8 Match Star Ratings For AEW Revolution

5. Kenny Omega & Hangman Page Vs. The Young Bucks - World Tag Team Championship Match

Jon Moxley
AEW

One of the greatest tag team matches in the history of professional wrestling, this was a storytelling masterpiece with boundless layers and a thick, agonising atmosphere worked with an electric poignancy and thrilling energy that escalated and escalated and escalated and escalated and f*cking escalated to an unforgettable conclusion.

Kenny Omega protested Hangman Page's snug, nasty offence early. He wanted to wrestle a gentleman's contest with his best friends. This was echoed by Nick Jackson, but Page and Matt Jackson could not and would not adhere to the code. Page spat in his face. Matt roared through his injured back to work an overt heel role that was still so admirable that the molten Chicago fans could not bring themselves to truly hate him. Conflict pervaded everything: the heart of the audience, the work, even the teams.

Late in the match, Hangman Page struck the One-Winged Angel. Just days earlier, to vanquish PAC, Omega did not borrow from Page's arsenal. He used former partner Kota Ibushi's Kamigoye. This exceptional narrative masterclass, told - congruously - through jaw-dropping, state-of-the-art in-ring content, built several matches within a match and a match beyond itself.

The Bucks attempted to put Omega away with the Golden Trigger, and in an absolutely transcendent moment, Omega kicked out at one, incensed at the disrespect shown...to his old partner. Again, he showed far more love to Kota Ibushi than his current teammate. This subtext doubled as an exhilarating sequence that didn't require prior knowledge to get over as a moment of all-time pro wrestling drama.

The Elite have pioneered, perfected and now transcended a new mode of pro wrestling narrative enriched by unsurpassed detail. To use a video game analogy, it can be enjoyed equally between beginner and expert mode.

This was the best wrestling match of 2020.

Star Rating: ★★★★★

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!