The 411 Wrestling Year-End Awards: Part Ten – Best Matches of 2017: Okada vs. Omega, Styles vs. Cena, More

Welcome back to the Wrestling Top 5, year-end awards edition! What we are going to is take a topic, and all the writers here on 411 will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, and the end, based on where all of these topics rank on people’s list, we will create an overall Top 5 list. It looks a little like this…

1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1

It’s similar to how we do the WOTW voting. At the end we tally the scores and get our overall top 5! It’s highly non-official and final, like WWE’s old power rankings. From some of the best and worst, the 411 staff is ready to break down the awards! Thanks for joining us, and lets get down to work.

Robert S Leighty Jr
5. SmackDown Tag Titles: Hell in A Cell: New Day vs. The Usos (Hell in A Cell)
4. Universal Title: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns (SummerSlam)
3. IWGP Title: Okada vs. Omega (Wrestle Kingdom 11)
2. WWE UK Title: Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne (NXT Takeover: Chicago)

1. WWE Title: AJ Styles vs. John Cena (Royal Rumble) – No match in 2017 had me losing my mind and in awe like Cena vs. Styles. They were determined to top what they did at SummerSlam and I felt they did that. The build was fantastic and had me thinking there was no way they could live up to the crazy expectations and they did so. Also add in the stadium atmosphere of the Alamodome and really this should have headlined WrestleMania. I had this match as my top match all year and nothing topped even as I went back and watched my top 5 over again.

Jake Chambers
5. Lucha Underground Championship – All Night Long Match – Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack
4. IWGP Championship – Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (Dominion)
3. Hell of War Match – Killshot vs. Dante Fox
2. IWGP Intercontinental Championship – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito (Wrestle Kingdom 11)

1. IWGP Championship – Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata – Only a man who seemingly hated being a wrestler could go out there and wrestle the match of his life and literally risk it in the process. I’ve seen a lot of guys who looked like they were willing to give their life for wrestling, from Cactus Jack to Terry Funk, Misawa, Kobashi, Danielson, Sabu, Onita, Hardy, Flair, and so on, but all of them were seemingly guys who loved pro-wrestling. What we saw with Shibata since his return to the ring in 2012 was a conflicted man. Once in a position not unlike Okada, a blue chip young pro-wrestling star who’d paid his dues through the NJPW dojo grooming system and was poised to be one of the next major stars for the company. But he quit. For whatever “shoot” reason he quit, we don’t necessarily know, but his move to MMA and training seemed permanent and a decision based on disdain for the performance his peers like Nakamura, Tanahashi and Goto were doing in the ring. Yet he eventually came back (they all come back), for what we can assume are financial reasons, and despite still being incredibly proficient in the ring and majorly popular with the crowd, he was never given a shot at the IWGP Title. The New Japan bookers made us wait, forcing Shibata to prove himself over and over, until it became undeniable: love it or hate it, he was ready. At the end of the year we now marvel at Okada’s 2017 resume, but it was feasible that Shibata would win this night. And he fought the match like he was going to, not as if this was a fake fight he was supposed to lose. And that mentality balanced every snug forearm and elbow twist to be just a little bit on razor’s edge between real and cooperative. It was brutal and thrilling to watch, and if just one head butt had been placed in just a minutely different way, we wouldn’t be mourning the career of the architect of this violent and dangerous professional wrestling match. And yes, this match was dangerous. That’s actually what pro-wrestling is supposed to be about: presenting dangerous fights to an audience perplexed by how it isn’t real. In 2017, Shibata and Okada attempted to turn back the clock and give us a taste of that old tradition; one man the epitome of the slick modern workrate pro-wrestler, one so old fashioned he spent a career trying to delete the “pro” and just be a wrestler. Together they created a masterpiece.

Robert Stewart
5. AJ Styles vs. John Cena, Royal Rumble
4. New Day vs. The Usos, Hell In A Cell
3. Okada/Omega I, WK11
2. War Games, NXT War Games

1. Okada/Omega III, G1 Climax – Boy, I really wanted to put War Games here. It might have been my FAVORITE match of 2017, and I absolutely adored the chaos of it all. As a 1A, it was a damn fine match. That said, the Okada/Omega trilogy can’t be ignored, and their third match might be an odd choice to crown as the best of the three, but I’m going strictly by personal feeling here. And Okada.Omega in the semi-final of the G1 Climax was just one of those “THIS is why I watch wrestling” moments for me. Objectively, if I watched them all again, their Wrestle Kingdom encounter may be the most dramatic and technically perfect, and their Dominion time limit draw may be the most tense and exhausting, but there was just an air about the third bout that enraptured me as a viewer. I distinctly recalled thinking during this match that I wanted to make everyone I know who doesn’t like wrestling watch it and see if it could change their mind. So I don’t know, I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the biggest hitter of their trilogy, but it hit all the right chords for me.

Mike Chin
5. The Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
4. DIY vs. The Authors of Pain, NXT TakeOver: Chicago
3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega, Wrestle Kingdom 11
2. Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate, NXT TakeOver: Chicago

1. John Cena vs. AJ Styles, Royal Rumble 2017 – One of the truly special elements of the John Cena vs. AJ Styles program that started the summer of 2016 an could very well reignite any day, is how legitimately unpredictable the outcomes of big matches have been. The two performers have demonstrated remarkable chemistry, and have consistently delivered four-star-plus outings. But after Styles had beaten Cena twice in 2016, would WWE let him do it again in 2017, and carry the WWE Championship deep into WrestleMania season? Cena won in a debatable booking decision. Regardless of one’s feelings on the outcome, the match itself held up nicely to their SummerSlam showdown with a nice pace, good psychology, convincing false finishes, and a satisfying conclusion as Cena finlaly got the better of the Phenomenal One.

Justin Watry
5. Royal Rumble match (Royal Rumble 2017)
4. Aleister Black vs. Velveteen Dream (NXT Takeover War Games)
3. Team RAW vs. Team Smackdown (Survivor Series 2017)
2. AJ Styles vs. John Cena (Royal Rumble 2017)

1. Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne (NXT Takeover Chicago) – Alright, first of all, this is only a top five list. Remember, that means A LOT of great matches will be left out. That is no knock on them at all. For instance, there were some close calls that absolutely deserve a shout out. The fatal four way Universal Title bout at Summerslam is one right off the top of my head. John Cena vs. Roman Reigns at No Mercy was extremely fun and ranks high just based on historical value alone. Then came the Bill Goldberg matches. Short or not, it was such a fun ride for those six months he was around. Of course, AJ Styles vs. Finn Balor is a match of the year candidate for anybody on the internet. The tag team scene in both NXT and WWE lit it up too. I could keep going here. Make no mistake about it, the in-ring quality was top notch in 2017. In my opinion though, these are the top five and shockingly enough, I am giving the slight edge to Bate and Dunne from May. These two took a fairly meaningless UK Championship and made it worth a million bucks in Chicago eight months ago. While the aftermath and buzz eventually wore off with the disappearing title belt, the two had an equally excellent bout in NXT just two weeks ago to end 2017 that also needs to be mentioned. Awesome stuff that I’d love to see again!

Kevin Pantoja
5. Hell of War: Dante Fox vs. Killshot; Lucha Underground Ultima
Lucha Tres
4. Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito; NJPW G1 Climax
3. IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Katsuyori
Shibata; NJPW Sakura Genesis
2. WWE United Kingdom Championship: Tyler Bate [c] vs. Pete Dunne; NXT TakeOver: Chicago

1. Kenny Omega vs. Tetusya Naito; NJPW G1 Climax – At the time of this writing, I haven’t rewatched these matches like I usually do for my year-end list, so this could change. As of right now though, Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito is my MOTY. There were a few moments of overkill, but overall, it was a stellar match. I won’t go into too much detail about specifics here, but they had a long match and worked it at a wild pace. This was better than all three Omega/Okada matches or the three Naito/Tanahashi outings. There was no fluff and everything mattered. This had the right mix of brutal and smart wrestling, with a molten hot crowd and the right winner.

Ken Hill
5. Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne, NXT TakeOver: Chicago
4. John Cena vs. AJ Styles, Royal Rumble 2017
3. Lesnar vs. Strowman vs. Reigns vs. Joe, SummerSlam ’17
2. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Final

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega III, NJPW Dominion – What can I really say about this match that more prominent wrestling analysts haven’t already? The intricate, winding subplots by two expert in-ring storytellers in Okada and Omega, including the teased surrender by Cody, the psychology surrounding Okada’s bad knee, and the shocking One-Winged Angel followed by an equally shocking rope break, was rich in both fluidity and overall performance from all involved. Incredible pacing from both men, especially for a hour-long draw, that was capped off by a genius touch from Omega; that is, collapsing from pure exhaustion to avoid the Rainmaker at the end of a match, and a trilogy, based on both casting off athletic limitations and enduring near total physical destruction was the cherry on the sundae.

Jack Stevenson
5. Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Brian Cage, Pro Wrestling NOAH Summer Navigation 07.27.17
4. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Finals
3. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee, NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka
2. Team Ricochet vs. Team Will Ospreay, Wrestlecon Supershow 2017

1. Over Generation vs. MaxiMuM vs. VerserK (Dragon Gate Scandal Gate 09.05.2017) – This was the most sublime thing I saw all year. Basically, this was a 3 vs. 3 vs. 3 elimination match where the losing team would have two defeats added to their win-loss record in the Scandal Gate tournament, a G-1 style round robin tournament where the faction with the worst win-loss record would be forced to disband. With all three groups hovering nervously towards the bottom of the stable the stakes were extremely high, and the whole match simmered nicely with tension and drama. But that’s not why this was the best match of the year. This was the best match of the year because it was half an hour of utterly relentless, elaborate, beautiful, blisteringly fast high flying. It boggles the mind what the Dragon Gate boys can do when they put their mind to it; in terms of pure athletic spectacle I don’t know what on earth comes close. Team Ricochet vs. Team Will Ospreay was also seriously brilliant in that way; it had you out of your seat from basically the first minute, and somehow kept getting better and more insane from there. But so did this Survival Race match, and it had better, more meaningful stakes, and better moves, and a better atmosphere. At their best, that’s what I love about Dragon Gate style- it just blitzes you with so much stuff that visually is more spectacular than anything else in wrestling. I didn’t have a more intensely gleeful experience with any other wrestling match this year.

Jake St-Pierre
5. The Usos vs. New Day – WWE Hell in a Cell (****1/2)
4. Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak – PWG Battle of Los Angeles: Final Stage (****3/4)
3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata – NJPW Sakura Genesis (*****)
2. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega – WrestleKingdom 11 (*****)

1. Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito – NJPW G1 Climax Finals (*****) – Another one of the most difficult awards to determine due to New Japan’s phenomenal year of pro wrestling. This list may not actually reflect my legitimate opinion as I tried to not spam it with NJPW matches, or else the third Okada/Omega match or one of the Ishii/Omega matches would probably be in there somewhere as well. I wanted to make it look a little more diverse so hopefully that explains any gaping omissions you may find. That might be cheating or disingenuous but hey, I want to have just adequate representation. These men went out there after a month of the most grueling professional wrestling matches imaginable and not only did the preceding tournament justice, but completely outmatched their all-time great match at last year’s G1. I personally do not believe in going past the five star scale, but in a world where I do, this would absolutely get that treatment. It encapsulates everything I love about professional wrestling in one 35 minute package. You have two legitimate superstars wrestling in the final match of the most prestigious tournament in pro wrestling. The stakes could not be higher, especially when you consider the utter carnage these men had put their bodies through to get to this point. You have Kenny Omega, whose 2017 is one of the most legendary years any wrestler could ever have in terms of in-ring mastery. He’s had one of the great trilogies in wrestling history with Kazuchika Okada over the past 8 months. His momentum is at an all-time high and he’s on the way to win his second G1 in a row. On the other side, you’ve got Tetsuya Naito. He’s the smoothest, most charismatic guy on the New Japan roster. Despite his swagger and defiant attitude, he’s one of the most loved men in the company. He blends top guy wrestling talent with one of the most appealing characters in the business today. He leads the best stable in the world and generally has an aura only peak-Nakamura can match. The stars just aligned here. We had complex narrative moments all over this match. We saw Kenny Omega get his neck dissected in the earlygoings of the match, which serves a dual purpose here. One, we saw that with Okada the previous night. Okada’s neck was giving him fits and that directly led to Kenny Omega finally getting his elusive victory over The Rainmaker. Second, it softened a beat up Omega’s neck for Naito’s Destino. Simple, but ultimately effective. Couple that with several great little threads like Naito collapsing in exhaustion mid V-Trigger (much like Omega did mid-Rainmaker with Okada), Omega resorting to Croyt’s Wrath again, and the gradual putting-down of Omega via Destino’s and you’ve got one of the great matches in history. You wanna know the best part? Not only did they deliver the expected intense, mind-numbingly manic match, but took both men’s physical baggage into consideration and made this into a total war of attrition. They didn’t work this like two men who wanted to go out there and wow you. It was wrestled like both men were doing literally everything they could, digging down the deepest they ever had, just to win this match. When you have two wrestlers able to take all of that and intertwine it so expertly, you really have one of the best matches of all time. I’ve wondered so many times in 2017 how a five star match can be topped – only for it to be topped emphatically – so I won’t waste time with that cliché here. I’ll just say that it’s my Match of the Year and a bout that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The Wrestling Gods were kind to us in 2017.

Larry Csonka
5. From NXT Takeover: Chicago – WWE UK Title Match: Pete Dunne vs. Champion Tyler Bate [*****]
4. From NJPW BOTSJ Finals – BOTSJ Final: KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay [*****]
3. From NJPW WK 11 – IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega [*****]
2. From The G1 27 Finals: Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega [*****]

1. From NJPW SAKURA GENESIS 2017: IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata [*****] – The one thing that really stood out to me here is the obsession of the Okada character, not only wanting to be the very best, but almost willing to do that instead of beating his opponent. This is a character trait will eventually be his downfall; there are cracks in the armor, the defense is weakening and it will only be a matter of time before someone figures out the puzzle. Okada’s defenses keep getting longer and longer, and the new Ace is having to dig deeper than ever before, has to go longer and has to resort to some nefarious tactics to get the job done. This was an absolutely beautiful match, one where the fans were not only behind Shibata, but at times turning on Okada; Amazing work from both men, leading to a very dramatic home stretch, when the wrestling is great, the wrestling is great. This was a top-tier MOTY contender, my match of the year and a must-see match in an effort that made Shibata a made man to the paying customers; unfortunately, it came in an effort that by all accounts, cost him his career. This is of course the match that Shibata threw the shoot headbutt, which left him hospitalized and his career in jeopardy (and now by all reports, ended his career). I’ve had people ask if I am going to change my rating of the match due to that, and the answer is no. It’s extremely unfortunate, but I will not change my mind about loving the match due to that. Shibata made the decision to throw a real headbutt, something he’s done repeatedly, and something that pops the crowd and I will not lie, a spot I popped for as well. I still feel that the match told an amazing story and was one of the best things I watched all year; but it looks to be the final match Shibata ever has. The rating for the match is left unchanged, because I’m not going to become a crusader like some against the head butt spot, because that would feel disingenuous. Did I mark out for it? Yes. Is it needed? Obviously not when you can do it way safer. We can only hope that Shibata can recover and live a normal live, and that others will learn from his mistake, but my original rating stands because no match connected with me on an emotional level like this one did. And still does on repeat viewings.

AND 411’s The Best Matches of 2017 ARE…

5. Kenny Omega vs. Tetusya Naito (NJPW G1 Climax) – 14 points

4. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega (WrestleKingdom 11) – 16 points

T-2. Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW SAKURA Genesis) – 17 points

T-2. AJ Styles vs. John Cena (WWE Royal Rumble) – 17 points

1. Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne (NXT Takeover: Chicago) – 19 points

THE 2017 411 WRESTLING AWARDS:
* 1. The Biggest Disappointment of The Year: >Katsuyori Shibata’s Injury & Retirement – 14points
* 2. The Best Non-Wrestler: Dario Cueto – 17points
* 3. The Best Tag Team of The Year: The Usos – 31points
* 4. The Worst Major Shows/PPV of 2017: WWE Battleground 2017 – 16points
* 5. The Best Female Wrestler of 2017: Asuka – 24points
* 6. The Best PPV/Major Show of 2017: NJPW Wrestlekingdom 11 – 11points
* 7. The Best Promotion of 2017: New Japan Pro Wrestling – 35points
* 8. The Most Outstanding Performer of 2017: Lucha Underground – 29points
* 9. The Best Weekly TV Show of 2017: Kazuchika Okada – 18points