The Retirement Matches of 2025: VOW Match of the Year Poll Analysis

Ok, ok—I know it’s already MARCH, and here I am still writing about the 2025 Voices of Wrestling Match of the Year Poll. But you know what—the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards recently came out, we’re all still in the mindset to review the best of 2025. Plus, this is just fun for me, so I’m gonna do it anyway.

Looking back at wrestling in 2025, one of the biggest trends throughout the year was retirement tours and major names across the world hanging up their boots.

You had two of the biggest worldwide stars of the last 20 years and the aces of their respective companies, Hiroshi Tanahashi and John Cena, go throughout 2025 knowing this was their final year.

In the spring of 2025, we saw two prominent Japanese female wrestlers retire: Tam Nakano and Meiko Satomura.

In addition to these major events, there were also well-received retirement matches featuring other Japanese wrestlers, including Mentai Kid, Sumie Sakai, Nanae Takahashi, Yuu, and more.

With retirement matches being such a big part of 2025, I decided it was only natural to see how they stacked up against each other in the Voices of Wrestling Match of the Year Poll. So without further adieu let’s start up the retirement tour bus and hit the road.

John Cena

In terms of pure starpower and numbers, Cena’s retirement tour was easily the biggest of them all. Now you probably could argue with Tanahashi, especially considering the sell-out of the Tokyo Dome—but that was in 2026, and we are focusing on 2025 here!

Reviewing the VOW MOTY poll, Cena ended up with the following four matches on the list:

So out of the 18 matches that Cena wrestled in 2025, he ultimately gets four of them onto the match of the year list, and three of those in the top 100. The fourth match was a bit of a weak one as it was the multi-man Elimination Chamber match with five other wrestlers, and got on the list with 1 single fourth-place vote. And really, all anyone remembers from the 2025 Elimination Chamber is the heel turn that took place after the match with Cena, The Rock, Travis Scott, and Cody. But hey—Cena did win the match, was the focal point of it,  and a vote is a vote—it made the list.

In the three higher matches, we surprisingly have the “use other people’s finishers” match between Cena and Styles, which ends up as his highest-rated match, above the final match against Gunther. Both matches had about the same amount of votes; in fact, the Gunther match had 8, while the Styles match had 7. However, the total points accumulated were not close, with Styles/Cena getting 45 points while Gunther/Cena had only 27. The Styles match had the benefit of getting 1 first place vote, while the highest for Cena’s SNME finale was a second-place vote. Maybe it was the cheesy smile at the tap out, or the bad taste left in everyone’s mouth with bad/non-existent build, and the post-match. Or maybe people just liked the Styles match better.

The Cody Rhodes/Cena rematch at SummerSlam was the other to make the list; it received a similar vote total of 6. However, with only 18 points, these all must have been very low-placed votes, as seen by its highest vote received being a fourth-place one. It is notable that the WrestleMania main event, in which Cena won his “record-breaking” 17th world title over Cody, did not receive any votes. But with it winning “Worst Match of the Year” in the Observer Awards recently, it makes sense. In fact, not a single match from the John Cena heel run got a vote for the list, just another data point in how big a failure that run was.

Lastly, I throw in a mention of AJ Styles, who may or may not have retired as of Royal Rumble 2026 (update—I guess it looks like he really did?). To really assess his “retirement run,” I’ll have to bring this article back next year and see if his Gunther or Punk matches make it onto the list. In 2025, though, outside of the high-placing Cena match, the “Phenomenal One” did get one other match on the list with his 8/3 SummerSlam bout against Dominick Mysterio coming in at #275 with 3 points from 1 eighth place vote.

Hiroshi Tanahashi

While the retirement run of the Ace didn’t reach the highs of Cena’s top matches, it does hold the distinction of having the most matches on the list, with six. The other three retirees in this 2025 “Big 4”—Cena, Tam Nakano, and Meiko Satomura — each had four matches make the list. But, obviously, there’s a big caveat here as Tanahashi’s true final match took place on 1/4/26 and will very likely place extremely high in the 2026 Match of the Year poll.

Re-assessing this list with the Okada match in the Tokyo Dome will definitely give it an entirely different look and feel—but as it is, we only have 2025 to work with right now. And despite being held together by athletic tape and hairspray, Tanahashi still delivered in a number of big singles matches. His final US match at the Windy City Riot event was his highest-placing match, at #65 with 27 points on 6 votes.

Notably, his 2nd- and 3rd-place matches were held in different companies and under quite unique circumstances. The 5 on 5 “Lights Out Steel Cage Match” in Forbidden Door London with Ibushi, Omega, Ospreay, and Darby Allin finished #93 with 18 points and 4 votes. While the DDT showcase against Danshoku Dino was right behind it at #104 with 15 points and 4 votes.

Closing out the Tanahashi section, we get three matches with only one or two votes. This includes his only G1 match on the list (Uemura, 8/1), the Global title match against Yota Tsuji at the “Final Homecoming” event in Gifu, and his last match in Korakuen hall and final match of 2025 against Kosei Fujita.

Meiko Satomura

Now we transition from our two big “ace” retirement runs to the two big spring Joshi retirement runs. We will begin with joshi legend and flagbearer Meiko Satomura. Meiko ends up with four matches in the final VOW poll, quite impressive given she only wrestled for four months of the year.

Cena had the entire 12 months and only got four on the list. Granted, he only wrestled 18 matches in that time, while Meiko made the most of it and wrestled 31 times in 2025. Her final match, a tag against fellow legend Aja Kong and Chihiro Hashimoto, finished at #70 with 25 points and 5 votes, only 6 places below Cena’s final match against Gunther.

A singles match against the aforementioned Chihiro Hashimoto in Sendai Girls on 3/19 was her highest-ranked match, coming in at #46 with 36 points, only a little bit ahead of her 1/23 match against Sareee, which finished only 3 points behind (33 points, 6 votes).

Lastly, she also managed to get one of the coveted “Superstan” matches, which had only 1 first-place vote. This match was a tag at Fortune Dream 10, now teaming with Sareee against the recurring Chirihiro Hashimoto, and her also soon-to-be-retiring tag partner Yuu.

Tam Nakano

In this entire breakdown of retirement matches and tours, Tam Nakano is the outlier.

Her two matches against Saya Kamitani, especially the main event of All Star Grand Queendom on 4/27, are head and shoulders above any other match we will look at on this list.

Honestly, the Korakuen match on March 3rd is head and shoulders above the other matches, while the Career vs. Career match, which finished at #7 with an incredible 21 first-place votes, is a Giant Gonzalez stacked on top of Andre the Giant stacked on top of Great Khali above the rest of the pack. In addition to her era-defining and hugely successful feud with Kamitani, Tam also mentioned getting a pair of matches featuring Saori Anou onto the list. First, a match against Saori that many refer to as “dumb jock wrestling” at its finest, came in at #82 with 21 points and 6 votes. Finally, a 6-woman tag match, now teaming with Saori and Natsupoi against AZM, Starlight Kid, and Miyu Amasaki got 1 seventh-place vote to earn 4 points and come in at number 245.

Considering the importance of the feud with Saya Kamatani in 2025, I thought it would only be right to include the first match of their trilogy here, which took place only a few days before 2025 started.

On 12/29/24 at Stardom’s All Star Dream Queendom (not to be confused with GRAND Queendom in April), Saya defeated Tam in the main event to win the World of Stardom Title (often referred to as the Red Belt) for the first time. Surprisingly, though, in the 2024 VOW Match of the Year poll, this match ended up as a true “Sadness Village” match, earning only 1 point from a 10th-place vote. So while adding that match on really doesn’t change the votes/points for Tam too match, it’s really only because she is already lapping the field in retirement tour accolades.

Nanae Takahashi, Yuu, and Sumie Sakai 

For this part of the column, I’ve decided to combine the retirement runs of three Joshi who managed to get 1-2 matches on the list. I want to call this the “Indie Joshi” group, but I don’t think that quite fits the long and fantastic career of Nanae Takahashi and the unique place Sumie Sakai holds in the wrestling world.

First up is Nanae, the first-ever World of Stardom (Red Belt) champion in 2011, as well as the last-ever WWWA World Single Champion (the main title of All Japan Women’s Wrestling) in 2006. She did quite well in her two matches in the poll. First up was Mayu Iwatani’s debut match in Marigold, which arrived at #78 with 22 points from 5 votes. Her true retirement match against Miku Aono then came in at #128 with 12 points from 3 votes.

Next up is Yuu, who was previously mentioned in the Meiko Satomura retirement section, as their tag match partnering with Chihiro Hashimoto and Sareee, respectively, received the “superstan” treatment of 14 points from 1 vote. Then, Yuu’s retirement match against her 200kg tag partner Hashimto, at the amazingly titled “Yuu Retirement Show: Thanks for the Meal!” got a single 5th place vote for 6 points, which put it at #195 in the poll.

Lastly, there is another match featuring Maya Iwatani—this time a 6-person tag match for Sumie Sakai’s final match at the NJPW Battle in the Valley event in San Jose, California, which got 4 votes, but only 5 points, putting it at #216 on the list.

Independent Retirement Matches

Ok, now with these matches, I feel like I can correctly call these “indie wrestlers” as we have final matches in some very small promotions. Before I get into it too much, though, I have to plug a great article from Kim Wong that was invaluable in writing this column.

In an article covering the aforementioned Nanae Takahashi vs. Mayu Iwatani match, Kim provides an extremely comprehensive list of 2025 retirement matches, which really helped me find some of the above wrestlers to include.

Trapped in the Cagematch: Nanae Takahashi vs. Mayu Iwatani (May 4, 2025)

Starting off is the incredible achievement of a Kyushu Pro match, with the retirement of Mentai Kid getting up to #51 from 34 points and a whopping 10 votes. Next is the Ryo Kawamura final match against Hikura Sato in Hard Hit. Similar to Yuu, we once again have an AMAZING name for the show—“Ryo Kawamura Retirement Event—COMPLETE DISPOSAL.”

Next is the retirement match of one Bryant Woods from IWA Deep South in a Last Man Standing Death Match against Lil Sicko. This is one that actually wasn’t on Kim’s list, but who am I to doubt the blurb from Count Snarkula? Shout out to the Deathmatch Fashion Police substack.

Finally, we had Risa Sera, who actually retired on January 12th, 2026—but I’ll count this UpTown match against Momoka Hanazono as part of her “retirement tour.” It got 1 fourth place vote for 7 points and was #179 in the poll. Much like Tanahashi we may have to revisit this next year to see if her January matches against HANAKO or her true retirement match against Suzu Suzuki from Prominence end up on the last.

United States Legends Retire—Goldberg, JDC (aka Johnny Dango Curtis fka Dango fka Dirty Dango fka Fandango fka Johnny Curtis), The Dudley Boys

Comparing the Retirement Tours

Alright, now here’s the real main event. After going through all these—how the retirement tours and matches stack up against each other? Last start by looking at the “Big 4” from 2025

Easily, it was Tam Nakano who ended up in front.

Crushing all the competition with 6.5x more points and 3.7x votes than John Cena, thanks to her insanely high placing matches with Saya Kamitani. In fact, Tam’s retirement match alone got 518 points and 62 votes, easily crushing all the combined matches of the other wrestler’s retirement roads. Her March 3rd Korakuen match against Saya got 91 points by itself, quite close to the Satomura and Cena tours.

Looking then at the next three, we actually have a pretty close race, and each wrestler has something they can claim in their favor. Meiko Satomura ended up second place in total points with 108 over Cena’s 97, off the strength of her #46 and #52 matches. Cena, though, did get more total votes, with 22 overall compared to Meiko’s 19. And lastly, while Tanahashi did get the high point totals as the other, he easily had the most matches with six compared to four each for all of the others, showing that his retirement tour had much more variety for fans to find something that hit them personally, rather than a few standout matches that people rallied around.

That being said, I have a feeling that fans are REALLY going to rally around his final match against Okada from the Dome, and it will be interesting to see if that would help him skyrocket past Tam’s total come next year.

The Retirement Tour Matches of 2025 

Alright, last part of the column here—I took all the matches previously mentioned and ordered them by their VOW MOTY placement, to help really get an idea of how they stacked up against each other.  As already mentioned multiple times, the two Saya vs. Tam matches smoked the rest of the field, as seen here.

As my gimmick is kind of making tiers from this Match of the Year list.

I’d be remiss not to do that a little bit here. After that Saya/Tam tier, I’d say the next four matches make up a tier with Cena/Styles, Chihiro/Meiko, Genkai/metain Kid, and Meiko/Sareee. The Cena/Styles match has only half the points of the Saya vs. Tam Korakuen match, but then the next three are all very close together with 36, 34, and 33 points. We get a nice theme in the tier, as it features the two highest-ranked Meiko matches, both singles.

There is then a big 6-point drop to 27 points, where we have John Cena’s final match against Gunther and Hiroshi Tanahashi’s final match… in the USA against Takeshita. This tier then includes all the matches from #64 down to #104—Tanahashi vs. Danshoku Dino. I stopped here because it had 4 votes, while the next match only had one, and I will never miss an opportunity to point out that Hiroshi Tanahashi had a goddamn Dino match in DDT as part of his retirement tour. Legend.

After this, we start to see more indie wrestlers from the list, including Yuu, Kawamura, and Risa Sera. The bottom tier, however, gets interesting, as it contains three different Tanahashi matches. These matches only got 1 or 4 points each, but show exactly why Tanahashi ended up with 6 different matches on the list, as these 3 matches against the next generation of NJPW wrestlers (Tsuji, Uemura, Fujita) were each able to strike a chord with one or two voters and get onto the list.

And there you have it—the retirement tours of 2025 as seen through the lens of the VOW Match of the Year poll. It’s yet another great illustration of voters that Voices of Wrestling has attracted over the years—showing they are knowledgeable and passionate about all types of wrestling from all around the world. Yes, they did give the massive star John Cena his flowers, with a number of matches placing high, including his #36 AJ Styles match, which was the third-best retirement match of the year. But they weren’t blind to all the other great wrestlers finishing up their careers in 2025. Tam Nakano’s matches were recognized for being truly excellent, and the legendary Meiko Satomura and local legend Mentai Kid were both able to have matches above the much hyped John Cena final match. And then even lesser-known wrestlers like Yuu, Bryant Woods, and Ryo Kawamura were recognized, which will be their last chance to make the VOW Poll.

Or, since this is still pro wrestling, I guess I should say—what is MOST LIKELY their last chance at making the Voices of Wrestling Poll.