With the first half of 2025 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to reflect on professional wrestling’s greatest triumphs over the past six months.
We’ve already examined the 20 best matches and the 10 best wrestlers. Now, it’s time for the superlatives. The 2025 Mid-Year Wrestling Awards.
Like our list of the 10 best wrestlers, please bear in mind a few things:
- This list is all-encompassing, so the obvious language barrier makes a wrestler’s ability on the microphone subjective. However, wrestling is a universal language, so the work in the ring is the greatest determining factor.
- Holding the top titles in the largest promotion’s won’t necessarily translate to success on this list. This isn’t professional boxing or mixed martial arts. In professional wrestling, championships are vehicles to tell stories. The determining factor is how well the champions use their titles as narrative-devices and the quality of their title defenses.
Without further ado, here are the Mid-Year Wrestling Awards for 2025.
Best Men’s Wrestler: Will Ospreay
Will Ospreay stood at the pinnacle of professional wrestling in 2024, and while his 2025 campaign hasn’t quite reached the heights of last year’s—he’s still head and shoulders above the pro-wrestling world.
Before we begin though, I admit that Ospreay’s shortcomings aren’t lost on me. His junior-heavyweight style can be repetitive and often requires too much obvious cooperation. That still doesn’t change the fact that Ospreay is simply operating on another level.
His high’s are extraordinarily high, like his performances against Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, and “Hangman” Adam Page. However, it’s the breadth of his catalogue that is so staggering. His singles encounters against Buddy Matthews, Brian Cage, Bryan Keith, Kevin Knight and Swerve Strickland were all memorable performances. He’s also been involved in a myriad of fun tag team matches, whether it’s his wars with the Don Callis Family, in the $400,000 eight-man tag team match, or at “Grand Slam: Mexico” against The Death Riders & Young Bucks.
Not only has Will Ospreay been AEW’s uncrowned king, but he’s the best professional wrestler of 2025.
Runner Up: Konosuke Takeshita
Best Women’s Wrestler: Sareee
Sareee is a freelance wrestler who self-promotes and produces her own events, known as Sareee-ISM. This year, she’s held two Sareee-ISM events—delivering two incredible performances against Meiko Satomura and Syuri.
Sareee has also been afforded the opportunity to wrestle for a myriad of other joshi promotions: including Marigold, STARDOM and Sendai Girls. In fact, she began the year as the Marigold World Champion, losing the title to Utami Hayashishita on Jan. 3. Since then, Sareee won the IWGP Women’s Championship, in a highly anticipated rematch against Syuri. To put that into perspective for American wrestling fans, that feat would be akin to holding the WWE Women’s World Championship and the AEW World Championship within the span of six months.
Sareee’s status as a freelancer allows her to make the most of every appearance she makes; proving that the confluence of ability and opportunity is the formula for success.
Runner Up: Meiko Satomura
Best Tag Team: Violence is Forever
While 2025 has produced some great tag team matches, it’s been a lackluster year for career tag teams. Violence is Forever has been the exception.
Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini have become one of the finest attractions on the American independent circuit. The duo has shined in DPW, especially in their pair of matches against the Grizzled Young Veterans, for the orange & black brand’s tag team titles. They’ve also had stellar matches with Above The Rest, The Astronauts, and Intergalactic Jet Setters.
Runner Up: The Hurt Syndicate
Match of the Year: Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano
STARDOM | All-Star Grand Queendom 2025
April 27
The Saya Kamitani/Tam Nakano story began seven years ago, long before the former entered the professional wrestling ranks.
In the mid-2010s, Kamitani was pursuing a career as both a dancer and musician, when she joined STARDOM Idols—an idol group, sponsored by World Wonder Ring STARDOM. The project was the brainchild of Tam Nakano, who similarly had a background in dancing. While STARDOM Idols ultimately folded, Kamitani parlayed her relationship with Nakano into an opportunity with the joshi promotion—training under both Nakano and STARDOM’s trainer, Kagetsu.
Kamitani debuted in August 2019 and found immediate success in STARDOM—joining Utami Hayashishita’s faction, Queen’s Quest, in February 2020.
By September, she had her second single’s encounter with Kamitani, scoring a shocking upset victory over her former mentor in the 2020 “5Star Grand Prix.” Kamitani replicated the feat in the first round of the 2021 Cinderella Tournament—setting the stage for their fourth encounter, at “Yokohama Dream Cinderella in Summer,” with Nakano’s Wonder of STARDOM Championship on the line. While Nakano managed to retain her title, Kamitani wouldn’t be deterred.
A month later, Kamitani defeated Nakano in the 2021 5Star Grand Prix, earning another shot at her Wonder of STARDOM Championship. The stage was “Dream Queendom 2021” in December and this time, Kamitani was victorious—ending Nakano’s 301 day reign.
Kamitani defended her title from Nakano in March 2022, at “STARDOM World Climax,” marking their last singles match until 2023’s “5Star Grand Prix”—which Nakano was victorious in.
Their rivalry was renewed at “Dream Queendom 2024” in December, but things had drastically changed. In July 2024, Kamitani, who had become the leader of Queen’s Quest, betrayed her faction and aligned with then World of STARDOM Champion Natsuko Tora—joining her villainous stable, H.A.T.E.
A month later, Nakano beat Tora on the final day of the 2024 “5Star Grand Prix”—winning the World of STARDOM Championship.
While Nakano was in possession of STARDOM’s grandest prize, the coveted Red Belt, Kamitani was ready to take everything from her. And, at “Dream Queendom 2024,” she did exactly that.
Kamitani defeated Nakano in a grueling 21-minute firefight, capturing her first World of STARDOM Championship.
In February, Nakano finally earned her rematch, but it wasn’t for the World of STARDOM Championship. Instead, it was a loser-leaves town match. Kamitani shockingly won the decision, which led to speculation that Nakano was leaving STARDOM for its rival promotion, MARIGOLD. Instead, Kamitani offered Nakano one more opportunity. However, this time, she would put her career on the line.
That brings us to April 27, at “All-Star Grand Queendom 2025.”
Both women put their careers on the line, with the loser being forced to retire from professional wrestling.
At its core, professional wrestling is a narrative driven story, masquerading as a combat sport. Whether a pro-wrestler is performing an interview or a headlock, it’s all in service of telling a great story. This match tells a beautiful story.
Both women’s entrances were ornate and intricate, with audacious ring attire that rendered them in stark contrast—as forces of good and evil. The match itself was a brutal affair, with neither woman pulling their punches. However, the source of their physicality wasn’t animosity. It was their familiarity.
Over the past year, Kamitani has evolved into the ruthless “Phoenix Queen;” whose all-black ring attire reflects her dark heart. She spent weeks publicly humiliating Nakano—both personally and professionally. However, as the match neared its inevitable conclusion, Kamitani couldn’t help but be distraught.
As the gravity of their situation set in, all of Kamitani and Nakano’s strife dissipated. What remained was a bond forged in fire, between a young woman and her mentor. And, in the end, they both left parts of themselves in Yokohama Arena that they’ll never recover.
Runner Up: Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW: Revolution)
Best Event: Revolution (AEW)
AEW always delivers on pay-per-view, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it. However, this year’s rendition of “Revolution” was a high watermark for the company—proving that their slogan, “this is where the best wrestle,” is more than bravado.
The show contained three of the 20 best matches in 2025, which is a staggering feat in itself. However, it also contained other remarkable matches like: Mercedes Moné’s match with Momo Watanabe for the TBS Title; the culmination of Ricochet’s feud with Swerve Strickland; and “Hangman” Adam Page’s grudge match against MJF.
While the main event was immensely disappointing, the high’s were extraordinarily high, and the show was firing on all cylinders from beginning to its penultimate match between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher.
Runner Up: All-Star Grand Queendom 2025 (STARDOM)
Best Promotion: AEW
All of AEW’s momentum from 2024 seemed to dissipate in early January, when Adam Copeland and Jeff Jarrett emerged as challenger’s for Jon Moxley’s AEW World Championship. However, catastrophe was averted, and Tony Khan began to reinvent his main event picture from the ground up. The company’s resurgence began in early February, shortly before “Grand Slam: Australia.” Somehow, the company has managed to maintain their momentum, building towards their grandest stage of the year—“All In Texas.”
The promotion has delivered extraordinary televised events, like the aforementioned “Grand Slam: Australia,” “Spring BreakThru,” or “Grand Slam: Mexico.” And, of course, they’ve continued to deliver on pay-per-view, with phenomenal shows like “Revolution” and “Double or Nothing.”
Runner Up: DPW
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