2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

9. AJ Styles v. Minoru Suzuki NJPW 8/1

PAS: Suzuki isn't the most consistent guy in the world, but a couple of times a year he will bust out a straight classic. This was off the charts, the old US Indy fan in me finds it really weird that AJ Styles is the IWGP Champion, I really think he owes it to Jeff G. Bailey to give Iceberg a shot at the belt. Suzuki is like the worlds greatest Fuchi in this match, just torturing Styles like a sadistic prison camp guard in a WW2 movie. He just fucks Styles arm up and twists and hyper extends his fingers. Styles has great big bomb moves, and he does a great job timing them for biggest impact. Also the fast counter open hand strike sections look so much better then the endless elbow smashes which mar a lot of these NJPW matches. Finish run was super exciting, this is the rare modern New Japan match which I think totally lives up to it's hype.

ER: Suzuki always comes out like the coolest guy in the room. I can't think of any other wrestlers who would look odd if they didn't walk with a cocksure swagger. Suzuki is a guy who would disappoint you if you saw him buying groceries and just idly pushing a shopping cart. Styles really seems like the biggest TNA victim, as with this match and the Hero match from earlier in the year, I can't think of any TNA matches of his that come close. He truly wasted the best years of his life and has the horrible tattoos and bad haircut to prove it. This match is not what I expected (in a good way) as this is relentless  and intense. I expected AJ to be super indy and Minoru to be too cool for school but they just lace into each other the whole time. Minoru's arm stuff looked super cranked in. I got tennis elbow so sometimes it annoys me when I use a mouse or set up something on the DVR with the remote. And boy do I feel like a colossal pussy watching Suzuki bend AJ's arm over the top rope with his full weight while AJ is bent in a horrible position on the apron. Every time Minoru would grab that arm it looked like he intended to rip it off. At one point he seriously looked like he was hyperextending it, while also bending AJ's wrist at a brutal angle. All of Suzuki's kicks looked swift and landed hard. His running punt on the apron was beautiful. There was interference shenanigans with guys beating down AJ after Suzuki pulls the ref into the way of a Styles avalanche. Then other guys beat those guys down and Suzuki kinda wanders back in afterwards, escaping the mess unscathed and unnoticed like Mr. Pink in the shootout at the end of Reservoir Dogs. AJ leans into everything here like a nut, and the strike exchanges were as exciting as Phil said. All these neat strikes thrown off balance and out of sync, no "hit me, then I'll hit you, and we'll growl and flex". Big slaps and kicks and elbows thrown out seemingly at random and it felt like a dirty fight. Loved the ankle pick roll through on a Styles Clash and admittedly the Styles Clash finish feels a little weak since it usually looks like a really safe bump and these guys just massacred each other with strikes and twisting. But finishers are finishers and good grief did this match have so much to love. Great modern puro match.


2014 MASTER LIST