Well, here it is. It’s taken me a while to put my thoughts together on wrestling in 2023, both because there’s a lot to think about, and for more personal reasons. If you’ve read my previous list, which you can find HERE, you’ll notice structural differences; as someone who values symmetry and metadata, it was not easy to admit defeat on my original formula of the MOTY post, but let me tell you why it looks different this year.
I have chosen to excise three categories that I had last year, two of those being Promotion of the Year and Tag Team of the Year. First, I don’t think any of the promotions that I watched this year had an output worth wholeheartedly celebrating. WWE’s product had a better showing than normal, but it’s WWE and I’m never going to feel like they’re the best of anybody when it comes to wrestling. AEW still offers strong matches and the occasional good storyline, but this was one of their weakest years creatively so far. ROH is mostly a joke, NJPW limps along, and while my live experience with it was fun, Impact/TNA mostly held at around “pretty good;” really, they’re probably my vote for POTY, but like with everywhere else, I just wasn’t feeling it.
Ditto not feeling it for Tag Team of the Year. There were barely any tag matches in my thread of ****+ matches from the year, and the ones that were on it involved teams that I don’t think were “the best” by any metric. This would have been a great year for me to finally get around to watching more Astronauts matches, but honestly, the ones I saw from them did not live up to the monstrous hype I’ve seen. Sorry.
Double ditto for Show of the Year. I dunno, man, I can’t remember all this shit. Pick one of the AEW PPVs that show up more than once on the list, or that really good Collision from December. Whatever.
These omissions are indicative of a larger problem I’m feeling right now with my own wrestling fandom, which is the feeling that I’m not doing enough as a writer or as someone with thoughts and opinions. This is a great time to be reading and seeking out great wrestling writers; if you look in the right place, you’ll find no end to talented and passionate voices worldwide covering every inch of the wrestling spectrum, whether its individual match reviews from modern-day or any time in the past, to written full-length articles and thinkpieces (not to mention the ongoing dearth of wrestling podcasts).
I wish that the amount of great writing we’re seeing about wrestling right now was firing me up, but it just makes me feel obsolete. If I might indulge in a little self-pity, one of the reasons that it’s taken me so long to write this up is my continued grappling with the feeling that my writing is not good enough. I simply don’t have the ability to keep up with every wrestling promotion, including those from the past 50 years I’ve yet to watch, and hold opinions on all of them that are both interesting or of any use. In many ways, I’m the exact opposite of the wrestlers that I look up to and admire: When the going gets tough, I don’t fire up or reach down deep to carry on; instead, I freeze, I submit, I accept my limitations and let them bury me. I could keep going, but ultimately, this piece isn’t about me, and it’s all the better for that fact.
Here we go.
MVPs of 2023
Athena
Doomed to a cursed existence on a go-nowhere show, the ROH Women’s World Champion is one of several major examples this year of a wrestler switching up their style and entering their career run. Although the heel turn happened in late 2022, it was in 2023 that Athena became a featured attraction of the ROH show, usually involving her kicking the shit out of a jobber and just being the biggest asshole you’ve ever seen. Virtually the only reason to follow the weekly offering is to see Athena batter another ham-and-egger in between more notable defenses against the likes of Yuka Sakazaki and Willow Nightingale. I wasn’t personally all that into her story with Billie Starkz, but the point is that it was a story that one could follow over an extended period of time, which ROH sorely needs. I’m hopeful that Athena’s good work will be seen by more people in 2024, which unfortunately seems to only be possible if she leaves ROH post-haste.
Jox Moxley
The Ace of AEW. In a company that has begun to swing wildly between extremes of how to make a wrestling TV show, Mox is the steady heartbeat when it comes to everything that makes a pro wrestler cool and good and interesting. His in-ring work is still incredibly strong, he can cut a motherfucker of a promo, he still has name value across the world, and he can be plugged in anywhere to give a story or opponent instant credibility. This year was not as outstanding as others that he’s had since coming to AEW, but it still featured stand-out performances and some excellent put-overs of the guys who needed/deserved it. That’s my Mox.
Samoa Joe
Is he as good as he used to be? No. Is he still one of the best guys around? Hell yeah. I’m so happy to be living in a world where one of my top 10 wrestlers of all time is not only healthy enough to wrestle at something even resembling his all-time work, but still has enough value to be the world champion of the second-biggest North American wrestling promotion. Joe does what he does and, if you combine him with the right ingredients (ie. Darby Allin, MJF), he can still put out something really special. Hail to the king, baby.
Christian Cage
If you want to talk about career runs in AEW or wrestling in general, take a look at Christian Cage’s year. Cage is a guy who I’ve always known to be good, and you certainly hear no end of fans and wrestlers talking him up as the most underrated talent or what-have-you, but very little of what he did viscerally clicked with me until this year. In between tremendous PPV matches with the likes of Darby Allin, Cage’s character of The Patriarch is simply the most compelling he has ever been as a personality. It’s the combination of the obviously outrageous things he says to his opponents mixed with the patience of a veteran that has made him truly effective as a heel performer. He’s not like others in the wrestling landscape who simultaneously want to be the heel but also the coolest and funniest character on the card; instead, Cage’s performance communicates that he is not dependent on fan reaction, which paradoxically has made him more beloved as a heel (as weird as that is to say). AEW has been the land of second chances for a lot of older wrestlers, and Christian may just be the one that this observation is the most true for.
Eddie Kingston
Speaking of second chances. Eddie’s surprise appearance on a 2020 Dynamite to fight Cody Rhodes seemed like a beautiful fluke, something that was too cool to be made anything of and would only exist as a trivia answer afterward. Fast forward 3 years and Eddie is a top guy in three promotions simultaneously with the belts to show for it, and seemingly everywhere you look online, his self-evident greatness is finally being acknowledged. It’s no longer just us CHIKARA freaks that are telling all of our friends to check out a promo on YouTube because “It’s really good, I swear,” but audiences of thousands and viewer in the millions are seeing those promos and matches for themselves and finally getting it. One of the biggest myths about professional wrestling is that it is a meritocracy, that the cream always rises to the top and every worthy performer will get what they deserve if they work hard and be themselves. Like the best performers in the industry before him, Eddie Kingston makes you believe in that lie, because if there wasn’t some kind of truth to it, he surely wouldn’t be here.
Wrestler of the Year
Bryan Danielson
This one was almost Eddie Kingston but, after Worlds End and in thinking on it further, it couldn’t be anybody else but the greatest wrestler alive.
Kingston certainly instilled the most passion in me in 2023 and had some whopper matches, but this year was the one where the case for Danielson as the GOAT came together for me. This is certainly a case that can be, and has been, more extensively put together already, but for my money, there is no one better at representing the type of pro wrestling that I like best than Danielson. Now into his fourth decade as an active wrestler, Danielson’s true affection and respect for pro wrestling is on display in every match that he has and I consider myself lucky that I am alive at the same time that he is on weekly TV.
There are the big hits of the year for Danielson, from the Iron Man Match with MJF (that I am the low man on but was still good) to his feud with Ricky Starks and the Continental Classic, but what really shows me how valuable of a talent Danielson is, and has always been, is the effort put into matches that he could easily coast on (see his TV matches against Bandido, Timothy Thatcher, Swerve Strickland, Starks, and Rush as evidence). As we begin to wind down the career of the American Dragon, he is still going with every fiber in his being; not just to prove that he can, but to make his own case as the best wrestler in the world today.
Who am I to disagree?
Match of the Year
Honorable Mentions
I kept track of all of the matches I personally rated 4 stars or higher through a Twitter thread, which you can find HERE. I rated a lot of matches 4 stars, so here’s a link to a screen cap of all of them, all of them really good matches that are worth checking out:
Now, the actual honorable mentions.
Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17
– The less annoying match that these two had in 2023. The New Japan presentation of the match seemed to be the missing piece in making this something that I could get invested in, and I’m always down for a story involving Ospreay eating shit.
Syuri vs Chihiro Hashimoto, STARDOM All Star Grand Queendom
– I’ve written in past columns about how STARDOM’s in-house style doesn’t really work for me, but this match is the happy exception. Hashimoto especially is one that I will be keeping my eye on, as I’m a big fan of her power game.
Titan vs El Desperado, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Night 11
– Big Match Titan does it again in another great year for him in the tournament.
Master Wato vs Titan, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Final
– The Wato experiment finally pays off in a good tournament run and a superb final that made it feel like he earned it, even over the superior Titan.
Athena vs Willow Nightingale, ROH Death Before Dishonor
– Athena’s crown jewel of the year. It maybe should have been the place for her to drop the damn thing, but considering that she managed to parlay this into a feud with Billie Starkz that basically single-handedly powered ROH through the rest of the year, it is what it is. Great match all the same.
Tetsuya Naito vs Will Ospreay, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 18
– Although I don’t particularly like either of them, this one is pretty undeniable as a big-time main event.
Kenny Omega vs Konosuke Takeshita, AEW All Out
– Takeshita with a star-making performance here against Omega, or at least, what SHOULD be a star-making performance (more on AEW’s ability to do that later).
Orange Cassidy vs Jon Moxley, AEW All Out
– Although the title run afterward was unceremoniously derailed, Mox bringing the killer out of Orange was incredibly fun and further solidified Cassidy as someone worth getting behind.
Swerve Strickland vs Hangman Page, AEW WrestleDream
– A very strong match between these two establishing their chemistry and the dramatic stakes to come.
Christian Cage vs Darby Allin, AEW WrestleDream
– Darby Allin once again kills himself in a bell-to-bell whopper of a match. Christian’s strongest match of the year in a period of terrific performances.
Christian Cage vs Bryan Danielson, AEW Collision 10/14
– Two of the best wrestlers in the world getting time to do their thing, and surprise, it really works.
Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston, AEW Collision 12/2
– In what would become a two-part story, Danielson humiliates Eddie, but in turn, gives him what he needs: A reason to prove him wrong.
Jon Moxley vs Eddie Kingston, AEW Worlds End
– The finals of the Continental Classic delivered, save for a weird patch in the middle. I was ready to LOVE the match, but I’ll settle for really, really, really like.
10
TIE: Keiji Muto vs Masahiro Chono, Pro Wrestling NOAH Keiji Muto Grand Final Pro-Wrestling “Last” Love Hold Out/Rey Mysterio vs Dominik Mysterio, Wrestlemania 39 Night 1 (****)
I don’t necessarily like to do a tie in a top 10 list because it risks looking like a cheat, but consider this double entry at #10 the spot for wonderful pro wrestling bullshit. As expected, Keiji Muto’s retirement tour was a blowout, months-long affair that was easy to snicker and roll one’s eyes at, but the culmination of it after his final(?) match against Tetsuya Naito brought a tear to my eye. I’m not even the most knowledgeable about classic Japanese wrestling, but I understood the significance of Muto beckoning the long-retired Masa Chono into the ring for one last scrap, two of NJPW’s original Three Musketeers calling it in the ring to the delight of everyone. I loved seeing Chono immediately lock back into wrestling mode and, although his body can never be what it once was, it proved that old habits really do die hard. 1 minute and 37 seconds of nothing hurting and pro wrestling being the best.
Similarly, if we’re talking about the most fun I had watching WWE this year, nothing can beat the father vs son match at Wrestlemania. From true top to bottom, I was glued to the screen and laughing my guts out at the absurdity and the size of it all. From Dominik entering the arena in chains looking like a giant-sized version of his father, to Rey (in a Muto tribute mask) entering with Snoop Dogg in a low rider to “Nothin But a G Thang/Viva La Raza/Booyaka 619,” to the goddamn Cinnamon Toast Crunch mascot presiding over this “heated rivalry,” it was impossible for me to scoff at what I was seeing. It was just too ridiculous, too much, too wrestling. I initially underrated this match because it’s not all that great in-ring, but when you’ve got spots where Rey Mysterio whips his large adult son with a belt set to the jubilant cries of Michael Cole on commentary, who gives a shit? More nonsense, please!
9
Eddie Kingston vs Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW G1 Climax 33 Night 8 (****1/2)
I like Tomohiro Ishii. Emphasis on like. Since NJPW’s big renaissance at the start of the 2010s and into today, Ishii seems to be one of the folk heroes of the smart wrestling fan. He can be plugged in anywhere, in any promotion, at any position on the card, and be taken seriously as a threat. He’s a stout man with a serious face who hits hard and expects you to hit him hard. With the right opponent, his matches are goddamn amazing, but I find that, too often, a lot of wrestlers want to wrestle Ishii as Ishii, going blow-for-blow until someone falls over. That approach to the Ishii match has held limited appeal for me, and I find it actively boring when you have a hoss du jour in the NJPW orbit try and out-tough the Stone Pitbull. Whether they win or lose, it just kinda looks like a guy hitting a guy until one of them falls down, for some reason.
Enter Eddie Kingston.
Eddie is of a similar cut to a wrestler like Ishii, filled to the brim with grit and determination, ready to hit you hard and drop you with a devastating suplex. However, what Eddie gets (and what Ishii gets, too) is that for a match where two of these wrestlers hit each other, something has to give. Fighting Tomohiro Ishii is a struggle, and there’s no one on Earth that conveys struggle in professional wrestling better than Eddie Kingston.
This G1 meeting between the two has all of the bombs you’d expect from them, but unlike your more run-of-the-mill roughnecks, Eddie knows how to make the fight seem like climbing a mountain. Eddie’s plans get thwarted, he gets hit hard, and you can practically feel it in every grimace and gasp coming from him. Then, when Eddie starts to gain ground and his big hits begin to register, you can feel the tide turning in his performance as he gains confidence, is able to bypass his pain, and bring the fight to the Stone Pitbull. Even though he doesn’t win here, he never once looked out of his depth.
Eddie has the Tomohiro Ishii match and reminds me of how great that match can be.
8
Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston, AEW New Year’s Smash (****1/2)
He should have killed him when he had the chance.
Eddie Kingston gets a shot at redemption in the Blue League block final of the Continental Classic, both by winning the block itself and in defeating the man who seemingly proved his status as a loser, Bryan Danielson.
Although I’m aware of people who dislike Eddie Kingston (I’m even friends with them), I simply cannot understand this thought process. Ever since I saw him cutting promos in the back room of a church hall, he had me. Whether he was a crazed heel or a downtrodden babyface, I recognized something that felt not just real in him, but that felt true-to-life. Eddie has made no bones about using aspects of his own life in some of his most notable and fieriest promos, but wrestling is, after all, a performance. It’s good business for Eddie to portray himself as a working-class hero because it’s what gets people like me to invest in him, in every sense. Does it matter if him talking about struggling with alcohol, drugs, gangs, and mental illness is 100% true? Not here, not in wrestling. As long as it feels true, nothing else should matter, and Eddie’s win here against Danielson feels TRUE.
As established in their first meeting, Danielson (the greatest wrestler alive today) didn’t just defeat Eddie, but he humiliated him. The infamous photo of Danielson holding up a sign declaring “Eddie Is A Bum” seemed to be burying Eddie six feet deep after racking up a seemingly insurmountable points deficit in the C2. Eddie had his shot against the GOAT and he blew it, like he always does…right?
Really, this win against Danielson in their block final rematch feels like even more of an accomplishment than the tournament final itself. Jon Moxley was an obstacle for Eddie that he had yet to surmount, yes, but the momentum was on his side by then. You can’t just put Eddie Kingston in the finals of a tournament, THIS tournament, and have him lose, this isn’t McMahon-land. In this match, it was not at all a done deal (at least, not to me) that Eddie winning was the play, and seeing him pin the guy clean in the ring after an absolutely phenomenal match still feels cathartic.
Just as in his match with Ishii, Eddie brings his A-game against someone who is one of the most gifted performers of his time and of all times (apologies for the hyperbole, but I’m starting to feel it as I write this). The struggle of trying to find a way to beat Danielson feels so gritty and tough as Eddie is physically dissected by someone who is 10 times the technician he is. But, a wonderful moment in the middle of the match where Eddie and Bryan let the action breathe, almost willing the crowd to their feet in support of Kingston, is the tip-off to the momentum I mentioned earlier.
He can win. He will win.
It’s a superb match for professional wrestling television, only hindered by the fact that its enjoyment lies in the long-term story; not exactly a casual throw-it-on match unless you’ve been through the whole thing. The post-match promo with Eddie and Mox is the icing on the cake, capturing his entire appeal in one sentence:
“I hate myself more than anyone else, but on Saturday, the king of the bums is gonna push you…I’m gonna bust you up and enjoy it.”
7
CM Punk vs Samoa Joe, AEW All In (****1/4)
Yes, this match is a bit lower in star rating than the ones before it, but it’s special to me beyond what stars can tell.
CM Punk’s return to wrestling has been a mixed blessing for fans like me. As with life, you take the good with the bad, and you either reach a breaking point with a singularly frustrating performer, or you ride the ride accepting that, someday, enough may be enough. All In was a tough one for myself and other Punk fans, as it was not only another eye-rolling case of Punk “doing his thing,” but it led to his firm departure from AEW and back into the fold with WWE, in one of the most bitter pills I’ve had to swallow as a fan. It was wilting to read to my friends that Punk and Jack Perry had come to a confrontation backstage, knowing that not only was this probably the last straw, but that once again, it was surely his own fault.
At least this time, he left us with one more for the record books.
Having re-watched the Punk/Joe series from Ring of Honor last year, I couldn’t have been more excited when they met up in July as part of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. At the time, I justified the less-than-stellar match followed by a roll-up finish, saying that it was better than nothing after all these years. They seemed to both still have it in the ring and worked together just as well as they always did, just under less-than-ideal conditions.
Now, with the asterisks off, with a PPV amount of time and the biggest wrestling crowd in the world, Punk/Joe V (the real final chapter) delighted me to no end. Punk knows his role in a fight like this, sticking and moving with whatever offense he can muster, in between getting absolutely wasted by Joe, still as believable a bad-ass as he was two decades ago. What’s more, both are able to play off of Punk’s acidic reputation beautifully, with Joe being practically beloved amidst Punk’s mixed-but-heated reactions. The Hogan sequence into the kickout-at-one was just beautiful stuff.
Perhaps best of all, Joe and Punk are able to contain everything one could love about their past encounters into such a compact package. At 14:00 exactly, these two give you everything you could want, no matter how you feel about CM Punk. Yes, he wins, but after being busted open, powerbombed through a table the wrong way, and basically having had a piece of his ass torn off by Joe.
I so wish that Joe/Punk IV didn’t exist, as this feels like a perfect one-more-time coda to everything they had done before. For 14 minutes, and in front of the entire wrestling world, CM Punk and Samoa Joe didn’t just play the hits for the oldheads like me, but they made fans of every generation realize why they are remembered so fondly.
6
Fuminori Abe vs Takuya Nomura, KTDan We Are The Fighting Detectives (****1/2)
I said earlier that the Astronauts’ tag team matches have yet to impress me in the way that it has all of the taste-makers that I keep up with online. That’s not to say that the two men behind Astronauts haven’t impressed me; quite the opposite, in fact.
This was another match that was hyped up beyond belief after it happened, to the point where I felt I had to see it. At just a smidge under 20 minutes, it certainly doesn’t waste your time, and its greatest strength lies in something I’ve spoken about before: It feels real.
More than any other match on this list, I’ve never been more convinced that two individuals want to win a professional wrestling match by any means necessary. Abe and Nomura, despite being friends and tag partners, absolutely beat the shit out of one another with grimace-worthy fists, kicks, and close submission holds. It practically crosses into shoot-fight territory and evoked reactions from me that not a lot of matches are able to get today. I’m almost getting a sympathetic headache right now just recalling everything in the match. It’s certainly no must-see for any of those on Twitter hand-wringing about safety in wrestling, but its opposition to mainstream wrestling today is precisely why I regard it so fondly.
In a year where the main story of a major wrestling company orbited around the histrionics and screaming-to-the-cheap-seats motivations of two “brochachos,” I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see two friends have a wrestling match with each other, hit each other very hard, and still be friends by the end. Wrestling in the internet age is often in danger of being thought to death in how things make sense, or how actions of fictional characters do or do not adhere to logic. Really, wrestling is not meant to stand up to that level of scrutiny. Wrestling is not something to be intellectualized like a mathematical equation or an intricately-written novel; sometimes it can be, but it demands to be felt more than anything.
This match, despite all of the hype and everything I seem to be missing about the men in it, made me feel its importance. It made sense because it made sense to them. That’s all I need; really, all I ever needed.
5
Jay White vs Eddie Kingston, NJPW Battle in the Valley (****1/2)
What I value in a professional wrestling match is when the people can make it feel like a real fight, or at least, a convincing simulacrum. In Jay White’s last NJPW match (to date), he and Eddie Kingston put on what I feel is the most underrated match of the year doing just that.
Just as Kingston is the master of selling in a way that makes things feel real, White has perfected his own manner of realism, which is that sometimes, he just refuses to get hit by your move. It’s a tasty sauce that can be overused if relied on too much, but combined with Eddie’s approach to a match, it makes for a fight that is easily the most impressed I’ve been by White in a long time. White is right at home cowering and running away, only getting hit if he has to, which is the perfect combo for a wrestler like Eddie who enjoys the pain and suffering of it all. I was certainly looking forward to this one before it began for the sheer novelty, but I got wrapped up in it by the end.
I have a bit less to say about this than the others, but my love for it is as strong as it was earlier in the year. In a year with several good performances, Jay’s final hour in New Japan was the best that I saw out of him.
4
Hangman Page vs Swerve Strickland, AEW Full Gear (****1/2)
Sweet, beautiful violence.
After not only surviving TEXAS DEATH against Jox Moxley but reaffirming the match as his own in AEW, Hangman Page confronts the up-and-coming Swerve Strickland with imperfect courage and is found wanting.
Although I’m ranking this one lower than the one that came before it (spoilers), it is of no fault on this match’s part; in fact, there’s a couple of things about this version of TEXAS DEATH that I like better than the one from the beginning of the year. First, the ideas for violence in this one belie Swerve’s ability to reach outside the wrestling bubble and pick up cool things from elsewhere that can totally work, like the stapling of his own body that feels straight out of a horror movie, or the few comedic moments involving Prince Nana that break up the bloodbath with a bit of levity.
Also, and this is also not a fault on either match, Swerve just makes more sense as a guy who can benefit from a victory like this. As I will get into in the next entry, TEXAS DEATH was another in a line of moments and matches intended to make Hangman Page a star. By now, it’s getting to be a bit old that the former world champion has to prove himself yet again. Here, however, Swerve is where Hangman was years ago: He DOES need this win and the convincing display that he belongs at the top of the card. Man, did he deliver.
It says something that, of the two of them, this iteration of TEXAS DEATH reached out to fans outside of the AEW bubble, and struck a chord even with people who don’t enjoy this level of violence in wrestling (at least, judging by the reactions following it). Hangman and Swerve are two of AEW’s biggest assets as performers right now, and it feels so good when management sees what we all have noticed in guys like them.
3
Hangman Page vs Jon Moxley, AEW Revolution (****1/2)
The blueprint of what came after and, once again, a seemingly can’t-miss opportunity to elevate a great talent is taken to its fullest potential by the company’s Ace.
This is one of a couple of notable matches Jon Moxley had in 2023 where he made the guy against him look better than when he came in; however, instead of a small duo of matches that sought to elevate a mid-card talent into a more solidified station (Orange Cassidy), his series of matches with Hangman looked to put the latter onto the same level as the multi-time world champion and even, in this case, in greater standing. A good aim, noble even, and although the follow-through wasn’t there for him, Hangman came through in the clutch with a believable and grisly performance here.
I had a bit of a hard time figuring out which of the big, violent TEXAS DEATH fights I would put above the other, but I ultimately give the slight edge to this one because of its status as the match in 2023 that helped to solidify Hangman, but also as one with a slightly better lead-in and one that felt a bit simpler in its intent, which I personally prefer.
Unlike the Hangman/Swerve match that swung a bit too close to the more soapy aspects of wrestling drama, this one had a bit more of a bare bones approach to a wrestling rivalry (aided by a legitimate and, thankfully, non-serious injury). Over the course of several months, it felt like Moxley needed to assert himself as Page’s superior in every sense that meant anything to him, but damn it, those cowboy guts just wouldn’t let Hangman give up unless he was made to. Enter TEXAS DEATH, a stipulation that Hangman couldn’t flash-pin his way out of and that would require all of the heart that he could muster to accomplish.
It’s as violent as North American televised pro wrestling gets and has spots that easily rival the Swerve match, including a better-looking hanging spot. I remember watching and re-watching the match when it happened and I felt an incredible surge of adrenaline once it got down to the final few minutes where Hangman, face covered in blood, asserted himself over the alpha dog of AEW, causing Moxley to tap out, a feat that actually means something. Through the match and the result, Hangman once again found himself made into a star. It’s a shame that, for every attempt made to do so, it continues to not happen for him on that level.
TEXAS DEATH means something in AEW because of Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, and Swerve in 2023.
2
Bryan Danielson vs Ricky Starks, AEW All Out (****3/4)
This list ended up holding a quiet trilogy with a unifying theme of putting over the young guy. Hangman let Swerve beat him at his own game, just as Mox let Hanger do to him, but the difference in this match is that Ricky Starks did not beat Bryan Danielson, and yet, comes off as the biggest star of all three of his fellow up-and-comers.
The rise of Ricky Starks over the past few years, from a bright spot on NWA Powerrrrr to a featured role in the #2 North American company, has been so great to see. Starks is a guy that, as soon as you see him perform once, you understand that he gets it. He knows how to be a wrestler in a way that hearkens back to the classic ideal of that profession, while also adding a modern spin onto it. Unlike others around his age that wear their inspirations on their sleeve and practically scream at you to please get that they also like wrestling, Starks’ approach to character, promos, and matches feel like throwbacks to the classics in that they are also good without having to explain themselves. Starks isn’t trying to be every kind of wrestler all at once, he’s just being him and that’s why it works.
Now of course, Starks’ best match of the year was against Bryan Danielson, and while Bryan can take even clumsy oafs to their best match in a given year (and usually, his own worst), it takes two to tango in making a match truly click. Bryan’s generational talent can only take someone so far, which is why the contributions of Starks to making this match as great as it is can’t be overlooked.
Starks is so great at being the specific kind of asshole he has been playing for years now: He knows he belongs, so he doesn’t need anyone to tell him that he does or doesn’t. Even though a lot of this match is Starks taking the offense and punishing Danielson in ways you can only do in a strap match, it never feels out-of-place or unusual. Starks’ character is versatile enough that you believe him as someone who can bring the violence if so motivated, and you definitely believe him as someone that can piss off a guy like Danielson.
As good as Ricky is here on the offensive, once he gets what’s coming to him, it all comes together. Ricky eats so much shit at the hands of Danielson, but never betrays his own motivations by cowering or using any easy outs as a heel. He takes his shots, he screams and cries, but he looks all the better for standing toe-to-toe with Danielson and losing than he does in trying to chickenshit his way out (save for a welcome appearance by Big Bill). The level of violence in this match is not on the level of TEXAS DEATH, but the amount that Bryan bleeds and the sheer man-to-man brutality of it all does feel more visceral in a way, especially thanks to the horrendously loud slaps of the strap onto flesh. It all makes it feel less like a gimmick match done for no reason, and more like two dudes who can’t stand each other solving their problems through gratuitous violence.
The rest of Ricky’s year was hardly a failure, as I’ve enjoyed the team of he and Big Bill on its own merits, but it remains to be seen if Starks will be figured into a greater role going forward, as Hangman was meant to and Swerve seems destined for. The image of Starks passing out in Danielson’s choke feels like his Stone-Cold-at-Mania-13 moment, but that will only be true if the follow-up is there for him. Irrespective of whether that will come to pass or not, the only problem with this match is that I wish it were longer, and at a time when lackluster matches often get twice as long as they deserve, that is high praise coming from me.
1
Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr, AEW WrestleDream (*****)
“Holy shit.”
– Jon Moxley
Every year, every week, every time I open a file to watch a wrestling show or match, I want the wrestlers to “show me something.” I’m always on the lookout for the next greatest thing I’ve ever seen, which is what has driven me to seek out new wrestlers, new companies, and all of the stuff across wrestling’s history that I’ve never seen before. I yearn, I hunger for those matches and moments where nothing needs to be said, because you KNOW, know for a fact, a certainty, that you have just seen the best thing you’ve ever seen (so far).
This way is not THE way to watch wrestling, and honestly, can sometimes frustrate my ability to enjoy things. However, I can tell you that I wouldn’t have seen matches like Abe/Nomura if I hadn’t followed this way of thinking. I would never watch old wrestling if I wasn’t trying to find something great than I’ve never seen before. Really, I wouldn’t be the wrestling obsessive that I am if I wasn’t the person who had to find the next greatest thing ever in the things I enjoy. Lots of matches come close and that’s worth celebrating, but that pure perfection is often an ideal more than a fact.
And then it happens.
I was certainly excited for the long-awaited rematch between Bryan Danielson and Zack Sabre Jr, having been a fan of both of them for a long time, but even I didn’t think they could possibly hit that 5-star no-notes territory when I began to watch. 25 minutes later, I knew that the race was over and I had witnessed one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.
In case you couldn’t tell by now, I really like wrestling matches where it feels like every move is done for a reason and every action has consequences. This seems like a simple idea on paper, but when the aim of the game is making money and popping crowds, it’s not hard to understand why this isn’t always the way to go. Today, it’s no wonder why more than a few wrestlers use moves or techniques that get guaranteed reactions, your no-selling and Canadian Destroyers and what-have-you, especially if it’s easier on your body. Wrestling fans like different things and I think that’s great, I love that all kinds of different people can enjoy wrestling for what they see in it. Just as my desire to find the next greatest-thing-ever has driven my exploration of wrestling, so has my own identification of what I like in wrestling informed the content (ugh) I choose to seek out and watch.
In short, this is my wrestling. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Danielson and Sabre spend their match looking for and making openings. Both being technical wrestlers, they have a game plan for any kind of injury or weakness they perceive in the other; if there isn’t one going in, they create one and attack. It’s one of the blessed matches in which mat wrestling doesn’t feel perfunctory or expected, but feels like two guys trying to be better than the other. There’s a subtext of pride as well, as both look to not only expose the other but to domineer them, to be seen as the indisputable best technical wrestler in the world. Some of this is well-relayed by commentator Excalibur, but it doesn’t need to be. This is a match that trusts its audience to understand that and will give you what you want if this is what you’re looking for.
In a match where you have guys selling their injuries, resting when necessary, and not just letting themselves get hit, it allows me to finally do something that is very difficult to do anymore: Suspend my disbelief. Watching this for the first time, I wasn’t really thinking “Wow, great storytelling here” or “I get why Bryan did this,” I found myself thinking, “Oh shit” and “Oh my god” and “No way,” because I was seeing a physical story unfold before my eyes. The psychology, the hot crowd, and the great commentary all worked together to make me feel as though I was watching a real athletic competition where nothing is guaranteed beyond the next moment.
Danielson’s excellence in this kind of a match is self-evident, but credit to Sabre Jr for wrestling Danielson’s match and putting on one of his best in a while. I enjoy the ZSJ match, but it is something of the technical wrestling equivalent to a spot-fest, frequently seeing him change between holds and just go for what works, as opposed to following a story or logic. I’m one of those weirdos that defends him switching holds every 6 seconds as part of his character, but there’s a lot less of him riffing here and he feels a lot more patient and, frankly, better for it. Even though Sabre Jr is well into veteran status at this point, Bryan is able to get him to use the best parts of his game and leave the extraneous stuff behind for once, resulting in a match with crisp hits, painful-looking submissions (and one motherfucker of a dragon screw), and above all, a clear sense of passion exuding from it.
It’s really easy for me to get cynical about any kind of entertainment I spend my time on these days, because it’s hard for me to not intellectualize or meta-game anything, hard not to put myself in the role of writer or director or creative and inject my own thinking and decisions into something I’ll probably never come close to. To this end, I value entertainment that can shut that part of my brain up for a while and just let me take the ride. I don’t mean that being critical of wrestling or anything else that I enjoy has lessened my ability to have fun with it. Why my brain chose the most direct and least elegant form of entertainment to hyper-focus on, let alone to demand this level of scrutiny from, is one of life’s great mysteries. Criticism, in the least-pointed use of the term, is a tool that I find valuable to keep sharp, as it allows me to watch my favorite things attentively and to understand why I like something so much. Matches like this remind me that, despite my high standards and personal annoyances, I can still find parts of wrestling that spark my vulnerability and that I feel deep inside myself.
Sometimes, I ask the impossible of the thing I love.
Sometimes, the impossible happens.
And that’s why I’m here forever.
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