15 Greatest Angles In Modern Wrestling History
The angle is the most difficult idea to come up with. Who did it best?
The hot pro wrestling angle is one of the most exhilarating thrills in the sport, and the very hardest thing to pull off - particularly in the modern era.
The last five minutes of a classic match are unbeatable - this, ultimately, is why we watch - but every match is baseline "good" now. It's almost no longer impressive or exciting. There is no formal training in devising a unique, captivating means of selling a match. A booker can study tape, and craft a story, but that one inciting incident, the scene that fizzes up your insides like a Catherine wheel, and makes you desperate to see the match that very second?
That is the pinnacle of the creativity of a wrestling promotion.
The feeling is inimitable, and almost impossible to elicit. On WWE and AEW TV, you'll often see two rival wrestlers talk to one another in lengthy exposition dumps capped off with a carefully prepared soundbite. You'll see a mass brawl so often that you barely register the punches, much less the emotion. Worse yet, on particularly bad weeks, you'll see an example of U.S. TV wrestling's obsession with terrible stunts, which often include the use of vehicles or suspiciously-erected plasterboard.
A few years back, a fan of Jack Evans bemoaned his lack of TV time in AEW on X. Evans was candid in his response, expressing his wish that wrestling schools taught students how to book angles.
Anybody can talk sh*t over an invisible wall; very few people make you want to run through a brick wall just to see them fight...
15. The Ending Of AEW Dynamite Episode #1
The premiere of AEW Dynamite was very important. Tony Khan had to achieve a great deal in a short timeframe with no scope for error. He had to set the tone and encourage return watchers.
Most of the show was probably "very good" and "promising" more than electrifying. The backdrop was amazing. Cody Rhodes looked like the next big thing in the sport in beating Sammy Guevara in a cracking opener. But then, MJF was hardly given much time to impress, and PAC Vs. Hangman Page while solid had the deeply unfortunate quality of dragging. The shocking over-delivery that was Riho Vs. Nyla Rose steered the show away from a somewhat worrying direction. Then the incredible main event angle happened.
It was one plot hole away from perfection, in that Jon Moxley dragged Kenny Omega away from the trios main event between the Elite and Chris Jericho, Santana and Ortiz without incurring a disqualification. But the resulting angle was an overlapping, world-building masterclass - and since Khan wanted you to return to that world, it was vitally necessary. Tony Khan, across one angle, detonated a narrative big bang.
Khan heated up Mox Vs. Omega, through an awesomely vile spot in which the former blasted the latter through a glass table, and formed a stable in the same segment. Sammy Guevara joined this new faction, the Inner Circle, after a thoughtful moment of foreshadowing when denying Cody's handshake earlier - with the exact same shrug Chris Jericho performed after winning the World title at All Out.
Making his debut, Jake Hager joined him in their beat-down of the babyface squad, setting up dozens and dozens of potential singles, tags and trios matches, in a scene so hot that it was easy to forget that he was Jake Hager.