Texas Death Match History in AEW

 Texas Death Match Background:

Created in the 1960s, the inspiration behind the Texas Death Match is from the old saying "everything is bigger in Texas". The specific stipulations can vary from one wrestling promotion to another but the fundamentals are always the same: there are no penalties for bringing foreign objects into play and no disqualification for brawling outside of the ring and through the crowd. In AEW, the only way to win is by Submission or Surrender (Submission). Typically in a Texas Death Match opponents use any and all available means to win the match. The extended duration and relentless punishment of the Texas Death Match made it a valuable way to highlight it's participants' endurance and toughness. 

Texas Death Match Sees Resurgence in AEW:

As WWE's reach expanded throughout the early 2000s, mainstream wrestling moved away from gore in favor of family-friendly styles that wouldn't threaten the broadcast's TV-PG rating. Although WWE's Extreme Rules and Last Man Standing bouts have been influenced by the Texas Death Match, the original form faded away for most of the 2010s, a relic of rasslin's bloody Southern history mostly left to down-and-dirty independent shows. However, in recent years, the Texas Death Match has made its return, thanks to All Elite Wrestling, the first major competitor to WWE in 20 years. AEW has distinguished it self from WWE with a more open embrace of wrestling history, including the occasional use of Dory Funk, Sr.'s signature event to settle feuds with an extra sense of finality. 

Former AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page faced Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match back in 2022. Both wrestlers draw inspirations from the old Amarillo and Dallas territories. Page plays an "anxious millennial cowboy" who touts his country and western image while embracing more progressive ideals, while Archer, the Gause, Texas-born wrestling veteran who has spend the last 2 decades bouncing between WWE, smaller U.S. outfits and Japan, is a throwback to the days of rough-and-ready Texans tearing it up overseas. 

Page was still champion when they fought and his belt was on the line, but the stakes of their feud were symbolic-whose claim to the legacy of cowboy wrestlers are more legitimate?-and the only rightful way to resolve it was with a Texas Death Match. Archer's manager at the time, an obnoxious mouthpiece named Dan Lambert, called Page inauthentic-too soft and sensitive compared to the great cowboy brawlers of the good ol' days. Page, the manager jeered, was just a former school teacher from Virginia, not a strong hand from Central Texas like Lance Archer. As Lambert rattled off the names of veteran cowboy wrestlers, a subtext emerged, full of outmoded stereotypes, about what it means to be a professional wrestler and a Southern male. 

The severity of a Texas Death Match gave Page an opportunity to show that his social consciousness and dapper style weren't at odds with his ability in the ring or his competitive matches. Page prevailed that night, and as he hovered over the unconscious Archer, blood streaked across his face and staining his blood mane, he seemed to prove that toughness and grit weren't solely the domain of men with pecs as big as the Panhandle. 

Page would become known pretty well for his Texas Death Matches in AEW, having faced Adam Cole and Jon Moxley both in matches after the aforementioned one with Archer. His most recent one was with Swerve Strickland and Page couldn't get the job done that night as Swerve's viciousness may have been more to the extreme than Page's ever could imagine, regardless of the fact that Page stapled a piece of paper to Strickland's face and even squirted his blood out drinking it and spitting it out like a mad man. Swerve showed that night that wasn't nothing as far as he was concerned because when his hands got on the staple gun, he stapled HIMSELF in the chest several times to the dismay of shocked fans at the KIA Forum in Los Angeles, California. Swerve ended up defeating Page after literally hanging the Hangman.

AEW TEXAS DEATH MATCH HISTORY:

No.	Match:	Event & Date:
1	Lance Archer def. Jon Moxley (c) by knockout to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship	AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest 2021: Night Two - July 21st, 2021
2	"Hangman" Adam Page (c) def. Lance Archer by knockout to retain the AEW World Championship	AEW Dynamite - February 9th, 2022
3	"Hangman" Adam Page (c) def. Adam Cole by knockout to retain the AEW World Championship	AEW Rampage - April 15th, 2022
4	"Hangman" Adam Page def. Jon Moxley by submission	AEW Revolution 2023 - March 5th, 2023
5	Jeff Jarrett def. Jeff Hardy in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Death Match*	AEW Dynamite - August 16th, 2023
6	Bryan Danielson def. Ricky Starks by knockout	AEW Collision - September 24th, 2023
7	Swerve Strickland def. "Hangman" Adam Page by knockout	AEW Full Gear 2023 - November 18th, 2023
8	Orange Cassidy def. Matt Taven by knockout	AEW Dynamite - February 14th, 2024

*Note: Though it was called a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Death Match", I still consider it under the Texas Death Match history so that is why it is located here instead of in it's own category (as I doubt AEW will ever hold another one of these matches and don't feel it is important enough to warrant it's own page).