Every AEW 2023 Pay-Per-View ranked from worst to best
Thanks to AEW’s Worlds End pay-per-view taking place on New Year’s Eve Eve, we had to wait for this list to come out, but we are finally getting around to taking a look at All Elite Wrestling in 2023.
It’s been a year of good, bad, and ugly for All Elite Wrestling in 2023. The company did the unthinkable and packed out Wembley Stadium in London, England, which is good. Tony Khan was forced to fire CM Punk after the backstage issues that we all thought had sprouted up again, which is bad, and Ric Flair signed a multi-year deal with the company which, given the recent history of The Nature Boy, is very ugly indeed.
But if there is one thing that remained consistent, it’s that AEW’s pay-per-view events were always must-see shows. Coupled with the fact that eight of them took place in 2023 instead of the traditional four or five, this is a list of shows that all had people talking, for better or for worse. My name is Sam Palmer from Vendetta Sports Media, and here is every AEW pay-per-view in 2023 ranked from worst to best!
8. Worlds End:
This event was the whole reason this list is coming out in 2024 rather than 2023, and sadly it wasn’t really worth the wait. Like a lot of AEW events this year, news stories leading up to the show managed to overshadow some of the great work that was on display, which is a real shame because parts of Worlds End were genuinely fantastic.
The final three matches of Adam Copeland vs. Christian Cage, Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley and MJF vs. Samoa Joe were a stretch of bouts that had me smiling from ear-to-ear. The sight of Samoa Joe winning the AEW World Championship, Eddie Kingston achieving his lifelong dream to be like his heroes and Adam Copeland throwing a literal teenager into LITERAL FIRE is why I’m a wrestling fan. Even “The Devil” reveal of Adam Cole couldn’t shake that smile as they made the most out of a bad situation.
However, this is the weakest show of the year for All Elite Wrestling. No one cared about Miro vs. Andrade El Idolo because the former was arguing with his wife and the latter was leaving the company. The two women’s title matches were adequate at best and terrible at worst.
Swerve Strickland should have beaten the snot out of Dustin Rhodes and instead had a TV match, and the eight-man tag featuring Chris Jericho was painful to get through knowing what was said about him leading up to the show.
It was a show with dizzying highs, terrifying lows, and not-so-creamy middles in a year where the rest of AEW’s PPV portfolio had very little middles or lows.
7. Double or Nothing:
Double or Nothing is a pay-per-view I actually feel sorry for. At the time of the event, Collision was still yet to debut and the rumors of CM Punk coming back were extremely intense, Forbidden Door had been announced for the second year in a row, and All In had sold over 60,000 tickets despite being three months away. With all that going on, Double or Nothing felt like a show where people went “Oh yeah, we’ve got to do this too.”
Much like Worlds End, the show had its low points, but they weren’t as insulting. Chris Jericho and Adam Cole’s match would have been much better if it was a straight singles match, Jamie Hayter’s injury caused her match with Toni Storm to be as short as it was, and Jade Cargill was never going to blow anyone away with her match against Taya Valkyrie.
The middle points of the show were much creamier too, as Wardlow and Christian Cage had a very good ladder match (even if Arn Anderson bit someone’s thumb off) over the TNT Championship, Orange Cassidy won what was in my book the best battle royale AEW has ever put on and FTR’s tag title match with Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal was more fun than I ever thought it would be.
Again, like Worlds End, it ended with a trilogy of greatness. The return of Kris Statlander was a joy to behold, the “Four Pillars” match for the AEW World Championship was a glimpse into the company’s very bright future, and Anarchy in the Arena might not have been as wild as the year before. But it still delivered as one of the company’s most entertaining stipulations. A solid, if unspectacular show looking back it, which is a testament to how good the company’s PPVs have been this year.
6. Full Gear:
I mentioned this in my ranking of every WWE Premium Live Event list where an ending to a show can make or break it. A good ending can make a great show fantastic, and a terrible ending can make an okay show feel awful. The ending to Full Gear falls somewhere in the middle as it was a show that was very good, but didn’t quite stick the landing.
The main problem I had with MJF vs. Jay White was that it was a match that, had it been a straight singles match with no interference and shenanigans surrounding it, it probably would have been very good. Instead, it was overbooked and left people a bit frustrated because the rest of the show at times was outstanding.
AEW does deathmatches better than any mainstream wrestling company ever has, and Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Page is a prime example of this. Their Texas Death Match is a match-of-the-decade contender and will be remembered for years to come.
But that wasn’t all this show had to offer, as the four-way ladder match for the tag titles was fantastic, The Young Bucks and The Golden Jets held their own trying to follow Swerve and Hangman and the fact that Toni Storm and Julia Hart left the show as champions is two thumbs up from me.
Add on Orange Cassidy finally beating Jon Moxley, and the opening trios match of Sting, Darby Allin and Adam Copeland against The Patriarchy being a boatload of fun, you have yourselves a great pay-per-view that was hampered by an ending that had more plot holes than a block of Swiss cheese.
5. All In:
From here, I would class each of the remaining pay-per-views as great-to-classic, so it seems strange putting a show like All In this low down considering I WAS THERE! Yes, I was one of the people that helped AEW break the paid attendance record, and even though there certainly wasn’t 81,035 people in the building, it didn’t matter, the whole day was special.
From a fan experience being there, it felt like a 10/10 show. Going back and watching it a few months later, it’s more like a high 8 to a low 9, but that doesn’t take away from the fact All Elite Wrestling produced something amazing at All In. The opener between CM Punk and Samoa Joe is one of the best matches of the year, and even though the backstage drama hampered it immediately, it has aged like a fine wine.
FTR vs. The Young Bucks part three was better than I remembered it somehow; Will Ospreay vs. Chris Jericho was also fantastic, as was the coffin match, the Stadium Stampede match, The Golden Elite vs. Bullet Club Gold and Konosuke Takeshita that made Jim Ross ask “Why is everything golden?” As much as I wanted the House of Black to win on the night, The Acclaimed winning the trios titles was good, and I finally got to see Saraya win the belt as I missed it on the day because I’d drank too much beer and just couldn’t hold it in anymore.
The main event was as overbooked as Full Gear, if not more, but it worked in this context. It felt like the hottest story in the company main eventing the biggest show in company history, which meant that there was so much goodwill surrounding it, it didn’t matter how ridiculous it got. My only critique of the show was that, for a stadium-sized event, it didn’t feel like a stadium-worthy card from top to bottom. Let’s hope they can change that in 2024.
4. Forbidden Door:
I remember thinking that this was one of the best pay-per-views I’d ever seen once this was over, and yet it’s number four… I know I’m shocked too. AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling came together once more for Forbidden Door 2, and this time 95 percent of the people they wanted on the show were actually on the show, unlike the year before. That isn’t entirely true as Adam Cole and Mercedes Mone missed it due to illness and injury respectively, but two cases are better than what felt like 893 the previous year.
As far as high points, it doesn’t get any higher than Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay 2. Following their outrageously great match at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 in the Tokyo Dome, they came ever so close to topping it which is an achievement in itself. The only thing that marked it down was Don Callis coming back out after being ejected, but really, that’s like finding out there were only two pickles on your Mcdonalds burger instead of three; it doesn’t take anything away from the overall experience.
Elsewhere, the four-way match for the AEW International Championship was fantastic, Satoshi Kojima managed to elbow CM Punk in the CM Junk in their match, which was also very good; the 10-man tag featuring The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club might be the best 10-man tag I’ve ever seen, and Bryan Danielson came out to “The Final Countdown” for his dream match with Kazuchika Okada that wasn’t even hampered by Bryan’s broken arm.
The only reason there were any low points on the show (Sting, Darby Allin, and Tetsuya Naito vs. Le Sex Gods and Minoru Suzuki for example) was that the crowd was so burnt out by the quality of the matches that came before it, which is probably the best problem to have at any wrestling show. It was somehow better than last year, and I hope it continues for years to come.
3. Revolution:
AEW came into 2023 on a real hot streak. It seemed as if every week of TV was better than the last, the in-ring work was great, and it all culminated in what is, for my money at least, the best Revolution event they have ever produced. The only reason why this show didn’t get as much hype at the time is probably due to WWE being on such a hot streak as well.
It took All Elite Wrestling 18 months to put Bryan Danielson in the main event of a pay-per-view, but it was well worth the wait. The 60-minute Iron Man Match against MJF is quite possibly the best main event in company history, and possibly the best 60-minute Iron Man Match in history too. It breezed by during its runtime and had some of the best visuals in AEW history. Even though no one thought Bryan was going to win going into it because of MJF’s story, they both made you believe it was going to happen.
Had Swerve and Hangman not had their match at Full Gear, Jon Moxley’s Texas Death Match with Hangman Page would probably go down as the best death match of the year as their excellent singles feud came to an end. The Elite finally had their dream match with the House of Black over the trios titles that they need to run back, Ricky Starks beat Chris Jericho in a fine opening bout, and the “Final Burial” between Jack Perry and Christian Cage was better than it had any right to be.
Jamie Hayter did her best to get the most out of Ruby Soho and Saraya, FTR’s return made everyone forget about the fact that the four-way tag title match was just okay, and even though Wardlow shouldn’t have beaten Samoa Joe for the TNT Title looking back on it, if the lowest points of the show are just “okay,” then you have a fantastic pay-per-view on your hands.
2. All Out:
All Out 2023 is a weird show. It’s like the quiet kid in school that no one expects anything special from, when all of a sudden they manage to do a triple backflip and everyone goes “How did you do that?” Then the quiet kid responds, “I could always do it, you just never asked me to,” which is what happened here. No one expected anything from All Out, and it turned out to be incredible.
Despite the lack of build due to All In taking place the week before, CM Punk getting fired the previous night, and the location of the event being in Punk’s hometown, AEW pulled it out of the bag when they need to the most.
There was absolutely no downtime on this entire show, with matches like Samoa Joe vs. Shane Taylor, Better Than You Bay Bay vs. The Dark Order, and Kris Statlander vs. Ruby Soho all having their own individual merits despite being the three weakest matches on the night.
The three strongest matches of the night are easy to point out. Bryan Danielson was parachuted in to face Ricky Starks in a brutal Strap Match that I’m still feeling to this day. Konosuke Takeshita and Kenny Omega had a DDT main event match third from the top that made both men look superhuman, and Orange Cassidy silenced anyone who claimed he wasn’t one of the best wrestlers of the year by having one of the best matches of the year with Jon Moxley over the International Title in the main event.
Sandwiched in between all of this was Luchasaurus trying to murder Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston and Katsuyori Shibata trying to beat the snot out of the Blackpool Combat Club, FTR and The Young Bucks putting their differences aside to clash with Bullet Club Gold, and big meaty men slapping meat in the form of Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs. If this is the type of pay-per-view AEW can produce when they’re going through a rough patch, imagine what they can do when firing on all cylinders.
1. WrestleDream:
Everyone likes to talk about the famed eras of AEW that people class as its first true golden periods: the beginning of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the second half of 2021. WrestleDream was the pay-per-view that came the closest to capturing that feeling, while sprinkling in all of the company’s high points from the months leading up to it.
AEW’s best pay-per-views have a little something for everyone, and WrestleDream was a perfect example of that. MJF’s comedy match with The Righteous got the crowd going, Eddie Kingston and Katsuyori Shibata had a classic Japanese-style fight, Kris Statlander and Julia Hart was the sleeper hit of the entire show, and The Young Bucks won a four-way tag match that might have had its flaws, but was lightning quick when everything went right.
Chris Jericho and The Golden Lovers had a very fun trios match with The Don Callis Family, Ricky Starks and Wheeler Yuta might have faired better on TV considering what surrounded it but they still killed it, and FTR’s match with Aussie Open is one of the most underrated matches of the entire year. However, there are three outstanding matches on this card that are essential viewing for all wrestling fans.
Swerve Strickland’s star-making performance against Hangman Page wasn’t as good as the Texas Death Match, but was a fantastic traditional wrestling match. Speaking of wrestling, Bryan Danielson and Zack Sabre Jr. produced 23 minutes of the most gorgeous technical wrestling showcases I’ve ever seen.
To cap it all off, Darby Allin and Christian Cage had a wild and chaotic two-out-of-three falls match that led to the AEW debut of Adam Copeland. Like I said, a lot of these pay-per-views are great, but in 2023, it was WrestleDream that stood out to me as the best AEW pay-per-view of the year.
AND THAT IS THAT! What was your favorite AEW pay-per-view of the year? Let us know in the comments section below! Don’t forget to follow myself, and Vendetta Sports Media on all your favorite social media platforms!
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