Pantoja’s Top 100 Matches Of 2025 (#70-61)

Click here for part three of the Top 100 Matches Of 2025, looking at #81 through 70.

70. Continental Classic Semifinals: Kazuchika Okada vs. Konosuke Takeshita – AEW World’s End

Image Credit: AEW

AEW has been building to this for months and it’s one of the best things going in the company. Loud” holy shit” chants before the bell. They worried me a bit early with the Okada Formula start. However, Takeshita made sure to get the right bits of offense in spurts that kept things exciting. And I must say, Okada was selling very well for Takeshita. He looked like he was in legitimate pain after big spots, which makes Takeshita seem more vicious. Around 10 minutes in, Okada took control with a modified neckbreaker and pissed of Takeshita by flipping him off, leading to a strike exchange that kept this from ever rocking too much in one way in terms of momentum. The Rainmaker countered into the Blue Thunder Bomb was a thing of beauty. The series of counters and moves that followed was just as good, if not better. When Takeshita hit his big knee, everyone believed that was the finish. In the end, Okada used a screwdriver as a weapon to advance in 17:15. They were ROCKING and having one of the best matches of the year. I do think that finish was rather weak and fell kind of flat, though I get why they did it. The rematch will likely be even better. [****¼]

69. NJPW Strong Women’s & World of Stardom Championships: AZM [c] vs. Saya Kamitani [c] – STARDOM in Korakuen 9/27/25

Image Credit: STARDOM

I got a little worried during the opening exchange, which saw both ladies be just a bit off. Thankfully, they turned things around quickly. The fight went into the crowd and saw them brawl among the Korakuen faithful. Saya threw AZM through a door and went back for the countout win but AZM found her way to the ring in time. Still, that put AZM on the defensive for a while. Once AZM got going, this really picked up and she’s just a blast to watch on offense. Everything is filled with so much energy. They did the spot where AZM beautifully catches the spinning heel kick into an armbar. The crowd ate it up too. That set up a closing stretch where AZM came close with some big moves, including a few Destroyers. When AZM countered the spinning Star Crusher into the Azumi Sushi, I bit on the near fall. The top rope Destroyer near fall was a bit overkill though. It wasn’t long after that Saya hit the spinning Star Crusher to win in 23:10. A great main event though I much preferred their previous match as this was a bit excessive down the stretch. Still, AZM delivered in another big match and Saya continued her case for wrestler of the year. [****¼]

68. AEW World Tag Team Championship: Brodido [c] vs. FTR – AEW Full Gear

Image Credit: AEW

Stokely had a Belly tribute during FTR’s entrance. Brodido have been the best tag team of 2025. FTR has been…a team in 2025. After a standard feeling out process, we got a spot where Bandido body slammed Brody onto Dax, which was cool. FTR always does a solid job of finding new ways to make their “cut off the hot tag” spots work. It keeps those parts of their matches relatively fresh. I liked that their Powerplex gimmick got cut off, so they found another way to do it and did so out of a Shatter Machine counter, which was cool. The 21 Plex counter stuff was good, though I didn’t like Cash immediately popping up from one to hit the Shatter Machine. The 21 Plex should keep you down for a while. They went into close calls on a belt shot, Brodido hitting their own Shatter Machine, and more, including Bandido kicking out of seemingly everything. Despite barely being able to stand, Bandido did his gun taunt at FTR, who beat him with Shatter Machine in 20:11. Great action but FTR are the kings of “they have good matches but I don’t care at all.” Brodido injected life into a dead tag division, but we’re back to the status quo. Lame booking, hell of a match though. [****¼]

67. Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay vs. The Young Bucks – AEW All In

Image Credit: AEW

If the Bucks win, Will and Swerve can’t challenge for the World Title for a year, if the opposite result happens, the Bucks lose their EVP status. Whatever that means. Once this finally started, it was good as expected. Ospreay played the face in peril after taking a shot outside but his comeback was sweet and set up a great Swerve hot tag. Swerve and Will worked very well together and their tandem stuff looked cool. Things picked up with a wild sequence that involved the classic no selling of Destroyers. It’s wild how wrestling has changed in 20 years. From there, the spots kept getting bigger as this was the first thing on the show to feel like something on a big AEW PPV. The EVP Trigger counter combo with Ospreay was great. Ospreay accidentally hit Swerve with Hidden Blade and that could’ve set up the finish but the Bucks did more moves to Ospreay to continue this. The Bucks laid into Will with kicks until Swerve stepped in front as Will did for him weeks ago. They overdid the near falls and such but the finish was sick as Swerve and Will won with a sandwich Hidden Blade/House Call in 26:16. That was actually awesome and that finish is top-tier. I pointed out the issues I had with it which is that they overdid some of the near falls and such but otherwise, outstanding. [****¼]

66. Goddesses of Stardom Championship: wing*gori [c] vs. Natsupoi and Saori Anou – STARDOM The Conversion

Image Credit: STARDOM

Poi and Saori are great together, while wing*gori have been among the best tag teams anywhere for the past two years or so. Right from the start, you could tell this was going to be good. Lots of energy from the opening bell and really good exchanges. Natsupoi and Saya had a really good back and forth to start, Hanan was bumping all over the place, and Saori was her usual vicious self. Cosmic Angels held serve in the early stages but wing*gori didn’t let them dominate. They fought back with a lot of fire and this almost felt like them truly establishing that they belong in the same vein as some of the top recent tandems in STARDOM, which they absolutely do. A passing of the torch in some ways. This got taken to the next level when Natsupoi went up against Hanan in a brutal exchange down the stretch. They were LAYING into each other even though their respective teammates are more known for that style. It felt like Cosmic Angels were going to take this a few times only for Hanan to catch Natsupoi with a pinning combination to retain in 17:08. As expected, that was awesome. Just great tag team wrestling that added to wing*gori’s growing resume. [****¼]

65. AEW Women’s World Championship: Kris Statlander [c] vs. Mercedes Moné – AEW Full Gear

Image Credit: AEW

This not main eventing is a mistake. Their first two matches were great (****¼) and were both won by Mercedes but just barely. Mercedes went right after Kris at the bell, looking to take her down. She also tried a tope suicida early but Stat rolled through and carried her back into the ring like nothing. Her clear advantage was in the power department. Kris seemed to injure her arm, which stopped her momentum and gave Mercedes a target to turn the tide. Mercedes picked apart the arm and hand in the ring, with Stat getting in some hope spots to try and swing the momentum, yet Mercedes remained a step ahead. At one point, it looked like Mercedes was going for Three Amigos but instead hit a ridiculous 14 of them, one for each title. That’s seriously impressive. Stat finally got an opening when she caught a leaping Mercedes outside with a Blue Thunder Bomb. Stat hit a Bayley to Belly and applied her own crossface but her damaged arm meant Mercedes was able to slip free. They went into trading near falls on pin combinations and the drama was ramping up. In the end, kris caught Mercedes and hit Saturday Night Fever to retain in 23:03. A great match though the crowd was pretty dead. I think I give an edge to their first two matches but still was still well told and laid out nicely. [****¼]

64. Hanan vs. Mei Seira – STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 8/2/25

Image Credit: STARDOM

Apparently, there’s some sort of history or maybe even bad blood here, which explained the aggressive start from both. Hanan was throwing Mei around by her hair while Mei reeled off a barrage of dropkicks in the corner as an answer. The fight went outside and I loved that both tried to win by countout only to stop each other and then get annoyed, leading to a brawl in the crowd before both beat the count. It’s not at all what I expected from them but the intensity never wavered. Even things like a submission by Mei had something extra behind it. They just kept up a ridiculous pace as this raced past the 10 minute mark. When they got near the time limit, you could see a shift from trying to hurt each other to trying to win as they went for a handful of flash pins and things like that. They countered pins just as time expired, giving us our first time limit draw of the tournament in 15:00. The match of the tourney to this point. It felt like they hated each other, it was intense, and both sold the disappointment of not beating the other so well. I need more of this from them. [****¼]

63. AEW TBS Championship: Mercedes Moné [c] vs. Willow Nightingale – AEW New Year’s Smash

Image Credit: AEW

I’ve been vocal that I’m not a fan of the CEO character since it’s mostly just Mercedes doing Sasha Banks stuff. However, I’ve loved the story being told with the Ultimo Moné character. She has tied up so much of her personality and her aura of being the best into holding 13 belts and once she started losing some of them, she became unhinged. After suffering a pinfall loss in a tag match to Willow, she threw a fit and issued this challenge for just a few days later. Thay played into the match too as Mercedes attacked at the bell and was very aggressive. Willow weathered the storm and fought back in front of a hot crowd. These two were throwing bombs, seemingly hellbent on ending the year with a bang. In the back half of this 15:23 encounter, they picked up the pace even more, turning this into something of a TV classic. When Willow beat the countout, the crowd reacted like she had won the title, that’s how into this they were. The closing stretch saw some great counters into Willow hit the powerbomb and regained the title, giving us an awesome feel-good moment to close out 2025. Willow gets her moment, Mercedes falls further into despair, and the match ruled. [****¼]

62. Goddesses of Stardom Championship: wing*gori [c] vs. FWC – STARDOM All-Star Grand Queendom

Image Credit: STARDOM

Though stablemates, there’s bad blood here between Hanan and Hazuki, with the former calling out the latter for her treatment of rookies and how things are run in STARS. Meanwhile, Hazuki has brushed her off a lot of the time. Hanan charged right at Hazuki at the bell and laid into her with strikes only for Hazuki to laugh them off. She offered Hazuki a free shot and again, Hazuki just laughed her off. While it wasn’t as personal, Koguma and Saya had hard hitting exchanges when they squared off. Everything these girls did had extra snap on it whether it was a simple Hanan body slam or FWC powerbombing Saya onto her partner. We finally got the tag into Hanan and Hazuki at the same time for their big showdown, which delivered in spades. An unexpected awesome spot saw Saya hit Koguma with a Muscle Buster on the apron. That left it down to Hanan and Hazuki, which was vicious and saw them trade headbutts. The sell by Hazuki on Hanan’s last one and how Hanan ragdolled her to pull her up was excellent. The Hanan Special put down Hazuki after 14:26. That ruled. The top two tag teams going right now putting on a stellar match with animosity making it even better. [****¼]

61. Men’s Royal Rumble Match – WWE Royal Rumble

Image Credit: WWE

I feel like this was the first year in forever where it felt like there were 7-8 people who could realistically win. Rey Mysterio and Penta started this in a cool lucha moment. Santos was out soon after giving me Lucha Underground flashbacks. IShowSpeed was given Akira Tozawa’s spot (after Carmelo Hayes took him out) and it ended up being a fun spot as Bron Breakker gave him one of the most vicious Spears I’ve ever seen. I loved that this Rumble didn’t rely on so many wrestlers from the past. Drew, Jey, Seth, Punk, Roman, Cena, all felt like huge stars. Joe Hendry also had a surprise appearance. The whole thing was entertaining but the final third or so was the stuff of legend. Everyone felt like a big deal and the spots mattered. Punk throwing out Seth and Roman just for Logan Paul to throw him out was wild. Then Seth hit Roman with the sickest stomp I’ve ever seen and Punk was involved in their beef. It felt like they were going to go with Logan Paul. But then Cena managed to eliminate him, leaving it up to Cena against Jey. An unexpected final two but one filled with exhilarating moments and drama. Jey finally threw out Cena to win in 80:15. A drama filled, enjoyable Rumble that is up there with 2020 as one of the best ever. The unpredictable nature was so cool because I was invested with a long stretch of losing my shit over the twists that were happening. [****½]