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2020 has been a challenging year for WWE, and the entire planet as a whole, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing unfathomable amounts of change to people's lives. The name of the game for big organizations is adapting, which is what WWE has done since March.
The company may have made some horrible booking mistakes this year, but there was also a lot of good that came with it. In fact, the good does outweigh the bad. WWE has provided fans at home with a plethora of memorable moments during the 'Pandemic Era' and even before it.
Several Superstars have had standout years despite the difficulties, while WWE has booked a couple of matches to perfection. Credit must be given where it is due. It isn't every day that WWE comes up with some excellent storytelling. But when they do, it's golden. This list will look at the scenarios that prove it.
Here are five things WWE got perfectly right in 2020.
#5 Drew McIntyre as WWE Champion
More on his road to the main event of WrestleMania in a bit, but Drew McIntyre has been a great WWE Champion so far. Following his victory over Brock Lesnar at The Show of Shows, McIntyre held WWE RAW together for a few months when shows were taking place in an empty Performance Center.
The Scottish Warrior had an extremely consistent 2020 on pay-per-view, defending his title in some brilliant matches against the likes of Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley. Then came his feud with Randy Orton. The two told a fascinating story that went on for nearly four months. Despite its long duration, McIntyre and Orton did some stellar work and drove up the intensity of their issue at the right times.
Their SummerSlam match was solid, followed by a wild Ambulance Match at Clash of Champions. The Viper defeated Drew McIntyre inside Hell in a Cell, but that wasn't the end of the feud. McIntyre won back the WWE Championship on the RAW before Survivor Series, ending his feud with Randy Orton on top.
He most recently defended the title against AJ Styles and The Miz, who cashed in his Money in the Bank, in an excellent TLC Match. Drew McIntyre had an excellent 2020 from start to finish, retaining his goodwill among the WWE fans. The WWE Champion looks set to continue this momentum in 2021, where a host of fresh opponents could be waiting for him.
#4 Bayley and Sasha Banks dominate WWE in the summer
As the slightly dreary post-WrestleMania season for WWE turned into the summer, Bayley and Sasha Banks turned up the heat. They defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross to become the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, which enabled them to float across SmackDown, RAW, and even NXT.
Banks and Bayley, who was the SmackDown Women's Champion, ran the show across all three brands. They had tremendous matches against the likes of Shotzi Blackheart, Io Shirai, Nikki Cross, and Asuka, who lost the RAW Women's Championship to Sasha Banks.
For a few weeks, The Golden Role Models were both double Champions in WWE and held all the possible Women's titles on RAW and SmackDown. Eventually, The Legit Boss lost her title to Asuka before she and Bayley lost the Tag Team belts to Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler.
Their period of dominance was great and laid down the perfect marker for their eventual feud, which peaked inside Hell in a Cell. WWE may have rushed the final portion of their storyline, but it was still well told and the matches were phenomenal. Sasha Banks and Bayley truly had outstanding years.
#3 The Men's Royal Rumble Match
Possibly the greatest in-ring WWE match in all of 2020, the 30-man Royal Rumble Match was booked to perfection. It was a match of two halves, with the story of both being fantastic. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar entered at number one and dominated the Rumble as nobody had ever done so.
The Beast eliminated 13 Superstars, one after the other, and had some fascinating confrontations with the likes of Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, and especially, Keith Lee. Lesnar finally met his match when Drew McIntyre Claymored him out of the ring to a thunderous pop. Something that lives distant in the memory these days. What a moment this was.
The next moment was even more special, as Edge made a shocking return to the ring at number 21. He looked phenomenal and lasted until the final three after reuniting with Randy Orton, foreshadowing his storied rivalry with The Viper that began the very next night. His next return, possibly at Royal Rumble 2021, has a tough act to follow.
Seth Rollins entering at number 30, with Murphy and AOP by his side, was a great side-story as WWE advanced his issue with Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe. However, the night belonged to Drew McIntyre, who eliminated Roman Reigns to win the 2020 Royal Rumble Match.
One of the reasons, aside from the enthralling action and memorable storytelling, that this match is so beloved by WWE fans is the excellent crowd. Some of the pops were excellent and serve as a reminder of the good times in 2020 before the world stopped.
McIntyre may not have had his big victory pop at WrestleMania, but he will always have Royal Rumble 2020. It was truly a special match that was made all-the-more special as one of the only big WWE matches in 2020 to take place in front of a live audience of fans.
#2 WWE goes cinematic for WrestleMania 36
The COVID-19 pandemic started to have a real effect on the planet in March, with every public happening being scrapped from that point forward. Much to WWE's misfortune, their next pay-per-view was WrestleMania. The show had to go on, but couldn't in its intended form at Raymond James Stadium.
WWE was forced to produce WrestleMania from the Performance Center with zero fans in attendance. Spread between Saturday and Sunday, which was the absolute right call from WWE, The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles and John Cena vs. The Fiend were filmed separately to break away from the monotonous and eerily quiet setting.
Night One of WrestleMania was headlined by the Boneyard Match between Undertaker and Styles, which turned out to be a smash-hit brawl. It was gory and action-packed, with The Undertaker looking incredible in the setting. He thrived in his hybrid character of The Deadman, The American Badass, and his real-life self.
It was the perfect match for Undertaker to retire from WWE on, much like the Firefly Fun House was to write John Cena off. His career was broken down into several plot points, with Bray Wyatt standing across him. Cena constantly found himself in old situations that were relevant to him in the past. He was being psychologically attacked.
From Cena's WWE debut on SmackDown in 2002 to his WrestleMania 30 match with Bray Wyatt and a near-miss of him forming his own version of the nWo in WWE, the Firefly Fun House Match successfully deconstructed the 16-time World Champion's career with a barrage of inside jokes at every turn. He was eventually laid to rest by The Fiend.
Whether one prefers the Boneyard Match or the Firefly Fun House Match, it cannot be denied that both cinematic matches at WrestleMania 36 were perfect. The two of them truly rescued WrestleMania from being too much of a slog. This enabled WWE to produce more cinematic matches in the months that followed, but nothing came close to these two masterpieces.
#1 Roman Reigns since his return to WWE
While the Boneyard and Firefly Fun House matches were outstanding, as well as the trajectories of Superstars like Drew McIntyre, Bayley, and Sasha Banks, WWE's biggest creative success of 2020 has to be Roman Reigns. He finally turned heel after years of WWE fans clamoring for it.
Reigns had taken time off WrestleMania onwards, as he had a higher risk of being affected by COVID-19. He made his shocking return at the end of SummerSlam, taking out The Fiend and Braun Strowman before declaring his intentions to pursue the WWE Universal Championship.
The following episode of WWE SmackDown saw the reveal of Paul Heyman as his advisor, which has sparked a dynamic way different Heyman's pairing with Brock Lesnar. Reigns does pretty much all of the talking as The Head of the Table, with Heyman serving to react and act gravitas to what The Tribal Chief says.
Roman Reigns became the Universal Champion a week after returning and has been relentless since then. His subtle movements, mannerisms, and nuances make him the best character in wrestling today. Reigns' feud with his cousin, Jey Uso, had no right to be as good as it turned out to be.
As spirited as Uso's performances were opposite Reigns, he now finds himself under the Universal Champion's leadership. He went from a fighting challenger to a lackey henchman through a well-told story, while Reigns has been having excellent matches against Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens recently.
Roman Reigns is now the fully-formed villain that everybody knew he could be and he has not disappointed in this role, at all. He is performing at the very highest level, with remarkable consistency in the ring and on the microphone. The Tribal Chief is the best thing that happened to WWE in 2020 and is comfortably their biggest star right now. The biggest they have had in a very long time.
