25 Best Wrestling Shows EVER

AEW deserved the critical kicking in 2023, with its horrific experiments in slow-motion comedy vignettes and nonsensical, haphazard plotting. Even at its dirt-worst, though, AEW is capable of reaching stratospheric heights. The inaugural WrestleDream was sensational, as weird as it was for Tony Khan to pay tribute to Antonio Inoki on pay-per-view and embark on a sub-WWE direction on TV at the same time. 

Eddie Kingston's fire and selling filled in the blanks of Katsuyori Shibata's limited physicality in an intelligent, enthralling match that, atypically of the AEW PPV undercard, did not outstay its welcome. Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page wrote the first and arguably most crucial chapter of their epic rivalry. It was here that Swerve formally ascended to the main event bracket. The match was exceptional, doing a great deal to crush an alarming narrative: as hokey as the TV often was, AEW was still capable of building stars. 

In a vastly underrated match, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho and Kota Ibushi lost to Konosuke Takeashita, Will Ospreay and Sammy Guevara. It wasn't note-perfect, but the creativity and exhilaration was sublime when the telepathy was at its most potent. In a rich reward for a superb career, Christian Cage headlined, going over Darby Allin in a Two out of Three Falls match that was ugly and frightening in the most dramatic of ways. Cage didn't steal the show; no other wrestler past or present could have improved upon the exquisite brilliance of Bryan Danielson Vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. I. 

A labyrinthine technical chess match, it somehow conspired to blow away every unrealistic expectation. Setting an elaborate series of traps, both men extracted unreal, ultra-immersive drama from very little - beyond, of course, world-class grappling and selling. The level of detail was unreal; Danielson worked a momentary lapse in concentration when attempting to bridge using his surgically-repaired arm. 

Often, the selling emphasised the threat of a hold that hadn't even been applied. This understated discipline was incredible, particularly since neither man ran the ropes, much less ventured to the outside. It was vile when it needed to be too; as gorgeous as the match was, it still felt more like a vicious fight than an excuse to do technique porn.