We exceeded last year’s voting numbers by coming up with exactly 300 votes! This was a surprising vote, and it was surprising because it was mostly a two horse race. WALTER vs Ilja Dragunov won the vote in a few groups, but not all of them.

So let’s see which match got the biggest push!

5. NXT In Your House: NXT Women’s Champion Triple Threat: Io Shirai vs Charlotte Flair (c) vs Rhea Ripley

Total Votes – 15 

Our June addition to the list, made enough of a splash to hit #12 in WWE’s own Top 25 but, it was completely overshadowed by the other four finalists in ours. The match that crowned Io as the champion to try and guide the NXT Women’s division through the darkness of 2020, while cementing Rhea as a force, just not quite enough of a force to stop wrestling royalty.

Rhea and Charlotte definitely do good work together, and with Charlotte returning from her time off; we could see this get re-sparked. Rhea still technically needs an official one on one rematch. Hopefully not wearing a Vegeta homage this time, since that totally telegraphed losing.

4. AEW Revolution: AEW World Tag Team Championship: Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (c) vs The Young Bucks

Total Votes – 29

A match the retreaded most of the moves and feelings of the Golden Lovers versus Young Bucks angle in 2018, this helped to kick off AEW hot. Granted it also put a weird spotlight on the division after quarantine hit when two singles guys were dominating “the best tag division in the world”.

Aside from the snark at the end of my last statement, this did start the ball rolling nicely for Hangman this year. Driving wedges between different Elite members, becoming increasingly more of a drunk and distraction, which culminated in his banishment and the Elite reverting back to their smarmy heel personas by the end of the year.

Star ratings aside, the match was good; honestly a little surprised it didn’t have more support.

3. Wrestle Kingdom 14: Double Gold Match: Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito

Total Votes: 57

Well now, already at 3 we no longer have the chance for a two time MotY winner. Okada and Naito may have been good enough to snag the Tokyo Sports Awards match of the year, it didn’t translate as well among the Western IWC.

This could be due to the fact that New Japan felt like it peaked at Wrestle Kingdom. Without being able to get a Hiromu vs Naito pay off at the Anniversary Show, mixed with roughly 4 months of inactivity, then THAT EVIL situation…NJPW peaked. EVIL probably pulled down a lot of feelings towards Naito in general. Where the stories were all built around Naito, and he got two big feel good moments for his personal story, EVIL dragged down match quality and felt like grasping at straws to many.

Let’s also not forget this also started us down this weird rabbit hole of the IWGP Intercontinental and Heavyweight feeling kinda lame put together. That doesn’t stop it from being a great match, it just lead to a lot of questionable/bad things.

2. NXT UK: United Kingdom Championship: WALTER (c) vs Ilja Dragunov

Total Votes – 90

NXT UK came off of hiatus with a vengeance! This match had everyone in the wrestling community buzzing. From Meltzer to Cornette to even the most die hard flippy fan, all agreed this match was damn good.

Ilja made himself, the fight, the energy the determination were all palpable; yet WALTER still stood tall as the champion. It was great story telling, great old school style of wrestling, and a violent delight.

As you can see from my earlier allusion, this won a few groups, tracked well in other (including Japanese leaning groups), but it couldn’t quite overcome the tidal wave of support that the last match garnered.

1. NOAH Final Chronicle: GHC Heavyweight Championship: Go Shiozaki (c) vs Takashi Sugiura

Total Votes – 109

Only winning by 19, which honestly, I’m surprised this got so much support. Pro Wrestling NOAH has shot up on many radars, thanks in part to Go Shiozaki’s ability to make every title defense feel enormous and tell a different story. Hell, the match even got high 5 star praise from Meltzer (take that for what you will, using it more as a point to show improved visibility).

Shiozaki’s stories told everything from carrying the torch of true NOAH during this new CyberFight regime when he won the belt from Kaito Kiyomiya, a war of attrition between someone of near legend status in Kazuyuki Fujita, embracing the demons of the past with Akitoshi Saito, quelling rumblings of who really is NOAH by beating rival Naomichi Marufuji, Champion versus Champion stalemate with the violently brash Kenoh, avenging the betrayal of his best friend Katsuhiko Nakajima, and lastly solidifying his stance as the Spirit of NOAH by not failing against Takashi Suguira who tends to have his number during title reigns.

This match was the culmination of a great year, a great story and set the table for a big match next year in the Budokan against Keiji Mutoh. Perhaps recency bias, or people just enjoying a well thought out puro story, where many feel New Japan has failed this year.

Thoughts:

I am still extremely surprised NOAH pulled this off. In only their second foray to our Top 5, and first since 2017, this has to be considered a bit of an upset. I may have been touting NOAH as the promotion of the year, but these votes haven’t agreed with my personal number 1 since Omega vs Okada in 2017.

This puts a nice bow on the uncertainty of 2020. After near obscurity and bankruptcy, who would’ve thought that when nearly every other company struggled to be captivating, NOAH was truly the ark leading to better times.

2021 is truly wide open, and that’s kind of an exciting outlook to have. A shift in power in Japan? AEW/IMPACT perhaps doing enough together to become a relevant force? Injured, quarantined and generally returning stars providing a spark to NXT? Plus it’s always fun to see if anything takes the IWC by surprise, a lot like NOAH did this year.

Fun times on the horizon everyone!