Match Of The Month (June)

It's clear that these past few months of the year have been outstanding in physical activity and storytelling that would be compelling and enthralling.  June was definitely no different.  AEW presented the stellar Forbidden Door PPV with New Japan for lots of critical acclaim, plus WWE delivered a great Money In the Bank PLE that produced one HELL of an MITB Women's match.  Other matches that were featured on the likes of Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite, Collision, CMLL Super Viernes, and others made for quite the entertaining and engaging viewing for wrestling.  Our Match Of the Month for June was clear and away the best match, not just for the month, but quite possibly an all-timer.  Does June have the win for the best month of highly heralded matches? We will see.  Right now, let's give it up for our MOTM and its Runner-Up. 

Match Of The Month

Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland

AEW World Championship

AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

It should come as no surprise that the main event of AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door would take this slot as June's Match Of The Month.  AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland, defended the title against then-reigning AEW International Champion, Will Ospreay, in a very highly anticipated match that met every expectation, and even exceeded them in some regards.  Ospreay is arguably the best in-ring performer in the world today, as any match he is in, he delivers show stealing performances and all-time levels of greatness.  Evidence of search a claim can be seen with matches against the likes of Okada, Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, and, of course, his legendary encounter against Danielson.  Meanwhile, Strickland is enjoying the run of his career.  After his mediocre stint in WWE/NXT, once TK got a hold of him, this allowed him to fully reach and realize his potential.  A former AEW Tag Team Champion with Keith Lee, everyone knew Swerve had "IT", and expectations were finally met when he became the first Black AEW World Champion back at the same event Ospreay and Danielson collided in AEW Dynasty.  It was only a matter of time before these two world-class performers had their date, and this was every bit the incredible match we knew it would be.  After an intense build for the match, in which Swerve quickly got into his challenger's mind by crossing some lines, the match was set to be a heated and personal affair.  After what already been a tense and physical build up, the match was on and it was on very quickly.  The ever slick, yet smooth as silk (yet superbly tough) style of Swerve brought it to yet another level matching Ospreay and his aerial expertise and magnificent offensive display.  It was clear throughout this match that Swerve had something to prove here. An already fantastic competitor, Swerve had to silence critics and any doubters there were going into the match, and boy did he.  At one point, there was a spot in the match where Swerve did a Swerve Stomp on Ospreay on the broadcast table and nearly took Ospreay out from it.  Mr. "Billie GOAT" was not at all without his impressive and scintillating offense, as he countered Swerve's attempt at piledriving Ospreay on top of the barricade by turning it into a Hurricanrana.  We would later see impressive feats of offense by Swerve by having him execute a version of Kurt Angle's Olympic Slam from the top rope, while Ospreay would match that with Ospreay hitting his dreaded Hidden Blade on Swerve after Swerve executed a reverse Hurricanrana on Ospreay.  As you could tell, this was simply a GLORIOUS matchup between two of the absolute best in-ring performers in the world.  Near the end, Don Callis would hand Ospreay a screwdriver for him to use against Swerve or even Swerve's manager, Prince Nana at ringside, and Ospreay couldn't put himself up to do such a thing (anymore).  His hesitation would ultimately cost him later, as he had a chance to put this away with his Tiger Driver '93 (which the same move he used against Omega at last year's Forbidden Door and on Danielson at Dynasty that made it seem like both guys' necks were broken seemingly), and didn't pull the trigger.  Evert the opportunist, Swerve would execute his House Call kick, which then set up for his finisher, Big Pressure, for the pinfall in one of the most exceptional matches one could ask for from either man.  We all knew, and clearly have seen, Ospreay is THAT performer, as he does five star matches in his sleep, but this was about Swerve's official coming out match. That match that not only proved his worth as World Champion, but that he could toe-to-toe hang right with "The Aerial Assassin", and he absolutely did, thus solidifying himself as THE top guy in AEW.  Afterwards, a heartbroken Ospreay would receive respect from Swerve, and one has to imagine this has to happen again somewhere down the line.

Runner-Up Match Of The Month

Hechicero vs. Zach Sabre Jr.

Two Out Of Three Falls

CMLL Sabados de Coliseo

We are going to go a different route for this one. While the prior match was filled with a lot of high flying, technical, finesse, and effective psychology that involved suspense and even emotion.  This match was the opposite, at least terms of emotional investment, but plenty of psychology in terms of competition of who was legitimately the better technical wrestler.  Two of the absolute best in the world in terms technical and scientific wrestling are Zach Sabre Jr and CMLL's Hechicero.  While the world is starting to know just who ZSJ is more and more on a notable level, a lot of people were relatively unknown to the former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, Hechicero.  These two met back in 2018 in PWG, in what was an excellent match at that time as well.  Six years later, ZSJ and Hechicero knew there was no love lost and decided to pick up where they left off, although at the time ZSJ picked up the win.  Those years apart only enhanced and greatly developed the two men's skills even more, and what resulted in this return match was one of the finest technical wrestling matches seen in many years (the Danielson/ZSJ matches notwithstanding) at CMLL's weekly Sabado de Coliseo event.  The match itself was under twenty minutes in length, but boy did they make the most of their time.  Back and forth holds, suplexes, stiff shots, and plenty of counters for the holds, these two were exhibiting master craftsmanship with their mat abilities.  The first fall was won by Hechicero, but ZSJ quickly countered that with his own win, but after some of the most grueling minutes you could imagine, Hechicero picked up the win in what was a phenomenal mat wrestling affair that showed some vital mechanics of how to keep people invested in a style that doesn't involve chairs, blood, weapons, tons of high flying, and other troupes typically seen in modern wrestling of today.  These two stellar mat workers will face off against each other one more time at the RevPro Anniversary Show in August, and one has to imagine what type of match that will be.  It will be quite the hurdle outdoing how unbelievable this match was, but it's very possible with these two human chess players.  ZSJ is modern wrestling's Billy Robinson in terms of pure mat wrestling supremacy and work ethic, but Hechicero should have more people mentioning him more within an elite technical wrestling class as well. Here's to hoping we see a lot more of this nearly twenty year Lucha veteran beyond Mexico, preferably the States.

Honorable Mentions

Orange Cassidy vs. Zach Sabre Jr./AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Mercedes Mone vs. Stephanie Vacquer/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Toni Storm vs. Mina Shirakawa/AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Hechicero vs. Zach Sabre Jr./CMLL Sabados de Coliseo

Kyle O' Reilly vs. Zach Sabre Jr./AEW Dynamite 6/26

Kiyomaya vs. Gabe Kidd/NOAH Grand Ship

Quite honestly, this was a hell of a month for tremendous wrestling. other matches from Stardom, CMLL, NOAH, and RevPro have been worth viewing and could really mess with the matches on this HM.  July had its work cut out for it, but will it be as excellent as June was? Time will tell.