The Briscoes vs FTR (ROH - 12/10/2022)

I'll direct nominate this. On first watch, this is not just a contender for MOTY in an extremely competitive year, it has a very real shot of making my next GME list next year.

The expectations were unbelievably high in this one and somehow, some way they exceeded them. This is a true classic of a match in every sense. Their chemistry and their willingness to do violence to one another are second to none. This obviously starts with pretty much unbridled chaos. Mark Briscoe gets busted open like 30 seconds into the match. He is paired with Cash, and they are absolutely laying it in. Dax has control early on Jay on the outside and is just tossing shit at his head. There is no way I can go through everything beat by beat, but some highlights include: Dax hitting a flying headbutt with the chair wrapped around his head… Jay throwing Dax into the chain when Cash was hanging Mark to break it up…. The fucking ref blading like a madman and gushing…. Cash throwing Mark off the top like 20 feet into some chairs… Jay kicking out of the piledriver on the chairs… Mark kicking out of a doomsday device… the list goes on and on. I think the thing that makes this truly special is the fact that they captured that sense of chaos that is so hard to really capture, especially in modern wrestling. This feels genuinely unhinged in spots and never really loses its pace and energy. I was sort of bummed that they did a ref bump until I realized he juiced and was bleeding buckets. That was incredible. The match ends with Jay hitting a top rope superplex on the chairs for a two and then getting the chain across Dax’s face and just pulling back till he passes out. Cash is trying desperately to get to them, but Mark is holding him back with the chair. The camera caught it all really well. This was a masterpiece.