10. Finn Balor Vs. Kyle O’Reilly – NXT TakeOver 31
This may be the only match from NXT suitable to make the list, but for many, it was match to watch under the WWE banner. After stepping as “Prince” for almost a year, Balor finally regained the NXT championship after an hour-long Iron Man match and a showdown with Adam Cole. His first provocateur was O’Reilly, another member of Undisputed Era who was not given the chance to shine as a single star, despite claiming fame in the Ring of Honor, PWG and New Japan. Balor won the tough confrontation, but not before O’Reilly broke his jaw in several places. Don’t be shocked if their revenge at New Year’s evil is on next year’s list.
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9. Charlotte Flair Vs. Rhea Ripley – WrestleMania 36
At the time, this match was a huge deal. Rhea Ripley had a well-tied racket on her back and was the first NXT champion to defend her title at WrestleMania. And, although the match itself is solid, what came after it soured many fans. Flair won, made only a handful of appearances on NXT, didn’t put up a single fighter, and gave up the title from the next TakeOver (without being fixed) before being maneuvered immediately back to Raw. The reservation encouraged Flair’s strongest critics, and Ripley has yet to regain momentum in the eight months since.
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8. Walter Vs. Ilja Dragunov – NXT UK
The British brother of NXT does not receive much attention, but this clash of the NXT Championship in the United Kingdom was so good that it caught the attention of the entire WWE 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 matches, McIntyre and Orton at Survivor Series and the title match on Raw were both better, and the support received by this match was centered around the idea that this was the last chapter between McIntyre and Orton. It clearly wasn’t, so the only real highlight is to see legends like Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair get briefly involved.
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6. Daniel Bryan Vs. AJ Styles – Friday Night SmackDown
Sami Zayn’s prolonged absence from WWE television prompted WWE to remove 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. Even though the two didn’t have much of a story, they ended one of the best matches of the year.
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5. Sami Zayn Vs. Jeff Hardy Vs. AJ Styles – Clash of Champions (match on scale)
These three have each made a name for themselves in their younger days, with high-flying matches that defy death. And, despite the fact that the average age of this match was 40 years old, it became one of the wildest scale matches in recent memory.
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4. Roman Reigns Vs. Drew McIntyre – Survivor Series
The return of Roman Reigns’ heel and the reigning Universal Championship as the “Tribal Chief” was one of the best scenarios of 2020. And while his clashes with Jey Uso and Kevin Owens were more exciting, none of these matches were close to the champion fights the champion with McIntyre when it comes to brutality. This has all the characteristics of a major WrestleMania event if and when WWE wants to run it again.
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3. Edge Vs. Randy Orton – Backlash (The biggest fighting match in history)
“The biggest match in the world” was not even the best match of 2020 …
With all the jokes aside, Edge Vs. Orton II became a love letter for professional wrestling due to all the extra wrinkles that were added. The only real blow against him was that Edge suffered a broken tricep during the draw, an injury he suffered. has not returned since.
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2. Sasha Banks Vs. Bayley – Hell in a Cell
The long-awaited implosion of Bayley and Banks was all their fans hoped to be, culminating in an almost flawless Hell in a cell match.
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1. Undertaker Vs. AJ Styles – WrestleMania 36 (Boneyard Match)
It seems almost poetic. The COVID-19 pandemic forced WWE to change its plans in the last 10 months, including what it wanted to do with Undertaker vs. AJ Styles at WrestleMania. Instead of a match inside an empty performance center, fans were treated to something that felt straight from an action movie. This new type of match – a movie match – became the WWE program for the rest of the year. This is true because a) it was the first match, b) many consider it to be the best match in WrestleMania 36 and c) it ended up being the last match of The Undertaker in his WWE career.
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