AEW has been lauded for the incredible quality of its matches over the past five-years. With the gluttony of five and six-star matches on an almost weekly basis, it is easy to forget some of the duds that have come out of the company.
For every Kenny Omega 30-minute classic, there’s a forgotten AEW Dark match between too inexperienced rookies that fails to gather any reaction. There’s also some pay per view matches that failed to deliver, even nearly killing the people in the match (keep reading this article to find out who this is referring to).
In this article, we’ll look at the 10 worst matches in AEW history. Let us know what you think is AEW’s worst match ever in the comments section below this article.
10. Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Taya Valkyrie (AEW Dynamite #198)
Sometimes, two good wrestles just do not gel. Matches like Steve Austin vs The Undertaker, or Cesaro vs Rob Van Dam seemed like they’d be classic, but just did not work.
Not saying Britt Baker vs Taya Valkyrie is on that level, but the same principle applies. They two women just seemed to lack communication skills in the ring, messing up simple spots and having zero cohesion whatsoever.
There’s even one spot where Britt Baker climbs the turnbuckle, waits ten seconds… then just climbs back down. The entire match can be summed up by that one spot.
9. Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Madi Wrenkowski (AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament: United States & Japan Brackets)
Many people wondered why Madi Wrenkowski was even in this tournament, and based on the booking of this match, neither did Tony Khan.
Britt Baker attacked her before their AEW Women’s World Championship eliminator tournament, and from then on Madi did not get a single hit in on Baker.
That seems fine for a squash match, but the match went on for another five-minutes, a huge overkill for a match that nobody was really interested in seeing in the first place.
8. Madison Rayne vs. Tay Melo (AEW Rampage #64)
This match was one of the worst in AEW history, simply because it was just boring.
Madison Rayne was brought in as some sort of ring general, despite never being considered a great worker during her time in TNA.
While Tay Melo was having good matches at this time, she struggled to get the crowd involved. They were quieter than a Bobby Fish promo, and could not get anything out of this match whatsoever.
7. Allie vs. Brandi Rhodes (AEW Fight for the Fallen 2019)
Brandi Rhodes tried her hardest to become a wrestler in AEW, but it simply did not work out.
She was great as an announcer in the WWE, but her transition to the ring was not good, and pairing her with Allie (who was incredibly green there, although now she has much improved as “The Bunny”) was not the right move.
It was a very slow and boring match, with a couple of decent moments. However, most of the spots were sloppy and in general the action wasn’t great, and brought the quality of the show down greatly.
6. Jeff Jarrett vs Jeff Hardy (AEW Dynamite #202)
Movie tie-ins in wrestling are always a mixed bag, and the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” match between Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett was no different.
Affectionately named the “Texas Jeff Match”, it was a confusing, barely visible mess that nobody got anything out off.
The pair (and their respective teams and families) ran through the backstage area, lit by a dark red light that rendered most of the action unseeable.
The match ended when Leatherface (the villain from the movie) interfered to help Jeff Jarrett win the match, leaving everybody confused.
5. Britt Baker vs Big Swole (AEW All Out 2020)
In theory, a “Tooth and Nail” brawl throughout Britt Baker’s dentistry could have been a fun match, akin to the “backstage brawl” matches that have become a staple in wrestling.
However, the match between Britt Baker and Big Swole was just dull. It was a plain-as-day brawl, with nothing innovating the format, or really making good use of the set-piece they were in.
Baker had just returned from injury at this time, while Big Swole was never the best in-ring worker – something Tony Khan was happy to point out after releasing her from her contract.
4. Allie & Brandi Rhodes vs. Mel & Penelope Ford (AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament – The Deadly Draw #1)
The AEW Women’s Tag Team tournament was a great contributor to the list of the worst AEW matches of all time.
With some of the worst wrestlers in AEW history competing (Mel and Brandi Rhodes most notably), his was always going to be an utter disaster.
When Penelope Ford is the only half-decent worker in the match, you know it’s going to be bad. And it was. That’s really all there is to say about it.
3. Cezar Bononi vs. Luchasaurus (AEW Dark #80)
When a match is so bad it has to be edited in post, you know it’s really bad.
This happened when Luchasaurus took on Cezar Bonini on an episode of AEW Dark, and has gone down in infamy as one of the worst matches in AEW history.
The match was nothing special, in terms of being bad. It was just slow, uninteresting, and both struggled applying the most basic of moves to each other.
One botch was so bad that AEW had to go back and edit it out of the original broadcast, and may be the reason why Cezar Bononi has not been seen in AEW for a while.
2. Dr. Britt Baker DMD & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero (AEW Dynamite #91)
Some of the early women’s matches in AEW were rough, but none of them came to close to this tag team monstrosity.
As noted in a previous article, Rebel and Vickie Guerrero are two of the worst wrestlers in AEW history. They both appeared alongside two women not known for their in-ring ability in Nyla Rose and Britt Baker, not giving the match much hope to start with.
The ending of the match particular stupid. Vickie Guerrero (who is not a wrestler) decided to tag herself into the match, before accidentally knocking Nyla Rose off the top rope, before succumbing to Britt Baker’s “Lockjaw” submission.
1. Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara (AEW All Out 2020)
No match in AEW history has been as dangerous, reckless and downright stupid as the match between Sammy Guevara and Matt Hardy.
Sammy Guevara vs Matt Hardy is the worst match in AEW history because it put the life of Matt Hardy on the line, in one of the most reckless flaunting of safety precautions you’ll see in contemporary wrestling.
Guevara speared Hardy from the top of a forklift, missing the table below completely and bouncing Hardy’s head off the concrete. Hardy was unconscious, but when he came to be, referee Aubrey Edwards allowed the match to continue.
It should have been called off and Hardy sent straight to hospital, but they wrestled five more minutes in front of a very uncomfortable audience.
It was scary. Matt Hardy was clearly concussed, but due to the stipulation of the “Broken Rules match”, they couldn’t let him lose (If Hardy lost, he had to leave AEW).
However, that was not an excuse to put his life on the line. That is why this is the worst AEW match of all time, and unless somebody dies in the ring, the number one on this list will not change.