5 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2018

3. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori – Best Of Super Juniors 2018 Final Match

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6l26kx

Hiromu Takahashi was arguably NJPW’s breakout star of 2018. He showed such tremendous wrestling skill, amazing character work, and managed to create one of the most unique wrestling characters in the world today.

But he had his hands full in Ishimori, who was running roughshod on the promotion ever since his surprise debut. Ishimori wanted to prove he was the best junior heavyweight in the company, and almost managed to do that in this final match of the BOSJ tournament.

While most people might dismiss this as a ‘typical NJPW big match’ (i.e. a match filled with lightning-fast counters, crazy signature sequences, and head-spikes vicious enough to make audience members cringe), it will mostly be remembered for one of the ballsiest moments of the year.

Early into the match, Ishimori and Takahashi brawled in the crowd, and Ishimori actually hurricanrana’d Takahashi down a flight of stairs. You could see Takahashi’s body bouncing with each step, and it looked like one of the most legitimately-painful experiences imaginable.

Matches like this are testament to what junior heavyweights can do. What they lack in stature they make up for in dynamism and athleticism. These two spectacular wrestlers tore into each other for almost thirty five minutes and nearly killed each other to win the tournament.

By the time it was over, both of them looked like true stars, and Hiromu in particular proved to everyone that he is quite possibly the best junior heavyweight wrestler active today.