Dr Gregory House’s Match of the Month (January 2019)

I’ve noticed a bit of an uptick in activity on the board since the turn of the year so I’m going to try to do my bit to keep the ball rolling

In what I hope to be a regular feature on the board I’ve made a list of my top matches of January and hopefully they can spark some discussion/people posing their own lists, I’ve included links on where to watch the top 10 matches but if you want pointed in the direction of anything else just ask, I’ve tried to get them free where possible but it’s not always an option particularly with WXW and New Japan, I also assume everyone has the network

Anyways without further Apu

Honourable mentions

Tomohiro Ishii v Zack Sabre Jr- Wrestle Kingdom 13- ****1/4

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White- Wrestle
Kingdom 13- ****

Chris Jericho v Tetsuya Naito- Wrestle Kingdom 13- ****1/4

Tomohiro Ishii, Will Ospreay & Hirooki Goto v Jeff Cobb, Yuji Nagata & Kushida/ New Year Dash-****

Kaito Kiyomia v Kenou- NOAH 6/1- ****

Shotaro Ashino v T-Hawk- Wrestle-1 5/1- ****1/4

Zack Sabre Jr v PAC- Rev Pro Live at the Cockpit 37- ****

LAX v Lucha Bros- TNA Homecoming - ****1/4

Moustache Mountain v Grizzled Young Veterans- NXT UK Takeover Blackpool- ****1/4

Kento Miyahara v Kai AJPW 3/1- ****

Scotty Davis v Mike Bailey- OTT Contenders 13- ****

Jordan Devlin v A Kid- OTT Contenders 13- ****1/4

Buddy Murphy v Arkira Tozawa v Hideo Itami v Kalisto- Royal Rumble- ****1/4

Asuka v Becky Lynch- Royal Rumble- ****1/4

Brock Lesnar v Finn Balor- Royal Rumble- ****

Timothy Thatcher v Ilja Dragunov-Progress Ch 83- ****

Chris Ridgeway v Shigehiro Irie- Progress Ch 83- ****1/4

Bobby Gunns v Shigehiro Irie- WXW Back to the Roots- ****

Ilja Dragunov v Timothy Thatcher v Chris Brookes v Bobby Gunns v Lucky Kid- WXW Road to 16 Carat- ****1/4

Kyle Fletcher v Shigehiro
Irie- WXW Road to 16 Carat- ****

Session Moth Martina v The Munndertaker Discovery Wrestling 18/1- ******1/2 (I think you had to be there)

The Top 10


10- Villian Enterprises v Silas Young & Briscoes- ROH Honour Reigns Supreme- ****1/2

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x70nelu

This match is just bonkers, big men doing big moves, the novelty of PCO still hasn’t worn off for me and he shines in this match, taking absurd bumps for a man of his age including a Canadian destroyer on the apron while his chop exchange with Mark Briscoe are the highlight of the early going, for a brand new team Villain Enterprises have some really fun triple team offence and have given Marty a new lease on life, I look forward to seeing them develop going forward


9- Daisuke Sekimoto v Kohei Sato- Zero-1 1/1- ****1/2

https://rutube.ru/video/df0dfd9c50a30d6f0ad89fc5c06ac9d9/

Do you want to see two men beat the absolute piss out of each other on New Year’s Day? Then boy do I have the match for you, a hard stiff physical contest that features Sekimoto working from underneath for most of the match which he does so well for a man with the torso the size of a caravan, the sounds of this match are also brilliant with Sekimoto’s blood curdling screams and Sato’s guttural hissing before he hits a move, probably the only Zero1 I’ll see this year as the notoriously barely make tape but this was a brutal war worth everyone’s time

8- Undisputed Era v War Raiders- NXT Takeover Phoenix- ****1/2

WWE network

My favourite tag match on US soil this year, Strong & O’Rielly have quickly established themselves as one of the best tag teams in the world and the War Raiders are barrels of fun, fluid quick moving big men with great offence, the clash of styles with the Era’s submission holds and impactful strikes to keep them at bay this is a fun & exciting contest

7- A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani) v Unbeseig-Starr (Ilja Dragunov & David Starr)- WXW Road to Back to the Roots- ****1/2

https://www.wxwnow.com/en

The tag team match with everything, early comedy opening exchanges check, a super compelling southern tag with Ilja taking a great beating, Starr losing his Poopie on the apron and Andy at his Poopie best check, finally the match breaks out into an exciting final stretch featuring some innovative and well timed spots

6- Kota Ibushi v Will Ospreay- Wrestle Kingdom 13- ****1/2

https://njpwworld.com/pg/s_series_00498_6

Two of my favourite wrestlers in the whole world go one on one for the first time ever, while this didn’t quite live up to my lofty expectations (and I think they have a better match in them) this was still tremendous, spectacular highflying, big moves and hard strikes this match has it all, the finish is unexpected and shockingly brutal which truth be told actually put me off a bit but it gets Ospreay over as a killer and is still a great match between two phenomenal talents

5- Joe Coffey v Andy Wild- Discovery Wrestling 18/1- ****1/2

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcUm7ALTHuM

The match everyone in Scottish wrestling was waiting for, a tremendously physical match that would have looked out of place in a New Japan Never title match, combined with a crowd losing their collective minds this was easily the best match I’ve seen live and holds up just as well on tape

4- Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama) v Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabyashi)- BJW 13/1- ****1/2

https://rutube.ru/video/c186bc1b8dc64c9e13a2147ee765a5b3/

Yes you read that tag team name right, Sekimoto & Okabayashi representing the Big Japan Strong Division what else could it possibly mean? Two of the top tag teams in Japan and indeed the world going all out in a physical war of attrition, this is big lads wrestling, every move feels earned and every strike is laid in stiff, Okabayashi is the star of this match for me which is incredible in itself as he’s only recently returned from a 13 month injury lay off but everyone plays their part in this brutal contest

3- Ricochet v Gargano- NXT Takeover Phoenix- ****3/4

WWE Network

My favourite match of Rumble Weekend and my favourite US match of the year so far, amazing action between two amazing athletes and wrestlers, I’m not always 100% on board with NXT’s often heavy handed ‘storytelling’ in matches but the Dark Gargano aspects toed the line for me and were a compelling aspect

2- Absolute Andy v David Starr- WXW Road to 16 Carat- ****3/4

https://www.wxwnow.com/en

A match that has it all, a great baby face in Starr, an awesome heel in Andy, great wrestling, brilliant near falls, drama, emotion, storytelling, a crowd going absolutely bananas for what they are watching, this match creeps so close to the line of excess but manages to just dip under, wasn’t in love with the finish which stopped me from going the full 5 but in all other ways a near perfect match

1- Kenny Omega v Hiroshi Tanahashi-   Wrestle Kingdom 13- *****

https://njpwworld.com/pg/s_series_00498_6

What is there to say about this match, another spectacular main event in the Tokyo Dome, a level of hatred and aggression set this apart from main events of years past with frequent slap exchanges, the English commentary team did an excellent job of weaving what was a patchy build into a compelling narrative and the wrestlers played to the story brilliantly, combined with the big moves and near falls and the emotional ending that capped of the story of Tanahashi rising from the ashes that played through 2018, an all time classic

Wrester of the Month

#5 Timothy Thatcher
#4 Hiroshi Tanahashi
#3 Shigehiro Irie
#2 Daisuke Sekimoto
#1 David Starr

David Starr gets my WOTM for January, his high end stuff for January as a valiant babyface with Andy is obvious but he also did great work in Rev Pro & OTT as a super compelling heel and had a very fun contest when I saw him live in Discovery, even if all the matches didn’t quite make this list he’s been doing great work in a variety of situations all over Europe

Thank you for reading and I’ll hopefully see you at the end of February

Good to see Disco Wrestling get some love, especially in amongst some great company.

Solid list, I’ll check them out when I get a chance to

Great read. I do think both Moustache Mountain v Grizzled Young Veterans and Ricochet v Johnny Gargano should have gotten the full five star rating, both were tremendous.

Also Halftime Heat's Black/Dream/Ricochet v Cole/Gargano/Ciampa match was superb. Little bit of a spotfest but great fun.

Marky wrote:Great read. I do think both Moustache Mountain v Grizzled Young Veterans and Ricochet v Johnny Gargano should have gotten the full five star rating, both were tremendous.

Also Halftime Heat's Black/Dream/Ricochet v Cole/Gargano/Ciampa match was superb. Little bit of a spotfest but great fun.

Half time heat was in February, I’ll defin check it out for this month though

Dr Gregory House MD wrote:

Marky wrote:Great read. I do think both Moustache Mountain v Grizzled Young Veterans and Ricochet v Johnny Gargano should have gotten the full five star rating, both were tremendous.

Also Halftime Heat's Black/Dream/Ricochet v Cole/Gargano/Ciampa match was superb. Little bit of a spotfest but great fun.

Half time heat was in February, I’ll defin check it out for this month though

Keep thinking it's still the first or second today

I’m still way behind on joshi, Lucha and US indies, currently working my way through the recent Evolve shows but I wanted to get this article out and I’m already behind for February with the New Beginning shows to watch

Marky wrote:Great read. I do think both Moustache Mountain v Grizzled Young Veterans and Ricochet v Johnny Gargano should have gotten the full five star rating, both were tremendous.

Also Halftime Heat's Black/Dream/Ricochet v Cole/Gargano/Ciampa match was superb. Little bit of a spotfest but great fun.

I wouldn’t be stunned if anyone went the full 5 on Ricochet/Gargano I was very close myself and I don’t have any particular reason other than gut feeling, The Moustache Mountain/GYV match didn’t connect with me on that level, which on reflection has been an awesome month for tag wrestling but hey like what you like and it was a very good match certainly