Matches of the Month - January 2025
If anyone has a better weekend than Hechicero had in January I'll be amazed.
It’s a new year and I’m already falling behind in keeping a record of my favourite matches of 2025. January is in the books and it’s a month that belong mostly to Japan, even AEW only enters this month’s countdown due to a show they held in Tokyo. Here are my favourite 10 wrestling matches of the month:
David Finlay Vs Yota Tsuji - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom (4/1/25)
Finlay continued his form from the G1 where he was surprisingly one of the MVPs of the tournament with a great performance against the rising star of Tsuji. The uranage through the table was a brilliant spot to put Tusji on the backfoot, but he managed to comeback and pick up the biggest win of his career with the Gene Blaster spear to win the Global title. This really got the show back on track after the disappointment of DOUKI’s early injury in the Jr title match. 4.
Konosuke Takeshita Vs Tomohiro Ishii - AEWxNJPW Wrestle Dynasty (5/1/25)
There’s the magic of the big Ishii underdog singles match which never seems to translate when Tony Khan brings him in for a Dynamite or Collision. The same man wrestling the same exact hard-hitting match never generates the same atmosphere as it does in Japan (or in England tbf to the former Rev-Pro Champion). Thankfully Tony Khan ran a show in the Tokyo Dome this month so problem solved. This was a fantastic heavyweight slugfest that personally I thought was the match of WrestleKingdom week. 4.75.
Kenny Omega Vs Gabe Kidd - AEWxNJPW Wrestle Dynasty (5/1/25)
To bury the lead, this falls short of match of the year talk for me. I still struggle to buy into Gabe Kidd’s try hard I’m a madman routine, which here bled into the try hard babyface defending the honour of New Japan routine which created problems for me because why would I want to boo Kenny Omega’s return to the ring? What did work for me was the story of Kenny’s unbelievable performance after a life-altering injury to be able to go out there and have a classic Kenny Omega match after being gone for over a year. Oh and there was a lot of blood. 4.25.
Hechicero Vs Blue Panther - CMLL (10/1/25)
He makes one botch on a suicide dive, but other than that this is a tremendous performance from the 64 year old Blue Panther in the standout lucha match so far this year. I was already a big fan of the match before Hechicero went full on rudo, taking Panther to the stage and bashed his head against the Arena Mexico steps. This lead to the match’s big spot of Panther doing a plancha off the steps. It took everything to the next level. 4.25.
Konosuke Takeshita Vs KUSHIDA - NJPW Battle of the Valley (11/1/25)
What a wonderful surprise it was to see KUSHIDA roll back the years and put on a motivated performance that I don’t think I’ve seen out of him since his first New Japan run. Takeshita was defending the NEVER Openweight title here and this was more a styles clash of a heavyweight facing a Junior as opposed to the charging bulls match we got in the Dome between Takeshita and Ishii. KUSHIDA worked over Takeshita’s bum arm like a veteran and forced Takeshita to sell for about 80% of this match. This was not the match layout or performance levels I was expecting, well worth checking out. 4.
Zack Sabre Jr Vs Hechicero - NJPW Battle in the Valley (11/1/25)
Just one day after the Blue Panther match, Hechicero travels up to California to face a familiar rival of his in the reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Zack Sabre Jr. To the surprise of absolutely no-one they yet again had an excellent match against each other with Zack coming out on top with a quick pin. We have seen this match now in England, America and Mexico - surely we’re gonna get it in Japan at some point. 4.5.
Sareee Vs VENY - SEAdLINNNG Shin-Kiba Series (17/1/25)
If Sareee is in a singles match now, I make a point of seeking it out therefore I had to carve some time out this month to watch SEAdLINNNG. This was a bit of a follow up to the tag match these two had in Sareeeism with Iwatani and Hashimoto as partners. Really scrappy, intense bomb fest with some brutal looking german suplexes 4.
Jordynne Grace Vs Tessa Blanchard - TNA Genesis (19/1/25)
I haven’t paid any attention to Tessa in CMLL so this was my first time seeing her probably since her last run in TNA. She may not be the nicest person and brings a lot of PR baggage with her, but she does bring the goods in the ring with her also. I thought this was the best knockouts match I’ve seen in years. Really hard hitting match between two familiar foes, Tessa lent into the boos to give the match more atmosphere and the contest ended with a picture perfect magnum. Pity the turnbuckle pads were the most robust pads in wrestling history to stall the match during it’s closing moments. 4.25.
Sareee Vs Meiko Satomura - Sareee-ISM Chapter VI (23/1/25)
The first great match of Meiko’s retirement year coming up against undeniably the greatest womens wrestler of 2024, Sareee, in her own promotion. This was about as 50/50 as it gets, a real sense of equals meeting despite the age and experience difference. For a match with some history behind it there was little in the way of counters, every finisher just landed from 3 DVDs for Meiko to a couple of top rope stomps and germans from Sareee. Meiko also got the headbutt treatment from Saree. With Sareee being the biggest star in Joshi at the moment I was expecting her to win, but Meiko picked up the victory after the scorpio rising kick. Perhaps there will be time left this year for Sareee to get a win back. 4.25.
Bron Breakker Vs Sheamus - WWE Saturday Nights Main Event (26/1/25)
This was almost a complete shut out for both AEW and WWE this month, but Bron and Sheamus is just always going to land with me. It’s a match for my tastes and sensibilities that is always a welcome palate cleanser with modern WWE. There were a few unexpected twists in the match too with the mid-air spear on the outside when Sheamus unwisely ran up the steps, and when the 10 beats was transitioned to the Celtic Cross when Bron was hoiked over the top rope by his shoulders. The frankensteiner straight after Sheamus pulled himself up to the top of the turnbuckle was a great cut off too. 3.75.