10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2025
10. FTR Vs. The Outrunners (AEW Collision, July 5)
Every match is meant to be good now; every wrestler is meant to enter a good performance in a closely-contested, back-and-forth battle. The concept of skill has distorted everything about the form.
The beauty of an over-delivery - of an emotional match that manipulates the crowd into truly caring about the babyfaces prevailing - was restored when the Outrunners finally took on FTR on AEW Collision.
FTR turned heel earlier in the year, and perhaps saw too much of themselves in their former buddies: the wacky 1980s cosplayers who actually thought they wrestled decades ago. FTR sought to put an end to this delusion - but did not count on the idea that the Outrunners are in fact powered by a timeless pro wrestling magic.
This was a miracle match structured to feel like a miracle. It would be unfair to label it as a carry-job, but the classical arrangement told the perfect, resourceful story. Truth Magnum is a super-solid, experienced journeyman; Turbo Floyd is clunky but endearing with it (and genuinely hilarious). Here, Magnum played Ricky Morton, staying in the ring for a long time, drenched in blood to sell the agony and the humiliation of being thoroughly outmatched. Floyd was cast as the guy who had to beg his mate to fight back, and he played his role on the apron incredibly well.
The familiar formula was elevated by FTR at their very best.
The smug Cash Wheeler was superb at both cutting Magnum off, with his Buzz Sawyer-tier power slam, and building the hope, by throwing himself upside down into the turnbuckles like the madman that he is. Dax Harwood was Cash’s vicious prick counterpart. Together, their telepathy was so incredible that Magnum never stood a chance. Even when he managed to withstand the onslaught and grab a roll-up, Cash was there to grab him and launch a powerbomb assist for a Dax neckbreaker. That spot resulted in one of several pulsating near-falls. Floyd was perfect when it was his time to finally storm the ring and blast Cash with a wicked lariat.
FTR won, but not after an agonising near-fall off a Predator elbow, the set-up of which was milked so wonderfully that it felt like the biggest night of the Outrunners’ life.
This was classic pro wrestling how it should be done without ever feeling like a studious tribute.