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So with the end of the decade upon us soon it's time to look at the past decade in review. It's sure seen a huge shift over the last 10 years, from the return of the indies and New Japan finally recovering from the end of Inokism to the US finally having a company willing and able to take on the WWE. Not to mention match quality went from being okay to out of this world over the last few years. The next decade is probably going to be one of the most important ones in a long time as we have WWE on a big TV deal (and a product that is ice cold at best), AEW exploding on the scene, and New Japan trying to go global. Anyway as is tradition for a best of the Decade thread lets start with a look back at Wrestler of the Decade - and for me that is Kauzchika Okada. No wrestler this decade has had as many excellent matches, had arguably the best title reign of the best decade and is just finally pushing 30 so he still has many more matches to give in the next decade. Also my feud of the decade is...Okada vs Tanahashi And other thoughts and memories of the decade?
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Nov 28, 2019 05:21
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I know at least two other goons have been independently trying to put together a big ol' effortpost/thread regarding this subject, so maybe this thread would be a good place for posters to make suggestions/cases for various stuff etc before a more concrete thread gets made in December?
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Nov 28, 2019 05:29
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biggest stories: 1) streaming (wwe network, njpw world, easier access to indies) 2) bullet club 3) okada
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Nov 28, 2019 05:35
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Streaming getting big and causing the indy boom was the biggest story of the decade, considering that it also put NJPW on the map worldwide and was a major factor in AEW's main roster. But WWE selling its soul and running shows in the KSA is the second biggest story for showing everyone its true colors.
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Nov 28, 2019 05:47
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It's 2019 and Chris Jericho is still one of the best wrestlers in the world. But yeah, streaming has really changed the industry strongly for the better. The explosion of indies and streaming are really strongly intertwined.
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Nov 28, 2019 06:05
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The biggest story of the decade is the Young Bucks being nice to Okada in 2010 which led to the formation of AEW in 2019.
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Nov 28, 2019 06:30
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In a way it's funny and super fitting that the biggest stories of the decade came about cause TNA was super incompetent
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Nov 28, 2019 06:36
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WWE: 2010-2015: hey everybody look its john cena! 2015-2020: oh gently caress who is gonna be the new cena? bryan? nope. reigns? nope. seth? nope. uhhh.....
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Nov 28, 2019 06:40
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There should a worst of the decade thread.
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Nov 28, 2019 06:41
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as much as wwe has died a death this decade, we still got the miracle on bourbon street  the rise of NXT was a pretty drat big deal too and hey shawn michaels's retirement almost lasted the entire decade!
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Nov 28, 2019 07:02
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fatherofmustard posted:There should a worst of the decade thread. Agreed. I got into wrestling in 2012 via CM Punk. I’m definitely interested in reading people’s arguments for the best moments/storylines of wrestling over the past decade - but I would argue the original formation of the Bullet Club in NJPW under Fergal Devitt was the catalyst for everything that has led us to this moment.
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Nov 28, 2019 07:13
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Best storyline is the ace wars. That will always be Gedos crowning achievement. It's one of the two reasons njpw exploded in popularity in the home market (the other being forum favourite Naito) Almost every stage of Okada's quest to replace Tanahashi landed. From Okada beating him at the first major show of the bushiroad era, to Okadas struggles to overcome Tanahashi at kingdom, the draws in the g1, and Okadas beating Tanahashi at dontaku 2018 to break the most title defenses record.
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Nov 28, 2019 07:25
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Someone post the Okada/Tanahashi ad in a baseball stadium
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Nov 28, 2019 07:29
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Coaaab posted:biggest stories:  I don't know about any of you, but I think in the 2010s I saw a ton more mainstream use of wrestling terms - "heelturn" "swerve" "heat" I think 2010s belongs to New Japan in so many ways, for most it was the "what is there that isn't WWE" and because of Bullet Club, you got people like Finn Balor and AJ (and "The OC"  ) and the creation of "All Elite Wrestling" with Cody, Young Bucks and Kenny.I wonder what Marty Scrull will do, as well as Bad Luck Fale Will Jay White leave? If so when, and where? You also have "CM Punk" doing the WWE promo, but slowly WWE milked the shoot promo into being this dorky character going "PHIL BROOKS TALKING TO PAUL LEVESQUE" and it was so cornball And you also saw the greatest and worst wrestling ever created with Impact Wrestling and it's many hands on many different networks - from Spike to Pop to Pursuit to The Boomer Concert Channel with New Japan for Some Reason It's all very fascinating!
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Nov 28, 2019 07:38
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easy to forget about it, but this decade also saw the shooting star run of Lucha Underground, which exposed a lot of new people to some Mexican-and-LA-area talents, in particular pentagon and fenix.
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Nov 28, 2019 07:42
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Procrastinator posted:easy to forget about it, but this decade also saw the shooting star run of Lucha Underground, which exposed a lot of new people to some Mexican-and-LA-area talents, in particular pentagon and fenix. it was too good for this cruel world, we didn't deserve it.
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Nov 28, 2019 07:45
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This is probably a terrible idea but I'm going to go through the decade on Cagematch & a few other sites to compile a list of the best matches of the decade. And maybe watch some of them? So far I've just gone through Cagematch & listed everything from 2010 that got over 7.00 rating, which is still 127 matches. It's very US & Japan-centric though, in fact aside from WXW there's nothing from the rest of the world. At the very least I need to find some lucha recommendations (because I can't find a Cubsfan MOTYC list from before 2012), plus I'm going to look through the Goodhelmet MOTYC comp disc sets for 2010, 2011 & 2012 for some different stuff. This will take a long time however. But in the meantime, if this interests you, you can look at the 2010 list so far in a poorly formatted Google Doc. Eventually I want to keep a running total of who has appeared in the most matches on the list but so far I've just got what promotion they appear in. ROH is #1, WWE #2, TNA #3, NOAH #4, Dragon Gate USA & New Japan are tied for 5th. There are 2 death matches on the list & they both feature Drake Younger. At a glance I'd say that 2010 seems like a good year for The Kings of Wrestling, Motor City Machine Guns, Takashi Suguira, YAMATO, Davey Richards, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Rey Mysterio, El Generico, Naomichi Marufuji, Shingo Takagi & Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan.
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Nov 28, 2019 19:41
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Wrestler of the decade is actually Hiroshi Tanahashi for saving NJPW and by extension all wrestling thank you god bless
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Nov 29, 2019 00:32
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For this I think its helpful to break it down by country and scene: helps take a very broad area and narrows the scope slightly. When it comes to Joshi: overall the decade has been probably a growth of interest in the current scene even as the stars from the past retire perhaps reducing the size of individual big shows. Streaming has massively helped the international growth of it: Stardom getting in on the ground floor with Stardom World really helped them become probably the number 2 Japanese promotion in the West when it comes to fans engaged enough to pay for their streaming service; with Tokyo Joshi Pro and more recently Gatoh Move being able to also market their content to the West a lot more. You've also seen an increased number of international dates for Japanese women: from Kana working a lot of Shimmer dates and being able to turn that into getting signed by WWE; to Chikara bringing in random Joshi women for King of Trios and other international dates, to Io Shirai and Kairi Sane signing with WWE and more recently Meiko Satomura and Emi Sakura almost becoming regulars on British independent promotions and AEW focusing very heavily on the Japanese women they've signed. Domestically growth has been limited but it feels a lot like that point where things are getting set up for growth in the future: Stardom being bought by Bushiroad is a big news story which gives masses of opportunity for growth with them: Tokyo Joshi Pro is building up a deep enough roster and by being interlinked with DDT you'll hopefully see expansion there, and a lot of companies now have a large group of very talented, relatively inexperienced young talent which will hopefully be their base for the future and its genuinely very exciting. Probably the biggest story that's had the greatest impact was the Yoshiko incident in Stardom; and broadly you could argue that other than it ending Act's career early it actually had a positive influence on the scene. Prior to it Stardom's backstage environment was reportedly very toxic, massive divides between people with very different philosophies and very big personal differences that exploded on that night. The immediate followup of that was a group of people leaving Stardom; the backstage environment being cleaned up to the point where it appears that its an incredibly good work environment for the wrestlers; in order to replace Yoshiko and Nanae they basically had to push Mayu Iwatani and Kairi Hojo up to the top earlier than I think they planned and that core group with Io Shirai was the group that really got Stardom massive exposure in the West through Stardom World, the Lucha Underground show helped and really it set up the conditions that led to Kairi Hojo going to WWE. It also gave them stability: before this you had a lot of people leaving Stardom randomly at short notice to retire or go freelance: since the incident the only people to leave have retired after fairly long runs or left to WWE and that's helped them be able to actually plan long term and develop talent. I think that environment also really helped in attracting retired wrestlers back: Yoko Bito coming back for that run really helped Stardom, Saki Kashima came back last year and most notably Arisa Hoshiki last December returned and she's been a major part of their recent history. On the other side Nanae Takahashi formed SEAdLINNNG with Yoshiko initially as a place to guarantee her bookings and that's developed into an actual promotion with show-to-show storylines, factions and a very interesting mix of freelance talent bolstering the permanent roster of three people, a rookie and a referee. They've been legit great the last few years, my 2019 Promotion of the Year and have really made a positive mark in terms of providing unique matches you wouldn't get elsewhere and really helped freshen up that bit of the scene, sort of pushing out pure old Pro Wrestling WAVE who sort of did the same thing a few years ago. With everyone seeming to forgive each other and Yoshiko working a lot of places now and clearly being in a much happier, healthier environment as well its worked out well for almost everyone. I'd have to think about Match of the Decade: I'm really not familiar with stuff from before the last few years and a lot of stuff pre-2014 is hard to find since you didn't have people routinely ripping things from Nico or Samurai and the places that did often aren't around anymore with no one archiving the stuff. Might have to have a 2019 match on the list since the Nanae Takahash-Arisa Nakajima hair match was incredible but I'd have to do a lot more research and watch older Joshi. Wrestler of the Decade is another big one: Tsukasa Fujimoto is always someone who's a WOTY candidate and has been all decade so based on that she'd have to make the shortlist; the Stardom threedom as well if only for overall impact but I'd hold Mayu Iwatani very high on any list; other than that I'd again have to sit down and do some research. The shorter nature of Joshi careers makes it a harder challenge: there aren't that many company aces or main eventers who debuted before 2010. The promotion with the most impact at least is Stardom; in terms of quality the large amount of turnover you get makes it hard to give a definitive answer: I'm pretty sure Ice Ribbon have been the most consistent over that time with other companies rising and falling during this period.
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Nov 29, 2019 00:41
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I'm gonna cheat and say it's a tie between Tanahashi and Lil Kazu, with an honorable mention to the Bullet Club. I don't think wrestling takes off as much as it did this decade without them. Also PWG. 2013-2015 PWG literally turned wrestling into what it is today for better or worse.
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Nov 29, 2019 00:52
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i remember waiting for the pwg previews they ruled that one song ruled
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Nov 29, 2019 00:57
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Devitt turning on Taguchi kickstarted the BC and everything that followed, put some respect on the Funky Weapon for being in the most important angle of the decade
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Nov 29, 2019 00:59
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BushiRoad taking over New Japan is huge obviously. Devitt & Fale teaming up after Apollo 55 split up leading to the Bullet Club kinda changed both New Japan & western wrestling in a pretty big way, encouraging New Japan to branch out to the US & leading to a big boom period for ROH & then the creation of AEW. It's a pretty wild sequence of events that all go back to Invasion Attack 2013. Beaten by seconds.
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Nov 29, 2019 00:59
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One cannot speak of this decade without speaking of the Final Deletion. It's one of the factors that got me back into wrestling after 15 years of disinterest for sure.
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Nov 29, 2019 01:08
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Auritech posted:One cannot speak of this decade without speaking of the Final Deletion. It's one of the factors that got me back into wrestling after 15 years of disinterest for sure. I think both the broken hardy saga and lucha underground helped elucidate a niche of highly edited, heavily lore based wrestling content, and I still feel like nobody's directly capitalized on it. BTE to some degree I suppose.
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Nov 29, 2019 04:58
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Thing that I forgot about but is really awesome from this decade One of the Inoki IGF shows in 2010 featured Minowaman vs Necro Butcher.
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Nov 29, 2019 19:02
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Nov 29, 2019 19:08
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best moment of the decade right here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYP1Y93xsbE
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Nov 30, 2019 08:26
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What a way to kick off the decade this was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH1xm2fOXD4
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Nov 30, 2019 09:14
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The Elite deciding to try to draw 10,000 fans to a wrestling event in the US.
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Nov 30, 2019 15:20
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Toru Yano is the best wrestler of the decade. You cannot change my mind
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Dec 1, 2019 01:03
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forkboy84 posted:At a glance I'd say that 2010 seems like a good year for The Kings of Wrestling, Motor City Machine Guns, Takashi Suguira, YAMATO, Davey Richards, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Rey Mysterio, El Generico, Naomichi Marufuji, Shingo Takagi & Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan. Sugiura owned in 2010, particularly in this match w/Takayama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKVUWmFF7L0 MOTD for me will probably amount to either Togo/Honda from DDT in 2011, Nakamura/Ibushi at WK9, or Okada/Omega 2/3 falls at Dominion '18
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Dec 1, 2019 01:20
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a forgotten classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J5ztNaCIJQ
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Dec 1, 2019 10:09
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I'm not well versed in independents or NJPW for half the decade. But! In my eyes the best thing of the decade is Daniel Bryan. I came back to wrestling after 10 or so years away and he hooked me. I had never gone to a wrestling show before but started going to ROH, Raw, and a Wrestlemania when I had the chance. Then I got exposed to NXT and through that the greater wrestling universe wanting to know where all these people came from. I can sincerely look back at WWE at the time I decided to tune in and say nothing else would have made me stay with it and move on to better things.
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Dec 1, 2019 10:32
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I was thinking some more & it really is hard to see the case against Okada as wrestler of the decade. Obviously the start of the decade is bad (although I did find this: Okada vs Sekimoto from Riki Pro and there's the Tanahashi match before he goes away) with the time in TNA. Who can believe we got Christina Von Eerie & Shannon Moore vs Becky Bayless & Okada dream match? Or the time Okada got to wrestle as Suicide?) & 2 years lost to excursion but from almost day one (WK with YOSHI-HASHI never happened) he was clearly extremely good.); there might have been questions about if Tana had carried him to their great first title match at New Beginning but that was out of the window by his first defence in March. He's had 6 matches rated higher than ***** by Meltzer along with another 11 ***** matches. Dude is really good at wrestling but more than that he has been the top guy in the period where after Tanahashi helped reverse course from the disastrous business of the 2000s they just kept doing bigger & bigger business. 2020 (ONE MONTH TODAY!) will be the first time since 2005 they've done more than 1 show at the Tokyo Dome in a year, before that the last time they'd only done 1 Tokyo Dome show in a year was 1993, and they also ran at the Fukuoka Dome that year. 2013 is the first year that we have what appears to be a real figure for attendance at the Dome: 29,000. Last year was just over of 38,000. So the more interesting question is "who is the second best wrestler of the decade?" I can see an argument for Tanahashi, Bryan, Lesnar, & Cena. I think on workrate alone Sugiura should be in the conversation but he's not going to win because he's been on top in the post-Misawa NOAH which has basically turned into a Japanese indie, but he's been incredibly consistent the entire decade. Ishii has higher highs in ring but nobody even noticed him until the 2013 G1 match with Shibata so Sugi has 2 & a half year head start. Omega? He had some very good stuff, even great, stuff but Omega was not a star until the move to Heavyweight. Styles? His peak was great, but the first part of the decade was spent treading water in a TNA which didn't know what he's got. And then he ended up in WWE and started hot but his matches are pretty disappointing really now. There was a Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles match at the Rumble which didn't even get *** from the Observer.
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Dec 4, 2019 20:28
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I was actually planning a long effortpost OP going through the best of the decade in a similar format to the WON awards, but since somebody beat me to the thread (and absolutely no hard feelings  , blame my lazy timing), I'll go ahead and post it here, broken up in chunks. Consider this Part 1, with a Part 2 coming next week.Wrestler of the Decade 1. Kazuchika Okada -- There was only one man who could possibly replace Tanahashi as the ace of New Japan. We all knew it was coming one day, but we didn't know who, or where it would come from. Was it really going to be this weird-looking lanky guy who just had a crappy match with YOSHI-HASHI at the Dome? NJPW could've easily waited a few more years, since Tana was still a big draw on top. They could've slow-burned a young wrestler in a long crawl up the card, and given up when he didn't catch on. They could've given a talented-but-untested wrestler the rocket push out of the gate, and abandon ship when he didn't immediately draw. They could've seen one of their top prospects come back from a failed TNA run and never given him the time of day. They did none of those things, because they believed in Okada so strongly that they didn't want to half-rear end it. And so Okada was the chosen man, beating Tana in such a high-pressure spot that many great wrestlers would wilt under the sudden spotlight and expected fan backlash. Okada not only survived, he knocked it out the park in a way that we haven't seen in decades, possibly ever. Moving seamlessly from the spoiled rich brat to proud company ace, Okada went on a run that rivals the best of all time, culminating in his now-legendary title reign from 2016-18, with instant classic after instant classic, showcasing his otherworldly talent and crowd connection. He's only 31 years old and is already a living legend, would go in the Hall of Fame tomorrow if he were eligible, and holy poo poo, we haven't even gotten to the Grizzled Veteran stage of his career, which will be loving glorious. There's a strong chance he'll be Wrestler of the Decade again in the 2020s, because he's not slowing down any time soon. We are witness to a legitimate GOAT blossoming in front of our eyes, and we should appreciate every day of it. 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi -- You can possibly replace the ace of NJPW, but you can't replace the Ace of the Universe. Tanahashi almost single-handedly dragged NJPW back from its business doldrums of the 2000s, getting over as both an incredible wrestler and heartthrob icon -- his role in bringing in a new female fanbase that NJPW still courts to this day can't be overstated. But even if you can look past his beautiful flowing hair and knowing twinkle in his eyes -- I don't know how you can -- Tana is right up there with the all-time wrestling legends. He had the original iconic title run from 2011-12 before Okada surpassed him, and their feud brought the company to new heights not seen since the Three Musketeers era. Even after Tana was seemingly moving down the card with age and injuries, he still pulled out amazing performances -- most notably in 2018, where he had an incredibly emotional redemption arc that saw him win the G1 and the title for (presumably) the last time, where fans were almost crushing each other just to get a glimpse of their hero on top again. You could argue that Tanahashi should be No. 1 on this list, and I won't complain -- he holds a special place in the hearts of wrestling fans all over the world. GO ACE! 3. John Cena -- I wasn't expecting to have Cena on my Top 3 when starting this list, but when you divorce him from the memes and wrestling fandom's weird love-hate relationship with him and just examine his resume, he had a sneaky great decade that keeps looking better with hindsight. Nearly every time that Cena was in big-time programs, he delivered incredible matches that still hold up as among the best of his career (against Punk, Bryan, Owens, and Styles off the top of my head). Even the Rock matches, which I didn't like, still did massive business. And let's not forget the US Title run where he was banging out 4-star matches on Raw every week just for fun. Not everything landed, of course, which was inevitable with the state of WWE creative -- he had some notable clunkers with Orton and Bray Wyatt, and the burials of the Nexus and Zack Ryder are still a sore spot among fans. But in the bigger picture, when called upon, Cena was as reliable as it gets. You could argue that he was the last genuine draw of WWE's modern era, and certainly of the pre-Network era. When we see WWE's painfully lame attempts to fill the void Cena left behind, it only exposes how far he carried that company on his back, and how much his presence is missed. We didn't appreciate him enough at the time, and history will vindicate him as an all-time great. Something something love him or hate him, yadda yadda gotta respect him. Other contenders: Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar, Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito, Shinsuke Nakamura, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Kento Miyahara, Takashi Sugiura, LA Park, Rush Most Outstanding Wrestler 1. Kazuchika Okada -- The title run was an instant all-timer and if you're reading this you probably don't need much introduction. Kazu's resume speaks for itself. So instead I wanted to focus on how well Okada gets the little details right -- what makes him feel special is not so much the cool moves he does, it's the way he paces them and makes every move count. He got a loving dropkick over as a death move, both by doing the best dropkick ever and by timing it for the exact right moment to get the biggest crowd reaction and sell it as a crucial turning point in his matches. His instincts in the ring are nearly unmatched, there isn't a single wasted motion with him. Even in kinda awkward moments like when he missed a dropkick against SANADA in an undercard match this year, he instantly pivoted that into a storyline where SANADA kept dodging his dropkicks and it played into the long feud they had all year. Again, little details is what this guy is so brilliant at. He's the most outstanding wrestler I've ever seen, and an easy choice for the top spot on this list. 2. AJ Styles -- AJ started the decade as largely an afterthought in TNA, and even his most ardent fans were ready to write him off -- there's a reason he immediately fell off the WON HOF ballot despite his stellar work in the 2000s. And then a funny thing happened in 2013: AJ turned down a lowball extension offer from TNA and went on to remind everyone that he's one of the best wrestlers of all time. It's easy to forget in hindsight, but NJPW took a huge risk putting their belt on AJ in his first match, which speaks to how highly they believed in him. There was admittedly a rough business start, but eventually he grew into the role to become a top-drawing gaijin as the leader of Bullet Club (which saw a massive popularity surge under his leadership), delivering outstanding matches the whole time. In 2016 he jumped to WWE, which today is considered a death knell even with the pay raise, but against all odds (and his size), AJ got the company to realize his world-class talent and push him as a top guy, with multiple world title reigns and career-best matches against the likes of John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Brock Lesnar, among many others. He won the WON Wrestler of Year twice in a row and got back on the HOF ballot, where he coasted in this time. 3. Will Ospreay -- I will cop to some recency bias since Ospreay didn't really emerge on the scene until around 2015 or so, but he quickly rose up the ranks with a legitimately groundbreaking style, combining intense high-flying with equally intense bumps that had many people worried about his long-term health. Still in his mid-20s and already becoming an influential figure in wrestling history (particularly in the UK scene), Ospreay has since added more grounded elements to his game and truly elevated himself as he moves up the NJPW ladder from junior to heavyweight. He closes the decade as arguably the best pure bell-to-bell wrestler in the world, with a whole lifetime of experience and upside left in him. Let's just hope that he doesn't take the Dynamite Kid comparisons too literal, both in and out of the ring. Other contenders: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Daniel Bryan, Kenny Omega, Tomohiro Ishii, John Cena, Kento Miyahara, Kota Ibushi, Takashi Sugiura, Tetsuya Naito, Katsuyori Shibata, Shingo Takagi, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, La Sombra, Chris Hero, Io Shirai, Shinsuke Nakamura, KUSHIDA, Hiromu Takahashi, Dragon Lee, PAC, Cesaro Tag Team of the Decade 1. The Young Bucks -- Even now, as we see a new US promotion partially built by them, I don't think we appreciate how much the Bucks changed the game in indie wrestling. Coming off a failed TNA run where they were literally too broke to buy food in an airport, Matt and Nick Jackson worked overtime to become self-made superstars, making tag-team wrestling a viable drawing act again, and building a merchandise empire that got them all the way to Hot Topic shelves. They re-wrote the playbook for how indie wrestlers promote themselves in the social media era, and eventually became a key player in the launch of AEW. Oh yeah, by the way, they are also loving amazing wrestlers who have a few dozen contenders for best tag team match of the decade. And they were a huge factor in the Bullet Club gaining a big Western fanbase, before spinning off into The Elite which kept printing money for them. Not bad for a couple of good Christian boys just throwing a superkick party. 2. reDRagon/Undisputed Era -- I honestly had a hard time coming up with a strong No. 2 team, so ultimately I went with Fish and O'Reilly for their consistency and longevity across multiple promotions. After years of tearing it up in ROH, NJPW, and PWG, they kept their momentum straight into NXT, where they've since been the best tag team in the entire company. Even when Fish got injured they didn't miss a beat, with Roderick Strong subbing in and the team still delivering excellent matches, most notably a 5-star affair against Mustache Mountain. 3. The Shield -- Technically not a tag team since their specialty was trios matches, I'm still including them as probably the most popular WWE faction of the decade. Starting off as the heel enforcers of the Authority, they quickly broke out and became beloved fan favorites, easily the highlight of Raw and Smackdown every week with their red-hot main events (remember when WWE crowds used to make loud noises for the strong babyfaces beating up everybody? What a strange coincidence). Because nothing good can last, they split up and all three men went on to singles careers, with future reunions meeting diminishing returns. Still, that 2012-14 run holds up as some of the best in-ring work WWE has seen all decade. Other contenders: The Briscoes, The Usos, Lucha Brothers, Golden Lovers, Mustache Mountain/British Strong Style, The Revival, The New Day, The Rhodes Brothers, The Addiction/SCU, The Wyatt Family Best on Interviews 1. Chris Jericho -- One of pro wrestling's all-time great chameleons, Jericho continued finding new ways to reinvent himself and stay relevant even as he faded from his physical prime. His WWE run was more hit-and-miss, particularly in the first half of the decade, but he still had plenty of memorable moments such as The List and the Festival of Friendship. Even with those highs, the consensus seemed like that Jericho was on the way down. But then he went to NJPW and completely changed the narrative of his career, reminding everyone that he's still on top of his promo game. Clearly reinvigorated by his newfound creative freedom, Jericho went on to have fantastic promos and feuds, leaning into the washed-up rockstar image to ironically be more fresh than ever. He closes out the decade as AEW's inaugural champion, and it turned out to be a brilliant booking choice as Jericho is a highlight of Dynamite every week, now doing a sort of midlife-crisis version of his WCW persona. Who would've thought he still had this in him back when he was laying down for Fandango at Mania? 2. CM Punk -- For better or worse, the Pipebomb is the iconic WWE promo of the 2010s. We all know how badly they botched the followup, but that 2011 Summer of Punk was nothing short of memorable, and he still had plenty of great promos as the champion a year later. I have a hard time rating Punk on these lists since his wrestling career abruptly ended barely halfway into the decade, but for those first few years he was still one of the most vibrant and compelling presences on WWE programming. Leave the memories alone. 3. Paul Heyman -- Much like his client, Heyman gets dinged on these lists for doing basically the same shtick for five years and counting. But let's not forget how brilliant that shtick was to begin with. If the Pipebomb is WWE's most memorable promo of the decade, "the one in 21 and 1" is not far behind. Ending the Undertaker's streak was a huge controversy at the time, and Heyman had to go out there to the Raw-after-Mania crowd and sell them on it, so it's kind of a miracle that he pulled it off as well as he did. It's probably the best promo of his career, and that's a high loving bar with Paul E. Other contenders: John Cena, Tetsuya Naito, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Jon Moxley, Shinsuke Nakamura, Stokley Hathaway, Minoru Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, MJF, Pentagon Jr., Rush, Kenny Omega, The Miz, Cody, Becky Lynch, Stephanie McMahon Feud of the Decade 1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada -- The 80s had Flair/Steamboat. The 90s had Rock/Austin and Kobashi/Misawa. The 00s had ... well, also Kobashi/Misawa, but Joe/Punk was there too! And the 10s has Tana/Okada, the rivalry that launched NJPW into a new golden age. I touched on this a bit in the Okada WOTY section above, but it should also be noted how unselfish Tana was with the booking. He was still on top of his game, there wasn't any hurry to drop the belt or replace him yet, he could've easily lobbied to keep his spot a bit longer. Instead he did all the right things for business, patiently let the long game play out, and everybody benefited in the end. Sometimes I wonder if Tana's 2018 comeback arc was in part a thank-you for getting Okada over, giving him one last run on top before he graciously steps back. Or maybe I'm just projecting. Either way, this is the best feud of the decade and it's not close. 2. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega -- This is what happens when you take two gifted wrestlers and just let them make magic together. Omega's 2016 push was pretty bold at the time, becoming the first gaijin to win the G1 after a long stint as a junior heavyweight. There were some questions as to how he'd handle the spotlight, or how well he'd mesh with Okada. Well, all they did was have the greatest match of all time, and then do it again three more times. When you watch the series beginning to end and pay attention to details, it's insane how much they call back to previous matches/spots and build on the character relationship, from Okada not taking Kenny seriously, to being shook by him, to Kenny finally getting his triumphant victory after a long journey of self-discovery. This feud might not have much in the way of lengthy promos or heated brawls, but I think that simplicity helps make it more visceral and heartfelt -- two of the best in the world throwing everything they have at each other until one guy can't get up. This is the beating heart of pro-wrestling struggle and fighting spirit in its purest, most distilled form. I wouldn't have it any other way. 3. CM Punk vs. John Cena -- Again, I won't go into much detail here since y'all know the story and how big it felt at the time. Perhaps their biggest mistake was that they didn't stretch the feud out longer, which had tons of mileage and the two had incredible in-ring chemistry (a lot of people consider their Raw match from 2013 to be even better than the MITB 2011 match). So this is probably a generous ranking, but I still have fond memories of it. Other contenders: Daniel Bryan vs. The Authority, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Kevin Steen/Owens vs. El Generico/Sami Zayn, John Cena vs. AJ Styles, LA Park vs. Rush, Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll, Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Will Ospreay vs. Robbie Eagles, Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, Kenny Omega vs. Cody, The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Fenix vs. Mil Muertes Stay tuned for Part 2! Benne fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Dec 6, 2019 |
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Dec 6, 2019 08:16
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I will join in with this because I am unoriginal Wrestler of the Decade 1. Kazuchika Okada - No contest here. He's the best worker on the top of the best company in pro wrestling this decade. Overseen a huge growth in business, you know all this. 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Tanahashi is part of why New Japan didn't collapse in the Yukes era. He's only just started to slow down this year but until the was every bit as great a wrestler as Okada. 3. Daniel Bryan - Look, I'm biased as all hell. His last half of the decade was utterly forgettable on the whole. But dude is my all time favourite. And when he was on top of the WWE, it was amazing. His brief indie return at the start of the decade after being fired, dope as gently caress. I justify this by there not really being very many other Most Outstanding Wrestler 1. Takashi Sugiura - Dude has been great but overlooked/forgotten almost right from his debut in 2000. He was never the draw NOAH needed him to be but he did all he could with the talents he has. This decade Sugi has had bangers with Hirooki Goto, Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Yoshihrio Takayama, Takeshi Morishima, KENTA, Minoru Suzuki, Kensuke Sasaki, Naomichi Marufuji, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Chris Hero, Daisuke Sekimoto, Yuji Nagata, Kenoh, Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya. Singles matches, tag matches, whatever, Sugi is going to be good to great. 2. Tomohiro Ishii - Oh boy. #TOMO. Big Tam. A big block of beef. Ishii is fascinating because the first two thirds of his career is totally unremarkable. Debuted in 1996, somehow had some time as a Junior, he really didn't break out until 2012 with a gutsy battle with Masato Tanaka at Road to New Beginning for the NEVER Openweight championship. And the NEVER title is really one of two defining things in his career along with the G1. He really arrived as a great big match wrestler in the 2013 G1, there were bangers with Tanahashi & Makabe but he got his first ***** rating from WON for the clash with Shibata on the 4th August. Since then he's had 2 ***** 1/2 matches, 6 ***** matches, 16 **** 3/4 & 34 **** 1/2. 3 matches rated in the top 50 all time matches according to Cagematch inmates. The only reason I have Sugi over him is that Sugi has been doing it for the entire decade & it took beautiful #TOMO a couple years to get going. 3. Kazuchika Okada - I mean, he's unimpeachable. May well be the greatest big match wrestler since Kobashi. Not much else to say. Tag Team of the Decade 1. The Young Bucks - Really, it's not been the best decade for tag team wrestling. More's the pity. A lot of teams that were around for a few years 2 to 3 years. But The Young Bucks have done their best to right that wrong. Across PWG, TNA, Dragon Gate USA, Ring of Honor, New Japan & now All Elite Wrestling they've just done their poo poo, selling t-shirts, flipping unnecessarily and really pissing off boring wrestling fans. The match against Golden Lovers in Long Beach. Against Timesplitters at Dominion 6.21. Against the Machine Guns & The Addiction at All Star Extravaganza VIII. Nobody else has been as great for as long. 2. Motor City Machine Guns - This is kind of hard because they were sort of a late '00s/early '10s team, and they were stuck in the wasteland of TNA for a chunk of their best years but there was some great stuff in those years. A match with Kings of Wrestling in 2010, several with Generation Me/The Bucks, Beer Money, The Dudleys & The Briscoes. 3. AXIZ - They've only been regularly tagging together since June 2018, I don't care. AXIZ are the best tag team of this year, two great solo wrestlers in Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima. Won their first title in December, winning a 4 team tournament for the vacant GHC Tag titles. They dropped them a week later to Hino & Tanighuchi, lost a rematch in January, won them back from 50 Funky Powers in February, dropped them again in June to KAZMA & Sugi before winning them right back. Those two matches are must watches, the match against the Kongoh team of Masa Kitamiya & Inamura from 2nd November is a must watch, this is a total recency bias pick but there are so few candidates that I don't even feel bad. Sure, it could be The Briscoes or ReDragon or maybe TimeSplitters or Roppongi 3K or DoiYoshi but gently caress it, AXIZ. Best Interviews 1. Zack Sabre Jr - "I fight with my brain and an underlying hatred of the British Conservative Party" hell yeah you do comrade. 2. Paul Heyman 3. Chris Jericho Feud of the Decade 1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada - I mean, it's the definitive feud of the decade. Every match built on the previous, and it ulitimately lead to the recovery & growth of the promotion. 2. El Generico vs Kevin Steen - Two guys who are intimately linked, first meeting in a Montreal suburb in a match against each other & also featuring PCO. In 2004 they took themselves to America, there was a legendary Candian 4-way on a CZW show with Generico, Steen, Sexxxy Eddy & eXcess 69 which got them wider attention, then they both went to PWG where things really started. Somehow their feud went from Montreal to Philly to LA to WWE PPV. Great as tag partners, great as rivals battering the poo poo out of each other. Sami is just a natural babyface, Kevin is every bit as natural a bastard. And with a story like this even WWE couldn't gently caress it up. 3. Dragon Lee vs Hiromu Takahashi - Just perfect dance partners be it in CMLL, in ROH, in New Japan. Two exceptionally talented & charismatic Juniors with little regard for their own personal safety. It's absolutely great.
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Dec 6, 2019 13:47
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the best thing in wrestling this decade was the Golden☆Lovers https://youtu.be/pvTBYP29IJY
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Dec 6, 2019 17:49
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My nominee for match of the decade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUvD3AHMUc
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Dec 6, 2019 19:25
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my top 3 matches for each year this decade: 2010 1) HBK/Undertaker, WM26 2) Takayama/Sugiura, NOAH 7/10 3) Ikeda/Ono, Futen 9/26 2011 1) Togo/Honda, DDT 1/30 2) Cena/Punk, MITB 3) Nakamura/Suzuki, G1 8/14 2012 1) Tanahashi/Suzuki, KOPW 2) Tanahashi/Okada, Dominion 3) Cena/Brock, Extreme Rules 2013 1) Tanahashi/Okada, Invasion Attack 2) Punk/Lesnar, Summerslam 3) Ishii/Shibata, G1 2014 1) Zayn/Neville, Takeover R:Evolution 2) Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero 3) Shield/Wyatts, Elimination Chamber 2015 1) Nakamura/Ibushi, WK9 2) Tanahashi/Okada, WK9 3) Brock/Reigns, WM31 2016 1) DIY/Revival, Takeover Toronto 2) Tanahashi/Okada, WK10 3) Nakamura/Zayn, Takeover Dallas 2017 1) Okada/Shibata, Sakura Genesis 2) Rush/LA Park, 3/11 3) Okada/Omega, G1 2018 1) Omega/Okada, Dominion 2) Gargano/Almas, Takeover Philly 3) Gargano/Ciampa, Takeover NOLA 2019 1) Cody/Dustin, DoN 2) Ospreay/Takagi, BOSJ final 3) Tanahashi/Omega, WK13
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Dec 15, 2019 18:36
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