10 Best Matches From AEW Year 2

3. Britt Baker vs Thunder Rosa – St Patrick’s Day Slam

Earning the most improved sticker in Year 2 is the AEW’s Women’s division.

It’s still not quite to the standard of NXT, it’s still lacking in a few areas of its presentation, but the company has made some big strides.

Britt Baker becoming champ, the women’s eliminator having some really fun matches like Riho vs Serena Deeb, and Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero was a fun pairing, but the single biggest improvement was bringing Thunder Rosa on board from the NWA.

Thunder Rosa is f**king brilliant, and she ended up having one of the best overall rivalries in AEW’s history with Baker, the division’s strongest character, culminating in a Lights Out match at St Patrick’s Day Slam.

Oh it’s good, bringing a level of bloody brutality that you so rarely if ever see in western women’s wrestling, with Britt Baker making her boyfriend’s deathmatches look like Sunday at the community centre.

There’s biting of wounds. JEEZ. Death valley drivers onto ladders, and a crimson masked Baker taking a powerbomb onto thumbtacks. It’s star-cementing stuff and giant bloody footprint in the right direction for women’s wrestling in AEW.

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2. The Young Bucks vs FTR – Full Gear

A comprehensive history of tag team wrestling, squeezed into 30 glorious minutes.

It’s not quite as good as the Revolution tag, but hell it’s close, and that’s saying something.

After what was, let’s be honest, a build that was WWE levels of way more convoluted than a dream match needed to be, this blow-off was everything we always hoped it would be, combining the best traits of both teams, the jaw-dropping spot-intricacy of the Bucks vs the psychological focus of FTR.

Not only did both teams do their thing, but they even forced a change in their opponents, the relentless limbwork to Matt Jackson’s ankle forced the bucks to slow down and wrestle a more emotionally and narratively grounded match than they usually do, and Cash Wheeler ended up courting ruin by going for a flip rather than a fist.

It felt like a match that could only be possible with these two specific teams and that is the highest compliment I can think of for the work each pair has done to build their signature style. AEW continues to reign supreme as the kings of tag wrestling, and speaking of…

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1. John Silver, Alex Reynolds & Adam Page vs The Inner Circle – Brodie Lee’s Celebration of Life

Oof, I mean… yeah.

The strongest possible argument you can make for wrestling being a brief escape from life’s cruelty, how wrestling can create a symbol of that cruelty which can, if only for one night, be defeated with strength and courage, and help from dear friends.

MJF going off on negative one, only for him to make the difference in the finish, the papers, the run-in from Erick Redbeard Rowan, John Silver’s best day emerging from his worst, it’s all so beautifully, profoundly silly.

Modern wrestling is inextricably linked from the production process. Hell, one of the reasons it’s so compulsive is watching real-life decision-making and drama seep onto the camera.

As an isolated match, this is a good to very good tv wrestling match, as a piece of real-life it’s genuinely deeply moving and helpful. See you down the road.

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• AEW Best Matches
• Young Bucks
• Brodie Lee
• AEW

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