Every AEW PPV Ranked From Worst To Best
AEW All Out 2020 isn't winning. So what is?
For a company that exploded on the scene as a result of the EVPs transcending match quality, AEW mastered the art of episodic television before perfecting its PPV formula.
Dynamite rules. It just does.
The slow-burn elegance of the booking preserves the major matches but rewards weekly viewers with wave upon wave of low-key brilliance. The penultimate quarter hour next week rundown is as awesome as anything that actually happens on the show, in what is a true measure of how great Dynamite is as a weekly fixture. The execution of the spotlight performances is often so great that fans fantasy book matches well before the announcements. Right now, Bryan Danielson Vs. Literally Anybody is a dream match - but how much more awesome is the prospect of Bryan Danielson Vs. Dante Martin following this week's episode, on which Martin proved himself as much a mat wizard as aerial sensation?
Even the best AEW pay-per-views have dragged at some point. It's not ideal. Are they weighed down by the sense of rapt anticipation, or self-indulgence?
One pay-per-view was flawless.
The rest are up for debate, which brings us to...
11. All Out 2020
The card was good to very good in isolated moments and in retrospect.
That doesn't make for a good show.
It was all over the place. The hot opener, a blistering effort in which the Young Bucks defeated the Jurassic Express, wasn't the opener. It followed a poor cinematic Tooth & Nail match between Dr. Britt Baker and Big Swole that paled in comparison to the actual fun comedy of the storyline build. Chris Jericho Vs. Orange Cassidy's Mimosa Mayhem match was genuinely, miraculously suspenseful, since they were only teetering over wacky vats of a cocktail, but it wasn't a pay-per-view semi-main. It was a TV match masquerading as one.
Jon Moxley Vs. MJF was awesomely creative and superbly worked - two different contests worked in two different environments at which both men were respective doyens - but it was undermined by the low mood generated by Matt Hardy's awful head injury and the negligence that in effect no-sold it.
Hangman Page and Kenny Omega Vs. FTR was a great match only in theory. The paid (!) spectators barely reacted to it. The Casino Battle Royale was a disaster; the Women's Title match good but not good enough to lift the vibe.
A scary time that unfolded against a sapping backdrop, All Out 2020 was the anti-Double Or Nothing 2020: a drab reminder of and not an escape from the pandemic.