10 Best Wrestling Feuds Of 2020
Banks vs. Bayley, Cody vs. MJF, Orton vs. Edge? 2020 has been weird, but the rivalries haven't...
2020 has been as weird and tumultuous a year in professional wrestling it has everywhere else, though promotions have helped keep viewers in touch with the old normal through quality storytelling, with the best of the best making us forget that these things are playing out in near-empty amphitheatres and dystopian Zoom walls.
When compiling this list, preference was given to rivalries that hit the mark from start to finish. This means there's no place for Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso, which started flawlessly and yielded a great WWE Clash of Champions match, but has continually violated the first rule of storytelling (show, don't tell) ever since. The same goes for the expositional mulch of Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre. Both would have made the cut had they not become so devoid of subtlety.
Other notable WWE exclusions include Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena, Sasha Banks vs. Asuka, Becky Lynch vs. Asuka, and Keith Lee vs. Johnny Gargano.
From AEW, there's no Young Bucks vs. FTR. A great pay-per-view match, sure, but the build was dysfunctional. Jon Moxley vs. MJF may have made it if not for unnecessary window dressing like Mark Sterling.
A weak creative year means NJPW isn't represented here, though Shingo Takagi vs. Minoru almost made it. From Impact, Rich Swann vs. Eric Young completes this list of honourable mentions.
Ready? Let's go...
10. Adam Cole Vs. Pat McAfee
Pat McAfee is a natural pro wrestling personality who, on the evidence of his excellent feud with Adam Cole, should have been nudged towards this kind of role from the moment he first appeared as a pre-show panellist.
Not that Cole has ever needed somebody else to sell a program for him, but McAfee's innate ability to make you want to punch him in his big, stupid face put this storyline over the line. More than that, it made a believable babyface of a career heel in the Undisputed Era's leader. Things weren't black and white coming out of their initial podcast confrontation, from which Cole stormed out, though this quickly changed when McAfee shockingly laid the record-breaking NXT Champion out at the commentary desk, punting him unconscious.
That Pat was the NFL's Punter of the Decade circumvented complaints about a non-wrestler putting Cole to sleep. Obnoxious heel promos aside, kicking is the one thing McAfee is really, really good at. Buying into it was easy from that moment onwards.
The match, at TakeOver: XXX, was almost shockingly good. A freak athlete going back to his football days, Pat threw everything into his performance, delivering a debut bout on a similar tier as Ronda Rousey's at WrestleMania 34. Don't bet against similar insanity when Pat and The Kings of WWE NXT hit WarGames with Undisputed this weekend.