NXT UK Worth Watching: Devlin vs. Banks

Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 3/26/20) (Ep. #85)

ER: Jordan Devlin is really good at getting matches I like out of people that I don't like (for their wrestling style or because they're a nonce), often while working a style that I don't even like. He's one of the few guys who you could make the case for being the best wrestler in NXT UK, and I really love the ways he integrates his ideas into a match. In his longer matches he tends to throw in some "cute" exchanges that would surely annoy if done by a lesser performer, but he and Noam Dar have a way of getting cute with their opponents that actually manages to add to a match. Banks is a nonce and I'm not a huge fan of his in-ring, but he's shown himself to be a very good opponent for all of my favorite wrestlers. His matches against Devlin, Dar, Alexander Wolfe, Kassius Ohno, and Brian Kendrick are among my very favorite matches through 85 episodes of NXT UK. I don't think anyone else on the roster has had the level of matches Banks had with those guys, so even if I argue that he was "carried" to those good matches, there have been several other guys who all had matches against those guys and the Banks matches were just overall better. This is basically his last match in WWE, I doubt I'll be writing about any of his matches in the future, so here's me doing a "gotta hand it to" a guy who sucks: Travis Banks, you had better matches against great wrestlers than a lot of other people. 

I loved how Devlin went after Banks and I loved the way both bumped. Devlin always throws in a couple neat tricks, and I loved how Banks got him to faceplant on a dropdown, just rolled right into his ankles and sent Devlin face and shoulder first into the mat. Banks had done some work on Devlin's shoulder and Devlin fell on that shoulder and kept acknowledging it, all through controlling Banks he would roll his shoulder and flex his arm, smiling while enacting revenge. That all happened when Devlin rolled to the floor to escape but Banks came after with a tope. Devlin sidestepped that tope and Banks had one of the more spectacular crash landings I've seen. Banks went upside down, head and shoulder first into that barricade, a crash landing that Darby Allin would want to study just to see how to make it even crazier. As Banks is crashed on the floor, Devlin does one armed pushups in the ring and I love it. Devlin looked good in control, working over Banks with stiff strikes and setting up good comebacks. Devlin's reversals all look really good, and he rarely looks like the type of modern wrestlers I hate, who work every move around a reversal. Devlin's reversals always fit into the match and actually play like a reaction, not like a dance step. 

When Devlin catches knees on a moonsault, Banks goes on an awesome comeback tear. The corner cannonball has become a pretty worn out spot, but Banks hits one with his whole damn ass behind it. A lot of cannonballs have become late somersaults rolling up your opponent instead of into your opponent, and Banks jumps into this one like Jordan from the free throw line, really hitting Devlin like a cannonball. Banks also hits a tope that I didn't even think Devlin would be recovered enough in time to catch, as Devlin bumps out through the ropes and as he's bumping Banks is already getting a head of steam, and by the time the camera cuts back to Devlin he's getting wiped out by the tope. I mentioned "cute" spots, and one of those was a headbutt exchange that I've never seen before, and probably don't want to see much again: Banks hits a headbutt that staggers both, and Devlin winds up falling forward with his own headbutt as both are going down. It sounds complicated, it sounds silly, but I really liked how it came off. If it started turning up in every match like a finger break, it would become one of my least favorite spots, but that's the magic of Devlin, taking an annoying idea on paper and actually making it look good. This had several convincing nearfalls, strike exchanges that didn't fall into obnoxious patterns, and some real crazy spots. It was worked like a big main event and it felt like a big main event. 

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