10. Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’Reilly – NXT TakeOver 31
This may be NXT’s only correct match to make the list, but for many, it was the match to watch under the WWE banner. After stamping around as “The Prince” for nearly a year, Balor finally regained the NXT Championship after an hour-long Iron Man Match and a tiebreaker clash with Adam Cole. His first challenger was O’Reilly, another Undisputed Era member who had not gotten the chance to star as a singles star despite his fame in Ring of Honor, PWG and New Japan. Balor won the showdown, but not before O’Reilly shattered his jaw in multiple places. Don’t be shocked if their rematch is on New Year’s Evil is on next year’s list.
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Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley – WrestleMania36
At the time, this match felt like a huge deal. Rhea Ripley had the rocket tied tightly behind her and was the first NXT champion to defend her title at WrestleMania. And while the match itself is solid, what came next has soured many fans. Flair won, made only a handful of appearances on NXT, didn’t throw a single wrestler and dropped the title at the next TakeOver (without pinning down) before immediately switching back to Raw. The booking encouraged Flair’s loudest critics, and Ripley still hasn’t been able to regain her momentum for the past eight months.
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8. Walter v Ilya Dragunov – NXT UK
NXT’s British brother isn’t getting much attention, but this clash of the NXT United Kingdom Championship was so good that it caught the attention of WWE’s entire fandom.
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7. Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton – Clash of Champions (ambulance match)
This is easily the strangest choice on the list. Bell-to-bell, McIntyre and Orton’s matches on Survivor series and their title match on Raw were both better, and the support this match initially received was centered around the idea that this was the final chapter between McIntyre and Orton. It clearly wasn’t, so the only real highlight is that legends like Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair get equally involved.
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6. Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles – Friday Night SmackDown
Sami Zayn’s long absence from WWE television prompted WWE to expel him from the Intercontinental Championship in May. SmackDown then hosted an eight-man tournament to crown a new champion, culminating in a match between Bryan and Styles. While the two didn’t really have a storyline, they ended up with one of the best matches of the year.
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Sami Zayn vs. Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles – Clash of Champions (Ladder Match)
These three each made a name for themselves in their early years with high-flying, deadly matches. And despite the fact that the average age of this match was 40, it ended up being one of the wildest ladder matches in recent memory.
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4. Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre – Survivor Series
Roman Reigns’ heel turn and Universal Championship reign as’ The Tribal Chief ‘was without a doubt one of the best storylines of 2020. And while his clashes with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens had more emotion, none of those matches came close to his champion vs. champion fight with McIntyre when it came to sheer brutality. This has what it takes to make a WrestleMania main event if and when WWE wants to re-host it.
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3. Edge vs. Randy Orton – Backlash (Greatest Wrestling Match Ever)
“The Greatest Match Ever” wasn’t even the best match of 2020 …
All jokes aside, Edge vs. Orton II ended up like a love letter to pro wrestling thanks to all the extra wrinkles added. The only real blow to it was that Edge got a torn triceps while shooting the match, an injury he still hasn’t gotten back from.
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2. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley – Hell in a Cell
The long-awaited Bayley and Banks implosion was everything their fans hoped for, culminating in an almost flawless Hell in a Cell Match.
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1. The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles – WrestleMania 36 (Boneyard Match)
It almost seems poetic. The COVID-19 pandemic forced WWE to change its plans for the past 10 months, including what it wanted to do with Undertaker vs. AJ Styles at WrestleMania. Instead of a game at an empty Performance Center, fans were treated to something that seemed straight out of an action movie. This new type of match – a Cinematic Match – became part of WWE programming for the rest of the year. This particular stands because a) it was the first, b) many think it was WrestleMania 36’s best match, and c) it ended up as The Undertaker’s last match in his WWE career.
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