With a new job and therefore more income, I've been able to watch more wrestling than ever before, having access to multiple networks at once and even going to live shows such PROGRESS Wrestling & Apollo Championship Wrestling. This has opened me up to even more avenues of wrestling and will no doubt give me a varied list come the end of 2018 for what my favourite matches are, but why not compile small lists of matches each month, just to show what might be in contention come December 2018! With that I have decided to have a monthly article series in which I talk about my favourite matches of each month, starting of course with January.
Now each article will vary in terms of how many matches are on the list, and I will try and to not order them in any way unless I explicitly say a match was my out and out favourite of that month, also, depending on how many promotions make the list, I might limit it to one match per promotion to avoid any favouritism, which I know the IWC can hate it when people are supposedly the golden boys, unless it's their indy faves, then it's okay. With all that said, lets get into my favourite matches of January 2018!
NXT TakeOver XVIII: Philadelphia
NXT Championship Match:
Andrade "Cien" Almas (c) Vs. Johnny Gargano
Royal Rumble weekend produced many great matches and moments but this just had to take the cake, one of my favourite NXT matches ever with a more WWE style twist to it, being very much about story rather than just how many moves can we do in a half hour? When Meltzer gives it 5 stars, someone who isn't the biggest WWE fan, you know it did something right, not to say Meltzer's view is the be all end all, because it sure as hell isn't, but more the fact that he gave that rating in general despite his history on harping on the company. While yes, from an in ring perspective, that match is amazing, as expected between these two, who along with Aleister Black and Velveteen dream, are the top guys of not just NXT, but even WWE, but again the story element of this match was beautiful. Johnny Gargano is one of, if not the best underdog WWE/NXT has ever produced, because it feels genuine, and you root for him, not as a character, or because you liked him on the indies, but as if he was your best friend and he was about to achieve his life long ambition. That's powerful stuff that you don't get enough of in wrestling on any level really, it's rare to have that connection. hell if we're speaking truthfully, even Daniel Bryan didn't have that, secretly fans just thought he was being buried and used the nice guy excuse as a way to cover up their smarky bitterness.
Almas of course was fantastic in this match too, he's already my favourite NXT champion, because again, yes he's brilliant in ring, but his character work just makes him that more larger than life, even his entrance was grandiose and over the top, but that's who he is, a cocky guy who thinks he's the absolute shit. Zelina Vega as well, fantastic heel manager and using the stuff between Gargano & Ciampa sparingly, without hammering it in, or making you forget that it's a key part of the story. Speaking of Ciampa, the post match, Gargano and LeRae walking up the ramp together, and Tommaso Ciampa attacks Gargano with a crutch, just to add insult to injury, it makes you feel like Gargano has hit rock bottom, and you feel so much sympathy for him, again like he was a close friend. Overall, this was a magnificent way to close the show, setting up one of the biggest feuds in 2018 between Ciampa and Gargano, whilst giving Almas his biggest win to date in NXT, and perhaps his biggest win as champion.
Rating -*****
WWE RAW 1/1/2018
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match - If Roman Reigns Gets Disqualified, He Loses The Title
Roman Reigns (c) Vs. Samoa Joe
To those in 2018 who still think Roman can't wrestle, he fucking started 2018 with a bloody MOTYC, on the first day of 2018! This was just an awesome match, with Roman getting DQ'd the previous week, the stipulation of Roman being DQ'd to lose the belt was added, which I never liked, I feel it makes more sense in those cases to make the rematch a no DQ match. That said, I still adored this match, two of WWE's best just went at it for 25 minutes, two of the best brawlers having one of the best RAW matches in recent memory and the best non NXT match for WWE this year so far. Roman and Miz have really elevated the IC title, with all of Roman's matches for the belt being great, yeah he slings the belt over his shoulder, but with his celebration on winning the title, and the series of matches he's had with it, this one especially, Roman has helped being the IC title from the ashes of fumbled, ever changing title reigns. While no one wanted to see Joe lose to Reigns, the same belt fans say is disrespected when Roman wears it, probably would've said "Why does Joe have a mid card belt no one cares about? Give him the Universal belt." So Roman going over was the right choice, and with the belt going back on to Miz, imagine Joe having a short title reign and losing to The Miz, the buried chants would've been running wild. So overall, great start to 2018 for WWE!
Rating - ****1/2
NJPW New Beginning In Sapporo
IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) Vs. Minoru Suzuki
It's no coincidence my two favourite NJPW matches ever have involved these two, the other being King Of Pro Wrestling 2012. From start to finish, this was amazing, another match I could add to the sub list of matches better than any Omega Okada match, what I loved was the focus around Tanahashi's injuries, not just the knee, but in general, combined with the putting over of Minoru's MMA and submission background. Tanahashi targeted Suzuki's knee whilst Suzuki mainly damage Tanahashi's taped arm, the pace would jump from Suzuki slowing it down with holds and strikes and Tanahashi trying to use agility and speed to overwhelm Minoru. I loved how as the match went on, you could see Tanahashi begin to breakdown, holding his knee as well as the damage done to his arm, Tanahashi's injuries were catching up to him despite the usual hope and comeback spots we're accustom to seeing in his matches. Two particular spots were gruelling figure four spots, Suzuki has Tanahashi in the hold for a ridiculously long periods of time but Tanahashi sells every second of it, which made it very effective as he simply didn't want to give up, with Suzuki trash talking him and even shoving the ref out of the way during a rope break.
The match ends via referee stoppage which was insane to see, with how long those holds were you'd expect Tanahashi to just break free eventually and mount a comeback, but Minoru simply didn't let it happen. I feel going forward they'll be a caveat on his victory as he never made him submit or pinned him, which will setup an eventual rematch between the two, perhaps at WK 13 with Tanahashi regaining the title. This match was incredible, and purely from the result, I preferred this to their KOPW match, I love Suzuki and think he's NJPW best wrestler, through character and ability, he's number 1, and hopefully he has the same success with the Intercontinental title as he did with the NEVER Openweight title. This match was very different to what you'd usually see in NJPW, there wasn't a lot of amazing spots or sequences, or even a hell of a lot of different moves, it was simply one man, beating and breaking down the company's biggest Ace in their history to the point were he was never going to win, which is a powerful way to put over any heel, especially one as brutal and nasty as Minoru Suzuki.
Rating - *****
PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 62: Fear No More Come To Dust
PROGRESS Wrestling Atlas Championship Match:
WALTER (c) Vs. Timothy Thatcher
Well if you've seen my Chapter 62 Review you already know this would be my match of not only this month, but this will be my favourite match of the whole year. The match starts with them doing some mat wrestling, which was nice to see, with what was to come, I liked that they built to it and it wasn't just big lads wrestling from the off. It soon breaks down when Thatcher start landing palm strikes whilst on top of WALTER, and WALTER just goes off from that, he starts beating the absolute piss out of Thatcher, he goes red in the chest within a minute and at points, looked as if he was opened up from the chops. From there it was vicious, with WALTER essentially turning heel for the majority for the match, many hard strike and kicks with agonising submissions and Thatcher countering WALTER's chop based offence well after WALTER chops the ring post. There were some insane reversals during the match, especially from WALTER when Thatcher would try to suplex him, and the final stretch had everyone on the edge of their seats.
The final sequence was amazing, Thatcher getting chopped in the fucking head followed by a devastating powerbomb, and just before that the crowd had already gave them a standing ovation and proceeded to give another one after the match concluded. The match was at a fever pitch for the majority and it just never slowed down or slumped, it maintained a brutal pace between two warriors, both representing Ringkampf and both wanting the Atlas title. Watch the match yourself if you haven't already, and if you have, watch it again, it's my MOTY, and certainly, my match for this month!
Rating - *****
But these were simply my thoughts, did you think different? What were your favourite matches for January? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @BogglesTheOwl and don't forgot to follow my aforementioned Twitter as well as my Facebook Page and I look forward to writing for you guys again, very soon.
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