2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams

Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 3/19/20)

ER: I wish we were still getting one match every couple weeks that is just Kassius Ohno working as territory champ Flair, making every local 160 pounder look like they have a shot at beating him. And sometimes they beat him! Not only does Ohno break out a new trick in every single one of his NXT UK matches, he does it  with such confidence and logic that it really makes for a perfect 7 minute match. Ohno has an honest approach to a match - very much like Finlay in WCW or WWE - where he sells and bumps appropriately for the offense actually being performed, and seems to have fun coming up with opponent-specific counters. If an opponent's move doesn't hit flush, he doesn't sell the move as if it landed the way it was supposed to land. It forces his opponent to work honest knowing that Ohno will be giving no quarter. It cannot be an accident that Ohno was the guy in the ring when several very different NXT UK wrestlers had their best match. 

Kenny Williams is a hit or miss NXT UK guy, who has been at his best when against NXT UK's best. He's had several really good matches, but all of them have come against Ohno, Noam Dar, and Jordan Devlin, the literal three best wrestlers in NXT UK. Still, there are plenty of guys on the roster who haven't had matches this good against those three, so some of the credit has to be given to Williams. This match has a lot of ideas that get taken interesting directions. I expected it to be Williams relying on quickness to stay a step ahead of Ohno, but instead it was Ohno pushing pace and Williams struggling to catch up. Williams would get away with a rolling prawn or a headscissors but Ohno was catching him easily. I think Williams did a good job of upping his strikes just to survive. He had a couple elbows that landed hard, and Ohno reacted appropriately.  

Ohno was smart about creating plausible openings, like when he catches a springboard crossbody, tosses Williams up into a fireman's carry, and then nearly loses the match when Williams rolls through into a tight crucifix pin. Ohno breaks out a neat trick to block a second Williams springboard, as instead of trying to knock Williams off the apron he just waits until Williams grabs the ropes to spring, and grinds his boot squarely into Williams' hand to hold him in place. I mentioned appropriate-to-the-offense selling, and I thought Ohno did a great job with that as Williams started hitting big flying offense. There's a tope that's enough to knock Ohno into the barricade, a tope that lands a bit more flush into the aisle, a great Coffin Drop off the middle buckle to the floor, and a missile dropkick back in the ring. Ohno goes down for the Coffin Drop, but doesn't go down for the missile dropkick because it doesn't hit as hard as a man's weight crashing into you from the buckles to the floor. I love that Finlay mindset of "If you knock me down with a dropkick, then I'll get knocked down by a dropkick", and it makes the shotgun dropkick that *does* knock Ohno down mean a lot more. Ohno, however, breaks out another trick, catching a headscissors before it starts and kicking out Williams' plant arm, then just levels him with a roaring elbow. Ohno clearly could have won after that elbow, but throws on a spiteful Kassius Clutch to presumably punish insolence. What a run. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching : Ohno vs. Starz!

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Starz NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/26/20) 

ER: I watched and wrote about this match a couple years ago without having seen much other NXT UK, I was just seeking out Ohno and Kendrick matches. I had never heard of Jack Starz when I first watched his Ohno match, but that was two years ago and before I had watched over 80 episodes of NXT UK. So now, I have...essentially still zero idea who Jack Starz is. Sometimes he's on NXT UK, most of the time he's not. He shows up, loses quickly, and then comes back 15 episodes later. So of course Kassius Ohno is going to come into town and give Starz his longest match (to this point) in NXT UK. This is only a 5 minute match but it's just about the most complete match you can get in 5 minutes. Ohno is so great at Ric Flairing himself through Yorkshire and making it seem like anyone can beat him, while also demolishing those same people. He is so good at finding plausible ways to be pinned by 170 lb. Brits, and then punishing those Brits for almost beating him. 

I liked the way Starz fought in close with Ohno, tripping Ohno up during his multiple kip ups, foiling him with a wristlock, getting a snug crucifix nearfall, and countering a rolling elbow with a tabletop trip to take Ohno out at the knees. He also wasn't afraid to sneak in uppercuts when he could. I couldn't really tell if Starz had nice uppercuts, but due to the height difference they looked nice as he had a perfect shot under Ohno's chin. But, as many of these NXT UK appearances have gone, you knew that eventually this was going to be about Ohno wrecking some guy. And I like how Ohno almost acted *offended* by getting occasionally outsmarted by Starz, so kept his punishment swift. Starz went for a handstand in the corner, Ohno considered the situation, then just kicks at Starz' hand, keeping his boot there to grind his fingers. Ohno rips at Starz' arm and bends him around by the wrist and fingers, still leaving some openings for Starz to come back, but working quick toward the finish. I loved how Ohno sank in the Kassius Clutch (a trapped arm cravat) and just basically won the match by sheer size. He doesn't make it pretty, he just taps Starz because he can.

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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: Dar! Ohno! Seven! A-Kid!

Noam Dar vs. Trent Seven NXT UK 10/4 (Aired 10/24/19) (Ep. #65)

ER: This was a great high concept TV main event worked much more like a TakeOver main event, with the bad and the genuinely good that can come with those. It's a great Noam Dar show and a game tagalong from Seven, working a serious match around a feud that started with a joke press conference. Dar takes everything just the right amount of not-serious to make Seven taking it very seriously work, and Dar's natural unlikable face only benefits us as we see him getting smug looks wiped away. My favorite part of Dar's smug routine is that he also beats the shit out of people, and is great at both getting his smug look wiped away and also kicking someone unexpectedly hard or grabbing their nose and twisting. Dar blindsides Seven to start, and I am a sucker for matches that begin with a guy getting knocked for a loop yet insisting on continuing. I loved how it immediately got turned around on Dar with him running hard into a Seven clothesline, and how a bunch of Dar's bullshit didn't work. Dar is capable of running circles around Seven, but Seven is able to beat him to the punch and trick the troll occasionally and it keeps giving satisfying momentum shifts. 

Dar makes offense look great, so when it's coming off a trick it's even more satisfying, like him ducking a punch right into getting DDT'd on the apron. Dar is really good at keeping logic to sequences, so even though I thought this carried on too long and built to TOO many big moments, I thought the kept the motivations and consequences logical. I wish they would have went somewhere more with Dar's work on Seven's leg, because everything around the leg was really cool but had no real satisfying payoff. Dar shows a lot of nasty steps through an STF, like stomping on Seven's hamstring and wrenching on his heel while twisting the leg into the hold. There are later crazy spots like a Dar top rope double stomp to that same leg, but it all kind of just builds to Seven doing his thing anyway. The big bumps looked big and painful, the nearfall strikes looked like nearfall strikes (Dar's kick to the back of Seven's head being the tops), the level of drama felt appropriate, and it was a very fun ride to watch the good guy win. 

Kassius Ohno vs. A-Kid NXT UK 10/5 (Aired 10/31/19) (Ep. #66)

ER: This was A-Kid's NXT UK "debut" (he wrestled in a tag against Gallus earlier in the year but they are obviously not going to mention that) and it's kind of surprising to see him debuting against a force like Ohno. You'd think they'd want to let him showcase some of his flying and other abilities against a more like-style opponent, but I love this choice. Ohno has been every NXT UK's wrestler's best NXT UK opponent because he always forces them to work more honestly. If your dropkick doesn't move him, Ohno is not going to move. The honesty only makes their sequences work better because it just forces dance sequences into looking legitimate. Ohno starts with wrist control and is able to muscle Kid around, drops into cool side headlocks, gets a nice headscissors, etc. A-Kid had a bunch of cool movement to break that headscissors, showing the trick to getting ahead of Ohno is to outpace him and not make a single mistake. He locks in a nice Indian deathlock out of the escape, hits a nice armdrag (I love how Ohno takes armdrags with strong attention paid to the physics of the armdrag) but shows he can stop this momentum at any time. 

My favorite part of the match was Ohno picking Kid up in a sort of bearhug and swaying him around before kind of swinging him to the mat while keeping ahold of the arm and then immediately flattening Kid with a senton. Their chemistry was real good and as A-Kid tightened up armdrags and a rana, Ohno would do cool things like his Gotch lift out of a Kid armbar attempt. I did not love the finish and thought the match needed a couple more minutes for it to really work and get to a next level. They go to the floor, Ohno is knocking Kid around with elbows, goes to throw him back in the ring and Kid gives him a 619 under the bottom rope, and Ohno gets counted out. The execution of the finish didn't look good, the 619 was sloppy and barely connected with Ohno, and again they needed a couple more minutes to make the count out finish effective. The match up to that point was going great and looked to be building to something cool, and it's always disappointing when the worst looking piece of offense in a match is the piece of offense that ends the match. 

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Matches from EVOLVE 127 5/10/19

Josh Briggs vs. Adrian Jaoude

ER: This was fun, as it felt like a modern version of a good Sunday Night Heat Test/Steve Blackman match. It's a brisk 5 minutes, and even 2 minutes in it felt like they had done a ton. Jaoude (later Arturo Ruas) is a guy I like who might not have been good at this point, plus I don't think capoeira ever works very well in a wrestling setting. The timing of the strikes almost always makes opponents look kind of silly while waiting to be hit. But I think this might have been the match where his strikes started looking good, and there was an awesome sequence where he blocked two big Briggs strikes and countered with two of the best strikes I've seen from him. What helped is that it all looked way less sequenced than normal - even though it was - with Briggs throwing to hit instead of throwing to be blocked. That's a super important difference between modern wrestling done effectively and modern wrestling looking terrible. Jaoude was fun going after Briggs' hip, arm, hand, grabbing a choke, and Briggs had some nice quick power stuff to counter. I'm not sure I remember the last time someone got a reaction from me just grabbing for a chokeslam, but Briggs violently reaching out for that choke ruled.

Babatunde vs. Adrian Alanis

ER: Babatunde is the current Commander Azeez in WWE, getting actual ring time in Evolve. I liked Babatunde as a green Evolve giant because it's cool seeing huge guys wrestle, no matter their development level. I don't need to see him as a fake underground fighter, don't need to see him as a non-wrestling military dictator, just let me see a wrestling giant. Here he is wearing preposterous checkered tights (one leg black, one leg checkered) and he looks like the world's largest tallest ska saxophonist. Throw him together with prime pork pie hat Mr. Hughes and call them Skankin Muscle. This is only about 3 minutes, a Babatunde showcase. Alanis hits three hard rolling lariats that barely budge Babatunde, then Babatunde gets to show off his big man speed. He doesn't have a lot of stuff that looks great at this point, but it's fine because he's near 7' tall so just making connection with a guy is going to have something behind it. But I like his sloppy standing splashes and the way he catches Alanis with a choke. On commentary we learn that apparently the WWE trainers think Babatunde is the most explosive and powerful guy in developmental, so that explains why we've gotten to see him wrestle on TV twice since this show 28 months ago. 

Anthony Henry vs. Juntai

ER: This was only a couple years ago and I gotta say, Juntai is pretty far under my radar. I did not remember a Juntai wrestling on three Evolve shows in 2019, and it feels like Evolve was one of the indies I watched most. This was his only Evolve singles match and I liked it quite a bit. It was a mostly vicious Henry match with Juntai able to show a lot of cool tricks. The match had probably a couple too many tricks, but much more good than bad. Part of the problem is the layout, as Henry knocks Juntai out of the match a couple minutes in, and it's always kind of annoying when a guy is nearly taken out of a match and commentary is yelling about how the match may not even continue, but Juntai still had to get all of his cool offense in. I think you can shift the events of the match around into a much more palatable order and get to a great match, but we're still left with a cool match as is. 

Henry was working really mean with Juntai, and the match almost needing to be stopped came when Henry double stomped Juntai in the chest while the latter was bent back over the apron. Henry followed it up with a double stomp to the chest off the apron, then hit a brutal running kick all the way from the entrance. It was a believable enough series of moves to take a guy out of a match. But I'm glad we got to see Juntai get some shine. We don't get a ton of martial arts monk gimmicks. Low Ki and Jinsei Shinzaki kind of bullseyed the vibe of that gimmick for the past 30 years ago and nobody else gave it a shot. But Juntai does it really well. He has a ton of super slick movement, hits a cool spinning heel kick with his hands clasped behind his back, pays Henry back with his own flying kick to the jaw, and finds a ton of cool ways to roll and flip into position, and has some real precise kicks. Henry dished out a stiff beating and Juntai leaned into all of it, and was a strong salesman. Things eventually veered into some trading that I didn't love, but this was a cool presentation. 

Kassius Ohno/Harlem Bravado vs. AR Fox/Leon Ruff 

ER: I'm going to watch any Ohno match I've never seen before, but this tag match was inexplicably 30 minutes long and I have absolutely zero idea why. Ohno teaming with Bravado is like that one show every All Japan tour where Stan Hansen would team with the weakest gaijin on that tour on a gymnasium show, a man who everyone in the building knows is getting pinned. And because this thing is a half hour long, we get far too much Harlem Bravado, a man with almost exclusively terrible strikes teaming with a man with among the best strikes in wrestling. I suppose that makes them complementary partners? AR Fox doesn't have good strikes either, and 30 minutes allows for a TON of time for Bravado and Fox to get several sections of terrible strikes. Ohno mocking Ruff and cutting him off any time the kid made headway was what kept this match bearable, and after seeing Bravado and Fox make timing mistakes for a half hour, seeing Ohno always exactly where the match needs him to be is a marvel. Ruff getting cut off from Fox was satisfying but Fox can't deliver the payoff the hot tag needs. There were great big moments, because any single Ohno/Hero match in existence is capable of having some great big moments. I loved him hitting a tope con giro onto AR Fox and the rest of the Skulk, Ruff hitting a rolling plancha off Bravado's shoulder and right into an Ohno crane kick, or just the sheer that comes with a series of fat Ohno sentons. This could have easily been a compelling 15 minute match with Ruff separated from Fox and showing on his own, but dragging this all the way out to 30 was completely unnecessary and did favors for nobody. Sometimes you accidentally watch a 30 minute Harlem Bravado match and at the end are left only with memories of the person you were before you knew such a thing existed. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Curt Stallion

ER: Stallion really didn't work for me in this match, and I hated his lack of transitions when going on offense. The match really felt like Kingston trying to gamely fill time (and occupying time with some cool stuff), Stallion nearly being put away several times, and then merely deciding to go back on offense when it suited him. Stallion's big plus in this match was having skin that gets nice shades of red and purple in response to Kingston chopping his chest, throwing palms at his back, or slapping Stallion in the stomach. Stallion jumped Kingston the second he got into the ring, and I like how Kingston kept rolling out to compose himself whenever he was disadvantaged, knowing Stallion would take the bait and roll out, giving Kingston the advantage. Kingston's brawling looked good, but it was like he kept trying to play off an energy that Stallion kept refusing to give. For a guy who came rushing into the match, Stallion gave this whole match a pretty sleepy vibe. He wasn't putting anything into kickouts and again, kept lazily going back to offense after close kickouts, and I don't buy a lot of his signature offense against Kingston. A good wrestler should be able to switch up his moveset depending on opponent, and the foot stomp/pull opponent into suplex doesn't work as well with a larger guy like King. I liked the way Kingston would annoyingly nudge Stallion into position with his knees, loved his heavy throws and big chops, but I could not get into Stallion's approach to this match. 

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ohno vs. Scala British Rounds!

25. Kassius Ohno vs. Sid Scala NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 9/18/19) 

ER: I loved this entire angle. It was a simple old school angle that nailed all the notes it should have and finished just as it should have. Ohno was supposed to face Jack Gallagher, Gallagher was pulled at the last minute, Ohno demands an opponent anyway. Sid Scala, who hadn't been an active wrestler in NXT UK for a year, filled in as the only option and got beaten handily while still wearing his dress clothes. It easily could have ended there and they could have had someone else step up and challenge Ohno in defense of Scala, but Scala himself stood up and demanded a British Rounds match against Ohno. Now, this was the 60th episode of NXT UK, and it's pretty amazing that the idea of a match under classic World of Sport rules hadn't even been mentioned until Ohno showed up calling himself the best British wrestler on the planet. It was only a two week build, and it didn't need to be more than that. They had Regal, Saint, and McGuiness do promos talking about the importance and difficulties in British Rounds rules, people tried to talk Scala out of taking the match, but Scala insisted. Simple build, simple payoff, excellent execution. 

Ohno really makes this match by coming in with the exact right attitude, but Scala deserves a lot of credit for wrestling the right match. This was an awesome Ohno show, but Scala did everything he needed to do to make this concept work. At no point was he ever treated like Ohno's equal, and at no point did Ohno ever sell a piece of offense inappropriately. They were great at creating nearfalls for Scala when he was able to leverage Ohno's size into a crucifix or backslide or flash pin, enough to get the crowd keen for some kind of upset, but Ohno was smart about not getting into a position where he had to sell anything silly. The size difference was extreme, more than against any other of Ohno's NXT UK opponents, and I love how Ohno kept leaning jaw first into everything Scala threw. Ohno had the right mix of cockiness and killer instinct, wanting Scala to know that his elbows weren't going to move him, that his dropkicks could be brushed off, and that Scala was always one moment away from getting wasted by a rolling elbow. 

We've seen a ton of guys try to appropriate Johnny Saint offense over the past 20 years, but Scala using Saint feints and submission escapes here makes much more sense than almost any other appropriation of Saint moves we've seen. Most of those instances felt like "I saw a Johnny Saint match for the first time and now I want to do those moves" and then we got a stupid lady in the lake spot on every indy show for a decade. Here the Saint aping made total sense and fit perfectly into the match, never used for the sole purpose of "I recognize that spot!" Scala used Saint's tactics as a strategy to beat Ohno, used Saint as his mentor, and it actively added to the match. Scala's gains were always temporary, as Ohno was quick to snap in a cravat or toss him with a few snapmares, dropping elbows and knees (that all paid off in a fun finishing stretch). I loved Ohno taking Scala dropkicks full to the face before getting the first fall with the elbow. 

But I love how the match never got stupid after that first fall. Ohno didn't change his strategy, knowing he didn't NEED to win another fall, could easily just play defense and win out. But Scala also didn't start doing stupid things, and they avoided the temptation to have Scala tie things up off something that never would have otherwise pinned Ohno. Scala gets a great run in the 6th and final round, rolling out of the way of elbows and kneedrops and getting his knees up on a senton (and again, Ohno sells ALL of this exactly the way it should be sold, no overdone dramatics, not acting like Scala's tiny knees would have done anything other than temporarily slow him), and Scala ends up getting what would have been a match tying backslide right as time expired. There was no realistic way to give Scala a win here, and luckily they recognized that him merely lasting 6 rounds was him winning his war. 

PAS: Ohno had to be thrilled to be able to run a "true heir to Johnny Saint" angle on something that was technically WWE TV. What a weird thing NXT UK was and I am assuming still is. I liked how Ohno got frustrated by getting outslicked by Scala in the early rounds and just went with violent hard shots to get an advantage. Ohno was brutal in this, twisting Scala's neck, headbutting him in the back of the neck, and just wasting him with huge single shots. Scala's moments of advantage worked really well, and Ohno gave him those moments without ever making Scala his equal. Working on top is a real skill and Ohno is great at it. I liked the tease at the end of the match, and this was a really satisfying time limit finish. Great match.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! Scala! Grizzled Young Vets!

Kassius Ohno vs. Sid Scala NXT UK 8/31 (Aired 9/4/19)

ER: This was part of a cool storyline, where Ohno was calling himself the greatest British style wrestler and was supposed to have a showdown with Jack Gallagher for that self-proclaimed title. Gallagher wasn't cleared to compete, Ohno demanded someone step up and take Gallagher's place, and out came Sid Scala in his dress clothes. Scala was on a handful of the very first NXT UK episodes and has been used exclusively as Johnny Saint's right hand man backstage ever since. This is his first NXT UK match in one year, and as Ohno is an excellent match for literally any wrestler, I like him going up against a "non-wrestler". Scala is perhaps the smallest male wrestler on the UK roster, and Ohno was amusing laughing off Scala's early attempts to get one over. Scala goes for a cravat and Ohno merely lifts him up and tosses him off. Uh oh. Scala has a bunch of great feints, a couple cool tricks around the ropes that keep Ohno off balance, and his ducking and dodging peaks with a really well done sunset flip nearfall. Ohno is really good at being a dickhead who will bail to the floor when things momentarily don't go his way, and then always knows how to make his way back into a match with something unprofessional. Here he hooked Scala's leg from the floor, hopped up to the apron, and stomped the ankle over the bottom rope. 

Scala did a great job of limping around on that ankle, throwing nice back elbows and appropriately sold shots to Ohno's jaw, while Ohno battered him with chops and strikes and stepped a few times on that ankle. Scala manages to tangle Ohno around the ringpost and ropes and then flings himself over the ringpost when a rad pescado, great body-as-weapon work. But Ohno finishes things quick back in the ring with one of my favorite reversals, using his size to block a Scala tornado DDT and crash him down with a wicked kneebreaker, then a hip dislocating outside dragon screw. The disgusting KO elbow to the back of the head is academic. Ohno is the master at working with any wrestler of any size and any ability, and here's another feather for him as "Sid Scala's best match". Scala more than held his own and knew exactly what role he was playing. Ohno matches just do not miss. 

James Drake/Zack Gibson vs. Mark Andrews/Flash Morgan Webster NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 9/11/19) (Ep. #59)

ER: This was a nice, quick paced tag, and I think the best actual Grizzled Young Vets performances AS A TEAM on NXT UK. For a pair of guys I like, who I think are a good team, I don't think they've really been a part of any truly memorable tag matches this entire NXT UK run. My favorite matches of theirs have all been singles matches (Gibson vs. Dar, Drake vs. Ligero, Drake vs. Bate) and while they've had many enjoyable tags on the brand, this was the one where they felt most like a killer team. The match is a little off the rails and they lose complete sight of who is the legal man and really abuse the blind tag, and it had a couple egregious kickout that would have worked better as a save, but I liked the chemistry a lot and that's what kept the floor high. Gibson and Drake are really good at basing for Webster and Andrews, good at setting up their double teams, and the babyface champs are good at taking punishment. GYV hit this nasty spike shoulderbreaker on Andrews that lead to a couple good moments of Gibson tearing at Andrews' arm until Webster came in with fun saves (like a great swanton while Gibson had his Shankly Gates arm submission locked in). 

Webster had a cool tope suicida and got nuked on a doomsday device, the whole match felt like we were constantly seeing new pairings. The timing on the finish was really strong too, with Drake accidentally hitting Gibson with a superkick under the chin (in a way that wasn't really telegraphed) and Andrews nailing the shooting star press. This was like an NXT UK grab bag of a match, giving you a condensed 12 minutes of some of the better things the promotion has to offer. It had some good flying, some stiff work from the heels, strong double teams, while also not being next level great. I'm still waiting for the absolute banger GYV match and assume it will come, but I will take tags like this all day. This all feels like a very boring, generic review of this match, and I think that's honestly because this is the good match I expected from these two teams. It didn't disappoint, and it also didn't exceed expectations. But it hit the mark in satisfying ways, while presumably honoring the WTC first responders. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! WALTER! Andrews! Seven!

Kassius Ohno vs. Mark Andrews NXT UK 6/16 (Aired 7/17/19) (Ep. #51)

ER: This was a different match than I was hoping for based on the build, but unsurprising that Ohno is going to craft another cool match around a different NXT UK opponent. I went in (perhaps unfairly) wanting a superkick battle, like the amazing Chris Adams/Great Kabuki match from Texas. Ohno took a great jab at Andrews on TV, saying Andrews is a guy who does a superkick because of his idol Shawn Michaels, instead of respecting his British wrestling heritage and using it because of Adams. Ohno has the true greatest British style wrestler is hands down the best gimmick going in NXT UK, and that's enough to make me not as grumpy about not getting Ohno working a superkick match. We get a cravat match and it's as cool as expected. Andrews occasionally finds an interesting way out of a cravat and gets an armdrag, slips around into his own headlock, but keeps winding up getting his neck twisted in different ways. 

It peaks with Ohno catching an Andrews pescado, walking him to the ringpost, unwrapping the turnbuckle pad from the hoist, and throwing Andrews throat first into it. But that's probably not even the meanest thing Ohno inflicts on Andrews, as his cross chops to the throat are maybe the most painful looking strike on WWE TV. Andrews gets his weakened neck worked over more while Ohno also finds ways to trap limbs, and Ohno is great at making openings for him, although in the end I think Andrews got far too many openings. Ohno usually has perfect instincts for how much to give an opponent, especially a smaller opponent, but I think Andrew's comeback was a bit beyond. Ohno is great at taking his offense, helping pull off a dragonrana to the floor, a nice in ring rana, and a poison rana that Ohno took convincingly as a heavier man. Ohno's reversals of flyer offense are always a highlight, and he splats Andrews with a tremendous pancake, really slapping Andrews into the mat. Ohno built to the finish as well as possible, and even though I didn't fully buy into Andrews getting the win, I don't think anyone else on the roster could have pulled off this match layout as effectively as Ohno did. 

WALTER vs. Trent Seven NXT 6/16 (Aired 7/24/19) (Ep. #52)

ER: This was a really really great 8 minute match that was 15 minutes long, but they were doing a thing and they did that thing well. This was a big Trent Seven dying on his sword match, so that was a lot of fighting back and WALTER refusing to finish and instead choosing punishment. I thought the first half was really great, and then we had more slowdown and more fighting back down the stretch, going a bit long but making its point. The steam was really good to start, with Seven hitting WALTER with a tope on his entrance, another dive after, then keeping on him, even when it became apparent that more defense would have helped him. He would fire at WALTER with chops and WALTER would endure them, then fire back with kicks to the face and chops of his own. WALTER locked in a mean half crab and snug STF, tying up his arms. This was a real good slugfest, neither man with anyone to hold them back, WALTER hitting big uppercuts and Seven firing back with a convincing lariat. I wasn't as convinced with all of Seven's comebacks, but thought WALTER sold strong for them and I liked WALTER punishing him for his insolence with powerbomb after powerbomb. I would have preferred them slugging it out until one of them fell on their face, but this worked well for the angle. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: OHNO! Imperium! Williams!

WALTER/Fabian Aichner/Marcel Barthel vs. Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate/Trent Seven NXT UK 4/20 (Aired 6/12/19) (Ep. #46)

ER: NXT UK really doesn't do many trios matches, and they have a roster that would really benefit from having some trios matches. I guess they really weren't part of traditional British wrestling (not sure I've ever seen a trios match from World of Sport, but there are a lot of things I've forgotten over the years so who knows), and there have only been a couple so far through 46 episodes of NXT UK. The highest floor NXT UK matches have strong pacing, and it's easier to pace out a trios. This was all really fun and the format made everyone's entrance into the match a little more exciting. A Pete Dunne hot tag is going to be better when he's able to tag in and hit a cool few things before being leveled by WALTER, and Bate is someone else who benefits from a tag that's not immediately stopped so he can get in all his moves. Imperium are good at controlling, sectioning off the ring, keeping things interesting by rotating guys through. WALTER felt like the real standout here, always there to cut someone off with a high kick, and his work with Dunne was especially noteworthy. WALTER is really good at setting up offense for people, and when Dunne tagged in - looking like he was just going to be getting his shit in - I loved how WALTER turned it into a much cooler segment by quickly sidestepping a moonsault and chopping Dunne in the back of his neck before locking in a rear naked. Aichner and Bartel threw themselves into their offense with gusto, like a nice Bartel kneedrop or a killer Aichner brainbuster. WALTER was really great at running things, all members of Mustache got to show off their strengths in quick bursts, with Seven chopping a great watercolor pattern on WALTER's chest, Bate getting a big double clothesline, nice dive from Seven, and then the debut of Alexander Wolfe finishes it. It's a played out way to debut someone, bring them in under a hood while announcers poorly feign confusion, but Wolfe sticks Bate with a nasty sitout powerbomb so I'm good. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 6/14 (Aired 6/19/19) (Ep. #47)

ER: Another great Ohno NXT UK performance, with him always finding ways to restrict himself during matches, always working a match specifically toward his opponent. His NXT UK run really feels like  the closest we can come to a genuine territory arrival. It has a real Finlay Return to the Indies feel to it, and that's a great feeling. Here he starts working over Williams' right arm, holding it clutched in his armpit while refusing to be shaken off. Williams tries to roll him off with an armdrag, Ohno rolls through with him and comes up trapping the same arm. Ohno put on a clinic of handless limb control, bending Williams' arm at the elbow just by moving his body. Just as I'm wondering how Kenny is going to get out of it he leaps up and grabs Ohno in a headscissors, forcing Ohno to rope break. I was wondering where Ohno was going to take the arm control, but instead Williams got cute with a sunset flip attempt and Ohno stomped him right on the underside of the jaw. 

And from then on Ohno does not give one good damn about Williams' arm, just wrecking Kenny with chops and strikes, hard boots, flattens him with a Finlay roll (there's that name again...), and comes up with several cool ways to shove Williams' throat into the ropes. I do think Williams took it down a bit with his comeback, breaking the nice rhythm they had going. There was just a bit too much hesitation with a few of his moves, and Ohno is someone with precise timing. Ohno's sequences are all tightly orchestrated, so it's obvious when Williams is making him wait too long on a mark. It's not super offensive, and he still manages a couple cool things like a multi step ankle pick, and it's mostly a strong pairing. Ohno hits knees on his senton after being too cocky, but I think Williams needed to work quicker than he did. It felt like Ohno had to sell too long for offense that looked like some of Williams' weakest. The worst offender was him doing a sloppy upside down rebound off the ropes (similar to a poor Jon Moxley night) and hitting a too pulled penalty kick after. I mean...he could have just kicked Ohno. He didn't need to navigate a ropes course before kicking him. 

Kenny hits a dive and waits a bit too long to hit a back elbow off the top into the ring, and things immediately get great again when Ohno cuts him off and aims to murder. Williams tries more silly flouncy rope tricks and Ohno rams him throat first into the ropes again, then doesn't waste time smashing him in the back of the head with a roaring elbow while Williams was still hung up in the ropes. These two match up again 9 months from now, in a match I saw before I saw this match. I think their second match is better, but they make a great set as both matches are very different. Ohno could have had unique matches with every member of the UK roster several times through. There's no reason this couldn't be the reality we are living right this moment. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: OHNO! Gallagher! Webster! Coffey!

Flash Morgan Webster vs. Joe Coffey NXT UK 4/19 (Aired 5/8/19) (Ep. #41)

ER: I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting these two to have great chemistry, because I loved how they worked this match. I think this is Webster's best performance in NXT UK so far, and it makes the case for him being a better singles worker than tag worker. He was such a good ragdoll for Coffey but had offense that stood on its own, he knew when to work in that offense, and it always looked like something that would actually damage the larger Coffey. Coffey is good at neutralizing Webster, working holds and knocking him down with a shoulderblock, and Webster does cool things like actually try to trip Coffey on dropdowns. If I haven't mentioned Webster's dropdowns before, I love them as he always looks like he is trying to take a guy out at the ankles, and a wrestler who works a nice dropdown is a wrestler I'm going to like. 

I like Webster's upside down armdrag, and his enziguiri, senton, and dropkicks are sold appropriately by Coffey, who lays in some heavy uppercuts and a cool swinging butterfly suplex. The pace of this was great, as Coffey kept speed with Webster but left nice openings, and the quick early pace made Coffey's long full nelson work make some sense. Webster gets this great unhinged crossbody while Coffey is in the ropes, tipping Coffey to the floor while Webster goes flying down, and I love how fast Webster is to get back in to hit a tope con giro. One of the best things about Webster is that he never seems to expect a move to be sold if it doesn't hit squarely. His tope con giro looks great but also sends him crashing past Coffey, and the big move is handled appropriately and nobody tries to pretend Webster didn't go crashing down the entranceway. And I love how tidily the match wraps up, with Webster outquicking and looking for an upset, getting a moonsault and nice high knee, but then hitting knees in a flat out disgusting way on a swanton. Coffey just stuck those knees up and Webster landed on them like he was landing on a fence. Coffey folds him with a spear and waylays Webster with a lariat, and the lariat sends Webster spinning like he was bounced off the Blob at summer camp. This was 6 minutes and kicked ass the entire time, great way to kick off the #1 contender qualifying series. Can't say enough nice things about this match. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Gallagher NXT UK 4/20 (Aired 5/29/19) (Ep. #44)

ER: This was actually the first NT UK match I ever watched, and it apparently took my favorite American wrestler fighting my favorite British wrestler to get me to finally check out the product 44 episodes in. Going back and watching it now that I have the context of the 43 NXT UK episodes that came before it, and I still think it's the best NXT UK match at this point in the series. In fact, I have Kassius Ohno being in the four best NXT UK matches through the first 44 episodes. I don't think that is an insult to NXT UK, that Ohno was able to come in and have matches better than anyone else on the roster. I think it's just something Ohno would be able to do on any roster in wrestling. I loved pretty much every single thing about this match. This felt like an homage to classic World of Sport, but at no point did any of this feel derivative. Lesser workers could have made this look like a minor league baseball stadium Al Snow match, all World of Sport equivalents to doing Stunners and People's Elbows. Instead, Ohno and Gallagher took classic World of Sport sequences and put their own twists on them. They played off familiar moments and gave them sudden right turns, successfully playing off our expectations and giving us something fresh out of something near and dear. 

I liked Gallagher going for Johnny Saint's old lady in the lake spot - a spot we started seeing a ton on the indies around 2003, when more indy workers had finally seen a Johnny Saint match - and Ohno just stomps Gallagher in the face instead of going through with the spot. Gallagher headstands in the corner like Nigel, Ohno takes the spot a direction I hadn't seen in other Gallagher matches. Ohno had this great attitude of being too smart to fall for Gallagher's tricks, and so Gallagher threw a couple of extra tricks at him.  The standing exchanges were as good as I was hoping they'd be, with my favorite being Gallagher trying to knee his way into Ohno's knee and elbow crooks to force leverage. Gallagher tying on a wristlock and then lifting his opposite grip side knee to force down Ohno by the elbow, or digging his knee into the back of Ohno's, that's the kind of thing I love to see. And when they broke out of the WoS homage it happened with an absolute bang, with Ohno bloodying up Gallagher's face with a "I'm done messing around" punch. 

Gallagher is smaller but can strike with the best of them, and once Ohno moves the match into punch territory, Gallagher is more than fine throwing hard elbows and a couple of his great headbutts. Ohno throws some of his greatest pump kicks in the biz, and I really only wish we had gotten the built up finish the boys had earned. Ohno hits a finisher worthy rolling elbow, landing Gallagher's leg well under the rope (and hanging off the apron), but the ref counts as normal (which is odd he wouldn't check the ropes as Gallagher was lying right next to them, feels a safe bet he would have had a limb breaking the plane) but Ohno amusingly swipes Gallagher's leg back into the ring. The look on Ohno's face as he swung Gallagher's leg back in without the ref seeing was enough to make me love that finish. Still, I really would have liked the ref to have noticed, and Gallagher to have slipped to the floor, continuing the match and giving Gallagher another break to come back. If we got a match restart and a small Gallagher comeback, there's a chance this reaches evergreen #1 NXT UK match. As is, it will just have to be "the best so far".

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! Jinny! Storm! Ligero!

Jinny vs. Toni Storm NXT UK 2/23 (Aired 4/10/19) (Ep. #37)

ER: These two have worked together a lot, and always manage to bring a couple unique things to each subsequent match. Some things won't always work, but there is enough creativity to overlook some lesser moments. I don't think this was as strong as their first NXT UK match (way back in episode 10), as this match had a couple of strike exchanges that I think were out of place and unnecessary, and that first match was a little tighter because of it. There was a strike exchange in their first bout, but it felt more in place within the match. This match started with a bad hockey fighting spot, but improved once they quickly moved past it. Jinny always does at least a couple little things in her matches that I love, and one that caught my eye here was how aggressively she tried to trip up Storm on a dropdown. So many wrestlers use dropdowns as part of an accepted wrestling sequence, without seemingly knowing what the purpose of a dropdown should be. Here Jinny slides into Storm, flinging her body towards her while dropping down, showing that she aims to take Storm out at the ankles.

I liked their mat struggles, think Storm's STF with her elbow crook hooked around Jinny's neck looked great, and I think that there aren't many - if any - better submission sellers in NXT UK than Jinny. There is a cool battle over a pendulum, and I love how Jinny incorporates possible mistakes, turning them into things that make a match better. Here she loses one of Toni's arms and instead of abandoning the submission, she just pulls on the arm she still does have with both of her arms. I thought their reversals were strong, and it's impressive that they'd worked together so often and can still do a lot of sequences that come off organic. I imagine the more familiar you are with a fellow worker, the easier it can be to dance through sequences. But their reversals felt surprising, and I liked when Storm turned the tables and got Jinny in a pendulum of her own. Jinny was great at selling her back (Storm didn't really sell any of the damage Jinny inflicted), paying attention, and I like how it played into her strikes and axe kicks and stomps. There were some hard suplexes down the stretch, with a cool sequence around Jinny fighting to prevent rolling Germans, before Storm is finally able to dump her. Jinny taking suplexes is one of my favorite things in wrestling, because her long limbs fly all around and really make it look like she got ragdolled. Alicia Fox used to have this same gift. There's a great nearfall coming off Jinny spiking Storm with a faceplant after catching her on the ropes, totally nasty looking spike made even better by Storm's foot almost naturally landing on the bottom rope, making it look like the match was Jinny's if not for bad luck. I really didn't like the end run strike exchange, thought it felt really shoehorned and it just feels like wrestlers now think every "big match" needs one to show people the war they are having. It's dumb, as they had already done a good job showing this. But the strengths of the match outweighed the few weaknesses, and I hope we get another singles between them some day. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Ligero NXT UK 4/6 (Aired 4/24/19) (Ep. #39)

ER: This started out like a mean Ohno squash and then built into something that felt like a big upset was imminent, with several neat twists. And honestly, had this been an Ohno squash, I would have loved it, because a big portion of this was Ohno trying to kick Ligero's horns right off his head. Ohno was really pasting Ligero with kicks, big running front kicks, and when Ligero was on the mat Ohno would run in and boot him again in the side of the head, for good measure. Ohno felt one step ahead for much of this, every duck and dodge pulled by Ligero, there was a boot waiting for him the second he turned around. My favorite was Ohno grabbing Ligero's right arm and bending it back, and as soon as it approached the breaking point Ohno rained down on him with a kick to the ear. Ohno drops knees on Ligero's jaw and then digs his forearm across the jaw during a pin right after. And we got this really great spot I don't think I've ever seen, where Ligero caught an Ohno boot, but Ohno kept his balance and pushed through, so we wound up with Ligero on his back still holding Ohno's boot, while Ohno is still trying to push and connect with chest. 

Ohno was great at getting the advantage back, taking sure advantages for Ligero and twisting them immediately to his advantage. Early on Ligero hits a cannonball off the apron, but Ohno uses his momentum to throw Ligero into the ring steps as he is falling from taking the cannonball! Later, Ligero actually got a boot up in time for a charging Ohno...who merely stopped in time to catch the boot and then violently twist his ankle. Things weren't looking great for Ligero. But he did finally catch a charging Ohno, and went on a little tear himself, including throwing some nice kick variations and now, finally, staying one step ahead of Ohno. There were some nice reversals, nice dodges (that cool sequence with Ohno refusing to give up a boot, then whiffing on a follow up senton), and I love seeing Ohno take code reds and big roll ups and make them look like close escapes. Ohno is so good at giving opponents convincing near wins, dominating a match while showing he is beatable. We got a cool reversal where Ohno caught Ligero and immediately turned into what I thought was going to be the sudden match finishing tombstone, but Ligero rolled through that as well. The finish was what really put this over the top for me, as Ligero springs off the bottom rope with a cutter, but Ohno catches him, traps him in a cravat, unties Ligero's mask a bit....and then turns it to the side!! Ligero is looking at the inside of his mask, and before he can hardly react he gets absolutely waylaid by an elbow to the back of the head. Awesome. 

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ohno vs. Banks

71. Kassius Ohno vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 2/23 (Aired 4/10/19)

ER: I love a good brick wall match, and Ohno is clearly going to be a good brick wall against some of these smaller NXT UK guys. Banks is a guy who is very good at taking on a limbless quest (every match I've seen of his has him gamely selling a limb), and it's fun seeing him successfully work within these odd Dogme 95 "only use one arm" rules. Ohno is a real condescending bully here, and condescending Ohno is so good because the cockiness leaves openings for Banks. Ohno was a real prick, rightly shrugging off shoulderblocks and then stomping Banks' feet after acting like it was his turn for shoulderblocks. Ohno makes an "I'm sorry I didn't see you there!" short joke, but follows it right up with a much better "Didn't feel you either. You'll have to hit harder than that." I thought Ohno was really smart about which Banks offense to shrug off and which to sell, and liked the way he blocked Banks with size. The blocked tope looked good, and that it lead directly to a penalty kick for the gloating Ohno was nice to see. Ohno as a bully is so good, as he's always doing things he doesn't necessarily need to be doing to win, things like shoving Banks hard into the ring steps or raking his eyes, but as he's rudely going after Banks' injured shoulder we all know that's clearly the rudeness we want to see. 

We had cool psychology moments like Ohno trying to simply Irish whip Banks by the bad arm, and Banks foolishly holding onto the ropes with his good arm, knowing he was stuck either getting nuked off the ropes by Ohno or further wrecking his shoulder. Banks' comebacks were good, with a dive that connected (thrown with his good arm in the lead, and I know that's not the side he typically throws it with), nice running knee, and a big double stomp to Ohno's chest. Ohno is so great in control, but I love seeing him sell for a smaller guy, as he's really good at it. The Kiwi Crusher is a move Banks can hit very quickly, which really adds to its match finishing potential. It looks like something that should get a 3, and it's such a quick flip and slam, slipped in while Ohno was being a little too nonchalant with his own suplex, that it's plausible to hit on someone of any size. Banks kicking out of the Rubik's cube was probably a bit much, as that move seems so vertebrae pulverizing that it really should be used sparingly. But Banks' commitment to selling his right shoulder was impressive, with his fun theatrical trap rubbing, then dully trying to jam it back into place. The cradle pinfall finish really worked for me, too, as Ohno was still manhandling him and it would have been silly strategy for Banks to try going for bigger and bigger moves, so why not use Ohno's own weight and leverage against him? His backslide was convincing as Ohno sold it like a turtle placed on his back, and the pin that beat Ohno looked absolutely impossible to kick out of in 3 beats. I love how Ohno set up that pinfall, trying for an ankle pick that Banks reversed credibly. Very cool match that could have drifted into overkill, but stuck within its story and succeeded.

PAS: I have forgotten how much I love to watch Chris Hero. I thought his condescension at the beginning of the match worked well, and all of the too short shtick, the fake running the ropes, finally leading to a kick to stomach felt like a Fuerza Guerrera bit. Banks seems a bit generic, but I did like his arm and shoulder selling. He really worked that shoulder like he slept weird on it, and while the popping it back into place spot felt a bit OTT, I kind of liked it. I almost think the violence of Ohno's stuff takes away a bit from this match. He is hitting this little guy with these huge concussive shots, and if his forearm strikes didn't look so good, I would buy the kickouts more. Match really should have ended with Hero cutting off the in-ring dive with that kick to the head, it looked like he shot Banks out of the sky. That getting kicked out of, and then the Rubik's cube getting kicked out of, that's too much for me. Everything else in this was great though, and Ohno's NXT UK run was a real treat.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Ohno! WALTER! Bartel! Aichner! Dennis! Williams!

Kassius Ohno vs. WALTER NXT UK 1/27 (Aired 2/27/19) (Ep. #31)

ER: Ohno is someone who can work tiny masterpieces in just 10 minutes, so of course these two get to the point quick and don't abuse nearfalls. No, instead they just hit each other, working in rhythm but doing things to break each other's rhythm. We got plenty of big chops, WALTER built to big kicks, Ohno tried to slow him down with a cravat, and occasionally he'd hit a nerve and WALTER would plow him over. Ohno took an almost Harley Race bump to the floor when WALTER kicked him in the ropes, and he kept trying to come back firing, with WALTER absorbing a bit while laying in wait. I loved Ohno hitting a senton on WALTER's arm when WALTER was rolling back in to the ring, and we get a fun sequence where WALTER grabs for a sleeper but Ohno blocks it by grabbing WALTER's arm and thumb. WALTER eventually gets that sleeper, Ohno grabs the ropes, but WALTER smacks his arms away and drops him with a German suplex. WALTER-as-weapon is always fun, and it was fortuitous that Nigel was comparing WALTER to young Andre, and not long afterward WALTER ran and flattened Ohno with a bombs away. Ohno's missed moonsault is an impressive spot, made more impressive when a WALTER dropkick sends him the rest of the way across the ring right after, and I am a huge fan of these under 10 minute Ohno matches that end with no overkill. They have a bigger war in them, but I was into these warning shots, and I think it's the best, most complete NXT UK match we've seen so far.

(This match landed on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List. My review here has some additions and changes from the original.)

Eddie Dennis vs. Ligero NXT UK 2/23 (Aired 3/20/19) (Ep. #34)

ER: We've had some fun short Eddie Dennis matches against smaller guys, but they've mostly been under 5 minutes. This was the first substantial one and it was good, nice chemistry between he and Ligero. Some of Ligero's offense doesn't quite work against the taller Dennis. The set up on the lower rope cutter could have been better, and I wish that move wasn't a thing he did every match, it can feel a little shoehorned in. But Dennis is good at missing offense to set up Ligero, and things got really good when Dennis caught a Ligero dive and splatted him on the apron. Ligero really throws himself into the turnbuckles on Irish whips, Dennis works a nice cravat, and I think it's great that Dennis throws his clotheslines that miss the same way as the clotheslines that hit, makes everything mean more. Ligero's comeback works, because Dennis is smart in the ways he bumps around for him, including a nice bump to the floor to set up and awesome Ligero slingshot rana. We get a nice springboard splash and Ligero's code red was pulled off really well, but Dennis catches Liger with a great superplex and ends things a short while after. This was filled with a ton of moves, but they all felt smartly placed throughout, never drifting into back and forth. It felt like Dennis sold it all appropriately, Ligero really got planted by all of Dennis's big offense, and it ended right when it should have. They knew exactly how much material they had and they didn't overstuff it. 

Marcel Barthel/Fabian Aichner vs. Kenny Williams/Amir Jordan NXT UK 2/23 (Aired 4/3/19) (Ep. #36)

ER: I've said this several times before, but NXT UK really excels at the kind of match where one side gobbles up 80% of a match while the other side hangs on, and they know how to make that imbalance action packed and always interesting, even when the winner isn't in doubt. And yet sometimes there are surprises, and while they've been giving the Williams/Jordan team some surprise wins lately (their first wins on the brand), I was still surprised by the match ending twist. The bulk of the match was Aichner and Barthel dishing out perhaps their most impressive beating yet, every single thing they did had extra mustard on it, and this felt like they were really making examples of Williams and Jordan. Barthel refused to play along with Jordan's silliness and instead cross chopped him in the throat. That was early in the match, but every single Aichner/Barthel cut off spot was just as sudden and violent. Aichner gave this really fun tiring performance, as he was constantly flipping back and forth between hitting a big power move and taking a huge bump to the floor. Aichner took no less than three bumps to the floor off Williams' offense, flipping through the ropes and splatting off a rana, getting kicked off the apron, eating a great Williams baseball slide dropkick as he was getting up to the apron, all this great aggressive bumping that was counterbalanced by aggressive sudden cutoffs. The double teams were fantastic, like Barthel distracting Williams and Jordan while Aichner ran in and hit both with lariats to the back of their heads, or Barthel hitting a brutal dropkick on Williams after Williams was hung up in the ropes after dispatching Aichner, or that big spinebuster slam into Barthel punt that I was certain was the easy finish. Williams kneeing Aichner in the head on a vertical suplex, then getting a narrow escape schoolboy for the photo finish sneak win, looked really good and the reversal felt honest. This was easily my favorite Williams/Jordan tag, holding up their end while Aichner and Barthel looked super threatening even with the loss. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: 2020 Kassius Ohno

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

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 that he's trying to wrestle, not fight. Ohno misses a flipping senton and gets trapped into a headscissors, powders to the floor, and catches Ligero with a chin breaker on the way back in. It's so great that Ohno must have thrown at least 12 kicks at Ligero's head in their April match, and he goes through this one without even lifting his leg up for a kick. There isn't even many callbacks to that earlier, far more violent match, until Ohno attempts to untie Ligero's mask. The last 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. Not quite the level of their prior match, felt a little more like a fun house show version. But hey, I love fun house show matches.

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Starz NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/27/20)

ER: Jack Starz? I'm confident that's not a name I've heard before. Ohno going into NXT UK and fighting literally any guy that might happen to be on the roster at the moment is probably my favorite thing in current WWE. This is only a 5 minute match but is just about the most complete match you can get in 5 minutes. Ohno is so great at Ric Flairing himself through Yorkshire and making it seem like anyone can beat him, while also demolishing those same people. He is so good at finding plausible ways to be pinned by 170 lb. Brits, and then punishing those Brits for almost beating him. I liked the way Starz fought in close with Ohno, tripping Ohno up during his multiple kip ups, foiling him with a wristlock, getting a snug crucifix nearfall, and countering a rolling elbow with a tabletop trip to take Ohno out at the knees. He also wasn't afraid to sneak in uppercuts when he could (I couldn't tell if Starz had nice uppercuts, but due to the height difference they looked nice as he had a perfect shot under Ohno's chin). But as many of these NXT UK appearances have gone, you knew this was going to be about Ohno wrecking some guy. And I like how Ohno almost acted offended by getting occasionally outsmarted by Starz, so kept his punishment swift. Starz goes for a handstand in the corner, Ohno considers the situation, then just kicks at Starz' hand, keeping his boot there to grind his fingers. Ohno rips at Starz' arm and bends him around by the wrist and fingers, still leaving some openings for Starz to come back, but working quick toward the finish. I loved how he sinks the Kassius Clutch and just bsically wins the match by sheer size. He doesn't make it pretty, he just taps Starz because he can.

Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 3/6 (Aired 3/19/20)

ER: I wish I had one match per week that is merely Kassius Ohno as territory champ Ric Flair making every local 160 pounder look like they have a shot at beating him. Not only does Ohno break out a new trick every single NXT UK match, but he brings such confidence and logic to these 7 minute matches. He has a real honest approach to a match - very much a Finlay in WCW - where he sells and bumps appropriately for the offense actually being performed. If a move doesn't hit flush, he doesn't sell the move as if it landed the way it was supposed to land. It forces his opponent to work honest knowing that Ohno will be giving no quarter, and it can't be an accident that Ohno was the guy in the ring when several NXT UK guys had their tightest match. Williams is a guy who doesn't land hard, so another Ohno opponent that has to rely on quickness and staying one step ahead. The early wrist control was fun, with Williams flipping and rolling any way he could to try and baffle Ohno, getting away with a nice rolling prawn and a headscissors. 

Ohno is so smart about giving plausible openings to his opponents, like when he catches a springboard crossbody, tosses Williams up into a fireman's carry, and then nearly loses the match when Williams rolls through a tight crucifix pin. Ohno breaks out a neat trick to block a second Williams springboard, as instead of trying to knock Williams off the apron he just waits until Williams grabs the ropes to spring, and places his boot squarely on Williams' hand, holding him in place. I mentioned appropriate-to-the-move-being-done selling, and that's on full display as Williams hits a dive, a nice tope en reversa from the middle buckle, and a missile dropkick back in the ring. Ohno goes down for the reverse tope as even a smaller guy crashing backwards into you from the middle buckle to the floor will knock you down, but doesn't go down for the missile dropkick. I love that Finlay mindset of "If you knock me down with a dropkick, then I'll get knocked down by a dropkick", and it makes the shotgun dropkick that *does* knock him down mean so much more. Ohno, however, breaks out another trick, catching a headscissors and kicking out Williams' plant arm, then just levels him with a roaring elbow. Ohno clearly could have won after that elbow, but opts to lock in the Kassius Clutch, probably to punish insolence.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: 2019 Kassius Ohno

Kassius Ohno vs. Ashton Smith NXT UK 2/22 (Aired 3/20/19)

ER: This was Ohno's NXT UK debut, so this will likely be the quickest of his UK matches. Watching every Ohno match in NXT UK will be a fun way for me to gauge whether or not there are other guys on this brand worth following. There are a couple I follow now, several that I am not interested in, and some people like Ashton Smith who I have never watched before. Smith had a couple off moments, timing spots that needed tighter timing, but had a couple kicks and elbows that played well and looked good enough to hang with Ohno. One of Smith's kicks lead to Ohno flying fast through the ropes to the floor and landing on his feet, a super impressive bump for a guy his size. And as always I love when Ohno uses his size, dug his almost running vertical suplex, and I hope in one of these matches he just wins by hitting eight or so straight sentons. He hit two nice ones here, and I always want more. Also liked his stunned frozen sell when Smith caught him with a fully extended kick to the face a couple times. Smith's Samoan drop looked impressive, but Ohno's brutal match finishing elbow to the back of Smith's head looked far better. That's a killshot finisher right there.


Kassius Ohno vs. KUSHIDA WWE NXT 4/10 (Aired 5/1/19)

ER: This didn't totally work for me, as I couldn't buy into most of Kushida's offense actually toppling Ohno. I've seen Ohno agaisnt plenty of small British guys, and they almost always step up their strikes and landings and Ohno is always able to make them look credible. And I don't think there was anything Kushida did here that looked like it would put away Kassius Ohno. Kushida went through the freaking dojo system, he should be absolutely able to slap the taste across Ohno's face. Ohno had plenty of killer moments, so things were still plenty watchable. Ohno broke out some tricks I haven't seen and it sucks that they kind of felt wasted on this match. He had a super cool headlock takeover, and he catches a cravat off a Kushida Asai moonsault, from his back. That's something I've not seen and it could have come off silly, instead came off like Ohno was a master of positioning. There's an amusing moment where Ohno does a long Hector Garza on his knees handshake request, everyone obviously knowing it's a trap, and Ohno pays it off by yanking Kushida's handshake right into a big ass boot. Kushida seems to exist solely to put in weak performances against my favorite guys.


20 Man Battle Royal feat. Kassius Ohno ROW 4/13/19

ER: This felt like some wrestling brand from another dimension. I have never watched any of Booker T's Texas-based Reality of Wrestling promotion, but I saw Ohno was in this battle royal so I figured that would be a good way of seeing if there are any guys in the fed worth seeking out. After a lengthy royal rumble style battle royal I'm not really sure that I've found any worth seeking, but I certainly got a sense of specific ways his students are trained. Outside of Jacob Fatu and Kassius Ohno, this match was filled with 18 other guys who all got reactions from the crowd and all inspired excited exclamations from the announce team, 18 guys with established reputations and championship reigns...and I've never heard anyone mention a single one of them. It felt like a private Texas City brand of excitement, 18 fully formed stars who are created exclusively for Texas City, and nobody outside of Texas City is allowed to mention them. The announcers called this rumble with a certain David McLane enthusiasm, where everyone was a star but it all had that feeling of none of them being a star and they were all just fake wrestlers created for a TV product that may not actually exist, announced to us like they were implanted memories of things that had never happened. "It's E. Snow! I can't believe we're seeing the return of the 3 time champion E. Snow!" "Erik Lockhart is back! The Lockhart cousins, Erik Lockhart and 'All Day' Will Lockhart, are running wild!" Everybody was a multi time former tag champ, TV champ, World champ, with an established nickname, and the crowd was actually responding to these guys as if they were indeed stars.

From this battle royal it felt like Booker's training room must be covered in posters that say ENERGY, because nearly every one of these guys all entered the ring with that same kind of hot tag energy. Heel, babyface, doesn't matter, because all of these guys had energy! They also all took good bumps while getting eliminated, so the pluses were: energy, and nice bumps to the floor. That's probably enough of a floor to turn someone into a pretty decent worker. A lot of these guys were real same-y so I couldn't get much of a feel for who was best. My favorite (non Ohno/Fatu division) was probably Brendan Steen? He was kind of like if Kidman had worked more like Danny Doring, except I mean that as a compliment? Gino was a guy with great swoopy dickhead hair who threw a lot of big hangtime spinkicks; Terrale Tempo had nice leapfrogs and I bet he'll have a good shoulderblock or right hand shortly; Ayden Cristiano had more polish than a lot of the guys and came off like Chavo Guerrero Jr. had he started his career as more of a heel. Kassius Ohno was the big name in the match and was treated as such, and in a match filled with guys trying to throw striking offense above their level (looking at you, "Axton Lowe") it was fun seeing Ohno get a ton of time to showcase his strike repertoire. They saved a lot of eliminations for him, and since all of the ROW are somehow very good at taking elimination bumps to the floor, we got all sorts of Ohno throwing big kicks or tornado elbows followed by guys flying 8 feet off the apron. You get at least 20 good minutes of Ohno in this, as he's one of the final 3 (along with Fatu and Ryan Davidson, a man who felt like Jack Swagger working more like low budget Rhino), and it was at minimum fun to watch him ping pong guys around the ring with strikes.

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Matches from WWE Worlds Collide 4/14/19 & 4/17/19

ER: I didn't even notice these shows when they happened. I was in NY for Mania weekend indy events, and didn't notice WWE was just running weird little shows around the city. This was out at the Brooklyn pier, and had several on paper matches that caught my eye. Now, zero things whatsoever caught my eye on the Worlds Collide event from a few weeks ago, so I'd much rather write about these matches from a year ago. Consider these much more palatable matches, and also consider how you can watch ALL of them in the time it would take you to watch the Gargano tag and the Adam Cole main event from the most recent Worlds Collide show. It's a no brainer decision.

4/14/19

Kassius Ohno vs. Aiden English

ER: It's a shame it came to this, but this was likely Aiden English's WWE in-ring career swansong. English was a favorite of mine in 2014 NXT and beyond, but pale skin and thinning hair likely wasn't going to play on the roster, although I would have been a big fan of them making him pull double duty as the nemesis of Sami Zayn and Cesaro. The ripped, bald, evil Sami Zayn! The pale Cesaro! Two built in feuds, gone. Before this match he hadn't wrestled on TV in almost 6 months, and hadn't worked a house in almost 3 (and I wouldn't hold my breath on ever getting to see one of his house show singles matches opposite Mysterio). If this match is English heading into retirement, so be it, and I'm glad we at least got to see him go up against Ohno. I would have liked something a little more substantial, something without such a go home finish, but I liked what we got. Ohno and English slug it out, and if you hadn't known English wasn't an active wrestler at this point, you wouldn't know it. He looks in incredible cosmetic shape, and as he was always a big bumper in NXT I was very happy when Ohno shoved him off the top and English crashed rough to the floor. English has a super lean, cut physique, and I think that made Ohno's submission work look even nastier. Ohno drove a knee into English's back and bent his arms behind, English's distended ribcage playing as a character in the match. As often happens, Ohno gets cocky and gets his leg caught, gets knocked to the floor, and laid out with a English tope con giro, then English nails a swanton back in the ring. This is where I wished the match had more to it, as a couple more twists, a couple more nearfalls, would have gone a long way towards landing this match on a list. But Ohno catches him napping with a (great) front kick, then unspools English into an elbow to the back of the head, banishing Aiden to 205 Live and PPV kickoff commentary.


Luke Harper vs. Dominik Dijakovic

ER: This wasn't far off from landing on the 2019 MOTY List, with really only several stupid as hell Dijakovic pinched faces and sneers keeping it away. I probably could have lobbied to have it on the list, but there's no way I could convince Phil that a Dijakovic match is worth watching, so it would have no chance making it out of Drafts. And how odd of WWE to bring Aiden English out of mothballs to work this show, and the very next match dust off Harper as well. Before this match he had been off TV for 8 months, came back and worked this singles and the pre-show WrestleMania battle royal, and then was off TV another 6 months. It's not too shocking he asked for his release a couple months back. But this was a pretty awesome big boy battle. It did veer too far into unnecessary cruiser action for my liking, but most of the big spots they integrated added to things. Yes, it is impressive when you guys move fast and fly, but all the parts before that when you were just hitting hard clubbing forearms shoulderblocks and big boots was already awesome. I usually think Dijakovic's strikes look lousy, but here he has no problem dropping the full weight of his arm across Harper's back, and dropping big elbows to the back of Harper's neck. Dijakovic throws a couple of really great suplexes, actually throwing Harper with vertical suplexes, literally throwing him instead of holding on. But Harper makes him pay dearly by spiking him with an awesome DDT, hits a big tope, hits some kind of powerslam/driver OFF the apron to the floor (really looked like he could have dumped Dijakovic on his head, camera didn't get all of it and that's probably best for the mystique), even dumps him with a half nelson suplex. By this point they'd already done more than enough for a full match, and I didn't love that Dijakovic's comeback came after some pretty gruesome offense. No doubt a space flying tiger drop is pretty grand for a guy his size, and his moonsault lands really well (considering wrestling is filled with actual juniors who can never land their moonsault well). Finish felt a little abrupt considering the crazy degrees we had ramped up to, but Harper finishing things with a huge discus lariat at least felt like a big man heavyweight way to end it. This felt like a big match, and I like the absurdity of guys killing themselves on a small show taped during Mania festivities. I could have done without a couple things here, but also got a ton of two big guys throwing boots at each other's faces, and that's plenty cool.


Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Breeze

ER: Cool match between two guys who are good 10 minute TV match workers. Tyler Breeze feels like he makes more sense in 1995 WWF. His gimmick, look, and wrestling style would all fit in there, and make him stand out more. But until time travel is both invented and made affordable to the masses, I will be fine with Breeze working fine modern TV matches. This was almost amusingly worked as young upstart Strong really dominating the "veteran" Breeze, obviously amusing because Strong is both several years older than Breeze AND I've been watching Strong for nearly 20 years. But Strong is a good guy to control a match, and I love the mix of over shoulder backbreakers and gourdbusters he used to slow Breeze, as well as his nice knees. Breeze works matches like these as a kind of Christian-cum-Waltman, getting most of his offense by using Strong's aggression against him: catching him under the chin with an upward angle dropkick off the ropes, hitting a slick armdrag off an Argentine stretch sub, or shifting momentum on a suplex to get a close nearfall small package. Breeze stands out with strong execution on small things, things that don't really get lauded and wouldn't have stood out on a go go go show like the new HBK NXT. But I appreciate someone who can actually mix up a stand and trade section by throwing in nice kicks to the stomach, someone with nice forearms, and a nice shoulder thrust to the stomach. Breeze is really good at fighting for nearfalls, not just making them seem like a small part of a larger/sillier reversal sequence. There was a really great crucifix pin that Strong fought against, and later a big suplex that Breeze reversed by kneeing Strong in the head, then got a schoolboy when Strong attempted it again. The finish was a little dry and felt like a "well it's over now, hit your finisher" kind of finish, and didn't really fit with the match they had crafted. But overall this was really good and a pairing I'm glad we got to see.


4/17/19

Brian Kendrick vs. Tyler Bate

ER: Kendrick worked less than 20 matches last year, and I believe this was the only one I hadn't seen. And I love these unsupervised Kendrick matches, where he works shtick and stalling and little moments that won't turn up on real WWE programming. Before the match they even showed a selfie Bate took with Kendrick 6 years prior while Kendrick was there on a European tour, and while I was hoping that would lead to Kendrick absolutely punishing him in a supreme show of "never meet your heroes", I very much liked what we got instead. Kendrick would stall on lock-ups, grab a headlock (one of the few guys on the roster who really knows how to work a headlock), roll to the floor to avoid contact, and then when finally caught and backed in a corner, he eyepoked his way right out of that jam. They do some cute bullshit around eyepokes, with Bate getting him back, Bate reversing one using Three Stooges tactics, etc. Goof around Kendrick is fun as he does that stuff with hints of violence, but I would have been a bigger fan of him continuing to utilize them without the comedy, leading to a bigger moment. But Kendrick works this like a small close indy show match, playing to kids in the crowd, and multiple times trying to get a USA chant to purposely muddy the waters and make people cheer his heeling. He was really great at getting up for all of Bate's offense, even when the "big strong boy" seemed light on the lift (the tiger driver finish looked entirely Kendrick). And damn if the Captains Hook isn't one of the sickest submissions in wrestling. I didn't love how Bate broke the hold just by being in the hold for awhile and then standing up out of it, but the application and the different ways Kendrick traps guys in it is always great, and here we got the added bonus of Kendrick calling him Boy (after the Big Strong Boy chanting).

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ohno vs. Ligero

63. Kassius Ohno vs. Ligero NXT UK 4/6 (Aired 4/24/19)

ER: This started out like a mean Ohno squash and then built into something that felt like a big upset was imminent, with several neat twists. And honestly, had this been an Ohno squash, I would have loved it. Because a big portion of this was Ohno trying to kick Ligero's horns right off his head. Ohno was really pasting Ligero with kicks, big running front kicks, and when Ligero was on the mat Ohno would run in and boot him again in the side of the head, for good measure. Ohno felt one step ahead for much of this, every duck and dodge pulled by Ligero, there was a boot waiting for him the second he turned around. My favorite was Ohno grabbing Ligero's right arm and bending it back, and as soon as it approached the breaking point Ohno rained down on him with a kick to the ear. At one point Ligero actually got a boot up in time for a charging Ohno...who merely stopped in time to catch the boot and then violently twist his ankle. Not looking great for Ligero. But he did finally catch a charging Ohno, and went on a little tear himself, including throwing some nice kick variations and now, finally, staying one step ahead of Ohno. There were some nice reversals, nice dodges (cool sequence where Ohno misses a kick and a follow up senton), and I love seeing Ohno take code reds and big roll ups and make them look like near escapes. We got a cool reversal where Ohno caught Ligero and immediately turned into what I thought was going to be the sudden match finishing tombstone, but Ligero rolled through that as well. The finish was what really put this over the top for me, as Ligero springs off the bottom rope with a cutter, but Ohno catches him, traps him in a cravat, unties Ligero's mask a bit....and then turns it to the side!! Ligero is looking at the inside of his mask, and before he can hardly react he gets absolutely waylaid by an elbow to the back of the head. Awesome.

PAS: Ligero is one of those semi-racist fake white guy luchadores who cropped up in the early 2000s. WWE decided that El Generico wasn't going to fly in the big leagues, but NXT UK is clearly so under the radar that Ligero gets to just skate in. He isn't much in this, breaking out his competently executed Sliced Breads and Code Reds and such, but Ohno is a fucking monster. There is a spot where he reverses a dive by Ligero and kind of shucks him head first into the stairs. For the rest of the match he is trying to send Ligero into a dark quiet room for half a week. Just super nasty knees to the side of Ligero's head and kicks to the temple and stomps to the back of his head. Man you can really get away with shocking violence on these C-Shows no one watches. Ohno did a great job selling all of Ligero's so-so comebacks, and the finish really felt like a Finlay, Regal or Eddie bit of trickery which is about the best compliment I can give a finish.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Kassius vs. Darby

36. Darby Allin vs. Kassius Ohno EVOLVE 117 12/15

PAS: The year of Darby Allin continues, as he has put forth one of the best singles match runs in US Indy history over the last year. This follows the classic Allin structure of taking a 1993 level Kikuchi beating while mixing in 1993 level Rey Mysterio Jr. lucha highflying. Hero is really great at basing for lucha moves, which is even more impressive as he approaches Kraneo level fatness. It is one thing to watch skinny fat Hero take Quackenbush ranas in 2002, quite another level of impressive to watch him eat Allin armdrags at Buddy Rose size in 2019. I really like how Hero used his girth in this match, he broke out a legdrop that looked like it flattened Allin's head and a senton on the apron which felt like it powdered his ribs. Allin had some fun comebacks, but the end of the match was Hero brutalizing Allin with elbows while Allin refused to lay down. Ohno is the Ricky Jay of the leg slap, one of the few guys to make that trick look great, and he really seems to be concussing Allin with every shot. Good use of the one count here, as Allin wasn't no selling, he was more like a gutter punk who wouldn't give up his lucky guitar pick no matter how many times you stabbed him.

ER: I've been on an Ohno kick lately (for the last 20 years or so), and scrolling through some recent matches I realized I had forgotten that he and Allin had crossed paths one time, about a year ago. Phil wrote this up around the time it happened and I forgot about it, but the two of them haven't matched up since so it still feels fresh to me! And while I do think we got a few too many kickouts down the stretch, this lived up to the on paper potential for me. It's hard to work a compelling 20 minute match where the offense is split 90/10, but most 90s aren't as great as Ohno, and most underdog 10s aren't as great as Allin. The first half of this felt like a Yokozuna/1-2-3 Kid match that might have popped up on Coliseum Video, Ohno just using his weight and size to brick wall Allin and then topple those bricks onto all parts of Allin's body. Ohno tossed out big sentons, a heavy legdrop, his flawless full extension kicks, elbows to the jaw, and far too many elbows to the back of the head. Ohno is super punishing and he only looks more punishing against wrestling's best ragdoll. Ohno boots Darby into the crowd, catches a dive and chucks him into the apron, yanks him around by the wrist, really lays down the kind of beating that Ohno and few others can lay down. Allin made the most of his comebacks: his early armdrags got breathtaking height on his early armdrags, makes the code red look credible with the size difference, and is always so quick to hit his low rope dive and springboard tornillo pin that it really does seem plausible that Ohno could get beaten by speed. I did think we went a couple kickouts too far, as there were a couple of shots that felt too big to kick out of, namely the elbow shot that saw Ohno King Kong Darby's airplane out of the sky. But I do like that the kickouts weren't actually leading to some big comeback, and that jumps out as a positive. Darby was only hurting himself by kicking out so much, as Ohno can be both incredulous at the kickouts and still have no problem throwing another elbow at Darby's cerebellum. And isn't elbows hitting cerebellums all we really wanted?


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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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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