1. EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
TAKA Michinoku does his awesome intro for Zack Sabre Jr. EVIL has a WrestleMania worthy entrance with masked druids who carry him in a big throne. The crowd heat is palpable for this wrestling match.
And then Chris Jericho, hidden under one of the druid masks, attacks EVIL and everything gets called off.
I am very much into 2018 insane fat guy Chris Jericho but it wasn’t enough to overcome the match just not happening. Sweet Naito run-in though.
2. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title Contendership: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White w/ Gedo
Hiroshi Tanahashi is easily my Wrestler of the Year and let me tell you why. He has had classic match after classic match in big match scenarios – Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP IC Tile in February, ZSJ for the New Japan Cup in April, Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Title in May, Kota Ibushi for the G1 Climax in August, and another brilliant Okada match in September.
Even in a weaker block, he was the standout in the G1 too: another great Suzuki match, an actually good Bad Luck Fale match, fun EVIL and Makabe matches, and another epic with Okada.
Plus he had a brilliant arc – the aging, injured former top guy who is so hurt in February that the referee has to stop his match with Suzuki goes on to try and prevent Okada from topping his record-breaking reign, failing and thinking he no longer has it, only to succeed in and win the G1 and make up for everything, defeating Okada and now besting Jay White en route to the main event at Wrestle Kingdom.
But above everything else is this: he had one lone stinker all year, which took place right at the start in January at the Tokyo Dome with the repackaged Jay White. And he not only had a slightly better match with him in the G1 to make up for it, he had a WAY better match with him here to really really make up for it.
This is a very good wrestling match. They kept it simple, stupid – Tanahashi just SOLD for a long amount of time which is something he’s great at. The atmosphere was helped by Jay White going from “who is this guy” in January to “fuck this guy” now. They got things real hot for the last half too, with an awesome spot where Jay went for the Blade Runner and they did like 10 counters that had the crowd getting progressively more impressed with each one. New Japan managed a shockingly great sports entertainment finish too, with the crowd all about their boy Hiroshi and Gedo pulling the referee out of the ring and taking a couple bumps until Jay setup a chairshot and got caught with an inside cradle for 3. Awesome. ***3/4
