5 Best Wrestling Matches of 1990

Professional wrestling is a notoriously subjective form of entertainment. There are fans and critics everywhere, each one of them having their own criteria for what constitutes a great match.

Some fans only prefer a specific style of match, while others are more diverse in their tastes. Some people emphasize in-ring action and dynamism, while others prefer storytelling and emotion-based rivalries, while others still prefer matches with insane crowd noise.

What this list will do is look at various matches from around the world in 1990 and look at the best of the best. Having scoured the internet and various forums, we’ve narrowed it down to the five best matches of 1990. While we’re keeping this list more or less spoiler-free, there is one note: unfortunately, WWE did not have the best year when it came to exciting matches, so no WWE match made the top five.

To that end, this list will feature matches from wrestlers that readers might not be too familiar with, but will hopefully enjoy watching all the same.

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5. Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong

The bout even included a short ‘karate’ contest, which somehow managed to bring the fans to their feet when it occurred. The match is high on athleticism and agility, which makes it feel like an older version of an NXT tag team match.

This ****3/4 classic was one of the reasons why the NWA was held in such high regard during a time when WWE was rapidly taking over the American wrestling market. Featuring classic ‘southern’ wrestling style and excellent managerial work by Jim Cornette, this match is a must-see for any classic wrestling fan.

In fact, this match has a lot of similarities with the Revival’s NXT tag team matches, which makes it clear where those wrestlers got their name in the first place.

4. Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger – WrestleWar 1990

This intense grappling match is one of the main reasons why Ric Flair is held in such high regard by wrestling enthusiasts. Not only was his conditioning incredible in this match, but he had an uncanny ability to elicit a strong reaction from the crowd without having to do very much in the ring.

Flair was such a masterful wrestler in every meaning of the word, showing not only incredible stamina and wrestling skill but a mastery of ring psychology that made this match nearly unpredictable.

Although it isn’t a very dynamic match in terms of move variety, the audience eats up every single move, reacting loudly to every near-fall. That’s a central component to a great match: the crowd, especially in the United States, is critical to a match’s success or failure.

Given how both the crowd and the commentators lose their minds (especially towards the finish), this match serves as a clinic in classic North American wrestling.

3. Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masanobu Fuchi

This match was part of several vicious bouts in a 2-year-plus-long rivalry between two warring factions. On one side you had Jumbo Tsuruta and the old guard of AJPW, and on the other, you had Mitsuharu Misawa and the rising stars of the next generation.

After Misawa had pinned Tsuruta clean, the war over the future of AJPW had started, leading to several confrontations between these two sides. In this match, that rivalry is on clear display, with multiple brutal moves executed throughout the match (including in the finish).

One of the reasons AJPW was so successful during the 1990s was because the wrestlers in the top spots were experts at making matches and moves feel personal and realistic through the precision of their offense and body language.

Even if you can’t understand any Japanese, you can tell who hates whom, which makes this a really enjoyable match with a ‘real-fight’ feel to it.

2. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta

We’ve touched on this match before, but it bears repeating all the same. All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) experienced an explosion in quality and popularity beginning in 1990 and lasting all the way until mid-2000.

At the head of that surge was Mitsuharu Misawa, the former second iteration of Tiger Mask, who became the company’s ace after winning this match. In this match, you can not only hear the crowd firmly behind young Misawa as he took on then-ace Jumbo Tsuruta, but you can also see how crisp his movements were.

The match was a 20-minute, highly-competitive bout that ended with the normally-quiet Japanese fans jumping to their feet as their hero won.

This match served as the launching pad for Misawa’s career that would help him become the centrepiece of All Japan’s wrestling product for the next decade.

1. Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano

This match was voted the Match of the Year in 1990 by the Wrestling Observer, and it’s easy to see why. Not only did it have an incredibly hot crowd from the opening bell, but it had a blistering pace and brutal action that it made feel as much like a personal fight as it did a wrestling match.

Neither man was a clear-cut face or heel as both of them showed heelish tactics (Liger slapped Sano before the match and Sano tried to rip off Liger’s mask). What made this match so great is that the audience was fully immersed in the match, with a few fans even screaming in horror whenever a big move was hit.

Liger’s selling was unbelievable, as he looked to be in unbelievable pain every time Sano hit a big move. It’s an excellent piece of wrestling history that helped make ‘junior heavyweight’ wrestling more popular in the traditionally heavyweight-dominated Japan.