We are in the final part of this list and it only took 2 months longer than I had hoped. Next year I will start my lists nice and early. Every wrestler on this list had a superb year, and established themselves as a major player in wrestling.
30. Tyler Bate
While Bate had what might be considered a less eye-catching year than he did in 2017, he remained a high-level performer throughout 2018, putting on a number of great matches. His PROGRESS Title match against WALTER in the main event of their Wembley show was probably the best of his singles matches all year.
29. KUSHIDA
KUSHIDA may not have had one of his best years, but even then he is leaps and bounds above where most wrestlers are. He had a couple of outstanding matches during 2018, most notably against Will Ospreay and as part of the 4-way Jr heavyweight title match at Wrestle Kingdom. It will be interesting to see how he does in WWE in 2019.
28. Hangman Page
Page has a little bit of Barry Windham about him, albeit in a truly modern wrestling package. Very few wrestlers did as much to raise their stock in the wrestling world during 2018. Whether he was putting on bangers against Kota Ibushi or insane matches against Joey Janela, Page was a joy to behold during 2018.
27. Adam Cole
Adam Cole carries himself like a star. Because he is. Throughout 2018 he was one of the most entertaining parts of NXT, WWE's most entertaining show. He put on a number of wonderful matches during the course of the year, with highlights being against Aleister Black, Ricochet, and the North American Title ladder match.
26. Mustafa Ali
It speaks to the unpredictable nature of 2018 that I may actually be putting Mustafa Ali too low on this list. Before he entered the CWC I had no idea who he was and now he is one of the best wrestlers on the WWE roster. He was consistently great on 205 Live, and immediately became an important upper-card wrestler on Smackdown when he got called up. I'm interested to see how good he could be.
25. Kento Miyahara
For me, Miyahara is the best wrestler in All Japan. When he is put in a high profile match, he almost always delivers big time. In 2018 this was most evident in his pair of classics against Zeus and his two bangers with Naomichi Marufuji, though he also put in top-notch performances against the likes of Jake Lee and Kengo Mashimo.
24. Pentagon Jr
Whether he goes by Pentagon Jr, Pentagon Dark or Penta El Zero M, one thing remains constant, Pentagon is a superb wrestler. 2018 saw him continue to travel all over the wrestling world, picking up titles and putting on a bunch of great matches. His highest profile match was probably against Kenny Omega at All In but he can put on great matches with most people, both in singles and tag wrestling.
23. Ilja Dragunov
2018 was a big step forward for Dragunov in terms of getting himself over on a worldwide stage. In his home promotion of wXw he put on some fantastic matches with WALTER, including a genuine classic that also involved John Klinger. He also made his debut in America and worked more extensively on the UK scene. He is one of the most intense wrestlers in the world and puts on consistently wonderful performances.
22. Katsuhiko Nakajima
I don't watch a massive amount of Pro Wrestling NOAH but I can say definitively that when I do, Nakajima is the star of the show. Leaps and bounds above almost everyone else in the ring, and with a natural penchant for playing the dickhead, his matches are consistently the best thing about whatever show they are on. Check out his GHC Title match against Takashi Sugiura to see that in action.
21. The Miz
Is the Miz the best wrestler on the WWE roster? No, but he has got pretty damn good during his time in the company. What sets him apart though, is his near-peerless skills on the microphone. He didn't even have that many standout matches in 2018 but he made me care about all of it. He is nearly guaranteed to drop heavily in the 2019 version of this list, though.
20. Aleister Black
Black has all of the ingredients. His look is great, his wrestling skills are top notch, and his gimmick fits him perfectly. It remains to be seen how he will do when he is required to cut full promos but that isn't an issue at this stage. His matches with Andrade Almas, Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano were all outstanding.
19. AJ Styles
There was a point in 2018 when I was convinced that Styles would struggle to make the top 40 of this list. His feuds with Owens and Nakamura weren't at the level we would expect from Styles but he had a great second half of the year, feuding with Rusev, Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan. Even at 41 years old, Styles remains one of the best in-ring competitors in all of wrestling.
18. Jordan Devlin
Devlin spent the first few years of his career being overshadowed by fellow Irishman Finn Balor but in 2018 Devlin established that not only was he his own man but that he was arguably better than Balor at this stage of his career. His home promotion of OTT saw a large number of his best matches, particularly his spectacular match with WALTER. He also had superb matches against Will Ospreay and Pete Dunne. He is an incredible wrestler.
17. Rey Fenix
Much like his tag partner Pentagon, Fenix travelled all over the world putting on spectacular performances. He was involved in the main event of All In and also had a series of excellent matches in PWG, Impact, Lucha Underground and CMLL. The best of all came on a Northeast Wrestling show though, where he put on a truly memorable match with Kenny Omega.
16. Seth Rollins
Rollins was a hard one to place on this list as he was clearly holding Raw together for a large portion of the year but he didn't really have a lot of excellent matches, especially when compared to wrestlers in NXT or New Japan. He did put in a few superb performances during 2018 though, most notably his hour-long performance in the gauntlet match on Raw.
15. Tetsuya Naito
I may well be severely underrating Naito here, as looking back on his match output for 2018 shows that he put on a ton of great matches. His matches with Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Zack Sabre Jr were outstanding, but I feel like he didn't really have a consistent level of booking to help him get higher in the list.
14. Bandido
Bandido is one of the most spectacular young wrestlers that I have seen in quite some time. The things he does in the ring shouldn't really be able to be done by anyone and he is someone that you should check out immediately if you haven't already. In the entirety of 2018, I didn't see a single one of his matches that was anything less than very good. Near limitless potential here.
13. Ricochet
Ricochet started the year by dropping the PWG Title to Chuck Taylor in a very good match before being signed by WWE and debuting on NXT. His first match was the spectacular North American Title ladder match and he didn't look back at all. He had superb matches against Velveteen Dream, Adam Cole, and Pete Dunne and is consistently jaw-dropping every time he goes out there.
12. Pete Dunne
Dunne drops out of the top 5 this year, not because he has gotten any worse, but because he spent a portion of the year doing a goodbye to the indies tour with British Strong Style, which while not bad was a bit samey. He still has the highest average match quality of anybody in WWE history though, with every match he had under that umbrella being great to wonderful.
11. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tanahashi has been pushed up this list by peppering his year with a bunch of legitimate modern classics against Okada, Sabre Jr and Ibushi, as well as a stunning tag match to finish off the year. He also won the G1 Climax as part of a great feel good story. Tanahashi remains one of the most reliable big match performers in all of the wrestling world.
10. Buddy Murphy
Who the hell would have thought that Buddy Murphy would be in the top 10 of this list a year ago? He has been the most consistent performer on any of WWE's shows that aren't NXT. Every single time he goes out there he puts on a great performance and it has resulted in a ton of highly enjoyable TV matches some of which were among the year's best. There may be nobody that has done more to raise their stock in 2018.
9. Kota Ibushi
Ibushi is one of the most spectacular wrestlers of this, or any, generation and he is capable of putting on great matches with anybody. His 2018 started with him carrying Cody to his best singles match ever and finished with the spectacular Golden Lovers vs Tanahashi/Ospreay match. In between that he had incredible matches with Ishii, Omega, Tanahashi, Naito and the Young Bucks. Most years would have seen him rank higher on a list like this.
8. Tomohiro Ishii
Big Tom Ishii remains one of the most thoroughly enjoyable wrestlers to watch anywhere in wrestling. His no-nonsense, double hard bastard style is just wonderful and he is always someone who puts on some of the best matches year on year. His matches against Omega and Ibushi in the G1 were the highlight of these but he also had a great series of matches with Sabre Jr and Suzuki and had a number of great matches in the UK.
7. Zack Sabre Jr
Quite a few New Japan wrestlers are somewhat isolated in where they wrestle, ZSJ is not one of those people. He put on superb matches in NJPW, wXw, PROGRESS, RevPro, Evolve, PWG, and even had a Dave Meltzer 5-star match in White Wolf Wrestling in Spain. He improves every show that he is on and always ends the year with some of the most memorable matches, due to having a style that meshes well with almost anyone.
6. Kazuchika Okada
A small drop in position for Okada this year was probably inevitable, as he spent the entirety of the previous year in possession of the IWGP Title. That doesn't mean that his quality has notably dipped though, as he still puts on classic matches for fun. His title loss to Omega will go down as one of this generation's most important matches when all is said and done, but his post title loss lull stopped him from being even higher.
5. Johnny Gargano
The run of Takeover matches that Gargano had during 2018 is was unprecedented in terms of match quality. In fact, I would say that nobody in wrestling is more consistent at delivering on the big stage. His NXT Title match against Andrade was the best in the title's history and he went straight into the brand's best trilogy of matches against Tommaso Ciampa, and ended the year with a belter against Aleister Black. Gargano is superb.
4. Tommaso Ciampa
Ciampa may have had a slightly lower quality in-ring year than Gargano, though it's splitting hairs really, what he does have is the fact that he is a perfect heel. He is a complete bastard and it is utterly magnificent. All of his NXT Title matches were gripping affairs and that is down to how well Ciampa can make you care about seeing him lose. A brilliant wrestler that is an even better character.
3. Will Ospreay
I know there are people out there that don't like Ospreay's work, with the most common complaint being that he either can't sell or that he doesn't implement psychology into his matches, but both of those arguments don't hold much water anymore. He had 12 matches in my best matches of 2018 list, only beaten by one wrestler, and much like Sabre Jr, he had them in a bunch of different places. He had tremendous matches with KUSHIDA, Marty Scurll and the Golden Lovers in New Japan, WALTER and Matt Riddle in OTT, and Jordan Devlin in PROGRESS. Simply put, he is one of the best wrestlers in the world.
2. Kenny Omega
Last year's number one drops one place this year. Omega finally got his hands on the IWGP Title in a classic match that I have talked about ad nauseam, but that was just one part of his fantastic 2018. His matches with Jericho, Ishii, Ibushi, Naito, Goto, Fenix and Penta were all standout encounters, with some of them being some of the best matches that have taken place in the last few years. He had a great year in the tag ranks too, with the Golden Lovers putting on a string of great matches, including a few genuine tag classics. 2019 will bring a new set of challenges for Omega so it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
1. WALTER
From February onwards, there was only one choice for who would top this list. From the second the first note of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (4th Movement) hits, you know that shit is about to get real. He may not have the massive array of moves that other wrestlers have, but those that he does have look fucking brutal. WALTER has turned the chop into a legitimate super move, the crowd wait in expectation for him to perform it. It's beautiful. Nobody had the consistent level of quality in their matches throughout 2018 that WALTER did, especially considering the wide variety of opponents that he faced. His match with Timothy Thatcher in PROGRESS was a masterpiece of violence, his match with Will Ospreay in OTT was a wonderful David vs Goliath match, and his OTT Title match against Jordan Devlin had one of the most well-done storylines in the last few years. It delivered big time in the ring too. In addition to that, he had a series of superb matches with longtime rivals Zack Sabre Jr, Ilja Dragunov and David Starr, and had even more brilliant encounters with Tyler Bate and PCO, the latter being one of 2018's most absurd yet wonderful encounters. All of this and I haven't even mentioned the fact that he had a number of excellent tag matches as part of Ringkampf. It is safe to say that WALTER was an easy choice for me to top this list.
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