10 Best WWE Matches Of 2020

It feels weird to say anything good about the year 2020, as most of it was the equivalent of dropping a slice of bread on the floor butter side down and then slipping on the bread and breaking your neck.

However, even with all the horrors going on in the world, WWE was on hand to provide some great wrestling, even if it was in a very small quantity.

The vast majority of it wasn’t good but WWE did manage to cobble together some entertaining moments in what was overall a down year.

These are the 10 Best WWE Matches of 2020.

10. The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles - WrestleMania 36 Night 1

WrestleMania 36 was the first WWE pay-per-view to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the company had little choice but to become experimental with a few matches.

The first night’s main event was the Boneyard Match, a pre-shot cinematic clash between AJ Styles and The Undertaker.

Styles thought he had the upper hand when he arrived on the scene in a coffin, but ‘Taker played some mind games of his own when he showed up on a motorcycle, reviving the American Badass gimmick for the occasion.

What followed was a great big campy brawl, as the two men battered each other up and down the graveyard in a spectacle that was half enthralling, half incredibly silly.

‘Taker used all of his spooky powers, including summoning a wall of fire, and he fought a bunch of masked druids at one point.

The Boneyard Match was absolutely bonkers, but it was also a whole heap of fun. There’s a historical significance to it as well, as this was The Phenom’s final-ever match.

9. Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens - TLC

When you think of Roman Reigns’ greatest career rivals, your mind probably goes to names like Brock Lesnar or Cody Rhodes, but there’s a strong case to be made that Kevin Owens is actually his best-ever foe.

Owens stepped up to face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at the TLC pay-per-view, in a match fought under the show’s signature rules.

The pair had proven that they worked well together in a no-DQ environment at the 2017 Royal Rumble, but this was on a whole other level.

KO thrives in hardcore environments and took all manner of crazy bumps to make his opponent look strong. The Big Dog played his role to perfection, attempting to maintain his composure whilst silently in awe of how Owens was able to take so much punishment.

The closing spot of Owens plunging from the top of a ladder after getting choked out was superb, allowing Reigns to retain his championship and carry it into the new year.

Fun fact: this was the first Roman title defence to feature Uso interference, beginning a trend that would annoyingly continue throughout the rest of his multi-year reign.

8. AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan - June 12 episode of SmackDown

Considering they took place either in front of a bunch of extras from the Performance Center or the Thunderdome, it’s easy to forget that some great matches happened on WWE’s weekly TV shows in 2020, including this gem from the June 12, 2020, episode of SmackDown.

After Sami Zayn did a runner with the Intercontinental Championship, a tournament was held to crown a new one. The finals came down to AJ Styles on one side and Daniel Bryan on the other, a truly mouth-watering clash for anyone who liked wrestling even just a little bit.

As you would expect, these gifted grapplers put on a show, going above and beyond what was expected of a TV match. The action was crisper than a fresh lettuce, smoother than melted chocolate, and as fundamentally sound as a BLT.

Bryan eventually fell to a Phenomenal Forearm, giving Styles the IC Title for the first time in his career.

7. Sami Zayn vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy - Clash of Champions

Of all the people for Styles to lose the Intercontinental Championship to, Jeff Hardy was a name nobody saw coming. The Charismatic Enigma beat The Phenomenal One on the August 21 episode of SmackDown, but the very next week, Sami Zayn made his return, claiming to still be the rightful champion as he was never beaten.

The rightful champ would be decided at Clash of Champions with Hardy, Styles, and Zayn all going at it in a Ladder Match.

This match had all the thrills and spills you could want from a hardware-based encounter, including Zayn getting chucked around like a dog toy and Hardy still going crazy despite being older than the Sun.

Sami got the upper hand - quite literally - by handcuffing his two opponents so they were incapacitated, including threading one set through the hole in Jeff’s earlobe.

Zayn unclipped both belts to crown himself the official, undisputed IC champ, getting the title’s lineage back on track.

6. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks - Hell In A Cell

The pandemic may have been a dark time for most people, but a shining light for wrestling fans came in the form of Sasha Banks and Bayley, aka The Golden Role Models.

These best buds did some of their best work behind closed doors, acting like arrogant douchebags whenever they were together, but being way too funny and witty to actually hate.

At one point, this unit held the Raw and SmackDown Women’s championships and the Women’s Tag belts, effectively making them a Two-Woman Power Trip. However, come Hell in a Cell, Banks had lost both of her titles and had been turned on by her friend, setting up this highly charged encounter over the blue belt.

Bayley and Banks had made magic together in NXT, but had yet to have their proper main roster classic. This changed that, as the ladies put on a stunning Cell match that was as physically brutal as it was emotionally fraught.

The Boss would finally get one over on her ex-bestie by winning the match and the championship with a nasty-looking chair-assisted Bank Statement.

Many of you might prefer Brooklyn, but this was still pretty damn good.

5. Walter vs. Ilja Dragunov - October 29 episode of NXT UK

Before he was a dominant Intercontinental Champion named Gunther, the Austrian man-mountain was a dominant NXT UK Champion named Walter. On the October 29, 2020, edition of the brand’s weekly show, he put the belt on the line against a man he knew very well - Ilja Dragunov.

In front of zero fans, these darlings of the European independent scene momentarily forgot that wrestling was fake, as it looked like they were legitimately trying to hospitalise one another.

Walter and Ilja held nothing back, smacking 10 bells out of each other before picking up those bells and using them as weapons.

Legitimately one of the scariest matches in recent times, this car crash-style spectacle would have been higher on the list had it taken place on a proper WWE show, but even so, it is a sight to behold.

4. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena - WrestleMania 36 Night 2

Of the two cinematic matches at WrestleMania 36, the Boneyard Match was for people who liked their wrestling big and loud, whilst the Firefly Funhouse match was for those who wanted their wrestling to be intimate and psychological.

We were originally going to get John Cena taking on Bray Wyatt in a straight-up rematch of their clash at Mania 30, but once the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdown plans changed. Significantly.

Cena instead faced his old foe in a video essay come to life; a cerebral takedown of all Big Match John’s perceived flaws as a character.

It gave us some truly iconic moments, like Cena in an nWo shirt, and Bray returning to his old cult leader gimmick.

The only criticism against this “match” is that it isn’t really a match at all. Instead, it is one of the most unique experiments ever conducted in the world of wrestling and will live on forever as proof that Wyatt’s brain was operating on a whole different level.

3. The Men's Royal Rumble - Royal Rumble 2020

The only match on this list to feature an actual full-sized crowd was one of the freshest, most exciting Royal Rumble matches in recent memory.

Brock Lesnar, who was WWE Champion at the time, announced his intention to enter the men’s match at number one, in an effort to prove his dominance. For the most part, this is precisely what he did, chucking out fools left, right, and centre, before coming face-to-face with Drew McIntyre. Shortly afterwards, he would come forearm-to-balls with Ricochet.

After the well-timed nutshot, The Scottish Warrior swiftly dispatched The Beast to a huge pop, instantly enhancing his star. This allowed the rest of the Rumble to flow as usual, but even then, it was full of surprises.

This is when we got the Edge return to an enormous pop, only for Kevin Dunn to miss The Rated-R Superstar’s first spear as an active wrestler in nine years.

Even without the Lesnar stuff, this was a very good Rumble, but the fact that McIntyre, who would go on to win the match, was made into a proper main eventer thanks to one little kick elevates it to an even higher spot.

2. Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso - Hell In A Cell

2020 - the year it all started for Roman Reigns and his colossal Universal Championship run.

After capturing the title at Payback just one week after his big SummerSlam return, Reigns needed a compelling storyline to cement his new heel persona. Enter a man who, despite having limited singles experience, was perfect for the job - Roman’s cousin, Jey Uso.

In the second of their two incredible title matches from 2020, Jey faced Roman in an I Quit Hell in a Cell match at the namesake pay-per-view.

The reason for that first stipulation was that Reigns needed Jey’s support to officially call himself Tribal Chief. Without his acknowledgement, he couldn’t sit at the Head of the Table.

The presence of the Cell might have been completely unnecessary, but this match still ruled, and it culminated in the best finish of the whole year.

Knowing he wasn’t going to get his opponent to submit for his own sake, Roman tearfully locked in a Guillotine Choke on his then-injured brother Jimmy, forcing Jey to finally say he quit and crown Reigns the leader of the family.

1. Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso - Clash of Champions

One month before Reigns and Jey stepped inside the big red cage, they battled over the Universal Championship in a singles match at Clash of Champions. But this was no ordinary singles match.

This was the first time we got to see fully-fledged heel Reigns in action. The constant demeaning of his opponent, the slow, methodical attacks, the mean looks on his face, considering Roman had been a happy-go-lucky babyface earlier in the year, this was revolutionary.

It also completely changed the way people saw Jey. Now, he wasn’t just one half of an interchangeable tag team, he was his own man, determined to bring his cousin round from the dark side by beating him.

After a low blow-kickout combo - which Jey would reference three years later at Money in the Bank - Reigns won via the Guillotine, setting in motion all of the highs and lows that would follow with the Bloodline saga.

The Cell match might have had a more dramatic ending, but as an overall package, this one takes the cake.