NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! WALTER Mastiff! Ligero!

WALTER vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 3/5/20) (Ep. #82) 

ER: I liked this a lot, but also felt they almost showed too much. It's a short match that never quite feels as high stakes as they want it to feel, and moved too quickly for any of the biggest spots to sink in. I keep waiting for these UK bog beasts to have an undeniable banger, but they keep falling short in different ways. Still, I liked a lot of what they did here. The whole match was basically Mastiff throwing every piece of offense he has at WALTER, splatting him all around the ring. Mastiff has several pieces of really cool offense and while he did them all, he never made it look easy.  I thought a cool element of the match was how little offense WALTER got. Really, beyond a few big (and nicely timed) chops, a running dropkick, and the big powerbomb finish, this was all about WALTER either gaining an advantage by dodging Mastiff or not dodging and getting squished. 

WALTER went for the powerbomb early and wound up with Mastiff plopped on his chest. He got squished with a cannonball, a cool rolling senton, a regular ol' fat guy senton, and generously threw himself into a German suplex (the suplex really felt like it was 95% WALTER leaping backwards like a crazy man). But the match was also about Mastiff being able to survive as long as he did because of big WALTER misses, like a big missed splash and a sidestepped dropkick. WALTER maximized his cut-offs, always eating a few Mastiff strikes before shutting them down with one big chop or a big boot to the chest. And since Mastiff was throwing several shots to every one WALTER shot, he tired himself throwing out everything he had, misses and all. By the time WALTER hit that powerbomb Mastiff was toast. The strength of the match was WALTER's selling: the way he would curl up or drag himself to the ropes after getting squished, and I love how he fell over after hitting the match ending powerbomb. I have no doubt that WALTER could easily powerbomb Mastiff, but it was one of several things he did that made Mastiff feel like a bigger deal.

Noam Dar vs. Ligero NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 3/12/20) (Ep. #83)

ER: An underrated aspect of NXT UK is that while they don't have a large roster, they don't run a ton of repeat matches. Sure, some of these people have worked each other many times outside of WWE, but I think they really maximize the roster they have. You see repeat matches on Smackdown all the time, week after week, but on NXT UK you can find a match that's been done maybe twice. This is the second Dar/Ligero match (first one happened 8 months prior and was longer, but not as good), and you get that familiarity without feeling like you've seen all of this several times before. I thought Dar was really fantastic in this, acting like a real dick to Ligero and having that paid off in a couple fun ways. The match started with Ligero whiffing on an elbow when Dar just moved back away from it, and Ligero committed to the miss to make the spot look good. It looked more like Ligero was not expecting to miss, which is what all missed shots should look like. Later, when he drilled Dar with a Misawa level elbow, it meant more. Dar has insanely fun body movement, slipping and tripping unexpectedly to throw off Ligero's momentum. Dar kicks Ligero in the legs in several spots you don't normally see targeted, kicking him in the knees to get him to fall on the apron, rolling over to take out Ligero's ankle, always kicking him with this great dismissiveness. Dar rarely if ever falls victim to strike exchange silliness, so the stuff that lands always looks much better in his matches. Really the only weak part of the match was a bad looking Ligero handspring, but the move was reversed so I guess...good? Watch this, and just enjoy how they move around each other. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno vs. Mastiff! The Biggest in the UK Collide!

Kassius Ohno vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 1/12 (Aired 1/16/20) (Ep. #75)

ER: This is quick and to the point, both guys using their weight to win, and Ohno using his arsenal against a uniquely shaped opponent. It's a relatively short match, under 7 minutes, but just watch Ohno's 2019 match against Jack Gallagher to see how special a match he can put together in 7 minutes. Ohno's been crafting variations on the Great 7 Minute Match during his entire NXT UK run, and it's one of the things that's made him the clearcut #1. We've seen a lot of Ohno bullying around smaller NXT UK guys like Ligero and Sid Scala, and it's great seeing how he approaches the heaviest guy on the brand. It's one thing to see him work cravats against Jack Starz, it's another to see how he clamps it around Dave Mastiff's head size neck. Ohno did work his cravat in a few cool ways, and I loved how Mastiff wouldn't go over for a cravat snapmare so Ohno just dropped to his back with his knees up, dropping Mastiff chin first onto them. Ohno keeps going for the cravat, until Mastiff just threw him with a suplex that left Ohno sitting confused on his butt. 

Both got to use their sentons, and it's because big fat guys should all be using sentons. When you get to a certain size you really need to just fall onto your opponent as often as possible. Ohno hits a rolling senton and rolls back off, then rolls another one that sticks even better. Mastiff gets to pay him back with one of his own and used that to build to bigger uses of his body. Ohno had a really cool counter when he saw Mastiff's cannonball coming and slouched further in the corner to deaden the impact and immediately shift into a pin. We don't get nearly enough of guys just trying to minimize damage they know is coming, and that is one of many things that sets Ohno apart from most. Mastiff has a low center of gravity which works against Ohno's leverage-based attacks, but it's also interesting how Ohno didn't dip into his arsenal of kicks or elbows like he did with nearly every other UK opponent. It's like he wanted to win a size battle with the heaviest guy and lost because of the other guy's size. Ohno almost pulled off one last cravat, catching Mastiff up top and locking one in to drop him in who knows what kind of violent way, but Mastiff winds up crushing him with a Finlay roll off the middle buckle. Ohno got punched into the mat with that one, which means we should probably get another match between them so Ohno can throw a ton of kicks. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! Kona?

Kona Reeves vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 11/16/19 (Aired 1/2/20) (Ep. #74)

ER: A lot of the matches I recommend as NXT UK Worth Watching are really good matches that just miss the cut from the MOTY List, but occasionally NXT UK does a 3 minute match that is so fun that I have to recommend it. As a brand, their sweet spot is the 7-12 minute match, a window that a ton of the roster can hit really well. But we don't get as many memorable 3 minute matches, their version of a great WCW Pro or Sunday Night Heat match. But this match was smack dead center in that vibe. Kona Reeves came over to NXT UK for one taping, had two incredibly fun matches (this and a match a few weeks prior against Trent Seven), the best work I saw him do in a WWE ring, so naturally he gets fired a few months later. Reeves comes out and talks about how he had jet lag in his match against Seven, how he wasn't at his best because of the awful English cuisine, and it was like a great stupid Disco Inferno promo. Then Reeves gets his ass knocked backwards to the floor on a Mastiff shoulderblock and they didn't let up for 3 minutes. Mastiff threw some hard straight rights that kept Reeves backpedaling and tripping, but when Kona takes over he really dishes back. He sends Mastiff into the steps hard, nails a knee, then chokes out Mastiff with the ring skirt while laying in a beating. Reeves also has a real nice running boot, and a great running boot is something that can stand out in a world of superkicks. Reeves gets chucked on a release German, and the head of steam Mastiff built up on his cannonball gave us one of his best. This still had a lot of room to grow and they could have had something really great in that 7-12 minute window, but there's an art to sticking the 3 minute landing. 

Kassius Ohno vs. El Ligero NXT UK 11/16/19 (Aired 1/2/20) (Ep. #74)

ER: This was a completely different match than their match 7 months prior, and I love when guys do that. That match was really great, but based around Ohno kicking Ligero a bunch in the face and head and kind of gleefully laying in a beating. Here he gets fooled a ton by Ligero's wiles, and works a lot of the match one step behind (while in their previous match he was mostly one step ahead). He gets flustered a lot, and works a fun bit where he eats an early elbow and complains to the ref that he's out here trying to wrestle, but Ligero wants to fight. Ohno misses a flipping senton and gets trapped into a headscissors, powders to the floor, and catches Ligero with a chin breaker on his (Ligero) way back in. I like that Ohno must have thrown at least a dozen kicks at Ligero's head in their April match, and he goes through this match without even lifting his leg for a kick. Ohno takes a really big backdrop bump to the floor and Ligero bounces off him with a very fast tope con giro, and Ohno actually sells like the dive was supposed to bounce off him and send Ligero tumbling into the entranceway. I didn't love a series of roll up 2 counts, and there aren''t many callbacks to that earlier, far more violent match, until Ohno attempts to untie Ligero's mask. The first match ended when Ohno loosened Ligero's mask, turned it, then leveled him with an blindside elbow. Ligero stopped it this time, but it didn't really matter, as Ohno's sick arm trap cravat would have popped his head off his shoulders anyway. Not quite the level of their prior match - only a couple of NXT UK matches *have* been better that that match - but it's just as recommendable because you get to see something different. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Tyson T-Bone vs. Joe Coffey! Devlin vs. Mastiff!

Jordan Devlin vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 10/5 (Aired 10/31/19) (Ep. #66)

ER: It's pretty surprising we got this far into NXT UK without a Devlin/Mastiff match, as it feels like one of the bigger singles matches they could run. Not that they need to run every single marquee match within the first year, but the roster is only so big and these two have been two of the best presences on the brand. My brain just assumed it was a match that had happened a lot but these two really don't cross paths much inside or outside of NXT UK. It just feels like a match I've seen several times before on this very program and it clearly has not ever been seen by my eyes. Devlin bumps around for Mastiff (expected) every time he tries to get in close. He gets his leg caught and gets flipped onto his stomach, takes a big high backdrop,  and I loved how Devlin finally slowed the big man by torturing his arm. Devlin wasn't so much going after the arm as he was humiliating Mastiff, standing on Mastiff's face and chest each time before snapping the arm back to the mat like Harley Race. Devlin getting both boots on Mastiff's face while controlling the arm, then scraping them across as he hits the mat with the arm is some awesome stuff. Mastiff had a great Gotch lift to finally break the armbar and also tossed Devlin to the floor in a big bump, and splatted him with a Finlay roll on the floor. Devlin was strong at setting up every piece of Mastiff's offense, from foolishly going for the Devil Inside on a man twice his size (with a great finish callback to that), to hitting a great moonsault and getting greedy catching knees on a second to set up the cannonball. And what made a lot of the size difference stuff work was that Devlin hits as hard or harder than Mastiff, so even though Mastiff could easily flatten him, Devlin was always able to knock him back with an elbow, but we never had to pretend this was 50-50. The suplex finisher off the top looked nasty, loved the visual of Devlin yanking Mastiff off the top by the arm into his Saito suplex, great finish to a smart match.  

Tyson T-Bone vs. Joe Coffey NXT UK 10/5 (Aired 11/7/19) (Ep. #67)

ER: I don't have a ton of NXT UK dream matches, but this was one of the matches I really wanted to see. Tyson T-Bone is the NXT UK undercarder who most deserves to be in the main event scene. He's the most underutilized guy on the brand, and this is his first 5 minute bombfest in a year. He had a great one in 2018 against Dave Mastiff, and this is our great 2019 T-Bone match. T-Bone is probably the best bomb thrower in NXT UK, but it's a style that is one they seem to actively avoid, at least to the point where a match like this stands out as incredibly unique. It's a 5 minute match comprised of mostly bombs, without one hint of stand and trade. Coffey and T-Bone both hauled off, with some shots whiffing and others hitting clean and others hitting dirty. T-Bone has more precise fists and that's the story of the match, as T-Bone has the ability to land cleaner strikes and can punch through Coffey's fists to repeatedly outlast him standing, so Coffey's only chance is to get in close for throws. T-Bone is really damaging up close, with great overhand rights and body shots, with headbutts, hard kneelifts, and quick movement. Coffey gets a belly to belly and a backbreaker, and smartly goes after T-Bone's arm. If you can't block the fists at least try to take away the fist delivery system. I mean, Tyson T-Bone is still going to punch you, but maybe they won't have as much mustard on them? Coffey hits his low pounce and a hard damn lariat to win, and there's really no reason this same match couldn't be happening on a TakeOver. 

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NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19

Noam Dar vs. Travis Banks

ER: Great stuff, an excellent start to a big TakeOver. Noam Dar may be the best on the roster at doing dance step wrestling, and he does it in a way that doesn't actually make that style a problem. His timing is strong, his placement is excellent, and the way he positions himself and occupies himself while waiting for offense is second to few. The main problem, for me, with dance sequence wrestling is that nothing feels organic, everything feels like a blank eyed run back of rehearsed spots, and Noam Dar manages to do very complicated sequences while adding personal touches that keep them feeling organic. I've never gotten the sense that he is locked into a pre-planned set of steps, as he seems to respond incredibly quick to a change in plans. If a kick doesn't land the way it's supposed to, the plan does not appear to continue as initially planned, and there are very few guys this good at thinking on their feet. Dar doesn't take any shortcuts in his transitions, chopping down with his elbow to lock an arm, snatching Banks out of the air by his leg and holding it tight the whole way through a sequence, and a cool way of attacking several parts of the body while appearing to be focused. 

Banks is good at selling Dar's inflicted damage while still getting his offense in, and he's good at taking Dar's most punishing stuff. I loved Dar's two vicious snapmares, one into the ring ropes and another into the barricade, really making it look like he's forcing Banks into a painful bump. There's also cool work around the ring steps and other ring rope tricks, but all the reversals were super crisp and fit nicely into the match. Dar comes off like a Jack Gallagher peer at this point, great at crafting strong story in a 6 minute match or an 18 minute match. He's good at pulling off smug but undeniably well executed heel offense that makes things feel more heated, and gives a good babyface something real to play off. This built to some really hot, fast stuff. Banks plasters Dar with a great tope, nails him with a couple double stomps, Dar leans into hard sliding dropkicks and hits his own brutal running knees, all building to some well orchestrated kickouts. This ramped up really well and was worked snugly enough to keep throwing off sparks. Great chemistry, great gauntlet to throw down at the start of a big show. 

Ilja Dragunov vs. Cesaro

ER: This is Cesaro's first appearance in NXT UK, and I love WWE treating their Network brands like territories to send main brand stars into. It's something they should do more, give some of the best guys the opportunity to work a Star Passing Through a Territory match. Cesaro brings great main brand presence, dwarfing Dragunov and acting like the guy deservedly crossed over to the main roster. Dragunov is bigger and more muscular than most of the guys in NXT UK, but Cesaro makes him look like a Little Buff Boys finalist. Cesaro beats Dragunov pillar to post, forcing Dragunov to make some pretty awful faces, faces I loved seeing take uppercuts. Dragunov may make dumb faces, but he endures some real punishment for the right to make those dumb faces, so more power to him. Cesaro is really dominating, building from hard chops and shoulderblocks into throwing his whole body into uppercuts and headlocks, dragging Dragunov arm under throat into sick crossfaces. Cesaro throws Dragunov over the top rope to the floor, into the barricade, drawing fair comparisons to The Berzerker. Cesaro delivers a Berzerker level beatdown. He gets a huge (fast counted) giant swing and a violent belly to back suplex. I thought Ilja's comebacks were fine, though I don't think I ever fully bought into him potentially beating Cesaro. Cesaro felt too much like a larger more perfect killing machine version of Dragunov, and Cesaro as a killing machine is a beautiful sight. He hits a press slam into a kneelift and then a torpedo uppercut for a big nearfall, and finishes things with a huge pop up uppercut, immediately yanking Ilja into the Gotch piledriver. This felt like a good version of Ric Flair vs. Terry Taylor, with Cesaro coming across as a far more punishing traveling-champ Flair. 

PAS: Dragunov is kind of a goof, but an endearing one. I mean Kikuchi made silly faces too, and Dragunov takes Kikuchi level beatings. That press slam into a knee strike by Cesaro really should be his finisher, what a brutal bit of business that was. I did think when Draganov had Cesaro reeling on the floor he had a chance, and I loved Cesaro decisively shutting the door on him with that pop up uppercut and Gotch combo finish. I would love to see Cesaro in this role more often. He had a great Regal match years ago when he did this same sort of drop down. He is dead in the water on the main roster anyway, he might as well as go after the NXT UK title again. A rematch with Dragunov as the champ would be great stuff.  

Mark Andrews/Flash Morgan Webster vs.  Mark Coffey/Wolfgang vs. Grizzled Young Veterans

ER: This tag bit off more than it could probably chew, but there is plenty of joyous wrestling action to exist in matches where guys bite off too much. It's a 20 minute tag that would have exploded at 15, but gave us a big babyface tag title win for hometown Cardiff boys Webster and Andrews. Everyone here had a lot (maybe too much sometimes) to contribute, with Wolfgang standing out as one of the best guys on the brand at taking complicated flier offense. Gibson did the same, and Webster got to shine with his fun combo of dives, ranas, and top rope flips. Wolfgang is the biggest guy in the match, and he goes up for two different crazy bumps where he's on someone's shoulders. He takes a poison rana with a perfect vertical spike, and then takes a nutso Doomsday Device tope from James Drake late in the match, folding hard on the entrance floor. Gibson is good at getting into position for some big Andrews offense, both GYF taking his Stundog Millionaire as well as anyone. Fan reaction kept growing along with the match, even if I thought things could have been edited down (take out the long Gallus disappearance that only gets paid off with a Drake tope, trim the standoffs and bad showdown fighting) they clearly knew the audience and kept them hooked. Strong rudos make for strong babyfaces, and this was a fine team effort. Gibson and Drake started off hot 50 episodes ago, but they've been a stale act with the titles. Webster and Andrews will be a fun change of pace in title matches, champions that feel beatable but are capable of surprising. Gallus are the clear talent of any tag match, and the 3 way format made them too much of an afterthought. I don't think it harms them as an act, as they still remain the favorites to get the belts and have a long run. Wolfgang feels like someone who has over a year of different title defense ideas in him. 

Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey

ER: I thought this started incredibly, with the first 4 minutes stacking up well against all my favorite NXT UK stuff. I wish this was just a violent street fight instead of a last man standing as when they were fighting, rather that doing stunts, this was excellent. So we have those first 4 minutes, starting with a great fight in the entrance way with both going after the injuries suffered in their excellent match that set this match up. There's a sick early moment (very early) where Coffey gets whipped into the turnbuckles hard and the whole top rope snaps off. Coffey really flew into that buckle and the PONG sound when he hit was great, and I really don't think that rope was supposed to break. They kind of try to go on with the match in ring but once Coffey eats shit off the middle rope they go with a more weapons and plunder approach, which is fine. It lead to cool things like Mastiff jamming a turnbuckle support bar in Coffey's mouth and throwing him mouth first on the mat, and I wish they would have played more around with that instead of going to the floor so quickly. The under ring weapons portion was my least favorite of the match as it felt so much more manufactured than the body/injury targeting fight this started as. But Coffey still took some crazy bumps, like a sky high backdrop on the floor and a release German suplex, plus getting walloped a couple times by a cricket bat. 

They both take some gnarly spills, both get put through tables, but some of the stuff is so silly in its violence that it doesn't really vibe with their super serious attitudes. Take, for example, when they both get chairs and run headlong down a long aisle at each other, collide, and then both spill backward down the aisle. It was like Homer and Bart running at each other wearing pots on their heads. Coffey takes the Finlay roll on the announce table, both fall off the second landing through another set of tables, you know the drill with WWE brand Last Man Standing matches. The finish is clever, with both men getting to their feet after their tandem spill, leaning on those rolling load-in containers, and as Coffey is standing he kicks the rolling container out of Mastiff's hands and causes him to fall, or, not stand. There was a lot of great in this match, but while they did a ton of damage to each other, things felt much more mapped out once they went to the floor. Coffey for his part turned in a great overall performance, and the first 4 minutes play as a killer follow up to their excellent TV match. 

Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee Ray

ER: Disappointing. Not the kind of match you want to change a title on, and the title change came off completely flat. I loved how they started things, with Ray refusing to lock up and repeatedly hopping to the floor, until Storm hit a great tope suicida past the ringpost, Storm slams Ray into the barricade, throws forearms and kicks, and generally dominates most of this match from there. In fact, the whole thing felt so flat because it felt like Storm was either too dominant, OR too dominant so that she would save face with a title loss? I can't explain it, but whatever it was, it didn't work for me or the fans in attendance. This was the Toni show, with a couple of big German suplexes (one tossing Ray from the middle turnbuckle), Code Red, big headbutt, and a Storm Zero that only gets 2 (with a suitably doofy Toni face accompanying it). Storm even nails another tope suicida, but they get to the finish so quick that it almost felt like something was wrong. Ray hits a knee, big senton to the floor (Toni with a nice catch so Ray doesn't die), and then Ray hits a couple Gory bombs in the ring for the title win. Now, I loved the Gory bomb set up, with Ray dropping Toni over the top rope with the first and a traditional one for the pin, but I don't think anybody watching thought this was the finish. It wasn't a short match (10 minutes or so), but this didn't feel like a finish they had actually been building to (even with Ray hitting a Gory bomb earlier). This landed flat, and if they were going to put a belt on a heel then Jinny would have been a much more interesting choice. This match never felt like the match they were building it to be, never felt like any kind of unique history played into it. 

WALTER vs. Tyler Bate

ER: This was a 2019 match that even people who pretend online to not watch NXT UK went out of their way to watch. This was the first NXT UK match that Meltzer went real cuckoo about, choosing once again to break the rules of his own established star ratings, and being perfect-plus still means something to some people. But you know? I just did not need 42 minutes of perfect-plus. I don't think that length was necessary and I would've loved to have seen a 21 minute edit. But it's also an impressive physical feat to work over 40 minutes of hard striking and harder bumps, and this match somehow managed to get more physical the longer it went. I did not buy Bate standing up to all the damage and making all the comebacks he did, but I also must acknowledge that there was some absolutely brutal punishment he took that was not pulled, and I can't take that away from him. Tyler Bate took a genuine beating, and still kept the awareness to pull off some very complicated runs. 

I do think there was far too much down time, and that it's hard to sustain disbelief when WALTER is laying it on full strength. WALTER threw enough full arm chops to purple up Bate's chest 20 minutes in, and that chest was one thing Bate never forgot to sell. WALTER crashed hard on shoulderblocks and lariats and went to the chin with his elbows, and his rudest offense made it seem like he should have no problem disposing of Bate in under 20. Bate had a few impressive throws on WALTER, but I never once bought any of his strikes. When there's this much of a size difference you REALLY need to tighten things up to narrow that gap. Instead Bate had a lot of big blows that were supposed to be moment payoffs, and I think they all landed flat. I am just not going to buy into a single Bate short left hook putting WALTER down for longer than anything he did to Bate. And to buy into this match, you have to buy into several moments just like that. Implausible as I found the last 20 minutes of Tyler Bate comebacks, they did work a ton of very good nearfalls that really build nicely. Bate was at his best when he was using his body as a weapon, hit or miss. His tope suicidas were unhinged full body crashes into WALTER, his top rope corkscrew senton was great, he flew into a chop to the shoulder blades and got powerbombed horizontally into a ringpost. So while I hated a lot of Bate's payoff strikes, his peaks were majestic. The crowd was truly along for the ride and wanted to see Bate win the title, and that goes a long way towards the match's favor.  So while I wish I could have seen what their 20 minute main event looked like, they do manage to fill 42 minutes with some strong peaks. That's an overall success. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Coffey vs. Mastiff! Noam Dar vs. Ashton Smith!

Noam Dar vs. Ashton Smith NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 8/7/19) (Ep. #54)

ER: I had no clue how they were going to work this match, as Dar is the more pushed guy but Smith is much larger physically, and it turns out the best way to work something like that is to throw nothing but stiff strikes and not settle into any predictable movements and patterns. Every kick and elbow looked really great, and I kept expecting it to devolve into trading and it never once did. They found interesting ways to keep hitting each other, shift momentum, create openings, and swing things towards either guy. This felt like anybody's match, regardless of push. Dar was great at leaning into Smith's high dropkick and flying knees, and I loved how Dar would get back into the match by faking an eye injury or playing possum. Any time it felt like someone was taking too long to set up a running attack or flying move, it would always leave to the move missing or getting reversed, so the structure never felt like it was favoring either of them. 

The cut off spots all looked good, every time one of them ran into a kick it looked buckling. Dar is good at doing theatrical standing selling without looking like a dope, staggering into position for complicated sequences impressively. There are too many wrestlers who only know how to sell on their feet like they're waiting for a Mortal Kombat Fatality, just wobbling at the waist with feet planted, and here's Dar buckling his legs on his way to taking a knee to the face. Smith's superkick hit well enough that I thought it was leading directly to the finish, so I liked the extra wrinkle of Dar dropping out of the way for the leg lariat and then hitting a great looking Nova Roller to win. I've said this many times, but NXT UK is so good at delivering these tight 6 minute matches, really the biggest strength of the brand. 

Joe Coffey vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 8/7/19) (Ep. #54)

ER: This started out looking like it was going to be a big timing mess, and then it grew into this great EVENT match. I love matches that end up getting completely centered around an Event, and I think most wrestlers are much better when they have something prominent in a match to focus on. The event here happens early, as Mastiff hits a German suplex while Coffey is hanging onto the corner trying to prevent it, and winds up ripping off the middle turnbuckle pad when he gets thrown. Coffey spears Mastiff into the exposed buckle and Mastiff gets several minutes to sell his back and ribs in cool ways while Coffey throws body shots. Mastiff's selling was really great, and Joe kept going after the clearly injured areas with a backbreaker and elbowdrop, with Mastiff trying to ignore the pain and hurting too much. His only chance is with close range attacks, and he's able to get a headbutt and use his size to drop Coffey, making sure that every time Coffey went to the mat he'd be right there to fall on him with an elbow or senton. 

Coffey gets run into the post and gets his ear busted open, and Mastiff starts targeting the ear with strikes while Nigel starts pointing out that Coffey's equilibrium is thrown off. So we have Mastiff selling his body and Coffey selling his dizziness and in between we have both of them hitting each other. There's a great spot where Coffey climbs the ropes too quick and loses his balance, getting thrown off and flattened with another Mastiff senton. They end this by fighting to a double count out, but it totally worked for what they were doing. They had brawled to the edge of the ring and Coffey hit this great spear/running shove on Mastiff, running him down the apron and into the ringpost. Brutal. Nice pull apart to end it, with Mastiff sounding and looking threatening as hell as he's being held back. I really loved this and am excited to see where they take this next. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Wolfgang! Gallus! Wild Boar! WALTER! Primate!

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Wild Boar/Primate NXT UK 6/14 (Aired 6/19/19) (Ep. #47)

ER: Great hard hitting sprint, both teams have a strength at building quick in and out tags that are majority killer and not any longer than they need to be. This started with The Hunt running wild and hitting a pair of dives and Boar hits some sentons, and you can see a strength of Coffey and Wolfgang is getting into position for all of The Hunt's attacks, cutting off in nicely timed spots, but also setting up small comeback moments (like Mark taking a big bump off the apron after getting hit by Boar, only for Wolfgang to cut him off), and I like the simple ways Gallus grounds Boar, with stomps and a full nelson and quick tags. It was all building to a big Primate hot tag (which honestly should have been hotter, and gone on at least a couple beats longer), but Mark and Wolfgang are good at getting good height on things like backdrops, and I did love how quickly Mark turned to tables by just running Boar into the ring steps with a double leg. The assisted powerslam/kick finish felt like it came a bit too quick, but I liked the work in the match that got us to that point. It ended up being a nice Gallus showcase, and I was a bit surprised how "down the ladder" it made The Hunt come off, but could be easily explained by "good teams beat good teams" and that's fine. They were working at a pace that easily could have allowed for another 6 minutes of strong tag wrestling, and I hope they get the chance to have that match. 

WALTER vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 6/15 (Aired 6/26/19) (Ep. #48)

ER: WALTER is so good at being a territory Ric Flair, in his specific territory. He almost always towers over every one of his challengers, but that doesn't mean that he would have to actually be good at believably selling for his small opponents, doesn't mean that he would have to ever get good at integrating his small opponents' offense into a match. But he is really great at showing vulnerability, and it's matches like these that highlight how good he can be at showing just the right amount of it. Travis Banks doesn't necessarily have offense that looks like it would be too damaging to WALTER, but it's worked into the match at such a time, and sold so excellently by WALTER, that you get the sense the WALTER *could* be surprised with an upset. WALTER is of course savage here, throwing full weight behind everything he hits Banks with, and my favorite moment came early when WALTER just grabbed a kicking and resisting Banks and plopped him on the top rope, as if he were a Long Island security detail removing Low Ki from a venue. 

WALTER lays Banks across the turnbuckle and then just climbs up to stand on his neck, until Banks falls hard to the floor. Banks did not seem like someone who should even be challenging WALTER in that moment, so it was impressive when he starting landing leg kicks and WALTER started feeling them. WALTER's selling was really what put this onto the next level, as he was great at realistically occupying himself by lightly limping, showing his knee buckle, stopping briefly to make sure the injury wasn't worse, the tiniest little things to give Banks enough time to get to his next attack. There was a good nearfall when Banks hit a nasty double stomp off the top, felt like Toyota really driving her heels into Kong. And Banks' tope really sent his weight all the way into WALTER, and I love when an undersized man throws himself as hard as he can into a tope. Also, it felt like WALTER appropriately sold that tope, and it made sense that even with that nice dive WALTER was still able to finish things 30 seconds later. NXT UK is maybe the only brand under the WWE banner that seems to understand that nothing needs to be 50-50, and there are plenty of engaging ways to craft high quality and/or interesting matches at 75-25. 

Wolfgang/Joe Coffey/Mark Coffey vs. Wild Boar/Primate/Dave Mastiff NXT UK 6/16 (Aired 7/10/19) (Ep. #50)

ER: Trios continue to be an underutilized match style on NXT UK, and here's another one that shows what an asset they can be to the program. I also like that this is just six bruisers, just gathering them all in one place. NXT UK men's division is definitely divided up between fast guys who want to hit their spot sequences (and some very good at it) and guys that just want to crash into each other, and this match just throws six of the crashers in together. This was a real nice Gallus showcase, shows how well they work together and the slightly different things they all bring. I really like Wolfgang, a wrestler who does a ton of cool things but nothing overly flashy. He might be the only guy in wrestling to still fling themselves into the mat on an Irish whip, and I love it, it's like Mitch Williams falling off the mound to throw harder. Wolfgang has some cool tackles, a nice diving lariat, the perfect glue guy for Gallus. Wild Boar is a great hot tag, comes in with an awesome log roll trip, then a great senton and an awesome spear in the corner. Gallus separates him from his boys and I dug all of Gallus controlling Boar, all building to a big Mastiff hot tag. Gallus are good at control, and arguably better at feeding for comebacks, especially Mark Coffey. Coffey is intentionally in the ring when Mastiff runs wild, because nobody was going to take a higher backdrop than Mark. Mastiff hits an awesome Finlay roll into Wolfgang with Mark on his shoulders, hits a German on Mark, headbutt to Joe, cannonball to Mark, and then we get stereo dives from The Hunt. It was a great finishing stretch, and I had no clue who was going to take it, as all were very good at hitting something cool and then getting taken out. Joe wound up leveling Boar with a lariat after Wolfgang took out Mastiff, and yes I'm going to need more trios matches. We've seen some good trios with bruisers, let's see a flier trios!

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NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool 1/12/19

Tyler Bate/Trent Seven vs. James Drake/Zack Gibson

ER: Talk about underwhelming. I've actually seen this tag talked about as "the best WWE brand tag of the decade" and that is just madness. This was an overly long tag match that occasionally threatened to get good, but was always derailed. First things first, this did not need to be a 24 minute match. The work within in the match did not justify the length, as it basically broke down into a long heat segment on Seven, building to a Bate hot tag that required Drake and Gibson to either hold still or dump themselves on their heads (Drake especially leaned into and flew for every strike, lariat, and suplex Bate threw). Bate's offense was nothing but GYV repeatedly getting into position to take something ridiculous, from Gibson having to constantly be flustered by any strike Bate threw, on up to both Gibson and Drake having to hold perfectly still for several seconds just so Bate could do one of his Big Strong Boy spots and lift both in a short airplane spin. Gibson and Drake did excellent work finding plausible ways to fall for the same Bate tricks and make the offense look as good as it did. Seven turned in fine work as the FIP and I would have liked to see more of that, building to an actual comeback from him. Instead it felt like Bate kept hogging all the big babyface moments for himself. Seven did hit a nice low elbow suicida early, but much of this was built around Bate as the big star. Drake and Gibson had some great moments down the stretch. I thought both had real on point elbow strikes, and they hit a twisting suplex/Drake 450 that looked like something that should definitely finish a match. The wildest spot of the match was GYV hitting a Doomsday Device tope that Bate is pretty damn crazy to even consider taking. For a match that felt built around Bate in some selfish ways, I can't deny he took the silver bullet with that one. With some editing and a more of Bate's nonsense cutoff this could have been really good, as it was I will just remember it as a tag match that was too long. 

Jordan Devlin vs. Finn Balor

ER: This was going to be Devlin/Banks and then they changed it to a surprise Balor appearance. He got a great reaction from the loud crowd, but the match wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. They were bringing up the teacher/student aspect a lot throughout the match, but that aspect was kind of the monkey wrench of the match. Devlin has been dominant and mean during the entire run of NXY UK so far, and this match just made him look like a weaker version of Finn Balor. This should have been Devlin surprising the returning star, not the returning star showing that he's still on top even though he hasn't been there. I just don't see the point in running a "new guy dominating everyone here is always a step behind guy who has been up on the main brand". This was where Devlin needed a definitive win. Balor did look good, and that at least made him mauling Devlin make sense. I can get more behind a cocky heel student underestimating his teacher. Devlin is generous about running into Devlin's best stuff, but he throws harder. His kicks really land well here, the sliding apron dropkick looks decapitating and his shotgun dropkick makes Devlin's fast corner bump belieavable. Devlin's offense paled next to Balor's, and he had been looking like a real killer on the weekly shows, but he still made offense look great. He really got dumped with a great Balor brainbuster right after impaling himself into Balor's knees while attempting a moonsault. So it was not a match without great moments, and Balor looked like a star, but it all felt backwards. 

Eddie Dennis vs. Dave Mastiff

ER: This took a little bit to get going, but eventually came through on delivering what I wanted from it: The heaviest guy on the brand going at it with the tallest guy on the brand. The No DQ stip was the thing that slowed things down at first, as not far in we were taking long breaks to go grab chairs and ring steps and set up tables, and when you look at a 10 minute match and realize that 15% of it was plunder retrieval you gotta wonder about your resource allocation. But I appreciated Mastiff's dedication to John Cena's specific kayfabe ritual of preserving the sanctity of the ring steps' weight. Mastiff hoisted these steps into the ring like the weight 200 lb., a thing I always genuinely got excited to see Cena do. Cena would stumble around struggling to lift the ring steps in the way Marcel Marceau would struggle to keep his kite line straight, and while Mastiff doesn't have that same commitment I still always like wrestlers giving some integrity to their weapons. Mastiff ends up eating a nasty side slam on those ring steps, and the Singapore cane shots where metered out and delivered to strong effect, never devolving into exchanges and always given time to sink in. We got a couple cool visuals off of Dennis catching Mastiff up top and planting him with a Razor's Edge, didn't actually think Dennis would be able to pull off the lift and he did these great shaky legs as he was walking to the center of the ring to deliver it. Awesome spot. 

Things got really good when Dennis flipped out and tore back the ringside mats, knocked Mastiff off the apron with a hard back elbow after blocking Mastiff's suplex off the apron. But Mastiff winds up planting him on the ballroom floor with the Finlay roll and then squashes him with a senton. Dennis gets one last nice shot at a win after Mastiff misses a split legged moonsault, and even muscles Mastiff up for the neck stop driver. Mastiff handled the kickout so well that I actually thought Dennis was winning. But, Mastiff slips out of another Dennis Razor's Edge attempt, and bounces Dennis off his neck with a sick German suplex, then a cannonball through the table that Dennis had set up. I thought the violence worked well in this match, and they didn't shoot way past the time they needed to have a nice big man war. The big spots that got nearfalls were built to well, and the lack of overkill made the spots they did do mean a lot more. 

Toni Storm vs. Rhea Ripley

ER: I liked the first 2/3 of this a lot more than the final stretch, as the finishing stretch really felt like they threw out everything that was working for the match in favor of doing the same strike exchange/finisher trading that you see in a lot of modern title matches. The first parts of the match where filled with little things and attention to detail, stiff work over melodrama. Once the melodrama and ugly crying and Home Alone faces kick in you know what kind of match it turned into. The opening cat and mouse was fun, loved the timing the went into Ripley running out to the floor only to be nailed by a Storm tope, and I love how Ripley switched up her game to work this obnoxiously dominating style, always yanking Storm around the ring by her hair and mashing her face with palms and boots. Any time Ripley was in control it would be filled with these dirty exchanges, not just locking a move on but pulling hair before hitting a move. When Storm would kick out of something, Ripley wouldn't just lie there before picking her up for another move, she'd be instantly kicking at Storm, and not enough wrestlers fill those spaces with actual action. I thought Storm was great at fighting back, and I liked how the worked in the headbutt cut off spot as an almost equalizer, giving Storm recovery time while making Ripley vulnerable. Storm's Germans kept landing, and I liked where this was heading. Until I wasn't. I didn't love the hockey fighting (and the fact that it looked better than a lot of other hockey fighting spots just shows you how awful these spots almost always look), and the big melodramatic shocked face 30-45 second waiting period in between hitting finishers a few times just felt like a different match, or a big fat forward to the end of this match. 

Joe Coffey vs. Pete Dunne

ER: I correctly pointed out the needlessness of the tag title match going nearly 25 minutes, so obviously when you get a main event that goes 35, there will be complaints. This is one of those long matches where the longer it goes, the more flaws you notice from both wrestlers, things that could have easily been avoided if they just stuck to their strengths and didn't try to take such a big slice. If you turn this into a 17 minute title match - which is more than enough time to hit literally every single beat you would want to hit - then this could have been something worth talking about. It's biggest crime? It didn't feel like it built at all for 30 minutes. The opening mat work looked good, I was into Coffey trying to bend Dunne's wrist and Dunne making Coffey stop that by bending on his fingers, the kind of opening couple minutes that could lead to good things. But once they got that out of their systems this turned into a match where minute 5 looked eerily similar to minute 35, and that's almost always a problem with this overly long "wars". Guys are dead on their feet throwing...and they remain dead for a half hour. There was a spot where Coffey locked in a nice crab and started stomping on Dunne's head, and of course Dunne was then "knocked out", which lead to Dunne selling the crab the exact same way he sells any submission: lie there motionlessly until it's time for him to just get out of it. It also revealed how much Dunne requires his opponent (especially larger opponents) to do all of the lifting while he's planning his next move. Multiple times I saw Coffey have to roll himself into the ring, move his arm into a submission, place himself just right in the ring so Dunne could get to his next spot. The rolling into the ring annoyed me the most, as Dunne couldn't even go through the motions of attempting to lift Coffey, just put his hands on him and let Coffey roll himself back in. It's the equivalent of a wrestler who just puts his hand on his foe's shoulder and lets the guy stand back up on his own before getting hit with another move. It's lazy and unfocused.

And just as the opening tag felt like everyone in the match was working just to give Tyler Bate showcase spots, this whole match was selfishly and overbearingly the Pete Dunne Show. Every move that Coffey did, no matter how devastating, was used as a way to get Dunne back into the match. I'm not even certain Coffey was able to string two pieces of offense together, because there were so many times where he hit a powerslam, or a suplex, or a clothesline, and it would lead to Dunne getting to his feet first or Dunne kicking out and going right back on offense. When you factor in that Dunne was the one going for cheap shots by attacking Coffey's fingers, the whole match felt like Coffey was the underdog babyface who couldn't keep down a heel Terminator. The whole match was about Dunne's explosive offense, so everything Coffey did was just to set up Dunne being explosive again, and every big spot in the match was used as a match restart. That's the main thing that lead to this feeling like it had zero build, is every big spot for 30 minutes just lead to either both squaring off in bad looking exchanges as if there hadn't just been a big crash. I think Mastiff/Dennis earlier on this show was a good example of making the biggest stuff in a match mean something, give them consequences. This could have built into a match with consequences at any point, but they kept choosing to make their own offense mean little. 

These complaints would have been there without them doing other annoying fluff like "my elbow strike knocks you into the ropes which allows you to bounce back and lariat me which allows me to spin around with a punch!" Dunne has a few bad strike combos that make opponents look like total clowns when they fall for them, made me appreciate more of Tyler Bate's misdirection attempts before hitting his combos. Dunne's combos all require Coffey to duck stupidly just so Dunne could hit bad left/right combos. By the end we lose the thread so much that we get a couple of weird "both men fall off the top rope but we don't know what move they were supposed to be hitting so we'll just act like it didn't happen but also act like it was extremely damaging even though both wrestlers just went back to doing things." Through 20 minutes of this match I still thought there was a salvageable match. They clearly wanted to do something special in the first UK TakeOver main event, but their idea of "something special" was always "let's get to another run of big Pete Dunne offense!" This needed an editor, badly, but post HHH wrestlers have this weird aversion to hiding their weaknesses. 

ER: I was hoping for a better show considering it was the first TakeOver, and the people wrestling clearly wanted to put on a great show. Sadly, it appears that I dislike the instincts a lot of the guys when constructing a "big" match. It felt like the time could have been much better utilized on the show. They could have easily trimmed 12 minutes off the main event and had Jinny vs. Isla Dawn, showcasing two other women to set up a future title contender. Having only 5 matches, one of them FAR too long, just means less people showcased on the biggest show the brand ran so far, and one of those matches was used to show that the already established Finn Balor could still easily best someone who had been looking like a title threat. This show should have been used as a springboard and it came off like a muddled, confusing show when looking at what it actually accomplished.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Mastiff! Gallus! Dennis! Ligero!

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Ligero/Ashton Smith NXT UK 10/14 (Aired 12/12/18) (Ep. #16)

ER: I loved this tag sprint that worked a nice story just a little over 5 minutes, with Gallus dominating Ligero for most of the match, leading to a big Ashton Smith hot tag and a big redemption spot for Ligero. But this is the best Gallus has looked so far and the match structure needed a strong heel performance. They looked very in sync as a team, and believably worked over Ligero with bearhugs and bullying strikes, using their size to block moves (Wolfgang does a good tornado DDT momentum halt and I love momentum halts), and Wolfgang really shows off a good idea of ring positioning. Gallus not only come off as strong heels, but they are expert at getting into position for Smith's big hot tag. Smith is someone with good energy and some nice spots, but he needs someone feeding him and being in position for him. Wolfgang and Coffey were great at setting up his whole fun run, with Wolfgang especially standing out with big bumps and smart stooge bumps. Wolfgang was coming off more Memphis heel than World of Sport and that's going to be something that appeals to me. He bumps hard to his butt on the apron after Ligero fights back with a back elbow, then gets knocked to the floor in painful fashion. Wolfgang is so good at occupying time and going on a four move run where he is recovering just in time to get knocked down with a new move. He gets hit with a blind tope con hilo by Ligero (his big nice bit of offense after being the FIP the whole tag) and then gets superkicked from the apron by Smith just as he's getting up holding his chest and throat. Smith hits that kick nicely and his big in ring superkick on Coffey, but I liked Coffey's heavy double axe handle to the chest to cut off Smith much more. Gallus came off dominant but generous, and Ligero/Smith came off like guys who got beat, but would come at them with perhaps more successful tricks in a rematch. Strong storytelling and playing to people's strengths can go a long way in 6 minutes, and this was a great example of that. 

Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis NXT UK 10/14 (Aired 12/12/18) (Ep. #16)

ER: This was a pairing I was looking forward to, and it was enjoyable as I was hoping it would be. We've seen Eddie Dennis in shorter matches with a more wrecking ball energy, so I was excited to see him against his largest opponent. This was the heaviest guy on the roster vs. I believe the tallest guy, and I like those battles between opposing extremes. Dennis fires push kicks at the side of Mastiff's head, and Mastiff builds the match around coming back and flattening Dennis in entertaining ways. Mastiff hits his big dropkick early and works speed with Dennis, surprising him with momentum changes that lead to big splats, like Mastiff's nice crossbody. He misses a big senton and Dennis controls him with a really great cravat. Dennis is good at throwing occasional knees while twisting a cool cravat, and it was strong enough that it got the crowd loudly against him. Mastiff powers through and runs through a strong babyface home stretch with a couple exciting nearfalls. Mastiff's heavy Finlay roll immediately backed up with a senton (paying off a big missed senton early in the match) looked great, and Dennis gets cool revenge for getting flattened by Mastiff's crossbody earlier, as he catches a later attempt and turns it into a nice twisting sideslam, and after hits a great short arm lariat that hit Mastiff harder than I expected. Mastiff's match ending cannonball looks like the kind of Donkey Kong barrel that should get a pin. This match hit right in that TV main event sweet spot, and Mastiff has already shown his consistency delivering in that role. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Devlin! Mastiff! Dunne! Webster! Boar!

Jordan Devlin vs. Pete Dunne NXT UK 8/26 (Aired 11/28/18) (Ep. #11)

ER: A suitably big main event title match, albeit one that would have benefitted from having a few minutes trimmed. Now, the benefit wasn't because they went into overkill mode and had a too long finishing stretch, but moreso the extra minutes gave us too much facial acting from both. The match was much better when Devlin and Dunne weren't making ugly faces after a kickout or rope break, clawing at the mat, screaming out in anguish over a move not finishing things. All of that is terrible, but the match proper is really good! Both guys really laid it in, and I liked how Dunne would go after his overdone finger manipulation and Devlin would strike his way out of it. Devlin had all of Dunne's signature tricks scouted, so was able to dodge getting his arm stomped early, and ending absolutely leveling Dunne with a standing elbow. The shot looked great and Dunne went down like a stiff, body rigid and landing hard on his side. 

The nearfalls were all deserved and came after things that looked like they could end a match, like a big Dunne lariat, Devlin's uranage/moonsault combo, some big battled over suplexes (snap German from Dunne, Saito suplex from Devlin), and it never feels like these guys are just taking moves and hopping back to their feet. Devlin was acting like a real asshole the whole match, rubbing it in whenever he was on top, and I dug when Dunne got vicious back, stomping Devlin's hand a bunch and hitting a penalty kick to Devlin's arm/chest about as hard as someone possibly could. He holds onto subs tightly, and I especially loved his Koji clutch. When Devlin had to roll to the ropes to have any chance at breaking the clutch, it really looked like he was in the process of strangling himself while rolling over. As I said, I could have done with WAY less shocked faces down the home stretch, but they ramped up the big moves in smart ways. Devlin hit a Spanish Fly off the ring steps to the floor, and Dunne is really only able to hang in by continuing to stomp hands and even toss out a big headbutt. The finger break was used in a great spot - THE FINISH! - with Devlin moonsaulting into a triangle. Dunne rolled the triangle and that's when he really started bending at the fingers, then bent that wrist in such horrid fashion that it got the tap. You trim the bad acting and ham and you're left with the best match in NXT UK's infancy. With the acting, this was still great.

Jordan Devlin vs. Flash Morgan Webster NXT UK 10/13 (Aired 12/5/18) (Ep. #13)

ER: Webster is probably the guy I like the most who - up until now - hasn't made it into the list of recommended matches. He's a fun flyer with my favorite armdrags on the brand, and it's fun watching Devlin lace into him while Webster sneaks in comebacks when he can. Devlin really can be punishing, and you can see the frustration growing as Webster keeps outquicking him, snapping off quick armdrags, until Devlin stops short and lets Webster spin himself into the mat. From there it's Devlin mostly staying ahead while Webster fights back resiliently, as Devlin nails the uranage/moonsault, big lariat, and begins grinding his elbow into Webster's ribs while working an abdominal stretch. Devlin always has a trick or two that surprises me, even if it's a move I've seen him do before, he'll bring it into the match in a different spot, not just running through his list of moves. I loved his over the shoulder backbreaker here, and his arm hoist backdrop suplex (where he yanks a guy to his feet by the arm and tosses them with a suplex in one motion) looked especially nasty with a ragdolling Webster. 

Webster's surprise shotgun knee looked great, and he was good at throwing his dropkicks weaker, slowed down from the back work, and Devlin wasn't selling them as if they were being thrown at full strength. Webster would take big shots, big running boot, overhead suplex, and his comebacks were all handled uniquely. The best was when he tricked Devlin into taking the bait on a knucklelock and instead popped him with a thrust headbutt that sent Devlin spilling hard to the floor. Devlin ends up putting him away by baiting Webster into crash landing on knees (a go to that Devlin utilizes well) and while it never really felt like Webster was going to pull off an upset (it was probably 80/20 Devlin, if not more), it was worked compellingly.

Dave Mastiff vs. Wild Boar NXT UK 10/13 (Aired 12/5/18) (Ep. #14)

ER: This was awesome, because it was basically Dave Mastiff vs. a smaller Dave Mastiff, and they worked the match like Dave Mastiff vs. Dave Mastiffito. It is under 5 minutes, worked fast and stiff, and is nothing but both of them hitting elbows, headbutts, sentons, cannonballs, and this is exactly as it should be. They never make the mistake of working this equally, and modern wrestling is built around those stupid "equal" exchanges. They recognize the similarities of these two but clearly show that Mastiff is the bigger wrecking ball, so Boar does cool things to keep control like trip Mastiff so the big man goes sprawling into the buckles. Mastiff's fat guy senton looks good, but Boar's relentlessness in these matches really elevates these sprints, and I love this wasn't worked as a Mastiff extended squash. Boar even hits a great corner spear not long before losing, but gets nailed with a great John Wu dropkick that sends him believably flying, and the cannonball is big and worthy of a finish. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Jinny! Toni! T-Bone! Mastiff! Devlin! Ligero!

Jordan Devlin vs. Ligero NXT UK 8/25 (Aired 11/21/18) (Ep. #9)

ER: This was a good modern indy main event, that perhaps went a bit too long. It was well timed, well executed, and hammier than I wished it would be, but it built nicely, had a bunch of stiff strikes from Devlin, and a couple strong nearfalls. Ligero is someone with good comebacks who can take a beating, so a lot of this would be Devlin cutting him off with surprisingly hard strikes (I am not always into Devlin's offense, but the Devlin in this match was easily the most agreeable to my wrestling taste sensibilities). Ligero throws a really tight headscissors and always throws a nice honest Code Red, making it look like he's actually bumping his opponent rather than his opponent bumping for him. Devlin is great at taking these and then firing back with hard elbows and a great back elbow smash, or cutting Ligero off with a uranage, or a nice backdrop driver. Ligero would make inroads and then hit a brick wall, and it was always compelling. There's a great moment where Ligero gets ambitious and goes for a big splash off the top, only to land directly on Devlin's knees, with Devlin perfectly rolling him into a pin in one motion. I thought that was the finish. This managed to be practically 75/25 for Devlin (maybe more) but it never felt like it because Ligero was active, he was just cut off a lot. Going on a run and suddenly eating a quick Spanish Fly, fighting on the floor and suddenly finding himself eating ring steps. It always felt competitive even if one guy was always farther ahead on points, and they made it work very well. 

Tyson T-Bone vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 8/26 (Aired 11/21/18) (Ep. #10)

ER: These are the kind of hot short sprints that NXT UK has been better at than any other WWE weekly program. There's no reason the 4-7 minute matches on Main Event, NXT, or 205 Live can't be as good as this match. There are talented people used on all brands, but none of their short matches entertain me as much as the ones on NXT UK. This is a nearly 5 minute match that feels like it's 2 minutes, as T-Bone starts rocking Mastiff with punches to start and we don't let up until T-Bone is dumped with a German and squished by a cannonball. I like British boxer turned street fighter as a gimmick, and T-Bone pulls it off great, mixing up hard right hands to Mastiff's cheekbone with big thundering shots to the stomach. Mastiff would get backed into a corner and outclassed on strikes, then respond the only way he could, by just barreling into T-Bone. T-Bone worked a really awesome cravat, yanking on Mastiff's hair and beard while also forcing the chin, and I dug how Mastiff powered up and stayed in close, getting distance with a couple of different violent headbutts. The quick sequence where Mastiff hoisted T-Bone up in a fireman's carry, only to see T-Bone squirm out into a nice sunset flip attempt, ending with Mastiff slamming the garage door down with a butt splash, was really well done and the kind of thing I like to see in a big man battle. Guys are very good at filling time on this brand, which seems like such a far cry from the bloated epics of NXT US. Just give me something like this every week or two and I'll be a satisfied customer. 

Jinny vs. Toni Storm NXT UK 8/26 (Aired 11/21/18)

ER: UK wrestling fans are no stranger to this pairing, as this is a match that's been run several times over the past few years. This one came just a couple weeks after their Mae Young Classic match (though it aired a couple months later), and that match was one of my favorite first rounders of the 2nd MYC. This is very similar to that match, but I think it's the tighter version. They work a lot of nice tough grappling and collar elbows, both looking like they're actually struggling through lock-ups. The struggle peaks with Storm locking in a great Indian deathlock and choking Jinny after hooking her in a side headlock around the chin. Storm really looked like she was cranking it in and Jinny is great at selling while in holds. Jinny's fight to get her fingers on the bottom rope was a good one, and I love how Jinny punishes Storm for it with hard stomps. Jinny has great force on her stomps, and her stomps are just one of the parts of her game that benefit from her long limbs. She's 5'6" but has long legs and arms that make her look like she's 5'10, so when she's throwing stomps it really looks like she's rearing back with force. The limbs also really contribute to her bumping, as she really ragdolls on a pair of suplexes, limbs flying around and folding over her body in cool ways. 

There was an elbow exchange that started on the knees and built up to them standing, and it actually looked earned and not just something that has to be in every main event epic. Jinny especially looked like she was fighting off balance to her feet while throwing stiff elbows, and she was really great at selling her jaw to fill downtime after delivering offense. Jinny has a lot of offense I like that utilizes her limbs, like that nice Japanese uppercut to catch a charging Storm and sending Storm sprawling to the mat after tripping her on an Irish whip. Storm makes her big stuff look really good, like a hard contact running hip attack, or getting dumped on her head off an X-factor. These two know each other, and they only have one singles match after this one so it has that feel of something that's been getting better.  I do wish they had worked the match out to build off the MYC match - this felt like it was their touring match worked the next town over - but they have a strong formula and genuine chemistry, so it was still really good.

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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WWE 305 LIVE: WALTER! Mastiff! Bronson! Dain!

Killian Dain vs. Bronson Reed NXT 2/26/20 - SKIPPABLE

ER: This was some pretty dry big man wrestling. It had cool moves that might make for a decent highlight reel, but both of these guys were having a constant contest to see who could be worse at getting into position for moves, and I think Dain is somehow still the worst at it. Dain puts in no effort whatsoever to make it look like Reed is naturally stringing offense, he clearly looks like someone trying to make Reed look as bad as possible by getting to their marks way too early. Watch the sequence where Reed hits a back suplex, and Dain casually crawls into the corner and sets his head against the turnbuckle, eyes watching Reed the entire time to make it clear that he's waiting for Reed. And after Dain takes that hip attack, he just stands up and walks calmly to the position he needs to be in for the next piece of offense. My god Dain is trash. Earlier he hangs Reed out to dry, making Reed drape himself over the middle rope while he took an age to hit a legdrop. Reed wasn't tons better, making constant eye contact with Dain as he scooches into position to take Dain's Vader bomb, but Dain is arguably the worst on the entire roster at this kind of thing. So there may be a highlight video of this, where you can see Reed hitting a nice tope, Reed throwing a suplex, Dain landing a couple sentons and a suplex, and that will all look good. Once you see how every single one of those things was so lazily set up, none of it looks good.


WALTER vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 3/5/20 - VERY GOOD

ER: I keep waiting for these UK bog beasts to have an undeniable banger, but keep falling short. Still, I liked a lot of what they did here. The whole match was basically Mastiff throwing every piece of offense at WALTER, splatting him all around the ring. It's cool how little offense WALTER got, really beyond a few big chops, a running dropkick, and the big powerbomb finish, this was all about WALTER either gaining an advantage by dodging Mastiff or not dodging and getting squished. WALTER went for the powerbomb early and wound up with Mastiff plopped on his chest. WALTER got squished with a cannonball, a cool rolling senton, a regular ol' fat guy senton, and generously threw himself into a German suplex (the suplex really felt like it was 95% WALTER). But the match was also about Mastiff being able to survive as long as he did because of big WALTER misses, like a big missed splash and a sidestepped dropkick. Mastiff tired himself throwing out everything he had, misses and all, and by the time WALTER hit that powerbomb he was toast. The strength of the match was some of WALTER's selling, the way he would curl up or drag himself to the ropes after getting squished, and I love how he fell over after hitting the match ending powerbomb. I have no doubt that WALTER could easily powerbomb Mastiff, but it was one of several things he did that made Mastiff feel like a bigger deal than he looked.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWE 305 LIVE!

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WWF 305 Live: Sid! Bigelow! Ohno! Mastiff!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Sid WWF Raw 7/3/95 - VERY GOOD

ER: This is high profile enough that I'm surprised they didn't wait to do it on In Your House 2, and then have Sid vs. Diesel at In Your House 3. But I do like it for what it does, and sets up Bigelow vs. Henry Godwinn at IYH2. And this is a match that really benefits from the hot "smaller" crowd. WWF during this era had a lot of 2500 attendance shows in smaller towns that hadn't gotten WWF shows before. And they are dying for this action. And these two are great attractions in a smaller venue like this, two larger than life guys that can work a crowd well. Sid was constantly talking trash to an overly excited teens, and babyface Bigelow really had a huge working class relatable charisma. This is mostly kick punch, but their size reads tremendously in the smaller venue, so the kick punch comes off great. Bigelow's shots are short and quick, with Sid selling by whipping his head back hard; Sid has big boots that Bigelow takes whipping back bumps for. They work a nice spot where Bigelow catches Sid's boot after another big boot attempt, but Sid wisely ducks an enziguiri, and the visual of Bigelow whiffing the enziguiri was cool. There's a messy chokeslam spot where Bigelow gets zero feet of air, but it also comes off more violent, like Sid just grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the mat. Bam Bam had a run in with Henry Godwinn before the match, and Godwinn comes back out and shoves Bigelow off the top rope, causing him to get pinned and powerbombed by Sid. This was good for what we got, but if felt like they were building to a couple more cool moments before the premature finish, and it's a shame this is the only singles match we have of them.


Kassius Ohno vs. Dave Mastiff NXT UK 1/16/20

ER: I've wrestled with how many different ways I can start off this review, but they've all been some variation on "YES they are matching up the biggest tubby boys in the UK and I hope they sit on each other a ton". There's no eloquent way to put it, these might be the two heaviest guys on the NXT UK brand and that's something that will always excite me more than the armies of 160 lb. guys named Albie Hollist who have T-Rex arms and eyes on the sides of their head. No this is quick and to the point, both guys using their weight to win, and Ohno using his arsenal against a uniquely shaped opponent. It's a relatively short match, 7 minutes, but just watch Ohno's 2019 match against Jack Gallagher to see how special a match he can put together in 7 minutes. Ohno works his cravat in a few cool ways, and I loved how Mastiff wouldn't go over for a cravat snapmare so Ohno just dropped to his back with his knees up, dropping Mastiff chin first onto them. Ohno keeps going for the cravat, until Mastiff just throws him with a suplex that leaves Ohno sitting confused on his butt. We got both guys using several heavy sentons, and I liked how both would use them more like Finlay would stomp on someone's hands or rake his boot eyelets across someone's cheek if they weren't getting up quick enough. Mastiff was down on the mat, Ohno jumps on him; Ohno laid out, Mastiff plops on him. It's something every single fat guy should do. Ohno had a really cool counter, where he saw the cannonball coming and slouched further in the corner to deaden the impact and immediately shift into a pin on Mastiff. We get a lot of bad "missed" offense in wrestling that just looks like bad dance steps, but we don't get nearly enough of guys just trying to minimize damage they know is coming, and that is one of many things that sets Ohno apart from most wrestlers. The match was quick and heavy, and I liked how definitively it ended, a big German suplex, a fight on the buckles, and a brutal fireman's carry roll from Mastiff. Might have to run this one back a couple times to fairly gauge who is better.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

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Tetsujin Shoot Style 11/20/15

Really cool oddity of a show. A British wrestling radio show promotes a shootstyle tourney made up of mostly under the radar British guys (no Sabre, Scurll, Ospreay, etc.) and it comes off way better than it should have. You can order it here.

1. Jack Gallagher v. Zack Gibson

PAS: Gallagher is in full gi here, he is guy I had seen before and enjoyed, he always seemed like one of the more natural guys doing new age WOS stuff. Here he was really cool as a Tamura-ish shootstyle grappler, he kept falling into guard and inviting Gibson to roll with him.  I though Gibson looked fine, but Gallagher was on another level. This built nicely to a pretty hot finish, with Gibson doing a deadlift powerbomb for a near KO, and Gallagher ripping off a nice flying choke and doing a cool arm shift to synch in the choke, almost looked like the way Cody McKenzie would sleep people during the Ultimate Fighter.

ER: I loved the way this was paced, loved the RINGS vibe. Trying to do a whole show featuring these kind of matches worked by guys who don't normally do these kind of matches seems like a Brawl for All type disaster waiting to happen. Just torn muscles and knocked loose teeth and ligament damage.  I know nothing about these two guys so if there were any pre-existing hierarchy I'm unaware, and it's probably best that way. Gallagher was loads of fun, like a little coiled rattlesnake. Gibson had some nice stuff as well, including an awesome abdominal stretch which he smoothly rolled into a rear naked, and later almost ripped Gallagher's shoulder out of the socket. My tricep ached just watching Gallagher's bend back to his shoulder blade. The powerbomb was a real holy shit spot (wish he had tidied up the follow up punt, however) and I just really liked the way all of this built.

2. Tyler Bate v. Chris Brookes

PAS: I enjoyed this a bunch too, Brookes is way taller then Bate and he really uses his length in the way tall shootfighters use their height, he has nasty upkicks, and uses a jab. Bate has kind of weird body, he sort of looks like a giant baby like Sekimoto. I really liked how Bate kept going for german suplexes, which Brookes would block, made it a big deal when he finally hit one. Finish was really awesome here too with Brookes fighting for an ankle lock from the ground, he blast Bate with an upkick and sinking in the pick.

ER: I really loved this one. I had seen Brookes before wrestling in a "normal" tag match, but here he's like a young Semmy Schilt which looks ludicrous when paired with Bate and his weird overly muscled smaller frame. Actually Bate has kind of eerily similar posture to Bob Backlund. But man do opposites attract as the tradeoffs ruled. The standing exchanges and grappling looked really great, especially at one point where they lock hands and have a kick exchange, like a bizarro MMA version of the knife fight from Beat It. The headlock takeovers looked like they would pop heads off shoulders, the struggle during suplex attempts was real, that upkick right across Bate's cheek was sick, and this was just awesome.

3. Dan Moloney v. Chris Ridgeway

PAS; This was too short to get much of a sense of either guy. They have a slap fest which mixed some good strikes with some iffier ones, and Maloney dumps Ridgeway on his head and lands elbows to the back of the head for the KO. Those forearms to the back of the head are hard to work well, and they didn't look particularly good here.

ER: Yeah those clubbing forearms didn't look good which is a shame as I really liked the lead up to it, with both guys tossing out off-time kicks and slaps really quick, until Moloney scouts a missed kick and uses Ridgeway's momentum against him to grab a go behind and quick German. Everything up to the stoppage was good, but the stoppage looked poor.

4. Trent Seven v. Dave Mastiff

PAS: Mastiff is a big fat dude and I like a big fat dude. This was the longest of the first round matches and was a little dull. Mastiff and Seven lied around a lot instead of doing cool holds. I did like Mastiff's cool back elbow and german suplex, but otherwise this wasn't anything special.

ER: Mastiff is another one of the guys I had seen before, because fat. He's like Jake the Milkman Milliman without the rattail. I kind of expected this to be slower paced as it would be odd to see Mastiff rolling around and doing quick go behinds, but I though the slow pace was rewarding as Mastiff brought a little fish out of water vibe to things, but showed he could still throw you right quick before you realize what's happening. At one point we get into a fun Frye/Shamrock ankle lock battle and I liked the handshake compromise to get out of it. I loved when Mastiff started bringing strikes, like his upkicks from his back, his elbows, and then that big German to end things, leading to him being the first guy to sort of show heel leanings as he pounces on Seven a couple times to get more shots in, long after the bell.

5. Dan Moloney v. Chris Brookes

PAS: This was another very short match (I hope they didn't pay Maloney by the hour). Thought Brookes looked good again, his slaps looked nasty in the slap exchange, and his jumping ankle pick was very cool. Really short match, so not a ton to say about it.

ER: Match goes over 4 minutes so it's not exactly that much shorter than the other matches so far, but it does kind of expose Moloney. He had some smart strategy at one point, feigning a KO during a slap exchange to get the ref to back Brookes off him, then springing up and surprising Brookes with a German. But earlier he had some goofy missed strikes where he was firing way over Brookes' head, which given the size difference couldn't have looked like anything other than one guy purposely trying to miss strikes. I did like Moloney realizing he was only going to win with slams, so I dug Brookes going for a rolling armbar only to find himself getting dropped with a front slam and scrambling for the ropes. This was fine but I'm glad Brookes advanced.

6. Jack Gallagher v. Dave Mastiff

PAS: This was great stuff. Gallagher is a little guy trying to fell the oak tree. Meanwhile Mastiff is just tossing him too and fro, with some very cool throws. Gallagher has very little success until the very end with Mastiff clubbing him with a big forearm and running headbutt, and when Mastiff leaps on him to finish it, Gallagher is able to grab a desperation triangle, which he is even able to sink in after getting powerbombed. Really cool flash finish which reminds me of the kind of thing Fujiwara would pull off.

ER: This fell a little more flat with me, as the slow pace Phil complained about that didn't bother me in the first Mastiff match, bothered me here. Funny, that. The bulk of the match didn't feel like taking down an oak tree, it felt like Mastiff being a fish out of water, not knowing how to deal with Judo Jack, floundering on his back like a turtle. His frustration eventually turns to him using strikes, when he just levels Jack with a mean forearm, then when Jack beats the count he runs straight into a Mastiff headbutt. The finish didn't feel genuine to me, felt much more planned out than all the other finishers we've seen so far. After the headbutt Jack barely beats the 10 count, and then Mastiff does an awesome STO and starts beating him in the face. And it goes on WAY longer than any of the other finishing match stretches, which have all seen sudden quick calls by the ref. So Jack barely beats the 10 count, and then is just taking several shots to the face, and once the ref didn't call the match it telegraphed the finish, as sure enough Jack grabs for a triangle. Mastiff hits a nice powerbomb to desperately try to get out of it but Jack holds on for the win. The finish may have looked better on a show that hadn't already set up its universe, but it came off too "fake MMA" to me on a show that had better looking and more surprisingly suddenness.

7. Tommy End v. Big Daddy Walter

PAS: This was a Superfight between two WXW guys. End has as a cool look and has gotten some US Indy love in PWG and Evolve, and Walter is a long term WXW mainstay who works an indy Vader gimmick. The early grappling part of this match was a little dull, but the end run was fun stuff. They really had a bomb throwing feel, much more BattlArts then RINGS, End really laid in his kicks and Walter landed some big suplexes. Sort of a poor mans Ikeda v. Fatter Otsuka, not at that level but pretty fun.

ER: This was fun. I got to see End live during WM weekend last year and came away impressed. If you shaved a little off the front you might have something here, as once they got to the strike portions this got really awesome. End especially is a really cool striker, mixing up heights and arm angles and tossing in kicks when you're not even expecting a foot to enter the fray. One of his flash kicks was a top 3 moment in this cool tourney. It's kinda neat the powerbomb is being treated like a sudden death move in a couple matches here, as it makes Judo Jack Gallagher look even tougher for surviving Mastiff's bomb to win with a triangle. That's a nice subtle way to build up the advantage of a main eventer.

8. Jack Gallagher v. Chris Brookes

PAS: This felt like the right final, these were the two best guys in the tourney and I was amped to see this matchup. It didn't disappoint. Gallagher was super fast and impressive in his grappling, he was always moving and squirming and looking for an advantage, while Brookes used his height to throw leg kicks and keep Gallagher off him. Gallagher took a suplex about as nastily as I have seen in years, and I loved his jumping arm bar for the tap. Really good finish to an impressive tourney.

ER: Fun final and a nice capper for the evening. Judo Jack even shows up in a new black gi, looking like the Final Boss. I knew these two would match up well as Gallagher showed off his quick reactions all night, and I wanted to see how they went up against the quick strikes of Brookes. And it all works. Their scrambles are good, their rolls are quick and always end interesting, Jack is good at getting to the ropes and some of the sub attempts looked like they would make him a goner. The flying armbar was a surprising fun finish, but this style lends itself to surprising finishes and the possibility of those finishes makes these matches more intense. Good final on a good, really fun show.

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