If you’re only going to watch one match from this list, well, don’t make it this one unless you’re got an hour to set aside. If you do, then all you need to know going into this is that Trevor Lee is the champion and this is for the title; the (best of the decade) commentary quickly make it clear who’s a legitimate threat and who’s a rookie straight outta wrestling school who needs to buy some boots. There are muscleheads, guys who look like they’ve never been to the gym, and guys who look like they ate the gym—a throwback to an era that can’t exist anymore, when a lumpy guy called “Handsome” Mitch Connor could be someone who’s a star in Gibsonville, NC. There are laffs, storylets, and one Kool Jay getting murdered. And could it be that someone straight outta wrestling school could be the real threat?
2. Fénix vs. Mil Muertes, Lucha Underground: Grave Consequences 1/25/15
Career-making performance for Fénix, who crashes into all kinds of solid objects, not least the casket that someone’s going to get trapped in to end the match. Muertes (a/k/a Mesías later on this list) does his part, hitting hard and being generally immovable. The use of the environment is what’s most memorable, the two of them finding all kinds of unexpected surfaces of a warehouse in eastside L.A. for Fénix to bounce and moonsault off of. They create indelible/absurd images: a bloodied fighter covered in flower petals. Lucha Underground never matched this. No singles match this decade did.
3. Minoru Suzuki vs. AJ Styles, NJPW G1 Climax 8/1/14
Styles starts the match getting insane vertical height on everything, while Suzuki remembers every hold and taunt as a personal insult to be avenged. Then when it’s sadism time Suzuki is just cruel, using the ring bell hammer and trying to separate Styles from his ring finger. The climax benefits immensely from simple submissions being credible finishes in a tournament setting.
4. Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk, WWE Summerslam 8/18/13
Before Brock’s cardio gave out and his one-on-one bouts became (often enthralling) cartoons, he really a beast, capable of throwing a grown man a vast distance twenty minutes deep into a match. Punk’s strikes were not of UFC quality, it turns out, but he brought a willingness to take a beating and a babyface determination backed with post-face treachery, marred only by the occasional babyface brainfart. Maybe the only time a triangle choke ever felt like a finish in the WWE.
5. Black Terry vs. Chico Che, IWRG 1/22/12 and 1/29/12
What could express the essence of wrestling better than a fat guy doing a ’70s cumbia singer gimmick beating a short 59-year-old to a bloody pulp in front of a couple of hundred people? Doing it again the following week, with the loser getting a haircut. As much as some intellectualize it—and people do! more than me!—in the end it’s about characters and violence with some degree of realism. Nobody embodies this more than Black Terry, in that violence is his character: not in a cartoon “he’s a zombie who likes to hurt people” way, but in that his job has been to beat on and be beaten on several times a weekend for almost four decades. As for the realism of the violence, well, see picture.
6. John Cena vs. CM Punk, WWE Money in the Bank 7/17/11
Not only does this five-star match start with chants of “you can’t wrestle,” there’s a long stretch of classic title match mat wrestling (which the crowd laps up) before it turns into perhaps the best specimen of WWE Main Event style since Hart and Austin. Punk’s execution isn’t always excellent but he plays the smarmy hometown favorite with gusto, breaking out a huge shit-eating grin when he realizes he has the opportunity for a tope. Cena, more sinned against than sinning, is constantly on the verge of triumph until he’s betrayed by his own bourgeois morality.
7. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma, NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 5/3/14
Two dudes hitting each other hard and willing to take a hit to get one in, though I’m unsure if the diving headbutt to the floor passes a cost-benefit analysis. Both display the New Japan tendency toward no-selling, but for meatheads, both are pretty judicious about it. And when it’s time to wrap things up, they don’t mess around.
8. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW G1 Climax 8/4/13
They start at an all-out sprint, and while they can’t quite sustain that, they get close. The highlight is Ishii’s selling: nobody else can put across that the adrenaline required for a no-sell or a one-count is actually costing him in the long run, as shown by a flinch or a crumple at an inopportune moment. Shibata, for his, can give as good as he gets, even making submissions look dangerous on a guy without a neck. In different ways, both seem to be having a ball. The saliva-filled run to the finish is pure drama.
9. AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE Survivor Series 11/19/17
Perhaps the best performance against Lesnar since Guerrero 2004 (which I will never stop telling people I was at.) Lesnar’s not what he was, but still has his aura, and an opponent willing to do most of the work can turn that into a great match. And boy, is Styles willing to work, tossing himself around and bumping tremendously, while he retains the athleticism to be a credible threat to Brock. Middle age, eh?
10. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, WWE Royal Rumble 1/25/15
That it’s two-on-one most of the time means that Suplex City Lesnar, which often approaches camp, instead seems like a wrestling match (well, all wrestling is camp, but you know what I mean.) Lesnar is Rollins’s best opponent, as there’s no such thing as unprofessionalism here and Seth can straight out knee Brock in the head. Cena just has fun, reveling in the crowd’s disapproval as he prepares for the Five Knuckle Shuffle; Brock comes up behind him and suplexes him into the midcard.
11. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder vs. Johnny Gargano/Tomasso Ciampa vs. Rezar/Akam, NXT Takeover Orlando 4/1/17
Filled with callback spots that aren’t too cute for their own good. The refusal to do a 50/50 finish and instead just put a team over strong stands out in this age, even if like so many NXT pushes it ended up being meaningless on the main roster.
12. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, NXT Takeover Dallas 4/1/16
A debut that lived up to the hype, and aside from the now classic Nakamura theme tune it’s primarily due to Zayn, who’s willing to wrestle as much as of a New Japan match as possible within WWE nearfall constraints (which NXT would throw out soon after this, but I digress.) You get nasty knees and kicks and an endless forearm exchange that, while not seeming quite as brutal on rewatch, doesn’t lose momentum thanks to the frenzied crowd.
13. Virus vs. Titan, CMLL 1/28/14
Old school two-out-of-three fall lucha is one of art’s great forms, up with the sonata. One of the era’s most underrated wrestlers, Virus brings unmatched mat aptitude and the ability to take massive bumps, all while milking the structure for all the drama and elegance that’s inherent in it.
14. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 1/4/15
It’s the Tokyo Dome, so Nakamura lays in his strikes a little harder than usual, while Ibushi is just a dick, coming up with ever-more creative ways to insult Nak.
15. LA Park vs. Mesías, AAA Guerra de Titanes 12/5/10 (part 1, part 2, part 3)
Park gives his best heel performance, goofy yet dangerous and fluidly basing for Mesías’s power and highspots. For once, when they start to do actual wrestling movies after the beer cart spots, it doesn’t let up, with the desperation to win even stronger than in their subsequent apuestas match.
16. Rush vs. LA Park, Elite 7/14/16
My favorite entry in the never-ending feud between Roided-Up Young Asshole and Fiftysomething Fat Skeleton because of the rabid crowd throwing trash and money and the fact that the two of them don’t pretend they’re building up to anything conclusive.
17. Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW G1 Climax 8/3/14
A problematic match to rewatch: while they don’t anything too stupid in this one, you can see they’re the kind of wrestlers who might end up pushing themselves too hard. But here they push themselves just hard enough, with credible strikes and Shibata gamely playing along with Honma’s schtick. Honma’s loser-Hulk charisma is what puts this over the top, and not just in this match—it was a big part of what made this the best tournament of the decade.
18. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Timothy Thatcher, WXW Ambition 3/9/19
In which the apparent best wrestler in the world gets his lunch eaten by a grizzled 52-year-old who semi-retired to Toronto to hang out in Santino’s gym. Thatcher finds he has to get tetchy to keep up; the violence escalates.
19. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Chico Che vs. Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco/Avisman, IWRG 3/14/10 (first two falls)
This entry in the Cerebros-Gringos Locos feud of the decade features Chico Che’s heavyweight charisma, Terry and Dr. Cerebro giving back as good as they get, and nopales.
20. Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder vs. Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa, NXT Takeover Toronto 11/19/16
Upon rewatching, the second fall admittedly feels somewhat perfunctory. But the deciding fall (yes, the two-out-of-three falls match goes the distance, what a spoiler) is probably the best traditional tag match of NXT’s great run before the Undisputed Era upped the bullshit at the cost of some bullshit. This has some of the Revival’s smoothest ever tag work, isolating one DIY member or the other like it’s a sport or something, and Gargano might’ve been the best seller in the US at that point. The spot-stealing is done tastefully. And in the end, brothers are gonna be brothers, and they’re gonna go down together.
21. Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt/Luke Harper/Erick Rowan, WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23/14
Chaotic match that climaxes with the crowd going nuts for Reign’s superman comeback. Surely WWE couldn’t screw this up!
22. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Timothy Thatcher, EVOLVE 79 2/25/17
Real stakes mean Europe’s two best technical wrestlers (well, one’s from Sacramento) have an unusually aggressive match.
23. Último Guerrero vs. Atlantis, CMLL Anniversario 9/19/14
Nothing makes luchadors lift their game more than a mask-vs-mask match. In one corner you have Último Guerrero, a major star for a long time and in his prime as a worker, capable of impressive strength spots and with gas left in the tank. In the other you have arguably the TV era’s greatest mascara match wrestler, now over 50 and a bit slower but still armed with the Atlántida backbreaker, CMLL’s most protected move. Careers are changed, tears are shed.
24. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano, NXT Takeover New Orleans 4/7/18
The peak of NXT’s tendency towards epic singles matches with questionable acting. This one has the brutality and mutual hate to keep the crowd chanting “fuck you Ciampa” for over half an hour.
25. Black Terry/Shu el Guerrero vs. Negro Navarro/El Signo, San Nicolas 2/14/10
Throwback match with two of the Eighties’ groundbreaking rudo trio Los Misioneros de la Muerte up against two members of the Mad Max wannabe group Los Temerarios who got better with age. The unique graffiti-filled setting is as memorable as the matwork, hinting at a world of lucha that existed for decades just out of reach of the cameras. Most of it is on cellphone videos now, though.
26. Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs. Hijo del Diablo/Gringo Loco/Avisman, IWRG 6/5/10
27. Suwama/Shuji Ishikawa vs. Yuji Okabayashi/Daisuke Sekimoto, AJPW Dream Power Series 3/19/19
28. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10 1/4/16
29. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE Extreme Rules 1/4/16
30. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma, NJPW New Beginning 2/14/15
31. Meiko Satomura vs. Mercedes Martinez, WWE Mae Young Classic 8/9/18
32. Virus vs. Fuego, CMLL 6/15/14
33. Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody, AEW Double or Nothing 5/25/19
34. Negro Casas vs. Blue Panther, CMLL 4/24/11
35. Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, WWE Summerslam 8/20/17
36. Bárbaro Cavernario vs. Black Terry, Cara Lucha 6/11/16
37. Luke Harper/Bray Wyatt/Erick Rowan vs. Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns, WWE Raw 3/3/14
38. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, WWE WrestleMania 3/29/15
39. Daniel Bryan vs. John Vena vs. Cesaro vs. Christian vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus, WWE Elimination Chamber 2/23/14
40. Hijo del Diablo vs. Dr. Cerebro, IWRG 1/31/10
41. TJ Perkins vs. Kota Ibushi, WWE Cruiserweight Classic 9/14/16
42. Virus vs. Metálico, CMLL 5/31/19
43. Virus vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., CMLL 6/7/11
44. Villano IV/El Hijo del Santo vs. El Hijo del Solitario/Angel Blanco Jr., TXT 2/25/12
45. Roderick Strong vs. Timothy Thatcher, EVOLVE 41 4/17/15
46. Kamaitaichi vs. Drágon Lee, CMLL 8/30/15
47. Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher, EVOLVE 66 8/29/16
48. Comando Negro vs. El Pollo, IWRG 12/26/10
49. Virus/Cachorro/Hechicero vs. Negro Casas/Cavernario/Drágon Lee, CMLL 5/23/14
50. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch, NXT Takeover: Unstoppable 5/20/15