2023 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby & Orange vs. Swerve & Keith (Lee)

 

11. Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs. Keith Lee/Swerve Strickland AEW Dynamite 7/5

ER: I didn't consciously set out to write about every Darby Allin match I haphazardly cherry-picked my way through, but it's certainly become that. It would be great if I could just watch a Darby match that I didn't feel the need to say something about. Alas, he does too many things I like, finds too many ways to do new twists on old crash landings, and manages to do something every match that is astonishing enough that it makes me exclaim aloud. When compared to any of the other wrestlers who make me do the same on such a consistent basis during nearly every match of theirs I watch - Stan Hansen, Fit Finlay, Necro Butcher were the first that came to mind - it puts Allin in the immediate company of my favorite wrestlers of all time. It is still probably too soon to say that Darby Allin is one of my favorite all time wrestlers, but he's certainly put up some numbers through his 20s and I've been persistently surprised by his sustainability. There are only so many times I can say that before his run is cemented as legendary, regardless of when it ends. 

I've written up plenty of matches that I thought were Darby elevating one or even three opponents to something grander, but I think one of his great strengths is how selflessly he interjects his stunts and feats. Darby Allin manages to take Shane McMahon stunt bumps in a way that is in service to his opponent, never to himself as a Show Stopper. At this point there is a lengthy list of people who have had some of their greatest performances and matches while in the role of Darby Allin Opponent, and that is not a coincidence. Darby is a canvas that allows wrestlers of all sizes and styles to rise to something greater, in the same way Rey Mysterio or even Amazing Red did. 

Keith Lee is one of our great Should Be So Much Better wrestlers. He is a study of a man shaped like a root beer barrel who mostly works the least interesting style for his size and shape, a Mo Vaughn who bunts and works walks with men in scoring position. Swerve has a CVS receipt length list of matches where his focus was on doing a cool one armed handstand before hitting a move rather than just hitting a move, a John Morrison with more thigh slaps and less backspins. This match, surely not coincidentally against Star Maker Allin, was Lee and Swerve working to their full potential. This was a typically great show opening Darby Allin performance, with a constantly pushed pace getting one-upped all the way to the finish, laying things out to the strengths of every person involved. Keith Lee was Donkey Kong instead of a man the size of Trent Williams doing rope running reversals. His Only On Darby biel to start the match set a tone that every Lee match should have. Darby and Orange played off Lee perfectly, using him as a rock climbing gym who could throw them, and I love how their team works as one man split into two attacking beings, attacking in 1-2 flurries, one sacrificing his body so the other might have an opening to land a shot. 

Lee focuses too often on agility, Orange and Darby made him focus on power. He looks more powerful than ever with Allin getting ragdolled over ringposts and bouncing violently on throws. He brings interesting dogged struggle to stopping OC's constant attempts at diving DDTs or Slumdogs, and his lack of neck makes him impervious to backpack sleepers. Swerve forgets about matching athleticism with Darby, instead focusing on hitting him hard and torturing him. Swerve wedging Darby under the ring steps so that Lee (carrying Cassidy on his back) can walk up the steps while Darby screams like he's slowly being crushed in an industrial press? That's four men coming together to creatively inflict pain on a masochist babyface icon. 

I loved OC climbing all over Lee, attempting to drag him down by the neck while kicking his legs against Lee's resistance, before finally holding Lee stooped over with two consecutive Slumdogs, setting up an actual plausible way for a man Lee's size to bump for a Darby code red. Lee hadn't taken a bump all match and they found a complicated set up that could have looked bad at every step, and instead built to the most logical use of a Keith Lee Agile Bump. The finish is Darby and Orange as Santo and Casas: OC diving off the top with a leaping DDT that spikes Swerve onto his head while sending himself running and diving straight through the ropes into a the exact same DDT on Lee, while Darby ensnares the spiked Swerve in a Last Supper. It's a great twist on Santo's rolling senton/tope, taking out the man on the floor while Casas majistrals the man left in his wake. I don't seek to keep comparing Darby Allin with the greatest names in wrestling history, but he sure does make it easy. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST