May 2018 Awards: Race for Wrestler of The Year

Wrestler of the Month +10: Hiromu Takahashi, Hiromu earns this spot by having 4 amazing matches this month in Best Of The Super Juniors with almost every opponent he’s had. In a lackluster wrestling month everywhere else but Japan, Hiromu shines in May. Hiromu blasting through great matches with Dragon Lee, Marty Scurrl and Rysuke Taguchi and (spoiler alert) winning the Best Of The Super Juniors in June. 

Match of The Month +10: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling Dontaku, The only match getting a ***** rating from me this month. The two behemoth stars of NJPW colliding was as great as you could dream it to be. Okada played a great cocky heel in this match and Tanahashi played a great underdog selling the knee and getting actual tears from the fans in Japan. The match went back and forth for a near hour but it felt like it zoomed by. 

The Team of the Month +8: The Briscoes, before this month I thought these guys were overpushed and only good as characters. These hillbillies solidified themselves as a great tag team championship holder for ROH and this month helped me get on board for these guys to continue to be the “Best” Tag team in ROH. 

Feud of the Month +8: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, these dudes again. They deserve all the praise they are getting from Wrestling Journalists here. This feud has been one of New Japan’s most heated in the past decade providing multiple 5-stars. To make this more relatable to a non-NJPW fan, this is like if Randy Orton vs. John Cena was actually fantastic. The two main stars put it to the limit. This is also most likely, one of Tanahashi’s last big feuds and this made him look like an underdog face. These two rekindled their amazing feud. 

Most Improved +7: Dragon Lee, Lee has been on the verge of greatness for months and has finally achieved it by putting on some very fantastic matches. Especially, against Takahashi and SHO from Roppongi 3K. Dragon Lee got off to a hot start for the Best Of The Super Juniors. 

Women’s Wrestler Of The Month +8: Ruby Riott, she could’ve also been the Most Improved. Out of literally nowhere, Riott put on a great TV match with Sasha Banks and outperformed the entire RAW Women’s Roster in a Last Chance Gauntlet Match. 

Champions in May 2018: 

WWE: 

Universal: Brock Lesnar 427 Days+

WWE: AJ Styles 208 Days+ 

RAW Women’s: Nia Jax 56 Days+

SD Women’s: Carmella 54 Days+

Intercontinental: Seth Rollins 56 Days+

US: Jeff Hardy 48 Days+

Cruiserweight: Cedric Alexander 56 Days+

RAW Tag Team:  Matt and Bray 37 Days+

SD Tag Team: Bludgeon Brothers 56 Days+

UK: Pete Dunne 379 Days+

NXT: Aleister Black 57 Days+

NXT North American: Adam Cole 57+ Days

NXT Women’s: Shayna Baszler 57+ Days

NXT Tag: Undisputed ERA 186 Days+ 

ROH: 

World: Dalton Castle 170 Days+

TV: Silas Young 57 Days+

Tag Team: The Briscoes 86 Days+

Six-Man: So Cal Uncensored 61 Days, The Kingdom 25 Days+

WOH: Sumie Sakai 57 Days+

NJPW: 

IWGP Heavyweight: Kazuchika Okada 715 Days+

IWGP IC: Tetsuya Naito 36 Days+

IWGP US: Jay White 127 Days+

NEVER Openweight: Hirooki Goto 151 Days+

IWGP Tag: EVIL and Sanada 151 Days+

IWGP JR: Will Ospreay 151 Days+

IWGP JR Tag: Kanemaru and Desperado 90 Days+

NEVER 6-Man: The Tongans 118 Days, Young Bucks and Marty Scurrl 31 Days+

Over 4-Star Matches:

• Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kushida NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Day 1 ****
• Cody vs Kota Ibushi NJPW Wrestling Dontaku  Day 1 ****1/4
• Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Day 1 ****
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada IWGP Heavyweight Championship Wrestling Dontaku Day 2 *****
• The Miz vs. Seth Rollins IC Championship WWE BackLash ****1/2
• Flip Gordon vs. ACH NJPW Best of the Super Juniors ****1/4
• Taiji Ishimori vs. Will Ospreay NJPW Best of the Super Juniors ****
• Dragon Lee vs. SHO NJPW Best of the Super Juniors ****
• Hiromu Takahashi vs. Marty Scurrl NJPW Best of the Super Juniors ****1/4
• ACH vs. Will Ospreay NJPW Best of the Super Juniors ****
• SHO vs. Chris Sabin NJPW BOSJ ****
• Marty Scurrl vs. Kushida NJPW BOSJ ****1/4
• Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi NJPW BOSJ ****1/4
• Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi NJPW BOSJ ****3/4
• Dragon Lee vs. Chris Sabin NJPW BOSJ ****
• Hiromu Takashi vs. Rysuke Taguchi NJPW BOSJ ****1/4
• Buddy Murphy vs. Cedric Alexander Cruiserweight Championship 205 Live ****3/4

Current Leaderboard: New Leader: Kazuchika Okada

1. Kazuchika Okada 122 points
2. Kenny Omega 106 points
3. The Young Bucks 100 points
4. Will Ospreay 95 points
5. Kota Ibushi 89 points
6. Hiromu Takahashi 80 points
7. Zack Sabre Jr. 77 points
8. Johnny Gargano 72 points
9. Hiroshi Tanahashi -Marty Scurrl 53 points
10. Hangman Page 51 points
11. Andrade Almas -AJ Styles -Dalton Castle -Seth Rollins 50 points
12. Cody Rhodes 47 points
13. Adam Cole 44 points
14. Sanada -Jay White 41 points
15. Tomasso Ciampa 38 points
16. Minoru Suzuki -Brock Lesnar -Cedric Alexander 35 points
17. Roderick Strong 34 points
18. The Miz -Kushida 30 points
19. Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly 28 points
20. Alexa Bliss -So Cal Uncensored -Pete Dunne -Hirooki Goto -Evil -Flip Gordon -Tetsuya Naito -The Briscoes 25 points
21. Dragon Lee 23 points
22. Shinsuke Nakamura 22 points
23. Ronda Rousey -Jonathan Gresham -Jay Lethal -Killian Dain -Kalisto -Finn Balor -Aleister Black -SHO 20 points
24. Matt Taven 18 points
25. Charlotte -Chris Sabin 17 points
26. Chris Jericho -Asuka -Usos -John Cena -Tomohiro Ishii -The Bar -Mustafa Ali -Braun Strowman -Ember Moon -The Tongans -Buddy Murphy -Jeff Hardy -Desperado -Silas Young 15 points
27. Nia Jax 13 points
28. YOH -Bobby Roode -Sanity -Drew Gulak -Kenny King -Juice Robinson -Michael Elgin -Dave Finlay -Velveteen Dream -Ricochet -Lars Sullivan -EC3 -The Kingdom -Taiji Ishimori -Yoshinobu Kanemaru -Bludgeon Brothers -ACH 10 points
29. Becky Lynch -Ruby Riott 8 points
30. Carmella -Matt and Bray -Sumie Sakai 7 points
31. Alex Shelley 6 points
32. Jack Gallagher -New Day -Hideo Itami -Chase Owens -Beer City Bruiser -Trent Baretta -Sasha Banks -Shane Taylor -Togi Makabe -Yoshi-Hashi -Punishment Martinez – Dolph Ziggler -Kevin Owens -Sami Zayn -Baron Corbin -TJP -Akira Tozawa -Kurt Angle -HHH -Rysuke Taguchi 5 points
33. Mandy Leon -Tenille Dashwood -Peyton Royce -Gallows and Anderson -Lana 4 points