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So I haven't been watching for a decade but gently caress it, out of every match I've seen from this decade, here are my favourites: 2010: 1. Takashi Sugiura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, NOAH 10th Anniversary, 7/10 2. Hirooki Goto vs. Takashi Sugiura, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom IV, 1/4 3. Golden Lovers vs. Apollo 55, NJPW Destruction, 10/11 2011: 1. Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda, DDT Sweet Dreams, 1/30 2. Jun Akiyama vs. Suwama, AJPW Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, 10/23 3. Hirooki Goto vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW Dominion, 6/18 2012: 1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, NJPW 40th Anniversary, 3/4 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki, NJPW King of Pro Wrestling, 10/8 3. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus, WWE Extreme Rules, 4/29 2013: 1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe, NJPW Dominion, 6/22 2. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW G1 Climax, 8/4 3. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto, NJPW Dominion, 6/22 2014: 1. Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton, WWE Wrestlemania XXX, 4/6 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW Destruction, 9/21 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW G1 Climax, 7/26 2015: 1. Minoru Suzuki vs. Takashi Sugiura, NOAH Great Voyage 2015 in Osaka, 9/19 2. Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins, WWE Royal Rumble, 1/25 3. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks, WWE NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, 8/22 2016: 1. #DIY vs. The Revival, WWE NXT Takeover: Toronto, 11/19 2. Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles, WWE Extreme Rules, 5/22 3. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens, WWE Battleground, 7/24 2017: 1. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazuchika Okada, NJPW Sakura Genesis, 4/9 2. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA, NJPW Dominion, 6/11 3. Taka Michinoku vs. Taichi, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors, 5/18 2018: 1. Go Shiozaki vs. Takashi Sugiura, NOAH vs. Kawasaki Festival, 8/18 2. Isami Kodaka vs. Masashi Takeda, BJW 6/20 3. Andrade 'Cien' Almas vs. Johnny Gargano, WWE NXT Takeover: Philadelphia, 1/27 2019: 1. Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Takashi Sugiura, NOAH Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial Night, 6/9 2. Dylan James vs. Yuji Okabayashi, AJPW Champion Carnival, 4/20 3. EVIL vs. Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW Wrestling Dontaku, 5/4 Venomous fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Dec 15, 2019 |
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Dec 15, 2019 19:46
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Not gonna argue against Okada, but I think there's a definite case for Minoru Suzuki being on the shortlist for wrestler of the decade. He's a consistent upper card threat, can do comedy in a believable way, and can move ridiculously fast for a 50 year old when he feels like it(second only to Masaaki Mochizuki, but he's cheating because Dragon Gate). Add onto that legitimate mic skills and a kickass theme song, Suzuki knows exactly what he can do and leverages it to get the absolute most out of everything. He casually dismantled Tanahashi last year as revenge for their KOPW 2012 classic, he had incredible matches against Yuji Nagata (WK7) and Sakuraba (WK9) that don't get the love I feel they deserve, and has moulded ZSJ into the grapplefucking prick he is today. Suzuki-gun Ichiban. Also echoing Okada/Shibata as my match of the decade. Nothing comes close for me, especially knowing that Shibata has since heatbutted death and made his recovery.
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Dec 15, 2019 23:49
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tbh all of what you said applies to Sugiura just as much as Suzuki, especially since Sugiura's having better matches than Suzuki these days Takashi Sugiura, wrestler of the decade
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Dec 16, 2019 08:32
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Yeah Sugiura has easily been my favorite NOAH guy for years. That match with KENTA right after Kobashi's retirement was awesome and violent as all gently caress.
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Dec 16, 2019 09:07
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Venomous posted:tbh all of what you said applies to Sugiura just as much as Suzuki, especially since Sugiura's having better matches than Suzuki these days I'm just not as familiar with Sugiura's more recent work, as I haven't watched NOAH regularly since Kobashi retired. But from what little I've seen, I wouldn't argue with you
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Dec 16, 2019 09:07
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Venomous posted:So I haven't been watching for a decade but gently caress it, out of every match I've seen from this decade, here are my favourites: I enjoyed reading your list. 2016 seems like a strange time
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Dec 16, 2019 09:14
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Venomous posted:tbh all of what you said applies to Sugiura just as much as Suzuki, especially since Sugiura's having better matches than Suzuki these days The worst thing you can say about Sugi is he's an absolute lock for most under-rated wrestler of the decade. His consistency has been tremendous but it's one of those things where his best years came when NOAH was just forgotten about.
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Dec 16, 2019 11:41
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I fully confess to not being as knowledgeable about NJPW as I probably should be when contributing to this thread but for me the moment of the decade was Daniel Bryan winning the titles at Wrestlemania 30.
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Dec 16, 2019 11:43
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Cavauro posted:I enjoyed reading your list. 2016 seems like a strange time tbh maybe it's just nostalgia on my part but I feel like WWE's main roster was genuinely good for a time after Wrestlemania 32, or at least their PPVs were, and eh, there's a great case to be made that NJPW was uniformly better at the time, but I dunno, WWE in 2016 had some really high highs iirc every WWE PPV from TLC 2015 to TLC 2016 had a Meltzer 4+* match on it, and for good reason imo also Ryan Ward's Smackdown was incredibly good and consistent TV, so that was something
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Dec 16, 2019 12:33
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Wrestler of the decade for me is probably neck and neck Tana and Okada, it's really too close to call. I'm more attached to Tana, but also recognize that some of that owes to the work he did at the tail end of the 00s which isn't germane to the discussion. Call it a wash. I'd like to put a special shout out here to Io Shirai, who imo really kept Stardom on her back and while the promotion is still thriving without her, I definitely remember a palpable sense of "what in the hell are they going to do without her now???" when she left for the Fed, and she's still doing great work there though I don't watch it anymore out of principle. Most outstanding wrestler I can't give to just one person, more a running plot I suppose, but this definitely goes to Golden Lovers. The amazing work Ibushi and Omega put in together as a unit, and independently yet working that relationship into their individual matches. The way Omega TO THIS DAY will Phoenix Splash as a desperate call out to Ibushi to lend him his power, or to show that he's thinking of him...It's all excellent wrestling, and very smart and subtle character work. I truly hope it works out for those boys  Best talker is Chris Jericho and it's not even close. Simply the GOAT. Distant runners up on this in no order are Cena, Heyman and Cody. I firmly believe that if something made you laugh or drew your attention, whether it was deliberate or accidental due to being poorly made, then you liked it. There's no "irony watching." Neil Breen movies aren't "so bad they're good", if you laugh at it and have a good time (even if that good time is getting heated up and booing and being entirely bewildered by booking decisions and laughing at the horrible crowd reactions and just generally reveling in the insanity) then you enjoyed it and that's the bottom line. Having said that, Royal Rumble 2015 is my favourite match of the decade, thank you and good day
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Dec 16, 2019 16:52
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I would probably have Mayu over Io as Stardom wrestler of the decade but that’s personal taste on who’s matches I prefer. It was the two as a group that helped business grow in 2016-17 and a big part of why they didn’t totally go was because Mayu stayed. She never got that big long World Title reign admittedly because she got hurt in the Toni Storm match. The top contender for women’s wrestler of the decade for me is Tsukasa Fujimoto because she’s one of the few women that’s been a constant all decade - ace of the promotion for most of that time, she was on top when business stayed stable when Emi Sakura left, always someone who’s in the wrestler of the year discussion every year, Ice Ribbon were the biggest Joshi company for most of that time and really only fell behind Stardom because they grew rather than IR shrinking, lots of very good matches: I find it hard to knock her off.
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Dec 17, 2019 13:27
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