With only a few weeks left in the year (and we can all expect some of us may not be around as much during that time), now seems as good a time as any to reflect on the year and all that we’ve seen so far!
So with that said:
Matches, wrestlers, companies, what really stood out for you during 2023? What was your highest of highs, and lowest of lows. Did any wrestler go above and beyond your expectations? Did any big match you were waiting for end up being a huge let down? What company’s booking did you like and hate the most during the year? Let us know what you think of how everything has gone down below!
I’ll likely be editing/updating this later because I really need time to think about this and I was supposed to be asleep for work over an hour ago.
Decided instead to just do a little formatting on this post and then continue my thoughts as comments below it.Yuka Sakazaki leaving TJPW:
- I have absolutely zero worries about a TJPW without Yuka, they have a strong roster even without her. (I’ve got a gut feeling that Himawari will be one to keep an eye on). What I am worried about, is a Yuka without TJPW. If she’s full time AEW bound as we suspect, I worry she will be tossed into RoH jail with the other two thirds of AEW’s one match division. Speaking of…
AEW’s “one match division”:
- There HAVE been some improvements, particularly with Julia Hart and Skye Blue, but just as much, it seems there’s so little time for the women on TV that as soon as a female’s character becomes remotely interesting, she’s thrust into a title feud. This is most evident in the fact that despite LOSING in the 3 way match for the TBS championship, Skye IMMEDIATELY got a shot at the world title against Toni Storm. Wouldn’t one think that the WINNER of that match, or at the very least the former TBS champion would be ahead of Skye Blue in that line?
- The 2 most interesting things I can recall Nyla Rose doing in 2023 happened on twitter (her Halloween costumehausen) and in TJPW (her match against Maki Itoh). Maybe TK, or the network, is afraid to use Nyla due to the current political climate surrounding trans people? But she has personality in spades. Imagine a Nyla/Willow tag team…
- Hikaru Shida was a transitional champion TWICE this year. That doesn’t sit right with me. I’d rather see her get an actual storyline. Remember when she said she wanted to wrestle Athena? I haven’t forgotten.
Ring of Elevation:
- Aside from what others have already said, I think RoH needs a hook to motivate viewers to drop that 10 bucksonsoon a month.
Or at the very least they could FUCKING PROMOTE IT. RoH has a ppv THIS WEEKEND that’s included as part of the Honor club subscription and I can’t recall a single instance of it even being mentioned on television.They finally mentioned it on last night’s Dynamite.
WWE:
- ADRENALINE!
- PLAYED OUT MEME!
- RUBBER CHICKEN
- IN THE RING!
- Was when I last watched dubya dubya EEEEEE!
- WHOA-OH!
AEW/RoH in general:
- Christian has been the best heel in AEW this year by a long shot.
- Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana together has been wonderful. The Swerve/Hangman death match was fucking bonkers, and the feud leading up to it was pretty good, too. A great year for Swerve, tbh.
- Danielson vs ZSJ is a match that will go down as a greatest of all time.
- Ric Flair needs AEW more than AEW will ever need Ric Flair. But if the reports about the energy drink deal are true, they basically got him for free. Good for them. But they can’t make me give a shit.
- Certainly didn’t expect Roderick Strong and The Kingdom to become a weekly fixture, but the whole NeckStrong thing has been entertaining as hell.
Falling asleep… need to stop for now.
Continued below.That’s a really good point about Yuka. I was also scratching my head when Skye got that title shot.
Curse you for putting Nyla/Willow in my brain. I want it now.
At least there was some setup to it instead of a random title shot like they’ve done in the past
You’re welcome. Now let’s will TK into booking it.
DDT:
- Chris Brooks had a decent title reign that I feel was well deserved, and he dropped the belt to the right wrestler in Yuki Ueno. Also, if you like super wacky mat wrestling, check out his “Baka Gaijin and Friends” shows on YouTube. (English friendly!)
- MAO is (and has been for a good while now) one to keep an eye on. And I am incredibly jealous of his jawline.
- I’m honestly more upset about the Pheromones splitting up than I am about Saki Akai graduating, but that is in no way meant as disrespect to Akai.
- Matt Cardona vs Maki Itoh was good fun.
- Yoshihiko ❤
Impact/TNA:
- I’m not 100% familiar with their roster yet (aside from a few I know that came from other promotions), as I only became a regular viewer a few months ago, but I have yet to watch an episode and feel like my time was wasted.
- IPWF was great fun.
More TJPW:
- MIZUKI winning the Princess of Princess Championship was well deserved and pretty great, especially considering who she had to beat to get it.
- MIZUKI’s actual title reign, though… ouch.
- I hope we get another Hyper Misao booked show.
- Yamashita is now in the same position Yuka was at the beginning of the year in that she’s pretty much done everything there is to do in TJPW. I’m curious what the future holds for her.
- Maki Itoh wrestled more outside of Japan in '23 than in. She also vaguely hinted that she’s wanting to graduate next year. Might be nothing, though.
- I want to see Hyper Misao and/or Miu Watanabe get POP title runs in 2024.
Miscellaneous stuff:
- Pepsi Phil sucks.
- Fuck Tyrus
- Fuck Ronda
- Billy Pumpkins is dumb.
- Rest in peace Bray Wyatt, Jay Briscoe, and Terry Funk. That’s not even half of the wrestlers we lost in 2023, though.
Miscellaneous Good stuff:
- Wrestling fans are spoiled by choice of what to watch and that’s awesome.
- Despite it being small, m/SC has been great.
- You guys are awesome.
DDT/Brooks: I need to watch a lot more DDT (read: any) but I’ve always loved Brooks since seeing him on some random YouTube videos.
Yamashita/Itoh: Ditto. I haven’t paid anywhere near as much attention to TJPW as I do Stardom so I don’t know how things go but losing Yuka and possibly Yamashita and Itoh would be a pretty huge blow (and legit 3 of the like 6 people I know on the roster lol). Idk how they’re ‘rookie’ process works but I hope they have people who’ll be able to come in to beef up the roster a bit.
Barring injuries and excursions, TJPW tends to have most of, if not the whole roster on the card (thanks primarily to LOTS of tag matches) for every show, so it doesn’t take long to familiarize yourself and find a favorite.
But they have a very strict hierarchy in their booking, so expect rookies’ only victories to be either against each other, or when tagging with someone further up the food chain. It can take YEARS for someone to truly move up the card, which is the most common complaint among TJPW fans.
The second most common gripe is most of the girls don’t “lay it in” when striking, drop kicking, etc. Some of this can be blamed on camera angles, and in the case of the rookies, lack of experience. It becomes less of an issue further up the card, though.
We also got a nice handful of promising rookies in 2023, as well as a new Up Up Girl.
A new year typically means new rookies, so expect some new roster members to debut soon.Makes sense.
I think someone somewhere described it to me once as ‘TJPW is a bunch of friends wanting to see who is the better wrestler, STARDOM is a bunch of women who wanna kill each other but can make friendships’ lol.
That pretty much nails it, yeah.
My personal highlight this year was going to All In in London from Germany. Disgusting expensive four days in London, but worth every penny. Went to the Revolution Pro Anniversay Show on the day before All In to to see Will Osprey vs. Shingo Takagi and was blown away by that show, with suprise appearance by Skye Blue, Mickey James and Chris Jericho and whole lot of RevPro and NJPW talent.
All In was spectacular, the atmosphere was crazy. Beeing surrounded by nearly 80.000 wrestling fans is something I will never forget. I wish I had a better view though, the action in the ring is hard to follow if you’re sitting to far away.
The downside of the weekend was the trip back home. Monday after All In the air traffic control in the UK broke down, my flight got canceled, had to reschedule onto the next day just to get it canceled again. So I had to spent two extra days in London and had to take the train to Brussels, from Brussels to Cologne and form Cologne to Berlin. Luckily the airline had to cover all the additional expenses.
The WWE House show in Berlin was also very good.
And now some general thoughts: AEW: I wish AEW would feature more women than just Toni Storm, Skye Blue, Julia, Willow, Saraya, Ruby Soho and Hikaru Shida. One match per show is is not enough. On the plus side though, Julia has really improved a lot since joining the House of Black. Orange Cassidy has really one me over with his first title rain as International Champion, even though I think it was a little too long.
NJPW: Eddie Kingston in the G1 was really fun to see. Lowlight of NJPW for me was EVIL stealing Sanadas belt and proclaiming himself champion. House of Torture is such a trainwreck that I usually skip their matches. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to watch NJPW regularly.
Are you the one who posted your experience going to a house show? That was awesome!
I definitely had some moments of going, “oh, here’s Skye again” this year.
Yep, that was me. Me and my friends somehow got tickets for Bash in Berlin and the SmackDown tapings next year. I’ll try to post a recap for that too.
All In was magical. Not any particular match (though the matches were great), but merely the fact that someone other than WWE was able to fill 80,000 seats. The atmosphere was just insane to see.
I really wish I could have afforded to go, but where I wanted to sit was just way too expensive for my budget. Thats not an AEW problem but a demand issue, which is a backhanded complement to how much demand there was even with 80k seats available.
I really enjoyed the show, which is a great bonus.
You ain’t kidding, felt crazy.
The best:
https://youtu.be/tybugI5CkIs?si=Q95ssNYbMzhOeKCOThe Good:
Every AEW PPV
The rise of Julia
Tanahashi. Nuff said.
How Jeff Jarrett has been used in AEW. I know it was November of last year that he debuted, but it really wasn’t until well into this year I relaxed and enjoyed his character work.
Getting to see Sting at a show before he retires.
MJF’s title reign
Dante getting healthy enough to wrestle again within the year
Malaki’s back getting better
Red Velvet and Statlander coming back after knee injuries
The Continental Classic
Orange Cassidy’s first international title run
Everything Toni Storm does
Don Callis’ paintings
#NeckStrong
BTDOThe Bad:
CM Punk and the no good terrible day
Statlander’s current gimmick and TBS title reign
Shida getting the women’s title losing it getting it and losing it again. Give her an actual title reign that isn’t in the middle of a pandemic!
Leg injuries. So many leg injuries.
WWE preventing a streaming deal for MLW
Chris Jericho dragging down everyone around him and not getting younger talent over. I don’t think anyone came out of the JAS in a better state.
ROH titles on AEW
Ric Flair on TVThe makes me sad but not necessarily bad:
Jade leaving AEWI’m gonna ignore lows cos frankly there is enough negativity in the IWC as it is. I also feel the answer is obvious.
For highs, a few things stand out, but the main thing is being able to finally get back to going to shows.
Since I was a kid I’ve wanted to go the Wrestlemania, but have never been able to afford it (transatlantic travel, hotels, tickets, etc etc etc). For a wrestlemania-level show to happen not just in the UK but at Wembley was absolutely insane, and while huge arena shows are not my favourite thing, All In was a great day.
I’ve also been able to get back to regularly attending North shows, I haven’t been since the pandemic, and it’s great to be introduced to a whole new generation of britwres. Leon Slater in particular is incredible, and he’s going to blow people away in TNA next year. I couldn’t be happier for the lad.
Disclaimer: there’s way more negative below than there should be. Especially with AEW. Ultimately, there’s been a lot more good than bad over the year but I think recency bias is at play. The “bad” section is a quick rant I was going to post in the last discussion thread but I decided not to because I thought it was too negative lol.
AEW:
The Good: All-In was incredible. And nearly every PPV delivered as always. Full Gear was a bit funky with MJF-Switchblade but the street fight more than made up for it.
The Bad: The women’s division is still rough–that’s been a problem since the start of AEW. But lately, I’ve noticed the tag division is getting nearly zero attention as well. What happened to the amount of attention tag teams had at the beginning of AEW? They seem like an afterthought at this point. For the past few weeks, the same could be said about the trios belts.
Next, the devil storyline. It was great to start but now that story has had the same beat over and over: either the henchmen beat up some guys in the back or the devil shows up on screen and laughs. It was interesting when I thought they’d be revealed at Full Gear but now it’s just the same thing week in and week out. At this point I almost don’t care who the devil is. The payoff won’t be good enough to justify the build.
And finally, I like variety in my wrestling and lately it’s just been wrestling match after wrestling match. This past week we had ZERO in-ring promos. Everything is backstage now and it just doesn’t hit the same for me.TNA/IMPACT:
The Good:
-Alex Shelley’s title run.
-Speedball just doing Speedball things–he may be my favourite wrestler to watch these days.
-Re-naming Impact to TNA.The Bad:
-Tommy Dreamer’s run as digital media champion. That should be a belt for younger wrestlers or at least people who are liked on social media.
-The IPWF only getting one show a year. I need more of that silliness in my life.
-The break between BfG to the new year. I understand why they did it (new production set-up and whatnot) but BfG was very well received and Impact didn’t really capitalize on that.I think a lot of fans gave AEW grace during the first few years with the women’s division. It looked like the joshi would be the workhorses as the other women developed, but then the pandemic happened. Women like Serena Deeb and Thunder Rosa (I hadn’t really heard of her, but when she showed up as NWA women’s champ, she felt like a big deal) coming in felt like things might change there.
Shelley’s title run has been so unexpectedly nice. I had assumed that he’d have a short reign. One of the bonuses of Impact being the often forgotten third company in the US is that we don’t hear as much about how long contracts are for. I was shocked when Nick Aldis didn’t beat Shelley for the title. If I’d known beforehand that he was only coming in for a few months, I wouldn’t have been.
I know some fans don’t like the silliness that Impact serves us from time to time, but I love it. I still miss Wrestle House. And totally agree about Dreamer. Let it be for young talent breaking out, charismatic wrestlers like Hendry, and the occasional Jordynne Grace-like reign with a couple intergender matches.
Agreed on the tag situation. I typed up a paragraph responding to this but I had to literally go double check who the tag champs are cause it’s not Adam Cole/MJF. I watch every episode of AEW, the fact that I just now forgot they’re the ROH champs and forgot Bill/Starks are the AEW ones says a bit.
Re: The Devil - Ditto. I just don’t think I care much anymore.
iirc the group is supposed to be (per the dirt sheets)
Wardlow/Strong/The Kingdom
…but that was also reported idk 2 fucking months ago idc anymore lol.
I don’t blame you. I’ve had to remember who the tag champs are too. And it’s unfortunate the champs and #1 contenders are two teams of guys randomly thrown together (Bill/Starks and Omega/Jericho). I know many of the other teams are out with injuries, but still…
I haven’t checked the spoiler for the devil. But ultimately, the story has had the same beat every week. I just want them to switch it up. Like, what if MJF actually “caught” one of the henchmen and unmasked him (someone who wouldn’t giveaway the devil outright)? Then tied him to a chair and interrogated him to try and find out who the devil is with no success? It’s not the best angle but at least it’s different from the same old same old.
What a year it’s been! I think we’ve had a little bit of everything, good and bad. And the drama llamas had much to feed on.
Last year was easier to pick a favorite match. I’m not always into tag team wrestling, but it had to be one of the Briscoes v FTR matches. This year is a little harder. Wasn’t Tanahashi v Speedball earlier this year at Multiverse United? I heard of Speedball before he showed up in Impact, but hadn’t seen him. I quickly grew to like him. I’d also heard of Tanahashi but had only seen him the time or two he’d shown up in AEW. That match was the first time I got Tanahashi. The way he came out and made sure that everyone in the crowd got to see him during his entrance. It felt so special. I thought, oh right, he’s a star that wants to make sure everyone has the full experience. I understood why I’ve always seen the comparisons to John Cena and why people say it’s a dream match. The effort Speedball put in to beat this respected wrestler! Wanting to beat him without turning to dirty tricks. A lot of my favorite matches tend to be ones where I know at the beginning who will win, but I get so invested that I’m able to turn my brain off and believe that the underdog might pull it off. It’s probably the closest to feeling like a kid watching wrestling again. This match had me going back and forth on who would win.
Anyone who has noticed me in the Impact threads won’t be surprised that I have to mention MK Ultra. Masha Slamovich first caught my eye during the NWA Empowerrr ppv, so I was happy when she showed up in Impact. Killer Kelly was awesome the moment she turned up and started a feud with Tasha Steelz. I was actually beginning to worry about Masha. Impact had built her up strong for awhile, but then she kept losing Knockouts World Title matches. Nothing wrong with that on the surface, but she needed something new. The feud between her and Kelly and then becoming a tag team was a real highlight for me. Long may they reign.
AEW: Boy, it’s been a year of super highs and super lows. Injuries, backstage drama, big debuts, All In. There are bright spots with the women’s division: Timeless Toni Storm, more Shida reigns, Kris Statlander returning, Julia Hart, Riho with her pipe for a little while. But overall, the women’s division still desperately needs more help and care. They need more separation between AEW and ROH. Yes, I’m always happy when Dalton Castle shows up on AEW TV, but the men’s ROH titles should have only been on AEW as often as Athena as ROH women’s champ was. I cut the cord on cable years ago and subscribed to Hulu Live when Dynamite began so that I could watch it. In June, I realized I wasn’t enjoying watching weekly like I used to. With injuries and the build for Forbidden Door 2 starting at the beginning of that month, I gave them until after All In/All Out to see if they felt back on track with what I liked. I got rid of Hulu Live after All Out. I’ve kept up in other ways and bought the PPVs, but this upcoming PPV might be the first that I don’t buy.
Other thoughts: I got to see my first TJPW ppv back in March when they were in LA! It was super fun to be able to put a face to some of the names I’d seen. I also got my wife to check out a few old Japanese matches (Manami Toyota v Bull Nakano and Bull Nakano v Aja Kong) and she loved them so much that she wants to check out more Japanese wrestling.
And lastly, I’d like to mention what this place has become. It’s nice having a chill place to talk about wrestling. I love getting to hear about Stardom. Hopefully, if anyone watches other promotions (I think AEW and Impact are the most watched here), they feel free to let us know what cool things are happening, just like those Stardom threads. And sorry for the extremely long post.
Speedball
And we’re just 3-4mo out from the next Mike-Bailey-Wrestles-12-Matches-During-WrestleMania-Weekend!
MK Ultra
I didn’t think much of either woman one way or another but I have been loving them together as this ‘we just fucked and will now murder you before fucking some more’ crazy women schtick.
I love getting to hear about Stardom
I do my best <3 lol. But for real if Maika doesn’t win the WoS title at DQ I will fucking riot…here…in text form lol.
I don’t know how feasible it’d be to set up, but I want MK Ultra vs that tag team with Max the Impaler and Heidi Howitzer. Kelly would get tossed around to death. And the “we survived, time to celebrate in the back” vibes would be off the charts. lol
Book it, Scott.
Excellent write-up. I agree with everything you said regarding Impact… especially the bit about Masha. I was surprised she lost those championship bouts too.
It’d be pretty cool if they built her up again and had her take on Trinity. Their styles are so different that it would make for a fun match.
Guess I’ll go by company for grins:
AEW: I still love em, they’re still the primary promotion I watch, but there’s still a lot of people who need more tv time who aren’t getting it. The women’s division is showing the odd small signs of it heading towards improvement but I have little faith of TK booking more women’s matches. Loving seeing the changes with Julia & Skye, hate how Wardlow just TKO’s people via powerbomb still. As another birdie mentioned, All In was fucking nuts.
WWE: I may not watch much, but the quality has def improved over time. Love seeing Judgment Day stuff, over anything related to Roman (when he appears). Waiting to see Bailey get killed by Asuka cause that’s gonna be a meme!
Impact/TNA: I’ve been on and off with them over the years, but things this last year have been better and better and I’m really looking forward to TNA.
ROH: I need this to be on TV. I know the show is at least part developmental right now, but they’re still booking some great damn matches that should be seen by more people without the paywall. Athena has been doing fantastic, same with Billy (and Lexy as a minion too has been great). Yeah it’s AEW Jr. but I do like AEW so I can’t be too mad. I do however in 2024 wanna see more roster separation. There’s already some, and I don’t mind some crossover between AEW and ROH, but the roster has (in my own views) only like 6-10 people who I would consider “ROH people” based on how often they’re on the shows compared to being on AEW.
Stardom: I hope the new schedule that comes is gonna be a lot better on the women. Too many injuries (and mismanagement) have fucked Stardom a bit. All of the women still manage to put on amazing shows. Queen’s Quest vs Oedo Tai at Stardom Sunshine in June (the cage match) is still one of my fav matches of the year.
![[Discussion] Pro Wrestling 2023 - A year in review! What was your favourite...everything?](https://media.kbin.social/media/ec/d6/ecd647bff41a6ab0284b5a13a5df80b03fed5fab543d3cadcf9a1f84491ee5d9.png){kind=link}