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Oh good, I was waiting for the new topic.

#35 - Kenny Omega vs Jon Moxley - AEW - Full Gear, November 9th
I imagine this might be the match on the list that the most people in this topic have seen, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. Mox wasted literally no time after his escape from WWE's clutches in doing everything he possibly could as a wrestler, up to and including this "Lights Out" match that would've felt right at home in his old CZW days. Except, you know, Kenny Omega is about 1000x better than pretty much anyone Moxley wrestled during that time.

I'm not normally a fan of this sort of match, but there were enough creative spots and memorable moments executed extremely well that I was thoroughly entertained the whole way through. It was essentially the best possible version of a match like this.

It's also the only AEW match outside of a couple scattered offerings on Dark that I've watched since October. What a shame.

#34 - Kazuchika Okada vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW - Royal Quest, August 31st
Like Ospreay and ZSJ, this is another pairing that has a MOTYC-level bout anytime they step into the ring with each other. Now, this one didn't quite hit the heights of some of their previous outings, but that's not some damning indictment. This was still great. Suzuki always seems to delight in beating the hell out of Okada even more than he usually does with his opponents, and Okada does a masterful job of playing the champion who gets in over his head challenging him to a chest-thumping slugfest and having to find a way to survive and then escape the hole he digs for himself.

It's an Okada title defense, you know? You can count on one hand, without using every finger, the number of times those haven't delivered something great.

#33 - WALTER and Daisuke Sekimoto vs Yuji Okabayashi and Yuji Hino - BJW - Ryogokutan, November 4th
You want to see four beefy, giant men stiffing the crap out of each other and shaking the ring with suplexes and roaring? Of course you do.

Three weeks before he'd be unceremoniously buried for absolutely no defensible reason at Survivor Series, WALTER went to Japan and reunited with on-again off-again rival Sekimoto to prove that WWE doesn't really train good wrestling out of you, they just kind of... obscure it. He's absolutely still one of the best wrestlers in the world when he's put in a position that allows him to show it.

#32 - Masaaki Mochizuki vs Kenou - NOAH - N-1 Victory Night 7, August 29th
This is one of those matches that reminds you that wrestling doesn't have to be the least bit complicated to be good. Not long after Mochi had a fiery kick-fest with dickhead Nakajima, he did pretty much the same thing with the much more stoic but possibly even more dangerous kick man in Kenou. Seriously, if you like guys kicking each other in the chest and the back and the head, this is the match for you. It told a little more intriguing story as well. You have Mochizuki from the flashy and often over-the-top Dragon Gate bringing stylish strikes hit from innovative angles. Kenou, from the much more straightforward and reserved NOAH, is just looking to get the job done without caring one iota about how pretty it looks. It makes for a nice back-and-forth with neither man willing to give an inch until their bodies just simply start giving out.

#31 - Maya Yukihi vs Tsukasa Fujimoto - Ice Ribbon - Ice Ribbon #974, August 3rd
In some ways, this is a Joshi version of the Tanahashi/Okada story. Fujimoto has been one of the most popular and beloved wrestlers for several years among fans of the scene, and she's carried Ice Ribbon on her back as the undisputed ace of the company for a good long while. Yukihi had been slowly making her way up the card over that period, clearly being groomed as the next big thing for the promotion, and after a few failed challenges at ICExInfinity Championship, their top belt (two of those challenges against Fujimoto herself), she finally overcame her at the end of 2018 at their big year-closing show to win the title.

Yukihi subsequently spent most of 2019 firmly establishing herself as the next ace, including a ~3-month period where she held all three titles in the promotion (two singles, one tag). It was an awesome year where she frequently lifted up challengers beyond their normal level to have some very memorable matches, and it was enough to get her my vote for Best Woman Wrestler in the APWT awards.

But this was her best. Fujimoto wasn't ready to relinquish her spot as the face of Ice Ribbon just yet, and she threw everything she had at the champion. Yukihi thought she'd finally figured Fujimoto out, but this was a Tsuka possessed, bringing new tricks and a bit of a focused edge that hadn't really been seen before. Perhaps she'd gotten a little complacent in her spot and now finally realized she was going to have to fight to protect it.

Fujimoto takes the vast majority of the offense in this match, and it all leads up to a point where Yukihi has kicked out of every big move in her arsenal, multiple times in some cases. All the mainstays that have brought the former ace so many victories aren't working anymore. So she turns to the rarely-used Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, and if you know anything about Joshi you know why that's a big deal and why it's so rarely seen. Yukihi herself has never survived it - it wasn't used in her title win - and as the match wears on it becomes clear not just to Fujimoto but to the fans and even Yukihi herself that not only will it put her down for sure, it's the only thing that will. Fujimoto gets more and more desperate to hit it, which culminates in what is easily my favorite match finish of 2019.

If you're a fan of women's wrestling, you owe it to yourself to give this match a look.

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https://imgur.com/UYamul2
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