Darby Allin vs. Jon Moxley / Dean Ambrose, from the November 20, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite

The only thing keeping this from being a top-tier MOTY candidate (in a year stacked with some of the greatest wrestling matches I’ve ever seen) is lack of escalation building to a proper climax. It is otherwise pretty much everything I want out of wrestling—attention-grabbing and purposeful violence, wild bumps that make the competitors seem superhuman for how they survive them, and a simple but compelling narrative that justifies the previous two items. The story: Allin isn’t on Moxley’s level in a straightforward match, so Allin uses every trick in his arsenal to keep up. That’s all I need.

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Darby Allin vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman / MJF, from AEW Full Gear 2021

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Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan / Biff Busick vs. The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong) for the NXT Tag Team Championship, from WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2 (2018)