10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2018

Rare earth hypothesis sets out that the conditions for life on earth required such an improbable convergence of astrophysical and geological events that life cannot exist elsewhere, even in an unknowable and infinite universe.

No pro wrestling match will ever beat this. That was the prevailing sensation following a match that generated so many of them. The various conditions were so perfect as to be unsurpassable.

If there existed one flaw in Kazuchika Okada Vs. Kenny Omega II, previously the greatest pro wrestling match of all time, it's that some of the finisher kick-outs didn't hold the utmost dramatic weight. They were compromised, ironically, by how perfect the exhaustion was sold. We knew they were going long. We knew they were going long at Dominion '18, but the Two Out Of Three Falls stipulation lent every last signature move stakes and urgency - especially since, in just one of several sand-grain moments of genius, a humble 'rana pin settled the first.

Okada entered the match, in NJPW canon, as the single-most dominant force in wrestling history. Omega entered as his fiercest challenge, renewed through a humanising babyface turn to add a deeper layer of emotion to the dynamic. Both entered as the standard-bearers of futuristic athleticism, and more than that, equipped with the psychological genius to sell and convey the toil of this new level of stamina. The two best pro wrestlers on the planet entered their best-ever performances - Omega subverted his power absorption strategy into an arc of redemption, Okada devised impossibly athletic counters to absolutely everything to put over his omniscience - in the best-ever pro wrestling match.

If you don't agree with this take, or consider it hyperbolic in the extreme, the fact that the conversation exists must mean wrestling is in amazing health. There's no disproving that hypothesis.

Even if wrestling exists on some distant planet, inhabiting some advanced form of life, it surely doesn't get better than this.