2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Holland vs. Gargano

11. Ridge Holland vs. Johnny Gargano NXT 8/12 (Aired 8/19/20)

ER: This match kicked ass. Other than the joy of Pat McAfee's performance, this was easily better than anything from TakeOver XXX. I haven't enjoyed a Gargano match this much in nearly 2 years, and this was a surprisingly hard hitting style clash of a match. Ridge knocked Gargano around with strikes, including huge clubbing arms, and Gargano was tightening up elbows to Holland's head. Gargano had several fun ways of overcoming the size difference, good use of speed and cheating to make his few comebacks, working to make any headway for probably 3/4 of it. It's smart, as it's less Ridge selling Gargano's offense, and more things like Gargano sending him into the ringpost or making callbacks to that arm for the rest of the match. Both did fun arm stuff, with Holland always shaking out his arms (especially after a cool spot where Gargano dodged an uppercut so Holland uppercuts the rope) and Gargano shaking out his left arm a few times because his small forearm hurt after striking Holland's big head. There were big spills, like Gargano's tope, and both guys took some big bumps, like Holland's slow big man Jerry bump to the floor.

But the universe seemed like it wanted to turn Johnny Wrestling into Johnny Wheelchair. He took a Flair turnbuckle flip to the floor early, but went into the buckle neck first horizontally like he was doing his own variation on the Ray Stevens/John Nord corner bump. But this match really changes when Holland spikes Gargano into the mat on a powerslam. It happens over the break and we come back with Mauro doing quiet tragedy voice, but once they showed replays from a couple angles, yeah, no, that looked bad. You can pause it and see Gargano looking like the man in the warnings on the side of diving boards, just hitting that empty pool head first. The rest of the match felt really dramatic to me, as I kept expecting it to suddenly go home the way Owen/Austin did. But they milk it for a few more surprise kickouts and nearfalls. Gargano hitting a surprise superkick to buy him more recovery time, and Candice distracting Holland so Johnny can kick a ring rope into his nuts were both smart things for Gargano to do to get back into it, and I love Holland having the stones to go BACK to a powerslam. What a cool match, the kind of match that snuck up on me and left me wanting more.

PAS: I had no idea who or what a Ridge Holland was before watching this match, and I am all in. Beth Phoenix compares him to Rick Steiner on commentary, and he definitely has that brain damaged jock psycho vibe down. I thought he did a nice job selling the arm early, and the missed uppercut into the ropes was a nifty bit of limb work, totally looked like he threw it full force and jacked his bicep up. That botched powerslam looked exactly like the kind of thing Rick would throw on a random WCW Saturday Night jobber, and his other throws on the neck looked great too. I have no real problem with the finish, it was a clever nut shot, but I kind of wanted something bigger to bring down Holland. Gargano is way better in these kind of minor key matches than he is in some bloated TakeOver mess (I assume, there is no way I am watching an Adam Cole match unless he is against a punter).


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST