2020 Ongoing MOTY List: WALTER vs. Holland

26. WALTER vs. Ridge Holland NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 9/3/20)

ER: We're over 5 months into quarantine and they reveal that they've just been sitting on matches like this? Why?? They've been airing months of "classic" matches and they had this unseen tidy heavyweight collision the whole time? What else are they keeping from us? Whatever the answers, I'm glad we eventually got this little gem. There was no backing down here, just WALTER reddening Holland's chest with chops while Holland threw lariats to the side of WALTER's neck. WALTER makes a favorite wrestler decision of mine, to just try to wreck a guy's arm to prevent him from throwing so many lariats, and because Holland is more stubborn than most men it only leads to more ass kicking. These two rams kept butting, and it got better the longer they kept it up. 

WALTER was really cruel, dropping Holland with a back suplex on the apron, stomping Holland right on the neck when Holland tried to bridge out of some matwork, and they work the kind of match where even a bodyslam feels like a finisher. Holland kept running into chops and a big kick, kept coming back with lariats to the neck, and I loved him powering through a WALTER sleeper to get him into a torture rack. He just kept going and growing, trying to put WALTER through the mat with a real ass overhead belly to belly suplex, big powerbomb, and an almost northern lights bomb. WALTER always comes off calm when he is starting to lose control, and appears to get more focused and tighten up his moveset. He doesn't take risks, throws in smart things like blocking a Holland lariat attempt, and just goes into this clubbing arms/sleeper mode. His uranage was great, and while I wish we hadn't gotten interference to lead to the finish, Holland quickly headbutting Wolfe out of the way only to eat a nasty high kick and lariat is a cool big man finish. So seriously, what other unseen matches are they sitting on?

PAS: Fun big boy punch out. This had more selling then most of your Big Japan matches in this style, more just two big dudes toughing it out than no-selling and making faces. Holland has real farm boy strength and looked great hoisting WALTER up for a monster belly to belly suplex. This wasn't a heavyweight jumping into a suplex, this was a big guy getting thrown. Great looking short headbutt by Holland, from a guy who definitely used that to drive a pint glass into someones cheek in Essex. I always like how WALTER breaks blood vessels and Holland was totally bruised up by the end of this, although he totally gave as much as he took. Short, simple, violent and effective wrestling.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST