2025's best wrestling matches you've never seen: 10 hidden gems from around the globe

One of the great things about being a professional wrestling fan in 2025-26 is the breadth of wrestling available at your fingertips.

Us old tape-traders used to have to set up a pair of VCRs and trade the cool stuff you had for cool stuff someone else might have, or risk sending $20 in the mail to someone who might just rip you off. Now, though? Nearly everything is a Google search away. And while most of the oncoming year-end coverage across the wrestling world is going to be focused on the big TV promotions, lots of cool wrestling happened in the crevices as well.

What follows isn’t a comprehensive top-10 list of the best non-traditional wrestling of 2025, but more of a Cook’s tour of the different scenes around the world. We didn’t repeat any promotions or wrestlers here, so if something catches your fancy, then good news — there's plenty more searching for you to do.

1. MJF vs. Mistico — CMLL, Sept. 19

CMLL had arguably the most successful year of its 92-year history in 2025, and Mistico was at the forefront. With John Cena retiring (and biffing his heel turn), Mistico is wrestling’s last superhero, a cultural icon of faith and goodness, beloved by an entire nation. He was wagering not just his mask here, but his entire identity against MJF’s pilfered CMLL Light Heavyweight Championship.

MJF isn’t everyone’s flavor of sherbert, but he's calibrated perfectly here, strutting into Arena Mexico wearing Apollo Creed's "Rocky 3" gear, flanked by Jon Cruz dressed as Abraham Lincoln, spitting in the face of the long-held traditions of lucha libre. MJF jumps Mistico at the bell, sending him to the floor. He throws him head-first into a post and Mistico immediately starts bleeding heavily.

Blood had been banned in Arena Mexico for decades, and the crimson flowing again added a new level of uncertainty to the match. Sure, there was no way Mistico would lose his mask, but he also wasn’t supposed to be covered in blood like that. It was a dramatic apuestas match, worthy of the long history of incredible matches which preceded it. Mistico was fighting a younger and bigger opponent, who was eager and willing to cheat, and he was losing blood — but he had an entire county on his shoulders, and wouldn’t fail on that day.

2. Meiko Satomura vs. Sareee — Sareee-ISM, Jan. 23

Satomura, 46, was one of the many icons who retired in 2025, and she was still performing at an elite level in the days before she hung up her boots. 

Sareee debuted 15 years ago against Satomura, and since then she has elevated herself to become arguably the top star in Japanese women’s wrestling. Satomura is notoriously brutal with trainees (see the 2000 GAEA Girls documentary) and it felt like Sareee was trying to get her lick back here.

This match was about as brutal as wrestling got in 2025. Nasty kicks, punches to the face and suplexes where both women landed awkwardly on their necks. It felt like Sareee was trying to move up the calendar on Satomura’s retirement and Satomura wanted to take her off the board with her.

3. Isiah Broner vs. Mad Dog Connelly — NAP, Jan. 12

Connelly has been my favorite independent wrestler to watch over the past couple of years. He's been billed as the “King of the Dog Collar” and had a bunch of great, violent dog-collar matches in 2025.

This, however, was a lot simpler.

Connelly came into Naptown Pro (NAP) attempting to unseat Broner, NAP's long-time champion, and they delivered an old-fashioned potato-fest. This reminded me of a UWF Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Terry Gordy title match circa 1986 — thudding forearms, head-butts, punches to the face and near-decapitating lariats. Broner looks and hits like a pro-wrestling Kimbo Slice, and Mad Dog matches him shot-for-shot.

Just a tough-guy slugfest. George Foreman vs. Ron Lyle. I hit you, you hit me, we will see who crumbles.

4. Yujiro Yammamoto vs. Takaku Fuke — MeriPro, Feb. 7

Sometimes you have to really dig deep in the crates to find jewels, for example this grappling contest between an ex-Battlarts trainee and one of the grandfathers of modern MMA in a tiny bar in Japan.

Fuke was one of the founders of Pancrase in the early 1990s — a promotion born from the idea of professional wrestling being a legitimate sporting contest — and spent much of his formative years fighting against in-ring legends Bas Rutten, Minoru Suzuki, and Ken and Frank Shamrock.

Yammamoto was part of the Battlarts gym trained by Yuki Ishikawa and also fought in ZST. 

This was pretty much all on the mat, with both guys chaining in and out of submissions, grabbing and twisting arms and knees. This one certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you appreciate mat wizardry, these are two of the best.

5. Hamis Diamond vs. Jordan — SGW, March 28

This is a "Falls Count Anywhere" match from Uganda’s Soft Ground Wrestling, which is a promotion that caught some buzz a couple of years ago running matches in a mud pit surrounded by a makeshift ropes and wooden ringposts. They've gotten a real wrestling ring for this match, but since it is falls count anywhere, there is plenty of action in the mud.

Awesome recklessness in this match, including some absolutely uncalled for suplexes and throws on hard, packed dirt. There's one German suplex over a wood beam into a mud puddle from Diamond which looked as nasty an any 1990s All Japan head drop. Really cool that this kind of stuff is so readily available.

6. Demus vs. El Hijo Del Fishman — Zona 23, March 29

Zona 23 holds their matches in a Mexican junkyard and they often resemble post-apocalyptic gladiator fights. The kind of thing Immortan Joe would stage to hype up the War Boys.

Fishman is a force of nature, a barrel-chested bruiser who walks through beer bottles and car hoods, dishing out violence as he goes. Demus is a rabid mongoose, a wrestler who started his career as a Damiancito El Guerrero — a mini in CMLL — and has now morphed into a troll under the bridge fighting like an alley cat in a burlap sack. 

Wild junkyard violence here as Fishman tries to squash the bug under his boot, smashing multiple beer bottles over Demus’ head, hitting a package piledriver onto the hood of a car, and a jumping Death Valley Driver through a pane of safety glass. Demus is hard to kill though and keeps scrapping, the bloodthirsty sickos in the crowd rooting him on, until he finally fells the tree.

7. Elijah Blum vs. Ahura — WXW, July 19

WXW is a German promotion which launched the careers of big stars like Gunther and Ilja Dragunov. These are two of their current big, homegrown talents in a violent Dog Collar Submission match. 

Maximalist wrestling here, with the heel Ahura insisting before the match that Blum wasn’t ready to take a top spot, and Blum trying to prove himself. The match really builds to a torturous finish, like something out of "Hellraiser" with the chain digging violently into the eyes and mouths of both men and some really grimy spots with thumbtacks and barbed wire. This is similar in spirit to the big Moxley and Darby matches in AEW, and a is good chance to see two wrestlers who will undoubtedly go on to bigger things.

8. Manders vs. Thomes Shire — JCW, Aug. 3

Together these two are the tag-team Cowboy Way, and nothing is more brutal then when brothers fight. 

Shire was originally trained by Dory Funk Jr., and a lot of the early part of this match has some really nasty joint and muscle manipulation. Manders, meanwhile, is throwing brutal chops which quickly mottle Shire’s chest with purple bruises — and the violence kept escalating, including chops across the bridge of the nose and hard clotheslines right to the cheekbone. 

You can see both wrestles smirk after each shot and then just fire back even harder. Nothing particularly fancy in this match, just meat and potatoes wrestling with the stew even thicker than normal.

9. Nicole Matthews vs. Amira — Prestige Wrestling, Oct. 5

Nicole Matthews is a near 20-year veteran and was a main star of the late-lamented Shimmer promotion. 

Here she came into Portland defending the DPW Women’s World Title against local favorite Amira. This felt like the closest thing we got in 2025 to a touring NWA world title match. Matthews came into the local territory, with everyone in the crowd rooting hard for the hometown girl, and she made Amira look like a million bucks. She put over every one of Amira's moves huge, made everyone believe the kid might pull it off — only to pull the rug out from under her opponent and the whole crowd.

This exact template was pro-wrestling for 100 years, and it's great to see the old tricks still work.

10. Adam Priest vs. Jake Something — DPW, Oct. 19

Deadlock Pro Wrestling (DPW) is a North Carolina indie promotion that reached its biggest heights of popularity and influence in 2025, only to promptly shut its doors. It was a great run though, matching up big stars from ROH and AEW with the bigger names in indie wrestling, while running angles and stories rather than exclusively dream matches. 

Jake Something was DPW's heavyweight champion before dropping it due to injury. Priest, who Bryan Danielson recently called the best independent pro-wrestler in the world, captured the title and did every underhanded thing he could think of to keep it from Something.

Here the hero gets the villain in a steel cage to limit his opportunities to run — and tosses him around pillar to post. Despite being a smaller man trapped in a cage with beast, Priest pulls out every bit of his bag to keep Something on his back foot, until Something finally takes back what's his.

DPW did a great job of mixing old-fashioned Southern pro-wrestling storytelling with 2008-era ROH style matches. It will be missed.