AEW All Out 2020: Retro 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our universally celebrated loved/hated format! Earlier this week, we tracked down the history of the "Wrestlepalooza" name WWE is using to launch on ESPN and landed on what's remembered as one of the worst ECW shows of all time. In the same spirit — and because All Out 2025 airs the same day as Wrestlepalooza — we thought it made sense to go back and check out an event that's widely remembered as one of the worst AEW shows of all time: All Out 2020.

Assuming you're into their style, AEW has a pretty strong overall track record on PPV, which is why the vitriol directed at this particular show is intriguing. With the wrestling world still locked in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was still a bit of a mix of in-ring and cinematic elements, though in late 2020, things we trending back toward the return of live crowds and away from the weirder hyper-produced stuff. Maybe for some people, pandemic wrestling fell more at odds with itself than ever — or maybe it had more to do with the fact that nobody stopped Matt Hardy from wrestling with a concussion. The WINC staff will discuss all that as we dive into the show, plus some other things we really enjoyed! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about AEW All Out 2020!

It's rare for The Young Bucks to have a bad performance, so it should be no surprise to learn that we consider their tag team match against Jurassic Express to be a banger.

Matt and Nick worked together early on to isolate a wild Jungle Boy, now known as Jack Perry, while also spotlighting their single abilities. Matt unloaded a series of rolling Northern Lights suplexes on Perry, which led to Perry being dumped over the barricade. It should be noted that this sequence was momentarily interrupted by Matt and Perry getting caught up on the top rope; nevertheless, it elicited a chuckle from us.

While small, that moment contributed to the overall entertaining in-ring performance, which elicited a wide range of feelings. Another feeling we got was excitement as The Young Bucks once again showed why they are revolutionizers of tag team wrestling.

Matt and Nick's chemistry was exemplified with their seamless hanging seated senton, tandem superkicks, and of course, the match-winning BTE Trigger. We almost saw the classic Meltzer Driver as well, though Luchasaurus rendered Nick unable to complete it by slamming him into the mat.

Speaking of Luchasaurus, this match served as a reminder of just how agile he is. While six-foot-five, Luchasaurus soared through the sky with a standing moonsault press and another moonsault off the apron. He later leaped off the top rope with a dive that wiped out an entire section of spectators. (Marko Stunt faced a similar fate when Matt Jackson swept his crutch away and kicked him in the face. Admittedly, Stunt's selling made it hilarious).

Perry showed heart when Matt and Nick then double teamed him with a Superkick Party. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome the BTE Trigger that followed to cap off the underrated banger between the two teams.

Written by Ella Jay

Some of you can surely relate to this: You know how sometimes you go back and watch an old NXT Takeover from like 2014 or something, and it's just breathtaking how many people on these shows are no longer even in WWE? I felt that way again watching this 21-man Casino Battle Royal, because man.

If I stretch just a little bit, I can find seven competitors in this match (so a third of the total entrants) who are still active performers in AEW: Trent Beretta, Will Hobbs, Billy Gunn, Brian Cage, Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston, and the match's ultimate winner, Lance Archer. Some of the other guys like Chuck Taylor and Christopher Daniels still work for AEW in a backstage capacity, but lots more have decamped for WWE (both Lucha Brothers, Ricky Starks, Shawn Spears) returned to TNA and/or the indies (Mike Santana, Frankie Kazarian, blackjack Matt Sydal) or retired away from the company (Jake Hager). In most cases, that's not necessarily a bad thing; a lot of these relationships soured not long after this point, and AEW's current midcard/lower midcard is pretty inarguably better now than it was in 2020. But it's very strange to look at a 21-person lineup and be able to pick out, what, three people who have anything resembling star potential in AEW? And when you consider that all three of those people (Hobbs, Allin, and Kingston) all get to lose here so Archer can get a world title shot, it just becomes depressing. And thats without even mentioning that Brodie Lee is on this show.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I believe this was one was always going to be a given, as should be the expectation when a man plummets several feet to knock himself senseless and any other decision but to call things off is made. That's what happened at All Out 2020, and as a result of this retrospective review, I was confronted with watching everything in its painstaking detail; and thus here we are. 

Hardy and Sammy Guevara were clashing in a "Final Deletion" match, essentially a Last Man Standing match that took place in Daily's Place venue rather than the ring. Not much had really happened up until the moment of significance, with Guevara attempting to run Hardy over in a buggy and getting beaten on his way to a scissor lift; as one does when a lift is before them, Hardy opted to take Guevara up and sought to throw him onto some conveniently placed tables. However, Hardy cleared the tables just slightly and bonked his head on the floor, laying in a clearly incapacitated position and going pale as a sheet as referee Aubrey Edwards visibly panicked and threw up the 'X' gesture, signaling the match to end through the injury. Only, the match did not end. 

Guevara pulled Hardy to his feet, Hardy's legs declined the proposition, and he collapsed. Once more did he try to pull him up, once more did Hardy's legs do the one thing everyone else should have done and gave up. Hardy collapsed to the floor once more, glassy-eyed and grasping for Guevara's trunks, so much so he almost pulled them off. And then finally Aubrey Edwards threw up the 'X' again and the doctor arrived on scene. The match was over, Hardy could be checked out, and this could be addressed when he is healthy and not knocked into the next year. 

Only, the match didn't end there. Commentary thought the match was over, they even said multiple times that the match was over, the bell had rung and the match was over. Yet, the cameras followed as a concussed Hardy ambled after Guevara, and it definitely didn't feel like it was over. Sure enough, it wasn't. Hardy caught up with Guevara, the bell rung again and Hardy – who, it really should be emphasized, had knocked himself out just minutes ago – continued to wrestle, or at least something that barely resembled wrestling. The concussed Hardy then followed Guevara up as he climbed the rafters – you know, blurry vision and vertigo being symptoms of a concussion – and wrestled with him, once again, several feet above the ground. At least this time it was Guevara who took the fall through significant padding, but then that begged a whole other question: Why did the scissor lift spot need to happen in the first place? 

In any case, what transpired was a purely irresponsible mess that put safety on the line at every opportunity. Things very easily could have been worse, and AEW would have been culpable for it all; even still, the fact they allowed this to happen the way it did is a stain enough.

Written by Max Everett

The best match from All Out 2020, in my opinion, is the AEW World Tag Team Championship bout, featuring Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page defending against Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR. A lot of the match's success was due to the careful plotting in the lead-up, and looking back, the storylines that would play out in the months that followed only heighten this match's quality. Despite being a champion at the time, Page was still struggling with the fact that he failed to win the world title a year before, and Omega was getting tired of compensating for Page's issues. Meanwhile, Harwood and Wheeler had only been in AEW a short time, cozying up to Page as a friend before turning on him when the moment was right and securing a shot at the tag title.

Even before this match starts, the presentation makes it clear that Page and Omega are out of sync while their opponents are united as can be. The champions had their own entrances and were announced separately in the ring, highlighting both the divide between the two and their typical status as singles wrestlers. When the bell rings, Page immediately asks Omega to tag him in so he can get some revenge against FTR, with Omega reluctantly doing so. From that point on, their trust begins to grow, and the two teams go back and forth for almost 30 minutes.

Throughout the match, Page and Omega show why they came into the match as champions, with flashes of brilliance that are broken up by FTR's chemistry and some occasional cheating. Page does an excellent job of portraying where his character is at that point in time, looking disheveled with his head not fully in the game. Near the match's end, Omega accidentally hits Page with a V-Trigger, which turns the tide for good. The challengers put Page away with a series of spike piledrivers as Omega looked on from outside the ring.

The match marks the end of Page and Omega's tag team, with the former partners soon becoming rivals. As for FTR, their first AEW title reign ended several months later, when they lost to the Young Bucks at Full Gear. At that same event, Omega went on to defeat Page to become number-one contender, and he'd win the AEW World Championship shortly thereafter. Finally, nearly a year later, at Full Gear 2021, Page finally defeated his former friend to win his first world championship and close the loop on this particular storyline. While this match takes place in the middle of it all, it serves as a mini-conclusion as well, and an example of long-term storytelling done right.

Written by Nick Miller

Part of me wanted this to be a "love," because that part of me likes the Britt Baker vs. Big Swole "match" more than any of the other more serious efforts on this show. That said, even I have to admit that it doesn't work — not even on a "wrestling should be dumb and gonzo" level. It starts out that way, sure; Swole battling her way into Baker's dentist office (tearing through the perennially funny Rebel) is ridiculously fun, and there are some cool details that work in a vaccuum, like Swole discovering a dentist chair covered in blood. But none of those details really lead anywhere and things devolve into a mostly boring mess as they go on, with the match ultimately existing on the same wavelength as Swole holding Baker's framed diploma between herself and Rebel and punching through it to get to Rebel's face. Like, I appreciate the initiative, but that's still your own hand hitting the glass, you know?

The same idea is broadly true later in, during the Mimosa Mayhem match between Orange Cassidy and Chris Jericho. I'd heard of this one despite never having seen this show before, and I was honestly kinda disappointed to find that it was mostly just a normal hardcore match that ends when someone falls into the mimosa pits on either side of the ring — in other words, just when the fun should begin! I know this was later in 2020 and we were starting to come out of the brief cinematic wrestling flourish that partially defined the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but man, both these matches could have used some more creativity.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Feels strange to say there was a time when both Jon Moxley and MJF were really exciting fixtures in AEW, but it really does make sense considering they're still almost exact carbon copies of their 2020 iterations – time having its own way of breeding familiarity and then stagnancy – and they were still relatively fresh into their runs. So much so, this was a time when MJF was undefeated in one-on-one matches and Moxley was at the tail-end of his World Championship run carrying the brand throughout the Pandemic-era. 

There was a genuine big fight feel to the main event, and that was paid off in the longest match of Moxley's title reign at the time – eventually bested only as Kenny Omega dethroned Moxley for the title later that year. Importantly, MJF's shtick, backed by his enforcer Wardlow, had yet to feel tired and played out; no one had found an answer for it up until this point, and that had been built into the match. MJF was coming up against someone unlike anyone else he had faced until that point, but Moxley was someone that had ousted many a conniving heel – Visionaries, A-Listers, and Eaters of Worlds – and had the right answer to each and every question posited by his challenger. 

On the flip side, Moxley beat MJF in a way he had yet to have beaten, bloodying him and introducing him to the main event picture in the way he saw it. In many ways, this was the show-not-tell version of the Death Riders' mission, taking the fight to MJF and forcing him to bring a new side of himself to the table. Sure, he didn't get the win, but this was arguably MJF's best match until this point in AEW, and undoubtedly worked to cement his position as one of the much-lauded "Four Pillars." 

Upon the rewatch, it was simply an enjoyable experience. At his best MJF is an excellent villain that compels the view to want to see him get his due, and at his best Moxley is exactly the type of anti-hero to service that desire. That anchored the story of the faction, which itself was just a fun fight interwoven with shenanigans throughout.

Written by Max Everett