Starting next month, I will be doing a monthly list of the best matches I have seen in that particular month in no particular order and pick one match each month as the match of the month. These will be my own personal subjective lists and not the official Wrestling Republic lists. Those matches of the month will take up the first 12 slots in my annual top 25 matches of the year and the remaining 13 slots will be the other top matches from my monthly lists. The top 25-matches list is in order unlike the monthly that will be in no particular order.
Privately this year since I haven’t been a columnist this whole year, I kept a list of matches of the month and put together a year end list of the top 25 matches I have seen this year. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much wrestling I can watch. Please keep in mind these are just my opinion of the best matches I saw this year and is not a definitive list and is not the official Wrestling Republic ratings and rankings.
I had to make a lot of tough choices with the list to narrow it down to a final 25 and I tried to be well rounded and impartial with the listings. Although, you may not agree with the order or the matches on this list or you think I should have included other matches; that is ok because again this is subjective. For me, I factor in not only the match itself but the storyline, the presentation (promo packages), storytelling in the ring as well as the finish (did it make sense, was it clean, was it believable, did it further the story along or conclude it), when determining whether to include it on my monthly or yearly list.
The rankings were determined as follows:
Numbers 1-12 – Are the winners of the Best of the Month lists
Numbers 13-25 – Are the remaining matches that I considered to be excellent from this year
| Rank | Event | Match Type | Match |
| 1 | NXT Takeover 36 | NXT UK Championship | Walter (c) vs Dragunov |
| 2 | AEW All Out 2021 | Steel Cage, AEW Tag Team Championship | Young Bucks (c) vs Lucha Bros. |
| 3 | WWE Survivor Series 2021 | Raw Women’s Champ vs SD Women’s Champ | Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair |
| 4 | WWE Crown Jewel | Hell In A Cell | Rollins vs Edge |
| 5 | NXT Takeover Stand & Deliver – Night 2 | Unsanctioned | Cole vs O’Riley |
| 6 | NXT Takeover Vengeance Day | Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals | MSK vs Grizzled Young Veterans |
| 7 | NXT UK – 1-14-21 | NXT UK Championship | Walter (c) vs A-Kid |
| 8 | AEW Revolution 2021 | Street Fight | Sting & Darby Allin vs Brian Cage & Ricky Starks |
| 9 | NXT War Games | War Games | Team Black & Gold vs Team 2.0 |
| 10 | WWE Backlash | Universal Championship | Reigns (c) vs Cesaro |
| 11 | NXT Takeover: In Your House | Fatal 5-Way NXT Championship | Kross (c) vs Gargano vs Cole vs O’Riley vs Dunne |
| 12 | ROH Best in the World 2021 | Singles | Flip Gordon vs EC3 |
| 13 | NXT Takeover Stand & Deliver – Night 1 | NXT UK Championship | Walter (c) vs Ciampa |
| 14 | WWE Smackdown – 4-30-21 | Universal Championship vs Bryan’s SD Career | Reigns (c) vs Bryan |
| 15 | AEW Dynamite – Grand Slam | Single | Omega vs Bryan Danielson |
| 16 | AEW Dynamite – Winter Is Coming – 12-15-21 | AEW World Championship | Hangman Page (c) vs Bryan Danielson |
| 17 | WWE Crown Jewel | WWE Championship | Reigns (c) vs Lesnar |
| 18 | WWE Summerslam 2021 | Grudge | Rollins vs Edge |
| 19 | Impact – 6-3-21 | Iron Man, X-Division Championship | Josh Alexander (c) vs TJP |
| 20 | AEW Full Gear | Grudge | Darby Allin vs MJF |
| 21 | NXT UK – 10-14-21 | NXT UK Championship | Dragunov (c) vs A-Kid |
| 22 | Impact Bound for Glory 2021 | Impact World Championship | Christian Cage (c) vs Josh Alexander |
| 23 | WWE WrestleMania 37 – Night 1 | SD Women’s Championship | Sasha (c) vs Belair |
| 24 | NWA 73 | NWA World Championship | Nick Aldis (c) vs Trevor Murdoch |
| 25 | New Japan Cup 2021 | Finals | Will Ospreay vs Shingo Takagi |
