In a week with no huge event, we’re going to have an interesting Top 5. What matches made the Top 5?

Leading off with the match that won last week, and…well it’s not overly surprising. I wasn’t a huge fan of the match, but that’s the beauty in voting. AEW Full Gear: Lights Out: Kenny Omega vs Jon Moxley, won the vote by a significant margin.

Now with an array of tag leagues starting and ending, NOAH having another YouTube show and weekly TV episodes…what made the Top 5?

5. NOAH Starting Over Day 4: Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi & Go Shiozaki vs Takashi Sugiura, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr & Hideki Suzuki

From My Analysis:
The six man tag matches have actually been really great this show. AXIZ (Nakajima & Shiozaki) have a tag title match against Hideki Suzuki and Kazuyuki Fujita if I remember correctly. So this Sugiura-Gun versus AXIZ match makes sense. Coupled with Taniguchi being in line for a National title shot, all these players make sense.

Suzuki and Shiozaki have a nice back and forth, which also has a little more meat behind it from their match earlier this year that went to a time limit draw. Suzuki kept blocking Shiozaki’s chops, but Go catches him and that’s when the fun starts. Nakajima makes his way in and they trade off kicks and chops just lighting up Suzuki like a Christmas tree. Sugiura and Taniguchi took the match to a different level since their style together feels like Strong Style more than King’s Road. After trading forearms and headbutts, Taniguchi gets busted open above the left eye. This causes a slight botch where Sugiura can’t quit spin around for the necklock out of the suplex, but they go right back to the spot. Lots of pin break ups from both teams, Taniguchi gets the advantage off of some Punt Kicks, hits his Maybach Press twice and gets the visible pinfall over the National Champion.

Winner: Taniguchi via Maybach Press

Rating: *** 3/4

4. NOAH Starting Over Day 4: IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship: Daisuke Harada vs Atsushi Kotoge (c)

From My Analysis:
Given that this match was for a separate promotion’s junior title, the crowd wasn’t exactly abuzz, but they did seem to enjoy the match. As for the match itself, their familiarity showed beautifully. There was a great exchange of rolling out of one another’s moves, Kotoge even managed to sneak in a few knees to counter when Harada usually hits his own moves.

Both men pulled off a ton of signatures. Kotoge went for a Killswitch, Spanish Fly, Kudo Driver and a variety of backslides. Harada went for his Cross Legged Cradle, Knee Uppercut, and a few other prettier moves with some flourish. The match ending on an Avalanche German looked great and was a nice punctuation to a well paced and well wrestled match. Good match, now the only question is what becomes of the title with the recent news of IPW: UK ceasing live shows.

Winner: Harada via Avalanche German Suplex Hold

Rating: *** 3/4

3. NJPW Tag League Day 2: Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki vs Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr w/Miho Abe

We’re early in the tag league, and we get the Suzuki-Gun face off out of the way early. Could this start to set up the Suzuki-Gun overthrow? Do we continue to see the good version of Taichi that everyone loves?

Taichi got in Suzuki’s face early and didn’t back down. We saw Dangerous T in full effect. Archer was great in his own way since he terrorized a child Day 1, and now he decided to terrorize Miho. He loomed over her on the outside causing her to crawl back against the barricade and scream, and then he screamed at her from in the ring which made her recoil and sob in fear. So Taichi could always have a US title shot in the near future if he doesn’t get in the Tag Team picture.

Sabre and Suzuki went back and forth, Suzuki had a mixture of pride and amusement when he was going back and forth with Sabre. We all know ZSJ is the only one who can compete in catch is catch can style wrestling against Suzuki, and it was just fun to watch. The personalities evolving were fantastic, and even with a couple missed spots, the story telling was more than enough to keep everything fun and entertaining.

Also nice that Suzuki was the first to offer the fist bump of solidarity. Which they extended the offer even to Miho and when she bumped hands with Archer, he screamed at her and she fell down. Everybody dies, even Miho.

Winner: Sabre via Overhead Double Leg Cradle

Rating: ****

Honorable Mentions:

Stardom Goddesses of Stardom Tag League Final Day: Finals: Dream Shine (Tam Nakano & Arisa Hoshiki) vs Top 2 Gaijins (Bea Priestley & Jamie Hayter)
Winner: Dream Shine via Brazilian Kick
Rating: *** 1/2
NOAH Starting Over Day 4: RATEL’S (Tadasuke, YO-HEY & HAYATA) vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Chris Ridgeway)
Winner: HAYATA via Cradle
Rating: *** 1/2
AEW Dynamite: PAC vs Hangman Page
Winner: PAC via Brutalizer
Rating: *** 1/2
NXT: Cruiserweight Championship: Lio Rush (c) vs Angel Garza
Winner: Rush via Final Hour
Rating: *** 1/2
NJPW Tag League Day 2: KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi vs Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredricks
Winner: Goto via GTR
Rating: *** 1/4
AEW Dynamite: AEW Tag Team Championships: SCU (Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) vs Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara
Winner: Scorpio win Roll-Up
Rating: *** 1/4
NOAH Starting Over Day 4: KONGOH (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) vs  Hi69, Kaito Kiyomiya & Naomichi Marufuji
Winner: Kenoh via Double Footstomp
Rating: *** 1/4
NXT: Keith Lee vs Roderick Strong
Winner: Lee via Ground Zero
Rating: *** 1/4
NJPW Tag League Day 1: Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr
Winner: Ishii via Vertical Drop Brainbuster
Rating: *** 1/4
WWE SmackDown: Ali G vs Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler
Winner: Ali G via Chaos Theory 450
Rating: ***
NJPW Tag League Day 2: Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzen & Satoshi Kojima)
Winner: Juice via Pulp Friction
Rating: ***
WWE Raw: Women’s Tag Team Championship: Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) (c) vs Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch
Winner: Asuka via Roll-Up
Rating: ***
IMPACT!: Daga vs Jake Crist
Winner: Daga via Double Underhook Code Breaker
Rating: ***
NWA Powerrr: NWA Tag Team Championships: Wildcard (c) vs Homicide & Eddie Kingston
Winner: Issacs via German Suplex
Rating: ***
NJPW Tag League Day 2: SANADA & EVIL vs Terrible & Shingo Takagi
Winner: EVIL via Everything is Evil
Rating: ***

2. NXT: Ladder Match: Io Shirai vs Mia Yim

Snippet from Mitchell’s Coverage:
Referees and medics check on Mia while Shirai stands the ladder up with her own body. Shirai has the ladder up after some work, then climbs. But Mia doesn’t care about a busted face, she yanks Shirai off the ladder! And climbs it herself! Shirai hurries after her, GERMAN SUPLEX! Mia crashes down and Shirai is furious! She kicks the ladder over in anger, to METEORA Mia in the corner! And then hops up, DESCENT INTO- NO! Mia trips Shirai, claws her back, then climbs up top! Mia brings Shirai up, but Shirai fights back. Shirai headbutts the already bleeding face and Mia tumbles to the floor. But here comes Dakota Kai! Dakota checks on Mia, only for Shirai to ASAI MOONSAULT her and Mia! Shirai shows no mercy and no concern as she goes back to the ring.

Shirai crawls for the ladder she toppled over and works to get it back up. Shirai climbs, but Dakota is the one that goes after her! No disqualifications as she POWERBOMBS Shirai down! Dakota helps Mia into the ring and fans rally! Mia climbs, but wait, that’s NXT UK’s KAY LEE RAY!? She attacks Dakota, and then looks at Mia up top! She shoves the ladder over, Mia crashes through the forgotten ladder!! Full Sail loses their minds as the NXT UK Women’s Champion is helping Io Shirai! Is she the fourth woman?! Shirai reaches the top, has the briefcase, she and Team Baszler win!!

Winner: Io Shirai

Rating: ****

1. IMPACT!: Tag Team Championships: The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) (c) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Eddie Edwards

From My Analysis:
This was an impressive match, and not just for TV, just a damn good match. Things built slowly as Marufuji and Edwards showed off a little familiarity and even interesting cues from Marufuji that you don’t see often. Anyone who was unaware, Eddie was trained in the NOAH Dojo, so he knows Marufuji well since Marufuji did help out the Dojo wrestlers. There was a great exchange where Eddie hooks Alexander in a Tiger Driver, Marufuji 5 Hole Kicks Alexander before the Tiger Driver goes off, but Eddie lands on his knees, so Marufuji launches himself off Eddie’s back and lands a KO-OH on Page, while Eddie hits a classic Tiger Driver for only a 2 count. The NOAH team showed a bit more fluidity than I think The North expected, and Eddie showed he was hard to kill after kicking out of the Tandem Inverted Mat Slam. Page looked out of ideas when they were setting up the Argentine Spinebuster. Just a really entertaining watch.

Winner: The North via Argentine Spinebuster Combo

Rating: **** 1/4

Thoughts:

So all things considered, this was a stronger week than expected. I really would’ve like the Stardom Tag League Finals to have made the Top 5, but it wasn’t quite up to snuff. My Tam Nakano bias wasn’t quite strong enough.

When it comes to my choice this week, I’m going to agree with Michael Elgin. That IMPACT! tag team match, was really something special. So, The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) (c) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Eddie Edwards, gets my vote.

Impact doesn’t get the love it deserves, so I’m not expecting it win this week, but it’s still worth the watch. Make sure to vote for your favorite!