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Alright, we talked a lot about bad wrestling yesterday and I took a day off from the list, but let's get back to some good wrestling today as we're into the 4 3/4 star matches of 2019. And we've got our first day spilling into two posts!

#25 - El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori vs Birds of Prey - NJPW - Destruction in Kagoshima, September 16th
Birds of Prey, despite only teaming together for a few months at the tail end of the year, built a fairly strong TTOTY case in what was in my opinion a bit of a down year for tag wrestling, mostly due to a very strong output in the Super Jr. Tag League and this feud with Robbie Eagles's former Bullet Club stablemates. This was the best of their series of matches, partly because it was in the biggest spot of any of them but also because everything just clicked. Ospreay's smoothness goes without saying, but Eagles is right behind him in terms of always being in the right place and making this whole wrestling thing look really easy. Ishimori has been floundering a bit in New Japan as he's no longer a big fish in the small pond that was NOAH, but when he's on his game he brings a lot of high-speed energy and innovative offense, which was exactly the case here. The revelation that has been Bullet Club ELP was the glue of the match, the final piece, making sure the crowd stayed engaged the whole way through with his heat-magnet antics and general shenanigans.

Eagles, after joining Ospreay in CHAOS, is finally starting to break out after spending several years as a little-known but consistently great feature of the emerging Australian scene, and matches like this are the reason. The other three guys in this match have already been firmly established in New Japan, but he's got the versatility to be a fixture in his own right, and he's sneakily over with the Japanese fans. Look for bigger things out of him in 2020.

#24 - Tribe Vanguard vs R.E.D. vs MaxiMuM - Dragon Gate - Kobe World, July 21st
Kobe World was one of the best and most memorable wrestling shows of the year. The coronation of Ben-K, the incredible return of Ultimo Dragon to the promotion, a couple of other awesome singles matches that aren't seen all that often in DG, and this match - one of the promotion's signature multi-man tags.

Matches like this, when they're put in a big spot like this one, deliver 100% of the time in this company, ESPECIALLY at Kobe World. Twin Gate title matches always rule at this show. If you've never seen a Dragon Gate offering like this, there's really nothing else like it in the entire world of wrestling. Pure chaos, but in the best way. Bell-to-bell fast-paced action, creative tag moves, exciting finishing sequences, everyone getting their time to shine. I'll never understand how pretty much everyone on the Dragon Gate roster always manages to be in the right place at the right time for matches like this, but they are. Naruki Doi and YAMATO, two of the greatest tag-team wrestlers of all time, put in another astounding performance, and their young partners held up their end of the bargain as well. The nefarious R.E.D. team played their role perfectly too, as usual, reminding everyone who may have forgotten that there are some great wrestlers hiding underneath the underhanded tactics they employ.

You won't see a match quite like this from any other wrestling company, for the simple reason that no other company is capable of it. This is required viewing for any tag team wrestling fan.

#23 - TLC Match - Swords of Essex vs Aussie Open - PROGRESS - Chapter 87, March 31st
Will Ospreay's surprise return at the end of 2018 to PROGRESS, the house and company that he built and that gave him a platform to break out to the world, to team with trainer and on-again off-again pal Paul Robinson was upstaged only by the fact that they actually won the tag straps that night, unseating Aussie Open from a reign that felt like it had only just begun after their long journey to winning them in the first place. Which brings us to this car crash of a rematch.

This match was tough to rate at the time, and even now it feels a little weird having it this high up. There's a non-insignificant number of not-insignificant botches, it's filled with a lot of ladder match tropes I generally dislike, and at times it just seems a little excessive.

As a total package, though, this was one of the best examples of a true "storytelling" match in recent memory in indie wrestling. Mark Davis won the promotion's Natural Progression Series tournament and could've challenged for any title he wanted, but he chose the tag titles because he knew how much they meant to partner Kyle Fletcher. He'd prove that devotion several times over again in this match, including a spot that will literally pop me every single time in wrestling where he throws himself over the prone body of Fletcher in a seemingly vain effort to protect him from the viciousness of the Swords, a la Kobashi with Misawa on 6/9/95.

There's some truly unforgettable spots in this match, too, usually by virtue of Paul Robinson being an absolute lunatic willing to madly throw his body around for any spot. It's also fun to see Ospreay on a rare occasion of working true heel, just in case anyone forgot that he really can do it all. This match is far from perfect, but there are perfect things about it, and it gave us a brief glimpse back into what PROGRESS used to be all about.

#22 - Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW - G1 Climax Night 1, July 6th
I'll be up front with this one and say that, in a vacuum, it's not a 4.75 star match. Now, that's not to say it isn't great by any measure - these guys could have a 4+ star match with each other in their sleep - but it's one of their least strong efforts together and, by their standards, fairly rudimentary. They mostly played the hints.

But without this rivalry, I would not be watching wrestling right now. Their Wrestle Kingdom 9 match came just a few weeks before WWE finally turned on its fans for good and began my strong disillusionment with the company. It was my first exposure to NJPW and, to say the least, it left a lasting impression. Even now, I consider it one of the greatest matches of all time.

Fast forward four years later and, amazingly, I get to see it live. I was there in Dallas, and I watched these two guys spend the first couple minutes doing nothing but staring at each other as the entire crowd gave them a standing ovation. I'll never forget that moment. I'll never forget the coin dropping in Okada's entrance theme. I'll never forget joining the dueling chants. I'll never forget watching him deliver the Rainmaker, as I'd seen it on video so many times before. And I'll never have a wrestling experience quite like it.

Atmosphere is the oft-forgotten ingredient that makes a