Best Friends are an American professional wrestling stable currently performing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Originally a tag team consisting of Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta, they first formed in Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG), where they were the winners of the 2014 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament.
Best Friends | |
---|---|
Stable | |
Members | Chuck Taylor Orange Cassidy Kris Statlander |
Name(s) | The Best Friends |
Former member(s) | Wheeler Yuta Trent Beretta |
Debut | August 30, 2013[1] |
Years active | 2013–present |
Since the inception of AEW in 2019, the duo regularly appeared alongside Orange Cassidy. Starting in 2021, they would be joined by Kris Statlander and Wheeler Yuta, the latter of whom left the team in 2022. Part-time members include Trent's Roppongi Vice tag team partner Rocky Romero, Danhausen, and Sue (Trent's real-life mother). The group is the AEW branch of the NJPW faction Chaos, as the two organizations have a working relationship.
The original team of Taylor and Trent were often seen as a comedy tag team, with Trent often acting as the straight man to the more eccentric Taylor.[2]
Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta first teamed on August 31, 2013, at the Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) 2013 Battle of Los Angeles,[3] alongside Joey Ryan, where they defeated the team of B-Boy, Tommaso Ciampa, and Willie Mack.[4] A string of victories followed, culminating in Taylor and Trent defeating The Inner City Machine Guns to win the 2014 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament on January 31.[5] They subsequently lost a match against The Young Bucks for the PWG World Tag Team Championship at Mystery Vortex II on March 28, 2014.[6]
Best Friends first appeared in Ring of Honor (ROH) on May 14, 2017, joined by Beretta's Roppongi Vice partner Rocky Romero, in a victory over Bullet Club's The Young Bucks and Adam Page.[7] On October 10, Chuckie T and Beretta won a match against The Addiction to become number one contenders to the ROH World Tag Team Championship, but lost to defending champions The Motor City Machine Guns at Final Battle on December 15.[8][9]
Best Friends made their debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on the second day of the 2017 World Tag League on November 19, representing the CHAOS stable.[10] They went on to score four wins and three losses in the tournament, failing to advance to the finals.[11] They competed in the 2018 World Tag League as well, scoring 14 points and thus failing to advance to the finals. During the tournament, Chuckie displayed a much more aggressive attitude, attacking his opponents with steel chairs which often caused a disqualification loss for the team and caused tension to build between him and Beretta.
Ultimately, this storyline never developed further, as they both left NJPW and signed with upstart All Elite Wrestling in the beginning of 2019. On February 7, 2019, their profiles were removed from NJPW website.[12]
On February 7, 2019, Best Friends appeared at an All Elite Wrestling (AEW) rally in Las Vegas and announced that they were joining AEW. At the inagural All Out event, the duo competed against The Dark Order in a match to qualify for the AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament to crown the inaugural champions, but were defeated.[13] After a post-match attack from The Dark Order, the duo were saved by Orange Cassidy, who aligned himself with Taylor and Trent. On the October 30, 2019, episode of Dynamite, Best Friends and Orange Cassidy made their AEW trios debut in a winning effort against Alex Reynolds, John Silver, and Q. T. Marshall. At Bash at the Beach on January 15, 2020, Best Friends competed in a four-way tag team match to determine the number one contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, which was won by "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega.[14] At the 2020 Double or Nothing Buy-In, Best Friends defeated Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) in a number one contender's match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship after delivering the Strong Zero on Quen.[15] On the June 10th edition of Dynamite, Best Friends and Orange Cassidy defeated The Inner Circle's Jake Hager and Santana and Ortiz in a 6-man tag team match, after which they suffered a beatdown from the rest of The Inner Circle, with Orange Cassidy suffering the worst beating after Chris Jericho hit him with a bag of blood oranges. Best Friends would seek revenge against Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara (Le Sex Gods) while putting their tag team title #1 contendership on the line on the June 17th edition of Dynamite. They emerged victorious after Guevara tripped over the cameraman's hand which enabled Trent to pick up the victory for the team. The cameraman who was at ringside turned out to be Orange Cassidy who then proceeded to beat down Jericho.[16] Best Friends would receive their tag team title shot against Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page at Fyter Fest night 1, which they lost.[17]
In late August, while Cassidy resumed his feud with Chris Jericho, Trent and Chuck began feuding with Santana and Ortiz, after Trent's mother Sue's van was destroyed by Santana and Ortiz. Cassidy won his feud with Jericho after defeating him in a Mimosa Mayhem match at All Out on September 5, 2020. Taylor and Trent's feud with Santana and Ortiz culminated on the following episode of Dynamite where they emerged victorious in a Parking Lot Brawl with assistance from Cassidy. Across September and October, Cassidy challenged for the AEW TNT Championship on three occasions, but was unsuccessful. The first was on the September 23 episode of Dynamite where he lost to Mr. Brodie Lee, then on the October 14 episode he wrestled to a time-limit draw with Cody. On the same episode, Taylor and Trent unsuccessfully challenged FTR for the tag team titles. Cassidy would lose his rematch with Cody, due to interference from Cody's personal advisor Arn Anderson. Heading into 2021, Best Friends entered a feud with Kip Sabian, Penelope Ford, and Miro, following Trent's accidental destruction of Sabian and Ford's arcade machine. During the feud, Trent legitimately tore his pectoral muscle, sidelining him for months. On the January 13 episode of Dynamite, Taylor and Miro had a match with the stipulation that if Taylor lost, he had to serve as Miro's servant for a month. Taylor submitted to Miro during the match and was forced to wear a tuxedo and have his ring name changed to Charles Taylor. At Beach Break, Cassidy crashed Sabian and Ford's wedding, marking the end of Taylor's servant contract with Miro and reverting back to Chuck Taylor. On the March 31 episode of Dynamite, Taylor and Cassidy fought Miro and Sabian in an Arcade Anarchy match where if Taylor lost again, he would become Miro's servant permanently. Taylor and Cassidy were victorious however with assistance from a returning Trent, and a new friend in the form of Kris Statlander, who took out Ford.
In April 2021, Trent would take time off to receive spinal fusion surgery. In May, Cassidy challenged for the AEW World Championship in a three-way match against Kenny Omega and PAC at Double or Nothing, but was unsuccessful. On the May 24 episode of Dark: Elevation, the group saved Rocky Romero from a post match beatdown, effectively reuniting the team of Roppongi Vice, and incorporating Romero into Best Friends.[18] In Trent's absence, the group recruited Wheeler Yuta, taking him under their wing as a young lion. In July, Cassidy and Best Friends would get involved in a feud with Matt Hardy and his stable, the Hardy Family Office. Cassidy, Taylor, and Yuta defeated Private Party and Jora Johl in on an episode of Dark: Elevation, which was Yuta's first time teaming with the group. At All Out that year, Best Friends teamed up with Jurassic Express to defeat the Hardy Family Office in a 10-man tag team match. At the same event, Statlander, accompanied by Cassidy, unsuccessfully challenged Britt Baker for the AEW Women's World Championship. Best Friends prevailed in the majority of matches in the feud, however Cassidy lost to Hardy in a lumberjack match at the very end. Following that, Rocky Romero, on the behalf of Kazuchika Okada, offered the entire group a place in the NJPW stable Chaos, to which they accepted.[19] Best Friends would later immediately get into a feud with The Elite, who were strengthened by the arrival of Adam Cole and Bobby Fish. After a number of defeats, Trent would return from injury and helped Chaos defeat Bobby Fish and the Superkliq in an 8-man tag match. After months of the factions trading wins and losses, Cassidy faced Adam Cole in a lights out match at Beach Break. During the match, Danhausen would make his AEW debut and assist Cassidy, who would go on to win the match. In the weeks that followed, Danhausen would assist the Best Friends in their matches and eventually appear with the group regularly.
Friction began to form between Trent and Yuta throughout early 2022, with Trent antagonizing Yuta in backstage segments and supplementary material. At the same time, Bryan Danielson, while floating the idea of a stable with Jon Moxley, made overtures towards Yuta by naming him as a potential understudy.[20] On March 16, 2022, Yuta and Taylor lost a tag team match to Danielson and Moxley, now led and managed by William Regal, but after the match, a spurned Yuta would return to the ring and offer a handshake to Regal. Regal would instead slap him, causing Yuta to confront him immediately afterwards, impressing Regal.[21] On the March 30 and April 8 episodes of Dynamite and Rampage respectively, Yuta would lose to the newly christened Blackpool Combat Club in increasingly competitive matches, with the latter match with Moxley finally resulting in Regal offering a bloodied Yuta a handshake, which he accepted, before painting "BCC" on his chest with his blood, signifying his departure from Best Friends and CHAOS and initiation into BCC.[22][23]
On the April 3, 2024 edition of Dynamite, Trent left the group by attacking Orange Cassidy after losing a tag match.
* | Founding member(s) |
---|
Member | Joined |
---|---|
Chuck Taylor* | August 31, 2013 |
Orange Cassidy | August 31, 2019 |
Kris Statlander | March 25, 2021 |
Member | Joined | Left |
---|---|---|
Wheeler Yuta | July 7, 2021 | April 6, 2022 |
Trent Beretta* | August 31, 2013 | April 3, 2024 |
Associate | Joined | Last teamed |
---|---|---|
Rocky Romero | May 14, 2017 | February 7, 2024 |
Danhausen | January 26, 2022 | November 29, 2023 |
Sue | July 1, 2020 | April 3, 2024 |
As of April 25, 2024
Affiliate | Members | Tenure | Type | Promotion(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chaos | Chuck Taylor Orange Cassidy Rocky Romero |
2017–2019[a] 2021–present |
Stable | AEW NJPW |
Affiliate | Members | Tenure | Type | Promotion(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Roppongi Vice | Trent Beretta Rocky Romero |
2022–2024[b] | Tag team | AEW NJPW ROH |
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