WWE FAST LANE

Cleveland

THE NEW DAY vs. RUSEV & SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (13:20): I watched the main event of today's New Japan show, which was Day 3 of the New Japan Cup (which is basically like the NCAA March Madness tournament), after this show. It was Ibushi vs. Naito and it was awesome. I'm only mentioning this to note that there is actual great wrestling occurring in the world...somewhere. This match, which featured The New Day minus Kofi Kingston, was the pre-show match at Fastlane, a pointless show if there ever was one. This was fairly entertaining, as The New Day are usually in entertaining matches. It sure doesn't bode well for Nakamura's career in the WWE that he's not teaming up on random teams on pre-show matches and losing. **1/2

THE USO'S vs. THE MIZ & SHANE McMAHON (14:10): During the pre-show, Shane and The Miz met The Miz's dad backstage (this show was in Cleveland, the Miz's hometown). Considering the WWE loves to humiliate and destroy people in their hometown, I called a Shane heel turn and it happened! Not that it wasn't obvious. Shane's heel turn was supposed to come out of him winning that stupid "Best Wrestler in the World" tournament in Saudi Arabia and Smackdown losing every match at Survivor Series. Well they finally pulled the plug and Shane beat up The Miz after they lost the match. The Miz's dad was watching this all at ringside. The problem is...The Miz is not a good face outside of Cleveland. So if Shane wrestles The Miz at WrestleMania than everyone is going to cheer Shane. As for this match before the not-shocking heel turn...it was just okay. There was an awkward moment when Shane and one of the Uso's both jumped off opposite top ropes and Shane sort of kicked him in the shin or leg and they fell down. Ugh. I'm not sure what the fuck they were trying to do. The heel turn was at least amusing. **

ASUKA vs. MANDY ROSE (6:40): Rose is one of those pretty blondes that can't wrestle, yet Vince is a pervert and thinks pretty women should be on TV so we end up with this atrocious botch fest.
-No Stars-

SHEAMUS & CAESARO vs. KOFI KINGSTON (5:15): Kofi was supposed to wrestle Daniel Bryan tonight for the title. Vince replaced Kofi with Kevin Owens because, apparently, Vince thinks the old evil boss gimmick will boost ratings (hey, it worked in the late 90's!). So tonight, Vince fucked Kofi again by putting him against two men and then later putting Mustafa Ali instead of Kofi into the championship match. I suppose it worked to push Kofi since the Cleveland crowd did chant for Kofi during the championship match later on. It's still a dumb, been-there-done-that storyline, though. And this squash match had no right to be on this show. And since this was an unannounced match out of nowhere and Mustafa Ali was not supposed to wrestle...this show felt different than usual. It felt reminiscent of WCW when Vince Russo was at the helm. Jeff Jarrett and Dana Warrior have apparently been brought on board the writing team and it definitely felt like somebody new was writing this. Instead of just a bunch of wrestling matches we had all kinds of unannounced crap and run-ins and out of nowhere, on the fly appearances. We all know how Vince Russo era WCW ended up, of course. -No Stars-

THE REVIVAL vs. ALEISTER BLACK & RICOCHET vs. CHAD GABLE & BOBBY ROODE (10:50): This was a good match, though with all of this talent (minus Roode, who sucks), I thought that this would be a hell of a lot better. I'm still not sure why Ricochet is teaming up with Aleister Black, nor why they're pushing a team that asked for their release (The Revival asked and were rejected then given the titles and a push). The Revival retained their tag titles. **1/2

SOMOA JOE vs. R. TRUTH vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. vs. ANDRADE (10:50): Good match. Andrade Cien Almas is now just Andrade. He also supposedly told some Mexican wrestlers not to come to WWE recently. I wonder why? Joe retained the U.S. title. As in any four way, this helped in that it was pretty much all action. I'm still not entirely sure why R. Truth is still in this company. **1/2

BAYLEY & SASHA BANKS vs. NIA JAX & TAMINA (7:05): I mentioned that this show felt like it was written by fresh faces. Case in point: after this match, Nia Jax and Tamina beat up Beth Phoenix, who was doing commentary. Then Natalya ran out to save her. The show definitely felt over-written, if that makes sense. If you remember, Vince Russo was the king of over-written shows. I think the reason simple is better is because eventually too much plot and run-ins and craziness just overwhelms and gets ridiculous. This match was pretty stale, anyway, and nothing was going to save it. Bayley and Banks retained the tag titles. *

DANIEL BRYAN vs. MUSTAFA ALI vs. KEVIN OWENS (18:45): Really good match. Thank Mustafa Ali, who wrestles like he's in PWG, not WWE. The gimmick here was that they teased the crowd that this match, originally set to be Bryan vs. Owens for the title, would be a three way. So the assumption was Kofi would come out. But no, evil Vince sent out Mustafa Ali, who's a good guy, anyway, so that's stupid. Ali was supposed to be in the Elimination Chamber last month but suffered a concussion so they threw in Kofi and then the crowd loved it so everything changed. So that's why Ali was in this....because he originally lost his shot and so deserved it. Ali did a bunch of crazy stuff, including a nuts 450 splash from the top rope to Bryan on the ring apron. This was perhaps Daniel Bryan's best match since returning a year ago. Owens was returning from injury and he didn't impress too much. I'm still not entirely sure if he's supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy. Bryan won and in the end they really should have just done the original Kofi vs. Bryan match. ***

BECKY LYNCH vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR (8:45): Lynch was on crutches. She had to beat Flair to be in the main event of WrestleMania. For no reason, Ronda Rousey showed up and caused a DQ and Lynch to win by DQ. Why would Rousey want to face two women at WrestleMania instead of one? Who the fuck knows? It makes zero sense. And the end of this was awful. 1/2*

THE SHIELD vs. BARON CORBIN, BOBBY LASHLEY & DREW McINTYRE (24:50): Dean Ambrose is leaving after WrestleMania because his contract is up. Roman Reigns returned from battling leukemia so they had one last Shield match. I guess a reunited Shield match is a big deal. The last time they tried this they had to add Kurt Angle to The Shield because Reigns had an infection. It still felt like a RAW main event, though. Would it fucking kill the champion, Brock Lesnar, to wrestle on every ppv? Jesus. And why is Baron Corbin still wrestling in a dress shirt and pants? Guy looks like he's at the polo club or something. McIntyre sucks, Lashley is God-awful. Seth Rollins did a dive off some random stage amidst the crowd. This was semi-entertaining but mostly boring. So it goes. **

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

Houston, TX

BUDDY MURPHY vs. AKIRA TOZAWA (13:25): This was on the pre-show and was perhaps the best match of the night (the final ten minutes or so of the main event was better, though). The problem? Even the WWE doesn't care about 205Live, the Dead Man Walking of shows. During the match they had an interview segment with The New Day backstage and had to split screen the match and the interview. The pre-show was an hour long! Why didn't they do the interview segment during the other forty five minutes of pre-show instead of during this great match? Who the fuck knows. The WWE has baffled me for awhile now and the dropping ratings are proof that they're lost in a heavy fog with no way out. On any other show from a different company like ROH or PWG or Dragon Gate or REVPRO (I could go on), this match would be the main event for the title. That's how good and exciting these guys and this match was. But with a dead crowd, a frigging split screen, a non-existent push for 205Live for no reason, you got a great match that meant nothing and was forgotten. I mention Dragon Gate because Tozawa  used to wrestle there. Perhaps he should go back. And Murphy, for the love of God, get the fuck out of this company pronto. ***

BAYLEY & SASHA BANKS vs. CARMELLA & NAOMI vs. MANDY ROSE & SONYA DEVILLE vs. NIA JAX & TAMINA vs. THE ICONICS vs. THE RIOTT SQUAD "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (33:00): Well the best I can say about this match was that it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it would be. This was for the tag team women's title, a new title released tonight onto the world. This means that us suckers that watch RAW and Smackdown will now have to not only sit through boring singles and multi women matches...we'll now have to suffer through women's tag team matches. Nothing remarkable happened in this match. It wasn't cringe inducing. The hot crowd helped. **

THE USO'S vs. SHANE McMAHON & THE MIZ (14:10): One of the Uso's got arrested by the Detroit police last week for trying to fight them. Apparently his wife, Naomi from the previous match, was driving down a one way street so the police pulled them over and smelled alcohol in their car. The Uso took his shirt off and wanted to fight so the police pulled out a taser until they calmed him down. So you'd think the dude would get suspended from the WWE or something, right? Nope. Him and his brother won the tag team titles. Uh...okay. Shane did his top rope elbow through the announce table. That was hard to watch. Shane is too old and he'll be in a wheel chair and be a mindless vegetable soon if he doesn't stop doing shit like that at his age. *

FINN BALOR vs. BOBBY LASHLEY & LIO RUSH (9:30): So this was a handicap match but still for the IC title. What? That makes zero sense. I guess they just didn't want Finn to pin Lashley. He didn't. He pinned Lio Rush instead. Rush used to wrestle in CZW. He's a hell of a wrestler but has already been destroyed by the WWE. Way to go. 1/2*

RONDA ROUSEY vs. RUBY RIOTT (1:40): Rousey tapped out Riott very quickly. Then Becky Lynch came out on crutches and beat up Rousey and Charlotte (who was sitting at ringside) until security came out. Lynch is the hottest thing since forever in the WWE. It's really too bad that they're just recycling the 'Stone Cold' vs. McMahon storyline, though. Shit's tired. *1/2

BARON CORBIN vs. BRAUN STROWMAN "NO DQ MATCH" (10:50): Eventually, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley came out and all three put Strowman through two stacked tables in the ring and Corbin won. What an entertaining villainous trio! Seriously, the WWE needs new writers or something. *

DANIEL BRYAN vs. KOFI KINGSTON vs. SAMOA JOE vs. A.J. STYLES vs. RANDY ORTON vs. JEFF HARDY "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (36:40): Kofi Kingston took Mustafa Ali's place because Ali suffered a concussion last week. Which means this mega push that worked for Kofi this week was never planned. Let's hope the WWE stops planning things then, because this Kofi push out of nowhere was solid gold. The final two were Bryan and Kofi and the crowd was ecstatic and behind Kofi like he was Hulk Hogan in the 80's or something. Kofi isn't even that popular...is he? Or was the crowd just into Kofi because they're fucking sick of the same old shit and want some new faces to win titles? Either way, the final ten minutes or so was great when Kofi almost won after a bunch of near-falls. Bryan eventually won and the air was sucked out of the building. Before that, Jeff Hardy did a Swanton Bomb off the top of one of the pods onto A.J. who was draped over the top rope. That was pretty cool. The match started with Samoa Joe and Bryan trading vicious, NJPW style chops. This wasn't a great match but the end was fantastic. For some reason, this show had usually been a lot better and more meaningful in years past. It probably didn't help that the RAW champ, Lesnar, and his WrestleMania foe, Seth Rollins, weren't even on the show, and that one Chamber match was wasted with a stupid women's tag team match. The other matches on the show were all lame and pointless besides the great 205Live bout. There's actually still one more PPV before WrestleMania. Which makes no fucking sense. Welcome to WWE. **1/2

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

Phoenix

BOBBY ROODE & CHAD GABLE vs. SCOTT DAWSON & REZAR (6:55): This show was held at the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball stadium (which does have a roof), which made it look fairly impressive (it wasn't sold out but it was about 80% filled...tickets were apparently being sold two-for-one as of last week since it wasn't selling as well as they had hoped). The pre-show started at 5 PM Eastern and didn't end until around 11:50 PM. Yep, too fucking long. Although it was a pretty entertaining show for the most part, albeit without any great matches nor shocking surprises. I didn't see this unadvertised match nor want to. I'm not even sure why Rezar and Dawson were teaming up except for the fact that Rezar's tag team partner is hurt and Dawson and his partner asked for their WWE release last week but I guess were denied.

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA vs. RUSEV (10:15): Nakamura won the Royal Rumble last year. Ah, how the mighty have fallen. He never did get the title...although he won back the U.S. title here in a so-so match. **

BUDDY MURPHY vs. AKIRA TOZAWA vs. KALISTO vs. HIDEO ITAMI (12:05): There was some good action in this bout, even though Murphy doesn't look at all like a cruiserweight. Hideo Itami may have been a huge Japanese star ten years ago (Kenta, from NOAH), but he fucking sucks in the WWE and always has. Tozawa used to wrestle in Dragon Gate and he's pretty much wasted in the WWE. 205Live has and always will be a joke, no matter how great the wrestling is, so what's the fucking point of it? **1/2

ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH (17:10): This turned into a pretty entertaining match by the end. It was light year's better than what used to be and what usually is (on RAW, anyway) women's wrestling in the WWE. It was hard hitting. Asuka delivered some brutal kicks. Lynch is the crowd favorite and tapped out but showed up later to win the Rumble. **1/2

THE MIZ & SHANE McMHAON vs. THE BAR (13:20): I'm still not sure why The Miz and Shane O'Mac are tag team partners now. They won the titles. Is this story going anywhere? Because Shane is kind of sad and pathetic in the ring these days, although the crowd stood on their feet when he climbed to the top rope for his Van Terminator maneuver. I guess this was mildly amusing. **

RONDA ROUSEY vs. SASHA BANKS (13:55): This was just okay. They didn't particularly mesh well, which hurt. Banks has always been my favorite WWE women's wrestler, mostly because of her awesome NXT matches years ago. This wasn't awful or anything, but Rousey usually delivers and this was just mediocre. **

WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (BECKY LYNCH) (1:12:00): God, was this fucking boring. Hornswoggle crawled out from under the ring for no apparent reason. Selina Vega was hiding under the ring and he came out and chased her. Lynch took Lana's #30 position because Lana was injured and fell down while walking to the ring (she was "injured" during the Nakamura/Rusev match). Nia Jax was eliminated but then pushed Lynch off the steel stairs, injuring Lynch's ankle. So Lynch, hurt, had to face Charlotte at the end and ended up winning. The Charlotte/Lynch feud is so heated it's kind of a shame that at WrestleMania the main event will be Rousey vs. Flair vs. Lynch. I'd rather just see Lynch vs. Flair. Oh, well. *

DANIEL BRYAN vs. AJ STYLES (24:35): Fuck me. This match was a total bore. It certainly didn't help that the crowd was a silent tomb. Instead of going fast and furious and doing non-stop, big moves and kick-outs they did all of these dull, wrestling holds for twenty minutes. The ending was also atrocious. Luke Harper came out and slammed AJ when the ref was out, leading to Bryan winning. Harper is now, apparently, Bryan's bodyguard/enforcer. Total bore of a match and a sour ending. This sucked hard. 1/2*

BROCK LESNAR vs. FINN BALOR (8:40): Good match. They went back and forth instead of the usual, Lesnar beat down...which made this entertaining. Balor threw Lesnar into the announce desk and Lesnar hurt his ribs so that later on he had a hard time doing his moves...and Finn's finisher of course is jumping feet first onto his opponent's chest. Lesnar kicked out though and then submitted Finn and the obvious ending occurred. So Finn came across as a worthy opponent but of course they did a post-match beat down that negated that. Oh, well. **1/2

MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (SETH ROLLINS) (57:35): This match didn't start until around 11 PM and what the hell, WWE? A seven hour show? Are you fucking nuts? #1 was Elias and #2 was Jeff Jarrett...who last we saw got his head shaved in AAA in Mexico. JJ wasn't the big surprise. The big surprise and the most entertaining moment of the entire night was when Nia Jax beat up R. Truth, who was #30, and took his spot. Usually the WWE doesn't let men hit women for whatever reason (old school values?), but Nia got an RKO from Orton and a 619 from Mysterio which brought the house down. There were a few NXT stars like Gargano and Aleister Black that showed up. Black threw Dean Ambrose out. The final two had Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins. Earlier, Bobby Lashley put Seth through the announce table. Seth ended up winning. He was the favorite. And nobody wants to see Lesnar vs. Seth at WrestleMania. Nope. **1/2

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 13

Tokyo

TOGI MAKABE & TORU YANO & RYSUKE TAGUCHI vs. YUGI NAGATA & JEFF COBB & DAVID FINLAY vs. HIROOKI GOTO & CHUCKIE T. & BERETTA vs. MINORU SUZUKI & LANCE ARCHER & DAVEY BOY SMITH, JR. vs. MARTY SCURLL & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & HANGMAN PAGE (27:47): This was the pre-show match...meaning the lights in the Dome were still on and it was sort of like the usual, opening Rumble match they typically put on first on this show. This match was for the #1 contender to wrestle for the NEVER 6-man title, a totally superfluous title if there ever was one. You can tell how deep the New Japan roster is because this was the pre-show match and had Jeff Cobb and Hangman Page and Suzuki and Goto and Scurll. Kind of crazy, really, that such big names like Goto and Suzuki were left off the big show and stuck in a silly match like this. It turned out okay. It was way too long. Early on, Jeff Cobb and Page were entertaining, but then it just got tiring. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. KOTA IBUSHI (18:13): Fuck. This is the opener? A match with two of the best wrestlers in the world wrestling each other for the first time? Jesus Christ. The anticipation was monumental. So of course it was a letdown even though it was a great match. Since it was early, the crowd was not as boisterous and crazy loud as they were later during the Okada match and the final moments of the main event. Which is kind of the opposite on the WWE shows when the early matches have a hot crowd and then the longer the show goes the quieter the crowd grows. So the not-as-loud crowd didn't help here...and of course everyone thought this would be the greatest match in the history of the world...so it wasn't, and couldn't be...and that didn't help. I think if it had gone a few minutes longer it might have been better. It was also for the useless NEVER title which nobody cares about. They didn't do anything completely suicidal here, although they did a ton of very brutal strikes and kicks. The final had Ospreay running and giving Ibushi an elbow to the back of the head then delivering his finishing move to a lifeless, apparently knocked out Ibushi. They took Ibushi out on a stretcher and it was said that he suffered a concussion during the match. Really good match but it did not live up to the hype. It couldn't have, though, really. ***

BUSHI & SHINGO TAKAGI vs. SHO & YO vs. YOSHINOBU KANEMARU & EL DESPERADO (6:51): This match just happened a month ago or so when these three faced each other in the finals of the Jr. tag team tournament. At six minutes, you didn't really get much here, and I think that this show suffered a bit from all of the short matches. The Los Ignobernables team won the titles here. It was noted later that every title changed hands on this show...something I didn't even really realize until later on...which probably proves how pointless most of these titles are (this title became pretty meaningless when The Young Bucks left the division). Okay match, pretty forgettable. **

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (11:37): Good match. Pretty short, though. Sabre won the REV-PRO title...which is a promotion in the UK. I would loathe being a wrestler in REV-PRO because the title is always held by foreigners that rarely even work in the company. Ishii had the title and before him Suzuki had the title. This was the best Zack Sabre, Jr. match I've seen in some time. I think because we got more action out of him than just submission holds that last eons. ***

JUICE ROBINSON vs. CODY (9:03): These two actually wrestled each other two years ago at Wrestle Kingdom 11. Juice won the U.S. title here in another match I'll probably forget happened. This was the one dud on the show. Cody is leaving to go wrestle for AEW, plus he got hurt a month or so ago. This was just lame. 1/2*

TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. KUSHIDA (11:17): Kushida is rumored to be going to the WWE. What a fucking mistake that would be. Kushida is fucking awesome, and he's been awesome for so long you kind of forget. He was a master in this match. His ring entrance had a young boy with a Kushida mask come out and then Taguchi, dressed as Doc Brown from Back to the Future, run out and grab him and pull him back up to the stage where he was changed into the real Kushida after a burst of smoke spewed forth from the depths of the stage. That was amusing. And Kushida will have to get used to silly shit like that if he goes to the WWE and is stuck in 205Live purgatory. ***

JAY WHITE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (14:20): Up to this point, this was the match of the night. Okada revealed that he was wearing shorts when he unfurled his multi-colored robe and the crowd popped. This is how big Okada is...people care that he's not wearing his stupid pants anymore. No, Okada is all business now. Gone are the balloons and red hair. And Okada proved tonight that he's the man. I might even fathom to say that he gave the best performance of the night. He looked as incredible as he ever has...and that's wrestling against Jay White, who's definitely a better character than wrestler. This was short, again, but super heated and super dramatic. Jay White won on the big stage (which he pretty much had to do) and this was great stuff. ***1/2

TETSUYA NAITO vs. CHRIS JERICHO (22:35): By the end this match turned out to really good, but early on it was just typical ECW-style brawling around the outside of the ring. Jericho gave Naito a DDT on the announcer's table that seriously looked like it broke his neck. No blood, but we got chairs and a Singapore cane. Jericho is old and fat but the crowd loved this. It was probably about as good as a Jericho match is ever going to get these days. ***

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. KENNY OMEGA (39:14): This was boring early but by the end it was one of the greatest matches you'll ever see. Tanahashi actually wrestled the next day on New Year's Dash but after this match I envisioned both guys being in a hospital bed for a month. Tanahashi did a High Fly Flow through a ringside table when Omega moved out of the way. And Omega must have hurt his leg or foot because he could barely stand or put pressure on it by the end. The big, shocking moment came when Tanahashi delivered two High Fly Flow's and then Omega kicked out. That brought the high drama to a deafening crescendo and the end of this was just awe-inspiring stuff. Tanahashi is older and he didn't even look as good as he did during the G1 tournament (that probably took a lot out of him...and this is six months later!) but he still produced a masterpiece of a match and took a wicked beating. These two are at another level when it comes to wrestling. They both know what to do and when to do it. And they both beat the shit out of each other for forty minutes. Tanahashi won the title and Omega never even got to use the One Winged Angel. It seems like Omega just won the title...so does this mean he's leaving? His contract is up at the end of January. I kind of figured if he didn't win here he'd be gone. Although it could just be that Tanahashi is the John Cena of New Japan. And remember how many times Cena won the big one and kept winning the title? Tanahashi hasn't had the title in years and he's the big crowd favorite...so it makes sense that they wanted to close the show on a happy, dramatic note. Great match and a really good show, as usual. ****

Best Show of 2018: NJPW BEST OF THE SUPER JR. 25 (DAY 13) 6/3

   
The best show of the year was the second to last night of New Japan's Super Jr.'s tournament. The reason is that the tournament has two blocks with different wrestlers so that every night of the tournament only features one block of wrestlers. The second to last night, though, featured both blocks and every wrestler. It was also up in the air who would be in the final, so it had drama to go along with a murderer's row of talent. There was not a top ten match of the year on the show, but the show was great because pretty much every match was good and a few were awesome. It featured wrestlers from Mexico and Japan and the UK and America, so every match had a unique, different style to it. This show featured an awesome match with Will Ospreay vs. Flip Gordon, a brutal, wild bout with Dragon Lee vs. El Desperado, and a great main event that had Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi. It also featured Sho vs. Marty Scurll, Yoh vs. Taiji Ishimori, Taguchi vs. Sabin, Bushi vs. Kanemaru, and a very entertaining opener with ACH vs. Tiger Mask. That was the entire show; eight fast, fun, wildly different cruiserweight matches in the awesome, crowds-on-top-of-you Korakuen Hall building. No lame, filler, multi-tag opening matches, no bullshit, just a night of high flying and a show where, literally, none of the matches were bad. This was perhaps the only show all year that I actually watched from beginning to end and didn't get bored or skip a match. And that's pretty much the definition of a great show.

Best Match of 2018: KENNY OMEGA vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (2 OUT OF 3 FALLS) "NJPW DOMINION" 6/9

     It was pretty easy to pick 2018's match of the year. Omega vs. Okada have delivered incredible matches one after another for the last two years, and shockingly, they seem to keep getting better, even when their very first match was noted by many as being the best match they had ever seen. They only wrestled once in 2018 and it was an hour and ten minute, 2 out of 3 falls match for the title that Omega finally won. This not only gave Omega his first heavyweight championship in New Japan, it also ended Okada's amazing two year run as champion. And added on top of those historic moments was a stellar in-ring match as always. The drama, the big moves, the emotion; this had it all and then some. I suppose the big question now is...can they even attempt to top this somehow when they eventually face off in a fifth match?


Other Notable Matches:


Andrade "Cien" Almas vs. Johnny Gargano  NXT Takeover: Philadelphia  1/27


Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi  NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka  2/9


Adam Cole vs. Ricochet vs. EC3 vs. Killian Dain vs. Lars Sullivan vs. Velveteen Dream
"Ladder Match"  NXT Takeover: New Orleans  4/7


Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa  NXT Takeover: New Orleans  4/7


Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori  NJPW Best of the Super Jr.'s (Final)  6/4


Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi   NJPW G-1 Climax (Day 10)  7/28


Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega  NJPW G-1 Climax (Day 18)  8/11


Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi  NJPW G-1 Climax (Final)  8/12


Will Ospreay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi  
NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome  12/15

Best Wrestler of 2018: JOHNNY GARGANO

   
 The top wrestlers this past year have been the usual bunch from New Japan; Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Hiromu Takahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, and Kazuchika Okada. But I tend to go for the wrestler that lucked out by being in the best matches, feuds, and storylines, and if you factor that in then Johnny Wrestling, aka Johnny Gargano, from WWE's NXT was the best wrestler of 2018. He was the type of wrestler that was so great that he wrestled in the main event of NXT's biggest show, their Takeover the day before WrestleMania, in a match that wasn't even for the title. Gargano kicked off the year in January with a great match in Philly at the Takeover show against Andrade "Cien" Almas. Then he was in the feud of the year against his former tag partner, Tommaso Ciampa, with three straight main event Takeover matches. Those three matches were awesome and brutal and had the type of big fight feel and drama that the WWE sadly does not deliver very often anymore. His last Takeover match against Aleister Black was also exceptional, and he ended the year in another good match on the NXT TV show against Black in a steel cage. Gargano has that special something; he's got great charisma and a terrific arsenal, he's smooth and quick and has a great knack for storytelling and getting the crowd in the palm of his hand. He turned heel halfway through the year and never did end up winning the title, but it didn't matter. He delivered a legendary year and became a star. Let's hope he wrestles for NXT forever.