2020 Ongoing MOTY List: A-Kid vs. Dragunov

31. A-Kid vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 4/30/20)

ER: This was a tale of two matches, and I liked the first part of the match more than the second part, but still thought the second part had some high peaks and real strengths, including a really hot finish. It's crazy that this was a match that was only shown due to a worldwide pandemic that temporarily halted NXT UK tapings. Imagine not finding room for this match on literally any episode NXT UK. This match is better than 90% of the NXT UK matches we've gotten, and it took a pandemic to get it. 

The matwork was all snug and went in cool directions, fighting out of headscissors and then finding cool ways to get back in those headscissors. Dragunov holds his tight and made a couple of Kid's escapes look even greater, Kid wriggling out and smoothly slipping into a leg grapevine, into a bow and arrow. My favorite part of the match was Kid rolling through a wristlock into a handstand and swinging his legs back around to lock Dragunov into another headscissors. It was the kind of mat trick that could have looked clunky and ridiculous, but the way Kid pulled it off it made it look plausible. Other favorite moments? Every Dragunov clothesline, all thrown with massive impact and follow through. 

Dragunov is a guy who can and does hit insanely hard, while also looking like a first class goof through every step of those ungodly hits. He has offense I don't like - there was a cartwheel crossbody here that not only looked bad, but felt entirely out of place in the match - but he always balances it out with some deadly stuff. I liked his standing elbow from the top to the floor, a nice German suplex, and that pair of hard lariats any wrestler would be lucky to call their finisher. The second lariat especially, right down the final stretch, with Ilja recoiling off the ropes and spinning into a perfectly timed smash, could have believably sent A-Kid to another territory for 6 months. I liked how Kid tried to get things back to the mat once Dragunov started throwing bombs, viewing it as his best path to the win and finding that it's tough to put the Dragunov genie back in the bottle. 

I didn't love some of the sections that turned into "I kick your face, you spin around and hit a jumping kick to my face, which bounces me back into a..." sequences, but I will always like Dragunov kicking guys in the chin, throwing the stiffest possible downward elbow smashes, and trying to take a man's head off with a lariat. Dragunov flew in so hot with Torpedo Moscow that he could have knocked himself out. I thought this was A-Kid's best match in NXT UK, and at the same time you had another Dragunov match where he shows that he's willing to kill himself to win. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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