With only a few weeks left in 2019, we need to get a representative for December! Second Chance matches are up!

Match of the Year conversations are always some combination of fun, divisive, inane and just generally entertaining. I really enjoy the way the voting process works here, since I feel it gives us a slightly unique list compared to other places. Let’s look at the MOTY pool so far:

Current Match of the Year Pool:

• January – NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
• February – NXT Halftime Heat: Ricochet, Aleister Black & Velveteen Dream vs Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa
• March – Stardom: Wonder of Stardom Title Match: Jungle Kyona vs Momo Watanabe (c)
• April – WrestleMania 35: WWE Championship: Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan (c)
• May – AEW Double or Nothing: Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes
• June – NJPW BOSJ 26 Finals Day: BOSJ 26 Finals: Shingo Takagi vs Will Ospreay
• July – NJPW G1 Climax Night 6: Jon Moxley vs Tomohiro Ishii
• August – NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff: WWE UK Championship: WALTER (c) vs Tyler Bate
• September – AJPW Summer Explosion Day 13: Triple Crown Championship: Kento Miyahara (c) vs Naoya Nomura
• October – NXT: North American Championship Triple Threat: Dominik Dijakovic vs Keith Lee vs Roderick Strong (c)
• November – NXT: The Revival vs The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly)

So I guess it’s only fair we take a look at what matches get a second chance for December.

Second Chance Pick: Greg DeMarco (@ChairshotGreg)

NXT Takeover XXV: NXT Championship: Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano (c)

Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:

Cole argues with the ref, and goes to the outside. He gets a chair! The ref tells Cole to drop the chair but Cole doesn’t care. So the ref grabs the chair, only for Gargano to DIVE! But Gargano gets the ref instead of Cole! And now, Cole swings! But Gargano dodges and SUPERKICKS the chair into Cole’s face! Gargano puts Cole in the ring and covers, but the ref is out! The fans count past 10 but it doesn’t matter because the ref has to do it. Gargano hobbles to help the ref, but of course Cole has help of his own. Cole waves, and Gargano prepares for the Undisputed Era. But when the Era doesn’t appear, Gargano goes to the ring. Cole gets Gargano with a draping piledriver!! Cover, TWO?!? Cole is at his wit’s end. But fans know “This is Awesome!”

Cole sits Gargano up and runs, but Gargano just flops over. Gargano denies Last Shot just by not being able to do anything. Cole makes Gargano sit up again, but gets caught in GargaNO Escape! And Gargano uses his own leg to prop up the other! Cole crawls for ropes but Gargano rolls him away! Cole elbows the bad leg over and over and over until he’s free! He mule kicks the leg over and over, then hosp up again, PANAMA- Gargano sits down! TWO, roll, and Gargano can’t get up. PANAMA SUNRISE!! LAST, SHOT!! Cover, Cole wins!!

Second Chance Pick: Mathew Sarpraincone (@DamienPhoenix12)

AJPW Raising an Army: Triple Crown Championship: Kento Miyahara (c) vs Jake Lee

Jake Lee boasts something that not many can say this year; he holds a pinfall victory over Kento Miyahara. Also, he’s the only person to deprive Kento of something this year. Jake beat Kento to win the Royal Road Tournament and earn this championship shot. So with that established, Kento wants some revenge. Kento beat Jake for the Champion Carnival earlier this year, but Jake taking the Royal Road accolade is the first time, in a long time, that Kento failed.

With that backstory, the match had an interesting pacing. Lately, Kento’s matches tend to feel like an older brother messing around until he feels like winning the match. But Jake takes the sarcasm and arrogance to Kento, and Kento doesn’t seem to like it. Jake smacks him around and takes an early advantage, and you can tell that any time Kento does try to pose, it’s merely to save face, cause he’s got the concern written all over his face.

This was such a great match where you saw the story unfold in old school King’s Road style. Jake has wanted to prove he was Kento’s equal since returning to All Japan, and the Royal Road Tournament was the first time anyone from NEXTREAM beat Kento for something. Kento however, had to prove it was a fluke, especially if he wants to beat Kawada’s defense record.

Jake battered Kento with kicks and knee strikes, where Kento fought from underneath and had to look for openings. In a shocking moment, Jake kicked out of the first Shutdown Suplex Hold, which I can’t remember the last person to do that. Returning the favor, Kento kicked out of Jake’s High Angle Backdrop Driver.

So both men building the tension, the aggression and kicking out of each other’s finishers just added to epicness of the match. Find this, watch it. It’s one of the best matches of the entire year.

Second Chance Pick: Andrew Balaz (@IWCWarchief)

SEAdLINNNG Dyanmic Show Case: Beyond the Sea Championship Hair vs Hair Match: Arisa Nakajima (c) vs Nanae Takahashi

This was brought to my attention thanks to Mathew Sarpraicone, and it was a damn good recommendation. The story between these two goes back a few years, kicked off by Arisa’s inability to beat Nanae in 2017. Being that Nanae is the founder of SEAdLINNNG, a match with such high stakes is even more important than the usual title match.

Now I’m not well versed in SEAdLINNNG, but you don’t really need to be. The first half of the match is pretty basic Joshi, and then when Arisa plants Nanae on the apron with a Pedigree, then a dropping from the top rope to DDT her into the apron, followed by a Diving Footstomp on the floor…yeah it’s safe to say that turned the aggression up a bit.

Each woman had numerous moments of eating big moves, finishers and even straight punches. We had a Double Knockout tease, but they both barely got up before 10. This was fantastic striking, resolve, determination and a feud that has built over the years. Words don’t do the match justice because you might be confused before the point where the switch flips. But this is easily one of the best women’s matches of the year. Kinda wish I followed SEAdLINNNG closer.

WildCard Pick: Inspired by The #Miranda Show

OTT 5th Anniversary: OTT World Championship:David Starr vs Jordan Devlin (c)

This match was building for a while and had many European scene fans excited for the expected blow off. At one point they were tag team partners, turned bitter rivals, so we get a lot of familiarity, callbacks and venom in the action.

Devlin played heel even though he’s the hometown boy, being that OTT is an Irish promotion. Early striking advantage went the way of Devlin, even baiting Starr into boxing with him. It wasn’t until Starr caught Devlin with a lucky swing, that we saw a distinct change in the momentum.

Even though there was a decent length portion with Starr grabbing the title belt, bringing it in and a lot of posturing on using the weapon, it added to just how much both wanted to win to prove something to one another, and themselves. So what could be perceived as overbooking, was more just showmanship.

There were a ton of moments where this match could’ve ended, but the re-fire spots were paced well, both men looked great and Starr going over the Irish Ace got a hell of a reaction from the crowd. It also can’t be understated that even though I usually don’t take the crowd into consideration, this crowd was rabid, rowdy, raucous and r-r…just really insane. So even though I haven’t followed the rivalry that closely, their energy helped elevate the feel of the match.

Thoughts:

So a little bit of a refresher for everyone on what these four matches were about. NXT or AJPW could add another contender to our Pool, or SEAdLINNNG and OTT could pop up as a dark horse.

My vote will go to, OTT: David Starr vs Jordan Devlin, that match was a sight to behold and the audience made it an experience, even through a monitor. Very cool.