Matches of the Month - April 2025
What a month. Wrestlemania week may have felt like a month in itself given there was about 100 shows that week. Throw in AEW absolutely killing it on TV, and some big Japanese shows and it was yet again a really tough month to only list 10 matches for.
Hirooki Goto Vs David Finlay - NJPW Sakura Genesis (5/4/25)
The miracle maker does it again. I had my heart in my mouth again for Goto in the big spot this year as this felt like the first genuine chance he could lose the IWGP World Championship as Finlay had been given the textbook post dome push for the next heel champion. However, Goto’s gone from serial choker to serial winner in main events now. Great stuff and long may this reign continue. 4.
Kyle Fletcher Vs Mark Briscoe - AEW Wrestle Dynasty (6/4/25)
If there is a bigger fan of this series of matches than myself, I haven’t met them yet. Wrestle Dynasty was a comedown from Revolution, but there were a few very good matches on the show, and if they had wrapped up Omega/Ricochet/Speedball 5 minutes earlier that would have been on the list too. This was clearly the match of the night to me, another excellent match between these two hand-in-glove opponents for each other. 4.25.
Mercedes Mone Vs Athena - AEW Dynamite Spring Break Thru (16/4/25)
The most attention grabbing match Tony’s announced in quite a while. As soon as I saw the graphic this became more interesting than anything else happening in Wrestlemania week. I’ve been waiting years for Athena to return from ROH and back into to the mainstream wrestling picture, and quite frankly we’ve been waiting all of Mercedes’ run for her to have a match where she’s in danger of losing. Great chemistry on display here in a back-and-forth match and the ‘gotcha’ style pin at the end from Mercedes tells me we’re getting another match in the near-future. I wouldn’t be surprised if Athena is the one to dethrone Mercedes for the TNT title. 4.5.
Will Ospreay Vs Konosuke Takeshita - AEW Dynamite Spring Break Thru (16/4/25)
Best television episode of the year? Most likely. I don’t even have room here to include Hangman Vs the debuting Josh Alexander. The best wrestler in the world today and Will Ospreay went out to make a statement, and other than a rare botch from Will, this was a pretty special match. A masterclass in linking counters and signature moves together and an absolutely insane closing stretch. 4.25.
Shun Skywalker, Kota Minora and ISHIN Vs Ben K, Kzy and Hyo - DGUSA x Pro Wrestling Revolution: The Gate of Revolution (18/4/25)
Amongst the slop of Wrestlemania week, Dragon Gate put on a joint effort with PRW that was the best show of the entire week. In a quieter month the breakout performances of the Panthers/Arkangel Divino and Ultimo Maldito or even Rich Swann Vs YAMATO from this show would be on the countdown. However my favourite match from the non-WWE portion of mania week was a classic dragon gate six man tag where the fans couldn’t be closer to the action thanks to Shun Skywalker’s antics. In particular I loved the focus on ISHIN and Hyo who are probably the least well known guys in this match to state-side fans. 4.25.
Iyo Sky Vs Bianca Belair Vs Rhea Ripley - Wrestlemania Sunday (20/4/25)
As with most modern manias, it’s the women that are the are stealing the show. This by a country mile was the best WWE match of the weekend; A match that captured the biggest night of the year energy of Wrestlemania while simultaneously being a fantastic in-ring match. There wasn’t a tonne of story here, it was a very spot heavy match, but it was thrilling action and the complete opposite of the hit you over the head melodrama of the Triple Threat the night before. Also, when they get Rhea away from the Judgement Day nonsense, look how great her matches can be. 4.5.
Mayu Iwatani Vs Syuri - Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom (27/4/25)
Oh man, we were so close to a perfect match until Mayu made that rare botch on the top rope poisonrana. That aside, this was fan-fucking-tastic. Stiff as fuck, big time vibes, and full of bombs. The sheer amount of nearfalls might put some people off, but this was Mayu’s farewell so if ever there was a right time to do that, it was here. Syuri’s now in my two favourite womens matches of the year, I did not see that coming in January, but I’m really looking forward to what she brings to the table in her IWGP title run. And with that Mayu leaves Stardom, their greatest ever wrestler. 4.75.
Saya Kamitani Vs Tam Nakano - Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom (27/4/25)
Now obviously as a parachuter to this company and this rivalry, this isn’t going to hit as hard with me as it does for fans of Stardom; something like Iwatani/Syuri is much more accessible than that. However, this is still pretty great and I got the feeling of watching something special, especially from Kamitani from her entrances to her swagger during her match. She feels primed to be the biggest star in joshi for this generation (if she isn’t already). I much preferred this to the Korakuen match thanks to the lack of interference. Other than the chain use at the start of the match, there really wasn’t much heel cheating in this one from Kamitani. 4.25.
Meiko Satomura and Manami Vs Aja Kong and Chihiro Hashimoto - Sendai Girls: Satomura Meiko The Final (29/4/25)
It’s not quite Stinger’s retirement, but this was still a top-tier retirement match and a perfect, emotional send off for one of the greats of joshi wrestling. Manami seemed an odd inclusion in this big time match, but I thought she played a really fitting role as almost the younger version of Meiko coming up against these huge monsters, getting destroyed, but always coming back for more. Ultimately it came down to Meiko and Aja in the final minutes and fittingly Meiko picked up the win with Scorpio Rising to end one of the greatest pro-wrestling rivalries ever. I’m gonna lump in the 5 minute handicap match where Meiko and Aja Kong teamed up together with this match, because that was also a blast and I see it as a complete package deal of her retirement match. 4.5.
Adam Page Vs Kyle Fletcher - AEW Dynamite (30/4/25)
Dynamite ended their great month of TV with another brilliant main event from the Owen Hart Tournament. Perhaps aided by the fact that I think this result did have some doubt about it whereas the earlier rounds were fairly one sided; the narrative was that we were setting up for another Fletcher/Osprey PPV match, but you can never count out the Hangman. Kyle’s an incredible stooge atm, I was pretty much at a 3.5 rating after ‘Ride ‘em cowboy’ a couple of minutes in. Hell of a bump off the guard rail to get rare blood on his back. If I had one criticism, I thought the buckshot lariat off the turnbuckle was so great that it should have finished the match rather than follow up with a standard buckshot. 4.25.