Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 10/9/17)

I like these two guys -- no, no, I love these two guys. I'm still not tired of Naito's tranquilo persona, in and out of the ring, and Ishii is one of the last tough men left in New Japan. Unsurprisingly, these two have good matches together, sometimes great matches, and this was no exception. However, it's getting harder for me to distinguish the matches as they follow a similar blueprint. Naito coolly works the leg, Ishii sells and bumps well, Naito goes back to the leg to escape shitty situations, and Ishii fights through to pain to punish Naito. This time, however, Ishii says "okay, lemme work that leg" and cuts off Naito with a big dropkick to the knee. He doesn't put in a whole lot of work but Naito's selling is terrific throughout. When he catches Naito, Ishii pummels him relentlessly in the corner, chopping at his throat, not giving him any reprieve before suplexing him. Loved Ishii's big saito suplex.

Naito attacks the injured leg to get out of a top rope predicament and pisses off Ishii, which leads to Ishii German suplexing him into a corner and hitting a Last Ride-style powerbomb. Naito retaliates with a koppou kick and a German suplex hold but his knee gives out, so he hits a frankensteiner and a release dragon suplex to make up for it. He busts out a leg submission with the rear calf hold, which hiccups the momentum, but drills him with one of the best looking pumphandle drivers he's delivered. Naito hits the first Destino of the night off a brainbuster counter but when he tries to finish him off, Ishii hangs on and turns it into the brainbuster for an awesome nearfall. The transition into the second Tranquilo was sloppy but Naito follows up with a proper one for the pinfall. Good stuff, with some neat new moments, but I still think my favorite over the past year was their 2016 New Japan Cup match, which hits that sub-twenty sweet spot.

Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 5/3/17)

Hey kids, here's another zany Kenny Omega "main event"-style spectacle for you featuring everyone's favorite stone cold pitbull, Tomohiro Ishii. This was a bit of a roller coaster to say the least, with Ishii taking a page out of KUSHIDA's book by trying to overwhelm Omega out of the gate with a barrage of offense and when Omega tries to bail, Ishii ain't having it and stays on him. Loved the timing with the apron powerbomb, forcing Ishii back into the ring before the count-out but he smartly rolls back outside to recover with a fresh twenty. Great bumping and selling by Ishii throughout, as Kenny works over his neck. He sold Omega's chops like death and when he tries to hulk up, Omega spikes him with a DDT. The action and the crowd heats up as they start throwing endless bombz, Ishii hitting a ton of hard lariats and countering the One-Winged Angel with a reverse frankensteiner...but he can't keep Omega down. Kenny's knee strikes looked/sounded awesome, especially the finishing combo, which was sold beautifully by Ishii before Omega hits a brainbuster and the One-Winged Angel for the three count. A high-end spotfest, another notch on Omega's bedazzled ringpost, and probably Ishii's best performance of the year so far. Weeeeeeeee.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 3/19/17)

The rivalry between these two is one of the best in New Japan and going into a match, you already know what to expect: stiff strikes, bouts of no selling, pissing contests, and tons of suplexes. You see it plenty these days but no one can pull it off quite as well as Shibata and Ishii. After a pedestrian opening, with Ishii saying "fuck you" to Shibata's armwork and going straight to the strikes, the match picks up once the enmity kicks in. Like an angsty Shibata walking over and punting Ishii back or Ishii repeatedly chopping Shibata in the throat against Red Shoes' wishes. It wouldn't be a Shibata/Ishii match with a minute-long elbow exchange, with Ishii's nose getting busted open in the process.

I loved the spot with Shibata popping up after the lariat like a zombie only for Ishii to lariat him back down. This time, we get the Indian-style slap off, with Shibata really laying into Ishii once they've made it back to their feet. After they trade suplexes, Ishii catches a PK attempt and what what...armbar takedown! Ishii's selling in this match is terrific (no surprise there), especially toward the end as he's fighting the sleeper attempts, fading into the PK, with Shibata going right back to the sleeper to win in dominant fashion, and Ishii still not wanting to give up the fight as he crawls toward the victor. Awesome stuff. I think it's right up there with last year's battles, thanks to the strong second half, and I may have even liked it more than their WK match. We'll see upon rewatch later in the year. Definitely the best match of the New Japan Cup.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW, 8/6/16)

On paper, I wasn’t overly excited about this match-up but Ishii is such a maestro in the ring, crafting a really fun underdog tale (although I don’t know if I would call a stone pitbull an underdog) and making Okada’s offense look like a million bucks (i.e. the guardrail-hung DDT). There’s something satisfying about watching Ishii bully Okada with chops, boot scrapes and headbutts. Okada realizes he can’t hang with Ishii in the striking department so he’s got to tap into his movez database to try and defeat him. Okada is fine here, he gets in his usual spots, but Ishii elevates this thing to another level. Little things like the chop during the Rainmaker post and stomping on the foot to get out of the tombstone piledriver attempt. And that finishing stretch was something else, with Ishii ducking and dodging the Rainmaker attempts before landing the big headbutt and ultimately pinning the champ following the brainbuster. Great stuff.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW, 3/4/16)

Easily the best Nahito match of the year. He's the perfect heel dick weasel here, consistently cutting off and countering Ishii's attacks. He spits in Ishii's face, Ishii's like 'what the fuck?!', and the shit-eating grin on Naito's face just goads Ishii into falling for his trap. It builds the anticipation for when Ishii finally gets his hands on Naito. Naito wears him down Randy Orton-style and as Ishii tries for a scoop slam, Naito worms out and reverse DDTs him. Ishii gives Naito the spit treatment and Naito freaks. The apron lariat is the big turning point for this match, as the crowd explodes and Naito is slumped all dead-like on the apron. Great sell. There is a bit of disjointedness here and there, and they fuck up the Destino counter spot near the end, which sucks, but Ishii rectifies that by hitting a Emerald Flowsion! The second half of the match skips joyfully into overkill land but it's really fun and exciting to watch. There's a point where Ishii ducks and catches Naito after a flying forearm attempt and just dumps him with a release German suplex. Ishii does a pretty good job of selling the exhaustion of impact-after-impact, at times reaching for his non-taped shoulder. I love his Bas Rutten-style shotgun elbows. Some big nearfalls and a great finish, with Naito countering the brainbuster attempt with the Destino. Other than a couple of minor hiccups, this was a great, smartly worked match, with Naito really embracing his heel dick character and letting it translate into his performance, and Ishii continuing to build a strong resume for 2016's MVP. 

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW, 2/11/16)

A macho tale of the thresholds of pain tolerance and how to break them. Maybe not as cringe-inducing as their Wrestle Kingdom 10 match-up but perhaps a more complete round of friendly violence. Shibata mocks the neck chops early on, which leads to an extended forearm battle. The "suplex me" sequence is silly but for this kind of manly competition, it totally works. Shibata chops the spit out of Ishii's throat and he sells like he's about to die -- Ishii was great throughout. Shibata took a sensible approach and tried to choke out/pass out Ishii, which made the finish extra special. The headbutts to the chest were a little easier on the ears but not that final spurt with the Shibata spinning backhand and subsequent slap-the-shit-out-of-each-other battle. The crowd was hot, commentary was vocal, CJ Parker was looking on from ringside. All in all, a great night for a fight. An inch above the WK match.

New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 10 (1/2/16)

Wrestle Kingdom 9 was the best pro-wrestling event of 2015. Hands down. The K. Ibushi/S. Nakamura match topped many a folk's end-of-the-year lists, with Tanahashi/Okada easily in the top 5 and a pretty awesome Suzuki/Sakuraba squabble. Enter 2016. Wrestle Kingdom 10. Is this already show of the year? Probably.

NEVER Openweight Title: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata

We knew this was going to be awesome. We knew that when these two went at it, it would be sometimes hard to watch. The sound effects would make you cringe. The emotion would be high, the fighting spirit undying. The tag match from 12/19's Road to Tokyo Dome show gave us an awesome preview of what would come in one of the best tag team matches from last year. Did it deliver? Hell yeah. This was a contest of pure endurance and pain tolerance. Early on,  these two were begging for pain, trading shots until Shibata went Happy Gilmore on Ishii's back with a kick. But Ishii's a Stone Pitbull. He's like New Japan's version of the Absorbing Man. He chops Shibata like firewood and Shibata's forearms are nutzo. After kicking the shit out of Ishii, he gladly cleans it off his face with the side of his boot in the corner. He's polite about his violence, and god, does it look painful. Lariats, kicks, suplexes, and we all fall down. Ishii wants to keep his NEVER title and folds Shibata up with a powerbomb for two -- the first pin attempt of the match. Lariat? Count one. Sliding lariat? Count two. And those thunking headbutts are the stuff of nightmares. More lariats from Ishii, more kicks from Shibata...and a nasty flying knee kick, a front kick, and the PK for the Shibata victory! A surprising finish to a non-stop match in which the competitors didn't have time to think about the consequences of their actions, or the degradation of the human biomass. Life is short. Let's fuck each other up and call it art. A+

IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. AJ Styles

So these two are leaving New Japan, heading to WWE in a quasi-surprising move, and instead of going the Goldberg/Lesnar route and not giving two shits, they gave like 4 and a half shits. This was easily my favorite AJ Styles New Japan match, and when Shinsuke wants to be solid, he's above and beyond. A slower build, which suits the 18-year veteran Styles well. The high flying shenangians are in still in his repertoire but he's picked up a few new tricks along the way that don't jeopardize his chances as much. There's also a franticness to this match. You can see it in their movements and counters. AJ's a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion so in his mind, this is beneath him. But Nakamura's swallows his final piece of Bullet Club lead and Styles quickly needs to coat check the ego. He does beautifully with a Styles dropkick (one of the best still) but when he plays opossum in the corner, he pays for it with a backbreaker and a sick high knee strike in the corner. Shinsuke looks like a lunatic and I'd be happy to see a Shinsuke Nakamura/Dean Ambrose match in his WWE future. Styles sells the back with the suplex lift attempt and goes low with the snap suplex in the corner. He works over Nakamura's leg, trying to weaken the Boma Ye, but it doesn't seem to be working. Once Shinsuke connects with that murdering second-rope Boma Ye, the momentum shifts. AJ lands his own Boma Ye and goes old-school with the Firebird Splash and Nakamura goes old-school with the cross armbreaker counter. A one-armed Styles Clash from AJ isn't enough to dethrone the foppish king. He hits the Bloody Sunday set-up to another Styles Clash...wait, fuck that, Super Styles Clash is the better decision. But his ego comes back to haunt him and after Nakamura counters off the top with the Landslide, he nails AJ with one of the most brutal Boma Ye knees to the back of the head, followed by a second Boma Ye to retain. Awesome stuff. A+

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Rewind to Wrestle Kingdom 9, Tanahashi was still ace. He defeated Okada to keep his belt and his pride intact -- well, relatively intact and then lost it to Styles. Okada had to wade through the Bullet Club bullshit to finally reclaim what was taken from him at Wrestling Dontaku 2014, and now, the stage is set for the final battle to decide Japan's top pro wrestler. Tanahashi goes for the leg early on because, let's face it, he likes the Texas Cloverleaf. Unfortunately, Okada's selling of the limb work left something to be desired in this match, and while it didn't necessarily detract from the match as a whole, the inconsistency made you realize that Kazuchika Okada is human and not a wrestling god. It was what you would expect from these two, with a little more salt and pepper here and there, some big nearfalls, the 'Hey, I respect you but I'm going to try and beat you with your own finisher' game, and one of the best finishes I've seen in awhile. Tanahashi, the consummate samurai, strikes out with a final flash of steel: a Sling Blade, a dragon suplex hold, and back-to-back High Fly Flows. But Okada won't go down. He can't go down. The passion for this rivalry is deafening within the Tokyo Dome, and maybe Tanahashi lets that get to him because in his heart-of-hearts, he knows that Okada is now the master. He tries for the third HFF but Okada shows him the best dropkick in the world! After Okada's German suplex, Tanahashi slaps Okada! He's got nothing left at this point and Okada won't let go -- literally. Three Rainmakers and it's goodnight, sweet prince Tanahashi. A+ And with this win, Okada fulfills his destiny. He becomes the embodiment of New Japan; the modern evolution of pro wrestling art. Here's to 2016!