Wrestler of the Month +10: Hiroshi Tanahashi, The NJPW legend picks up more accolades this year as he wins the G1 Climax. The G1 is the most prestigious wrestling tournament every year and the winner is always presented as an almost unbeatable threat. Tanahashi had an amazing finals match against Kota Ibushi and a great time-limit draw with Kazuchika Okada. The legend continues to be on a tear this year and as he gets closer to his title shot at Wrestle Kingdom it will be interesting to see what else he has in store. X
Women’s Wrestler of the Month +8: Kairi Sane, Sane had an amazing match against Shayna Baszler at Takeover which is one of my favorites Women’s Matches of all time. Sane played an amazing underdog babyface in that match and pulled out the victory she deserved. Sane showed her talent incredibly well this month and it will be great to see how she does as champion.
Most Improved +7: Roman Reigns, WWE finally did it. They finally got me to like Roman Reigns. It might’ve been the fact that he was lesser of two evils against Brock Lesnar but I really think he delivered a good performance this month. He started it with some great character work in his feud against Lesnar, he won the title in a very mediocre match and is currently having another captivating feud with Strowman. I still don’t get why people hate Roman so much but I guess he is the Big Dog and has been shoved down our throats for a while. Hopefully, smarks can begin to realize that Reigns in NOT THAT BAD. X
The team of the Month +8: Undisputed ERA, this is the 3rd time that ERA has won team of the month. The ERA has an amazing character in their cocky heel personas and follows it up with amazing matches including this month’s absolute banger against Mustache Mountain. They always do a great job of mixing high spots and technical wrestling and Roddy and Kyle work so well together. As of right now, ERA might cross over The Young Bucks soon for the team of the year. Next Month is War Games and they will definitely pick up some points then. X
Match of the Month +10: Tomasso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano NXT Title Last Man Standing Takeover Brooklyn 4, these guys did it again. I still can’t decide which is my favorite match of their 3 Takeover encounters. This match was BRUTAL and had some amazing spots including the ending with Gargano taking himself out of the match in order to hurt Ciampa and the back-to-back Table spot. This match also had the added dimension of Gargano getting aggressive and becoming an anti-hero instead of a super-face. This is my favorite Last Man Standing match of all time and I thought they used the stipulation to make an amazing match that sets itself out as unique from their other matches. XX
Champions at the End of the Month:
WWE:
- Universal +7: Roman Reigns 12+ Days
- Raw Women’s +3: Ronda Rousey 12+ Days
- IC +5: Seth Rollins 12+ Days
- Cruiserweight +4: Cedric Alexander 145+ Days
- Raw Tag +3: B-Team 47+ Days
- WWE +7: AJ Styles 297+ Days
- SD Women’s +3: Charlotte 12+ Days
- US +5: Shinsuke Nakamura 47+ Days
- SD Tag+3: The New Day 10+ Days
- NXT +5: Tomasso Ciampa 44+ Days
- NXT NA +3: Ricochet 13+ Days
- NXT Women’s +3: Kairi Sane 13+ Days
- NXT Tag +3: Undisputed ERA 71+ Days
- UK +5: Pete Dunne 468+ Days
- UK Women’s Rhea Ripley 5+ Days
NJPW:
- IWGP HVY +7: Kenny Omega 81+ Days
- IWGP IC +5: Chris Jericho 81+ Days
- IWGP US +5: Juice Robinson 53+ Days
- NEVER Openweight +5: Hirooki Goto 73+ Days
- IWGP Tag +5: The Young Bucks 81+ Days
- IWGP JR Tag +3: Suzuki Gun 176+ Days
- NEVER 6-man: Firing Squad 17+ Days
ROH:
- World +7: Jay Lethal 60+ Days
- TV +5: Punishment Martinez 74+ Days
- Tag +3: Briscoes 173+ Days
- WOH +3: Sumie Sakai 144+ Days
- 6-Man +3: Young Bucks and Cody 38+ Days
Over 4-Star Matches: (5 Points for a 4-star Match, 10 Points for a 5-star)
- New Day vs. The Bar SD Tag Tournament SD Live ****
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Michael Elgin G1 Climax NJPW ****
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil NJPW G1 Climax ****
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi NJPW G1 Climax Final *****
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki G1 Climax ****
- Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz WWE Summerslam ****1/4
- Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins IC Title Summerslam ****1/4
- Tomasso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano NXT Title Last Man Standing Takeover Brooklyn *****
- Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler NXT Women’s Title Takeover Brooklyn ****1/2
- Ricochet vs. Adam Cole NXT North American Title Takeover Brooklyn ****1/4
- Undisputed ERA vs. Mustache Mountain NXT Tag Titles Takeover Brooklyn ****3/4
- Kenny Omega vs. Zack Sabre Jr NJPW G1 Climax ****
- Kota Ibushi vs. Hirooki Goto NJPW G1 Climax ****
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega NJPW G1 Climax ****3/4
- Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito NJPW G1 Climax ****1/4
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Juice Robinson NJPW G1 Climax ****
- Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega NJPW G1 Climax *****
- ZSJ vs. Tetsuya Naito G1 Climax ****1/4
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Sanada G1 Climax ****1/2
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi G1 Climax ****3/4
- Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins IC Title RAW ****1/4
August Leaderboard:
Leader: Kenny Omega
- Kenny Omega 192 Points
- Kazuchika Okada 164 Points
- Young Bucks: 142 Points
- Kota Ibushi: 134 Points
- Hiromu Takahashi: 127 Points
- Johnny Gargano: 116 Points
- Will Ospreay: 105 Points
- Zack Sabre Jr -Undisputed ERA -Hiroshi Tanahashi: 102 Points
- Tomasso Ciampa: 97 Points
- AJ Styles: 81 Points
- Seth Rollins: 75 Points
- Adam Cole -Sanada: 66 Points
- Marty Scurrl: 64 Points
- Hirooki Goto -Tomohiro Ishii: 60 Points
- Alexa Bliss -Cody: 58 Points
- Hangman Page: 56 Points
- Jay White -Tetsuya Naito: 55 Points
- Andrade Almas -Dalton Castle -Cedric Alexander -Mustache Mountain: 50 Points
- Brock Lesnar: 49 Points
- Minoru Suzuki -Evil: 45 Points
- Pete Dunne: 43 Points
- Juice Robinson: 42 Points
- The Briscoes: 41 Points
- The Miz -Jay Lethal -Kushida: 40 Points
- Shinsuke Nakamura: 37 Points
- Flip Gordon -Aleister Black -El Desperado -Michael Elgin -Chris Jericho: 35 Points
- Dragon Lee: 32 Points
- Braun Strowman -Zack Gibson -Finn Balor -Ricochet: 30 Points
- So Cal Uncensored -Charlotte -Dolph Ziggler -Roman Reigns: 25 Points
- Matt Taven -Ronda Rousey -Taiji Ishimori: 23 Points
- Jonathan Gresham -Killian Dain -Kalisto -Ember Moon -Jeff Hardy -Velveteen Dream -Mustafa Ali -Buddy Murphy -Becky Lynch -Kanemaru -The Bar: 20 Points
- Burch and Lorcan -Chris Sabin -Bludgeon Brothers -Firing Squad -Sumie Sakai -Shayna Baszler -Punishment Martinez -Kairi Sane: 17 Points
- Asuka -Usos -John Cena -Silas Young -Roppongi 3K -Bobby Roode -EC3 -Kevin Owens: 15 Points
- Nia Jax -The Kingdom -New Day: 13 Points
- Sanity -Drew Gulak -Kenny King -Dave Finlay -Lars Sullivan -Bray Wyatt -ACH -Jack Gallagher -Sasha Banks -Yoshi-HASHI -Rusev: 10 Points
- Hideo Itami -Chase Owens -Beer City Bruiser -Trent Baretta -Shane Taylor -Togi Makabe -Sami Zayn -Baron Corbin -TJP -Akira Tozawa -Kurt Angle -HHH -Rysuke Taguchi -Samoa Joe -Travis Banks -Naomi -Elias -Drew Macintyre -Daniel Bryan
- Rhea Ripley: 3 Points
Wrestle Grade 