Another month has come and gone, and that means that I am ready to once again unveil my favorite things from the pro wrestling world. May was filled with fantastic matches and shows, as you might expect, and while I obviously didn't see everything I wanted to see, I think my winners for this month are a perfect encapsulation of what I found enjoyable.
If you ask me, May 2022 will be remembered as the month New Japan dominated the mat and once again took the crown as the best pro wrestling company in the world. The BULLET CLUB returned to prominence after staying on the back burner for a couple years. The junior heavyweight division took part in a wonderful Best of the Super Juniors tournament. And if that wasn't all great enough, I got to go to Capital Collision and see Okada and Tanahashi, among others, for the first time ever in-person.
But while New Japan was giving us some amazing content, other promotions were doing their thing as well. Here are some notable things that happened in the world of professional wrestling in May.
A lot of notable things happened at AEW, but perhaps most importantly, CM Punk became their new world champion at Double or Nothing.
Dragongate held their annual King of Gate single elimination tournament, which I desperately need to complete.
All Japan completed their annual Champion Carnival tournament, which did a great job in creating a new top star in Yuma Aoyagi.
Tsukushi Haruka retired as ICExInfinity Champion for Ice Ribbon while Tsukasa Fujimoto also wrestled her final match before taking an extended hiatus at the same promotion.
Stardom continued to hold strong cards, especially during the first week in May, and concluded the month with a highly regarded pay-per-view on the 28th.
Josh Alexander and Tomohiro Ishii had a war in the main event of IMPACT's Under Siege show on May 7th.
American indies like Prestige and DEADLOCK held cards that featured exciting international talent like Miyu Yamashita, Maki Itoh, and Konosuke Takeshita.
Pro Wrestling WAVE, an independent Joshi promotion, began their annual "Catch the Wave" tournament.
Three major freelance joshi factions, Prominence, COLOR's, and Nomads, all held their own events.
Gatoh Move, a company that is probably most famous for their fun Choco Pro series on YouTube, returned to wrestling in front of fans for the first time in around two years.
Big Japan, of all companies, had a really fun event on May 5th, which I recommend. The same can be said about DDT, which held a great show on May 1st.
WWE held their "WrestleMania Backlash" show which featured an excellent rematch between Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes
Wrestling GOD, Mio Momono, announced that she is finally able to return to in-ring action after missing the better part of a year due to injury, and will do so at a Marvelous show on June 24th. Look for her to be my favorite women's wrestler next month. Even if she wrestles once, I still might do it.
AEW and NJPW formally announced "Forbidden Door" a super show that will feature talent from the two promotions going head to head. This will be the third "promotion vs. promotion" event for NJPW in 2022, but will most certainly be it's best.
And NOAH did NOAH things. Some made sense. Others, not so much.
So without further ado, I think it's finally time to start talking about who helped make May 2022 filled to the brims with exciting content. And just as we do every month, we're going to start with my favorite male wrestler.
FAVORITE MALE WRESTLER
El Desperado (NJPW)
There were several potential winners for my favorite male wrestler this go around. Guys like Tomohiro Ishii and Hiroshi Tanahashi each had incredible first halves of May, thanks in large part to a match they had against each other on May 1st. Dragon Dia also started the month on fire, as you expect from the man who won my first "Wrestler of the Month" back in January. But after catching up on the Best of the Super Juniors, I concluded that no man deserved this award more than New Japan's junior ace, El Desperado.
The 38-year-old might've started the month on the wrong foot after he dropped the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Taiji Ishimori during New Japan's Wrestling Dontaku event on May 1st, but he finished the month back on the upswing after securing a spot in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors, which will take place on June 3rd.
The argument for Despy as my favorite male wrestler of the month revolves around the simple fact that over 10 singles matches, and one tag, he simply didn't have anything short of a really good match. From a statistical perspective, I rated two of his matches a 7/10, five as an 8/10, and four as a 9/10. This level of consistent greatness is simply incredible, if you ask me, and no one in the scene had a better CV for this past month.
If you want to dive into some of Despy's best performances, I'll give you five recommendations. All of these can be found on New Japan World and are listed in chronological order.
w/ DOUKI vs. Jun Kasai and Tomoaki Honma (JTO TakaTaichi Mania 2.5, 5/6)
vs. Wheeler Yuta (NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 29 Night 6 - 5/22)
vs. El Lindaman (NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 29 Night 7 - 5/24)
vs. Robbie Eagles (NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 29 Night 11 - 5/29)
vs. El Phantasmo (NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 29 Night 12 - 5/31)
There are so many excellent wrestlers who are absolutely killing it right now, so because of that, I've expanded my honorable mentions so that I don't miss anyone.
Honorable Mentions:
CM Punk (AEW)
Dragon Dia (Dragongate)
El Lindaman (GLEAT/NJPW)
Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW)
Juice Robinson (NJPW)
Konosuke Takeshita (DDT/AEW)
KZY (Dragongate)
Robbie Eagles (NJPW)
Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW)
Wheeler Yuta (AEW/NJPW)
Yuma Aoyagi (AJPW)
FAVORITE FEMALE WRESTLER
ASUKA/Veny (Freelance)
For the first time since I first separated my favorite wrestler category into male and female sub-sections, my favorite female wrestler of the month has been awarded to someone who's not currently a member of the Stardom roster. ASUKA (or VENY) has been one of my favorite wrestlers in the scene since I first saw her early last year at a SEAdLINNNG event. Not only did I immediately recognize that she was excellent in the ring, but she also displayed a supreme amount of charisma, something that isn't always obvious in the Japanese scene.
Without going into too much detail, as I'm planning on writing about her more in-depth later this month, ASUKA is a freelance wrestler who's perhaps most synonymous for her work both in the aforementioned SEAdLINNNG promotion, where she's a former world champion, as well as in DDT. Other cool tid bids about ASUKA include that she was once in a tag team with the legendary Hana Kimura called FloÜrish, she's in a pretty popular faction called "Las Fresa de Egoistas" alongside fellow wrestlers Makoto, Riko Kaiju, and Maria, and she wrestled in the Japan block of the 2021 AEW Women's Title Eliminator tournament, in which she lost to Emi Sakura in the first round. It was there when she was called "VENY" as to not confuse fans who would immediately think that WWE's Asuka was participating.
As she's a freelancer and therefore bounces around the scene, ASUKA's match list for May reads as a wild ride from start to finish. To me, these are her highlights.
Wrestled MAO for the DDT Universal Championship at DDT's "Mega Max Bump" event on May 1st. (NOTE: I rated this match a 9/10)
Teamed up with fellow freelancer Saori Anou in a winning effort against the Sendai Girls' Tag Team Champions, Chihiro Hashimoto and Yuu, in a non-title match on May 6th.
Returned to DDT to help MAO and Shunma Katsumata beat DDT's K-OD Tag Team Champions Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi, along with Antonio Honda, on May 11th.
Took part in the first "NOMADS" show, where she and Yuu fought SAKI and Saori Anou to a double count out on May 20th. (Note: I'll probably talk about this show at some point.)
Main evented the second annual Hana Kimura Memorial tribute event against World of Stardom Champion, Syuri, on May 23rd. (Note: I also rated this match a 9/10)
Aside from fighing Syuri in the main event of what I selected as my favorite wrestling show of the month, ASUKA's other greatest in-ring achievement in May 2022 was when she teamed up once again with MAO in tag team action against Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi for the K-OD Tag Team Championships, a match that they ended up winning. This is the third different title ASUKA has won from the DDT promotion so far in her career, and the ninth different belt she's held since 2018.
If you ask me, ASUKA is on the shortlist for my favorite female wrestler on the planet today. If you are at all interested in seeing her work, I'd strongly recommend either signing up for Wrestle Universe and watching her work in DDT, TJPW, and Ganbare Pro or buying the Hana Kimura Memorial event off FITE TV. If you enjoy her, and I can't imagine you won't, then I'd strongly recommend you taking the dive so many others have and explore her work in any of the various independent Joshi promotions. I wouldn't be surprised if ASUKA won this award yet again in the future.
Honorable Mentions:
Asahi (Ice Ribbon)
Kris Statlander (AEW)
Konami (Stardom)
Mayu Iwatani (Stardom)
Mio Momono (Marvelous) (Note: All she did this past month was announce that she's returning to wrestling after healing up from injury.
MIRAI (Stardom)
Miyuki Takase (Freelance)
SAKI (COLORS)
Sakura Hirota (WAVE)
Syuri (Stardom)
FAVORITE TAG TEAM
Fukuoka Double Crazy (Hazuki and Koguma - Stardom)
We begin our Stardom section of the blog with the promotion's reigning and defending tag team champions, as well as my favorite pair in wrestling right now, Fukuoka Double Crazy. This is a long time coming for Hazuki and Koguma, as they have previously come close to securing this award from me before in consecutive months from January and February. And while they were left off the honorable mentions list entirely in March and April as fellow Stardom tag teams like Black Desire and Pink Kabuki took their place, I didn't forget about this duo at all.
This might sound like a hot take, depending on what pro wrestling you ingest the most, but to me, these two women make up the second best tag team in wrestling today, behind only Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood of FTR, who won this award in April. They've only been tagging for the better part of a year, but they've already catalogued several highlights as they've climbed the tag team ranks at Stardom.
I'll be looking more in-depth about these two women in a future "Stardom 101" piece, but suffice to say that these two have a lot in common. Both of them wrestled in Stardom back in the mid-2010s before retiring for a span of time. And both returned in 2021 and have since become key members, not only in the STARS faction, but in Stardom as a whole. If you watch Stardom today, let me ask you. Would Stardom be the same without these two? I think not.
FWC arguably has the best tag team chemistry and synergy out of every pairing in Stardom, besides maybe Mina Shirakawa and Unagi Sayaka of Pink Kabuki. Both Hazuki and Koguma are "high-speed" wrestlers, which means that their style is incredibly fast and impactful and their matches are usually short but sweet.
If you want to see what helped them achieve this award over some excellent honorable mentions you'll find below, I'd highly recommend you watch their May 5th battle against Black Desire in which they regained their Goddesses of Stardom tag team titles, becoming the first pairing in Stardom history to win the belts twice, as well as their first defense against Giulia and Mai Sakurai on May 28th.
As of writing, these two are still the Goddesses of Stardom Champions, and barring some wild decision making from old man Rossy, I believe that they are the perfect pair to have a long term reign in the same way Giulia and Syuri had in 2021.
Honorable Mentions:
Astronauts (Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura - BJW)
D'Courage (Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka - Dragongate)
Swerve in Our Glory (Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland - AEW)
United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb - NJPW)
The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso - WWE)
Z'Brats (Diamante and Shun Skywalker - Dragongate)
FAVORITE FACTION
God's Eye (Stardom)
While they've been together as a group for a little less then two months, God's Eye has solidified itself as my favorite faction going right this moment. Led by one of my favorite women's wrestlers of all time in Syuri, I knew I'd probably really like this crew when it started. But I gotta say that they've already exceeded my expectations so far.
If I was to explain God's Eye's theme, I'd say that these four are all connected by two things; they're all really easy to cheer for, and they're all really dangerous strikers and submission artists. In a company with highly distinct units, God's Eye shines as perhaps the second most heroic crew in Stardom, behind Stars.
Appropriately enough, my next "Stardom 101" post, due to come out this week, will be covering these four in more detail, but I'll give you all a brief explanation as an appetizer:
Syuri (Center left in picture) is God's Eye's leader, and the World of Stardom Champion. She's the top dog in Stardom right now, having successfully defended the red belt five times so far, as well as traveling with the belt to other shows not ran by Stardom.
MIRAI (Far left in picture) joined Stardom back in January, and has quickly established herself as one of the most hard-hitting wrestlers in the company. In April, she won the promotion's Cinderella Tournament and challenged Saya Kamitani to a match for the Wonder of Stardom belt.
Ami Sourei (Far right in picture) also joined Stardom recently, and while she's been mostly utilized in the rookie clashes with the likes of Momo Kohgo and Rina, she will almost certainly climb the card soon
Konami (Center right in picture) was technically only with God's Eye for one week in early May, as she's still recuperating from multiple injuries, but she still fit incredibly well with the rest of God's Eye. As Syuri's protege, look for her to return to God's Eye when she makes it back.
In May, God's Eye continued to solidify itself as one of the better factions in Stardom. They finished the month with seven wins, zero losses, and three draws in their unit matches. Ami Sourei notched her first major singles victory against Saya Iida. MIRAI continued to get used to Stardom's match pace to the point where she had an excellent match for the Wonder of Stardom belt against Saya Kamitani. And Syuri ended the month by earning her fifth defense with the red belt in a violent affair against Risa Sera.
This crew is still on the smaller side, especially for units in Stardom, but what they lack in numbers, they make up for with sheer talent and cohesiveness. If and when Konami comes back, or they add another wrestler to their lineup in the interim, look for this faction to start challenging for more tag and trios titles as well.
Honorable Mentions (Italics = leader):
BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Chris Bey, Dick Togo, Doc Gallows, El Phantasmo, Evil, Gedo, Hikuleo, Jay White, Juice Robinson, Karl Anderson, KENTA, SHO, Taiji Ishimori, Yujiro Takahashi - NJPW)
Natural Vibes (Big Boss Shimizu, Jacky "Funky" Kamei, Jason Lee, Kzy, U-T - Dragongate)
Nomads (Maya Yukihi, Miyuki Takase, Natsu Sumire, Rina Yamashita - Freelance)
Z-Brats (BxB Hulk, Diamante, H.Y.O., Kai, SB KENTo, Shun Skywalker - Dragongate)
FAVORITE MATCH
Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo (NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 29 Night 9, 5/26)
For the longest time, my match of the month was going to go to Hiroshi Tanahashi's brawl with Tomohiro Ishii from New Japan's Dontaku event on May 1st. In fact, I even started to write about that match because I was pretty sure nothing could top it. It would've been the third time this year when my favorite match of a month had gone to one that took place on the first day of the month, the others being in January and April.
That all changed just a few days ago when I finally got the opportunity to watch Night 9 of New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and the main event war between CHAOS' Robbie Eagles and BULLET CLUB's El Phantasmo. And by the time it was over and the crowd was seemingly ready to explode into verbal cheers for Robbie Eagles, something that is unfortunately not yet allowed, I knew that I had to change course and talk a little bit about this match.
The brilliance of this match, to me, is that it's an easy story to tell. Robbie Eagles is a massive hero, and one of the most likable guys in all of New Japan. He exciting in the ring too, which absolutely helps. On the flip side, El Phantasmo is maybe the most obnoxious villain New Japan has. But while guys like SHO and EVIL actively hurt their matches with their wrestling style, ELP is actually a remarkably gifted wrestler to boot. So when you mix these two elements together, you're bound to get something special.
While I can't for the life of me go move by move to illustrate how tremendous this clash was, I can note that this match kept getting better and better as it went along. ELP was his typical annoying self, but he would include some superhuman feats of flight after doing a few back rakes. And Robbie Eagles pulled out just about everything he could to take out his opponent, including even hitting a Burning Hammer.
With their immaculate chemistry and willingness to over perform on a show that definitely didn't ask for it, this match will live in my mind not only as one of my favorite matches of the year, but one of my favorite matches in all of the Best of the Super Juniors I've ever watched. Definitely check it out if you get the chance. And then watch the rest of the BOSJ while you're at it.
Honorable Mentions:
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW Wrestling Dontaku, 5/1)
MAO vs. ASUKA for the DDT Universal Championship (DDT Mega Max Bump 2022 In Yokohama, 5/1)
KAI vs. Susumu Yokosuka for the Open the Dream Gate Championship (Dragongate Dead or Alive 2020, 5/4)
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Eddie Kingston (NJPW Capital Collision, 5/14)
El Desperado vs. El Phantasmo (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 12, 5/31)
FAVORITE SHOW
Hana Kimura Memorial "Bagus" (5/23)
May was a wonderful month filled with excellent shows. Dragongate exploded back onto my "must-watch" list with their Dead or Alive pay-per-view from May 5th. New Japan came back to life with too many awesome shows to count. And even Big Japan, of all places, had themselves a great card this month. But if you watch any amount of wrestling, particularly from Japan, then you'd probably know that there really was only one correct answer this month.
Following in the footsteps of my favorite wrestling show of 2021, the second annual Hana Kimura Memorial tribute show another love letter not only to the late, great Hana Kimura, but to everyone who ever enjoyed her brilliant run in this wonderful profession.
Much like last year I did cry, but it wasn't in a release of sadness, but in healing and joy. When Hana Kimura tragically took her own life two years ago, it rocked the foundation of the wrestling community, especially the Joshi wrestling community.
If you're looking for a show that is filled with incredible matches up and down the card, like some of the shows listed in the honorable mentions, you might be a little disappointed. While this was a show that featured an excellent Syuri vs. ASUKA match in the main event, the other matches mostly came off as comedic or light. The incomprehensible tag team battle royal, for instance, wouldn't have worked nearly as well if it wasn't for the fact that everyone in the ring was honoring the memory of a fallen colleague and friend.
Probably the most memorable thing to happen in the ring during this show was when we got to see Hana's mother, Kyoko Kimura, come out of retirement to take on one of Hana's best friends, Jungle Kyona, in a tremendously emotional match. This, along with the final video montage where wrestlers from around the world said the word "Bagus", which is Indonesian for "The Best", were the two times I cried during the event. Note that Bagu
The other best thing about this show was that we got to see Yuu Ishino for the first time at a wrestling event. For those of you who don't know, Yuu was once the former World of Stardom Champion as Kagetsu. But over the past year, he has completed his sexual reassignment surgery and thus is now Yuu Ishino. It was genuinely great to see that he was the same fun heel he was back in his Oedo Tai days.
If you watch ANY of the shows I ever recommend on his blog, for however long I do this, I implore you to go on FITE.TV and buy the show. It's equal parts sad, tragic, beautiful, and healing. Sometimes, it's perfectly alright to cry.
Long Live Hana Kimura.
🌸
Honorable Mentions:
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2022 (5/1)
BJW Big Japan Welcome Back (5/5)
Dragongate Dead Or Alive 2022 (5/5)
Dragongate King Of Gate 2022 Night 1 (5/11)
NJPW Capital Collision (5/14)
NOMADS' Freelance Summit (5/20)
Stardom Flashing Champions 2022 (5/28)
FAVORITE PROMOTION
New Japan Pro Wrestling
If you ask me, this past month marked the moment when New Japan Pro Wrestling once again staked their claim as the world's best wrestling promotion. From May 1st at their Dontaku show to May 31st when they held the 12th night of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, the company that brought us such names as Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tetsuya Naito was on fire. Lookin at my notes, I rated eight NJPW shows an 8/10 or higher, and while none of them reached the coveted 10/10 rating, Dontaku and Capital Collision were each awarded a nine.
NJPW all but secured this award around midway through the month when all the heavyweights of the promotion disappeared from their cards to give way for the Junior Heavyweights for the aforementioned BOSJ tournament. Said tournament was filled to the brim with exciting matches, especially after the event hit the midway mark.
New Japan has long been famous for working with other promotions, something that has become quite in vogue over the past year, but this year's BOSJ was certainly a highlight of what collaboration can do to wrestling. Aside from the usual junior heavyweights you'd normally see on a New Japan card, wrestlers from AEW, IMPACT, and GLEAT, among others, helped make the tour a must-watch for anyone who enjoys wrestling for the matches. If you want to see the best from this past year's tournament, I'd recommend these six contests:
El Desperado vs. Wheeler Yuta (Night 6) - 9/10
El Desperado vs. El Lindaman (Night 7) - 9/10
Ace Austin vs. Taiji Ishimori (Night 9) - 9/10
El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles (Night 9) - 10/10
El Desperado vs Robbie Eagles (Night 11) - 9/10
El Desperado vs. El Phantasmo (Night 12) - 9/10
As you can see, it shouldn't be all that surprising that El Desperado was my favorite male wrestler from this past month as well.
Of course, New Japan's month wasn't only taken up by the Best of the Super Juniors. Their May 1st event featured two matches you will see in my match of the month list down below, and their May 14th effort in Washington DC was a mesmerizing show, particularly because I was actually in attendance!
With them announcing that fans might be able to verbally cheer and boo starting next month, I fully believe that this company is prime to solidify itself as the best pro wrestling company in the world for the long term. The in-ring wrestling has always been there, but it appears that thanks to the dominant return of BULLET CLUB, gaijin visitors lighting it up at BOSJ, the potential return of normal crowds, and the "Forbidden Door" event officially announced, that this is just the beginning of NJPW's dominance.
Honorable Mentions:
All Japan Pro Wrestling
Dragongate
Pro Wrestling WAVE
Stardom
BONUS: Match Statistics from the Best of the Super Juniors 2022
Down below you'll find the 20 wrestlers who took part in this month's Best of the Super Juniors tournament. They're listed from the participant who had the highest total match score from the down to the participant with the lowest. The information down below is the following:
The wrestler's name, age, their main promotion or freelance status, and their faction (if applicable)
The total match score he has received. Each match rating goes from 1-10.
Each wrestler's average match score. I took this from taking their overall total score and dividing it by nine, which was the number of matches each participant took part in during the tour.
Each wrestler's highest single match score. This was used as a first tiebreaker. There are other tiebreakers, but I don't want to get too lost in the weeds here.
Without further ado, here is the list.
El Desperado (38, NJPW/Suzuki-gun) - 74, 8.22, 9
Robbie Eagles (32, NJPW/CHAOS) - 70, 7.78, 10
EL Phantasmo (35, Freelance/BULLET CLUB) - 67, 7.44, 10
Wheeler Yuta (25, AEW/Blackpool Combat Club) - 67, 7.44, 9
Taiji Ishimori (39, NJPW/BULLET CLUB) - 65, 7.22, 9
El Lindaman (27, GLEAT/Strong Hearts) - 65, 7.22, 9
TJP (37, Freelancer/United Empire) - 65, 7.22, 8
Hiromu Takahashi (32, NJPW/Los Ingobernables de Japon) - 64, 7.11, 8
Titan (31, CMLL) - 64, 7.11, 8
Ace Austin (25, IMPACT) - 63, 7, 9
Francesco Akira (23, Freelance/United Empire) - 63, 7, 8
DOUKI (30, NJPW/Suzuki-gun) - 63, 7, 8
Alex Zayne (35, Freelance) - 59, 6.56, 8
Yoshinobu Kanemaru (45, NJPW/Suzuki-gun) - 58, 6.44, 8
BUSHI (39, NJPW/Los Ingobernables de Japon) - 58, 6.44, 7
YOH (33, NJPW/CHAOS) - 55, 6.11, 8
Clark Connors (28, NJPW STRONG) - 54, 6, 7
SHO (32, NJPW/BULLET CLUB) - 53, 5.89, 8
Master Wato (25, NJPW) - 53, 5.89, 7
Ryusuke Taguchi (43, NJPW) - 46, 5.11, 6
PREVIOUS WINNERS
Wrestler(s)
January - Dragon Dia (Dragongate)
February - MJF (AEW)
March - Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW) and KAIRI (Stardom)
April - Wheeler Yuta (AEW) and AZM (Stardom)
May - El Desperado (NJPW) and ASUKA/VENY (Freelance)
Tag Team
January - Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka (Dragongate)
February - Konosuke Takeshita and Yuki Ueno (DDT)
March - Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley (AEW)
April - Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood (AEW)
May - Hazuki and Koguma (Stardom)
Faction
January - Prominence (Freelance)
February - House of Black (AEW)
March - Donna Del Mondo (Stardom)
April - Blackpool Combat Club (AEW)
May - God's Eye (Stardom)
Match
January - Go Shiozaki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH The New Year, 1/1)
February - AZM vs. Starlight Kid (Stardom Cinderella Journey In Nagaoka, 2/23)
March - Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW New Japan Cup Night 13, 3/26)
April - F.T.R. vs. Briscoe Brothers (ROH Supercard of Honor, 4/1)
May - El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles (NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 9, 5/26)
Show
January - Stardom Nagoya Supreme Fight (1/29)
February - Stardom Cinderella Journey In Nagaoka (2/23)
March - AEW Revolution (3/6)
April - ROH Supercard of Honor (4/1)
May - Hana Kimura Produce "Bagus" (5/23)
Promotion
January - Stardom
February - All Elite Wrestling
March - New Japan Pro Wrestling
April - Stardom
May - New Japan Pro Wrestling
Every Match of the Year Candidate in 2022 from May 2022 (9/10s or higher)
(Note: Italics means it was my match of the month)
5/1 - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2022)
5/1 - Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2022)
5/1 - Cosmic Angels vs. God's Eye and Konami (Stardom Golden Week Fight Tour 2022 Night 1)
5/1 - MAO vs. ASUKA (DDT Mega Max Bump 2022 In Yokohama)
5/4 - Yuma Aoyagi vs. Jake Lee (AJPW Champion Carnival 2022 Night 9)
5/4 - Tsukasa Fujimoto and Tsukushi Haruka vs. Nanae Takahashi and Hamuko Hoshi (Ice Ribbon New Ice Ribbon #1199 - Ice Ribbon Yokohama Budokan II)
5/5 - KAI vs. Susumu Yokosuka (Dragongate Dead or Alive 2022)
5/11 - Shuji Kondo vs. KAI (Dragongate King of Gate Night 1)
5/13 - Arisa Nakajima vs. Riko Kaiju (SEAdLINNNG)
5/14 - Tomohiro Ishii vs. Eddie Kingston (NJPW Capital Collision)
5/14 - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Juice Robinson vs. Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley (NJPW Capital Collision)
5/15 - Kenta Miyahara vs. Yuma Aoyagi (AJPW 50th
5/15 - Konosuke Takeshita vs. Adam Brooks (DEADLOCK Fire #9)
5/22 - El Desperado vs. Wheeler Yuta (NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 6)
5/23 - Kyoko Kimura vs. Jungle Kyona (Hana Kimura Memorial "Bagus")
5/23 - Syuri vs. ASUKA (Hana Kimura Memorial "Bagus")
5/24 - El Desperado vs. El Lindaman (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 7)
5/26 - Ace Austin. vs.Taiji Ishimori (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 9)
5/26 - El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 7)
5/28 - Saya Kamitani vs. MIRAI (Stardom Flashing Champions 2022)
5/29 - Robbie Eagles vs. El Desperado (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 11)
5/31 - El Desperado vs. El Phantasmo (NJPW Best of The Super Juniors 29 Night 12)
Special thanks to WhoScored, Transfermarkt, Baseball Reference, Baseball Savant, Fangraphs, Cagematch, and 1.02.JP for helping make me a more well-informed fan.
Featured Image Credit - NJPW
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