Throughout the last 12 months, if I wasn’t thinking about or writing about or talking about hockey, I was probably watching or thinking about professional wrestling. The violent artform caught me in a vice unlike any other calendar year of my life and I was sick on the stuff. It was an escape from the sport I love, that sometimes feels a little too much. I could just go online and find some of the best wrestling that has ever happened, and some of that, for me, happened this year.
Not to bog you readers down with even more year-end content, as we look back at what has happened and what we have enjoyed since the calendar turned to 2023, but I couldn’t help myself. There is just something about writing out a list of some things you loved in the last 12 months, as a self-expressive exercise, or some form of show and tell.
Following are some of my favorite wrestling matches I watched from this year. Some of them might not get to the consensus Match of the Year lists, or objective favorites, but they were extremely memorable to me for a variety of reasons. To make it a little bit more interesting, I decided to only put one match per promotion. Eleven favorite matches from 11 different promotions in chronological order. (Thanks to Lauren Theisen of Defector for originally coming up with this idea.)
Jon Moxley vs. Evil Uno | AEW, Dynamite | Feb. 22
The one match that I have carried through almost this entire year, thinking about it roughly once every other day, is something that ultimately didn’t really matter in the grand wrestling world. A match on television between one of my all-time favorites and the go-to asskicker of All Elite Wrestling, Jon Moxley, and someone who hasn’t gotten much airtime in 2023, Evil Uno, delivered some of the most violent scenes we have seen on wrestling television this year.
The match lasted just over six minutes and wasn’t really thought by again after Dynamite went off the air, but it was a gory mess. The scenes of a half-alive Evil Uno having blood pouring out of his mask and on to both competitors forearms as Moxley held a vicious chokehold that eventually ended the match via referee’s decision, is just something that has become a sticky molasses on my brain for the last 10 months.
Moxley was doing exactly what he is the best at and has done his entire career, bring up a competitor that hasn’t seen much glory, up to his level, and give the audience a special show of unique violence.
Note: The feature photo of this blog is from the attack after the match, which was cool too.
Masha Slamovich vs. Speedball Mike Bailey | GCW, Worst Behavior | March 19
Being in-person for a match automatically bumps it up in my memory. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my watching 360p videos of some of the best matches ever off of my laptop, but being right there is completely different. Luckily, when Game Changer Wrestling came to Canada for the first time and visited Toronto this past spring, I made my way right to the guardrail and was roughly a dozen or so feet from this pretty damn cool display of professional wrestling.
The meat of this match was what we should expect from these two wrestlers. Mike Bailey has been consistently good in his barefoot ass talent, and has always been able to mix brutal strikes with some aerobatics that you don’t typically see from a wrestler of his ilk. Meanwhile, Masha Slamovich could easily claim the title of best women’s wrestler on the planet if she was just given the right platform. She has toured all over the world this year and performed must-watch matches just everywhere and in so many different styles. Her hardcore matches with Rina Yamashita earlier this year could have been my pick from GCW this year, but being in attendance for this made it more special.
The complete dismantling of the ring, leading to Slamovich choking out Bailey as he hung between the planks from under the ring was something to behold. I just stood there, just chuckling because of what I just watched, and of course snapped a photo.
Violento Jack vs. Tomoya Hirata | FREEDOMS, The Gekokujo 2023 | March 23
This match isn’t for everyone, and I will fully accept it. But, it might take a claim as one of my favorites that I watched this calendar year. Deathmatches aren’t something that is often seen or praised or wholly welcomed to talk about in most of the online wrestling discourse. It feels like this off-shoot topic that is seen below the clean stuff…and…well, most of the time people are fully right to prefer the top-tier matches today over even the best deathmatches. But this one, oh boy, this one.
This battle between Violento Jack and Tomoya Hirata in Japanese deathmatch promotion FREEDOMS, just left my mouth wide open and drooling like a Neanderthalic creature. Unlike some of the more traditional American deathmatches, this wasn’t just two out-of-shape guys opening each other up with standstill lighttube headshots. There was effort and artistry and moves that even without the blood and glass, would be as hard-hitting as anything we saw this year.
Hirata is quickly shooting up in my personal ranks of Coolest Looking Dude In Wrestling after this match. Nothing is flashy — plain black trunks with black boots — but just the way he carries himself in the ring and the ability he has to bring a new approach to deathmatch wrestling is so special. Really both of these guys are not the typical body types or type of wrestlers you see excel in this style. We’re so used to the not-so-strong-or-technical-but-good-with-weapons wrestlers opt in for the blood and guts, but both Hirata and Violento Jack are strong enough and physically gifted enough that any promotion could be invested in non-deathmatches featuring either of these guys. They just do it for the love of it and it comes across that much better than their fully-clothed, lighttube-battering peers.
Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli | ROH, Supercard of Honor | March 31
If any match from 2023 required a two-hour long video essay on YouTube, this is the one. Eddie Kingston and Claudio Castagnoli have been at each other’s throats since their first singles match in independent promotion Chikara, roughly 16 years ago. This boundless backstory was just one of the things that fueled a revitalized Ring of Honor under the newish ownership of Tony Khan this year and it just felt so incredibly special.
Just why this is special is because most of the story happened in an entirely different company in a different city. They didn’t hold your hand to try and tell a new story as to why these guys hated each other — it was simple statements that eventually led all viewers to feel rewarded for being so invested in something they had to look and read about or watch old matches to fully grasp. No cartoon superhero stuff here where the lines were clear, it was a rich story that had buckets of context and just felt incredibly special.
Watch the full match on YouTube.
Giulia vs. Tam Nakano | STARDOM, All-Star Grand Queendom | April 23
This year, more than any other, I have been keeping tabs on the Japanese women’s promotion STARDOM. While you go in and out of companies and just catch what you can from most, I really attempted to dive deep and watch even the smallest available shows that didn’t even have commentary on them. Last year was overall a better quality year in terms of the depth of insanely good matches coming out of STARDOM, but this match between bonafide star Giulia and mainstay Tam Nakano was most likely not just my favorite match from this company, but my favorite women’s match of the year.
Nakano has been slowly rising the ranks of STARDOM since joining full-time in 2017. The three-time Trios champion, two-time Wonder of Stardom champion (the promotion’s secondary belt), and former tag champion has had her fair share of success, but never got the company’s top title. It was a title that escaped her for so long, rarely ever getting a chance to even contend for it until facing one of STARDOM’s best, Syuri, in July 2022. Less than a year later, and after Giulia got her career-defining run with the title, Nakano was able to earn a chance at one of the company’s largest shows and was eventually crowned the top champion and face of the company.
Context aside, this is a brutal match. Filled with insane strikes and some bumps that make my entire spine feel like it’s crawling away from my back.
Yuji Okabayashi vs. Yuya Aoki | BJW, Endless Survivor ~ Infinity Independent | May 4
I felt blessed to finally be witness to Yuji Okabayashi this year. Thanks to much bigger wrestling brains than myself, I was sent this match as just a small and quick recommendation and I fell in love. At the age of 41 years old, Okabayashi began a leave of absence but not before absolutely committing some in-ring murder in an incredibly hard-hitting match that just about summarizes the non-deathmatch side of Big Japan Pro Wrestling, one of my personal favorite federations.
It’s hard to really describe other than a match that you would come away from just being like “Oh God, oh yes. That kicked ass.” It is a pure strong style match that is an absolute war between an elder statesman and a 27-year-old Aoki trying to find his way inside BJW.
Chris Brookes vs. Kazusada Higuchi | DDT, King of DDT 2023 Final | May 21
One feel-good moment in the world of wrestling this year was Chris Brookes rising to the top of Japanese promotion DDT, winning the KO-D Openweight Title, and just consistently having some absolute bangers in a promotion that doesn’t get enough recent attention for the talent they are churning out. Both Brookes and Kazusada Higuchi are top-tier wrestlers who in any company in North America, should be getting the biggest push imaginable. And they just so happened to have a bout that rivaled some of the more underrated matches of 2023.
Just part of Brookes’s story this year and rise to earning some rightful gold in the promotion he loved watching as a kid, was winning the King of DDT tournament and against some of the best. He had to face the legendary Jun Akiyama in the semi-final match earlier this same night and then against the reigning tournament winner and absolute monster, Higuchi. It’s just seeing not even the typical underdog story, as Brookes isn’t the most dominating figure, but just him taking the spot that he has been working so incredibly hard for and all of that hard work to come to fruition in an absolute killer match.
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Luke Jacobs | RevPro, 11 Year Anniversary Show | August 26
Tomohiro Ishii is almost guaranteed to have at least one match every year where I become a pile of loving goo the first time I watch it. The “Stone Pitbull” is just the ultimate asskicker and while he never really gets his time to shine in his home company of New Japan Pro Wrestling in recent years, it is incredibly special when he appears in a singles bout on any other fed’s card.
During England-based RevPro’s 11 Year Anniversary Show he went toe-to-toe with 23-year-old Luke Jacobs and put on a brawl. Both of these competitors lariated, suplexed, powerbombed, and chopped the ever-loving shit out of each other.
Just one of those matches where you’re laughing through most of it just because it rocks so much.
Yota Tsuji vs. Will Ospreay | NJPW, Destruction in Kobe | Sept. 24
A list of matches anyone liked in 2023 without including anything involving Will Ospreay feels disingenuous. Ospreay’s output this calendar year was insane and while there are other matches that I loved — like his set of two matches against Kenny Omega — to include and highlight, I personally felt like I needed to just share endless praise of what him and Yota Tsuji did in New Japan Pro Wrestling a few months ago.
Tsuji made his way back from excursion — essentially was loaned to another company to develop — and was an instant hit and someone that personally, I wanted to see just curbstomp just about everyone in NJPW. So, when he collided with someone as hot as Ospreay is currently, it felt like just a perfect symphony of violence that is right up my alley.
And boy did it ever deliver. I’m not one for the former flippy Ospreay. His style then just never really clicked for me despite his matches getting the highest of praises and some seen as modern classics. But, after some injury trouble and bulking up in the process, this new, more aggressive Ospreay has been so damn good to watch and this match with Tsuji is just one of about a dozen matches this year that should be highlights of his career.
Miyu Yamashita vs. Mizuki | TJPW, Wrestle Princess IV | October 9
You know how I said some matches need roughly hours of a YouTube video essay to understand the context of them? Okay, make that double for anything big happening in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. Miyu Yamashita has been the face of the company for a while. The deemed “ace” — essentially, the face and main person that might never leave — of TJPW, has been skull-kicking her way across North American indie promotions and getting matches with some of the world’s top talent.
With her touring a little bit more, Mizuki, a fellow long-time mainstay at the top of TJPW cards, has taken the title earlier this year from quasi AEW roster member Yuka Sakazaki, the other half of her tag team, named the “Magical Sugar Rabbits.” Since Mizuki joined TJPW in 2017, it really has been some collection of those three and Maki Itoh as the core of everything the company wanted to do. So naturally, a clash between two of their biggest stars for their top belt at one of their biggest shows, rose to the occasion.
Yamashita is a pure striker, while Mizuki often goes for insane-looking aerial attacks. This match just works so well and itches a scratch deep inside my brain. The small-framed Mizuki can sell Yamashita’s kicks so well and every single one looks like she’s about an inch away from never getting up ever again. And on the other side of that dynamic, any offense Mizuki gets on Yamashita feels like an incredibly massive deal like someone slaying a giant.
This was fast, had great spots and Yamashita (a personal favorite, sorry) regained the Princess of Princess title for the fourth time.
Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe | Kakuto Tanteidan ~ Bokura Wa Kakuto Tanteidan | October 12
If anything needed to be a “hidden gem” this match is it.
Wrestling is all about friendship. And friendship is all about getting in a ring and kicking the absolute shit out of each other, of course. The tag team The Astronauts — the collection of Takuya Nomura and Fuminori Abe — is doing some of the best wrestling on the planet right now for Big Japan Pro Wrestling. They are essentially what I could watch all day long and not get tired of; this shoot-style quasi-MMA type of wrestler that is just full of this emotion and willing to die in the ring for his own glory.
So, when they announced that they would be producing a show together to honor one of the greatest shoot-style promotions ever, BattlARTS, and that it would be a intra-tag singles match between the two, I was giddy.
This match has all the rhythms of some of the greatest matches of all time. The slow, methodical pace to begin with and then seeing what each wrestler can bring to up the stakes with each blow. And then just pure carnage being unleashed upon each other, but with a sense of purpose and acknowledgement that this means just something so much more than strangers in a ring. Throughout the match, you would catch a glimpse of both Abe and Nomura just smirking at each other, getting the sense that they just absolutely love to try and chop the other one down. Malice excreted from every pore they had, mixed with the drying blood on their face and gave that much more power behind every strike.
God, just watch the match. It is just some extremely honest, and blunt pro wrestling that if you are a fan, confirms why you are the way you are.
