10 Modern Wrestling Moments That Gave You Chills

10. A Solitary Note

Kazuchika Okada Vs. Kenny Omega IV, at NJPW Dominion 2018, was nothing less than the fight of the challenger's life, a fight he put over by entering a career-best performance: the best performance of his career, and the best of anyone's.

Virtually every second of this perfect presentation sprang goosebumps. Omega's fantastically corny pre-fight video; the twisting narrative, in which Omega fought through an injured rib that doubled as his undying will to win; the various callbacks to the in-ring arsenals of the friends who made him whole along the way; Okada's relentless escapology, which, informed by the groundwork of the trilogy, compelled Osaka to roar Omega to finally detonate the One-Winged Angel clean in the middle: this was pro wrestling, perfected, and perhaps even something better than that.

Omega's exhausted celebration, comprising the triumphant formation of the Golden Elite faction, was so powerful that nobody paid attention to the fallen IWGP Heavyweight Champion - until the closing shot of the show.

In the foreground, Okada's 1M yen note cast a shadow over everything. So much pathos rested in that single image; the end of the greatest title reign of all-time, how much the fans would miss it, and how almost insolent they were in clamouring for its end. An aching lament of something wonderful forever lost, this superb production touch subverted celebration into grief.

This was something better than wrestling, perfected. This was life and death.