If there’s one thing that AEW have mastered over the years, it’s making their pay-per-views feel like must-see events. Their original schedule of only having four marquee pay-per-views every year has more than doubled as of late, and while some fans will complain at the sheer length of some them, there is no denying that every AEW pay-per-view has at least one match or moment that has fans around the world talking. However, just because you get the fans talking, doesn’t mean that they are talking about something good, and there’s arguably no show in AEW history that has angered and annoyed people more than All Out 2020.

Taking place deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of time that many people see as a high point for AEW, All Out 2020 is one of the shows that will always get a mention when it comes to the topic of the worst AEW pay-per-views of all time. It does have its bright spots, such as Kenny Omega and Hangman Page’s feud officially starting when they lost the AEW Tag Team Championships to FTR, and solid enough matches that have largely been forgotten such as The Young Bucks vs. the Jurassic Express, Thunder Rosa vs. Hikaru Shida, and Jon Moxley vs. MJF.

Nevertheless, the “Mimosa Mayhem” match between Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy, and the “Tooth and Nail” match between Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D and Big Swole weren’t received well by the fans, but then there’s this; the “Broken Rules” match between Sammy Guevara and Matt Hardy.

Despite a short runtime of just over six minutes, the match between Hardy and Guevara has become infamous for one spot in particular. Both men were fighting backstage on top of a scissor lift while two tables sat below waiting for Hardy, Guevara, or both men to crash through them. In the end, Guevara would spear Hardy off the lift and through the table, but with the tables being set up too close to the lift, they overshot the landing and Hardy hit the back of his head on the concrete floor. The match was stopped as it appeared as if Hardy had been knocked unconscious, but for some reason the match continued, and after taking a fall that could have killed him had it gone slightly different, Hardy would get up, carry on, and win the match after climbing a scaffold that Guevara would eventually be thrown off of.

This was the match that forced AEW to introduce new concussion and medical protocols, and while everyone walked away from the match relatively unscathed, letting Hardy continue the match made AEW look amateur, unsafe, and unable to take proper care of their wrestlers. Hardy himself has admitted that he told Dr. Michael Sampson that he was okay to continue, to which Sampson gave the green light, but the recklessness of it all left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths, and overshadowed the rest of the show.