Wrestling Top 10s 2020

                                                                 2020 Rankings

2020 was a tough year for professional wrestling because of COVID but there still managed to be some great stuff. I am not doing a detailed breakdown like I did last year because it’s March (October when I finished)  and I’m too lazy to do it. Instead, I’m just going to list the best promotions, wrestlers etc. I did a long Match of the Year list on this blog. This is mainly for reference for myself.

Promotion Of The Year

10) All Elite Wrestling

9) Ring Of Honor

8) All Japan Pro Wrestling

7) Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

6) Pro Wrestling NOAH

5) SEAdLINNNG

4) World Wonder Ring STARDOM

3) Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) Pro Wrestling

2) Dragon Gate

1) New Japan Pro Wrestling

Most Valuable Player

10) Masato Tanaka (DDT, Zero1, BJW +)

9) Shingo Takagi (NJPW)

8) Giulia (STARDOM)

7) Yoshiko (SEAdLINNNG)

6) Suwama (AJPW)

5) Mayu Iwatani (STARDOM)

4) Jon Moxley (AEW & NJPW)

3) Kota Ibushi (NJPW)

2) Go Shiozaki (NOAH)

1) Tetsuya Naito (NJPW)

Most Outstanding Wrestler

10) Tetsuya Endo (DDT)

9) Masato Tanaka (DDT, Zero1, BJW +)

8) Hiromu Takahashi (NJPW)

7) AZM (STARDOM)

6) Susumu Yokosuka (Dragon Gate & AJPW)

5) Kota Ibushi (NJPW)

4) Momo Watanabe (STARDOM)

3) Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW)

2) Shingo Takagi (NJPW)

1)  Mayu Iwatani (STARDOM)

Show of the Year

10) 9th Anniversary Show     (STARDOM)        01/19/20

9) Wrestle Peter Pan 2020 Day 2     (DDT)       06/07/20

8) Summer Struggle 2020 in Jingu  (NJPW)  08/29/20

7) G1 Climax 30 Night 5     (NJPW)                  09/27/20

6) G1 Climax 30 Night 13    (NJPW)     10/10/20

5) Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival 2020  (Dragon Gate)     11/15/20

4) New Beginning in Osaka (NJPW)     02/09/20

3) Celebration of Mr. Brodie Lee’s Life   (AEW) 12/30/20

2) Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1  (NJPW) 01/04/20

1) Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 2  (NJPW) 01/05/20

So there it is. It’s all I care to do at the moment. I will have a longer one for 2021 maybe I don’t know wrestling sucks right now

Wrestler Most Valuable Player 2019

Wrestler Most Valuable Player 2019

10) Cody

I hesitate to put Cody on this list because he is not as valuable a wrestler as he is as an executive. Cody is probably the second or third most important figure in American pro wrestling if we factor in his executive contributions to the business. But this list is not for that. With that being said I do think he is still important to All Elite Wrestling. He was a big part of a lot of major storylines in 2019 AEW. Cody is one of the best promos in the world right now and that is reflected with the connection he has with the crowd. He is probably the most over wrestler now and in 2019 in AEW. He has also had a couple of great matches, including the Match of the Year level match he had with his brother Dustin at Double or Nothing.

9) Jay White 

Jay White had a very successful year in NJPW. He won the IWGP Heavyweight Title at the beginning of 2019 and although it was a short zero defense reign, it was significant in the fact that it established him as one of the top players of that promotion. The end of that reign came at a sold-out G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden where he main evented with Kazuchika Okada. White continued to be a big part of NJPW throughout the year. He also had a run with the IWGP Intercontinental Title and was a big part of the Double Gold Dash along with three other top NJPW stars. White also made it to the finals of the G1 Climax and although he didn’t win, making it to the finals is a big deal, especially since he is the second foreigner to do so. His in-ring year was up and down. The G1 final against Kota Ibushi, the Okada matches and the Tanahashi matches were all great. He had a match with Tetsuya Naito that was also great in the fall. Some of his other matches were not so great. Had White been more consistent with his in-ring work he’d be higher on this list.

8) Psycho Clown

Admittedly I am not the biggest lucha fan nor am I the leading expert on it. I watch very little lucha throughout the year but what I do watch is big AAA shows. What I take away from watching these shows is that Psycho Clown is the biggest star in the promotion. The guy is over. He also is a big draw in Mexico and is a part of a lot of major storylines in the promotion. It’d be a crime not to include him in this list. He’s at number eight with my limited knowledge of his work so just imagine how higher he’d be if I actually followed AAA closer.

7) Ben-K

Ben-K is an important piece to the new generation of Dragon Gate. He has been placed into the position of the new ace in 2019 and he did great with it. He had a pretty good year in the first half but after getting kicked out of R.E.D in May he really picked up steam. His run in King of Gate was great and his victory of Pac at Kobe World was an important moment. He had a great run with the Open the Dream Gate championship and although it was shorter than anticipated it was very successful. Ben-K’s in-ring year was also impressive. He had a match of the year caliber match against Masaaki Mochizuki in October. 

6) Will Ospreay

Ospreay already won my award for Most Outstanding Wrestler of 2019 but his in-ring year was so great that it merited ranking on this list. I’m not going to go into depth on his in-ring year because I already did that on the Most Outstanding Wrestler list but needless to say it was historic. Ospreay was also a major part of NJPW’s storylines in 2019. He competed in almost every tournament they had to offer. He also wrestled in various indies all over the world and was a big draw in those places.

5) Chris Jericho

Jericho’s 2019 is one of the best years of his career. He was a major part in AEW getting as popular as it did and probably was a big factor in the TNT TV deal. He was the only champion that made sense for the promotion and he definitely lived up to the expectations for the first champion. Character wise he was just as entertaining as his best in the world run in WWE in 2008. His promos were great and his in-ring work was pretty good. Mixed with his AEW run is his NJPW run as well. He’s also a big draw for New Japan and has had his best matches of his career there. The match with Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 13 was a legit match of the year contender. Jericho also main evented Dominion against Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. He was a major part in the main events of the number 2 and number 3 promotions of the world.

4) Kazuchika Okada

Okada always has under-the-radar years. He is sometimes a boring pick for wrestler of the year but always a correct choice. He had a great in-ring year that contributed to his spot on this list. Okada was champion for nine months out of the year and of course was a big part of NJPW’s storylines. He main evented Dominion with Chris Jericho and main evented and sold out Madison Square Garden against Jay White. He has been a consistent player in NJPW for years now and he’s only 32. 

3) Pac

Pac this year was a tribute to old school wrestling renegades. He won Dragon Gate’s Open the Dream Gate title in late 2018 and protected through 2019 like it was his own child. He wrestled in many indies across the world. The belt was protected because he knew he had to and knew his worth. His in-ring year was pretty good and wrestled a lot of dream matches including with Will Ospreay. The culmination of his Dream Gate run came at Kobe Wrestling Festival where he dropped the title to and elevated Ben-K in a great match. After that he joined All Elite Wrestling and instantaneously became a major player in that promotion. He continued to have great matches, further elevate his stardom and still looked strong while doing it.

2) Kento Miyahara

No wrestler is as vital to their promotion as Kento Miyahara is to All Japan Pro Wrestling. Were it not for him the promotion would be in serious trouble. Miyahara’s current title reign in 2019 was an all-timer. Match after match he consistently performed at a high level. He has the ability to get anyone on that roster over during his matches. He continues to draw good crowds for AJPW and even though he has plateaued as a draw he hasn’t hurt them substantially either. That is the only reason why he isn’t at number one for this list. The connection he has with the fans is fitting of an ace.

1) Kota Ibushi 

Ibushi dominated the heavyweight scene in New Japan. His in-ring year was great with many MOTY level matches. After signing with the promotion full time he was immediately inserted into the top storylines. He won the IWGP Intercontinental Title at Madison Square Garden against Tetsuya Naito. He was a big draw on a lot of shows for NJPW especially during the G1 Climax. He won the G1 Climax which is one of the more important trophies to win in pro wrestling. Ibushi continues to have adoration from fans unmatched by almost no one.

Show of the Year 2019

Show of the Year 2019

10) NXT TakeOver: New York (4/5/2019)

Wrestlemania weekend’s TakeOver this year was as fantastic as any other one. It’s New York. The crowd and atmosphere were hot. There was nothing on the show below 3.5 stars. The run time on these TakeOvers always help these shows because they go by quick. The main event between Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano, while it was a bit overindulgent, still was pretty great as I gave it 4.25 stars. Walter vs Pete Dunne was the match of the night. I went 4.5 stars on it. War Raiders vs Ricochet and Aleister Black was also 4.25 stars. The other two matches I went 3.75 stars on both so the worst of this show was still pretty good.

Final Rating - 8.5/10

9) NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night 1 (7/6/2016) 

I really don’t have any regrets in life besides not going to see this show live. Had I done that it’s likely this would have been number one on this list. Nevertheless it still made this list because it was still a great show. The undercard was solid and the Evil vs Bad Luck Fale was the worst match at 2 stars. The rest of the G1 block matches were all great. Lance Archer and Will Ospreay opened up the tournament with a great big guy - little guy match that I rated 4.25. SANADA vs Zack Sabre Jr and KENTA vs Kota Ibushi were both great 4 star G1 style matches with great action and solid storytelling. The main event was fantastic. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada was the best match NJPW could do for the American audience, and it delivered. This match was 4.5 stars for me. It’s not their best but for that audience it was. The atmosphere, even with the disappointing attendance, was on another level. Even though they basically just played their greatest hits, it’s still Tanahashi and Okada greatest hits. 

Final Rating - 8.5/10

8) AEW Double or Nothing (5/25/2019)

The first show for All Elite Wrestling was a raging success. It did great ppv buys, sold out the building and was critically praised. The preshow felt like one of the better preshows in any promotion. The main card delivered and there wasn’t one bad match at all. SoCal Uncensored versus Strong Hearts was a great opener that I gave 4 stars to. It’s what I wanted and hoped that AEW would do with those talented individuals in Strong Hearts. Jericho and Omega closed the show with a 4 star match as well. It was brutal in a good way. The Lucha Brothers vs The Young Bucks was your by-the-numbers Lucha Brothers vs Young Bucks match but it was still great. I gave it 4.25 stars. Cody vs Dustin Rhodes was also great and very emotional. I also gave it 4.25 stars. The two matches I just mentioned being back to back and the same rating makes my point that all matches are different even if they have the same rating. The tag match was more move-oriented and focused on the technical aspect of the match while the brother vs brother match was more story based. Each match could have been better if they had what the other match had. The atmosphere of this show was fantastic and it felt almost Wrestlemania-esque with all of the events happening around it.

Final Rating - 8.5/10

7) GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport (4/4/2019)

Bloodsport was a great kickoff to a great Wrestlemania weekend last year. The environment for this show is always great with the small building, the bloodthirsty fans and the unique format. Minoru Suzuki vs Josh Barnett was amazing. Two guys just beating the shit out of each other while no one wanted to stop. Everything worked about this match whether it was the referee bump or the 5 more minutes spot. I went 4.5 stars with this one. Killer Kross vs Davey Boy Smith Jr was a great big guy fight that I gave 4 stars to. Andy Williams vs Chris Dickinson was in the same boat as the aforementioned big guy fight. 4 stars from me as well. The Masashi Takeda vs Jonathan Gresham match was a technical wonder. Even though that style is not my favorite they made it work, especially with Takeda’s charisma. I gave that match 4.25 stars. Everything else on the show was pretty good with the only negative being the Frank Mir vs Dan Severn match but even that was enjoyable to a degree because of the novelty of seeing Frank Mir in a pro wrestling setting and Dan Severn still being awesome.

Final Rating - 8.5/10

6) DDT Ultimate Party 2019 (113/2019) 

DDT is great at doing big shows. They did a great job building this as such and delivered big. This had six matches at 4 stars or higher. Sanshiro Takagi vs Isami Kodaka was a great plastic cases match. Fuminori Abe vs Keisuke Ishii highlighted both of these guys strengths and made me seek them out more. Masahiro Takanashi vs Ryuichi Sekine had a lot of intrigue because of the BASARA implications. All those matches were 4 stars. Yuka Sakazaki vs Shoko Nakajima was TJP’s best match of the year. It played to their history and put on a fantastic match. I had it at 4.25 stars. Antonio Honda and Miyu Yamashita vs Riho and Kenny Omega was fun at first and then great in the second half. I also gave it 4.25 stars. The main event was incredible and built to a great finish. HARASHIMA was the right guy to go with that night. The fans wanted it and both wrestlers built around that. The hype for this show was high, most likely due to Kenny Omega’s involvement. I had friends who only watch WWE, AEW and occasionally New Japan ask me about this show. Everything else that wasn’t 4 stars was also pretty good. The worst match on this card was average (2.5 stars). 

Final Rating - 9/10

5) NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night 17 (8/10/2019)

Just like all the shows towards the end of the G1 Climax, this one was filled with high stakes and drama. We had a solid undercard and SANADA managed to pull out a good match out of Bad Luck Fale which was the key to getting a great show up to the level of the 5th best show of the year. Lance Archer vs EVIL was a great big man match mixed with some cool spots. I gave that match 4 stars. Zack Sabre Jr vs KENTA was my favorite KENTA match post WWE, probably post Pro Wrestling NOAH. Will Ospreay vs Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi vs Kazuchika Okada were both great match of the year contenders that I had at 4.75 stars each. 

Final Rating - 9/10

4) Dragon Gate Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival 2019 (7/21/2019)

The atmosphere for this show was incredible. It reminded me of Wrestle Kingdom 9 because it had a lot of buzz outside the hardcore fanbase. The show definitely delivered to that level too. The undercard was very good, including a great 4.25 star match between Kzy and Shun Skywalker that was all action from start to finish. Flamita vs Susumu Yokosuka was also a great match that I gave 4 stars to. The Ultimo Dragon stuff was well done. I did not watch Toryumon or any DG in the mid-2000s so my emotional investment in this wasn’t as high as long-time fans but the emotions from the wrestlers told you all you needed to know if you were completely unaware of the history. I went 4 stars on that 6 man tag. The Twin Gate match was a fast-paced traditional DG style match. That match was 4.5 stars for me. Ben-K vs PAC was a great match that ended a great title reign. 

Final Rating - 9/10

3) NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 26 Finals (6/5/2019)

This show was fantastic. Out of the eight matches on the card only one of them was below 3 stars. There were no bad matches. The top three matches on the card delivered huge. Jay White vs Hiroshi Tanahashi was the best match of this series. They worked Tanahashi’s broken body into the whole match and White’s reversals were great. I gave the match 4.25 stars. We also saw the NJPW debut of Jon Moxley. This was built up nicely throughout the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. It paid off here with a brutal match that I gave 4.5 stars to. The tournament final was a perfect match. Best of the Super Juniors revolved around Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi. Each man dominated their blocks and the dynamic was set in those block matches. I went 5 stars with this match and this match finished at number 2 in my match of the year list.

Final Rating - 9/10

2) DDT Wrestle Peter Pan 2019 (7/15/2019)

Like I mentioned before, DDT is just as good as NJPW at doing big shows. This was an amazing show with a great atmosphere. There were two really bad matches on the show and it’s why I put it at number 2 and not 1. Everything else was good to MOTY level. Akito vs ASUKA was a unique match that could have been very corny buy was pulled off to perfection I gave that match 4.25 stars. Daisuke Sasaki and Soma Takao vs Yasu Urano and HARASHIMA was one of the better tag team matches of the year. I also gave it 4.25 stars. The main event between Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo was a 5 star classic and a unique match due to its different dynamic between face and heel. The roles were reversed but they did it in a way where it still made sense within the story they were telling. The show, despite being like 6 hours long, flew by and was very enjoyable.

Final Rating - 9/10

1) NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 (1/4/2019)

Coming into this show there was a lot of hype due to the quality of the card and it definitely delivered. The show only had one bad match and it was also the only match that was under 3 stars. Everything else had a floor of 3 stars. There was a lot of intrigue as well due this being the Elite’s last NJPW show. The proper show kicked off with a 4.5 star match between Kota Ibushi and Will Ospreay that was fast-paced and viscous and set the whole pace for the entire show. Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii was a great match that juxtaposed both of the wrestler’s styles and weaved it into the story seamlessly. I gave that 4 stars. Jay White vs Kazuchika Okada was a fantastic match with an abrupt and shocking finish. It was the best match between these two and I went 4.5 stars. Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho was an amazing match and still proved that Jericho can still perform at a high level with the right opponent. I went 4.75 with that. The main event between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega was a 5 star classic that felt very old school NJPW. There was a lot of hatred in this match and that was obvious with the moves. 

Final Rating - 9/10

2019 Tag Team of the Year

Tag Team of the Year

10) Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish)

This team was a solid and consistent team all year. They had many good matches and a few great matches. They had a couple matches in my 4+ Star Matches list.

9) DAMNATION (Daisuke Sasaki and Soma Takao)

DAMNATION have been one of the bright points of DDT last year. They have had a couple of matches in my 4+ Stars Matches list. I really enjoy their chemistry and their moveset.

8) Eita and Big R Shimizu

My favorite sleaze tag team of the year. I have always enjoyed big guy-small guy tag team dynamics. They have had a few matches on my 4+ Stars Matches list. These two are proper dickheads and it’s awesome. R.E.D’s feud with pretty much all of Dragon Gate has been very entertaining and these two are at the center of it.

7) Roppongi 3K (SHO, YOH)

A boring pick for sure but they are the most consistent team all year in all of New Japan. They have a few matches on my 4+ Star Matches list. There is a lot of interesting things going on with these story wise that will play into their eventual single runs. But meanwhile they are a fun team.

6) The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)

The biggest tag team draw in professional wrestling for sure. They are important to the business with their success with AEW. They have also had a few 4+ matches as well. It’s been a stagnant year for them but they still put on good matches.

5) Momo Watanabe and Utami Hayashishita

This team flew under the radar last year in STARDOM. Considering they only tagged for less than half of the year they did great. They had many 4+ star matches this year. This is a perfect pairing of two wrestlers with similar personalities. 

4) Violent Giants (Suwama and Shuji Ishikawa)

Violent Giants are always in the running for tag team of the year. They’ve been my favorite team for a few years now. They are easily AJPW’s best tag team even with the promotion’s decent tag division. They had a few 4+ star matches and a lot of other good matches as well.

3) NEO Biishiki-gun (Misao and Sakisama)

I absolutely loved this team last year in TJP. They had incredible charisma together and with their opponents. Despite only having one 4 star match last year, they were consistently a highlight of their promotion. 

2) AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima)

AXIZ was great last year in Pro Wrestling NOAH. They had a couple of 4+ star matches last year. Their charisma, especially Nakajima’s, was unmatched by any tag team this year. 

1) Konami and Jungle Kyona

This team was great in STARDOM. Definitely the high point of their tag division. They received a couple of 4+ star ratings from me this year. They are a big part of my love for Tokyo Cyber Squad. I enjoy their dynamic, Konami being the smaller and more technically sound wrestler while Jungle is the powerhouse of the team. 

Promotions of the Year

Promotion of the Year

For this section I will rank all of the promotions that I followed on a semi-regular to regular basis. I will also include some honorable and dishonorable mentions as well from promotions that I did not follow regularly but did see matches or shows. 

Here’s the link to my 2019 4+ Star Matches list that I reference many times in this post

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TdZP6ptvDyNcoEMSLQYkJif2f4WDss-wKPcrOTLXqVA/edit#gid=42478135

Honorable Mentions

SEAdLINNNG - This promotion does not make tape a lot. Most of which did make tape I did not watch. What I did see however was pretty good. My overall match of the year is from this promotion. I will definitely try to watch everything from them in 2020.

Sendai Girls - This is another Joshi promotion that does not make tape a lot of the times. I did see all of Sareee’s matches from Sendai Girls this year. Her feud with Chihiro Hashimoto is one of the best ones this year. Since Sareee is retiring this year I will watch everything I can for Sendai Girls in 2020.

OTT Wrestling - I really only saw like 4 matches from OTT this year. They were good. Nothing to write home about. I included OTT in the honorable mentions because it seems to be the last UK/European promotion that actually gives the fans what they want and are not WWE bootlickers… yet.

GCW - The only GCW I watch every year is the Wrestlemania weekend shows. Bloodsport is always a great show and the Joey Janela Spring Breaks are fun shows. They are the only US indie that actually does their style to perfection. Not my cup of tea and won’t watch any shows in 2020 other than the Wrestlemania weekend shows.

Dishonorable Mentions

Progress - This promotion is terrible in many ways. It did not appear once in my 2019 4+ Stars Matches list. Even bad promotions like WWE appeared on the list. Oh yeah, they’re the floor mat that WWE wiped their crappy shoes on when they entered the British scene. A horrible company that I probably will not watch a single second of in 2020. 

Evolve -  The Progress of the US indies. One match on my 2019 4+ Stars Matches list. Gabe Sapolsky sucks. Might watch the Wrestlemania weekend shows but that’s it.

Impact - This narrative that Impact is actually good again needs to (as the Brits say) get in the bin. It’s not horrible like Progress and Evolve but it’s a very boring promotion that really does not have anything of note occur. I saw all the Pay Per Views and they all gravitate around average. Sometimes above sometimes below. There were also no 4+ star matches. Might completely drop this promotion to make room for other stuff in 2020. 

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Now onto the real list of promotions that I closely followed. I ranked them and gave them a grade. I separated the main roster WWE/205 Live and NXT/NXT UK into different “promotions” since even though they are under the same corporate umbrella, they are completely different products. I did the same with DDT and TJP.

13) World Wrestling Entertainment

I mean it’s WWE. It’s garbage. The storylines are nonsensical and downright insulting. The matches for the most part are pretty bad. The wrestlers are the most soulless pieces of product. They are not real people. They are walking, talking billboards for WWE to promote whatever fucking piece of merchandise they’re selling on the website right now or whatever crappy PPV is coming up. Everything is homogenized to the point where everyone’s actions and personalities begin to blend together. 

Then there’s the moral aspect of the company. WWE finds itself in a sweet spot where they’re big enough to make a billion dollars but insignificant in the mainstream media that they are able to get away with all of the heinous acts they commit. They’ve regressed with the Women’s Revolution. They keep taking that Sweet Saudi Blood Money. There’s the whole independent contractor stuff. The takeover of the UK scene. These people are fucking shit. What makes it worse is that they act like they are some sort of humanitarians. They actually think that what they are doing is good. 

They did however have a number of matches that I scored 4+ stars. But given the size of the roster, the number of shows they run and the length of said shows, it’s impossible not to have a few on that list. I mean it’s just basic statistics. Some of their shit is bound to stick to the wall. 

Since I’m not doing worst wrestlers or worst matches or worst feuds, I have to bring up Seth GoshDarnTooting Rollins. He was shit this year. The Fiend was shit this year. Baron Corbin was shit this year. Rusev/Lana/Lashley were shit this year. The booking of Becky Lynch was shit this year. There’s a lot of shit in WWE and I don’t want to spend more time writing about it.

The only reason I watch main roster WWE on a semi-regular basis is because my friends watch it with me. We get together on PPV Sundays, order pizza and make fun of terrible wrestling. If on one Sunday for whatever reason my friends can’t make it, I do not even watch the PPVs. It was a group of four. One of them we already have a hard time convincing to come over on Sundays and now with another of my friends moving away in November, I don’t think I will be watching WWE on a regular basis anymore. 

Final Score - 1/10

12) Ring of Honor

ROH in 2019 was some of the worst wrestling products out there. The booking made no sense whatsoever. There was never anything interesting about the promotion. Giving Matt Taven a world title run was one of the worst decisions in the promotion’s history. The Women of Honor division is utter garbage. They had Mayu Iwatani and as great as she is, she could not fix this division. The constant push of Bully Ray makes me want to puke. Their portion of the G1 Supercard took what could have been a historic greatest show of all time down to a pretty good show, which was all thanks to NJPW. 

They had a few matches on the 4+ Star Matches list but somehow managed to get less than WWE. 

Their business really tanked with The Elite leaving but tanked even harder with their bad booking. They made some great signings throughout the year but it has not stopped the bleeding. I was going to drop this promotion altogether but with the news of Marty Scurll’s new contract that sees him taking over in a booking capacity, I’m going to give Ring of Honor until SuperCard of Honor to change my mind.

Final Score - 3/10

11) Revolution Pro Wrestling

RevPro was easily the most boring promotion of the year. They had the least amount of 4 star matches this year out of the promotions that I follow regularly. There was no interesting storylines this year. The only thing that happened in RevPro that generated any sort of buzz was the Josh Bodom incident. 

Michael Oku was the only thing that was remotely interesting. But even he has a lot of work to do to live up to his hype. 

There were a lot of bad matches. A lot of their shows were pretty bad. The cockpit shows were some of the most dreadful wrestling shows I’ve seen all year. They felt 8 hours long, even though most of them were around 2 hours. There’s not much else I can say about this promotion and I will not be watching much in 2020. I’m definitely dropping it from my queue. 

Final Rating - 4/10

10) Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

TJP is a promotion I got into in 2018 solely because it was included with my ddt universe subscription. 2019 was not a great year compared to their 2018. It is a promotion that focuses more on character work. In that aspect they did pretty good. They did not have a lot of terrible matches like the promotions previously mentioned but they did barely have 1 more match in the 4+ Star Match list than RevPro. 

The Misao and Sakisama team was the most enjoyable part of the promotion. They had a lot of good matches and their chemistry was great. Miu Watanabe really started to come into her own this year. Teaming with Miyu Yamashita was also another fun team this year.

Shoko Nakajima’s run with the Princess of Princess title was a little underwhelming. Maybe it was because it followed Miyu Yamashita’s record title reign. The match where Shoko beat Miyu was also a little bad. She wasn’t a terrible champion just a very boring one. 

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling was still a decent promotion just a little boring. I will continue watching it since it’s basically free to watch for me.

Final Rating - 6/10

9) Pro Wrestling Guerrillas

PWG was a pretty decent promotion to follow in 2019. It is about 10 shows a year and I always binge them at the very end. I didn’t watch Makings of a Varsity Athlete though because as I’m writing this it hasn’t been released yet. That is what makes this promotion a little hard to follow. In the age of easy access, this DVD only formula that PWG uses makes it hard to stay up to date with the promotion. 

Their shows were good for the most part. They had some great matches all throughout the year. Theses shows are easy to watch. They don’t require much attention to detail as it’s just about the moves. I know people get very angry about “movez” but this promotion can get away with it. I will continue to watch in 2020 for sure.

Final Rating - 6/10

8) All Elite Wrestling

This is probably lower than most fans would have AEW at. This promotion has only existed since May of 2019. They made a great first impression with Double or Nothing, a legit show of the year contender. The rest of their PPVs and big shows were decent to pretty good. They didn’t have a lot of high level MOTY type matches but they did have a lot of spots on the 4+ Star Matches list. 

Their TV started of pretty good and was a refreshing change in the American scene. They were good shows with hot crowds and good matches. After their PPV Full Gear things started to go in a downward direction. WWE-esque storylines started to slowly creep in. All the things that Tony Khan said the promotion wouldn’t be started to become a reality. I usually admire promotions for sticking with their booking plans but AEW’s stubbornness to drop some of their most embarrassing storylines has really slowed their momentum. I will continue to watch in 2020 but if they stay on the same path, I might just drop them.

Final Rating - 6/10

7) Pro Wrestling NOAH

NOAH is one of those promotions that’s harder to follow. I watch most everything that makes tape. Coming off a strong 2018, this year NOAH fell a little for me. The Kaito Kiyomiya reign had a lot to do with it. He had a couple a great matches but overall it was a long and tedious reign that had me wondering who was taking the title off of him and when. That is not the ideal reaction for the supposed babyface ace champion. And although I did not think his title reign was anything special, it was well-booked and it didn’t lose any business at all.

AXIZ was a great tag team that kept things interesting. They had a few great matches. Katsuhiko

Nakajima was the best thing in NOAH this year. The first half of the year was so uneventful that I almost stopped watching NOAH completely but the fall was very exciting and what I saw of the N-1 Victory was great. 

I will continue to watch NOAH in 2020.

Final Rating - 6/10

6) NXT

NXT started the year off great. The first two TakeOvers of the year were great shows but things fell off after the New York TakeOver. Everything in NXT was overdone. The matches were the epitome of “Style over Substance” meaning that they were bloated with cool moves with little to no story or narrative. It has truly become, as someone on Twitter said I don’t remember who, corporate PWG. Whereas in PWG the excess in matches works for the little underground promotion, it doesn’t really translate to a national TV show from the biggest wrestling company in the world.

What NXT lacks more than any promotion in the world is identity. It tries to be too many things. It wants to be cool moves and dream matches like PWG, sports entertainment storytelling like main roster WWE and old school territorial wrestling. It wasn’t what it was before they moved to national television. They used to be competent wrestling shows that built up feuds to the TakeOvers and every now and then had matches on the weekly show that weren’t important enough for a TakeOver. It wasn’t the most exciting television show but it was an easy show to get through and it was always moving along. Now everything is done on a whim just like main roster WWE. The shows and the matches lack substantial structure. They now do things just to do them. 

The matches for the most part are pretty good. There was a lot of overrated stuff, mainly Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole. Io Shirai was the bright spot of NXT this year. They need to get their heads out of their asses and go all the way with her. 

NXT UK was just kind of there. I’m not going to lie, I only watched the two TakeOvers. They were boring at best. The highlight was Walter vs Tyler Bate. I probably will continue watching NXT in 2020 although the 2 hour show might do me in.

Final Rating - 6/10

5) Dramatic Dream Team

DDT was a real fun promotion to follow this year. I get that the comedy stuff might not be for everyone but the comedy is actually well done. The difference between DDT and comedy/irony promotions in the US/UK indies is that in the latter the comedy has nothing to do with professional wrestling. It’s just comedy that happens to occur in a wrestling ring. The comedy in DDT, at the core, is still wrestling. They are still constructing a match with all the elements that make normal matches good but with an added layer of comedy. Plus the comedy is actually clever and funny.

It helps that the wrestling is actually great. When they are not doing comedy the are putting on good matches. The two belts storyline in the fall was well done. Tetsuya Endo’s title reign was pretty good. DDT is great at doing big shows. Both Wrestle Peter Pan and Ultimate Party will finish in my top 3 shows of the year. They had a match in my Top 10 matches of the year. Konosuke Takeshita, Tetsuya Endo and Daisuke Sasaki all had some great in-ring years. 

The first quarter of the year was a little bad so I can’t rank it any higher. I will definitely continue to watch DDT in 2020.

Final Rating - 7/10

4) Dragon Gate

Dragon Gate was a promotion that finished pretty low in 2018. This year they really picked up in quality. A lot had to do with PAC’s Open the Dream Gate title reign. He increased the importance and popularity of the title for Ben-K’s eventual coronation. Ben-K’s story was also a highlight of the company. Dragon Gate’s title matches this year are pretty underrated, especially in a year where a lot of promotion’s title matches were pretty stale. 

They had a lot of matches in the 2019 4+ Star Matches list. They also had a match in my Top 10 matches of the year. Masaaki Mochizuki had a great underrated year. Shun Skywalker, Ben-K, Kzy and Susumu Yokosuka all had great in-ring years as well. 

The Ultimo Dragon stuff was real nice although having Ultimo win so much was a weird choice for sure. R.E.D was great this year. I also enjoyed the Mochizuki Dojo group as well. Every other faction was just there. The change up in the factions at the end of the year makes this promotion more interesting and I’m looking forward to continue watching in 2020.

Final Rating - 7/10

3) All Japan Pro Wrestling

AJPW held up this year thanks to two things: Kento Miyahara’s Triple Crown title reign and the Champion Carnival. There was a large number of top level matches this year in All Japan. Miyahara’s reign was the best world title reign this year by a wide margin. His feuds with Jake Lee and Naoya Nomura were some of the best of the year. The tag division was the strongest in any promotion, not that there’s much competition. 

AJPW had 36 matches in my list. Kento Miyahara and Naoya Nomura had fantastic in-ring years. 

The booking was a little weak towards the end of the year. There does not feel like anyone is ready to beat Miyahara. Nomura is the best choice to take the title off of him and his booking in the Real World Tag League was very questionable. Of course the junior division is pretty bland and with the unfortunate death of Atsushi Aoki there wasn’t much going on in the division.

The Champion Carnival, the Royal Road tournament and the Real World Tag League provided the best of AJPW in 2019. With the possibility of a working relationship with Dragon Gate, I’m pretty excited for AJPW in 2020. 

Final Rating - 7/10

2) World Wonder Ring STARDOM

STARDOM had a great 2019. Momo Watanabe’s Wonder of STARDOM title reign was a great one that saw many 4+ Star matches. The whole promotion had 4+ Star matches all year as they had the second most matches on my list. The 5 Star Grand Prix was a really good tournament. There were also some great feuds this year including the Arisa Hoshiki/Hazuki and Tokyo Cyber Squad against the rest of the roster.

The emergence of TCS was the highlight of the year and if I did a best factions category, Tokyo Cyber Squad would run away with it. 2019 saw Hana Kimura catapult to a new level in the promotion. The tag team of Jungle Kyona and Konami was a great addition to STARDOM’s underrated tag division.

Arisa Hoshiki was another bright spot of STARDOM’s roster. She came back to the promotion in late 2018 and in 2019 she really stepped up.  She had great matches and great feuds.

Although Kagetsu and Hazuki retired in 2019, Oedo Tai is in great hands with Natsuko Tora, who really shined this year. Her feud with Jungle Kyona was an underrated feud for sure and one that needs for people to go back and follow again. 

The World of STARDOM title was a low point for the promotion. With Kagetsu’s underwhelming run and Bea Priestly’s bad reign, it was yet another world title in 2019 that was uninteresting. The secondary title in the promotion outshined this belt as it has for a couple of years now.

STARDOM’s future looks great. With being bought by BUSHIROAD and having an amazing roster of talented ladies, I look forward to what they can accomplish in 2020.

Final Rating - 8/10

1) New Japan Pro Wrestling

NJPW in 2019 was great. The tournaments this year were some of the best ever. New Japan Cup 2019 was the best New Japan Cup ever. Best of the Super Juniors 26 was one of the best ones ever. The G1 Climax, although did not peak as high as years past, was probably the most consistent tournament of all time. They had other solid tournaments as well like the Young Lion’s Cup, the Super J Cup and the Junior Tag League. 

Of course they had a large amount of matches in my 2019 4+ Star Matches list. They had the most with 127 matches on the list. They also had 5 spots in my Top 10 matches of the year. Will Ospreay had an in-ring year that cannot be matched by anyone else. Shingo Takagi also had an amazing year as well. Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Zack Sabre Jr all had under the radar fantastic years. Tetsuya Naito, Jay White, Dragon Lee and Taiji Ishimori also had great in-ring years.

There were some great feuds this year as well. The Naito/Ibushi feud was filled with hate and nasty bumps and the matches were great as well. Sabre/Tanahashi was a more mellow feud but was still competitive. Of course Minoru Suzuki and Jushin Thunder Liger was the best feud of the promotion this year. Just two 50 year olds beating the shit out of each other with a special appearance from Kishin Liger. Other notable feuds include White/Naito, KENTA/NJPW and the four way Ospreay/El Phantasmo/Ishimori/Robbie Eagles. 

NJPW’s tag divisions obviously are the low point of the promotion going on for many years now.

There isn’t much to say about them that hasn’t already been said everywhere else. The IWGP title picture this year was very lackluster. Both Tanahashi and White had zero defence reigns at the beginning of the year so there wasn’t much room for excitement there. Okada’s reign was very boring. He won it in April and it felt like just a placeholder reign to get to January. The only great match in the reign was the Minoru Suzuki match at Royal Quest.

Despite its negatives, this promotion always delivers consistently. The booking is seldom questionable and the matches are always great. I am excited for their 2020

Final Rating - 8/10