WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 1/26/20-2/8/20

4. Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. The Hunt (Wild Boar/Primate) NXT UK 1/17 (Aired 1/30/20)

ER: Yes, please give me more UK tags like this, where Lorcan and Burch land across the pond and dispose of teams in under 10 minutes. The Hunt are a fun pairing for Lorcan/Burch, as they're like Fun Size Heavy Machinery (so really they are just Machinery). Wild Boar has fluffy Dog the Bounty Hunter hair and Primate seems to have no problem always running directly into danger, whether he lands a lariat or gets run into a ringpost. From what I've seen so far, Burch has been turning in his finest WWE work in 2020, and him smothering Wild Boar with a headlock while throwing great palm strikes to his head continues that trend (I even liked Tom Phillips comparing those shots to the Bride breaking our of her coffin), and this whole match was about quick tags and quick spills. Everybody is throwing chops, everyone is working like they have 7 minutes so how should we show off in 7 minutes, and it works. The tags were quick, and every new person that would tag in would immediately run wild. Primate tags in and hits big suplexes and lariats (you knew Lorcan would have to take a big twisting lariat bump in here), Lorcan flattens Primate with a big uppercut, Boar tags in and nails a cool cannonball on Lorcan only to get headbutted out of existence by Burch, Lorcan/Burch hit a big German and their double powerbomb for a nice nearfall, and Boar toothlessly worms his way into my heart by splatting to the floor with a missed frog splash, a gnarly way to leave Primate alone in the ring. And that match ending elevating DDT really felt like a fine exclamation point on the win. More of Lorcan/Burch in UK, please.

PAS: This was really fun. NXT UK is so weird, there are like a dozen guys on the WWE roster I have never even heard of, like I don't think Primate is a name I had even seen run across my Twitter timeline much less ever seen wrestle. They are kind of mini versions of the Viking Raiders, same kind of look and offense, except both guys look like they are 5'6. This is the best I have ever seen Burch look, he is usually the clear weak link of the tag team, but he provided most of the cool stuff in this match, including some really nice takedowns and the palm strikes Eric mentioned. So many of the pimped NXT tags are so long and overstuffed, it was great to watch a couple teams get in, do their business, and get out.


Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Brian Kendrick/Ariya Daivari 205 Live 2/7/20

ER: A kind of unexpected, rare miss from these four. After the video package showing what's happened among the four over the past few weeks, they built this up like a big fight, but much of this ended up feeling like a semi-genial cruiser match. The double teams felt clunky, and both teams felt like they were working a different match. Much of the match just felt off, even the timing on the reliably great Lorcan hot tag felt thrown off, guys just couldn't quite get on the same page. There were quick tags that kind of just worked to make things feel disjointed, not getting any decent length sequences from any combination of the four. Kendrick and Daivari work Burch's knee a bit (Kendrick had worked over Burch's knee the week before in much more interesting ways), but it goes nowhere; Lorcan hits a big flying uppercut as part of his hot tag, and hits a double team blockbuster, but things end in a DQ shortly after that. This is probably the most underwhelming 205 match any of these guys have been on in quite some time. On a different night I could see this leading to something special. Not tonight.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST