10 Best NJPW Matches Of 2020 (So Far)

Naito Two Belts is the most cathartic experience I’ve ever had as a wrestling fan. The fact that it's one of the best matches in wrestling history only adds to its brilliance. Years of believing that Tetsuya Naito would never make it to the top of New Japan permanently, that his win against Okada at Wrestle Kingdom would never happen and he'd be relegated to the IC belt for the rest of his prime was horrible as a fan. Getting hopes up time and time again only for them to be crushed into dust.

Yet he made it, after a long winding road, he reached Wrestle Kingdom, fighting Kazuchika Okada in the main event for the first time in two years and finally picking up the Heavyweight title again, the way he was supposed to all those years ago. The match itself brought out the best of Naito's sympathetic qualities and incredible wrestling, with his Stardust Press near fall being otherworldly. It had none of the slow periods of typical Okada main events, it was all tension, all action, the acknowledgement that this was a once in a lifetime kind of match.

By the end, after Naito had finally pinned his rival in the Tokyo Dome, there is a gesture of love between them, of respect that can only be found in wrestling as Naito raised his Two Belts. The best match of the year regardless of promotion, if it's somehow topped by December, then 2020 will be transcendent for NJPW.