That’s right 2020, off you pop, you malodorous, feculent d**khead. Happy New Year everyone, may your year be filled with joy, two vaccinations, and a bit more bloody social contact than the last 10 hellhole months.
While the world isn’t magically better, gosh it seems slightly easier to see the horizon from this side of New Year’s Eve and falling in line with that degree of positivity, let’s talk about the very best of the best of the best wrestling matches from the last 12 months.
Proof that even as we’re burning its stamped-on remains in its shallow grave, there were still one or two moments of happiness from 2020.
Now look, I haven’t put the Firefly Funhouse on this list, because I’ve literally talked about it like 4 other lists and I guess it’s not technically a wrestling match, but just know that it’s my big avant garde sweetheart, then now forever.
That being said, I’m Adam Blampied and these are my 10 favourite wrestling matches of 2020.
10. The Women’s WarGames Match – TakeOver Wargames
What fun. Eight crazy bastards having a crazy bastard fight atop an erupting volcano. Larks.
It’s been a fairly rocky year for NXT. They’ve felt the absence of their keenly vocal fanbase perhaps more than any promotion outside AEW this year and, as such, the no-fans TakeOvers haven’t really felt like TakeOvers.
Thankfully, that all changed at TakeOver Wargames, one of the best nights in recent memory for the black and gold. Both WarGames matches were brilliant, UE vs Af-EE was better from a storyline perspective, but I simply have to give it to the women’s match.
Why? Because it had Io Shirai getting in a bin and jumping from the top of the cage. An instant meme, one of my favourite spots of the year, I can’t remember the last time I was watching wrestling and I came dangerously close to laughing up my kidneys.
The match was a bonkers, narratively threadbare spotfest, but between Shotzi’s new tank, the genius of the bins, the eclipse onto steel chairs which is a huge and wonderful yikes, and the shock win by, Raquel Gonzalez is just the funnest wrestling has been for a big old while.
9. Kyle O’Reilly vs Finn Balor – TakeOver 31
I mean, yes, it was a shame when Kyle O’Reilly performed amateur carpentry with his f**king knee on Finn Balor’s f**king jawbone, because it meant a rushed, slightly deflating finish to a match that could have shot straight to my top 3.
Simply put, both men needed a match like this. Finn’s chance to prove that he could be a completely different type of NXT Champion from his dress-up-based first go, and Kyle O’Reilly has been secretly one of the best in the world for a hot minute.
Before the injury they DID NOT DISAPPOINT, scraping the paint off each other with vicious strikes, laser-focus ring psychology and submissions for days. Balor strumming Kyle’s arm across his big old penis was a particular highlight.
Even with the rushed ending, Finn Balor’s grotesquely swollen jaw and Steve Sax & his run-in with the law, it was a star-making turn for O’Reilly and a champion cementing turn for Balor.
8. Imperium vs Undisputed Era – Worlds Collide
Weirdly, this is a case where an injury might actually have made a match… better?
Shortly into Bunch of Pricks Aluminium vs Bunch of Pricks Aluminum, Alexander Wolfe is knocked out by a kick from Bobby Fish, WWE immediately remove him from the match and suddenly it looked like the entire match was about to careen over a cliff.
Somehow, someway, they pulled off, not just a good match, but it built to a match of the year.
Instant stakes, as well as shifting the match from heel vs heel to injuring bastards vs underdogs, the match received a superdose of electricity, with UE becoming a skulk of jackals, picking apart Eichner and Barthel before their insane elephant dad tags in and Thanoses the UE to their constituent limbs amidst thunderous applause.
Yes, there are some moments of awkwardness in the match, some gaps where the remaining 7 men are scrambling to plan out a match more or less on the fly, but for how it could have fallen apart, a match of this quality is damn MIRACLE WORK.
7. Broserweights vs Undisputed Era – TakeOver Portland
And so ends the Kyle O’Reilly Does The Best Wrestling in 2020 trilogy. Well done Kyle. You get to take anything you want from the sweetie jar.
The match had Pete Dunne, Matt Riddle and Red f**king Dragon. Just so many excellent kicks. Frankly if this hadn’t been match of the night, the universe would have performed an illegal operation and would have been shut down.
At TakeOver Portland, Fish and O’Reilly defended their straps against Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle, the Broserweights, though I still contend that a tag team consisting of a stoner and a Brit should have been called High Society.
Dunne and Riddle surprised the wrestling world with their comedic chemistry, and their fluidity as a technically savage unit. However, what really makes the match sing is the persistent doubt that hung over the result.
A lot of people thought that Broserweights were only put together so they could break up and feud, and the match toys with that expectation brilliantly.
There are so many amazingly executed false finishes where the Broserweights accidentally collide and UE nearly puts them away over and over, it’s just a breathless chase to an explosive finish.
This match also proved to be something of a last hurrah for the NXT tag titles, which have for some reason, not been defended on TakeOver since.
A great shame, because tag team wrestling used to be one of NXT’s strongest assets, due in no small part to UE, possibly the greatest wrestling faction of all time?
6. Jey Uso vs Roman Reigns – Clash of Champions
God bless heel Roman Reigns. For years fans have been begging for the Big Dog to turn, and at SummerSlam the unthinkable finally happened.
And we can all feel very pleased with ourselves because yup, heel Roman is going to be the biggest star in the whole industry. Told ya
No but seriously, Reigns is doing the work of his life right now, bringing unironic villainy and earnest emotion back to the forefront of mainstream wrestling.
We’ve had wrestling matches, cinematic matches, but Reigns seems to be mastering the cinematic wrestling match, a style of minimum graps, maximum feels that actually flourishes without fans.
Yes, this style of wrestling can feel very very scripted, but so far Reigns has had the sheer charisma to pull it off, helped in no small part by a genius singles promotion of Jey Uso.
Their match at Hell In A Cell was really good, but their best work was undoubtedly Clash of Champions. Reigns’ first proper match as cemented top heel, Jey Uso an unknown quantity as a main eventer, one of the most interesting and organic backstories going into a title match in recent memory, hype was off the charts for it, and they matched it.
For those of you who prefer your wrasslin festooned with kickouts, I can see why you might not like it. But for those of us who like our wrestling Shakespearean as f**k, it was the best surprise of the year.
The Big Dog is dead. Long live the tribal chief.
5. Sasha Banks vs Bayley – Hell In A Cell
Goodness it’s been a good year for women’s cage matches.
While the payoff to the months-long build of Sasha and Bayley as the world’s sussest best friends may have felt a little rushed – 6 months of tease to 1 month of feud feels a little lopsided – but hey, if this is the only pay-per-view match these two are going to get, they did it good.
Sasha Banks is one of the best sellers of her generation and that was on full display in a carnival of inventive violence that just managed to keep topping itself, and kept pushing Sasha’s poor spine to its breaking point.
Sasha and Bayley not only have amazing physical chemistry, but have revolved around each other for years, building a friendship steeped in itself, so much so that whenever they get together there’s always so much rich narrative texture.
Not only did they play off their run as the Golden Role Models but there were call-backs as far as their iconic clash at TakeOver Brooklyn.
Between this and her match against Becky Lynch at last year’s Hell In A Cell, Sasha Banks might just be the MVP of PG-rated cell matches. Also Bayley is one of wrestling’s greatest characters right now.
Put together, they made magic. Just a shame that WWE seems to have gotten bored of Bayley almost immediately afterwards.
4. Ibushi vs Okada – Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1
I’m not going to pretend I’m New Japan’s biggest fan, or that I keep up with every last narrative wrinkle, that would be Tempest’s job. But I’ll always have a butcher’s at Wrestle Kingdom, their version of WrestleMania.
Invariably there’s a match of the year SOMEWHERE on the card, and this year was no difference, with an absolute eye-watering BELTER or a match between Kota Ibushi and IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada. Oh it’s good, lads.
Going into the show, Okada’s been the Ace of New Japan for a while, to the point that it feels like there’s a change in the guard brewing, and Kota Ibushi has been on the verge of superstardom for a while. He’s one of the greatest wrestlers in the world, but never seems to win the big one at Wrestle Kingdom.
While it’s still not Ibushi’s time, there’s another star who’s been very patient in waiting his turn to be crowned ‘the man’ in New Japan, Ibushi’s ambition is the backbone of this match.
Ibushi has wrestled blow up dolls, and other goofy stuff, but there’s a psychopath just below the surface and at some point in the match he just quietly scarily crazy, no-selling Okada’s offence and just punching the blue hell out of him.
It’s captivating stuff, punctuated by the usual New Japan brutal ballet of gorgeous strong style. It also has another spot of the year with Okada jumping into a leaping golden star bomb which is just perfection
3. The Men’s Rumble – Royal Rumble
Royal Rumbles are bloody brilliant. Mostly. Mostly they are. 15years ago, in January 2020, WWE produced a bloody STORMER.
Now I’ve made no secret of the fact that I think Brock Lesnar, when he puts on his working boots, is the best thing going. At the Royal Rumble he put on his working boots, and fed them to half the roster.
Part slobberknocker challenge from the Smackdown video games, part ‘This is your Life’, Brock murdered his way through his own past before being bodied by his future in the form of instant superstar Drew McIntyre.
When Brock tripped his way over the ropes it was one of the most satisfyingly built pops of the last few years, and then of course, you think you know him.
While it might not top 2018 in terms of overall structure and payoff, the Men’s Rumble was a shining example of why, f**k christmas, the rumble is the most wonderful time of the year. Brock vs Keith Lee is my new happy place.
2. WALTER vs Ilja Draganov – NXT UK
Sweet Jesus. It was pretty much a coin flip between this and my number one, but I’ll explain my choice when we get to the top spot.
Like, at some point along the line, someone straight up forgot to tell WALTER that wrestling wasn’t real and that’s created this jaw-dropping hybrid monster of modern stuntwork and old school strongman era spectacle.
Simply put, WALTER will chop you so hard that you’ll forget how to love and he spends 30 minutes killing Ilja Draganov on free bloody TV. And it takes two to tango, Ilja matches WALTER blow for blow, turning in an underdog performance that feels more genuine than any I’ve possibly ever seen, probably because WALTER didn’t give him a choice in the matter.
Brutal is an overused buzzword, but that’s what this match truly is, with each slap, stomp and suplex sending a visceral jolt of electricity through your body, knocking you around in your seat, daring you to keep watching.
It’s a marquee event, a match that managed to become watercooler conversation even in the most saturated market and hell even the lack of fans somehow worked in its favour, turning it into a bizarre sordid snuff film, the kind you’d buy from a man underneath a railway arch, so I’m told anyway.
Do I want all wrestling to be this, no I don’t, but am I happy that special attractions can still exist in a company that often feels quite samey from an in-ring standpoint. Absolutely.
1. Young Bucks vs Kenny Omega & Adam Page – AEW Revolution
For uniqueness’ sake, perhaps WALTER and Draganov should be number one, but dammit I just miss crowds. I miss genuine pops, I miss the thunder of feet, I miss the noise that only comes around every so often at the perfect spot.
I miss the sound of Kenny Omega kicking out at 1 because he’s just so very very angry at his best friends. Spot of the year, hands down.
But the whole match is blisteringly, eye-wateringly good, with all the intricate choreography you come to expect from a Bucks production, the devastating strikes you come to expect from Mr Omega and the soulful sad eyes that you come to expect from the Hangman.
The story beats don’t overpower the dazzling offence, but they’re there, and serve to make this such a rich experience, makes every slap more pointed, every superkick more of a ‘f**k you’, and every kickout way more meaningful.
Between this and the wealth of phenomenal AEW Tag Championship matches this year, as well as that parking lot fight between Santana & Ortiz and Best Friends, AEW has conclusively deposed NXT as the king of tag team wrestling.
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