Best Matches of 2016

gnfnrhead

As is tradition, Wrestle Kingdom starts us off. Likely going to be the show of the year too but that's a different topic.

Tanahashi vs Okada, Nakamura vs Styles and Ishii vs Shibata are all worth going out of your way to watch.

beakerjoe

gnfnrhead wrote: »

As is tradition, Wrestle Kingdom starts us off. Likely going to be the show of the year too but that's a different topic.

Tanahashi vs Okada, Nakamura vs Styles and Ishii vs Shibata are all worth going out of your way to watch.

All 3 are near perfect matches. Any wrestling fan should seek this card out.

Stereomaniac

I'm going to watch this one the next time I get a few hours by myself. Was ROH title fight good?

gnfnrhead

Stereomaniac wrote: »

I'm going to watch this one the next time I get a few hours by myself. Was ROH title fight good?

It was good but nothing you should go out of your way to see. It would be pretty far down the list if all the matches were to be ranked. The entire show is worth watching really.

Angron

To be completely honest, the best part of the RoH title match was the fact that Truth Martini's copy of the Book of Truth was in Japanese for the show.

beakerjoe

Angron wrote: »

To be completely honest, the best part of the RoH title match was the fact that Truth Martini's copy of the Book of Truth was in Japanese for the show.

I felt him using that in the finish cheapened the match. The finish wasnt right for the Japanese audience either and while I feel Lethal was getting over, the finish undid most of his work

Stereomaniac

gnfnrhead wrote: »

It was good but nothing you should go out of your way to see. It would be pretty far down the list if all the matches were to be ranked. The entire show is worth watching really.

So when is the next NJPW pay per view? Thanks to last year's matches of the year thread I found myself having much more of an interest in other wrestling.

gnfnrhead

Stereomaniac wrote: »

So when is the next NJPW pay per view? Thanks to last year's matches of the year thread I found myself having much more of an interest in other wrestling.

They have Fantasticamania starting on the 17th but I wouldn't count it. It's more a CMLL event than a NJPW event. The New Beginning shows are the next real events on February 11th and 14th. The 19th and 20th are then the joint ROH shows.

wolfpac

gnfnrhead wrote: »

They have Fantasticamania starting on the 17th but I wouldn't count it. It's more a CMLL event than a NJPW event. The New Beginning shows are the next real events on February 11th and 14th. The 19th and 20th are then the joint ROH shows.

New year's dash is worth a look

Stereomaniac

gnfnrhead wrote: »

They have Fantasticamania starting on the 17th but I wouldn't count it. It's more a CMLL event than a NJPW event. The New Beginning shows are the next real events on February 11th and 14th. The 19th and 20th are then the joint ROH shows.

Was New Year's Dash held the night after Wrestle Kingdom? I saw that listed somewhere.

gnfnrhead

Stereomaniac wrote: »

Was New Year's Dash held the night after Wrestle Kingdom? I saw that listed somewhere.

It was. It's the NJPW version of the Raw after Wrestlemania where the future direction is set up so it's always worth watching or at least reading about. Kenny Omega came out of it looking like a huge deal.

beakerjoe

gnfnrhead wrote: »

It was. It's the NJPW version of the Raw after Wrestlemania where the future direction is set up so it's always worth watching or at least reading about. Kenny Omega came out of it looking like a huge deal.

Mega Star in the making. Lets hope he keeps things mostly serious

Mr.Nice Guy

I got round to watching Tanahasha/Okada and Nakamura/Styles and thought both were great. It's been a while since I've seen matches with great selling.

I haven't seen Ishii/Shibata yet. I've heard it's extremely physical so I look forward to watching it.

Stereomaniac

gnfnrhead wrote: »

It was. It's the NJPW version of the Raw after Wrestlemania where the future direction is set up so it's always worth watching or at least reading about. Kenny Omega came out of it looking like a huge deal.

Oh alright, I was wondering what the story was, were they having 2 pay per views 2 nights in a row or something. Is there an english version of the NJPW Network?

wolfpac

Stereomaniac wrote: »

Oh alright, I was wondering what the story was, were they having 2 pay per views 2 nights in a row or something. Is there an english version of the NJPW Network?

Yes both Wrestle Kingdom and New Year's dash are available in English on New Japan world although I'd recommend the Japanese commentary.

Stereomaniac

When I went on there before I found it hard to navigate. Has it become more non-Japan friendly?

gnfnrhead

The toughest part is signing up. After that, Google translate works well enough to get you where you need to be.

Stereomaniac

Yeah I think I'll give it another go the next time I get paid. Is it the same deal as WWE Network?

gnfnrhead

Stereomaniac wrote: »

Yeah I think I'll give it another go the next time I get paid. Is it the same deal as WWE Network?

For price? It's about €7.50 a month.

Stereomaniac

Cool, cheers.

wolfpac

They added an English commentary tag so you can search for it but make sure you use a capital "E" or else it wont show up

Stereomaniac

Cheers. I'm after signing up for Fight Pass though so it might be a little while before I get it.

gnfnrhead

It isn't as good as the Wrestle Kingdom trio but Kurt Angle vs Drew Galloway on Impact this week was excellent. Unless TNA have an amazing year, it has a very good chance of being their MOTY.

beakerjoe

Havent seen it yet, how was Angle holding up in the match? Hes looked worse for wear in his appearance and his promos but his in-ring work has been great for a man in his condition.

Drew had a great 2015 and I hope he and Carter can have a main event program.

Palo Alto

AJ v Zack Sabre Jr from RevPro was excellent, not as sold as Osprey v Scurll but it's getting a lot of love online.

Stereomaniac

Are there any videos?

gnfnrhead

From a storyline point of view, EC3 vs Matt Hardy from Impact this week is well worth watching.

From an insanely fun match point of view, reDRagon vs Young Bucks vs The Kingdom from this week's ROH is also a great match.

Palo Alto

Stereomaniac wrote: »

Are there any videos?

Yeah it's on demand and you can download it for £8.99 from RevPro's website.

Easily worth it and good to support them.

Progress streaming for a fiver a month is great too.

Stereomaniac

http://www.revolutionprowrestling.com/on-demand
Some really great looking cards on this thing. Is that all of their major shows? Fergal Devitt and Kevin Steen both on what looks to have maybe been their last trip around the horn in 2014 there I see. Hopefully at some point Over The Top can get something like this organised.

wolfpac

Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi from today's FANTASTICA show is a match of the year contender.

Andersonisgod

wolfpac wrote: »

Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi from today's FANTASTICA show is a match of the year contender.

Literally coming onto this Board to post exactly this. Absolutely incredible match, had a killer backstory to it and was such a significant moment on a couple of different levels. Kamaitachi is a shining example of why the Young Lion system still works, he walked into Korakuen today a star having not been in New Japan in years, and his star only shone brighter after his performance here. A sure fire match of the year contender.

Stereomaniac

Hopefully I won't be shot for saying this, but I thought the Royal Rumble match was really good this year. Of course it wouldn't be hard to surpass the standard that was set over the last couple of years but there was a good amount of suspense in there, minus Roman of course.

Palo Alto

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Literally coming onto this Board to post exactly this. Absolutely incredible match, had a killer backstory to it and was such a significant moment on a couple of different levels. Kamaitachi is a shining example of why the Young Lion system still works, he walked into Korakuen today a star having not been in New Japan in years, and his star only shone brighter after his performance here. A sure fire match of the year contender.

Was this night 3?

Andersonisgod

Palo Alto wrote: »

Was this night 3?

Night 6, the final Fantasticamania show of the year at Korakuen Hall. 100% worth searching for.

Palo Alto

I have NJPW World, I'll find it easily enough!

wolfpac

ROH Philly street fight was insanity from 20.1.16

Stereomaniac

Is it still available on the website? I got into Ring Of Honor properly from this thread last year!

wolfpac

It's available go to TV -> current and it should have the whole show

wolfpac

EVOLVE 53: Tommy End & Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Sami Callihan

wolfpac

Dragon Gate Truth Gate (February 4) Losing Unit Disbands Elimination Match was outstanding and an early match of the year candidate

gnfnrhead

Shibata vs. Ishii from February 11th New Beginning Show.
BUSHI vs. KUSHIDA from February 14th New Beginning Show.

Tanahashi vs. Omega also from the 14th is a match that will be placing highly this year. If you don't watch the other two, you have to watch this match. It's on par with the Wrestle Kingdom matches.

Palo Alto

Bushi/Kushida was a bit rubbish, I thought. Definitely underwhelming. Far too much shenanigans.

Shibata v Ishii was probably my favourite match of the year so far.

Moneymaker

The Bucks and Kenny Omega 6 man tag from the ROH show was unreal. **** 3/4 , maybe even ***** match. Go out of your way to see it.

wolfpac

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay and the 8 man main event from PWG All Star weekend 11

Stereomaniac

What was everyone's highlight of Fastlane? Personally I enjoyed Brie Bella vs. Charlotte most.

Mr.Nice Guy

wolfpac wrote: »

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay and the 8 man main event from PWG All Star weekend 11

Ospreay is definitely one to watch. Dave Meltzer was praising the match he had with Marty Scurll from a few weeks back. I've only seen highlights and not the full match but there were some fantastic back-and-forth exchanges.

He's meant to be heading to New Japan soon, I think.

beakerjoe

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Ospreay is definitely one to watch. Dave Meltzer was praising the match he had with Marty Scurll from a few weeks back. I've only seen highlights and not the full match but there were some fantastic back-and-forth exchanges.

He's meant to be heading to New Japan soon, I think.

He signed with NJPW. He can still do a few indies too so its all good. NJPW is the best place for him. TNA would have been a wrong move IMO

Angron

Aye, Ospreay is very good. Saw him wrestle Matt Sydal in a 2 out of 3 falls match last year at a Rev Pro show, it was very good.

Palo Alto

He needs to stop gurning when he's selling then forgetting completely what he's meant to be selling in second half of the match.

He's way behind Scurrl/ZSJ in terms of character and being well-rounded but he's very talented, looking forward to best of the super juniors.

Moneymaker

He's only 22 though. Ospreay excites me in the same way Ricochet did when he started out. He's an absolutely incredible athlete. Be very interesting to see how he does in NJPW.

beakerjoe

Imagine what he could be like at 28 after a good njpw run...L