One of my favorite things to do as a wrestling fan is keep track of data. Now, I’m no statistician, numbers aren’t really my thing, but ever since I started watching wrestling as a young teenager, I’ve been at least mildly obsessed with copying down notes about wrestling. One of my earliest forms of this was going to my most-trusted website, Gerweck.net, and literally copying down all the wrestler profiles by longhand. Now, this compulsion has evolved into having different ongoing Word and Excel documents on my computer at all times, usually relating to either the history of a predictions game I play with my friends, the results of an annual fake G1 Climax tournament set in WWE that I write for fun, or of course, my year-end awards roundup.
My MOTY WordPad documents go back to 2012 and are always a fun way to go back and see where my head was at in a particular year of wrestling; however, a problem I’ve run into in many years is simply keeping track of all the worthwhile matches in the span of a year. In fact, since wrestling has opened up in the last few years with the advent of AEW and many notable global brands rising to cultural prominence, along with the continued existence of many splintered North American independent brands, it can be really difficult to play catch-up at the end of a year and summon to mind every great match, especially if you’re as forgetful as I am.
So I decided to give myself a hand in 2022, and I started my first wrestling spreadsheet.
It was an Excel document where I would copy down every show and match that I watched in the year, as well as noting my personal star rating (on the Meltzer scale) for each one, and finally, the amount of matches watched on an event, monthly, and annual basis. It would hopefully help me keep better track of my favorite matches, while also giving me a good look at my viewing habits as a man in his 30s.
In 2022, I watched 2,110 wrestling matches. Here are my distinctions.
MVPs (Most Valuable Players) of 2022
“Speedball” Mike Bailey
Wrestling found a new level of openness in the past year, with borders between companies becoming more blurry than ever, and usually for the good, if not at least the entertaining. It was not uncommon to see even hugely popular TV wrestlers show up in more underground promotions and, thankfully, it sometimes meant seeing a lot of a wrestler I never get tired of. Mike Bailey stepped up a huge notch this year in my estimation, going from a semi-forgotten “what if” of the 2010s American indies thanks to visa troubles, to taking a prominent spot as a go-to workhorse in both Impact Wrestling and independent wrestling at large. Bailey had a tremendous reign as X Division Champion for most of the year, buoyed with fun appearances across multiple independent labels and putting on great matches everywhere he went. Although his persona still leaves a bit to be desired, his in-ring game was unbelievably consistent in 2022, and it was a treat to watch him every time.
Jon Moxley
In another year, 2022 Jon Moxley would be my Wrestler of the Year, and he very nearly was. Mox not only delivered in-ring consistently all year, but he also knocked so many promos out of the park that the park is now named after him. He also stepped up during a capital-F fraught backstage time in AEW, infamously putting his vacation on hold (seemingly indefinitely) to shoulder the company in its time of need. All great stuff, but unfortunately, the reason he missed my WOTY spot is because after all of the great work he’s done, I was very ready for him to take a break. Moxley has been one of the shining stars of AEW since his debut and for good reason, but he is someone who has also benefited from time away from the spotlight so as to combat overuse. His return in January from a stint in rehab to address issues with alcohol and the in-ring promo he cut was simply captivating. His absence reminded you that no one does it quite like him, and it was the easiest thing in the world to welcome him back. On the other side of the year, Mox is now the winningest champion in company history, wins all of his televised matches, and his trademark growling promo style is beginning to feel a bit rote. It’s certainly no fault on him that he delayed his sabbatical, and the choice is even an admirable one on some level, but I fear that Mox is getting a bit too close to overexposure, so I couldn’t quite pick him for top honors.
Show of the Year
AEW Revolution
2022 was not the best year for All Elite Wrestling, as it began to show some of its fast-becoming-trademark issues around booking, show structure, and even talent handling. However, it’s hard to deny that their PPVs often delivered in a big way, with Revolution being my favorite. At least four incredibly strong matches from either an in-ring or story standpoint (Kingston/Jericho, triple-threat tag, Punk/MJF, Moxley/Danielson) and two fun clusterfuck matches, with the rest of the card dotted with fun/solid performances. Plus, the debuts of Swerve Strickland and William Regal, plus the effortless flow from one tremendous MJF storyline to another really brought the heat and kept the excitement going. AEW had other contenders for the category this year, but I find that Revolution always makes the strongest impression to kick off the year for the company, and this was no different.
Promotion of the Year
Impact Wrestling
I can’t believe it, but the company that I used to wish would just die already finally became the company I wanted to live. While other organizations may have had higher highs this year, I personally didn’t see any other company deliver as consistently as Impact did. I actually watched several episodes of their weekly show in full(!) because I was interested in their stories and wanted to watch the matches because they are usually good-to-great. Impact benefited greatly from having some of the most consistent performers on its rosters either hold championships for large chunks of the year (Josh Alexander, Mike Bailey, Jordynne Grace) or in prominent roles near their respective championships (Deonna Purrazzo, Motor City Machine Guns, Black Taurus) so as to provide compelling matches. I’m not saying that every part of the roster is amazing nor is every storyline a winner, but I found I had the least problems with Impact this year, and I always made time for them on a weekly basis thanks to both a proven track record and an incredibly solid pro wrestling product.
Tag Team of the Year
FTR
I don’t have anything interesting to say about this, it is what it is and you know why.
Wrestler of the Year
Sami Zayn
This one was an 11th-hour change. For at least a month, I was convinced that my pick would be MJF, as he was involved in 2 of my absolute favorite feuds of the year (with CM Punk and with Wardlow), delivered at a high level in-ring at every opportunity, and lived up to the promise he’s been chained to since 2019 in AEW. However, much like FTR as Tag Team of the Year, picking MJF seemed a little too easy, and even felt somewhat wrong to me. As much as I have high praise for MJF in 2022, I can’t say he’s one of my guys, or that I even enjoy him all that much normally. I find his whole character of “self-aware heel” to be tiresome, his persona just a bit too calculated and try-hard for me to feel passionately about. Especially now, as the year ends with MJF on top, I find that his character has not really changed much with the weight of the belt on his shoulders; he’s just kind of the same but with a new accessory. Add to that a tweet he fired off bragging about only having 7 matches in the entire year, and I began to rethink his position. I’ve picked WOTY in the past and given it to people I was not passionate about but showed their worth beyond my taste, that’s not new. However, a close friend of mine offered his pick of the year and, as soon as he typed it in Discord, I thought, “…now hang on a minute, let me think about this.”
The ongoing storyline in WWE of Roman Reigns as the forever champion, Head of the Table, leader of The Bloodline, is one that was getting stale this year. After an interesting story involving a mini-breakout year with Jey Uso, Roman’s lack of either division within his unit and of meaningful challengers in the company meant that the act was into wheel-spinning mode. It was almost ignominiously that Sami Zayn began to insert himself into Roman’s good graces, just a naturally funny guy for the group to bounce off of that might go a couple weeks, even a month, off the energy of some fun back-and-forth promos. What these resulted in was, almost unbelievably, the best storyline in the company as the wiry French Canadian went from weird revolutionary(?) trying to worm his way into the ear of the champ, to the trusted consigliere at the heart of The Bloodline, the Honorary Uce. Sami’s ingratiation into the out-group grew funnier and more compelling the more that his contemporaries gave it air, and once WWE realized what it had, they actually managed to not fuck it up for once. I credit the lasting ability of Zayn as a personality for this, as this was truly another breakout year for a guy who’s had at least 2 or 3 during his time in WWE. Almost single-handedly, Sami saved the top draw in the company from completely bottoming out creatively, and revitalized The Bloodline into a run that has been one of the best for every member involved. Add to that Sami’s ability to still compete at a high level and deliver fast, entertaining matches with practically anyone, and that’s a guy I want to celebrate.
MATCH OF THE YEAR
This will take the form of a standard Top 10 list counting up, but first, here is the shortlist of matches that didn’t quite make the cut, but are still worth checking out.
Honorable Mentions
Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Day 2)
– Your standard high-level Tokyo Dome main event
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki, NOAH The New Year
– Good, hard-hitting stuff
Will Ospreay vs Michael Oku, RevPro High Stakes
– Oku needs to be somewhere where more people can see him, he’s been underrated for too long
Eddie Kingston vs Chris Jericho, AEW Revolution
– A final cut from the MOTY list, one of Eddie’s biggest wins yet in AEW is still a really great match in what is, unfortunately, a banner year for Chris Jericho
Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus vs reDRagon vs The Young Bucks, AEW Revolution
– Spectacular, fast-paced tag match reminiscent of the Bucks’ tenure in NJPW
Trey Miguel vs Mike Bailey vs Ace Austin, Impact Wrestling Rebellion
– Three stand-out junior heavyweight wrestlers doing cool shit
Eddie Kingston vs Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW Capital Collision
– Thought this would make MOTY when I saw it, Eddie adds his own brand of sympathetic selling to a tremendous matchup for him in Ishii
FTR vs The Young Bucks, AEW Dynamite 4/6
– Two great tag teams doing their thing.
Jon Moxley vs Wheeler Yuta, AEW Rampage 4/8
– Wheeler gets inducted into the Blackpool Combat Club and finally lives up to his promise, super cool shit
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW Wrestling Dontaku
– Terrific match from two all-time greats
Alex Shelley vs Chris Sabin, Impact Wrestling 7/21
– One of the best tag teams in the world turn back time and bring out the best in each other
Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, Summerslam
– Grade-A WWE-brand horseshit, exactly one hoot and one holler
Bryan Danielson vs Daniel Garcia, AEW Dynamite 8/17
– Underrated feud in AEW in 2022, Danielson faces a shadow of himself from two decades ago
Eddie Kingston vs Tomohiro Ishii, AEW All Out: Zero Hour
– It’s the NJPW match but a bit faster and meaner, and in Eddie’s home turf
Hangman Page vs Bryan Danielson, AEW Dynamite 9/7
– Two of AEW’s best TV wrestlers pull one out yet again
FTR vs Aussie Open, NJPW Royal Quest Night 1, 10/1
– Thankfully not as annoying as it could have been, lives up to its promise
Josh Alexander vs Mike Bailey, Impact Wrestling 12/8
– A nearly 60-minute match wrestled as intelligently for TV as could be, almost miraculous that it’s as good as it is, and speaks to both men’s inherent worth to Impact
10
FTR vs The Briscoes, ROH Supercard of Honor (****1/4)
This being on here at all kind of tips the hand for a couple of other entries to come, but let’s all pretend I’m not a basic bitch and keep going. Obviously, these two teams are terrific at what they do, and their first match together lives up to the promise of two generational teams fighting for the first time. The Briscoes’ explosivity and gritty offense perfectly matches to FTR’s technicality and crispness, as does their inherent personality clash (at least on the surface, let’s not pretend that Mark and Jay aren’t territory wrestling nerds, too). If they had left it at this one, it’d be hard to be disappointed. The only reason it doesn’t rank higher for me is because…well, let’s keep going.
9
Ren Narita vs Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW Battle Autumn 10/26 (****1/4)
Whether on Twitter or to friends, I’ve made no bones about how the NJPW house style has begun to grow stale for me, if not actively sour. It was actually 10 years ago that I started following New Japan, my fandom peaking during its North American expansion. Over the years, though, the glacial pace it takes toward changing its habits, bad or otherwise, has caused its luster to fade. This is not completely its fault, it’s also my sensibilities as a viewer. As much as I do appreciate long-term storytelling and intricacy, I can admit that a lot of times, I need my wrestling product to be faster and a bit more direct. What absolutely still is my bag when it comes to NJPW is the inherent story of the Young Lions, the young guys of the NJPW Dojo system who are given a pair of black boots and black trunks, booted out into the ring, and basically physically brutalized until they Get Good. I don’t necessarily watch every match involving the Young Lions, but you come to know them in some way if you stick around long enough, either by name or by sight. As much as watching a NJPW show can feel like clocking in to a job sometimes, the Young Lions are the trainees who you enjoy watching as they slowly start to get it.
This year, Ren Narita got it, and the joy I felt almost blindsided me.
In another “Oh, New Japan” moment, they are creating ANOTHER belt, but this time, its premise intrigues me. The specific idea of the belt is to highlight its younger, unproven wrestlers (the tournament still including oldheads like Kanemaru somehow), doing so by limiting matches to 15 minutes. A consistent complaint of modern NJPW is its at-times crushing match length, a complaint that I echo as I am fully past matches need to be lengthy to feel important. Some of my favorite matches of any year are on the shorter side, as it can allow fat to be trimmed off of a match’s story so as to focus on a more concise and sharp story. Constraint, in any creative form, is often necessary to produce a more refined version of a good thing, and Ishii vs Narita in this tournament match for the NJPW World Television Championship is a very good thing. Narita is a Young Lion that I’ve come to know in the past 5 years and whom I’ve been waiting for to break out, which he managed to do with some tremendous performances throughout the year. Although he still dresses the part of a Young Lion, Narita is considered to be a graduate of the NJPW Dojo, and is beginning to carry himself much like his mentor (and one of my favorite wrestlers), Katsuyori Shibata. Ren hits hard and takes a lot of punishment, but his young face is able to communicate fighting-from-underneath in a way that even Shibata wasn’t always able to do. To see Narita struggle mightily against the immovable object Ishii is compelling in its own right, but I figured in watching it that Narita would fall to Ishii, who would probably end up winning the belt as a thank-you for his continued service. Instead, Narita nearly took Ishii to the time limit draw and, in a shock made even better due to the Japanese crowd being able to react, Ren Narita pinned Tomohiro Ishii clean. I jumped from my chair, I whooped it up, and I realized that maybe, sometimes, people like long-term storytelling because it totally fucking works. A match that was destined for my list based on pure emotion.
8
“Hangman” Adam Page vs Bryan Danielson, AEW Dynamite 1/5 (****1/2)
This is another entry that was practically a lock from the moment it happened, but I’m pleased that it totally holds up nearly a year later. I don’t have a lot to say about it, other than laying praise at the feet of two men whom I previously described as two of AEW’s best TV wrestlers. First off, count me in on the “Bryan Danielson is the GOAT” truthers; if the man’s worth as at least one of the greatest wrestlers to ever live isn’t obvious to you by now, I don’t think you’ve been watching closely enough, or anything I have to say likely won’t convince you. However, as with wrestling, you’re only as good as your dance partner, and I do so love that Hangman two-step. In a perfect world, Hangman would be my WOTY pick, or at least an MVP, because he still clearly has the goods to be at that level. Frustratingly, his world championship reign never got the legs to be the star-making run it could have been, and while Page stepped up his game in matches with the likes of Danielson, Lance Archer, and Adam Cole, circumstance and politics never seemed to be on his side. As champion, he never seemed around as much as he should be (a cardinal AEW booking sin, in my opinion), and even without the belt, he still felt underutilized as a dynamic, fun wrestler who can get a *** TV fight out of practically anyone. Bryan Danielson has carried some almighty lumps to passable matches, so it takes a performer of a certain level to really cross the threshold into MOTY territory, and Page is exactly the wrestler and personality to do that. Their matches together, especially this one, emphasize both Danielson’s natural lean toward being a prick and Page’s inherently likable self-effacing-yet-earnest sensibilities, and both of these character traits inform how they wrestle. It’s just good storytelling when Hanger digs down deep and knocks out the great-and-he-knows-it American Dragon. What more can I say, they killin’ it.
7
Sami Zayn vs Johnny Knoxville, Wrestlemania 38 Night 2 (****1/2)
The most pure fun match of the year, in a feat that I would only trust Sami Zayn to nail. A gimmick match to hype up the hilarious Jackass Forever is no surprise given the WWE’s leanings toward celebrity flirtation, and it initially felt like Sami Zayn was wasting his time tooling around with Johnny Knoxville for a dumb comedy match. Call this both a vestige of the aggrieved independent wrestling fan in me (“Sami Zayn should be world champion!” I screamed in 2013), and my lingering grump tendencies (“This is bullshit, wrestling shouldn’t be silly or fun,” I sulk every year of my life), both of which I still have a hard time letting go of. It’s okay to let go sometimes, it’s okay to enjoy something on a purely surface level, and it’s more than okay to stand and cheer half-drunk as Wee Man body slams Sami Zayn. Adding to his WOTY case, Sami Zayn not only recognizes his role in the grand scheme, but he plays it to perfection in a Looney Tunes-style straight man falling afoul of Bugs Johnny. Even the parts where the match fucks up totally work; it’s Jackass, stuff fucks up all the time, that’s part of the charm. I really hope everyone who sees this match enjoys it on some level.
6
FTR vs The Briscoes, ROH Final Battle (****1/2)
A theme for 2022 for me was re-discovering how much I love blood in wrestling. I started watching wrestling in 2003 (yeah, I know), back when not only was blood encouraged in WWE, it was allowed. You’d see a guy like Christian do at least 2 blade jobs a month on RAW, and it was hard not to get numb to it, it was expected. A couple of years later, ECW re-entered the popular conversation, and I discovered a whole new level of violence that wrestling had had baked into it a decade earlier. I loved the violent stuff: Chair shots, ladder matches, table breaks, that time Edge hit [That Guy] with a brick to the head at Backlash 2005. Mick Foley was my favorite wrestler, Raven and Tommy Dreamer were my guys, and it just wasn’t a Ric Flair main event if he wasn’t gushing blood.
Then I turned 16, discovered Ring of Honor, converted to Catholicism, and thought blood in wrestling was stupid. Not in that order, but it all did happen.
I think I turned off the part of my brain that liked hardcore wrestling because I thought it was a childish way to enjoy the form. The real way to appreciate wrestling was through studying the technical aspects, knowing all the move names, paying attention to a limb for 40 minutes, and complaining every time a finish wasn’t clean. I’m not saying that any of these are the wrong way to watch wrestling (except maybe the last one) or that there even are wrong ways to watch it (there are, but they’re the unpleasant ways that no real human being thinks about), but I do think I over-corrected in the other direction to seem smarter. I’m very insecure about my intelligence, especially when it comes to my area of special interest, and I figured that people would think I was some kind of mouth-breather for enjoying the more savage elements of wrestling.
Then I turned some indeterminate age, and I remembered that blood in wrestling always makes a match better.
FTR/Briscoes III is a goddamn bloodbath and it rocks. It is the loudest, meanest, most straightforward version of the matches these guys can have, and it still works because these are two of the greatest teams of all time. I actually said to my friends that this was my least-favorite of the three when I watched the match for the first time; I think I thought the blood was overkill or something. I blame the 100+ degree fever I had for cooking my brain that night, because I don’t really think the blood is overkill. The men want to bleed? Let ’em! The only things keeping this from being up higher are the referee blood spot (sorry, I think it’s lame) and the fact that the match was sprung with only 3 days notice before the show. Otherwise, the horrifying violence kicks ass, the double-camera set-up to follow both sets of opponents is some of the legit best camera work of the year, and FTR seal the deal for Tag Team of the Year with another top-notch night.
5
Swerve In Our Glory vs The Acclaimed, AEW All Out (****1/2)
I fully expected this to drop off the shortlist upon re-watch, but I’m happy to be wrong. The match that made The Acclaimed, and just a goddamn awesome tag match in a year chock full of them. It would have been so easy for Bowens & Caster to be the next New Age Outlaws [derogatory] by having an over gimmick that didn’t translate to the ring but, at least in the hands of workers the caliber of Keith Lee and Swerve, you can see both of them level up in real time before a crowd that is absolutely dying to see them win the big one. I really have to give it up to Anthony Bowens especially; when I watched this live, my hands were covering my mouth at all times because I totally bit on his supposed injury. It turns out, Bowens is really, really good at what he does, and the match was formatted perfectly to play into his history of injury in ways that rarely felt hokey. SIOG were a bit of an odd pick for tag team champions in 2022, but they came together in a solid act that could be truly great if given the opportunity (much like the both of them individually). Points off for not strapping The Acclaimed here and losing out on an all-time reaction, but otherwise, every bit as good as the first time.
4
FTR vs The Briscoes, ROH Death Before Dishonor (****3/4)
Yes, I’m the dumbass who likes this one best, and unfortunately, I stand by that. When FTR/Briscoes I ended, I found myself wishing, “If only they had had more time.” What’s the opposite of a monkey’s paw curling? Anyway, I got that with their 2/3 Falls rematch. As much as I love seeing both teams drop the gloves and murder-fight each other in dog collars, seeing them go at it from a technical standpoint was just the best. FTR getting to do their classic maneuvers against a team with triple their experience as a team was just excellent wrestling from bell to bell to bell to bell, peppered with callbacks and even a Chekov’s table thrown in for good measure. I might have shaved a couple of minutes off, but I can hardly complain about the best pure tag team match of the year.
3
CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Dynamite 2/2 (****3/4)
CM Punk’s return to professional wrestling is an all-time moment for me as a fan. From practically the moment I saw him in 2004, Punk has been my guy, and my guy he remains today. It felt weird to name him as an MVP of the year, considering what an albatross he has become for the company he is still technically a part of, but for the length of his ill-fated run, he was in the Danielson/Page/Moxley/Takeshita air of AEW TV wrestlers who cannot help but deliver in-ring. Punk’s feud with MJF this year was absolutely sublime, a rivalry that told both sides incredibly well, and that ratcheted itself up time and again before leading to a satisfying ending. However, although that ending was good in its own right, its the first encounter between the two that I hold in much higher regard. As I mentioned earlier, MJF is an adept in-ring worker, and his chemistry with Punk managed to translate beyond the microphone into a match that felt both old and new-school at the same time. CM Punk can have great TV matches with the likes of Dustin Rhodes, Dax Harwood, or whoever, but when you add the stakes of a emotional feud and you act as though your characters are wrestling in the middle of that feud, it produces something that stands above the distinction of “good match.” Watching this match live was a roller coaster, watching Punk go from swaggering veteran at the start to MJF managing to connive his way into an advantage. Punk rallies back only for MJF to steal a win, but then, in a twist that many of us fans claim to be immune to, Punk successfully gets the match restarted and nearly clinches it, only for MJF to scare up one more trick and beat his hero, seemingly conclusively. It’s a wonderful piece of pro wrestling storytelling, given enough time to breathe and evolve over time, and is easily the best AEW match that either man has had so far. Just about flawless.
2
Anarchy In The Arena, AEW Double Or Nothing (****3/4)
Another match that I feared wouldn’t hold up to a re-watch, but as soon as I started it, it’s hard to misunderstand just how undeniable the whole thing is. How do you make a territory-style garbage brawl that goes over 20 minutes interesting? It’s all about presentation. The babyfaces arrive to the ring to the sounds of Jon Moxley’s “Wild Thing” theme song, perfect for an unhinged group of wild cards to cut loose to. The song keeps playing over the initial carnage, New Jack style, and even loops back to the beginning in one of the greatest moments of the year. The bad guys bleed, the good guys kick ass, the crowd goes nuts, and it’s all just the best. AEW had a great year for wild tag team brawls, especially those involving Sting, and this is the apex of those matches thanks to the intensity of the rivalry between the individuals, the sheer brutality of the spots on display, and the willingness to play this straight. This could have easily been another arena brawl in the style of the previous ones with The Elite and the Inner Circle, and that would have been great, but it was the hard-nosed nature of this one that made it really stand out. It’s the kind of match that you have to catch your breath on in the middle and just go, “Holy shit, this rules.” Eddie Kingston staggering to the ring, half-dead, with a gas can in his hand ready to Actually Kill a guy is just the icing on the cake. Fucking awesome.
1
Jun Kasai vs El Desperado, TakaTaichiDespeMania (*****)
“…you said you didn’t care if you lived or died in this ring. Don’t be a fool! Death should be welcomed by no man. There are countless who yearn to live but are doomed to an early death…You’re living your best life possible! So don’t tell me that you’d gladly risk it all, you fool! We pro wrestlers may not fear death or pain. We accept that every time we step into this ring. But we should be fighting so that we can walk out of the ring with our lives! There is no need to put your life on the line. There is no need to welcome death! Once you understand that, you’ll be even stronger.”
El Desperado was ready to die, until Death showed him how to live.
As much as I love blood and violence in wrestling, deathmatch wrestling isn’t really my thing. To be honest, I kinda don’t get it. I can understand adding weapons or graphic blood-letting to a match if the circumstances call for it, but the whole deathmatch culture from Japan and the US indies has never really hit any spot for me. A lot of times, the violence seems purposeless and sloppy, wrestlers chasing a high that seems really detrimental to their health (more so than professional wrestling as a whole). So when I saw one of my favorite wrestlers (El Desperado) fight deathmatch legend Jun Kasai for around 30 minutes using barbed wire, cut-up soda cans, chairs, knives(!), and heaps of blood, I felt like Frank Reynolds watching Mac’s dance: “Oh my god…I get it.”
Kasai and Desperado’s rivalry had been building to a head through the TakaTaichi shows put on by TAKA Michinoku’s promotion, JTO. These shows involve talent from JTO, NJPW, and other Japanese independents, usually revolving around the titular TAKA and Taichi. Across 2022 and the year before, these shows have been a low-key highlight on the calendar as it allows some talented guys from NJPW show their stuff in a different atmosphere, allowing for breakout performances from guys who are very much pigeonholed into one role in the largest Japanese company. In NJPW, Desperado is a junior heavyweight who is perennially around the top of the division but is rarely THE top. He might get a junior tag title reign or, rarely, a run with the singles belt, but he is usually placed under the likes of the more popular Hiromu Takahashi or others who fit the bill a bit better for NJPW’s schemes. Over at the TakaTaichi shows, Desperado began to put his sights on Jun Kasai, wanting to prove himself by matching against something of an idol of his in said idol’s natural deathmatch habitat. There’s even a somewhat romantic air to it, as Kasai presented Desperado with a rose as part of his challenge. These men don’t fight out of anger or hatred, they fight because…
This match is nuts. Desperado wears all white, so he was doomed to bleed buckets, something he does ably with his trademark mask draped around his throat. Kasai kicks the dog shit out of him, but Despe gets his own stuff in, and it all feels different, somehow. It’s so typical for a match like this to have both opponents professing hatred or growling at one another, but more often than not, Kasai has a smile on his face. The whole thing has this air of catharsis, as Desperado struggles to prove himself by putting his body in the most danger its ever been in. By the end, Desperado scores one of the biggest singles wins in his entire career in an environment that he is practically a stranger to. More than that, he stirred something in the Crazy Monkey, who cuts the promo you can read above. Both men are covered in blood and gasping for breath, but they also seem the most alive they’ve ever been in their lives. Kasai begs Desperado not to seek death, but to live to see his dreams come true. Desperado, humbled, can think of nothing else but to humbly accept this advice, before producing his own rose to challenge his idol-turned-rival-turned-soulmate to fight again.
Love blooms on the battlefield. Ichiban suge wa puroresu nandayo!
“I’ll tell you now, I will never again speak about life and death so flippantly. I won’t prepare for death. I’ll bear that in mind each time I step into the ring. I’ll keep fighting to live, every single time.“
creativecontrolpw.wordpress.com 