Previous 2016 Match of the Year entries:

• Introduction & Honorable Mentions
• #100-76
• #75-51
• Match of the Year Archive

We continue our Top 100 countdown with a look at the matches #50-26 including TNA’s Final Deletion, Dragon Gate’s Losing Unit Disbands match and much more.

#50
Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens vs. The Miz vs Cesaro
5/22
WWE

Overall Points: 24
Total Votes: 5
Highest Vote: 5th

With all the great matches in the WWE this year, this one kept coming back to me as the best the main roster put out. The was so good and the twists so compelling I remember literally jumping up and down in excitement. -Joe Gagne

#49
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito
5/3
NJPW

Overall Points: 24
Total Votes: 5
Highest Vote: 3rd

New Japan’s “Wrestling Dontaku” main event between Tomohiro Ishii and new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito was masterful. The pre-match video, followed by Ishii’s entrance for his first shot at the big belt set the stage. The intensity and ferocity in his eyes was the likes of which you just don’t get very often in modern wrestling. It told you that this was serious business. They match went over 30 minutes and felt like 15. It was that enthralling. Naito was incredible and played his role as the cocky, elusive champ to a tee. But at the end of the day, this was the Ishii show. It was one of the best single match performances of the decade, with the Stone Pitbull making you buy into the idea that he might win this title even if the logic part of your brain ruled that completely impossible. The story of him changing tactics mid-match and moving away from his usual head-on bulldozer style to instead create a laser focus on Naito’s leg was worked so perfectly and it built to a leglock spot which will live long in people’s memories. The closing stretch which proved that at the champ was just a step ahead of his challenger was so good that the Fukuoka crowd (normally very quiet) were stamping their feet and screaming at the top of their lungs. A true epic in every sense of the word. -Alan Counihan

#48
Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
2/14
NJPW

Overall Points: 24
Total Votes: 6
Highest Vote: 4th

This was a great match to elevate Omega as he came off like a star as a result of it. Much like the aforementioned Cena-Styles match it is a great example of using an ace to put over the next generation. -Dave Musgrave

#47
Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz
10/9
WWE

Overall Points: 26
Total Votes: 7
Highest Vote: 4th

The two comeback players of the year, who also had the rivalry of the year. 2 guys who simply fit together in the ring. Chemistry, drama, story, crowd, & stakes. Both of their finest hours in WWE. Thank you both for bringing the IC title to its rightful prominence. Miz was SD’s MVP in 2016 -Michael Anderson

#46
Chris Hero vs. Marty Scurll
6/19
PROGRESS

Overall Points: 27
Total Votes: 4
Highest Vote: 3rd

For one night, Marty dropped the Villain shtick, and worked the match more focused & intense than ever before. Then you get Hero with the best babyface performance of his in 2016 & what we got as a result is one of the best indy matches of the 2010’s decade. -Heikki Oinonen

#45
Final Deletion
7/5
TNA

Overall Points: 27
Total Votes: 6
Highest Vote: 2nd

Either you loved or hated this match, one thing is for sure: it got people talking about TNA for reasons that are not their management. While this was far from a technical masterpiece, it was different from everything we’re used to watching in Wrestling, with The Hardys brought all the over the top elements of an action movie to create a unique spectacle. -Renato Simoes

I will defend the artistic integrity of this match until my dying breath. Some will look back on The Final Deletion and chuckle – on the surface if you simply parachute in the match is an over the top display of absurdity. Two brothers fighting each other in their back garden, summoning one another with a violin, jumping out of trees, attacking with drones, shooting each other with fireworks and attempting to drown the other in a lake that resurrects past alter egos. Finding the whole thing just a little silly is pretty understandable. But for me it was an integral part in one of the most essential stories TNA has ever told.

First of all – yes, it was a wrestling match. There was a ring bell, a referee, a ring and a finish. Unconventional as it was in both execution and location, it was nonetheless as much a wrestling match as any other that has aired on Impact. The story of Matt vs. Jeff Hardy was a story of brotherhood, betrayal, corruption, and greed. Matt and Jeff won the tag titles together. Jeff got hurt due to his own stupidity. Matt pursued singles gold. Matt won singles gold and proved he was just as good as his brother but Matt lost himself in the process. Jeff cost Matt the TNA title. Matt blamed Jeff. Matt became Broken and rendered Jeff Obsolete. Matt and Jeff won the tag titles and repaired their brotherly bond. The Final Deletion, aside from being wildly entertaining, was the key pivot point of the dispute. The point of no return, the point at which all seemed lost. Matt lighting a symbol of the Hardy team on fire to defeat his brother was more than a brilliant piece of imagery, it was also profoundly melancholic. The vital gut punch to add substance and pathos to the sheer spectacle of it all. To turn the whole ordeal from a fun side attraction into something essential, something which further informs and develops the characters. TNA may never tell a better story than this again. -Garrett Kidney

#44
Chris Hero vs. Matt Riddle
11/13
EVOLVE

Overall Points: 29
Total Votes: 4 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

Chris Hero was the best wrestler of 2016, with Matt Riddle not all that far behind him. So naturally, one of their three matches against each other in Evolve makes a match of the year list. While all three were excellent, their final contest edges out the other two. Hero all but squashed Riddle for ten minutes, ultimately winning with a disgusting series of piledrivers. Riddle proved he’s one of today’s best at selling, making Hero’s already strong offence look even stronger. Two professionals put on their big boy boots and worked a hell of a match. Actually, Riddle doesn’t wear boots, and on this night didn’t even wear his gear. So, kudos. -Matt Waters

#43
Negro Casas vs. Rey Hechicero
4/24
Monterrey

Overall Points: 31
Total Votes: 6
Highest Vote: 3rd

Lucha that involves maestro mat work can be a turn off to some fans but this match has enough of it to connect universally with lucha fans. Casas is great as usual and Hechicero should get more shine in CMLL. Best independent lucha match that I had seen this year. -JML

#42
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Chris Hero
5/6
EVOLVE

Overall Points: 31
Total Votes: 6
Highest Vote: 2nd

Chris Hero is hands down the wrestler of the year for 2016. He travelled the globe and had an all-time great year in the history of pro wrestling. I could’ve very easily put a number of his matches on this ballot but this was the one I kept going back to. I have loved the feud these two had and this was maybe the best chapter in that rivalry. -Billy Carpenter

#41
Chris Hero & Tommy End vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Sami Callihan
1/22
EVOLVE

Overall Points: 33
Total Votes: 9
Highest Vote: 2nd

Evolve had a plethora of fantastic matches throughout 2016, but their first show of the year, Evolve 53, might have produced the promotion’s best match of the year. It was a first round match in a tournament that would crowd the first-ever Evolve Tag Team Champions. What’s so fascinating about this match, in hindsight, is that it had changed only a few days before the show, as Sami Callihan was brought in as a replacement for Timothy Thatcher, who was put out of action with a staph infection. While this was a very long match, clocking in at almost thirty minutes, it was one of the best tag team matches I’ve ever seen, and that’s a huge compliment considering the incredible matches between DIY & The Revival that took place later in the year. From start to finish, this was simply an amazing match. They weren’t a team for very long, but Chris Hero & Tommy End quickly established themselves as one of the best tag teams in the entire world. Plus, for being a makeshift team, Sami Callihan & Zack Sabre Jr. did an awesome job here as well. The action in this match was spectacular, and we saw a variety of different styles of wrestling utilized, from nice, pure wrestling to nasty strikes and brutal levels of violence. The closing stretch of this match was fantastic, as Zack Sabre Jr. took some of the best shots from Hero & End, but never gave up. As I said earlier, the match was a long one, but it certainly didn’t feel like thirty minutes at all which (in this case) is a huge compliment. I enjoyed every second of this match, and all four guys (even Callihan, who I know is polarizing figure to some) were awesome. If you haven’t seen this match before, you definitely need to check it out, because it’s one of the best tag team matches that you’ll see anywhere. -Sean Sedor

#40
Chris Hero vs. Tomohiro Ishii
11/10
RPW

Overall Points: 33
Total Votes: 9
Highest Vote: 2nd

I’m fortunate to have been present for the vast majority of the great matches held in the UK this past year, but I was overseas when the best of them took place, which so happened to be the very best of the all-time great year Chris Hero had in 2016. For a long time, people wondered what would happen if Hero took on a top New Japan bruiser, and we got our answer here, as the fans at York Hall were treated to an escalating bruising encounter, as Tomohiro Ishii went to war with Hero, with battering blow after battering blow whipping the fans in London into a frenzy. Hero is at his best when his opponent truly tests him, and Ishii brought the fight like few others did. Some will say it’s not a pretty match, but for me there’s prettiness in the brutality on show, everything you could hope for from these two and then some. -Martin Bentley

#39
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kazusada Higuchi
9/25
DDT

Overall Points: 36
Total Votes: 5
Highest Vote: 2nd

I went into this expecting a solid match, because Higuchi has been growing ever since he stepped into a DDT ring, but what I got was absolutely phenomenal. Big Japan, NOAH and All Japan make their money from big dudes beating each other up but they were all outdone by this match. Who would have believed at the start of the year that DDT would put on a main event match of this calibre? I was blown away and Higuchi is destined for greatness. -Arnold Furious

#38
Kazuchika Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji
7/18
NJPW

Overall Points: 40
Total Votes: 7 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

Amazing match and one of the most unexpected finishes of the year. These two had never faced off before, and many were wondering what direction NJPW would take with NOAH’s top star being paired off with NJPW’s top star on the opening night of the promotion’s biggest tournament of the year. They took shock path with Marufuji dominating Okada for the majority of the match and beating him decisively. Maru looked amazing during the bout, and Okada was wrestling outside his comfort zone, which always makes him that much better. -Abbey Arthur

#37
HARASHIMA vs. Shigehiro Irie
12/25
DDT

Overall Points: 42
Total Votes: 5 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

This was DDT’s Christmas present for their fans. A hard hitting main event that showcased Irie’s growth since his excursion to America earlier in the year. HARASHIMA as always was there to take just as much as he was able to dish out. Even though Irie usually has a goofy personality he really got to show a mean streak in this match including the brief camera cut to him laughing maniacally after he Power Bombed HARASHIMA onto the ring apron. -Jamie O’Doherty

#36
Go Shiozaki & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Yuji Hino & Daisuke Sekimoto
6/14
Fortune Dream

Overall Points: 43
Total Votes: 8 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

There are matches with more extravagant spots, ties to longer term stories, or intricate storytelling, but there isn’t a match that was more fun to watch this year. It involves Yuji Okabayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto, two of the most outstanding wrestlers in the world. If your heart isn’t warmed by the sight of Okabayashi and Hino walking up to Kenta Kobashi, bowing before him, and then lighting each other up with chops for his approval, then I don’t know what to tell you. -Kim Wong

#35
Hair vs. Mask Double Risk Survival Six-Way Cage Match
5/5
Dragon Gate

Overall Points: 44
Total Votes: 7 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

Very few matches have ever elicited the emotion this match elicited out of me. This was the culmination of a long, yet somewhat subtle feud between YAMATO and Shingo Takagi where YAMATO was turned on by all of his VerserK stablemates and saved by uber-babyfaces Kzy, Yosuke Santa Maria and BxB Hulk in what was one of the greatest and most emotional moments in the history of professional wrestling. The DEAD or ALIVE cage match is always a spectacle and always a ton of fun, but this year’s was different. This year’s had that extra element to it. It’s my 2016 Match of the Year and it’s not even close. -Dylan Justin

#34
Black Terry vs. Wotan
8/21
Chilanga Mask

Overall Points: 46
Total Votes: 5 (2 First Place Votes)
Highest Vote: 1st

The most violence I saw in a wrestling ring this year, and maybe ever. The end with both men fighting and rolling around in jagged rocks is one of the most memorable wrestling match visuals ever. -Eric Ritz

Necro Butcher has pretty much disappeared over the last couple of years, and with Nick Gage back in jail there really hasn’t been that kind of unhinged bloody slightly dangerous brawler around anymore. Enter in the sixty-three year old Black Terry who is the Necro we have been looking for. Terry has been having a hell of a year bleeding and brawling through a bunch of tiny gyms across Mexico, this weekend he even no showed an Arena Mexico event so he could bleed all over the rocks and dirt at Coliseo Coacalco. Wotan is a DTU guy and is perfectly willing to smash his forehead violently into Terry’s he also had a pretty nice tope, and took a hard backdrop on the ground. Terry was a machine in this, hitting backfists, right hands, coconut headbuts. There was one hinky spot where Terry had to hold a chair on top of himself so Wotan could dropkick him, but otherwise everything was pretty flawless. By the end of the match both guys are rolling around in gravel and chairs punching each other in their bloody heads. Gritty violent and awesome. -Phil Schneider

#33
Matt Riddle vs. Will Ospreay
11/27
PROGRESS

Overall Points: 46
Total Votes: 8 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

#32
Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll
1/16
RPW

Overall Points: 52
Total Votes: 9
Highest Vote: 2nd

Scurll & Ospreay kicked off a banner year for the UK wrestling scene with two outstanding matches in the space of eight days; I decided to go with the Rev Pro outing, but you could make an argument that their PROGRESS match a week later was just as great. The lads were not only fighting over the #1 contendership for the British title, but also for the honour of becoming the first ever RPW wrestler to be immortalised with an action figure – Truly, High Stakes! The story was two evenly matched, but heated rivals, who knew each others’ moves inside and out. There were countless counters and reversals throughout the match, tons of moves and flips, however they still managed to capture the feeling of an actual fight with a couple of perfectly timed, and wholly unexpected, nose-to-nose strike battles. Some of the sequences during the home stretch were simply breathtaking and despite all the moves they hit during the match, the biggest spots were saved for the end when Scurll hit an X-Plex on the apron and a Tope DDT on the floor. This allowed Scurll to rain down elbows on Ospreay’s skull and facilitated the application of the final and fatal Chicken Wing. -Ben Carass

#31
Masato Yoshino, Akira Tozawa, T-Hawk, & Shachihoko BOY vs. Shingo Takagi, YAMATO, Naruki Doi, & Kotoka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Dragon Kid, Big R Shimizu, & Kzy
2/4
Dragon Gate

Overall Points: 53
Total Votes: 8 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

Dragon Gate fans are well known for getting behind one unit above all others, buying their shirts, waving their towels, and basically treating them like many sports fans treat their favorite teams. Well, imagine for a second if the Yankees and Red Sox were going to play a baseball game where the losing team ceased to exist forever, and you may begin to understand the level of emotion that ends up coming out during these Unit Must Disband matches. DG had a couple this year but the February 4th match clearly stands alone in quality. It was a nonstop spotfest that also managed to ably provide storyline developments (Shachi finally giving Shingo an answer to his months of abuse, Kzy wanting to prove he’s progressed from years as a doormat, YAMADoi continuing to show their dominance together, and more), which is quiet the achievement if you think about it. Someone who has never watched DG before can watch this match and enjoy it just for all the action, but for the people who have been following for years there’s so many little moments made for us, and that in a nutshell basically sums up Dragon Gate’s appeal as a whole. -John Carroll

#30
Kazuchika Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji
10/10
NJPW

Overall Points: 53
Total Votes: 12
Highest Vote: 3rd

The 37-year-old Naomichi Marufuji has become a punching bag for some, a personification of the mundane, lengthy and often heatless Pro Wrestling NOAH main events. A common complaint (one that I absolutely share, by the way) is your standard Marufuji main event often consists of meaningless strikes and boring offense until the final few minutes when the “business” part of the match begins. Forget all that with this match. Everything that Marufuji has done wrong for years was in an instant forgotten as Marufuji put in one of the greatest individual performances of his career. From the opening bell it was clear this was a motivated and angry Marufuji and it showed — vicious strikes, unrelenting offense designed at not only beating but destroying NJPW’s young ace Kazuchika Okada. The closing stretch was among my favorite ever as Marufuji had me for an instant believing that NJPW had completely lost its damn mind and booked Marufuji for the Tokyo Dome main event. Nope. Okada, now digging deep into his inner dickhead, stole Marufuji’s Emerald Flowsion and finished off the veteran with his patented Rainmaker. An incredible match that improved for me on rewatch. Absolutely deserving of a spot in my Top 10 matches of the year. -Rich Kraetsch

#29
Will Ospreay, Ricochet and Matt Sydal vs. Adam Cole and The Young Bucks
9/3
PWG

Overall Points: 55
Total Votes: 10
Highest Vote: 2nd

Going into the stylistic influences of this match and the history of sprint match would be a total disservice: this was car wreck in all the positive connotations. An absolutely hot crowd that verged on annoying (I can do without ten variants of The Elite chant) bought into anything that came from the brains of these six inventive individuals. Look, you may be someone who doesn’t care for junior heavyweight sprints. You might love new age Tennessee Walk and Talk. You might love crazy death matches with things that stick out of people’s head and can come off like a 1970s Austrian snuff film. But if you are someone who loves insane trios, this was exactly what you needed, and I need more of that stuff in an IV bag directly tapped into my veins. -Michael Spears

#28
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
7/24
WWE

Overall Points: 58
Total Votes: 12
Highest Vote: 2nd

This match should have been the jumping-off point for both Owens’ and Zayn’s separate WWE careers after they’ve fought for such a long time. It felt like a final chapter, it felt like closure. They both gave it their all, played off of each other and put on a real clinic, maybe the last one of WWE’s year with this kind of intensity. Sadly, WWE kinda fucked it up by putting Owens and Zayn on the same roster and letting them cross up their paths more than once after this beautiful match. -Florian Schreiber

#27
The Young Bucks vs. Addiction vs. Motor City Machine Guns
9/30
ROH

Overall Points: 58
Total Votes: 12 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

Christopher Daniels, without a doubt, made this match. His promo before the event made the titles and the match that much more important and all six man put everything out there in this match. The best team won the match here, but anyone else walking out the winner would have been over because of Daniels’ work here. The finish was edge of your seat quality and the match is a blueprint for storytelling and work rate. -Rich Laconi

This was a spectacular car crash, which I mean as a whole hearted compliment. Just over 20 minutes of people doing completely unnecessary things to their bodies, all in the name of Ring of Honor, which is the worst name to put your health in mortal danger for outside of possibly ISIS. But oh my god it was deliriously good fun to watch, and featured one of the best individual performances of the year from Christopher Daniels, and managed to take the incredibly stale Ladder match genre and do something legitimately unpredictable and chaotic and worthwhile with it. Absolutely one of the best Ladder matches ever, and the best bout ROH has put on in a good five years. -Jack Stevenson

#26
Trevor Lee vs Roy Wilkins
2/27
CWF Mid-Atlantic

Overall Points: 62
Total Votes: 9 (1 First Place Vote)
Highest Vote: 1st

What a emotional roller coaster this match was from start to finish. With the great commentary that helped you along the way as the promotion is very story driven. This is a feat that will be hard to replicate especially in this day of age. Not only is this a great match, the effects that the match that can still be felt in the promotion to this day when the match is just shy of a year old. This match got me hooked on the promotion full time and it has become one of my favorites in the world. -Brandon Wagemann

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