As a reminder: I am a voter for the FSM 50, which is an attempt to recognize the best in-ring workers on an annual basis. The 2024 results are here. https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2025/01/16/fsm-50-2024-the-50-best-wrestlers-in-the-world/ I shared my personal 2024 ballot here https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2025/02/03/preparing-for-the-2025-fsm-50-a-january-watch-diary/.
To create my earliest version of the top 50, I use a formula that assigns points based on star ratings. Without going too deep into it, a 3.5-star match is worth one point, a 4-star match 5 points, a 4.5-star match 10 points, and a five-star match 18 points. I use this as my starting point for my ratings before getting into vibes, downtime, etc. It is a nerdy way to do an already nerdy activity.
My philosophy with the FSM 50 is that it is akin to voting for a sports league’s MVP. The winner should be the one who had the best year, and not necessarily who you think is the most talented. Sometimes the tenth best person by raw talent has a career year, sometimes the best player misses half the year. It is an important distinction.
The Big Guns: WWE, AEW, and NJPW
July was a very busy month for me, basically starting right after All In. I did very little note-taking this month for matches, so I’m skipping the individual match write-ups this time around. A lot of my watching in July was “I have time to steal for a couple matches” and less “time to dig in for hours at a time.”
AEW had a great month, highlighted by the All In pay-per-view and what I thought was a home run of a main event in Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley (5.25 stars). It feels like a lock for my top ten matches of the year right now. The show also had two high-level matches in Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada (4.75 stars) and Mercedes Mone vs. Toni Storm (4.5 stars). Other matches of a high level for AEW this month included the Moxley-Page rematch on the July 30 Dynamite (4.5 stars) and FTR vs. The Outrunners from the July 5 Collision (4.5) – no idea how they missed the mark so much on the All In pre-show. I also went back and watched Page vs. Kyle Fletcher from the April 30 Dynamite and thought it was one of the best TV matches I’ve seen this year (4.75 stars).
I’m still about a month behind on WWE. I thought June & early July’s TV was quieter for WWE, with the only two great matches I saw checking in at four stars and both featuring SmackDown matches by Andrade & Rey Fenix – on June 27 against DIY and on July 4 against Axiom & Nathan Frazer. They have a very deep tag division in terms of in-ring talent, which makes the team of Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy stand out even more as an odd team to put your belts on.
Rhea Ripley vs. IYO Sky on Evolution was a great match until Naomi cashed in. It was a 4.5-star match – great, and on the cusp of a potential legitimate match of the year contender, but marred by a bad finish. This match pushed those two up around 45th in my rankings, but it’s too late to be reflected in the list below.
I also rather liked the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship match (4 stars). I also thought Yoshiki Inamura had a great title challenge against Oba Femi on the NXT Great American Bash show (4 stars).
The G in G1 stands for “got to spend less time playing College Football ’26.” No New Japan this month.
Other promotions
I’m only through the first half of March for TJPW, but this seems like a very down year versus 2024. Maybe some of this is that Miu Watanabe is being downcycled and the start of the year had a heavy Hyper Misao presence. I think Misao has some very entertaining moments, but it’s hard to watch a lot of her in a row. The best match I watched from Tokyo Joshi Pro in July was from their Chilean show on February 9, where the local team of Sara Phoenix & Pandora unsuccessfully challenge Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh for the Princess Tag Team Championship. The challengers showed up and worked hard, and the champions were happy to meet their effort. This was a great, four star match worth checking out.
I’ve started digging into Sareee’s year by watching her fantastic SEAdLINNNG January 17 match against VENY, where the latter won the Beyond the Sea Championship, and Sareee picked up right where she left off on this one. Two great workers put on a very strong match that I mark at 4.5 stars.
Dragongate seemingly had a zillion 3.5-star matches in the first quarter of the year, and that seems to be a fair encapsulation of what DG’s year started as – a very solid promotion that largely falls short of top-level stuff. Three highlights I want to specifically point out, though, are Kzy vs. YAMATO on the March 1st Truth Gate show (4.5 stars), Strong Machine J’s challenge of YAMATO at the Gate of Bayside on January 25 (4.25 stars), and Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka’s Rey de Parejas match on March 2 against JACKY KAMEI and Riiita (4.25 stars). All are worth taking the time to watch.
Planning for August
G1 & Joshi. Those are my top goals for watching in August.
An overview of where I am with certain promotions:
- 80%+ of target matches watched: AEW, AJPW, NJPW
- 40-80%: CMLL, Dragongate, NJPW, NOAH, WWE
- <40%: DDT, Deadlock Pro, Marigold, Stardom, TJPW
An entirely too early top 50
I’ve rated nearly 700 matches from 2025 to date.
- Konosuke Takeshita (last time: #1)
- Will Ospreay (2)
- Adam Page (25)
- Kenny Omega (5)
- Mike Bailey (6)
- Ricochet (4)
- Zack Sabre Jr. (3)
- Kyle Fletcher (15)
- Mascara Dorada (7)
- El Desperado (8)
- Titan (9)
- (tie) Saya Kamitani (10)
- (tie) Tam Nakano (10)
- Brody King (19)
- Gabe Kidd (18)
- Hirooki Goto (12)
- Tomohiro Ishii (14)
- Hechicero (13)
- Mark Briscoe (24)
- David Finlay (16)
- YAMATO (UR)
- Jon Moxley (UR)
- Kosei Fujita (17)
- Shun Skywalker (50)
- Yuma Anzai (21)
- Swerve Strickland (26)
- Barbaro Cavernario (20)
- Mistico (23)
- Neon (22)
- Axiom & Nathan Frazer (28)
- Hiromu Takahashi (27)
- Kota Minoura (UR)
- Kento Miyahara (29)
- The Young Bucks (UR)
- Kzy (UR)
- Mercedes Mone (UR)
- Atlantis Jr. (34)
- Toni Storm (UR)
- Yuma Aoyagi (42)
- Jun Saito (30)
- Shingo Takagi (38)
- Angel de Oro (31)
- Zandokan Jr. (44)
- Kazuchika Okada (UR)
- ISHIN (UR)
- DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) (49)
- Averno (32)
- Ben-K (UR)
- Volador Jr. (35)
- Esfinge (36)
Next five: Suzu Suzuki, Jeff Cobb, OZAWA, Ultimo Guerrero, Miyu Yamashita
Falling out: Cobb (#37), OZAWA (#39), Guerrero (#40), Street Profits (#41), Hologram (#33), Beast Mortos (#43), Templario (#45), KENTA (#46), Robbie Eagles (#47), AZM (#48)
Takeshita still has a massive lead for my Wrestler of the Year. This race might already be decided, though I do have a lot of catch up to do in CMLL and Stardom, and even a quieter G1 can make a big difference in the ranking of someone like Zack Sabre Jr. or even David Finlay who is having a great year in my books.
Adam Page & Jon Moxley made big jumps thanks to their two singles matches in July. I wish we had received more of this from both workers, but especially Mox, who has had a lot of matches that have “just” been good but far from great.
Match recommendations
To make life simpler for the likes of VOW editor Rich Kraetsch, I’m just going to link to my current match recs as a Google Sheet, which you can find here. An asterisk denotes it was newly watched in June for me, regardless of the actual date of the match.
