30 Best AEW Matches Ever (So Far...)
28. FTR Vs. Young Bucks (Dynamite April 4 2022)
The FTR Vs. Young Bucks series, it is thought, didn’t quite meet the most lofty expectations imaginable.
The world didn’t “rejoice” when it happened on a strange, phased basis, and were somewhat bored when it happened again and again too late in the day and in too cold a promotion. Mere honourable mentions for Match of the Year weren’t good enough, when the ceiling was the very best tag team match in history. The Bucks and FTR were meant to be perfect rivals, but each found different soul mates - the Lucha and Briscoe Brothers, respectively.
Then you re-watch the second match in the rivalry.
Announced just days in advance, perhaps the lifted pressure drove them to their best meeting. Whatever the case, this was magic.
After a lightswitch-quick exchange of pins, Dax Harwood fooled Matt into taking a piledriver. There were fans in the first few rows cradling their heads in disbelief that they hadn’t just witnessed the finish. A relentless match had only just passed the halfway mark.
A breakneck shootout, the trademark Young Bucks twists were incredible even by their standards. In an intoxicating near-fall highlight reel, Nick cut off the PowerPlex by flooring Cash Wheeler with a top-rope hurricanrana. The action of this spot ruled, and what a great storytelling device to illustrate the stylistic battle at the core of the feud it was, too.
The best twist unfolded just before the finish; as the Bucks prepared to execute the Meltzer Driver, Dax caught a springboarding Nick mid-flip and blasted him with a Liger bomb.
Amongst the best matches in AEW history, as a casualty of unrealistic expectations, it is also among the most underrated.