10 Worst WWE Pay-Per-View Matches Of 2020

7. Asuka vs Nia Jax (Backlash)

Asuka and Nia Jax had good chemistry for eight minutes and then double countout. Why? To set up a rematch on Raw, that Asuka won after rolling up Nia who got fast counted by John Cone because Nia shoved him. That is a story worth telling over two matches, you’re right.

I know Nia Jax has become persona non grata to a lot of fans because of certain in-ring incidents that reached a crescendo against Kairi Sane, but even so, like… just don’t waste my time.

At Backlash, Nia and Asuka did the first bit of a match, but it was over before it could develop and it didn’t even pay off well for the rematch so… raspberry.

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6. Money In The Bank Match (Money In The Bank)

This is probably going to get me some backlash, but man, this match blows.

Cinematic matches have become the match type of the year and, just like they always do, WWE has done the best version of a stipulation, and also the worst.

There’s a few contenders for sucky cinematic matches. Insanely, most of them come from NXT. The Final Beat and the Cole/Dream match were both self-important bores with contrived stunts and nauseating editing, the swamp fight was also a let down, but then there’s this. The WWE standup variety hour.

Look, individual moments of this are fun, Dana Brooke is a delight, Asuka before the dancing got bad, Styles suffering from PTSD, but there’s just such a wall of irreverent “I’m so random’ wackiness and actively damaging character work that it’s a genuine chore to watch.

Aleister Black participating in a food fight sucks, Vince McMahon, the most OTT character in the history of wrestling, just being a bit startled in his office sucks, just panning to a random Doink because real Doink is dead, WWE painting itself a lolsy carnival house instead of a ruthless corporate titan that lays off a significant percentage of its workforce in a pandemic when it didn’t have to

And then it gets to the payoff, the big hook of the match, the stuff on the roof and it’s genuinely terrible. Half the wrestlers don’t show up, Baron Corbin murders two of them that do, which is handled in such a weird cold, matter of fact way, Asuka wins after stopping Corbin which doesn’t make sense cause he’s not going for her briefcase, and then Otis wins via prop comedy, and the neither Asuka or Otis got to cash in afterwards so … man I’m only halfway.

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5. Elias vs King Corbin (WrestleMania 36)

Poor Elias. What a year for the lad. The first victim of Brock Lesnar in the Rumble, pushed to his death by King Corbin doing his best scar impression, hit by a f**king car, and also he wrestled in two of the worst pay-per-view matches of the year.

First there was the hot nothing against Jeff Hardy at Hell in a Cell, only there to cool down a crowd that DIDN’T EXIST after Uso vs Reigns, before Jeff clobbers Elias with a guitar, again, like Jax vs Asuka, a crappy non-finish in order to sell a rematch on TV, WWE’s single worst habit right now.

But hey at least it happened in the ThunderDome, worse than that is Elias versus King Corbin, a match that will go down in history as ‘having happened at WrestleMania’.

A completely heatless affair, going back and watching this match take place IN SILENCE, before WWE had worked out how to at least inject some crowdlife into their COVID shows, oh man, you can feel your hair growing, that’s how boring it is.

I don’t know if both men deserved better, but none of us deserved this. Fun fact, Elias vs Corbin actually went 30 seconds longer than the build for months Shayna Baszler vs Becky Lynch. What a world!

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• 2020
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