Welcome to the fourth annual Voices of Wrestling Match of the Year Poll.

Origins

The brainchild of VOW co-owner Rich Kraetsch, it all started in 2012 with a modest four person panel of myself (Joe Lanza), Rich, VOW’s Larry, and Billy Carpenter of 4 Corners Radio. We each selected our ten best matches of the year, wrote short blurbs on why each match was selected, and combined the lists to come up with a collaborative top ten. 

It was a fine list of matches, but a list that was the product of four voters who for the most part have very similar tastes in wrestling. There was a ton of crossover on the four lists, and while an impressive variety of five different promotions ultimately ended up being represented in the top ten, we were basically dealing with a tiny sample size of voters who essentially watched and enjoyed the same pool of matches over the course of the year.

For 2013, I approached Rich about expanding on his original idea by extending invites to dozens of other wrestling critics. Each year in the world of film, we see end of year media/critic polls ranking the top films of the year. There is nothing like those critic polls we see in film that has ever existed for wresting matches. With that in mind, we sent ballots to dozens of journalists, bloggers, radio hosts, podcasters, experts, and critics who we knew loved wrestling, had a reputation for having a solid base of knowledge and strong opinions, and had quality endeavors that we could help expose to our readers in exchange for participating. We knew not everybody would respond, but we were quite pleased with who did, and we feel like the results did bear out the variety of matches and wrestling styles that we were seeking. 25 total voters responded by voting for over 90 matches from 23 different promotions.

The growth continued for the 2014 poll, with 67 voters voting for 156 different matches, from 35 different promotions.

This year, we’re proud to roll out a poll that featured 97 voters voting for 199 different matches from 42 different promotions. Another year, another massive leap in growth, and more importantly, more across the board diversity.

We’ll get to the matches later. First, the 97 voters (note – some voters chose to not include websites/affiliations and/or Twitter handles)

How The Voting Works

Each voter was sent a ballot and was asked to vote for their ten best matches of the year, ranking them from 1-10. We used the same weighted balloting system used by Major League Baseball for their Most Valuable Player voting, with a first place vote worth 14 points, and a descending 9-8-7… scale from there.

The points for each match are then added, with any ties broken in the following order:

• 1.) Most total votes
• 2.) Match which received the highest singular vote on any ballot

As an example, if two matches are tied in points, with one match appearing on more total ballots, it will not require the second step tie breaker. The match appearing on more total ballots would place higher.

If two matches are tied in points, and remain tied by appearing on the same number of ballots, the match with the highest singular vote will win the tiebreaker. Each voter was also encouraged to add short blurbs explaining why they voted for each match. These blurbs are what will give our articles flavor as we release the results.

All worked matches in the world that took place between January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015 were eligible.

Our long term goal is to become the most comprehensive, inclusive, and respected MOTY poll in all of wrestling, while continuing to cross promote the great ventures of our voter pool and exposing fans to matches that they otherwise never would have discovered.

Enough talk and putting ourselves over. Here are the the best 199 matches of 2015! (Note – A small handful of match votes needed to be excluded for various reasons, either due to ineligibility or unclear distinction)

We’ll begin with a look at the honorable mentions and follow each day with a new section of matches until we reveal our Top 10 on Friday, January 29. Again, we’ll begin with our honorable mentions which are all matches that failed to make our Top 100 but still received votes. 

1 Point

“The King of Gate tournament has been very good to Dragon Gate fans in recent years. Last year, T-Hawk and Akira Tozawa lit up Korakuen Hall, and the year before, Shingo Takagi and Ricochet had a classic to close out the tournament. This year, it was Tozawa and his then stablemate, Shingo Takagi, who wowed the Korakuen faithful and delivered one of my favorite matches of the year. Takagi’s offense was something to behold here. Everything he did looked like it hurt Tozawa so, so much. Tozawa, who I can safely call the best babyface in wrestling, put the crowd firmly behind him and with the support of those people, he was able to catch Takagi by surprise and roll him up for the pin. A match that very much represents the “Dragon Gate style” that some people hate, and those people, sadly, are missing out. This match was wonderful. Most years, this would be a Top 5 contender. This year, it squeaks onto my ballot at #10.” -Case Lowe on Akira Tozawa vs. Shingo Takagi (5/8)

“Probably the most insane match of the year and I use the word insane by its literal definition. The kind of match that makes Chikara, DDT and Inter Species Wrestling all go “that’s a bit much.” You have a wrestling match(?) featuring a bunch of Star Wars characters, Superman, Ultraman and ET. Superman no sells everything. Then C3PO is a dick to ET. Then a wrestler in a mankini shows up out of nowhere. Then the ring gets deconstructed as the match goes on. Then Sasuke does his annual “Why the fuck would you do that?!?” bump. Twice! The poor nutjob does a Swanton Bomb inside a barrel and then gets powerbombed onto the steel ring frame. It’s a bizarre, unbelievable and wonderful thing that exists and must be seen.” -Jamie O’Doherty on Michinoku Pro Great Space War 12/10

“This match was the sixth of a best of five series (yes, you read that right), and the conclusion to a great in-ring rivalry that started in late 2014, and would end up being the last great in ring feud in Anarchy history. As one might expect, the match was filled with callbacks to the previous five encounters (rewarding those who had watched the series), but even as a stand alone match it was excellent. Combining sound psychology, dynamic spots, and snug mat work, this match was the prefect end to the series, and helped put Fred Yehi on the map.” -Dylan Hales on Slim J vs. Fred Yehi (3/28)

2-6 Points

“I put this as my #9 but on my personal favorite list this was top 3. It’s pretty much a one-man show by Volador. Mephisto does his part always being in the right place at the right time but this is all about Volador putting on a display of how to be the ultimate tecnico/babyface. He’s so great that at one point a young girl hugs him after a dive, moments after a regular front row old man who barely moves or smiles puts in the effort to sit up and shake Volador’s hand after a dive. That is the rarest of rare in Arena Mexico. CMLL, and wrestling in general for that matter, would be better off if tecnicos like this existed in bunches.” -Rob Viper on Mephisto vs. Volador Jr (5/8)

“This was the culmination of the previous matches in AIW 2014 and at the SHIMMER ChickFight iPPV on 3/28/15 these two had together. They had garnered praise from fans so Dave Prazak decided to up the ante by having this a two out of three falls. The atmosphere was electric and the battle hard fought. Given this was to be Athena’s last SHIMMER weekend prior to being signed with WWE, there was no better way for her to be sent off than by wrestling Mia Yim – the two debuted the same weekend for SHIMMER in September of 2010, Yim on the pre-show SPARKLE, Athena on the main tapings. Their journeys have intertwined since then and it was a fitting farewell to pit the Wrestling Goddess against the War Queen.” -Jen on Athena vs. Mia Yim (4/11)

“Shibata’s elevation to main event status in 2016 will be out of necessity, but it started here. A culmination of Tana and Shibata’s arc, with great callbacks to Fujinami and Inoki for the hardcores.” -Chris Charleton on Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (8/8)

Seth Rollins vs. Sting: I vote based on what pulled me in the most during the year, and this match pulled me in like almost no other. As this begins to look like Sting’s final match, while the injury is unfortunate, it is heartening that after years of desultory performances in TNA, he went out with a stellar performance worthy of a (WWE) Hall of Fame Career. -Sean Flynn

Marty Scurll vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: This was without a doubt my European match of the year and also the funniest match I’ve seen all year. Some comedy spots had me laughing so hard that I almost laughed tears and not only the comedy spots were convincing, but also the serious chain and ground based wrestling Sabre and Scurll presented here was fantastic. Changing from comedy spots to serious pro-wrestling doesn’t work for many matches, but these two have such a rich history with one another that they made it work and more so exactly this mix of comedy and seriousness made the match special. The PROGRESS fans proved to be an amazing crowd once more as they not only called the Chickenwing vs. Armbar story as the match started, but they also created a very special, familiar atmosphere for the confrontation of former tag team partners. The story the fans called was of importance throughout the match and also provided the framework for the finish of the match. -STRIGGA

Check back tomorrow for the next listing of matches, all leading to Friday when we announce the Top 10!

Follow the 2015 Match of the Year project at https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/category/columns/2015-match-of-the-year/ and discuss it on our forums at https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=844&p=17413#p17413.