25 Best Wrestling Shows EVER

There are many honourable mentions to wade through here. 

WWE harnessed an impossible magic when reviving the ECW brand for the One Night Stand PPV specials of 2005 and 2006. Shockingly authentic, the vibes were immaculate. The feeling wasn't just elevated; it was heightened by a surge of tribalism when JBL played the role of surly, uninvited guest ruining the party atmosphere. Mike Awesome Vs. Masato Tanaka was utterly deranged, but nothing else came close to troubling it for Match of the Night at either show. This didn't really matter, and in a weird way, a few match graphics failing to live up to expectations was very much the original ECW experience. ECW mega-fan Tony Khan is intent on making every AEW pay-per-view event the best wrestling show ever. This is a good and bad thing.  

It's good in that this philosophy almost guarantees at least three absurdly great matches every month - but it's also bad, or at least too much, because every match is allocated the time to reach what is apparently the mandatory length to become great. This results in an exhausted crowd struggling to maintain their energy throughout the night. On every single AEW PPV, at least one match that would be great, hot and loud on a show with better, stricter pacing instead dies a death. Some matches even feel like an imposition. It's never good when you forget how many matches are left and almost half-dread what's coming because you're ready for the main event. Khan should actually watch One Night Stand 2005. 

When Khan gets the sequencing right, though, sweet Jesus: the best AEW PPVs are near-perfect...

You might balk at certain omissions from this list., but at its best, AEW is better than even fiercely-protected nostalgia. Dynasty 2024 was AEW at its best. 

While it wasn’t a “proper” opener, Kazuchika Okada Vs. PAC was one of the better examples of a modern trend that isn’t going away. Often - too often - a match that could headline a show opens it. This can impact the overall flow. Still, it’s virtually impossible to criticise a match as elegant and powerful as the Continental title bout. PAC displayed his range by playing sympathetic babyface with his outstanding selling, where Okada was at his best as the unsolveable puzzle. His panicked 2.99999999 kick-outs were outrageous even by his standards. The slow-burn pacing was masterful. 

Roderick Strong Vs. Kyle O’Reilly was a vicious technical ripper. Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm brought an all-too-rare, hate-fuelled energy to their huge over-delivery of a Women’s title match. Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe Vs. the House of Black was inessential and a bit too long, but very fun. The show itself was a touch too long, as every single AEW pay-per-view is. Did Chris Jericho really need to go 17 minutes with HOOK? 

Well, he did, but nobody else needed him to. 

Bryan Danielson Vs. Will Ospreay was considered by many to be the greatest match ever promoted on U.S. soil. It was phenomenal - perhaps the greatest ever match sold and wrestled on the high-pressure premise of it being great. The work was out of this world. The crowd shared a collective religious experience as Danielson casually mastered the movez stalemate at the first time of asking. They had barely touched by that point. When they did touch, the action was transcendent. The physical timing was almost unprecedented. Watch Danielson counter the Oscutter with the Busaiku knee: the precision and impact, on such an ambitious and difficult exchange, was the most safe concussive-looking strike that has ever connected in wrestling history. 

FTR Vs. the Young Bucks initially struggled to follow such an instant landmark of pro wrestling in the United States. However, the two teams went so incredibly hard - Cash Wheeler in particular wrestled like a man possessed, flying into barricades for fun - that the fans eventually chanted “Please be careful”. This wasn’t so much a wrestling match as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. 

The Samoa Joe Vs. Swerve Strickland main event wasn’t great - doing limb work to a monster is never a great thread - but it was good, and it was very impressive. The crowd wanted Swerve to win the World title, he won, and the dead crowd woke up and stayed with him for the duration.