25 Best Wrestling Shows EVER
18. AEW Revolution 2020
The best-built pay-per-view in modern wrestling history, Cody Rhodes said after the fact that AEW was “heading for the moon, buddy”.
He was correct.
The promotion was so incredible that fans were hyped on the prospect of a Jake Hager match. Hager didn’t deliver in the spot; his opener against Dustin Rhodes was as generic as all hell.
Darby Allin Vs. Sammy Guevara should have opened. It was incredible, lean, exciting - a breakthrough match so vital-feeling that a sequel in the main event slot two years on felt like a formality. Chris Jericho Vs. Jon Moxley, conversely, was a perfectly pitched main event. It was a very fun and dramatic war, heavy on shortcuts, that could have gone either way - an all-too-rare match in which both men were 4/9 at the bookies. AEW went with the happy ending, preserving the legend of Le Champion’s perfect, hugely important run with the title. Revolution ‘20 was also the site of Orange Cassidy’s breakthrough. His match against PAC was pure joy. Expert matchmaking, PAC was cast perfectly as the miserable, angry bastard who sold the irreverence of Cassidy’s dazzling act.
The show was not perfect.
After a phenomenal build, a case study in anticipation, MJF Vs. Cody Rhodes was a slight let-down. It was very hot in places, but they attempted to weave in one too many plot threads, and Cody’s newly-revealed neck tattoo was much too distracting. Nyla Rose defeated Kris Statlander, who battled both the flu and a dead crowd flattened by the tidal wave of pro wrestling perfection that was Kenny Omega and Hangman Page Vs. the Young Bucks.
A seminal fusion of storytelling and excitement, this was best exemplified by Kenny Omega kicking out of the Golden Trigger at 1. This was at once the best babyface spot of the year and the moment in which his heel turn was foreshadowed; he never reacted with such emotion when the Bucks disrespected his current partner.