10 Best Matches From AEW: Year 4 | partsFUNknown - video Dailymotion

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Year four of All Elite Wrestling was... interesting. Some good matches though. These are the 10 best AEW matches from year four.  00:00 - Start 00:59 - Honourable Mention 01:23 - 10 02:19 - 9 03:19 - 8 04:07 - 7 05:04 - 6 06:01 - 5 06:50 - 4 07:51 - 3 08:47 - 2 09:49 - 1  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/ Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/ Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/

Transcript

00:00Well now, well goodness, what a year it's been for AEW. We do this list every year here at Parts

00:06of Unknown and WrestleTalk, and hey, you should check out the years one, two, and three lists

00:10that we've done. They're ever so good, I promise. We always count the year as starting and ending

00:14with Double or Nothing, and bloody hell, the moment Double or Nothing 2022 was over,

00:19things happened. Wardlow stopped being the hottest act in the business, the booking of

00:23Forbidden Door made the weekly shows unfocused, the TNT title got passed around with all the

00:28desire of a donation bucket at a student improv show, injuries ran rampant, Ring of Honor

00:32has been a bit weird, and did I miss anything? Oh yeah, backstage things! Here's hoping that

00:38between All In, MJF's title run, and the awesome BCC vs. Elite story, that things get back on

00:44track for AEW, because remember, if WWE and AEW are both good, that is the best possible timeline

00:49for a wrestling fan. But hey, regardless, there's been some mint AEW wrestling this year. I'm

00:54Adam Haling from Parts Fun Known. Here are 10 best matches from AEW, year 4.

00:59Honorable mention, Forbidden Door as a whole. I've mentioned this pay-per-view in my favourite

01:04shows of 2022, I did at the end of last year, and for good reason, it's a chocolate-coated

01:08banger. But after much soul-searching, I decided to not put any Forbidden Door matches on this

01:12list, as they're sort of both AEW and New Japan matches, plus nearly all of them are worthy

01:17to put on this list, so it makes the top 10 more interesting. Rewatch Forbidden Door, basically,

01:22it's well good. Number 10, Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Battle of the Belts

01:273. For anyone concerned about the future of AEW, we got two words for you. Konosuke Takeshita.

01:34Guy's a megastar in the making. He's had a goddamn brilliant year, turning out foot-thumping

01:38classics with Bryan Danielson, get used to hearing his name spoilers, MJF, Adam Page,

01:43Jon Moxley. It's a pretty damn impressive resume for someone so new to the company. Picking

01:47a favourite of his is tricky, but let's throw some love to Ring of Honor, and especially,

01:51Claudio Castagnoli, who's over-performed as current ROH champion, despite him not having

01:56nearly enough TV time as he deserved until quite recently. Their match at Battle of the

02:00Belts 3 was a proper barnstorm at two gents in total physical control of their bodies,

02:05working a technical clinic focused on Takeshita's back and Claudio's neck. At one point, Claudio

02:09counters a jumping knee into a Death Valley driver, and it's the sort of thing that just

02:13makes you beam with pride that the former Cesaro is getting to go NXT Tony again. Well, when

02:18we get to see him anyway. Number nine, Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia, Dynamite, August

02:2217, 2022. Who is the best signing in AEW history? If you're Luke, you'd say Jeff Jarrett. If you're

02:28a historian, you'd say Chris Jericho. But if you're an AEW casual who just likes to watch

02:32good matches all the live long day, the answer is Bryan goddamn Danielson. The American Dragon

02:38has been in the company for less than two years and has already had over 20 matches that have received

02:43four and a half stars or more. That is ridiculous, sir. Some of his best work has been the House of

02:49Dragon flavored view that he had with Daniel Garcia last summer. Normally, sponsored wrestling

02:53matches are pitch black s**t. But these two are some of the best technical wrestlers breathing,

02:58even if Garcia does have some seasoning to do when it comes to his character. No, that hat

03:01does not count as a character. Their whole series is great, but the best is this. Their two out of

03:06three falls match featuring precise limb work, bloodied offense, and even some classic Ricky Steamboat

03:11concrete DDT-ing. Also, those post-match chants of you're a wrestler, genuinely moving. Ten points

03:18to the crowd. Number eight, The Elite vs. Death Triangle Dynamite January 11, 2023. Yeah, they

03:23probably shouldn't have done seven of these, but don't let the fact that we were forced to have

03:27seven helpings of cake distract you from the cake being actually really good. At full gear,

03:32The Elite made their return to our screens following brawl out and surprisingly lost to Death

03:36Triangle, sparking a best of seven series, all of which was good and some of which was great.

03:41It's a shame that their final match on January 11 might not be remembered as fondly because,

03:46you know, we just had six of the f***ers, but it's a ladder match and it's bloody wonderful

03:51saving the best till last. I mean, it's a ladder match featuring The Elite and Death Triangle.

03:54I'm not just going to list all the spots of you, but that Super Hurricane Rana onto the ladder,

03:58that fear factor, that one-winged angel. The Elite do very stupid wrestling, but you can't

04:03deny how much fun they're able to cram into one match. And speaking of, number seven,

04:07El Gil del Vakingo versus Kenny Omega Dynamite March 22, 2023. Some people on the internet got

04:14very salty about AEW advertising this match as a dream match, despite El Gil del Vakingo appearing

04:19for not one minute on AEW programming. However, those people are your dad, and not only was the

04:24hype accurate, but the match was the video package you need in order to understand who Vakingo is and

04:29why he's a walking gif. In the grand tradition of Bryan Danielson, current AAA mega champ Vakingo walked

04:35into AEW and immediately had a five-star match with Kenny Omega on free telly, what a world.

04:40The match itself is wonderful, the crowd is super hyped for it, and it serves as a fab showcase for

04:44the man that Gravity has blocked and reported. Some of the spots are highly stupid indeed, including

04:48one that legit could have killed Vakingo, a springboard 6.30 through a table on the outside,

04:53with the lad almost braining himself on the ring apron, maybe slightly less of that. Even so,

04:58a jaw-dropper of a match, and the fact we get this for free on AEW, we're very spoiled little piggies.

05:03Number 6, Hikaru Shida vs Jamie Hayter, AEW Holiday Bash 2022. It's been a mixed bag for

05:09AEW's women's division in Year 4. In one sense, the current top act, the heel trio known as the

05:14Outcasts, is an absolute shameless rip-off of the NWO right down to the spray painting,

05:18which is not quite setting the scene on fire. On the other hand, though, Jamie Hayter might just

05:21be the best AEW women's champion they've ever had, especially when she's turning out classics like

05:26this. Fresh off a win in the belt of full gear, Hayter's first proper defense saw a take on AEW

05:30standard bearer Hikaru Shida in the main event of the special holiday Dynamite, and lord,

05:35the crowd loved it. For damn good reason, too, being one of the hardest-hitting non-deathmatch

05:39matches the AEW's women's division has ever seen. The two women plaster each other with strikes and

05:45suplexes as the crowd rises in temperature until a spontaneous standing ovation breaks out.

05:50While the AEW's women's placement on weekly TV still leaves a little to be desired, but hey,

05:54they've only had four years. Give them a break. Sarcasm, they still have a talent pool capable of

05:59turning out match-the-year candidates.

06:01Number five, Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley, Revolution 2023. I mean, I guess it depends how much you like

06:06watching people get stabbed in the head with a fork. I'm in two minds. Part of me thinks that

06:10literally these two exact men have had better matches when they're not just walking through

06:14a Home Depot looking for things they can wrap in razor wire. But the other part of me also can't

06:18deny that it's not only a hell of a spectacle, but also a spectacle that the Revolution fans

06:21really wanted to see. Jon Moxley specializes in this kind of epic deathmatch where you're equal

06:26parts disgusted and impressed, and so far this might be his masterpiece. I mean, all the things

06:31you can think to do with bricks and barbed wire they thought of and did, and it's the kind of

06:34statement win the Hangman Page desperately needed after his title reign ended amidst a bunch of CM Punk

06:39grass-touching hoopla. Do I want to see it all the time? No, thank you. Do I respect the effort and

06:44blood expelled by both men to satiate the AEW fans' lust for red silliness? Absolutely.

06:49Number four, Jay Lethal vs. Mark Briscoe, Dynamite, January 25th, 2023. Oh, man. The wrestling world

06:56was rocked earlier this year when news broke that a mere month after the Briscos in FTR blew off their

07:01widely acclaimed rivalry at Final Battle, Jay Briscoe had been killed in a car crash. Desperately

07:07sad to see any wrestler die so young, especially one that's had as much impact in a company as Jay

07:12Briscoe has had in Ring of Honor. A week later, on what would have been Jay's birthday, no less,

07:17his brother Mark wrestled in the main event of Dynamite, his first official AEW match against

07:21Jay Lethal in a tribute to his brother, and bloody hell, it was moving. It's an uncanny experience to

07:27watch grief be worked through via the medium of psychotic redneck kung fu, but as we've unfortunately

07:32seen multiple times in this industry, even in AEW, a tribute match just hits different, shifts the

07:38perspective on wrestling from a normal narrative of winners and losers to show up for what it really is,

07:44a skillful cooperation between friends and between family. Reach for the sky.

07:51Number three, The Elite versus The Dark Order All Out 2022. Man, the infamy that will forever

07:57surround All Out 2022 is really annoying, partially because speculation about backstage drama within a

08:02company is something I've really grown to dislike over time, but also, more simply, overshadows that

08:07there was some absolutely banging wrestling at the show, especially this match featuring three men

08:11winning the first ever AEW Trios Championships for immediately vacating them thanks to their part in

08:17the said backstage drama. The entire tournament leading up to this moment was gold. Aussie Open

08:21versus Death Triangle would have been at number 11 on this list, but the finals were super elevated,

08:25not just by the bonkers party wrestling perfected by Kenny and the Bucks, but also the fact that it was

08:30Hangman Page and Kenny Omega coming face-to-face in ring for the first time since Full Gear the year

08:35before. Crazy spots, plus a unique storytelling crowd hook, that's how great wrestling comes to be,

08:41and that moment where Page and Omega drag their partners to the corners they can tag in,

08:46that chef's kiss. Number two, The Acclaimed versus Swerve in Our Glory All Out 2022. Well,

08:51you knew I had to get a little bit of Keith in here somewhere, didn't you? I will marry you one day,

08:55big fella. I think we would all like to see more of Keith Lee in AEW, and I'm pretty sure at some

08:59point him and Swerve were supposed to blow off that feud, right? Like, I didn't dream that. But hey,

09:06at least we got this. An incredibly exciting match featuring an incredibly excited crowd,

09:10watching my best friend Keith Lee do incredibly exciting things. It's a hell of a thing,

09:15the Chicago crowd. They are rabid for The Acclaimed. You just hit the peak of their popularity

09:19thanks to their Shakespearean catchphrase, scissor me daddy ass. Wrestling! What seemed on the outset

09:25to be a match that would cement the title reign of Swerve in Our Glory became what felt

09:29in the moment as the match to coronate the acclaim. No one really expected it, but as the match went on

09:34and on and it built and it built and the expertly done near fall started coming, it felt like there

09:40could be a little bit of magic in the air and The Acclaimed might just do it, which saw Chicago

09:44going absolutely mental for them, louder even than for the CM Punk main event. And number one,

09:50MJF versus Bryan Danielson, Revolution 2023. Bryan Danielson, you're too much. Since he arrived,

09:57he's done 30 minute time limit draws, hour long time limit draws, Anarchy in the Arena matches.

10:02He's even wrestled on AEW Dark, under a mask, calling himself Infinito for shizzles and giggles.

10:07And now here he is at Revolution, wrestling his first AEW pay-per-view main event, which sounds

10:11crazy. Wrestling for 65 goddamn minutes. And 65 great minutes of that. It smartly structured this

10:18match. A 25 minute standard main event match to get to the first fall, then a bit of silly pro wrestling

10:24theater with the low blow and double pinfalls to tie up it to a beast, give the crowd a bit of a shake

10:29up and a reset, then another pair of falls over the next 20 minutes, and of course, have it be tied

10:34before the desperate final stretch. Tiebreaker, very well-seeded heel shenanigans, MJF walks away

10:39with it. It's really clever stuff. Even without all the ace character work done by MJF, who's struggling

10:44to keep going, and Danielson, you might as well be holding up a dustbin lid because he can do this all

10:48day. I know you're wondering, Adam, is it a better Iron Man match than Brock Lesnar

10:51vs. Kurt Angle on SmackDown? It's very similar, but you know what? It might just be epically

10:57entertaining and the perfect first defense for MJF, whose title run, AEW, should hopefully

11:02build the entirety of year five around. And that's our list. What's been your favorite

11:07AEW match from their fourth year? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to check

11:10out last week's list, which you can do right now.

11:13Well, you don't see a lot of Fatal Fall Ways in pro wrestling. Triple threats? Sure.

11:17The Naughty Nine way? Absolutely. But Fatal Fall Ways are a little bit more thin on the ground.

11:21In 2010, WWE actually dedicated a pay-per-view to them exactly one time. The pay-per-view

11:26was called Fatal Fall Ways, and it was, you know, it was fine, actually. It was actually

11:30pretty good. Each world title was contested in a Fatal Fall Ways.

10 Best Matches From AEW: Year 4 | partsFUNknown

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