Well as you may have noticed on these forums we've been holding several votes and threads to decide the best in wrestling in both 2009 and the entire decade. It occurred to me how many posters we have on here that will constantly complain about Monday Night Raw. Well, that's why you look into other products my friends, and hopefully I can introduce some of you WWE-loyalists to some great wrestling that simply demands your attention from the land of the rising sun.
Obviously the biggest event of 2009 was the death of Mitsuharu Misawa in the midst of a match on June 13th. As even those who don't follow puro probably know, Misawa was the most important figure in Japanese wrestling post-Baba. His passing is really something hard to comprehend for alot of his fans, but especially for your typical American wrestling fan. To put it into perspective for those fans, imagine Ric Flair dying in the middle of the ring in the midst of a match. Obviously you can understand how big of an event this was.
However, despite Misawa's death, his promotion NOAH continued to deliver consistently good shows for mostof this year, and in my opinion remained the undisputed best promotion in Japan right now when it comes to in-ring product. There are a few matches I want to showcase in this thread to perhaps get some of you more interested in puroresu, and the first match up is one I brought up earlier today in the Bar Room, and that's KENTA taking on Katsuhiko Nakajima for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title on March 1st of this year.
A match of the year candidate right there, and only one of the many great matches from KENTA (not to be confused with the legendary Kenta Kobashi) in a brilliant year that saw KENTA become possibly the most consistently excellent worker in the world today, atleast in the junior divisions. This match with Nakajima is just absolutely brutal and by the time it's over you feel as drained as the two amazing athletes in the ring. When I first saw this match I had ir rated at around ****3/4 stars, so in other words it's about as good as wrestling can be without being perfect.
Now, despite my loyalty to NOAH, NJPW had a pretty decent year as well, specifically in the tag divisions. Their partnership with TNA continues to really benefit NJPW much more than it seems to TNA, and one of the highlights of the year had to be the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles won by TNA's very own Motor City Machine Guns. MCMG had some absolutely brilliant matches this year over in NJPW, specifically against the team of Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi). Their best match up had to have been on July 5th of this year in Tokyo. If you think MCMG have grown stale or complacent in the ring in TNA, I advise you to watch this match because it will reinforce your opinions of both Shelley and Sabin, both remain outstanding workers.
Next up we've got Dragon Gate. For those that don't know the promotion was mired in controversy this year over allegations of animal abuse at one of the training dojos (specifically that a pet monkey had been abused in a bizarre hazing ritual) and they suffered a big PR hit in Japan because of that, but apart from that obviously upsetting news, the promotion had it's biggest year yet, with Gabe Sapolsky's departure from ROH and the beginning of the Dragon Gate USA affiliate promotion which has already begun running PPVs in many markets in the US and Canada. At the top of the class in 2009 in Dragon Gate in my opinion was Naruki Doi, who has turned the "Open the Dream Gate" Championship into a real and coveted title. When he wasn't busy running shows in the US with both ROH and DGUSA, he was busy working his ass off in Japan against guys like Koji Kanemoto, Masato Yoshino, and Taku Iwasa among others. His best defense of the year though I thought was against Kanemoto. I know, some of you will tell me he's long past his prime, but damnit I've always been a mark for the man and I'll continue to be. Great match up here from the Anniversary show on March 22nd of this year.
So there you go everyone, a few of the best matches from Japan in 2009 in my opinion. I only went with NOAH, NJPW, and Dragon Gate because they were the promotions I paid the most attention to, but if anyone who followed any other promotions wants to chime in on some of their favorite matches of the year, feel free. I'd love to hear some thoughts on the year in promotions like AJPW, BattlARTS, DDT, Michinoku Pro, Osaka Pro, etc? I've completely lost touch with Joshi so I won't even pretend to know what's going on in that world.
So, puro lovers, what did you like about 2009? Hate? Please for the love of God SOMEONE respond to this thread! Or at the very least watch the matches and give 'em a taste. Do it for your buddy Mr. Eko (The Artist Formerly Known as X).
Obviously the biggest event of 2009 was the death of Mitsuharu Misawa in the midst of a match on June 13th. As even those who don't follow puro probably know, Misawa was the most important figure in Japanese wrestling post-Baba. His passing is really something hard to comprehend for alot of his fans, but especially for your typical American wrestling fan. To put it into perspective for those fans, imagine Ric Flair dying in the middle of the ring in the midst of a match. Obviously you can understand how big of an event this was.
However, despite Misawa's death, his promotion NOAH continued to deliver consistently good shows for mostof this year, and in my opinion remained the undisputed best promotion in Japan right now when it comes to in-ring product. There are a few matches I want to showcase in this thread to perhaps get some of you more interested in puroresu, and the first match up is one I brought up earlier today in the Bar Room, and that's KENTA taking on Katsuhiko Nakajima for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title on March 1st of this year.
NOAH 3-1-09 KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title
A match of the year candidate right there, and only one of the many great matches from KENTA (not to be confused with the legendary Kenta Kobashi) in a brilliant year that saw KENTA become possibly the most consistently excellent worker in the world today, atleast in the junior divisions. This match with Nakajima is just absolutely brutal and by the time it's over you feel as drained as the two amazing athletes in the ring. When I first saw this match I had ir rated at around ****3/4 stars, so in other words it's about as good as wrestling can be without being perfect.
Now, despite my loyalty to NOAH, NJPW had a pretty decent year as well, specifically in the tag divisions. Their partnership with TNA continues to really benefit NJPW much more than it seems to TNA, and one of the highlights of the year had to be the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles won by TNA's very own Motor City Machine Guns. MCMG had some absolutely brilliant matches this year over in NJPW, specifically against the team of Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi). Their best match up had to have been on July 5th of this year in Tokyo. If you think MCMG have grown stale or complacent in the ring in TNA, I advise you to watch this match because it will reinforce your opinions of both Shelley and Sabin, both remain outstanding workers.
NJPW 7-5-09 Motor City Machine Guns vs. Apollo 55
Next up we've got Dragon Gate. For those that don't know the promotion was mired in controversy this year over allegations of animal abuse at one of the training dojos (specifically that a pet monkey had been abused in a bizarre hazing ritual) and they suffered a big PR hit in Japan because of that, but apart from that obviously upsetting news, the promotion had it's biggest year yet, with Gabe Sapolsky's departure from ROH and the beginning of the Dragon Gate USA affiliate promotion which has already begun running PPVs in many markets in the US and Canada. At the top of the class in 2009 in Dragon Gate in my opinion was Naruki Doi, who has turned the "Open the Dream Gate" Championship into a real and coveted title. When he wasn't busy running shows in the US with both ROH and DGUSA, he was busy working his ass off in Japan against guys like Koji Kanemoto, Masato Yoshino, and Taku Iwasa among others. His best defense of the year though I thought was against Kanemoto. I know, some of you will tell me he's long past his prime, but damnit I've always been a mark for the man and I'll continue to be. Great match up here from the Anniversary show on March 22nd of this year.
Dragon Gate 3-22-09 Naruki Doi vs. Koji Kanemoto
So there you go everyone, a few of the best matches from Japan in 2009 in my opinion. I only went with NOAH, NJPW, and Dragon Gate because they were the promotions I paid the most attention to, but if anyone who followed any other promotions wants to chime in on some of their favorite matches of the year, feel free. I'd love to hear some thoughts on the year in promotions like AJPW, BattlARTS, DDT, Michinoku Pro, Osaka Pro, etc? I've completely lost touch with Joshi so I won't even pretend to know what's going on in that world.
So, puro lovers, what did you like about 2009? Hate? Please for the love of God SOMEONE respond to this thread! Or at the very least watch the matches and give 'em a taste. Do it for your buddy Mr. Eko (The Artist Formerly Known as X).
