NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate! An Actual Great 3-Way!

Ligero vs. Joseph Conners vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 12/5/19) (Ep. #71)

ER: Had you told me I was about to watch a match that was not only a triple threat match, but also nothing but 10 minutes of chained offense, I would have zoned out immediately. NXT UK isn't really a fed that does triple threat matches (one of their best features) and it's difficult to chain a lot of offense through a triple threat because you're dealing with that extra man. It started a little hinky and ironed out the quirks pretty quickly, settling into a fast paced match that felt much longer than it actually was, but not in a bad way! They squeezed so many ideas into a relatively short running time that it felt much more complete than most triple threat matches, while managing to avoid one guy constantly lying just out of frame waiting until it was his turn to step in. Describing the action feels almost pointless, as moves begat moves begat moves, but this was incredibly fun. Ligero really glued this together, not always having the most showcase worthy offense but clearly knowing how to get this match from A-E and not miss C. 

When I started the NXT UK project Ligero was an early standout for performances like this one, but tapered off hard in 2019 after his great Ohno match. Conners also felt like he really came together here, as his Brian Kendrick-lite act plays well in the middle of a chaotic three way. Chained offense usually comes off like two guys waiting around for one guy to get to a specific spot, and this rarely had that eye vacancy of remembering dance steps. Instead they upped the crazy as the match went on while not messing up the timing, so the match felt more like an exciting tightrope walk the longer it went. Banks hit a great early tope suicida on Conners, and later in the match when Conners goes to wipe out Banks with the same, Conners instead gets elbowed out of the air and topes to nothing. There was enough of that violence throughout that it never felt like three guys doing throwback ECW Nova offense, instead making a bunch of the highspots look opportunistically cool (Conners giving Ligero a DDT after a cradle attempt, big spills to the floor, a Conners double stomp on the ring steps). This felt like a real lightning in a bottle triple threat, like they hit a point where every complicated sequence was just working, and I don't think they could replicate it. I think it stands alone as a great match, using a bad match format, featuring majority problematic wrestlers, and that's a weird achievement.

Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate NXT UK 11/16 (Aired 12/19/19) (Ep. #73)

ER: Another great Noam Dar performance. Dar is really great at mocking an opponent while in control and then showing tons of ass the second the tide turns. He mocked Bate every chance he got while taking every cheapshot he could, then leaned right into everything that Bate threw at him. They started with some cool learned behavior stuff, which can come off really dance-y but mostly avoided it here. Too often when learned behavior comes into play, it turns into two guys with vacant stares trying to remember their next step, but a lot of their tricks felt really organic, like Dar shoving Bate into the ropes and dropping down for a Phillie Phanatic trip and Bate holds the ropes and pounces on Dar's back. Things hit that next level when Dar gets pissed and stomps down on the inside of Bate's knee, then does a cool Garvin stomp variation going around to each limb, lifting it, and stomping it to the mat. I loved Dar's use of the snapmare as active offense, snapmaring Bate into the turnbuckles and into the ring steps. The snapmare is slowly becoming a lost art, as most don't use it any longer and many that do don't know how to properly execute one. Dar not only executes a great snapmare, but uses his in ways that nobody else does, and that's the kind of thing that makes a wrestler stand out high above the rest. 

Dar almost wins by count out after the snapmare into the ring steps (Dar mocking Bate's big strong boy poses in the ring the entire time) and we move into a really good extended final stretch of nearfalls and reversals. Dar has some awesome reversals, and they're all used to interrupt Bate's trademark bullshit, which makes the reversals not only more satisfying, but adds to that high end level of "learned behavior" they played with to start the match. Dar cuts off Bate's bullshit with nasty reversals, dropping him with a quick Flatliner to cut off that spot where Bate makes people stop in their tracks for a right hand, and when Bate bounces shoulders first off the top rope (to hit his big lariat) Dar just grabs his legs and drops down into his heel hook. It feels weird to say that Noam Dar has the best heel hook/knee bar in wrestling, but it's pretty hard to dispute how grinding it looks here. Dar looks like he is shredding Bate's ligaments and I am here for all of it. Bate does some fun theatrical one leg hopping the rest of the match, and Dar seems like he has a well of ideas to pull off annoying shifts in momentum. He bails to the floor to break up a fast sequence (then gets taken out by a big no hands running plancha), but when Bate limps up to the top rope he catches knees on the way down. Dar is great at taking offense, and I love the way he sells and staggers for Bate's shots, not taking the same bump twice, and matching the level of bump to the impact of the move. Bate does nail that big right hand to set up the finish, and Dar buckles his knees and puts a hand down to stop himself from going down, perfectly setting up Bate's Tiger Driver win. Dar was so good here, that it really felt like the kind of thing Ohno brought to NXT UK, catering a cool match around a specific opponent and taking the match in directions that nobody else has. He must have sitting on some of these ideas and wanting to work them into a match with Bate for ages, yet at no point did this ever come off like a "getting all of my ideas in" match. Very impressive. 

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