SLL's 2010 MOTY List

Like Eric, there's no way I'm making it to the end of 2009. I mean, I'm giving it my best shot, but all told, I am maybe four months ahead of Eric with about eleven months more prep time. I kinda have to be realistic about it.

But why should I wallow in what internet wrestling luminaries have called the worst year ever for good wrestling? It is 2010. The future is NOW. It is time to put the past behind me and fully embrace this bold new decade, and it's bold new stars like...um...Hulk Hogan, apparently.

Fuck, we're really off to a great start, aren't we?

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (IWGP Heavyweight Title Match) - NJPW 1/4
2. Solar I, Ultraman Jr., & Angelico vs. Negro Navarro, Trauma I, & Trauma II - IWRG 1/7
3. Pantera, Suicida, & Zatura vs. Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, & Dr. Cerebro - IWRG 1/7

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (IWGP Heavyweight Title Match) - NJPW 1/4

This is all I'm really asking for from my wrestling matches. We've got this idea: Nakamura and Takayama both like to use kneelifts, but Takayama is a big huge guy with big huge knees that can be thrown with greater force. Therefore, Nakamura has to be careful and try to find his openings in between eating Tak's brutal offense and selling it like death. Big ups for Nakamura being left hanging upside down on the apron while Takayama led his countout. All this, plus he gets dumped on his head with the nasty apron-to-inside dragon suplex, and busts out a gnarly German of his own. Back in 2004 when this match-up first main evented the Tokyo Dome, I didn't see what the big deal was with Nakamura and thought they should push Tanahashi as the next top star instead. I'm rarely so happy to be wrong.

2. Solar I, Ultraman Jr., & Angelico vs. Negro Navarro, Trauma I, & Trauma II - IWRG 1/7

Angelico kinda works like a CHIKARA trainee approximating your great lucha matworkers, which is to say he isn't terrible, but you look at any of the exchanges his teammates have with the Navarro family, and you see how far below them he is. That's all kinda beside the point, though. You are watching this match to see Navarro against Solar. The first two falls do a really good job building that up, and then the third fall is almost entirely that, save for Ultraman popping in real quick to get eliminated, and then Angelico taking the Traumas - and himself - out of the equation with a boss somersault tope, allowing our stars to finish the job the way only Solar I and Negro Navarro can. Great lucha matwork will not die so long as these men live...and so long as Black Terry's kid keeps filming these shows.

3. Pantera, Suicida, & Zatura vs. Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, & Dr. Cerebro - IWRG 1/7

This starts with Black Terry exchanging holds with Suicida and then getting trapped in the corner like he was facing a technico Anderson trio before his teammates run in and bring the hurt, with Dr. Cerebro being particularly vicious. From this point forward, the match is about Black Terry as old guy who doesn't feel like putting up with this shit today, as he and the Cerebros just paste dudes with nasty shots, and the technicos try to fight fire with fire. Pantera also tries to fight fire with armdrags, which look pretty nice. Third fall feels a bit like a restart, like cooler heads briefly prevailed after the technicos picked up the second fall, though Terry still holds nothing back. Even his courting hold is applied with aggression. And, of course, it all breaks down again soon enough, culminating in an odd little ending that starts with an unconvincing ref bump, but ends pretty cleverly with Dr. Cerebro standing behind the ref while he's admonishing Pantera, and then grabbing Pantera's leg and pulling it up into the ref's crotch, getting him DQ'd. Execution wasn't perfect, but still pretty neat.