2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby vs. Kross

78. Darby Allin vs. Killer Kross Maverick Pro Wrestling 9/7

PAS: Darby is the best David vs. Goliath wrestler since prime Rey Mysterio Jr. This is against a different beast then we have seen him against before, and Darby breaks out some new tricks. Kross hurls him with a collar and elbow tie up, and spins him around off a fireman's carry. Kross has a great football captain dick charisma, and there are some great moments where he gets too cocky for his own good. He puts his hands behind his back and dares Darby to chop him, only to eat a a great looking straight right hand, and grabs a chair (and fakes a chairshot on a fan) only to get coffin dropped on the chair as he was coming into the ring. There are a bunch of nifty near falls, including Darby rolling up Kross during his choke finisher, only to get pummeled and choked out. Kross feels like a guy who should go somewhere after his Impact stuff gets cleared up, and Allin is always a treat to watch.

ER: Darby vs. Monster has been one of our favorite match types since we found out who Darby Allin is, so any time it's him against a big bruiser he hasn't yet faced is going to be exciting. I love those moments where Darby gets caught but can't be disposed of, just grabbed-tossed-lands on his feet-repeat, leading to those great moments of him getting put down hard when he eventually doesn't land on his feet. I love the way Darby integrates success and failure into each attack, no sequence is guaranteed to work, and the only guarantee is that he will keep attempting them. Breaking up sequences keeps things fresh, so when he forward flips into the ring to put him in position to nail Kross with a tope, there's never a risk of thinking "Oh, now it the part of the match where Darby Allin hits three straight topes". He nails the first one, gets caught and almost slammed into chairs on the second attempt, escapes, and then hits chest to face on his third tope attempt. Breaking patterns makes his David routine far more exciting, makes every movement mean more. 

Kross is a good bully, and him running at a fan with a fake chairshot was a genuine favorite moment for me. What a dickhead thing to do! Fan just sitting there, presumably not even being annoying (I may be giving wrestling fans too much benefit of the doubt there), and suddenly Kross is running straight at him with a chair! Kross just chose to make someone look like an idiot for flinching, in a situation where anyone would have flinched. It's a great heel spot, and the fact that it lead to the best spot of the match made it mean even more. Darby's coffin drop - as Kross was sliding back in the ring with the chair - was perfection, as nobody's movement was out of the ordinary to set up the spot. Kross slid the chair in front of him like you would do, and Allin hit the drop right as Kross' body was aligned over it, just a great highspot. Kross is great in the moments he gets his mitts on Darby: early in the match he helicopter spins him directly into the mat, and all of the end submission stuff was really mean, like a sadistic big brother making his little brother hit himself a bunch. Little brothers need emergency outs to make things at all interesting, and Darby going after Kross' hand throughout gave us that. Even when Kross was sinking in a choke for the finish, it was always in my head that Darby could get some of Kross' fingers and just bend the hell out of them.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST