2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Drake vs. Jake

14. Drake Maverick vs. Jake Atlas NXT 4/22

ER: I love when a match sneaks up on me and gets me hooked. Here was a match between a non-tendered employee who hasn't approached being an active wrestler for 3 years, and a west coast indy guy who has never stood out to me. But this was a fabulous Drake Maverick performance, easily his best over his WWE tenure, ironically coming while he is not technically employed and seemingly independently working his own "fighting for my job" angle. And what made all of this work for me is that he clearly worked the match as a man who was fighting for his job, trying to be noticed, breaking out all the stops. It's shocking how often a match structure doesn't come close to matching up with an angle or a character's motivation, but here's Drake working his first televised match in half a year, breaking out every trick he knows and duping Atlas into staying one step behind. They establish early that Jake is going to control whenever he gets to use his size advantage, so Drake throws everything into overdrive and forces Atlas to attempt to catch up. Drake starts shooting for takedowns, throws a couple snapping leg kicks, manages to rana him to the floor, really using speed and leverage to stay ahead.

The whole match was worked basically 90/10 Maverick, and it fully worked because Maverick is so small that even while ahead it's always clear that it wouldn't take much to put him behind, and the few times he got caught was all Atlas really needed. So Atlas catches him with a backbreaker, Drake goes back to being one step ahead and lets Atlas run himself into the post, and that's when Maverick brings back more kicks and hard uppercuts. It really felt like Maverick was gaining speed and strength as the match went on, running circles around Atlas and constantly mixing up his attack. Here's a cool tequila sunrise attempt, here's a tope that connects, here's a great top rope elbow that lands hard on the collarbones, and I love how it all changed in an instant. The final stretch was really well done, and once Atlas countered the sliced bread I got the distinct impression that Maverick's luck had run out. But I loved Drake fighting back with palm strikes, and as he went for that last desperation rana you just knew that Atlas was going to hold on and refuse to go over. That cartwheel DDT was a nasty exclamation point of a finish, and if this had turned out to be Maverick's WWE in ring swan song, it would have been pretty great to go out on such a fantastic, focused babyface performance.

PAS: This was surprisingly good for a match between two guys I haven't really rated before. I liked all of the minor key selling in this match. It wasn't worked bodypart vs. bodypart, but both guys would sell little tweaks well. Atlas grimaces and holds his knee after a spinning backbreaker, Maverick checks his jawbone after a superkick, it really put over the violence of the match. Atlas is really athletic and made his evasion stuff at the beginning look good, when that stuff will often look awful. Maverick wrestled the match with real desperation, and even though the whole angle was gross, he clearly has a place in the WWE. It is too bad Atlas couldn't have busted that cartwheel DDT out in front of a crowd, it is a real holy shit spot and gives him something that stands out amongst a roster full of junior sized guys.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST