25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025

12. Mox & Cope At Revolution

AEW Revolution 2025 Jon Moxley Christian Cage Cope
AEW

It's to AEW's immense credit that almost no matches from the company's year could make any "worst" lists of any kind. 

Matches are what they do best, better than their opposition, and the effort to maintain the "Where The Best Wrestle" catchphrase's legitimacy is constant and obvious. And even when the storylines might not create the most anticipation for the matches, they are at very least good enough to ensure the business end of "the business" is taken care of.

Jon Moxley's Revolution title defence against Adam Copeland was a bleak rule-proving exception that signified everything that felt so annoyingly flawed about the divisive Deathriders story. The pair worked a slow and drab match with an interference-heavy layout, atypical of AEW's aforementioned banger protocol, and did so in the main event of a Revolution pay-per-view with at least two matches that many would put in their match of the year lists. It felt completely incongruous, which in turn made Moxley's gang's mission look like it'd destroy AEW's credibility as a shoot before it could rebuild anything as a work. 

It was topped off by Christian Cage's failed late-stage executing of his title shot contract - a "cash-in" so alienating in how close it was to a WWE trope that Tony Khan eventually changed the rules to remove the surprise element for future contract-holders. Moxley ended up beating Cage to win the match, which created the further consequence of yet another bout between him and Cope to finally close that loop. 

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett