Cover Images via, CMLL, AEW, DDT, Chris Downey, Mio Momono, and @this_is_kani
As always, a programming tidbit to start, to all reading this edition of the Yearly Pro Wrestling 100 —
This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that this is the only yearly list that matters, that this is the most accurate, or that you aren’t going to find anyone who does this as well as me. None of that is true. I am far from the first person to piece together a yearly list. The format of this whole thing is something I’m proud of, though, and for as many people that knock this sort of thing out of the park, I have a certain confidence in saying that no puts polish on this concept like I do. Feel free to think what you want to think about that; this boiled down is a silly endeavor anyway. For specifics, this covers:
The five best promotions, five best shows, five best tag teams, 25 best wrestlers, five worst matches, and the top 50 matches. To get to your nice round number of 100, there’s also a little section about five other things I wanted to talk about as well.
And finally, to clean up around the house a bit, there is some obligatory stuff to get through. To me, projects of this scale are some combination of daunting and satisfying, serving to do little more than to give me an excuse to write about something I’m passionate about, as well as to fulfill my compulsive need to categorize, review, and recap the things I consume. Any more value I’ll attach to this is just my sense of pride.
More people read this last year than I expected too, which is neat, but that does bring another little thing to the table. I can now say with certainty that the wrong person will find this and get upset about what is and isn’t on here, so this little caveat is for you. The list is as much for you as you make it. My opinion doesn’t and shouldn’t have to matter to anyone. Actually, and truthfully, if that’s you, it’s unfortunate that your existence obligates anyone who does a respectable list like this one to make a note that star ratings, numbers, and words like “great” don’t actually mean a whole lot.
Other, more serious obligations beyond hurting the feelings of some doofus on the internet do exist, though. So quickly, yes, there are wrestlers, promotions, bookers, and everything in between on this list that are or will become bad people. In no way does praise for their work equate to a vouch of character. I do not know these people, nor do I wish to. That, and it needs to be said I do not own any of the photos used throughout. Credit is linked under every image to the best of my ability.
Methodology
To begin this section with another elementary point, I must make it clear I did not watch everything. That said, the answer to “Why isn’t item xyz on the list?” belongs to one of two groups: it didn’t look interesting/got a bad response from a good crowd, or it wasn’t good enough to make the list. I do not care that I have said in the past it was safe to assume things went over my head. They very well might’ve, but I’m confident in my tastes and comfortable in the circle I inhabit, so the much more plausible reality is that you and I disagree. That’s ok. Nothing here is meant to insult you, so if you’re looking for the big Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, or Bushiroad big matches, I have no idea how you got here for one, but secondly, you’re in the wrong place. My advice is to leave now, before you upset yourself.
On the numbers side:
Overall, I watched and rated 652 matches from 69 different promotions and 550 different wrestlers.
Lastly, if you must know what the star ratings mean and you won’t take nothing as an answer, this is how it makes the most sense in my mind:
- ***** – “Perfect” Match — Greatest Match Ever Contender
- ****3/4 – Incredible Match — Match of The Decade Contenders
- ****1/2 – Fantastic Match — Match of the Year Contenders
- ****1/4 – Notably Great Match, has something that sets it apart from a great match
- **** – Great Match
- ***3/4 – Very Good Match — Recommendations for Matches Start Here
- ***1/2 – Functionally Good Match — Borderline Recommendations
- Meh – Matches that range from average to above average
- Bad – Matches that are bad to below average
- Awful – Offensively bad matches
- ❤️ – The beyond rational rating/the “star ratings are stupid” category
Here’s the breakdown of the ratings for those matches:
Foreword
Hi!
I usually write this section last, as I’m not trying to preview something that isn’t done, but also, it’s already a month into 2026. Now, I’m previewing something that should’ve been done sooner and reflecting on a year I already put past me.
So, instead of faking it, I’ll tell you things as they are now.
Where I’m at with wrestling’s landscape is to be determined. Good or bad, I do not know. Like last year, there are hits. The lows felt ignorable, for the most part. If you do not feel this way yourself, that’s fine. Enjoy what you want to enjoy at the end of the day, but do everyone a favor and check your relationship with pro wrestling. Enjoy it healthily. Understand it’s silly at the core.
I think if you can do that, there’s no reason to be mad about anything I’m about to say here. Disagree or agree away. And sorry for sounding pessimistic at so many points, it’s just how I write sometimes.
That’s all I have to say. Here’s your Yearly Pro Wrestling 100.
Show of the Year:
5.) Kakuto Tanteidan III ~ One Life To Live (4.08.2025)
The third KTdan show starts strong, falters in the middle, then sticks the landing.
Like everything Abe & Nomura decide to take seriously, there’s some great wrestling here. Shuji Ishikawa turns back the clock a bit to pick on Satsuki Nagao. Masashi Takeda picks on the third, spiritual Astronaut Kosuke Sato, in a bout equally as good. And sure, the Ikeda tag and Tamura/YASSHI matches disappoint a bit, but the Space Boys make up for it by delivering one of my favorite, if not the best matches of the year in the main event.
It’s an easy case to make for a show as modest as this. Forever chasing the magic of the first, sure. But every installment of the Fighting Detectives is a pleasure of some sort, and number three is pretty good proof.
Hard to scratch the bati bati itch anywhere else anyway.
- Card (w/ ratings attached)
- Singles – Shuji Ishikawa vs. Satsuki Nagao (***3/4)
- Singles – Masashi Takeda vs. Kosuke Sato (***3/4)
- Singles – Super Tiger & Thanomsak Toba vs. Tyson Maeguchi & Yuki Ishikawa (Meh)
- Singles – YASSHI vs. Dan Tamura (Meh)
- Tag Team – Hikaru Sato & Manabu Hara vs. Astronauts (****1/4)
4.) Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling Chibikko Atsumare! Natsuyasumi SP! (8.13.2025)
Image via Sportiva Entertainment
The year’s quiet success story gets something to hang its hat on.
Now, I’m going to do the dangerous thing and assume, so hang with me. Sportiva, I’m guessing, is a place many of you aren’t familiar with. If I’m wrong, you’re either (a) more well-versed than I gave you credit for, or (b) we’re far into the future and this little sports bar has made it big stateside. Har Har, assumptions are dangerous, I get it, but we’re taking the direct approach. A sales pitch from yours truly:
The show opens with a comedy match. Nothing of real note, with Mikiya Sasaki in Funk cosplay doing goofy things like repeatedly atomic dropping his masked opponent. It’s funny in spots, there’s just enough serious wrestling to keep it from collapsing, and for the purposes of making a case for this show, the real win is that it never becomes dreadful. On the puro indie circuit, that’s enough.
The second match on the card is the classic kind of bout you get from places like this. All kinds of wacky personalities, thrown together. Old man wearing a baseball jersey that hits really hard? Check. Two sleazy-looking dudes who also throw mean strikes and like to bend limbs, one of whom has ‘scum bastard’ scribbled on his shorts? You bet. A tiny ripped dude in a bright mask who’s the sneaky best technician in the match and is also an old man? Naturally. And it all plays out how you’d want. Lots of simple but sensible mat work, and Yasu Kubota and Yu Shimizu throwing heaters in the second half to preview their upcoming title bout. An easy formula that this little sports bar does better than anyone else, where everyone looks good, and they get through their material efficiently.
Up next is an SRS rules match between Sportiva regular Konaka and ChocoPro regular Chon Shiryu. The rules dictate that the match take place on the bar floor, with the ring acting as a danger zone, where, should either man enter it, the referee starts counting. The other little twist is that audience members can be used for rope breaks, with the ropes on the floor. Being masters of this type of sleazy gimmickery, both men immediately understand how to exploit this match type to its full potential.
Of course, the whole thing is a lot of fun, but the match is made great by how intuitive both wrestlers are. They make smart use of a bar stool as a weapon, establish the floor as genuinely threatening, and produce one of the better count-out teases of the year when Konaka hits a Tiger Feint Kick as both men scramble to beat the count. The insanity ramps up late too, with rough bumps from the ring to the floor and a stretch where they’re literally hanging from the ceiling trading strikes. It’s not as snug as the matches sandwiched around it, but it’s a hell of a good time.
The main event closes things out. While it runs a bit long, there’s never much reason to complain about Yuta Oya and Ali Najima doing their thing. Generating heat on the blind Oya is how they start, and being one of the simplest things on earth, the veterans don’t overthink it. Najima’s hot tag finally comes, and he unloads with some vicious kicks to Kageyama’s arm before settling into a more even exchange with Ishida. Even there, the work holds together thanks to Najima’s leg selling and his knack for taking convincingly nasty bumps. Eventually Oya gets his own hot tag, and the match narrows down to him and Ishida trading pins. Ishida scores the win, but there’s nice continuity in how close the two rookies come to knocking off the veterans. It’s a solid ending to the show, even if the bout itself isn’t quite the purest showcase of everyone’s strengths.
Overall, a blast of a show. Good, sensible wrestling in a package that’s under an hour if you skip through intermissions, and wrestling that comes with the homey feel only the Sportiva bar can provide.
- Card (w/ ratings attached)
- Singles – Mikiya Sasaki vs. Yacchae Seven (❤️)
- Tag Team – Super Taira & Yasu Kubota vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu (***1/2)
- SRS Rules – Chon Shiryu vs. Konaka (***3/4)
- Tag Team – Michio Kageyama & Shinya Ishida vs. Ali Najima & Yuta Oya (***1/2)
3.) Sareee-ISM Chapter VI (1.23.2025)
The Sareee-ISM shows aren’t necessarily known for their overall quality, but here, Sareee puts together her most complete show yet.
Much like the #5 entry, most of the good before the main event comes from younger wrestlers getting picked on. Victoria Yuzuki is surprisingly mean while working over Sareee’s protégé, Miku Kanae. Takumi Iroha keeps things mostly grounded in a fun little match with Chi Chi that accomplishes much of the same. In the semi-main, Yurika Oka and Mio Momono are paired off, delivering some brief magic together before largely finding themselves getting correctly flattened by their respective partners.
What’s neat about all of this is that the majority of the names I just rattled off are younger wrestlers, most of whom are spotty in terms of consistency. They absolutely deserve credit for committing to clearly defined roles. Simple vet/rookie dynamics done right, and with sparkling efficiency, they manage to do a rare thing and threaten to steal the show.
Sareee and Meiko Satomura prevent that, of course, and the show is better for it. It’s one of Sareee’s stronger stabs at a main event epic, even amid the impressive high-output run she’s been on since her NXT departure. For Meiko, it checks an important box on the way out. They even avoid any kind of lame passing-of-the-torch moment, with Meiko going over clean and the show simply wrapping up.
Not a fine display of booking or anything like that, but another show with a high volume of good wrestling in a short window.
- Card (w/ ratings attached)
- Singles – Miku Kanae vs. Victoria Yuzuki (***1/2)
- Tag Team – Honori Hana & Jaguar Yokota vs. Misa Kagura & Yumiko Hotta (Meh)
- Singles – Takumi Iroha vs. Chi Chi (***1/2)
- Tag Team – Kaoru Ito & Yurika Oka vs. Bozilla & Mio Momono (***3/4)
- Singles – Meiko Satomura vs. Sareee (***3/4)
2.) DPW Beast Coast 2025 (8.10.2025)
Image via DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling
Besides being a bunch of good wrestling, Beast Coast is the perfect representation of everything DPW did right.
If quality is all you desire, you get that in spades. Trevor Lee and Ryan Clancy piece together good stooge and underdog performances, respectively, in the opener. The super-indie-style six-man tag with some of the promotion’s most frequent members is tied together nicely by newcomer Manny Lo’s self-sabotage and arrogance. Dominic Garrini and Mad Connelly steal the show with a violent street fight. Nicole Mathews has another strong defense. Adam Priest and Jake Something have a damn good main event, with Priest escaping in a way that somehow brought his heel character to new heights.
Normally these blurbs cut there, but even when things dip into the meh variety on the show, there’s a steady air of the promotion getting things right. Yuu and Hyans’ match is simple, inoffensive, and crowd-pleasing work, but with a looming retirement for Yuu, that’s the whole point. And that reception she gets from the DPW faithful is heartwarming. Then, throwing the ChocoPro duo after does no harm in the same sense. It’s a nice lighthearted bout that plays into someone like Mei Suruga’s strengths, keeping the easygoing energy from the previous match. Hell, even the 17-minute semi-main tag match I could care less about functions nicely as a victory before Priest sucks the air out of the building in the main event.
In the traditional sense, what I’m trying to put down is the fact the show flows well. Still, I want to tell you that it’s got that extra connective tissue only DPW had. A structured thing in terms of the kinds of matches and stories they want and get, where all the placement makes sense. Natural ups and downs here that every wrestling show dreams about.
With DPW’s forthcoming absence, this type of show is the void that will be impossible to fill. Obviously, that counts for something.
- Card (w/ ratings attached)
- DPW National Title #1 Contendership – Trevor Lee vs. Ryan Clancy (***1/2)
- Battle Of The Best 2025 First Round Match – Yuu vs. Hyan (❤️ adjacent)
- Battle Of The Best 2025 First Round Match – Emi Sakura vs. Mei Suruga (Meh)
- Jersey City Street Fight – Dominic Garrini vs. Mad Dog Connelly (****)
- Six Man Tag – Cedric Alexander & The WorkHorsemen vs. Calvin Tankman, LaBron Kozone & Manny Lo (***3/4)
- DPW Women’s Worlds Title – Nicole Matthews vs. Masha Slamovich (***1/2)
- DPW World Tag Team Titles – Miracle Generation vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (Meh)
- DPW Worlds Title – Adam Priest vs. Jake Something (***3/4)
1.) DPW 4th Anniversary (12.12.2025)
We’ve just gotten through the whole “I’m going to miss DPW” song and dance, so I’ll spare you that here.
They did go out on top, though.
DPW’s final show in the United States checks every box it reasonably could have one last time. They don’t overreach or chase a new spectacle. They go out the same way they’ve been running shows for much of the last two years. With sensible wrestling. Defined roles. Sticking with the continuity that mattered.
So, to sound like a broken record one last time, here we go:
Bryan Keith gets one more undercard match and slips right back into place, trading heavy blows with Manny Lo in a fun slugfest that reminds you why he was such a stalwart on the indies for a decade. Calvin Tankman and Kevin Ku follow with another solid match that doubles as a quiet thank-you to two promotion originals. Even if their pairing isn’t for you, hearing Zombie ring out one more time is worth the booking of the bout alone.
From there, the card keeps chugging. Andrew Everett, BK Westbrook, Adam Priest, and Trevor Lee deliver the kind of spotfest so many other places misunderstand: still explosive and chaotic, but tethered just enough to character and rivalry to feel earned. Then, a quick twist with Erick Stevens’ self-imposed trials finally reaching their climax when he challenges Mad Dog Connelly to a dog collar match. Not only does he live his truth, but he also puts a clean bow on his comeback.
The scheduled closer double-title main event between KoZone and Something mostly sticks the landing too. It’s sprawling and indulgent in a way that feels appropriate for the occasion. Luckily, if they go too far for you, the night closes not with grandiose fashion, but with a brief moment of honest pro wrestling. Adam Priest and Trevor Lee attempt to spoil the party, only to get a extra slice of comeuppance when KoZone squashes Lee in eight seconds in an impromptu title bout. No extra drama. A perfect, spiritual ending to a promotion’s lifespan.
That’s a lot of good (feeling) wrestling on one card.
To me, that was always the point. DPW cannot match the atmosphere of a CMLL, the violence of a Zona 23, or the peaks of AEW. Unlike these places, they pump out good wrestling without any nasty byproduct. There’s no issue with Blackwood getting a match. Mei Suruga’s title win does feel like a nod to the Emi Sakura vortex that held the belt for much of the promotion’s lifetime. Heck, even the tag title match, which I’d say was the worst match of the night, gets another original in BoJack on the card.
And to tie it all together, the backstage interviews do what DPW’s presentation always did best. Wrestlers (minus Priest and Lee, who, naturally, and very correctly don’t) reflect on their time in the company, on what this place meant to them, and on what they’re losing. Considering all that, the circumstance, and an undeniable feeling this place had for the entire year, your #1 spot was never going to be anything else.
- Card (w/ ratings attached)
- Singles – Baliyan Akki vs. Kevin Blackwood (Meh)
- Singles – Bryan Keith vs. Manny Lo (***1/2)
- Singles – Calvin Tankman vs. Kevin Ku (***1/2)
- Tag Team Street Fight – Andrew Everett & BK Westbrook vs. Adam Priest & Trevor Lee (***3/4)
- DPW World Tag Team Title – Bo-Dash vs. Miracle Generation (Meh)
- DPW Women’s World – Mei Suruga vs. Lena Kross (Meh)
- Dog Collar – Erick Stevens vs. Mad Dog Connelly (***3/4)
- DPW Worlds Title / DPW National Title – LaBron Kozone vs. Jake Something (***1/2)
- DPW Worlds Title – LaBron Kozone vs. Trevor Lee (🖤🧡)
Promotion of the Year:
5.) Marvelous That’s Women Pro Wrestling
Five is too many. Both in a “wrestling kinda sucks now” and a “I didn’t watch enough” type of way. The entire race was down to two promotions by, what, May? Everything after that is just filling space, so I didn’t spend much energy thinking about who deserved the remaining spots.
So… Marvelous, I guess.
The interpromotional stuff with Marigold hit its highs inside their ring, for whatever that’s worth. I’m not telling you to go out of your way for it, but it was solid.As for names, Mio Momono was fantastic when she was healthy. Guest appearances from Yurika Oka, Sareee, and Mayu Iwatani left their marks as reasonably as they could. But the real foundation of the case is the rookies. Senka Akatsuki and Sora Ayame became must-watch almost overnight, capable of having interesting matches with anyone despite still having a pretty low ceiling. Even Ai Houzan was a nice spark on the undercard, or a solid foil for those two.
The bigger issue with Marvelous is that it’s still very much a Takumi Iroha promotion. Any big match is bound to have her in it, and unfortunately, big match wrestling is far, far from her strength. Then again, who cares? I tune in for Mio and the rookies.
That’s good enough for the five spot, I guess. Just don’t read into much. This spot has been worthless all decade.
4.) All Elite Wrestling
AEW gets here off the strength of a genuinely great back half of the year that, in truth, kind of fell into their lap. That’s not an excuse for the awful first third of 2025. But there’s a real shift after the Owen Hart Foundation tournament finals. The Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley program was fantastic in both the build and the payoff. Kyle Fletcher’s rise into one of the best TV workers on the planet became impossible to ignore. The Ricochet/Hurt Syndicate stuff held steady on the undercard. Mercedes Moné had more highs than lows as the centerpiece of the women’s division. FTR and the Conglomeration chipped a handful of tag hits. The C2 was, once again, the only thing worth watching in December.
That list could be longer too. It’s the classic force of talent argument. AEW is not a well-booked promotion. But when MJF is forced off TV to go do better work in Mexico, and when Cope, Swerve Strickland, and Will Ospreay all miss time with injuries, it becomes a lot harder for AEW to self-sabotage. They’ll still find ways, of course, but when so many of the usual problems were simply gone for so much of the year, AEW ended up producing more great wrestling than anywhere else.
Do they deserve to be here? No.
But they can’t not be here either.
3.) Sportiva Entertainment
The easiest promotion on earth to love.
Backed by a small, yet diverse group of names, this little bar spent the whole year putting on sensible wrestling. It’s the promotion for those who love the homey feel and the smallest of details. Very few of the matches that happen among the drunken patrons dare to be anything overtly impressive. It’s all about setting up matches around limbs, strikes, and the strengths and weaknesses of the wrestlers. And that only stays as interesting as the group is, and luckily the frequent cast is great. Whether it’s Ali Najima’s knack for the bati bati style and expressiveness, the genuine marvel that is the blind Yuta Oya, or the sleazy-looking hard-hitters Masanori Kanu Watanabe and Yu Shimizu, or the high-flying technician Super Taira—the week-to-week interactions between these names rarely failed to be some level of interesting.
Who knows how long before some of the names make it bigger, but until then, as long as this ensemble remains strong, I’ll be floating around to see what they’re up to.
2.) DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling
Image via DPW and Chris Downey
Much like the year before, DEADLOCK’s 2025 was built on a steady diet of shows with consistent quality and a quietly forward-looking nature. They may not hit AEW’s peaks or capture the dust-ridden magic of a Zona 23 or Lucha Memes, but the way DPW makes its case is more genuine than anywhere else.
All of their cards are chalked full of matches that are interesting on paper, drive narratives forward, and are (usually) efficient in their nature. Their roster, too, was anchored by a true core. Adam Priest’s world title run was excellent. LaBron Kozone followed his late-2024 title win with another year of consistently great work. Guest appearances from Roderick Strong, Erik Stevens, and the Astronauts all delivered exactly what you hoped for. Even the women’s division I was critical of last year found new life, with Nicole Matthews, Red Velvet, and Trish Adora bringing a spark down the stretch. Add in the continued presence of Calvin Tankman, Violence Is Forever, and the introduction of Bo-Dash, and the depth speaks for itself.
And clearly, that type of consistency was too good to be true. Late in the year, the promotion made the announcement that DPW is closing its doors for the foreseeable future, minus one more Japan show next year. All of that consistency, all of that promise, now, cease to exist. They’re the #2 promotion of the year, but their closure is the #1 shame in wrestling this side of the decade.
DPW Forever.
1.) Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
The tricky thing with doing these lists in a “year’s best” format is how well they tend to hide my frustration with the current wrestling landscape. I don’t get to talk down the WWE-manufactured illusion that wrestling is in a boom period, nor do I get to dig into the damage AEW has done to the indies or the attempted over-commercialization of wrestling in Japan. Outside of the five slots I reserve for the worst matches of the year, I rarely even grab that metaphorical ladle, much less stir the pot. To me, a broader mirage is hanging over this decade’s wrestling: with more and more making tape, and as online discourse spreads the niche further, it only seems like there’s more great wrestling happening. Don’t be fooled. There’s simply more great wrestling being seen.
That sentiment is probably clearest when piecing this section together. Never has it been harder to find five promotions worth awarding. Weekly TV in America ranges from awful and offensive to inconsistent. Most Japanese tour and road-to shows are, at best, skippable. Major cards across the board hover between 50 and 70 percent forgettable. Sure, the occasional screamer pops up, and the surviving independents add high points of their own too. That all adds up to a sizeable amount of great wrestling. More than enough to fill a list like this, but there’s a truth we can’t avoid: sitting down and watching the full products, week in and week out, is a chore.
Well, CMLL is the exception.
And frankly, until that isn’t the case, I have a hard time imagining they won’t retain the #1 spot. Consistent high-floor, low-ceiling wrestling populates their weekly shows, with well-built singles and trio feuds building to some of the year’s best payoffs. It’s that consistency that’s missing from literally everywhere else (especially with DPW shutting up shop for the foreseeable future), and they still manage to produce as many, if not more, matches for the top 50 as anyone else. That isn’t even to mention how stacked their roster is or how their shows are home to the best arenas and fans in the sport.
And frankly, until that stops being true, I have a hard time imagining they won’t retain the #1 spot. Their weekly shows offer consistent high-floor, low-ceiling wrestling. It’s formulaic, but it’s the best kind of simple and steady quality you can’t find anywhere else.
They don’t miss the peaks either. Their consistent weekly schedule is built on well-paced singles programs and genuinely compelling trios feuds that not only serve to make those shows worth tuning into, but they also pay off with some of the year’s best matches. Of course, that’s all made better with a loaded roster and the fact their shows take place in the best arenas with the best fans on earth. The most watchable wrestling on earth? Yeah, and add “most consistent” and “best,” too.
Unless you favor a spiritual DPW pick, this was a lay-in for promotion of the year.
Tag Team of the Year:
5.) JackyRiiita (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita)
Image via DragonGate
Two of the best wrestlers in the entire promotion, held back by the atrocious year DG put together last year.
Of all the names and duos who teamed this year, Jacky and Riiita are the shallow case team that are too good to not have here. They’re in the promotion’s best tag match of the year. They’re in what I think is the promotion’s best big show match of the year as well, and they do anchor the only semi-interesting group left in all of DG. I could give or take the massively overrated Dragon Dia & Yuki Yoshioka match from November, and miss me with all the Z-Brats stuff from the first half of the year, but anywhere these two could’ve had a good performance, they did.
If you want to boil this placement down to me just liking both guys too, that’s fine as well. Feel free to swap in another CMLL trio or the Mexa Boys if you so desire. They’re still the best high-energy, high-movement team in the world.
That, and only that, they can boast.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr. vs. Flamita, Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T (DragonGate 5.09)
- w/ Ben-K vs. Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka vs. Bendito, Flamita & Luis Mante (DragonGate 8.11)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Luis Mante & U-T (DragonGate 12.06)
- vs. Demus & Luis Mante (DragonGate 12.16)
4.) Yuta Oya & Ali Najima
The best rookie duo in the world.
I did kind of knock these two initially, as I think their best work comes against each other, but frankly, I’m not sure Sportiva had another consistent pairing that delivered quite like these two did.
They work so well because it’s not a delicate balancing act. Yuta Oya is blind, and however his opponents see fit, garnering heat on him is only as complex as they make it. He makes a little comeback, tags in Ali Najima, and he kicks some ass. Even flipped, it still works. Najima can be just as sympathetic, and Oya’s hot tags land just as well. Sprinkle in the fact these two don’t have many matches that get farther north than 10 minutes, and they get the time-respect factor going for them too.
Even with no real hits, a strong foundation gets them #4.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Konaka & Shinya Ishida (Sportiva 2.26)
- vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Ryutaro Ono (Sportiva 12.03)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Ryutaro Ono (Sportiva 7.13)
- vs. Michio Kageyama & Shinya Ishida (Sportiva 8.13)
3.) Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, PAC, Marina Shafir & Daniel Garcia)
It’s a lot of names, but it’s also like, half of the good wrestlers in the promotion.
If you want to keep playing the percentage games, they’re responsible for at least three-quarters of the interesting AEW TV and make up at least nintey percent of all good heels in North America. No, that’s not necessarily represented in match ratings, but with teams this big, it’s always been about feeling anyway.
Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli are two of the better wrestlers on the entire planet, Danny Garcia and PAC are great late additions, and Wheeler Yuta might be the most hated man on the planet. Add in the constant ringside presence of Marina Shafir and a little late-year work in Mexico, and case made. In a better year, with all the lackluster stuff with The Opps and the general slowness before Garcia and PAC, you could argue against this. But tag team wrestling has been in a pretty poor state ever since the Astronauts and Violence is Forever stopped frequenting the top side of yearly lists.
And yes, I did crop Gabe Kidd out of the image above. Fake Death Rider.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs & Samoa Joe (AEW 4.16)
- Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Jon Moxley vs. Matt Menard, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong (AEW 9.27)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Hook & Samoa Joe (AEW 4.09)
- Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir w/Gabe Kidd vs. Mark Briscoe, Mike Bailey & Willow Nightingale (AEW 5.28)
- Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong (AEW 11.19)
- Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta vs. Los Hermanos Chavez: Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja (CMLL 11.28)
- Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta vs. Difunto, Esfinge & Último Guerrero (CMLL 11.29)
- Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Marina Shafir vs. Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong & Toni Storm (AEW 12.31)
2.) Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu)
Big Hash and Yuu do fall to the wayside for Meiko Satomura’s retirement tour and Hashimoto’s own title reign in the first half of the year, but when they’re not victims of things bigger than they are, Team 200kg is the best traditional tag team on the planet.
That thought is rewarded with some particularly notable hits. The heavyweights get one of the best matches of the year against the Sareee and Meiko superteam at Fortune Dream, as well as a personal favorite late-year mini-hit against Oka and Manami. There is a year capper title drop to Bob Bob Momo Banana to end their time as a team before Yuu retires that’s worth something too; otherwise, they find themselves in a sizeable amount of solid undercard bouts or preview tags for Hash’s title.
It’s not quite as much as last year, but with competition even thinner, Senjo’s best retain the #2 spot.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Meiko Satomura & Sareee (Fortune Dream 4.16)
- vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yurika Oka (Yoshihiro Takayama Produce 9.03)
- vs. Manami & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 12.21)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Takumi Iroha & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 3.23)
- vs. Mika Iwata & Yura Suzuki (Sendai Girls 4.12)
- w/ YUNA & Yurika Oka vs. HANAKO, Maika, Rian & Waka Tsukiyama (Stardom 4.24)
- vs. Sareee & Selene Misora (Jumping Bomb Angels Produce 12.01)
- vs. Bob Bob Momo Banana (Sendai Girls 12.26)
1.) Galeón Fantasma (Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr.)
They have fewer than some, get less than others, and lose a member to injury. The heart, though, has always said the same thing.
Tag team of the year.
If this category is to be largely based on feeling, Galeón Fantasma was always going to run away with the top spot. They look cool, act cool, and do cool stuff. The type of guys you pretend to be on the playground when you’re a kid.
Other than appearance and feeling, there are tangibles for these three men to hang their hat on. Two of the better trios matches of the decade, and the two best of the year. Seamless integration of singles programs into their matches. Flat out, not just being the best rudos in the world, but the most interesting as well.
So what if the numbers don’t make an extensive resume? There wasn’t a time these three were on my screen and I didn’t think they were the best in the world.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Neón & Star Jr. (CMLL 4.22)
- Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Blue Panther & Titán (CMLL 4.29)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr. vs. Flip Gordon, Star Jr. & Titán (CMLL 2.01)
- Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Bandido & Místico (CMLL 7.18)
- Barboza & Difunto vs. Místico & Titán (CMLL 11.11)
Wrestler of the Year:
25.) Mark Briscoe
Mark Briscoe can do better.
There are two minor miracles: getting real great gimmick matches out of MJF and Ricochet, but unlike last year, Mark’s TV work feels steadily good, not great. That’s partly not his fault, I suppose. The Ricochet match getting run back a handful of times doesn’t do either man any favors. Being an afterthought in the Death Rider/Conglomeration feud in favor of Kyle O’Reilly is a bummer. Even the more general focus on some of the more lighthearted stuff, like all the bald jokes in the aforementioned Ricochet program or the multiple matches with MxM Collection are just ways to take away from his natural strength of being a babyface. Then again, the TV matches with Moxley and Claudio were disappointing, and missing with Okada in Mexico feels like a missed opportunity as well.
Still, Mark remains the reliable hand for AEW TV. None of his shortcomings this year will make me roll my eyes at a billing, nor can I complain with a handful of PPV hits either. At this point, a good AEW big match is becoming more and more of a rarity anyhow, and the TNT title win hopefully means Mark will get back to his TV babyface strengths in 2026.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Ricochet (AEW 5.25)
- vs. MJF (AEW 9.20)
- vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW 12.13)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW 1.04)
- vs. Konosuke Takeshita (AEW 3.26)
- vs. Ricochet (AEW 4.23)
- w/ Mike Bailey & Willow Nightingale vs. Gabe Kidd, Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir (AEW 5.28)
- w/ Místico & Hologram & Mark Briscoe vs. Hechicero, Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta (AEW 7.02)
- vs. Ricochet (AEW 7.30)
- vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW 11.22)
24.) Anoa
Image via Soft Ground Wrestling
Anoa was both a last-second inclusion and a post-New Year discovery.
What a find he turned out to be. He almost feels like a guilty pleasure wrestler, though in the nerdiest sense possible. His appeal isn’t built on anything complex but on a collection of small, convincing details. His strikes look great, whether it’s a simple punch or one of those heavy overhand blows he favors. His limb work is rock solid when he has a willing partner, though; he’s even better at selling damage himself. Perhaps more importantly, in SGW’s ever-shifting title scene, Anoa manages to be equally credible as a heel or a babyface, and that flexibility comes from one thing above all else: his instincts. He always just seems to either sell harder or hit harder. My type of wrestler. Well, minus the Cody Rhodes reverence that feels a bit loud at times, but then again, the irony of him being a much better wrestler tickles me in a good way.
That rock-solid foundation is what anchors his best work this year. The January match with Sanjuki is one of the purest pieces of nerdbait wrestling you’ll find, built on his arm. His on-and-off rivalry with SGW’s golden boy Kapeeka drops him into some of the most immediately fun wrestling of the year, with the title change at Hot Temper standing out as one of the most satisfying championship wins on the calendar. Hell, even the one tag match I got around to was surprisingly excellent on his end: classic ‘n simple Southern-style tag work alongside One Man Army in the traditional ring.
The man that has me looking forward to what Uganda has to provide going forward.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Sanjuki (SGW 1.04)
- vs. Martin k (SGW 3.06)
- vs. Kapeeka (SGW 3.28)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Kapeeka (SGW 1.25)
- w/ One Man Army vs. Crazy Dominions (SGW 6.30)
- vs. One Man Army (SGW 9.15)
- vs. Hamis Diamond (SGW 10.26)
23.) Mayu Iwatani
Mayu Iwatani is done a lot of good with her opportunities being downsized.
It was an eventful year in Iwatani land. She’s not here because she improved or because any of her worst habits vanished. Even jumping ship from Stardom to Marigold didn’t actually make Mayu more interesting, but that change of scenery lent well to the math aspects of this list. The timing of the move allows her the time to collect the best women’s Bushiroad match with AZM at Wrestle Kingdom and slide into a delightfully honest Sumie Sakai retirement match, while also getting to give Nane Takahashi her best match on her retirement tour and pop into the Marigold/Marvelous feud. To say the timing was right for her would be an understatement, but the year-end result is Mayu leaving behind bloated main event title matches and working shorter, more exciting bouts with much better wrestlers. It’s a simple case backed with more volume than she’s ever had before, as well as fewer glaring misses. A case that I, for one, am happy to make. Not sure there’s a wrestler on earth I want to like more.
Not sure how sustainable this kind of year is, but I will not deny the fun Mayu’s matches bring when her most frustrating habits don’t come out to play.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. AZM (NJPW 1.04)
- w/ Hiromu Takahashi & Yuka Sakazaki vs. EVIL, SHO & Sumie Sakai (NJPW 1.11)
- w/ Hazuki & Saya Iida vs. AZM, Mei Seira & Starlight Kid (Barb Sasaki Produce 3.10)
- vs. Nanae Takahashi (Marigold 5.04)
- vs. Senka Akatsuki (Marvelous 10.03)
- w/ Seri Yamaoka & Utami Hayashishita vs. Mio Momono, Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha (NOAH 10.06)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Seri Yamaoka (Marigold 8.02)
- vs. Seri Yamaoka (Marigold 10.13)
- vs. MIRAI (Michinoku Pro 11.03)
22.) Mad Dog Connelly
All bark, all bite.
With Adam Priest picking up more opportunities in ROH and on AEW television, Mad Dog Connelly has quietly assumed a second crown. No longer just the king of the dog collar, but king of the American indies as well. And while I get that distinction would have carried far more weight not even a decade ago, for whatever it’s worth now, there was no other real candidate to choose from. Connelly is a dying breed. Someone who can walk into a tiny ballroom, gymnasium, or theater and face someone you’ve never heard of and still have an interesting match.
The issue is access. So much of Connelly’s best work exists in hard-to-find worlds, and that’s ultimately what sinks his placement. Everything he does in the most easily accessible spot of DPW landed somewhere between good and great, with strong performances in another easy find, West Coast Pro, as well. Elsewhere, though, the hit rate is less consistent. Some of the JCW work meanders, while his output in pseudo home SLA—which clicked for me last year—misses in 2025. Even the Demus match comes up a tad shorter than expected, and the much-anticipated showdown with Priest is a rare case of a match simply not being given enough time to unfold.
Still, I think Mad Dog Connelly remains a uniquely violent presence. The simple fact that his dog collar gimmick hasn’t gone stale is a testament to how much lifeblood his style has. Sure, his opponents don’t always meet his level of commitment, but Connelly has continued to live up to the name regardless.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Thomas Shire (DPW 5.18)
- vs. Demus (ACTION/ROH/Segunda Caida 9.06)
- vs. Dominic Garrini (DPW 8.10)
- vs. Erick Stevens (DPW 12.12)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Josh Crane (NAP 1.30)
- vs. Matt Tremont (DPW 6.15)
- vs. Matt Tremont (JCW 7.06)
- vs. 1 Called Manders (JCW 9.21)
- vs. Judas Icarus (DEFY 11.21)
21.) El Hijo De Fishman
Lets go back-to-back on the violent madman, shall we?
If you’re unfamiliar, El Hijo de Fishman does one thing and does it really well. He brawls. Mostly with Máscara Sagrada, continuing a familial rivalry that’s decades old. The matches are bloody. Violent. Dirty. Pretty much any adjective you’d use to describe a great lucha brawl applies to the work Fishman and Sagrada do together. They continue that bloody journey all year, naturally, but Fishman also shows up in places Sagrada doesn’t. His match with Demus in Zona 23 is an absolutely fantastic slice of chaos, and he also finds himself involved in a messy, but fun, El Hijo del Santo retirement match. All of it helps the case on paper, but reducing Fishman to numbers on a spreadsheet does a disservice to what he’s committed his entire career to.
Destroying Máscara Sagrada.
And maybe that’s what ultimately places Fishman over his foe. He’s always pushing, while Sagrada is fighting back. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for the rudo. Who knows. Who cares. No one else comes close to producing what Fishman produces.
A violent enigma.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Máscara Sagrada (Panther Promotion 1.12)
- vs. Máscara Sagrada (Promociones Jimenez 2.02)
- vs. Demus (Zona 23 3.09)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Brazo Celestial vs. Máscara Sagrada & Rokambole Jr. (MaxProad 7.31)
- w/ Kingperio vs. Bendito & Mascara Sagrada NG (Indy Show in Auditorio Municipal 5.31)
- vs. Máscara Sagrada (Panther Promotion 10.19)
- w/ Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Texano Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo, LA Park & Último Dragón (Todo X El Todo 12.13)
20.) Daniel Garcia
Daniel Garcia has always been one of the best wrestlers in his company, but now things are starting to trend up.
Even with a new shade of colors, he’s still as hard to write about as ever. Danny has always felt like an amalgamation of some of the best aspects of some truly great wrestlers that just happens to present a skinny weirdo. He can look funny and be awkward, and yet there are times when he feels as convincing as an Eddie Kingston, as creative as Bryan Danielson, or as sound as a Ricky Steamboat. You can’t call him those men because he just isn’t, and yet, I really, really want to.
Garcia has shown how great he can be. And I want him to be greater.
So to squeeze out what little was left in the 2nd place babyface act, ditch his annoying hype man, and join the best faction in wrestling—maybe it’s time for the best Danny to come out. The tags with Moxley felt great. The matches with Darby and Briscoe were. And he has his place in all of them. Just as creative, sound, and convincing as he can be, but so much less of the off-putting presence AEW originally wanted him to be.
12 months of that, and you’re reading about Garcia much later.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW 7.02)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 8.27)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley vs. Matt Menard, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong (AEW 9.27)
- vs. Darby Allin (AEW 11.05)
- vs. Mark Briscoe (AEW 12.13)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Mark Briscoe (AEW 1.04)
- Casino Gauntlet Match (AEW 11.22)
- w/ Wheeler Yuta vs. Los Hermanos Chavez (CMLL 11.28)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Difunto, Esfinge & Último Guerrero (CMLL 11.29)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli & Marina Shafir vs. Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong & Toni Storm (AEW 12.31)
19.) Hirooki Goto
It’s no secret as to why Hirooki Goto makes it here.
Instead of asking the question of how much one or two really great things should matter, though, I’ll just tell you that Goto’s year—which was really only the first six months of 2025—was something you just had to live through. Maybe that makes the usage of this spot unnecessary or some kind of generous, but I don’t care. Anyone in this space who was worth a damn only had Goto’s name in their mouth the first three or four months of the year, and for good reason. The unlikeliness of it all was a rarity where pro wrestling captured all of our imaginations and made us feel.
For God’s sake, the man had me tearing up when he won. That’s not something that happens every year. So while yes, the numbers say Goto only has a handful of title matches and nothing else to back him up, the point is not entirely the numbers, it’s just as much finally seeing him triumph. And it was a victory that felt every bit as good as anyone could’ve imagined.
Undeniable. Irreplicable. The absolute peaks of 2025 belong to Goto.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW 2.11)
- vs. David Finlay (NJPW 4.25)
- vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW 6.29)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW 3.06)
- vs. Yuji Nagata (NJPW 3.15)
18.) Demus
Image via Ring of Honor
Another year of Demus having some of the very best matches of the year before messing around in Japan to end his year. I think this year, I just appreciated it more.
Given any chance to fully unleash on somebody, I’m not sure there’s anyone better. In those moments where Demus gets his match, you’ll see what I mean. There’s the vicious beatdown of Adam del Castillo. The chaos of a three-way with Osiris and Amnesia. And in the wild brawl with El Hijo de Fishman. There are other times when Demus is in total mania, but there are only so many people in a place like IWRG that can keep up. When they can, though, everything he does feels as violent and as hateful as possible. His environment and his opponent are a playground. He punches hard, makes you bleed, and looks like demon spawn while doing it.
A couple times a year, the greatest to do it.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Adam Del Castillo (Lucha Memes 1.19)
- vs. Osiris vs. Amnesia (Zona 23 1.26)
- vs. El Hijo de Fishman (Zona 23 3.09)
- vs. Mad Dog Conelly (ACTION/ROH/Segunda Caida 9.06)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Tonalli (Lucha Memes 9.14)
- w/ Luis Mante vs. JACKY KAMEI & Riiita (DragonGate 12.16)
17.) Atlantis Jr.
Atlantis Jr. doesn’t find himself in anything of major importance, nor does he stumble into anything particularly great because he’s in it.
He’s got enough little things to work himself into the conversation. The feud with Zandokan Jr. is a whole lot of fun, even if the singles payoff falls a bit short. And he’s excellent within the trio’s formula, like most CMLL luchadores are. For his case, I’m not sure anything hits quite like a big Atlantis hot tag.
None of that is the backbone of the case. Atlantis is undoubtedly a great wrestler, but what he represents is something much more intangible. To me, his work represents one of the last ways I can casually enjoy wrestling. And while I get it’s my fault for overanalyzing everything, Atlantis absolutely gets credit for being largely immune to that. He just feels human. He’s larger than life in the way all the heroes of CMLL are, but you also get the sense that doesn’t matter to him. He’ll work the crowd, make his big comebacks, and head out still feeling like you or I. Hell, even the subsection of fans that seem to have irrational hatred of the guy just adds to the charm. Heroes everyone likes are always too good to be true anyway.
The most watchable wrestler in the most watchable promotion.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Máscara Dorada & Templario vs. Magnus, Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr. (ROH 2.27)
- w/ Neón & Star Jr. vs. Galeón Fantasma (CMLL 4.22)
- w/ Blue Panther & Titán vs. Galeón Fantasma (CMLL 4.29)
- vs. Difunto (CMLL 8.05)
- w/ & Místico vs. Angel de Oro, Difunto & Hechicero (CMLL 8.08)
- vs. Xelhua (CMLL 9.26)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Zandokan Jr. (CMLL 5.26)
- w/ Bandido & Místico vs. Galeón Fantasma (CMLL 7.18)
- w/ Neón vs. Difunto & Hechicero (CMLL 10.04)
- w/ Xelhua vs. Angel de Oro & Yutani (CMLL 12.19)
16.) Neón
The king of everything short and sweet.
He’s also the only member of Sky Team to crack the list. I know that’ll lose some people right away, but I think Neón simply does more with what he’s given. Almost all of his lightning matches are a joy, and when you stack them against bloated Místico title bouts or Máscara Dorada’s disappointing C2 run, the efficiency of that ten-minute time limit becomes something I appreciate more and more.
That’s not to say the year is all bite-sized work. Neón also delivers in the few higher-stake, longer formats as well. I especially love the two traditional two-out-of-three falls matches with Bárbaro Cavernario, both of which rank among my favorite CMLL singles bouts of the year and function as an excellent showcase of Neón’s strengths as a técnico. And if what you’re after is pure spectacle, the Torneo La Leyenda de Plata final against Dorada is full of all the big dives and buttery smooth sequences one could want.
Again, I’m probably not going to convince anyone who already cares enough to have an opinion that Neón is better than his two closest peers—but that’s fine. I certainly have no ill will towards any notions that lean that way.
Your 16th best wrestler of 2025.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. El Bárbaro Cavernario (CMLL 1.04)
- w/ Blue Panther & Máscara Dorada vs. Los Guerreros Laguneros (CMLL 4.18)
- w/ Atlantis Jr. & Star Jr. vs. Galeón Fantasma (CMLL 4.22)
- vs. El Bárbaro Cavernario (CMLL 6.07)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Máscara Dorada & Místico vs. Los Guerreros Laguneros (CMLL 1.31)
- vs. Max Star (CMLL 2.14)
- vs. Zandokan Jr. (NJPW/CMLL 2.27)
- vs. Paul London (MLW/CMLL 5.02)
- w/ Máscara Dorada & Místico vs. Los Infernales (CMLL 5.09)
- Torneo Cibernetico (ACTION/ROH/Segunda Caida 5.24)
- vs. Máscara Dorada (CMLL 7.25)
- w/ Atlantis Jr. vs. Difunto & Hechicero (CMLL 10.04)
15.) Roderick Strong
Déjà vu.
Once again, AEW leaned on Roderick Strong as a second option, and he delivered. Once again, he supplements all that volume work with a yearly 100-level match in DPW.
I like that.
It just makes sense for Roddy. I can point directly to a long list of recommendations and put a circle around one that’s particularly great. No need for further explanation. He’s another one of those guys that’s hard to describe why he’s great to someone who thinks differently. His matches whip a ton of ass and make logical sense to me. What else am I supposed to say? None of those reasons are new to 2025 Strong. They’ve all been true for well over a decade now.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Kyle O’Reilly vs. FTR (AEW 4.26)
- w/ Matt Menard & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Jon Moxley (AEW 9.27)
- vs. Claudio Castagnoli (AEW 10.15)
- vs. Erick Stevens (DPW 10.19)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 11.08)
- vs. Orange Cassidy (AEW 12.06)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 9.17)
- w/ Orange Cassidy vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley (AEW 11.19)
- Casino Gauntlet Match (AEW 11.22)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 12.17)
- w/ Orange Cassidy & Toni Storm vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Marina Shafir (AEW 12.31)
14.) Yurika Oka
Once again, Oka found herself in a lot of stuff I liked. I’m not sure I’d put her up with names like Hashimoto, Sareee, or Momono, but it’s no coincidence Oka finds herself in that vortex. So while, no, she’s not even the best wrestler in Senjo, given how great Hashimoto is, what that makes her is the most underutilized wrestler on earth. She doesn’t get world title shots. Doesn’t get a singles bout with Meiko on her way out. Partially lives in the midcard unless Mio’s with her.
A shame, really.
Tag team or singles, she’s great. Doesn’t matter where on the card. The team with Mio was as good as last year when Momono was healthy. She does great work with younger wrestlers much worse than she is. Still, she’s the most endearing personality in wrestling. That more than, say, Mika Iwata has ever given.
Maybe it’s delusion, but Oka proved me right when I called her one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world last year. I will not pretend she’s solely a benefactor of those who surround her.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Yura Suzuki (Sendai Girls 1.12)
- w/ Kaoru Ito vs. Bozilla & Mio Momono (Sareee-ISM 1.26)
- w/ Maria vs. Chi Chi & Sareee (Sendai Girls 2.16)
- vs. Mio Momono (Marvelous 8.31)
- vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Team 200kg (Yoshihiro Takayama Produce 9.03)
- w/ Manami vs. Team 200kg (Sendai Girls 12.21)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Takumi Iroha vs. Team 200kg (Sendai Girls 3.23)
- w/ Chihiro Hashimoto, Yuu & YUNA vs. HANAKO, Maika, Rian & Waka Tsukiyama (Stardom 4.24)
- w/ Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Sareee & Tomoka Inaba (Sendai Girls 4.26)
- w/ Mio Momono & Yurika Oka vs. Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase (Sendai Girls 10.17)
- w/ Mio Momono & Yurika Oka vs. Team 200kg (Sendai Girls 12.26)
13.) Blue Panther
Blue Panther, at 68 years old, is a top 15 wrestler in the world. Now, I’ve only been doing this for two years, and I’ve really only thought about years since 2010, but that’s an age where one has to think he’s in contention for being the oldest to ever have a year as great as this. He’s got three of the six best singles matches in the promotion of the year. He’s a key member in the best trios bout, and with a surprisingly busy schedule, he finds himself in some fun old-man llave stuff as well.
Less tangibly, Blue Panther is the ultimate hero. He gets the most authentic, thunderous reactions from the CMLL faithful, and with that, he gets his greatest strength. No one worked with the crowd better than Panther did in 2025. I promise too, that if you’re normally not the type of person to care about that type of thing, watch any Blue Panther match. He makes everyone in any given building matter.
A special presence.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Hechicero (CMLL 1.10)
- w/ Máscara Dorada & Neón vs. Los Guerreros Laguneros (CMLL 4.18)
- w/ Atlantis Jr. & Titán vs. Galeón Fantasma (CMLL 4.29)
- vs. Último Guerrero (CMLL 8.08)
- vs. Último Guerrero (CMLL 9.21)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- Torneo Cibernetico (ACTION/ROH/Segunda Caida 5.24)
- w/ Atlantis & Pantera vs. Felino, Stuka Jr. & Virus (CMLL 5.30)
12.) Senka Akatsuki
Senka Akatsuki barely has fifty matches under her belt, and she already feels like one of the realest wrestlers in the world.
There’s a fair debate to be had that the whole Senka/Sora project is a bit too manufactured. It’s not as if Chigusa Nagayo ever intended this push to be subtle, considering the coordinated gear and obvious branding. Both women have been given far more opportunity than, say, someone like Ai Houzan, and in another context, that kind of blind faith can be suffocating. It’s seen this very year with Seri Yamoka, whose push ultimately became overbearing and undercut what could have been a stronger case.
Those same conditions, though, end up highlighting what makes Senka special.
Where Seri often felt forced, Senka feels undeniable (not working in Marigold helps, though). She drags wrestlers with bad habits into more grounded matches. She makes results feel uncertain. She becomes the most interesting person in an interpromotional feud. It’s not anything complex she’s doing. She’s so convincing she’s gotten a pin sequence and a bodyslam over as dangerous. Turns out all it takes to be the “future” is to punch back when pushed around, instead of just insisting on being taken seriously.
Hit hard. Sell hard. Be real.
That may as well be her motto, and sticking to it damn near carried her into the top ten.
A simple case. A simple wrestler.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Aja Kong (Marvelous 4.17)
- w/ Sora Ayame vs. Sareee & Takumi Iroha (Marvelous 6.27)
- vs. Mayu Iwatani (Marvelous 10.03)
- w/ Mio Momono & Takumi Iroha vs. Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Utami Hayashishita (NOAH 10.06)
- vs. Seri Yamaoka (Marvelous 12.28)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Ai Houzan (Marvelous 1.04)
- w/ Takumi Iroha vs. Nanae Takahashi & Seri Yamaoka (Marigold 3.30)
- w/ Chihiro Hashimoto, Mika Iwata, Takumi Iroha & YUNA vs. Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 4.29)
- vs. DASH Chisako (Tenryu Project 5.21)
- vs. Takumi Iroha (Marvelous 10.19)
11.) Ali Najima
Not once has someone captured my interest as quickly as Ali Najima did.
He might not quite have the volume the other rookies have, or even her peaks. But he does more with so much less. Never once is his spotlight bright enough to earn any glamorous labels. His deal is much the same as Senka’s.
Hit hard. Sell hard. Be real.
Except he hits harder. Sells harder. Feels realer.
Working in the quaint little sports bar helps. But even on the tours to KTdan and DDT, he feels like the same guy. Youthfully enthusiastic, someone who demands to be taken seriously by how much every little thing he does can matter.
Dare I say, the 4th spirtual Astronaut.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Yuta Oya vs Konaka & Shinya Ishida (Sportiva 2.26)
- vs. Yuta Oya (Sportiva 7.30)
- vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe (Sportiva 8.06)
- w/ Super Taira vs. Ryutaro Ono & Yuta Oya (Sportiva 9.17)
- vs. Kosuke Sato (Kakuto Tanteidan 10.23)
- vs. Hinata Kasai (DDT 11.11)
- w/ Yuta Oya vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Ryutaro Ono (Sportiva 12.03)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Ryutaro Ono vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Yuta Oya (Sportiva 1.07)
- w/ Yuta Oya vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Ryutaro Ono (Sportiva 7.13)
- w/ Yuta Oya vs. Michio Kageyama & Shinya Ishida (Sportiva 8.13)
- w/ Ryutaro Ono vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu (Sportiva 9.03)
10.) Sareee
I admit, this feels wrong.
I’ll be honest, I don’t have much nice to say about her Stardom work or the tag team with Takumi Iroha. Both of them did pretty much expose Sareee as being incapable of getting good matches out of bad wrestlers with any kind of consistency.
Still, with an ability to work everywhere, Sareee gets to wrestle with all of the other women who made this list, gets a singles match with Meiko before she retires, and does just enough work inside of actual good joshi promotions to have an undeniable amount of volume and some peaks. That, and Sareee was at least good in so many of her Stardom matches that weren’t. Although, she gets no slack for having those names bleed into the Sareee-ISM shows. Then, there’s the little bit of Marigold stuff that isn’t good either, and…
Well, you draw the line where you want.
Fuminori Abe made the list in a similar manner as Saree did this year, then fell off the list this year. Hopefully, not an omen of what’s to come. But for now: Just because it doesn’t feel good doesn’t mean it isn’t correct.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Meiko Satomura (Sareee-ISM 1.23)
- w/ Chi Chi vs. Maria & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 2.16)
- w/ Meiko Satomura vs. Team 200kg (Fortune Dream 4.16)
- w/ Takumi Iroha vs. Senka Akatsuki & Sora Ayame (Marvelous 6.27)
- vs. Manami (Sendai Girls 9.23)
- vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls 11.16)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Tomoka Inaba vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 4.26)
- vs. Ranna Yagami (Stardom 6.08)
- vs. Syuri (Stardom 6.21)
- w/ Miku Kanae vs. Mei Seira & Yuna Mizumori (Stardom 11.07)
- w/ Suzu Suzuki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Natsupoi (Sareee-ISM 11.10)
- w/ Selene Misora vs. Team 200kg (Jumping Bomb Angels Produce 12.01)
- vs. RIKO Kawahata (Marvelous 12.21)
- w/ Chihiro Hashimoto & Takumi Iroha vs. Mio Momono, Rin & Yuu (Marvelous 12.21)
9.) Claudio Castagnoli
Image via CMLL & AEW
Claudio’s placement, on the other hand, feels very right.
He may not be the guy, and that’s fine. Claudio was the guy holding the Death Rider thing AEW initially misunderstood together, he was the guy they asked for a 3rd straight C2 run, and he was the guy that went to CMLL to capture gold.
Never once did Claudio come up short when asked to do something the company really needed to pull itself up. He’s the glue. Pumping out good TV matches, being an interesting second in so many Mox bouts, and putting in some hits of his own along the way. He was the man of the hour at 3 a.m., and dammit, if that doesn’t sum up how often AEW stumbles into getting something right, I don’t know what does.
That’s been the life of Mr. Castagnoli the past couple years, and this year the numbers were there to back it up.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs & Samoa Joe (AEW 4.16)
- vs. Darby Allin (AEW 8.27)
- w/ Daniel Garcia & Jon Moxley vs. Matt Menard, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong (AEW 9.27)
- vs. Roderick Strong (AEW 10.15)
- vs. Orange Cassidy (AEW 11.26)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Wheeler Yuta vs. Hook & Samoa Joe (AEW 4.09)
- vs. Orange Cassidy (AEW 11.05)
- w/ Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong (AEW 11.19)
- Casino Gauntlet Match (AEW 11.22)
- vs. Gran Guerrero (CMLL 11.28)
- w/ Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta vs. Difunto, Esfinge & Último Guerrero (CMLL 11.29)
- vs. Último Guerrero (CMLL 12.19)
- w/ Daniel Garcia & Marina Shafir vs. Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong & Toni Storm (AEW 12.31)
8.) Difunto
Image via CMLL
I did not see much praise for Difunto last year, and that makes me sad.
Aside from being one of the gnarliest-looking luchadores in all of Mexico, Difunto quietly became a name CMLL could turn to throughout the year. He was a perfect fit in what was undoubtedly the promotion’s best trio alongside Barboza and Zandokan Jr. in Galeón Fantasma, and even when Zandokan went down with injury, Difunto didn’t miss a step. The quick pivot to a straight tag team with Barboza remained strong, while little one-night pairings with big names like Hechicero were a genuine delight. And hey, if you’re into big Místico matches, the late-year lengthy Light Heavyweight title epic was a lot of fun—even for someone who doesn’t enjoy Místico all that much.
It’s hard to say where Difunto goes from here. He isn’t flashy in the way CMLL tends to reward, but if Galeón Fantasma keeps chugging once Zandokan is healthy, and with the occasional singles spot mixed in, Difunto feels like someone who could hover around the top 25 for years to come.
CMLL’s Mr. Reliable.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. El Bárbaro Cavernario vs. Barboza vs. Xelhua (CMLL 1.17)
- vs. El Bárbaro Cavernario (CMLL 2.04)
- w/ Barboza & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Neón & Star Jr. (CMLL 4.22)
- w/ Barboza & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Blue Panther & Titán (CMLL 4.29)
- vs. Atlantis Jr. (CMLL 8.05)
- w/ Ángel de Oro & Hechicero vs. Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada & Místico (CMLL 8.08)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Barboza & Zandokan Jr. vs. Flip Gordon, Star Jr. & Titán (CMLL 2.01)
- w/ Barboza & Zandokan Jr. vs. Atlantis Jr., Bandido & Místico vs. (CMLL 7.18)
- vs. Rey Espartano (Lucha Memes 7.19)
- w/ Hechicero vs. Atlantis Jr. & Neón (CMLL 10.04)
- w/ Barboza vs. Místico & Titán (CMLL 11.11)
- w/ Esfinge & Último Guerrero vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta (CMLL 11.29)
- vs. Místico (CMLL 12.23)
7.) Darby Allin
Darby Allin has five singles matches in the top 50, and I’m supposed to discredit his year because it was only four months long?
Give me a break.
The little bump freak needs to be here, and yes, he needs to be this high. Every time he wrestled this year, he was at least good. With everybody not named Gabe Kidd, actually, he was flat-out great. There is no extra flair to the case. Darby Allin respected my time more than anyone, and it’s no coincidence those four months he was back happen to be far and away the four best months of AEW’s year either.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Claudio Castagnoli (AEW 8.27)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 9.20)
- vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 10.18)
- vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW 11.05)
- vs. PAC (AEW 11.22)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Kevin Knight (AEW 11.26)
6.) Shinya Aoki
There is no one like Shinya Aoki.
Despite being wildly different wrestlers, Shinya Aoki has always made his case in the way Darby Allin just made his. A thin schedule where the breaks are spent doing something cool, and his time spent wrestling is pumping out some of the best matches of the year.
To get it out of the way, Shinya Aoki had a really weird 30-minute draw against Yuji Nagata at one point. Being the majority of his appeal is matching a respect for your time and logic, that thing is a total bomb. There’s a good chance had that not happened, Aoki is a bit higher.
Bar that, man, Shinya Aoki was as great as he was last year. Still the same dude that can suffocate anyone on the mat, and still using the full-nelson pin to great effect.
His shining jewel is the King of DDT match with Higuchi, being arguably the best pure wrestling match of the year. Then, there’s the selfish destruction against Keigo Nakamura in February. And perhaps quietly, the late-year match with Takeshita is damn great too, if not a litmus test for what actually makes Soup an interesting wrestler. Hell, there’s a match against T-Hawk in 2025 in GLEAT, of all places, that’s a whole ton of fun too.
It’s a classic feeling Aoki year after all is said and done. 2 MMA fights, 3 matches in the top 50, and some DDT shenanigans and whatnot in between.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Keigo Nakamura (DDT 2.14)
- w/ Keigo Nakamura vs. Astronauts (DDT 4.06)
- vs. Kazusada Higuchi (DDT 5.06)
- vs. Yuya Koroku (DDT 9.28)
- vs. T-Hawk (GLEAT 10.09)
- vs. Konosuke Takeshita (DDT 11.30)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Charlie Dempsey (GCW 4.17)
- vs. Suwama (Evolution 7.05)
5.) Zandokan Jr.
Turns out I’m just going to repeat myself a lot doing these this year, and that’s fine. Yes, Zandokan got hurt a little over halfway into the year. He was absolutely the WOTY frontrunner when that happened, though.
Something weird happened late last year. Maybe it’s when Galeón Fantasma forms, or when Zandokan challenges for the CMLL World Light Heavyweight title in October. Whatever set it off, I don’t know, but Zandokan kind of just becomes the top Rudo in CMLL. He’s main eventing Arena Mexico with his stablemates and gets a feud with Atlantis Jr., wins an apuestas match, and is put across from an invading MJF.
I’d like to tell you it was because CMLL realized how great he was, but I sort of doubt that.
Nevertheless, he runs with it all. He’s the coolest dude on earth for seven months. Whether it’s the quaint lightning match with El Hijo del Villano III or the mask match with Star Jr., the new big rudo on the block makes his matches about one thing. He’s a total ass, and he goes about it more naturally than anyone in the world. And in building his case before his injury, he checks all the boxes any luchador can. Delivers in the big matches, in trios, and outside his own promotion.
The very best in the world at his role.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. El Hijo del Villano III (CMLL 1.03)
- vs. Star Jr. (CMLL 3.21)
- w/ Barboza & Difunto vs. Atlantis Jr., Neón & Star Jr. (CMLL 4.22)
- w/ Barboza & Difunto vs. Atlantis Jr., Blue Panther & Titán (CMLL 4.29)
- vs. Máscara Dorada (CMLL 5.30)
- vs. Judas el Traidor (Lucha Memes 7.19)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Barboza & Difunto vs. Flip Gordon, Star Jr. & Titán (CMLL 2.01)
- w/ Soberano Jr. vs. Máscara Dorada & Templario (CMLL 2.14)
- vs. Neón (NJPW 2.27)
- vs. Atlantis Jr. (CMLL 5.06)
- w/ Barboza & Difunto vs. Atlantis Jr., Bandido & Mistico (CMLL 7.18)
4.) Chihiro Hashimoto
For the second straight year, Big Hash is the volume answer.
It was one of Hashimoto’s weaker years for major singles matches in quite some time, but it ends up mattering very little. Really, she only gets four true big matches. One is a title defense in Stardom. Another is against Mika Iwata. Realistically, neither was ever going to be great, and that’s fine. She makes the most of what she’s given and absolutely nails the other two.
The title switch with Meiko is a strong emotional piece and the last bombfest between the two. The Sareee title defense later in the year stands as one of the very best women’s matches of 2025, sans the few minutes at the end. There are smaller singles highlights scattered throughout as well, but much of her second half is spent strengthening her tag case alongside Yuu, or providing hits in classic fashion on Senjo undercards.
More important than any spreadsheet or match count is the fact that Hashimoto still feels like the best women’s wrestler in the world.
Years like this won’t be remembered as defining for Hashimoto. There’s no reinvention, no catapult to something bigger. She sticks to her guns, plays the same role, and lives in a place that (mostly) does her right. The same truth that’s held since the turn of the decade continues to apply. She is the biggest deal in joshi, one of the most reliable workers anywhere, and, still, one of the most likable.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 3.19)
- w/ Yuu vs. Meiko Satomura & Sareee (Fortune Dream 4.10)
- w/ Aja Kong vs. Manami & Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls 4.29)
- w/ Yuu vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yurika Oka (Yoshihiro Takayama Produce 9.03)
- vs. Sareee (Sendai Girls 11.16)
- w/ Yuu vs. Manami & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 12.21)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Manami vs. Maika & Natsupoi (Sendai Girls 3.01)
- w/ Yuu vs. Takumi Iroha & Yurika Oka (Sendai Girls 3.23)
- w/ Yuu vs. Mika Iwata & Yura Suzuki (Sendai Girls 4.12)
- w/ Yuu, YUNA & Yurika Oka vs. HANAKO, Maika, Rian & Waka Tsukiyama (Stardom 4.24)
- w/ Yurika Oka vs. Sareee & Tomoka Inaba (Sendai Girls 4.26)
- w/ Mika Iwata, Senka Akatsuki, Takumi Iroha & YUNA vs. Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura
- vs. Seri Yamaoka (Marigold 10.20)
- w/ Natsupoi vs. Sareee & Suzu Suzuki (Sareee-ISM 11.10)
- w/ Yuu vs. Sareee & Selene Misora (Jumping Bomb Angels Produce 12.01)
- w/ Sareee & Takumi Iroha vs. Mio Momono, Rin & Yuu (Marvelous 12.21)
- w/ Yuu vs. Bob Bob Momo Banana (Sendai Girls 12.26)
- vs. Yuu (Yuu Retirement Show 12.28)
3.) Kazusada Higuchi
With all due respect to the years Hirooki Goto and Jon Moxley had, Gooch is the big match wrestler of the year.
You could put Hashimoto here. Zandokan Jr. too. Aoki or Darby as well. I wouldn’t fight it. I can’t argue it. Aoki has more consistency, Hashimoto has more volume, and Zandokan has a longer peak. Higuchi only has a small journey to the KO-D belt, 2 great title defenses, and then he sinks back into being a roleplayer in favor of Yuki Ueno. On paper, it’s just not what some below him have. But those five really great matches in the small window and a story about climbing back to the top stuck with me. So much so that I won’t deny the feeling that he was the #3 wrestler this year.
So, while no, Higuchi has once again not gotten his deserved share or done all that he could’ve, it’s that brief moment in time where he feels like a king on his throne that matters more than anything else.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. Shinya Aoki (DDT 5.06)
- vs. Yuki Ueno (DDT 5.25)
- vs. KANON (DDT 5.25)
- vs. HARASHIMA (DDT 7.13)
- vs. Jun Akiyama (DDT 8.30)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Yuki Ishida vs. HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya (DDT 4.06)
- w/ Yuki Ishida vs. Calvin Tankman & Kazuma Sumi (DPW 4.25)
- vs. 1 Called Manders (GCW 7.28)
- w/ Jun Akiyama & Naomi Yoshimura vs. Antonio Honda & HARASHIMA & Yuya Koroku (DDT 10.25)
2.) Adam Priest
Feels like I need a bit for Adam Priest.
With no major company yet to fully back Priest, and without being able to claim the fully independent label, one of the defining wrestlers of the decade is missing a title he can call his own. I can’t just scrobble the “Go Ace” down like so many of us do for HARASHIMA, Tanahashi, and now, Jon Moxley. I can’t call him the GOAT like Danielson, or even on a more personal level, he doesn’t have the sort of sparkly favoritism I show someone like Yurika Oka.
Bell to bell, Adam Priest is brilliant; make no mistake. You can flip on any Priest match, and you’ll always get the haha! He’s so good at this moment in there. When you’re watching, he simply appears to be the best wrestler in the world. Can dance with anyone, grapples well, throws snug strikes, and every idea and choice he makes is logically correct. It’s a constant display. But he needs something to hang his hat on. Another Jake Something title switch isn’t it. A fun, cathartic spotfest with Trevor Lee at DPW’s last show isn’t either. Both are just two more great matches to a laundry list of them.
It’s his greatest strength and his only weakness. Adam Priest, in any literal sense one can imagine, is the best wrestler in the world. Mr. Consistency, miracle worker, ace, though? Not quite. He needs his thing, and then I have no doubt the jump to #1 can happen.
Until then, I’m sure he’ll keep cruising to these lists in some capacity anyway.
So, I leave you with this, even if the football fan in me doesn’t like it too much (especially with how badly they spanked my Badgers the last two years), but the man’s own adopted catchphrase wraps up this blurb better than anything I could come up with:
‘Roll Tide.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- vs. 1 Called Manders (DPW 1.21)
- vs. Fuminori Abe (DPW 4.25)
- vs. Calvin Tankman (DPW 6.15)
- vs. Anthony Henry (DPW 8.08)
- vs. Jake Something (DPW 8.10)
- vs. Jake Something (DPW 10.19)
- w/ Trevor Lee vs. Andrew Everett & BK Westbrook (DPW 12.12)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- vs. Timothy Thatcher (Prestige 1.11)
- vs. Carter Blaq (New Texas Pro 2.23)
- vs. Shigehiro Irie (DPW 4.24)
- w/ Trevor Lee vs. Jake Something & The Beast Mortos (DPW 7.13)
- w/ JD Drake vs. FTR (AEW 8.30)
- w/ Tommy Billington vs. FTR (AEW 9.11)
- w/ Manny Lo vs. Bojack & Morgan Dash (DPW 9.14)
- vs. Joseph Fenech Jr. (WxW 9.27)
- vs. Tim Bosby (ACTION 10.17)
1.) Jon Moxley
Image via All Elite Wrestling & Raphael Garcia
The overwhelming math answer matches the heart. Jon Moxley is the best wrestler alive.
I’ve gone about the feel of these placements a lot, so I’m glad we’re here. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you this was the answer all year, or tell you that the duds against Cope and Strickland don’t matter. They very much happened, but at the same time, I don’t care. Two bad wrestlers have bad matches against a great one. Not the first time that’s happened, believe it or not.
Instead, let us focus on the things Jon Moxley did instead of what he could’ve never reasonably controlled:
Jon Moxley gets the best version of Adam Page, Kyle Fletcher, and Darby Allin (twice) to come out and play. He’s indirectly responsible for Darby Allin, Daniel Garcia, and Claudio Castagnoli’s placement on the list. He’s got more peaks than anyone else. He’s a promotions-defining heel character, and he wills them into the POTY discussions alone. He has one of the best stadium main events ever.
Do you get it yet?
Ace shit.
- Notable Matches (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs & Samoa Joe (AEW 4.16)
- vs. Adam Page (AEW 7.12)
- vs. Adam Page (AEW 7.30)
- vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW 8.27)
- vs. Darby Allin (AEW 9.20)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli & Daniel Garcia vs. Matt Menard, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong (AEW 9.27)
- vs. Darby Allin (AEW 10.18)
- vs. Roderick Strong (AEW 11.08)
- vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW 12.27)
- Borderline Matches (***1/2 Matches)
- w/ Gabe Kidd & Marina Shafir vs. Mark Briscoe, Mike Bailey & Willow Nightingale (AEW 5.28)
- vs. Mike Bailey (AEW 8.06)
- vs. Roderick Strong (AEW 9.17)
- w/ Claudio Castagnoli vs. Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong (AEW 11.19)
- vs. Kyle O’Reilly (AEW 11.22)
- vs. Roderick Strong (AEW 12.17)
- vs. Orange Cassidy (AEW 12.21)
The 5 Worst Matches of 2025
5.) Maki Itoh vs. Mickie James – WrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow 2025 (4.17.2025)
Ok, so, part of me playing from behind all year comes with me intentionally avoiding bad wrestling with even higher priority than I normally would. Am I sure this is actually deserving of the 5th spot, then?
No, not really.
But since so many people complained about the Butterbean/Suzuki match on this show, I’m going to point you to the actual worst match on it. This. A weird, overtly lazy Maki Itoh match with all the stupid karaoke and some time for an anti-Meltzer/star ratings discourse promo from Mickie James, of all people.
I’m not going to tell you this is overtly offensive, or that I want my time back, or anything like that. I ended up here for purposes of this little section, and for what little I committed, I got what I bargained for. There is no world where a match like this would’ve been good, but there is a world where this is ignorable and not so damn weird.
Five spot it is. If we’re going to complain about Dave Meltzer in this day and age, can we at least keep it out of the matches we’re wrestling?
4.) Team 3D vs. The Hardys– TNA Bound For Glory 2025 (10.12.2025)
Something done in the worst of faith.
Bully Ray is someone who, despite never being a good wrestler in the first place, has been screaming into the clouds for a long time. A man who is probably still bitter that he never got the retirement match he thinks he deserved. So he winds up putting together something like this.
There is, admittedly, some baseline nostalgia attached to the Dudleys/Hardys rivalry from a casual audience. If one insists on reverence, there’s no real shame in looking back at a genuine high point. In that light, the easy path is obvious: play the hits. Do the sloppy old man plunder match, cash the check, and call it a day. Everyone points and laughs for a week at most, and then we all move on.
Instead, the obsession with manufacturing discourse for the absolute worst critics (himself included) takes over. Bubba needs his Marvel Cinematic Universe ending. He doesn’t care that it takes place in the most worthless promotion in the world, that it actively sacrifices the very nostalgia it pretends to celebrate, or that it’s all done for a set of developmental tag team titles. None of that matters, as long as he can go on his podcast the next day and tell you how great it was.
Something that should’ve just sucked, but also managed to be pathetically desperate and sadder than you can even imagine.
3.) Men’s Royal Rumble Match – WWE Royal Rumble 2025 (2.01.2025)
Image via World Wrestling Entertainment
While far from the grossest or most evil thing WWE put on last year, a match that fails this badly and takes eighty minutes to do it qualifies on merit alone.
On some level, I have to commend the idea of the Royal Rumble. At the very least, even as the match has morphed into the laziest version of itself, the winner is supposed to matter. It’s worth discussing, in theory. For as much as WWE is far removed from the wrestling I enjoy or want to support, a major match at WrestleMania still means something. It’s the grandest stage in the business, and that much can’t be denied. That fact, dear reader, is not something I particularly care to contest anymore, because Jey Uso won the Rumble this year.
The match itself is an absolute drag up until the moment he wins. Had he not, I don’t even think that would even be worth reflecting on. It’s a given that modern Rumbles mostly suck, and their winners often do too, but at least within WWE’s own conceited logic, they usually make sense. Jey Uso does not. He is an annoying plague. Someone who doesn’t even pretend to be a wrestler. He’s a forty-year-old man screaming 2015 Logan Paul catchphrases, which has somehow convinced both him and the company that he’s credible as a singles star. That’s about the level of logic you’d expect from someone dumb enough to get behind the wheel intoxicated, even after his own brother made the same incomprehensible decision twice. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what Triple H loves. You never really know with that evil man either.
But I digress. You probably already know all of this. So, as a formality, here’s your end-of-blurb wrap:
Yet another boring and bloated Rumble match for the books, one that creates none of the moments it desperately wants, and one that chooses a winner so baffling that it feels like a joke. Too bad they were dead serious.
2.) Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano – Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom 2025 (4.27.2025)
Aside from being a display of all the worst tendencies in the Bushiroad style, this whole thing reeks of the most putrid desperation.
There is an audience for this. The type of people who think good wrestling is simply doing things in abundance without caring about the reason those things are happening. People who, when presented with the fact that their particular metric is shallow, like to tell you how much of a “story” is behind these matches, or worse, start pulling TV rating and attendance numbers. Luckily, if you float around long enough, you realize how avoidable these folks and what they talk about really are. Every once in a while, though, they find something new to latch onto and be particularly annoying about. Their pick here is just that. Eye-rolling quality, but steeped in shame more than anything else.
Before that, the Tokyo Sports Awards. Ignorable in their own right, though a generator of insufferable discourse all the same. For the unaware, these are annual Japanese wrestling awards that’ve been handed out by Tokyo Sports magazine since 1974, and come with the distinction of being formally recognized by the country’s major promotions. On paper, that’s all well and good, but in truth, the awards hold little weight in terms of actual quality. A quick glance at the winners will tell you they’ve always been nothing more than a narrative tool and popularity contest. Worse, these awards have only ever been handed out to men, meaning misogyny is baked into their supposed prestige. That alone renders them worthless to me, which makes the sight of a joshi promotion chasing this hollow validation all the more foolish.
That brings us to Tam Nakano. Quietly, her 2021 hair vs. hair match with Giulia may be the most destructive match of the decade. It shares all the same laziness and excess as this one, but worse, it served as a proof of concept. It reassured Stardom that reshaping its house style to mirror NJPW’s bloated epics was the right move. A style meant to court the critics mentioned earlier and curry favor with those Tokyo Sports cronies. That match didn’t win any awards, but it did receive votes. Votes no other joshi match had ever received. And that vote of confidence has had cascading effects. Their interpretation is that these voters have had a change of heart, when in reality, they haven’t. They’ve only pandered to shallow tastes, accepting the philosophy that what the men do is inherently better while doing it.
And that’s as gross as it sounds.
Then there’s Saya Kamitani. Even before the promotion began orbiting entirely around her, her white belt title run was already a way to cement that excess-heavy style into so many of Stardom’s biggest matches. A few years later, she’s now the poster child for it. Multiple belts, endless defenses, TV appearances, and photo-ops alongside legends, all in service of chasing a meaningless Tokyo Sports MVP award. And it works. Not because she’s a transcendent wrestler or a mold breaker, but because she’s a perfect Bushiroad employee. And this match, more than anything else, is the backbone of that case.
I really shouldn’t have to tell you why this sucks even just as a wrestling match. They tease something hateful and escalating in the opening minutes, only to render it worthless almost immediately. The chain disappears. The corny facial expressions ramp up. They just start doing moves. No-sells. Fake tears. More moves. Then more moves. Nearfalls. Nothing matters anymore, not even the stakes. The end is Kamitani retiring a wrestler no one with redeemable taste will miss, and the little MCU-style shot at the end is some of the most cynical “bUt tHe StOrY” bait imaginable. Hollow, empty, and only something great in the blindest of eyes.
A bad match. One that, in spite of that, would be much easier to point and laugh at had it not succeeded in further pushing an entire landscape backward.
1.) Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena – WWE SummerSlam 2025 – Sunday (8.03.2025)
Image via World Wrestling Entertainment
This match was initially reviewed here, this being a slightly edited version more befitting of the Yearly 100.
And now to something that’s much more blatant with its evil.
John Cena, as he always does, comes out to The Time Is Now. Being on his retirement tour, his tron displays the slight change of “last time is now,” while his gear is still branded with signature messaging like “rise above hate.” The crowd sings along, hitting the notes of “You can’t see me” the loudest. To them, he’s a hero. To me, even, I acknowledge he’s oft played a valiant one.
Time, though, has shown Cena, the man, to be a hypocrite. A corporate dog, unwilling to condemn, unwilling to complain. Content with fueling a machine with whatever nasty byproduct it produces. His actions and words during his retirement run have fractured his image, and because of it, what should’ve been a grand ride off into the sun turned into a parade float deflating mid-route.
Then, of course, Cody Rhodes. A pale, frankly pathetic imitation of Cena’s best aspects. As a central figurehead, and even more so as a wrestler. It’s no surprise that WWE has anointed him the next Cena, though. His terrible cosplay as a working-class hero isn’t an issue to them; he’s willing to shake any hand, and he’ll do it sporting bleached blond hair and wearing an expensive suit. Sure, he’s a phony, stuck behind the legacies of both his father and brother, but the crowd has duped themselves into liking him, and now he too will play a role in this disaster. If Cena is to pass the torch in the company’s desired direction (or the cape, if you will) an undeserving wrestler, a man who dresses, talks, and embodies WWE’s corporate greed will do, and there’s none more perfect than Cody.
Of course, these two low forms of Cena and Rhodes still wrestle a match. Really, though, they don’t. For forty minutes, they are vessels to an engine just there to tick boxes and generate clicks. A cinematic pause on the piledriver. Check. Cena’s signature announcer table AA spot and the will-they-won’t-they with the title belt are both milked and dragged out for as long as possible. The obsession with creating “cinematic” spots, naturally, is fulfilled with the stupid stage elevator bit. Don’t forget the usual soulless slop: A cheesy, extended struggle, conveniently staged in the middle of the ring, finishers after finishers, falling into repeating nearfalls, for minutes on end. All of it, then, and more. All to fulfill WWE’s obsession with creating moments instead of wrestling matches. None of it landing, none of it authentic.
In the grand scheme, those nearly 40 minutes of the match come and go. The metaphorical passing of that dying flame does happen, as it’s Rhodes who has his hand raised. It’s one final breath to blow out any flame a WWE flag bearer could have, and somehow, that’s not the point. Because then, the true declaration of it all, sees Brock Lesnar’s music hits. Not as the conquering beast of old, but as the accused sex pest. The crowd pops, and the attack on Cena may as well read as a welcoming handshake, an absolution of all wrongdoing. Lesnar will be seen again. It isn’t as if he has to be, but the machine demands his return. That message, sent, then accepted. Loud and clear.
With that cold embrace, new meaning arises. Every slogan—“You can’t see me,” “rise above hate,” “the last time is now”—is warped into a confession. The only thing WWE can’t see are its victims. It does not rise above hate; instead, it stands beside evil. And that last time? This being the last time that they will ever think twice about bringing back or associating with men like Lesnar. They know they’ll get away with it in spades.
Slam dunk worst match of the year.
Top 50 Matches of 2025
50.) EVIL, SHO & Sumie Sakai vs. Hiromu Takahashi, Mayu Iwatani & Yuka Sakazaki – NJPW Battle In The Valley 2025 (1.11.2025)
Image via New Japan Pro Wrestling
An unexpected chunk of honest pro wrestling.
Wrestling is a weird, deeply silly thing. To its deepest core, the makeup of this world is of given heroes and villains. We watch them do battle. Tell stories. Time affects this world, though, so part of seeing these characters is to watch them come and go. And like so many of our memories and experiences, many of them fade quietly into the background. A goodbye, to many, is the last chance to strike a loud chord.
Sumie Sakai, through the skin of her teeth, just might be one of them.
Behind the curtain, her real impact is more or less that of a negotiator. A pathfinder for the pathfinders. I, for however much that is true, am happy to respect that. She has what she has. Which, to be fair, is more than the current forms of EVIL, SHO, and Hiromu boast, but even on that level, I’m indifferent towards Sakai as a wrestler as well. No reason to fake any kind of affection for you here.
Somehow then, in her retirement of all places, an unremarkable, deeply awful lineup doesn’t matter.
I can only describe this as elite bullshit. It’s goofy and chaotic. Yet, self-aware, maybe in all the best ways. The charm Mayu and Yuka bring contrasts with the cartoonish villainy of the HOT boys. The wacky comedy lands. The twist of Sakai being left to fight alone hits you right in the heart. All thrown in the same pot, it’s a bit magical. Certainly one of the strangest retirement matches I’ve seen, and in its own absurd way, one of the most charming.
Proof you don’t need to love someone to appreciate a good goodbye.
Rating: ***3/4
49.) Místico vs. MJF – CMLL 92. Aniversario (9.19.2025)
Image via CMLL
Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Místico have one of the fifty best matches of the year.
Both men, to me, are insufferable and overrated in their own ways. I find their performances here to be well directed but kind of lazy. Templario (covered head-to-toe in New Japan gear, no less) being Místico’s second is a lame choice. Max’s Homelander getup is so dorky it doesn’t even work on the heel level. The whole match hides behind the typical Místico comeback and many of the trodden beats in Max’s heel act.
There are other things here I don’t care for here too. (Like Místico’s selling, it’s fine? Nowhere near the level people talked it up to being) Yet, we’re here. None of that had to matter. Those things stop it from being the revelation so many described; still, there’s hardly any kind of pitfall. From the very second Místico runs the blade across his forehead, one of the biggest things in the world feels impossibly larger. The Arena Mexico crowd is in a fever pitch. Chants of “Mis-Ti-Co” rain down. It feels like nothing they do really matters, and that, for once, is meant in the best way possible.
No, I do not care to explain why this works on any level deeper than that. I am not the man for these things. So, I think I’ll just pitch around this one and move on.
The 49th best match of 2025, I guess.
Rating: ***3/4+
48.) AZM, Mei Seira & Starlight Kid vs. Hazuki, Mayu Iwatani & Captain Stardom – Barb Sasaki Produce CRAZY FEST (3.10.2025)
A little fun rubs off on me.
I cannot not have a good time with this match. I tried. You can’t beat a knife-wielding, sword-clashing Mei Seria, a bubbly Mayu Iwatani grinning from ear to ear, or Saya Iida embracing the full-body suit superhero cosplay. Dismiss it all if you want; I think that’s certainly fair, but this is a level of energy from a group of wrestlers made for it. Not some fake, hyperemotional nonsense, not some painfully pieced-together attempt to create a central figurehead, or insert many other sins here like you might be used to from these women’s home promotion. It’s pure joy. And for a group of wrestlers so massively underutilized and misunderstood by their employer, that’s just nice to see.
Hoot of the year, I’m afraid.
Rating: ❤️
47.) Team 200kg vs. Manami & Yurika Oka – Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling in Shinkiba 1stRING (12.21.2025)
Image via Sendai Girls & Pepe Tanaka
With Yuu’s retirement looming only a week from this show, a Senjo staple delivers one final time.
As it always has been, Team 200kg beating up on a pair of younger wrestlers just works. They hit hard, give the kids some shine, mix in all their meathead bits, and leave. I wish I could tell you I thought up something more clever for this entry than that.
I didn’t so… That’s it. Yeah. Gonna miss this particular thing.
Rating: ***3/4
46.) Zandokan Jr. vs. Star Jr. – CMLL Homenaje A Dos Leyendas 2025 (3.21.2025)
Image via Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
It’s not as great as it could be, but something about CMLL giving one of their young stars something so big stuck with me.
I think for the most part too, the stakes are met. There’s the big dives, the big moves, and some dramatic nearfalls. It’s not structurally different from many of your standard CMLL singles bouts, with some meandering in the middle, but the way this escalates into something so heated hits home the apuesta feel one is looking for. You can see the prospect of losing his mask sinking in with Star Jr. as this bout goes on. It may be obvious to everyone throughout, but his desperation comes too late. It’s clear to see as the match slips through his fingers, and even clearer with him choosing to sucker punch Zandokan instead of soaking in the emotional atmosphere after losing his mask. That’s a sense of instant regret that feels so relatable and really ties this thing together.
A good little heated Lucha bout, where hate reigns supreme.
A certified apuesta experience.
Rating: ***3/4
45.) Cerebro Negro vs. Bombero Infernal – IWRG (5.18.2025)
Image via International Wrestling Revolution Group
Cerebro Negro and Bombero Infernal find it, bottle it, and smash it right over your head.
Where does one even start with this? I do imagine most of you reading this have little to no experience with modern IWRG, much less this rivalry. I’m going to tell you, though, that doesn’t matter. Go in blind. It’s something you have to see.
This bout has it all. Violent, sloppy, and unpredictable, but totally and correctly reliant on the stakes. There is flowing crimson, snappy punches, rampant interference, ref bumps, and more. A match so overambitous that it’s a top-to-bottom mess, but one where the audience slowly buys in, and you with them. And that ending, man, one of the worst-feeling defeats of the year. No one was beaten more decisively all year than Bombero Infernal, tied to a stretcher, head being shaved. The perfect way to end this catastrophe.
They could do it all again, and you wouldn’t get the same result. This needs all of the polish it lacks. And, that, is the magic. The indescribable thing. Never change, old dudes in IWRG.
A certified apuesta experience V2.
Rating: ***3/4
44.) Bozilla & Mio Momono vs. Kaoru Ito & Yurika Oka – Sareee-ISM Chapter VI (1.23.2025)
Ok, so, here’s the deal.
My love for Oka and Momono should be apparent to you by now, and there’s a match on here later where I’ll blab about the duo more, so this is a bit piece. The best Sareee-ISM match all year, the best Bozilla match ever, and the best non-Darby bumping performance of the year from Oka.
Can you tell I was too lazy rewrite this one?
Rating: ***3/4
43.) Samoa Joe vs. Eddie Kingston – AEW Dynamite #323 – Winter Is Coming 2025 – Day 1 (12.10.2025)
There’s more than a fair share of stuff to nerd out on in this one. It’s an Eddie Kingston match—and a title one at that—so that’s low-hanging fruit. We’ve got a long way to go with this list, so I’ll praise the concept.
Eddie Kingston is a man running on old, tired fumes. It’s easy to forget that two years ago he had everything: the ROH belt, earned in victory over his most hated rival; the Continental crown, earned and defended; even a New Japan title. Then he lost them, one by one, until, in the match where the last one slipped away, his knee exploded. So, he lost time too.
For most wrestlers, injuries are unfortunate. For Eddie, they’re tragic. He’s a man who is at constant war with his mind. With no wrestling to calm those demons, Eddie convinced himself he was finished. And in turn, he concluded that without wrestling he was worthless. But time passed. He clawed his way back. Found a friend in HOOK. Started ripping off passionate promos. Slowly reasserted himself into AEW’s landscape.
Then, another stroke of bad luck. HOOK used him. Which brings us here: Eddie Kingston picking another fight he can’t win.
All the words he throws at Samoa Joe in the short build are little more than hearsay. The Joe of old, the one Eddie idolized, is gone. That’s true; still, what stands across from him now is no weaker. Joe is bigger, stronger, and faster. And Kingston is no Terry Funk. Really, the only issue here is the fact Joe can’t handle Eddie’s refusal to fold.
So, he beats our hero up. Eddie never really comes close. That, though, isn’t the point. He may tap, sure. But there’s something there, and Joe sees it. He can’t just push Eddie around. He can’t, and won’t, make Eddie quit. So, once that last bit of rust fades off, once those demons hush, it’ll happen. Picture it. See it. Eddie Kingston will be AEW World Champion.
A perfect starting point in the concept. Can’t wait for the proof.
Rating: ***3/4+
42.) Bear Bronson vs. SLADE – GCW Cage Of Survival 4 (6.08.2025)
Image via Game Changer Wrestling
One of those full-spectacle deathmatches that only come around a couple times per decade.
There’s always something admirable about diving headfirst into something. Bear Bronson’s first foray into deathmatch wrestling is that and more. Watching him march into this world and embrace the chaos feels like it matters. He may find himself covered in blood from head to toe and in over his head at points. But the light is never snuffed out. There’s an ambition and earnestness to his willingness to do, so he can remain defiant to the end. And that’s the whole point. Picking a fight with SLADE isn’t dipping your toes into water; it’s drowning in the pool. Seeing Bear survive and then revel in the crimson madness, if only for a few moments, is the very victory one felt him looking for. Everything in between the bell ringing and the newcomer being put to sleep doesn’t actually matter that way. All the conveniently placed spots, or the fact these two really don’t struggle over much, are secondary to the idea. Then, even when those issues creep to the front of the mind, there’s the simple visual spectacle of it being the bloodiest match of the year to block it out.
Totally contrived, inorganic, and silly—but more alive than the blood we bleed.
Rating: ****
41.) Adam Priest vs. 1 Called Manders – DPW You Already Know 2025 (1.21.2025)
Image via @IamDannyDarko
I have to rein myself in a bit here, if my job is to sell you on the match, that is. This goes for all matches, but the function of these blurbs for so many people is to describe details and comment on the dynamics and environment. To me, that’s just generalizing. I much prefer to conjure up my own little narratives and mix these details in.
I tell you all this so early into this top 50 just to tell you I can’t do it here.
The truth is, both Adam Priest and Manders have been having this same match across the independent circuit for over two years now, and not just with each other. That isn’t to say this is one of the best rivalries on the American indies; it is, but beyond that, this match is representative of the very reason both men receive the praise they do. Simply put, they’re really good when they’re doing what they do best.
First, Adam Priest. He is the best heel in the world. If you’ve committed to reading this whole thing, I’m guessing you’ve gone through a certain barrier to the point where you’re at least somewhat comfortable with that statement, and that should speak volumes to the type of quality Priest provides in every match. Every match is laced with some kind of exquisite shithousery. He’s the guy you love to hate, the guy making it easy to fall fully into the world of the match because you’re too caught up in his antics. Manders, too, especially in this rivalry and in the traveling tour alongside Mad Dog Connelly, is the tough-nosed cowboy. It’s an idea that borrows from the likes of Funk, Gordy, and Hansen, but with his own, modern take adjusted for the small ballrooms and community centers. A real working man’s cowboy. The type where you want to see him take it to the loud punks and corner-cutters. Think about it. Throw them at each other; it’s bound to work.
Obviously, right? It’s been booked so many times for a reason, but as they’re best, all it took was the added continuity DPW’s landscape provides. A little token for North Carolina’s finest, but the match itself is another type of guarantee, one befitting of the show name itself.
Rating: ****
40.) Erick Stevens vs. Roderick Strong – DPW Super Battle 2025 (10.19.2025)
Iron sharpens iron.
Those are the words Stevens uses to lure Roddy back for one more match, and that sentiment becomes undeniably clear once these two tie up. This is two high-grade alloys crashing into one another, with one key difference. It isn’t in the make or the craftsmanship. It’s that one sword has never stopped being swung, while the other has only recently been recommissioned for battle.
So while this is very much a “dudes rock” affair, there’s that looming question surrounding Stevens to make it all the more interesting. You always feel Roderick Strong will keep firing. There’s a certain magic in that inevitability, but every Stevens counterpunch is what’s actually steeped in deeper meaning. Each second he survives is proof to himself that unsheathing the blade again wasn’t a mistake. He may eat a sickening backbreaker on the guardrail and twenty-five of Roddy’s finest strikes just to lose, but all that pain and that eventual defeat forced Strong’s hand. With that case, Stevens is who gets exactly what he bargained for. He gets the test. He finds the proof. And for us, watching them arrive there is every bit as joyful as it was all those years ago.
Turns out the steel never rusted in the first place.
Rating: ****
39.) GOLD CLASS (Ben-K, JACKY KAMEI, Mochizuki Jr. & Riiita) vs. Natural Vibes: (Flamita, Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T)– DG Hopeful Gate 2025 – Day 1 (5.09.2025)
Image via Weekly Pro Wrestling
Another Dragon Gate match that simply clicks.
Frankly, beyond the pure mechanics, that’s it. It’s not a stylistic thing, the stakes, or anything like that. An admirable lineup helps, and I’ve always been inclined to believe the Korauken shows DG runs have a bit more of a backbone to them, but that doesn’t really get down to the roots of why this is so great.
Because it’s me watching it, that’s why.
I’m glad I’m at the point where I can come to this conclusion. There’s no worse feeling than looking at this whole project and feeling like its completion is little more than a random amalgamation of other people’s taste. So, having something like a seemingly random eight-man tag that no one talked about, that no one would love as much as you do, is a reassurance of this whole process. This is my list. My project, my tastes, and words. You get the point. I can sit here and reflect on an individual choice like this and acknowledge that structurally, this kind of thing is stupid: a constant, ADD-riddled obsession with movement and breathers disguised as traditional control segments strung together to make a match.
Or, get this, I could realize that kind of thinking is snobby. I should hate it. But I don’t. And I will contradict myself because I can.
Once or twice a year, a DG tag becomes the most watchable wrestling on earth.
Rating: ****
38.) Meiko Satomura vs. Manami – Sendai Girls (1.05.2025)
Image via Sendai Girls & Pepe Tanaka
The first stop on Meiko Satomura’s retirement tour. Not a loud statement, nor the grand final. But quietly, a great little thing.
Idea is, Manami finds herself in this blunt “prove it” match against the person who sees all this potential in her. It’s a checklist match for Meiko on her way out too, but largely this is Meiko face-to-face with someone she hopes can carry her company when she retires. So, while you and I know that’s unrealistic even in the long run, luckily, both women don’t push for a version of the match that can’t exist. Manami is still the underclassman, green around the edges, and despite her fondness of her as a booker, Meiko doesn’t hand her an inch. It’s not overtly cruel, but there’s push. Kicks to the ribs, kicks to the leg, every one of them with a resounding thud. All a little rougher than it has to be, that’s the whole match. Meiko batters her, and Manami keeps trying. It’s not Jumbo grinding down one of the pillars. It’s purposefully less daring than that—less mythic, and maybe, a bit more human. Manami isn’t graced with the gifts Misawa was, after all. Still, the shape of a veteran firmly holding position is the same.
That payoff then, is to see Manami start connecting. She finds a little space and even puts Meiko in trouble for a few seconds. It’s not just watching her hang for the sake of the match, but they succeed because it feels earned. She won’t win, and that’s not the point. What matters is that she justifies the faith and shows the spark. It’s why I’d like to think she’s included in the finale a few months later, and yes, maybe the gap’s still wide, and Meiko is long gone before she can even think about closing it, but the progress Manami makes in this small moment feels real.
Rating: ****
37.) Manami & Meiko Satomura vs. Aja Kong & Chihiro Hashimoto – Sendai Girls Meiko Satomura THE FINAL (4.29.2025)
Image via Sendai Girls & Pepe Tanaka
Speaking of said grand finale, the match in which we say goodbye to one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Though, oftentimes, it isn’t about how you say goodbye. All four women were part of “better” matches this year alone, but that’s not the point. The ones worth celebrating don’t need one more great one, nor do we celebrate just their greatest accomplishment. It’s never one match that makes you great, and it’s certainly not just one match that warrants a celebration of a whole career. Legends and rivals, some both the same, do not pour out of the crowd to send you off, and roster members of the very promotion you helped birth do not shed tears over a reputation built off one singular thing.
If it wasn’t obvious, Meiko Satomura both gets and deserves a match that’s great just because she shows up for the last time.
Still, seek this one out. Sure, it’s not as time efficient nor as direct as so many of the Sendai Girls tags I’ve talked up throughout the last two years. And yes, they’re mainly playing the hits. That’s all true, it’s all simple, but you’re kidding yourself if every little thing Meiko does doesn’t land so well simply because it’s potentially the last time she does it. The crowd naturally understands this as well, and further along those same lines, the pageantry of the before and after is nothing but a plus. Even so, there are some of the little things in this. Intentional or not, those shots of Meiko laser-focused on Manami when she’s standing on the ring apron provide a tasteful, cinematic glimpse into the future, while the dialogue Kong provides is a uniquely special, and emotional twist. They do at points too, build off the previous matchups Meiko had with Manami and Big Hash, tying together Meiko’s retirement run nicely. Hell, and I’m sure there’s more to look into if I didn’t get so caught up in the storm on both my watches. Yet, maybe that’s the point. A match that exists to highlight everything around it.
Watch it. Take it in one final time. Rock your life away.
Rating: ****
36.) Mad Dog Connelly vs. Dominic Garrini – DPW Beast Coast 2025 (8.10.2025)
Image via DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling
As a last-second replacement, Dominic Garrini lives his truth in the Jersey streets.
More than anything, an impromptu bout like this is a testament to the continued excellence of the Mad Dog. Like all of his matches, there is no clear planning behind any of it. He and Garrini go out there swinging. Massive overhand strikes, punches, and airtight lockups fill the opening minutes before they spill to the floor. They keep that same flow once the weapons come into play. First the chairs, then the ringposts, then the big stuff. A trashcan, a table, and the signature dog collar. This time, Garrini is the one who introduces the collar, and even the function of that simple twist is interesting. A man thrown to the wolves has walked into the cage with raw meat taped to his head. And he pays for it. Nothing he does puts Connelly away. So it is he who is devoured.
A finer version of a proven thing. The King of the Dog Collar does it again.
Rating: ****
35.) Aja Kong vs. Senka Akatsuki – Marvelous (4.17.2025)
Image via Marvelous That’s Women Pro Wrestling
The old and new steal Mania weekend.
In spite of a crowd one-hundredth the size of WrestleMania, being in an unassuming midcard spot, and only running five minutes, this was the biggest thing in the world for that time.
There are two wrestlers here to care about in completely different ways, and the way in which they apply their dynamic is with the utmost simplicity. Aja is bigger, stronger, and has more experience. That’s it. Everyone knows it, and it lets the crowd break into chants of both women’s names, ohh and ahh for Aja’s strikes, and pop huge for all the ground Senka gains.
More than anything, though, this feels like something worth remembering. Think back on the year. Goto finally capturing the IWGP was unforgettable. Page’s win at All In was a soaring high. Cena retired. Meiko retired. El Hijo Del Santo did too. All instances worth remembering. While we’re at it, throw in the roar from the crowd when Senka and Aja struggle over that pin.
A crowd, then a community, locking onto something and rallying around it. A shared celebration.
Rating: ****
34.) Keigo Nakamura vs. Shinya Aoki – DDT Heatwave Over Flowers 4 ~ Love No Sauna ~ (2.14.2025)
The ultimate reinforcement to the idea of the Shinya Aoki match.
If there’s ever been an issue with the way Aoki has approached wrestling, it’s the fact that there are moments where opponents must earn the ground they gain, or in extreme cases, sometimes DDT demands his foes win. Disappointing (consider that someone this cool simply shouldn’t lose), but the reality is that Shinya Aoki’s thin schedule only guarantees him a certain level of protection within DDT.
Keigo Nakamura, an interesting and promising wrestler in his own right, makes a choice. That fatal flaw of Aoki’s, he destroys, and does it simply by handing him the reins for the entire match. He lets himself get tied into knots and leaves himself with only crumbs. The very dynamic of the match is that there is no dynamic. Nakamura isn’t fighting to gain ground or even to win. He’s fighting to stay alive. That lets the real beauty of Aoki’s mat stuff shine.
And I think there’s a real lesson for all young wrestlers to learn from Nakamura. Why pretend you’re something you’re not? Build yourself up by getting torn down. Tackle all hopeless challenges head-on, get run over, and you’ll still walk out better than you did strolling in. The power of showing some heart in the face of total annihilation.
Rating: ****
33.) Demus vs. Adam Del Castillo – Lucha Memes Alessandro (1.19.2025)
There’s a certain free flow someone like Demus taps into when he’s thrown into a place like Coliseo Coacalco. Something about the dirt and dust drags the worst out of evil little fuckers like him and, in a weird, twisted way, syncs perfectly with the messy chaos of Lucha Memes. It’s refreshing, ironically enough. No more of that nonsense he spent the back half of the last two years doing in Japan. Demus is home.
Of course, I still have some issues with the presentation. Too many camera cuts, weird flashing lights, not enough crowd lighting, and far too many people hovering around both guys as they spill outside. Stuff that, while sure, can be interpreted as part of the charm, probably hides more detail than it provides benefit. Maybe that’s just me, though. I guess I’ve always thought vicious spectacles benefit from the contrast of a clean, organized environment. Then again, the grime is as integral here as anything else.
This is still a nasty chunk of wrestling, regardless. Filled with all the brutal, violent acts the very best lucha brawls should have. Much of the match is spent on the floor, amongst the enthused crowd. Adam Del Castillo jumps Demus during his entrance, which allows him to control the first half, and there’s some nice work in there. Good punches, some quality resourcefulness, and decent work with the pro-Demus crowd. Considering his experience, it’s efficient, even if it’s not great. The real value ends up being how sharply it contrasts what Demus is about to do to him.
Because once you hit the Demus-led violence? Man. That’s the good stuff. He gets a perfect rip on Castillo’s mask and soaks the white fabric red. He’s punching, gnawing, clawing, doing everything to make the cut worse, and he revels in every second of it. There’s a joy to his cruelty here that feels completely unique to him and this building.
And sure, you can see where things are headed once that switch flips, but I find myself liking the finish quite a lot as well. Castillo gets a burst of life and throws himself into three beautiful dives, and then he goes for one more—only to crash full force into the dirt below. It’s one of the nastier non-DarbyDeath™ bumps all year, and even though Demus rolls him back into the ring and hits a big splash for the finish, the match really ends the moment he lands. What lingers for me isn’t the visual violence or the result, or even the little nod Demus gives his opponent afterward. It’s the dust. The dirt, kicked off the ground and clinging to everything. Demus in white face paint, Castillo’s shredded mask, and blood-soaked face. All of it caked in grime. A match that, despite my complaints, likely wouldn’t have soared so high had it happened anywhere else somewhere cleaner.
Rating: ****
32.) Daniel Garcia vs. Jon Moxley – AEW Dynamite (8.27.2025)
Is subtlety for cowards?
That’s an old cliché, one you’ll see tossed around in wrestling criticism, and one that’s usually misunderstood. Beyond little details, or happy accidents and whatnot, the best wrestling usually isn’t subtle. I believe that with all my being even if the worst wrestling can also be so offensively obvious and clear. See, there’s a natural order in which wrestling shows and stories need to unwind. Daniel Garcia’s eventual turn to the Death Riders was a gimmie. A layup. Babyfaces do not spend a year losing every major match and calling themselves losers in promos just for the hell of it. Since the payoff of a big, world-title-level win wasn’t in the cards, the turn was all that was left.
And yet, it kind of felt like a surprise when it finally happened. The hints were there, sure. But they felt just accidental enough. Stuff one reads into a bit too much. Even the big, obvious bit with Mox trying to whisper in Garcia’s ear at the end of this one doesn’t quite work as the worm on the hook for me.
So, I ask again. Is subtlety for cowards?
No.
Because what’s actually subtle here is what’s best about the match. Forget the legwork, Garcia’s eye selling, or the constant camera cuts to the other Death Riders. If it wasn’t obvious then, hindsight makes it all feel like one big recruiting ploy—actions to keep the show and match moving. It’s all good, don’t get me wrong; Danny’s focus on the eye is probably the de facto “best” part of the bout. But the real magic is those smallest details. Garcia briefs losses of focus conveyed through a single expression. His cold body language toward Daddy Magic and bitterness toward himself. Maybe it’s Mox giving that little wave to Shafir and Yuta that the camera barely catches. Or how that wild animal looks just a bit tamer than usual.
That’s the subtlety. The spice in the soup. Does it add up to make the obvious? If you’re paying attention, yeah, but it’s still the thing that makes this one so memorable. The turn was inevitable, sure, and I’ll gladly admit these two proved once again they’re quietly one of AEW’s best pairings. But for reasons beyond the obvious, it’s the quiet parts, the stuff you almost miss, that makes it all stick.
Rating: ****
31.) Anoa vs. Sanjuki – SGW Friday Amazon (1.04.2025)
Image via Soft Ground Wrestling
A quiet statement on the easiest way to have a great wrestling match.
There’s a worldwide hesitancy toward the “do one thing and do it well” approach. Not just in wrestling, but in life. Employers want a laundry list of skills, athletes need every tool, and so-called specialists carry multiple certifications. There’s nothing wrong with being good at multiple things, of course, but I’ve always been an admirer of the world’s one-trick ponies. Commitment to a single idea can be beautiful, doubly so when it exists in spite of its surroundings.
In that sense, Sanjuki and Anoa feel like a dying breed. This entire match is built around one singular idea, carried out with total commitment. There’s no excess to be found. Everything runs through the babyface champion’s arm. The selling is wonderful, consistent, and genuinely lived in. On the other side, Sanjuki never forgets the target. His attacks stay creative while remaining focused, and he comes across as deeply unlikable in choosing the shortest, cruelest path.
There is nothing more to the match. It doesn’t matter where they are or that they lack a proper ring. They set out to do one thing, and they did it so well that I’m here telling you how good it was.
Rating: ****
30.) Blue Panther vs. Último Guerrero – CMLL Domingo Familiar (9.21.2025)
Image via Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, Alexis Salazar, and Major League Wrestling
It just means more.
I had to ask myself why this was a great match. It never really felt like it was about the boisterous crowd. Never felt like it was about Blue Panther’s capturing of a title. Or about having two old masters go to work. Certainly, some combination of all of these is some level of important, but what is it that ties that match together?
The answer is nothing.
Look at the match. It is almost painfully simple. Sure, it’s Blue Panther. Último Guerrero. Still wrestling in 2025, and doing it at a level that’s beyond their age. They know how to make the littlest things celebratory. It’s them in Arena México, with that electric crowd, with something at stake.
That is what the match is. That much is obvious, so instead, I implore you to fixate on what the match isn’t. The lack of what’s missing, if you will. The void where you’d place what should’ve been. You’ll conclude what I did. There just isn’t a isn’t. And when nothing is missing, are there loose ends that need to be tied together?
That’s what great matches like this are really about.
Rating: **** or ❤️, take your pick
29.) Hikaru Sato vs. Ryo Kawamura – Hard Hit Ryo Kawamura Retirement Event ~ Complete Disposal (11.29.2025)
Image via HARD HIT
Perhaps the most fitting retirement to take place all year.
One of my biggest fears is the thought that in death, I might leave nothing to remember me by. Like all fears, it’s an irrational one. The digital age practically guarantees my name and actions will float around eternally to some extent, and for what little it may be worth, this very piece has permanence as well. Still, it’s a fear I’m not sure I’ll ever really shake. Maybe I’ll spend my whole life chasing a remedy I don’t need. Who knows?
With that fear in mind, the somberness of Ryo Kawamura’s retirement match with Sato makes all the more sense. The silence and focus from the crowd loom like a crushing weight on your shoulders. Every wild palm strike, high kick, or submission is a potential end—all movements that could stomp out Kawamura’s hopes of leaving one more thing behind. Perhaps, even, these two understand that. Beyond the showmanship of a pro wrestling match, there’s a clear end in sight. Kawamura’s small niche as a wrestler will likely fade as he falls back quietly into society. And it’ll be Sato, a dear friend, to push him aside.
That’s why the match is so excellent. There’s an innate tension from this understanding and an absolute lack of flatness with these two going all out. Each small detail is visually and audibly clear, all of them intentional and meticulously placed. It comes to a fever pitch with Ryo trapped in a submission, and despite trying to strike and crawl his way out, he taps. His career ends. All chances of leaving something new behind fade. It’s up to his legacy to do the talking. And something tells me the tearful goodbye Sato leaves with is as good proof as any that any fear of being completely forgotten is as irrational as the fear I described to begin with.
So long, Rocky.
Rating: ****
28.) Máscara Sagrada vs. El Hijo del Fishman – Panther Promotion (1.12.2025)
Image via Luchas De Reynosa Youtube Channel
Unbound by any notion and with a sense of freedom unlike anywhere else in the world, the continued rivalry between El Hijo del Fishman and Máscara Sagrada was a must-have for this list. And I must admit, while I plan to hold myself to the general principle of not walking back previous years’ lists, if I were to name an oversight, not featuring these two last year would be it.
Make no mistake, this isn’t their de facto strongest outing. One could easily look to two superior answers from last year alone. The Bull Terrier match from March certainly dwarfs this one in shock value and pure violence, while their December bout, with its traditional structure and clear payoff, trumps it in conclusivity.
What this does have going for it is beyond my typical approach to criticism. This, more than anything else, is a shining example of sorts. A simultaneous reinforcement to this pairing, but also a celebration of what’s left. Yes, one chapter may have closed not two months prior, but here again, in another dusty ring, the cat’s out of the bag. A sizable, bipartisan crowd is here to watch these two do battle. They miss no beats. The violent brawling, fueled by whatever objects they can find, feels so raw and unfiltered that even the rough pacing and disjointed moments play as positives. The type of thing where you think to yourself, “These two were made for one another.”
I think that freedom is best displayed by the referee. He has no control over the match. He’s either another weapon to be thrown, or a thorn to slow Fishman’s destruction down. And the Weapons. The right combination of creative and practical. Spontaneous violence at its best. Of course, the chair bumps too. As spontaneous as those weapons, and some of the nastiest you’ll ever see, period. I could go on and on, but that’s not the point. It’s that dismissal of formality, disregard for traditional pacing, maybe more than in any of their other matches, that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Everytime these two do battle, it’s their world, and we’re just living in it.
Rating: ****
27.) Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yuki Ueno – DDT King Of DDT 2025 Final!! (5.25.2025)
Very much a “dudes rock” type of thing here. Constant action, lots of big stuff, and some iffy details. You’ve seen it before, I’m sure, but I do think relegating this match to that overplayed category and just leaving it there is wrong. There’s urgency and creativity in this. Nothing ever feels too convenient. All the big spots happen with small bits of setup and feel like they’re happening because that’s where the match has taken them. It leaves less time for spotty selling and more for an extra clubbing blow, if nothing else.
Beyond that too, I love the idea as to why the match earns the car crash format. Ueno has the belief that time changes everything. His blind charge, then, has reason. It doesn’t have to be interpreted as foolish. Whether or not he’s proved he can beat Higuchi prior, or if he’s personally evolved, doesn’t matter. He stakes everything on the right suit. The very best version of Higuchi, the one who was better, is gone. Injuries and time have eroded a man who, now, hasn’t been on top as recently as he has. It’s that idea that drives his plan and equals both men.
For the aforementioned thrill, it’s joyous. A well-done puro slobberknocker is always a treat, but even sweeter is to see Ueno fail. See, he’s right, in reality. The champion of the pandemic is undeniably gone. Time has changed things. And yet, like times before, his strikes do little more than shake the foundation. His resolve to finally power through Higuchi is what crumbles. The image is the same. The giant is who endures. With wins over Shinya Aoki and now Ueno, any doubt about his return disappears.
How cool it was to see Higuchi answering that challenge.
Rating: ****
26.) Galeón Fantasma (Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr). vs. Atlantis Jr., Neón & Star Jr. – CMLL Martes Populares (4.22.2025)
Image via Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
The very best the CMLL trios formula has to offer.
I must admit, there was a time when the consistency of these big match trios bouts was lost on me. Maybe you, dear reader, are a better person than I. Maybe you’ve been on these Arena México trios for years. Perhaps it all clicked sooner for you, and you’ve been one of the vocal few singing the praises of these CMLL stalwarts ever since. I think I just needed a team like Galeón Fantasma to come along for me to see it.
So, here’s me shaking the notion that these matches can be great, not just good. It makes sense if you think about it. Everything this match wants is so obvious. Star Jr. is fresh off losing his mask to Zandokan. Atlantis Jr. also has a bone to pick with Zandokan. And our other two members of Galeón Fantasma are here to help fend those two off. Mix in Neón for some extra highlights, and you’ve got your whole recipe.
And then it’s served in Arena México.
A simple, but joyous taste.
Rating: ****
25.) Galeón Fantasma (Barboza, Difunto & Zandokan Jr.) vs. Atlantis Jr., Blue Panther & Titán – CMLL Martes Populares (4.29.2025)
Image via Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
One week later, Galeón Fantasma does it again.
For all the same reasons their match seven days prior gave me an “oh, I get it” moment, this one reinforces all the reasons I got there in the first place. Only this time, there’s a sparkling efficiency to what it lacks, and maybe, just maybe, the Arena México crowd is just a tad hotter.
In CMLL, sometimes that’s the extra kick their consistent quality needs. Don’t hold onto that thought too tight, though. Misleading as it may sound, my point here is going to be that they’re one of the few promotions that realize adding a little extra doesn’t mean more is more. Take a concrete fact. It’s always good to see the thunderous reactions Blue Panther gets. Why add to it? Why muck it up? It can be true that a big hot tag from Atlantis Jr. is going to get a big reaction too. So just save it for another moment. Don’t jam them back-to-back, nor should those things happen for the sake of happening. Time it out. Maximize the reaction. Make it land.
Naturally, this all works with our Rudos maintaining control in an interesting manner. Their cutoffs are simple; it’s usually just 3 guys taking advantage of one, but they always leave a glimmer of hope in there to build anticipation for the big comebacks. That’s just the surface. There’s always more with a great rudo team like Galeón Fantasma, and here that same throughline is what gets you the bite: Zandokan and Atlantis are back at each other’s throats, building on the heat they had a week earlier, and it’s the rudo trio that feeds off it. It’s how they keep control and how they eventually get far enough under Atlantis’ skin for the DQ finish to work. That’s nice to see, all in one for once. A match where the shine on the heroes hits the heights but never once makes our villains appear as idiots to do it.
And there’s something so beautiful about the simple efficiency in which this package comes together. One may think the match misses its mark on a sense of finality, or that the trademark smoothness and big dives are missing. I could see that. In part, though, I think that expectation is why I was so hesitant with CMLL for so long. The “big” stuff gets old quick when it isn’t used cautiously. That’s why, here, with no phony filter, no real filler that’s just for show, a concrete result of watching three of the best bad guys on earth completely steal one from the heroes feels more correct than any grand spectacle or glowing pageant could. Classic more is less here, and that too is another testament to how damn right CMLL gets it.
Rating: ****
24.) Daniel Garcia vs. Darby Allin – AEW Dynamite (11.05.2025)
Remember when Daniel Garcia was one of the best wrestlers in the world?
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t. No real shame in putting one (2021) of the globally shitty years behind you, but I think there is shame that it took this long for that version of Danny Garcia to peek his head out from behind the curtain again. It’s not really his fault, though. His babyface stuff was never bad; he was never given the reins to something big, things don’t really ever take off for you like they did that year, etc. Whoever, or whatever, is to blame is no matter. There’s potential with Death Rider Garcia, and this is the match where I roll the tape and prove it to you.
Even for someone of Garcia’s stature, there’s always power in harnessing the core power of Darby as a babyface. Squashing and tossing him around like a bag of feathers is fun—a tried-and-true formula for a reason. However, you don’t need it. Making him fight from underneath, even if it’s through long counts, interference, and a bit of dirty creativity, works all the same. Yeah, it’s fun to watch someone like Claudio launch him across the arena. It’s also neat to see Danny tie him to the ropes via a necklace and the tag rope. Or to see him pick apart the knee and push himself to the brink of getting disqualified. That creativity and commitment to being unlikeable makes this match alive. Makes both men interesting.
Even if it’s not an ambitious hour-long epic with Yuta, the best version of Daniel Garcia delivers a cool little TV match.
Rating: ****
23.) Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shinya Aoki – DDT Be Ambitious ~ Autumn Battle ~ (11.30.2025)
DDT’s golden boy returns home with the top prize in puroresu, only to make an accidental mockery of his accomplishments.
In just ten minutes, Shinya Aoki accomplishes what everyone else failed to do. The match feels tense and important, even compared to Soup’s G1 final or his AEW PPV appearances. It takes its time, but not in the most match time in a single G1 history type of way.
The way it unfolds is beautiful. A slow grappling style tailored for someone like Takeshita, built around tests of strength where he can believably outdo the MMA veteran. The well doesn’t dry up, though, as in a moment of arrogance, Aoki enters an elbow exchange. With that one decision, all those failures—Soup and his opponents filling time with soft strikes ending the Takeshita windup elbow—flash before your eyes. It seems another match must be undone with the obsession of flashiness. But instead, it’s Aoki who cracks him with a forearm, and it’s Soup who staggers back, forced to fire a desperate knee just to buy himself time.
It’s as if in that single moment, Aoki is mocking Takeshita. His signature elbow fails against a man half his size. Yet, still, Aoki sells that knee better than anyone Soup was supposed to be rolling over. Through Aoki, a flash where Konosuke Takeshita finds a rare balance of looking vulnerable and strong.
From there, Aoki reasserts the same plan he’s used all year. Over the next few minutes, he grinds Soup down on the mat, forces him to kick out of pin after pin, and fills the gaps with the most pompous elements of his game. A nasty dive. A big top-rope knee drop. Then straight back to the mat.
By this point, we’re eight minutes in, and Soup has done little more than get bitched and land a single big knee. Politics, of course, demand he catch Aoki in a pin and win, but he earns nothing else along the way. For ten minutes, the golden boy of DDT—the newly minted poster child of worldwide success—has no more Meltzer stars or athleticism to hide behind. He gets tied up by a wrestler he’ll never be as good as, produces his best match of the year, and does it in a third of the time most of his inflated runs require.
And Shinya Aoki getting the kingmaker performance to do it makes it all the sweeter.
Rating: ****
22.) Dustin Rhodes vs. Kyle Fletcher – AEW Collision (7.31.2025)
A sensible thing.
I don’t give out a most improved or anything or that sort, but Fletcher’s improvement from one of the most eye-rolling names in all of wrestling to an inconsistent, albeit reliable hand for AEW would fit the bill. So while he just missed the cut for the top 25, I do think any failure to mention Fletcher in any ‘25 recap would be to deny one of the year’s most important pieces.If you can remember back, though, temporarily, his coronation briefly was denied. Instead, it was Dustin Rhodes who rode high out of Texas with his TNT title win. But.. Bite me. Waiting a few weeks for Fletcher’s moment was the right move, especially if it leads us here and saves us from a stinker with Adam Cole.
Also, you know who’s not going to have a bad match with Kyle Fletcher?
Dustin. His involvement in this whole saga is that of the perfect final hurdle. He’s believable as a beatable foe but also perfect as someone who’ll rein in the bad habits of Kyle. Coupled with the bombastic nature of the street fight gimmick, all the cards are in place. We get some truly great, genuinely mean encompassing knee work. That gets the crowd firmly behind Dustin. It has the blood, the weapons, the brutality. Even Kyle hits the mark when he goes big. So much of it feels some level of correct, and it all builds to the moment everyone’s been waiting for. Kyle does win, but he does so with the help of a low blow, a screwdriver, and Don Callis. AEW doesn’t give in. There is no new hero; instead, there’s just another legend left in a younger man’s wake.
The result was inevitable, sure. But getting to it with care was not.
A fitting coronation.
Rating: ****
21.) Bayley vs. Lyra Valkyria – WWE Monday Night RAW (7.14.2025)
Image via World Wrestling Entertainment
Even with all of WWE’s baggage, this works beautifully as pro-ass wrestling.
Insulting Bayley’s heel act is beating a dead horse. It’s corny, it’s limiting—you get it. Obviously not anywhere near the worst thing someone has had to play on WWE TV, though, it’s unfortunate because Bayley is one of the few people in WWE that is capable of playing that of a division ace, and instead, she’s a gatekeeper. Pairings with prospects, placeholder title reigns, but never the central focus. Still, she’s great. Consistently. Matches like this, or say, the Iyo Mania bout last year, prove it. She’s sharp when it matters, and by staying sharp she finds herself putting on the companies best match of the year.
Lyra is flawed in comparison. She’s your standard-issue template WWE babyface: dull personality, weak strikes, and a good look that’s supposed to make up for it. That’s not to discredit her. I’m sure there’s more capability under the white, black, and red paint. But the company clearly has plans for her, and I’m sure those plans don’t hinge on her input either.
Luckily, it seems her wrestling mind hasn’t rotted yet. Her back selling is genuinely great here, good enough to pull you into her corner. That effort is the glue. Because Lyra holds up her end as the simple babyface, Bayley can turn this into clean, smart pro wrestling. She steals the first fall and cuts the crowd in half. The second fall builds around the back work, gets the crowd fully behind Lyra, and ends on a flash pin that resets everything. And the third fall soars. It’s some of the best minutes the promotion has had all decade. Tense without overreaching, weaving in the knee and earlier damage, hitting the big-move clichés without drowning in them. And unlike the Lynch match the night before, this one actually sticks the landing. Loop back if you skipped this one (and watch the spanish commentary, if that helps)
The year’s WWE stunner.
Rating: ****
20.) Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin – AEW Dynamite (8.27.2025)
Image via All Elite Wrestling
Shortly after his return from the peak of the world, Darby Allin enters another match into the DarbyDeath™ category.
It’s a simple thing, really. The type of match Claudio and Darby never quite got to in their first two attempts, as they’re unbound with no rules and no glue to even the ring itself. They brawl around 2300 Arena early, nail some of the year’s best shiteating spots in the middle, and transition to a satisfying finish at the end. It’s an easy thing to follow. Claudio and Darby are given no reason to pull punches, so they don’t. Whatever that may mean to you, treasure it while this little twerp is still walking.
I mean seriously, that table spot, man.
Rating: ****
19.) Mariah May vs. Toni Storm – AEW Revolution 2025 (3.09.2025)
The real question posed here is if you can separate a payoff from the build. Does the operatic grand finale layered with callbacks, narrative beats, and 4th-wall-shattering tidbits stand so mighty on its own?
I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I don’t have an answer to this question.
The two parts, separate from one another, are easy to answer. This twelve-minute match feels damn near perfect. Every weapon is placed with purpose. Every drop of blood and excess is calibrated. Each reaction twisted into place with precision. But the plot that delivered them here was stretched thin and padded with noise. Not until this conclusion did this saga ever come close to May’s initial turn on Storm. You could not pay me to care about either of these characters, and doubly so for the corny story that got them here. A violent epic to end it certainly strips away that hollowing feeling a bit, but the fact is still that for everything this gets right, I found it hard to care about the match itself.
And it’s the investment that’s missing that hurts this one. Find a way to care, and you could have this as your match of the year. Or maybe watching them paint over that emptiness is the real reason this shines. For what it overcomes. To me, though? I can’t just let them get that satisfaction this easily. I will not deny the undeniable product in front of me, but I will deny the reasons it works so well.
A grandiose finish to a novel only worth reading because it exists—and still, the best women’s match on North American soil all year.
Rating: ****
18.) Mayu Iwatani, Seri Yamaoka & Utami Hayashishita vs. Mio Momono, Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha – NOAH Monday Magic Xtreme Season #1 (10.06.2025)
The Marvelous/Marigold feud reaches its peak.
It’s not perfect. At moments the cutesy energy overtakes the more desirable anger and aggression. It dedicates a dull few minutes to Utami and Iroha. There isn’t enough Mayu. Outside that, this thing sticks the landing like all the best interpromotional bouts do. It finds that crescendo, feels hateful and important, and centers around its most interesting members when it matters most.
I’ll spare you any more details in case you haven’t seen it for yourself, but in case you need a bit more, it’s the very best Senka/Seri minutes all year down the finishing stretch. The very best of them making a mockery of joshi maximalism. Check it out for that, if nothing else.
A simple idea with nonstop action in the first act, and the two rookies stealing the show with beautiful simplicity in the second.
Rating: ****
17.) Demus vs. El Hijo de Fishman – Zona 23 Royal Club (3.09.2025)
Image via Zona 23
Fishman and Demus deliver the ultimate gift in March.
As I sit here and write the blurb for this match, it is Christmas Day. More specifically, the end of it. The time of day where all the relatives have made their way home, the wrapping paper has been collected into a trash bag, and the last basketball game of the day still flickers on the TV. It’s a weird time, where you reflect on the day, grateful for the opportunity to give and for all that you’ve received. Perhaps even, there’s a sense of dread. The new year, now, is breathing down your neck.
And for some reason, as I sit here, all those thoughts got me thinking about this match.
The truth is, I cannot rewatch this match. Renewing an IWTV subscription this late into the year to pick back up some of the more concrete details just isn’t worth it for me at this point. That’s ok, though. There’s a certain spirit that lingers with this match simply because it happened and I’ve seen it.
Christmas isn’t about the details. Nor about one gift, or the church service you attended. It is a time of joy and celebration. An excuse to catch up with family and friends and to put day-to-day life on hold for a while. In its own funny way, matches like this mirror the feeling the holidays give you. They’re momentary escapes, celebrations of what you love. So while you may not love two animals violently brawling in a Mexican junkyard, I, dear reader, do.
Merry Christmas, eh?
Rating: ****
16.) FTR (Dax Hardwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd) – AEW Collision (7.02.2025)
An accomplishment within itself.
I think it’s too easy to loop back to that good guy/bad guy appeal. That isn’t to say it isn’t a correct assessment of what goes on here. I’m not immune to that thinking, and I’m still going to use that idea here. Let’s be honest here. The peak of both the Outrunners’ and FTR’s work this year is drawing back to wrestling roots. Not as desperate tribute acts, but with the realization that in an era obsessed with maximizing, wrestling needs simple, southern tags. Heroes and villains, the natural flow of control segments, the heels cutting corners, and the big hot tag that pays it off. You can’t not make the connection here. It’s arguably the most correct formula wrestling has ever seen. For this one, it’s a guideline. What’s special is how both teams get beyond it.
It starts with a simple beginning. A feeling-out process between these two teams centered around the most basic of pro wrestling ideas: the punch. Big overhand, classic-style punches with the quick snap on the sell. Not with a sterile evenness and not glued in the middle of the ring. Wild, grimy, and fun, and still enough to satisfy the American crowds’ silly obsession with the “meat” trend, just done in a tasteful way.
The second act is the one most steeped in tradition. FTR is able to bust up Turbo’s knee on the outside, and Truth finds himself leaking crimson after an encounter with the steel steps. With that, Dax zeroes in on the cut, Cash cuts off Turbo’s attempts to crawl back, and Stokely tips the scales when the FTR needs it. Simple cause-and-effect stuff, but all with a purpose. That hot tag, the comeback, is all coming.
When we get there, things tilt towards something a bit more modern. Turbo cleans house for a moment, and FTR goes back to the leg to retip the scales. They get the jolt of excitement, but with a modern audience, they know that’s never enough. Slowly, nearfalls, reversals, and a climactic finisher steal. Scratching that oft unreasonable itch for an AEW crowd, but never losing the throughline. That foundation, that southern twang, still there. The knee’s a problem, Truth’s lost some blood, and the heels have the trump card. One shatter machine and an assist from Stokely’s grimy paws later, FTR walks away the victors.
Leaves a poor taste in your mouth, right? Doesn’t matter if it’s the 80s or tomorrow, that sour feeling will never change. And that, baby, is ‘wrasslin.
A match everyone can get.
Rating: ****
15.) Mio Momono vs. Yurika Oka – Marvelous (8.31.2025)
Best duo in the world.
I love these two, man. Infinitely easy to root for both of ‘em. All their stuff is caked in personality and color. You may or may not hold the best-in-the-world sentiment, but here, I think the life these two bring is abundantly clear. You may think they’re goofy, perhaps even annoying. I don’t care. To me, this is what it looks like to get up until you simply can’t anymore.
Wholeheartedly, this is their approach. It breathes so little, and that just feels right. Both women are quickly caked in sweat, panting, and wearing facial expressions of both pain and exhaustion. That feeling of everything having a cost is present in all they do. Rolling around on the mat. Dipping and dodging out of complex pins. Launching themselves off the ropes. Every movement gets to the point where they’re tapping into energy they don’t really have left.
What really grabs me, though, is the dynamic that’s so true to who they are as a pair. This is a match out of love. The effort, pain, and emotion are not fueled by hatred or even the basic desire to win. It’s just simply who these two are. Giving anything less than 110% would be disloyal to themselves and disloyal to each other. Mio will crash her skull full force into her best friend. But she’ll also be the big sister and run to fix Oka’s microphone during the post-match promos. They care, it shows, and so I do too.
The best things really do come in pairs.
Rating: ****
14.) Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) vs. Meiko Satomura & Sareee – Fortune Dream 10 (4.28.2025)
Quintessential joshi all-star tag.
It all turns out great simply because everything’s already tilted in their favor. The best tag team on the planet. Meiko’s retirement tour. Sareee still near enough to what felt like her peak last year. All on a show that’s delivered spectacle and quality for over a decade. The stars haven’t really aligned or anything, Kenta Kobashi has the advantageous pull of his own name and the benefit of running only one show per year, so one should expect some level of quality. Bbut at a level below cosmic alignment, sometimes things just really work in things favor, even if the clash of four hardheaded, hard-hitting personalities was always going to work on some level anyway.
I admit I’m probably just easy to please. My love for this kind of joshi tag should be well documented to you by this point. Color me crazy, there really was a little extra magic here. And if not, there was at least some added oomph behind every bomb these women hurled around.
Not quite a goddamner, but a special kind of pro wrestling for my heart.
Rating: ****1/4
13.) Jun Akiyama vs. Kazusada Higuchi – DDT Wrestle Peter Pan 2025 – Night 1 (8.30.2025)
From every way you can look at it, it’s unfair how good Kazusada Higuchi is.
That was the thought that was rattling through my mind as I first watched this, and coincidentally, it’s that idea that I want you to take home from this blurb. Yes, it’d be easy to angle this around Jun Akiyama. The whole “look at how great he still is” routine certainly flies here. But with Higuchi, to ignore him would be to spit at the feet of God. Everything he does feels so intentful, so purposeful and palpable. The arm selling is as great as we’ve come to expect from the giant, but on offense too, Higuchi is just as thoughtful.
The benefit of this pairing, even with this stage, is conciseness. Unlike other past namestays of post-pandemic DDT like Ueno, Takeshita, Endo, and Brookes, Jun Akiyama is going to behave. No nonsense from him; he’ll stay true to his King’s Road roots and at the very least build up to all the big stuff, but more importantly, he won’t undo the work Higuchi puts in. There’s enough focus on the arm until the big finishing stretch, and once they get there, it’s still in the back of your mind. And even if it doesn’t factor in as much as you or I may like, still, a;; the powering through and offense that’s strung together lands so damn well because both men are dripping in sweat and letting out primal roars. Turns out going so over-the-top does work when it’s made to feel like they’re digging deep.
That’s what makes it unfair, if you really think about it. Higuchi checks the hipster limb work box. He does it better than most. And that bombastic finishing stretch, too, is earned wholeheartedly while so many others drag their feet to get there. And all of it in a wildly efficient 17 minutes, against the last great name of an era that is one of the sole reasons so much main event wrestling is so bloated and lifeless.
Accept it. Higuchi is better than all your favorites.
Rating: ****1/4
12.) Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin – AEW All Out 2025 (9.20.2025)
While only a midpoint in the journey, Darby Allin and Jon Moxley still find a soaring high.
Beyond the obvious—Darby attempting to gnaw Mox’s ear off and crashing and burning through some sickening coffin bumps—it’s hard not to admire how efficient this whole thing is. There’s a real range to Moxley’s performance here. It’s easy enough to toss a mean antagonist in the ring and have him throw Darby around, and Mox does exactly that. But there’s also a specific approach to his demeanor that plays perfectly off what Darby brings.
There’s genuine panic when Darby goes after the ear early, heightened by the visual of blood and the wild flailing whenever Allin returns to that well. And then there’s the plastic bag spot, a moment of comeuppance that feels long overdue, still lands, and functions almost like a total defeat. Even some of the smaller beats, like Mox’s overconfidence in sending his seconds to the back, do real work in illustrating just how lost he is at this point. You can see that he no longer has a grasp on his own capabilities, and while it doesn’t cost him, there’s some major importance behind PAC being the one who ultimately closes the lid on the match.
Now, Darby Allin only appears to be dead and buried.
Brilliant stuff, especially when you can have the winner walk away as a total loser. God, the Moxley saga this year was so, so good.
Rating: ****1/4
11.) Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura) vs. Hikaru Sato & Manabu Hara – Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura Produce Kakuto Tanteidan III ~ One Life To Live (4.08.2025)
Another vicious entry in Abe and Nomura’s book of violence.
It’s natural to compare these main events of the KTdan shows to one another, or even add matches that have invoked undeniably similar formats and feelings to that conversation. I’ve got no issue with that kind of thinking, especially for a style that’s growing more and more niche with time. I’m no better either, as from the very moment this was announced, my mind went to two matches of the spiritual variety: Sato and Abe’s match from 2024, as well as the BJW tag title match with the Astronauts and Sato/Suzuki from ‘23. If you’ve seen both of those matches, one might figure that there’s not enough new material to explore here, especially so, as this ends up running 30 minutes.
Yadda, yadda, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It may not be new, but it is just as soulful, and it’s a half hour of wrestling joy. I don’t have the knowledge to tell you that what the Astronauts have put together with these shows is a perfect emulation of Battlarts, but I have seen enough to say that the reverence, passion, and personality are clear. Having something this long, this innately repetitive, be this full of life is worth commending.
If nothing else, a testament to sticking with what works.
Rating: ****1/4
10.) Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin – AEW WrestleDream 2025 (10.18.2025)
A match defined by a single question that’s only gotten more interesting in recent months.
What does it mean to quit?
If you’re Darby Allin, that’s a complicated question. The whole point of Darby Allin (the very reason so many people gravitate toward him, beyond being a little bump freak) is to see the little engine that could. He’s no-quit personified in his own daredevil way, and contrasted with any other wrestler on the planet, it’d just be weird to see Darby Allin get up and live to fight another day. It’s why we like him *at least as a wrestler and why so many people, myself included, speak so highly of his matches. It’s rewarding to see him live in the moment. It’s why crowds chant “you can’t kill him.” For Darby, quitting is indistinguishable from death. That, to me, is really the only way Darby would answer that question.
Despite appearances, Jon Moxley cannot answer that question in a similar manner. He is a man who hides behind others, letting his own intent control the narrative. He will do anything to hide his cowardice, going to any lengths to make Darby quit. In this alone, he tears at his fingernails, whips him with a belt, and even attempts to drown him in a fish tank. He’s not alone, either. Shafir bails him out of danger. Claudio tosses Darby from the ring through the announcers’ desk. PAC drags Allin across the floor. Not simply because they can, but to buy Moxley time. To hide his shortcomings.
But for a man without the throne or any new tricks left, the cracks eventually show. His composure erodes. You can see it in his body language, in the way he contorts when Darby refuses to give in. He screams. He barks orders. He demands more weapons, more damage, and more shortcuts. Those wishes are granted, yet the goal is never met. Darby does what Darby always does. He survives.
So when Sting finally makes his save, it’s already over. Moxley, left alone again for the second time since Hangman Page knocked him off the mountain, quits. Again.
Proof the first time wasn’t a fluke. Proof that Jon Moxley has to look inward and remember what it means to fight for only himself. He won’t learn it tomorrow or next week. But with each coming defeat that ends this way, the lesson grows louder. The portrait of the Moxley of old is being painted.
A match that, even with all the “for AEW” hoorah from Darby, succeeds through sheer insanity alone.
Rating: ****1/4
9.) Zandokan Jr. vs. Judas el Traidor – Lucha Memes Ver2us (7.19.2025)
Unshackled by his regular rules and restrictions, Zandokan Jr. unleashes himself on what he assumes is a weak old man.
Even with how great his rudo act in CMLL was all year, this is Zandokan at his most evil. He blindsides his foe with a wooden object early, cutting Judas deep. Instantly, he’s clawing and biting at the wound, reveling in the violence. And the pirate-masked man doesn’t stop there. He dumps Judas to ringside and continues the beatdown. The tools of his wrath include a whole row of chairs, sickening overhand chops, and the barricade, and Judas can do nothing but take the blows and wipe blood from his eyes.
Against any hero, anyone with less experience, Zandokan wins in short order. But more than three decades of playing a despicable villain shows you every trick and pitfall. For all the time Judas himself was caught gloating, he knows that an opening will eventually present itself. It comes when Zandokan thrusts his fists into the air to pander to the crowd, and the old rudo answers by driving a snare drum into his face. That moment lets Judas roll him back into the ring, tear at his mask, and draw blood of his own. From there, the hot start for the young CMLL star is gone. The match becomes a coin flip. They trade massive chops, crack their skulls together, exchange powerbombs. It doesn’t quite match the flying sparks of the early brawl, but there’s a lesson buried in why things play out that way. One Zandokan likely won’t bother to learn.
He may win, proving in his own mind that he’s above the little indie he just strolled into. But it isn’t his antics or his wicked intent that carry him through. Immorality doesn’t defeat someone just as vile. For us, though, it makes for one hell of a match.
Rating: ****1/4
8.) HARASHIMA vs. Kazusada Higuchi – DDT Rock In Ring 2025 ~ Strike The Beat, Shout The Cheers ~ (7.13.2025)
The very thing itself is Kazusada Higuchi and HARASHIMA for the KO-D belt. That alone is the surest thing of all sure things. One of the very few things one pencils in the second it’s announced, and yet, I don’t think that’s the point to make here.
It’s HARASHIMA. It’s always the ace.
Much like his two stabs at the KO-D prize in ’24, he must turn back the clock, dodge mistakes, and ultimately, face failure. That feels even more appropriate in a year where playing past hits felt so key in so many places, but also for the man himself as well. In speaking of throwbacks, one cannot forget where Kazusada Higuchi sits in this equation either. This brief recapturing of the title is him reclaiming the form that made him one of the best wrestlers in the world a few years ago. In this form, he’s the perfect obstacle for our hero to overcome.
Being so much about him, HARASHIMA gives another world-class performance. One can feel his struggle to return to former glory. Every action he takes has heightened importance. He’s a man faced with the grim reality that time itself, not spirit, is what holds him back so late in his career. On a quick look back too, the lessons from last year carry over. He wrestled a near-perfect match against Ueno, only to see his rusted joints, plateauing speed, and limited gas tank fail him against the younger wrestler’s athletic gifts. Against Aoki, the muscle and technique of an aging man are nothing compared to those of an active MMA fighter. Here, against Higuchi, HARASHIMA is determined to avoid the match-ending mistake. His early emphasis on Gooch’s arm is the tell, all to avoid the brain claw, and it works. Even an errant Somato off the apron isn’t enough to sink his hopes, and with the bad arm, the stars seem to be aligning. Like both times before, you catch yourself believing.
The kicker, though, is again, it slips. In the same way Aoki forced his shoulders to the mat, and in the same way a flash blackout sleeper turned the tides for Ueno, Higuchi briefly finds strength. It’s nothing HARASHIMA has done wrong. Still, the old ace is hoisted all the same, and one Brain Claw Slam and three taps of the mat later, he’s left with nothing. Another champion has handed HARASHIMA a crushing defeat. It hurts but is, in a way, comforting too. Watching our heroes crumble is the ultimate pain, but we can stand to watch them slip. And that’s what our ace does. He feels he only stumbled this time. So he bows his head, shakes Gooch’s hand, and vows to be back.
In 2025, at 51 years of age, it’s simply good to see HARASHIMA vow to fight another day.
Rating: ****1/4
7.) Mark Briscoe vs. Ricochet – AEW Double Or Nothing 2025 (5.25.2025)
A match worth paying for.
I was hung up on where to take this for a while. Number seven for a match that, while excellent, kind of felt like it came and went felt wrong. There are bits and pieces at play here, though. Ricochet himself gets a crown jewel in his career revitalization that took place in the year’s front half, while Mark Briscoe gets, at the very least, his best match in an AEW ring. There isn’t anything miss either, minus my ability to sound clever or cute so high up onto the list. So, Ill tell ya this. What it is, still, even with a late-year rewatch, one of the easiest to appreciate, breezy, and efficient matches of the year.
Again, there’s a lot to throw in the pot. They use a naturally authentic babyface vs. heel dynamic that so many of their AEW peers miss. Then, the violence of the thing. Wonderful and free-flowing uses of chairs, scissors, and the stretcher, coupled with Mark adding a signature blade job to tie it all together. There’s even bits where some of the comedic bits add some of the breath the match needs, with each satisfying bit of their characters meshing together. Hell, even just plain ‘ol structurally, the thing is tight and efficient. We’re beyond just a well-worked plunder match.
So, I ask myself rhetorically and lay this out to you: why take it beyond all those things that work? It’s not perfect, or whatever, but for each tiny thing it misses on, it more than makes up for by standing tall on its own two feet. Seen nothing from this year? Honestly, start here. No context needed, no nothing.
No better summary than that.
Rating: ****1/4
6.) Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – NJPW Tanahashi Jam (6.29.2025)
Image via New Japan Pro Wrestling
I’ve spoken a bit about assumptions as I’ve gone through these 50 matches. I’ve called them dangerous, used them as a metaphor when picking what does and doesn’t belong on the list. I’ll say again: the way I choose and place these matches probably matters to you more than it should. What does matter isn’t the placement or where you might assume things land. It’s the words, the feeling, and the connection beyond what’s “good” and what’s “bad.”
Point here, is yes, Hirooki Goto and ZSJ piece together a(nother) great match. Well paced, tense, and filled with an increasingly rare level of appropriate back-and-forth, all tied together by Zack’s meticulous work over Goto’s arm. For that alone, it’s list-worthy material, but to stop there would be to lose the real point.
This isn’t just about execution. It’s about playing with one of those assumptions, one baked in after Goto’s title win earlier in the year. It was too easy to assume Goto would win again, that he’d overcome. The hill had already been climbed, one so high that nothing could push him off. Good things never die, right? Then, as this plays out it sinks in. It was always too good to be true. The end comes crashing down, and not as an injustice, but as truth in its cruelest form.
It’s easier to say Goto embraced being a loser than to say he maximized his opportunities. That is that tough truth. It made him easy to love on the climb back up, but for an even longer length of time, he was even easier to dismiss. If true fairness in life is equalizing opportunities, not outcomes, Hirooki Goto was never destined to break the barrier in the first place. Maybe that’s why it hurts so much—because the match forces that inevitability to the surface. We saw him push past the ceiling, and still, that feeling of inadequacy creeps back in, that initial moment of triumph crumbles under the weight of reality—and the ceiling falls. Hirooki Goto, now, is just as vincible as he always was. Zack Sabre Jr. may not be a “better” wrestler, a better fit for the belt, or the better man. But he does for the second time what Hirooki Goto will only ever do once.
To hell with true fairness. To hell with realizing your assumptions were nothing but a foolhardy wish. The world doesn’t spin on an axis of equality.
The most painful, yet harrowing, match of the year.
Rating: ****1/4
5.) Jon Moxley vs. Kyle Fletcher – AEW Worlds End 2025 (12.27.20205)
A fitting bow on the whole year for 2025’s best wrestler.
In the span of a month, Jon Moxley had damn near redeemed himself. Limping into the C2 and left to his own devices, the Death Rider of months past was all but gone. He had been proven a coward, a man who couldn’t do it alone. Fans online were even fantasy booking implosion angles that saw Mox lose every C2 bout.
But he doesn’t. Left to his own devices, Mox claws and struggles for each win. He succeeds on his own merits, relearns what it’s like to lose. With every passing minute in the ring, then, a subtle shift takes place. He becomes a man with cautious swagger. Urgency is baked into everything he does. There’s no desperate attempt to recapture the crowd’s heart, instead, there’s a need to reclaim the parts of himself he betrayed. No more playing the coward. No more maneuvering around pain.
By the time we reach this match, all those pieces are back in place. Mox’s reformative metamorphosis is complete, and its first real test is Kyle Fletcher. A man who, in his own way, is every bit the force riding the same unstoppable high Moxley once did. Faced with that familiar evil, Mox endures. He chips teeth. Loses a leg from under him. Stares down the prospect of surrender once again.
Goddammit, though, the ace powers through.
The facial expressions, the literal gritting of teeth, the timing of his comebacks are all pristine. He eats absolute dirt on Fletcher’s best offense. He gets Bryan Danielson riled up on commentary. And in so many moments of weakness across these twenty minutes, Jon Moxley looks his strongest.
The crowd, now, is chanting his name.
The ace of the universe. We’re still living in Jon Moxley’s world.
Rating: ****1/4
4.) Shinya Aoki vs. Kazusada Higuchi – DDT King Of DDT 2025 First Round (5.06.2025)
There’s little doubt a tight, semi-spirited riff session between these two could’ve cracked the list. Yet, Higuchi and Aoki don’t just show up. They go beyond the guarantee, putting full faith into the credibility and mythos they’ve spent the last decade building, and turn in one of the best matches of the year.
Secretly, too, I think this is Shinya Aoki’s career performance.
Part of that loops back to the right place and time motif. Aoki spends most of the match tying one of the most menacing forces in wrestling into knots and does so convincingly. It’s easy for him to beat up on some rookies; Gooch is another story. That matters so much more than you’d think too. It’s the exact thing Higuchi opponents have struggled with in the past; it’s just hard to believe anyone can crack a previously uncompromised Gooch. Really, the only thing that has ever slowed the man down is injuries or the promotion deciding his time at the top has run its course.
Shinya Aoki needs no miracles, no setup, no nothing, from anyone.
Hell, he’s so good it feels unfair that he loses. There’s a heightened precision to his game on this night. Everything from the holds to the strikes feels appropriately tight or free. The pompous pro wrestling elements come out and land perfectly. For once, it isn’t Higuchi being too giving with his opponent; it just looks like he’s getting flattened legitimately. On Aoki, that speaks volumes. He’s done things like spending much of the last two years getting a full nelson pin over as one of the most credible match enders on earth, and having him bring the struggle and tension of that idea to a match against one of the most credible powerhouses in the world feels massive. It means the crowd lights up for all the little things early, and that when things slow down physically, the tension remains. Everything feels so raw and primal that way. It’s beautiful pro wrestling. A real and genuine struggle.
What shouldn’t be lost behind this efficiency is the simple creativity of their narrative. The way things play out makes you question Higuchi. Has his absence knocked him down a peg? Or has Aoki laid claim to the spot that was once his? Those questions appear and then fade in an instant, though. Old Ironhead simply lets Aoki wear himself down. Maybe it’s arrogance, or just how well things were working for him. But the second Aoki forgoes what’s worked, he fails. Higuchi gets over his first KO-DDT hurdle because even on a rival’s best day, they cannot crack iron. Aoki tries to shatter an unbreakable skull, and maybe that’s what awakens the old Giant. Now, it’s the man they call a survivor who gets his cranium crushed. A fitting end, that the mythos of one man outduels the mythos of the other.
Rating: ****1/2
3.) Venganza vs. Lunatik Fly – Zona 23 12. Aniversario (7.06.2025)
Instantly the most unforgettable match of the year.
There are times when even the best matches inside the Zona 23 junkyard suffer from their own ambition. There’s always a desire to grab another stack of light tubes or set up one more big, crazy spot instead of letting the action breathe. It’s an understandable flaw, though. Zona isn’t exactly shy about its promise of deathmatches. Their selling point is the violence, and one can imagine that even the largest desire for restraint is drowned out when placed in this venue.
With that in mind, there’s often a sort of limit Zona matches are weighed down by. They’ll miss on the why things are happening, because “because it can” isn’t always sound enough. Give a pair of maniacal luchadores some stakes to support that answer and have them engulf themselves fully in the chaos; one may find it is, though. It’s a cosmic alignment, maybe. But you’ll get supernovas like this one. A genuine, scorching hot, plum-full crowd, some palpable stakes, and two men up to the task of making everything as brutal and grand as possible. There are no bounds to what Venganza and Lunatik Fly will do. Insane dives. Wrecked cars. Glass. Some genuinely nasty strikes. And not for a moment between all this action do they take their foot off the gas.
That’s the respectable thing about this, really. Wrestling hides behind many facades and gets bashful with its own level of reality. Sometimes it’s nice to see something not care and simply drown in its own filth. There is nothing fake about some spotty selling or a little convenient placement when those gaps are filled by crashing through another pane of glass or launching yourself into the mud. It’s that failure to commit to that idea where so many fail. The real, human tendency is to catch our breath, to lick our wounds. To put that instinct on hold is what makes this such a roaring success, and then to do it to this level makes it all the more admirable.
A spectacle that kept finding a higher gear.
Rating: ****1/2
2.) Jon Moxley vs. Adam Page – AEW All In Texas (7.12.2025)
Attached to a great moment is both a grand stage and a match that’s somehow the best version of itself.
If you can remember back to the front half of the year, you’ll remember Jon Moxley being a decisive figure. I, for one, was never someone who entertained the ridiculous prospect of turning on Jon Moxley, nor did I join in with the “Mox FC” counterpunch. Part of that comes with me playing catch-up on wrestling for most of the year, but larger than that is the fact that I just didn’t care. I didn’t throw the Strickland or Cope matches into the watchlist for the same reason I don’t throw, say, so many of the beloved Ospreay epics into the backlog. Common sense tells me I don’t need to see them to know they’re not-for-me, just as two poor matches from the frontrunner for wrestler of the decade don’t justify throwing him aside and ending his reign early. There’s a throughline with the story, starting with Danielson and ending with Page. Even without watching, that felt obvious to me, and in that sense, I never really understood the gotcha on either side of the argument.
Above all, though, my enjoyment of wrestling doesn’t hinge on the AEW world title scene. My point is, the way I view this match is strictly separate from the discourse it generated. I understand having opinions about where AEW stood heading into this match. I do. But placing emphasis solely on the build’s quality is to miss the point. Yes, it felt rough at times, but it got us to Page as a challenger and did it authentically. It established the Death Riders’ antics. And the time that passes? Just sweetens the eventual payoff. I’m not sure you could’ve asked it to do much more.
The real inescapable reality is the approach to booking these major shows. Now more than ever, they misunderstand the scale. The bigger the show, the bigger the names, the longer the wait for the payoff—the longer the match, the more people involved, the more reactions it must generate. Simply put, these matches do too much, forgetting that the end must justify the means. WWE’s last four Mania main events are proof of it. Look to any major Bushiroad match the previous five years for more examples. AEW is no better most of the time either. They can’t and won’t resist. That’s why the Mania comparisons have been so prevalent and why they, too, should have sunk.
Somehow, they float.
If you’re going to zero in on a why, Jon Moxley’s performance is what reins this in. This isn’t Moxley at his most deranged. It’s better. He’s the Death Rider realized. A warlord: barking orders, gushing blood, screaming at the crowd. Every move soaked in vile intent, with meaning behind every piece of steel, glass, and wire. The struggle of it all is effortless, all nasty, all designed to torture the final hero he’s yet to vanquish. Everything exists not just to happen but to hammer in his own cowardice. Dragging Hangman through glass is cruel, but somehow, the giddy excitement of dapping up Claudio at ringside feels even more evil.
His actions mirror the long build; every trick comes back into play, and everyone who’s found themselves under Mox shows up to help. Sure, that means a quarter of the roster is needlessly involved. Again, flawed logic practically demands it. Yet Moxley’s structuring makes those run-ins land. Every appearance hits a beat. Every interference reveals another crack.
That’s the beauty in sticking with what got him there. Certain fans may not have liked it, but along with exposing Moxley’s character, it removes any cheapness the moment could’ve had. Hangman takes the full deck from Mox because that’s what it takes. His incredible effort in selling the damage forces the desire to see him win to the forefront. Poke back and say he doesn’t do it alone, and I get that. But no one rushes in to save Page; they rush to give Moxley what he left them. With nothing. Helpless and gasping for air. Once that happens, he’s clawing, flailing, and screaming. Alone. His pedestal decayed. A pedestal only as thin as the plastic bag that started this all in the first place.
See, plastic may cut off air, but it does not block out the sun. Blood spilled is a sign of a beating heart. A career ended is not a career erased, and bodies piled are no throne. And it’s that blood, that legend reborn, and those ghosts of the past that build a true foundation. A cowboy. A hero. The one who brings the AEW title back into the light is Adam Page under the Texas sun.
Rating: ****1/2
1.) Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – NJPW The New Beginning In Osaka 2025 (2.11.2025)
Distance.
On the surface, this all started in January. Goto won the Rambo at Wrestle Kingdom, which earned him his ninth shot at the IWGP belt. That kicks off a two month period before his scheduled match with Zack. Those two months may seem to be a long time to wait for something. I know 60 days seems like a long while to me. Goto scoffs at the notion. In this case, the man has practically waited his whole life for this moment.
In waiting for Goto’s latest try, fans online took to a particular Peanuts metaphor to weaponize the indifference New Japan has shown toward main event Goto, and twist a bit of irony into the unlikely prospect of the promotion pulling the trigger. That, along with everything else, charmed me, I must admit. Goto, meanwhile, leaned into something more connectable. He acknowledged his failures and reflected on them. Grappled with the reality of his many losses, as well as with the real-life loss of his father the past year. Through powerful promos and social media packages, he would invoke his dad’s name and promise to win the belt, even if his father wouldn’t be there to physically see it. It’s all powerful stuff even looking back, but now, there was something else in the air. For as much as it felt like Goto wouldn’t win, it also felt like he wasn’t going to lose either.
One could conclude there. Those two months passed. Both men put on a belter. Goto raised the IWGP belt above his head. That, though, is only the smallest view of the distance traveled, and only one of its paths.
From here, many of the others who wrote wonderful, touching reviews of this match take the time to connect a certain personal anecdote to Goto’s. I do not have that connection. My dad is still alive. That’s blunt-sounding, but honest. I’m lucky. I haven’t experienced a familial loss anywhere near the level of losing a parent. And my relationship with them cannot be described as any kind of strained. On that level, I can’t relate to the level of regret Goto expresses either.
So without that experience—and getting back to the distance—above all else, Hirooki Goto wins. On the day he finally does, it’s been nine years since his last attempt. That loss to Okada was, largely unintentionally, one of the most humiliating defeats pro wrestling has ever seen. He even describes it as the worst day of his life in those aforementioned video packages, and even looking back, it’s hard to disagree. If Goto only had his feet kicked out from under him the previous seven losses, Okada tramples him while he’s down for number eight. Beats him into a near decade-long submission. Knowing that, Hirooki Goto shouldn’t even be here.
Even without a personal connection, one can resonate with that. I did. I’ve never seen myself as much of a winner. Sports, school, work, or even frugal things like video games—all of it. At best, I’ve been good, not great, and in those cases I often found myself behind my twin sister—who, I love dearly, but in my childish eyes, was always better. It didn’t matter if it was making a better baseball team or getting a better grade. I spent lots of my childhood wanting to close an imaginary gap. I realize now that was incredibly silly, of course; we all have our strengths and flaws, and life is more beautiful than a constant strive for perfection, but even as an adult that can be hard to realize. And knowing that is the reason I put my faith in Goto: I’m human, and I understand feeling inadequate. I understand the crushing reality of being inadequate.
Enter ZSJ. Often (wrongly, but still) championed as the best technical wrestler in the world, Zack’s character is never someone who’s been inadequate. He’s one of the very few foreign wrestlers to hold the IWGP belt, one of the even fewer to main event Wrestle Kingdom, and is now the man holding the belt Goto’s spent a career trying to grasp. Those pieces of reality drive his performance here. He’s not evil. He’s just better. With pinpoint focus, he tears Goto’s arm apart, toys with him on the mat, and takes every shortcut he can. It looks hopeless.
But Goto isn’t hoping for a win anymore. That was the old Goto, a man who was desperate, a man who wanted. Hirooki Goto doesn’t need a good arm. Doesn’t need hope. Doesn’t need magic. Hirooki Goto is in the ring, not for a New Beginning and not to try. Hirooki Goto is there to do. And he does. He proves himself worthy of the championship. Proves to himself he’s both a wothy son and father. In that sense, the 20-minute match is tense, a struggle, yes, but also a joyous celebration. It only appears bleak. The result, never in question. Never about proving it to Zack, management, or that belt. And it was certainly never about being good enough or being any kind of worthy; it was about convincing himself he was. Once that happens, he is surrounded by his family in the ring, has a world title wrapped around his waist, and is covered in gold streamers. A total triumph, a capturing of self-worth that resonates with us all, and at 3 a.m., tears were trickling down from my tired eyes watching it unfold.
A match in which Hirooki Goto finally closes the gap, and does it with all of us on his back and his father smiling down from above.
Undoubtedly, the Match of the Year.
Rating: ****3/4
Five Final Assorted Things/Catchall/Bits of Nonsense Worth Talking About
5.) Other Retirement Tour Hits
Lots of legends are calling it quits these days.
John Cena is the big one who I’ve barely mentioned so far, but long-standing names like Nane Takahashi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Christopher Daniels were all up to retirement-related activities this year. I don’t have the time or desire at this point for any extra concrete details, but the list below should cover some of the names that didn’t have any direct mentions throughout the rest of the list.
- Notable Matches w/ No Other Appearances On The List (Everything ***3/4 and up)
- Nanae Takahashi vs. NØRI (LLPW-X 4.13)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Oleg Boltin (NJPW 7.22)
- Borderline Matches w/ No Other Appearances On The List (***1/2 Matches)
- Christopher Daniels vs. Adam Page (AEW 1.18)
- Genkai vs. Mentai Kid (Kyushu Pro 5.11)
- John Cena vs. Gunther (WWE 12.13)
4.) Mexican Indies (?)
Image via The Crash Lucha Libre
My most shameful blind spot of the year (and decade) is the Mexican Independents.
I’m so unfamiliar that I’m not even sure what the right terminology is for places that aren’t CMLL, AAA, and IWRG. Is calling them independents appropriate?
Whatever term these smaller-scale places can be lumped into, I haven’t seen enough of them. There are thousands of luchadores out there I’ve never heard of, and there’s even a small handful I stumbled upon this year I didn’t quite find space to mention. Take llave experts Karma I and Karma II, for example. An early year Lucha Memes is where they were introduced to me, and I must say, seeking out more of their work proved more difficult than I would’ve hoped. Look at these lucha wiki pages; they’re bare bones. Even the Lucha DB search feature provides few links to this duo’s work.
That’s not to insult anyone either, or to point the blame at anyone else. This side of wrestling is new to me. Maybe I’ll look back one day on this and laugh at how easy it is to find this stuff, maybe not. Who knows, there’s a whole other world out there.
Just take it from me. If you see people talking up some of the niche stuff from Mexico, don’t ignore them. They’re few and far between. Anyway, there’s some stuff below I did manage to come across that was pretty good.
- Matches w/ No Other Appearances On The List (***1/2 Matches)
- Karma I, Karma II & Magnetico vs. Herodes Jr., Huitzil & Pantera Jr. (Mi Sagrada 1.26)
- Lunatik Extreme, Ovett Jr. & Super Boy vs. Atomik Star, El Negociante & Especie Maligna (IMLL 3.15)
- Mexa Boy’s vs. Anubis & Gallo Extreme (The Crash 3.21)
- Taquero Maldito Jr. vs. Lobito I (Invasion Indy 10.25)
3.) Mari
For many of you, I’m sure the last you heard from AWG was Rossy Ogawa poaching most of their roster to start Marigold.
What if I told you he left their best wrestler behind?
The talent raid didn’t leave much in its wake. A vast majority of AWG’s remaining roster have been wrestling for three years or less, and many of them make no appearances outside the forty-odd shows the promotion runs each year. It’s a thin ecosystem, and not one that naturally produces breakout performances.
That’s what makes the year Mari had so impressive.
If you care about this sort of thing, she’s the “did the most with the least” wrestler of the year. She kicks hard, sells the leg beautifully, and is exceptional at presenting problems for lesser opponents to solve. I found myself wanting to love everything I saw from her more than I did simply because of how strong her performances were in everything. What she brings, she brings consistently. And yeah, she’s let down in ways that are out of her control often, but it is what it is.
Mari is at home in AWG. The heel they need for their plucky idols to clash with. The smaller venues and more restrained approach play to those strengths. It invites subtlety. Patience you can’t find anywhere else. The emphasis is on the fundamentals of interesting wrestling within itself. If her genuinely great work has to be pigeonholed somewhere, it might as well be here, in a promotion I’d otherwise ignore entirely.
For completionists, seek out her year. Hopefully, you have fewer issues with the people across from her than I did.
- The Best of Mari’s Year (Everything ***1/2+)
- vs. Haruka Ishikawa (AWG 2.05)
- vs. Sakura Mizushima (AWG 3.16)
- w/ Act vs. Marino Saihara & Rico Fukunaga (AWG 8.13)
2.) Kazuki Hirata: KO-D Openweight Champion
It’s not often that a title win, or any other ascent to the top, is worth mentioning through that action alone.
DDT, through all of its merits and its painfully self-inflicted issues, is the only place this whole thing works. All the goofiness, all the dancing, and getting you and I to belt out “Tokyooooo!” at the top of our lungs is what Kazuki Hirata is. And Kazuki Hirata simply couldn’t exist anywhere else.
For 15 years, he’s been the same man. The reliable laugh in the undercard, only ever getting to play with the top dogs when it’s at his own expense. It’s why he hesitates to come out and cash in his title shot on Ueno. He literally has to grab a microphone and talk himself into manning up for a match that’s so clearly in his favor, and even then, it nearly slips away. He has to roll up Ueno to capture the KO-D prize, and even after the joyous seconds where he pumps his fists into the air, there’s a realization. He’s still the same Kazuki Hirata. A new shiny toy hasn’t changed the man, so he tosses the belt aside. Why defend something you only ever wanted to win?
It’s Ueno himself who convinces Hirata to wear the belt with pride right there, and so the celebration continues. The whole locker room pours out, and Hirata gets to resume his normal antics draped in gold. End it there, and there’s a good chance you’re still reading this. Anyone can appreciate a good story about rising to the challenge when the time’s right.
So the chapters continue. Hirata wears the strap with pride on the tour shows. He sneaks away with the KO-D belt against Akito, despite losing the match. Time keeps ticking, and the jig is up. It’s time for a traditional title defense. A straight singles match. No gimmicks. His opponent? None other than an old rival and DDT’s spiritual mascot: Yoshihiko. The result is a masterclass in sheer individual effort. Crazy flipping powerbombs, (convincingly) getting his arm torn apart by a doll, and massive dives into the Korakuen crowd. It’s a soulful, classic-feeling DDT goof-off, and the result is a hard-fought defense for Hirata—one where, ironically, he only ever had to beat himself. But who cares? It’s party time, and so the primed celebration continues.
Until Ueno reveals it’s his turn to cash in his title shot on Hirata.
The world is falling down.
Kazuki Hirata is doomed. The script flips. Yet, amongst the flames, he hangs tough. Kicks out again and again. Then, nearfalls of his own. It’s not quite enough, but it’s close. Fate demands he lose what never should’ve been his, only for him to realize he might’ve belonged there in the first place. So yes, Ueno takes back what’s rightfully his, and the party in Tokyo falls silent. Perhaps, though, through the chaos we’ve learned something. The importance of living in the moment, even when it comes to its bitter end.
The best damn party I’ve ever been to, and a celebration that anyone with a beating heart can enjoy.
- Relevant (and reccomended) Matches
- Kazuki Hirata vs. Yuki Ueno (DDT 8.31)
- Kazuki Hirata vs. Yoshihiko (DDT 9.28)
- Kazuki Hirata vs. Yuki Ueno (DDT 9.28)
1.) A Good Reminder To Everyone, and a Thank You
I did always have plans to use one of these spots to speak my mind a bit, but since we’re so late into the new year by the point this whole thing gets released, one last time, I’ll rein myself in a bit.
I saw things from the greater wrestling fandom this year that made me disappointed. But I also saw things that brought me great joy. As a reminder to whoever needs to hear it, what I’m (and others) doing here is for fun. I do not know any of the people I talk about, nor do I want to. I just like what they do. I like thinking about it. Analyzing it, in my own weird way. No, I do not train, take bumps, or wrestle myself, and no, I don’t want to. If that’s all you need to discredit me, so be it.
But listen to me when I say this. Support the people who do things like this. Like, repost, retweet, donate, etc. Hell, write some stuff down about the wrestling you like yourself. Then, post it. Flex those creative muscles. You, dear readers, are better than you give yourself credit for. And I can only speak for myself, but I do love reading about wrestling. It’s an escape for me just the same as watching the wrestling itself. Who knows? Maybe it can bring you some extra happiness too.
‘Till next year. Love you all.
At 33,473 words, that is your 2025 edition of the Pro Wrestling 100. If you came this far, or even if you just scrolled through, I appreciate it. I hate to reiterate this point, but I don’t get paid to make stuff like this. If you’re so inclined to even follow me on my socials, or repost or share this in any way, I’d appreciate it. I’ll see ya next year.
Kyle Ginsbach 
