Phil's Ongoing 2008 MOTY List

1. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer IWA-MS 3/1
2. Floyd Mayweather v. Big Show WWE 3/30
3. Mike Quakenbush v. Johnny Saint WXW 3/8
4. Teddy Hart v. Eddie Kingston v. Homicide JAPW 1/19
5. Yuki Ishikawa v. Carl Greco BattlArts 6/1
6. Necro Butcher v. Predator IGF 6/23
7. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takeshi Morishima NOAH 3/2
8. Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness ROH 2/23
9 Erick Stevens v. Roderick Strong FIP 2/8
10. Nigel McGuiness v. Austin Aries ROH 3/28
11. Finlay v. JBL WWE 3/30
12. Shawn Michaels v. Ric Flair WWE 3/30
13. El Valiente + El Hijo Del Fantasma + La Mascara v. La Sombra + Volador Jr. + Sagrado CMLL 4/30

5. Yuki Ishikawa v. Carl Greco BattlArts 6/1

Every year a Yuki Ishikawa match floats across the ocean to drop awesomeness on our heads. Greco aka Carl Malenko is a guy who had disappeared completely for the last five years or so, but he shows up here and still rules. This is worked completely on the mat and is both guys delivering some awesome looking submission attempts and counters. Ishikawa’s stuff is more traditional Puro shootstyle mat work, while Greco does a lot of slick jujitsu stuff, ripping out some awesome looking twisty shit from rubber guard. The finish is awesome with both guys standing up and grabbing the rope and voluntarily surrendering their final rope break, before diving right back to the mat, where they are now forced either to counter or submit. Not for everyone, but RINGS or U-Style fans will love this.

6. Necro Butcher v. Predator IGF 6/23

For a guy kicking out tons of great matches week after week in 2006 and 2007, 2008 Necro Butcher has been a little underwhelming. So it was nice to see an unexpectedly great match like this show up. Necro is a guy who works really well in various roles, rampaging monster heel, Dugganish brawling babyface. In this match he was playing the same sympathetic never say die underdog he played in the Samoa Joe and Morishima matches. While this wasn’t at the level of the Joe match (which is a real contender for US match of the decade) this was way better then anything we have seen from Necro for a while.

Predator is a guy I have never particularly enjoyed, but he is fine as a big dude punching Necro in the face and chucking him through chairs. Outside of a brutal looking clothesline with a chain wrapped arm, Necro didn’t take any Necro level insane bumps, he just bled and sold, and by the end of the match he was over as fuck. Got to give it to Terkey as he gave more comebacks to Necro then one might expect, and you got the sense the crowd was buying the upset by the end.

10. Nigel McGuiness v. Austin Aries ROH 3/28

This Is the Wrestlemania weekend rematch of the Rising Above match which I thought was the best match of 2007. Aries is maybe the most athleticly impressive guy in ROH, but is pretty hit or miss when it comes to translating that into a good match. Nigel may be the best guy at leading Aries into epic things, as Aries bumps huge for all of Nigel’s spots and they both aren’t afraid to pound on each other. This match does suffer a bit from rematchitis though, as it is pretty hard to compare to the greatness of the Dec match. They tease the two big spots from the PPV match, the tope to the back and the lariat with Aries crotched on the ropes, it was kind of cool to see both countered, but not as cool as executing those spots were. The two big moves that replaced them, Aries tope into nothing and the lariat on the guardrail were cool, but lesser. Also the end run wasn’t as good as I wasn’t buying Aries’s comebacks after he sold the clothesline in the crowd like he was knocked unconscious.