2024 Ongoing MOTY List: The First Darby/Claudio Singles

 

8. Darby Allin vs. Claudio Castagnoli AEW Dynamite 11/20/24

ER: I finally got around to watching the Darby/Claudio Falls Count Anywhere match from a couple months ago and thought it was good. It made me go back and revisit their first ever singles match. Also I had written this review of that first singles match almost a year ago and never posted it so it felt like a good time to finally put it up. I"m not gonna rewrite it with a comparison to the Falls Count Anywhere match, I'll let my review from a year ago stand. Maybe next year I'll write about the Falls Count Anywhere and that review will compare them. This first match of two natural opponents was my favorite Darby singles match of last year, with plenty of contenders. Here's why I thought that: 

It's good to run occasional matches where Darby Allin doesn't make any or is simply unable to make any real inroads. It's easy to get used to Darby Always Comes Back mindset that you need to interrupt things with a good steamrolling every now and again. Darby is smart in his match layouts and is good at presenting some (some, key) of his big wins as lucky scrapes or opportunistic escapes. He also knows that to make those wins work, there need to be matches where he receives no luck, no unforced opponent errors, and no opportunities. Claudio, as a Darby opponent, feels so obvious an opponent that it feels like I've written variations on their matches for years. It's my favorite unkillable crash test dummy facing a man with unmatched strength, and the whole story of the match is feats of strength delivered to the world's greatest facilitator of those feats until he can no longer stand. That's a great story, I love that story, these two feel like the most capable of making the most of that story, then they go and do exactly that and it's as good as it's supposed to be. 

They are the most natural pairing in the world so I am surprised this is their very first singles match. I do this a lot with Darby and Danielson. It's so easy to picture how their matches with everyone will go that my memory just checks them off and moves on to thinking about Best Breakout Jerry Flynn matches. This match goes how we want it to go, with the right amount of surprise. Darby's comebacks are so legendary that he can work an All Downhill From Here match for 85% of a match and know that it's the right amount of time to still buy into a Darby win at any moment. He's never out of it until the 3. 

This match is the best spiritual update of 1995 Malenko/Guerrero matches, or the 1996 Malenko/Misterio matches. This is an evolution for good. It's no a secret I don't like Malenko/Guerrero as opponents. I might dislike the Malenko/Misterio match structure even more. But, I understand why that style of match is represented more than any other style in our modern match type 30 years later. I don't like that fact, but it means we have look for the ones who understand the restraints and the possibilities of the style. In 1995/1996 it looked like a fresh breath of unseen air, today it's house style. It's here. 

Rey/Malenko had a Going Long house show style where Malenko would ground Rey for 85% of a match and "peak" the short bursts into a big finish. Often, their matches never peaked to their big finish, and were instead long collections of go nowhere submissions and Rey ping ponging between 100% incapacitated to 80% unleashed with little in between. Darby right now is actually better at selling for sympathy than 1995/1996 Rey Misterio Jr., and that makes Darby's one-sided matches more compelling. Rey later got better than Darby at selling but right now Darby is having years in contention with Rey's best years. 

Rey was great at memorable short bursts in those Malenko matches, but Darby makes much better use of his time. He makes his 2 minutes of control and 13 minutes of pain mean something during all of those minutes. Doing so, he gives yet another good wrestler their best showcase of the year. Claudio has been a great TV worker for a long time now and can suffer from the Sameness that comes with that. Year after year TV work against many of the same guys within the same style can get repetitive. Even the best TV workers can lapse into familiarity, and it's not uncommon for them to go through peaks and valley years. Darby Allin has been able to work outside of that while always wrestling like Darby Allin, and Claudio is a guy who I think benefits from being broken just outside of his formula. He is capable of spectacular feats but doesn't go spectacular as often as he used to. Darby Allin is made for the spectacular. 

I want to see Claudio catch a Coffin Drop and throw him. I want to see Claudio walk up the ring steps while holding a vertical suplex, getting him back into the ring by way of caber toss. I want to see Misawa level elbows and Finlay level neck twisting, and I want to see Darby take one of those bumps into the turnbuckles where he finds the least safe way to take a biel. The kind where his back manages to hit the buckles in two different bad spots. Claudio is great at dealing body damage and Darby's matches are always highlights of his body being damaged. On the bigger matches, we build to head damage and this match got greater when the side of Darby's head got swung into the ring steps about as hard as someone can get their head swung into metal. The way Darby sells it, by vigorously rubbing the new heat on the side of his head, is so blindingly accurate that he's either the most gifted seller of our time or he is just a man suffering head trauma in the middle of the week after being swung into metal. 

There's a press slam from an announce table to the unbreaking timekeeper's table that bounces Darby off his hip, and the table skirt wraps around him like a bodybag. It's the kind of crazy heightened spot Darby pushes his opponents to, everyone elevated to something bigger. Claudio's strength, Darby's death wish, and one table that wasn't expecting to be used that way. I loved the finish, where Darby heroically beat the 10 count and died instantly by lariat, no threat at all to kickout while Claudio palmed his entire face. Darby's threat can only be temporarily neutralized. He will return to inspire newer punishments. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST