10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2017

Once in awe of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito wrestled him in the first few minutes of this emotional war as if he could not give a toss about him.

Tanahashi, incensed, twice slapped the sh*t out of him to establish - at least initially - a heel role. It made sense from a psychological perspective; Tanahashi, ostensibly fighting with one arm, felt he had to infuriate Naito into abandoning his strategy. The Ryogoku fans, already firmly in Naito's corner, hated Tanahashi for this - until Naito worked over his bandaged bicep. Tanahashi's selling was so consistent and so believable that he split the partisan crowd with biblical psychology. A true wrestling God, Tanahashi performed here with the character complexity of a Tony Soprano or a Chuck McGill, creating an internal conflict within the crowd externalised as a deafening cacophony.

Tanahashi uses the dragon screw multiple times in his matches, and you never see them coming. This was no different. Several times he inspired hope just as it was thought all was lost - but the move dealt his own health bar a hammer blow, creating a level of unpredictability that was sublime, given the machinations of the wider tournament.

With the time limit hovering in the background, the last few minutes developed an unbearable level of drama; as Tanahashi wrenched Naito in a second Cloverleaf, referee Red Shoes threatened to throw the match out - without realising Tanahashi was destroying his own bicep just to maintain the pressure.

An ingenious lesson in wrestling psychology, this proved that a one-armed Tanahashi > 99.9% of a ROTW in rude health.