14 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW In 2020

10. Bringing Back Tag Team Wrestling, And How

The Young Bucks Hangman Page
AEW

AEW promised to bring back the greatness of tag team wrestling. They didn't do that in 2020.

They elevated the art form to a new realm of acclaim and importance.

Though no World Tag Team Championship match headlined any AEW pay-per-view, at Revolution, All Out and Full Gear, the doubles gold was contested in the longest matches of the night, allowing the full, unprecedented scope of its storytelling to reach a new stratosphere.

Kenny Omega and Hangman Page Vs. The Young Bucks was the best match of the year and the best match in the history of the genre: a masterpiece driven by textured emotion driven by state-of-the-art exhilaration in which Omega, a genius, foreshadowed his heel turn by performing the year's greatest moment of babyface fire. He kicked out of the BTE trigger, but in doing so, cared so much more about Kota Ibushi than his own partner.

FTR Vs. the Young Bucks meanwhile was a masterpiece driven by philosophy; pitting the best cut-off guy against the best hot tag guy, the dream match lived up to its promise with a pulsating battle of curriculums in which Cash Wheeler betrayed his own to put the new school over.

On TV, meanwhile, AEW promoted countless superb tags that, if the format didn't allow for such depth, did allow for mind-melting excitement (Young Bucks Vs. Top Flight), the sort of meaty piss and vinegar AEW didn't do enough of last year (FTR Vs. The Butcher & The Blade), and a platform on which to tell chapters in long-term stories without relying on exposition nor burning through the destination (the Tag Team Gauntlet of August 27).

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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!