2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

27. Jushin Liger v. Yohei Komatsu NJPW 5/22

ER: This one kind of snuck up and surprised me. Right from the beginning this felt like a 2 minute match, with veteran Liger getting rushed by young lion Komatsu and then the vet punishing the youngster for his insubordination. But then it turned into much more. Komatsu nails two beautiful dropkicks on Liger before the bell, chases him to the floor and attacks him off the apron, hits a big somersault senton off the top back in the ring. But Liger catches his breath and blasts him under the chin with a shotei, then drags him far off into the entranceway to plant him with a nasty piledriver. I actually thought that was how the match would end, with the veteran snapping and acting like a dick, dropping him with a brainbuster on the floor, and then cockily walking back to the ring. But Komatsu makes it back in, even doing a nice chest first bump running into the apron to further tease his count out. Liger starts getting meaner and meaner, flipping out and stiffing the hell out of Komatsu for not going down. Every move looked like it would put Komatsu away, but he'd keep on surviving. Liger locks on a rough as hell camel clutch, really leaning back all the way, bending that spine, then locks on an even meaner knee bar. But Komatsu gets the boots up in the corner and Liger starts to panic. Awesome moment when Liger came springing off the ropes trying to shotei Komatsu out of Korakuen, really swinging hard and low, but Komatsu drops to his back and rolls into a single leg crab. I lost my shit on that one. Komatsu hits a big falcon arrow, gets a nice nearfall and suddenly Liger is scrambling. But Komatsu makes the mistake of going up top where Liger palm strikes him, suplexes him, then plants him with a Liger bomb and two brainbusters, making sure that kid stays down. Awesome under-10 minute match, starting with a youngster surprising a vet, turning into Masao Inoue vs. Akiyama for awhile in the middle, and ending hot on a potential upset. Really great stuff.

PAS: I found it a little problematic that basically a young boy gets to survive a brainbuster on the concrete, that really should be a move which puts him out for months. Still outside of that quibble this was a great little match. Liger has been carrying kids in black boots and trunks to fun matches for 20+ years, he know exactly when to ratchet up the tension and when to bring it back down, you could give Liger any semi-competent wrestler with three big moves and he could craft a fun match. Komatsu added a little more spice to the stew though, his frantic run chest first into the apron trying to beat the count was a nice bit of desperation and his dropkicks looked great. Not sure how he would look outside this setting, but he was great here.

2015 MOTY MASTER LIST