My goal is to be done with this thing and to be able to write a somewhat compelling report by the time Mario Party Party 7 is scheduled to happen (which I'm guessing would be live at PAX West in a few months). The way the main charts are graphed is to show who is in the lead by the percentage of Stars/Coins that are owned that's available on the board. Stars are of course weighted to be the most important thing to have.
To make the graphs work, I'm currently saying the value of coins is 1/160th the value of stars. I got that number because the results of Mario Party Party 4 wouldn't make sense if Brad wasn't the winner in the end.
So, I've come a long way and I currently like the way everything is laid out so far. There's some interesting narratives that can be found out of these results (one being that despite never winning, Jeff isn't THAT far behind Drew for overall second place in the metagame that can be played out).But, I'm definitely not done yet. If there are some suggestions of things that needs to be added, please throw them out there. I know that I will need to be working more on a better formula to come up with an "Excitement Index", as well as to add a better way to show the "big swings" since the percentage changes didn't quite give me what I wanted in big plays (I need to have amount of stars changes instead of percentage changes).
Today, we will be taking a look at the top ten matches of 2015. This includes all matches from all promotions and all genders. Because I don't want to break any of the rules set by Giant Bomb, I am not going to post the matches in here. Most of the matches on this list except for three are pretty easy to watch legally for pretty cheap. WWE Network is $9.99 a month and NJPW World is a little bit cheaper when you convert Yen to Dollars. Here is an easy guide to follow to subscribe to NJPW World and have access to their library.
Of course, there's also a lot of wrestling that has been uploaded through the internet via common streaming services. So there's that option if you want to go to that route.
Anyways, here's our top ten matches of 2015. It's been a blast to make this list and I want to thank everybody who was involved.
If you'd like to join in on our discussions on this thread, please feel free with your favorite matches of this year.
10. WWE - Royal Rumble - Brock Lesnar (c) vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
The important thing to understand about this match from Royal Rumble 2015 is that Brock Lesnar was a monster from an old hollywood movie. He ended the streak at Wrestlemania last year and absolutely dominated John Cena. Two things we thought we would never see, both accomplished by the same person. Naturally, a triple threat makes sense for him to lose the belt, because he can lose without being pinned. The big question is how do you remove the beast from the equation? In the end we get a triple threat match between three of the best people in the company, and it was a lot of fun.
Because of how insanely dominant Brock Lesnar was, we get to see a bunch of goofy stuff that we would call ridiculous if someone else did it. We bemoan the amount of finishers that get kicked out of in PPV matches, but when Brock does it, we are okay with that. Kicking out of an AA at 1? Sure. Kicking out of three AAs in a row and a curb stomp? Okay, sure. That sounds really dumb on paper, but it worked at the time. The only thing that slowed him down was getting hit by the stairs, and getting destroyed by an insane diving elbow from the top rope through the spanish announce table by Rollins. That is how you kill a monster.
Cena and Rollins have decent match for awhile after that, making the most of triple threat rules. J&J Security (remember them?) help Rollins escape the STF, and they triple-powerbomb Cena, only for Cena to be Cena and overcome the odds. A particularly neat spot has him giving the AA to both Mercury and Noble at the same time. Eventually we get to our ending, which is amazing.
Rollins hits Cena with the Curb Stomp, Cena kicks out at 2. So what does Rollins do next? Gets on the top rope and lands a goddamn phoenix splash. It was his old finisher in Ring of Honor, and the first time we see him land one. But before you can even process what just happened, Brock appears out of nowhere and suplexes Rollins. When you think Brock is going to end it there, Rollins continues to surprise, hitting Brock with the MITB briefcase twice, and goes for a curb stomp on top of it. Brock rises again! Catches him in midair, ballgame.
This match wasn't the most technical masterpiece out there, but it was a lot of fun. Brock being a movie monster is goofy as hell, but it works. Rollins gets to look like a star for maybe the first time since The Shield broke up. Cena gets to be there making you worried the whole time because Cena can always win. This match was a blast.
9. Stardom - 5★Grand Prix 2015 Finals - Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani Vs. DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko
Tag Team matches were plentiful this year from the Young Bucks to The New Day there were a lot to pick from but one match rise above them all, Stardom is one of the top Joshi promotions in Japan, house to some of the best and upcoming talent, Thunder Rocks (Io and Mayu) had been on a roll since winning the tag titles early in the year making it clear they were the team to beat but their biggest match was to come. The Jumonji sisters(Chisako and Sachiko) were taking every tag title available (JWP,Sendai,WWWD) and soon Stardom was next, they manage to beat Thunder Rocks on a house show so a match for the titles was to follow.
The match shows the best of each team, from the amazing tag moves the sisters make to Io and Mayu aerial moves, each team has something to prove, Io shows why she is the Ace of the company while Mayu reminds us that she is only getting better, the sisters prove they are not to the be taken lightly with move that are made to be seen over and over, start to finish this match had everything and more to make to number 9.
8. Dragon Gate - Gate of Destiny - Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki
When Shingo Takagi captured his third Open the Dream Gate Championship in August, he turned his back on his Monster Express stablemates and made it his mission to purge who he thought was the weak members of the Dragon Gate roster. Part of this was putting the old guard of the promotion out to pasture so this meant setting his sights on one of the oldest members of the Dragon Gate roster, Masaaki Mochizuki. Nearly 46 years old, Mochizuki is one of the few remaining members of the Dragon Gate roster who wrestled in Toryumon, the original promotion founded by Ultimo Dragon that would eventually become Dragon Gate. For Mochizuki, it was one last shot on the big stage to prove that he could still hang with the aces of the company. For Takagi, it was his chance to take Mochizuki behind the woodshed and put him out of his misery.
In the end, Takagi was simply too young and too strong, defeating the old timer but not before Mochizuki put on one of the most amazing displays of heart and fighting spirit that the company (and wrestling as a whole) has ever seen. Wrestling a man nearly 13 years his junior, Mochizuki went blow for blow with Takagi every step of the way, taking an unbelievable amount of punishment but continuing to fight back relentlessly to the bitter end. On this night, age was truly just a number as Mochizuki turned back the clock with the performance of his career in what will likely be his final one-on-one main event shot in Dragon Gate. Time takes us all one day but for one night, Masaaki Mochizuki was truly immortal.
7. NJPW - Best of the Super Jr. Final - KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O'Reilly
Different promotions approach wrestling from different angles. Companies like WWE and Chikara choose to promote the story aspect of the industry and the strugle of good guys and bad guys. For New Japan Pro Wrestling, they approach wrestling as if it is a sport and competition.
A way they do this is with annual tournaments and events that highlight different segments of their roster. One of the tournaments is the Battle of the Super Junior's; a showcase of the talant that competes in the Junior Heavyweight divsion of NJPW. The structure of the compeition has two blocks of wrestlers competing. The winner of the blocks face off in the finals, with the victor earning a spot to compete for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title.
This year's final for the Battle of the Super Jr. was between KUSHIDA vs Kyle O'Reilly.
The thirty minute match was a clinic on in-match storytelling and was told in three parts.
The first part of the story was a back and forth that showed off the wide variety of mat wrestling talent the two men have. KUSHIDA and O'Reilly began the match exchanged holds and moves as they attempted to gain an upper hand. The two showed off an impressive and constant barrage of locks and reversals at a blazing pace.
The second part of the match saw O'Reilly gain the significant advantage when he was able to injure KUSHIDA's left arm on a top rope move. This slower paced poriton of the match showed off O'Reilly's wide variety of submission moves, and KUSHIDA's ability to make the impact of the moves look real and brutal.
The final part of our story is KUSHIDA regaining control of the match, and throwing everything he can to finish off O'Reilly. Regaining the advantage with a brutal suplex on the edge of the ring, momentum shifted back to KUSHIDA as he did everything he could to win the match. He hit Kyle O'Reilly with both his tag team parter Alex Shelley's finisher the Sliced Bread #2, and his own finisher the Corkscrew Moonsault, only for O'Reilly to kick out of both. It took KUSHIDA to reverse a move into a Kimura armlock to finally get O'Reilly to tap out and earn a show at the champion Kenny Omega.
Incredible athleticism and the ability for the two men to tell a story through their actions help make this match stand out as one of the best matches of 2015.
It’s a story as old as wrestling itself. There’s a top guy in a company and there’s countless other wrestlers trying to take that spot. 99% of them fail before they even get close but once in a while, another guy comes along who threatens to take the throne away. Hiroshi Tanahashi is the undeniable top ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling and it’s been that way for a long time. Going into Wrestle Kingdom 9, Tanahashi had not only main evented the Tokyo Dome four years in a row but he had won the match every year. Enter Kazuchika Okada, the fastest rising star in Japan who at just 27 years old was already a two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Okada is undoubtedly the biggest threat to Tanahashi’s reign as the true ace of New Japan. Tanahashi had already successfully defended his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Okada two years prior at Wrestle Kingdom 7 but after winning the G1 Climax for a second time, Okada found himself face to face with Tanahashi yet again in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 9. This was Okada’s chance. Defeating Tanahashi in the Tokyo Dome would mean that New Japan was now his company.
Don't cry Okada, you'll get another chance to beat that Tanahashi jerk at next year's Wrestle Kingdom.
In the early goings of the match, it looked like Okada would do just that, controlling the bout hitting a hanging DDT the floor as well as connecting with Heavy Rain on the entrance ramp. Momentum shifted as Tanahashi injured Okada’s leg with a dragon screw legwhip and then after using Okada’s own Tombstone piledriver against him before hitting two High Fly Flows, his finishing maneuver. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the end of the match but on this night, it wasn’t enough. Okada kicked out of the second High Fly Flow as doubt began to seep into the mind of Tanahashi that this guy really could be the one who would finally take his spot. From there, Okada would attempt to hit his own finisher move, the Rainmaker, four different times but Tanahashi was there to counter it every single time. Three High Fly Flows later and the match was over. Tanahashi successfully retained his IWGP Heavyweight Championship and perhaps more importantly, retained his status as the true ace of New Japan. After the match, Tanahashi reminded Okada of what he surely already knew, that this was still his company and Okada was still far from taking it from him. A broken, weeping Rainmaker retreated having lost the battle but not the war. The story continues in just a few days at Wrestle Kingdom 10 where Tanahashi and Okada will again face off in the main event at the Tokyo Dome, however, this time with Tanahashi as the challenger and Okada as the champion in what likely be their final battle on this stage and potentially the official passing of the torch.
5. NJPW - Power Struggle - Tomoaki Honma vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Do you like Head-Butts? If you do, you'll like this match. There's 32 of them here. I know because I counted them.
Before being a regular in NJPW, Tomoaki Honma used to be involved in death matches. Tomohiri Ishii looks like he might have killed a man once in his life. Both of these guys are tough motherfuckers. 80% of the match is stiff forarms to the head or head-butts, but whenever one of these guys do hit a move it's usually done in the most grand way possible. For example there's a moment where both of these guys are struggling to lift each other up for a suplex, and Honma is able to deadlift Ishii into a suplex. Ishii hits Honma with a delayed superplex that looks impressive as hell. Honma headbuts Ishii and knocks him out of the ring and proceeds to do a diving head-butt from the top turnbuckle to the floor because Honma is a CRAZY MAN.
Both of these guys head-butt/forearm/clothesline/chop the hell out of each other and it's a thrill to watch. Japanese crowds also get hype as hell whenever these two match up because they know that they're in for something special every single time and this was no different.
Stardom had its ups and downs in 2015 but one of the best things was the rise of Kairi Hojo, before she was mainly known as a tag wrestler but once the main title was up for grabs she never looked back, there was the question if she was good enough to fill the shoes of past champions like Io Shirai and Nanae Takashi, seeing how you are reading this now I think you know the answer. Every good champion needs a good rival what better way to test the new champ than industry veteran Meiko Satomura. To describe this match the word that comes to mind is War, this start hard and only keeps turning up the volume, Satomura is know for her kicks but Hojo will be known for her backfists, seeing both give their all is nothing short of amazing from Hojo´s beautifull Diving Elbow Drop to Satomura´s fantastic Death Valley Bomb I could say more but words can only go so far, this match will keep you on the edge of your seat for that reason and many more its our pic for number 4.
3. Lucha Underground - Grave Consequences - Mil Muertes vs. Fenix
Lucha Underground had a handful of great matches this year, but there's only one that stands above the rest. After weeks of Dario Cueto hyping up this match by just saying "GRAVE CONSEQUENCES" and not exactly explaining what the hell that even means, we're finally introduced to the match with several people dressed up as skeletons carrying a casket to the ring with roses on top (and a sick skull face painted on the front).
What happened after was a brutal ending to the first chunk of Fenix vs. Mil Muertes' feud. The match starts off quick with dives and planchas over the top rope to the outside, and the pace abruptly turns into a brawl once Mil Muertes hits Fenix with the casket as Fenix attempts a suicide dive. Fenix is busted up and in one of the grossest things I've ever seen in wrestling Mil Muertes starts to rip off Fenix's mask, bites the wound, and then spits out Fenix's blood. Mil continues his assault while Vampiro is talking about his time in Vampire cults on commentary (which by the way is a real thing that Vampiro is into in real life).
In fact, here's a couple of excellent lines from Vampiro on commentary during this match:
"Shit!"
"God Damn!"
"He's Gonna Kill Him!"
"Oh Shit!"
The match continues as Mil continues to attack the wound with bites and chair shots while Fenix gets spurts of offense through dives and moonsaults off of the fan guard rail. There's a ton of big moves that happens throughout the Lucha Underground Temple as well as slams that happen on top of the coffin that dents it. The only problem that I have with this match is its sudden finish that doesn't have a great build up (it's the reason it's not higher on this list), but the whole match is just a fun ride to sit through and it makes me happy to see the feud continue as we head into Season 2 of Lucha Underground.
2. NJPW - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi
A year ago, I only watched the main program of WWE and some of NXT, pretty safe stuff. I've heard people talk about New Japan before but never felt compelled to watch it myself. Fortunately New Japan worked out a deal with Jeff Jarrett to have an english friendly version of Wrestle Kingdom 9, and I decided that was good enough for me to take the plunge. The overall show was okay, some really good matches, but nothing really hooked me personally. Then this match happened.
The first thing that blew my mind was Shinsuke Nakamura's entrance. Amazing stuff that gave me chills the first time I watched it. The actual match tells the story of the young guy trying to claw into the upper tier of the company against the veteran, and was a brawl with both wrestlers disrespecting each other. Ibushi doesn't want to wait until his turn in the spotlight, he wants it right now. He stole Nakamura's pose during the match. He stole his finisher! he was just plain disrespectful, and it was cool as hell. Nakamura is the King of Strong Style for a reason though, and he fought back. For major parts of the match Ibushi and Nakamura were just slugging each other, and it was captivating. You could feel the disdain these two had for each other.
There are some amazing spots in this match. Ibushi made everyone's jaw drop when he stood on the top rope and suplexed Nakamura over. Nakamura's last Boma Ye to Ibushi to put him away for good was savage, overall a brilliant technical match. Shinsuke Nakamura instantly became my favorite wrestler in NJPW, and Ibushi looked to have a bright future (sadly as of this writing he is injured). I do not have the years of experience that other wrestling fans in the thread do when it comes to NJPW, but at a time where the only thing I watched was WWE, that match spoke to me in a way wrestling hasn't since I was in high school. Two wrestlers giving it everything they had and stealing the show. Easily my favorite match of the year.
For years, the WWE audience has been conditioned to see women’s wrestling as bathroom breaks and cool downs. That thing you stick on the card that no one really cares about to let the crowd catch its breath before they get back to the stuff that really matters. In 2015, that changed. Though the treatment of the women’s division on the WWE main roster was very far from perfect, the conversation was no longer “why are we wasting time with these wannabe models pretending they’re wrestlers?” Instead, it was “why are these clearly talented wrestlers not getting the treatment they deserve?” Fans knew now what these women actually deserved and what they’re capable of because in NXT, they got it. Women’s wrestling in NXT was not treated as a side show or an excuse to see some girls roll around in their underwear. These are wrestlers and they’re damn good ones too. Where the “Divas Revolution” of the main roster told you to care without giving you any good reason to, NXT’s women’s revolution showed you why you should care. It wasn’t a switch that got flipped at some point, it was a process and it was earned. And if there was one moment, one match, that defined this “revolution”, it was this.
Sasha Banks had won the NXT Women’s Championship in February at NXT Takeover: Rival in the first match where the women of NXT really stole the show, establishing what would then become the norm for NXT events. As champion, Banks quickly established herself as not just the best women’s wrestler in the history of NXT but perhaps one of the best to ever wrestle in WWE. As arrogant as she is talented, The Boss truly came into her own at the top of the NXT women’s division. On the flip side, there was Bayley. Forever just happy to be here, Bayley had been taken advantage of and deceived by seemingly everyone in NXT. When the time came for the women of NXT to make their debuts on Raw, Banks, Charlotte and Becky Lynch were all there while Bayley stayed in Full Sail. While Sasha rattled off title defenses, Bayley languished in irrelevancy with a string of loses and a hand injury that put her out of action for two months. Feeling left behind by her other three “horsewomen”, Bayley was determined to finally prove that she belonged, declaring her championship aspirations and then defeating both Charlotte and Lynch to earn a title shot at NXT’s biggest event ever, Takeover: Brooklyn.
In the Barclays Center, Sasha Banks vs. Bayley was not the last match of the night but it was the main event. The electricity from the opening bell was undeniable and unprecedented for a match involving two women in the WWE. Banks spent much of the earlier portions of the match, toying with and mocking Bayley, clearly still not taking her as a serious threat and still treating her as the little sister of the Four Horsewomen. There is a certain technical brutality to Banks’ offense that was first showcased in her match earlier in the year with Becky Lynch and is certainly on display here as well. Ripping off the brace and working over the previously injured hand of Bayley, Banks is meticulous and surgical showcasing her in control, detached style that got her the championship. In contrast, Bayley wrestles with pure emotion, complete with Dusty Rhodes tribute bands on her wrist, feeding off the energy of the crowd and willing herself through the pain. The turning point of match comes when Banks has the Banks
Statement locked on in the center of the ring and while Bayley desperately reaches out for the rope break, Banks viciously stomps on the injured hand of Bayley. Still refusing to give in, Bayley again reaches for the ropes when Banks decides to instead use the ropes to roll her back in the middle of the ring to reapply the submission hold. In this split second, Bayley counters, flipping the hold into a submission of her own. With a desperate champion now out of options, the momentum clearly shifts in favor of the challenger. A jaw dropping top rope reverse hurricanrana followed by a Belly to Bayley is what finally ends Bayley’s two year long championship journey, proving to everyone that not only does she belong but so does women’s wrestling.
Tetsuya Naito has struggled his entire career to belong in New Japan. Constantly attempting to enter the upper echelon of wrestlers with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura, he was never able to garner enough fan support to be seen as any of their equals. This is all culminated at Wrestle Kingdom 8 where Naito suffered his biggest embarrassment, losing his main spot at the Tokyo Dome via a fan poll. This year, however, Naito fully embraced his inability to fit in. After a Mexican summer excursion in CMLL, Naito returned to New Japan with a new persona, attitude and rallying cry, LOS INGOBERNABLES. Complete with a slow trot to the ring that would make Undertaker say “jeez, dude really?”, Naito seemingly became the master of Bored Style as he seemed generally disinterested with beating up his opponents or getting his ass kicked himself. In 2015, no referee, camera man or young boy was safe from Naito as he became arguably the most entertaining aspect of a relatively disappointing second half of the year for New Japan. With the help of his stablemates EVIL and Bushi, he silenced all detractors who said that he would only ever be a vanilla B-tier level babyface by rejecting everything and everyone that gotten him to this point in his career. LOS INGOBERNABLES
At the beginning of the year, New Day was a new group that was failing miserably. Kofi has not been involved in anything in years, Xavier Woods never had a chance to impress anybody, and Big E's stock was plummeting after a pretty good debut year in 2014. The crowd shortly turned on New Day (it honestly never had a chance) and it was honestly borderline offensive at times.
WWE was forced to turn The New Day heel. Most teams would probably flounder right here, but Xavier/Kofi/Big E took the ball and completely ran with it. Every week would have a New Day promo that was more upsurd than the week before. Xavier Woods' trash talk throughout matches was incredible, Kofi finally showed life as a character, and we finally got to see Big E's comedic chops come through on TV after years of showing it on his Twitter accounts.
Then they bought a trombone at some point... And then they started to sell Unicorn Horns as WWE Merchandise... at some point Xavier Woods gained magical powers?
Honestly, the only reason to watch WWE for the majority of this year was because of The New Day. That is not a lie or an exageration. The only watchable thing on WWE television was this Tag Team. That's why no other tag team was close in 2015 for this catagory.
Runner Ups: Young Bucks, Chad Gable & Jason Jordan, Unlikely Trio, Enzo & Big Cass
It has been said many times, but Lucha Underground transcended wrestling this year. It wasn't only a great wrestling show, it was a great television show. Ultima Lucha is Lucha Underground's big finale (so big it was aired over two weeks, but because it was recorded as one show live we are counting it as one show). The in-ring stuff was amazing from start to finish. What everyone thought would be a ho-hum starting match between The Mack and Cage turned into a brutal war that ended with someone being curbstomped through a cinder block, at that point everyone knew that this show was going to be something special, even for Lucha Underground. Aside from a short dull match with Blue Demon Jr (which still pushed a story forward), every match was great, and covered a variety of matches. One of the biggest highlights was the Cero Miedo match between Pentagon Jr and Vampiro, which was probably the hardest to watch because of the pure violence in the card. Light tubes got used as weapons and someone got lit on fire, stuff normally tucked away into the shady side of the internet was on television for all to witness.
Great ring action aside, the major thing about Ultima Lucha is that it the end of a lot of stories that have been told all season. What's up with that monster that killed a guy? Who is Pentagon Jr's master? Can the champion Prince Puma defeat Mil Muertes, the personification of death? Even though this show is the best of the year, a major reason this won was because it was the end of an amazing journey. Watching this show on it's own would still be great, but would be the equivalent of watching a season finale of Breaking Bad or 24. Speaking of endings, the cinematic montage that ended Lucha Underground was a perfect ending to this amazing season. Fortunately we are getting a second season, but if we didn't. That would have been a beautiful goodbye.
Runner Ups: NJPW WrestleKingdom 9, NJPW Dominion 2015, NXT Takeover Brooklyn, PWG BOLA Night 2
No wrestler, male or female, ruled 2015 more than Sasha Banks. There was no story among fans bigger than the rise of NXT’s women’s division this year and the one constant name in the middle of the discussion all year was The Boss. After winning the NXT Women’s Championship on February 11 at NXT Takeover: Rival, Banks began a reign that would re-write what it means to be a women’s wrestler in the WWE. Starting at Rival, the women of NXT stole the show at just about every single Takeover the rest of the year until NXT had no choice but let them main event and Banks was every step of the way. Whether it was alongside Becky Lynch in her star making performance at Takeover: Unstoppable or playing the villain to Bayley’s years long championship odyssey at Takeover: Brooklyn or finally, in her NXT swan song at Takeover: Respect, where her and Bayley became not only the first women to have an Iron Man match in WWE but also the first women to main event a WWE PPV event. The Boss did it all in 2015 and even though her call-up to the main roster is worrying to say the least, at just 23 years old, you have to believe that she’s just getting started.
Runner Ups: Kairi Hojo, Bayley, Io Shirai, Asuka
Best Male Wrestler - AJ Styles
If you were to describe AJ Styles in 2015 in one word, it’d be “consistent”. Whether he was at the packed Tokyo Dome for Wrestle Kingdom or in front of a couple hundred people during Chikara’s King of Trios tournament, Styles reliably delivered fantastic matches throughout the year. The first half of the year saw him putting on amazing singles matches against the likes of Okada, Tanahashi, and Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight title, as well as traveling all over the world to defend the title in other independent promotions. After losing the title back to Okada in July, he proceeded to have an awesome run in the G1 Climax tournament, as well as put on completely bonkers tag matches alongside the Young Bucks in both Chikara and Ring of Honor.
With reports of back issues starting to catch up to him, as well as past interviews saying he’d like to stop once he hits 40, it’s entirely possible that AJ will be completely done within a couple of years. If that’s the case, he’ll be going out on a truly great run and this past year he’s proven that he deserves his nickname “Phenomenal”
Runner Ups: John Cena, Zack Sabre Jr, Chris Hero, Roderick Strong
Wrestling at its best is at least a little ridiculous, and few things are more ridiculous than a man rolling up to a match in a GOD DAMN TANK.
Wrestlemania is no stranger to over-the-top awesome entrances but Rusev really blew away the competition this year. Even before Rusev appeared, Lana walked out leading a troop of Russian soldiers marching to the Russian national anthem while carrying the US title. Then, signaled by a line of artillery cannons on the stage firing off pyro, Rusev proceeds to ride in on top of the aforementioned TANK proudly waving a Russian flag. Perhaps the best part of this insane, cartoonish entrance is the implication that the tank, artillery, and soldiers were provided by Vladimir Putin himself.
Runners Up: King Nakamura at WrestleKingdom 9, Vampiro dressed as an Evil Pope at Ultima Lucha, EVIL at NJPW Power Struggle, From Software presents Finn Balor NXT London
Being a heel in 2015 is a tough thing to pull off.
Fans have unprecedented access to the ins and outs or professional wrestling thanks to social media, the 24/7 news cycle, and an internet full of fans deconstructing everything that happens in the squared circle.
If you want to be a great heel in this day and age, take it to Twitter.
WWE Superstar Kevin Owens has embraced Twitter in a way no other WWE heel has. He has gotten into much advertised spats with "celebrities" like Melissa Joan Hart and Kevin Nash, mercilessly mocks fans that dare to say anything bad about him or his in-ring work, and makes threats and promises to further his WWE character's agenda.
Also, he shows just how much of an awesome father he is by showing his son Owen with the titles he won in the past year.
Kevin Owens is one of the best heels in professional wrestling. Kevin Steen is a dedicated and proud family man. The combination of these two makes the Twitter account one of the most entertaining to follow among all of professional wrestling.
Roman Reigns is the guy that WWE wants to go with as the face of the company from now on. That's all fine and well, most people would prefer somebody else but Roman does have a certain look to him that does look "big time". Also, when he was a member of the Shield he was booked extremely well and always came out looking good in every match and every feud.
However, there was a point where WWE decided to write terrible jokes for the guy and force him to say stupid catch phrases that makes no sense at all (Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am) and telling jokes that never had a chance of landing. If you ever want to gain the feeling of wanting to die, please watch Roman Reigns tell Big Show a story of how he found magic beans.
The biggest mistake right now WWE is making with "Their Guy" is that they are writing him like he's John Cena. Roman Reigns struggles and fails whenever he is supposed to be witty/funny and is better served as a badass who gets to the point. WWE continues to completely fail at their goal, and we have terrible segments like the one below as the result.
Runners Up: WWE using Reid Flair's death, The Divas Revolution, Sheera Shuffle
Worst Match of the Year - WWE Royal Rumble 2015
While 2015 had a ton of incredibly awesome matches and moments, Wrestling isn’t always amazing and the five matches collected here are examples of some of the absolute worst matches the year had to offer. While the other matches on the list were bad from either an in-ring or story perspective, The 2015 Royal Rumble match was a fairly boring match by Rumble standards on top of having some of the most mind-boggling booking decisions possible.
It’d be hard to argue against the opinion that WWE had a very bad 2015 and a great deal of their issues can be summed up with “bad writing”. The Royal Rumble was the prime example of this and served as a giant middle finger to fans watching. From starting with Miz and R-Truth at 1-2, to Harper calling for him and Rowan to turn on Bray only to immediately turn on Rowan anyways, to Daniel Bryan being randomly eliminated with minimal fanfare before #16 even entered, to Big Show and Kane unceremoniously dumping out the new generation like literal pieces of trash, the match was a complete mess. To go in-depth on everything wrong with the hour long match would fill an entire essay. Not even a surprise return from The Rock could stop the thunderous boos the last half of the match got.
Runners Up: Elimination Chamber IC Match (WWE), Villanos vs. Psycho Circus (AAA), Probably an Eva Marie Match (NXT), Creepy Angelico vs. Ivellise match (LU)
Feuds are probably the most important thing in Pro Wrestling. Without them, even a good match ends up being forgettable. Sometimes in wrestling you get two personalities that line up so perfectly that it seems like they were just meant to collide, things like Cena/Edge, Rock/Austin, or Flair/Dusty. Lucha Underground took this one step further with the way the presented storylines as a fictional TV show instead of a “real sport” and brought us Fenix vs Mil Muertes.
It works on multiple levels. As a pure wrestling feud, you have the classic “small flippy guy who’s got speed and technique” vs “giant, barrel-chested guy who will crush you if he gets a hold of you.” But going deeper as a storyline you have the literal embodiment of 1000 Deaths vs a man who has 1000 Lives and won’t stay down. The fact that LU managed to pull off a feud between Life and Death and have it not be completely hokey is a testament to the quality of storytelling they’ve got going on. That’s not to say it’s all thanks to the writers as both Fenix and Mil - along with Catrina - definitely pull their weight in the ring, putting on the absolutely unreal Grave Consequences match as well as the great Deathmatch follow up.
Possibly the most exciting thing about this feud is that given where we’re left at the end of Season 1, it seems extremely likely that this fight will continue well into the second season.
Runners Up: Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW), Sasha Banks vs. Bayley (NXT), John Cena vs. Kevin Owens (WWE), Kairi Hojo vs. Meiko Satomura (Stardom)
Chad Gable came into wrestling as an accomplished amateur wrestler who was a part of the American Olympic wrestling team in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Anytime somebody with a amateur background decides to go with Pro Wrestling, they usually have a pretty good chance of catching on early and with Gable it seems to have happened faster than normal. He was signed to start training in NXT in 2013 and within his first year of being a part of the weekly roster, he's already one of the most liked people in the company.
The reason for this is because his ringwork/chain wrestling is incredibly fluid and Gable is surprisingly very strong and is pretty easily able to lift people twice his size. It's hard not to look at him and see nothing but potential in him, and it helps that he's also very charismatic and willing to put himself out there.
Runners Up: Mike Bailey, Jason Jordan, Pentagon Jr, Dana Brooke
AJ Styles and Kota Ibushi met on April 5th in the main event of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Invasion Attack show for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Styles entered the show as the defending champion; defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi for his second reign as the world champion. His first title defense opponent was decided by the New Japan Cup; a tournament held that gives the winner a shot at any heavyweight title in NJPW. Kota Ibushi won that right to challenge, and the two faced off in Tokyo at the Ryougoku Sumo Hall.
The 27 minute match was a fierce back and forth that displayed the talants of the two men. After a top rope Hurricarana and powerbomb, Ibushi was on the offensive. He climbed to the top rope, poised to strike with his Pheonix Splash finisher, when Kenny Omega climbed the ring to distract Ibushi.
Omega did not directly interfere with the match, but the hesitation gave Styles enough to time to get to his feet. Ibushi did not see him, and went through with the Phoenix Splash, leading to an incredible and jawdropping feat of strength by AJ Styles. Catching the flying and twisting Ibushi, Styles was able to get him into his finisher and hit the Styles Clash, getting the pinfall victory.
Wrestling is at its best when two individuals get to display what they do best. Ibushi and Styles, two names that will appear later in these awards, pulled off a move that shows off just why these two men are some of the best in the world.
When Lucha Underground began late last year, there was a lot to like. Many people like myself who were not familiar at all with Mexican promotions were able to be introduced to many great Mexican wrestlers, the Lucha style of wrestling was a welcome alternative to what most people watched weekly, and the backstage promos abandoned what WWE and every other wrestling company has been doing for the past 25 years and are instead shot like they are scenes in a movie. There was a good amount of cheese in these backstage scenes to enjoy during the breaks in between matches... but there was a certain moment that really opened up the show to do whatever the fuck they wanted with the story.
Drago had accepted a match against Prince Puma for the World Title on the condition that if he lost he was banished from The Temple. In the end, Drago ended up losing. Dario is backstage as he is leaving, and then Drago walks outside and a giant ball of fire appears. "Wait, what's that fireball supposed to mean? Did he explode?" said everybody, "Oh, I guess he's literally a dragon and that's INSANE" said everybody five seconds after.
This opened the door for Lucha Underground to go anywhere they want to.
A rocket man launching off into space. Sure.
Ghosts. Yup.
Konnan in Kung Fu fight scenes to show off his new metal staff that he forged himself. Check.
So while it might not be the craziest moment, Drago turning into a dragon really opened up a show from a storytelling perspective and made Lucha Underground go from a great show to an AMAZING show.
(moment is at the end of video below if it automatically doesn't take you to it)
Runners Up: Lucha Underground closing montage, Seth Rollins cashes in at WrestleMania, Brock Lesnar rips off a car door and throws it into the crowd, Pentagon Jr.'s master reveals himself
News of the Year: Hulk Hogan is a racist, WWE not okay with that.
It's hard to believe that Hulk Hogan posing in the ring with Snoop Dogg happened earlier this year, soaking in the cheers, like he would be doing this forever. Since then, tapes recorded years ago were released of Hulk Hogan saying some despicable racist things and he was fired.
One reason this was such a big deal was WWE's reacting with damnatio memorae, erasing him from history like he was one of Stalin's enemies. Not only was he fired from the company, all references and merchandise were wiped from WWE's website. WWE had only done that to one other person, and he murdered his wife and son. The company's reaction was actually a pretty big surprise, considering how much they have gone out of their way to ignore actions of some of their stars in the past. Maybe it was how big the news was and how damning it was.
What was said in the tapes was so direct, there is no way you could rationalize or excuse it. It's nearly impossible to misinterpret stuff like "I guess we're all a little racist. Fucking n*****." and that was only a small part of what was on those tapes. Maybe Terry Bollea (Hulk's real name) can change, and I hope he can, but Hulk Hogan's racism being outed and his firing by WWE was the biggest news of the year.
Runners Up: Raw Ratings hitting a new low, EVERYONE GOT INJURED, AAA having the worst week ever, WWE signs Samoa Joe/Kana/Uhaa Nation
If you've managed to go through 2015 without watching Lucha Underground, then you're simply missing out. I hate hearing the phrase "wrestling is bad today" when the person only watches WWE. That's like saying "music is terrible today" because they only listen to mainstream pop songs. Lucha Underground has brought in a completely fresh way of filming a pro wrestling show in the modern era. It features storytelling shot like stylistic movies (Think Robert Rodriguez… LU is on his television channel after all), a great mix of wrestlers from Mexico and the American independents, and surprisingly great commentary from Matt Striker and Vampiro.
A few things I love about LU:
Dario Cueto. He is the "heel authority figure" for Lucha Underground. But instead of the normal wrestling trope where the authority figure wants to screw over the faces on every show, Dario Cueto only has one goal in mind: to entertain the crowd. After all, it is a business and the crowd is the key contributor to his business. What a novel concept, right?
The Temple. The entire season is shot in one area and it was fun to watch every single nook and cranny of the place be used in some way by the end of the season. Small details like a live mariachi band playing during the commercial breaks really gave the setting some life. The place just kind of felt like a home in some weird way by the end of the season. Really can't wait to see what the new temple will look like in Season 2.
Memorable Moments. Lucha Underground has created a universe for themselves where their only limitation is their imagination, and I've talked briefly about that in the entry above with Drago. But the things that solidifies my love with this show is how masterfully crafted some moments of the show are during the matches. A part of Prince Puma's backstory is that his parents died in an earthquake, and when Mil Muertes hits his finishing move on Puma from the top rope, the camera shakes VIOLENTLY. The reaction shot to Son of Havoc dumping Ivalisse will never not be hilarious. Alberto El Patron throwing Johnny Mundo through Dario Cueto's office window while Dario's doing some office work, he's confused at first and then realizes Mundo turned heel and he becomes filled with so much joy...
I feel like I don't get these things much in wrestling anymore. Lucha Underground is so cheesy and fun that it's impossible not to love some of the characters on the show. The race wasn't even close this year, Lucha Underground is the top dog in the wrestling world right now when it comes to quality.
I fucked up last year... there was no Best Of video to go alongside with the Extra Life stream. No Piggies. No Game Butts. No "Fuck Dave Langs".
I don't want to repeat the same mistake this year, so I'm going to ask for help for this 50+ Extra Life stream. All of my personal time stamps go through www.qlcrew.com now instead of keeping them on my computer. So if you would like to help me out, please make an account on there and start time-stamping bits that you think would be good to be added into the Best Of videos whenever GB uploads the archives of the stream onto the site.
Thanks a bunch to anybody who decides on helping. I'll give credit on the video to the people that help out if that means anything to you.
I hope everybody enjoys the video above... Please bare with my while I toot my own horn, but I'd like to point out that Best of Giant Bomb's 82, 83, 84, 85, and 86 has been made in consecutive weeks. Ever since I've started my new job and moved out I feel that I've got more time to put effort into these, so hopefully I can get these out in at least a bi-weekly schedule.
I also had a goal of always trying to make these 10 minutes minimum... not sure why I stuck to that so religiously, but now I'm probably going to loosen it up and aim for 6-7 minutes just so they can be made more consistantly.
Anyways, thanks as always for supporting these and/or giving me feedback (also thanks to @patrickklepek for giving me permission to use his stuff)
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