EVOLVE 1 - TJP vs. Munenori Sawa - ****1/4
Lightning quick, stiff, crisp, innovative action. Like nothing ever before on the indies. Never dragged at any point, which is rare even for a match that goes 13 minutes. Loved every second of this. It had its flaws, but it was easy to look past them and get caught up in the match.
PWG As the Worm Turns - Chris Sabin vs. Roderick Strong - ****1/4
Good limb work and some awesome big spots and an amazing crowd, plus Excalibur on commentary. Probably my favorite Sabin singles match in the last few years. The punt off the apron still stands out in my mind. All around great match, the best on possibly the best show of the year.
PWG As the Worm Turns - Chris Hero vs. Alex Shelley - ****1/4
Technical masterpiece that built well to a good finishing stretch, typical of Hero in 2010 and Shelley all the time. They didn't do too much, but didn't fall short of anything; the match was just as it should have been. And it had the same hot crowd as every other match on the show.
AAW 6th Anniversary Show - The House of Truth vs. The Phoenix Twins (No Ropes Barbed Wire, Loser Leaves Town) - ****1/2
If you've never seen AAW, you missed out on the best work of one of the best teams on the indies: Josh Raymond and Christian Able. Both are injured now and out for a while, Raymond probably retired, but for a while they were fantastic. Their feud with the Phoenix Twins was amazing, and this blowoff was as good as it could have been. The match felt like both teams legitimately wanted to hurt each other, and the loser leaves town stipulation made it even better. Seriously, I think this might be up there with Steen/Generico for feud ender of the year.
EVOLVE 2 - Chris Hero vs. Ikuto Hidaka - ****
If you haven't figured out that I like Chris Hero yet, now you know. Be prepared for lots of Hero on this list. Dude was sick in 2010 and this match, despite the slightly lower star rating, might be the best example. Awesome mat wrestling, limb work, selling from both parties, and then a pretty awesome finishing stretch.
ROH Epic Encounter III - Kevin Steen vs. Player Dos - ****
Originally had this at ***3/4, but bumped it up the additional 1/4* because I really love the character dynamics that created the story here. I was really down on ROH when I first watched this match, but Steen being a crazy motherfucker was perhaps better here than ever and it helped bring me back. Awesome character work from Steen, and Dos was impressive as well, getting the crowd behind him as a mega-underdog. Perhaps the most underappreciated ROH match of 2010.
ROH Epic Encounter III - Chris Hero vs. El Generico - ****1/4
Like Steen/Dos, my love for this match was all about the character dynamics. Generico was still a bit lost after being turned on by Steen, and Hero was just a total dick. The one thing that frustrated me about Hero in ROH was the incessant golden elbow pad finishes, and this match didn't do that, instead making him seem like the ultimate dick heel by choking out Generico when he was already on the verge of passing out. Basically I love Chris Hero.
PWG Titannica - Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong - ****1/2
Not a whole lot of a story here, just two guys trying to beat each other. Awesome technical stuff that built to a ridiculous finishing stretch that teetered on the edge of the overkill cliff but just barely avoided jumping off. It had its flaws, but none of them had anything to do with the action, which was better than anything else to that point this year.
Chikara King of Trios Night 1 - Team Frightning vs. Team Big Japan - ****
Chikara King of Trios Night 2 - The Future Is Now vs. Team Big Japan - ****1/4
Daisuke Sekimoto destroys people.
ROH Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies II - Tyler Black vs. Chris Hero - ****
Tyler's title reign honestly wasn't that good, but it had its share of good matches. This was one of them. Hero, in keeping with his character, acted like a dick, and Black... did his thing too. It was a bit slow in the early going, but Hero's character work kept it interesting and even though Tyler forgot to sell a bit, I still enjoyed this match.
ROH Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies II - Kevin Steen & Steve Corino vs. Colt Cabana & El Generico (Chicago Street Fight) - ****1/4
Bloody, brutal, awesome. The one potential problem with this match is that maybe it was booked too early, but that doesn't really matter when evaluating the match. Corino's beer bottle thing was great, and the finish fit the storyline really well.
ROH Supercard of Honor V - Kings of Wrestling vs. Motor City Machine Guns - ****1/4
Everyone knows the story of this match: incredible action, as to be expected from these four, only to be ruined by the worst non-finish of the year. Fuck TNA.
PWG DDT4 - Chris Hero vs. Brandon Bonham - ****
Story here was Hero beating the shit out of Bonham, who just kept coming back for more. Easily the best match of Bonham's career to this point. Violent match that didn't hurt Hero at all despite Bonham getting in a lot of offense. If anything, it made Hero look better for dishing out so much on Bonham, as well as Bonham for taking it and fighting back.
ROH Death Before Dishonor VIII - Kings of Wrestling vs. Briscoes - ****
At this point in their career, I have little to no use for the Briscoes. This match was not why I ordered DBD. But it surprised me by being actually really good. No stupid KRS-1 kickouts like in the Big Bang match, and some really good heat segments on the parts of the Kings. The one thing I don't get is that the Kings got a clean win, yet the Briscoes still kept getting title shot after title shot, apparently just by virture of being the Briscoes. Nothing to do with the match, just something that frustrates me.
ROH Death Before Dishonor VIII - Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards - ****3/4
I really want to be different and say this match wasn't all that great, but it really was. Tyler actually added things to his moveset, a reverse rana, a Rubik's Cube, as well as variations on his standard arsenal (Paroxysm to the floor, wrist-clutch God's Last Gift). Davey has worn a bit thin for me this year, but in this match I wanted him to win the world title more than anything. And when he locked on the Cloverleaft, I thought he had. Nearfall of the year right there. Only flaw in this match was the Hagadorn interference, which was just stupid.
CHIKARA We Must Eat Michigan's Brain - Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston - ****
The opening few minutes alone make this match a MOTYC. Kingston's arrogance at trying to chain wrestle Danielson, Danielson's ruthlessness taking advantage of it, all of it played so well off of their characters. Add in the emotion of it being Danielson's first match back on the indies, and this match started off better than anything all year. But then Danielson gave up on the knee, which Kingston sold beautifully, and just started doing submissions for the hell of it. Then Claudio interfered and the match lost a lot of its awesomeness. But CM Skittle red repped me for liking this match, so I know it's really good.
ROH Salvation - Kings of Wrestling vs. Young Bucks - ****
This might have been the most infuriating match of the year. The action was really good, almost as good as KOW-Guns. But the crowd was damn near silent for just about the whole match. It could have been so much better than it was, but through no fault of the wrestlers.
PWG Seven - Brian Cage vs. Brandon Bonham - ****
This came out of nowhere to be really awesome. Nobody was expecting anything from Cage, and he won over the crowd big here. Like Bonham's match with Hero, this was stiff and was basically just two men beating each other up. And I loved it. It took two Hammers of the Gods to put down Cage, and normally that would seem like overkill, but here it fit well. A match that builds to a finish that well deserves MOTY consideration.
PWG Seven - Scott Lost vs. Scorpio Sky - ****1/2
First off, the rating isn't this high because it's a technical masterpiece, or because it was super fast paced, or had a great finishing stretch. It's here because emotionally, it was one of my favorite matches of 2010. This was Scott Lost's last match, and it was a very fitting tribute to one of the best under-the-radar indy wrestlers of the last decade. Lost got all his spots in, some more than once, and Sky played his part very well. The crowd was both loud and respectful, and Excalibur on commentary added to the greatness of the match as well.
PWG Seven - Chris Hero vs. Davey Richards - ****1/2
The best indy wrestler of 2009 vs. the best indy wrestler of 2010. This was always going to be awesome. And then it was. Davey's cartoonish selling at a couple points was all that detracted from an otherwise fantastic match. Hero didn't get into as much character work as he did in some other matches this year, but that was okay, because Richards being Richards didn't really allow for much of Hero's methodical stuff, which was perfectly fine because Hero also counteracted Davey from getting out of hand with some of his stuff. Great match all around.
PWG Seven - Peligro Abejas! vs. Cutler Brothers vs. Young Bucks (Guerrilla Warfare) - ****
Sheer insanity. White hot crowd, crazy spot after crazy spot after crazy spot. No real reason for the Bees to be involved, but London's spots were okay and Generico is never bad, so once you get past their nonsensical involvement and just focus on the match, it's thoroughly enjoyable, even if they do go into overkill a bit.
PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2010 Night 1 - Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricochet - ****
Claudio against a little flippy guy has always had some potential to it, but this was probably the best one of those matches has ever been. Claudio looked like a total beast, to the point where I was actually legitimately wondering how anyone could beat him ever. And then Ricochet pulled out some spots and I was convinced he had done it. I wasn't expecting it to be this good and it blew me away.
PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2010 Night 2 - Chris Hero vs. Akira Tozawa - ****3/4
Like Hero vs. Bonham from DDT4, not a whole lot of story to this one beyond one guy beating the other up and the other taking it and making a comeback. But this one did it absolutely perfectly. Tozawa was a somewhat annoying comedy wrestler before this match, and after it he was a star. The crowd was hotter than any crowd in wrestling all year as well, which added a lot to the match. Another match that came out of nowhere to be amazing.
PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2010 Night 2 - Chris Hero vs. Joey Ryan - ****1/4
Since it's Joey Ryan in a main event match, I wasn't expecting this to be any good. But it was, oh it was. Ryan sold his shoulder wonderfully all night (the fact that it was legit injured probably helped), and he played the underdog really well here, hanging in there with Hero and then when the superkicks that had gotten him to the final couldn't get the job done, he went to the small package and got the win.
ROH Glory By Honor IX - Kevin Steen & Steve Corino vs. Colt Cabana & El Generico (Double Chain Match) - ****
Not a ton of spots here, but the ones that there were were built up to well. Beyond that... Steen and Corino are fucking amazing heels. Damn near perfect performance from them, and then the post-match... if I was including that, this would be about ****3/4. Great stuff, by far the highlight of possibly ROH's worst iPPV of the year.
CHIKARA Eye to Eye - Ares & Claudio Castagnoli vs. 3.0 - ****1/2
The emotion in this match was off the charts. 3.0 came in still trying to be taken seriously, having beaten F.I.S.T., who called them a joke leading up to the match, and the Super Smash Brothers, who they had wrestled countless times and never beaten, en route to getting the necessary three points to challenge the Campeones, who had yet to lose a fall as champs. The match started like the rest of the BDK title matches: the BDK jumped 3.0 in the entranceway and got a quick fall within the first ten seconds. But then Scott Parker pinned Ares with a school boy, and the place came unglued. Everyone in the building wanted 3.0 to win, and it showed. The heat on Ares and Claudio was amazing, and 3.0 had the best match of their lives.
CHIKARA The Dark Ciberknetico - Team CHIKARA vs. Team BDK (Torneo Cibernetico) - ****3/4
Remember what I said about the emotion in the last match? Turn that up a bit and you've got this match. As KingCrash said, this match got people to cheer for Icarus. That should say it all, but I'll continue anyway. Everything about this match was right. Tim Donst was put over big, UltraMantis Black beat Delirious, Claudio continued to duck Eddie Kingston, and then Kingston beat Tursas in an incredibly emotional finish.
ROH Final Battle 2010 - Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly vs. the All-Night Express - ****
Super fun spotfest opener that the crowd absolutely lost their shit for. Cole and O'Reilly had never wrestled in NYC before, and now they're pretty damn over. Easily the best opener of the year and big things should happen for Cole and O'Reilly in ROH in 2011.
ROH Final Battle 2010 - Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards - ****1/2
This was their Titannica match, only with the roles reversed and a different finish. Davey kept throwing everything he had at Roddy, and couldn't put him away. Then Roddy came up with a big flurry and got the win. Assuming the concussion finish was a work, it was unbelievably well done, and Strong being a dick and leaving before giving Richards a chance to shake his hand did more for his character than Truth Martini ever has.
ROH Final Battle 2010 - Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (Mask vs. Career Fight Without Honor) - ****1/2
This had the potential to be a five star match. The buildup was very good, and with it main eventing FB it was set up to be the match of the year. And the feud-ending aspect of the match was really good. I have no complaints with that. But the match itself was just kind of slow and plodding, which didn't really fit with the brutality of the feud. Still, the story was brilliant, about as good as one can tell a story within the confines of a wrestling match, and for that it gets a high rating.