This is an interesting week being that there’s tournament coverage, GHC title matches, and whatever we usually get on television. So we might be seeing a more unique looking Top 5 than we have in a while.

Firstly, the match that won the vote last week, AEW Dynamite: AEW Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs Darby Allin, not entirely surprising given how passionate the AEW fans are. That will help set up for an interesting August since this Top 5 should be adding more variety to the list.

Let’s get to the Top 5!

Quick Top 5:

1. NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: GHC National Openweight & GHC Heavyweight Championship Double Title Match: Kenoh (c) vs Go Shiozaki (c)
   Rating: ***** 1/4
2. Stardom 5Star GP Day 2: Jungle Kyona vs Syuri
   Rating: ****
3. NJPW Strong Ep.2: ACH, TJP & Alex Zayne vs PJ Black, Blake Christian & Misterioso
   Rating: *** 3/4
4. Stardom 5Star GP Day 2: Starlight Kid vs Mayu Iwatani
   Rating: *** 3/4
5. NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya
   Rating: *** 3/4

Honorable Mentions:

• Stardom 5Star GP Day 1: Utami Hayashishita vs Jungle Kyona
  Rating: *** 1/2
• AEW Dynamite: TNT Championship: Scorpio Sky vs Cody Rhodes (c)
  Rating: *** 1/2
• Stardom 5Star GP Day 1: Giulia vs Mayu Iwatani
  Rating: *** 1/2
• Stardom 5Star GP Day 2: Momo Watanabe vs AZM
  Rating: *** 1/2
• NJPW Strong Ep. 2: Jeff Cobb vs KENTA
  Rating: *** 1/4
• IMPACT!: World Championship Open Challenge: Eddie Edwards (c) vs Brian Myers
  Rating: *** 1/4
• NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: Sugiura-Gun (Kendo Kashin, Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba) vs Kongo (Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)
  Rating: *** 1/4
• WWE Raw: Kevin Owens vs Randy Orton
  Rating: *** 1/4
• Stardom 5Star GP Day 1: Momo Watanabe vs Maika
  Rating: *** 1/4
• AEW Dynamite: Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy
  Rating: *** 1/4
• IMPACT!: Eric Young vs Willie Mack
  Rating: *** 1/4
• NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: M’s Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto ) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone
  Rating: ***
• NXT: Cameron Grimes vs Velveteen Dream vs KUSHIDA
  Rating: ***
• Stardom 5Star GP Day 1: Himeka vs Tam Nakano
  Rating: ***
• IMPACT!: NO DQ: Havok & Nevaeh vs Tasha Steelz & Kiera Hogan
  Rating: ***
• NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: IPW UK Junior Heavyweight Championship: Daisuke Harada (c) vs HAYATA
  Rating: ***
• Stardom 5Star GP Day 1: Syuri vs Natsuko Tora
  Rating: ***

3t. NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya

From My Results:

Mutoh came into the match with the game plan of attacking Kaito’s legs. Dragon Screws, Low Dropkicks to the knee and leg focused submissions ruined the young prodigy’s base. Mutoh did every direction of Dragon Screw, even using the barricade at one point…this was very deliberate. Kaito had a great moment late in the match when he fires up, tries to ignore the pain and rattles off German Suplex Holds and a Tiger Suplex Hold; but can’t quite keep the legend down.

After shrugging off a few Shining Wizards, Mutoh goes back to working on the legs. A dropkick from the bottom rope, focused at the banged up knees, opened up Kaito enough for one more Figure Four attempt and Kaito verbally submits.

Winner: Mutoh via Figure Four Leglock

3t. Stardom 5Star GP Day 2: Starlight Kid vs Mayu Iwatani

From My Results:

Mayu’s attitude is front and center as she has a sadistic smile on her face while she kicks Kid around. Mayu has her way early, even sinking in a Boston Crab, where she was literally sitting on Kid’s neck. However, getting cocky bit her as Starlight was able to take advantage of some lackadaisical offense and pinfall attempts.

Aside from a nice Tiger Feint, Starlight gets the momentum and hits a big dive to make it look like a fight. There were a few “OH” moments. Mayu slipping on the ropes early just looked silly, but Starlight’s Wheelbarrow Inverted Yoshi Tonic or whatever that was…ya Mayu might be feeling that for a few days.

More back and forth until the Icon of Stardom starts remembering who she is. A few devastating suplexes, Two Stage set up…and Mayu sinks in the Dragon Sleeper instead of the Dragon Suplex.

Winner: Mayu via Two Stage Dragon Sleeper

3t. NJPW Strong Ep.2: ACH, TJP & Alex Zayne vs PJ Black, Blake Christian & Misterioso

From My Results:

This match did not disappoint. Blake Christian is the least known in this match, but he actually held his own, even using an interesting Wristclutch Spin Out Side Slam. Alex Zayne had a few cool moments when he did a Handspring off of ACH’s back, flipping forward and then hitting the Frankensteiner on Blake Christian. The other notable one was, a Shoot Star Double Knees Press to PJ’s back. Just a bunch of great spots. ACH had an awesome fire moment where he blitzed around the ring, diving on everything that moved.

This match had a ton of saves, great clear outs and just great action that never really slowed up. Blake is the main reason that PJ Black won the match, since he had some great saving moments. Just a lot of fun.

Winner: PJ Black via Springboard 450

2. Stardom 5Star GP Day 2: Jungle Kyona vs Syuri

From Mathew’s Coverage:

Before the match begins, you see Mayu sitting in the crowd so she could pay attention to her opponent for her title match next week, Syuri. I see Jungle’s arm is still taped up and Syuri found her target for the match as she went for it during their chain wrestling sequence. So for my block, we had different types of matches with powerhouse/brawl, fast-pace, whatever Natsuko tried, and now we have a technical match. Might be in the minority here and I do love Giulia, but I think Syuri is the better wrestler out of DDM, she’s just more well-polished and crisp compared to the others. Jungle has been on top of her game lately and her last two matches in the Grand Prix have been showing that. Nice selling done by Jungle in this match with Syuri being tactical with her moves and working the injured arm like a predator attacking its prey.

Syuri charged right at Jungle as Jungle would punch her square in the jaw to knock her down. Jungle attempted a Lariat but Syuri ducked and threw her for a German Suplex, making Jungle get up right away and hits the Lariat this time around. During an attempted Suplex from Jungle, Syuri caught her neck for a Guillotine hold to try and choke her out, but Jungle fought it off and picked her up again to hit the Suplex this time around. Jungle goes to the top rope to hit the Splash but doesn’t have the strength to pin her. Syuri attempted a Roundhouse Kick as Jungle caught it to hit a Dragon Screw. Jungle attempts the Muscle Buster but Syuri wiggles around to move herself to choke her out till she lands on her feet, knees her face, and applies the Cross Armbreaker. Syuri shifted her body around to apply the Armbar till she lets go and kicks her chest in. Syuri ran towards Jungle but gets caught into a Powerbomb as she kicked out at two! Jungle attempted the Jungle Bomb but Syuri fought it off and lifted her onto her shoulders to hit the Gutbuster. Syuri applies the Armbar again and moved herself to grab both her arms and wrung them together, causing her to scream in submission. The message has been received to Mayu loud and clear.

Winner: Syuri via Double Armbar

1. NOAH the Chronicle Vol 3: GHC National Openweight & GHC Heavyweight Championship Double Title Match: Kenoh (c) vs Go Shiozaki (c)

From Hisame’s Newsletter:

Kenoh did not get to live his dream of being both the GHC Heavyweight and the GHC National champion when the match between himself and Go Shiozaki came to a time out draw on the 10th in Yokohama. The match itself was never billed as an ironman, but it went the full sixty minutes. Naomichi Marufuji (who himself wrestled for sixty minutes against KENTA in another belt vs belt match), had to admit that this match surpassed his own; especially with Kenoh hitting the PFS outside the ring to Go Shiozaki, the brainbuster off the ramp, the machine gun chops being answered by machine gun kicks and Shiozaki having to resort to moves he had done as a junior heavyweight in order to bring something out that might just work against Kenoh.

Winner: Time Limit Draw

Thoughts:

Ahh now we’ve got a Top 5 for the ages. NOAH, Stardom and New Japan dominated, and NJPW is the one involving any gaijins. But my choice is going to be obvious right?

Shiozaki versus Kenoh blew away my expectations and hit so many notes, while being executed well, just hard to really complain about anything. I always like these Top 5s, not just because it’s all Japanese promotions, but because it will most likely insure more variety in the match pool.