I started a thread like this elsewhere and it went down pretty well so I figured I’d set one up here too.
It’s a simple concept really. There’s so much content out there now that it’s impossible to see everything and as someone who’s legitimately tried to watch everything over the last few months or so I know for a fact that not everything is worth wasting your time on.
This thread is for people to point others to the good shit and the whole point here is that you guys add your recommended matches to the thread for us all to check out.
I want this to be a way for people to keep up with current good wrestling so no suggestions of classic stuff - only stuff that has happened in the year 2018.
Obviously it’s all subjective and nothing is going to be universally liked by all, but over time I think that most of us here can pick and choose from the context of who’s recommending what and where that’s coming from and make decisions based on that. For now though there’s gonna be a learning curve as we interact with new people. The point here is to make it easier for each of us to navigate our weekly wrestling schedules, so that we don’t have to sit through hours of nonsense to get to the good stuff.
TL;DR - Did you see some good matches that took place in 2018 and would you like to recommend others check out? Put them here and let’s discuss them.
With that in mind, here are my recommendations from so far this year :-
Masato Tanaka vs. Yusaku Obata at ZERO1 Happy New Year (01/01/18)
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe at WWE Monday Night RAW (01/01/18)
Joe Doering vs. Zeus at AJPW New Year Wars Night 1 (02/01/18)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 (04/01/18)
Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 (04/01/18)
Cody vs. Kota Ibushi at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 (04/01/18)
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Mike Bailey at DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 In Shinjuku (05/01/18)
Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura & Kagetsu) vs. Queen’s Quest (HZK & Momo Watanabe) at Stardom New Years Stars Night 2 (05/01/18)
Kenou vs. Kaito Kiyomiya at NOAH Navigation for the Future, Night 1 (06/01/18)
Niebla Roja vs. Gran Guerrero at CMLL Lucha Libre Sabado Espectacular de Arena Mexico (06/01/18)
Kassius Ohno vs. Raul Mendoza on NXT Ep. #282 (10/01/18)
Mike Bird vs. TK Cooper at PROGRESS Live at the Dome #3 (10/01/18)
Maverick Mayhew vs. Connor Mills at PROGRESS Live at the Dome #3 (10/01/18)
Will Ospreay vs. Adam Brooks at PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 61: Don’t Touch Me … Don’t … Don’t Touch Me (14/01/18)
Pete Dunne vs. Joseph Conners at PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 61: Don’t Touch Me … Don’t … Don’t Touch Me (14/01/18)
Angel de Oro vs. Cuatrero at NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania 2018 Night 6 (19/01/18)
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Dron, Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr. at NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania 2018 Night 8 (22/01/18)
Rush vs. Satoshi Kojima at NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania 2018 Night 8 (22/01/18)
Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Dragon Lee & Mistico at NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania 2018 Night 8 (22/01/18)
Obviously, in a perfect world I’d give a brief reasoning behind each suggestion but the month is nearly over and there’s a lot of matches I think people should check out, so if there’s something there that you wanna know more about ask and I’ll run down why I liked it.
Please go ahead and add your own suggestions if I’ve missed any and comment on my suggestions if you’ve seen them to help others decide whether or not they should go out of their way to check them out.
'shifting away from Japan, Johnny Gargano VS Velveteen Dream from this week’s NXT (originally aired 1/24), just off the sheer overness of Clark. Crowd alone had me very into this. Need to watch again. Patrick Clark/Velveteen Dream is so full of charisma, I can see 2018 being a big year for him.
Wouldn’t it be better to put it in a Google document? It can get messy in no time
I liked the Absolute Andy vs. Bobby Guns match from wXw Back to the Roots (20/01/18).
The Käfigschlacht (wXw equivalent to War Games or Lethal Lockdown) was good, but quite messy.
I’d also like to add Goto vs. Suzuki, KES vs. LIJ and the 4-way jr. heavyweight title match from WK 12.
I didn’t realise I hadn’t mentioned that. Good shout. Great match. I was expecting it to be good but it was on another level; both guys excelled.
Perhaps, but a) I’ve never even looked at setting up a Google doc so didn’t think of it, and b) that would stifle conversation about the matches in between recommendations and it just becomes a list. This is more to encourage conversation about wrestling matches from all over the world that we all like, than it is about compiling an essential matches viewing guide - that’s just a bonus.
I really wanna see both these matches. A lot of that FCP card looked top notch and the Rev-Pro one looked very good too.
Okay, but like I said, this thread is for matches that took/take place this year so that we can all keep up with great current stuff from all over the world rather than just having to watch full shows that aren’t all that satisfying. I literally never watch RAW anymore, but when I posted this thread on another forum people pointed out that Joe/Roman from the New Years RAW was really good and I’m so glad they did because otherwise I never would’ve watched it and I enjoyed it immensely!
On the subject of recommended matches from this year; NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. Just all of it. Great show. Really awesome. Can’t praise it enough. Every match was really, really good and the opening tag match is my match of the month so far and in my eyes entirely flawless.
Honestly wasn’t my cup of tea. I won’t go into why because I’m sure there’s people that haven’t seen it that will check it out and love it, but some of the stuff they did just didn’t work for me. It was a good match, solid for the most part and the story telling was quite enthralling at times, but certain parts didn’t click to my eye and that held it back from being truly special to me.
I totally get why people love it though and wouldn’t tell people to steer clear unless I knew their tastes well enough to do so.
I’m sure most, if not everyone, here watched the Royal Rumble but I wanna put it out there now that I highly recommend both the men’s and women’s Rumble’s. They were both very well booked and very entertaining. I’ve seen some say that the men’s is top five of all time, which I wouldn’t argue with (although I’ve not seen every Rumble ever) and would add that the women’s might be top ten of all time but I’d have to watch all the Rumble’s to be sure.
New Japan’s New Beginning in Osaka show had some great stuff to offer. Kitamura’s match with Nagata was his best effort since the trial series began, YOSHI-HASHI finally got my attention in his match with Naito, Ospreay/Takahashi was blinding and the main event between Okada and SANADA was easily SANADA’s best singles effort since I started watching the promotion regularly midway through last year.
