Andrew’s Top 5 Matches: Week Ending 12/1/2019

A few holiday themed episodes, but nothing really huge this week. What made the Top 5 matches?

This week is the last week for the November match pool, and next week will be the second chance vote where we’ll see 5 matches that missed the cut during the year, and they get a chance to represent December.

With all that said, NXT: The Revival vs The Undisputed Era, won the vote last week.

Which one of these matches will join the November grouping? Vote away!

5. NXT: Cruiserweight Championship: Lio Rush (c) vs Akira Tozawa

Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
Tozawa writhes but Lio barely stirs as the count passes 5. Then 7, 8, and both men burst in at 9! Fans cheer and Tozawa feeds off the energy. “AH! AH!” echoes out as Tozawa stands. Lio is up next, but Tozawa has the waistlock. Lio blocks and victory rolls, TWO! Mule kick, falling Pele! Tozawa’s mouth guard came out, but he’s down. Lio rebuonds but his Come Up misses just for having no target. Tozawa stands but Lio kicks from all sides! Lio lights Tozawa up, then ROCKS him with a right forearm! Tozawa stays standing, but Lio underhooks. Tozawa powers out, Come Up into a GERMAN SUPLEX! Tozawa dead lifts for another German! Cover, TWO!! Lio still lives but Toawa puts him in the drop zone! Tozawa climbs, leaps, TOKYO TOWER onto knees! Lio is up top now, FINAL HOUR! The splash hits Tozawa on the back!

Lio climbs up again from the other corner! Lio leaps, another FINAL HOUR! Cover, Lio wins!!

Winner: Rush via Final Hour

Rating: *** 1/2

4. AEW Dynamite: PAC vs Kenny Omega

Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
Omega fireman’s carries, “You Can’t Escape!” But Pac does escape to shove Omega to a corner. Omega hits back with an elbow but walks into a boot! Pac runs into a boot, but then SUPERKICKS back! Omega wobbles again, Pac runs, but Omega boots to V-TRIGGER! Omega runs, Pac follows to LARIAT! Both men are down and fans are fired up! Omega stirs as fans rally up behind him. Pac stalks him to a corner to put him on the top rope. Pac climbs up, brings Omega all the way up, SUPER FALCON ARROW! Cover, TWO!! Omega still lives! Pac is furious, but he drags Omega into the drop zone. Pac climbs up again as fans say “This is Awesome!” Pac aims, BLACK ARROW FLOPS! Omega got clear, and now he comes back with a V-TRIGGER! Electric Chair, the fold, but Pac slips out. Omega wrenches out, crucifix pin, TWO! But Omega keeps with it and rolls Pac back down, hooking a leg! Omega wins!!

Winner: Omega via Cradle

Rating: *** 1/2

3. WWE Raw: #1 Contender for US Title: Ricochet vs Drew McIntyre vs Randy Orton vs Rey Mysterio

Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
Orton can’t believe the mark McIntyre left on him. McIntyre HEADBUTTS! The Glasgow Kiss takes Orton down, but Ricochet LEAPS in with a lariat! Standing shooting star! Ricochet triangle dropkicks Mysterio! Ricochet has McIntyre, he hops up, but McIntyre has him in the Electric Chair, blocks the Poison-rana into the INVERTED ALABAMA- NO! Victory roll! TWO!! McIntyre LARIATS Ricochet! Dead lift POWERBOMB! Cover, TWO!! Fans are rallying as McIntyre takes aim at Ricochet. Ricochet rises, but Orton RKO’s McIntyre! Cover, but The OC drag Orton out! No Disqualifications allows them to throw Orton into barriers! Ricochet and Mysterio are back up, Mysterio springboards to huricanrana, but gets blocked! To Ricochet’s fireman’s carry. Mysterio slips out, moonsaults, cradle! Mysterio wins!!

Winner: Mysterio via Cradle

Rating: *** 1/2

Honorable Mentions:

NXT: Dominik Dijakovic & Keith Lee vs Undisputed Era (O’Reilly & Strong)
Winner: UE via High Low
Rating: *** 1/4
Pro Wrestling NOAH Starting Over Day 5: GHC National Championship: Takashi Sugiura (c) vs Shuhei Taniguchi
Winner: Sugiura via Olympic Slam
Rating: *** 1/4
WWE Raw: United States Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs Rey Mysterio
Winner: Mysterio via Frog Splash
Rating: *** 1/4
NOAH Starting Over Day 5: HAYATA & YO-HEY vs Chris Ridgeway & Yoshinari Ogawa
Winner: Ridgeway via Straitjacket Suplex
Rating: *** 1/4
IPWF: IPWF International TV Championship Loser Leaves Town Match: Downtown Daddy Brown (Willie Mack) vs Julian Cumberbun (Ethan Page) (c) w/ Sonny Sanders (Sami Callihan)
Winner: Downtown via Roll-Up
Rating: ***
NXT: Tommaso Ciampa vs Finn Balor
Winner: Balor via Bloody Sunday
Rating: ***
WWE Raw: Asuka vs Charlotte Flair
Winner: Asuka via Green Mist Roll-Up
Rating: ***
WWE SmackDown: Robert Roode vs Roman Reigns
Winner: Reigns via Spear
Rating: ***
NXT: Candice LeRae vs Dakota Kai
Winner: LeRae via DQ
Rating: ***
IPWF: Tim Burr (Josh Alexander), Jim Nasium (Dezmond Xavier), Bill Ding (Trey Miguel) & Ray Strack (Zachary Wentz) vs The Rough Riders (Tessa Blanchard, Jordynne Grace, Havok & Alexia Nicole)
Winner: Blanche via Hammerlock DDT
Rating: ***
AEW Dynamite: AEW Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs Scorpio Sky
Winner: Jericho via Walls of Jericho
Rating: ***
MLW Fusion Thanksgiving Special: MLW Heavyweight Championship: Jacob Fatu (c) vs Ross Von Erich
Winner: Fatu via Merosault
Rating: ***

2. NOAH Starting Over Day 5: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship: Stinger (Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATEL’S (Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke) (c)

From Hisame’s Newsletter 59:
The GHC Junior Tag titles were defended next, and this was a real heart-in-your-mouth watch through your fingers match, which managed to completely eclipse anything the heavyweights did on the card that evening. The two teams bought everything to the table, the match ebbed and flowed with force swinging between the two teams as it reached its crescendo towards the end as no one was going to give up, but in the end it was Tadasuke with a mixture of both showboating to the crowd and exhaustion who lost RATELS the tag titles after twenty minutes one second, when he made a grave error earlier in the match when he should have pinned Kotoge, but carried away he was playing up to the crowd, and so allowed Kotoge to recover. Had it not been for that one moment, RATELS could have kept the belts, but instead Kotoge got the win with the Killswitch.

Wiinner: Stinger via Tiger Driver + Killswitch

Rating: **** 1/4

1. Stardom Goddesses of Stars Day 2: Goddesses Tag Championship: Jungle Kyona & Konami (c) vs Tan Nakano & Arisa Hoshiki

So we have the tag tournament winners of Hoshiki and Nakano, against the very embarrassed and irritated champions. Feeling as though they have something to prove since they performed much worse than they would’ve like in the tag tournament, Konami  and Kyona wanted this match as soon as possible. Can the best frenemies of Hoshiki and Nakano take the Goddesses belts off the fuming Tokyo Cyber Squad duo?

This match was fantastically aggressive, peppered with each woman’s unique personality. Tandem moves where each team was able to chide at the other, great kicks from Tam and Arisa, power from Kyona and a few different submissions from Konami. Everything about this match was hard hitting and fun at the same time.

Tam and Arisa had a few good moments where they could’ve won. Tandem dives to the outside, Idol Knee and Springboard Kick, had the champions look primed and ready for an upset, but they held on. Tam was never quite able to get the Tiger Suplex Hold to stick, and enough meddling from Kyona gave Konami the opening to submit Tam, right when it looked like the challengers were going to pull it off.

Scary to think that Tam has only been wrestling for 3 years and she went from one of the actual worst, to now she’s tremendous Can’t wait until she gets a proper run with a singles title.

Winner: Konami via Triangle Lancer

Rating: **** 1/4

Thoughts:

Given that this is the last official week of Top 5 matches before we wind down for the Match of the Year votes, this ended pretty strong for many companies.

My vote will go to the Stardom tag match, Tokyo Cyber Squad vs DreamShine, purely for my Tam Nakano bias. Even though she didn’t win, and even ate the pinfall, this has been a great year for her establishing herself. As long as she stays healthy, Tam is on the short list for Bushiroad to focus on, and if 2020 is the year of Tam…I’m all aboard for that.