Another year in professional Wrestling has come and gone. As we look forward to the squared circle magic in 2018, 2017 had several stellar events.
New Japan Pro Wrestling delivered the goods in spades while WWE churned out some fun moments. ROH and the independent scene are on fire like never before as a new era of wrestling is coming around.
All lists of this nature are subjective. My rankings don’t mean any more or less than anyone else’s rankings. These are my picks for the top five wrestling events of 2017.
1. Wrestle Kingdom 11 – 1/4/17: Okada vs. Omega, Tanahashi vs. Naito, Goto vs. Shibata and Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA…enough said!
2. NXT Takeover: War Games 11/18/17: The first War Games match in 17 years with slightly altered rules and no roof on the cage could have gone either way. However, it was a sensational match where all 9 wrestlers worked their asses off to make this one for the history books. The four way women’s title match never let up and Cien Almas went from joke to studd by becoming the NXT Champion.
3. NJPW Dominion 6/11/17: I wouldn’t argue with anyone if they had this show at the top of their list. It was that good. Okada vs. Omega’s sixty minute draw was the stuff of legends, Tanahashi getting his win back from Naito could have easily stolen the show and the rest of the card was highly entertaining from top to bottom.
4. ROH Best in the World 6/23/17: I was in attendance for this all Bullet Club affair that was reminiscent of the nWo at the peak of their popularity. The majority of the matches were action packed with the event capped off by Cody pinning Christopher Daniels for the ROH title.
5. WrestleMania 4/2/17: The thirty third edition of the grand daddy of them all delivered some memorable moments. AJ Styles carried Shane McMahon to what many felt was match of the night. Brock Lesnar defeated Goldberg for the Universal title in a five-minute slug fest that got my vote for best match of the night.
The Hardy Boys made their triumphant return to WWE. Naomi won the SmackDown women’s title in her home town and we saw the end of a true legend as the Undertaker left his gloves and signature black hat in the ring, signaling his retirement.
Filed under: Pro Wrestling Tagged: blog, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling, ROH, thoughts, WWE, Year in Review
