10 Awesome Wrestling Matches From 2017 (That You've Already Forgotten About)
9. KUSHIDA Vs. Hiromu Takahashi - NJPW Dominion
The Best of the Super Juniors tournament boasted a marginally better match - the final between KUSHIDA and Will Ospreay - which somewhat undermined KUSHIDA Vs. Hiromu Takahashi. This iteration of the legendary tournament was designed to set up this rematch, and the journey surpassed the destination. New Japan got it backwards, but really, we're talking fractions. It's probably churlish to criticise in contrast.
The modern style is often criticised by some traditionalists. They argue that the insane level of content stretches suspension of disbelief. They argue that it's impossible to buy that two guys can really hate one another when they are so obviously cooperating on an unprecedented level to craft such intricate sequences. KUSHIDA Vs. Takahashi is Exhibit A of the defence. They performed as if they actually hated one another. This manifested itself as something often stupidly dangerous - a match stuffed with full-on, CTE-triggering strikes and dropkicks levelled against guardrails with absolutely zero give.
It told an awesome story of hatred and redemption - Takahashi had destroyed KUSHIDA at Sakura Genesis in under two minutes, virtually unheard of stuff for a New Japan singles title match - and perhaps the calculated nature of it generated some resentment.