Kevin’s Top 500 Matches Of The 2010s (#140 – 131)

140. Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito – NJPW 40th Anniversary Show

People talk a lot about Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito, especially after they headlined multiple Wrestle Kingdom events. However, this match is often overlooked. That’s probably because it came before NJPW World existed and before either was a true star. You see, Okada came over from TNA and Gedo boasted about him being a huge deal but nobody believed it. Okada won the IWGP Heavyweight Title in a great match with Hiroshi Tanahashi but considering how Tanahashi was, it seemed like anybody could have greatness with him. Here, Okada had to do it against someone not quite on that level. They delivered a masterpiece. It even changed the way Dave Meltzer felt about Okada, who he’d give billions of stars to in the future. Their chemistry was ridiculous and they put on a clinic. It doesn’t count as a passing of the torch but it did feel like a case of proving that Okada was the future. He retained his title after 28:50 and honestly, these two have never topped this performance against each other.

139. NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomoaki Honma vs. Tomohiro Ishii – NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai 2015

Shortly after I had to cancel my New Japan World account early in the year, this show was held. I heard nothing but incredible things about the NEVER Openweight Title match between Tomoaki Honma and Tomohiro Ishii. I was finally able to check it out and didn’t really enjoy it the first time around, though I blame that on me being preoccupied when I saw it. I’ve see it twice more now and think it’s great, but I’ve never gotten the full five star vibe from it that a lot of people had. So, Togi Makabe was the NEVER Champion but was out injured and these two wrestled for the vacant belt. It was a brutal affair, with both guys just going to war with each other. The crowd absolutely loves Honma, meaning they are not only completely into everything he does, but they bite on every near fall, despite his terrible win/loss record. That red hot crowd reaction added to this. The match goes 24:46 which is not the usual case for my favorite matches these guys have. They both, especially Honma, excel in the G1 style shorter matches, but this was pretty great. Ishii won back the title with a Brainbuster after they beat the hell out of each other for the whole match.

138. Six Sides of Steel: Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson – TNA Lockdown 2010

This had no business being as good as it was. Kurt Angle was still kind of insane in 2010 but Mr. Anderson was never really that guy to put on high quality matches. He had the gift of gab but his in-ring lacked. However, when they shared the ring on this night, it was magic. This was an absolute war and one of the best cage matches in history. It was bloody, violent, and Angle did some insane things like a top rope German suplex and a moonsault off the cage. I swear Angle was trying to moonsault off of everything in this era. People said this was on par with the famous Shawn Michaels/Undertaker retirement match from that year and they’re not far off. Angle won by escaping the cage and basically surviving after 20:54 of might’ve been his best TNA match, which is saying something.

137. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Tetsuya Naito [c] vs. Michael Elgin – NJPW New Beginning in Osaka 2017

In September 2016, Tetsuya Naito won the Intercontinental Title from Michael Elgin. Elgin got hurt and missed his rematch, but returned to start 2017 and got it here. Elgin started hot, hitting a somersault off the apron and catching a diving Naito into a suplex on the ramp. Naito slowed the pace and focused on the leg, which made sense because he attacked it during the buildup. When Elgin fought back, he modified his offense to sell the leg, which was appreciated. The story of Elgin’s power against Naito’s cunningness was well done throughout. Naito bumped like a rag doll for a lot of Elgin’s offense and that made everything work just that much better. They called back to their past outings on more than one occasion, including Elgin countering a second Destino, which was how he lost to Naito before. Naito got hit with an apron bomb, bomb into a guardrail and Elgin Bomb, yet still kicked out. If I had a major gripe with this match, it was that. The false finishes were a bit much and, at 36:17, it went a bit too long. It could’ve told the same story in about ten less minutes. Still, this was the best match of Elgin’s year and probably his entire NJPW run, while being another feather in the impressive cap of Naito.

136. NXT Championship: Adrian Neville [c] vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd – NXT TakeOver Fatal-4-Way

I loved these four in 2014. Tyson Kidd’s FANTASTIC work in NXT doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. All four men brawled to the outside, highlighted by Sami using Tyler’s phone as a weapon and to take a selfie. I appreciated Breeze and Kidd teaming up to double suplex the champ on the stage. Gotta take out the guy who keeps beating you. Although, they also did it to Sami, just because. Zayn got isolated from there, though the heels eventually turned on one another. During that segment, Kidd starred. When Neville got back into the mix, the match kicked into the next gear. Everyone got shine and some close calls. There was some great spots involving multiple guys. The best of those was a great tower of doom. It looked like Breeze would win after stealing a pin on Zayn following a Red Arrow. Somehow, Sami kicked out. When Kidd nearly won with the Sharpshooter, Neville slid in and prevented Breeze from tapping. Amazing spot. The finish was tremendous, as Zayn went into an incredible flurry, that included him knocking Neville into the crowd. He hit the Helluva Kick on Kidd and would’ve won, but a desperate Neville pulled the referee out to stop the count. Unbelievable. Zayn went after Neville and ate a superkick. Neville added the Red Arrow on Kidd to retain in 24:10. People don’t mention it, but this is a top five NXT main event ever (Almas/Gargano, Neville/Zayn, and Sasha/Bayley are the others). An incredible match that had awesome action, while also telling a great story. Neville was willing to do anything to remain champion, even if it meant screwing over his friend. Everyone was great in their roles, making for a special match.

135. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura [c] vs. AJ Styles – NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10

Only one dream match remained in NJPW. The top guys (Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, etc.) had all wrestled each other repeatedly, except for one pairing. Nakamura and Styles. AJ finally challenged Nakamura and the match was set for NJPW’s biggest show of the year. On a major event that almost never felt special, this felt like a huge deal. Hell, this match was the main reason I stayed up to watch this show live. They had an awesome interaction where AJ did the Bullet Club gun taunt only for Nakamura to eat the bullet and spit it back up. It was small but really cool. AJ came in with a back injury and played possum after landing on it, giving him an upper hand. Nearly everything they did in this match came off well. The only move I saw them mess up was AJ’s moonsault DDT. They nailed everything else. Styles had Boma Ye well scouted, avoiding it three times before getting hit with it, but Nakamura was too hurt to cover. Though Boma Ye is Nakamura’s move, AJ struck with a knee that seemingly knocked Shinsuke out. AJ hit a variation of the Styles Clash but it wasn’t enough. After some incredible exchanges (including a second rope Michinoku Driver by Shinsuke), Nakamura retained with two more Boma Ye strikes at 24:18. Post-match, the men fist bumped in a show of respect before heading to WWE. Sometimes, you just know you’re witnessing something special. There was a lot of hype coming into this and they more than lived up to it. AJ Styles was the best in the world at the time and when Nakamura wants to step up his game like he did here, he can be right on that level.

134. PROGRESS Tag Team Championship: British Strong Style [c] vs. The South Pacific Power Trip – PROGRESS Chapter 45: Galvanize

The South Pacific Power Trip made a strong case for the top tag team of the first half of the year. This was their shining moment. They showed no intimidation towards their bigger star counterparts. The opening exchanges were great, punctuated by TK Cooper hitting an awesome corkscrew dive to the outside. TK did end up taking the heat for next chunk of the match. That worked well, because Travis Banks is one of the best hot tag guys in the business. He was sensational in that aspect here. From there, the match entered an absurdly paced portion. All four men got involved in an incredible series of spots that brought the fans to their feet. When the champs got overconfident near the end, Dahlia Black entered to help her guys out. Still, Bate and Seven were too much for the challengers. Banks took a second rope piledriver and Tyler Driver ’97 to end it after an awesome 14:16. The best PROGRESS Tag Team Title match I’ve ever seen and the best opening contest of any show this year. Unfortunately, their rematch got cut short when Cooper suffered a horrific injury.

133. The Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks – NJPW Strong Style Evolved 2018

For some fans, here may not have been a hotter match in all of 2018. To get it out of the way, this was in no way the two best tag teams in wrestling facing off. They billed it that way, but it just isn’t true. With that behind us, it’s time to appreciate all that this match did well. The Young Bucks were once my least favorite act in all of wrestling, but over the past two or so years, they’ve improved vastly. A perfect example was here. Gone are the overly grating personality traits. Instead, we get stuff like Matt Jackson selling a back injury for MONTHS. It played a major role in this. While both teams brought out their biggest guns, it never felt like moves were being done with no purpose. Kenny Omega was conflicted about taking it to his friends, but Kota Ibushi was happy to hit them as hard as he could. Going back to Matt, I loved how much of an antagonist he was here. He yelled at both opponents and basically dared them to bring it on several occasions. When Kenny got Matt up for the One Winged Angel, he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. Matt demanded he do it and when Kenny did, that should’ve been the finish. Instead, the pin got broken up and the match went on for a bit longer. The Lovers won with the Golden Trigger on Matt after 39:23. It was a long match with great spots and story elements, but it would’ve been better and tighter had it ended on the note it needed to. Still, one of the best tag matches all year.

132. AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito – NJPW G1 Climax 24 7/26/14

I could only find a 2015 G1 picture for them. From the start, AJ Styles targets Naito’s head injury from the previous night. During his TNA run, I always felt that AJ made a far better face, but he’s become so good at playing the heel. Naito hits AJ’s trademark dropkick and even does the pose. Because of that, when AJ actually hits his, Naito flips inside out and it feels earned. Naito starts bleeding from the cut. With everything that AJ does, he just has this asshole look on his face, which is great. Naito has to work from behind because of the blood and it works better here than last night since Styles is a much bigger threat than Yano. Naito continues to try comebacks, but Styles is prepared for them all and stops them with various moves, including a Pele kick followed by Bloody Sunday. We nearly see a super Styles Clash, but Naito escapes and hits a gorgeous bridging German suplex for a VERY close two count. Naito is able to hit the Stardust Press and pin the IWGP Heavyweight Champion in 15:55. As I said, I really liked their Wrestle Kingdom 9 match, but I liked this one more. AJ Styles playing the dick heel while also being vicious and attacking Naito’s weakness was so damn good. It was a side of him that wasn’t seen much until recently. Naito has disappointed me since I’ve been watching him as a face, but this was his best performance for sure. The blood added to his resilient performance in a big way.

131. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi [c] vs. Kota Ibushi – NJPW Power Struggle 2017

During the G1 Climax, Kota Ibushi scored a win over Hiroshi Tanahashi, which put him in line for this shot at Tanahashi’s Intercontinental Title. Though Ibushi missed a fair amount of time in NJPW, he has quite the history in big matches. In 2015 alone, he came up just short of winning the IC, NEVER Openweight and Heavyweight Titles. A win here, in a big match, would cement his comeback as a success. Tanahashi came in with a game plan, relentlessly going after Ibushi’s leg. He knew to cut that part of his offense out, especially considering his loss in the G1 was to a Kota knee strike. Each time Kota got something going, Tanahashi had a dragon screw ready. Ibushi’s rally saw him nearly break Tanahashi’s neck on a lawn dart. The replay looked gruesome. From there, the physicality got revved up. Ibushi kicked away at Tanahashi in the corner and stopped the referee from counting to five, just so he could continue the assault. The Last Ride wasn’t enough, so he went for the Kamigoya knee. Tanahashi had it scouted and countered it, before hitting two High Fly Flows and retaining in 29:26. The best post-G1 NJPW match. With better selling of the leg from Ibushi, I’d have ranked this higher. He did a great job showcasing his desperation and both guys used the right amount of heel tactics in their desire to win.