Best Friends were an American professional wrestling stable 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.
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. The group was 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.
Contents
History
Pro Wrestling Guerilla (2013–2019)
Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta first teamed on August 31, 2013, at the Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) 2013 Battle of Los Angeles, alongside Joey Ryan, where they defeated the team of B-Boy, Tommaso Ciampa, and Willie Mack. 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. They subsequently lost a match against The Young Bucks for the PWG World Tag Team Championship at Mystery Vortex II on March 28, 2014.
Ring of Honor (2017–2019)
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. 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.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2017–2019)
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. They went on to score four wins and three losses in the tournament, failing to advance to the finals. 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.
All Elite Wrestling (2019–2024)
On February 7, 2019, Best Friends appeared at an All Elite Wrestling rally in Las Vegas and announced that they were joining AEW. At the inaugural 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. After a post-match attack from The Dark Order, the duo were saved by Orange Cassidy, who aligned himself with Chuck and Trent. On the October 30, 2019, episode of Dynamite, Best Friends and Orange Cassidy made their 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. 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.
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 Cassidy suffering the worst after Chris Jericho hit him with a bag of blood oranges. Best Friends would seek revenge against 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. Best Friends would receive their tag team title shot against Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page at Fyter Fest night 1, which they lost. In late August, Cassidy resumed his feud with Chris Jericho, while Trent and Chuck began feuding with Santana and Ortiz, after Trent's mother Sue's van was destroyed by Santana and Ortiz. Cassidy defeated Jericho in a Mimosa Mayhem match at All Out on September 5, 2020. Chuck 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, Chuck 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.
Sub-groups
Championships and accomplishments
All Elite Wrestling
AEW International Championship (2 times) – Cassidy
AEW TBS Championship (1 time) – Statlander
2023 Casino Tag Team Royale – Cassidy and Danhausen
Dynamite Award (1 time)
Hardest Moment to Clean Up After (2021) – (Best Friends vs Santana and Ortiz) – Dynamite (September 16)
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament (2014) – Trent and Taylor
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (2020) – Cassidy
DDT Pro-Wrestling
Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time) – Cassidy
Revolution Eastern Wrestling
REW 24/7 Championship (1 time) – Cassidy
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (2020) – Cassidy
Ring of Honor
ROH Pure Championship (1 time) – Yuta