Best of 2014 Pro Wrestling Tracker

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

ROH/New Japan "War of the Worlds"

Young Bucks vs reDRagon, ****3/4
AJ Styles vs Michael Elgin vs Kazuchika Okada, ****1/2
Shisuke Nakamura vs Kevin Steen, ****1/4
Jay Lethal vs KUSHIDA, ****

I thought this show was great. Right up there with WrestleKingdom & Dead or Alive.

I liked the show a lot...not as much as you though. A tick below "great", IMO. But one legitimate match of the year contender. I liked The Bucks v. reDRagon better than the DragonGate tag last year...so...I will assume Bucks v. reDRagon will be in my Top 10 by year's end. No one has improved more over the past year and a half than Kyle O'Reilly. He's gone from average to one of the best in the biz, at least here in the Americas, to me, over that time.

The Young Bucks (c) v. reDRagon ****1/2
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) v. Kevin Steen ****
AJ Styles (c) v. Michael Elgin v. Kazuchika Okada ***3/4+
Jay Lethal (c) v. KUSHIDA ***3/4

Also, a ton of cool shit throughout the night.

[Warner2BruceTD]

New Japan "Back to Yokohama Arena"

Tomohiro Ishii vs Kota Ibushi, ****1/2
AJ Styles vs Kazuchika Okada, ****

Good show, perfect finish to the main event. Great booking throughout the show.

[Warner2BruceTD]

NXT Takeover

Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze, ****
Charlotte vs Natalia, ****1/4

Adrian Neville with another good, but not great, match. He really needs a breakout performance. These 3-star bouts aren't going to cut it with Zayn and the women outshining him every time out.

He's having trouble without the shortcuts since he can't use all of his wacky flipz. His matches don't have great structure or flow, and the finishes are not well built and just come out of nowhere.

[Warner2BruceTD]

TNA ruined Sam Shaw, so he's out of the running for Best Gimmick.

I love The Menagerie. I think James Mitchell should come in as their ringmaster. How that guy doesn't get work is a mystery to me. He's great.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Bray Wyatt vs John Cena, Payback ****1/2

Payback will likely be the WWE show of the year.

[Guest]

Bray Wyatt vs John Cena, Payback ****1/2

Payback will likely be the WWE show of the year.

Wyatt and Cena surprised me. Then again, Last Man Standing matches can make two subpar workers into something great if booked right. They didn't overuse the Usos or the other Wyatt's. Definitely agree on show of the year for sure.

[EmpireWF]

Adrian Neville with another good, but not great, match. He really needs a breakout performance. These 3-star bouts aren't going to cut it with Zayn and the women outshining him every time out.

He's having trouble without the shortcuts since he can't use all of his wacky flipz. His matches don't have great structure or flow, and the finishes are not well built and just come out of nowhere.

I see what you mean. The title win over Bo was a ladder match. The deal with Brodus Clay was not going to be anything above average. This with Tyson was apparently more to push him along as emo Tyson Kidd and whatever they're planning with Nattie.

Neville has yet to have that one big match where he can go toe-to-toe with a viable contender who isn't in storyline mode. The match with Kidd was good, but the finish definitely just came out of nowhere as opposed to building towards it.

Hopefully, Neville & Breeze can have that match this summer.

[Warner2BruceTD]

JANUARY
WWE - Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt, Royal Rumble ****3/4

Evolve - Trent Baretta vs Tony Nese, Evolve 25 ****1/2
NOAH - Taiji Ishimori vs Hajime Ohara, NOAH 1/19 ****1/2
Dragon Gate - Masato Yoshino vs Masaaki Mochizuki, Infinity 324 ****1/2

NJPW - Hirooki Goto vs Katsuyori Shibata, WrestleKingdom ****1/4
NJPW - Prince Devitt vs Kota Ibushi, WrestleKingdom ****1/4
NJPW - Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito, WrestleKingdom ****1/4
NJPW - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Shinsuke Nakamura, WrestleKingdom ****1/4

Inspire Pro - Chris Hero vs Ray Rowe, Ecstacy of Gold ****
Evolve - Chris Hero vs Ricochet, Evolve 25 ****
Evolve - AR Fox vs Davey Richards, Evolve 25 ****
NJPW/CMLL - Volador Jr vs Mascara Dorada, Fantasticamania 1/19 ****
Dragon Gate - Shingo & Akira Tozawa vs T-Hawk & U-T, Infinity 324 ****
CMLL - Titan vs Virus, CMLL TV ****

FEBRUARY
NJPW - Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii, New Beginning Osaka *****

WWE - Cesaro vs Sami Zayn, NXT ArRival ****3/4

NJPW - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, New Beginning Hiroshima ****1/2
NJPW - Kazuchika Okada vs Hirooki Goto, New Beginning Osaka ****1/2

ROH - Jay Lethal vs Michael Elgin vs Tomasso Ciampa vs Kevin Steen, ROH San Antonio ****1/4
ROH - Jay Briscoe vs Adam Cole, ROH San Antonio ****1/4
NJPW - Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI, New Beginning Hiroshima ****1/4
Inspire Pro - ACH vs Sammy Guevara, Light The Fuse ****1/4

ROH - ACH & Tadarius Thomas vs Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly, ROH San Antonio ****
Inspire Pro - Robert Evans vs Ray Rowe, Light The Fuse ****
WWE - Cesaro vs Sheamus vs Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan vs Christian vs John Cena, Elimination Chamber ****
AJPW - Akebono vs Go Shiozaki, 2/23 ****
WWE - Emma vs Paige, NXT ArRIval ****

MARCH
NJPW - Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi, 42nd Anniversary ****1/4
NJPW - Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii, New Japan Cup Round One ****1/4

APRIL
NJPW - Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii, Invasion Attack ****3/4
DGUSA - Chris Hero vs Masato Tanaka, Open the Ultimate Gate ****3/4

NJPW - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Invasion Attack ****1/2
DGUSA - Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet, Open the Ultimate Gate ****1/2

Dragon Gate - YAMATO vs Uhaa Nation, 4/8 iPPV ****
NJPW - Young Bucks vs Kota Ibushi & El Desperado, Invasion Attack ****
Inspire Pro - Andy Dalton vs Takaaki Watanabe, No Room To Die ****

MAY
ROH/NJPW - Young Bucks vs reDRagon, War of the Worlds ****3/4

Dragon Gate - Ricochet vs YAMATO, Dead or Alive ****1/2
ROH/NJPW - AJ Styles vs Michael Elgin vs Kazuchika Okada, War of the Worlds ****1/2
NJPW - Tomohiro Ishii vs Kota Ibushi, Back to Yokohama ****1/2
WWE - John Cena vs Bray Wyatt, Payback ****1/2

NJPW - Tomohiro Ishii vs Tomoaki Honma, Wrestling Dontaku ****1/4
Dragon Gate - Flamita vs Jimmy Susumu, Dead or Alive ****1/4
ROH/NJPW - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kevin Steen, War of the Worlds ****1/4
WWE - Charlotte vs Natalya, NXT Takeover ****1/4

NJPW - Kazuchika Okada vs AJ Styles, Wrestling Dontaku ****
Dragon Gate - Akira Tozawa & Shingo vs Don Fujii & Masaaki Mochizuki, Dead or Alive ****
Dragon Gate - Naruki Doi vs Jimmy Kanda vs Mr Quu Quu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin vs Masato Yoshino vs CIMA, Dead or Alive ****
Dragon Gate - Akira Tozawa vs T-Hawk, 5/9 iPPV ****
ROH/NJPW - Young Bucks vs Forever Hooligans vs Time Splitters, Global Wars ****
ROH/NJPW - Jay Lethal vs KUSHIDA, War of the Worlds ****
NJPW - AJ Styles vs Kazuchika Okada, Back to Yokohama ****
WWE - Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze, NXT Takeover ****

[Warner2BruceTD]

May was great. Some thoughts.

-Payback may end up the best WWE show of the year, at least for people who didn't like Mania (that's me).

-Styles & Okada had three ****+ matches so far. Still waiting for the blow away MOTY contender though. It may not come.

-Retro added the excellent Andy Dalton vs Takaaki Watanabe match from Inspire to April. The best Watanabe match of the excursion so far, and i've seen most of them.

-Young Bucks are running away withe tag team of the year.

-Ishii is running away with wrestler of the year (or most outstanding in the WON Awards...but maybe WOTY too)

-Dragon Gate is having one heck of a year.

-That list makes it look like all I watch is New Japan, Dragon Gate, and WWE, with some scattered gabe shit & Inspire mixed in. Not true. I watch TNA every week, keep up with NOAH, All Japan, W-1, CMLL to some extent (just what I get on TV), ROH, random indies like CWFH, NWA Houston, etc. There just isn't much else moving my needle at a 4-star plus level. If you guys are seeing something i'm not, point me to it because i'd love to see it.

-Tyler Breeze, Emma, & Charlotte are on this list. KENTA, Jun Akiyama, SUWAMA, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, Go Shiozaki, Adam Cole, The Shield, Diasuke Sekimoto, etc are not. Wut.

[Warner2BruceTD]

YAMATO, Kzy, Naruki Doi, Cyber Kong, Mondai Ryu vs BxB Hulk, CIMA, T-Hawk, Jimmy Susumu, Akira Tozawa, 6/5 Dragon Gate ****

[Warner2BruceTD]

Ricochet vs KUSHIDA, Best of the Super Juniors Final, ****1/2

Best match of KUSHIDA's career, the right finish. Ricochet is having a sneaky great year, Ishii's top challenger to this point imo.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Masato Tanaka & Takeshi Suguira vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Kazuki Hashimoto, 6/1 Zero-1 ****

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Ricochet vs KUSHIDA, Best of the Super Juniors Final, ****1/2

Best match of KUSHIDA's career, the right finish. Ricochet is having a sneaky great year, Ishii's top challenger to this point imo.

I looked through my excel spreadsheet of best matches this year today...Ricochet has more matches listed than Ishii. He works more...but whatever. I have Ricochet as the leader in the clubhouse at the half way mark of the year.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I looked through my excel spreadsheet of best matches this year today...Ricochet has more matches listed than Ishii. He works more...but whatever. I have Ricochet as the leader in the clubhouse at the half way mark of the year.

To me, for WOTY or Most Outstanding or whatever you want to call it, its Ishii #1, Ricochet #2, and nobody else is even close. Ishii was alone, but now he has company. There is no fucking chance Rico/Ibushi won't be great, so the gap will keep closing.

Both are having special years.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

To me, for WOTY or Most Outstanding or whatever you want to call it, its Ishii #1, Ricochet #2, and nobody else is even close. Ishii was alone, but now he has company. There is no fucking chance Rico/Ibushi won't be great, so the gap will keep closing.

Both are having special years.

Ricochet is great in singles matches, tag matches, AND trios matches. He's got MotYC worthy matches (multiple, actually) in all categories. Title, non-title...great matches in those categories. Also, several BIG MATCH FEEL matches that he delivered on (v. Gargano, v. KUSHIDA, v. Yoshino, v. YAMATO...now v. Ibushi).

A Cabrera/Trout type of year for WotY so far. 5-tool player in Trout...the heavy hitter in Miggy.