Ranking What Was REALLY The Best Wrestling PPV Every Year 1990-2020

3. 2018 - NJPW Dominion

Dominion 6.9 Okada Omega
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Evolution was a glorious celebration, and that description almost patronises the range and height of its consistently great match quality. TakeOver: New Orleans was one of the greatest shows WWE ever promoted - violent, emotional, and so creative across its entire duration. ALL IN was special, transformative, the start of the wrestling world as it exists now, and packed in several excellent matches to substantiate the hype.

And yet, neither were the best pay-per-view of 2018. We had it so good, but NJPW Dominion 2018 transcended every superlative.

The main event will forever remain the best professional wrestling match ever. A convergence of so much greatness - Kazuchika Okada's fourth reign, the timing of his record-breaking win over Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenny Omega's babyface turn, the existing, seminal story - Okada and Omega worked a mind-blowing 65 minutes in the modern state-of-the-art style and its gorgeous athletic flourishes. And yet, it was mapped and paced with such dark arts mastery and bleeding emotion that it felt so much closer to the live-and-die spirit of real sport than anything that had come before it, even overt worked shoot fare. Omega and Okada captured the impossible emotion.

The undercard was just unreal, too, with so much eclectic genre work mastered by so many generational talents: Chris Jericho's brutal Americanised heel, Hiromu Takahashi's beyond charismatic junior lunacy, the Young Bucks' more mature, rich brand of tag team awesomeness...

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!