2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Wolfe vs. Banks

29. Alexander Wolfe vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 3/5/20)

ER: Alexander Wolfe is a real beast who is incredibly good at selling and perhaps even better at setting up his opponents' offense. This guy's entire WWE run was as the bottom tier man in two different stables, but goddamn is this guy good. Banks is at his best when he's pushing pace and not slowing things down with strike trading, and he starts this off hot by knocking Wolfe to the floor and then nailing him with a smothering bullet tope, then sticks his boot heels into Wolfe's back with a double stomp (and I dug how Banks went back to that double stomp later in the match). Any match that starts with Wolfe unable to remove his track jacket almost always means you're getting something good, and this is no different. When Wolfe takes over he's really unforgiving, getting Banks to the mat and really pounding on him and roughing him up with headlocks. 

Wolfe is super intense in control, but also great at giving Banks openings and appropriately selling Banks' offense. I don't love some of Banks' strikes, but Wolfe's selling always fits the strike. There is no stupid trading, and Wolfe doesn't automatically do a back bump for each hit. Instead, he staggers and stumbles and falls into place and I'm not sure who else in WWE is this good at filling time waiting to take offense. I've seen so many wrestlers slumped in the corner waiting for a dropkick, and seeing the way Wolfe sets up Banks' corner dropkick should be an eye opener to all of them. Wolfe is good at using Banks' regular offense to set up unique situations, and breaks out some unexpected counters. I loved him hacking at Bank's shins to block a penalty kick, then sweeping those legs to force a Banks faceplant. Wolfe always approaches offense honestly, never waiting for his opponent to do some of the positional work for him. If a guy isn't where he needs him to be, Wolfe will yank them into proper position. The twisting suplex off the apron to the floor looked really nasty, and the in-ring version getting only a two count was a nearfall I really bit on. Wolfe's sitout powerbomb is one of my favorite finishers in wrestling, as it's always so perfectly executed that it hardly seems real. His form, the force he uses, the way he shifts his body to control the pin and leverage, just a perfect understanding of one's offense. A dive into Wolfe's German work is probably long overdue at this point. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfe vs. Dragunov No DQ

Alexander Wolfe vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 11/16/19 (Aired 1/2/20) (Ep. #74)

ER: Dragunov is a sincere goofball, and in a No DQ match there are abundant opportunities to make a ton of faces while acting like you're charging into battle. All of that starts when Ilja pulls a kendo stick out from under the ring and then holds it aloft like the world's dorkiest Beastmaster. He gets in the ring and levels the cane at Wolfe as if anyone in wrestling has felt threatened by a cane over the past 20 years, and that's when we get something I didn't expect: Wolfe disarms Ilja of that cane so quickly and efficiently that he looks like the type of man who says "look I don't want any trouble" moments before leaving 14 moaning broken bodies in his wake. Wolfe made this match cool, and he was a real savage with that cane. He challenges Ilja to pick up the cane and when Ilja foolishly takes the bait Wolfe kicks him right in the face, hits a disgusting cobra clutch neckbreaker using the cane to choke Ilja, throwing the back of Ilja's head into his knee. Wolfe jams the cane into Ilja's face and chokes him with it, and Ilja shows a ton of bruises on his neck and body early. 

Wolfe throws a chair off Ilja's face to knock him off the top rope (and almost hits himself in the face on the rebound) and then  hits a wild death valley driver off the apron. Ilja kicks out of some pretty big stuff, and the match was hurt a bit because you knew there was zero chance that Wolfe was going to beat Dragunov, so the bigger the moves got the more you knew they would wind up with Ilja back in control moments later. But that still gives us great stuff like Ilja piling a ton of chairs into the ring only to get tossed onto them with a sick release German, and then spiked vertically on the chairs with a DDT. Wolfe even gets to torture him with those chairs: slamming him throat first with the edge of the chair and smashing his fingers. Obviously, no matter how many ugly horrified faces Ilja made while holding his mangled hands in front of his eyes, you knew he was going to quickly put this thing to bed, and that's fine. We got another great Alexander Wolfe match, the clearly coolest member of Imperium. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfe! Dragunov! Grizzled Young Vets! Flash Morgan Webster!

Zack Gibson/James Drake vs. Flash Morgan Webster/Mark Andrews NXT UK 10/5 (Aired 11/7/19) (Ep. #67)

ER: This felt like a properly condensed version of their more bloated Big TakeOver match and had a really nice extended face in peril section that made the bigger spots feel bigger than the (even bigger) spots at TakeOver. It's always fun when southern tag formula slips into WWE tag matches, and it's even more fun when it shows up on a WWE branded show in Essex. This settled nicely into a nearly 8 minute segment of GYV cutting Webster off from Andrews with quick tags and a couple of great teases. Drake and Gibson are strong opponents for Webster and Andrews. Drake is really good at taking bumps that require him to run recklessly at an opponent, and Gibson knows how to ratchet up the meanness to make a match like this feel like more than "taking moves". There was some nice clever moments to lengthen the match, with my favorite a stretch where Drake gave Webster a hard shove backwards into the corner, but Webster throws a back elbow to Gibson on the apron while hitting the buckles. Gibson disappears after taking the unexpected elbow, but appears shortly after to yank Andrews off the apron *just* when Webster is about to tag in. I didn't love the back stretch (once Andrews finally got tagged in) as much as the Webster FIP stretch, but Drake did a great job holding it together by being one of the best in NXT UK at taking Andrews' complicated offense. Drake didn't need to save anything, but he definitely made Andrews' biggest stuff (big rana to the floor, crazy dragon rana in the ring) look great, where a messy catch would have made the match really fall apart. We break down into several cool spots, like Gibson getting spiked on a tornado DDT, Webster hitting a big senton, and Andrews trying to slide under a superkick but getting scalped and left looking like a limbo bar casualty on that mat. It all ends with Gallus, Imperium, and Dragunov running in to mess everything up and set up a big WarGames, but this tag got a lot of time to build and they used that time well, great match between two title contenders. 

Alexander Wolfe vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 11/21/19) (Ep. #69)

ER: This was an incredible Wolfe performance, able to sustain a 15 minute match while contending with Dragunov's hambone improv vet theater kid routine that kept threatening to derail this whole thing. Wolfe is the closest guy on the WWE roster to Fit Finlay - even closer than Gulak - for his ability to stay active and stay after his opponent. There's so much empty space in matches now. There is a lot of movement and action, but a lot of it is joyless step memorizing. Finlay, Bret Hart, Andre, Arn, those were guys who knew how to fill time while looking in the moment. It feels a bit much to say Wolfe's name in the same breath as any of those legends, but it's a style that really stands out so much more now. Guys were a lot more active with selling and movement in the 80s and 90s, in a way that didn't relate to their offense. It's now a rarity to see guys fill time with "non-offense" like stomping someone's hand or raking their boot eyelets across exposed skin. Back rakes were considered joke old man Hogan offense 25 years ago but brother, I would kill to see a modern wrestler who incorporated an occasional back rake into his matches, but without the implied wink. 

Wolfe is a guy with offense that looks good, moves that make impact, and a guy who knows how to keep things moving in fun ways. Dragunov is a guy who flops around in lieu of selling, makes dumb fish lip faces to show he's had enough, and wears spooky colored contacts like a goth 15 year old with an optometrist dad named Gary. Seeing Dragunov "work the mat" was hilarious, because he just looked like a pale fish flopping around on the bottom of the boat, more death spasm than folkstyle wrestling. Wolfe had to somehow hold this whole 15 minute match down while dealing with comical shit like that, and he somehow did it. Wolfe just kept cutting off Ilja's bullshit with stiff wake-ups, like kicking the middle rope into Ilja's balls or trying to snap Ilja's legs at the knees with the greatest drop down any of us have ever seen. Wolfe does a dropdown the same way the greatest wrestlers of all time did a dropdown, understanding the need to make it look like you are either a) panic dodging an opponent, or b) attempting to trip your opponent. Wolfe throws his dropdown like a crossbody, leaving himself open to get hit with Ilja's crossbody. Wolfe was always good at keeping things moving with small painful strikes, while generously taking Ilja's big suplexes. My favorite moment of the match was Wolfe catching Ilja with a drop toehold but it not fully taking, so Wolfe has to fight him and really try to drag him down with it. When he can't, he changes the strategy and kicks Ilja in the stomach from his back, adds another to the face, then gets to his feet and casually knees Ilja in the face on his way by. The big moves down the stretch felt bigger with Wolfe's constant press, building to a surprise Wolfe win, setting up a big 8 man tag with a ton of my favorite NXT UK guys. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfe! Aichner! Barthel! Boar!

Alexander Wolfe vs. Saxon Huxley NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 10/3/19) (Ep. #62)

ER: Wolfe is the coolest NXT UK guy who has barely been on NXT UK. He last wrestled two months ago and had one of the best matches in brand history (vs. Jordan Devlin). Now he shows back up and works a sick Fit Finlay WCW Thunder match. Huxley also hasn't been on in awhile (this was clearly a long day of tapings so they were digging deep into the roster by the time they had to fill this episode) and got the only consistent crowd reactions of his NXT UK time by happening to look like Jesus Christ. It's either going to be Vegan Brody, or Jesus, and Huxley's strappy Gladiator laced boots edged the comparison closer to the Bible than Texas. Both try to drag each other to the mat, Huxley holding Wolfe down after a headlock takeover. But Wolfe is always crafty without being cute, so he yoinks down Huxley's kneepad. When Huxley goes to fix it Wolfe kicks him in the face. Wolfe is a real asshole in control, working over Huxley's arm and knee, throwing him with a hard suplex, hitting a great enziguiri across Huxley's jaw, and the crowd was rooting for Jesus to make a comeback the whole time. It looked like Wolfe was just going to grind Huxley down, Huxley sprang onto him with a Thesz press. Wolfe is great at bumping around for Huxley's flash comeback, getting booted in the chest from the apron, but then typing Huxley into the ropes by dodging his next boot. Wolfe going for the kill is always memorable, and here he immediately bicycle kicks the stuck Huxley and tosses him with a German suplex (authentic!) and his best-in-wrestling sitout powerbomb. Put Wolfe on television more! 

Fabian Aichner/Marcel Barthel vs. Wild Boar/Primate NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/17/19) (Ep. #64)

ER: These teams were in a really good match on Episode 56, that was quite similar to this one. I said that match felt like the base level match these teams were capable of having, and this match felt like a better version under similar time constraints. NXT UK's sweet spot is the 7 minute match. Main Event and 205 Live also frequently utilize the 7 minute match, but the NXT UK roster hits that mark much better. This match had a real aggressive Aichner performance and a couple of nice nearfalls, easily enough to make this a nice memorable snack. Boar is really fun taking out Imperium and being beaten down by them. I loved his rolling tackle to take out Barthel at the shins, with the follow up senton while Barthel is on all fours recovering. Aichner catches a Primate tope impressively, then runs him straight into the ring steps and follows up with a running knee. They work over Boar with some stiff but simple offense, the best being a running Aichner clothesline that ran so hard into Boar that it should have separated Aichner's shoulder. The hot tag to Primate has a couple cool suplexes but he does that annoying thing where he tags in his tired partner 30 seconds after the hot tag. It's a hot tag trope I despise. Your boy just got worked over and your tagging him right back in? But these guys are smart and the match plays into that, with The Hunt going up for their diving headbutts only to see Boar get knocked off immediately by Barthel. The match went by quick but was good at adding in wrinkles. I thought that was going to be the end of the match, but we wound up with a nice Hunt nearfall when they finally do hit that headbutt, only for the pin to be broken up. Aichner is a great finisher, knows how to hit his big Saito suplex and European bomb with the confidence that it will be finishing the match. Aichner doesn't always do spectacular offense, but he runs into everything with such force that it makes a lot of other clotheslines and powerbombs look like child's play. 

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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

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