One of the best things about AEW is that most of their wrestlers can feely wrestle in other promotions without many restrictions.

FTR can take on Brian Pillman Jr. and Brock Anderson with Bret Hart in their corner despite the latter team not tagging together in AEW, Brody King can continue to work NJPW Strong events with his traditional hardcore attire instead of going full-on Norwegian cultist with Malakai Black and wrestlers like Athena can go against the likes of Swerve Strickland in inter-gender showdowns that Tony Khan would not be particularly comfortable putting on national television.

It also, funny enough, opens up the door for cross-promotional bouts that maybe weren't “dream matches” when they were booked but rapidly achieved legendary status once the ref's hand hit the ring's canvas three times in quick succession.

That, fortunately, happened on Friday night, when DDT/AEW wrestler Konosuke Takeshita took on Impact Wrestling's “Speedball” Mike Bailey in a bout between a performer who just got to America for his wrestling excursion and another who was banned from crossing the border for half of a decade. But no matter the path that brought them to the West Coast Pro's 93 Til Infinity, fans the world over should be incredibly happy that it ultimately happened, as the showing was as surprising as it was jaw-dropping and deserves serious consideration for Indie match of the year, if such an award exists.

When they're ready, Konosuke Takeshita could be a star in AEW

Knonsuke has appeared in seven matches for AEW since arriving in the promotion for his extended run

He beat Brandon Cutler in his AEW Dark Elevation re-debut on April 20th, beat ex-Ring of Honor Television Champion Rhett Titus the following week in Philadelphia, and then lost a pair of matches to Jay Lethal and Adam Page in his AEW Rampage and AEW Dynamite debuts. Since taking those Ls, Takeshita has taken care of Ryan Nemeth and Nick Comoroto again on Dark before failing to come out of the Casino Battle Royale on the June 8th edition of Dynamite, largely due to his lack of friends.

And yet, if you've only caught Takeshita's stateside matches in AEW, you haven't gotten the full picture of his wrestling prowess, as the well-traveled 27-year-old has been taking indie bookies too and has captured the hearts of fans in each city he's landed in. Takeshita has secured a win over Aramis in PWG, beat Adam Brooks in DPW, and most recently secured an absolutely mesmerizing win over “Speedball” Mike Bailey in West Coast Pro program from sunny San Francisco, California.

Taking the ring against his former tag team partner from DDT for the first time as foes since 2018, Takeshita and Bailey exchanged blows, exchanged holds, and hit the sort of impossible-looking aerial maneuvers that made the fans in attendance literally jump to their feet like nothing else on the show up that that point.

Goodness, how is that been possible?

The duo went a little over 17 minutes, hit some incredible maneuvers like a healing German Suplex, and, after Takeshita secured the win, he took to the mic to announce that he would return to the promotion in the future.

While the top of AEW's card is absolutely loaded and the prospects of promoting a wrestler who's under contract with another promotion is probably not the best business strategy, Konosuke Takeshita is becoming more and more of a star with each match he wrestles in the United States and might just be the most promising “new” wrestler in the entire promotion. Enjoy him while you can, wrestling fans.