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: Devlin! Ripley! Williams! Niven!

Jordan Devlin vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 7/20 (Aired 8/28/19) (Ep. #57)

ER: Another of those great Devlin TV matches that work so excellently on NXT UK, but don't seem to translate to any other brand or setting. I don't think his NXT or 205 Live work has ever worked as well as his 10th best NXT UK match. It's the right setting for him to do interesting work, and well, there's a reason he keeps showing up within the top 2 spots of my NXT UK Wrestler Rankings. He's great at working as disrespectful heel who acts like too much of a dickhead and winds up firing up his opponent, then bumping big for them before shutting them down again with a kick to the forehead. Here he slaps Williams around a bit before slapping too much, and before long he's taking a high backdrop bump and scrambling to the floor. Things really pick up a notch when he violently shoves Williams into the apron then throwing him even more violently into the barricade. Devlin does cool things to work over Williams' back (in between kicking the hell out of him), dropping him with a backbreaker and bending him with a torture rack. 

Williams fights back with a big dive and some nice back elbow variations, throwing his full body cannonball style into the elbow. I loved Devlin cutting of the stupid rebound lariat with his Spanish Fly, and loved how the finishing stretch wasn't worked back and forth, and loved how well they integrated strong details like Williams missing out on a possible win because he leaned too far back in a pin. Williams got to a point and fought from there, but the final couple minutes were all Devlin. Williams had some success earlier in the match blocking Devlin offense by grabbing the ropes, and we get a cool callback to that for the finish. Devlin plants a great moonsault to the small of Williams' back for a big nearfall, then Devlin tries to drag him up into a his snap back suplex. Williams holds onto the ropes again, but this time it doesn't get him out of any kind of jam, as Devlin just Kawada kicks him in the head and face before getting that snap suplex for the win. Great little TV main, just the kind of thing Devlin does on NXT UK. 

Rhea Ripley vs. Piper Niven NXT UK 8/31 (Aired 9/4/19) (#58)

ER: This was Niven's best showing so far in NXT UK, and the kind of statement match that feels like it put Ripley back on the map. Women's division has been a disappointment for me in my UK watching, with one genuine standout in Jinny, and two strong seconds in Toni Storm and Ripley. But there hasn't been nearly enough for the women to do, there aren't enough match-ups, and the title matches have under delivered. But this match delivered. It had a cool simple story with Ripley working over Niven's back to slow her down, leaving her open to be hit with bigger offense. One of Niven's weaknesses is insisting on working a few go go go sequences, but being slow in those sequences, getting up slow off the mat, etc. Giving Niven an injured back plays into that weakness and gives better reason for it to be happening than "she is slow but insists on working a modern fast style". 

Neither back down on shoulderblocks and that is the kind of thing I love, and I'm a fan of Niven missing her senton to allow Ripley opening to attack with strikes. I dug her Steiner recliner and the violent way Niven back elbowed her way out. Niven threw four back elbows to break, and two of them missed. But as she was wildly throwing these back elbows blind, to get out of a hold, I love that fact that these weren't cleanly landed. Niven's Saito suplex -> cannonball -> Vader bomb is a great 1-2-3 to build to in her matches, similar to the way Dave Mastiff builds his matches (and Niven could do well by modeling her match structures after Mastiff's), and I love how she blocked a Riptide by nailing Ripley with a headbutt. I wasn't sure the Riptide was coming and thought it looked great when it landed, and capped off a great showing for both, at a time where more women on the roster need to stand out. Great timing. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Dar! Wolfgang! Mark Coffey! Kenny Williams! Howley!

Noam Dar vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 6/16 (Aired 7/24/19) (Ep. #52)

ER: I wasn't going in expecting this match to play like a great hybrid French Catch/early 2000s Jersey indy style, but I sure left happy that it did. Noam Dar is someone who has done the by far best of his WWE work on NXT UK, which has to be the least or second least watched wrestling program of the brand. Dar's style is quite different than when he was working early into his contract on Raw. It's incredibly weird just how much Noam Dar wrestled on Raw just a few years ago, but he was all over Raw and 205 Live for a good year after the CWC, and then worked constantly on 205 Live during all of the early NXT UK run. Dar has been here 5 years and featured on most of the shows, but his work in NXT UK is where all his gems are. He's this cocky little asshole who doesn't like being worked down to, will fight dirty to win, and always has a couple of surprises. Dar and Williams worked really fast around the ropes and had some really fast work, a different timeline Low Ki/Red. 

It got nice and chippy when, after a few neutralizing exchanges, Williams tousled Dar's hair, and Dar stood up and slapped him across the mouth. Williams uses his body as a weapon in a few cool ways, flying into Dar with a baseball slide to the floor or hitting a flying back elbow from the top. Dar mixes up strikes and lures Williams into a couple of traps, and I thought Dar grabbing Williams in a kneebar while Williams was skinning the cat looked incredibly cool. The finish could have come off too cute or clever but Dar can make these things look punishing. He winds up with Williams' shoe and goes to use it, but instead tosses it to the apron for the ref to deal with, all so he can punt Williams in the balls just because. Noam Dar might be the most under the radar guy on the WWE roster, and it's cool they have guys out there just producing in a weird vacuum. 

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Lewis Howley/Sam Stoker NXT UK 7/19 (Aired 7/31/19) (Ep. #53)

ER: I think this might be the best squash match so far on this brand, and that's because it was a fantastic Wolfgang showcase. I think Wolfgang is great, one of the few UK guys I get excited to see every time, arguably most underrated guy on a WWE contract right now. Pretty Deadly basically got run over, but there's an art to getting run over while still looking like a good tag team. Picture how nicely Well Dunn always used to get their asses kicked. They looked like a team with great chemistry, they looked like a team who could win matches, but they mostly got their asses handed to them in entertaining ways. Wolfgang manhandles Howley and Lewis in those same kind of entertaining ways, but Pretty Deadly make this work because they aren't total pushovers. They fight back and Howley really stands up to Wolfgang, wrenches him around with a nice headlock, but it is always on their way to getting demolished by Gallus. Competitive squash is beginning to be a lost art so it looks good to my eyes when I see one done right. Gallus looked great, loved Wolfgang's big clotheslines and slams, and the finish looked great, with Wolfgang holding a powerslam so Coffey can kick in Stoker's head before taking that powerslam.

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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! 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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NXT UK Matches Worth Watching: Devlin! Gallus! Ripley! Isla Dawn! Mustache!

Rhea Ripley vs. Isla Dawn NXT UK 10/14 (Aired 12/19/18) (Ep. #17)

ER: Strongly worked women's title match with a nice build and no overkill, plus a ton of very engaging headlocks and collar elbows. Their lockups looked really good and both looked like they were putting full weight into them, and both leaned really heavily into every chinlock, headlock, and submission. Ripley was really pressing her weight on a grounded chinlock and Dawn's standing side headlock looked really wrenching. This was the toughest Ripley has looked so far and she looked really dominant stomping the hell out of a collapsed Dawn in the corner. Her kicks, clubbing strikes, and then cool low angle Saito suplex all send Dawn folding in believable ways, and they never lose that sense of actually working for a move. Dawn fights out of another suplex but gets locked in the standing cloverleaf. Ripley had fought to get the cloverleaf earlier and got kicked off, and I loved how that played out because it actually looked like Ripley stumbled getting it on which gave Dawn the opening to kick her off. This time there was no fumble and she was able to lock it in convincingly, leading to a nice rope break (with Ripley awesomely kicking Dawn's rope grab arm after she broke the hold). Dawn's comeback looks good, she brings sharp elbows with her full body being thrown into them, dodges Ripley's dropkick and gets to run hard into the ringpost. I really didn't love the standing exchange, thought the strikes were the weakest part of the match, and thought the exchange felt totally out of place within the match they had been working. But I liked Dawn returning the Saito suplex favor with a nice one of her own, and I liked how succinct the finish was. Oddly, the middling strike exchange did a nice job of setting up the sudden finish, with Dawn again going back to standing kicks and missing, leaving her wide open to getting her arm trapped and then getting planted with the Riptide. 

Jordan Devlin vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 11/24 (Aired 12/26/18) (Ep. #19)

ER: Devlin has been unexpectedly good at these 5 minute matches with interesting stories and satisfying internal builds. Devlin worked this like a squash and loudly kicked and elbowed Williams around the ring, and it made Williamses' big comeback come off huge. Devlin worked quick on the beating, with that same Dynamite Kid-style domestic bully speed, pursuant. If Williams would spill to the floor Devlin would just out immediately after him to beat on him some more. And when Williams started firing back Devlin put that same energy into bumping hard to the floor, and starting it all off by catching kneebone right to the balls as Williams counter the standing shooting star. Williams hit a great tope, running around the ring determined to do the dive no matter where Devlin was going. But Devlin was not down for long and always came back more vicious than before. He catches and throws Williams with a half nelson suplex that has a very non-WWE allowed arc to it, and yanks Williams by the arm into a sick Saito suplex. Williams has a lot of offense that requires his opponent to be in a specific place and that leads to hitches and phoniness in his matches, but Devlin is really great at anticipating his marks and because of that brought about the best Kenny Williams match so far. 

Wolfgang/Mark Coffey vs. Tyler Bate/Trent Seven NXT UK 11/24 (Aired 1/2/19) (Ep. #21)

ER: I always heard NXT UK crowds were quiet, but apparently nobody else is watching loud main event tag matches like this one. The crowd kept getting louder and louder for a Trent comeback as Gallus kept holding him down with awesome bearhugs and body vices. I thought this was a standout performance from Wolfgang and Coffey, both working convincing bearhugs without losing any of the drama. I'm someone who's already going to be interested in long grounded bearhug sequences, so getting two from Wolfgang and one from Coffey is going to make me happy. Coffey is really mean whenever he tags in to work over Seven, really laying in some forearms and even driving a fist into a kidney. The crowd gets rightly invested in Seven fighting closer and closer to making tags, Gallus great at cutting him off and laying in boots. Seven gets tossed rudely to the floor by Wolfgang, and when Coffey goes out to retrieve him he catches a hard surprise vertical suplex on the floor from Seven. Seven tags in and Bate runs through both with a nice hot tag, hitting a pair of topes, including one that would have sent him into the 2nd or 3rd row if Coffey hadn't slowed him down. I do think Bate's hot tag goes on a bit long and has a couple of his strongman spots that requires opponents to get into tough positions naturally. This one was wearing Coffey as a backpack and while also German suplexing Wolfgang. That's a tough spot to make Gallus get plausibly into position for that, but the crowd eats it up and it gets a genuine (loud) NXT chant. There's some ringside distraction from Joe Coffey and Pete Dunne and the vibe the match had been building to kind of went out the window, but overall this was a good tag. NXT UK has been kind of light on quality tag wrestling so far, their best matches clearly leaning towards main even singles and hot 5 minute singles. But Mark Coffey and Wolfgang seem to be the reason for the best stuff so far, the ones that have the best heel tag shtick for babyfaces to work off. 

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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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