2021 Ongoing MOTY List: O'Reilly vs. Balor 2

1. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Finn Balor vs. NXT 1/6

PAS: This isn't something I would normally seek out, but enough people I trust put it over huge, and damn does it deliver. Balor isn't a guy who has done much for me his entire career (he had one great Brock match, and I don't remember much else noteworthy) but he was awesome in this. This opened with some very cool matwork, with Balor working an abdominal stretch in really awesome ways. I loved how he shifted O'Reilly's body away from the ropes, forcing him to break the hold by grabbing the rope with his teeth. This sets up the story of the match, with Balor kicking the rope and damaging O'Reilly's jaw (which was a payback from their first match). Balor spends the rest of the match viciously beating on that jaw, with crossfaces and rakes. O'Reilly counters by attacking the arm, including some really great looking chaining of submissions on the ground. It looked less like a guy doing catch and release submissions and more like a grappler taking openings and capitalizing on them. Finish run was very cool, with Balor cutting all of the fat out of his offense, and focusing on making sure O'Reilly can't chew for a month. I loved him going back to the ab stretch at the end of the match and transitioning to an almost Rey Hechicero grounded stretch with a forearm on the bad jaw for the tap. Fuck me, I could actually see this ending up as the 2021 MOTY at the end of 2021.

ER: I think Phil was harsh on their first match, as even though it was nearly a half hour and had some extra NXT melodrama, I was a big fan of what they did. But I understand being a little more down on that match if you watched this match first, which trims some of the fat and less desirable moments of their first match. No doubt it runs tighter and the tighter runtime lets the physical damage come off more believably (ironic, since they legitimately put each other on the shelf for a couple months each in their first match). This had all of the violence of the first match, and it benefitted from having less NXT drama. The violence felt more mean and vengeful, and it does have the first match to thank for that. They played off that match a lot here, and while this match stands on its own even without the story continuation, it does benefit from it. This had the feel of two guys who had been waiting for their next chance at each other, and I thought it was maybe the best O'Reilly has looked since joining NXT. There was always a wink/nudge element and shoehorned comedy by way of heel stooge facials, or worse, unintentional Davey Richards "too serious" comedy. He's cut a lot of that out and is now able to make matches serious from strong work, and not just making dumb faces. 

All of the mat scrambling is tough, and it reminded me of the best Catch Point stuff, then only got better once Balor kicked the middle rope while O'Reilly's teeth were holding it. O'Reilly's jaw selling was really good, and the selling never overshadowed the actual punishment he was being put through. There were several surprises, things like O'Reilly hitting a desperate running kick on Balor but immediately taking a Chris Hamrick worthy flying back bump to the floor, or Balor getting busted open in a way that made a lot of his offense look cooler. Balor was good at selling his left arm, including using it as a blunt weapon to do one of his best ever sling blade clotheslines (where he faked with his good arm and lead O'Reilly directly into the clothesline). O'Reilly's kicks really sang, the standing high kicks looking like Balor was taking them full power off his bad arm and chest. It was two guys presenting nothing but receipts, and I bought into the full presentation. Balor was really cruel about locking in headlocks and crossfaces across O'Reilly's hurt jaw, and everything O'Reilly did felt like a justified response. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST