10 Wrestling Matches That Ruled With Builds That Sucked
When Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Shaq (!) forgot to do the work before the work.
A heavily promoted wrestling match isn't only as good as the build towards it, but there's certainly an ideal share located somewhere around 50%.
Not every clash can have three minutes of story let alone three months, but that's not what this particular list is about because ultimately that's not what this particular industry's about.
Everything that happens in the body of the match should ideally feedback to the brains of the men and women in the fight. Why are they targeting that body part? What have they got to gain from the win? How did it reach this point-of-no-return between the opponents? When it comes to well-built contests, these are questions the build should ideally ask before the match answers.
The Monday Night Wars ushered in competitive Star Vs Star matches once a week, frittering away numerous fresh combinations in the process, but All Elite Wrestling's solid start to life since 2019 has resharpened the focus on preserving the matches that really matter. Not least because they need to keep their premium bouts for pay-per-view and there's only four of those a year.
WWE haven't been quite so careful with some of their own, but that's not to suggest AEW have mastered it either...
10. The Young Bucks Vs FTR (Full Gear 2020)
The Young Bucks and FTR's initial interactions in All Elite Wrestling were absolutely incredible, until the long-awaited pay-per-view encounter actually appeared on the horizon.
It had been smooth sailing on the surface between the two teams before Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler turned heel, but even that lacked the oomph to kick the story into life across an otherwise red hot summer in AEW.
Harwood and Wheeler worked diligently in their destruction of The Elite from the inside, earning the faith of The Jacksons before manipulating Page into betraying them. Unsettling one set of Champions to win the gold, it showed forethought in trying to rattle the Bucks before they even challenged for them.
Smart, textured stuff, but stuff that brought the worst acting instincts out in the EVPs. The natural chemistry that had existed between the pairs since 2016 dissolved amidst Matt and Nick working as quasi-heels during a drab story that lumbered to the finish line at Full Gear.
There, the fans would "rejoice" as promised. They just shouldn't have been made to sweat the possibilities that they might not.