Milkman

I’ll let Dan make the announcement himself but this is pretty much the only reason I could ever see Dan leaving the video game industry. Good luck, Dan! It won’t be same here without you.

@sombre: This was the best year of Shingo's career for me, personally. Ishii was great as he always is but I'd take his 2018 over his 2019. Still praying that that Ishii IWGP title reign will come someday but I'm starting to lose hope.

Figure a lazy New Years day afternoon is as good a time as any to throw together a quick MOTY list. For the sake of keeping things fresh and not just listing a bunch of New Japan matches, I kept it to 1 match per promotion.

10. Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston

WrestleMania 35, 4/7/19

The term "WrestleMania moment" has been made absolutely meaningless by the WWE but this was an actual true and earned WrestleMania moment. Plenty of criticisms can be made of everything that happened before and after this match concerning Kofi and his title reign but for one night at least, it was pretty much perfect.

9. Jimmy Lloyd vs. Masashi Takeda

GCW Joey Janela's Spring Break 3 Part 1, 4/5/19

A couple hundred unsuspecting wrestling fans loaded into the White Eagle Hall Mania weekend for what they thought would be another fun, goofy night of Joey Janela fun. Instead they got one of the most violent deathmatches of the year. At under 10 minutes, this was simply two insane motherfuckers throwing everything they have at each other. Not for the faint of heart.

8. Tribe Vanguard (KAI & YAMATO) vs. R.E.D. (Big R Shimizu & Eita) vs. Kaito Ishida & Naruki Doi

Dragon Gate Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, 7/21/19

A chaotic near 30 minute sprint, this is the kind of match that Dragon Gate made famous. An incredible display of cardio and speed, this is Dragon Gate at its absolute finest.

7. Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr.

AAA Triplemania XXVII, 8/3/19

A match that starts with a cherry picker stare down and ends with a fucking rock to the head. This was the exactly the kind of melodramatic lucha libre bloodbath between two legends in their 50s that you want in the main event of Triplemania.

6. Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes

AEW Double or Nothing, 5/25/19

Though it was far from the best in-ring work of the year, this match was proof that all you need to create a great wrestling match is a good story, genuine emotion and a fucking ton of blood. Wrestling at its simplest and its best.

5. Arisa Hoshiki vs. Hazuki

STARDOM Big Summer in Tokyo, 7/24/19

There are a number of Arisa Hoshiki matches that could easily be on this list. It seemed like every time she defended the Wonder of Stardom title this year, it was must see. But while her defenses against Tam Nakano and Jungle Kyona were also great, her violent and intense hatred filled match against Hazuki is the one that resonated the most.

4. Team Baszler vs. Team Ripley

NXT TakeOver: WarGames III, 11/23/19

NXT's version of WarGames have been enjoyable matches but failed to really capture of the spirit of WarGames instead mostly turning into fun but fairly trite WWE spotfests. That was until the first women's WarGames match this year. A masterclass of storytelling that easily stands up next to the very best WarGames matches of the past, this was a match that the Dangerous Alliance and Sting's Squadron could be proud of.

3. Jordan Devlin vs. David Starr

OTT Fifth Year Anniversary, 10/26/19

David Starr repeatedly made his case for the best wrestler in the world this year and he was no better than in the culmination of his years long feud with Jordan Devlin in OTT. The atmosphere of this match is nearly unprecedented. You'd be hard pressed to find a crowd as ravenous and intensely invested in a wrestling match not just this year but any year. Blurring the lines between heel and babyface and between kayfabe and reality, this was a phenomenal display of the independent vs. corporate story that defined wrestling in 2019.

2. WALTER vs. Tyler Bate

NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, 8/31/19

Simply one of the best David vs. Goliath matches ever. Without very many high spots and with a fairly methodical pace, both wrestlers keep the crowd completely invested for over 40 minutes. Calling to mind some of the great King's Road All Japan matches of the 90s, WALTER is merciless, brutalizing Bate, who could not be a better foil. A perfect monster and a perfect hero and an incredible wrestling match.

1. Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXVI, 6/5/19

It doesn't get much better than this. Two of the best in the world at the top of their game going all out on a big stage. What else could you ask for? At its core a simple strength vs. speed encounter, this is a beautifully paced 30 minute match between the ace of the junior heavyweight division and the undefeated new threat to the throne. Its got everything you can ask for in a match in 2019. Thrilling high spots, excellent storytelling, brutal stiff strikes and an easy choice for match of the year.

I hate to add to the overall negativity here but the idea that they got the whole crew together and thought it was a good idea to do 13 (!!) hours of recap podcasts and 1 hastily thrown together 20 minute group video is honestly insane to me.

Don't have much positive to say about AEW this week besides the Jericho/Jungle Boy segment. Thought that was all very well done. They gotta get Jungle Boy on the juice though. He's got future star written all over him but could stand to bulk up a little bit more.

Stealing Statlander's heat for a second time with this dumb Brandi shit was pretty infuriating and it felt like the ending Dark Order stuff fell completely flat. AEW needs to be realize who people are here to see. Ending your last show of the year with a bunch of geeks in masks beating up all your big stars didn't get Dark Order over as a threat, it just made The Elite look like dorks. Before AEW, Kenny Omega was one of the hottest wrestlers in the world. Now he's getting beat up by Alex Reynolds in a mask. Gotta get their shit together with this stuff, hopefully the week off lets them regroup a bit.

The contrast of flipping from Dynamite's main event segment to the ending of Ripley vs. Baszler was such a stark difference. If the goal of these shows is presenting an alternative to Raw and SmackDown, NXT is succeeding in that goal way more than AEW right now.

Thought Dynamite was pretty great this week. Cody/QT vs. Butcher & the Blade was surprisingly great, Big Swole vs. Sakura was really solid and MJF killed it with his promo. That was the moment MJF needed in AEW and he nailed it, guy is an undeniable star. The Jungle Boy/Jericho stuff didn't do much for me last week but I thought this week was a lot more effective, Jungle Boy "pinning" Jericho was a really well done moment and did its job perfectly. Bucks vs. Ortiz and Santana was fun, maybe not as crazy as I expected but definitely crazy enough. I wonder if next week is Young Bucks saying to SCU, "look, we tried with you, let's give the people what they actually wanna see." I wouldn't be opposed to it personally, SCU isn't doing much with the titles.

Only real negative I can give Dynamite this week is the Omega/Page vs. Sabian/Spears match. The stuff at the end with Janela and Tully was completely corny and stupid. The fact that Omega is even loosely associated with this nonsense is a testament to how badly he's been used so far.

NXT started and ended really strong with Garza vs. Rush and the Balor/Ciampa/Lee triple threat. NXT seems really behind Garza right now and for good reason. Great wrestler, super charismatic, him and Rush have had some great matches, wouldn't mind them running it back again. The triple threat was appropriately nuts, was surprised by Balor winning but seems like they might be saving Lee's moment for a bigger show.

Stuff in between was fine for the most part, felt a little like NXT before they went to TV in spots. I'm a noted Dakota Kai stan but didn't like what they did with her and Mia this week and not just because Kai cracked her head on that table. The whole spot felt totally unnecessary, the Kai/Mia stuff is already over, it doesn't need some big death spot on a random TV episode. Would be even worse if she had to miss any time because of it. Surprisingly, the only other real standout match was Breezeango vs. the Singh Brothers, which at first seemed like it had no business being on TV but actually turned into a pretty fun match. So good for them, wouldn't mind more Breezango on NXT.

you will never be as cool as Jushin Thunder Liger catching a bouquet from the crowd on the way to the ring for his last match in his hometown.

Not to harp more on the Brandi stuff but for me, it wasn’t just the promo (which I thought was bad) but the placement. Made the great Statlander/Shida match seem like a complete afterthought. A relative unknown to the AEW audience like Statlander beating the number 1 contender should be a huge deal instead it was just the backdrop for this Brandi stuff. Probably the first thing on AEW TV so far that I can say I truly hated.

Hated that the great Statlander/Shida match was immediately overshadowed by this terrible Brandi Rhodes stuff.

Opening match was a pitch perfect PWG send up match right down to the point where you ask yourself if it was one too many kick outs and then it just keeps going and becomes great again.

Both shows felt kind of on auto pilot this week. Kushida vs Cameron Grimes was a standout from NXT but most of the show seemed like set up for the last two shows of the year. Looks like both shows are setting up the December 18th show to be a kind of season finale.

@shinmaru007: Agreed on all accounts. Pretty gutted by this, she had so much potential to grow until one of the biggest stars in the company. Huge loss.

Her match with Arisa was one of my favorites this year. Easily one of the most violent, hard hitting Stardom matches of the year.