AEW – The Strong Style Smark

AEW Double or Nothing 2021: Every Match Ranked

Another Pay-Per-View is behind us. Some got double, some got nothing (I don’t understand this metaphor), but generally, it was a pretty good night of wrestling. I don’t think it ranks among AEW’s best, but that’s a pretty high bar, and I still found the show entertaining. Let’s just talk about the matches.

10 – Cody Rhodes def. Antony Ogogo

As much as I had a strong disliking toward the story of this match, I thought the action itself could still be good. I was wrong.

It wasn’t necessarily bad; it just felt a bit heartless compared to everything else on the show. It only went 10 minutes, and nothing memorable happened during it. Ogogo came out of the gate with a bit of fire, Cody mounted a comeback, they traded momentum for a bit, and that was that. The commentators were desperately selling it as some huge moment and tough triumph for Cody, but it’s just not.

I’ve often defended Cody when people talk about him having too much of an ego, but with every pointless and heatless major win like this, I’m starting to come around to that way of thinking. What was the benefit of this? The crowd were noticeably quieter during this match than most of the show, save for some half-arsed USA chants. Cody didn’t beat a particularly strong opponent, and Ogogo looks pathetic in defeat. What was the point? Other than an ego wank from Cody with a chance to be America’s “hero”.

9 – Jungle Boy Wins The Casino Battle Royale
(Winner Receives A Future AEW World Championship Match)

I mentioned in my predictions that this battle royal format was a little awkward. Although I said that, I have by and large enjoyed all of them up until now. However, watching this one on Sunday, it made all of this format’s flaws really obvious.

Competitors entering five at a time just flat-out does not work. It’s awkwardly paced as each person has to get their own music, but it means that none of them get to have a chance to shine on their own as they come in the ring. People don’t get to come into the match full of steam and clean house to look good. They just immediately fade into the background. On top of that, so much time is spent on entrances that the pacing of the match feels disjointed. Eliminations get missed, spots get overlooked, and it can be hard to tell who’s even in the match sometimes.

When the match got good was towards the end. The Joker entrant, Lio Rush (who I’m pleased to see), got a great moment to shine in their entrance, and they got in the ring. Then, once the field had cleared, the story with Matt Hardy & Private Party got to take the forefront, and things were more compelling. The final sequence with Christian & Jungle Boy was great too, and I’m pleasantly surprised by the winner.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You’re never going to beat the Royal Rumble, so stop trying to be the Royal Rumble because all it does is make me wish I was watching the Royal Rumble.

8 – Sting & Darby Allin def. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page

I don’t have a great deal to say about this one. It was good, but nothing particularly special. It’s nice to see Sting wrestle again, and it’s clear he’s still got some left in the tank, which is always good.

I just want to see both him & Allin used differently now. I’d rather see Sting mentoring Allin in a singles capacity at this point rather than random tag matches that damage the credibility of mid-card heels.

7 – The Inner Circle def. The Pinnacle
(Stadium Stampede)

I promise this is the last match I’m going to moan about, but this match didn’t really click with me.

For context, I loved last year’s Stadium Stampede match. It had tonnes of memorable moments and gripped me for the entirety of its 30-minute runtime. This one was not even remotely like that, and it was a huge detriment to the match’s quality.

The intensity of this feud was through the roof, and they tried to play the Stadium Stampede match a lot more seriously because of it, and that is where this match fell short. The entire concept is inherently silly, so you’ve got to play up to that fact. Rather than a long string of memorable and entertaining spots, this match was just people wandering around, punching and occasionally hitting each other with things.

Just off the top of my head, I could give you a laundry list of memorable moments from last year’s Stadium Stampede. The charge at the start. The Northern Lights suplex across the field. One of the Young Bucks Moonsaulting off of the goal post. Page wandering around on a horse. The Omega & Page bar fight and several others that I’m leaving out, so this doesn’t go on too long.

Compare that to this year, what are people going to remember in a year’s time? The Inner Circle’s entrance, absolutely, that was brilliant, but in the actual match? Not a lot. The “disco” fight was pretty memorable, I guess, but I’d be hard-pressed to think of anything else. The motorbike/golf cart chasing Shaun Spears was good, but even that was just a callback to last year’s match.

At the end of the day, it was fine and still held my attention throughout. I just don’t think it justified the 30 minutes it had this time around.

6 – Miro(c) def. Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)

Yup, thumbs up for this one.

It was pretty short, clocking in at just under 10 minutes, but the intensity that both men brought to it felt like it justified the shorter runtime. Miro is finally unleashed in his full potential, and it’s as glorious as we all knew it would be. Naturally, Archer responded to his style of offence in kind, and the match held the feeling of two men really trying to crush each other.

It worked somewhat slowly throughout the middle, but the hard-hitting style both wrestlers brought made up for it, and the flurries of fast stuff mixed in there wrapped it all together nicely.

I’m not the biggest fan of Archer taking yet another major loss like this, but I can understand that it’s probably worth it for the sake of building Miro up as a monster. I’m excited to see where this title reign goes, Miro has shown throughout his career that he can work against both big & small guys, so there’s some interesting dynamics to play around with throughout his reign.

5 – Serena Deeb(c) def. Riho
(NWA World Women’s Championship)
(Buy-In)

A pretty simple but very engaging match. Maybe it’s because WWE has conditioned my expectation of pre-show matches to be so low, but I was surprised at how much these two were able to get in.

Serena was great at getting the crowd to turn on her from the get-go. I didn’t realise that she’d become a heel on NWA programming, but the in-ring storytelling quickly clued me in and adjusted my expectations accordingly. Riho responded to it in the right way too. Her general presentation presents her as quite the underdog, and she knows how to play up to it.

The champion retained, but it was still a fantastic feature for both women.

4 – Hangman Adam Page def. Brian Cage

Another simple but great singles match here. They played this one very balanced in terms of momentum, which kept it interesting throughout. 12 minutes was the perfect length of time for what this match was, and the pacing flowed perfectly from start to finish. Cage’s powerful offence gave him this force-of-nature aura, but Page handled it well and told the story of learning from their first encounter.

Team Taz getting involved at the end was an interesting wrinkle. I find it interesting that almost all of the attempts at match interference on this show went wrong in one way or another. Cage’s desire to do it alone added an extra layer to the story and justified what would’ve otherwise been fairly stupid decision-making on his part.

I’m interested to see where they take his character following this. While I think he could’ve gotten more out of his run with Team Taz, at this point, I think it might be best to let it go and change his status quo. You don’t even need to turn him face. Just breaking away from Team Taz would be enough of a change to let him start fresh. As for Hangman Page, him winning was the right decision, and I’m looking forward to seeing his rise continue.

3 – Britt Baker def. Hikaru Shida(c)
(AEW Women’s World Championship)

A worthy end to Shida’s title reign.

I didn’t realise they’d given her a new title belt, but I like it. The only real problem with the original belt was how pitifully tiny it was, and this fixed that. Now it looks like a throwback belt with a modern style, and I like it.

The match itself had a lot to love. Not as quickly paced as I would’ve liked, but most other aspects of the match made up for that shortcoming. The momentum shifted gradually between each woman, and that combined with the ramping up in intensity for a compelling contest. The styles between these two meshed in the way I had hoped, and it brought the shine out of both of them.

The story elements were great too. Despite the crowd largely being pro-Britt, she stayed true to her character and did everything in her power to turn them against her. Admittedly, it didn’t work, but I still enjoyed watching it. Rebel’s interference going wrong was a great dramatic moment, although I’m glad it was only a false finish. I’m sure something will come of that in the long term.

The finish made both women look pretty good too. Shida wasn’t soundly out-wrestled, but she made a mistake and got caught by a competitor on her level who knew how to make the most of it. With Britt at the top, I’m confident AEW’s women’s division will reach the status it deserves at last.

2 – The Young Bucks(c) def. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston
(AEW World Tag Team Championship)

This was definitely the most fun match of the evening.

The story between these two teams focusing on a pair of shoes was an odd choice. I know it was symbolistic of the wider conflict, but still, especially considering how little bearing they ended up having on the match. Also, before I get into the match properly, did The Young Bucks pay off that referee or something? Both Bucks were in the ring for almost the entire match, and the referee didn’t even try to count them out, but he still had a go at Kingston for even thinking about it.

The action was fantastic throughout this match. With how dominant of a champion he was, it’s easy to forget how great Moxley is at taking a beating. He got his clock cleaned by the Bucks at almost every opportunity but still came out of that gate swinging in the way only he can. Kingston got to be the controlling factor for his team, but the Bucks still found a weakness to exploit. That was a great device to turn momentum back the Bucks whenever it was needed.

Towards the end, when things got more chaotic was when things hit their peak. The kickout at one was nice, although I feel like that’s becoming a bit of an overused trope, especially considering we basically never saw it a couple of years ago. Things went off with a bang in the final sequence, with the exception of the actual finish, which felt like more of a whimper. However, it couldn’t take away from what was a fantastically entertaining bout.

1 – Kenny Omega(c) def. Orange Cassidy & Pac
(AEW World Championship)

Triple threat matches are just the most entertaining things.

The balance of power between all three guys was really interesting. I said in my predictions that Orange Cassidy would serve as more of an exclamation point on the match, and I think that was more or less the role he filled. While the crowd loved all three guys, it was clear they were fully behind Cassidy, and whenever he popped back in the ring for a few quick punches, it was a joyous occasion.

Pac & Omega trying to out-wrestle each other helped carry the bulk of the action and gave things the technical flavour we love to see. Both men are very familiar with each other by this point, and it shows, as the ebb and flow of the match never faltered. The tropes of triple threat matches are very well established by this point, but I feel like this match didn’t lean on them too heavily. While there was some amount of powdering out, I feel like all three men were a featured part of the action for more of the match than not.

Things got a bit convoluted towards the end but in the right kind of way. Kenny using all four of his belts to clobber Pac was a cool twist on an established spot, and the ridiculous amount of false finishes were a lot of fun. The final one was especially great and does everything it needed to for Orange Cassidy. He almost caught Omega on several occasions and only lost because of some quick thinking on Kenny’s part. Both Cassidy & Pac can be waiting in the wings now and can be pushed back into the title picture whenever they’re needed.

AEW Double or Nothing 2021: Predictions & Analysis

It’s been a rather eventful couple of months for AEW since their last Pay-Per-View. Their arrangements with Impact & NJPW have clearly boosted all companies involved. Impact especially feels like it’s hotter than ever right now, and you’ve got to give AEW some credit for that.

As much as it’s all been pretty cool, I haven’t been keeping up with Dynamite on a week-to-week basis as much as I would’ve liked recently. In fact, I’ve watched more episodes of NXT UK over the past month than Dynamite. That said, I’ve done my best to catch up with all the goings-on and make my predictions for Double or Nothing, which looks to be a brilliant show!

Serena Deeb(c) vs Riho
(NWA World Women’s Championship)
(Buy-In)

AEW’s women’s division is slowly improving. Not enough to get more than one match on a Pay-Per-View, but one step at a time, I guess.

I don’t think there’s a great deal to be said about this match. Both women are fantastic wrestlers who will no doubt be involved in the title scene sooner rather than later, but for now, they’ve just got to have matches to stick in our minds.

I’ll go with Serena Deeb to retain. As great as Riho is, the NWA Women’s title doesn’t seem like a good fit for her, and with NWA running their own shows again, I doubt they’d want the title to change hands on an AEW pre-show.

Hangman Adam Page vs Brian Cage

Page’s trajectory continues to be an interesting one. I still think he’s on track to eventually be the person to dethrone Omega as champion, but he’s definitely taking the long road to get there.

Cage is a great competitor, and I’m glad AEW are still finding good spots for him. He’s one of those people that I feel could fade from TV at any moment without anyone really noticing. That sounded like more of an insult than I meant it to be, but the point still stands. His win over Page was a surprising upset, as I did not expect Page to be taking any major losses this year, but it worked out well in terms of this story.

Page should hopefully come into this one with a lot of fire in this one, and the story can play with the mistakes he made in their first match together. I think Hangman Adam Page is going to get his win back here. As I’ve said, he needs to be on an upward trajectory now, and while another loss to Cage wouldn’t be the worst thing, a win seems like a better outcome.

Cody Rhodes vs Antony Ogogo

Sod this. Sod this so much.

I know the whole feud hasn’t been about the “yay America” thing, but its presence has really overwhelmed the feud. The whole schtick feels so outdated by this point, and I don’t see what this feud has to gain from it. Rhodes is an expert at creating emotional matches while facing down bigger opponents, playing on that would’ve been easy to create a compelling story.

I get it, the pro-USA stuff does good for the live crowds, but this is a company with an international audience. At best, people in non-USA countries have no reason to care, and at worst, they feel directly alienated because they’re being told that their country is the bad country. It doesn’t matter what country it is; I think the overall negative reception to Cody’s recent promos should be proof enough that it just doesn’t work anymore.

If this were WWE, I wouldn’t think twice about the pro-America person getting the win, but I’d like to think AEW would be more willing to take the risk of having Ogogo win. That said, now Cody’s using Dusty’s “American Dream” moniker, I don’t see him losing. Cody Rhodes winning will be a nice moment for the live crowd at the very least.

Sting & Darby Allin vs Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page

I can’t help but feel like this partnership with Sting is why Allin lost the TNT title. Not to say his run with Sting hasn’t been good, I just think he should’ve been given more of a chance to flourish on his own as a singles competitor with the title. He still defended it plenty, but it always felt secondary to whatever he was doing with Sting.

On top of that, is this really the best use of Sting? Sure, putting him in a singles match might be a terrible idea this late in his career, but what is anyone getting out of Sting feuding with Sky & Page, two (admittedly great) mid-card talents who have little to do with each other? It’s nice that the two of them are getting featured on Pay-Per-View, but losing to Sting & Allin can’t be a good look, right?

Or maybe they’ll win? It’d certainly be a nice surprise if they did. I’d originally considered picking Sky & Page for the reasons I said above. There’s nothing to gain from them losing, so surely they should win? Then I thought about it some more and realised Allin’s coming off a big loss to Miro, so he should probably get some heat back, and this is Sting’s first match in front of a full live crowd since his AEW debut, so it’ll probably be Sting & Darby Allin with the win.

Casino Battle Royale
(Winner Gets A Future AEW World Championship Match)

It’s battle royale time!

I’m not too convinced the Casino Battle Royale is that great of a format. It’s more interesting than a straight-up battle royal, I’ll admit. However, with the entrants coming in groups of five, it makes everyone feel less indistinguishable and like they all get less of a chance to shine, other than the Joker. All-in-all, it just feels like a kinda cheap Royal Rumble, which is such a top-tier piece of booking perfection, it’s better to not even try and replicate it.

Looking at the lineup we’ve got set out before us, I can’t see many viable contenders for the win. Matt Hardy is a possibility, that would make a nice dynamic with Omega. You should never count Penta out of the running. There’s a possibility Andrade shows up to put a spanner in things, but picking someone who’s not even in the match is generally a poor decision for predictions.

In the end, I’m going to go with who everyone else seems to be going with, and that’s Christian Cage. His story with Omega would likely be really good and would parallel Edge’s Wrestlemania story too (probably ending in the same crushing loss).

The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle
(Stadium Stampede)
(If The Inner Circle Lose, They Must Disband)

What a crazy couple of month’s it’s been. At the start of the year, everyone was picking all kinds of crazy directions the Jericho/MJF story could go in. Would MJF depose Jericho as the group’s leader? Would the tension between Sammy & MJF tear the group apart? As always, MJF went with option C and tore the whole thing to shreds, starting a brand new faction that has been looking very strong ever since its formation.

I didn’t expect to see another Stadium Stampede match, but given the success of the first one, I don’t blame them for trying. It’ll be interesting to see how this will mesh with the live crowd. As entertaining as it is, I doubt they’ll have them staring at a screen for half an hour. Whatever happens, my expectations are high.

Picking a winner is a bit difficult. The Pinnacle got the win at Blood & Guts, so it wouldn’t hurt them to take a loss in this one. However, the stipulation of The Inner Circle breaking up if they lose has pushed me the other way. The Inner Circle has been around almost since the very beginning of AEW, we’ve seen all of those guys in the same formula for almost two years now. I think it’s probably time for everyone to move on. I know they have, for the most part, been great, but everyone involved is more than ready to break out on their own.

It’s a tough call because I could easily see this being a feel-good face victory, but I’m going with The Pinnacle.

Miro(c) vs Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)

Wow. I mean, we all had a feeling that his partnership with Kip Sabian was holding Miro back, but who knew he’d rise so quickly after ditching him?

Miro’s TNT title win was one of those decisions that seemed shocking and unusual in the moment but actually makes a lot of sense the more I thought about it. Allin was too busy dealing with Sting to bother with that title, so let’s get it away from him and do something more interesting with it, like a big ol’ hoss fight.

Lance Archer is an incredible talent. Whenever he’s on-screen, his whole performance sets the atmosphere on fire, and I love that. Jake Roberts is the ultimate mouthpiece for the guy, and amazingly, he works as both a heel and face. When it comes to the meshing of in-ring styles, I think Archer will have no trouble clicking with Miro for a heavy-hitting encounter.

I’m a little conflicted on the winner, though. Normal wrestling logic would dictate that Miro should retain since he’s only just won the title. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that Miro’s title win might just be to get the belt on Archer without having to do a face vs face fight. It would be a shame, but I’d also have no complaints as I love Archer right now. You could even create a scenario where the two trade the belt once or twice just so Miro isn’t left in the dust. It’s a risky pick, but I’m going with Lance Archer to get the title.

The Young Bucks(c) vs Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

The Young Bucks’ trajectory as of late has been interesting. All the weird non-drama of what may or may not be going on backstage aside, their heel turn has been weirdly understated. They aligned themselves with Omega, which isn’t even remotely a surprise, but given Omega was already doing really well with Gallows & Anderson, they felt a bit like secondary henchmen, which they never should.

Still, this feud with Moxley & Kingston has been pretty good on the whole. Moxley & Kingston have felt like kindred spirits ever since they first started feuding. Their chemistry and history was clear from the moment they appeared on screen together. Putting them in as a tag team is the perfect use of both men now Moxley is out of the title scene. It’s true that, if this were WWE, I’d criticise such a decision, but the difference is that I know AEW treats their tag division with some respect.

I could honestly see this one going either way. It may just be me, but it still feels like The Young Bucks have only just won the titles, even though they’ve held them for over 6 months, so I’m apprehensive to say they’ll lose. Then again, Moxley & Kingston are a really hot tag team at the moment, and a run with the titles would be a fantastic use of both men, so…flip a coin, I guess?

When in doubt, pick the champs to retain, so that’s what I’m doing. The Young Bucks win.

Hikaru Shida(c) vs Britt Baker
(AEW Women’s World Championship)

At last, we reach the point that the AEW Women’s Division feels like it’s been inexorably sliding towards since AEW’s announcement.

That makes it sound like I think it’s a bad decision, but in actuality, I think Britt Baker as women’s champion is the very best option for the company. She’s been far and away the best character in the division since its inception and is one hell of a wrestler with some brilliant matches under her belt. Her Lights Out match with Thunder Rosa shot her popularity into the stratosphere too.

Shida’s title reign has been a bumpy one. When given the chance to shine, it has been one of the best parts of AEW programming, as her matches with Nyla Rose will attest. The problem is those opportunities have come few and far between. Thankfully, the women’s division is getting more expansive and treated better in AEW. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s absolutely heading in the right direction, and Britt Baker as champion is what it needs to get to where we all want it to be.

In case I hadn’t already made it obvious, I’m picking Britt Baker to win the title. It just has to happen.

Kenny Omega(c) vs Orange Cassidy vs Pac
(AEW World Championship)

AEW has this amazing talent for giving us unexpected but brilliant world title feuds.

I did not see Orange Cassidy getting anywhere near the world title scene for a while. As great as he is, I’m not sure if people would’ve bought him in a singles feud for the title just yet. However, they went about it perfectly and carefully crafted a feud that has got him over as a main eventer better than any singles match could’ve.

First of all, him & Pac put on a great number 1 contender’s match on Dynamite. Putting Pac in the feud two gives things a great dynamic, as it allows Cassidy to be more of an exclamation point on the match than anything else. Pac vs Cassidy last year was easily one of Cassidy’s best ever matches, so pulling in that opponent specifically was a great choice.

That said, Kenny Omega is not losing that title anytime soon. His run as the belt collector with the AAA & Impact titles has been one of the most exciting stories in wrestling of late, and there’s no way he’s losing the AEW title before he loses both of the other titles first. That said, this match will put Cassidy in the position of the credible main-eventer he should be, which is all I think anyone really wanted out of this feud. So good job.

AEW Revolution 2021: Every Match Ranked

AEW’s first Pay-Per-View of 2021 is behind us, and honestly, I think this is one of the rare times where a show perfectly matched my expectations. It was a good show that I had a fun time watching, but I wouldn’t rank it among AEW’s best. There were some surprises, some great matches, some…interesting decisions and a whole lot to talk about, so let’s do that.

9 – PAC & Rey Fenix won the Casino Tag Team Royale
(Winner gets a match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships)

In my predictions video, I described this as a ‘tag team Royal Rumble’ and…yeah, that’s pretty much what it was, although I don’t think it lived up to the prestige of that name.

This wasn’t a bad match, and I’ll talk about what I liked in a moment, but I think there were some major flaws with this one. For one thing, the pacing felt way off, especially around the middle. There were spots and people doing wrestling moves, but there weren’t any ‘moments’ to tide us over between entrants. On top of that, the entrants should’ve been given a lot more fanfare. For one thing, I didn’t even know how far along we were or when the last entrant had come in until the commentary team told me.

On top of that, I didn’t like having the countdown visible for the whole 90 seconds. Firstly, it’s really distracting when it’s in the centre of the screen; it was what my eyes were naturally drawn to rather than the in-ring action. Secondly, it meant they had to very strictly stick to it, which isn’t the worst thing, but I would’ve preferred it if they had ‘kayfabed’ the timer (like in Royal Rumbles) if it made the flow of the match feel better and made moments go off with more of a bang. There were a couple of times in this match where a significant spot/elimination was overshadowed by a team entering the match, or vice versa.

That brings me to my other issue, which is that none of the eliminations felt like they had any real impact; they all just sort of…happened. Not to mention towards the end of the match, they were happening so quickly that I barely had time to digest each one.

However, there was still stuff I liked, most of it was in the final few minutes, though. Using John Silver & Jungle Boy as make-shift partners against the heels made for a compelling finish, and they teased the final eliminations just enough to keep me going until the end. It was just a bit of a rough journey getting there.

8 – Miro & Kip Sabian def. Best Friends

I liked this match, it was just a bit short. It’s not that big of a deal; on a show with 9 matches – 3 of which went over 20 minutes – there was going to have to be a short one. As such, it felt like it started halfway through, with Best Friend having been beaten down off-camera before the match started. I actually thought it was a good way to start things, and I like that not everything has to be on camera in AEW, they give us enough credit to work out what happened when the cameras weren’t there.

The bulk of the match was fun, it just didn’t have any unique pop to it. Orange Cassidy did his thing and hit his moves. The two teams traded momentum for five minutes, and then we went to the finish. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. As I said, it has its place on the card, it’s just not going to make me all that hyped.

Miro getting the win was the right decision, and there’s the threat of Miro causing Penelope Ford to take a tumble that they can pull on and hopefully pull Miro away from his pairing with Sabian.

7 – Hikaru Shida(c) def. Ryo Mizunami
(AEW Women’s World Championship)

Every now and then, I get a match like this where I can watch it and analyse it and see that it’s a great match. It hits all the right beats and has technical workings in there that I enjoy. And yet…I just don’t connect with it. For whatever reason, be it the story, or the placement on the card or some tick in my mind, I didn’t get invested in this match despite being able to see that it was good.

Shida & Mizunami had evident chemistry, which is no surprise given their history in Japan. I’d say the middle portion was this match’s strongest point. With the face vs face dynamic, neither woman was ever going to dominate the other, and the middle is where I think the flow of momentum was the best. It took a little while to get going at the start, and I think it really petered out by the finish. For some reason, all of the passion and brutality between the two women we saw in the middle evaporated by the finish. Shida hit a move…then another move…then another move, and that was it. The result was that despite going for 15 minutes, I came away from the match feeling underwhelmed.

6 – Britt Baker & Maki Itoh def. Riho & Thunder Rosa
(Pre-show)

There’s really nothing complicated about this one. It was a really good tag match between four women who will hopefully be much bigger stars in the weeks and months to come.

Bringing in Maki Itoh was a good move here. Despite being eliminated in the first round of the women’s tournament, people really connected with her, and I can’t say I blame them. Her style plays differently from what most of the other Joshi wrestlers have to offer, and she’s exceptionally charming on social media…in a very sweary way. I’m glad AEW stuck to their guns and are keeping her as a heel, though. It would’ve been easy to just make her a face, but you’ve got to play to people’s strengths and to turn her face might’ve made her get lost in the sea of face women’s wrestlers AEW currently has under their belt.

That’s all I’ve got to say, the match was very enjoyable to watch, but there isn’t anything particularly special to talk about. I’m just waiting for the day when AEW finally stop spinning its wheels with Britt Baker and put her in the title scene.

5 – Sting & Darby Allin def. Team Taz
(Street Fight)

I didn’t realise this match would be pre-taped when I wrote my predictions, but I’m happy it was. My biggest worry was how exposed Sting could look if he had to wrestle a full-length match in front of a crowd like this, but the controlled setting in which this match was set was perfect.

The dingy setting of the abandoned warehouse was the right choice as it made the whole thing feel extremely back-alley. It played into Allin’s gimmick and aided many of the spots they had planned for the match. The action did lull in certain places, but it kept me engaged for the majority of its runtime and the high spots were definitely worth it. Allin going through the glass was visually fantastic, and the elbow drop through the hole in the ground was a wonderful exclamation mark on the match that made Allin look brilliant.

One thing for which I’d really like to commend this match is having Taz commentating over the thing. Many of these cinematic matches forgo commentary entirely, but this match showed the benefit of using it when you get it right. Taz’s input really helped tell the story of this match, which could be a little murky at times without commentary on it, and his emotion felt really genuine, which sold the match wonderfully.

This match is a good summary of this show, on the whole, now I think about it. It wasn’t the best cinematic match ever, but still very good and a worthy entry into the history books.

4 – Kenny Omega(c) def. Jon Moxley
(AEW World Championship)
(Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch)

So let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first: the closing ‘explosion’ spot was shite. In an interview, Tony Khan said it was the best they could do without actually blowing up the ring, but that just isn’t true. I’ve seen exploding deathmatches before, and it’s not that difficult to make the explosion look good. Just shoot up a bunch of smoke and sparks ALL THE WAY around ringside, so the ring is momentarily covered by the smoke & sparks. It still won’t look like a real explosion, but it’d at least look like they tried. It seems they’re going with the narrative that Kenny (in kayfabe) just did a shitty job of rigging up the explosive, which I guess works, but it really left the show – which was a good show – on a crappy note. I did like Eddie Kingston coming out and doing what he did though, I really felt the emotional impact of that moment.

So what about the match itself? As I said, I went into it with an open mind as I really didn’t know if I’d like this kind of match. Now it’s over, and I can conclusively say…I think I liked it? I definitely didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t like this amazing revelation of a new style of wrestling I love either. It had ups and downs. As far as spectacle is concerned, it was great (except for the ending), the explosives having this constant presence in the match gave every move some level of tension, and it was always a bit of a shock when one went off, even if it was telegraphed. On the downside, when there weren’t crazy weapon spots or explosions going off, it was boring. Admittedly, that wasn’t very often, but there were periods where my interest waned.

I also wasn’t a fan of the booking of the finish. I get that Jon Moxley is one of the hottest properties out there right now, and you want to protect him, but having the Good Brothers show up and cost him just felt kinda cheap. I know that’s the point, to a certain extent, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. The exploding barbed wire bat was super cool, though. I’m happy Omega retained, but I want to see him do something different now.

3 – Hangman Page def. Matt Hardy
(Winner gets the 2021 Q1 earnings of the loser)

I’d say this is the best regular singles match Matt Hardy has had in…10 years? Maybe more?

It wasn’t the most technically incredible of matches, but the story was there to give it all the heat it needed. In the same way that I failed to connect with the women’s title match, I absolutely connected with this one. It hit all of the beats it needed to and never felt like it was outstaying it’s welcome. It favoured a very steady build with momentum going back and forth the entire time. Truthfully, I think both of these guys have very similar in-ring styles, which is a big reason as to why it worked so well. Both men can pick up and slow down the pace at will with a mixture of hard-hitting strikes and visually impressive manoeuvres.

Whenever Matt has a match these days, it seems to be a coin flip as to whether he’ll look rusty & exposed or as good as he always has, and you can never really tell which one you’re going to get until the match starts. Thankfully, we got the good one here. Page, meanwhile, continues to be one of the best and most easy to like wrestlers in AEW at the moment. You can tell he’s been around Kenny & the Bucks for ages because he has such a firm grasp of how to tell stories in the ring, even through subtle ways.

In my predictions, I thought Matt winning would be the more interesting story, but having seen how this one turned out, I think I was wrong to say that. It’s clear AEW isn’t handing Page a loss anytime before he challenges (and hopefully wins) the world title, and I’m on board with it, Hardy will be able to keep doing his thing regardless, and Page can move on to someone new.

2 – The Young Bucks(c) def. The Inner Circle
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

Another excellent tag match by The Young Bucks…what more do you really want me to say? Admittedly this one didn’t quite live up to their other significant matches but, to be fair, that is a VERY high bar to clear. The actual story beats between the two teams were ok going in, but they really made something of them in the match. The Bucks came out of the gate with a much harder style than what we usually see from them. It didn’t last once things got going, but it gave the match a different feel in the beginning.

As expected, they did a good job of showing how the Bucks wrestle as a team compared to Jericho & MJF, who wrestled as individuals. The heels were very rarely working in the ring together, and when they were, Jericho was directing traffic. Conversely, you have the Bucks who work together at every opportunity and rarely even need to tell each other what to do. It’s this kind of dynamic that made their match with FTR work so well, and I’m glad they’re still putting an emphasis on it here.

The Bucks retaining was the right choice. The Inner Circle are only about half a step away from collapsing (we may even see it happen on Wednesday), so putting the titles on them now would’ve been relatively pointless. The Young Bucks will probably be champs for the better part of this year, and I’m all in favour of that decision as long as we keep getting matches like this.

1 – Scorpio Sky def. Cody Rhodes, Lance Archer, Penta El Zero Meido, Max Caster & Ethan Page
(Winner gets a match for the TNT Championship)

The one time I say Scorpio Sky doesn’t have an outside chance…

There was so much going on here, and all of it was brilliant. Ethan Page’s debut kicked things off with a bang. Like most new AEW signings, I know nothing about his prior work, but they’re treating him like a big deal, and I liked what I saw, so I’m willing to go with them.

Everyone got something worthwhile to do in this match, and no-one was ever forgotten. Page got the big spotlight as he debuted and established himself as a continuous presence in this match. Penta does what he does best and used the fast-pace to his advantage, doing something noteworthy almost any time he was on screen. Cody got the big story beat of getting hurt but fighting his way back. Caster got in on the biggest spot of the match with the elbow drop off of the ladder. Lance Archer, meanwhile, felt damn-near invincible, it always took a lot to get him out of the ring, and whenever he was in the mix, the spotlight was on him. As I said in my predictions, I think it would’ve been a bad idea for him to win, so booking him this way was the best option.

Then, of course, Scorpio Sky got the win. Like Penta, he was in the mix a lot and did a bunch of cool stuff as he did so, which helped this win feel earned. Not to say he hadn’t earned it before. He’s been someone waiting to break through for a while now. I don’t think he’s going to take the title from Allin, but I do think it’ll be a match worth talking about, and it’ll keep him around the upper mid-card until he’s ready to finally ascend.

So there you have it! Those are my thoughts on the show; thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what your thoughts were in the comments below or on Twitter @SStyleSmark. Finally, make sure to come back here this time on Saturday, where I’ll be running down my favourite Fall Guys levels!

AEW Revolution 2021: Predictions & Analysis

Despite the fact that there’s been a lot of wrestling over the past month, it feels like it’s been ages since the last AEW PPV. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s certainly better than the fatigue I get from WWE’s schedule some times, but there’s been a lot going on with their programming as of late, and it can be tough to keep track of it all sometimes with how spread out they are.

As for this card, it’s not looking like one of AEW’s best, but there’s still plenty I’m excited to see. Not to mention, it’s not like AEW have put on a crap PPV in their lifespan so far, so I don’t have really have much reason to worry.

Riho & Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker & Reba
(Pre-Show)

I’ll talk a bit more about the current state of AEW’s women’s division a little later, but the short version is, it feels like it’s on the upswing.

There isn’t that much story going into this match, but that’s ok; it’s more about showcasing the talent they have on offer at the moment. I think all four of these women could be in title contention soon, so giving them the chance to do their thing on the PPV stage is a good decision, even if it is only on the pre-show. AEW has shown before that they’re willing to give pre-show matches a proper amount of time rather than artificially cutting them short, which will absolutely be to this match’s benefit.

The result could go either way, as both teams would benefit from having a credibility boost. Since it’s a pre-show match, I will go with the default and say the faces, Riho & Thunder Rosa will win.

Miro & Kip Sabian vs Best Friends

This feud has been a bit hit or miss week-to-week on Dynamite. The overall presentation and through lines have been good, it doesn’t feel like a waste of anyone’s time. However, some individual segments, like the wedding segment, were just a bit much and outstayed their welcome.

That said, the match should be great. We haven’t really got much of a chance to see what Miro can do with the chains off, and Kip Sabian is just begging to break through in a big way. On the other side, the Best Friends have already established themselves as wrestlers that can be relied upon for great matches. I don’t think this will be a particularly long match, but I’m expecting a bit of a frantic pace and a whole heap of melodrama.

Again, I think the result could go either way. Miro should really be getting some big wins, as he’s been AEW for a while now and hasn’t got any. On the other hand, it’s Orange Cassidy who is one of the most over stars at the moment; he’s beaten Chris Jericho in singles competition more than once, so should be really be losing here? There’s a lot of outside elements in play here, and since it’s a tag match, Cassidy doesn’t need to take the pin, so I’m going to go with Miro & Kip Sabian to find a way to sneak a win.

Casino Tag Team Royale
(Winner gets a match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships)

So a lot is going on here, and about a thousand different ways things could go.

First of all, this is a Tag Team Royal Rumble, so sign me the fuck up for that. I’m excited to see how the different dynamics play out here, the ring will get pretty crowded at some point, and that should lead to a lot of enjoyable chaos. On top of that, I think there are a lot of possibilities for the winners.

All three Dark Order teams are in with a shout. Their character shift since Brodie Lee’s tragic passing has been exactly what it needed to be; there was no way that faction would ever be booed following that event. They feel like they’ve come together in a beautiful way and their presence on-screen almost always brings a smile to my face. If I had to pick one of those teams to win, I’d go with Alex Reynolds & John Silver. Silver has absolutely been the group’s breakout star, and I’d love to see him get a shot at the titles.

Santana & Ortiz would be an interesting choice for the winners, too, as you could go different ways with it depending on who wins the tag title match. If the Bucks retain, it’s a good opportunity to continue The Inner Circle vs Young Bucks feud. Meanwhile, if Jericho & MJF win, then it will push the narrative of The Inner Circle slowly falling apart.

Outside of those teams, there are a bunch of other teams with an outside chance. PAC & Fenix, Butcher & Blade, SCU and Natural Nightmares are all in with a shout. Private Party has potential too, but given that they’re currently going after the Impact tag titles, I’d doubt they’ll win.

It’s a really tough choice picking a winner, as all of them would make for good stories. In the end, I’m going to go with my gut and say Alex Reynolds & John Silver, it just feels right, and it’d work regardless of who the champs are.

Cody Rhodes vs Scorpio Sky vs Penta El Zero Meido vs Lance Archer vs Max Caster vs ???
(Winner gets a match for the AEW TNT Championship)
(Ladder)

Once again, we’ve got ourselves a multi-man match where the winner is up in the air. Let’s run through the participants.

Max Caster – Caster feels like the kind of guy where, while I don’t have to say about him now, he could easily be a big deal a year from now. He’s got tons of potential and is a great upside as a wrestler; he’s just not quite at everyone else’s level in this match yet. Hopefully, this will be a great performance for him, and I’m glad AEW are giving guys like this opportunities, but he’s not winning.

Scorpio Sky – Sky is always in these ladder matches for title shots, and every time I say he’s got an outside chance and every time, he doesn’t even get close. Every couple of months, Sky has a fantastic match with one of the more prominent names and we all rave about how he’s a future star of the company, but then nothing ever comes of it. Hopefully, one day that’ll change, but I don’t think it’s happening on Sunday.

Penta El Zero Meido – Another wrestler who always feels like they’re in these ladder matches but never actually wins any. I don’t really know what to say, he may win, but I doubt it. The Lucha Bros feel like they’ve got a vague direction right now, but I’m hoping it’ll form into something more clear soon, but I doubt that direction will be the TNT title.

Lance Archer – If the champ was anyone other than Darby Allin, I’d probably be picking Lance. I didn’t expect Archer to work as a face so well, but damn, it’s so easy to cheer for this guy. He taps into that face-monster archetype really well, and AEW could have a fantastic champion on their hands in a year or so if they build this right. However, I don’t think he’s going to win. While I’m sure a match between Allin & Archer would be great, it doesn’t make sense for them to face each other right now.

As much as I don’t really care about size in wrestling, Archer should realistically destroy Allin in a match, and that’s just not going to happen. If Archer squashes Allin, then it throws all Allin’s build down the drain, and if Allin managed to beat him, it would be a huge blotch on Archer’s record. No-one would gain anything from it, so they shouldn’t do it.

Cody Rhodes – This just feels like the best pick. Given how their previous match ended, it’s felt likely that a rematch would be on the cards; it just so happened that both men go sidetracked by other ventures before it could happen. I wouldn’t call it a sure-fire thing though, Cody’s tied up with Shaq as well right now, so that could always rear its head here and mess with Cody’s plans. It just seems to me that, out of all the announced participants, Cody is the only one that makes sense.

??? – What about the unannounced participant, though? Well, I honestly have no idea. I’d say the money is on it being someone from Impact, but I really couldn’t say who.

Either way, I’m going to go with the safe bet and say Cody Rhodes will win the title shot.

Hangman Page vs Matt Hardy
(Winner gets the loser’s 2021 Q1 earnings)

This is a weirdly interesting story and one that I think only works because of Page’s current trajectory. The whole downward spiral he’s on is the kind of story that’s going to have an incredible payoff when Page eventually beats Omega for the world title, but in the meantime, you’ve got to find ways to keep it going.

This story has been a brilliant way to keep it going. The story of him getting involved with The Dark Order but refusing to officially join them was unique and endearing for the characters on all sides, and this story with Matt is the perfect highlight of Page’s current character flaws. To be clear, I mean the kind of flaws intended by the narrative, mainly Page’s drinking, as it’s what got him into this situation in the first place. The stipulation of the winner lifting the loser’s earnings is brilliant for this story, even if we do know it’s not real. There’s this real sense that if Page loses this, he might have nothing left to keep him going and bottom out, and that’s some proper narrative stakes.

As for match quality, I’m sure it’ll be great. Page is perhaps my favourite wrestler in AEW right now regarding his ability in the ring, and Matt Hardy has proved that he’s not slowing down any time soon. I’m expecting a little bit of shenanigans from Private Party and maybe The Dark Order, but I doubt it’ll have too much bearing on the match.

When you look at who should win, it really depends where you want Page’s narrative next. Do you want him to continue his downward spiral? Or do you want this to be the point where he starts to bring him back from the brink? Personally, I would continue the downward spiral and really push the character to rock bottom. However, I don’t think that’s what AEW is going to do. With the ranking system, I’d imagine that Page isn’t going to be losing many matches this year for his eventually world title match. So I’m going with Hangman Page to win this one.

Team Taz vs Darby Allin & Sting
(Street Fight)

This story’s been a bit of a wild ride, that’s for sure. Sting’s appearance in AEW was one of those things that was shocking but inevitable. I had my doubts as to whether he’d ever wrestle (and, to be honest, I still have my doubts about how much he can go), but AEW wasted no time getting him in the ring. Allin has been a big beneficiary of this feud, which is good because I doubt it will do Team Taz many favours. While Allin hasn’t been defending his title so much because of this feud, his association with Sting (and inevitable victory) will raise his stock like a strong title defence never could.

I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this match. The street fight stipulation was definitely a good choice. It’ll allow Allin to perform at his self-destructive peak, allow Team Taz to get really vicious in their attacks and will create a naturally slower pace, so Sting doesn’t look exposed. Not to disrespect Sting, of course, but it’s been over 6 years since he last wrestled, and during that last match, he quite literally almost died in the ring, so I think I can be forgiven for worrying over how well he’ll be able to wrestle in this match.

Darby Allin & Sting are winning this. This match is by far the one I’m most confident about, Allin is a new champion who needs some wins under his belt, and this is Sting’s first match in AEW and first match in 6 years; there’s no way that team is losing. It’s a bit of a shame for Team Taz, but they can bounce back from it if that’s what AEW want for them.

The Young Bucks(c) vs The Inner Circle
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

The Inner Circle and their story has been fantastic ever since AEW began. After Jericho lost his title, it really felt like the group’s days were numbered, but they managed to turn it around and keep feeling fresh with their endeavours. Now we’re in 2021, and yet again, they’ve changed up their makeup, and we’re looking at yet another story in the group. MJF joining was perfect, and the writing surrounding this story has been incredibly compelling. The knock-on effect of MJF’s presence and Jericho’s unwillingness to bend for the good of the group has been slowly creeping in week by week, and the consequences are on the horizon.

In regards to what they’ve been doing with The Young Bucks, I’ve liked that too. It’s not been the most complex of stories thanks to what’s going on within The Inner Circle, but it’s had the impact it needed to. On top of that, the Bucks and the Inner Circle are so diametrically opposed characters right now that it just kinda works regardless. Plus, there’s the hype of the actual match. All four men are bloody brilliant wrestlers, and if the Buck’s previous tag title matches are anything to go by, there will be a properly engaging story told between the dynamics of each team.

I went back and forth on this one a few times, but now I’m writing it out, I actually feel fairly confident in picking The Young Bucks to retain. That idea of the Bucks being the most solid of teams while Jericho & MJF are two bastards that are just one bad day away from turning on each other will come in to play, and The Inner Circle just won’t be able to hang with the best. Not to mention, it finally gives Jericho a reason to doubt MJF, and the cracks in The Inner Circle can start to get bigger.

Hikaru Shida(c) vs Ryo Mizunami
(AEW Women’s World Championship)

Inarguably my biggest criticism of AEW over its small lifespan so far has been the abysmal treatment of the women’s division. This year, they’ve committed themselves to building the division up to the prominence it should have, and while there’s still a long way to go to get to where it should be, the trajectory is finally pointing upwards. This tournament has done a great job of highlighting just about every competitor who’s worth taking note of in AEW’s coming weeks and, now they’re going to have more open access to their Joshi stars again, we should start to see a much greater variety in terms of feuds and title contenders.

Regarding Ryo Mizunami, it took me a little while to come around to her, but with each match in this tournament, I’ve enjoyed her work more and more, and I’m really excited to see what she & Shida can do. Shida has always worked really well against larger competitors, and Mizunami is one of the best ‘big women’ I’ve seen in wrestling in a while.

I’m struggling to pick a winner, though. Logic says that Shida should retain. Ryo is still a new star to the AEW fanbase, and putting the title on her straight away might put people off. However, this women’s tournament has felt like a big restart of the whole division, and what better way to make that statement of starting fresh than giving us a brand new champion? It’s a tough call, especially because I’m a huge fan of Shida, but I’m going to take the risky option and predict Ryo Mizunami to take the title.

Kenny Omega(c) vs Jon Moxley
(AEW World Championship)
(Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch)

Kenny Omega’s run as AEW champion has been quite a wild ride so far. Kicking things off with the partnership between AEW & Impact was one hell of a bold move, but one that absolutely worked. It built the hype surrounding this new champion, and it made me care about Impact for the first time since The Final Deletion. Seeing Kenny as a heel feels out of place, which is weird considering that’s what he was for the majority of his time in New Japan, but I’m liking it. The dude’s clearly been given a lot of creative freedom with how he operates, and he’s producing a lot of entertaining TV because of it.

An Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, though…I really don’t know how to feel. I’ve never really watched deathmatch wrestling, nor have I ever wanted to. I don’t consider myself to be all that squeamish, but some of the clips I’ve seen of deathmatch wrestling are just…a lot to look at. This isn’t going to be a watered-down version of it either, Moxley made his name in this style of wrestling, and Kenny is never one to be 1-uped, so you know he’s going to go all the way with it. That said, I did enjoy their unsanctioned match from 2019, which most people said was ‘too much’, so maybe I’ve got more of a stomach for it than I realised. As I said, I just don’t know whether or not I’m going to enjoy this, so I’m going to go in with an open mind and see how it hits me.

The one thing I am sure about, though, is that Kenny Omega is winning. Moxley was an amazing champion, and between AEW & NJPW, he’s one of the biggest stars in all of wrestling right now, but his time with that title is done. It’s time for us to see him do new and exciting things in AEW outside of the title. Similarly, Kenny’s reign is just beginning. It’s gone really well so far, and it has an extremely promising future, so he’s definitely holding onto it for a while.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post. Please, let me know what you think will happen on Sunday, either in the comments below or on Twitter @SStyleSmark. Finally, make sure you come back here this time on Monday, where I’ll be publishing my review of the show!

AEW Match of the Year 2020

It’s December! Christmas is fast approaching and it’s almost time to buy a new calendar, so you know what that means. It’s time to summarise the year! IN LIST FORM!

Truth be told, I had originally planned for this list to encompass all non-WWE wrestling, but as much as I love New Japan, I just never bothered to watch any of their major shows this year, and nothing else from the western wrestling world struck my fancy. So an AEW-dedicated list it is!

With almost two years as an entity in the wrestling world, AEW has shown that the modern wrestling landscape is more than ready to welcome a WWE alternative with open arms, and they have produced some incredible shows this year. So many incredible shows, in fact, that I couldn’t narrow this list down to the standard ten entries, so here are my twelve favourite matches that happened in an AEW ring in 2020!

11 – Jon Moxley(c) vs Eddie Kingston – Full Gear
(AEW World Championship)
(I Quit)

At Full Gear 2019, Moxley & Omega had a hardcore match that divided opinion across the fanbase. While I enjoyed the match, I can see the argument that it felt a lot like uber-violence just for the sake of uber-violence, and the story didn’t necessarily warrant it. So, at Full Gear 2020, Moxley featured in another hardcore match, but this time, the uber-violence was all part of the story, and it made things so much better.

The sense of desperation that came from Eddie Kingston’s character going into this match manifested itself in his actions. Almost every weapon was brought into the match by Kingston and I could really feel the vicious impact behind each strike. The way Kingston cringed in pain as he wrapped the barbed wire around his own hand showed how dark of a place he’d gone to, and how he was willing to give up sacrifice just about anything to put Moxley away.

Moxley meanwhile gave it his all and met everything Kingston hit him with by hitting him right back. The story emphasised the past relationship between the two men, and Moxley’s performance definitely brought that to the forefront. What I like is that, despite clearly caring for Kingston, he didn’t hold himself back, he still got dirty and hurt Kingston as much as he could, because beating him this badly would be the only way to get him to stop.

There’s so much in that final image of Moxley choking Kingston out with his arm wrapped in barbed wire. It was violence for the sake of the story, which will always be better than violence for the sake of violence.

10 – The Elite & Matt Hardy vs The Inner Circle – Double or Nothing
(Stadium Stampede)

At Wrestlemania, WWE put their cards on the table and laid claim to being really good at the pre-recorded segments. I’ll talk about those segments in a couple of weeks, but after that show, all eyes were on AEW to see what they could come up with in response. While I prefer WWE’s matches to this one, it’s still bloody brilliant to watch.

Thanks to the sheer volume of people involved in the match, this ended up being extremely well-paced. They gave themselves a whole stadium to play with and then sent the characters out into it to do just about anything they can think of. We got a comical charge across the field to start the action, and some stuff in the world’s most pointless ring, but the real fun stuff was once the gang split up to look for clues.

I know the meme was of Sammy Guevara getting chased by a golf-cart, but I think that pales in comparison to Hangman Page charging across the football field on horseback to hunt Sammy down. That particular thread led us to the brawl in the bar, which had some surprisingly impressive action with Omega kicking the shit out of everyone in sight. Elsewhere in the arena, Matt Hardy was being his brilliantly comedic self while fending off Santana & Ortiz. Seeing Matt transform into all of his different gimmicks mid-match is one of those moments that just has to happen in a comedy match like this one.

The whole final segment down on the field was jam-packed with brilliance too. The Young Bucks doing dives off of every tall thing they can find is always a spectacle, along with the world longest Northern-Lights suplex segment across the entire field. Then we get stuff like Jericho challenging the referee’s call and you’re left with something you just can’t help but laugh at. Yes, the goofiness might be a bit much in some places, but it’s ok because the match never tried to take itself seriously. It may not be anything world-breaking, but it’s endlessly rewatchable and untouchably entertaining.

9 – Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page(c) vs FTR – All Out
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

One of the main mission statements of AEW has been about making tag team wrestling the main-event level attraction we all know it could be. Throughout 2019, we didn’t see much of that, but in 2020, AEW’s tag division blew me away every single month. Trust me, we’ll be seeing both of these teams again later on the list.

This match was able to tell two main stories. One, Omega & Page are falling apart as a duo, and two, FTR is a solid unit who can divide and conquer better than anyone else. What I think made this story so special is how well Omega & Page were able to show their broken bond in the match. It wasn’t just through violent tags or ‘miscommunications’, although there was some of that, it actually felt like they were wrestling as two individuals rather than a team. We’d already seen the two of them wrestle as a near-flawless team earlier in the year (more on that later) and here they very clearly changed their styles to show how little they were relying on each other as partners.

This made FTR the perfect team to rip them apart. Their classic wrestling style already works great for keeping teams apart from each other, but when they’re going up against a team who don’t trust each other already, it’s easy pickings. In reality, it leads to both Omega & Page fighting the match 2-on-1 because they never had each other’s backs, which made the line of FTR virtually impenetrable. They still produced some amazing action and came close to victory, purely by virtual of their relative skills as wrestlers, but the lack of cohesion eventually got the better of them and FTR walked away from the worthy victors.

It was a fun match to watch that also served as the closure on Act 1 of Omega & Page’s story.

8 – Jon Moxley(c) vs MJF – All Out
(AEW World Championship)

I’ll talk about it a bit more later on, but Moxley’s reign as champion has been one of the best parts of AEW this year. What’s interesting about that is the fact that only once have I ever actually believed he might lose it, which is this match here. MJF has been on the roll of all rolls in 2020. I think we all knew he was marked for stardom as soon as AEW was founded, but this was the year where we saw that he was absolutely up to the task of carrying a huge company like AEW. So, when he came to challenge for the title, I honestly thought we were about to see the coronation.

What’s great about this match is that it was able to make both men look vulnerable in places, but in ways that were always true to their character. MJF is the kind of heel that can take a beating and always have it roll right off his back with an arrogant promo, but here it felt almost as if he was controlling the action, which isn’t what you’d expect against Moxley. It’s simple tactics that are highly effective when executed well, in this case, it’s MJF understand who Moxley is as a wrestler and doing everything he can to exploit those weaknesses. It made MJF feel like a guy who could hang with the best of the best while setting out the story for Moxley to look all the better when he came out the victor.

Outside of the story, the action was incredibly compelling. Ever since Moxley has been allowed to spread his wings he seems to be able to create magic in the ring like never before, and it really makes you wonder how WWE management never saw this guy as a potential face of the company. MJF meanwhile impresses every time he comes out to the ring, not by doing anything new, but by working with what we already have and bringing them as close to perfection as he can.

This match achieved the primary goal of any feud in pro-wrestling, it told a compelling story, that led to a really good match and both men looked better coming out of it.

7 – PAC vs Orange Cassidy – Revolution

2020 is the year where everyone realised what a star Orange Cassidy could be. As such, I had to put one of his matches from this year on this list, and this was definitely the best. The grumpy ‘old-school’ critics can moan about the comedy all they want, but Cassidy is a future top-guy in AEW and there’s no denying him.

Orange Cassidy does comedy in pro-wrestling like never before. The idea of a wrestler simply not giving a shit about anything he does is something that I wouldn’t think would work at first thought, but Cassidy was the perfect man to bring it to life. His look is one of a chill guy who just hangs around at the beach every day or his life or something like that, and the way in which he can so easily put anyone down with just a few small actions is brilliant. What’s extra amazing about it is that it isn’t just limited to his promos, he’s able to inject this feeling into the match as well, and it just works, even against someone incredibly serious, like PAC.

PAC was sadly sidelined for most of the year thanks to COVID travel restrictions, but in the brief few months we got of him, he blew the roof off of AEW. He has an insane amount of intensity to him while still feeling somewhat self-aware of how ridiculous it can seem from time to time. He can bring a laugh here and there, while still talking with such an insane amount of venom in his voice that I feel a little scared when he talks. So how does this kind of character react to someone as ridiculous as Orange Cassidy? He sinks to Cassidy’s level, of course.

The sight of Cassidy and PAC gently tapping each other’s shins while the crowd reacts like they’re murdering each other is an utterly hilarious visual that encapsulates everything wonderfully revolutionary about Cassidy’s character. Then PAC puts the topper on it by sweeping Cassidy’s legs for real and the crowd shitting all over him for it. From there, Cassidy showed the other side to his character, the side that can wrestle like you wouldn’t believe and it created a match that, despite only being twelve minutes long, got me out of my seat and popping for almost every move.

6 – Kenny Omega vs Hangman Adam Page – Full Gear
(Winner becomes #1 contender for the AEW World Championship)

As I said in my Full Gear review, what makes this match so special, is how both men clearly understood this wasn’t the end of the story, it was the middle, so they put on a match that, while still amazing, didn’t quite tie up all the loose ends just yet.

The main story this match told is how well both men know each other in the ring. Page was able to slip out of almost everything Omega threw his way while trying some new stuff to catch Omega off guard. Page also put a lot of extra force behind a lot of his moves, which is the kind of small touch needed to add intensity to the encounter. Omega played a largely reactionary role in the match that slowly grew more and more proactive as it wore on and Page slowed down. Then, by the time the ending came and Omega got the win, you get the feeling that Omega’s experience is what won it for him. He’s wrestled matches over an hour-long with Okada and won it, while Page doesn’t have that kind of stamina. You can even see it as Omega has Page on his shoulders for the one-winged angels. Page is still trying to slip out of it, but just doesn’t quite have the power left in the tank.

Story aside, the action was brilliant. The pace was near-perfect and the back-and-forth style worked wonders for the story. With Omega being in the tag division for most of the year, it’s been easy to forget how brilliantly he can control himself in the ring to put together a match that flows so smoothly you just can’t look away. Page, meanwhile, continued to show how he improves every time he steps in the ring. He was already a top-level talent, however, singles matches like this let us see that he really is on the level of the best in the world like Omega, Moxley and even people like Styles or Bryan.

5 – Nyla Rose(c) vs Hikaru Shida – Double or Nothing
(AEW Women’s World Championship)
(No Holds Barred)

For many years I’ve been heavily biased against hardcore/weapons matches. This is because they tend to be slower and more reliant on the spectacle of the big spots, which is not the kind of wrestling I like to watch. However, over this year, my stance on this has softened significantly, and it’s matches like this that I have to thank for that.

What this match had that so many of my most hated weapons matches lack is substance in every single move. So often, especially in WWE, any move that doesn’t involve a weapon in these kinds of matches is utterly meaningless, and sometimes they don’t even bother doing any, but this match understood that just using the hardcore stuff wasn’t how a compelling story is told. Instead, it blended the two styles of matches nad made as tory out of the hardcore elements.

Most notably here is the kendo stick which came in and out of the match at several points but always made an impact when it did. The way the two women wrestled for control over the weapon early on, only to eventually throw it to one side until they needed it later was some brilliant ‘Chekov’s gun’ style storytelling that is done often in weapons matches, but never to this effect. The weapons spots were bridged with a lot of regular wrestling action, but everything had an extra sting of brutality to it. Shida did the impressive kind of technical moves but put a more hard-hitting edge onto them, this meant that the weapon spots felt more natural, and had purpose, rather than just happening to pop the crowd.

While the ‘toppling the giant’ story gets less effective every time Nyla is toppled, it worked perfectly here, because despite being the underdog, there was definitely the feeling that Shida was tough enough to pull it off. We see her strategy play out in the match for how to take Nyla down, and more importantly, we saw her adapt to when the situation stopped going her way. Storytelling like that is what makes a compelling champion. It’s just a shame AEW can’t seem to book their women’s division to save their lives.

4 – Cody Rhodes(c) vs Darby Allin – Full Gear
(TNT Championship)

This made some of Cody’s more questionable wins with the TNT title totally worth it.

Cody has such a wonderful grasp of what perspective his character should take in every story that I honestly think he’s one of the best storytellers in the business right now. When he’s facing a guy like Brodie Lee, he needs to be the pure-underdog babyface, when he’s facing a guy like Chris Jericho he needs to be the hungry challenger willing to put it all on the line, but when he’s facing a guy like Darby Allin, he needs to tell a very different story.

Cody’s character has always had an ego because, to be fair, he did found AEW and has held one of its major championships for almost the entirety of its current lifespan. It’s cost him big a few times, like when he allowed MJF into his inner circle (no pun intended) or fell out with Kenny over the Bullet Club, but this feud was where it manifested and clearly became his one true weakness that his opponents can exploit. Darby Allin is the eternal underdog, he always will be, not only because of his size but because his character is built around the idea of being an outcast who never conforms, who better to rally behind?

This is where the complexity AEW allows in its stories comes into play, because despite both being faces, Cody and Allin are about as close to diametrically opposed as you can get. One wear suits and run a business, the other lives on the streets and does what he wants, of course, we’re going to root for the free spirit over the corporate lifestyle, and AEW knew that and adapted their story to it. It’s the kind of three-dimensional character work that WWE so often forgets with their stories and you can see beneficial it was here.

Everything that happened in the match was in service of the story, Cody’s dominance and his growing cockiness. The moment where he started showboating only to be scolded by Arn Anderson was such a small, but powerful moment. Even the finish, which was a rollup, enhanced the story because it exploited Cody’s ego and caught him off-guard to lose the title. They’re clearly not going for the rematch straight away, but the door is open for it down the line, and I’m really excited to see what angle they take for the next chapter.

3 – Chris Jericho(c) vs Jon Moxley – Revolution
(AEW World Championship)

When Jericho won the title in 2019, I honestly thought we were going to see him hold onto it for a LONG time, it really seemed like AEW were putting all their eggs in the Jericho basket, so I genuinely wasn’t expecting Moxley to win this match, which I think goes a long way as to why I enjoyed it so much.

I’ve touched on it a bit already but Moxley has been absolutely incredible throughout 2020 as AEW Champion. Even now his reign has ended, his run with the title this year has been a huge factor of what has made AEW so entertaining to watch week to week and absolutely put all the naysayers following his WWE exit to shame. The way Moxley carried himself as champion along with the way he’s approached every single one of his feuds is such a massive part of what has made AEW feel like a true equal to WWE this year, and even superior in terms of consistent quality.

This match was where it all began, and looking at the rest of Moxley’s title run, it was the perfect way to start it. The AEW crowd were hot for Moxley from the moment he turned up and this match capitalized on it in the best way, the fact that the two men already had experience working together in WWE probably helped them put together such a compelling match, but whatever the reason, I loved it.

The action was a lot more hard-hitting that I’d expect from a Jericho match, but it worked so well with the intensity of the feud. Moxley’s eyepatch created a classic exploitable weak spot that paid off in a spot at the end of the match that was so corny, but utterly brilliant. The action was compelling from bell-to-bell and both men really felt like they were wrestling at their best, which elevated the story and made the belt feel like a huge deal. On top of that we had all the shenanigans with The Inner Circle around the ring, and probably the best ringside ejection I’ve ever seen.

For the first world title change in AEW history, it was built in such a way to feel like a landmark moment. They littered beats throughout the match to pop the crowd bigger and bigger until Moxley won the title in what was genuinely a wonderful surprise to me.

2 – FTR(c) vs The Young Bucks – Full Gear
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

One of the key mission statements since AEW’s announcements has been their desire to change the perception of tag team wrestling as a side attraction and turn it into the main event. If these top two matches are anything to go by, I think that the main event future for tag team wrestling is going to come about sooner rather than later.

Many were disappointed by the build to this match, and I can’t say I disagree with them, but it’s a scenario where all of that is completely erased by the fact that the match itself was incredible. It was so densely packed with story beats and homages to, not just tag team history as a whole, but both team’s specific history and yet it didn’t feel overbooked for a second.

FTR’s methods of divide & conquer were on full display here, and the Bucks played off it to perfection. It created this burning desperation as I watched to see the big tags get made, and I don’t just mean one big hot-tag, I mean EVERY tag, which is an almost unbelievable thing to accomplish. These teams have almost complete opposite philosophies when it comes to their tag team styles and yet they understood the perfect way to make it mesh. We got limb targetting, we got attacking the illegal man, we got everything both teams have done to make their careers so successful.

We also got a look into how each team views tag team wrestling as a whole with all of their homages. I’ve no idea if it was intensional, but I loved the touch of the Bucks using old moves from the greatest tag teams – the Dudley Death Drop, the Twist of Fate/Swanton combo – while FTR used old moves from their greatest rivals. I honestly don’t think I marked out harder at any point this year than when FTR did #DIY’s finisher, it blew me away.

It was the kind of match, where when it was said and done, I was virtually speechless, and even now, all I can think of to say in summary is that I want more.

1 – Kenny Omega & Hangman Page(c) vs The Young Bucks – Revolution
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

This was not only my favourite AEW match of the year, it was my favourite wrestling match of the year AND may very well be my favourite tag team match of all time, but I’m going to have to rewatch #DIY vs The Revival 2 out of 3 falls to know for sure.

I mean, what can I even say to describe the action in this match? I feel like no words I could produce could do it justice because it really was the best of the best. When you get four guys who have known each other for so long and have been so close as The Elite have and you put them all in the ring together, it’s pretty much a guarantee that they’re going to make magic, but I’m not sure even they expected to put on a match this good.

It understood exactly the story it was telling. Yes, they were friends competing against each other, but the storytelling up until that point had given us a few more layers of complexity. This is where Page started drinking heavily and having those slightly uncomfortable interviews, while the Bucks let their hunger for tag gold get the better of them and were being overly aggressive/confrontational to the champs. The match used all of those elements to create a story that didn’t take centre-stage for the match but instead used it to inform the real star of the show, which was the wrestling action.

The action itself was paced to perfection. It created that ideal graph of a perfectly smooth rising curve in excitement & intensity levels, and the crowd came with them every step away. In a year where the absence of crowds has detracted from many matches, this is one that benefitted from a live audience to it’s fullest. The ‘feeling out’ process lasted quite a while, but it was littered with a bunch of cool moments and speedy action. There was never a slow moment in this match and it helped create that feeling of desperation that both teams had to end it from the very beginning.

As always in tag matches, when things broke down and chaos began to reign is where things reached a fever-pitch unequalled by anything else I saw in wrestling this year. The action was fast and brutal, with every man in the perfect place at the perfect time to do the perfect move. It’s the holy grail of matches where everything just worked and that’s all there is to it. I could sit here listing off all the cool spots, but that wouldn’t do it justice and why would I when you can just go and watch it again right now?

I’ve always loved tag team wrestling, but a match like this feels like the true realisation of just how brilliant it can be and it gives us an all-time classic in the process.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you thought were AEW’s best matches were in 2020, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back here this time next week, where I’ll be running down my favourite old games that I played for the first time in 2020!

10 – Cody Rhodes def. Antony Ogogo

9 – Jungle Boy Wins The Casino Battle Royale(Winner Receives A Future AEW World Championship Match)

8 – Sting & Darby Allin def. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page

7 – The Inner Circle def. The Pinnacle(Stadium Stampede)

6 – Miro(c) def. Lance Archer(TNT Championship)

5 – Serena Deeb(c) def. Riho(NWA World Women’s Championship)(Buy-In)

4 – Hangman Adam Page def. Brian Cage

3 – Britt Baker def. Hikaru Shida(c)(AEW Women’s World Championship)

2 – The Young Bucks(c) def. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston(AEW World Tag Team Championship)

1 – Kenny Omega(c) def. Orange Cassidy & Pac(AEW World Championship)

Serena Deeb(c) vs Riho(NWA World Women’s Championship)(Buy-In)

Hangman Adam Page vs Brian Cage

Cody Rhodes vs Antony Ogogo

Sting & Darby Allin vs Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page

Casino Battle Royale(Winner Gets A Future AEW World Championship Match)

The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle(Stadium Stampede)(If The Inner Circle Lose, They Must Disband)

Miro(c) vs Lance Archer(TNT Championship)

The Young Bucks(c) vs Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

Hikaru Shida(c) vs Britt Baker(AEW Women’s World Championship)

Kenny Omega(c) vs Orange Cassidy vs Pac(AEW World Championship)

9 – PAC & Rey Fenix won the Casino Tag Team Royale(Winner gets a match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships)

8 – Miro & Kip Sabian def. Best Friends

7 – Hikaru Shida(c) def. Ryo Mizunami(AEW Women’s World Championship)

6 – Britt Baker & Maki Itoh def. Riho & Thunder Rosa(Pre-show)

5 – Sting & Darby Allin def. Team Taz(Street Fight)

4 – Kenny Omega(c) def. Jon Moxley(AEW World Championship)(Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch)

3 – Hangman Page def. Matt Hardy(Winner gets the 2021 Q1 earnings of the loser)

2 – The Young Bucks(c) def. The Inner Circle(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

1 – Scorpio Sky def. Cody Rhodes, Lance Archer, Penta El Zero Meido, Max Caster & Ethan Page(Winner gets a match for the TNT Championship)

Riho & Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker & Reba(Pre-Show)