2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Wolfe vs. Devlin

36. Alexander Wolfe vs. Jordan Devlin NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 7/31/19) (Ep. #53)

ER: Alexander Wolfe has hardly had any singles matches during his now actually long time under WWE contract, and outside of a couple of early NXT squashes and his NXT UK debut this is his first actual competitive singles match under WWE contract (we're talking 4 years into his contract!!). There is no way you would have actually known that if you watch this match, as the man looks like a fantastic singles match worker. This was one of my absolute favorite matches in NXT UK, with an excellent Wolfe performance that overshadowed a great Devlin performance. Wolfe wrestled this match as if he were WALTER, had WALTER been mentored by Fit Finlay. How incredible does WALTER-as-Finlay sound!? The match was filled with Wolfe shutting down Devlin in awesome small violent ways, grabbing at his face, yanking his nose, stomping on his face, ribs, and shoulder, grinding his knuckles on an abdominal stretch, catching Devlin's flash and grinning before putting an end to it. This could have lead to some brutal canned ham from Devlin, as most guys who work an "uh oh my offense got blocked!" spot can't ever resist making a wide eyed goofball clown face before getting pummeled into the mat, but I thought Devlin played his role great. 

Wolfe's opening grappling was really cool, with Devlin trying to find ways out of it but instead eating a downward elbow to the mouth. This match had a lot of strong Devlin selling, paying service to small pains while not letting it interfere with any flow, things like stretching out his jaw or cracking his neck, on up into holding his ribs and that being the thing that allows a Wolfe pump kick to land. We get a lot of elbows, knees, and kicks, but all of it is worked nice and organically into the match. Outside of a short slap exchange (my least favorite part of the match) I thought they did a great job of filling in the match with striking, and that slap exchange I didn't love at least ended with Wolfe backing Devlin across the ring with a nice yakuza kick. Devlin's counters to Wolfe's offense all looked really detailed, not just two guys going through "what the spot is supposed to be". When Wolfe goes for a powerslam or powerbomb, you can see Devlin working through every way to wriggle out, making it look like a guy who wasn't supposed to escape rather than a guy "doing the spot". When Wolfe maneuvered Devlin into a vertical suplex from the apron, it actually looked like Devlin was struggling to get out of it while Wolfe was struggling to shift him around for the right leverage, never looking like two guys both working to merely complete the spot. Wolfe runs into Devlin's Spanish Fly in a way that made it come off like a total surprise, not just a piece of Devlin's offense that he does in every big singles match, and that kind of organic feel to the offense flow is what made this such a cut above a typical NXT UK main event. 

I especially loved Devlin's selling after a headbutt, countering a Wolfe powerbomb and landing the headbutt, then desperately holding onto Wolfe's wrist to prevent going down himself. Both guys added extra exclamation behind everything they did, like Devlin making short Kawada kicks look like a fresh spot in 2019 just because he actually looked like he wanted to cave in Wolfe's orbital bone, or Wolfe planting the most gorgeous bridge on his German suplex. The finish was good, loved how Devlin held his ribs after landing on his feet on his missed moonsault, leaving his face wide open for Wolfe's boot. Wolfe's sitout powerbomb was so incredible that you'd want it to be the model sitout powerbomb for any video game. I also just really enjoyed the twist on the traditional wrestling story, with Devlin demanding a challenge at WALTER's title, but having to go through one of WALTER's goons first, and then losing to that goon with no hint of interference. I was expecting either a Devlin win despite Imperium interference, or a Wolfe win due to excessive interference, and what we got was so much more special. 

PAS: This was really good, and made me want to track down some Axel Tischer matches to see if Wolfe was doing this stuff on a different stage. I honestly don't remember ever seeing him before (actually looks like I saw his first WWE match live at an NXT house show and thought he was Axel Dieter Jr.) and the Finlay comparison was really apt. I loved the way he would cut Devlin off and find nasty little moments to dig knuckles into the ribs or grind a forearm across the face. Devlin did some things I didn't love, but he was hitting hard enough to work the spirit of the match, and those Kawada kicks were some sick stuff as were the stomps to the head to finish the sequence. I actually bought those kicks and stomps as the finish to the match. I thought it got a little reversal heavy at the end, and I probably would have ended the match on Wolfe's beautiful German suplex, but this was a great example of the buried gems hiding on the Network on these small shows. 

2019 MOTY MASTER LIST