10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2021

8. Kenny Omega Vs. Fénix - AEW Dynamite New Year's Smash

Hangman Page Bryan Danielson
AEW

Kenny Omega Vs. Fénix was a match brimming with such giddy exhilaration that it didn't need a packed-in house to generate volume. It left the fans at home gasping and shrieking at its outrageous athletic endeavour.

Chris Jericho's commentary is..uneven normally. He was such an asset to this thriller; after Fénix aimed a knee into Omega's face before drilling him with the Fire Thunder Driver, Jericho cooed "That was my favourite move of the whole match". The execution was so exciting that it reduced Jericho, among the most experienced wrestlers still going at it full time, to the status of a slack-jawed super-fan.

Everybody else had a different favourite move in what was the quintessential spot-fest. It was the 10 Best Moves Of Kenny Omega and the 10 Best Moves Of Fénix spliced together, and you hadn't even seen half of them before. Omega catching Fénix's senton with the Tiger Driver 98. Fénix's step-up springboard cutter. Fénix's backflip into a head-first German suplex. A relentless explosion of pops.

Fénix sold what might have been Omega's best V-Trigger ever. Taking it full-brunt, square across the eyes, he folded backwards and looked as if his ankles had snapped clean in half.

It wasn't an ambitious, layered story. The selling wasn't particularly realistic.

But as a display of inch-perfect impossible execution, this was literal magic.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!