2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Dar vs. Dragunov

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

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

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

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

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

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! Grizzled Young Vets! Josh Morrell! The Hunt!

Noam Dar vs. Josh Morrell NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/19/20) (Ep. #80)

ER: Noam Dar wrestles like a guy who's not actually signed by NXT UK, but shows up every couple of months just to show that he's better than every single regular in NXT UK. I'm 80 episodes into NXT UK, and the Noam Dar start-stop push through the entire thing has been one of the weirder and more entertaining things of my viewing. Dar shows up for an episode every 6 weeks or so, is always kept strong, always looks great, and then disappears for a couple months and never gets close to any title. My favorite part of the first 80 episodes of this show has been Kassius Ohno, which I don't think is a very contentious opinion. But at this point I think Dar is just as consistent a performer as Ohno. The problem is that for its entire duration, NXT UK has been the easiest place in the WWE brand to hide in plain sight. Noam Dar's last several years have been a tree falling in the woods, a different woods than the one with  Wolfgang's tree. 

This match is a Dar showcase against a very fun wrestler who has an even more ridiculously fragmented appearance rate than himself. Josh Morrell is this hyper athletic guy who shows up once or twice a year to get massacred, and always has new ways of falling on his face or backflipping his way into a bad situation.  He's great as a showcase opponent, and is good at getting himself some shine. I have no idea why he isn't an actual regular as he's always entertaining. Dar bullies Morrell around and Morrell hits back, literally. I loved Dar's slap after going for a knucklelock, and how Morrell went right at him and knew what kind of match it was going to be. Dar hit some of his most painful kicks, and Morrell is a guy who always leans into kicks while making them look painful. Dar had a couple of cool legsweeps too, kicking Morrell out at the shins, and Morrell is good at whipping his face into the mat and holding his loose feeling jaw after. Dar took out Morrell's legs as a way to get to his arm, an attack he kept up until finally getting the win. The balance felt really nice for an extended squash, another argument for Dar as the best Time Management guy on the brand. 

Grizzled Young Vets vs. The Hunt NXT UK 1/18 (Aired 2/27/20) (#81)

ER: A nice simple match to showcase the Vets, but that doesn't mean the Hunt doesn't get to shine as well. GYV get to work some nice double teams, strong cut offs, and both set up The Hunt's comebacks really nicely. GYV have nice complementary skillsets, and this match saw them both lean into their differences: Drake is the stronger seller, better at taking offense, quick, and tenacious; Gibson is vocal in a way many wrestlers aren't, good at stooging, and good at setting up and executing double teams. I liked the early moments of each Vet saving each other from the apron, leading to them cutting off Boar from Primate. Drake throws a real stiff back elbow, they work a cool tandem kneelift, great tandem backbreaker on the floor, and they just keep hammering down on Boar with splashes, clotheslines, and elbows, refusing to let him tag out. Primate's eventual hot tag is very fun, nails Gibson with a spear and tosses Drake with a backdrop, but it also leads to my least favorite kind of GYV double teams, the "Gibson holds a guy while Drake does a couple thigh slap kicks", but the ending stretch did have some surprises. Primate usually doesn't stand out more than Boar, but I loved him attempting to take out Gibson with a big axe handle off the top to the floor, and how he uses the same axe handle to Drake but does not see the blind tag. This all felt like a Grizzled Young Vets/The Hunt touring house show match, but on a brand that doesn't actually do house shows, these tags stand out. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate! An Actual Great 3-Way!

Ligero vs. Joseph Conners vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 12/5/19) (Ep. #71)

ER: Had you told me I was about to watch a match that was not only a triple threat match, but also nothing but 10 minutes of chained offense, I would have zoned out immediately. NXT UK isn't really a fed that does triple threat matches (one of their best features) and it's difficult to chain a lot of offense through a triple threat because you're dealing with that extra man. It started a little hinky and ironed out the quirks pretty quickly, settling into a fast paced match that felt much longer than it actually was, but not in a bad way! They squeezed so many ideas into a relatively short running time that it felt much more complete than most triple threat matches, while managing to avoid one guy constantly lying just out of frame waiting until it was his turn to step in. Describing the action feels almost pointless, as moves begat moves begat moves, but this was incredibly fun. Ligero really glued this together, not always having the most showcase worthy offense but clearly knowing how to get this match from A-E and not miss C. 

When I started the NXT UK project Ligero was an early standout for performances like this one, but tapered off hard in 2019 after his great Ohno match. Conners also felt like he really came together here, as his Brian Kendrick-lite act plays well in the middle of a chaotic three way. Chained offense usually comes off like two guys waiting around for one guy to get to a specific spot, and this rarely had that eye vacancy of remembering dance steps. Instead they upped the crazy as the match went on while not messing up the timing, so the match felt more like an exciting tightrope walk the longer it went. Banks hit a great early tope suicida on Conners, and later in the match when Conners goes to wipe out Banks with the same, Conners instead gets elbowed out of the air and topes to nothing. There was enough of that violence throughout that it never felt like three guys doing throwback ECW Nova offense, instead making a bunch of the highspots look opportunistically cool (Conners giving Ligero a DDT after a cradle attempt, big spills to the floor, a Conners double stomp on the ring steps). This felt like a real lightning in a bottle triple threat, like they hit a point where every complicated sequence was just working, and I don't think they could replicate it. I think it stands alone as a great match, using a bad match format, featuring majority problematic wrestlers, and that's a weird achievement.

Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate NXT UK 11/16 (Aired 12/19/19) (Ep. #73)

ER: Another great Noam Dar performance. Dar is really great at mocking an opponent while in control and then showing tons of ass the second the tide turns. He mocked Bate every chance he got while taking every cheapshot he could, then leaned right into everything that Bate threw at him. They started with some cool learned behavior stuff, which can come off really dance-y but mostly avoided it here. Too often when learned behavior comes into play, it turns into two guys with vacant stares trying to remember their next step, but a lot of their tricks felt really organic, like Dar shoving Bate into the ropes and dropping down for a Phillie Phanatic trip and Bate holds the ropes and pounces on Dar's back. Things hit that next level when Dar gets pissed and stomps down on the inside of Bate's knee, then does a cool Garvin stomp variation going around to each limb, lifting it, and stomping it to the mat. I loved Dar's use of the snapmare as active offense, snapmaring Bate into the turnbuckles and into the ring steps. The snapmare is slowly becoming a lost art, as most don't use it any longer and many that do don't know how to properly execute one. Dar not only executes a great snapmare, but uses his in ways that nobody else does, and that's the kind of thing that makes a wrestler stand out high above the rest. 

Dar almost wins by count out after the snapmare into the ring steps (Dar mocking Bate's big strong boy poses in the ring the entire time) and we move into a really good extended final stretch of nearfalls and reversals. Dar has some awesome reversals, and they're all used to interrupt Bate's trademark bullshit, which makes the reversals not only more satisfying, but adds to that high end level of "learned behavior" they played with to start the match. Dar cuts off Bate's bullshit with nasty reversals, dropping him with a quick Flatliner to cut off that spot where Bate makes people stop in their tracks for a right hand, and when Bate bounces shoulders first off the top rope (to hit his big lariat) Dar just grabs his legs and drops down into his heel hook. It feels weird to say that Noam Dar has the best heel hook/knee bar in wrestling, but it's pretty hard to dispute how grinding it looks here. Dar looks like he is shredding Bate's ligaments and I am here for all of it. Bate does some fun theatrical one leg hopping the rest of the match, and Dar seems like he has a well of ideas to pull off annoying shifts in momentum. He bails to the floor to break up a fast sequence (then gets taken out by a big no hands running plancha), but when Bate limps up to the top rope he catches knees on the way down. Dar is great at taking offense, and I love the way he sells and staggers for Bate's shots, not taking the same bump twice, and matching the level of bump to the impact of the move. Bate does nail that big right hand to set up the finish, and Dar buckles his knees and puts a hand down to stop himself from going down, perfectly setting up Bate's Tiger Driver win. Dar was so good here, that it really felt like the kind of thing Ohno brought to NXT UK, catering a cool match around a specific opponent and taking the match in directions that nobody else has. He must have sitting on some of these ideas and wanting to work them into a match with Bate for ages, yet at no point did this ever come off like a "getting all of my ideas in" match. Very impressive. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! Ashton Smith! The Outliers?

Noam Dar vs. Ashton Smith NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 11/28/19) (Ep. #70)

ER: I really liked this as a Dar showcase against a guy larger than him without being super heavy. NXT UK isn't really a superheavyweight roster, so Eddie Dennis is one of their biggest guys (and he would be maybe the 3rd highest member of the Spirit Squad). But it's cool seeing Dar adjust the slot he throws strikes from, kicking out the front of Smith's knee to throw downward elbows at his jaw. Dar is also really great at running headlong into Smith's big stuff, getting where he needs to be in skilled style. Smith hit a real sick Death Valley driver, powering to his feet and rolling through it like a Finlay roll. Later Dar runs in with the Nova Roller and gets swung up and planted with a great blue thunder bomb. So Smith's big stuff looked great, but I love how all of Dar's stuff looked. He cuts off Smith with a vicious elbow on the floor, knocks him believably around with hard dropkicks and whipping body kicks, and runs that foot right across the bridge of Smith's nose when he does hit that Nova Roller. I thought this was going to have a lot more matwork, with Dar working over Smith's knee to lock in his nice kneebar and cutting down Smith's tree, but I like that we got to see Dar in more of a slugfest with a larger guy but not putting him away easily. 

Dorian Mak/Riddick Moss vs. Wild Boar/Primate NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 12/5/19) (Ep. #71)

ER: This was an awesome debut for The Outliers, two guys from the northern United States who are larger than any other person in NXT UK who only made one more appearance in NXT UK. Mak and Moss were longtime NXT developmental guys at this point. Moss had a couple of small pushes derailed by injuries at this point and was constantly getting slightly repackaged (which has continued, only with promotions). Mak was a Nathan Jones motherfucker who was kept off TV for his entire 5 year WWE employment, except for his two NXT UK matches. The Hunt are one of my favorite NXT UK teams, but The Outliers were positioned as a team that was clearly going to be a force going into the new year. You watch this match, and you would have never guessed that they didn't even make it to that new year, less than one month away. Moss and Mak really ragdolled Wild Boar around the ring, and it was such a mauling that it made me excited to see more of The Outliers (welp). As I said, upon arrival they were instantly the biggest two guys in NXT UK, and The Hunt are like 5'6. Watching two huge muscle guys throw Boar around like a bag of laundry, and Wild Boar is one of the best underdog babyfaces under WWE contract. He has good offense that makes use of his density, but is good at making opponent offense look good. 

Moss and Mak pummel him with clotheslines and boots, Moss smashes his nose with a back elbow, and Boat gets lifted up to some great heights on slams. The Mak vs. Boar sections were nothing but hits, with great stuff like Mak bouncing Boar off his own knee with a chokeslam, and what I have to assume was the greatest bearhug in 2019 professional wrestling. I used the word "ragdolled" earlier and I defy you to find a better representation of that word than Mak exorcising Boar with this bearhug. Moss has a great habit of missing as hard as he hits, so you get to see him break ribs on corner shoulderblocks but then flies as hard or harder shoulder first into the turnbuckles (see: derailed pushes due to injury), and it sets up a big house cleaning from The Hunt. Primate's hot tag is the weakest portion of the match but they make up for some offense that doesn't really make up the size difference by tossing out a lot of it. Primate and Boar don't just run through their typical comeback, instead repeating some moves in triplicate before finishing with a fun string of top rope diving headbutts. This is one of those real hidden gems that showcase NXT's great use of the 8 minute match, while giving us a look at a seldom seen tag team that looked better than 80% of the current WWE tag team roster.  

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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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NXT UK Worth Watching: Dar! Dawn! Niven! Seven!

Noam Dar vs. Trent Seven NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 9/25/19) (Ep. #61)

ER: Dar is a really annoying guy, but he also works stiff, and a really annoying guy who kicks really hard while annoying you is a great heel character. Dar also never shies away from a beating, so we had this great situation where Seven was returning after a few months and Dar kept taunting him, so Seven just started hitting Dar harder and harder. That's a great way to work a match. Dar gets too cocky with his taunting and every single time it lead to him eating a harder lariat and it was great. Dar works quick around Seven, bites him, yanks at his beard, annoying shit. Seven lands with a thud on a nice crossbody and hits a nice senton, but Dar is always really slippery and great at twisting things back to his advantage, and before long he's throwing hard kicks and uppercuts, crotches Seven on the top rope and kicks him in the collarbones. Dar keeps not only mocking Seven, but Tyler Bate as well, and winds up eating a nasty DDT going for a Tyler driver. Seven hits a nice tope and I really enjoyed the work around Seven's lariats. Dar makes Seven's 7 Star lariat look better than ever, running into it like a garage door got slammed onto his head. Dar kicks Seven's arm on another attempt and hits a nice lariat of his own, then rubs Sevens towel on his balls before getting hit with an even harder lariat. Dar pisses off Seven so much that Seven pounds away on him after that second lariat and goes on long enough to get DQ'd. Nobody really loves count out or DQ finishes, but NXT UK has been good at working strong DQ finishes on TV matches. I really liked the Joe Coffey/Dave Mastiff fight that ended with both guys counted out, and this was a cool match long story of Dar being the expert troll and chipping away at Seven until Seven snapped. A DQ felt inevitable in some ways and this was a satisfying conclusion here. 

Isla Dawn vs. Piper Niven NXT UK 9/1 (Aired 10/3/19) (Ep. #62)

ER: This was really cool, a slower more deliberate match with gritty matwork that we haven't seen in NXT UK women's matches. Niven always wants to work these modern go go go matches where the sequences seem too rehearsed, and Niven can't actually get up off the mat in time to keep the timing right. This was different. The mat and limb work is slow but satisfying, Niven working over Niven's arm and little micro swings in control. None of it ever builds to a stupid forearm exchange or mapped out reversals wrestling, just some smothering matwork with a few bursts of offense in between. Niven's slams had more purpose because Dawn wasn't getting up and running into her own next move, they were just planting her into the mat. Simple bodyslams, and then hitting something signature like her low crossbody. I like how Niven sold all of Dawn's strikes, and Dawn threw some sharp elbows before Niven would try to smother her again. Niven worked a cool straitjacket choke, but it's always interesting because it's never just Dawn sitting in the move in agony. Dawn pulls limbs out, fights against it, and it always looks difficult for Niven to hold onto. Dawn comes back with an awesome Saito suplex that Niven sells by staggering to her feet, then getting put down with a running Dawn knee. Dawn's suplex looked awesome and the ways she came back against the larger Niven were strong and believable, but I loved how Niven decided to stop fucking around and just grabbed Dawn by the hair and headbutted her. This was a little gem that was not worked how I was expecting it to be.

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NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19

Noam Dar vs. Travis Banks

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

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

Ilja Dragunov vs. Cesaro

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

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

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

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

Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey

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

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

Toni Storm vs. Kay Lee Ray

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

WALTER vs. Tyler Bate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NXT UK Worth Watching: 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: Dar! Jinny! Devlin! Yim!

Noam Dar vs. Jordan Devlin NXT UK 1/25 (Aired 2/13/19) (Ep. #29)

ER: Dar turned in two great performances in the first three weeks of NXT UK, and then disappeared for nearly four months. This is his first match in 26 episodes, and he didn't miss a single beat. I had both Devlin and Dar in my Top 5 through my first ranking period (1st and 4th respectively) and it's always exciting when two of the very best match up. So I had high expectations, and they easily met them. This is one of the few hardest hitting matches we've seen on UK, and Dar put on this great Monty Python knight performance as Devlin kept working over different parts of Dar's body. Dar does World of Sport style trick spots better than anyone on the brand, and I really liked his Phillie Phanatic tabletop trip after elbowing Devlin into the ropes, and Devlin was great at playing into that and the spinning backslide. Once Devlin stops playing around, he unleashes some hellish kicks on Dar, going after his leg, working over his arm, and kicking him incredibly hard in the ribs while Dar was on all fours. I loved Dar limping around, holding his arm, holding his ribs, still bringing fight to Devlin while Devlin would strike him back down, harder. That would lead to nice moments like Dar taking two really nasty kicks to the chest and catching the third to turn it into an ankle lock. Devlin is great at not telegraphing spots, didn't throw that third kick any softer, just relied on Dar catching a really hard kick. The build was really good and it never felt like Dar bit off more body part selling than he could handle, and I thought Devlin was great at punishing him while Dar struggled to get to his feet. They worked in new injuries nicely, like Dar kicking the ring steps when Devlin moved, and the finishing inside cradle (after Devlin tried one and had his feet pushed off the ropes by Travis Banks) looked like a cradle that would finish a match. Come for the nasty kicks to the ribs and elbows to the jaw, and stay for the solid storytelling!

Jinny vs. Mia Yim NXT UK 1/25 (Aired 2/13/19) (Ep. #29)

ER: I thought this was an excellent Jinny performance, a real set of highlights that illustrates why I think she's not only easily the best women's wrestler in NXT UK, but one of the very best in WWE. Mia Yim is someone who I think is too focused on hitting her planned spots to ever really get fully into a match. And outside of some of her lousy ground and pound and a rana sequence where she stood waiting with her feet planted for the reversal before Jinny even ran out of the corner with a rana, I thought she went along for Jinny's ride really well. I liked the opening matwork, and always like the tightness Jinny brings to the mat, so things never seem perfunctory. She always seems like she knows exactly where she is in the ring, uses her long legs for leverage and rope breaks, and does cool things like rake the inside of Yim's arm with her nails while working her wrist. Jinny's form on her striking is really strong. She doesn't work stiff, but makes it look like she really putting her whole body into everything. She's good at in ring trash talking, and I got a laugh as she looked at someone in the Phoenix crowd and said "You want Mia to win, right?" and then began smashing Yim's face into the mat. 

Jinny makes simple things like throwing someone into the mat look like actual offense, but can also lend legitimacy to cool submissions, like her rolling wheelbarrow. She never takes half measures on those kind of moves, never afraid to abandon a spot if it isn't going as planned, never cuts corners. When she lost Yim's arm on the wheelbarrow, most workers would have had an awkward time stand still moment to wait for their opponent to give their arm back, but Jinny works it into the spot. Yim's comeback offense all looked good, her forearms and chops hit hard, her cannonball picks up speed nicely, and her German suplex into the corner is a fun bit of recklessness. The finish seems a bit too abrupt, but I liked Jinny groggily rolling to the floor to buy time after the corner suplex, leading to her sneaking in a cheap kick when Yim naturally went after her. There are not many wrestlers that I currently love watching more than Jinny. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar! Zack Gibson! Ligero! James Drake!

Noam Dar vs. Zack Gibson NXT UK 7/28 (Aired 10/31/18) (Ep. #3)

ER: I really liked this, while also wishing it wasn't 21 minutes. I don't think any guys actually need 20+ minutes to tell their story, but that said this match didn't actually feel 21 minutes and that's in its favor. We had a story of Dar going after Gibson's left leg while Gibson just focused on attacking Dar anyway he could. Dar's leg work was really good, at first working a tight grapevine and Indian deathlock, and I think Dar's submission work is among the strongest in NXT UK. He doesn't skip steps and knows how to shift his body slightly to add different leverage, and I loved how he was adding twisting to keep Gibson's selling honest. Dar immediately kicking Gibson right in the shin as he escaped the hold was sweet icing. The leg was never a major sticking point during the match, but it was always Dar's key back inside, and I liked that. He had a couple of really high profile attacks to that leg, including a wild running dropkick off the entrance ramp, and a double stomp off the top while Gibson's leg was hung over the ropes. I don't know if I would trust somebody to do either of those things, where the margin of error for *actually* destroying my knee was that slim. But the spots come off really well and are great ways to slow down Gibson for long stretches.

My favorite moment was Gibson going for a dropkick off the middle rope, but Dar lightly sidestepping and hooking that left leg on the way down, then locking in a tight kneebar. Usually in a moment like that both guys will make it a bit too obvious that they are planning for a reversal to happen, but this felt very unexpected. It looked like Gibson was honestly throwing the dropkick, and Dar had to put in the honest work of grabbing the leg, it wasn't being hung out for him. Gibson has stronger strikes than Dar, while Dar attacks more in quantity, so Gibson was the one rocking him with elbows and hitting a big powerbomb on the entrance ramp. And Dar's selling can be a bit melodramatic, but he focuses on more interesting kind of selling drama than most modern workers. Most overdramatic wrestling selling is done exclusively with the face, and since most wrestlers are terrible actors, you just end up with stupid wide eyed open mouth facials to sell everything. Dar focuses his selling on selling his body, and while it can come off as a bit much, I appreciate someone stiffening their body in pain, selling muscle pain and a man getting the wind taken from him. I thought Gibson's knee selling was good, as it wasn't the overall focus of the match but he paid enough lip service to it to create openings. The finish was tidy and didn't send us through a long series of nearfalls with shocked faces, which was a contributing factor in this long match not feeling as long.


Ligero vs. James Drake NXT UK 7/29 (Aired 11/7/18) (Ep. #5)

ER: Ligero is really great at these 5-6 minute showcase sprints, really knows how to keep the selling respectable while keeping the action near constant. He really leans into beatings and that always makes a flier type more interesting to me, because snapping off a tight Code Red is cooler after that guy got his face kicked in. Drake is good at throwing sharp elbows to the jaw, and his corner dropkick really looked decapitating. Ligero sold a sore jaw throughout, and it wouldn't shock me if he was just a man reacting to getting kicked in the face. Drake works quick and hits hard when he gets there, and I kept being surprised at how Ligero would lean into it all. The nearfalls were good and I genuinely had no idea who was going to win, a competitive match without ever feel like they were taking turns. I love Ligero's tornado DDT finish, and the roster is filled with guys who can make sure the DDT looks like a finish.


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NXT UK Worth Watching: The Start of a Complete Guide

Noam Dar vs. Pete Dunne NXT UK 7/28 (Aired 10/17/18) (Ep. #1)

ER: Strong title match to main event their first TV episode. Dar is someone I feel made a lot of improvements in the time between his 205 Live stint and the start of NXT UK. I disliked him on 205 but enjoy him more often than not in his post 205 work. He played underdog against Dunne here, leaning into all of Dunne's stiff elbow strikes and standing lariats (and one real monster of a running clothesline early in the match) while trying to catch Dunne whenever Dunne went too far. Dunne gets it in him to do too much offense sometimes (and go too over the top with finger breaks), so I loved when Dar took his knees out and tripped him during a rope run, and I loved even more when he kicked Dunne right in the shins when Dunne hopped to the middle turnbuckle. Dar's selling was smart, appropriately selling finger damage as it was happening, kicking Dunne in the head on the apron after the shock wore off then hitting a fisherman's buster; or, the excellent triangle spot where Dunne worked over Dar's fingers while in the triangle, and Dar had the presence of mind to put a stop to that by quickly holding down Dunne's shoulders for a pin, then rolling through to an ankle lock when Dunne was forced to kick out. Dar catching the kneebar was a good moment too, building to a suitably dramatic rope break. I wish Dunne was a bit more interesting about going back on offense (he tends to just stand up and go back to it), but his strikes play big and Dar was a great foil for his high end offense.


Wild Boar Mike Hitchman vs. Ligero NXT UK 7/29 (Aired 10/24/18) (Ep. #2)

ER: What a fun 5 minute sprint. I think this project is going to wind up with me putting more words about Wild Boar out on the internet than we currently have. He's a guy I liked enough to start this NXT UK project in the first place, and it's cool to say he was fully formed from his arrival on the Network. They work a fast flyer vs. wrecking ball match, which is fun to see from a 170 lb. tiny flier and a 5'6" wrecking ball. Boar is like an even MORE compact Taz, and he is a little wrecking ball. He's like Dick Togo working as Otis. Ligero is a guy who I think is better the more grounded he stays, as he has too good a clothesline to think he needs to do a bad standing moonsault. I recently watched a Taka Michinoku/Dick Togo Raw match of similar length, and this is a better version of that match. Ligero doesn't have the grace of Michinoku, not close, but Wild Boar hits him harder with strikes and flying offense than Togo hit Taka. Ligero hits a rana as smooth as any I've seen Taka throw, and Boar is a great base (he should be, he has an incredibly low center of gravity). Boar hits a super impactful spear in the corner, a great and unexpected pop up powerbomb, and looks like he just murders Ligero with a cannonball. It looked like his full closest-man-to-actual-size-and-impact-of-real-cannonball, and Ligero looked like he absorbed it all with his face. Ligero came off tougher to me for the rest of the match because he can clearly take a beating. If I wasn't viewing Boar as Togo enough, it should also be noted that Wild Boar has a very good standing senton, and he uses it here. The match has satisfying nearfalls, and Ligero makes the finish violent enough to work, kicking out Boar's leg with a hard mule kick to the knee, then running him up the ropes with one of the best tornado DDTs I've seen.


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Brian Kendrick's Ready to Close His Eyes, Now He's Ready to Close His Mind

Brian Kendrick/Tony Nese/Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann/Akira Tozawa/Jack Gallagher (WWE Raw 5/1/17) - VERY GOOD

ER: They could have done more with this, and it eventually felt like everybody was rushing to the finish, but the work within was plenty fun with some nice moments. The commercial break really hurt the flow as they had to spill all the heels to the floor for the "Gallagher's team is rolling!" moment. Post break and things finally settle into a real match, with Kendrick grounding Swann and punching him viciously in the back of the head. Swann and Tozawa hit stereo dives and the camera crew manages to miss both, and we finally get to the Kendick/Gallagher showdown I wanted the whole match. Gallagher levels him with a headbutt from the apron and Nese gets a good save, and I think Kendrick is going to get the win over Gallagher with the bully choke, until Tozawa hits a great shining wizard to knock Kendrick off. I'm a sucker for good saves in a match, they always go a long with with me. Nese continues to slowly improve (I really need to get back to 205 Live...do I? Is it good? I haven't even been checking results...), and while this needed more Kendrick and Gallagher, it was still a solid trios.

Brian Kendrick/Drew Gulak vs. Mustafa Ali/Jack Gallagher (WWE Raw 7/17/17) - FUN

ER: This is a pretty generous "FUN" designation as the match itself is barely over 2 minutes long. But there are no faults with the ringwork, and in fact there are a few nice gem moments, they just occur in an overall meaningless match. I like Gulak's "No Fly Zone" gimmick, dug him screaming in with an elbow to knock Ali off the apron, and everything surrounding his tag in to Kendrick is great, with Gulak taking a flying leap thanks to Gallagher, all the way to the floor, and Kendrick tagging in on his way down. My favorite stuff of the match was the bit of Kendrick preventing Gallagher from getting to Ali, and Gallagher blasts Kendrick with a great KO headbutt. Ali's inverted 450 is an insane spot, the whole time it always seems like he's definitely going to snap his neck on the ropes, quite the high wire act. Still, 140 seconds? Fuck out of here with that.

Brian Kendrick/Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali/Cedric Alexander (WWE Raw 10/9/17) - FUN

ER: Sheesh, it took them long enough to give us the skinny pants team of Kendrick & Gallagher. That only took 10 months. I think they complement each other nicely as a team as both are really good at selling offense. I especially liked Gallagher selling a Cedric kick, stumbling around in a truly wonderful stumble, to give Cedric enough time to tag in Ali. Kendrick still gives me an awesome Tarek the Great vibe, and I liked his standing crossface punches. Ali is super smooth even if I think some of his stuff hits too light sometimes, and the rolling neckbreaker is a little overly complicated, but I like the kind of sloppiness Kendrick brought to the finish. It made him look like he was to hit Ali with a shoot Sliced Bread.

Brian Kendrick/Jack Gallagher vs. Cedric Alexander/Rich Swann (WWE TLC 10/22/17) - GREAT

ER: Love the Gallagher/Kendrick team. They both lean into dropkicks and bump big, really the perfect opponents for these two. As I type that Kendrick leans chin first into a Cedric dropkick and flies to the floor. Kendrick is a guy who can really put over things we take for granted, like nice chops. Gallagher gets popped by a (nice) Swann punch from the apron, allowing Kendrick to yank Swann off the ropes and onto his face. Gallagher locks on a snug cravate, grabbing onto Swann's braids, and Nigel talks about his fine Burberry duds. Our heels do a fine job of cheating to cut off the ring, which ends when Kendrick charges Swann and takes a huge backdrop bump over the top to the floor. Kendrick not only yanks Cedric out of the ring to save Jack from a pin, but then catches a leaping Swann into a northern lights on the floor. Back in and Kendrick blasts Kendrick with a couple of great looking kicks and locks in the captains hook, which Swann breaks up with a freaking phoenix splash. Kendrick gets caught with a lumbar check and makes it look better than anybody but maybe Gallagher. I would've liked to see the heels get the win here, but we still got a quality tag, and probably Kendrick's best performance of the year.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE BRIAN KENDRICK 2014-PRESENT

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Brian Kendrick Will Lay Right Down in His Favorite Place

1. Brian Kendrick/Paul London/Demolition Davies vs. Chaos/FVN/Michael Schenkenberg (DPW 4/20/14) - VERY GOOD

This was more of that European tour where London and Kendrick wrestled against a bunch of guys who were clearly inspired by London and Kendrick. This feels even more like an old London/Kendrick tag as Chaos/Schenkenberg are basically a German version of the Bashams (not like they're working a German Bashams gimmick or anything, they just wear baggy German flag pants and are generally Basham-y). This started as a singles match between London and FVN, and that was good. London typically goofs around during his (long) ring entrances, and then works hard during the matches, and this felt just as solid as a Paul London singles match from a decade earlier. I'd never seen FVN before, and he felt really polished, coming off like a stoogier Tyson Kidd. Eventually it turns into a 3 way, and while I don't think Chaos/Schenkenberg added much (they were not bad, but were in there to just club on London to build to a Kendrick hot tag), I did like the addition of Davies. I could have sworn I'd written about Demolition Davies before, as he's a big fat guy (with gear similar to Mecha Mercenary) who hits rolling sentons, really great lariats, and an impressive moonsault, but I found nothing on him when searching Segunda Caida archives. Davies is definitely a guy I need to do an indie fat guy investigation on, as he was really fun here. London was a good FIP, although Kendrick's hot tag was a little underwhelming. I don't think hot tags were ever really his specialty though, as he tends to run in and through light fivearms and dropkicks. It's probably my least favorite part of his arsenal. But it does provide energy and while the German guys are kind of bland, FVN provides plenty of personality. After that the match turns more into a Davies showcase (which makes sense, as he actually works there) and he splats some dudes. There was nothing over the top special about this, but it was a match that stuck to a solid formula for the right amount of time, and there's value in that.

2. Brian Kendrick vs. Akira Tozawa (WWE Raw 2/20/17) -  SKIPPABLE

Not really a match. Kendrick demanded a handshake, Tozawa wouldn't give it to him, Kendrick choked him out with the bully choke. This should lead somewhere good, right?

3. Brian Kendrick/Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann/Akira Tozawa (WWE Fastlane 3/5/17) - FUN

I'm a couple months behind on 205 Live but I do plan to skim through it to catch up. Crowd does not care about this, though over the course of the match the crowd gets into Swann as FIP. Kendrick is great throughout at trying to only be in the match when he's got the advantage. It doesn't always work, which leads to him eating a high backdrop while Swann is about to powerbomb Dar, and then another to the floor before eating a dive. Dar is kind of disjointed the whole match, though I like the way he takes Swann's kicks. This match just didn't have enough going for it. Kendrick was fun but the whole thing was rushed. Tozawa didn't get to do much as the whole match was built around Swann. Swann had nice kicks but his flip dive looked soft, and he came up short on his phoenix splash. Everybody seemed like they were trying, but there's this inescapable desperation that comes through during these cruiser matches. It's like the all know the whole thing is going to die soon. Also, I hate Michael Cole saying "Vintage Rich Swann!" Vintage compared to what?

4. Brian Kendrick/Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa/TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 3/13/17) - GREAT

What a cool little 5 minute gem. You're tired of TJ/Kendrick? Yeah, so am I. But they managed to be mostly separated and instead everybody worked the match around a bunch of semi-intricate timing spots and neat saves. Kendrick was around to bump, make saves, and keep working his opportunistic schtick. So then you're thinking, "Oh, so it was a match heavy on Tony Nese" which sounds pretty dismal, but he had a really great showing! Kendrick eats a fast tope from Tozawa that sends him reeling back into the aisle, and Nese comes running around to get Tozawa and eats a rana from the apron from TJP. Post commercial break is when it gets really fun as you get these kinda complicated almost lucha spots where one guy has to trip another while another guy is in position to get knocked off the apron while then another guy capitalizes by pinning the first guy. That kind of stuff can get old fast, but they work it smart and most importantly, work it well. Nobody had to wait around for their cues and everybody was on the same page. Kendrick gets a couple perfectly timed saves, Perkins looked good, and Nese actually looked like a guy fighting to be noticed. It all glued together nicely. Kendrick distracts Tozawa from the floor, Nese runs TJ into Tozawa resulting in Tozawa taking a ultra nasty bump into the bottom rope, leading to Nese rolling up TJ. Cool finish, awesome little match.

5. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 3/20/17) - SKIPPABLE

Well, this was weird. 90 second match, Kendrick tricks Perkins into almost running into the ref, then TJ takes awhile to confer with the ref and talk about how crazy it was that he almost ran into him, and then Kendrick just "sneaks" behind Perkins, grabs his hands, and then kind of clunkily pulls him into position for sliced bread for the easy win. I...have no idea what the point of any of this was.


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205 Live 12/6/16

1. Noam Dar vs. Cedric Alexander

ER: Killer little match and probably the best Dar performance we've seen on WWE TV. He was pretty vicious in this one and I'd much rather see this side of Dar than the goof from the CWC who couldn't keep his fingers out of his ears. Here he went after Cedric's arm and stuck to the gameplan, and it made for a pretty exciting 10 minutes. Cedric was real nice with the comebacks, and both guys laid into each other pretty hard with some nasty elbow strikes (although Cedric's booming back elbow wins ALL). We do get a little of sillypants Dar, like when he hid from a tope, but I like the big rolling bump he took on the resulting kick, so call it a draw. I liked the ways Dar would cut Cedric off, with the best being Cedric admiring a mule kick for a bit too long, leading Dar to kick the snot out of him mid handspring. Killer moment. The match had a nice pace and the fans were into it too, and I kept waiting for the eventual Cedric victory as Dar kept being a german shepherd (Scottish shepherd?), just not wanting to let go of that arm. The win was a fun surprise moment, although maybe it will lead to a nice subtly racist angle where Cedric is a black man just too distracted by the ladies to fully concentrate on wrestling. Yay?

PAS: Dar isn't great, but I enjoy him as the poor man's 205 Live version of Terry Rudge, I can imagine he will eventually have a nifty match with Gallagher's rich man's Johnny Saint. His arm work was fun stuff, loved the knuckles into the elbow joint and the hammerfists to set up the Fujiwara. Cedric has really explosive offense, and is at his best when he is put in a match with some structure like this, where he can mix in cool spots. Didn't love the finish, as the whole match was about the arm, and having Dar win with a not great looking jump kick was odd. Still this got me more excited about Dar, who is a guy coming into this match I was completely indifferent to.

2. Ariya Daivari vs. Jack Gallagher

ER: So uhhhh...there are other guys on the rosters...right? I've now seen this match up 3 times in 8 days, and they're just trading wins while only advancing a "Jack's knee is getting progressively more hurt" story. This was probably the most interesting of their three matches, with Daivari going after the knee and posting it, and ripping bandages off is always a good visual. A lot of the knee work was good, especially liked a running pump kick to the back of Jack's knee. Gallagher broke out some cool stuff like a mat escape where he just kept widening Daivari's stance until he could wriggle out. Gallagher has super snug roll ups, his knee selling is really good throughout, and when he hit the headbutt I thought it was over. The Gallagher headbutt should be a Fatality, a total KO no comeback move, so I was bummed to see it not end the match. But this was a nice showing for both guys. Still I think Gallagher should be treated like a brand superstar. Daivari looks a lot better than he's getting credit for though.

PAS: Two rematches from the first show is weird booking, they could have had this same story by just having Jack beat Daivari on RAW and then have Daivari go after the knee. I liked this though, Ariya is pretty basic, but his basic stuff looks good, and the viciousness added something to the usual Gallagher showcase. The natural feud is Daivari v. Mustapha Ali in a Suni v. Shia sectarian battle, maybe an Aleppo death match, but this is a good use of Daivari until they pull the trigger on that.

3. Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann

ER: Another day, another high end Kendrick performance. He owned this whole match bell to bell, and then continued owning after the bell. Swann is fine but Kendrick straight ran this game. He's really become a master of body movement and relating it to the match. It's practically become an event whenever he possums a stumble to lure someone into a face kicking, or when he first gets into danger and rolls into the floor and tosses his hair back annoyed. But the guys is just awesome. He always makes it look like he's actively looking for openings and any little advantage he can get. He makes offense look real good, even though Swann's kicks were a bit off, and he's always making new things look good. Every match there's something he does that I don't remember him doing before. Here I really dug his missed knee drop. I've not seen him do a knee drop before, but he committed on the miss and it makes sense in a kayfabe sense, and also just makes a match tighter when the missed shit looks like they were actually trying to connect. All the stuff around the captains hook looked great, Swann hits a cool flipping moonsault off the buckles, Kendrick came up with a quirky roll up to counter Swann's standing 450 (still don't understand why he needs to drag them to the corner to do the 450. It's a standing move, isn't the benefit that he can do it at any time!?), and Kendrick's simple stuff like elbows and straight kicks always look good. They found the best way to integrate TJP into the match, although a brief TJP distraction being the downfall of Kendrick doesn't make Swann look great. We all know this is Kendrick's belt and Swann is just keeping that shit warm anyway.

PAS: Swann had a nice dive in this match, and I enjoy his drool selling but man is Kendrick so clearly the class of this show. That whole Captains Hook section was awesome and it really should have finished the match. I love how Kendrick throws in a nifty use his environment spot in every match, here the chuck of Swann headfirst into the ring post holder looked great, as did his sliced bread off of the barrier. Swann really needs to hit that kick harder if he is going to use it as his finisher though.

ER: I thought Kendrick's performance in the main was so great, one of my favorites of the year. Because of that the match landed on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List.

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Brian Kendrick Really Gotta Bite

Brian Kendrick vs. Kyle O'Reilly QPW 2/1/14 - REALLY GOOD

ER: I really liked this. Kendrick is not wrestling like his CWC self, but he's good at doing what he's doing. O'Reilly can be annoying, but he's less annoying in this match (except for the parts where he's really annoying). The opening lock ups were really fun, much different from the Catch Point style that we've been getting used to over the last year plus, this was more exaggerated and showy, but still tough; a lot of bullying around and nice strength tests, but played large. O'Reilly works a snug side headlock and they do some fun work around that (though get a little too cute with a loop of missed splash/slip out of headlock). Kendrick commits to things in fun ways, like flinging his whole body into an armdrag but spinning himself into the mat because O'Reilly held onto the ropes. The best parts are when Kendrick starts yanking on O'Reilly's arm, bending and twisting and working some nasty holds. At one point he picks up the arm by the wrist and just stomps it to the mat. All the arm work was killer. And O'Reilly is good at selling it, in the moment. But it kind of predictably gets dropped, and shoot O'Reilly even wins with his own armbar using his MY ARM arm. O'Reilly is just frustrating as hell, as a lot of his simple grappling looks good. I really loved his headlock variations, the standing one, the bulldog choke he locks on, but he does too much klutzy Johnny Saint kind of stuff, with leapfrogs and crawling between legs and most of it looks bad. His repertoire needs a trimming. Some of that stuff could of derailed things, but I think it points to Kendrick's strengths that he was able to take the stuff straight and not let things devolve. Overall I thought it was really satisfying despite O'Reilly's faults, but the potential was there for this to be really great.

Brian Kendrick/Noam Dar vs. Sin Cara/Rich Swann (WWE Raw 11/7/16) - FUN

Kind of a waste of 4 minutes. Kendrick isn't really a major part of the match as he does a little cheating behind the ref's back, but for the most part it's the Noam Dar show. I get it, they're in Scotland and shoot if you're going to use Dar then use him in Scotland. But the guy isn't ready for prime time. He'll throw a nice kick to the shins or a nice uppercut, but it will be offset by really bad strike combos and cutesy horseshit. This match was more about a nice little Sin Cara statement performance. Cara has been a man with no place on the roster for some time, and even him in the Cruiser division seems a TNAish move for both sides (Cruisers get a guy with a "not a star" stigma suddenly treated like a star, Cara gets demoted and has to be cool with it) but if he comes into the division with this attitude then I'm game. Him deadlifting Dar in a powerbomb was cool and then him breaking out the rolling senton to the floor was sick. Match had zero build and ended sudden, but it had a couple moments.

Brian Kendrick vs. Sin Cara (WWE Raw 11/14/16) - FUN

If asked several months ago if I thought Brian Kendrick would be getting 10+ minute matches on Raw, nobody would have seen that coming. So here he is, and it's weird and kind of awesome. But it's also been just kinda hung right out to fucking dry. Here he gets a long match on Raw, right before Brock and Godlberg are set to come out and be all big buff not cruiserweights. So this match gets a ton of time, and the crowd predictably treats it like they've gone to see their favorite band and they're now enduring an awful unannounced opener. There were plenty of cool things buried in here, even as the crowd was openly shitting on it. Cara had a great showing last week and sadly didn't really have that aggression this week. Our dreams of Cara shooting on live TV are quickly vanishing. But Kendrick dishes out some fun hockey punches and short knees, and takes a big bump to the floor to set up a nice Cara dive. I love how Kendrick smashes himself into the ring barrier. And later this sets up Cara getting ole'd into that barrier on a second attempt. Loved Kendrick's big bump to the floor off a clothesline. Kendrick takes all of Cara's offense nicely and is overly generous, really letting Cara show off his moveset. Nice northern lights, tilt a whirl backbreaker, springboard back elbow. really he kind of owns the last several minutes. Finish is an awesome modern Kendrick touch, with him getting desperate and twisting Cara's mask sideways (hinted at a bit earlier when he was yanking at it) and locking on the bully choke. Finish was really cool but the announce team was shitty during it, really reading it wrong and calling it in bizarre dead Owen voice like it was a grave tragedy. "Look at the mask of Sin Cara, look at how Kendrick twisted it," said in these weird somber tones. Shame.


COMPLETE MODERN BRIAN KENDRICK

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 9/7/16

1. Noam Dar vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: I am pretty deep in the skeptic camp on both guys, so I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this. These guys have clearly worked each other a ton, and this had a the feel of a practiced touring match, still it was a pretty entertaining one. I really loved all of the early amateur stuff with ZSJ adding some cauliflower to Dar's ear. I thought the arm vs. leg story was pretty well done, with both guys adding some nice flourishes to it. ZSJ slipping during the penalty kick was a nice bit of subtle selling, especially from a guy whom subtlety isn't a strong point. I also loved the double stomp while Sabre's leg was on the ropes, reminded me of the kind of nasty shit KDX used to do to Sasuke's leg right before he went out for surgery. I am also always a huge fan of the double kneebar roll to the floor spot. I did think some of Dar's strikes looked pretty dainty, and the end section where Sabre's arm was hurt too, might have been a little too cute. The all legs Rings of Saturn was really cool, but maybe leave that for a match where your leg hadn't been torn up all match. I did like how Mauro and Bryan started questioning Dar's strategy when he switched to the arm. This was the best job of commentary these guys had done, Mauro cut his "shades" down a bit, and they actually articulated the nuance of the story.

ER: I really liked this, and like Phil I was also surprised (even though I have suddenly found myself on more of the "defending Sabre" side of the fence, which is weird). Both do some things I don't like (Dar moreso than Sabre) but both found some fun twists I liked, and Sabre does plenty of things I actively like. I liked Dar falling slightly short on his dive and instead of both men lying there selling (which seems like what happens whenever guys do a tope) he got up immediately and tossed Sabre back in the ring for a possible pin. I liked a lot of the more complicated indy-ish segments, especially Sabre going for a flying uppercut and Dar turning his body just in time to catch Sabre on his back and deliver and almost backslide driver. Sabre does some nice subtle things that he doesn't get a lot of credit for, like the slip on the PK Phil mentioned (and god, fuck off already Mauro, with your "Penalty Kick ala Katsuyori Shibata!" We get it, wrestlers do moves that other wrestlers have also done. Shut up.), and the spot setting up the tope where he got tossed to the apron but his foot accidentally hung up on the top rope, so he kicked at Dar's face with that hung up leg until getting knocked to the floor. I liked in the Gulak match how Sabre got easily outstruck, and in this match when Dar threw a couple of soft left hands Sabre made sure to toss some hard cupped hand strikes at Dar's ears. The early scrambly stuff was good, the knee bar reversals were good (and I'm with Phil, always love the roll to floor in a leg lock spot) and that finishing submission was just disgusting. Both of Dar's arms looked popped out of their sockets and I just love the slow progression of it, fighting for the rings of Saturn, bending the top arm back, hooking his own legs, and then snapping his legs shut. I always love the slow, struggling sub set-ups in Sabre matches, seen earlier this tournament against Tyson Dux when he slowwwwly bent Dux's wrist back away from the ropes. Really awesome stuff, and a real pleasant over-delivery.

2. TJ Perkins vs. Rich Swann

PAS: I also thought this match exceeded my expectation by a fair amount. Starts out as a rope running backflip contest as one might expect. I am not Vader so I have no real problem with that kind of thing, you could go back to the 50s and watch French Catch dudes do that same sort of one ups manship. Swann and TJP are a pair of guys with impressive kip ups and headscissors too. Then Swann hurts his knee and he does an awesome job of selling the damage while Perkins works over it. Swann would still hit moves, but not have the snap or elevation on them, really the way you would expect a real world knee injury to play out, Kerri Strug still did the vault. Bryan did a great job pointing this out on commentary, and it really added to the match. I also loved Swann's hook kick, such a nasty looking version of the played out superkick. Finish was exactly what it should be. I question the sense of booking two leg injury matches on the same show, but they were both good.

ER: This was really good, and I'm super impressed by Swann here. And I don't really have tons different to say about it than Phil already said. I also have no problem with backflip counter wrestling and if I'm gonna watch two guys do it, then Swann's kip ups and TJ's flips out of headscissors are pretty awesome to watch. So I was enjoying it just fine, but then things leapt up another level once Swann landed wrong on his knee on the floor, and TJ belted him with the slingshot dropkick to the apron. And Swann's knee selling was just excellent the rest of the match. Instead of a bunch of moments with him lying on the mat going "My kneeeeee!" and then getting up and doing his spots, we had a guy still doing his spots but noticeably slowed and less effective, a guy leaving himself open to TJ's kneebar more than he otherwise would. This match was certainly one of Bryan's better commentary moments as I hadn't picked up on what Swann was doing until Bryan pointed out his lack of height on the tornado DDT, and from there I was hooked. Loved him tiring himself out dragging TJ to the corner for his 450, and TJ just grabbing the heel. All of TJ's heel hook/kneebar snares were simple and logical, that kick exchange was awesome (fully agree on how cool Swann's hook kick is), and loved the quickness of the finish, with all the cumulative damage finally catching up to Swann and leaving him with no option. Awesome stuff here.

ER: I was really impressed with both matches this episode, both exceeded my expectations but stand on their own no matter the expectations. Both landed on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List, which shouldn't be much of a shock with how the tournament has gone so far.

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/17/16

1. Akira Tozawa vs. Jack Gallagher

ER: Really fun performance from both guys, really fun match. Part of me was grumpy that Gallagher didn't advance, but at the same time I really thought Tozawa turned in a killer performance. It would have been really easy to let Gallagher's performance steamroll him. Gallagher was the clear crowd favorite and had them in the palm of his hand from before the bell. "But American indy crowds go nuts for all things Japan!!" thought Tozawa, bewildered. But he sucked it up, was a game sport through all of Jack's awesomeness, through all of Jack's silliness, and Jack was more then willing to take Tozawa's nastiest stuff. I loved Jack's progression through the match, as he's super goofy to start, doing little things like licking his thumbs to easier slip them into and break a waistlock, setting up a comedic Indian deathlock, trapping him in a Nieblina before kicking his butt to break it...the more comedy happened the more restless I got and the more I wanted limb wrecking Jack. And lo and behold the leg work gets increasingly mean, and Tozawa starts working increasingly stiff. Jack keeps finding all sorts of awesome ways to take apart a leg, attack a hip or knee joint, roll into a surprise single crab when Tozawa takes too long to do a move; Tozawa blows Gallagher up with a flying kick out of the corner (replays look like Jack took it right under the chin), big senton, hard forearms and those awesome snap German suplexes. Tozawa sells the leg really great, Jack rips apart the leg really great, and by the home stretch I was left saddened that one of these two wouldn't be advancing, while one of Noam Dar or HoHo Lun would be.

PAS: I really loved this match. Gallagher losing in the second round is the biggest booking blunder in this tourney, as I think he might be the most impressive and most over guy in the whole thing. I think the difference between the Gallagher comedy spots in this match and the kind of Chikara bullshit I hate, is that this didn't require Tozawa to be a good sport. He didn't have to pretend that there was a real grenade or that he was hypnotized, he could actually get more and more pissed that he was being clowned, which led to that big short left hand and the second part of the match. Gallagher switched into killer mode awesomely and I loved how he mixed in vicious submissions with selling all of Tozawa's stuff. The ankle pick counter may have been one of the coolest submission counters I have ever seen, I must have rewound it five times. Loved the finish too, with Tozawa fighting for the German as Jack fought for the leg. It is totally nuts that Gallagher was the only British import out in the first round as he totally smokes Sabre and Dar.

2. Noam Dar vs. HoHo Lun

ER: So, I haven't been following tapings for these at all as I don't want to be spoiled, but were these taped in order? Did these two seriously just try and work a worse version of the previous match? Are there agents working this tourney? I imagine there would have to be. No matter where this match was taped relative to Tozawa/Gallagher, somebody must have said "Hey maybe don't all of you go out and work leg based matches". This match had exact spots practically lifted from Tozawa/Gallagher, like that slower, shittier single leg that Dar did. Lun looked better than his first match, but his facial selling is really embarrassing. I enjoyed the match more than I expected to, but it was just terribly placed after the first match, and whoever did the bracketing really pulled a boner on this one. Also, any wrestling that inspires singing from the crowd is almost always inherently shitty.

PAS: Yeah this was taped in order, the weird match placement is really my only beef with this tourney, no idea why you run asian with a german suplex v. brit with leglocks right after vastly superior asian with a german suplex v. vastly superior brit with leglocks. Better then either guys first round match, but Dar is clearly the turd in the punch bowl.

3. Brian Kendrick vs. Tony Nese

ER: Man alive do I love Brian Kendrick. Is this how he's been working for the last few years!? Who's doing the Kendrick 2014-2016 deep dive? Because Kendrick has been my favorite guy in this tournament. I've always liked him, but never anywhere near as much as his two matches in the CWC. He's wrestling completely different than I remember, like a cornered raccoon. And this whole match was just really exciting for me, because I assumed Nese would be advancing, and I didn't want Nese to advance, and I knew there was at least some chance that Kendrick would advance. So the fan in me really took over and I just really wanted Kendrick in and Nese out, so every Kendrick kickout was exhilarating and every Nese rope break was crushing. When the first bully choke failed to put away Nese I thought Kendrick was a goner for sure, that he had gotten a good showing and almost beat the muscled up guy, but couldn't pull it off. All of the spots with Kendrick fighting over his armbar, kicking at Nese's face, hyperextending that arm, I was hooked in and dying with every second. Phil totally nails it by comparing Kendrick to both Finlay and Tarek the Great. He's been a super accurate fusion of those two in all of the best ways. He has the inventiveness and tightness of all the little things, just like Finlay. Finlay wasn't just about tight strikes, he was also one of the best at setting up opponents' offense and getting into position for things, making the misses plausible and making the hits expected and nasty. Kendrick sets up Nese better than anyone I've seen, adding credibility to stuff that has looked less so in other Nese matches I've seen. Kendrick doesn't cheat. Not cheat in the way that a heel cheats, but cheat in a way that the wrestler knows what move is coming next because they've planned things out. You don't get a sense that he's cheating to set himself up to remember the next sequence, he's just unbelievable and making every sequence seem unplanned and natural; doesn't cheat by ducking early on spots that are supposed to miss, or sitting up early on Nese's missed moonsault, just genuinely comes off as a guy who's escaping by the skin of his teeth. He's this scrappy underdog who's going to use every part of the ring and every part of his body to win, and it's kind of amazing to watch. Kendrick has just come completely out of nowhere to be one of my absolute favorite wrestlers. I love it.

PAS: This was very good. Kendrick didn't appear to be wrestling at all in 2014-2016 and he has come back like Jordan wearing the 45. Neese is a goofy bum, and he made him mostly look great. I loved the idea of Kendrick trying to jump him at the bell and getting drilled. Then its Kendrick trying everything he can to survive Neese until he can get his head cleared. Loved all of the crazy Finlay style rope and turnbuckle attacks and that bully choke reversal sequence was awesome. Not sure I liked Neese tapping so quickly on the finish, felt like it would have taken the match to another level if Kendrick made him pass out while gripping him like a junky holding on to the last vial. So weird that Brian Kendrick is basically working as 2002 Tarek the Great but I love it.

ER: So this was another great hour of wrestling TV, and the Tozawa/Gallagher and Kendrick/Nese matches were both easy additions to our 2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST, which again seems like it has potential to be full pf CWC matches by the end of the tournament.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE CWC

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