2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Dar vs. Dragunov

25. Noam Dar vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 9/17/20

ER: This was the first new episode of NXT UK after the pandemic hiatus, and they gave us a cool main event match that had never happened anywhere else before. This comeback episode gave us a little bit of insight into how members of the UK roster spent their time during the pandemic: Amir Jordan somehow fixed his entire hairline (I've seen those NXT UK contracts and I have no idea where this guy got the money to do so), Aoife Valkyrie suddenly works stiff, and Noam Dar just came up with more ways to hit hard while continuing to put his head directly into the path of every dangerous strike. This was a great reintroduction of all the cool things Noam Dar is capable of, and a great look at just how much spittle Ilja can blow out of his mouth. 

Dar is outsized by Dragunov but hits so hard and with such precision that his offense actually makes Ilja's selling and overacting look like a perfectly normal reaction. Dar kicks at Ilja's hamstring, stomps his foot, kicks him as hard as possible in the shin, kicks him as hard as possible in the chest, stomps the hell out of his wrists and ankles, snapmares the backs of his knees into the ropes, and rubs his wrist tape across Ilja's stupid contacts. Dar is such a profoundly annoying little man and those annoyances only glow hotter when he is backing up all of his snotty behavior with real damage. Noam Dar feels like a spoiled coach's son who actually deserves all the playing time he gets, possibly the only coach's son since Cal Ripken to actually deserve his playing time. 

Dar learned the downward strike elbow over the pandemic and integrates it all through the match: as a standing strike, as a grounded strike, as a strike while working a hold, and as a way to advance a hold. He's relentless, which is the best kind of Ilja opponent, as Ilja will never quit and never stop making stupid faces. The more people stand outside of Ilja's house yelling at him to stop making stupid faces, the stupider the faces will get, and the stupider the faces get the more we get to see Dar get socked. Dar staggers into position so well for all of Ilja's elbows and leaping kicks and clotheslines, just putting his head in harms way for all of them. The man leans his head into every attack and it is insane. 

Dar is so good at getting into position for offense, that it's so much more gratifying when he shuts down bullshit. He gets plastered with Dragunov's rope spin lariat, but the next time Ilja tries it he takes a running boot right underneath the sternum, and a follow-up running kick that sends him flying 6 feet off the apron. The run to the finish blew up with a great strike exchange, each with one hand tied up in a knucklelock, sick elbows and kicks thrown from zero distance. Neither man was leaning away or holding back and it came off hard. This needed a finish better than Alexander Wolfe coming out and just kind of getting in the way, but that was the only thing holding this back. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK