Two weeks in 2025 and Gabe Kidd of New Japan Pro Wrestling has had the best match of the week in both weeks. In the opener of Sunday's Battle in the Valley Show, the New Japan Strong Openweight champion defended his title in a 30 minute draw against Tomohiro Ishii. It was a hard hitting match where both guys threw chops that had to be in the triple digits amongst other hard hitting moves. It was a tough match to follow but it ended up as a pretty good show with three other matches from it on my top 10 list.
It was another really good week overall as a 4* match was required to make the top 10 and one match at that level didn't even do it. RAW had it's debut on Netflix in the US as well as on that platform with it's other two major shows internationally. The Netflix debut also had two great matches even if the show did receive mixed reviews for content, if not for presentation.
In all I watched 66 matches during the week of January 6-12, including a few shows that took place prior to January 6th. These included the following shows: WWE RAW, WWE NXT, AEW Dynamite, Women of Wrestling (aired Jan 4), TNA Impact, ROH on Honor Club, WWE Smackdown, OVW Rise, AEW Collision, NJPW Battle in the Valley, IWS Bloodstream (aired Jan 3) and wXw 24th Anniversary show (aired Dec 21).
The following are my top 10 matches of the week. At the start of each entry is my personal star rating with the Cagematch score and Dave Meltzer Star rating (where available) at the end.
1. 4.75* Gabe Kidd retained his NJPW Strong Openweight title in a 30 minute draw with Tomohiro Ishii at NJPW Battle in the Valley on January 11. 7.57/10 on Cagematch.
2. 4.75* Zack Sabre Jr beat Hechicero at NJPW Battle in the Valley. 8.41/10 on Cagematch.
3. 4.5* CM Punk beat Seth Rollins at WWE RAW on January 6. 7.37/10 on Cagematch; 4.25* from Dave Meltzer.
4. 4.5* El Desperado retained his IWGP Junior Heavyweight title over Taiji Ishimori at NJPW Battle in the Valley. 7.33/10 on Cagematch.
5. 4.25* Will Ospreay beat Buddy Matthews at AEW Dynamite on January 8. 7.87/10 on Cagematch; 4.5* from Dave Meltzer.
6. 4* Giulia won the NXT Women's Championship from Roxanne Perez at WWE NXT on January 7. 7.60/10 on Cagematch; 4* from Dave Meltzer.
7. 4* Konosuke Takeshita retained his Never Openweight title over Kushida at NJPW Battle in the Valley. 7.45/10 on Cagematch.
8. 4* Powerhouse Hobbs won a Casino Gauntlet match to earn a World title shot against Jon Moxley on AEW Dynamite. 6.74/10 on Cagematch; 3.5* from Dave Meltzer.
9. 4* Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta beat the Outrunners (Truth Magnum/Turbo Floyd) at AEW Collision on January 11. 5.51/10 on Cagematch.
10. 4* Roman Reigns beat Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match to become the Tribal Chief at WWE RAW. 5.90/10 on Cagematch; 4.25* from Dave Meltzer
Also receiving 4* but just missing the top 10 was:
Bayley won a 4 way match over Nia Jax, Naomi and Bianca Belair to earn a WWE Women's Championship match against Tiffany Stratton at WWE Smackdown on January 10. 7.10/10 on Cagematch.
