Best Match Watched - 2025 - Big List!

It's December and it's the time for the Best Matches Watched for 2025. 

HM stands for Honorable Mention and are matches that absolutely worth checking out along with the classics listed. I mention them because, you might watch them and be like, "No dude... that was badass. That is a classic too." And you know those ones that are on the fence for me too. I have to give them a nod here along with the classics. 

Also I tend to think of things in terms of promotional/regional style. You might love a TNA tag match but hate a GAEA tag. Or dig New Japan Juniors but not like death matches at all. You know your preferences best so, keep that in mind! What I call a classic might mean something different to you. To me, it's a match that stands the test of time. It is something a wrestling fan would very much enjoy today and years from now. It's a match I would have someone seek out, if interested.  If you need more info then, go and read my comments in the  corresponding original post 😋 

I have sorted things by promotion and by year below:

AJW

Dump Matsumoto & Keiko Nakano vs Devil Masami & Lioness Asuka (10/27/1984) HM

Bull Nakano vs Lioness Asuka (05/14/89) HM

ZAP T vs. Eagle Sawai (03/13/99) (ZAP T is Tomoko Watanabe)

BJW

Tajiri vs Dr Wagner Jr. (BJW 09/30/96) HM

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Minoru Fujita (02/28/99) HM

Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Jun Kasai (Land Mine Board Russian Roulette Death Match)  (03/03/02) HM

MEN's Teioh vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (03/30/03)

Kintaro Kanemura vs. Ryuji Ito (Cage Death Match)(08/24/03)

GAEA

Chigusa Nagayo & Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima (02/08/02) HM

Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima (04/14/02) HM

Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada vs LCO (07/14/02) HM

Manami Toyota & Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (08/30/02)

Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU vs. Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (10/20/02)

Mid South Wrestling

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase (Coal Miner’s Glove Steel Cage Tuxedo Loser Leaves Town Match - 03/22/85)

*Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor (06/01/85)

Butch Reed vs Dick Murdoch (09/22/85)

Butch Reed vs Ric Flair (10/11/85)

Hacksaw Duggan vs. Buzz Sawyer (11/11/85)

Ric Flair vs. Ted DiBiase (11/14/85)

Ric Flair vs. Jake Roberts (11/24/85) HM

NJPW

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto (02/03/95)

Gran Hamada & Koji Kanemoto vs. Shinjiro Otani & Wild Pegasus (04/13/95) HM

Sabu vs. Koji Kanemoto (06/14/95) HM

Keiji Muto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (06/14/95)

Lord Steven Regal vs. Wild Pegasus (09/23/95) HM

Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (NOAH 04/07/02) Putting this with NJ since it's an inter promotional match

Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kazuyuki Fujita (08/29/02) HM

Kenta Kobashi vs. Masahiro Chono (05/02/03)

Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (05/02/03) HM

Tiger Mask vs. Takehiro Murahama (06/13/03) HM

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW 06/13/03)

PWG

Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (All Star Weekend - Night 1 - 2005) HM

Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly vs Michael Elgin & Brian Cage (All Star Weekend 9 - Night 1 - 2013) HM

AR Fox, Ricochet & Rich Swann vs Kevin Steen, Michael Elgin & Brian Cage (All Star Weekend 9 - Night 2 - 2013) HM

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Kyle O'Reilly (XIII - Thirteen - 2016)

RINGS - All these are HM. See Shoot Style Sampling for more info. ~ are my favorites.

Grom Zaza vs Shtorm Koba (08/21/92)

~Yuki Ishikawa vs. Masayuki Naruse (05/29/93)

Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse (04/28/95)

~Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Grom Zaza (12/19/95)

Masayuki Naruse vs. Todor Todorov (06/29/96)

Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (06/29/96)

Masayuki Naruse vs Egan Inoue (08/24/96)

~Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Mitsuya Nagai (09/25/96)

Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse (10/25/96)

ROH

AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs Abyss & Jimmy Rave (Showdown in Motown 2005) HM

Jerry Lynn vs Nigel McGuinness (ROH Southern Hostility 2008) HM

KENTA & El Generico vs Nigel McGuinness & Davey Richards (Steel City Clash 2009)

Davey Richards vs KENTA (Supercard of Honor IV 2009)

KENTA & Tyler Black vs Austin Aries & Katsuhiko Nakajima (Take No Prisoners 2009)

American Wolves vs KENTA & Roderick Strong (Violent Tendencies 2009) 

KENTA vs Tyler Black (End of an Age 06/27/09)

American Wolves & Chris Hero vs Steenerico & KENTA (ROH on HDnet ep #17 aired 07/18/09) 

*Bryan Danielson vs Davey Richards (Final Countdown: Boston 09/25/09)*

Austin Aries vs Davey Richards (Aries vs Richards 11/13/09)

TNA

Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles (TNA PPV #20 11/06/02) HM

Triple X (Elix Skipper & Christopher Daniels) vs Jerry Lynn & Amazing Red (TNA 09/04/03)

Team Canada (Bobby Roode & Eric Young) (w/Scott D'Amore) vs. America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) (Final Resolution 2005)

Sabu & Raven vs Jeff Jarrett & Rhino (Sacrifice 2005) HM

Sabu vs Rhino vs Abyss vs Jeff Hardy - Monster's Ball (Bound for Glory 2005) HM

Sabu vs vs Abyss - No Ropes Barb Wire match (Turning Point 2005)

UWFi - All these are HM except the 11/25/95 tag match since it's traditional pro wrestling. I rated it as a classic. See Shoot Style Sampling for more info. ~ are my favorites in shoot style.

~Yoji Anjoh vs Kiyoshi Tamura (07/03/91)

Kazuo Yamazaki vs Billy Scott (07/30/91)

~Kazuo Yamazaki vs Yoji Anjo (09/26/91)

Billy Scott vs. Yoji Anjo (10/06/91)

~Yoji Anjo vs. Masahito Kakihara (6/28/92)

Tatsuo Nakano vs Masahito Kakihara (09/21/92)

~Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo (09/21/92)

Steve Day vs Hiromitsu Kanehara (04/10/93)

Masahito Kakihara vs Naoki Sano (04/10/93)

~Yuko Miyato vs Kazuo Yamazaki (05/06/93)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yuko Miyato (10/04/93)

Victor Zangiev vs Yoji Anjo (04/03/94)

Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kazuo Yamazaki (06/18/95)

Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (11/25/95) 

~Tatsuo Nakano vs Koki Kitahara (05/27/96)

Yoji Anjo vs Naoki Sano (06/26/96)

WCW

Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair (Spring Stampede '94)

Larry Zbyszko vs. Lord Steven Regal (05/28/94  WCW Saturday Night) HM

The Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan - Slamboree 05/22/94) HM

Larry Zbyszko vs. Lord Steven Regal - Clash of Champions XXVII (27) (06/23/94) HM

Steve Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash of Champions XXVIII (28) (08/24/94))

Vader vs. Sting vs. The Guardian Angel (Elimination Match - Fall Brawl 09/18/94) HM

Zero One Wrestling

Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani vs. Kazuhiko Ogasawara & Shinya Hashimoto (09/16/02) HM

Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsu Kuroda vs Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka (05/03/03 WEW) Putting it with Zero One as it is an inter-promotional match.

~The Awards for 2025~

•Feud of the year for the first half of 2025 is Larry Zbyszko vs Lord Steven Regal. I may have underrated those matches. I loved them. American Wolves vs Steenerico is probably second feud at June. Jim Duggan is a feud machine and his feud with Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater in Mid South 1985 is pretty great. Ted DiBiase vs Duggan probably takes the cake though.

•Biggest Surprise of 2025? The whole year felt like a surprise, am I right!? Talking wrestling, I think there's some truth there. I watched a fair bit of wrestling. Much of it was outside my comfort zone. The shoot style sampling project was a blast especially when looking at it with a different tactic. I surprised myself by watching a ton of American wrestling with WCW and Mid South being two of the big projects of 2025. So, I think the biggest surprise was digging my teeth into teeth into WCW '94 and Mid South '85 (especially) and having an excellent time.

•Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada are the joshi tag team of the year. Although there's not as many matches of theirs, they feel most like a top tier tag team... they were putting on classic, big time matches. They feel like they belong in that mid to late 90's AJW level. Men's tag team is between Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama and Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. And I'm going to pick ChoTen for their work in New Japan 1995.

•My wrestler of the year starts with Regal in '94, Davey in '09 & Satomura in 2002. For quality of matches alone KENTA in ROH 2009 deserves recognition. Then I'm thinking Yoji Anjo for his consistently great work in UWFi. I have to consider Hiroyoshi Tenzan for his break out 1995. I think I'm going to stick with my frontrunner from June, Ted DiBiase. He's the complete package in 1985 Mid South Wrestling.

•Bryan Danielson is a perennial Best Match Watched contender and it's no different this year. And honestly, I don't know if I really am a big  fan of his anymore. I think I'm over-familiar. But that should be evidence of the quality of the nominated bouts. I'm not swayed by favoritism or nostalgia there. Those matches are that good. And the front runner is Bryan Danielson vs Davey Richards (Final Countdown: Boston 09/25/09). I think the other contender is Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor (06/01/85). It's a match that I was absolutely transfixed by. I'm not really interested in long matches anymore but I stuck with it... and I knew that it was a longer one. Yup, I'm going to say Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor (06/01/85) was the Best Match Watched in 2025. It just had everything.

Looking forward:

Upcoming projects that are in progress and looking to complete early 2026 are:

•All Japan 1986

•New Japan 1990

•Zero One Wrestling 2007

•Ongoing but periodically updated stuff include Tajiri You Might Have Missed, New Japan 2010 as well as more Shoot Style Sampling from UWFi & RINGS. And Ring of Honor projects...I'm going over a couple in my mind.

Thanks for reading! Thanks for joining me here on Wrestling Dream Battles. Anyone working during the holiday season, thank you! I did it for 12 years so, I know how tough it is. Let's hope for a better 2026!