Ranking the AEW PPVS of 2019

Well, that was a really good debut.

It is amazing to think how far All Elite Wrestling has come in its inaugural year. It didn’t even exist until a YouTube video on January 1st. They didn’t have a show until Memorial Day weekend. They didn’t have a television program until October. Despite those obstacles, they put on some of the very best in professional wrestling in 2019. To have a true competitor in North America to WWE will simply make wrestling better for all fans. I am sure all of us are looking forward to seeing what AEW can do with a full year of wrestling in 2020.

As we look an amazing debut year for All Elite Wrestling, I rank the five major shows of AEW in 2019.

Former WWE writer buries Judgment Day HERE

#5 Fight For The Fallen

This was likely the best wrestling match of Kenny Omega's year.

It was the night of too many tag matches. Of the seven on the main card, four of them were tag matches. It led to a lot of repetition very quickly. The fact that Brandi Rhodes, a very inexperienced wrestler, was the winner of the only women’s match on the main card was very disappointing as well.

However what was the weakest of the fiver All Elite Wrestling events still had some wonderful matches. The Lucha Bros and SCU had an excellent fifteen minute match. The main event with the Rhodes Brothers versus the Young Bucks was a strong if long thirty minute main event. The best match on the card was Kenny Omega versus CIMA. It was a hard-hitting match the likes many fans were used to seeing from Kenny Omega in Japan. It got a well deserved standing ovation from the Jacksonville crowd. The fact that Fight for the Fallen had three to four strong matches and is still the worst All Elite Wrestling has to offer this year speaks well of the company joining into 2020.

#4 Fyter Fest

Not pictured: thumbtacks stuck in bare feet.

I will simply ignore the so-called Michael Nakazawa versus Alex Jebailey "Hardcore Match". It was brutal. It was comedy wrestling at its very worst.

After we got through the difficult-to-swallow pre-show, Fyter Fest was a fun and fast-paced two and a half hours of professional wrestling. CIMA beat Christopher Daniels in a fun opener, Riho pulled off a surprising upset victory, and Hangman Page won a fast-paced Fatal Four Way match.

Once again, it was the top three matches that really sold the show. The match between Darby Allin and Cody was an impressive debut for Allin. He quickly showed off his personality with a brutal Coffin Drop onto the ring apron. That still really hurts to think about it. The time limit draw worked to get Darby Allin over as future star. While the chair spot after the match sold Shawn Spears as a big heel, it was still a really stupid spot for Cody to do, especially since it didn't go as planned and caused a lot of negative attention for the company.

The six-man tag with the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega versus Lucha Bros and Laredo Kid was some more fast-paced fun in the impressive rivalry of the Young Bucks and Lucha Bros. It would lead to something even more special later in the year.

The main event between Jon Moxley and Joey Janela was fun. It was never in doubt that Moxley would win, but he definitely made Janela look good in their brutal twenty minute hardcore match. We had tables, barbed wire, and lots of thumb tracks. It truly seemed like Moxley enjoyed having a match like this again. I cannot say I would enjoy spitting out thumb tacks the way he seemed to, but to each their own. It was fun to seeing such a big star having a that great of a time again in 2019.

#3 All Out

It was the night Chris Jericho celebrated with “A Little Bit of the Bubbly”.

AEW All Out was an interesting show. The matches themselves had little build and in some cases went way too long. Some of the interesting matches on the show were another fun SCU tag opener and a crazy hardcore match. Who knew that actual Cracker Barrels could be used in such brutal ways? Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc and Joey Janela are three truly crazy men.

Two of the three main events were disappointing. Shawn Spears versus Cody was way overbooked. Sure, it was fun to see Arn Anderson hit a Spinebuster but the match itself had way too much interference in it overall. The main event between Chris Jericho and Hangman Page was disappointing, slowly paced and went way too long. It didn’t feel as special as the first-ever World Title match should have.

Two matches really saved the show. PAC and Kenny Omega put on a hard hitting and fast paced match. It was shocking to see Kenny Omega lose clean yet again, but it did put over PAC as one of the biggest heels in the company, which was a very smart decision.

The ladder match is maybe the best AEW match of the entire year and possibly my favorite ladder match of all time. It was the perfect feud ender for the Young Bucks and the Lucha Bros. The Sunset Flip Destroyer through a table will be shown on highlight reels for years. The brutal falls by Nick Jackson were pretty amazing as well. He is lucky to not get hurt. Add in the debut of Proud & Powerful after the match gave us a special moment to begin a new chapter in the tag team division.

#2 Full Gear

This is a perfect image for a brutal match.

Why does Jon Moxley enjoy hardcore matches so much?

AEW Full Gear had the advantage of being the only show on this list that actually had time to build its card on weekly television in the form of their new show on TNT, AEW Dynamite. It certainly showed with the high quality of wrestling on the show. The opener between The Young Bucks and Proud & Powerful was the best opener of the entire year. The Young Bucks did an excellent job of selling their injuries, which isn’t always done in AEW. It put over Proud & Powerful in a major way.

The PAC/Hangman Page match was another in the strong series of matches they had in 2019. Riho had likely the best women’s match in AEW against her mentor Emi Sakura. Few shows in pro wrestling had a stronger undercard than Full Gear.

Cody ended an amazing year of wrestling with his match against Chris Jericho. The storytelling in the match was perfect, showing the urgent nature of being Cody’s only shot at the AEW World Title. The massive cut that Cody endured certainly added to the story as well. Cody losing the match due to MJF throwing in the towel for him was a perfect ending. Then, to run salt into the wound, MJF turned on Cody. It was a long time coming in the eyes of many fans and should carry the company into 2020 with an excellent feud.

The main event was one of the craziest hardcore matches you will ever see. I can’t say I have seen glass or mousetraps used as weapons in a mainstream promotion. The spot onto the spiderweb of barbed wire was pretty crazy to see as well. When Kenny Omega did a Phoenix Splash face first onto the exposed wood ring it cemented the main event's legacy as one of the most brutal matches you will see. It was the best main event of AEW in 2019.

#1 Double or Nothing

I’ll admit I might have a little bias. I actually attended the first-ever AEW show in Las Vegas and it was a magical experience. To be part of a crowd that was so hot the entire night along with an entire weekend of professional wrestling excitement would add color to any experience. It was the true start of AEW, and that certainly plays a important factor as well. But as I went back to re-watch this show, it was clearly one of the best shows of the entire professional wrestling year.

The Casino Battle Royal was a lot of fun albeit confusing with its unique rules. SCU showed why it was a good team to carry the tag division with its opening win over Strong Hearts/CIMA. The rest of the undercard had fun moments like the Triple Threat women’s match, capped off by a surprising appearance from Awesome Kong, and a good tag match between Best Friends and Angelico & Jack Evans. That match also saw the debut of the Dark Order.

But it was the three main events that made this show the very best of 2019. The Cody-Dustin Rhodes match was special and among the best matches of the year. Dustin is beyond impressive at 50 years old and the element of the heavy blood as a featured element in the match helped sell his image as the veteran unwilling to give up. It felt like a real fight and the emotion showed by noth men added a lot to that. It was certainly the best match I have seen in person.

The show continued with the Lucha Bros. versus the Young Bucks. They put on an unbelievable and fast paced twenty-five minute match. It would be impossible to write all the amazing moves that all four men did in the match but it was special athleticism you rarely see in pro wrestling. It sold that AEW was going to focus on tag team wrestling and this match certainly did that in May.

The main event of Kenny Omega versus Chris Jericho was strong as well. It might be overshadowed by the previous two matches, but it was a solid main event. It was certainly shocking to see Kenny Omega lose clean to the Judas Effect. It seemed to come out of nowhere.

However, the main event will truly be remembered for the debut of Jon Moxley. I cannot think of a louder moment in all of the professional wrestling events I've ever attended. Ending the night with Moxley’s assault on Omega was the perfect ending to an amazing evening of action. I know it made me an AEW fan in just one night. It is the very best of AEW in 2019.

Edited by Nicholas A. Marsico