2020 has been a pretty awful year inside and outside of professional wrestling. We’ve seen WrestleMania broadcast from the WWE Performance Center, a scandal in BritWres and a plethora of performers and backstage talent released from their contracts. It’s safe to say that, unfortunately, this year will go down as one of the darkest periods in the industry’s history.
WWE have done as much as they can to keep fans invested in their product throughout, from bringing back some old flames to rocket-strapping superstars like Keith Lee, Otis and Matt Riddle into their respective main event scenes. Despite their best efforts, it might not have been enough to make it worth putting their talent’s health at risk this whole time.
Nevertheless, now that things are starting to stabilise and life is taking baby steps back towards normality, WWE can focus on pulling things back for the rest of the year, starting with a few dream matches that we’ve yet to see fulfilled. In this article, we’re going to run down 5 matches that we haven’t seen take place in 2020, those which could easily draw a few eyes back to wrestling after such a downtime.
Make sure you drop your own dream matches down in the comments.
1. Shayna Baszler vs Asuka
On this week’s episode of RAW, ‘The Queen of Spades’ Shayna Baszler made her dominant return to the red brand, after going on a brief hiatus after Money in the Bank. Baszler’s stock was damaged pretty badly after failing to capture the RAW Women’s Championship from Becky Lynch at WrestleMania. Although rumours suggest that the original plan was to put the title on the former cage-fighter, it seems that WWE were more concerned with giving ‘The Man’ a good send-off, which you can hardly blame them for.
Shayna floundered in the meantime, losing the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match and dropping off the radar since. Now back on the scene and setting her sights on the RAW Women’s title once again, this can only mean one thing, a huge dream match between her and Asuka.
Asuka has been doubled down on over the course of the pandemic era, having had the opportunity to show off a little more of her character and put together some cracking matches alongside Kairi Sane in the Women’s Tag division. Asuka won the Women’s Money in the Bank briefcase, and was thus awarded the RAW Women’s title the night after by Becky Lynch. Asuka has finally become the star she was destined to be, albeit a little less credible than she was when first called-up.
Much like Shayna, she still has a lot to live up to. A match between the two would make both performers look like total badasses, as they clobber one another silly with the Women’s title in the middle of it all. This hard-hitting affair is a must for SummerSlam.
2. Pete Dunne vs Timothy Thatcher
Timothy Thatcher has had quite the first run in NXT. Debuting as a replacement partner for ‘The Bruiserweight’ Pete Dunne, he defended the NXT Tag Team Championships alongside Matt Riddle, before turning on him and going the distance in a brutal Fight Pit match. Thatcher has since been pitched as one of the most legit shoot-fighters on the roster, recently dispatching of Oney Lorcan at the Great American Bash special.
With Pete Dunne still restricted by travel bans, he’s surely chomping at the bit to get stuck into the singles division now that Riddle has departed the black and gold brand for SmackDown. A feud between Dunne and the former Stallion Thatcher is surefire money. Both men have had experience knocking 50 shades of you-know-what out of one another on the British indie scene, their styles mesh perfectly and needs to be given the global exposure that only NXT can provide.
Pete Dunne is a huge star in the making, giving him a big win over the newcomer Thatcher would be a fantastic opportunity for him to utilise to get into the main event scene and maybe even set him up for a North American/NXT Championship match before the end of the year. Thatcher in the meantime can take the loss, his time will come.
3. Finn Balor vs WALTER
Before everything went to hell, ‘The Prince’ set his sights on the NXT United Kingdom Championship, seemingly building towards a huge dream match at the upcoming NXT UK TakeOver show in Dublin. WALTER has been an incredible champion, really the only man that could have followed Pete Dunne’s iconic reign, but he, as well as the NXT UK brand, sorely needed a match that could put him on the map for every WWE fan. A match against the former Universal Champion would have achieved so many birds with just the one stone.
Balor has occupied himself pretty well over the last few months, feuding with the likes of Damien Priest, Keith Lee and Johnny Gargano to keep himself relevant before eventually stepping back into the NXT UK scene. The brand will be in dire need of a hard reboot come whenever production starts up again, Balor could be the guy to take the promotion forward to a new era, dethroning WALTER and allowing him to go onto new ventures within the company.
NXT can then build the UK branch entirely around him, a babyface talent with a rich history that’s rooted within the UK indie scene. Fans will accept him and there’s tonnes of dream match material to exploit while getting NXT UK back off the ground. But before we get there, the match with WALTER will definitely be a banger, don’t give up on NXT UK just yet!
4. John Morrison vs The Miz
Even though I’m really enjoying seeing The Miz and John Morrison featured together once again, it almost seems like the duo are holding each other back a little. Both Miz and Morrison are proven singles stars, but neither have ever quite reached the pinnacle of their careers. SmackDown Live, as well as most of the WWE, is a complete traffic jam of talent, where only the very best manage to get over and survive in a prominent position. It’s time for WWE to finally decide which one of these stars they truly have faith in as ‘the guy’.
John Morrison received a lot of hype when he first announced his return last year, even after capturing the SmackDown Live Tag Championships alongside his Dirt Sheet partner, The Miz, it all feels anti-climactic. Much like the current WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre, Morrison went away to hone his craft and return a totally different superstar. Give him a heel turn on Miz, let him run with the ball and I assure you that he’ll turn into the main event attraction that he’s destined to become.
Miz on the other hand seems to work better as a babyface in the modern era, never thought I’d find myself saying that. His feud with Shane McMahon was one of the highlights of 2019, seeing him battle against his best bud Morrison would not only make for a match with oodles of chemistry, but it could also propel him into a mid-card/main event run as one of SmackDown’s leading babyface stars. Whichever way you look at it, it’s time for the A-list mega powers to explode.
5. Roman Reigns vs ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt
A match that was originally scheduled for WrestleMania this year, ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt has been on an inevitable path towards clashing with ‘The Big Dog’ Roman Reigns. It’s safe to say that ‘The Fiend’ has lost a lot of his original lustre, having been defeated by Goldberg pretty convincingly and then failing to rekindle his championship glory against Braun Strowman (so far). Unless things take a turn at SummerSlam, I don’t see Wyatt truly getting back on the right tracks.
The only way to re-establish him at this point would be to put him in a main event situation against Roman Reigns. Roman has been absent for a couple months, choosing to focus on his family during this tumultuous time. Hopefully this has given fans enough time to feel like they’re missing him, I know I am. Naturally, when he returns he’ll find himself featured in one of the biggest programmes on TV, likely against whoever ends up with the Universal Championship. In this case, hopefully ‘The Fiend’.
WWE can finally have their typical superhero overcomes chaotic evil in the Roman/Fiend feud. It’s one that, quite frankly, has to happen whether you like it or not, it’s the biggest babyface taking on the dominant monster, an age-old trope. Reigns and Wyatt have proven to have great matches in the past, let’s hope that with his invigorated character, we’ll see them take it to the next level before the year is out.
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