{"id":18313,"date":"2020-01-04T10:31:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T10:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/?page_id=18313"},"modified":"2020-12-31T13:47:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T13:47:00","slug":"2020-contenders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/2020-contenders\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back for a fifth year &#8211; it&#8217;s our ever-growing list of Match of the Year contenders. If it&#8217;s on here, you probably ought to make time to hunt it down!<\/p>\n<p>All of these matches either got ****\u00bc and above in our reviews, our would have (if we reviewed it, for shows we don&#8217;t fully cover).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay (New Japan, WrestleKingdom 14 &#8211; Night One, January 04, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada (New Japan, WrestleKingdom 14 &#8211; Night One, January 04, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada (New Japan, WrestleKingdom 14 &#8211; Night Two, January 05, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi &amp; EVIL vs. Hirooki Goto &amp; Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, New Year Dash!!, January 06, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Makabe vs. Judas Icarus (3-2-1 BATTLE!, Hindsight:2020, January 10, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin (WWE, NXT UK Takeover Blackpool 2, January 12, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Aigle Blanc vs. David Starr (wXw X APC, Fight for Paris &#8211; Night Two, January 12, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Cara Noir vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Ilja Dragunov vs. Paul Robinson (PROGRESS, Chapter 101: Dalmatians, January 19, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>EVIL vs. Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, The New Beginning in Sapporo &#8211; Night One, February 01, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi vs. Hirooki Goto (New Japan, The New Beginning in Sapporo &#8211; Night One, February 01, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>LJ Cleary vs. David Starr (OTT, Contenders 17 &#8211; Take Me To Your Leader &#8211; February 01, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (New Japan, The New Beginning in Sapporo &#8211; Night Two, February 02, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Ryu Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan, The New Beginning in Osaka, February 09, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Minoru Suzuki vs. Jon Moxley (New Japan, The New Beginning in Osaka, February 09, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Michael Oku vs. El Phantasmo (Rev Pro, High Stakes 2020, February 14, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Rev Pro, High Stakes 2020, February 14, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi (New Japan, New Japan Road 2020 &#8211; Night One, February 20, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Makabe &amp; Chris Ridgeway vs. Daisuke Ikeda &amp; Yuki Ishikawa (wXw, Inner Circle 9, March 05, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Mike Bailey vs. Chris Ridgeway (wXw, 16 Carat Gold 2020 &#8211; Night One, March 06, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Ilja Dragunov vs. A-Kid (WWE, NXT UK #89 (Hidden Gems), March 06, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Mike Bailey vs. Bandido (wXw, 16 Carat Gold 2020 &#8211; Night Two, March 07, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>David Starr vs. Bobby Gunns (wXw, 16 Carat Gold 2020 &#8211; Night Two, March 07, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hektor Invictus, Puma King &amp; Black Taurus vs. Julian Pace, Jeff Cobb &amp; Bandido (wXw, 16 Carat Gold 2020 &#8211; Night Three, March 08, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Cara Noir vs. Mike Bailey (wXw, 16 Carat Gold 2020 &#8211; Night Three, March 08, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata (New Japan, New Japan Cup 2020 &#8211; Night Two, June 17, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>SHO vs. Shingo Takagi (New Japan, New Japan Cup 2020 &#8211; Night Three, June 22, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hiromu Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, New Japan Cup 2020 &#8211; Night Seven, July 02, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>SHO vs. Shingo Takagi (New Japan, Dominion in Osaka-Jo Hall, July 12, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii &amp; Hirooki Goto vs. Master Wato, Hiroshi Tanahashi &amp; Kota Ibushi (New Japan, Summer Struggle &#8211; Night Seven, August 08, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii &amp; Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada, SHO &amp; Toru Yano (New Japan, Summer Struggle &#8211; Night Eight, August 09, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Calvin Tankman vs. Erick Stevens (Black Label Pro, Erick Stevens Presents Professional Wrestling, August 22, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Minoru Suzuki vs. Shingo Takagi (New Japan, Summer Struggle in Jingu, August 29, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan, Summer Struggle in Jingu, August 29, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night One, September 19, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Two, September 20, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tetsuya Naito (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Four, September 24, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Five, September 27, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Nine, October 05, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Eleven, October 07, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Lee Moriarty vs. Daniel Makabe (SUP, Swing of the Axe, October 09, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Lee Moriarty vs. ACH (GCW, For The Culture, October 09, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Jeff Cobb vs. Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Thirteen, October 10, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Minoru Suzuki vs. Kota Ibushi (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Thirteen, October 10, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Thirteen, October 10, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Tom Lawlor vs. Homicide (GCW, Josh Barnett&#8217;s Bloodsport 3, October 11, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Chris Dickinson vs. Jon Moxley (GCW, Josh Barnett&#8217;s Bloodsport 3, October 11, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Taichi vs. Kota Ibushi (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Seventeen, October 16, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan, G1 Climax 30 &#8211; Night Seventeen, October 16, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER (WWE, NXT UK #111, aired October 29, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Shingo Takagi vs. Minoru Suzuki (New Japan, Power Struggle, November 07, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Ricky Knight Jr. vs. Will Ospreay (Rev Pro, Epic Encounters Five, November 15, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hiromu Takahashi vs. Robbie Eagles (New Japan, World Tag League 2020 x Best of the Super Junior 27 &#8211; Night Eleven, November 29, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>SHO vs. Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan, World Tag League 2020 x Best of the Super Junior 27 &#8211; Night Thirteen, December 02, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado (New Japan, World Tag League 2020 x Best of the Super Junior 27 &#8211; Night Seventeen, December 11, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back for a fifth year &#8211; it&#8217;s our ever-growing list of Match of the Year contenders. If it&#8217;s on here, you probably ought to make time to hunt it down! All of these matches either got ****\u00bc and above in our reviews, our would have (if we reviewed it, for shows we don&#8217;t fully<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18313","page","type-page","status-publish"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P73vbt-4Ln","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18313"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22264,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18313\/revisions\/22264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}