The Big Picture
Wrestling relies heavily on collective memory. Promoters sell the illusion that feuds eventually end. The absolute best rivalries just go dormant until the right payday appears. With AEW Double or Nothing exactly three days away, the industry is hyper-focused on the immediate future. Still, fans cannot stop begging for the past to repeat itself.
We see this playing out right now across social media. ROH Women's World Champion Athena is actively demanding one more match against WWE star Asuka. That request is grounded in their brutal NXT history. It was a feud that defined the developmental brand but lacked a true main roster payoff. Here are the top 10 moments that left us wanting a sequel, ranked.
10. Sami Zayn's Steel Chair Strike (Royal Rumble 2023)
The Bloodline angle peaked the absolute second steel hit spine in San Antonio. WWE dragged this slow burn out beautifully for nine months. They built Sami Zayn from an annoying lackey to the moral center of the television product. The crowd eruption when Zayn finally turned on Roman Reigns was deafening. He swung the chair. He dropped it. He accepted his beating.
Why rank it tenth? The follow-up completely failed the storyline. WWE booked Zayn to lose at Elimination Chamber in his Montreal hometown when the audience was begging for a title change. They masked the missed opportunity with tag team gold. Reigns escaping that night felt like a cowardly booking decision.
9. Athena's First Eclipse on Asuka (NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, 2017)
This match is the exact reason Athena is calling out her forever rival today. During their NXT Women's Championship bout, Ember Moon (Athena) hit the Eclipse flawlessly from the top rope. Everyone in the Barclays Center thought Asuka's undefeated streak was finally dead. The referee's hand came down for the three. Asuka kicked out at the last possible millisecond.
The timing of that kickout remains one of the sharpest near-falls in wrestling history. The aftermath, however, was incredibly messy. WWE called Asuka up to the main roster shortly after. They vacated the title and left Athena holding the bag in a suddenly depleted division. The score was never settled on a massive stage.
8. Kenny Omega Kicks Out at One (AEW Revolution 2020)
The tag match featuring Kenny Omega and Hangman Page against The Young Bucks routinely tops lists of the best tag bouts ever filmed. The defining sequence happened late in the match. Matt and Nick Jackson hit their Golden Trigger finisher directly on Omega. Instead of lying down for a dramatic two-count, Omega aggressively forced his shoulder off the mat at exactly 1.
It completely broke standard tag team psychology. Fans erupted because the kickout defied the established formula for finishing stretches. Tony Khan has tried repeatedly to recreate this exact level of dramatic tag team storytelling on Dynamite. He almost always fails, usually relying on chaotic run-ins instead.
7. The Festival of Friendship Betrayal (Raw, 2017)
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens carried Monday Night Raw through a very stale creative period. The Festival of Friendship segment in Las Vegas was a masterclass in slow-burn dread and comedic timing. Owens calmly handing Jericho the new List of KO provided a visual gag that transitioned instantly into brutal violence. Jericho taking a powerbomb onto the apron looked incredibly stiff.
It ranks this high because it perfectly manipulated the live crowd. The negative here is obvious. WWE immediately fumbled the payoff by putting the Universal Title on Goldberg at Fastlane. Jericho and Owens were demoted to a midcard United States title match at WrestleMania 33. They sacrificed a brilliant story for a cheap nostalgia pop.
6. CM Punk Sits on the Ramp (AEW Rampage, 2021)
The First Dance event in Chicago delivered wrestling's worst-kept secret perfectly. Punk walked out into the United Center, soaked in the noise, and simply sat cross-legged on the entrance ramp. It felt completely authentic. He wiped away seven years of bitterness in about three minutes. The visual of grown men crying in the front row highlighted the emotional weight of his return.
Knowing how the Brawl Out situation unfolded completely taints the memory now. The promise of that specific night was eventually buried under backstage politics, physical altercations, and NDAs. Still, if you isolate those first five minutes on TNT, it was absolute electric television.
5. Tetsuya Naito's Double Gold Dash (Wrestle Kingdom 14, 2020)
New Japan Pro-Wrestling tortured Naito fans for years before finally paying off the storyline. The Stardust Genius famously failed in 2018. Many Western fans believed booker Gedo would never put the top prize on him. When Naito finally defeated Kazuchika Okada to hold both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles, the relief inside the Tokyo Dome was massive.
Long-term booking rarely pays off this cleanly. That execution pushes this moment into the top five. However, KENTA running down to ruin the winner's roll-call immediately after was a baffling creative choice. It deflated a moment that took four actual years to build, entirely just to set up a B-show main event.
4. Becky Lynch's Broken Face (Raw, 2018)
Sometimes careless accidents accidentally create megastars. Nia Jax catching Lynch with a stray punch broke her face and made her career. Lynch standing in the crowd, covered in real blood, smiling down at Ronda Rousey in the ring is the defining image of modern women's wrestling. WWE could not have scripted a better visual catalyst for The Man persona.
The injury forced management to abandon their scheduled Survivor Series match. Management clearly wanted Charlotte Flair in the top spot, but the fans hijacked the shows. It remains a rare case of a legitimate injury dramatically improving a long-term storyline.
3. Kofimania Runs Wild (WrestleMania 35, 2019)
Kofi Kingston hitting Daniel Bryan with Trouble in Paradise felt like a total glitch in the WWE matrix. Management actively fought the idea of putting the WWE Championship on Kingston until the live crowds gave them absolutely no choice. The visual of Xavier Woods and Big E revealing the old leather championship belt from under a towel is pure joy. Bryan tapped out. MetLife Stadium shook.
It sits at number three because it mathematically proves that audience hijacking still works. The massive downside is how the reign ended. Brock Lesnar squashing Kingston in eight seconds on SmackDown months later completely disrespected the entire journey.
2. Cody Rhodes Finishes the Story (WrestleMania 40, 2024)
The overbooking of this main event in Philadelphia was spectacular television. John Cena, The Undertaker, and Seth Rollins all interfering to neutralize various Bloodline members felt exactly like an Avengers movie sequence. Rhodes hitting three Cross Rhodes to pin Roman Reigns ended a 1,316-day title run. The victory completely reshaped the entire company.
The match relied heavily on cheap nostalgia spots, but it served the specific narrative perfectly. It ranks at number two simply because it managed to meet impossible expectations. WWE actually listened to the massive fan backlash from WrestleMania 39 and aggressively corrected their booking mistake.
1. The Streak Dies in New Orleans (WrestleMania 30, 2014)
Total, suffocating silence. When Brock Lesnar hit the third F-5 and pinned The Undertaker, 75,000 people inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome literally stopped breathing. It is the most shocking predetermined outcome in professional wrestling history. Vince McMahon deciding to end the streak is still hotly debated backstage today.
Honestly, the match itself was sloppy due to Undertaker suffering an early, severe concussion. The actual wrestling was poor. The moment, however, is immortal. It completely rebooted Lesnar as an unstoppable final boss and closed the door on the last great wrestling tradition. It earns the number one spot purely on the visceral shock value alone.
Honorable Mentions
- Sting debuting at Winter is Coming in the freezing cold.
- Bayley viciously turning on Sasha Banks at the empty Performance Center.
- Will Ospreay and Ricochet breaking the internet in the Best of the Super Juniors.
