By Brian Argabright
Last week I unveiled half of the list of the 10 pro wrestling matches from 2020 you needed to watch.
This week it’s time to unveil the final five. Again, these aren’t the best matches of the year because everyone has an opinion as to what makes a good match, but these matches should serve as a primer for fans who may have lost touch with the business or fans who just want to remember some good parts of 2020.
And away we go!
The match – Adam Page and Kenny Omega versus the Young Bucks at AEW Revolution for the AEW World Tag Team titles. This match was considered by many to be the best match of the year and to some it wasn’t just the greatest tag team match of all time, but the greatest pro wrestling match of all time. I don’t know about all that, but it’s a very good match and one not to miss. These four men are friends and have traveled thousands of miles together, so the familiarity with each other set the backdrop for an exciting and invigorating event that exceeded the hype behind it.
The match – WALTER versus Ilja Dragunov on NXT UK for the NXT UK Championship. This match is hard for many fans to watch because it’s as raw and as violent as a match can get without any of the hardcore gimmicks associated with such violence. It’s just two men, one a giant, hard-hitting legend against a smaller yet dangerous and unwavering underdog, physically beating each other to the point of exhaustion. With no crowds present, every strike, every cry of pain and every impact echoes and sounds even more devastating.
The match – Will Ospreay versus Zack Sabre Jr. at RevPro High Stakes 2020 for the RevPro British Heavyweight Title. Sometimes wrestling is violent. Sometimes it’s poetry. This match was both as two of the best in the world met in the latest iteration of their tenuous rivalry. Ospreay, the Aerial Assassin, put his skills to the test against the best technical wrestler in the world in Sabre. British crowds, even small ones, are some of the best wrestling fans in the world and their presence gave it the big match feel it deserved.
The match – Sasha Banks versus Bayley for the WWE Smackdown Women’s Title at Hell in a Cell. This was this best long-term storyline the WWE has had in years, and it paid off in one of the best women’s matches in the company’s history. Banks and Bayley have been having banger matches since their time in NXT, and this one was no different. Probably the most underrated match of my top 10, this match was an emotional ride with plenty of twists and turns to keep any fan entertained.
