AEW's Dax Harwood Looks Back On One Of His Favorite Matches Of His Career

By Sam Palmer
Dax Harwood AEW/Lee South

Exactly one year ago, July 15, 2023 saw AEW's first set of events in Calgary, with a loaded episode of "AEW Collision" and the Battle of the Belts VII special airing immediately afterwards. The primary draw was the finals of that year's Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments, but despite Ricky Starks and Willow Nightingale defeating CM Punk and Ruby Soho respectively, it was a different match that had fans buzzing by the end of the night. The opening contest was FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) defending their AEW Tag Team Championship against Bullet Club Gold (Jay White and Juice Robinson) in a two-out-of-three falls match, a 58-minute instant classic that was critically acclaimed and even won a first-place Match of the Year vote in Wrestling Inc.'s prestigious Best of 2023 Awards.

Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), Harwood reflected on the hour-long contest.

"I have an internal debate about which match is my favorite of my career," Harwood wrote. "Each day, the order could change just based on my mood, but this one is always near or at the top. [One] year ago, 58 minutes, 2/3 falls for the AEW World Tag Team Championship in Calgary, Alberta, Canada."

Harwood has previously stated that FTR's series of bout with The Briscoes in Ring of Honor, especially the dog collar match at Final Battle 2022, is among his other personal favorites, as is FTR's first match with The Young Bucks at Full Gear 2020. For whatever it's worth, Cagematch currently has FTR's win over Jay and Juice as their fourth-highest rated match ever, behind FTR vs. The Briscoes at Supercard of Honor 2022, The Revival vs. DIY at "NXT" Takeover: Toronto 2016, and the aforementioned Final Battle match, which holds the No. 1 spot.

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