10 Must-See Matches That ALREADY Make 2018 Wrestling’s Greatest Ever Year
7. Kenny Omega Vs. Chris Jericho (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12)
Potentially the most important match in New Japan Pro Wrestling's recent history, Chris Jericho's era-defining clash with 'Best Bout Machine' Kenny Omega earned him his first ever five-star rating from Wrestling Observer doyen Dave Meltzer as well as a renewed reputation as a bonafide draw when NJPW announced a 35% increase in subscribers for their streaming service in and around their biggest show of the year.
Perhaps aware that a marathon technical masterclass akin to Omega's bouts with Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito in 2017 was no longer in his wheelhouse, Jericho instead indulged in Kenny's undeniable flare for Sports Entertainment, taking a super-charged heel version of himself back to the far east for the first time in two decades.
Surpassing expectations of a bloody build by continuing and amplifying the violence throughout, the 'No Disqualification' clash never veered into silliness despite callbacks from both to their past lives as 'The Cleaner' and 'The Ayatollah Of Rock And Rolla' respectively.
Seamlessly meshing their greatest hits with a wealth of new material, the pair's 35-minute brawl breezed by at pace, and found a delicate sweet spot in between NJPW's occasionally-lightweight comedy-drama and majestic in-ring wizardry. If it is one day reflected upon as the match that made wrestling's thriving beast of the east also the best in the west, it'll be this particular tightrope they wonderfully walked that made it so.