2021's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > 2021's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

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Rarity: Oct 21, 2010; ~*4 LIFE*~

HM: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: The Young Bucks vs. SCU, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: Darby Allin vs. Miro, AEW Dynamite, 12/05

# ? May 13, 2021 08:49

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 07:46

ThePariah: Feb 10, 2014

Rarity posted:

HM: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: The Young Bucks vs. SCU, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: Darby Allin vs. Miro, AEW Dynamite, 12/05

Nth.

# ? May 13, 2021 09:08

Jerusalem: May 20, 2004; Would you be my new best friends?

Adding completely unnecessary and pointless Nths to:

HM: Jon Moxley (C) vs. Yuji Nagata for the IWGP US Championship - AEW Dynamite 5/12
MOTYC: The Young Bucks (C) vs. SCU for the AEW Tag Team Titles - AEW Dynamite 5/12
MOTYC: Darby Allin (C) vs. Miro for the TNT Championship - AEW Dynamite 5/12

What a loving show.

# ? May 13, 2021 09:16

Crapple!: Nov 1, 2019

Lumbermouth posted:

MOTYC: Darby Allin vs Miro - TNT Championship, AEW Dynamite 5/12

nth. One of my favourite Dynamite matches ever

# ? May 13, 2021 09:35

Quantum of Phallus: Dec 27, 2010

Lumbermouth posted:

MOTYC: Darby Allin vs Miro - TNT Championship, AEW Dynamite 5/12

nth

# ? May 13, 2021 11:24

Akileese: Feb 6, 2005

Rarity posted:

HM: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: The Young Bucks vs. SCU, AEW Dynamite, 12/05
MOTYC: Darby Allin vs. Miro, AEW Dynamite, 12/05

nth

# ? May 13, 2021 12:31

A Fancy Hat: Nov 18, 2016; Always remember that the former President was dumber than the dumbest person you've ever met by a wide margin

MOTYC: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata
MOTYC: The Young Bucks vs. SCU
MOTYC: Darby Allin vs. Miro

All from AEW Dynamite 5/12/21. What a freaking show.

# ? May 13, 2021 14:41

Punch McLightning: Sep 19, 2005; you know what that means; Grimey Drawer

From last night's Dynamite

HM: Jon Moxley vs. Yuji Nagata
HM: The Young Bucks vs. SCU
HM: Darby Allin vs. Miro

# ? May 13, 2021 17:16

Punch McLightning: Sep 19, 2005; you know what that means; Grimey Drawer

These are both from Road to Wrestling Dontaku on April 19.

HM:Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yujiro Takahashi
HM: Hirooki Goto vs. Taiji Ishimori

# ? May 13, 2021 17:41

TV Zombie: Sep 6, 2011; Burying all the trauma from past nights
Burying my anger in the past

fez_machine posted:

HM
12th May 2021
Chocopro 115
Chris Brookes vs. Emi Pencil

Some world-class heeling from Brookes, very enjoyable.

Nth. Knowing the story behind the match would help ones appreciation of the match but it was still a very fun match.

# ? May 13, 2021 19:11

The Taxman: Jan 2, 2007; greetings sweeties, let me give you a back massage. for i am a whiz!

SG Bamboo posted:

DDT Ultimate Tag League May 9th
MOTYC
Yukio Sakaguchi vs Yusuke Okada
- Holy gently caress, this came out of nowhere. Brutality at it's finest as Okada attempts to survive against a killer, short and sweet
37KAMIINA (MAO and Yuki Ueno) vs DisasterBox (HARASHIMA and Naomi Yoshimura)
- Yoshimura's first match back after a six month injury, and he immediately made up for lost time by beating the hell out of his former tag partner Ueno. As good as Nautilus were as a tag team, they're just as good facing off against each other. Add in MAO and HARASHIMA to the mix and you've got a phenominal match.
37KAMIINA (Shunma Katsumata and Konosuke Takeshita) vs Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki and Yuji Hino)
- Yuji Hino is such a fuckin hoss, he's absolutely perfect as a man mountain for people to (try to) chop down to size. All four of these guys rule, it's like the Sauna boys didn't want to be upstaged by their compatriots in the earlier match by going balls to the wall. A little bit of interference by Damnation, but not nearly enough for me to dock points from this spectacle.

HM
Team Thoroughbred (Sanshiro Takagi and Yukio Naya) vs DisasterBox (Kazuki Hirata and Toru Owashi) vs Akito and Keigo Nakamura vs Danshoku Dieno and Super Sasadango Machine
- Reverse Battle Royale, but not the TNA kind. All 8 guys are at ringside, and if you get tossed into the ring (and maybe into the bleachers as well? Wasn't super clear on that) your team is eliminated. Absolute insanity from start to finish.

Holy poo poo, what an awesome show. Great way to kick off Tag League, make time to watch if you've got a Universe subscription

Nth, excellent show. Clear highlight was the main event but this was a lot of fun.

# ? May 14, 2021 03:34

Punch McLightning: Sep 19, 2005; you know what that means; Grimey Drawer

HM: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori, Road to Castle Attack, Feb 25

# ? May 14, 2021 20:37

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

HM
14th May
Dragongate King of Gate Night 1
King of Gate B Block
Dragon Kid vs SB KENTo

I'm 4 matches into this show and everything has been at least good with this the highlight. It was the free preview match on YouTube so I'll have to look up the link. https://youtu.be/QbV-iVQ9G-w

The only real knock is it's had to be a no crowd show

# ? May 14, 2021 23:51

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

HM
14th May
Dragongate King of Gate Night 1
King of Gate B Block
Kzy vs Susumu Yokosuka

Two of my faves in DG, stablemates, and they had a banger. Susumu has a real nice lariat for a smaller dude. Loves the finishing stretch

Give it a watch

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 15, 2021

# ? May 15, 2021 00:45

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

HM
14th May
Dragongate King of Gate Night 1
King of Gate C Block
Shun Skywalker vs YAMATO

Cracker of a match between 2 fantastic wrestlers

And this

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 15, 2021

# ? May 15, 2021 01:31

SG Bamboo: Aug 21, 2013; Smile. Win. Yay!

DDT Ultimate Tag League Night 3 May 15th
HM
Eruption (Yukio Sakaguchi and Kazusada Higuchi) vs European Connection (Antonio Honda and Chris Brookes)
- Some good old fashioned fun, a lightheartedness we rarely see from Eruption
Junretsu (Jun Akiyama and Makoto Oishi) vs Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki and Yuji Hino)
- Yuji Hino is so goddamn cool, watching him toss Oishi around like paper was real fun

Fun show on the whole, but nothing world changing like Night 1

# ? May 15, 2021 11:02

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

forkboy84 posted:

MOTYC
14th February
2AW GRANDSLAM in TKP Garden City
2AW Openweight Title
Ayato Yoshida vs Taylor Adams

Pretty sure this is the first singles match I've seen. He's also taller than I'd noticed before. Yoshida remains one of my favourites and 95% of the reason I try to follow 2AW. The match starts slow but this is a bit of a breakout performance from Adams, he more than holds up his end, Yoshida is Yoshida, he's got fire, he's got charisma, he's got great kicks. They slap the poo poo out of each other too so that rules. Honestly, once this ramps up after the first 7 or 8 minutes it rules.

Also want to add that Yoshida did this cool move which was like a dragon screw but to the arm instead of the leg.

Someone earlier said I should feel free to quote myself & link to matches, so here's a match I really enjoyed from earlier in the year

If you don't remember, Ayato Yoshida was in New Japan for a while in a young lion role, until TAKA Michinoku did whatever sleazy thing he did to get fired & lose control of K-DOJO which has become 2AW, he had a great tag team/rivalry going with Shota Umino, then he spent a while in All Japan as a member of JIN with Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, Fuminori Abe & Koji Iwamoto until the pandemic cut back his outside bookings. He rules anyway, & is the champion of 2AW. Taylor Adams is from New Zealand but has mostly been wrestling for K-DOJO/2AW for 5 years now. Like I said in my original comment, for me this was a bit of a breakout performance from him. Definitely worth your time if you fancy something very indy.

# ? May 15, 2021 22:48

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

HM
28th March
2AW GRANDSLAM in 2AW Square
Ayato Yoshida vs Daiju Wakamatsu

You will see many better matches than this, but if you're a fan of veteran vs young boy archetype matches then this is good fun

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80ly3b

# ? May 16, 2021 00:15

Dimebags Brain: Feb 18, 2013

Dragon Gate - King of Gate Night 1 at Kobe Lapis Hall, 5/14

I really liked this show. Just straight bangers one after the other. Would have been interesting to see them run a show formatted like this in front of a Korakuen crowd.

HM: Dragon Kid vs. SB Kento
HM: Jason Lee vs. Eita
HM: Naruki Doi vs. Ben-K
HM: BxB Hulk vs. Takeshi Yoshida

Filling out my WON Awards ballot and writing Takeshi Yoshida in big bold letters into the Most Improved slot.

MOTYC: Kzy vs. Susumu Yokosuka
MOTYC: Shun Skywalker vs. YAMATO

Kzy and Susumu did what any self-respecting members of the same unit would do when forced to fight in a tournament setting and beat the piss out of each other. An incredible effort here for an empty building. Skywalker and YAMATO were as good together as I thought they would be and I was really missing the crowd because the way the match ramped itself up was masterful.

# ? May 16, 2021 01:06

J-Ro: Jul 26, 2005; Child Of The Revolution

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

# ? May 16, 2021 02:50

Sticky Nate: Jan 9, 2012

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

2nd

# ? May 16, 2021 02:52

Pylons: Mar 16, 2009

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

Nth.

# ? May 16, 2021 02:54

Pinwiz11: Jan 26, 2009; I'm becom-, I'm becom-,
I'm becoming
Tana in, Tana in my mind.

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

Nth

# ? May 16, 2021 02:58

Edward Mass: Sep 14, 2011; 𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen𝅘𝅥𝅮

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

5th'd.

# ? May 16, 2021 05:53

Lamuella: Jun 26, 2003; It's like goldy or bronzy, but made of iron.

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

Nth, this was very good.

For anyone who didn't buy the PPV and has njpwworld, it's been uploaded there too.

# ? May 16, 2021 10:52

Cerebral Bore: Apr 21, 2010; Fun Shoe

J-Ro posted:

Impact Wrestling: Under Siege (05.15.2021)
HM:
X Division title match:
Josh Alexander (c) vs El Phantasmo

# ? May 16, 2021 14:41

Dimebags Brain: Feb 18, 2013

Dragon Gate, King of Gate Night 2 at Fukuoka, 5/15

HM: King of Gate B Block - Kzy vs. Dragon Kid
MOTYC: King of Gate C Block - YAMATO vs Keisuke Okuda

Do you like grapplefucking? Do you like guys hitting each other real hard in strike exchanges? Then I got a match for you!

Dimebags Brain fucked around with this message at 04:22 on May 17, 2021

# ? May 16, 2021 20:27

Benne: Sep 2, 2011; STOP DOING HEROIN

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs. The Miz Zombie Lumberjack Match, WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

That was legitimately embarrassing to watch

# ? May 17, 2021 01:19

Testekill: Nov 1, 2012; I demand to be taken seriously

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs the Miz, WWE Backlash 17/05

What the actual gently caress was that?

# ? May 17, 2021 01:19

Destroy My Sweater: Jul 24, 2009

Benne posted:

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs. The Miz Zombie Lumberjack Match, WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

That was legitimately embarrassing to watch

nth lol

# ? May 17, 2021 01:19

Huntman: Apr 22, 2010

Benne posted:

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs. The Miz Zombie Lumberjack Match, WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

That was legitimately embarrassing to watch

Nth

I decided to watch this show on a whim and glad I did because wow!!! This had nothing redeeming about it!

# ? May 17, 2021 01:22

Dango Bango: Jul 26, 2007

Benne posted:

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs. The Miz Zombie Lumberjack Match, WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

That was legitimately embarrassing to watch

Nth because

Testekill posted:

That poo poo is why I don't tell people that I'm a wrestling fan

# ? May 17, 2021 01:23

Dango Bango: Jul 26, 2007

HM: Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman - WWE WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

This was a real fun big guy match. Drew worked his rear end off.

# ? May 17, 2021 02:15

Truther Vandross: Jun 17, 2008

HM: Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro, WWE Wrestlemania Backlash, 5/16

# ? May 17, 2021 02:58

Dimebags Brain: Feb 18, 2013

Dragon Gate, King of Gate Night 3 in Fukuoka, 5/16

HM: King of Gate C Block - Shun Skywalker vs. Kaito Ishida

Not as electric as their Dream Gate match but still real good and the finishing sprint was great.

HM: King of Gate B Block - Eita vs. Dragon Kid

Kid's been great this tournament and this match is worth it for Eita's pump-handle tilt-a-whirl GTS.

Dimebags Brain fucked around with this message at 04:23 on May 17, 2021

# ? May 17, 2021 04:20

SalTheBard: Jan 26, 2005; I forgot to post my food for USPOL Thanksgiving but that's okay too!; Fallen Rib

sportsgenius86 posted:

HM: Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro, WWE Wrestlemania Backlash, 5/16

Dango Bango posted:

HM: Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman - WWE WrestleMania Backlash 5/16

This was a real fun big guy match. Drew worked his rear end off.

Hell yeah to both of these!

# ? May 17, 2021 05:31

Kosmo Gallion: Sep 13, 2013

MOTYC: Drew McIntyre v Bobby Lashley v Braun Strowman - WM Backlash, 16/05

This was fantastic all the way through. The action never stopped, spot after spot after spot. I'm shocked that a WWE match was allowed to be so great.

Drew busting out the Michinoku Driver

# ? May 17, 2021 13:18

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

HM
28th March
2AW GRANDSLAM in 2AW Square
Shu Asakawa vs Taishi Takizawa

There's something annoying about the hardcam on this show, feel it should be more elevated.

Saying that, if you can cope with a 1 cam match this is excellent between 2 underrated & overlooked guys. It's for the right to challenge Ayato Yoshida for his 2AW Openweight Title, which happened at the end of April but I think is due to air on NicoNico this weekend. Some nice stiff strikes if you're into that

Nearly forgot a link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x80ly39

forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 17:48 on May 17, 2021

# ? May 17, 2021 13:49

Punch McLightning: Sep 19, 2005; you know what that means; Grimey Drawer

Testekill posted:

WMOTYC: Damien Priest vs the Miz, WWE Backlash 17/05

What the actual gently caress was that?

an easy, actual minus five stars match, i'm nthing this

# ? May 17, 2021 16:57

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 07:46

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Dimebags Brain posted:

Dragon Gate, King of Gate Night 2 at Fukuoka, 5/15

HM: King of Gate B Block - Kzy vs. Dragon Kid

2nd

# ? May 18, 2021 01:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > 2021's Best and Worst Pro-Wrestling Matches of the Year (plus Recommended)

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