Top Five Wrestling Matches Seen Live 2023

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With 2023 coming to an end I think it's time for many to look back at the year they had. For me one thing I wanted to do this year was go to more wrestling shows. I only ever seem to go to one show a most a year but this year managed to get to a few more. Always a fun time so I wanted to compile my favourite matches I saw live in person. For the record the events I went to this year as follows:

Revolution Pro Wrestling 11th Anniversary - 26th August 2023
AEW All In - 27th August 2023
NJPW Royal Quest 3 - 14th October 2023
Revolution Pro Wrestling Uprising - 16th December 2023

So without any other delay my top 5 live matches from this year are as below.

5) MJF vs. Adam Cole - AEW All In

Starting with the main event of the biggest show I went to this year I found mtself as part of the group of people that enjoyed this match. While I understand those who don't like it due to it being like an old NXT Takeover style main event which I did like. It felt like a large part of telling the story of the budding friendship between MJF and Adam Cole and how far can a man go to win the world title. While it seems like it was only the first part of their story with the devil in AEW at the moment I found this a fitting main event. AEW's biggest summer story main eventing its biggest show. 

4) Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi - NJPW Royal Quest 3

Two of the hardest hitting heavyweights in the world today you would always expect one of the best contests of the year. Ishii & Shingo always have a special magic to their matches and this was no different, all they did was hit each other really hard for a prolonged period of time and I loved it. The sound of one of the Pumping Bombers Shingo hit will live in my mind likely forever the echo and impact man a full on meat slapping meat match. 

3) Stadium Stampede - AEW All In

The most unique match on the list as Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo, Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta and Orange Cassidy took on Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, and Wheeler Yuta), Mike Santana and Ortiz.  To call this a match is an interesting one more a fight but the variety of chaos was a great spectacle to see. It was one you had to rewatch a few times on replay to see everything but Eddie Kingston putting on a great showing as ever. A fun plunder brawl and something of real variety on the All In card makes me wonder if they'll do something similar this year. 

2) Luke Jacobs vs. Tomohiro Ishii - RevPro 11th Anniversary

A match I had seen some hype for before and when it happened it blew me away. Stealing the All In weekend as the best show over the two days Luke Jacobs showed up and put himself on the world stage. A hard hitting encounter with Ishii is always what you expect but this over delivered. I think it was aided by a lot of the people at the show not really knowing Luke Jacobs I have to be honest I had heard good things but before this show never seen him wrestle. The right night, the right place and right opponent as the match left everyone standing and applauding when Ishii got the win. No idea how Dave Meltzer didn't give this 5 stars. 

Honourable Mentions

Just to cover a few matches I did consider to the list in no particular order 

Luke Jacobs vs. Tomohiro Ishii 2 - Rev Pro Uprising: A good match but step down from their first match mainly due to how expectations were raised and the first match overdelivered 
Will Ospreay vs. Chris Jericho - AEW All In: As far as wrestling matches went this was the second best on the card as Jericho had his working boots on the make Ospreay look as good as he could. A few misses moves didn't take away from the match.
Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi - Rev Pro 11th Anniversary: Took me a rewatch for this one to enjoy it. Fully understand Will didn't go all out due to the Jericho match the day after but they played the hits mostly well but a noticable step down from their previous high level matches. 
Yota Tsuji vs. Luke Jacobs - NJPW Royal Quest: Big fan of Yota Tsuji so was nice to see him live. He has one of the best move-sets in wrestling and I felt the two worked well. Just needed more time.
Zack Sabre Jr vs. JJ Gale - Rev Pro Uprising: While I wasn't impressed with JJ Gale at thr 11th anniversary show I felt he had a much better showing here. It might because of the level of opponent but Zack Sabre Jr is a level above and raised JJ to that level in this match.

1) Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr - NJPW Royal Quest 3

What happens when you put two of the best wrestlers in the world in the ring in their home country at the same time? You get one of the best matches of the year. Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr have an incredible chemistry between them and were both on tremendous runs in 2023 so it was expected to be a great match. It's surprising how a match I had such high expectations from overdelivered. I guess as this was likely their final singles match what a way to end their rivalry. 

That sums up my list for 2023 and the best matches I saw live. After not going to shows for a number of years I really did enjoy going again. With tickets for All In 2024 and Rev Pro's High Stakes in February (with Will Ospreay's last match for the company on the card) I am hoping that 2024 provides some great wrestling for me to see live. 

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