WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 7/7-7/12
We are going to do this a bit early, because Eric is reviewing the EVOLVE show Saturday (With Big 3 member Drew Gulak doing his thing). We get some really fun Lorcan this week and are going to get some dope Gulak this weekend.
205 Live 7/9
Jack Gallagher vs. Devin Justin
PAS: Fun to see Gallagher work a squash match. He really works brutally against this kid, more of a Regal style beatdown then Johnny Saint. Even the move where he ties Justin up in the ropes was less whimsical and more brutal as he ends up leaping and dropkicking him right in the cheekbone. The Mike Kanelis thing was pretty lame, and I will be very happy if he ends up on RAW fulltime and I never have to see him again. Gallagher had this killer match with Chad Gable last month, and instead of following up on that, Gable vanished and they side drained Gallagher into this Kanellis thing. Wrap it up so I can watch my man do cooler things.
ER: I thought this was great. It wasn't the same kind of great as a match on our MOTY list, but it was great because it reminded me of something that would have happened on Wrestling Challenge 25 years ago. It was a squash, but followed a nice 3 minute formula from those days, with Gallagher showing off a new trick or two while laying in a beating. Justin is a northeast indy guy who I don't think I've seen before, and he got some respect from me for drawing some damn tough job duty. I watched him get crushed the night before by a couple Vikings, then here he gets twisted and pummeled by Gallagher. Gallagher does cool stuff here (duh) like a nice muscled over vertical suplex, and ties Justin around the bottom rope in a kind of Nieblina before hitting a mean delayed dropkick. I agree with Phil that I'd rather see Gallagher feuding with a couple dozen non-Kanellis guys, but I like one thing his interruption added here: Kanellis comes out, throws trash around, causes a scene, and suddenly we get a believable nearfall from Justin. Gallagher was distracted, and then Justin schoolboyed him. Now, WWE has ended so many damn matches the past 20 years with "distracted doofus gets schoolboyed" that my brain immediately thought they were giving this kid an upset victory that would never get followed up on. So as lazy as those finishes can be they've definitely conditioned me to think of them as finishes, and convinced me a guy who got crushed by Vikings and tied into the ropes by Gallagher was actually going to win. And while I was still surprised by the well done nearfall, Gallagher absolutely cracked Justin with a headbutt for the actual win. That was awesome.
Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Davari
PAS: What a world we live in, where one of my main complaints is “The WWE gives these juniors way too much TV time.” This was nearly 25 minutes long, which is really too long for this kind of plunder brawl. There was some cool stuff, I really loved Davari wrapping the chain around Lorcan’s mouth and smashing his head into the turnbuckle, and using the chair for the camel clutch was nasty too. Lorcan had a nice crazy dive and took some nasty bumps including taking a backdrop into a chair sofa. Still this was mostly a by the numbers WWE garbage match, table shots, ladder shots, chairs to the back, long set ups of props to fly through, and having it go this long with so many big bumps shrugged off didn’t really work to either guys strengths. Cool that it exists, pretty crazy that Lorcan was in two straight 20+ main event matches, but I think this was a miss.
NXT 7/10 (Taped 6/12)
Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Street Profits
PAS: Fun tag team match, which starts with a handshake and slowly breaks down, which is match structure I have always liked. Some of the Profits offense was a bit too SATish, but this broke down really well with a longish Angelo Dawkins beatdown. Ford is a great hot tag, it fits his skill set really well, and the out of nowhere flip dive was the highlight of the match. I think this was a step below an MOTY list match, but still a great example of the tag team match structure and how you can plug any four guys in a match and if they work the formula, something good will happen.
ER: I thought this was great. It wasn't the same kind of great as a match on our MOTY list, but it was great because it reminded me of something that would have happened on Wrestling Challenge 25 years ago. It was a squash, but followed a nice 3 minute formula from those days, with Gallagher showing off a new trick or two while laying in a beating. Justin is a northeast indy guy who I don't think I've seen before, and he got some respect from me for drawing some damn tough job duty. I watched him get crushed the night before by a couple Vikings, then here he gets twisted and pummeled by Gallagher. Gallagher does cool stuff here (duh) like a nice muscled over vertical suplex, and ties Justin around the bottom rope in a kind of Nieblina before hitting a mean delayed dropkick. I agree with Phil that I'd rather see Gallagher feuding with a couple dozen non-Kanellis guys, but I like one thing his interruption added here: Kanellis comes out, throws trash around, causes a scene, and suddenly we get a believable nearfall from Justin. Gallagher was distracted, and then Justin schoolboyed him. Now, WWE has ended so many damn matches the past 20 years with "distracted doofus gets schoolboyed" that my brain immediately thought they were giving this kid an upset victory that would never get followed up on. So as lazy as those finishes can be they've definitely conditioned me to think of them as finishes, and convinced me a guy who got crushed by Vikings and tied into the ropes by Gallagher was actually going to win. And while I was still surprised by the well done nearfall, Gallagher absolutely cracked Justin with a headbutt for the actual win. That was awesome.
Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Davari
PAS: What a world we live in, where one of my main complaints is “The WWE gives these juniors way too much TV time.” This was nearly 25 minutes long, which is really too long for this kind of plunder brawl. There was some cool stuff, I really loved Davari wrapping the chain around Lorcan’s mouth and smashing his head into the turnbuckle, and using the chair for the camel clutch was nasty too. Lorcan had a nice crazy dive and took some nasty bumps including taking a backdrop into a chair sofa. Still this was mostly a by the numbers WWE garbage match, table shots, ladder shots, chairs to the back, long set ups of props to fly through, and having it go this long with so many big bumps shrugged off didn’t really work to either guys strengths. Cool that it exists, pretty crazy that Lorcan was in two straight 20+ main event matches, but I think this was a miss.
NXT 7/10 (Taped 6/12)
Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Street Profits
PAS: Fun tag team match, which starts with a handshake and slowly breaks down, which is match structure I have always liked. Some of the Profits offense was a bit too SATish, but this broke down really well with a longish Angelo Dawkins beatdown. Ford is a great hot tag, it fits his skill set really well, and the out of nowhere flip dive was the highlight of the match. I think this was a step below an MOTY list match, but still a great example of the tag team match structure and how you can plug any four guys in a match and if they work the formula, something good will happen.
Labels: 205 Live, Angelo Dawkins, Ariya Daivari, Danny Burch, Jack Gallagher, Montez Ford, Oney Lorcan, Street Profits
posted by Phil @ 10:00 PM
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