
The best cage match of the year across any promotion is once again Dragon Gate's annual cage match at Dead or Alive. It effortlessly and seamlessly integrating high-flying/grappling/striking with outlandish gimmickry/interference/general hijinks. Neither diminishes the other; the drama is just as real as the jokes because both are done well such that everything lands (no easy task). For all its convoluted rules ("you have to score a pinfall or submission before you can attempt to escape by way of retrieving a flag; last person left loses their hair) it's clear that the stakes are high despite no title being wagered. The one who ultimately loses is the biggest star nobody expected to; a definitive herald of a new age of stars. Dragon Gate embodies all that is great and wonderful about "professional wrestling," and this is the distillation of "Dragon Gate" into a single match. This may be too "out there" for many, so I'll note their singles and tag matches rival and often outshine the best of America, Europe, Mexico, and the rest of Japan.
#2: Kota Ibushi vs Shinsuke Nakamura, January 4th (New Japan Pro Wrestling)
Almost surely the "consensus" #1 Match of the Year 2015 (or runner-up) on all balloting where the majority of voters don't just watch WWE. Phenomenal match in all aspects. Spectacle and production on par with Wrestlemania with ringwork and commentary (English or Japanese) that blows away the WWE product. The charisma and athleticism on display by both men transcend language and racial barriers. But it just can't be my number one...because the wrong man won, pure and simple; such is the story of New Japan overall in 2015. Ibushi winning here would have been a defining "torch passing" moment which wouldn't have hurt Nakamura in the slightest, but it's too late now.
#3: Tomoaki Honma vs Tomohiro Ishii, February 23rd (New Japan)
The most valuable championships in professional wrestling are the ones with the best matches held over their possession. For contemporary singles titles, that's Dragon Gate's Open the Dream Gate Championship (their top title) and New Japan's NEVER Openweight Championship ("officially" their 3rd-tier). Thanks to longtime champion Ishii, "NEVER" is now synonymous with the maximum administration and receipt of physical punishment. The announcers declare "this is New Japan! This is pro wrestling! This is a Tomohiro Ishii fight!" at the end, and they're correct in all regards. But just as with Ibushi/Nakamura, the man who didn't need the title again and wouldn't have been hurt one bit by the loss prevailed here. Their rematch at the G1 was to me what Bayley vs Sasha Banks is to everybody else, but in the end I picked this bout because of how captivating it was for something hastily thrown together due to the title being vacated suddenly on account of major illness. The epitome of "stealing the show."
#4: Mil Muertes vs Fenix, Grave Consequences Casket Match, March 18th (Lucha Underground)
Almost certainly the best casket match of all time, as the stipulation rarely lends itself to quality wrestling. Despite some iffy English commentary, Lucha Underground had the best overall presentation of professional wrestling of any promotion this year. For all of the spectacular highspots and heightened comicbook reality, not only did everything tell a story but it told a story that WWE cannot tell in a manner nobody else in the English world bothers to do (well, Chikara tries but their wrestling simply isn't good enough).
#5: Jimmy Susumu vs BxB Hulk, February 5th (Dragon Gate)
Dragon Gate is rather campy overall, but no title in wrestling is presented with more gravitas than their Open the Dream Gate Championship; its defenses conjure memories of the Triple Crown glory days sped up several notches with crisp high-flying along with the stiff strikes, high impact slams, and breathtaking nearfalls/finishing sequences. It was a tossup between Masaaki Mochizuki vs Shingo Takagi and this bout, but "Jimmy" Susumu being the most underrecognized top-tier talent of the year and Mochizuki not winning like he deserved to solidified my choice. That BxB Hulk turned in this caliber of performance despite coming back from a shoulder dislocation he suffered in his previous title defense way too early--he only missed a few weeks--is astonishing (and ill-advised). No wonder so many top prospects of the indies and lately WWE got that way by going through Dragon Gate first.
#6: Kyle O'Reilly vs KUSHIDA, June 7th (New Japan)
The problem with Kenny Omega's "The Cleaner" gimmick is that he's completely right: since the NJPW heavyweights have adopted the junior style, their Jr division is effectively nothing with regards to Japanese stars. The majority of NJPW Juniors bouts feature foreign talents, primarily from ROH. KUSHIDA is the exception. Primarily seen as "the guy with Alex Shelley" until his 2014 breakout performance against Jay Lethal, this finale to the Best of the Super Juniors finalizes the coronation of a new Japanese ace. KUSHIDA may still lack major Japanese opponents, but O'Reilly's submission work and transitions rival Zack Sabre Jr's as far as being the best in the world.
#7: Kevin Owens vs John Cena, May 31st (WWE)
The embodiment of what WWE needs to do, marred by the fact that their followups invalidated this success making it seem like a fluke. Kevin Owens debuted on Raw from NXT, and rather than immediately relegating him to a nobody, they had him beat John Cena clean in a bout that the remaining matches on the show were unable to surpass. A decisive hard-fought match establishing someone the fans want to see succeed as a big deal. Finally, they remembered how to create new legitimate stars! Alas, the fact Owens then lost in the rematch then the matches after that etc has largely invalidated the significance of this match and victory. This was the time for the "Triple H vs Mick Foley"-style star-making series of wins.
#8: Chris Hero vs Zack Sabre Jr, June 26 (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla)
PWG has the best professional wrestling cards top to bottom in the world. There are no undercard bouts or talents designed to not steal focus from the main event. Making every match be great in its own unique way is how PWG doesn't steal focus from its main events. Case in point: it was very difficult for me to pick between this match and the preceding Mike Bailey vs Roderick Strong match, as both of them had an incredible year. But there are variant sayings of "blood in wrestling equals money if used sparingly," and this match proves it. Limb work is commonplace, but Sabre Jr's brutal submissions and stomps upon Chris Hero's bleeding and broken finger are unforgettable, as are Hero's retaliations.
#9: Mike Bailey vs AR Fox, September 12th, Ladder Match (Combat Zone Wrestling)
I take nothing away from the TLC tag team ladder match but this is the best PPV ladder match of 2015. Yes, I highly doubt anyone else filling out this ballot would even think of writing CZW anything on a Match of the Year ballot, but Mike Bailey is among my most enjoyable wrestlers of the year. His general lack of physique, farmer's tan, taekwondo gi (with credible kicks to match), Beastie Boys theme song, and total disregard for the safety of his head and feet are the epitome of indy wrestler charisma. AR Fox occupied this spot in previous years, and the resulting ladder match (also involving tables and chairs) is absolute pandemonium. Deep down in my heart, I understand that psychology and workrate are what's good for me. But it's junk food that I truly want, and nothing satisfies the pure id of my being like the sentence "a ladder match between Mike Bailey and AR Fox at the Flyers Skate Zone."
#10: Io Shirai vs Meiko Satomura, Dec 23 (STARDOM)
Quit accepting mediocrity as excellence. The baseline level of greatness is the standard set by mid 80s-mid 90s AJW, JWP, LLPW etc. Bayley vs Sasha is merely "good"; about 3 stars, what women's matches in WWE should be ON AVERAGE. Meiko Satomura is women's wrestling's Jun Akiyama: great but without a rival their age, who didn't get their big wins over the veterans until it was too late in the 2000s when they were broken down. Her title defense against Io Shirai is far closer to the classic WWWA defenses of long ago the World of Stardom Championship is supposed to embody than the global headline-making unprofessional disgrace that Yoshiko did to Act Yasukawa was. But more people read about and saw that than did this. You can change that. It's one search engine query away.