10 5-Star Matches you absolutely need to know about
Shortly after Wrestle Kingdom 11 went off the air, esteemed wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer gave the main event match between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada 6 Stars out of 5. Now most fans are discussing whether or not this spectacular match truly was the greatest match of all time.
Right now, this 6-Star rating is based solely on Meltzer’s own opinion and on first viewing, so a lot can change. After all, he has gone back and viewed other famous matches and has given them new ratings.
Now, while these star ratings are based on Meltzer’s own opinion, they do carry a considerable amount of weight these days. Meltzer’s an objective journalist, meaning that he isn’t swayed by influence from this promotion or that promotion to be kinder in his recognitions.
As such, any match that gets such high praise from Meltzer should definitely be on any fan’s radar as a must-see match.
Excluding the above 6-Star match, 81 matches on TV and Pay-Per-View since 1983 have achieved the ultra-rare recognition of 5-Star match. The vast majority of these matches have taken place in Japan, with only a small handful occuring in WWE or ROH, and only one in TNA.
These 5-star Japanese wrestling matches can be found in two clusters.
The first was in All Japan Pro Wrestling between 1990 and 2000, and mostly involved the foursome of wrestlers known collectively as the ‘Four Pillars of Heaven’: Akira Taue, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Mitsuharu Misawa (Misawa’s currently the record-holder for most 5-Star matches of any single wrestler, at 26).
The second cluster has been in New Japan Pro Wrestling since 2012, with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura putting on the best performances (Tanahashi and Okada both have had 6 5-star matches since 2012).
For a match to be awarded five stars, it has to be a match that’s ahead of its time, make an impact on the wrestling business, or simply tells a fantastic story with amazing wrestling psychology.
The ten matches highlighted here are the ones you absolutely need to see, both for their high quality and impact on the wrestling industry as a whole.
#10 Dynamite Kid. Vs. Tiger Mask I, April 23, 1983
This was the first match to ever be rated 5-Stars by the Wrestling Observer, and it wasn’t hard to see why at the time. Back then, wrestling matches were still technique and ground-based affairs, with a lot of emphasis on Greco-Roman grappling and little in terms of high-flying.
That’s why this match was considered so ahead of its time that Meltzer and others couldn’t help but sing its praise.
The long-term consequences of this match cannot be overstated. This was the match that gradually led to the shift in mentality towards smaller wrestlers. Thanks to the amazing efforts of both men in this match, both Japan and the wrestling world at large started to pay more attention to the faster, more flexible junior heavyweights.
This would eventually lead to a major change in wrestling overall, as the dropkick now became more important than the Greco-Roman hold.