Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA (NJPW - 11/06/2017)

This rivalry fucking rocks. We got a crazy bombfest at WK with a cool upset of the returning Hiromu against the ace of the Jr division KUSHIDA, some months later the rematch turned into a one minute squash, with KUSHIDA trying to anticipate Hiromu's crazyness, only for him to backfire. But KUSHIDA didn't give up, he won the entire BOSJ that year, and this was his last chance to defeat Hiromu and reclaim the IWGP Jr Title.

And boy, what a match. KUSHIDA is far more focused than ever, now knowing that he can't play Hiromu's game. He instead goes for the fucking arm like there's no tomorrow, trying to set up the Kimura later on. But Hiromu is so dangerous man, he only needs one small window to put you in an insane spot that gives him the advantage, and that tension gives the match a very cool vibe. This is fast paced and with tons of offence, yeah, but it's not a spotfest by any means (although that's not bad to me). It's up there with some other Jr classic matches like 1989 Liger/Sano, 1997 Eddie/Rey, or Otani/Samurai. It's just that good, and I don't know why more people don't talk about their rivalry here, maybe it's because it is quite soon to judge it in retrospective? I don't know, but it deserves more love.

If you want fast pacing, cool and hard offence, strategies that pay off, awesome selling and tons of emotion, in a not-very-long match, this is exactly for you. It definitely is for me and I'm gonna vote for it this year!