10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2021

4. Kenny Omega Vs. Hangman Page - AEW Full Gear

No self-doubt expressed with melodramatic shocked kick-out faces.

No endless kick-outs designed to create the same "unpredictable" back-and-forth drama as every other modern pro wrestling epic.

This was Hangman Page's night, and he entered it with an unwavering sense of belief that powered an electrifying, feel-good belter that was worked as it should have been: as the tense but relentlessly cathartic last scene of a sprawling odyssey - one that was actually justified.

Page could not be denied.

In a fantastic spot, Omega attempted to treat Page with the same disdain with which Page once treated himself in one, last desperate attempt to make his partner feel like sh*t and lose his confidence. He blasted Page in the temple with Toshiaki Kawada's famous bullying kicks. Page fired the f*ck up, went nose-to-nose with Omega, and said "Is that all you got, motherf*cker?"

The pacing was glorious, the story beats understated. As Kenny Omega put up the fight with a frenetic, explosive barrage, Page, calling back to the Gauntlet betrayal, clutched at Omega's leg to block the V-Trigger. He was a restored person and the champion elect. Omega sensed that Page had finally located his confidence and concocted a plan with Don Callis to diffuse it. That ref bump led to an incredible near-fall, and no finisher was wasted to arrive at it. The pacing and drama was so strong that they didn't need to.

Head-first backdrop suplexes; Page's spectacular diving ring post lariat; Omega's unreal springboard powerbomb: the content was electrifying, but the match was ingenious for the content it didn't rely on, too.