2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gallagher vs. Dunne

27. Jack Gallagher vs. Pete Dunne PROGRESS Wrestling 12/30

PAS: Really nifty match to close out 2017. I loved the matwork, Gallagher is super slick, he has this takedown and almost MMA mount which he turns into an armbar. Most of the match was a stiff juniors match, and a pretty good one, Gallagher hits a flying crossbody into a bunch of chairs, and some sick uppercuts one of which may have broken Dunne's nose. I also loved Dunne catching Gallagher's dropkick with a huge powerbomb. Finish run was dope with Gallagher borrowing Kendrick's Choke Sleeper and Dunne trying to fight his way out.  I really need to dig into all of the WWE Gallagher because he was dope in this. Dunne was fun too, and this would be a great PPV opener.

ER: Phil wrote this early in 2018 and I totally missed it, but this was great. The opening matwork was my favorite part, which is saying something as there were a ton of great parts to this. But watching several cool transitions, Dunne standing on Gallagher's face while locking in an ankle lock, Gallagher floating out of that into a standing kneebar, it all looked cool but violent (Cool But Violent is a script I'm still working on for late 80s Richard Grieco). But Gallagher was a total savage through this whole thing. Dunne is sold as the more powerful wrestler, so Gallagher dutifully sold all of his strikes 3x as much as Dunne sold his, bumping back fast for elbows in the ring and up on the entrance way, but in between all that he was uppercutting and kicking the piss out of Dunne. Gallagher is real mean in this one and that's the best Gallagher; loved his crossbody that sent both crashing through several rows of chairs, and his low thrust kicks up on the entranceway (and later in the ring) look so simple but so perfect. Dunne has a lot of Rube Goldberg slams and suplexes, moves that involve a lift, a hitch, a flip around, before the slam. Some of it seems superfluous but the moves all hit with huge impact and that's the most important part. Too many cool things to list from the last 5 minutes, but I especially loved Gallagher muscling Dunne over with a tough butterfly suplex that almost lands like a brainbuster; loved Gallagher going for his nasty corner dropkick but getting caught by Dunne in a way I didn't expect; loved Gallagher co-opting Brian Kendrick's Captains Hook finish, and LOVED the actual finish with Dunne yanking Gallagher up into a sick and quick tombstone. All of this was awesome.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST