10 Best Wrestling Matches With The Worst Builds

9. Will Ospreay Vs. Chris Jericho - AEW All In: London

Daniel Bryan Luke Harper
AEW

This will take some unpacking.

Chris Jericho wanted a match with Will Ospreay at Wembley because why wouldn't he want a match against Will Ospreay in 2023?

To get there, a lot of contrivance had to happen.

In May, Jericho acknowledged that he had lost a lot of big matches over the past few months. He was then courted by Don Callis who, and it's important to remember this, is one of the most evil, conniving characters in AEW. Over the next few weeks, Callis attempted, much to the chagrin of the Jericho Appreciation Society, to recruit Jericho into his Family. Jericho made the decision to banter off his useless mates, only Callis, expecting Jericho to say no, turned on him.

Why bother trying to recruit him, then?

This positioned Jericho as a terrible babyface, and Will Ospreay, Essex-born, was always going to be received by the Wembley crowd as a babyface regardless - despite his alignment with Callis.

A total nightmare of gaping plot holes and broken character alignments, it was also a complete waste of time: an infuriating, gibberish build all for a 15 minute match with duelling chants.

The actual All In: London match was fantastic:. Set against a massive, potentially unprecedented backdrop, Jericho worked a lean, abbreviated version of the Will Ospreay classic: a pissy, stiff, lung-bursting back-and-forth in which Jericho, at 52, did more than hang in there.

Ospreay was typically incredible, feeding Jericho the back of his skull to make even the most quaint of baseball slides look devastating, but Jericho created some awesome movement of his own with an unfathomable, rapid hurricanrana Stormbreaker reversal.

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!