5 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2014

2014 was another great year of wrestling matches. But unlike in previous years, by 2014, New Japan Pro Wrestling had effectively supplanted WWE as the unquestioned king of great pro wrestling bouts. It isn’t that WWE didn’t have great matches throughout the year; they absolutely did.

Fantastic bouts like The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family, Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn, The Shield vs. Evolution, and John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a Last Man Standing Match were all outstanding bouts that deserve to be praised and re-watched.

But the reason that NJPW out-ranks WWE in 2014 is because of the sheer volume of amazing wrestling matches and great wrestlers they produced throughout the year. NJPW showcased outstanding matches by the likes of A.J. Styles, Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Katsuyori Shibata, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, the list goes on.

The 2014 G1 Climax tournament, in particular, was an absolute lightning rod for amazing wrestling, producing more great matches than can be counted on one list.

Ultimately, ththe list can only highlight the five best matches of the 2014 calendar year, so here they are…

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#5 Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto – NJPW Power Struggle 2014

https://rutube.ru/video/747695bf49be0d4d2c9f54e4a42b2d24/

This was not a technical wrestling match. Instead, it was a savage brawl that looked like Goto and Ishii were desperate to win. Goto was his usual high-quality wrestling self, but Ishii was the one that made this into something special.

He wrestled with a separated shoulder and still fought through that to try and keep his title. To do that, Ishii had to not survive an onslaught of vicious moves from Goto, but he also had to channel his own strength to somehow try and beat Goto.

Video: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto – NJPW Power Struggle 2014

These two wrestlers hit each other HARD, and showed that classic Japanese ‘fighting spirit’ by putting their bodies on the line in a way that isn’t seen often in a wrestling ring. At one point, Goto hit a lariat right in Ishii’s clavical, and Ishii didn’t even flinch after receiving such a vicious move.

Soon after, Ishii did the same to Goto; they kept going back and forth with these brutal strikes and the crowd exploded for this match, giving both a standing ovation. Neither man would back down, no matter how many big moves were hit

Goto and Ishii proved in this match that sometimes a simple formula is all you need to have a great match. Like some of the classic stiff-as-hell brawls from All Japan’s heyday, sometimes all you need is two gladiators dishing out and absorbing inhuman amounts of punishment to bring a crowd to its feet.

#4 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata – NJPW Destruction in Kobe

There is a lot of history between these two wrestlers. Tanahashi and Shibata (along with Nakamura) were meant to be NJPW new ‘Three Musketeers’, the trio that would become the top stars of the company (like how Hashimoto, Chono and Muto were in the 1990s).

But Shibata left NJPW for MMA, and his career there didn’t pan out as he had planned. So when he returned, there was anger from Tanahashi, as he felt Shibata had turned his back on NJPW and had now come back as if he was still deserving of a top spot.

That turned into a very dramatic match that oozed bitterness. The normally clean-cut Tanahashi slapped Shibata on the face, and from there all hell broke loose. These two grapplers went to war with each other, and at one point they exchanged stiff strikes outside the ring until the count of 19 before getting back in the ring together and continuing that same strike exchange. That’s how realistic the hatred came across.

Yet through all that, and despite all of Shibata’s ‘realistic’ fighting experience, it wasn’t enough to overcome the bottomless well of determination that is Hiroshi Tanahashi. The ‘one-in-a-century-wrestler’ withstood everything Shibata threw at him, even hitting his dragon screw leg whip as Shibata hit him with the stiffest strikes possible.

What makes this match so great is that it adds a layer of story that isn’t common in puroresu. Normally, Japanese wrestling follows a straightforward, sport-like approach of ‘two opponents, both want to win’ with little else in terms of gimmicks.

This match was an exception, as two wrestlers with contrasting styles fought each other while having very bitter feelings towards each other. That came out in this truly dramatic and exciting wrestling match.

#3 Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – G1 Climax final

New Japan’s roster is filled with several rivalling factions and stables, so stablemates don’t fight each other often. The biggest exception to this rule is during the G1 Climax, where it’s every man for himself. This allowed two CHAOS stablemates to face each other to find out which of them would face the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the following Wrestle Kingdom.

And because they rarely fought each other, this came off as a special match, and both Okada and Nakamura brought their A-game to make sure fans felt that way.

While Okada’s in-ring work has been praised for many years now, his match structure also proved he’s excellent at telling a story without words. Okada was determined to not only win the G1 Climax, but also to cement himself as the new NJPW ace. That meant defeating one of the company’s most time-tested stars in Nakamura, and doing so decisively. And Okada did this by hitting three consecutive Rainmakers and crowning himself the 2014 G1 Climax winner.

But Nakamura didn’t make it an easy ride for Okada. He hit Okada with some of the most vicious moves ever seen in an NJPW ring, and made the crowd erupt like a volcano when he reversed Okada’s first Rainmaker into a flying cross armbreaker (bear in mind that Nakamura does have MMA experience and that armbar is a killer move).

This match is damn-near perfect for its story, in-ring action, psychology, and the crowd going nuts over all the big moves. It might not have taken place in a cavernous stadium, but the crowd’s reaction said more about this match than any promo.

#2 Sami Zayn vs. Neville - NXT TakeOver [R]Evolution

These two men would eventually make it to WWE's main roster...to become criminally underused

This is the match that set the bar for all future NXT TakeOver events. It was such a contrast to everything WWE’s main roster produced that it felt like it was pulled straight out of a smaller indy promotion.

The technical wrestling, amazing transitions and high-risk wrestling moves shows by both Neville and Zayn were simply mesmerizing.

They pulled out all the stops to make this match into something historic: Neville hitting a picture-perfect Ligerbomb, Zayn hitting his rope-drive DDT and a Neville busting out a poisoned Frankensteiner. All of these are high-risk moves, and their willingness to hit these moves shows the length to which both Zayn and Neville were willing to go to win the match.

Finally, another point needs to be said about this crowd; they were firmly in Zayn’s corner, cheering for him so wildly that some people were screaming in fear when Neville was closing in on a victory. They were firmly behind their superhero, and were desperate to see him win.

That emotional investment turned into one of the most thunderous fan reactions of all time when the match ended, turning this match into an instant classic.

#1 A.J. Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki - G1 Climax 2014

New Japan’s G1 Climax tournament is normally a time during which otherwise-never-seen match-ups can take place. This is one such a contest, as the leaders of NJPW’s two biggest heel stables went to war with each other.

This match proved, among other things, that Styles is arguably the best wrestler active today. The reason for this is that he wrestled in a match with Suzuki, a man that wrestles in a completely different style than the Phenomenal One.

But instead of there being a noticeable (pardon the pun) styles clash between them, the action was crisp and clean, and the story made perfect sense. Not only did Suzuki bring some legitimacy to this match with his MMA background, but he gave this match considerably more drama by working Styles’ arm and even his fingers. Yes, a normally-forgotten body part was made into a central psychology element in this contest.

This match had layers upon layers of selling and psychology built into it, which translated into believable near-falls and logical match progression. Even though Styles represented the villainous Bullet Club, he received a hero’s ovation for his work in this match.

An absolute must-watch for any Styles fan, as this match shows just how poorly-used he was in TNA only a few years beforehand.