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droptoeholdyourhorses · 1 year ago

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The Best Friends Deserve Bester

Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta have been teaming together as The Best Friends since August 2013. In January 2014, they won PWG's Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, becoming number one contenders to the PWG World Tag Team Championship. They lost their subsequent challenge against The Young Bucks at Mystery Vortex II. The only other time Chuck and Trent have competed for those titles was at 2019's Hand of Doom where they lost to The Rascalz. What that means is that out of seven teams who won the PWG DDT4 between 2007 and 2015, The Best Friends are the only ones to have never held the PWG World Tag Team Championship.

Alright, well maybe they had better luck in NJPW. Trent's a four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with Rocky Romero. If Roppongi Vice can succeed, then I'm sure The Best Friends can... come fourth in the B Block in the 2017 World Tag League and finish eighth overall in the 2018 League.

No, that make sense. Best Friends as a team have always been predominantly American based. What about their ROH run in 2017? I know they had a few title matches there.

Loss vs. The Young Bucks in ROH World Tag Team Championship tornado three way match at Best in the World 2017 (also featured War Machine)

Loss vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks in ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship match at Global Wars 2017 Day 3 (teamed with Flip Gordon)

Loss vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks in ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship match on ROH Wrestling Episode #326 (teamed with Rocky Romero)

Loss vs. Motor City Machine Guns in ROH World Tag Team Championship match at Final Battle 2017

Ok, enough messing around. Let's get into the AEW run. Orange Cassidy has done a great job as International Champion. Kris Statlander is enjoying a good reign as TBS Champion. How have Chuck and Trent done?

Win vs. SCU and Private Party at Fyter Fest 2019 to advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament (good start)

Loss vs. Dark Order at All Out 2019 (who needs a first round bye anyway?)

Loss vs. SCU in first round of AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament (ah, that bye would have been handy)

Loss vs. Kenny Omega & Adam Page in a Number One Contender's Fatal Four Way (also featured The Young Bucks and Proud & Powerful) (got four-and-a-half stars from Dave Meltzer)

Loss to The Young Bucks in a Number One Contender's Battle Royal (not gonna list all the other teams)

Win vs. Private Party in a Number One Contender's match at Double Or Nothing 2020 (that's more like it)

Win vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara to remain number one contenders (yes, go on lads!)

Loss vs. Kenny Omega & Adam Page in AEW World Tag Team Championship match on Dynamite: Fyter Fest 2020 Day 1 (ah, damn it)

Loss to FTR in Number One Contender's Gauntlet match (again, not gonna list all the other teams)

Win vs. Proud & Powerful in a Parking Lot Fight (FIVE STARS BAYBEE!)

Loss to reDRagon in a Number One Contender's Battle Royal (AEW love them some battle royals)

Loss to The Young Bucks in a Number One Contender's Casino Tag Team Royale (this was literally the week after the previous battle royal)

Win w/Orange Cassidy vs. The Trustbusters in first round of AEW Trios Championship tournament (ooo, promising)

Loss w/Orange Cassidy vs. Adam Page & Dark Order in semi-final of AEW Trios Championship tournament (never mind, I guess)

Loss w/Orange Cassidy vs. Death Triangle for vacant AEW Trios Championship (can't tell me they shouldn't have won this one given PAC was already All-Atlantic Champion at the time)

Loss w/Orange Cassidy vs. Death Triangle in AEW Trios Championship match (one day lads, one day)

Loss w/Orange Cassidy to AR Fox & Top Flight in $300,000 Three Kings Christmas Casino Trios Battle Royal (we're really taking the piss now with these battle royals)

Loss to Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett in Revolution Tag Team Battle Royal (they were literally the runners up in this one, come on)

Loss w/Orange Cassidy vs. House of Black in AEW Trios Championship match (stop teasing me)

Loss vs. Aussie Open in IWGP Tag Team Championship match (they could have had a Japan run after all)

Loss w/Bandido vs. House of Black in AEW Trios Championship match (Bandido's cool but surely it's gotta be Orange for the eventual trios run)

Loss vs. Aussie Open in ROH World Tag Team Championship Fatal Four Way at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 (also featured Lucha Bros and The Kingdom) (another big win coming any day now)

Loss vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli in Parking Lot Brawl (four-and-a-half stars for the Parking Lot sequel)

Win w/Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston & Penta vs. Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and Proud & Powerful in Stadium Stampede at All In 2023 (the biggest of big wins, another four-and-a-half stars)

Loss to Dark Order in ROH Number One Contender's Battle Royal (great way to follow up that momentum after All In)

Loss to The Righteous in ROH Number One Contender's Fatal Four Way (also featured The Hardys and The Kingdom) (again, great follow up)

Obviously there's been more matches in between the ones I highlighted. The Best Friends have had some good moments here and there but overall, it feels like there's been missed opportunities. No follow up after the initial Parking Lot Brawl. No Trios Championship run. Lost in the shuffle again following All In.

The Best Friends deserve bester.

#aew best friends #chuck taylor #trent beretta

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aerodaltonimperial · 4 months ago

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Prompt attack: a follow up on the time travel fic where we find out what 2019!Jack changed

(HERE WE GO, THE 'HOW DID 2019 JACK END UP CHANGING EVERYTHING' SCENE WE ALL DESERVE 💚💚💚 yes i realize that i had 2019!jack ask what aew was in the fic but we're going to ignore that, i'm retconning my own fic shhhhhhh just go with it)

When Jack opens his eyes again, he's back where he'd started: sitting on a bus rumbling down the highway taking him to Las Vegas. The shock is so jarring it nearly knocks the wind right out of his lungs. He stares at the lights past the window and inhales, haltingly, until the frantic thunder of his heart settles down once more. Holy shit. The bus thrums beneath the seat and his shoes, and Jack presses two fingers against his face as though trying to prove to himself that he's real.

He couldn't have fallen asleep; it couldn't have simply been a dream. He doesn't believe that it's a dream, not with how intensely he can still feel the imprint of Darby's fingers against his skin. No, Jack had lived that. Jack had been there, had seen what his future held, and god, he never could have imagined that things could end up so horrible. And the thing is, he has precious few details to go off of, because his future self had offered nothing but spitting fury at him. It's not nearly enough to deduce what Jack needs to avoid, but certainly enough to alert him that there's so, so many misfortunes heading his way.

Jack moves his eyes back out the window, to the highway flashing beyond. Double or Nothing waits for him at the end of this trip: a chance. An opportunity. And this, at least, Jack understands is going to change things. This is going to be what he does, where he goes. Somehow, the knowledge that AEW will become his world settles a little bit of the misgivings in his stomach, fluttering like startled moths. He leans his head back against the seat. This will work. This, at least, is going to produce a safety net he's never had before.

All Jack has to do, as he worries his fingers together in his lap, is wait for Darby to join him in it.

Double or Nothing is a success. Days go by, and then weeks; Jack doesn't have Darby's number. He barely has anyone's number. He's still stumbling his way through the strangeness of the world, and at least he's got a better pathway ahead of him. He works some shows for pennies and lets Luchasaurus handle the negotiations. He goes to bed every night and thinks about how Darby had changed from what Jack remembers from their match in February: how he'd filled out a little, cut his hair shorter. How his face had carried with it more years than it had pressed up against Jack's chest on the dingy floor of the High Hat.

Jack closes his eyes and thinks of how Darby's mouth had felt against his skin, how Darby had pressed kisses into his navel as though reverent, as though Jack mattered. If Jack touches himself with that memory front and center, well—it was his anyway, wasn't it? It's his to do what he wants with.

Jack thinks about the way Darby had looked at Jack's future self with a cloud of mistrust and pain, as though so much had spiraled between them that he couldn't separate the threads any longer.

He'll change this. He has to change this, or else he'll end up with cold eyes and rage coating his tongue.

And then, it happens: his chance. Fyter Fest runs at the end of June, and Jack's backstage when he catches a glimpse of bleached hair and a black sweatshirt. His lungs squeeze, flattening. Darby. The Darby that Jack remembers from February. Jack stares at him across the backstage until Darby turns towards him, does a double-take. Maybe he hadn't known Jack would be here, either. Darby's expression opens up a little, mouth curling in a smile of recognition, and Jack just thinks—oh. This is it.

This is the moment that he either takes or ignores.

In another world, he must have ignored it. He must have turned his head away and gone about his business and let the course run them both where it would. But Jack's seen what lays at the end of that; he's seen what misery reached out to grab his ankles and pull him down into the quicksand. When Darby smiles at him across the room crowded with bodies and loud with overlapping conversations, Jack smiles back.

Jack crosses the space until they're face to face. He isn't letting this go. He can't. "Hi."

"Hey," Darby says. Then he tips his head to the side a bit, blue eyes tracking over Jack's face. "Heard you signed here, through the grapevine."

"You did?" Jack asks. That means Darby was paying attention, enough to note it. How did he gloss over this, on that other timeline? How did he decide this didn't matter?

Darby nods, slow. "Yeah. Good to see you again."

"Is it?" Even knowing what he does, even remembering the way that Darby's eyes had gone dark and hungry, it's still terrifying to stand here exposed. Jack's skin has erupted in goosebumps, belly twisting.

And then, before he can figure out what to say next, as Darby's features do something that Jack can't quite put a finger on, Jack notes the movement behind him. Luchasaurus, likely coming over to check on things. It's the last thing Jack needs right now, so he frantically waves his hand behind his back, a signal for no, no. It's fine. Not now. Lucha stops, hands up in surrender.

Darby's eyes follow the motion, noting it. And when his gaze shifts back to Jack's face once more, his smile has widened. "I was gonna find the vending machine, grab some caffeine. You wanna come with?"

The tightness within Jack's lungs eases a bit, a bit of a rush. "Yes."

"Kay," Darby says. He takes a step out and jerks his chin down the hall. "C'mon."

They end up down a hallway that snakes off past one of the staff only closets, the doors that stay locked when they rent out the place for the night. It's dark here, so clearly it's not one of the places they're supposed to be, and normally that would deter Jack from continuing but Darby doesn't seem to care at all. He moves through the space as though the shadows don't mean a thing until they find two vending machines, oddly bright in the black surrounding them. The floor buzzes faintly, electricity humming.

"You're here now?" Jack asks. "For good?"

"Yeah," Darby replies. "Let's hope this works, huh? Otherwise..." He laughs a little, the sound rumbling.

"I think it will," Jack says, only because he knows it will. Darby probably doesn't need to know that. He's actually a little worried he'll give too much away, somehow. Darby's got one of those stares that seems to pierce right through him.

He wonders if Darby can tell that he's not just talking about AEW.

Darby doesn't give him any hints. He just fishes a handful of coins from his back pocket. "Pick."

"You're gonna get me something?" Jack asks, blinking at the selection.

"Sure. What do you want?"

Jack's heart pounds. Oh, he knows exactly what he wants, for the first time in a long time. He pulls his eyes away from the machine to settle on Darby's face, and then he reaches out to curl two fingers around Darby's wrist. It's such a vulnerability. He hates how exposed he feels, but knowing that it's fine, that it goes both ways, that the embers already exist there... it's the only reason he can complete the little circle around the knob of bone.

Darby huffs out a laugh, loud and harsh. His face is delighted, grin pulling wide. "Dude. I thought you were so shy."

"Is this..." Jack's heart is thundering, like dark storm clouds gathered overhead. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah," Darby says. "Yeah, this is totally okay."

For a moment, they stare at each other, and Jack's skin heats up beneath his collar. And then footsteps sound somewhere down the hallway, breaking the spell; they are, after all, backstage at a promotion people are still afraid will fail, hoping that things turn in their favor during the scheduled matches.

"Okay," Darby mumbles, finally pulling his gaze away to squint at the machine humming in front of them. He's still smiling, the mirth soft on the corners of his mouth. "We'll, uh... we'll come back to this."

He buys them both a drink. And as they head back to where everyone else is, walking through the shadow-lined corridors, Darby's fingers stretch out to slide across the back of Jack's hand at his side. He hooks around two of Jack's digits, briefly: a little squeeze.

Jack just thinks yes.

Jack doesn't win the 4-way, but it's okay. Darby doesn't win, either, though his match at least ends up being a time limit draw. Just being in front of a crowd like this, hearing the screams and the chants and the cheers—being part of something bigger and better and real sinks down into Jack's bones. He wonders if, even if he didn't know that AEW was going to work, that maybe he could have figured it out from this night.

Darby finds him after the show ends. Jack follows him out to the parking lot, his hair still wet from the shower in the locker room, and neither of them say anything. Once they get out the doors and into the night overlooking the parking lot, Darby reaches for Jack's hand. He gets it properly, this time, a deliberate clasp. Jack allows himself to be led to a car parked at the back of the lot, his blood singing.

"Sorry, it's kind of a mess," Darby says, opening up the back door. "I sleep here most of the time."

That explains the blankets shoved against the opposite door, for sure. Jack slides across the bench in the back seat and Darby crawls in after him, and as soon as Darby tugs the door shut behind them, Jack moves. He's done waiting. He can't let it go any longer, not knowing what he does. Jack pushes up against the seat and grabs Darby's face and presses their mouths together. At least this time, he's got a frame of reference; at least this time, he knows a little more what he should be doing.

He kisses Darby and gets a noise of delighted surprise against his lips, and then Darby's hands curl around Jack's face, a mirror, as he kisses Jack back. He's laughing, somehow, as he pulls Jack's lips apart. It feels the same, and different; Darby kisses the same now and in the future, but it's new anyway, racing through Jack's limbs like he stuck his fingers into a wall socket.

And when they're both out of breath, when Jack's lungs begin heaving, when he has to break them apart just to try and put oxygen in his chest before his thoughts pitch sideways, he keeps his hands on Darby's scalp and tips their foreheads together.

"I thought about you," he gasps. "I thought about you all the time. Did you—?"

"Yeah." Darby's thumbs swipe along Jack's cheeks. "Yeah, I fucking... you're so fucking hot. I absolutely thought about you."

"Darby," Jack whispers. "I like you. I really fucking like you."

Too late, he remembers his future self snapping at him for that, for even suggesting that he could say that. Too late, Jack recalls how furious his future self's gaze had gone, and he can't walk it back. It got rattled out of his teeth of its own accord, an admission he'll have to stake his claim on now.

Darby kisses him again, even though Jack still can't breathe, even though they end up just sort of panting against each other's mouths. "Fuck," Darby groans. "I like you, too, I—"

"Really?"

Darby laughs against Jack's lips, shaking his jaw. "Yes, Jack, what the fuck. Yes, obviously."

They pull apart. Jack's hands are fisted in Darby's hair, longer than what he'd had when he'd taken Jack apart with his mouth in 2024. Jack wants to memorize every single curve of Darby's skin, learn him the way he didn't get to the last time, stamp every inch of Darby into his bones.

"God," Darby breathes. His fingers tangle in Jack's wet curls. "This is the best fuckin' surprise I've gotten in years."

"Can we do this?" Jack asks. He sucks in a blistering chestful of air. "Can we really do this?"

"Yeah." Darby leans in, presses a kiss against the end of Jack's nose. "This is gonna be fuckin' great."

And in truth? It is.

#tag so you don't lose this shit #heeyooooooooo lol

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allelitewrestlings · 1 year ago

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Jon Moxley • AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest // photo by Will Henderson

#jon moxley #wrestlingedit #aewedit #aew #aew dynamite #dynamite: s05e34 #tv: dynamite #candids #ours: edits #maker: s #*#(note: poorly editing this on a phone 😮‍💨 we won't be home until wednesday haha)

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the-kipsabian · 1 year ago

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I cant remember what match it was but I loved having kip on commentary. I know it had hangy in and kippy looked so great. Honestly just gimme wrestlers with accent on commentary again and lemme melt into a small puddle of audio joy!

this miiiight have been very early on in aew, i remember kip did commentary for the four way match (for number one contendership i believe?) with hangman in it at the first fyter fest in 2019. the only other instance of kip doing commentary i can call from the top of my head was during his feud with oc when oc faced trent and kip was just being an absolutely delightful little shit in commentary, as he should be 💜

i really need him to do more commentary, his accent is just. ssssoooooo. its very mild compared to some, but it shines through at times so beautifully and his voice is just so nice and soothing, i could listen to him forever 💜

#obviously i am biased but alas #himbos-hotline #thank you for asking! <3 #wrestling musing

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nicklloydnow · 1 year ago

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“On May 14th, 1998, Taz introduced the ECW fanbase with what would be known as the FTW Championship (also referred to as the Brooklyn World Championship). It was created after months of frustration as then ECW World Champion Shane Douglas refused to give him a shot at the title. Injuries would also hinder Douglas from facing Taz at the time.

The letters FTW manifested that frustration, meaning: “F*** The World.”

(…)

According to Taz, the title was a way to symbolize the rebellious nature of the ECW fanbase, which accepted Taz as the top star of the promotion and wanted to see him as the world champion instead of the highly protected Douglas.

“[The] FTW Championship has always been renegade, anti-establishment, and unconventional,” wrote Taz in an October 2020 tweet. “That has never changed, and that will never change.”

Upon the title’s arrival in ECW, it was made clear that it was a championship that the management had not officially sanctioned. Instead, it was a prize legitimized by the fans.

(…)

The FTW Championship was briefly seen in Xtreme Pro Wrestling in November 2002 when Chris Chetti declared himself the champion before losing the title to Danny Doring, who once again unified it with the promotion’s world title. However, these defenses are not considered a part of the title’s lineage.

The championship would then stay retired for almost two decades to follow. However, this changed on Night 2 of All Elite Wrestling’s Fyter Fest Dynamite special on July 2nd, 2020, where Taz brought the FTW Championship back and awarded it to his client Brian Cage.

(…)

PWInsider revealed that Taz owns the trademark to both the FTW Championship and its related logos, allowing him to do as he wishes with the design, thus allowing him to bring his ECW legacy to his new home in professional wrestling”

“Although the FTW Championship is consistently seen in All Elite Wrestling, it is referred to as not officially recognized by the company. The champion may be announced as such and have a custom black-and-orange chyron, but the FTW Championship exists in a world of its own. Even since its first day, the FTW Championship has been an outlaw title, unable to be contained by any promoter or company. It stands as a manifestation of The Human Suplex Machine's twenty-plus year's path of rage.

'FTW' had been a part of Taz's branding for quite some time before it became forged in gold. Standing for 'F*** The World', the three-letter initialism encompassed what Taz was all about. He was a one-man wrecking crew that trusted nobody, liked nobody, and hated everybody. Taz was the meanest monster in all of ECW, routinely suplexing people into oblivion and choking them out, surviving only if he let them. Taz was a major fixture of ECW programming, holding the ECW World Television Championship for 267 days. As one of the promotion's marquee talents, it was only a matter of time before Taz entered the world title picture.

(…)

On May 14, 1998, Taz unveiled the FTW Championship, arguing that if Douglas would not face him, then he would crown himself the world champion. The first iteration of the belt was a modified version of the company's Television Championship, with the leather strap painted orange and 'FTW' stickers placed over the plates. This would soon be replaced by an all-new belt, changing the FTW Championship into the design seen today in AEW.

(…)

Taz emerged victorious, regaining the championship he had created months ago, and unifying it with the ECW World Championship. Now merged, the FTW Championship was effectively retired. It took over twenty years for the belt to return, doing so under very similar circumstances to its origin. At the 2020 edition of AEW's Fyter Fest, with Jon Moxley unable to defend the AEW World Championship, Taz awarded his client Brian Cage with the very same FTW Championship. Its return brought the title back to professional wrestling's spotlight and to a bigger audience than ever before. The belt has retained the same combative and rebellious spirit that it was conceived with, with Team Taz carrying on the legacy of their namesake and ensuring that the AEW audience understands what an FTW lifestyle looks like.”

#ftw #ftw belt #taz #ecw #aew #wwe #wrestling #sports #sports entertainment

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