Hidden gems: The 6 best non-WrestleMania matches from WrestleMania 41 week

Yahoo

22-04-2025

WrestleMania weekend isn't just about the big show. For the past decade or so, it has also served as a wrestling fans convention, with dozens of smaller indie shows putting their best foot forward to capture the 'Mania-consuming masses. The WWE has a specific vision of professional wrestling — it is a popular vision, but not the only vision. Fortunately, the menagerie of various WrestleMania week shows do a great job of showing all of the different colors in the pro-wrestling pallet.
Here are the six best matches you may have missed over the WrestleMania 41 week festivities in Las Vegas.
Shinya Aoki vs. Charlie Dempsey: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport (April 17)
Josh Barnett's Bloodsport events are no-ropes shows that follow in the tradition of Japanese shoot-style wrestling promotions like UWF, UWFI and RINGS. In recent years they have booked wrestlers from multiple promotions, including rare indie dates for WWE stars — in addition to Charlie Dempsey, this past week's show had Nattie Neidhart, Karmen Pertrovic, Karrion Kross, Pete Dunne, Tavion Heights and Shayna Bayzler.
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Dempsey is the son of WWE legend William Regal, a current NXT star, and one of the best grapplers in U.S. pro-wrestling, adapting the British catch-wrestling style of his father and Billy Robinson.
Aoki is an MMA legend, one of the great submission grapplers of all time. He has dipped his toe in professional wrestling over the past couple of years, mainly for the DDT promotion, while still being an active fighter. This past week was his debut as a professional wrestler in America.
This match had some of the coolest grappling you are going to see in modern pro-wrestling. Aoki is a leglock master, winning innumerable fights over the years that way, and it was cool to see him apply that technique with Dempsey somehow plausibly countering it with old-fashioned pro-wrestling, like a figure-four attempt or Indian death lock. There is a ground fight near the end of the match which starts with a Dempsey Bridging Indian Death lock and just flows into a calf slicer, then into a banana split, then into a toe hold — just breathtaking stuff.
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It really feels like an early MMA fight between masters of very different disciplines — jiu-jitsu versus British Blackpool carnival grappling.
With all of the politics of professional wrestling, this kind of NXT vs. One Championship MMA fever-dream match could really only happen at WrestleMania weekend.
Team Gravity (Aero Panther/Fight Panther/El Vengador/Gravity/Spider Fly) vs. Team Mala Fama (Arez/Canis Lupus/El Bendito/Latigo/Toxin): WrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow (April 17)
The WrestleCon 'Mania weekend shows have been at the forefront of introducing independent luchadores to the U.S. audience. Many of the luchadores who have gone on to work big shows for GCW, AEW and TNA got their stateside break at one of these shows.
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This wild 10-man match continued this tradition, with wrestlers like the Panther Brothers, El Vengador and Spider Fly getting their first big match outside of Mexico.
This was a wild showcase — everything wasn't hit cleanly, but the difficulty level was dialed up to 11. The big highlight was eight of the wrestlers attempting a big group suplex, which created a platform for Arez to suplex Fight Panther, collapsing the entire pile. Altogether, it looked like a horrible cheerleading accident.
Fun popcorn match here, with wild flipping technicos and great rudo bases. It was a great chance to scout the guys who are going to be on your Instagram feed with crazy gifs for the next year.
Aja Kong vs. Seneka Akatsuki: Marvelous (April 17)
Seneka is in just the first six months of her career and already had the opportunity to match up in the U.S. against an all-time legend in Aja Kong.
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This was a real testament to the greatness of simple professional wrestling. The match was built around Aja having no respect for the kid, and Seneka slowly forcing her to come to play, building to a huge pop when she finally hits a bodyslam. Aja was so great big-timing her, chewing gum and smacking the sweat off of Seneka while smirking. It made even the smallest victory seem like a huge moment. Aja did a similar thing 25 years ago christening stardom on a young Meiko Satomura; now Meiko is in the final year of a Hall of Fame career and Aja is still out here doing the same thing to another generation.
The highlight of the match (and maybe the whole weekend) was Aja hitting a suplex, going for the pin, and Seneka absolutely refusing to have her shoulders put down — she just squirms and turns and bridges, fighting like hell, not even allowing Aja even get the one-count. That simple act led to a standing ovation from the crowd and felt like a star-making moment, even if she quickly lost moments later.
Sometimes the oldest tricks still work the best.
MAO vs. Konosuke Takeshita: DDT Goes to Vegas (April 18)
Most of the matches on the list are interesting curiosities, cool unique matches which something like 'Mania weekend can allow. This is much more of a traditional big-bomb workrate match, the kind of thing Dave Meltzer would break the bank on.
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MAO and Takeshita were former stablemates in DDT and have wrestled other singles matches before, although with Takeshita always winning. This was a power vs. speed match — MAO has really great fluidity in his movements, hits some cool dives and does a nice job of avoiding the heavy fire coming at him from Takeshita, who might have the nastiest offense in wrestling.
They build to a big crescendo with super physical power moves, and MAO trying for high risk dives. This is maximalist stuff — big near-falls, dramatic kickouts, 2025 big match pro-wrestling done well.
Sabu vs. Joey Janela: Joey Janela's Spring Break 9 (April 18)
This was a no-rope barbed wire match and the retirement match for the 60-year-old extreme legend Sabu, who hadn't wrestled a match since 2021.
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This is the 9th Joey Janela Spring Break — Janela has become famous for wrestling icons of the '90s (Great Sasuke, Sean Waltman, Jushin Thunder Liger, etc.) — and was the perfect choice to get something great out of Sabu, who, again, is 60 years old. As awkward as parts of this match were, there was undoubted greatness — Sabu comes in resplendent in a white suit, and takes two of the single most insane bumps of his career in the opening moments of this match, missing an Air Sabu and going through the wire landing headfirst into spiderweb box of barbed wire. Then, moments later, he goes flying through a barbed wire board backward to the floor, cracking his skull on the concrete (you could see the blood pooling at the back of his head).
It literally felt like he might die in the ring, which is unnerving to watch, but an emotion that has been a big part of the Sabu experience for 35 years. He always seemed to be wrestling on the precipice of disaster, and was even known to botch moves on purpose to add to the danger of the situation.
After the second bump there's a Cogar brothers run-in to attack Janela and a super long, iconic Sandman entrance to make a save. All of this happens while people at ringside are checking to see if Sabu was still on the right side of the grass. Somehow, Sabu gets back in the ring and the finishes the match, with Janela taking some big bumps of his own into sharp things.
Uncomfortable to watch, maybe, and parts of the match were quite poor, but simultaneously this was one of the most compelling wrestling experiences in years. Wrestlers are rarely able to go out on their own terms, but Sabu was Sabu until the very end.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kidd Bandit: Effy's Big Gay Brunch 10 (April 19)
Effy's Big Gay Brunch is a celebration of queer representation in professional wrestling, and Sabre, who is one of the biggest international stars in the world, strolled by to accept the challenge of Kidd Bandit. Bandit is a trans wrestler who has established a cult following, both with her social media presence and elaborate offense. She is still young in her career, and can be a bit uneven in the ring — but this was the most high-profile match of her career, and she stepped all the way up.
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Sabre is a technician and much of this match was Bandit trying unique attacks and Sabre finding ways to counter out and vice versa. Sabre starts the match by rubbing Bandit on the head in a really condescending way, but he gets more and more frustrated — and more vicious — once he can't easily put her away. Really nasty grappling here, with Sabre really stretching Bandit's limbs and Bandit finding ways to spin out.
The match levels up again near the end with its final stanza, with Sabre locking in a rear-naked choke and Bandit trying multiple escapes, Sabre countering those escapes, and finally Bandit getting to the ropes at the final second. Bandit then goes on an offensive run herself, nearly getting a tap with a stranglehold leg choke and almost getting a knockout with a hard head kick. You can see Sabre start to panic, and he quickly grabs a cradle and gets the pin to get out of town with the win.
Just a great underdog performance here by Bandit — and overdog performance by Sabre. It feels like it could really be the start of something for the cult up-and-comer.