Over 2025 we’ve managed to rack up about 50 reviews, covering the vast majority of Scottish wrestling promotions plus some extras along the way. Recently I was asked what I thought the top 10 matches in 2025 were and after some brief deliberation on the events I have watched either live or streamed here are the 10 best matches that immediately came to mind.

This is in no particular order and I’ve almost certainly missed one or two from what I’ve seen in 2025, but these are the ones that were hard to replace.

Photo Credit Jos Rodriguez

WOLFGANG VS HUNTER SAMSON
PWR PRO ‘TRUTH OR DARE 3’

A fantastic match. It really drove home that experience edge that Wolfgang came in with and the resilience and resolve that Hunter Samson had. After the initial deflation of the Truth envelope being opened, it didn’t take long for crowd to get fully invested in the action. The love showed by the PWR PRO audience, and respect shown by Wolfgang after the match has surely fired Hunter on a one way trip to heavyweight title contention, which will conveniently put him back in the ring with Tommy Kartel, and this time a little wiser.

In Wolfgang’s first match in Scotland since being released from WWE, he was paired up with PWR PRO’s behemoth Hunter Samson who shone despite defeat. A heavyweight clash of the titans. I loved the vulnerability and tenacity that Hunter Samson was able to convey, especially when you consider that most of his opponents were of a smaller stature in comparison. Although he and Wolfgang didn’t physically meet eye to eye, Wolfie made that height disadvantage up with that experience to manipulate the raw power of Samson into riskier positions to chop down the big man which was brilliant to watch.

ALTON THORNE VS JACK BENNETT
BLEEDING GUMS WRESTLING ‘LUST FOR DEATH TOURNAMENT 2’

A dramatic showing of brutality but every moment made sense for what was to come further into the match. Alton Thorne was determined the needles wouldn’t come into play but when they did he went into manic kill mode because if Jack managed to get him again there was a potential that his reign as the UK Deathmatch Champion was in danger. Bennett showed all the fight and guts to survive and didn’t give up which showed his fighting spirit which made the crowd fully back him against Alton.

…

Jack Bennett, while he looks unassuming on the surface he willingly throws his body in harm’s way. Even he showed fear when the needles were in play, biting on his wrist tape to quell the screams when they were being punctured into his back, it made the needles become this game changer weapon where whomever has them holds all the cards. There was a great story told that you felt even if some of those feelings were lightheadedness on more than one occasion.

In a sea of deathmatches that took place at Bleeding Gums Wrestling’s second Lust For Death Tournament, one match really stood out. Alton Thorne had been on a tear through Bleeding Gums Wrestling once he got a hold of the BGW UK Deathmatch Championship but that sliver of fear over needles was the basis of a well told story of brutality.

Full match available on IWTV.

RONAN KING VS THE BIG STRONG MAN
ATTITUDE PRO WRESTLING ‘RUGGY SLAM’

Talk about a drama filled main event. Ronan King is an incredible bastard with no shades of grey, a ruthless arsehole who can effortlessly be an arrogant prick. It can anger the most stoic of individual, but he also had this amazing ability to emote to the back of the room without it becoming cartoonish. The goodwill that The Big Strong Man has built in Attitude Pro Wrestling made it all the more intense. The final stretch of kickouts kept ramping up the crowd reaction to peak for the three at the right time.

A well put together match that hit all the beats nicely for an epic main event to Ruggy Slam. Ronan King came out of the match as a stone cold killer.

Talk about using all that emotions to bring a hot drama filled main event for Attitude Pro Wrestling, Ronan King embodied pure evil while the work that The Big Strong Man to be a beloved APW Scottish Men’s Champion all moulded together to go to the extremes of hatred and sympathy for both men.

An outstanding feat.

TOMMY KARTEL VS SBX VS LOST BOY ASPEN VS PRINCE LEVI VS UMAR MOHAMMED
WRESTLEMO-NIA!

Full review very soon.

WrestleMo-nia! was a very special event, raising money for charity whilst also putting on first time match ups that could’ve stole any other show. That main event though was madness, five top quality professional wrestlers going all out to put on an incredible main event. 2025 had been good to all five but perhaps none more so than Umar Mohammed who received an electric response upon entering and with every roadblock that came his way throughout the match the support just got louder and rowdier. It was sensational.

THE OUTFIT VS CASINO BRUTALE VS THE FOUNDATION OF THE FUTURE VS THE INFLUENCE
WRESTLEZONE ‘ABERDEEN ANARCHY’

Near 20 minutes of balls to the wall action, the team that walked in with the numbers against them defied the odds. The Influence decided that there was no tomorrow with the insane trauma to their bodies. It was up there as one of the best openers not just in Aberdeen Anarchy history but in WrestleZone, certainly from what I have attended and seen in my dozen years heading over to the Granite City.

The first match on the main Aberdeen Anarchy show and it was pure madness from start to finish reminiscing of original tag team ladder match spectaculars between The Hardy Boyz, Edge & Christian, and The Dudleyz. The action didn’t let up and the unpredictable nature of the outcome made it nail biting from start to finish.

TEAM VALOR VS THE NEW AGE KLIQ
VALOR ‘RED DEAD WRESTLING III: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE’

Closing the night with an insane clash with a star studded line up that made for total bedlam was worth the price of admission alone. I’ve talked about matches representing VALOR and for anyone that was new in the door, THIS was the match that gave a splice of what VALOR provides. We got the hard hitting in-ring content, we got the pandemonium outside the ring and on the streets, blood was shed, sweat exploded off the bodies, tears from the pain bubbled to the surface. VALOR delivered a memorable night to kick off their TV era in style.

“Pandemonium” was the word I used which sums it up. The match spilled onto the streets, eliminations via Uber, blood, violence, twists, and turns. It was absolutely unadulterated VALOR.

KENNY WILLIAMS VS RHIO
INSANE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING ‘FEAR & LOATHING XVII’

What a main event. It was pointed out by Ryan Fitzsimons on commentary but everything that Kenny brought in to the match ultimately brought him the most pain and lead to him leaving The Garage empty handed. No title, and also no back up with hawners from Colton Davis, KOE, or Red Lightning being non-existent, he was all alone.

The aura that Rhio possesses is incredible in both showing that exhaustion as the minutes past and the blood flowed, but her power to keep a hand in the match to find that opening was some masterful story telling. It was a match that delivered immensely in the main event.

An excellent main event for this new generation of insanity. It didn’t descend into pure barbarism but escalated the desperation of the challenger only to have all his traps come back to haunt him. My eyes were glued to every moment.

JUDAS GREY VS IAN SKINNER
DISCOVERY WRESTLING ‘YEAR 10’

I tried to avoid writing this move for move but my god, this was incredible. Every move mattered, the call backs not only from past matches between the two but from the coming out of Judas Grey back in October, the buzzword around the interweb is “cinema” right now and this was that with the way it was built to make both have that split second will they moment. Two absolute superstars. The crowd were invested in every moment, for every spill, near fall, twist, and turn. Ian Skinner, a rabid dog in attack showing what Disco may have missed with his time in Edinburgh being stop-start but proving why he is a can’t miss talent in UK wrestling.

For Judas Grey, his years in the ring may be shorter than most but he has all the tools to be a megastar, the aura he has, cool, measured but at the same time wild and reckless, there’s a reason why so many tell me when doing the podcast that Judas Grey is a guy they want to wrestle and it is because of matches like this.

There’s not a lot more I can add to the above. A beautiful conclusion to this feud.

LOST BOY ASPEN VS CONNOR MOLLOY
WRESTLEZONE ‘LIVE IN INVERURIE’

What a match. The escalation throughout with each trying to put a combination of moves together to keep the other down was fantastic. The ending of the superkick not landing flush, which ultimately had Aspen have the wherewithal to grab Connor to almost catch Molloy off guard and go through move after move to make sure that it would keep his opponent down.

The crowd were invested for every big impact, of which there were many, with both giving as good as they got. The level these two are at since their first one on one match nearly two years ago is immeasurable, then it was Connor being the underdog and Aspen as Undisputed WrestleZone Champion and not really taking his opponent all that seriously, two years on and Aspen had to go overkill when he found the moment just to make sure Molloy would stay down for the count.

It was great to see Connor have a match to shine, when it’s The Influence he has to share the stage with two other excellent wrestlers and at times it feels like he could be the third wheel to Vanity, but matches like this reminds you how damn great Connor Molloy is. There was a buzz felt during and after the match as it went to interval.

This was the wake up match, and show, that I personally needed. A match that had no real stakes or story but the match was hard hitting with Connor showing a lot of stubborn grit against a someone of the calibre of a Lost Boy Aspen. A perfect bout to really pull me out of a funk.

IAN SKINNER VS LIO RUSH
DISCOVERY WRESTLING ‘HALLOWEEN DISCO’

Pure art. The match itself was all about survival because they were presented as being so evenly matched it just took a string of three/four moves to finally keep someone down long enough for a three count. I want to talk about the aesthetic of the match for a second though, and I will 100% be reading way too much into it as I tend to do, but the little thing of Lio Rush having some yellow scratch flair on his gear was a nice touch. Ian Skinner had black trunks with yellow stripes and a yellow inverted triangle which I couldn’t shake off as not being a purposeful choice, not only the colours representing the Discovery Wrestling branding but the triangle was like the top half of an hourglass, and it was full. Like he had all the time in the world to face The Man of the Hour.

This was 20 minutes or so of high quality war, and that’s possibly the most apt word for it. The beauty with Ian Skinner matches is that he seems to have a never ending spirit to compete and adapting to what is put in front of him. I love seeing opponents try to lock in holds on Ian because there’s always a scuffle, you have to work to make him even be in a situation to submit. Lio Rush was more than game to not only match that but take it to another level.

Possibly the best match I’ve seen this year and on the ‘Halloween Disco’ show alone there were plenty of contenders. It felt like watching two artists who instantly clicked into a rhythm to create a masterpiece.

FIVE HONOURABLE MENTIONS

  • Aaron Echo vs Thomas Latimer – Insane Championship Wrestling ‘The 13th Annual Square Go!’
  • SKOL BROL vs The Disco Fry – Discovery Wrestling ‘Halloween Disco’
  • Judas Grey vs Gene Munny – Discovery Wrestling ‘Halloween Disco’
  • Hunter Samson vs Andy Roberts – WrestleMo-nia!
  • Myla Grace vs Daisy Jenkins – Discovery Wrestling ‘Disco Derby’