Match recommendations
Feel free to add to this list! Please only add matches that are free to watch and which are not illegally uploaded. If you can, provide a short description to make it easier for people to understand the story.
DDT
2019.7.15 Akito vs Asuka
DDT EXTREME Championship—IPPON Light Tube Death Match
This is one of my all-time favorite matches! It’s also a great place to start since the violence isn’t too intense, which is why I listed it first. This is the most tense wrestling match that I have ever seen. There is zero margin for error here for either wrestler. Leading up to this match, Asuka accused DDT Extreme Champion Akito of being boring, and she wanted a deathmatch involving hundreds of light tubes to prove that she was a better fit for the Extreme title. But Akito thought that the fear of breaking one light tube was greater than the excitement of smashing hundreds of them, so he devised this stipulation instead.
The match starts with a demonstration of the rules: regular wrestling rules apply, but if you break the single light tube in the match, you lose. If both people are touching it and it breaks, the person on the offense loses. If the tube is on the mat and someone is thrown onto it, the person who was thrown loses. It’s an incredible stipulation, and the result is an immensely creative match! DDT uploaded the match to youtube after it placed 11th in the Net Pro Wrestling Awards’ 2019 list of best matches.
ネット•プロレス大賞2019 最優秀試合11位／【ノーカット版】蛍光灯IPPONデスマッチ 王者 彰人 vs 挑戦者 朱崇花 2019.7.15 大田区大会 - YouTube
2008.8.6 Kota Ibushi vs Kenny Omega
This is the first wrestling match I ever watched! But, that said, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting with this one. It’s a really intense match, and the camerawork is rough. But this is probably one of the most important wrestling matches in recent history, in terms of the far-reaching effects it had on the industry as a whole.
It’s also the beginning of a love story. The background of this match is that Kenny Omega, a Canadian nerd, found a DVD that contained footage of Kota Ibushi’s wrestling. Kenny watched it and immediately realized that he and Ibushi shared the same vision for pro wrestling. Naturally, Kenny wanted to fight him. So he filmed a DDT-style match at home, and issued a video challenge to Ibushi. Ibushi saw it, and DDT was interested in bringing Kenny over, so they booked him for a match and a short tour in Japan. The match turned out awesome (it even won an award), and Kenny loved being in Japan, and DDT loved having him, and Kenny and Ibushi were both incredibly taken with each other, and, well, the rest is history.
This is a best two out of three falls match, falls count anywhere (so pins can happen outside the ring). And this isn’t in the version uploaded to youtube, but after the match, Kenny is so emotional that he breaks down in tears, and Ibushi comforts him. It was the first time Kenny had ever cried after a match.
【特別公開】 飯伏幸太 vs ケニー・オメガ ／ 2008.8.6 東京・新木場1stRING - YouTube
2014.9.28 Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega vs Tetsuya Endo & Konosuke Takeshita
KO-D Tag Team Championship
Kenny spent most of his time in DDT in a tag team with Ibushi. The Golden Lovers held the DDT tag team championship multiple times, and they were two of the top stars in DDT, both as singles wrestlers and as tag team wrestlers. But at the end of 2014, Kenny leaves DDT to wrestle in NJPW full-time. Ibushi continues wrestling in DDT, though he’s juggling a dual contract with NJPW at the same time, and it ultimately ends up burning him out, causing him to step away from both companies for a time.
So this match happens near the end of the Golden Lovers’ time in DDT. It’s a bittersweet match, because the Golden Lovers story gets a lot angstier in the years to come, so this is sort of the end of an era. Kenny and Ibushi are defending their tag belts against a pair of wrestlers who were seen as the future of DDT: Tetsuya Endo and Konosuke Takeshita. When Kenny (and later Ibushi) left DDT, they basically entrusted the fate of the company to Endo and Takeshita (both of whom are still with the company doing incredible work to this day). In a way, this match is a passing of the torch.
ケニー！DDT離脱前最後のタイトルマッチ【期間限定／試合ノーカット】王者組 飯伏＆ケニー vs 挑戦者組 遠藤＆竹下 2014.9.28 後楽園大会 - YouTube
2015.3.21 Kota Ibushi vs Yoshihiko
KO-D Openweight Championship
This is one of one of my favorite Kota Ibushi matches! He’s defending his belt against Yoshihiko (a wrestler who is a blow up doll).
This match is rather infamous. Some clips from it went a bit viral a few years ago, and some wrestling fans absolutely loathe the existence of it because they think it’s “killing the business” by exposing that pro wrestling matches aren’t actually real fights. Personally, I love it because it’s 1) extremely funny, and 2) extremely cool. There are some genuinely awesome stunt fighting moments in this, and it takes a lot of athleticism and skill to essentially wrestle an entire match by yourself!
KO-D無差別級選手権試合〈49代王者〉飯伏幸太 vs ヨシヒコ〈挑戦者〉 ／ 2015.3.21 埼玉県・春日部ふれあいキューブ - YouTube
2017.6.1 Sanshiro Takagi vs Minoru Suzuki
In this match, Sanshiro Takagi, the comedy-loving president of DDT, who named DDT’s biggest show of the year “Peter Pan” because he never wants to grow up, faces NJPW’s Minoru Suzuki, the scariest man alive.
This match is an early predecessor of the American company AEW’s stadium stampede match, which was born out of necessity during the early months of the pandemic when wrestling shows could not have crowds. This one was planned this way by design, though. It’s one of DDT’s 路上 shows, or street wrestling, where the show happens outside of a wrestling ring.
Ironically, the Tokyo Dome, where this show is held, is one of the most famous wrestling venues in the world. It’s where NJPW holds their biggest show of the year (Wrestle Kingdom), and it can seat over 40,000 fans. I believe this match was DDT’s first time running the venue. But, being DDT, they had to be different, haha, so they did a Tokyo Dome show without an audience.
The match goes all over the place. It’s a very nontraditional match, and since the commentary is only in Japanese, it might be a little bit chaotic and confusing. This blog contains a breakdown of the match and some explanation of the story going into it, though the first paragraph spoils the result, so you might want to start reading after the second photo.
If you want to watch the beginning with unmuted entrances, since muting 風になれ is a crime, this version of the match has them, though that video doesn’t have the full match. I actually still haven’t watched this match in full, though it’s highly recommended enough I thought it was worth adding to the list.
路上プロレス in東京ドーム 高木三四郎 vs 鈴木みのる【10.31DDT TOKYO DOME CUP直前特別公開】 ／ 2017.6.1 東京ドーム - YouTube
2021.10.31 Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Ueno & MAO vs Miyu Yamashita & Hikari Noa & Maki Itoh & Hyper Misao
This is a match from DDT’s most recent empty arena 路上 show at the 東京ドーム.The premise of this show is that five teams of wrestlers are competing to try to win 500万円. Each team contributes money to the pot, and the last team left standing at the end wins it all.
This match featured my two favorite teams: DDT’s The37Kamiina faction (Konosuke Takeshita, current KO-D champ, Shunma Katsumata, Yuki Ueno, and Mao) vs a team of four wrestlers from TJPW (current Princess of Princess champ Miyu Yamashita, International Princess champ Hikari Noa, Maki Itoh, and Hyper Misao). Naturally, I was rooting for the TJPW team, haha! The match has Japanese commentary, and you even get to see TJPW’s entrance, complete with Miyu’s music.
There are a lot of really great exchanges in this. Part of what’s compelling about it is we get to see some people mix it up who usually don’t get a chance to face each other. There’s a teaser for DDT’s young ace Takeshita vs TJPW’s ace Miyu, for example. And aspiring deathmatch wrestler Hikari gets to dip her toes a little bit more into hardcore wrestling (though nothing in this match is especially intense).
This match ends up leading into another match a couple months later…
2021.12.18 Shunma Katsumata vs Hyper Misao
This is a hardcore match, so it is definitely not to everyone’s tastes, but I wanted to include it for diversity’s sake! Warning: there’s a little blood in this one, and some hardcore spots involving things like staples and skewers and thumb tacks. Not for the faint of heart!
The backstory behind this one is that Misao has a bit of a bone to pick with Shunma after the empty arena Tokyo Dome show. Misao doesn’t like Shunma and thinks he’s faking his love of saunas (not only is Shunma in a faction called 37Kamiina (pronounced “sauna kamiina”); he actually is certified to manage a sauna in real life), and Shunma doesn’t understand why Misao hates him so much or why she always resorts to underhanded tactics in her matches despite calling herself a hero.
Shunma has done loads of hardcore matches (his trademark weapon is legos, and he always carries a lego bat). This one is Misao’s very first. However, like Hikari Noa, and like many other wrestlers, Misao is heavily inspired by Jun Kasai (he’s actually not only the reason why she became a wrestler, but also basically gave her a reason to live). So there’s a part of her that has always been drawn to hardcore wrestling.
After this match, she expresses gratitude for finally getting this chance to have a real hardcore match.
ハードコアマッチ！ 勝俣瞬馬 vs ハイパーミサヲ ／ 2021.12.18 愛知・名古屋国際会議場イベントホール - YouTube
2019.7.15 Tetsuya Endo vs Konosuke Takeshita
KO-D Openweight Championship
Remember how I mentioned that Endo and Takeshita were essentially the wrestlers whom Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi entrusted the future of DDT to when they left? This match is a great illustration of that. This was the main event of Peter Pan in 2019, which is actually the same show that the single light tube deathmatch was on! We’ve come full circle.
I actually haven’t seen this one yet, either, though it’s another match that was very highly recommended at the time. I don’t have enough background on the lead-up to this to explain the specific story, but the KO-D title is on the line, and Endo is the champion, with Takeshita challenging him. Gone are their days as a tag team together. Now they’re rivals, each striving for the top of DDT as part of different factions.
TJPW
2019.6.8 Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki vs Sakisama & Misao
This is actually the match that got me into TJPW! It’s a tag match between the Magical Sugar Rabbits (Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki) and NEO Biishiki-gun (Sakisama & Misao). As soon as I saw NEO Biishiki-gun, I was utterly entranced. My lesbian heart was smitten; I needed them to have the tag titles. They’re the only true heel faction in the entire company, and they’re beautiful and evil, and I wanted them to have everything their hearts desired. If you watch the match linked above, here’s Sakisama’s entrance music (since the video cuts out the entrances).
I didn’t find out about Misao’s backstory until later, but her story that year was incredible and emotional. If you’d rather go into the match above with a little more context, I highly recommend reading that essay (if you didn’t already read it when I linked it above). Over the course of the next year, I ended up falling in love with Yuka and Mizuki’s team, too. They ended up facing each other in the main event of Wrestle Princess 2020, which was at the time TJPW’s biggest show ever.
坂崎ユカ & 瑞希 vs 沙希様 & 操 ーYUKA SAKAZAKI & MIZUKI vs SAKISAMA & MISAOー ／ 2019.6.8 東京・新木場1stRING - YouTube
2022.1.29 Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh vs Kamiyu & Asuka
Asuka is a freelancer, not a TJPW regular, but she sure made waves in the promotion when she showed up as Kamiyu’s tag partner! They make a great team as wrestlers, but one of the best parts of their matches is their entrance, which I was delighted to see actually made it into the youtube upload somehow?
Miyu and Itoh each hold the top singles title in TJPW and the International title respectively. Miyu is the ace of the promotion, and Itoh is a failed idol who is by far their most popular international star. Asuka and Kamiyu befriended each other by becoming drinking buddies.
This is a tournament match, so it’s pretty high stakes: whoever loses this will be eliminated from the tournament, and whoever wins will advance for a chance to win a shot at the tag titles. Additionally, in wrestling, if you pin a champion, that usually gives you a pretty strong claim to challenge for their title… So if Kamiyu and Asuka can manage to pull off the win and pin either of their opponents, not only will they advance in the tournament, but they’ll probably get a shot for a singles title, too.
波乱！優勝候補が二回戦敗退！第2回“ふたりはプリンセス”Max Heartトーナメント2回戦 山下実優＆伊藤麻希 vs 上福ゆき＆朱崇花｜東京女子プロレス - YouTube
ChocoPro
I’m recommending these three matches as a mini-trilogy of sorts, so I suggest watching these in order! I spoiler-guarded some details in the later matches to preserve some surprises.
2020.11.11 Emi Sakura & Lulu Pencil vs Chris Brookes & Yuna Mizumori
Before this match, Lulu Pencil, ChocoPro’s biggest underdog, put her hat on the line in a match against Chris Brookes. Lulu lost the match (she always loses), and lost her hat. If she wants to get it back, she has to earn Chris’s respect.
Lulu’s faction is called Pencil Army. Despite the faction centering around her, she’s by far the weakest person in it, and the other members are talented veteran wrestlers who join her after defeating her because they’re impressed by her tenacity and spirit despite her lack of power and inability to show results. Lulu’s tag partner in this match is Emi Sakura (“Emi Pencil”), who is the person who trained her.
This match is an “I Quit” match, which means the only way to win is to force your opponent to physically say “I quit” out loud.
ChocoProLIVE! #63 "I Quit Match" {Pencil Army VS Chris Brooks & Yunamon} - YouTube
2021.4.30 Pencil Army vs Best Bros & Egg Tarts
This match is the first time the entire Pencil Army is teaming together after Chris Brookes joined them! Pencil Army seemingly has the edge in this match, at least in terms of having far more experience and championships between them. But the Best Bros are the reigning tag team champions in ChocoPro, and Lulu has still yet to win a match. Will having the support of so many strong teammates finally be enough for her to get her first win?
ChocoProLIVE! #110 Pencil Army VS BestBros & Egg Tarts - YouTube
2021.7.21 Lulu Pencil vs Chris Brookes
Going into this match, Lulu still has yet to get a win in her two years of wrestling. Chris says that if she never wins, she cannot call herself a wrestler. That merely trying is not enough. He accuses her of turning the other members of Pencil Army into jokes by bringing them down to her level. Lulu is determined to finally get a win and prove him wrong, but so far, all the determination in the world has not been enough.
This match is a 30 minute ironman match, which means that the match will go for exactly 30 minutes, and the person who scores the most falls during that time wins.
NOAH
2020.3.29 Go Shiozaki vs Kazuyuki Fujita
GHC Heavyweight Championship
This is the match that put NOAH on the map for me personally. It’s also an extremely avant garde match that is probably not to most people’s tastes, haha, but the bravery of it was what caught my attention.
This match happened at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, right when Japan was in lockdown. Because of this, it happened in an empty Korakuen Hall, without a crowd. The lack of a crowd allowed them to get away with something that they would have never dared do if there had been one.
The title spoils the twist, so don’t read it too closely if you want to be surprised. This match is infamous because it begins with a literal 30 minute staredown between the wrestlers. Keep in mind that the match has a 60 minute time limit (and if it ends in a draw, the champion retains his title). Personally I found it very compelling, but not everyone agrees.
This was quite the auspicious start to Go Shiozaki’s career-defining run in the company that really established him as their late-blooming ace.
2020.11.22 Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki
GHC Heavyweight Championship
This is one of my favorite matches from 2020, and is largely responsible for getting me into NOAH!
The story behind this one is a little complicated, but the core of it is that Go and Nakajima were tag partners (as AXIZ) for a few years, until Nakajima turned on him and joined Kongoh at the end of summer 2020. So going into this match, Go is dealing with the ongoing pain of a broken heart as well as a lot of physical pain due to lingering injuries he accumulated over the course of the year while he essentially carried NOAH on his back for the entire first year of the pandemic.
It’s a long match, with some brutal kicks and chops, but it’s extremely compelling, and the wrestlers have a lot of chemistry with each other.
2021.11.28 Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kenoh
N-1 Victory 2021 Final
This match has English commentary, so there’s less of a need for me to explain the story here, but I’ll give a brief overview anyway.
The N-1 is Pro Wrestling NOAH’s version of NJPW’s G1 Climax tournament. It’s a round robin tournament, and the winner gets a shot at the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Nakajima was the winner in 2020 (it’s what got him his title match against Go), and he’s hoping to win for a second year in a row.
Kenoh is the leader of the 金剛 faction in NOAH. They’re technically heels, but they’re not really straightforward villains in the sense you might be expecting. They just have a very particular vision for NOAH that doesn’t necessarily match the company line. Kenoh is an entertaining wrestler because he’s very serious and angry all the time. He’s also very Buddhist and is very passionate about his own style of wrestling.
Several months after Nakajima (spoilers for the previous linked match) failed to capture Go’s title, Go dropped the belt to Keiji Mutoh, then disappeared from NOAH to get some much needed surgery and healing. In the meantime, Nakajima found a new (old) tag partner, got betrayed himself, lost his hair after losing NOAH’s first cage match, and ultimately managed to integrate himself into Kongoh after spending his first few months there as a bit of a lone wolf.
This is an interesting match because it’s between two people in the same faction who have come to respect each other, but because this is wrestling, there is still some underlying tension, since both of them want to win this tournament, and go on to win the belt. For Nakajima, winning here would mean back to back tournament wins and a chance to redeem himself from failing last year. For Kenoh, winning would mean an opportunity to become double champion.
【FULL】N-1 VICTORY 2021 Final KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA VS KENOH | PRO-WRESTLING NOAH - YouTube
2022.1.1 Go Shiozaki vs Katsuhiko Nakajima
GHC Heavyweight Championship
Here we go again.
This time, Nakajima is the champion, and Go is the challenger. There are a few things at stake here beyond the title, too. The deeper subtext, of course, is the shadow of their old tag team relationship, which Go clearly still longs for. He actually tried to make it a condition of the match that if he won, Nakajima would have to reform Axiz and tag with him again.
As soon as he won the title, Nakajima stole Go’s catchphrase and proclaimed, “I am NOAH” (only Nakajima’s version was in Japanese). And sure enough, a couple months later, Go made his return and immediately challenged him for his belt. This time, it was more than just a fight between two ex-partners: it was a fight over who had claim to represent the company as a whole. They decided that whoever lost the match would lose the right to call himself NOAH.
I think I still like their last singles match a little better than this one, but this was still very good.
日本武道館で宿命のライバル対決！｜1.1日本武道館 GHCヘビー級選手権 中嶋勝彦 vs 潮崎豪｜プロレスリング・ノア - YouTube
Stardom
2022.8.27 Giulia vs Starlight Kid
A mid tournament match with a 15 minute time limit. Giulia by this point has a history of trying to rip Starlight Kid’s mask off, regardless of circumstance or alignment. That’s all the elements necessary for a fast powderkeg of a match!
【スターダム】ジュリアがスターライト・キッドのマスクを剝ぐ大暴挙！雁之助クラッチで勝利！『足りなかったの、このゾクゾクする気持ち。』5★STAR GP--8.27後楽園ホール大会-【STARDOM】 - YouTube