Welcome to the first article of the 2018 Matches of the Week. We’ll finally get a full year of our personalities developing a very unique Match of the Year list. This first list may be difficult for some who haven’t had an opportunity to catch up with the biggest storyline coming out of 2017.

Just to refresh memories, the Ranking scale goes as such:

• Bronze V-I ( Below Average)
• Silver V-I ( Average)
• Gold V-I (Above Average)
• Platinum V-I (Great)
• Diamond V-I (Classic)
• V – is the Roman Numeral for 5, and the lowest rank.
• I – is the Roman Numeral for 1, and the highest rank.

Hopefully everyone has seen at least some of these matches:

5. WWE Raw: Alexa Bliss vs Asuka

One of the more polarizing matches on Raw, but also one of the matches with the best storytelling.

The early portion of the match saw Alexa Bliss playing keep away and trying her best to find a spot to attack. Even though it happens during commercial break, Alexa finally finds her opening and begins to lay into Asuka with some good offense and utilizing heel tactics. This was probably Alexa’s best match from an in-ring storytelling perspective.

Towards the end of the match it becomes more of a striking match…which is not how Bliss will win a match with Asuka. A few stiff kicks to the head, followed up by a nice cross armbreaker, forces The Goddess to tap out. This could be building towards Asuka getting the belt before Rumble to not need her to participate. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Ranking: Gold III

4. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: Kota Ibushi vs Cody w/ Brandi Rhodes

Now this match was the biggest question mark on the card. We all knew why Cody wanted to fight Kota, but coming off his loss to Dalton Castle at ROH Final Battle, it wasn’t clear how this match would be. Early on Cody dominated Ibushi with great character work and even had Brandi feign being knocked out (to distract super babyface Ibushi) during a dive that hit her also. A few weapons, a lot of heel tactics, but Kota makes his come back. Cody really holds his own in this match, so many of the knocks on his in-ring ability may get quieted a little. Ibushi wins after a Kamigoe Knee Strike followed up by a Phoenix Splash.

We saw at New Year’s Dash that this is leading to more dissension between Cody and Kenny Omega. So Ibushi might be what it takes to implode the Bullet Club.

Ranking: Platinum V

3. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: IWGP JR Heavyweight Championship Fatal 4 Way: Hiromu Takahashi vs Kushida vs Will Ospreay vs Mary Scurll (c)

A little slow in the beginning, but it continued the storyline of the rest of the participants trying to dispatch with Hiromu. There are too many huge spots to go over them all, but the spots were all fairly well laid out. Ospreay climbed up the lighting rig and hit a big moonsault, later on in the match hitting a big shooting star press.

It looked like Hiromu was going to win with the Time Bomb, but Scurll pulls out the ref and starts laying people out with the umbrella. He missed Ospreay and gets caught with an Oscutter. So NEW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion…Will Ospreay. Entertaining match, but a few spots were fumbled, so what could’ve been ranked higher, loses a little bit because of the poorly executed spots. Still a damn good match though.

Ranking: Platinum II

2. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: IWGP US Championship: Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega (c)

Well this wasn’t a straight up match for the most part, it was a WWE style brawl. Quickly moving to the outside, there was a big miss from Omega through a table, lots of chairs and Kenny even brought back the cold spray. During the fighting on the outside Chris Jericho busted out the Liontamer on a Young Lion who was just trying to help (I appreciate the pun). The match got very close during the last 10 minutes or so.

Lots of false finishes, suspenseful moments with Omega in the Walls of Jericho on the borderline of tapping. It was definitely a fun match, nothing noticeably bad, a lot of “sports entertainment” moments, but all in all it lived up to the Dream Match moniker. Kenny Omega gets the win and retains the US Title, after a second One Winged Angel (first was too close to the ropes so Jericho grabbed the ropes so he didn’t really kick out).

Best storytellig aspect of this is it helped get Kenny over as more of a face, so when he made the save for Kota Ibushi at New Year’s Dash, the crowd popped huge. So Omega may be officially turning face and leaving the Bullet Club soon.

Ranking: Diamond V

1. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito vs Kazuchika Okada (c)

To be fair, the very beginning sequence was awkward. It could be played off as Naito playing mind games, but it looked weird to put it nicely. Aside from a few slow transitions from catch to suplex or submission, the match was tremendous. It had to follow an impressive bout between Jericho and Omega and definitely pulled it out.

It builds nicely, Okada goes to the Cobra Clutch early, Naito tries to hit his old finisher the Stardust Press twice, to no avail and for the most part, the match stays in the ring. We saw some innovative moves and ways to transition into their respective finishing moves, but to most of the IWC’s surprise, Kazuchika Okada wins with his signature Rainmaker. Naito finally got his main event, but couldn’t pull off the victory.

Some people were screaming Naito got buried, or that NJPW booking messed up. But with Chris Jericho attacking him at New Year’s Dash, it’s pretty obvious that Naito needs this fight to help reach the next level.

Ranking: Diamond V

Since this is the point in the article where I vote for my choice, I guess I’ll get to that. My personal choice for Match of the Week is Kota Ibushi vs Cody w/ Brandi Rhodes. Reason being, this was easily Cody’s best match since going “Indy”. He told a great story, had some nice spots, kept up well with Ibushi and with Brandi becoming more of a western style heel valet, it adds more to the character.

Make sure to check back for which match won the overall vote, and what makes the cut next week.