Darby Allin vs. Kenosuke Takeshita (AEW - 1/3/2024)

Oh man. I was just gonna nominate this. I don’t normally watch Dynamite live but happened to flip it on and Takeshita comes out and I like him good enough so I’ll check it out and what a surprise it’s Darby Allin, my favorite wrestler in the company taking a break from practicing climbing Mt Everest.

It’s not secret that the Darby tv match always fucking rules and it always rules when he’s up against a monster.

Now Takeshita is a pretty big guy but I wouldn’t call him a monster. But damn did his offense mesh will with Darby’s. I am skeptical that I will enjoy anything from on WK as much as I enjoyed this match. What a treat.

This was awesome, yeah. Darby just gets how to work a modern epic with his size, and Takeshita had so much fun fucking him up.

I would put this ahead of any of the big AEW tv matches. But that’s their thing. They have “good matches” every week. It’ll just be to taste.

They need to make a series out of it. Like an Awesome v Tanaka .situation. I could watch several rematches.

It's about two minutes into this video: www.dailymotion.com/video/x8r54mu

Other than the side headlock, this was everything a match centered around Darby being ragdolled by a larger opponent should be. Takeshita isn't exactly a monster, but he still possesses the size and strength to bully the likes of Darby. The chaos theory on the ramp was a particular standout. I've felt increasingly estranged from the current wrestling scene over the past several months because it seems like everyone has forgotten the business is a work and takes pride in taking as many legitimate risks and delivering as much legitimate punishment to themselves and their opponents as possible. I suppose Darby is in the same boat, but it doesn't bother me as much with him because he's better at integrating the holy-shit moments into the story of the match as opposed to the moments being the story. He's also much better at projecting vulnerability due to both his selling and body language and the fact that his persona is refreshingly devoid of machismo so it doesn't come across like he's trying to prove that he's the toughest man in the world. I suppose Takeshita could have done a better job of selling the leg down the stretch, but the way he slapped his knee before the German suplex barrage seemed to be a signal that he was blocking out the pain and willing himself to the finish line because the end was near.