Match of the Year Tournament - F Block - November 2025

Welcome back friends to another instalment of the Wrestling Vault Match of the Year Tournament!

This month, we take a look back at the first month of the F Block, November. A better month for quality wrestling for me, personally, but also one with a clear front runner for the best match of the month.  

The Pre-Quarterfinalists

The pre-quarterfinalists!

My interest in wrestling has been coming in waves this year. Some month's, for lack of a better phrase, I'm all in. I'm like a sponge, thirsty for every bit I can get. Give me everything. Others, I'm tapped out, I'm at my limit. 

I know this shouldn't come as a surprise to most normal people, as this is how any sort of media consumption works. And it really shouldn't come as a surprise when you factor in my fluctuating mental health this past year, far and away my most difficult year on record. But I thought wrestling and I had the connection that would last, that would always be hot, y'know?

October was a tough month, but November was a better month, I can feel that flame building again. Maybe the wrestling day did it, maybe the match quality this month did it, maybe the Continental Classic coming back is to blame, whetever it is, I'm excited to see what is in store for December. 

But I'm getting way ahead of myself here. Let's chat about November a bit, shall we? 

 

Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori - 04/02/1993

A dream match from a dream card so good, I made it that week's feature post, the two "Dangerous Queens" went to fucking war with each other.  Neither woman was prepared to give the other a single inch, resulting in one of the most brutal, hard hitting, violent straight-up wrestling matches I've seen between a pair of joshi's. Hokuto bled like she'd been put through a meat grinder and sold like she was still in it's jaws, with Kandori beating the living daylights out of her. A shocking finish really sealed the deal for me on this match, one I won't soon forget.

 

Women's Blood And Guts Match - AEW Dynamite - Blood & Guts 2025 - 11/12/2025

The ladies made it their mission to blow every and any expectation out of the water when they opened the special AEW Blood and Guts Dynamite this month. "Whatever you boys can do, we can do better," was their mission statement here, and they more than lived up to that. Smashing mirrors, beds of nails, Skye Blue bleeding like a slaughtered animal, broken glass on Shafir's bare feet, barbed-wire-bat-assisted-submissions, my lord was this match nuts and perfect for what Blood and Guts needed to be. Sure, it didn't get my 5* seal of approval, I think it could have improved in some ways and I will always struggle to give modern-day takes on WarGames a perfect 5*, but this match was as close as any company has come in a long time to a home-run 5*. Fantastic work, ladies. 

 

Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe - No DQ - AEW Full Gear 2025 - 11/22/2025

Another chapter in the seemingly never-ending rivalry between Fletcher and Briscoe, this time with some high stakes. Briscoe wins? He's TNT Champion! But if he loses? Say hello to the newest member of the Don Callis Family. This stipulation sounded fun at the start, the idea of Briscoe interacting with Callis and the rest of his cohorts a very exciting idea, but it seemed pretty obvious what direction they were going here. My only complaint; Callis never presented Fletcher with a custom pink TNT Championship, and yet Briscoe had a camo title ready for him the second that bell hit three. What gives? Back to the match for a moment, it's got all the same beats as some of their other matches, just with some weapons involved now A screwdriver presents some serious danger at points, especially leading up to the finish, but it's nothing that Briscoe can't handle. 

Let's see which of these three made it to the next round, yeah?
 

 The Quarterfinalist

This month's quarterfinalist!

Congrats ladies, you did it! My god, did they ever. What a match, what a war. If you've been considering watching more joshi wrestling or are already a joshi fan and haven't seen this match (and aren't afraid of bloodshed), watch it right now. It's freely available on YouTube and so, so worth your time. Thank me later on this one.  

 

There's November! In the books! Next month is a heavier one for the Match of the Year Tournament. First, we finish the F Block with December's picks, then, the following week, we go over the finalists and winner of my 2025 match of the year! I think I'll also go over all of my quarter/semi-finalists as well so you guys get to see a good list of runner-ups for the year. Sure, some will be from 2025, some from years prior, but that's just how I work. Like I said, this blog is all about me watching wrestling from all across the globe from all points in history. So what if my MOTY is from 1986, I watched it this year! It counts, dammit!

Until next month, take it easy friends!