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Mathew’s Top 25 Matches of 2018: #15-11

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Best Matches Jordan Devlin vs. WALTER OTT WrestleRama

Mathew brings you the next set in his 25 Best Matches of 2018! What filled 15-11?

Welcome back to our countdown for the Top 25 Matches of 2018 and thank you so much for following the list that I have been providing for you guys during this time. We’ve already done ten matches and now have fifteen more to go, and if you’re just tuning in and like to see the previous two before continuing on, there’s links down below before you read this next set of five matches. I’m sure you guys are pretty impatient, so let’s not waste anyone’s time and just get right to the next five.

15. Masashi Takeda vs. Isami Kodaka (BJW at Korakuen Hall 6/20/2018)

I’ll be one to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of death matches due to the fact that most promotions would just do certain spots with weapons just because with little to no substance. Big Japan Wrestling, however, usually provides some great death match wrestling along with FREEDOMS as they would give us stories on top of what they give us with this type of wrestling. Masashi Takeda is someone I consider one of the best when it comes to this type of wrestling of the modern era due to the fact that he can wrestle on top of doing death matches and has that genuine charisma.

This is my first time seeing Isami Kodaka wrestling and he kinda reminded me of a young Marufuji with his kicks and was quite impressive in the ring. Both of these men delivered an incredible match with having proper use of the weapons in the match and actually incorporating crisp wrestling action to go on top of it. Takeda would retain the Death Match Heavyweight Championship after a brutal and bloody battle. If you’re into this type of wrestling, then this one is definitely for you and if you’re someone that’s not too much into it, then I still think it’s worth watching since it has that perfect balance of both styles unlike CZW.

14. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano (NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4 8/18/2018)

A rivalry that has been developed in 2017 when Tommaso Ciampa attacked Johnny Gargano after losing their Ladder Match against AoP. Ciampa would unfortunately need to have surgery and the rivalry would be put on hold until he would make his return in 2018, attacking Gargano to pick up right where they left off.

These two men would have a trilogy of matches for the NXT Takeover shows as they main evented each of those three shows with Gargano winning New Orleans, Ciampa winning Chicago, and our conclusion which would take place at Brooklyn. Originally it would involve these two and Aleister Black in a triple threat match, but injuries would sideline Black to make it a one on one match to end the rivalry. This is definitely the year for Last Man Standing Matches since this is the third one on here, about time they get some exposure. All three matches were great in their own right but to me this one was the best way to close out the rivalry. Ciampa would win in the most clever way possible to give it that much more emotion for Gargano that he could’ve had the win but Ciampa still found a way and solidified himself as a main eventer.

13. Jordan Devlin vs. WALTER (OTT WrestleRama 2 8/18/2018)

Who doesn’t love a good underdog or David/Goliath story if done right? If I had to pick one for this year, I would tell people to watch WALTER vs. Jordan Devlin as my choice. This has been an incredible year for WALTER as he’s been turning a lot of heads with his performance and the brutality he gives to his opponents no matter how big or small they are. Jordan is someone I wasn’t completely sold on until I saw this match and the potential he has in the ring.

This was also my first time watching Over The Top Wrestling, which is a promotion based around Ireland and this was a great first recommendation. Jordan played a great underdog in the match and the crowd was electric for him too and there were times in the match that made me believe he was actually going to defeat WALTER. WALTER would eventually be too much for Jordan and added another title to his collection. If you’re also new to OTT, then this match I would check out for a good starter.

12. Shingo Takagi vs. Shuji Ishikawa (AJPW Champions Carnival 4/29/2018)

About time All Japan makes their way to the list and it starts off with my favorite tournament of the year, the Champions Carnival. I was covering A Block which had guys like Shingo Takagi, Yuji Hino, Shuji Ishikawa, Kento Miyahara, and Joe Doering and the majority of my block matches had incredible bouts that I believe is a great starting point for people that wanted to get into All Japan. On the final day of my block, Shingo Takagi and Shuji Ishikawa would face off and this match was a fantastic way to end the A Block.

For me, this whole tournament made me wish Shingo signed with All Japan instead of New Japan because he would fit in perfectly with All Japan if they wanted to have a new star for the top of the ladder nd just seeing his matches here showed he did belong there. I also do understand that he wanted to wrestle with a bigger company on a bigger stage, so I wish Shingo the best of luck all the same. Both of these men delivered with amazing wrestling and the crowd being excited from beginning to end. The one takeaway I would have is that I wish Shingo would win this match to advance to the finals against Marufuji to finally get that dream match people wanted to see, but still a fantastic match that should be viewed by everyone that loves professional wrestling.

11. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2018 5/4/2018)

What can you say about these two in the ring together? One of the greatest stories in Japanese wrestling for this generation would rekindle with a new trilogy after being separate from each other for a couple of years. This match had much more at stake than just being the number one guy in the company, but this was also Tanahashi defending his legacy as Kazuchika Okada was tied for most successful title defenses during this reign and if Okada wanted break that record, he would have to defeat the man that holds that record himself, Hiroshi Tanahashi.

The match was super important to both of these men, especially Tanahashi who was trying to keep his legacy intact while still showing that he still has what it takes to be the top guy in the company again no matter how banged up he was. The match was so emotional that the audience were on the edges of their seats as each minute would go on and you would even see some of the fans tearing up, that shows you how much Tanahashi still means to these people after all he’s given to them over the years. Okada would defeat his rival once again to break the record and had another classic under their belt. They would also fight at the G1 Climax where they would end in a draw but Tanahashi still won since he had more points, and they would fight at the Destruction tours with Tanahashi getting a victory over Okada and the last time he pinned him was at Wrestle Kingdom 9. All three of these matches were incredible and I wish I could put them all into this one number, but the one at Dontaku takes it due to the story and what was at stake. I would still watch all three of them regardless as they can never have a bad match together.

Thank you guys for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed reading this set of matches as we now reach our top ten, starting tomorrow. Who will be in our next set of matches? Well, you’re gonna have to find out about the next five tomorrow. See you guys till next time!

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TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!

All Shows On Demand


Powered by RedCircle


Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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