Photo via AEW
For the third time in the four weeks I've been writing this column, Will Ospreay was in my top match of the week. Saturday night's WrestleDream was a very good PPV with several excellent matches that made the list. Topping them all was the 3-way match for the International title between Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita and Ricochet.
Some are calling this the greatest 3-way, or triple threat, match of all-time. I wouldn't go that far but it may have been the best 3-way match in AEW's five-year+ history. The match was filled with tremendous athleticism that all three have shown in previous matches and built on spots that all had done in the past. My personal favorite was after Ricochet and Ospreay did one of their gymnastic type sequences and stopped to pose for crowd reaction, Takeshita came in and kicked them both square in the head at the same time.
In the end, it was a bit of a screw job (with a screwdriver, no less) finish or I may have even rated it higher. Kyle Fletcher got involved and turned on former friend and "brother" Will Ospreay to help Takeshita take the title back to the Callis family. Fletcher and Ospreay should kick off a feud that will no doubt top a future list as they both have great chemistry together whether as teammates or opponents.
With it being a PPV week, AEW had a good showing on my list, taking five of the top 10 spots, as well as the honorable mention. There was no AEW Collision this week due to the PPV.
In total, I watched 65 matches (you can find my full list here) during the week starting on October 7th and ending October 13th. This included: New Japan's Blue Justice XIV (took place Oct 6), WWE RAW, IWS Bloodstream (aired Oct 4, recorded July 7), WWE Main Event (aired Oct 4, recorded Sept 30), NXT Lvl Up (aired Oct 4, recorded Sept 24), WOW (aired Oct 5, recorded Aug 2), AEW Dynamite, WWE NXT, TNA Impact, ROH on Honor Club, WWE Smackdown, AEW Rampage and AEW WrestleDream (including Zero Hour matches).
Here are the top 10 matches of the week with my star rating as well as the Cagematch rating and Dave Meltzer's star rating, where available.
1. 5* Konosuke Takehista over Will Ospreay and Ricochet to win the AEW International title at WrestleDream Oct 12. 9.23/10 on Cagematch.
2. 4.75* Jon Moxley over Bryan Danielson to win the AEW World championship at WrestleDream. 8.75/10 on Cagematch.
3. 4.5* Young Bucks retained their AEW World tag team titles over Private Party at WrestleDream. 6.88/10 on Cagematch.
4. 4.25* Gunther retained the WWE World Heavyweight title over Sami Zayn on Monday Night RAW Oct 7. 7.87/10 on Cagematch. 4.25* from Dave Meltzer
5. 4* Tony D'Angelo won the NXT North American title from Oba Femi on WWE NXT Oct 8. 7.86/10 on Cagematch. 4* from Dave Meltzer
6. 4* Jay White beat Hangman Page at WrestleDream. 8.16/10 on Cagematch.
7. 4* Jun Akiyama and Yuji Nagata beat Go Shiozaki and Atsushi Kotoge at NJPW Blue Justice XIV Oct 6. 6.76/10 on Cagematch
8. 3.75* Sheamus beat Pete Dunn in an Old Fashioned Donnybrook match on Monday Night RAW. 7.65/10 on Cagematch. 4* from Dave Meltzer
9. 3.75* Darby Allin beat Brody King at WrestleDream. 7.63/10 on Cagematch
10. 3.75* Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer and Axiom) retained their NXT Tag team championships vs A-Town Down Under (Grayson Waller/Austin Theory) on WWE NXT. 7.21/10 on Cagematch. 3.75* from Dave Meltzer
Also receiving 3.75* was Mark Briscoe retaining his ROH World title over Chris Jericho at WrestleDream and got 6.29/10 on Cagematch.
